Chapter 3
The corridor leading to the cavern is hidden in a stretch of seemingly unbroken wall in Rashanar’s office. It is nearly three feet too short for Steve and Bucky - it is not made for wizards, strangely enough - and is smooth to the touch. The floor has a rough texture to prevent slipping, but the walls and ceiling are perfectly smooth and rounded. The passageway Rashanar leads them down has several twists and turns in it, and Steve and Bucky silently agree that they would be completely lost if not for Rashanar’s guidance and their own enhanced sense of direction. The narrow corridors are all identical, and it certainly doesn’t help that both Steve and Bucky are bent double and are struggling to keep up with Rashanar. Rashanar’s glances backwards and none-too-quiet sniggers of amusement don’t really help either.
They’ve traveled far below ground before Rashanar pauses dramatically and then leads them into the cavern, the ground finally flattening out. Bucky whistles as he looks around, and Steve silently echoes the sentiment. The cavern is a ginormous, high ceilinged masterpiece of white crystal. The crystal seems to glow with an inner fire and lights up the entire room with a soft light. It has a calming and comforting feel to it, and both Steve and Bucky appreciate the opportunity to stand up straight. Narrow pillars of slightly different hues arch down gracefully from the high ceiling. The pillars support not only the roof but also spiraling ledges that house some homes of the goblins, and Steve spots several children on one ledge before their mother pulls them sharply back.
Despite the fact that Steve knows this is a thriving community, he can’t see anyone. Every goblin in the chamber retreated into their homes - round burrows dug into the ground with delicate roofs and walls, each individual in construction and decoration - the second they heard and felt the vibrations of heavier footsteps, those of men, walking towards them. Though their king is with the men, the goblins don’t trust humans at all. They’ve been betrayed too many times.
King Rashanar leads them through his settlement to the very back of the cavern. The further they go, the more chunks of broken crystal they see on the floor of the cavern and the darker it gets. Homes have been crushed, and as they go yet further in, the fallen crystals grow in size. The group stops by a cave-in that goblins are frantically working to clear. More are manning the forges set up, feverishly trying to work the vibranium into shapes that can be used to support the cavern. Rashanar finally stops and turns to the two men behind him.
“Some of my people were trapped behind this cave-in, as was one of our main water sources. Every time we try to remove some of the rubble, more replaces it. Though I would like you to try to clear that, I must focus on the rest of my people first. Much of our claynar was also trapped back there, but I should have enough right now for you to strengthen at least the most unstable parts of the cavern,” he says. Before he can get much further, a new voice interrupts him.
“Father. What is the meaning of this? Bringing men into our sacred ancestral home?” a goblin, evidently Prince Ragnok, asks in disgust.
Steve and Bucky look at the prince for a moment. Not a hair of his head is out of place, despite the fact that he could certainly help his subjects by manning a forge or clearing out rubble. They glance at each other, and Bucky and Steve step forward. Neither like the too-clean look of the prince, nor the fact that he obviously has no trust and respect for his own father, a rather sore point for Steve and therefore Bucky.
“And you two!” the stuck-up child responds. “I’m afraid I will have to kill you for seeing this cavern.” He sounds vaguely regretful and motions two of his lackeys - also obviously not working on what needed to be done based on their clean clothes - forward to kill the intruders. Prince Ragnok sputters in indignation as the men completely ignore him and walk forward. “Do you know who I am? I am the ruler of this place. You can’t just ignore me - ” he shouts. His words meet an untimely end when King Rashanar suddenly hits him in the throat.
“I’m the king here, boy, and don’t you forget it,” he whispers menacingly into the usurper’s ear. The lackeys rush back to help the gasping prince up.
“I’ll get you eventually,” Prince Ragnok shouts back at his father, sounding rather young and idiotic after being completely schooled by his father. The workmen and craftsmen all smirk at each other, as do Steve and Bucky, though they are much better at hiding it. Steve and Bucky continue walking towards the cave-in.
“Step back, please,” Steve calls politely in Gobbledegook. The workers exchange surprised glances, shrug, and do so after the king gives a nod of agreement.
In tandem, Steve and Bucky, now about five feet apart and at the very base of the rubble, turn their hands palm-up and call up their magic. The rock dust at their feet begins to swirl, and everyone else takes several more steps backwards. As the pair slowly raise their hands, the rocks of the cave-in begin to shake and rise back towards the ceiling. Pieces slowly begin to fit back into place, but there’s a sudden problem. Steve shifts his hold of the rocks to Bucky and takes several more steps forward and stands under the place where the rocks just won’t fit back together. He’s under the torn part now, trusting Bucky completely to keep the rocks from falling on him, and begins again to call up his magic to a higher level this time.
