Chapter 9
Crystal stared up at the place that had been her prison for most of her life. Soon, she would be confronting her jailers, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Thankfully, Crystal wasn’t alone. She had Grinlast and several goblin guards with her. She also had Dudley on her side—the Dursleys would never hurt her again, at least not without facing consequences.
She glanced at the goblins next to her. They were using magic to disguise themselves as humans until they got inside the house, ensuring they wouldn’t break the Statute of Secrecy by walking around in front of Muggles. Grinlast looked over when he felt her eyes on him and gave Crystal a nod to calm her nerves.
Grinlast's disguise had dark brown hair slicked back. He had brown eyes and light brown skin. His outfit consisted of a black suit, black flats, and a pale green tie.
There were two more goblins with her, along with a human. Grinlast had said the human was brought along to check the wards around the property while she and the three goblins dealt with the Dursleys inside.
Kraggit's disguise featured brown hair with streaks of grey. His face had a few wrinkles and frown lines added to show age. His eyes were a deep brown, almost looking black in the right lighting. Like Grinlast, he wore a suit and tie, but his suit was brown instead of black, and his tie was a deep maroon color instead of pale green.
Boggus's disguise appeared younger than the others'. He had sandy blond hair and light hazel eyes with freckles over his nose and cheeks. His suit was bright pink, and he even wore a matching hat. He sported a baby blue bowtie and had a purple flower in one of his upper pockets.
Crystal thought she and Boggus would get along splendidly; she couldn’t wait to see her aunt's reaction to him in his human disguise.
The human accompanying the goblins was named Edan Lyre. He had black wavy hair and silvery eyes. His clothes differed from the suits the three goblins wore; his were everyday wear, practical for movement but not likely to hinder him if he needed to fight or run.
Crystal steeled herself and walked into the house. She could already see Uncle Vernon's face turning bright red in anger. He was sitting in front of the TV and seemed oblivious to the three important-looking ‘men’ behind her.
"Girl, where have you been? You haven’t finished any of your chores, and my poor Pet has had to get her hands dirty doing them instead!"
Crystal glared at him. "I was busy, and she’d better get used to getting her hands dirty because from now on, I’m not doing anything for you ever again."
Vernon huffed himself to his feet, his face starting to turn purple. "How dare you! After everything we’ve done for you, you treat us like this. We took you in, fed you, clothed you, educated you, and put a roof over your head!"
Enough was enough. Crystal was going to tell him what she truly thought of him. She noticed her aunt walking in. Unlike her uncle, Aunt Petunia noticed the three important-looking men behind her. Her lips thinned at the sight of Boggus in his bright pink suit.
"You’ve done nothing but give me the basics required of you, and even then, you withheld food from me several times! Feeding me? You only let me eat scraps leftover from your meals, despite the fact that I cooked all your food."
Uncle Vernon took a step forward, looking like he was about to hit her. Kraggit stepped between Crystal and him. Uncle Vernon suddenly noticed the three men and his face went from dark purple to pale peach.
"You’ve withheld food from me for days at a time, several times. Aunt Petunia has even given me moldy food before and got upset when I got sick from it. What did she expect would happen?"
Aunt Petunia kept glancing between the three disguised goblins and her niece, her face paling as she realized she and Vernon were in trouble.
"Clothed me? If it were up to you, I’d be wearing Dudley’s old cast-offs that are too big for me. The only reason I have clothes that fit me at all is because Sam sends me clothes in my size once a year."
Crystal glared at the two adults who had abused her for far too long and continued. "You’ve tried taking my clothes to sell them several times. You only stop when Dudley tells you it would look bad if I suddenly went from decent clothes to rags."
"Now, you did send me to school, but you forget that it’s the law for people to send kids to school. You would have gotten in trouble if you didn’t, and even then, you got me the cheapest, second-hand supplies you could."
Dudley gave Crystal a proud thumbs up from his spot on the stairs. He was hidden from his parents but not from her. His support helped Crystal relax.
"Now, onto the last bit of your little rant. You might have taken me in and put a roof over my head, but you forgot one tiny detail—this is my house."
That seemed to be the last straw for Uncle Vernon. He began to turn purple again and tried to storm over to push Kraggit out of the way. "This is our house, you little brat!" He didn’t get to say more before Kraggit shoved him so hard he fell back several feet and landed on his butt.
Crystal gave him a small smirk. "Actually, this house belongs to me. When were you going to mention that my parents allowed you to rent this house for cheap—only fifty pounds a month, in fact?" She enjoyed the way her uncle and aunt’s faces paled at her knowledge.
