Chapter 4
Edited 4-14-2021
Office of the Director
Gringotts London
January 2, 1993
10:21pm
Ragnok and Sharprock sat in the office drinking brandy from snifters after hours. Contemplating the things that had gone on over the last few years with deep satisfaction. Filius was at Hogwarts and their communications between each other was brief and circumspect. All starting with that first karma curse against the Dursley's when Harry Potter was nine years old. Vernon had been killed in a traffic accident within weeks, caused by a massive stroke, the backlash of his death on the wards broke a series of curses and memory caps on the remaining inhabitants of number 4 Privet Drive and conditions at home for Harry and his cousin Dudley had gotten much better.
And while Harry had been accepted at Hogwarts, Dudley had been accepted at St. George's Royal School of Magic and was noted in having a strong herbology and charms ability. Looked like he was probably going to go into healing. Both were at least magus in potential and both very quiet and well-liked among their peers. The wards on Harry's residence had never been stronger. Strong enough that they suspected Albus was getting information from monitoring devices that had seized and never functioned correctly again with Vernon dead. Only showing Albus what things had been like prior to Vernon's death. But tonight there were other things they were contemplating.
"Do you think the karma curse Filius and we got into the wards at Privet Drive in '88 had something to do with that accident at Nott Manor?"
"I think so. I read the preliminary report and noted a detail that others missed, the knife the boy used had a Black family crest on it. I sent a letter to Sirius Black, he told me he and Harry's father had made identical knives enchanted to open any lock with the Potter and Black crests on then. Something he and Potter's father had made at school to aid their pranks or when their wands had to be busy elsewhere. They gave them to each other when they graduated, gifts of friendship. Harry got it over the summer from the family vault and lost it during a bit of fisticuffs with the late Vincent Crabbe in the fall, when Snape confiscated it. To these eyes young Mr. Crabbe appears to have been in possession of stolen goods. We're going to have to be very careful going forward, especially with how that curse appears to be propagating. And be prepared to help when we can."
"Yes, dealing straight and openly with Harry Potter sounds like a good idea. We should warn our floor managers and tellers. No need to be a focus of this curse when he is older and the curse may be stronger. In that vein, when can we get him in to see us and get him to a healer?" Harry was still shorter than he should be and had long-term issues but they couldn't do anything about it until they got the boy to a healer. Four years was not enough to undo the damage caused in seven. Physically correcting the damage, especially the eyes, could be easily fixed at any age before maturity, afterward it became much more difficult. But while Dumbledore had such an eagle eye on him they could not move. He would ask too many questions and interfere with what was best for Harry. Meddling old goat refused to have any but the school medwitch look at him. And seems to have blown off her recommendations for the last two years.
"Albus has security around the boy that is too tight right now for us to move openly or legally. Too many eyes loyal to him and willing to do things and not ask questions. Until we can immobilize that phoenix of his and have whittled down his image and supporters a lot more, we won't be able to consistently keep hold of the boy or hide him from the meddling old goat. No, we guard his inheritance, deny Dumbledore any access to it and wait until he comes into the bank after his thirteenth birthday, when the law is on our and the boys side. When he presents his key next time he is in, the bank the tellers are already briefed to have him brought into see his account manager, that is you, regardless of who is escorting him, if they try to interfere saying Albus is his Guardian we stand upon the law and call in the Ministry and Lord Black," Ragnok nodded at Sharprock. "And then we can get detailed planning about his health going forward as per the emergency codicils in the contract."
"It is a plan, Albus won't move against us here, and Lord Black has plans to keep him too busy in the courts to be able to do much," said Sharprock and took another drink then smiled a toothless goblin smile. "What about consort Potter?"
"She is hunted by Albus still and only by fleeing with the other children and elves to the America's and remaining under strong wards has she and they been safe. And while the Ministry under Bagnold has declared her an Undesirable most of that list has vanished with the new Minister 'as cases are under legal review'. As it is several enemies of House Potter have lost teams to those wards or to the or the North American's, they take a dim view of kidnapping and have rejected every single warrant for her extradition since '81."
