Pack!

Chapter Two

               Despite being nowhere near ready to intelligibly lay out how they got to the situation they found themselves in, he did his best. "It all starts with Hermione Granger being an insufferable know-it-all and taking offence to being called on it in our first year", he began.

               The first assigned runner darted into the office and was sent on his way to the healers' cavern with instructions to find the head healer. They were to get all injured on their feet or put them in stasis for an indeterminate amount of time. Further instructions will follow.

               Harry continued. "She took all academic criticism personally, and her resentment was very visible and very, very audible. It got worse from year to year. Her essays were word for word from our books, completely unable to grasp that there were other ways to describe things and she was supposed to use them, not plagiarize her textbooks. She once went on a house elf freedom crusade that had the purebloods getting completely fed up with her and the consensus of opinion named her a gormless swot. Someone made the mistake of saying so out loud. See, they'd grown up with house elves and mostly didn't think there was anything wrong. They didn't think they were treating their family elves badly and didn't appreciate Hermione all but calling them evil incarnate over it. She didn't take the name calling at all well. I mean, she had a point about their mistreatment in some households, and yeah, maybe I agree the bonding agreement is crappy and needs to be fixed, but she definitely didn't do any research regarding the elves. I'm muggle raised, so I didn't know the particulars of the bond either when she started in, but I asked the elves about it. I mean, though, she just wouldn’t stop, going on and on like the louder she got the more we’d believe her. I gave her some lip service but it was just to make her shut up, the constant nagging would become arguments and would move on to screeching if she thought you were ignoring her. For weeks she’d come back from class and then start in on the subject in the common room. The seniors would let her go for a few minutes before hitting her with five minute silencing charms. When her tirades didn't stop, neither did the silencing charms and they quit putting a time limit on them. Nobody wanted to deal with her anymore and McGonagall may as well have been living in Zimbabwe for all the help she gave. As Gryffindor's head of house, she's a spectacular failure. Ron and I," he paused to tamp down white hot rage at the name, stuck it out because we were the only ones with a hope of redirecting her onto calmer topics. I could wave a new book at her for distraction, and Ron would play dumb and ask for homework help." He knew he was babbling, and he knew this wasn't the time for it, but he couldn't stop himself.

               Remus pulled Harry to his feet and led him to one of the pair of chairs in front of The goblin’s desk, each slightly angled to form a conversational group. He hugged Harry once again before pressing him into the seat. “I’m here, cub, we’ll find Sirius and we’ll get through whatever is coming.” Remus dropped himself into the other chair, with his warm amber eyes focused steadily on Harry.

               A second runner came in and was sent back out with instructions to reach out to all Gringotts branches worldwide to send an envoy to the London Branch without delay. They were to gather in the conference room on the third level.

               Harry paused for a minute, and with a deep breath, said "Um… please expect not to receive a reply from some or probably maybe most of the island nations, and… and”, he clenched his jaw, then forced out “Australia”. He paused a moment, clenching his hands hard, nails biting into his palms, grounding himself with the physical sensation. “But if they reply, bring everyone from that location through that you can, immediately. The Americas will at best have eight to ten hours remaining; she was planning to start her next trip in Tierra Del Fuego and may kick off South America early, so probably best to consider South America also as move it or lose it. Eurasia, minus the islands, and Africa have a bit of time, but it's probably going to be about forty eight hours, could be more, but it could also be less.”

               A third runner came in and was spit back out with instructions to set all incoming floos to open for the next seventy two hours and to catch each responding branch envoy either before they came through or immediately after arriving, instruct them to drop everything on her authority, evacuate their branch if they were in a country noted as in immediate peril, with anyone and everyone they can lay hands on and come to London. They were to move without argument or delay.

               She then tapped a square that seemed to be an intercom, telling the senior vault supervisor who answered that all Gringotts Australia vaults were to be recalled to London immediately. All Gringotts Americas vaults were to be recalled in eight hours, and all other Gringotts locations were to have their vaults recalled in twelve hours. All recalled vaults were to be placed in the storage units they used for temporary transport and tagged with identifying information. Other suitable containers may be used once the storage units run out, but they must be magically secured to open only for Gringotts personnel or the owner. They were to use the conference room behind the tellers, expanded as necessary, to hold the tagged units. Every effort would be made to notify the non-London based customers that their vault contents were still available to them, but they would need to contact the London branch for pickup.

