Part 1
Harry entered Gringotts with hesitation and worry, and was startled when all the goblins looked toward him like they were sharks and he was bleeding. It was both intriguing and worrying.
Harry blinked and they went back to work, but some still had smirks on their faces. For what he wasn't sure. Deciding to forget it at the moment he walked to the line with the least people in the queue.
Harry looked around while he was waiting for the wizards and witches to do their business, although there seemed to be a lot of screaming and snarling going on, and it wasn't coming from the goblins.
Harry admired the brown marble and gold throughout the room. The dark wood made the room look elegant and intimidating. Harry was surprised when he saw that the ceiling had jewels mixed in with the art.
When his turn came he was still staring at the beautiful ceiling.
"Next." was called, the voice sounding agitated. Harry looked to see what was wrong when he realized he was next and was making the goblin wait. Blushing he quickly walked towards the desk. Looking up at the goblin who was glaring and frowning at him. Not a great start.
"I'm sorry Mister Goblin—Eh Bloodsnarl—I was just admiring your beautiful ceiling and lost track of where I was in the queue." Harry explained nervously. His eyes widened when he saw the goblin's name. Said goblin raised an eyebrow at his explanation, looking amused if not a bit smug.
"Thank you, it was my clan that was in charge of creating the ceiling. Now what business do you have with us today?" Harry smiled at the goblin who was now smirking.
"I would like to talk to someone privately, please." Harry asked. Bloodsnarl raised an eyebrow again.
"And do you have the 2 galleon fee—Hmmm?" Bloodsnarl asked. Harry gulped wishing he had the galleons on him but sadly he was in need of money.
"I have it in my vault, not on me." Harry responded, biting his lip. Bloodsnarl nodded and then turned and said something in another language that he had never heard before. It was probably gobbledygook, Harry mused. Harry smiled when he saw the goblin.
"Hello Mister Griphook, how are you?" Harry asked. His smile fell a little when Griphook did a double take. Eyebrows raised and mouth agape. Harry swallowed at seeing the sharp teeth.
"You remember me—Mister Potter?" Griphook asked, sounding stunned and bewildered. Harry looked around to see if anyone heard them but slumped in relief when nobody was looking.
"Of course, why would I forget you?" Harry asked, confused. Griphook blinked at him before answering.
"Most wixen's find it hard to distinguish between us." Griphook stated. Harry was confused but let it go. Wait wixen?
"What is a wixen?" Harry asked, confused. Griphook's black eyes widened as he stared at him. Looking more shocked than when Harry remembered his name.
"A wixen is the mutual name for wizard and witches." Griphook said sounding like if he said it a particular way Harry would somehow remember. He didn't because it was the first time he remembered hearing that word.
"It is part of your Heir training to know this. Have you been neglecting your studies?" Griphook asked, Harry eyed the goblin wondering what in Merlin's name he was talking about.
"What are Heir studies?" Harry asked, completely baffled. Griphook sighed and rubbed his forehead with his pointer finger and thumb, saying something in gobbledygook. Harry was even more confused.
"Wait here, Mister Potter." Griphook demanded as he raced off.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Griphook walked briskly to his superior's office. Goblins did not like to interfere with wizarding affairs but the heir of one of Gringotts oldest clients not knowing basic wixen knowledge was cause for concern and was unacceptable.
When Griphook got to the director's office he knocked and waited for confirmation before entering. Opening the dark wooden door, Griphook entered grateful that the director didn't look too busy.
"Director Ragnok, forgive my interruption, but I have important and troubling news." Griphook stated after bowing.
"What's the news, Griphook." the director asked, putting down his quill and resting his folded hand on the table eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"The Potter Heir is uneducated in the customs of the wixen world. He didn't even know what a wixen was! When I asked how his Heir studies were going he was confused and asked what Heir studies were!" Griphook answered, bowing again. The Director looked horrified for a few seconds and then furious. Griphook tried not to cringe at the colorful language the director started shouting in their native tongue.