"That has never gone right for Dumbledore. Emmaline Vance-Potter has good reflexes and instincts, very Ravenclaw or goblin to flee and conserve one's strength when the numbers are against you. My counterpart in Vancouver says there is much rage over the water because of the high handedness of Dumbledore and the British Ministry in this and other cases."
"Amusing the other things that are going against Dumbledore now. Just this last summer that healer Malfoy was using to poison Arcturus Black, gets killed by a devils snare meant to kill an auror who was investigating Bartemius Crouch Senior and his operation at St Mungos. Crouch then gets arrested in August. And that frees the Longbottom's and a score of others from the long-term care wards potions and charms they were under fail when that new Muggle born healer Greene is assigned and four of his agents at St. Mungos are arrested.
"Then the auror gets better. He and his partner find Bartemius Crouch Junior, who is supposed to be dead, sitting on the couch under the imperious curse, when they search Crouches home looking for two slave bonded witches he was tracking from where they were kidnapped are found in concubine closets there. He appeared to be using them to get more heirs on. Both Crouches end up in Azkaban and the witches gets the house as Regent to an unborn male heir via Junior and two daughters via Senior. And with that witch Umbridge trying to get the two witches thrown in prison on trumped up charges and Dumbledore poo-pooing the whole thing. Both witches refused to meet or speak with him or the Ministry, except through solicitors."
"So sad she's out of a job with Fudge dead and Duke Virki in charge now."
"Yes, we are just lucky they checked the cells in August…and not since then."
"Albus controls Azkaban as part of his duties and has refused all contact for the prisoners but with the staff for the last ten years but the official tour and headcount in August. We have until May if not earlier…until we are safe on that front."
(Flashback)
Maximum Security Wing
Azkaban Prison
September 20, 1992
2:23 am
The North Sea this night was choppy with a light overcast and a wretched wet mist partially obscuring the waning moon. The magics around Azkaban Island obscured visibility even more. And thanks to several random months observation every year for the last twenty years Gringotts knew that many of the observation points were not manned in this weather. The guards having gone slack about their outer defenses and trusting to the random dementor patrols to keep intruders out. That and several guards were extremely venial and used parts of the vast prison as a business opportunity of sorts, and Gringotts had been aware of how transports of materials for that business were conducted. It had been ludicrously easy to intercept a shipment and it signals. The shipments legitimate guards, for want of a better term, were food for crabs, while the six victims they had stuffed in the two carriers had been whisked to a point of safety where they could rebuild their lives.
It was a combination of factors that put not so much a chink, as a road through the defenses of Azkaban. And Ballbreaker Gringotts and her team was going to make the humans regret that road existed. She and her small team of three other war goblins slid out of the water almost noiselessly. A faint drip drip drip for the second or so the frictionless charmed wetsuits and hooded cloaks retrained water on their surfaces. Two of her companions towed long black bags behind them floating above the ground their contents safely asleep in stasis and protected from the water and cold of the North Sea. The material of the bags themselves shielding the magical signature of the humans and providing a breathable atmosphere, and she used human very loosely to describe these… individuals, within the bags from the fortresses detectors. The same physical and magical shielding did the same for the wetsuits of their outfits. A combination of materials and very discreet silencing, scent, and disillusionment charms rendered the four-goblin unit and their packages invisible in the misty partial moonlight.
They ghosted without sound, without alarm through the wards up to the northern sally port door at the appointed time. An ancient bronze clad oak door six inches thick and charmed to resist light artillery. Tonight, with a faint light aimed at an arrow slit nearby on the level above, the door window opened from inside with the clatter of keys. No light shone from within, and no light was needed. The facemasks of the goblins rendering them both immune to attack from the dementors and above the needs for light that humans required. The human only saw four black figures in cloaks and masks slightly below man height towing the two black transport bags. The same kind of bags the house of chains had used to ship so many slaves past border wards.
