Harry Potter and the Forests of Valbonë
Chapter Forty Five
The next moment, all three of them were on their feet, chairs knocked aside as they turned to face the intruder. Lupin and Dumbledore produced wands, while Harry stared at the figure silhouetted in the window.
It took Harry a moment to realise that the shape was, in fact, that of a woman.
"Now, now," she said, raising the palms of her hands. "Watch where you're pointing those wands, mateys. I'm happy with my internal organs just the way they are."
A few tense moments passed, where everyone took stock of the situation.
"If she'd meant us harm," said Harry. "She had every opportunity to strike first."
"See, the little man has more sense than you two," she said, still not lowering her hands. "If I wanted, I could've killed the lot of you three times over."
Dumbledore smiled and pocketed his wand, Lupin followed suite, albeit more grudgingly.
"That's better," said the intruder, stepping forward where the light streaming through the window behind her didn't obscure her features. "Harry Potter, I'm Jayne Cosca, commander of the Free Companies. Pleased to be of service, matey."
She made a low bow, her auburn ponytail dangling to the ground. When she rose, she flicked it over her broad shoulder and Harry caught sight of some of the most striking features he'd ever seen.
Jayne Cosca was not beautiful, and calling her pretty would have been a disservice. Yet her face possessed a strange, rugged handsomeness that suited her. Hazel eyes gleamed with laughter in a face browned by the sun and her crooked smile was both infectious and endearing.
She wore a long, red tunic adorned with all manner of buckles and met at the knee by brown dragon-hide boots. Around her waist hung a white sash, weighted down on one side by a rapier in an ornate scabbard. On each wrist was a plated bracer, made of gleaming steel and the same hide as her boots.
"You're late," said Harry, with a shrug, doing his best to sound uninterested. "The meeting is over."
Jayne broke into a broad smile. She gave a throaty little chuckle and reached out to tousle his head. Both the wands came up once more and she pulled her hand back.
"Okay, okay," she said. "Jumpy, aren't they, these two?" Then, to Harry: "You're a scallywag, aren't you? I was listening through that meeting thinking to myself 'gosh, if he isn't just 'the brat who lived'. But you're actually just a scamp playing at being a brat. "
"But I get it now." She turned a shrewd look on Dumbledore. "You're the puppet master, right matey? You don't want to implicate yourself in this conflict, so you're using him as a figurehead to hide behind. Very subtle. Especially if you don't want to drag your school into—"
"Actually," interrupted Sternley. "I'm the strategist, Albus here is merely our legal counsel."
They all looked at him.
"What?" he asked. "At least give credit where credit is due. I pretty much came up with this entire plan. Harry is just the mouthpiece."
"Oi," said Harry. "I had a hand in it."
Nobody seemed amused by his joke.
"Look, I've given you all a bit of a shock," continued Cosca. "But a lady in my position can't just turn up announced to every summon, can she? Or else she'd be dead. Multiple times. Especially when the likes of Alex Boothe and those goblin fella's are hanging around."
Harry suspected she had a point. As, apparently, did Dumbledore.
"Admittedly," said the Headmaster. "We may not taken into consideration the possibility of existing hostility—"
"I'll say you didn't, matey," interjected Jayne, but Dumbledore silenced her with a glance.
"—However, the intention behind this meeting was to demonstrate good faith. As you have clearly chosen not to involve yourself in these deliberations, I wonder if you could, by chance, elucidate your intentions for revealing your presence now."
Jayne stared at Dumbledore for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and looked at Harry.
"Cor, he uses a lot of fancy words, doesn't he, matey?"
Harry couldn't help it; he laughed. Whether it was a symptom of his jangled nerves, or if he'd found her genuinely amusing, he wasn't be sure. But what he did know is that he'd never heard anyone speak to the Headmaster like that before.
"I think he's asking why you're here now," said Harry.
"Ah," she said, as though that explained a great deal. "Well, I want to offer my services and those of my Companies. Entirely free of charge."
"And why would you do that?" asked Lupin. "What's in it for you?"
"Ah," she said again. "Well, all I would ask for in exchange, is first crack at the Vaults of Valbonë."
This piqued Harry's curiosity, but it was Sternley who spoke next.
"The Vaults are a myth," said the Sorting Hat.
"They are not," she said. "Why else do you think everyone in the meeting today played so nicely with one another? Why do you think that Boothe agreed to cooperate with the goblins? Why do you think the goblins are here at all? It's nowt to do with the rates you're offering, let me assure you."
"The rates are fair, considering the work," said Sternley.
"For fighting against a goblin revolt? You're short twenty galleons a man per week, matey. At the least."
