Title: Gringott's goes to war!

Labyrinth/Harry Potter Crossover

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters.

Thanks for the reviews everyone.

Chapter 1

He limped as he walked; the only thought in his mind was to reach safety. He'd never been a fan of wizarding society, but he knew they had a Gringott's branch here. So he stumbled down Diagon alley headed for the large building at the corner that could only have been goblin made. Blood was running down his face and the pain was excruciating, so much for being the all powerful goblin king!

It had been years since Jareth had last been aboveground particularly among wizards and he had never visited this particular branch of Gringott's before. Last time he had checked, the British Wizarding world had been at war. The British ministry itself had petitioned his goblins for help in the war and his people had passed the petition on to him. He had eventually denied the request, not wanting to get involved in mortal affairs to such an extent, and that had been the last he heard about it. He hadn't really cared enough to find out more either. He had his own problems after all, though he did end up granting a petition to allow the ministry to seize the assets of some "Deatheaters" after things had finally played out. Not that the ministry knew anything about him though, the goblins always kept very quiet about him to outsiders.

Eventually he made it to the doors of Gringott's; they were open for business and mortals bustled too and fro in the large open foyer. He ignored his pain for a moment to look around; it was an impressive structure and the air itself seemed to vibrate with the presence of some very strong protection spells. He was unsure if he himself could break some of the wards across the doors to the vaults and this was just the surface level protection, there was even one curse he didn't understand at all. Some of his own work was present he saw, crystals bedded into the very building itself. He could see they were unnecessary though, merely figureheads in the presence of such powerful other magic. It was very impressive work, how had such great accomplishments passed him by? Had he paid such little attention to his subjects in recent years? The crystals had been given to Gringott's over 100 years ago and even then would probably have been of little use to defend a magical bank, and yet there had been no complaints and the goblins had placed the crystals as though they were of importance. He'd been busy at the time and he was rather ashamed as he looked around, it must have been obvious to everyone at Gringott's how little time and energy he had spent on the defensive crystals.

Albus Dumbledore had finally finished his transactions and he was bid to sit and wait as the final paperwork was organised and signed, by Grumbook. As he looked around the bank in boredom he noticed a man standing alone in the doorway, his magical aura was very familiar to him somehow and yet at the same time he was sure he'd never seen anything like it before. The man also appeared to be bleeding, as evidenced by the blood flowing down his face. Dumbledore was rather surprised at the lack of reactions from the people surrounding the man. Obviously the man must be under some sort of glamour, though he wondered how he himself could see through it so clearly.

"Excuse me Grumbook, but there appears to be a man bleeding in your foyer," Dumbledore stated.

The goblin looked up from the papers annoyed, but obediently looked over to where Dumbledore pointed. The goblin looked puzzled for a moment before leaping to his feet, coincidently knocking all the papers on the floor. Unusually for a goblin he didn't immediately pick them up. In fact it looked like he had forgotten all about them as he raced across the floor towards the stranger. Dumbledore had rarely seen a goblin show more than a mild tolerance for humans, he'd certainly never seen this much concern from one for a human, how very intriguing! Even more interesting was the reaction of all the other goblins, they'd all looked up as Grumbook ran across the floor, and as soon as they themselves caught sight of the bleeding man they too abandoned their work and surged towards the stranger. All the gold in the tills and vaults, even the customers themselves were abandoned as the goblins left everything without a backward thought. The wizards all stared in amazement, including Dumbledore, a very intriguing day indeed.

The man in question didn't seem at all amazed that he had caused such a massive production, although this could be because the only thing holding Jareth up at this point was the wall. The King of the Goblins was not used to feeling weak, the curse was now draining him faster than he could keep up with and the first of the goblins only just reached him as his final reserves gave out. He started to slip to the floor, but was grabbed by one of the large goblin guards; it was the last thing he knew in quite a while. So he missed the looks of concern from the wizards watching him, he missed the total panic his final collapse caused to his Goblin subjects and unfortunately he missed the twinkle of curiosity in Dumbledore's eyes.

The injured man was carried reverently into the inner sanctum of Gringott's and goblin guards started appearing in the foyer moving the customers to the doors. Gringott's was closed. Dumbledore had to leave with the rest, for once in his life as clueless as the rest of the public as the bank moved into a full safety lock-down. Nothing would be coming in or out of the bank until the goblins determined who and what was the enemy.

