#166 - Title Deed and Keys

The lower level was neatly stacked with rows of Galleons. Anduin took them out and carefully counted them; there were exactly one thousand Galleons.

“Good heavens, tonight I’ve gained 1600 Galleons just from these alone. The harvest is quite substantial,” Anduin thought with a smile in his eyes as he put the gold coins into his space bag.

Next, he took out the key and papers from the upper level and began to study them.

He set the key aside and first picked up the papers to read.

The result of this glance immediately made him beam with joy. It was a deed to a property in Diagon Alley!

Moreover, it was an officially certified, unsigned deed from the Ministry of Magic. As long as one held this deed, the house and land would be recognized by the Ministry of Magic.

“I didn’t expect the joke I made with Mrs. Penell to actually come true. This is simply a windfall. No wonder it was so heavily protected; it’s an unsigned deed,” Anduin thought wryly.

Such unsigned deeds were very rare. He had only seen some records of them in materials about pure-blood wizards.

Most properties in the wizarding world didn’t actually require deeds. After all, they were wizards. They could just find a remote mountain forest, mark off a piece of land, and cast a few shielding charms. For even more concealment, they could even cast the Fidelius Charm, or simply buy Muggle properties or manors in the Muggle world and modify them for use.

However, some special areas, such as the wizarding hubs of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, were different. Each property in these areas had a clear record and had to be registered in detail with the Ministry of Magic and issued a deed before it could be owned. Unsigned deeds were even more special.

Converting a normal deed into such an unsigned deed required very troublesome procedures and had to be approved by both a department head-level official from the Ministry of Magic and a Wizengamot member. Therefore, very few properties in the current wizarding world used such deeds, partly because their advantages and disadvantages were so obvious.

The advantage was that no official institution could find out who the real owner of the land was. In other words, it didn’t need to be registered, making it very secretive, and it was under the official protection of the Ministry of Magic, so no one was allowed to enter without permission.

Even in places like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, which had strict property records, one could enjoy such rights.

It must have been arranged by the Travers family head, a Wizengamot member, who also specially built a safe house. This was to have a place to hide if the family ever lost power or was targeted by enemies, such as being wanted by the Ministry of Magic, and it wouldn’t be easily traced.

This could be considered second only to using the Fidelius Charm. However, compared to the complete concealment of the Fidelius Charm, this type of property focused more on hiding the identity of the behind-the-scenes owner and could also be used to protect public properties.

He guessed that if the Order of the Phoenix used legitimate means, they still wouldn’t be sure who this house belonged to. They probably found it by tracking Yaxley.

However, the disadvantage of this type of deed was also very obvious: it was too easy to transfer. For example, now that Anduin had obtained it, it naturally transferred to him.

Spreading out the deed, Anduin channeled his magic to his finger and swiped it across the bottom of the deed. The magical runes on the deed shimmered for a moment, and the array on the deed recorded his magical fluctuations. In this way, the transfer of the land was completed, which was very convenient.

“Although this type of unsigned deed is very secretive, it’s too easy to change owners. It would be troublesome if someone stole it by accident. I should take some time to go to the Ministry of Magic and convert this deed into an exclusive deed,” Anduin decided after putting the deed away close to his body.

After putting away the deed, he turned his attention to the key. It was bronze-colored, small in shape, and had three circular perforations in the handle. It looked like it could only open a small lock.

He picked up the key and fiddled with it for a while, but he didn’t notice anything special. There were no magical fluctuations on it, and after identification, the material was just ordinary Paracelsus bronze.

At a loss, Anduin tilted his head to look at Karkaroff, lifted the key, and showed it to him. “Do you recognize this thing?”

“This is…” Karkaroff brought his head closer to observe carefully, and then answered uncertainly, “It looks a bit like a Gringotts vault key.”

“A vault?” Anduin’s eyes lit up. That made sense as to why the key was kept in such a secure safe.

“Yes, it looks like it should be. I used to have a similar one,” Karkaroff confirmed again.

“Then, with this key, can I directly access the corresponding vault?” Anduin quickly asked.

“That’s not certain,” Karkaroff shook his head.

“Why?” Anduin frowned slightly.

“Master, you may not understand Gringotts' management of bank vaults. Their vaults have different security levels. For ordinary shallow vaults, you can enter as long as you have the key. Some vaults require the keyholder to go in person, and if it’s not the keyholder, you must provide a permission certificate issued by the vault owner. Deeper vaults have even higher security measures. There’s not only no key, but you must also go in person and have the corresponding goblin administrator touch it to open it,” Karkaroff explained to Anduin one by one, counting on his fingers.

“I see, so you can’t determine what type of vault this corresponds to just by looking at the key,” Anduin pursed his lips.

“That’s right. Only Travers would know this, but generally, vaults with keys are shallower vaults. With the power of the Travers family, it doesn’t seem like they would need such a low-security-level vault. They have family vaults in the deeper levels, which can only be visited by people with the corresponding bloodline. Moreover, compared to Gringotts, the Travers family prefers to keep things in their own vaults. Those big families don’t completely trust Gringotts,” Karkaroff explained respectfully.

“Oh, isn’t it said to be the safest place in the wizarding world?” Anduin raised his eyebrows.

“Gringotts may be very safe, but the goblins are not necessarily. Many of the long-standing families have participated in the famous goblin rebellion wars. They can never maintain trust with the goblins, after all, they were once enemies,” Karkaroff said.

“I understand. Let’s go, we’ll go upstairs,” Anduin said after listening to the explanation and clearing his thoughts, and commanded.

“Yes, Master,” Karkaroff responded obsequiously.

After leaving the basement, Anduin re-cast the spell on the wall, closing the doorway, and at the same time, he enchanted a layer of protective spells on it. After all, this would be his territory from now on.