Summary: Bill's first day on the job.
An: Contest story for Hogwarts Olympics.
Curse Breaker
The goblin glared up at Bill, its thin lips curled into a wretched sneer. The red head had seen some truly vile teeth in his life, including his younger twin brothers, but this goblin took the cake for sheer ferocity.
"So… you are the one they hired."
Bill's spine straightened and his chin jutted up. "Yes sir. My name is-"
The goblin held up a long fingered hand.
"Save it boy, most like you will be dead at the end of the day and I don't have the time to learn the name of a dead man."
Bills hands tightened at his sides as nerves and pride warred in his breast. On one hand he was confident in his ability; on the other he was scared to death of applying his skills in a real life situation. He had never had to face a curse without someone in the room knowing exactly what it was and how to fix it if Bill screwed up.
"I can do the job."
The goblin's eyes narrowed "We will see, follow me."
With that the goblin turned on his heel and walked down the hallway at a fast trot that Bill had a hard time keeping up with. "Now, we just got a new shipment of gold in. Don't bother asking from where. Just know that the last three people to touch it lost their souls as soon as they did."
A chill went down Bill's spine. "It took their souls?"
The goblin glared crossly over his shoulder at the red head "Isn't that what I just said? Now," the goblin continued without fanfare "Obviously it is some kind of curse, and we need it broken to get at that gold to melt it down. This needs to be done within the week, is that understood?"
Bill stared at the tiny creature incredulously. A week? He expected Bill to conquer a curse like that in a week? He had never even heard of a curse that took a soulbefore.
"Here we are."
They had approached a large, rather imposing looking, door the image of a dragon hunt carved into the surface. Bill's eyes traced the outline of the carvings. On top of the image of the fallen dragon intricately carved goblins in full elaborate armor had swarmed the creature like ants, digging long spears into the animal's body. The Dragon's jaws were open in a silent scream and its wings were spread as if to take flight. The goblin reached one crooked finger out to draw a claw down the single silted eye of the monstrous beast that glared hatefully at them and waited until the giant wings of the dragon curled to fold against its back and let the door open.
Inside was the biggest pile of gold Bill had ever seen in his life, but it was not in coins as Bill had first suspected. Golden artifacts lined the walls, amulets garnished with rubies, statues of cats with diamonds for eyes, a cobra headed staff with fangs of pearl, even a great golden tree with thin golden leaves that twitched and moved in an invisible breeze.
"You want to melt this?"
"Yes, it is no good to us this way. It must be melted and re-formed into useable currency. I am locking the doors behind you; at the end of your shift I will come to escort you back out of the bank."
Bill nodded and took a few steps into the room; a chill worked its way down his spine. He felt as if something was watching him. His foot nudged something and he leaped back in surprise at the sight of a goblin. Its eyes were vacant and staring up at nothing.
"What-!"
"Oh, we left the bodies of those that touched the gold. Check them over for anything we might have missed, I would be quick about it they will die soon in that condition."
They really were monstrous little creatures Bill thought as the doors closed with an ominous thud behind him.
"Looks like it is just you and me," he said to one of the three soulless goblins.
The goblin did not reply.
With that Bill got to work. He cast the usual detection spells that came back with mixed results, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Curses were ever changing, and the older a curse (And he was confident this one was VERY old) the more warped and twisted it became with time… usually deviating completely from the original casters design.
So Bill cast and cast and cast again, learning as much as he could about the spell before he actually tried to destroy it and what he found stumped him. Most of the spell work described entrapment, but he couldn't find anything about soul magic… only about the entrapment of the essence of a creature. He supposed it could have meant the soul, but there had never been a spell, to his knowledge, that could take and trap a soul.
He frowned and cast at the tree in the center of the room. It gave off the most violent magic out of all the artifacts in the room and if he was right, it was the source of all the problems the goblins had been having.
He glanced down at the parchments he had been scribbling his observations on as he used spell after spell to diagnose just what he was been dealing with. He had a fair idea of how to reverse and subdue the curse, but every spell was different and there could never be one hundred percent certainty about how to deal with it.
Here goes nothing.
So he took a deep breath, raised his wand, and cast his first aggressive spell at the tree. The blue spell hit the trunk and the leaves, which had been moving before fell still. Bill froze, wand at the ready, as the leaves started to slowly move again. Bill's tensed muscles slowly relaxed and he cast again.
The leaves froze again and to Bill's surprise the branches started moving, not unlike the Womping Willow back at Hogwarts except less violent. Before long it stopped moving again. Bill frowned and cast one last spell, this one stronger than his last two. For a moment nothing happened. Then all hell broke loose.
The tree roared and its branches flailed and Bill had to dive out of the way as a massive branch almost fell on his head. The tree bent until the top branches were almost touching the ground and to Bill's horror there was a warped human face wrapped in the bows.
"I AM THE WIND AND THE SOUL AND THE FURY- I AM THE DARKNESS IN EVERY MAN'S HEART- I AM THE GOD AND THE DEVIL OF ALL WORLDS-"
It screamed and thrashed and Bill struggled to keep from the raving thing as he sent spell after spell at the tree. His magic only seemed to enrage it though and it thrashed more aggressively.
"I AM THE BEAST AND THE FEAR AND THE RAGE I AM THE HATE AND THE LIGHT AND THE DARK."
One of the artifacts slammed into Bill's head from the creatures thrashing and the red head fell to his side, dazed. Fear coursed through him as the branches of the tree wrapped around his waist and slowly lifted him up so it could meet his eyes.
"AND I AM YOUR END BILL WEASLEY!"
Something pulled at him… not really him but something inside him and he panicked at the feeling.
No, no, I will never see my family again, my mum, bless her, my mum, I will never let a thing she says bother me again. I will be the best son a mother could ask for- a better brother-Mum, Dad, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny-
The tugging stopped and the tree stopped screaming and it just stared at him, surprised as a face in a tree could look.
"WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? BEG. BEG FOR LIFE. BEG FOR DEATH."
But Bill didn't.
"Mum, Dad, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny!"
"STOP THAT!"
So Bill did it again. "MUM, DAD, CHARLIE, PERCY, FRED, GEORGE, RON, GINNY!"
As he chanted their names over and over again a strange feeling pulled at his chest. Not the violent tugging from before, but something that came from inside him… something strong and powerful and without thinking he pointed his wand at the golden tree.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A large bear erupted from the tip of his wand, it stood on its hind legs and ROARED so loudly the entire room trembled. The tree drew back at if stung and tried to get away as the bear charged it with a snarl. The tree was rooted to the spot and could not escape as the bear tore into it with silver claws, each new slash making the tree scream in agony and before long it fell silent. Then to Bill's shock the bear thrust its head into the trunk of the tree and pulled something out in its teeth. A cloak with a broken grey skeleton hanging limp from inside it dangled from the bear's jaws before the massive silver beast dropped it and with all its strength lifted up onto its hind legs and smashed down on the things spine with all of its weight.
The thing let out a high pitched shriek and the room dropped in temperature for a moment before the bear attacked it again and again with brutal precision. Before long it lay still and the bear gave it a wary sniff before turning and lumbering back over to Bill. The glare it gave him reminded him of his…
"Mum?"
The bear snorted and disappeared into a cloud of silver vapor.
Bill couldn't stop the hysterical laughter that bubbled in the back of his throat. He felt alive, giddy, wild.
This was the reason he had gone into curse breaking- the rush, the suspense, the surprise!
A low groan caught his attention and to his astonishment he watched as the three soulless goblins stood, swaying on legs that had not so much as twitched in days. They braced themselves against the walls of the room, swearing loudly in Gobbledygook as they peered around. Finally one spotted him and growled, bearing those atrocious fangs.
"Human, what have you done?"
Before he could reply the doors that led to the rest of the bank unlocked and the goblin who had led him into the room walked brusquely in, peering around as if bored. Its eyes eventually fell on the three very alive goblins. Its expression twisted in surprise before it quickly regained its composure and turned to Bill.
"I assume you have solved our dilemma?"
Bill grinned "Yes sir, someone had trapped a dementor in that tree over there as some sort of guardian, I think it was starving and went crazy as a result. A patronus charm was all it took to take it out."
Bill couldn't tell if the goblin was impressed or not as it walked deeper into the room, poking and prodding things as it went. When it was finally satisfied it returned to him.
"Well it is a start I suppose. Consider yourself permanently hired Mr…?"
"Weasley, Bill Weasley."
"Mr. Weasley," It said with a nasty sneer "Welcome to Gringotts."