"I wish the goblins would come and take you away!"
Years later, Ginevra Weasley would know that her brother's words were nothing more than childish spite, shouted out because he felt that, being the only girl, she was the favorite of both their parents and that he, as the youngest boy, had been only an attempt at a girl that didn't work out. Years later, she would know that her brother didn't hate her and was in fact very fond of her, despite their arguments and fights. Years later, she would even forgive him for shouting those words at her and for sending her off to the Goblin King.
For now, Ginny was furious at everyone, but mostly at her older brother.
It wasn't as though she had been doing anything wrong. She had just wanted to play with him, since Fred and George were off at Hogwarts and there was no one else around. Mum was busy with cleaning something, and Dad was off at work, so it was just her and Ron in the Burrow. There were days when Ginny was happy to play on her own, but today she wanted someone to play with, and so she had gone to her brother's room and knocked on the door.
"Go away!" Ron shouted.
"No!" Even though she was a year younger, Ginny could be just as loud as her brother. She had to be loud, after all, to be heard over all her other brothers, even if Bill, Charlie, and Percy weren't as loud as they had used to be. At least, Percy wasn't. Bill and Charlie still liked to cause all sorts of trouble. "I want to play with you!"
"I don't want to play with you!" Ron called back. "Go chase the gnomes or something."
Ginny kicked her brother's door. She had chased the gnomes the day before, and she was pretty sure not many had come back in. "If you don't play with me, I'll tell Mum you're being mean!"
"Get lost, you little tattle!"
Being called a tattle was the last straw, and Ginny ran to the head of the stairs. "Mum!" she shrieked. "Ron's not playing with me, and I asked him nicely!" She hadn't, but she did know that Mum would always take her side if she said she had asked nicely, and really, she hadn't started by kicking his door, so she supposed that counted as asking nicely, at least for her.
"That's not true!" Ron yelled, shoving his door open so it slammed against the wall. "Mum, she's lying! She's not asking nicely at all!"
From floors below, Mum's voice drifted up. "Stop fighting, you two, and try to get along!"
Ginny stuck out her tongue. "See? Now you have to play with me. Mum says we have to get along, and that means we're playing." She wouldn't even force him to play with dolls or anything – Fred and George were better at that, even if they did like ruining the stories for her – but she would insist on borrowing his broom to play Quidditch on the lawn, because she was tired of using Charlie's old one.
Ron's face was almost as red as his hair, and Ginny wondered if they were going to get into a fight. That might almost be fun, and she knew she could leave a few bruises on him and not get in as much trouble as he would, because both her parents would be convinced she was just defending herself. "You little brat," he muttered, and turned to stalk off to his room. Ginny raced after him, slipping into his room before he could close it all the way. There were advantages to being small.
"I want you to play with me," she said, setting her hands on her hips, the way Mum did when she was angry with Dad or one of the older kids. "I haven't played with you all this week, so now it's time."
"I don't want to play with you," Ron said, flopping onto his mattress. It lay just below a Chudley Cannons poster and next to a small pile of comics about Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. "I want you to get out of my room and leave me alone."
"Not until you play with me."
Ron rolled onto his side and glared at her. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away," he said, and Ginny supposed it was supposed to be a low, dangerous voice like the bad guys in the stories Bill told them, but coming from a nine-year-old, it just sounded silly. Ginny was about to laugh and point that out when something grabbed her wrist and another thing lifted her off the ground, and then she was gone.
Ron stared. He couldn't believe what had happened. One minute he had been arguing with his sister, and then suddenly she was gone. It was like she had vanished into thin air, but he knew she couldn't have Apparated. She was nowhere near old enough, and the only people in the family who would have wanted to teach her were Fred and George, who were also much too young. Ginny was just gone, as though it had happened by magic.
It must have been magic. There wasn't any other explanation, and trying to come up with one would be like something a Muggle would do. But he knew better. Something had shown up and taken Ginny, but either it had been invisible or he couldn't remember what it had been.
His first instinct was to call Mum, but that would only end terribly. She would know he had done something, and he would get in trouble, and it wasn't worth it since he didn't even know what he had done. He'd just have to find some other way to get Ginny back, some way to follow her on his own. Fretting for the first time he could remember in all his nine years, he sat on the edge of his bed and stared at where Ginny had been. What had he been doing just before she vanished?