Director Ragnok stormed to the door of his office nearly pulling the high double doors off their hinges, no doubt magic being the only thing keeping them intact.
"Bring me the Potter Account Manager Now!" Director Ragnok roared at the guards outside his door. Griphook shivered in anticipation of what was to come. Director Ragnok would lay waste to the Potter Account Manager, Kneeslicer if anything is amiss. The potter's while not the richest account, is one of the oldest living accounts and has ties to long lain dormant accounts.
Griphook couldn't help but smile as the door opened and a rather pitiful goblin entered between the guards. Griphook sneered at the shaking goblin. Goblins were a warrior race and to see a goblin so scared to face their beloved king was disgraceful to their kind.
"D—dirrcto—rr, *cough* Um—I—What can I do for you?" How humiliating, Griphook thought as he watched Keeslicer, tremble before Director Ragnok.
"I want the Potter Accounts Records this instance." Director Ragnok demanded with a disgusted snarl.
"Par—rdon, but—the—account—is priv—vate." Kneeslicer tried to say. Griphook's respect for his fellow goblin was quickly dwindling.
"I am well aware of the laws in concern to an account and their holder. You will cease this pathetic display and hand me the documents or I shall get them myself." Director Ragnok barked.
"At—t once Director." Kneeslicer cried out. After all the only way Director Ragnok would get his hands on them was by being given the files or by right of conquest, there was also if the account holder demanded a new account manager.
Kneeslicer went to the filing cabinets, pressed his thumb to the ward slot, and grabbed the files. With trembling hands, he gave the files to Director Ragnok, who took them and started to read them still standing.
Director Ragnok's eyes widened and a thunderous expression passed through his face before going neutral. Griphook suppressed wanting to rub his hands together in glee.
"Guards, take this goblin to the dungeons, outfit him with a Miners Collar." Director Ragnok demanded as he continued to read, face impassive like he didn't just give Kneeslicer the ultimate punishment. Not only was Kneeslicer's name revoked, but he was also sentenced to life in the mines, a dirty job that only the worst of the goblins get. His Clan would harbor this disgrace for centuries to come.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Director Ragnok could feel a headache approaching and it had nothing to do with the pitiful goblin being dragged away kicking and screaming. The Potter Accounts were a mess. Dumbledore got his nasty grubby hands on the young Heir Potter's finances.
Director Ragnok scowled, he didn't have time to deal with this, he would have to issue an Account Skirmish to settle this and keep an eye on it.
Director Ragnok glanced towards Griphook, The Clan Of Painite was a fierce warrior clan that often fought for the King of Gringotts. They were also some of the best enchanters in the Goblin Nation.
If not for Griphook, Director Ragnok would probably not have known of this until far too late. He deserved a reward.
"I will have my royal guard command an Account Skirmish, starting tonight until tomorrow morning, as payment for this information, you shall be the Challenger." Director Ragnok swore, causing Griphook to bow with wide eyes. The Challenger was usually given to the one who paid the most to enter the skirmish. It was anonymous so nobody knew until the skirmish began. Giving Challenger was a great honor, one that wasn't given lightly or often.
"You are too kind Director Ragnok, I shall treasure this gift with the respect it deserves!" Griphook promised. Director Ragnok nodded before collecting the Potter Files.
"Come we shall enquire to the young Potter Heir how much he knows." Director Ragnok mused as he walked towards the doors. Opening the doors, much more gently than last time, Director Ragnok turned to the guards with a gleam in his eyes.
"Furguss, inform General Nadnot that I request his presence in meeting room 3 at his earliest convenience." Director Ragnok ordered. Furguss nodded and quickly went to do his King's command. Griphook followed Director Ragnok to the entrance lobby where Heir Potter was waiting. Griphook spotted Heir Potter first and walked over to him. Heir Potter smiled when he saw Griphook. Interesting, Director Ragnok mused.