               "Over her first few years, Hermione started pretty much hating the purebloods, the teachers, and honestly, wizarding society in general. Sometime between our third and fourth year, I think she must have completely run off the sanity cliff. She started dreaming up completely crazy revenge scenarios and was not shy about relaying them to Ron and me. We had no idea she’d completely lost the plot, and kind of would just say there, there, Hermione, it'll be okay. No clue she was dead serious and starting up some research projects she initially thought to use to get back at the purebloods. And while she really is an insufferable know it all, she’s also unfortunately a research genius. She'd found an old book in the National Archives from a supposed witch catcher in the early 1400s that referenced how to strip the magic from a witch. The book was complete bunk, but it was from the period of The Burnings, so that lit her lightbulb. It was pretty good at giving her a general idea of how to target a specific group, and it also gave her what she called "the best idea ever" to solve what she said was the real problem. She was going to strip away the magic. If there was no magic, she'd once again be admired as the smartest person in the room. She's fucking insane, and her logic is missing like, half the letters, but there you have it."

               Remus leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I concur. Miss Granger was definitely a problem during my short tenure of teaching. I can confirm a number of his points if you need secondary verification. I’ve no direct knowledge of her current objective, but I’ve no doubt of Harry’s honesty.” Harry felt the ice in his middle start to thaw, which unfortunately left room for the anger to grow.

               A fourth runner dashed in and was sent to the dragon management team to ask what was involved in moving the Gringotts dragons and to please make that happen. Further instructions to follow.

               "She couldn't find a way to have magic remove magic, and so turned to muggle science. She went to the University of Manchester, where her parents had gone for their dentistry degrees, and used their alumni connections to gain access to some of the professors, targeting those who were involved in physics. Between them, they worked out how to identify magical energy, although the Professors involved didn't know that going in, were Imperioused to continue the project, and she obliviated them after. That part took a couple of years, but she found a way to collect that energy using runestones that were scribed to gather that specific type of energy only, and to self-destruct when their capacity was reached, rendering that energy slightly changed and unusable by magic. She practiced in Australia once school let out, then obliviated her parents and sent them there because they were causing her problems with all the time wanting to know what she was doing. Practice. That's what she called it." His chest heaved, and he forced back a wet sigh that was adjacent to a sob. "I guess you probably haven't heard from Australia since. She called me at home just today, all excited, saying she thinks she got them all. First time she's ever called, I don't even know how she got the number. I asked what she meant, and she said all the magicals, of course. I don't know exactly what she meant by “she got" them, but she was definite she removed their magic. I asked her what would happen to the people affected, and she told me she had no idea and that wasn't the point, wasn't I excited that the magic was gone? I have to think that removing an energy source that powers a magical body, I mean, it's probably going to kill them, right? We'd have heard if muggles were finding dead bodies, I'd think, but then again, magical communities are under notice-me nots, but the magic of that might have been erased … I just don't know. She didn't care about what happened after magic left, she was just excited that her plan had worked. She called it flawless, the bitch fucking expected me to be excited about it and congratulate her!" He tipped his head back and a hot tear tracked down his temple into his hair.

               Another runner, another task, this time to have all items in the evaluation and appraisal area removed to their home vaults, any items of unknown provenance to be stored in a temporary vault for 24 hours. If unclaimed, they will then be packed in a portable vault, the vault to be tagged and set in the large atrium for determination of destination, with several guards to be assigned to provide security to that area.

               A runner came in just as the previous one left. This one was sent to the vault manager with instructions to start packing up the London vaults and to use all available and qualified goblins. Tellers were to retrieve and sign over the trunks or storage units as the owners appeared, but vault owners must appear either in person or by someone with verified documents asserting their claim. Their key was to be collected if the owners had it with them, and keys were to be marked with the original branch name and vault number, but Gringotts will allow collection sans key if necessary. If an owner appeared before their London vault was packed, they were to be sent to the vault to pack on their own, and the vault key was to be turned over to the cart driver once complete. If they were from a non-London branch, the customer was to leave word with where they could be reached, and they would be notified once their vault was recalled.