Steve slowly lifts his palms, but he doesn’t stop with his forearms parallel to the floor this time. He keeps pushing up, keeps lifting the rock ceiling above his head. His arms are nearly straight now, and Steve can feel the slowly shifting rock bed that caused the cave-in. He knows that if he doesn’t put the rock shelf back where it was before, or as close as he can get it to that position, the further cave-ins will happen and be more permanent this time. He grasps the giant rock shelf with his magic, feeling up into the surrounding ground with his eyes closed until Steve can see where the rock came from and how to put it back. Slowly, ever so slowly, Steve rises up onto his toes and forces his arms all the way straight above his head, straining against the rock shelf. It reluctantly moves back into place, and Steve fixes it there with another push of magic.
Steve drops his arms and catches his breath for just a moment before heading back towards Bucky and taking up the weight of half of the cave-in again. He can tell Bucky’s tired, knows it just from looking at him, as they push the last few chunks of rock back into place. It’s Steve’s turn to hold the ceiling now while Bucky directs the smaller pebbles and the dust back to where they came from. Once everything is where it should be, Bucky joins Steve’s magic again and they heat the rocks just enough to repair the broken crystalline structures. Once they have cleared the cave-in, it is a simple enough matter to direct their magical attention to the rest of the cavern. Eyes still closed, Bucky and Steve lift and repair all of the fallen pieces of the ceiling back to their original places and force them to merge back together.
When they blink open their eyes and drop their arms, Bucky and Steve are facing a completely stunned force of goblins. The cave-in is no more, and repairs have been made throughout the cavern so that the entire cavern glows equally brightly. Steve and Bucky each catch sight of a few stunned faces peeking out of homes at them before they hurriedly duck back inside.
“Could we get some water?” Steve asks hoarsely. He and Bucky need some water and a little rest, and then they can tackle the next problem: supporting the cavern. A mob of workmen rush at once towards the small lake previously hidden behind the rocks and the homes that suddenly aren’t crushed beneath tonnes of rock. Steve turns toward the still-stunned king. “We fixed not just the roof but the shifted rock shelf that caused the cave-in in the first place. We will still cover the walls with craynar, of course, but you should be safe from cave-ins in this area for a while.”
King Rashnar just nods. Steve and Bucky accept the water gratefully and drink thirstily from several of the goblets provided.
“The lake is fed from an underground spring, so supporting the walls around it shouldn’t pose a problem to our water. As for weaving claynar into the ground, I don’t believe that will be necessary. We don’t want to ask you to move it every time we want to build a house, after all,” the king eventually says, still shocked at what he had just seen.
The prince looks completely quelled as well. The fact that he’d sulked over to a rock and sat down on it only to find himself dumped hard off of it probably had something to do with that as well. Still, he decides to try to regain some face in the eyes of his people and these strange foreigners.
“Claynar?” Ragnok sullenly scoffs. “Please, everyone knows claynar is nearly impossible to work with or forge or whatever you’re planning on doi-” He gets cut off in the middle of his sentence due to the sudden lack of a mouth.
“Sorry,” Steve says to Rashanar, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I got tired of listening to him. I’ll return his mouth in a few hours, but I reckon everyone here could do with a reprieve.”
The king just shrugs, as if it’s no concern of his, and the workmen make slight signs of agreement with Steve’s statement.
“Ready?” Steve asks Bucky, having had enough time to pause, stretch slightly, and for the serum to top off his energy and magical well once more.
“Ready,” the other man replies easily.
They turn now towards the pile of claynar and assemble one large pile out of the raw vibranium ingots on the forges scattered around them. They hear several shocked gasps already at the sight of the vibranium moving so easily to form a pile. Steve and Bucky close their eyes and bring their minds closer together, slowly merging into one consciousness carefully. They map the entire cavern carefully with their minds, not missing a single crevasse, and taking special note of the pillars and the outcroppings of rocks jutting out from the pillars.