"You haven’t even paid rent since my parents died! Now that I know about this, you’ll have to pay for every single month you’ve lived here, plus interest."
Grinlast stepped up with a smirk. "From our calculations, fifty pounds a month for ten years comes to around six thousand pounds, but with interest, it totals sixty thousand pounds."
Crystal spoke up again. "And this doesn’t even count the one thousand pounds a month you’ve been getting to take care of me, coming from my own accounts no less."
Kraggit spoke up this time, ignoring how pale the Dursleys’ faces were. "Exactly. One thousand pounds a month for ten years amounts to one hundred twenty thousand pounds, and with interest, it totals seven hundred twenty thousand pounds. Adding the sixty thousand to it means you owe approximately seven hundred eighty thousand pounds."
Aunt Petunia stuttered, "Y-You can’t do this!"
Grinlast smirked in response. "I think you’ll find that we can. Oh, and just so you know, if you try to harm Lady Potter again, we will take action to protect her."
"Lady Potter?" Vernon shouted furiously. "She’s not a lady! Her parents were deadbeats. Her mum was a whore, and her dad a drunk!"
Crystal glared at Vernon. "Shut up! I know the truth now. Why do you insist on lying even more?"
Boggus spoke up. "It would also not be wise to disrespect the late Lady and Lord Potter. The entire magical world owes them for giving their lives for their daughter. If someone caught wind of you telling these awful lies, you would be in serious trouble."
"You—You’re one of those freaks! OUT! OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW, I WILL NOT—"
Grinlast cut Vernon off with a furious glare. "Have we not established that this is not your house, Mister Dursley, but instead your niece Lady Potter’s house?"
~Outside with Edan~
Edan searched the property for Number 4 Privet Drive but couldn’t find any hint of blood wards. Instead, he found very concerning wards designed to keep Lady Potter passive and submissive. There were wards to track her health, aggression wards, hatred wards, and wards to make Muggles ignore what was going on inside the house. Edan was furious. He could tell from the magical signature that these had been set up by Dumbledore, though he doubted anyone else would have done this.
He made sure to document the wards and their purposes before starting to dismantle them. As he worked, a few women walked by. He quickly concealed his wand and managed to hide it just in time.
Two women seemed to be gossiping as they walked. One woman had long wavy red hair, part of which was braided around her head. Her eyes were hazel, and her skin was pale—fairly common in this part of the country.
She wore a pale blue dress with ruffles on the bottom. From his position, Edan couldn't see what kind of shoes she was wearing, nor did he truly care.
The second woman looked similar to the first, leading him to suspect that they were related. Her red hair stopped at her shoulders, and her eyes were a bit greener than her sister’s. She wore a yellow blouse and blue jeans.
"Excuse me, sir, what are you doing in the Dursleys' backyard?" the woman with the long hair asked.
Edan quickly came up with an excuse. "I’m surveying the yard to see if anything needs to be repaired."
"Is something wrong with the backyard?" the second woman inquired.
"No, not that I can see. I was asked to take a look by the owner of the house."
The two women exchanged a look before the first spoke again. "I never thought I’d see the day that Vernon and Petunia Dursley would call someone in."
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley aren’t the owners of this house, ma'am. I’m sorry, what are your names?"
The first woman responded, still shocked. "I’m Katie, and this is my sister Sadie. What do you mean they’re not the owners?"
Edan gave the two women a charming smile. "My name is Edan. I mean just that—the house used to belong to Mrs. Dursley's sister, the late Lady Potter." He held back a smirk when he saw the wide-eyed look on their faces. "When Lady and Lord Potter died, everything they owned went to their young daughter."
Katie spoke up, appearing to be the more outgoing of the two sisters. "We were told Crystal's parents were drunks and drug addicts."
"Lord Potter hated getting drunk, and they never touched a drug that wasn’t prescribed by their doctors unless it was for pain."
Sadie frowned. "How did they truly die then? We were told that Lord Potter was driving drunk and crashed the car, killing both him and his wife."
Edan couldn’t hold back a scoff before he sighed sadly. "They were murdered. The only survivor was their daughter."
Katie and Sadie shared a horrified look before excusing themselves and rushing off, most likely to share the news with the rest of the neighborhood.
Edan was just glad that Crystal had permitted him to share this. She had anticipated that some people would be curious and wanted the Dursleys' reputation to go down the drain. He was more than happy to help.