               The next runner left with a quickly drafted letter that was to be duplicated and a copy sent to all customers immediately, via owl if they could be reached within six hours or sent through their floo if not. The owls were to be collected on their return and moved to a portable living vault to be set up with automatic feeding spells for a month, then the vault was to be shrunk for transport.

               "Crap. Stop him!" The goblin slammed her hand on the desk on the runner's number, and he skidded back into the room. "Can you include that the Knight Bus is available? They've agreed to pick up everyone who needs a ride, at least as best they can, but people are gonna need to contact the Bus office to see how they're scheduling. They'll be dropping people off at the Leaky unless we tell them otherwise." One revised letter and the runner was on his way again.

               Remus had pulled a small notebook from his coat pocket and was jotting notes in a hurried scrawl, brow furrowed.

               Another runner skidded in and skidded back out with instructions to gather all pets in the living caverns, tag them, and add them to the owl vault, appropriately separated. If one or two people wished to volunteer to accompany the pets and owls in the vault to ensure proper care, it would be permitted. All pet and owl supplies were also to be tagged and vaulted.

               Harry gathered himself up, feeling his hands shake and forcing his brain into compliance, despite the desperate want to stop and let the adrenaline level off so he could just think.

               Another runner, another note, this one drafted jointly by Harry, Remus, and the goblin. This one was to go to the prophet, for emergency publication. "Attention from Gringotts: Magical society is under catastrophic threat. You have an estimated 48 hours at best to pack your belongings and evacuate. It is highly unlikely you will be able to return to your homes, so please plan accordingly. Gringotts has opened all floo points to their Headquarter branch in London, which will be serving as the current primary evacuation center, and movement to further points will be coordinated as soon as possible. Please shrink your belongings as small as possible, space may be at a premium. All vaults will be available to the registered owner for the next thirty five hours, after which service agreements will be terminated. Additionally, the portkey and apparition lanes will be under stress and if you experience splinching, it is possible there will be no time to recover body parts nor anyone available for reattachment. Flooing is preferred, and please be understanding of grate delays due to large amounts of traffic. The Knight Bus is running for approximately the next 48 hours, subject to further evacuation plans. Please contact the Bus office if transportation is needed. You must abide by the Bus scheduling, they have no time to zigzag and circle around. If they're in your area in the next 30 minutes, catch it or find another way to get to Diagon. If by the time you read this, they tell you that you've already missed the bus, notify Gringotts, care of," she stabbed a finger at a runner, barking "Name?"

               "Strangle, Your Majesty", he all but squeaked.

               "You're in charge of finding a way to get transportation assistance to any Gringotts customer who need a ride but missed the bus. Make it happen." The poor goblin went pale but saluted and hauled out a scroll and quill to start scratching notes. Harry caught the fact she was concerned only with the Gringotts customers in respect to covering those who were stranded, but there was no argument he could make when faced with the fact they were helping get the ball rolling and the enormous efforts they were expending to do so. Harry was both awed and humbled that they'd simply taken his word for how bad the situation was, he'd have to spend a lot of time being grateful for that later. He briefly reflected that he'd been correct to run to Gringotts and not the ministry. Right now, he wasn't going to say anything that sounded even remotely judgmental.

               "… care of Strangle. We'll do what we can. Notify friends and family as soon as possible. We estimate the Americas to be under imminent threat, with a possibility of ten hours if you live in the Northern Americas. Advise those international persons you manage to reach to immediately travel to London. Eurasia and Africa have perhaps 48 hours, but do not push that. Pack. Get to Gringotts." The goblin tasked with the delivery of the message was on his way to the Prophet offices, the colors of his uniform appearing to leave visual streaks behind him.

               Harry became aware of a rising noise volume, despite the heavy door. The stone floor was transmitting the tiniest amount of vibration as more and more people traversed the corridor at a run.