"The passkey and phrase?" The guard said in a low voice being sure not to whisper, as whispers carried farther in the night. Ballbreaker held up the magically charmed stick with its pattern of dim lights and runes. "Chains for the impure." She said in a low tone, in her best English. The guard grunted at the correct phrase and closed and locked the window. There was a faint rattle within as the door locks were fully disengaged and the door swung silently open.
The guard stepped aside without a word and let the group and their packages into the prison. As soon as they passed the door was closed and outer wards reset a process Ballbreaker and Heartripper were very keen to observe. The other goblin nodded to his leader that he could reset the locks and alarms from outside. Ballbreaker smiled with all her teeth behind the mask. The guard began to speak in low and urgent tones.
"That was a slick entry, almost didn't see you at the door and I can't see your boat. Finally getting a crew together who knows their stuff about the transfer protocols, I see.
"I warn you, there's three-man unspeakable team up in the maximum security wing, doing something with the prisoners. Shouldn't be any problem with our shipment. I recognized one's aura as one of the Dark Lords agents, and exchanged hand signs but we want you gone before they gets out of that wing after doing whatever they'd be doing."
The Ballbreaker nodded but said nothing and the guard continued. "I know they didn't give us any warning. They just showed up thirty minutes ago. I supposed central didn't get the abort signal out to you fast enough? I hope this lot is younger and better looking than the last ones. The shipment is ready to go out with was kind of old and fought back but we saw them right, a little breakage to, three of them pretty boys didn't live through the castrations desired by our customers for this shipment. Half-bloods and mud bloods don't need their balls to be pretty boys anyway. Reports are ready to go with you. Let's get them swapped out quickly and you on your way." The guards had the way down a short corridor and a set of narrow steps into the undercroft of this wing. Keys rattled again in another thick oak door, the goblins tensed, one of the goblins plucked a disillusioned silver ball from his pouch and hefted it to throw. The other three tensed gripping the bags and weapons about their person and their transport packages.
"More party favors boys!" The guard called happily. The disillusioned ball zipped past his ear with a faint buzz the caused the guard to start a little and look up to see the distortion of light zip down to the end of the undercroft. "What the.…" He never finished the sentence as Ballbreakers team muscled him aside.
"We need to get gone out of the way, I don't like Unspeakables being about, tricky they are," growled Ballbreaker at the guard. They quickly had the transport packages inside and on the two low but wide stone benches just inside the doors entrance, which the guard had not yet closed. Four unconscious naked witches and three naked wizards lay in chains on the tables further in from the door and the empty benches that they set the containers on. Along the walls of the dank and cold room the little spy eye had counted eight more prisoners in cells in various states. Along with two additional guards, one working the security panel and one… working with… a prisoner inside a warded circle in a cage at the other end of the room. About like they expected, now speed and violence were their weapon of choice. All this had been transmitted back to the faceplates of their helmets in less than a handful seconds which muffled the team leaders quick commands in clipped battle tongue.
"Bloodyclaws, guard at the controls, Heartripper the controls, Legbreaker the other guard. I got this moron. Speedy then get bloodied on three… 1...2… 3…." They could have ghosted and gone straight to the maximum-security wing but the raid on the house of chains breaking rooms here would be an excellent diversion and slow any response to what might have happened upstairs. Further confusing any trail they might leave. Plus, sticking it to the house of chains and the blood purists wizards who ran it always a good thing in her opinion. And there were parties who would pay for them to help rescue the enslaved. It wasn't quite a ransom but good enough for this goblin. Slavery in the deep mines for criminal conviction was one thing but the slavery these wizards practiced on the innocent was an abomination. Time slowed as the goblins reached inside for that special innate talent that made goblin warriors so feared. At three they moved like lightning while the guards appeared to be stuck in a world of molasses and slow-moving dust motes. By the count of four, their escort had a knife thrust up through his chin into his brain and Ballbreaker was lowering the dying body to the ground.
