The bank was built by Grincott, a Goblin, in 1474 and it has place in Dragon Alley, London. Shortly after it was possessed by Ministry, in 1500, when Tertius who was walking home from Grincotts, heard two wizards talking about Curse-Breakers job vacancies, he applied and was accepted. But in the end in 1865 the Ministry decided to put the bank back into Goblin’s hands. On 29 November 1926, Gringotts was put on lockdown with protective enchantments cast. The only other period when the bank was under the control of the Ministry was during Voldemort’s empire of dread, from 1997 till 1998, when he possessed the Ministry.
From Diagon Alley, a set of white stairs leads up to a set of burnished bronze doors. The doors are flanked by a goblin in a uniform of scarlet and gold, though during the Second Wizarding War the goblin was replaced instead by two wizard guards with Probity Probes. This is the entrance to Gringotts, and it leads into a small entrance hall and another set of doors.
Engraved on these silver doors are the words:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
Through these doors, also flanked with goblins, is a vast marble hall long counters stretching along its length with doors leading off to the vault passageways with around a hundred goblins sitting at them. The vaults extend for miles under the city and are accessible through rough stone, complex and interconnected passageways by means of magic carts that are operated by goblins. Dragons and other mysterious beasts lurk in the depths as additional security devices.
The vaults themselves vary in size and security. The largest, most well protected vaults belong to the oldest wizarding families and lie deepest beneath the surface. Those vaults closer to the surface seem to be smaller and have fewer security precautions surrounding them — they use keys, for example, rather than requiring the touch of a goblin to gain access. The rules around who is allowed to access vaults seem to change; sometimes wizards are asked for identification or a key to be allowed access, yet both Molly Weasley and Bill Weasley are able to get gold from Harry’s vault for him.
It seems that only blood relations can inherit a Gringotts vault, and also that any vault belonging to a criminal will remain guarded and untouched, as when all the Lestrange family were sentenced to Azkaban for life, their vault was not evicted.
Grincotts uses different strategies of protection, first of all the deepness, the lower it is, the safer you are. In second the keys, going down several Vaults requires keys to enter. Third the Goblins touch, it could be a simple nail, as Vault 713, or whole hand’s palm as Lestrange’s Vault, it depends on the deepness of the Vault. Fourth, dragons and sphinxes guard the lowest, so highest, level.
More there are the Thief’s Downfall which wash away every sort of enchant, it can be deadly; and Probity Probes which are used on customers to detect enchantments, magical concealments, and hidden magical objects. And as if this could all not be enough, objects in Grincotts cannot be summoned.
The Grincotts management is under the Goblin regime, known Goblins who works for Grincotts are:
- Gringott – founder of the bank
- Ragnok
- Griphook
- Ricbert
- Bogrod
- Gornuk
- Nagnok
- Blordak
- Snaglok
But also guards, and humans:
- Patricia Rakepick – Head Curse-Breaker
- Bill Weasley – worked as a curse-breaker for Gringotts in Egypt, retrieving artefacts from ancient Egyptian tombs and pyramids, later took a desk job in 1995 to work with the Order of the Phoenix.
- Fleur Delacour – took a part-time job with Gringotts after participating in the Triwizard Tournament, supposedly to improve her English.
Vault 1
The known Vault are:
This vault is known to contain lots and lots of Knuts inside it and people have to use the Mine Cart to come around in every corner of it. This vault also contain lots of Rubies, Emeralds, Sapphires, yellow gems and Diamonds.
Vault 2
This vault is known to contain lots and lots of Sickles inside it and people have to use the Mine Cart to come around in every corner of it. This vault also contain lots of Rubies, Emeralds, Sapphires, yellow gems and Diamonds.
Vault 3
This vault is known to contain lots and lots of Galleons inside it and people have to use the Mine Cart to come around in every corner of it. This vault also contain lots of Rubies, Emeralds, Sapphires, yellow gems and Diamonds.
Weasley Vault
The Weasley family has a vault that is closer to the surface than Harry Potter’s vault, and had fewer security measures. When the Weasleys entered it in the summer of 1992, the vault contained only a small pile of Sickles and a single Galleon, all of which Molly Weasley took out.
Vault 687
Harry Potter first ventured to Gringotts in 1991, when he learned that his late parents had left him a great deal of money in a vault. Harry’s vault required a key for entry, and was at a moderate depth.
Vault 711
Vault 711 belonged to Sirius Black, and perhaps to the Black family in general. Sirius used gold from his vault to pay for Harry Potter’s Firebolt in 1993. In 1996, it contained a “reasonable amount of gold”. Given its depth, it is likely a high-security vault. Upon Sirius’ death, he left all the money in the vault to Harry in his will.
Vault 712
Instead of being used as a regular vault, Vault 712 is used by the goblins as a (presumably unsanctioned) lounge, suggesting it is unused.
Vault 713
Vault 713, a higher-security vault, held a small grubby bag, inside of which was the Philosopher’s Stone. It is reasonable to assume that the vault, like the stone housed within it, belonged to Nicolas Flamel and his wife. Rubeus Hagrid was charged with moving it from Gringotts to Hogwarts in 1991 while he took Harry Potter to Diagon Alley, which he succeeded in doing.
Lestrange Family’s Vault
The Lestranges, a very old pure-blood family, had a vault in Gringotts guarded by a dragon and full of treasure protected by the Geminio and Flagrante curses. The security of this vault was even higher than that of Vault 713, as a goblin had to place his entire palm on the door to open it, rather than just a finger. It, at one point, was used to store the sword of Godric Gryffindor, unknown to the Lestrange’s that it was actually a fake.
Travers’s Vault
When Ron, Harry, and Hermione broke into Gringotts, they ran into the Death Eater named Travers who was also heading toward the bank. He had a vault that required a key, because he was holding it when he ran into Hermione (disguised as Bellatrix Lestrange).
No matter how many measures the Grincotts Bank had taken, thiefs always found their way in, as the most famous break in, in 1991, when the Vault number 713 was forced open. Luckily nothing was missing, since that was the Vault that Hagrid and Harry had emptied the same day earlier. The culprit was not caught, though it is later learned Quirrell broke into the vault acting under orders from Lord Voldemort. Also the protection around the vault was minimal at the time, since it no longer contained anything and thus had nothing to guard.
The second most famous break in was committed in 1998 by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, whose purpose was to break in into Lestrange’s Vault to steal the Horcrux hidden in it, and destroy it. They used a Confundus Charm on the guards, so that they could enter unchecked, then used the Imperius Curse on the Goblin to persuade them to let them forward. In the Lestrange’s Vault however they met particular measures to deal with, it has been added on the fake treasure the Gemino and the Flagrante Curses, which meant that at every touch of the objects the thief got burned and the object got multiplied infinite times. They still managed to flee from the bank riding a half-blind dragon which was part of the security of the bank.
Muggle Worthy Case 