"I wish the goblins would come and take you away."
It was just like out of one of Bill's stories, and he supposed that was where the idea had come from, even if he hadn't remembered. Bill liked to tell stories about goblins – not the Gringotts goblins, but some other kind that lived far away – and how they would come to take away naughty children. Ron didn't believe the stories but thought they were loads of fun, with the parents wishing away their children and then deciding to go rescue them. He hadn't thought a brother could wish away a sister, but apparently that was what had happened. He'd said the right words, and then Ginny had vanished. It must have been the goblins that had taken her.
He'd have to go out and find her.
His first thought – aside from telling Mum – was to write a letter to Bill and tell him what had happened. Bill would understand, since he was the one who knew the stories. He might even be able to tell him what he would need to go after Ginny. The journeys could last hours or even days, so he would need food and things to trade with, since there were always people trading in those stories.
"Ron, are you still arguing with your sister?"
Ron froze at the sound of Mum's voice. He hadn't expected her to call up the stairs, and for a moment he thought that maybe she knew. But she couldn't have, not unless she had been standing outside. "No," he called.
"Do you know where she is?"
He'd have to lie, otherwise she would know what he had done. "I think she's playing outside!"
Mum said nothing in response, and Ron hoped she had bought it. Maybe he ought to run outside too, so she couldn't ask any questions. It was a nice day, and he could probably wander around a while before he had to be called in for dinner. Thought should give him enough time to save Ginny.
Before leaving his room, Ron looked over his shoulder, right to where Ginny had been standing, and said, "I wish the goblins would come and take me away."
Nothing happened, and he took off down the stairs. It had been worth a try.
Ginny was in a castle, but it certainly wasn't Hogwarts. At least, she thought it wasn't Hogwarts. She also thought it was a castle, but it was hard to tell. She could only see the one room, and that room looked like it belonged to the worst castle she could imagine. It was dark and made entirely of stone, with a hole cut in the wall for a window. Straw was scattered on the floor, and all around her were chattering beings smaller even than she was, and she was remarkably small for an eight-year-old.
"What's going on?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself and trying to pull away from all the little creatures. It was a nearly impossible task, as they seemed intent on keeping as close to her as possible. "What are you?"
"We're goblins, pet," one of them said in a high-pitched voice, and Ginny shrank back even further. She didn't know where she was, and she didn't like this one bit.
Her first thought was to argue with the little thing. It didn't look like any goblin she had ever seen when Dad would let her tag along to Gringotts. They were of a similar height, but these goblins – if goblins they were – looked more wild and strange, like little trolls drawn by a child. She wanted to insist that they couldn't possibly be goblins, but instead she held her tongue. After all, they wouldn't lie to her about what they were, and Ron had wished for goblins to come and take her away, just like in one of Bill's stories.
Bill's stories also had the horrid castle, and she was sure that if she looked out the window she would see a labyrinth stretching away into the distance on all sides. It struck her as perfectly logical that Bill's stories would be true – he wasn't a liar at all, not like Fred and George, even if their lies were funny – so she held up her chin as strongly as she could and said, "If you're goblins, then I want you to take me to the Goblin King."
"Of course," one of the goblins said, bowing and quite handily clubbing another goblin, who had just been wondering how she could know about the Goblin King. "Right this way, dear child."
Ginny followed the group of goblins through the halls of the castle, all of which looked just as dreary and old as Bill's stories had made it seem, and nothing at all like what his stories of Hogwarts were like. She heard strange sounds coming from other parts of the castle, things that she couldn't recognize and wasn't sure she wanted to, though some of them sounded like howls of pain. Still, she did her best to show no fear, and soon enough she was inside a large room that had to be the throne room.
It was grander than the rest of the castle, but that didn't say very much. It was the largest room she had encountered, with a pit set into the floor that looked like it could be used for staging fights. Ginny walked cautiously around the edge of the pit until she stood before a throne that held a man who could only be the Goblin King.