Legbreaker was at the edge of the cell around the working room the other guard and his victim were in. And using the warded and silenced revolver through the cell bars shot him through the left ear and out the right of the rapist. By five the guard at the desk was sitting up, at six Bloodyclaws knocked him back out of his chair onto the ground with a stiletto knife through his left eye socket. And Ballbreaker was searching the newly dead body for belt pouch, wands and anything else of useful intelligence later. The wand would be useful later and the monetary contents of the belt pouch where hers for the taking or would be reimbursed by the client if it was of interest. Both disappeared into her dimensional store bracelet. Something the guards in Azkaban were never allowed to wear and it appeared that the house of chains did not trust its people to use, as she found none on the dead guard. What she did find that was most important for their journey was a set of keys. A quick read of the runic phrases on them identified them as the second set of master keys for the entire prison that the under warden had been carrying, these would make their job here much easier. And they would certainly be going with them tonight. In a lead line box in a dimensional store to prevent any signals getting out or tracking being useful. At the very least the goblins who maintained the keys for the prison would be getting work rekeying the entire prison complex.
Behind the working cells walls under the now dead guard the young prepubescent human boy screamed as he was doused in blood and the deadweight of his rapist. Legbreaker was working on the cage lock with quick efficient moves that soon had the door open. The rapists off the young boy, the wizards wand and pouch scooped up from their place on the side table and in his own dimensional store. At least the guard hadn't been foolish enough to bring a wand near a young wizard no matter how untrained, it would have been better if he had never done these things at all. But killing him at least removed the stain of his existence from all humanity in its various forms.
Ballbreaker was at the transport packages and quickly unzipped to let the four members of the Chain Breakers of the First-Generation Society out to help them with the prisoners. All were in flat black facemasks and black formfitting clothing that made the eyes want to pass over them and ignore their presence. Ballbreaker approved as they ignored the goblins and two quickly went about opening locks and assessing the victims for transport. One reached into the transport bag they had been in and began laying out several others that had been rolled up inside. One of the others moved to each unconscious victim and rolled them over onto their side. Taking a short blade and a glowing wand tracked down their backs to find an implanted pellet and using the knife deftly remove it from under the thin skin and seal the injury with a murmured spell. Three times on the first victim the knife removed a pellet, but he/she still did the semi-complex task quickly and efficiently and wasn't wasting more than three minutes doing each victim. And not neglecting to scan the rest of the body for other surprises. Before levitating the already unconscious witch or wizard into the transport package. They would be ready to go before they were done upstairs. Time for a change in plans.
"Bloodyclaws and Legbreaker with me, Heartripper stay here and help them with any curse breaking the need, cover our and their tracks in and out. If you can shield a couple of those tracking pellets they are removing, I want a couple for later investigation. But I want you to concentrate on making sure there's no recordings of us here. Warn us if something goes wrong or we are detected or you think we might be detected. If we're not back when they're ready to go leave with them, get them to the boat and don't wait. Go loud if you have to but warn us before you leave or go hot if you can, and we will help you or take the roof exit. Depending on where we are. Let's get to it." As Ballbreaker talked, she had taken out an electrum chain with two-inch rune scribed medallion of the same metal from her dimensional store and placed it against the bare skin of the dead guard's chest, a quick guttural phrase in goblin and the coin glowed a purple – green. She smiled inwardly, it should be good for the next hour and maybe a little more, time to move quickly.
With deft wandless motions the three goblins transferred one loincloth clad and drugged body from one package to the other. Closing it and with two goblins guiding the package through the narrow corridors they could move fast as the package re-inflated to its rigid cylindrical form. Ballbreaker wearing the necklace that gave her the semblance of the under warden she had just killed led them through the prison. The prison sensory would record the under warden but see her companions as only ripples or shadows in the antiquated and under maintained systems recordings. They used the guards access ways to the upper levels. Access ways the dementor's did not patrol and only guards had the keys to, and this night except for the one guard at the outer entrance of the maximum-security wing their spy eyes found nothing moving on the route ahead of them. The dementor's appeared to have been withdrawn to allow the Unspeakables in.
