The following day, I made a list of plans and goals, I needed to accomplish over the holiday. First up was securing the other vanishing cabinet at Borgin and Burkes. If I could successfully retrieve it and move it to the tower, I would have a safe, secure, and undetectable passage into Hogwarts.

I also decided that I would need a number of rather questionable items for a 12-year-old to purchase. Thankfully, in knockturn alley, they didn't ask questions if you had the money. I was familiar with the best stores to shop at, because of my trips there with my uncle. I bet he would be surprised at everything I had managed to glean from our little trips.

Luckily, the one thing I wouldn't need to worry about was money. I'm glad I was born into a family that had wealth. The only reason why my parents even worked, was because not working would have been boring, besides when you love your job as they do, it's not really work. And while I believe that it's true that money can't buy happiness, it sure as hell makes life convenient.

Knowing that everything I wanted to get could be costly, I dug into my considerable savings that had been growing over the years. I had been slowly saving the allowance my parents had been giving me for years. After counting everything up I had nearly a thousand galleons saved up, which should be more than enough for me to purchase everything I was planning on buying.

When I got downstairs, I found a familiar scene with everyone sitting around the dining room table preparing for breakfast. Smiling fondly, I sat down and asked, "Dad, can I go with you to the workshop today."

Looking up from the daily prophet, dad questioned, "Are you sure? I would have thought you would have wanted to stay home and relax for a bit."

Knowing that I had a needed an excuse, I replied, 'I wanted to pick up a present for the twins. I didn't want to order it through the owl mailing service. Too much of a chance that the twins would try and discover what I was getting them for Christmas."

Wagging his eyebrow, Dad enticed, "Well, I guess that means I can show you what I've been up too lately."

Mom glared at both of us and accused, "I know what you're doing; you're just trying to trick him into liking enchanting over potion crafting."

Dad shot a smug look at mom, and righteously defended, "Are you trying to prevent our son from buying his sisters present?"

Hearing what was at stake, the twins glared at mom, silently advocating their thoughts on the conversation. Laughing at my mom's expression, I said, "How about tomorrow, we can spend the day in the potions lab, I can go over everything we did this past semester. Although, to be honest, most of what was taught, you had already shown me."

Satisfied that she wasn't totally losing me to the wonders of charm crafting, mom reluctantly nodded her approval. I didn't have to heart to tell her that while I found potion-making useful and often underused by wizards. My heart belongs to the mysteries of charms and transfiguration.

Later at the shop, dad took me to the back, where the real magic was done. Seeing all the interesting objects that my dad was working on lying all around the shop, reminded me of my plan for a communicator for all of my friends.

I remember from the books that there were many different ways to go about doing this, nearly all of them consisting of different applications of the protean charm. I had looked into seeing if I could cast the protean charm, but it was well beyond my skill level for now.

Dad saw me looking around his shop excitedly, and asked, "Anythin, in particular, that catches your eye."

Looking up at him, I asked, "Could you make something for my friends and I to communicate with? With all of us in different houses, it can be difficult to track us all down if we want to get together. I thought it would be nice for us to have a way to signal each other if we wanted to meet."

Dad stroked his chin thoughtfully and replied, "I assume that whatever method that you use, you would want all the device to be able to communicate with one another."

Seeing me nod eagerly, dad let out an amused snort and teased, "You don't ask for easy things, do you? What are you thinking? A mirror communicator won't work; those only work with two mirrors, although I might be able to connect a few journals, where whatever you write in one, will appear in the others."

Thinking about it for a moment, I smiled, remembering the golden coins that the DA army used to communicate with one another. I squashed a small feeling of guilt for ripping off Hermione's idea. Giving dad a smirk, I said, "Let's talk about coins."

Dad loved my idea about the coins and promised to have them done by the time I went back to school. Luckily after promising I wouldn't take very long; I was able to get out of the workshop. I never got tired of going through diagon alley; there were always so many interesting stores to explore.

As I made my way through diagon alley, I located the entrance to knockturn alley. The side street entrance was rather small and unremarkable. Knowing the type of people who did business in this shady alley would take advantage of any sign of weakness. I channeled my uncle's confident swagger and attitude and strode through the entrance.

Some of the witches and wizards in the alley looked me over, seeing if I would be an easy mark. I glared back at them silently promising them that I would be more trouble than I was worth. When I made it to Borgin and Burkes the shop was just as dirty and dank as the last time I was here.

When I passed through the doors, a bell announced my presence within the store. Looking around, I noticed that the store had no other customers. I heard Burke making his way from the back room. When he saw me, he scowled and said, "Come back when you're a little older boy."