The vibranium begins to move again, stretching out into spiderweb-thin strands of metal snaking behind them up the walls around the lake and meeting in the middle of the ceiling, merging seamlessly. The delicate web begins to creep forward on the walls, completely covering the walls and ceiling of the cavern in just under eight minutes. Eyes still closed, Steve and Bucky walk in unison to the base of the first pillar and spread the web down over not just the outside but down through the very center of the pillar, branching the delicate weave out from the newly created core in the center of the pillars out to the bottom of the ledges, creating a net of metal beneath them and in and around the pillars themselves. They repeat this process seventeen more times until the two are at the very front of the cavern near where they entered. A thorough mental scan is made, and every face of rock covered in the web is noted and set aside. Once the web has been triple-checked and Steve and Bucky are certain that every vulnerable place other than the floor has been supported, they slowly put distance between their minds again and blink their eyes open for the first time in just over two hours.
Steve and Bucky look over their work, pleased at the sight. The thin strands of metal are twined delicately over to rock, allowing the light of the crystal to shine through unhindered. The two are even more satisfied with the thought that Rashanar’s people will be safe from cave-ins for millennia to come. Their knees slowly buckle, and Steve and Bucky stagger over to sit down against the nearest available wall. The two are asleep in moments and only vaguely register being carried back up through the tunnels and placed on pillows in Rashanar’s office, trusting their old friend to keep them safe while they recover. They sleep through the rest of the day and the night, too exhausted to be woken up by nightmares and the occasional weirded-out customer.
A kick to the side wakes Steve up. He grabs the foot and yanks on it, pulling his attacker to the floor before his eyes are fully open. Bucky wakes up at Steve’s movement too, shifting into high alert. As his eyes blink open, he sees an angry prince trapped on the floor by Steve’s hold on his ankle.
“It’s not nice to kick people,” Steve says mildly.
Muffled angry words are heard from the squirming goblin on the floor.
“Or swear,” Bucky adds.
More muffled angry words.
“It’s not a good idea to try to put people down in general. You never know what they will do in response. Are you hungry or thirsty yet?” King Rashanar asks his squirming son. “And really, attacking someone while they’re asleep? Shame on you. These two are honored guests, too.”
Ragnok just looks mutinously up at his father. King Rashanar turns towards Steve and Bucky.
“What you do with him is your decision. His offenses against you are only growing,” he says coldly.
Steve and Bucky lock eyes and have a silent conversation after that pronouncement.
“At 50 years old, you obviously are a problem not only to your father, but the whole community. From what I have seen, you play no actual part in this society other than bullying others into giving you what you want,” Bucky states baldly.
“We have decided to return your mouth to you -” at the triumphant look in the prince’s eyes, Steve just shakes his head “- and remove the use of your arms.” That look of triumph vanishes immediately into something akin to horror. “You will be forced to rely on the people you bullied for every little thing, from not only eating and drinking to every single bodily function aside from sleep, and even then you will rely on someone in order to enter your chamber. You will feel what you have forced onto others - complete powerlessness.”
The prince shakes his head fervently, begging with his eyes. Steve and Bucky just raise one hand each and release his mouth.
“No, please don’t do this,” Ragnok begs from the floor even as his arms grow shorter and retract painfully into their sockets. “NO!” he screams, watching the hands of the wizards drop to their sides.
Bucky picks up a small intricate bauble and closes his hands around it while Steve turns to the king.
“We’ll be back to check on him in a year. If he’s changed, we’ll release his arms. If not, he’ll stay like this for another year until we return again. If he gives you any trouble or you need us for anything, touch the charm and we will appear right by the charm through the magic Bucky placed in it. We’ll come by every Monday or so to offer our help in forging claynar into items for you,” Steve says.
Bucky tosses the charm into one of the room’s corners, and it spins, glittering, through the air until it comes to a gentle stop and remains suspended about three feet off the ground, within easy arm reach of the king but not able to be easily reached by an angry runt of a prince who might try to trap them with it otherwise. All three of the adults in the room - Ragnok, though a full-grown goblin, was acting rather like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum - continue to ignore the pleading, shouts, and angry threats.
“Your house should be ready to move into. You may want to clean it more deeply with magic, but all of your furniture has been moved in. We also provided wallets fully stocked with both Muggle and magical money. Those will be on the dining table, along with several lumps of claynar. My people also left enough silver to form a basic warding ring around your house. If you want more, just ask,” Rashanar offers. He pulls open a desk drawer. “Here are the keys to your house. I’ll keep an ear to the ground regarding the persons we decided were of interest.”
“Thank you!” Steve and Bucky say in unison. Bucky looks over to the sniveling mess on the floor.
“You’re lucky we didn’t take your legs too,” he says.