That simplified things but Unspeakables could be tricky, it would depend on what they were doing and if they were gone before his team got there. What would be would be, it was a goblins life and getting one over on the wizards where possible added spice to the living, regular humans were just too easy. Unless you ran into their more elite soldiers then all bets were off.
It was ten long minutes before they opened the access way door beside the guard station of the maximum-security wing. The startled guards was just sitting up from where he had his seat tipped back in front of the controls and was monitoring mirrors looking into the wing through half closed eyelids. Ballbreakers war gauntlet spat a stunning charm into his ear and he slumped to the floor. Ballbreaker smiled as she pocketed the wand and pouch of the guard. Nothing but profit there. Then she used the under warden's keys at the control panel to lockout the lower levels access ways into this wing for both guard and prisoner movement and blocked the dementor's into their barracks. Except for one dementor she used the under warden's keys to direct that one up the execution chamber at the end of the maximum-security wing. A voice crackled from a communications mirrors at the desk.
"Lyle what you doing up there? Why the lockout? You know were not supposed to bring the dementor's into the wing until them Unspeakables is gone?" The sleepy voice of that drunkard the human named Wallace-Umbridge slurred in the projection. Bloodyclaws, now wearing the visage of the unconscious and trust up guard with another amulet and had appropriated the guards headset so he could listen to what was going on in the cells and moved to the center of the station while his eyes looked at a particular monitor.
Ballbreaker cursed inwardly, it was always something, in this case a man who wasn't drunk enough to be passed out when he usually was, but they had prepared for this possibility and goblin hand signs flashed between them. Legbreaker stepped up to one side, he had the best Yorkshire accent of the now dead under warden, and spoke as Ballbreaker presented her stolen face to the projector field in profile so her lips were not facing the projector.
"Don't worry about it. Keep quiet and I'll get you a bottle of Ogden's… after shift. Should be done in an hour don't log it. Better yet log it my authority. And not any of your business to know why." Then Ballbreaker used his keys to lock out the sensory feeds into the cellblock. "Things we really don't want to know about, if you get my meaning."
"Oh… okay," the image licked its lips in anticipation and a little fear. "I'll hold you to that later. And a taste of whatever your getting."
"Fair enough don't get too greedy there ain't much, now get that logged and mind your gob." And the image faded away as the drunk grinned at them. The two goblins grinned at each other intelligence and prior planning was a wonderful thing. Bloodyclaws spoke swiftly and quickly in the war tongue.
"All three of the Unspeakables are in a visiting area at the near end of the wing it appears they've set up some sort of curse breaking circle. Hmmm, that's not right. From what I'm hearing on the monitoring circuit they want to lift the dark maidens rite but that one unspeakable has deliberately set the circle that that curse would be self-reinforcing, especially without the male bonder-focus and another witch to take all of the curse into them. Looks like we got here just in time. Let's move." The previous guard was levitated back into his seat and froze in position with his feet back and hands over his chest his headset back in place. Quickly the team then moved to the door, where Bloodyclaws pulled two variants of the spy eyes they had been using since entering the fortress and as Ballbreaker opened the doors into this cellblock they zip through and three quick pulses of stunning magic filled the entire block. All three goblins flashed through at speed. Quickly stunning the Unspeakables with their war gauntlet's to be sure they were down. After they had trussed up and searched the three Unspeakables two of them quickly went down the cellblock to make sure the prisoners had all been rendered unconscious.
