Före Hagrid besök var Harry inte ens medveten om att han hade pengar alls.
"Um -- Hagrid?"
"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.
"I haven't got any money -- and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."
"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"
"But if their house was destroyed --"
"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! ...
(PS, Ch. 3, "The letters from no one")
Efter det insåg han fortfarande inte hur rika han var till besöket på Gringotts:
Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.
"All yours," smiled Hagrid.
All Harry's -- it was incredible.
(PS, Ch. 5, "Diagon Alley")
Även efter att han var rädd, kunde han inte berätta för Dursleys eftersom han visste att de bara skulle stjäla sina pengar, inte vara snäll mot honom och hoppas att han skulle ge pengarna till dem.
All Harry's -- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London. (PS, Ch 5 again)
...
He had never mentioned his Gringotts bank account to the Dursleys; he didn’t think their horror of anything connected with magic would stretch to a large pile of gold.
(CoS, Ch4, "At Flourish and Blotts")
... Och även om de gjorde det kunde de inte använda det i ett Muggle-samhälle.
Harry said nothing. He felt a bit awkward. Stored in an underground vault at Gringotts in London was a small fortune that his parents had left him. Of course, it was only in the wizarding world that he had money; you couldn’t use Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in Muggle shops.
(* CoS, Ch4, "At Flourish and Blotts"*)