Ragnok just looks at the two in horror as they turn and walk out of the room. He turns toward his father.
“Help me up,” he demands.
King Rashanar just looks at him in contempt before he too turns away and walks out of the room to tell the desk goblins to keep an eye out for anyone connected to the Malfoys, Potters, or Dumbledores. Ragnok is left on the floor with no experience in getting up by himself without arms and no way to wipe away the evidence of his breakdown. He just knows the guards posted at every entrance to the office of the king are laughing at him even if they show no outward sign.
Steve and Bucky pass a young man with a shock of bright red hair and one earring on their way out. He’s at the front desk asking about a possible summer internship as a Cursebreaker. The young man stares at them with interest for a moment before turning back to the goblin at the desk and saying, “Please?” in passable Gobbledegook. The goblin sighs, annoyed at the young man who’s asked this for four days in a row now, and gets down from the desk. He walks off without any explanation, and the young man is left to hurry behind.
English jars Steve’s and Bucky’s ears after the low rumble of Gobbledegook, sounding nearly whiney and rather harsh and broken, as they walk out of Gringotts into the crowded street just outside. The two walk through the Leaky Cauldron to the outside world and hail a taxi, a subtle glamor firmly in place to ensure no one, Muggle or Magical, recognizes them. The taxi driver drops them off at Number Five Privet Drive as requested, and Steve stays in the car while Bucky runs up to the front door. After fumbling with the keys for a minute, Bucky manages to get inside and grabs a wallet off of the table. He hurries back outside to pay the taxi driver, leaving a generous tip. The taxi driver, a rather impatient man, huffs and drives away as soon as he can, leaving Bucky and Steve behind in front of their new house.
The two look over their house for a moment before looking around them in curiosity. Their new neighborhood looks rather typical and normal, other than the fact that a child who looks to be around three or four and entirely too thin is weeding out in the hot August sun in front of the house across the street. They share a glance in silent confirmation that this must be Harry Potter, and he does indeed look like he’s not being treated well. The two turn to go inside the house. Bucky comes back out a moment later with a glass of ice cold water and walks across the street, obviously intent on talking to the boy. He glances up at the man approaching with curiosity before going back to work.
“Do you want some water?” Bucky asks, crouching down next to the child.
“I’m not supposed to talk to you or even meet you, so you should leave,” comes the response.
“I’ll just leave the water here then. If you want it, you can drink it, and if you don’t you don’t have to drink it. Either way, please put the glass on our porch by evening.” With that, Bucky stands up and walks away, fairly certain a pair of too-old green eyes are watching him walk away.
Once the strange man disappears into the house across the street, Harry gulps down some water. He hasn’t had water in a little over a day, and Harry reasons that a new neighbor can’t drug, kidnap, or otherwise harm him because they would be the first suspects, or so the flame inside himself whispers. He returns to weeding, the task a little easier with the water breaks he takes every few hours. Harry places the empty water glass on the porch before he goes in to go do his next task.
Steve and Bucky look at the empty glass on their porch with some satisfaction when they return from grocery and clothes shopping. The child could have dumped the water out, but something tells Bucky that the child he’d met wouldn’t have wasted water like that. The car the goblins gave them is nice and works surprisingly well, considering that goblins don’t use cars. Steve kind of wants a motorcycle, but that wouldn’t be very low profile. After all, Captain America is known to drive a motorcycle unless he has no other choice, and they are hiding from the government and, more dangerously, Tony Stark. Steve would be surprised if Tony doesn’t have some sort of watch set already for them, and a motorcycle dealership would likely allow Tony Stark access to files if he asked for them in exchange for something like a review or modification of their designs if they asked for anything at all.
When Harry walks out of the side door to start his weeding the next morning, he finds a piece of toast next to a glass of water on the steps. He’s not sure how the neighbors knew Petunia wouldn’t be the one to find it or how they knew that he needed food, but he rations it carefully throughout the day all the same. Any food is welcome. The same thing happens the next morning, only there’s two pieces of toast, and one of them has a little bit of jam on it. Harry savors the sweet taste, something he’s never really had before since Dudley eats all of the jam and never leaves him any on the scraps Harry eats. There are eggs in a little container by the toast on the third day after the men across the street moved in. A little slice of bacon with the eggs appears the next day, and a little glass of milk in addition to the large glass of water appears the day after that. There’s more of everything on the sixth day, and Harry is glad that the men gave his stomach some time to adjust to having a regular supply of food before giving him such a large amount of food. As he sets the dishes on the porch corner, he notices a note and a small ring with his name on it. Harry picks them up, slips them into his pocket, and goes back to doing his chore before his aunt notices anything out of the ordinary timing wise.