"Hello Griphook, how are you?" Heir Potter asked. Griphook raised an eyebrow but answered.
"I am doing well, Heir Potter. Shall we continue this conversation behind closed doors?" Griphook asked when Heir Potter looked confused. Heir Potter looked around franticly before nodding. Director Ragnok and Griphook lead the young Heir Potter to a secure meeting room.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Harry followed Griphook and the other unnamed goblin to a large room with a long table. The table took up half of the room, sitting in the center. It was dark wood and had twelve chairs. One wall was full of weapons, of different kinds. There was a grand desk at the end of the room, that was clear of paperwork. The wall closest to Harry had a long table with three trays. One looked like it held water with golden goblets. Another held Crystal Decanters, whom Uncle Vernon would go crazy for, holding some type of alcohol. The middle tray had mini sandwiches and biscuits with a large teapot. Harry's stomach rumbled at the sight of food.
"Perhaps the young Heir Potter would like some refreshments before we begin? Help yourself to the food." The unnamed goblin said. Harry blinked at the offer. He was confused about this Heir business but the chance to have food was too good an offer to pass up, who knows when he will get to eat next?
Harry hesitated for a second before slowly walking over to the food, waiting for the unnamed goblin to laugh and refuse him the food like Uncle Vernon does. He felt his cheeks warm in embarrassment and regret when he picked up the first sandwich. Turning, he saw Griphook and the other goblin reading through documents. Turning back he picked up a saucer and filled it with sandwiches, one biscuit, and made tea. The biscuit looked something like a digestive that he saw Uncle Vernon eating by the packet. He always wanted to try one. This one, however, was different as it had chocolate on top. Harry couldn't wait to try it but he was going to eat the sandwiches first.
Harry picked up the tea and slowly made his way to the large table, he set the plate and teacup down and when nobody objected he followed suit.
Harry glanced at the goblins, they were reading files and ignoring him. Gratefully, Harry started to nibble on the sandwiches, humming in delight when he found it was a meat salad, poultry if he had to guess.
Harry had six mini sandwiches before he was full. The biscuit was lovely and Harry wished he had gotten another one. Harry stared sadly at the remaining two sandwiches. He wanted to eat them but knew it would make him sick. His appetite had gotten smaller during the two months he stayed with his relatives.
Once his tea was finished the goblins suddenly focused on him. Harry gulped but the goblins didn't look angry or upset.
"Before we begin, we need a blood test to verify you are indeed Heir Potter." the nameless goblin stated. Harry was glad they let him eat before testing him.
"How does that work—mister...?" Harry started to ask but stopped hinting at not knowing the goblin's name, said goblin blinked before smirking.
"Forgive me, Heir Potter, I am Director Ragnok. Owner of Gringotts and in charge of this branch." the goblin, Director Ragnok stated. Harry swallowed, his hands getting sweaty. This was an important goblin, possibly the most important goblin bar the King.
"Relax young Heir, nobody shall hurt you without good cause. As for the Inheritance Test, three drops of blood and we do the rest." Director Ragnok stated, soothing Harry from freaking out. Harry nodded and Director Ragnok nodded back before pulling out a gem-encrusted knife from nowhere. Harry gasped but gently took the very expensive-looking knife. Director Ragnok poured something from a vial into a marble mortar before sliding it over to Harry. Taking a deep breath, Harry sliced his pointer finger and let three drops land in the mortar, no more and no less.
Director Ragnok smiled as Harry slid it back to him. He then pulled out some type of paste and mixed it in the mortar, grounding it all up until it was one. With that done he pulled out a piece of parchment and poured the thick liquid on it. A spell was spoken in Gobbledegook and the parchment absorbed the liquid. Director Ragnok looked over the results before his eyes widened in either shock or surprise, Harry wasn't sure which.
After a few moments, the parchment was passed over to Harry to read. Harry picked up the surprisingly thick parchment and read it.
Bloody hell, Harry thought.