               He gritted his teeth at having to go back to the tale but soldiered on. "She's been travelling since she verified her process worked in Australia. She carves the stones, puts a delayed activation sequence under them, and leaves, triggering it when she's about to enter the floo. The delay rune gives her an additional twenty minutes before it burns out and kicks off the runestone activation, so she can get away. The stones go to work and nearby magic is captured. Further away magic is a slower process, but it's inevitably pulled in. She had twelve runestone sites in Australia, and it took 14 days for her to record no more magic at any point on the continent, though I've no idea how she monitored it. She used sites on the coast near the magical settlements so the word couldn't get out, the lack of magic killed off all energy from floos and patronii. She also mentioned it stopped owls once they entered the area of effect. I didn't ask what stopped meant, I don't think I could have said anything containing consonants. She said she was getting more efficient as she's gone along. She mentioned that she's a bit annoyed that the runestone’s effect is blocked by large water bodies, so she focused on islands first. She thought she was just about done with them and would move on to South America once she caught a nap. Once she starts in on the large landmasses, which she said she'd be able to begin later today and bear in mind I have no idea what time zone she was calling from, there aren't any oceans to stop the runestones from eventually drawing all magic from the contiguous land, the energy just keeps getting sucked in. It's apparently dead easy to create the stones in bulk, so she's not worried about there being a bottleneck in her process. A bottleneck." He choked out in disbelief.

               "She plans to get through the Americas from bottom to top, setting the unactivated stones in magical communities, floo to the next point, rinse and repeat. Once she hits Whitehorse, she'll trigger the runes and take a portkey to Russia, working her way west from there. She's leaving the UK and Ireland for the last because she wants the Gryffindors to be sorry for how they treated her. At which point I was lucky my uncle yelled for me, because I couldn't think of a damn thing to say in response. I obviously couldn't say you're the aces, Hermione, and I really couldn't say she botched her sanity quiz, but she knows about my uncle being a complete tosser, so I told her I had to go. I don't think I gave her any reason to change her plans. She'll likely be done with the Americas by tomorrow, and then it's Africa and Eurasia. We're separated from the continent by the channel, but I don't know if that counts as a large enough body of water to block the runestones. We might be okay until she starts here, or we could be in trouble the minute she kicks off Eurasia, et al. That's probably two days. Maybe an extra day or two if she takes her time or if the Channel is enough to keep the mainland stones at bay, but she's pretty amped up about her success, so … yeah. Two days."

               Harry thunked his head on the back of the chair, and it rocked the other half of the problem to the forefront. He shot a look at Remus, he knew Remus wasn’t going to like what Harry was about to ask for, but he still had to put it forward. "Um, can you send someone to Arthur Weasley's house, the Burrow, that you trust? Tell them to find Ron Weasley, and put him somewhere silenced that he can't leave for the next three days? If they want to 'accidentally' stun him a little too hard and cause permanent damage or death, I won't be in the least sorry, and you won’t be either, Remus, once you know. Try to keep anybody from going looking for him, might be best if everybody thinks he’s been asked by somebody important to help with something unspecified. He can't, absolutely cannot, be allowed to reach out to The Bitch. Somewhere in the middle of Hermione's delusions, he bought into them. Hermione let slip that not only was he the one who laid out her map, and he knew exactly what he was doing and why when he did, he also aided and abetted in getting things done faster. I do not have a clue what the stupid wanker was thinking, other than the usual pureblood and associated money jealousy he'd occasionally start running his mouth about. It's like it has never occurred to either one that Hermione, Ron, and Ron's entire family are magical, do they think they'd get a free pass when magic dies? They both get to reap the whirlwind on this one." With an absolutely terrifying grin, the goblin sent another note out. Remus dropped his head forward and sighed. A moment later he looked back at Harry with a resigned nod.

               The next runner was off to the creche, advising the caretakers that they were to ensure all children were accounted for, and to make room for the children from incoming international Gringotts locations. The children were to be consolidated in a single cavern and kept together. Further information to follow.