Steve and Bucky watch with some satisfaction as Harry eats the breakfast they set out for him before heading to Gringotts. It’s a Monday again, the day they agreed to go help the goblins with any projects. They Disapparate into Diagon Alley through the thick set of wards on their house that had been completed with the addition of a carefully magic-forged silver runic protection circle under the full moon the previous night. When they walk into Gringotts, the same goblin, Garnak, is waiting by the doors. He walks up to them and leads them straight back. Several other customers watch with curiosity and jealousy as the two new arrivals get help before them. Rashanar greets them outside the doors of his office. He dismisses Garnak and leads them further back into the maze of corridors.
“It’s good to see you again,” he says before continuing straight on to what he wants them to do. “Spend the day trying to get familiar with other metals. I want to know if you can manipulate other metals like you can claynar.” Steve and Bucky nod.
“How’s Ragnok?” Bucky asks with a hint of amusement.
“Not having much success begging but having just enough to stay alive. He tried ordering people around though, and it backfired rather spectacularly. How’s the house?” the king asks.
“It’s exactly what we need. The car was a nice touch. Thank you,” Steve answers.
“Of course. Here’s the room where you’ll be working,” Rashanar says and gestures to a tall set of doors that swing silently open with barely a brush of fingertips, an impressive testament to both the artisan level of craftsmanship and the magic of the goblins.
The odd sight of a tall ginger, the same teenager as before, listening intently to what appeared to be a miniature figurine, an oddly ominous doll, greets them. He doesn’t even look up as the doors open and the other two men walk in. Rashanar leaves them there with no further explanation. Steve and Bucky walk over to a table on the opposite side of the room as the young man and each pick up a different chunk of precious metal. They examine their different pieces with their minds and senses first, building a mental map of the metal in their hands, before they separately begin to sink into their magic to get a better sense of the precious metal.
A quiet clearing of the throat wakes Bucky and Steve from their semi-trance of focused energy.
“The king’s asking for you,” Garnak says.
Steve and Bucky nod and place the metal back on the table. It’s been nearly four hours, and both of them are getting a bit hungry as well. The young man appears to be eating some sort of sandwich, though he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying it too much, and Steve spares one last curious glance back at him before the doors swing shut behind them. The journey back to Rashsanar’s office is hurried and silent. Garnak motions for them to go through the open office doors before closing them behind the men and hurrying back up to his desk.
“The Lady Narcissa Malfoy, who is a fully certified Healer, and her son are currently meeting with her solicitor in one of our private rooms. If we are to assume she means to use the paperwork she asked to be prepared, she will soon revert to being Lady Narcissa Black and will have full custody of her son and likely her vaults. Draconius Lucius Malfoy, who will likely have his name changed in some way once the lady has managed to free the two of them, is wandering around the antechamber in extreme boredom,” King Rashanar explains.
“Would you be opposed to our entertaining Draco and meeting Narcissa after her meeting to discuss the possibility of her moving into our home?” Steve explains with a glance towards Bucky. There is nothing in his face or stance to deter the question, so Steve turns his face back to the goblin warrior in front of them.
“I do believe that in order to keep Gringotts safe from being burned down, a distraction for the young wizard is necessary and can be provided by you,” Rashanar offers, blinking slowly. The unspoken agreement is that Steve and Bucky will meet with Narcissa if they keep any damage from being done to the bank by her young son. Both men are more than happy to accept. “Young Griphook will lead you to the correct antechamber.” A brush of fingers over a discrete gemstone summons the goblin in question, and the three are soon off towards a room where a boy may or may not be wreaking absolute havoc upon an unsuspecting anteroom.
Steve and Bucky arrived just in time to prevent a shower of sparks the boy had evidently been playing with from setting the rug on fire. They smile at the boy who looks up in shock at the appearance of a floating water puddle and subsequent disappearance of that puddle. He smiles shyly back after a moment, pleased to see two people that he already knows in the odd place he’s in. Steve sits down first, Bucky sitting next to him so that they form a triangle of sorts, and resolve to teach him some sort of hand-clapping game to keep him from burning Gringotts down.