Glaring back at him, my hand brushed my purse that was holding my coins. A loud jingle indicated that it was full of coins, and Burke's attitude immediately changed, and his scowl was replaced by a sleazy grin. He asked, "What can I get you, young master wizard? We have many items I think you might find fascinating, many of them are unique and can't be found anywhere else in the world."

Running my fingers along the dark wooden grains of the vanishing cabinet, I said, "Tell me about this cabinet."

Burke glared hatefully at the enormous cabinet taking up space a lot of space in his store and gloomily replied. "Dame thing has been taking up space in my store for years. No one wants to buy one half of a set of vanishing cabinets."

A thought occurred to me, and I said, "Why didn't you just go through and check out the other side."

Burke snorted at me, and replied, "Let me give you some advice, don't ever go through a portal without knowing what's exactly on the other side, you'll live longer."

I blushed, remembering I had done just that when I went through an unknown portal the first time I got inside my tower.

Wanting to get on with it, I nonchalantly said, "I'll take it."

Somehow sensing that I really wanted the cabinet, Burke eyed me thoughtfully. No doubt estimating how much he could charge me and get away with it. After a moment, Burke seemed to come up with a number and said, "400 galleons."

My left eye twitched upon hearing the price, even though I had the money, it was well over what one half of a vanishing pair was worth. Countering his high ball offer, I offered a more realistic price and said, "200."

After seeing the shark-like smile on his face, I knew I made a mistake when I had immediately countered. It seems he was just testing how determined I was to have the cabinet and when I countered, instead of protesting the price, it gave my intentions away.

Once he was sure that I wasn't leaving without the cabinet, he refused to lower his price at all, and firmly replied, "400."

I smiled, knowing that I had an ace up my sleeve. So, I sneered and said, "I'm surprised you're treating the family of a valued business partner this way."

Burke's face scrunched up in confusion, so I added, "You should know my uncle." After pausing for dramatic effect, I continued, "John Fawley."

Upon hearing the name of my uncle, Burke blanched, and stammered, "Ah, did I say 400, I meant 200."

Ah, it's so nice to have an uncle with connections in the underworld. Sneering back at him, I replied, "150."

Burke glared at me and said through clenched teeth. "Deal."

Deciding that Burke was too useful of an asset to burn, I didn't push it any further. Looking around the store, I found a few other items that I thought would be useful in the future. From a set of unbreakable manacles, perfect for restraining a monster, to a cursed mask, that will haunt the subconscious of whoever's touches it. If you happen to touch it, it will try to drive you crazy, making you see things that aren't there. While this type of curse isn't difficult to break, it's tricky to identify; most wizards are reluctant to reveal that they are seeing things that aren't really there. I already had a nice target in mind. I was happy with everything that I found; I even bought a few potions that I was hoping would help me deal with the Grendel.

Luckily, Burke also sold expandable bags that could contain everything I bought. Heading out, I nodded my thanks and made my way back to diagon alley. On my way back to my dad's shop, I remembered to stop by a few other shops, so I could grab presents for the twins.

Later that night, when everyone in the house was asleep, I snuck out to the tower. After being bitten by the door yet again, I decided that I needed to learn how to perform the minor mending spell, and probably a few other healing spells as well. You never know when knowing how to mend broken bones or skin will come in handy

I made my way to the top floor and removed the vanishing cabinet, and set it up against the wall. The levitation spell proved to be very useful in maneuvering the cabinet, considering it weighs probably over 200 pounds.

Upon seeing the enormous cabinet, Anton's curiosity was aroused, and he asked, "What is that?"

Smiling mischievously, I answered, "This is a solution to many different problems."

Opening the cabinet, I stepped inside and closed the door, when I exited, I was back in the room of requirement at Hogwarts. It was still filled to the ceiling with stacks of objects filling up the room. These many objects must have been forgotten, lost or hidden by students over the last thousand years. One day, when I have time, I would need to see if there was anything interesting hiding in here. But, considering most of this stuff was left behind by students, I would imagine most of this crap is just junk, but you never know, I might find something interesting.

When I got back to the tower, a wild grin appeared on my face, and I bragged to Anton, "Your looking at the owner of a secret passage into Hogwarts. This cabinet is connected to another inside Hogwarts. Now I can move freely between there and here."

Anton whistled in appreciation, but cautioned, "Be careful who you tell, should any of the teachers find out, you can be sure they would destroy it, and they would be less than amused."

Heading downstairs, I dug through the library, searching for any information on magic warding circles. What little information I found on the subject, warned me that I would need to find out how to bring down the spell in the correct order.

Most magical circles, if breached, have a tendency to banish or destroy whatever is inside and around the circle. Hopefully the wizard kept notes or has the spell written down somewhere in the fortress. Otherwise getting the vampire out of the entrapment safely would be very dangerous, because I sure as hell wasn't risking my life for a stranger that I don't know.