Chapter 2

Several days earlier

The labyrinth had turned dark, the inhabitants were used to the kings moods, but this was something else. There'd been no sign of Jareth for days, and while this wasn't unusual in itself the behaviour of the labyrinth was. It almost seemed to be screaming. Enquiries had been made with the aboveground goblins with no success, though their concerns had been noted.

Cripfoot was concerned; the underground had contacted Gringott's head office with a discrete enquiry into the king's whereabouts, in turn all the various branch managers had been questioned. The king had never shown an interest in Gringott's or the aboveground goblins so the Underground would only be enquiring with them as a last resort. It had been many years since he himself had even seen Jareth!

The king now lay unconscious in the hospital bed; Weasley remained at the urging of Griphook, though guarded. Gringott's had shut its doors. Jareth showed all the signs of being tortured and to make matters worse there was clearly a curse upon him, draining his energies, and leaving nothing for Jareth to heal with. Goblin warriors were pouring in from all realms, answering Gringott's call. Protection of the king came first above all other priorities and they were proving this. The council was assembling at this moment; something would pay dearly for what had happened.

He'd never thought to have the king at his branch; he'd never dreamed it would be in this circumstance. Goblins were scouring the country for clues; the underground breeds were especially useful at such things. Every one of them felt the same outrage he did. The king was not to be harmed, not by anyone. Goblin security had obviously grown lapse over the years to allow such a thing to happen. The head of security was shamed. How had this been allowed to happen, even worse the goblins had not known about it. The labyrinth itself had told them what was happening had they but paid attention and still instead of rescuing Jareth, the king had been left to rescue himself. He'd obviously done so, but how poor must Goblin security have become for them not to have called the alarm days ago? The king valued his freedom and his solitude, but why had he been allowed so much isolation that his absence had not even been noticed by anyone, excepting the labyrinth itself?

The council had chastised Gingley, head of the King's guard, but ultimately they all held the blame. The king was to be obeyed in all things except his own safety and they had forgotten this. Now the king was close to death. Things would change in the future, this would not occur again.

Gringott's Infirmary

Jareth awoke slowly, he had a headache still, but his leg no longer hurt, in fact he couldn't even feel it. The curse was still there, however, draining him. He was in a sickbay of some sort and he tried to sit up to search for some answers. He didn't quite have the strength though and quickly fell back onto the bed with a groan. This was not how things were supposed to go; he had been far too careless, too confident in his own power and experience and now it looked like he was paying the price.

Jareth looked around the room with interest; he knew he was safe here. He just wasn't sure what to expect, he'd never been especially reliant on the goblins before now. He'd never needed to be, he'd always been the all-powerful king, the protector of his people, well when he could be bothered anyway. Still, they must realise that he would eventually get better and that would hopefully keep them in line long enough for it to be true.

"Your majesty?" Jareth turned his head and saw a goblin holding a glass with some sort of potion in it.

"Yes?" he croaked surprised at how weak and pathetic he sounded. He had to pull himself together, the curse would only get more powerful with time and he shouldn't waste what time he did have in bed.

He tried to sit up again and finally made it, the strange goblin adjusting the bed and the pillows for him. It took another minute for the accompanying pain and dizziness to subside enough for him to take note of his surroundings. Goblin guards were standing around the walls of the room looking dangerous and several were standing between him and another bed, containing what looked like a human.

"Apologies Sire," said a small goblin watching Jareth intently.

"It was deemed too dangerous to move Weasley at the moment, he's an excellent employee and thought to be of no danger to you. One of our best Curse-breakers."

Jareth blinked vaguely wondering why if the man wasn't dangerous it was thought necessary to have so many guards in the room.

"A Curse-breaker?" he said with relief. Perhaps there was room for hope after all. He coughed as he spoke which caused his stomach to roll over. The next thing he knew he was vomiting everywhere. Cool hands held him over a basin and wiped his face when he was finished. Dazed he realised that the gentle hands were now covered in blood, he felt too weak to do more than stare though. Then suddenly he was floating, everything was so peaceful and the pain was finally gone. Except someone was shouting a lot and then pain came back, lots of it, and he was forced back down to his earthly bonds and sleep.

Chapter 3

Gringott's Infirmary

It was another three days before Jareth awoke again, by which time Gringott's bank had re-opened. Remaining shut caused too much interest from outsiders and people were already spreading rumours about the strange man in the foyer, none of them correct, but the rumours were drawing interest from powerful people both light and dark. The goblins had said nothing, just tightened security.

