Gringotts: Sirius' Vault

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 110451

Brenda wrote:
> Could Sirius' vault be one of these top-security ones as well?
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> 
> Brenda

It could, but numerical order isn't exactly a relevant indicator of it. 
Let me explain: the Black family could, indeed, have enough cash and 
trinkets to justify the use of a high security vault (although notice 
that Harry's parents' weren't exactly hurting either, and they had a 
regular account). The most telling clue for the vault being high 
security is not the numbering (more on that a little later) but the 
fact that Sirius just wrote a letter and that was enough to grant 
access to it. Let me expand:

When Harry was to the bank in PS, we saw two different approaches to 
the vaults. In Harry's case, the goblin asked for the key - which 
Hagrid carried with him. However, for access to the PS, Hagrid only had 
to hand a letter from Dumbledore, not a key. Since Sirius's account 
works in the same way, we can safely assume his was high security. 
Unfortunately, neither us nor Harry really know what those letters 
actually say. I would assume something a little more sophisticated than 
"hi, I'm Harry and I'd like access to high security vault 711" is 
required in those pieces of paper - possibly passwords, secret numbers, 
etc. When all's said and done, the secutiry of such vault relies on 
needing a goblin to open it, rather than a key, so you must first 
convince the goblin that you really have access to the vault.

Now, to the bit I'm actually interested in: numbering vaults. Gringotts 
is described as a maze, almost. I think you'd agree than when building 
a maze, you want to steer away from any kind of logical pattern that 
makes finding places easier for anyone. Notice that the goblin that 
goes with Harry and Hagrid doesn't actually drive the cart - in fact, 
it is especifically noted that he doesn't, and that the cart knows 
where it is going on its own. As a CS, I can't help but think that the 
entire system of caverns was designed completely randomly, and that the 
chances of two vaults with similar numbers being next to each other 
would be of 1 in the total number of vaults (shannon's information 
theory states that this is the arrangement that provides the least 
amount of information). The resulting mess was simply "loaded" 
magically into the cart's driving mechanism, and then every plan 
destroyed.

In this same line, the goblins would've tried to stay away from obvious 
patterns such as "all high security vaults are 700s" and such, since 
anyone who managed to enter the bank, finding one such vault, would 
know that the things inside would be particularly valuable (granted, 
the no keyhole bit would also be a dead give away).

In conclussion, I think we can conclude that Sirius's vault is high 
security, but not because of the numbering, if the goblins are as 
efficient as we've been told.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf