Disclaimer: We do not own the Harry Potter characters or world, but the over-active imaginations that produced this we will claim.

Rituals and Consequences

by mmagicwolf and WickerChair

Chapter Twenty-Six: Knight Meetings

Friday, June 21, 1991

Remus cleaned up the dishes from dinner. A long day at the zoo, followed by several hours of translation, and he was ready to collapse. However, he was scheduled to meet Lord Arcturus Black at Gringotts in thirty minutes, as soon as the sun finally crossed the horizon. The discretion of the goblins had proven vital to his continued existence in the muggle world. They were meticulous in delivering his wolfsbane potion each month and the Daily Prophet each morning, but the true value was in the reports they kept of account activity and their willingness to function as his agents to make the wizarding world assume that he had been living somewhere on the border between France and Spain since shortly after the death of the Potters. Even Dumbledore believed the ruse, or at least that was the case when his letters arrived. The reason the goblins were willing to deceive the wizarding world still made him chuckle.

~O~

Wednesday, November 1, 1978

Remus ducked into Gringotts, escaping the press of wizards enjoying the unusually warm day for late autumn. He needed a few galleons from his vault to purchase additional parchment and ink for his reproductions of some of the rarer books that he was translating for Pickering & Chatto. As he approached Knifeclaw, the goblin scowled at him.

"I need fifty galleons from my account, fierce Knifeclaw," Remus told the scowling goblin.

"Are you exchanging muggle funds?" snarled Knifeclaw.

"Not today, dread Knifeclaw. I will be adding a few thousand pounds to my account after I have paid taxes."

Knifeclaw scowled more ferociously, "If you dealt with Gringotts rather than that muggle bank, you would not need to pay taxes."

"But, fierce Knifeclaw, if I pay muggle taxes on my earnings from the muggle world, it then becomes untraceable. That means I have an established identity in both muggle and magical worlds."

"You're a wizard," stated Knifeclaw, as though that were sufficient reason not to deal with muggle banks.

"I am," acknowledged Remus, "but I have made almost £5 in profits from my investments over the last month."

"How much did you invest?"

"About £500."

"One percent return in a month? Are such returns common?" Knifeclaw's jaw dropped.

"Not in the banking world, but, dread Knifeclaw, the muggles have something called a stock exchange. I learned about it from Lily's parents."

"Can goblins invest?"

"Fierce Knifeclaw, only funds that originate in the muggle world can be invested, otherwise the muggles get suspicious. Obliviating works well on individuals, but they have machines that record monetary transactions and paper copies are kept. You can obliviate a person, paper and machines cannot be dealt with that in way."

Knifeclaw grimaced and handed over the fifty galleons. Then said, "Please, wait in the first room on the left, we must discuss these 'investments' further."

Remus smiled, marked three points on his personal scoreboard with the goblin, and walked down the hall to the first door. At his approach, the door swung open to reveal an office with an elderly goblin seated behind the desk, and several comfortable chairs arrayed in a semi-circle. He entered and sat down in one of the chairs. Not knowing how long it would take Knifeclaw to come, he pulled out his copy of The Financial Times from a pocket in his robes. From another pocket, he extracted a ballpoint pen and a stenographer's pad. Opening the pad, he looked at the symbols he had recorded from his master list at home. He had not really thought that he would tell Knifeclaw about his investments, but he had gotten in the habit of taking the paper with him whenever he reentered the wizarding world. It provided a link to his existence in the muggle world and a place where he was not recognized as a werewolf.

Mr Evans had suggested that he begin investing after his first paycheck arrived from Colonel Pickering. After the rent had been paid for three months on the flat, Mr Evans had asked Remus about his plans for the future, "I know that you are still young, just barely graduated from school, but you should have funds available for future use."

When Remus had agreed that it would be nice not to have to worry about money as his father had, Mr Evans volunteered to teach him how to invest in stocks. Having a wizard pay attention to his muggle expertise flattered Mr Evans. Remus had been bemused by the report at the end of the month. It seemed that his instincts had proved better than average. Looking at the list of abbreviations for stocks, Remus would pick the two or three that he liked. Not the company, just their symbol. His first investments had the stock symbols RMS and LPN, and even though he didn't really know what the companies did or how they operated, they were doing well. He had decided, though, that he should try to learn more about stocks and what the companies he had invested in did. Remus had managed to choose RMS during its eye-pee-oh. That stock was doing better than LPN which had been in business for longer.

After waiting in the office for an hour, Remus closed the Financial Times and set it aside. He had just started to get up when Knifeclaw hurried in the door. "I apologize, Mr Lupin, my supervisor is interested in this muggle 'stock market' of which you spoke. He would like to speak with you."

"Of course, fierce Knifeclaw."

~O~

Friday, June 21, 1991

The result of that conversation had been Remus turning over all of his earnings from Pickering & Chatto as seed money for Knifeclaw to manage. In return, Remus received his monthly ration of Wolfsbane, an alibi that would stand up to anything except a personal visit to the isolated Chateau Montcalm in the Pyrenees Mountains, and a bonus of one percent of the profits made from the investments that used his account as their toehold in the muggle world.

After the first year, the goblins were thrilled at the return on their investments, but had wanted to do more. After a thorough analysis of the technology (have Remus throw spells at it and see if it breaks), the goblins installed a muggle telegraph and stock tickertape machine in the depths of Gringotts. The goblins were then able to dictate their own stock picks in real time. As a result, the goblins made more money, and Remus became comfortably wealthy in the wizarding world, although everyone thought he was in France.

Remus cast a quick glance at the clock and turned on his heel to apparate to Gringotts. When he arrived, he looked around for Knifeclaw but the goblin was not around. On stepping out of the tickertape machine room, Remus was greeted by Knifeclaw.

"Where have you been, Lupin?" the goblin growled.

"Home, translating. I was at the zoo before that, helping with the wolves."

"A werewolf playing with wolves. Isn't that a little ridiculous?"

"It pays well, Knifeclaw, and it allows me access to the muggle world with impunity. No one expects much from a part-time zookeeper after all."

"True. Well, Lord Black had to cancel. It seems he had a visitor sometime this morning."

Remus tilted his head in silent question.

"He said to apologize to you, but he would be in touch as soon as his guest woke up. Something about a mob and a goat."

"Mob?" asked Lupin. "I can understand the goat."

"No idea, Lupin, no idea," chuckled Knifeclaw, "but it bodes ill for someone."