He was tall and lanky, taller than anyone Ginny knew, though that could have come from the fact that his arms and legs were very thin. His hair was pale, and he had the sort of face that looked almost but not quite human. His eyes were heavily lidded, as though he were either bored or sleepy, and in the hand that wasn't dangling over the arm of the throne, he held three crystal balls, which he turned in a slow circle. As Ginny approached, his gaze rose from the balls to her, and a slow smile spread across his face.
"And what have we here?" he asked. "Some other little girl come to be turned into a goblin?"
"Not a chance," Ginny said. "I'm Ginny Weasley, and I'm going to win my way home." Then she would have a great story to tell Bill, even better than the ones he told about children being rescued.
The smile became a smirk. "Are you, now? And how do you intend to do that?"
"I'll find my way out of this labyrinth." It seemed like the only logical answer, really. Unless he wanted to try beating her at a game of Quidditch – and she didn't think goblin kings played Quidditch – her best chance was at something that wouldn't involve competition. She was headstrong, but she also knew that she was an eight-year-old girl and wouldn't be able to do much against a grown man. Even Quidditch seemed like a stretch.
The man got to his feet, and Ginny saw that he was indeed taller than anyone else she knew. She would have been tempted to retreat, but that wasn't the sort of thing a girl with several older Gryffindor brothers did, so she held her ground. "Very well," he said. "It's only common courtesy that I give you a chance to escape on your own, so take it." He waved his hand, and she heard a large door opening behind her with creaks and groans that sounded as though it was made of metal that hadn't been moved in years. "You have thirteen hours to find your way out. If you can't do it in that time, you will stay here and become a goblin."
"And if I can, then I get sent back home?"
The Goblin King threw back his head and laughed. "You're very clever for one so young. Yes. As soon as you step out of the labyrinth, you will be at your home. Now, go. The clock's already started." He waved his hand again, and a clock with thirteen numbers appeared above his throne. The second hand was moving steadily in a circle, and Ginny didn't need any more motivation to turn on her heel and run.
The large metal door she had heard led directly into the labyrinth, and she sprinted as fast as her short legs could carry her. She was small, but she had grown up with enough older brothers – and the right sorts of older brothers – that she had gotten good at running and knew she could last for quite a while. She raced through the twists and turns, looking for any clue as to the way out. Everything looked the same, though, and by the time she reached the third dead end, she was starting to get frustrated.
There had to be a way out, though. In all of Bill's stories, the Goblin King kept his promises. If he didn't, the world would probably be destroyed or something; Bill had never been entirely clear on how that sort of magic worked. In any case, she knew there would be a way out, and that she had thirteen hours to find it. What she didn't know was how much longer she still had.
As though in answer to the question she hadn't bothered to ask, around the next corner, she spotted a clock. Half an hour had passed, and she had no idea whether she was any closer to the end of the labyrinth. With a sigh, she ran on, hunting for an exit.
There was nothing. No matter where she turned, she found only the same brown stone walls, the same twists and turns. For all she knew, she was running in circles and wouldn't realize that until the thirteen hours were up and the goblins came to collect her. Or maybe the Goblin King himself would appear to carry her back to his castle, and there would be no second chance to escape. She had basically agreed to that, and if he couldn't back out of his agreements, then neither could she. They were bound by the same magic.
She had twelve and a half hours left, and she was already getting tired.
With an angry shriek, she stamped her foot on the ground and jumped when a stone a few feet in front of her flipped up, revealing a strange little figure. It looked almost like a goblin, but there was something strangely human about its face. Perhaps it was the fact that its ears were smaller than the other goblins, or perhaps that its eyes were wide and frightened rather than menacing. The goblin-boy stared at her for a moment, then asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm trying to get out," Ginny said, "only I don't know how to escape the labyrinth." The goblin-boy only stared at her in response, so she added, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm hiding," he replied brightly. "The Goblin King tried to make me into one of his goblins, but I ran away and hid before he was done. I don't think I can go back home, though." His face fell for a moment but then lit up in a brilliant smile. "Do you want my help? I think I can find a way out."
The Goblin King hadn't said anything about whether she was allowed to have help, and the characters in Bill's stories always had someone help them, so Ginny nodded. "Will I have to go underground?" she asked.
"Yeah," the boy said, and his face fell again, but Ginny ran eagerly to the tunnel and started to climb in. This was going to be the best adventure ever, and she already had a friend.