Bill Weasley also woke up three days later, the last thing he recalled was opening the final door to the burial cave. He groaned, obviously he had missed something important and now he was in the familiar surroundings of the little talked about Gringott's medical centre. The goblins kept the inner workings of the bank secret and rarely used St Mungo's, even for the human staff. He blinked as he looked around the ward. Goblins were everywhere, all focused on a man lying in the bed across from him. He'd gotten used to working with goblins over the years, but he'd never seen anything like this before. He wondered at what caused such attention from goblins and he sat up to see better. Instantly at least half the goblins in the room were holding a weapon and pointing it right at him. Even those goblins not currently pointing a weapon at him suddenly looked very threatening.

It was the shouting that finally woke Jareth and he opened his eyes to see the goblin doctor from earlier, defending the mortal from what looked like hordes of goblins. He wasn't sure he really had the energy to deal with whatever the problem was and he would have closed his eyes to sleep once more if he hadn't been so thirsty.

"Water?" he croaked

"Doctor, he's awake," said Brotfield urgently.

Weasley was forgotten as all attention returned to the king.

"Drink this sir," the doctor tried.

It looked like the same potion from last time and Jareth blinked, uncertain. He looked around the room warily, but ultimately there was little choice. He would have to trust someone else for once.

It took three weeks in the end to finally break the curse on Jareth, during which time Bill fully recovered from his ordeal, ironically it was Bill Weasley himself who eventually came up with the solution. He still didn't know what was going on and who the strange man was, but had been unable to refuse to help when Gringott's head goblin himself pleaded with him.

Jareth was almost skeletal by this point, kept alive only because he was leeching power from his Labyrinth. He knew that if he got too weak to sever the link before he died, the Underground would die too. The labyrinth wouldn't let him do it though. The Labyrinth had grown so powerful over the years that it was now self-aware to a certain extent and Jareth found himself unable to convince it to let him die. The removal of the curse was therefore a huge relief in more ways than one.

There were, however, going to be some tricky long-term problems now though. Jareth had never really linked like this with the labyrinth before, though the ability had always been there, and now this foreign power was running through his veins sustaining his life. In fact he had previously deliberately refrained from mentally linking this deeply. Much preferring to spend his time playing with foolish mortals, both above and below, than to be tied down with responsibilities to the labyrinth or the Goblins.

Chapter 4

Gringott's

Jareth started recovering quickly once the curse was removed, physically at least. Though it would be a long time before his power returned to his normal levels. Something he managed to keep quiet even from his doctor. Goblins guards were still hovering around him too. He found it strangely comforting. He wasn't really used to the open concern they showed though, even in front of the mortal Curse-breaker. He'd had little use for bodyguards in the past and had always looked after himself just fine.

They waited a few days after the lifting of the curse, but eventually a small delegation of goblins arrived to find out who or what had attacked Jareth.

"Sire, you are safe here," said Griphook "we need to know what happened though."

He looked at the king; they had nearly lost him to the curse several times over the weeks. Jareth was still pasty white; he'd used up all of his own energy fighting the curse and had no reserves left, both physical and mental. He'd started having nightmares too, now that he was getting better, though he had tried to hide them from everyone. It was however an impossible thing to hide in front of so many attentive goblins, though they all allowed him the illusion.

Jareth bit his lip and looked at the goblins waiting patiently for his answer, he'd avoided saying much about what had happened so far, but he knew it was unfair of him to keep it from them after all they had done. He hated himself for feeling it, but Jareth was scared and worst of all, he was pretty sure they all knew it too.

"Wizards," he finally said, "there were lots of them, maybe fifteen in total," he avoided their eyes, didn't want to see pity.

"They knew who I was too, called me Jareth." He looked puzzled for a moment

"They wanted something, kept talking about someone called Dumbledore" he finally chanced a glance at Griphook and was relieved to see no sign of pity.

"The shackles, I couldn't get them off. The more I fought them the tighter they got and then…" he trailed off, still horrified at his own weakness.

"The one in charge, they called him the dark lord. He..." he ground to a halt, unable to continue, just sat there in agonising silence. They'd had him for three days; his body had managed to heal the damage inflicted before the curse but he still remembered.

End of Section 1