               Harry laid out the only option that had occurred to him. "If either of you have any suggestions, please say so, but right now, the only place I can think of that may buy us a bit more time is Hogwarts and her wards. They’ve been around a really long time, longer than Gringotts, and from I’ve heard, the longer the ward exists, the more energy they absorb. I mean, I don’t think they can hold out for long against the runestones, but the castle is clear up in Scotland, and we might need that tiny bit of extra." The goblin looked thoughtful, and Remus hummed in agreement with Harry’s idea. Harry continued, "I need to run down to my vault; I sent my trunk there from school with one of the elves, to keep it safe from my uncle. From there, if you agree, Remus and I need to get to Hogwarts and see if we can get the castle to open herself to everyone as a, as a… a staging point, I guess. We could use the library for research, and she has the space to keep everybody under the wards until we either figure out how to escape… or not. Will that work for you and your people?"

               She responded with a toothy smile that seemed to mean more than just agreement with the idea. It also scared the few waiting runners who promptly moved to a corner of the room and eyed her warily. "It does," she said. She beckoned to a runner and directed him to move Harry and Remus to the head of the cart line and to ensure the cart waited for him. He was to accompany Harry and Remus to his vault with the driver and then escort them to the floo, ensuring he was not delayed.

               Remus held Harry back for a moment as he hesitated, looking at the goblin with chagrin. "I'm very sorry, ma'am, that we never asked your name or how you prefer to be addressed." Harry rubbed his forehead with the heel of a hand in embarrassment. Yeah, he’d been in a rush, but she’d been awesome, and he hadn’t even thought to ask. Thank goodness for Remus. Harry offered a heartfelt apology as well.

               She laughed, despite being in the middle of calmly organizing an escape from an extinction-level event. "It's not a problem, child. My name is Eltiebs, and you are free to use it. As to what my form of address is, most call me Your Majesty; King Ragnock is my son."

               Harry froze, then despite the situation gave a huffed laugh. "Well, I did ask for someone who was able to make things happen. I'm Harry, and this is my godfather Remus Lupin." He and Remus bowed, and at her sharp toothed smile and shooing motion, they turned and left at a trot that desperately wanted to be a sprint.

               They moved passed steadily increasing traffic, that even with palpable urgency, still appeared to be under control. Reaching the line for the mine carts, now two dozen anxiously muttering wizards deep, they were led to the first cart with a barked "Priority passengers!", and neatly stuffed inside. Their guide also climbed in, and off they went. He had a brief glimpse of the dragon, who looked to be crouched down before a goblin weaving an arcane symbol that glowed orange in the air as they raced past. Reaching his vault, he dug his key out of his otherwise empty pouch and opened his vault.

               He let the guard and driver know he'd be as quick as possible and entered, tugging in Remus, and closing the door behind them. Front and center was his school trunk, and he summoned any empty trunk available to him, which netted an additional seventeen, ranging in style from what looked like an authentic pirate chest to two that he was sure were used for a ladies hope chest. Many were well built steamer trunks, of varying styles, and even what looked like three military footlockers. A swift look around his vault had Remus’s eyes lighting up, and he nudged Harry, pointing at four other trunks standing on end, off to one side. “You’re going to want those trunks, Harry. Your grandmother Dorea did the charms and expansion work on them, and she was a very talented witch, with a talent for getting better than average results. Your dad was planning to apprentice to her when the war ended, but…” He trailed off, and Harry could see his jaw muscles tighten. Harry leaned his shoulder against Remus in silent empathy.

               Harry eyed the gold, grateful there seemed to be quite a lot of it as he figured he was going to need all of it and more. He didn't dwell on the furniture and other assorted items neatly staged in various areas. He was sure it would be useful in the future but wasn't an immediate concern. He shrunk and pocketed the four his Grandmother had created, he’d keep those in reserve. He pulled all the remaining trunks into the circle of the central overhead rune light, looking for the runes on the cases that would indicate expansion or other spell work. All were marked as expanded, to what degree he was unsure, the four Remus had pointed out had shown additional runes that he didn't immediately recognize. He opened them all, then used a charm he'd immediately made every effort to memorize the first time he'd seen Remus use it, the year he was his defense professor, or more accurately, the moment after he was no longer his defense professor. Despite the urgency still thrumming through him, he gave a cheeky grin to Remus and swirled his wand over his head, saying "Pack!"