Narcissa
The magical lawyer her confidant had recommended insisted on meeting at Gringotts. Narcissa had agreed both because she and Draco needed to get out of the house, and even the most foolhardy wizards didn’t dare attack the famously neutral Gringotts. The proceedings had gone well; the lack of another heir, a little aside insisted on by her father, made the dissolution of her marriage quite legal and relatively easy. They’d been hashing out exactly what would go to Narcissa and what would go to Lucius for the past twenty minutes. The only thing that Narcissa really fights for is sole custody of her son, Dobby, and a restraining order for herself and her son against Lucius, Dobby being protected by a shift in ownership. She doesn’t want that man anywhere near herself or her son, and the lawyer and goblin both agree after seeing her memories.
Narcissa feels her son’s magic rise near the end of the proceedings and grows concerned that there will be scorch marks by the time her business is concluded. Just as she’s certain something is about to be set on fire and is ready to make excuses, the feeling suddenly abates. Narcissa would be more concerned if she didn’t know her son as well as she does. He’s likely gotten distracted by something, and that leaves her able to finish her business without issue. Narcissa ends up with little more than her personal artifacts, momentos, papers, and jewelry. She does, however, have both full custody of her son and a restraining order against Lucius Malfoy for herself and her son, in addition to the ownership of Dobby. Her divorce makes Draco the sole heir to the House of Black, after her disgrace of a cousin, which secures his future well enough.
She opens the door to collect Draco and find a place to stay for the night other than the Leaky Cauldron - a pub is no place for a child - and sees, to her shock, the two men that had visited Malfoy Manor the previous week sitting on the floor playing a game with her son. Narcissa immediately steps in between them and her son, unwilling to trust them with him, no matter that her son had been happily laughing just a moment before. The two men stand and bow to her properly in respect to her status as Lady Black before the brunette produces a sparkly dragon plushie literally out of thin air and gives it to her son, sitting back down to play with him. He laughs, excited and completely captivated by this new toy, and Narcissa can’t help the smile that pulls at her lips. She is shocked at the ease of the Conjuration and even more shocked that neither of the men have a wand in sight to have achieved it, but her child laughs and that is enough for now.
“We would like to speak to you,” the blond one says, gesturing to the open office. To Narcissa’s shock, the goblin inside bows to the man and allows him in. Narcissa follows after him, curiosity and wariness burning equally strong in her chest.
When the door shuts behind the two of them, Narcissa cannot hold her question in any longer. “Why are you the only one in here when your question involves the two of you?”
“We have a mental link of sorts. He and I are both present for this conversation, but we did not want Draco to feel excluded. Before we get any farther, I fear I have been most lax with my manners. My name is Steve Rogers, and my companion is James Barnes, though I usually call him Bucky,” Steve introduces, having realized only when they were talking about how to approach the Lady Malfoy that neither of them had given her their names.
“I would introduce myself as well, but I already have. What do you wish to speak to me about?” Narcissa asks.
“Bucky and I propose that until you are able to find a property of your own as well as a job, should you need it, you and Draco come live with us. Our property is well-warded, though you would probably want to walk through the house to make sure it’s child-safe.”
Narcissa considered this for a moment. She had been wondering where they would sleep for the night until she could find a job for herself to support the two of them. “What do you want in return?” she asked suspiciously, wondering what would be required.
“There is a magical child across the street from our house who is being treated worse than a house-elf. We would like you to give the child a health check-up and tell us what we need to do to bring the child up to full health.”
“What is the name of the child?” Narcissa asked, curious.
“I will not reveal the name of the child in case you decide not to take us up on our offer. I understand that this might seem quite sudden, but we were friends of Abraxus’s and would like to take care of his daughter-in-law and grandson as he cannot.”
“I am not his daughter-in-law anymore,” Narcissa said coldly, wondering if the offer would be rescinded.
“Nonetheless, he would have liked you and would have cast out his son for his atrocious behavior. We would like to help you to honor his memory. It does, of course, help that we have met and like both you and your son,” Steve offered by way of explanation.
“As it is quite late in the day, I will take you up on your offer for the night. We will renegotiate tomorrow, and I will examine the child,” Narcissa stated, somewhat shocked by both their generosity and their surety regarding a man they could not have known based solely off how old they look. Still, Narcissa knows better than to trust the surface of something as the absolute truth. The two men seemed honest enough in their offer though, and had been playing with her son without any incentive given. Even now, one of two had stayed behind to ensure that Draco felt cared for. The goblins obviously respected the wizards, and that was a near impossible feat. Lucius had never managed it, despite how charming and political he was.
It did help that they were wearing better clothes than before.