"They were welcome to try and negotiate," said Harry, but the moment he'd said it, something clicked in his head.
Harry saw from the expression on Dumbledore's face that they'd both come to the same conclusion. She was right, the rates were low. Sternley and Harry set them low with the knowledge that whatever they'd started with would be negotiated up.
"But none of them did," said Dumbledore, his voice quiet and thoughtful.
The expression on Jayne's face said it all. She let it hang between them for a moment.
"Anyway, maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't. If it doesn't, you've gained a thousand wands for nothing. If it does, well, you've only lost something you didn't believe existed." She looked at each of them in turn. "Come on, matey, you know that you can't afford half of my men otherwise, I've done my research on you."
Harry couldn't help but concede she was right. Even all the gold from Malfoy's vault, if they ever managed to tap into it, wouldn't have afforded The Free Companies. Not with all their other mercenaries as well; they hadn't expected the enthusiastic response they'd received. But Harry wasn't about to admit that, or the fact that he hadn't the foggiest idea what the Vaults of Valbonë were.
"There's no way we can say for certain," said Sternley. "That you'll get first crack. There are other players out of our control. Albania and the ICW will field troops."
"The Albanians and the ICW troops wouldn't know their arse from a battlefield," replied Jayne. "It shouldn't be hard for you to convince them to make us the spearhead of a counter-attack. They'll be only too eager to save their own men at our expense. I'm only too happy to lay down my men's lives. Can't you see it's a match made in heaven?"
All eyes fell on Harry, who realised that Jayne had him over a barrel. Even he, with as little as he understood about warfare, knew that they could sorely do with her extra troops. He was entirely aware that they would help minimise innocent casualties and end the war faster. Not to mention that the additional gold saved might be put to far greater use elsewhere.
But he also knew that whatever the Vaults of Valbonë were, he didn't want them falling into the hands of Jayne Cosca.
"Fine," he said finally. "I will do my best to put your men at the front of the counter-attack and to keep the others out of the way. In return, you will do your best to win the war."
Jayne's expression morphed into a triumphant smile.
"You won't regret this, matey," she swore, voice solemn.
But Harry already did.
The moment she'd been escorted from the room, Harry turned to Sternley and Dumbledore.
"What have I just agreed to?"
"Nothing," replied Sternley. "The Vaults are a myth. An old wives tale."
"Jayne Cosca doesn't believe that."
"Jayne Cosca is an old goat."
Harry laughed. Though it hadn't escaped his notice just how much she'd manipulated circumstances to her own end, he couldn't help but like Jayne. At least she'd been upfront about her dishonesty.
"The Vaults of Valbonë," began Dumbledore, cutting across Sternley's further besmirching of Jayne Cosca's name. "Are in essence, a story of buried treasure. The Goblins, well known for their love of gold, were accused of sacking a number of major Roman cities during the last Great War. And of stealing a trove of valuable, irreplaceable, magical artefacts in the process; a trove which is said to include a number of pieces that pre-date Merlin.
"When they withdrew to Valbonë, stories tell that they relocated the articles to a series of enormous stone vaults hidden beneath the mountains. Here they are said to have remained, guarded by the goblins, to this day."
"You're too fond of stories, Albus," snapped the hat. "You conveniently missed out the part where it makes absolutely no sense."
"I must concede his point," said Dumbledore, though his eyes sparkled mischievously.
"I don't see it," said Harry, frowning. "What doesn't make sense?"
"The Brotherhood of Goblins has been haemorrhaging wealth since the eighteenth century when they succeeded in an attempt to make Valbonë a formally recognised, independent, magical republic," said Lupin. "They're so far in the pocket of Gringotts at this stage that if they'd ever had any valuable artefacts, they're almost certainly pawned by now."
"So why is everyone so keen to get at them, then?"
Dumbledore smiled.
"Old stories die hard," he said. "Especially ones regarding treasure."
"And if they're right? If there are these treasures?"
"They we'll have to play Jayne Cosca at her own game," said Sternley. "And any other mercenaries that try their hand. For now though, we've got to be focusing on the war. Let Jayne Cosca dream of gold and riches. We have bigger fish to fry."
Harry knew Sternley was right. The war was far more important than treasure; people's lives were at stake. But part of him couldn't help but imagine finding it, beating everyone to the Vaults deep beneath Valbonë.
Not that he needed the money, between Malfoy's vault and his own, Harry had enough to see him through dozens of lifetimes. Though at the rate the war was costing him, he'd be surprised if it lasted him one. Even still, it wasn't the treasure he was interested in, but the game.
Perhaps, just perhaps, when he got back to Hogwarts, he'd do his own research on the Vaults.
After all, what harm could come of a little light reading?