Bellatrix Lestrange was laid out nude in the center of the runic circle of the large conference room. The table and chairs had been pushed to one side and now held several bags and open books. Bloodyclaws was quickly looking at the notes in the book and glancing at the materials on the table and around the circle and grinning. "Five maybe ten more minutes and the curse would be impossible to lift. At least most of the work is done five minutes and I can have the circle they did make restructured correctly. Funny thing this appears to be… yes and magic signature is a match for Lily Evans. Her personal grimoire, somebody has broken the blood protections and done some judicious tampering with her research here and has removed or corrupted where she got the information to do the breaking. They wanted it to fail. She had the correct methods to lift it but they wanted to make sure what is here would be permanent. My thoughts is why are these guys here? And where did they get this book?"
Legbreaker grunted where he searched the body of one of the other Unspeakables. "And this one has a portkey set to go through the prisons wards to some place in Knockturn alley, and a dark mark on his arm. With this interesting copper bracelet over it to mask the signature. That's something new."
Ballbreaker grunted at what she had found on her search, "…and this one had three wands. And a portkey also through the wards but back to the pier on the mainland. Ministry issue also. Makes you wonder if there was going to be a double-cross at some point this evening?"
"Want me to kill the death eater boss?" asked Legbreaker hopefully.
"Naw, I think his boss Croaker here would want to do that after a long painful series of questions to them. And wouldn't that be karma for the son of a two knut whore. Strip him naked, I know you can break the hoods magic without harming him, he needs to be alive to answer questions, make sure his arm is exposed when you tie him up. And I'll wake up Croaker as we leave and talk."
"Goblins, that's very… interesting, why would Gringotts or any other goblin clan be interested in Bellatrix," said Croaker very softly as he sat up very quickly, with a fourth wand pressed to Ballbreakers ear hole to her undying embarrassment. Both the other goblins popped up into ready positions as she froze in place and held them off with one appraised palm.
"Let's not get hasty here, I was already having doubts about what we were doing with what my associate was saying. I can read magical runes and auras well and his were… off. Then I felt your teams' auras as faint as they were at the outer door and that single stunning spell but wanted to see what was going to happen. Curiosity, the desire to know, it's the greatest weakness of everyone in my department. From what you were saying just now I believe we may be working toward common goals. I'll just sit over here and watch you work, thank you for telling me about the source of this ritual." And the wizard removed the wand from Ballbreakers ear.
"Ballbreaker is it? I commend you and your outfits. They are very very good at suppressing your signatures from a distance and probably wouldn't be recorded on standard devices. But you're close enough that I almost don't need a wand to read them in detail. We met last year at the Dunstan Manor. I don't know the other two but if I meet them again, I will know they work for you. A pact for profit between us I propose Ballbreaker of Gringotts and myself Gizbar Solomon Cragenmoor-Diggory." He said using the formal phrases of parlay between goblin and human and a slight magical precursor bond formed between them not fully a spell, only the possibility one. And then he removed his concealing hood. A man of grey almost white hair but long and well kept, blue eyes stood before them. There is a firmness of truth in his voice. Not magical truth real truth that was one of Ballbreakers gifts. She had earned a lot of bonuses working security with it at the bank.
"What profit for… Myself and my… compatriots do you propose?" Ballbreaker said quickly time was pressing on. "Get the work done, Bloodyclaws you lead." She snapped to the others and both other goblins quickly began working. Bloodyclaws moving and realigning runes with goblin magic, Legbreaker adding a line of sea salt impregnated with something else to the outer portion of the runic circle and then both quickly began another circle.
"So, it is Gringotts you work for but must do so deniably, thank you. Tell Ragnok… Or whom ever you are actually working for," he said wryly. "I am at in his debt for your actions tonight. I ask also that after you break this curse you take Bellatrix with you. With the revelation of the death eaters being able to mask the dark mark there is no place safe for her at the ministry or any safehouses I can keep her. I presume though from the two faint magical signatures in the transport bags you have in the hallway that she is not your only target for the evening? These can carry three… if so please take this… and where Thaddeus Selwyn-Umbridge there got those books" he said indicating Selwyn-Umbridge. "… With you and put him to the question. The goblin way. Everything; when he joined, who recruited him, his actions during the war, his actions since, who gave him his instructions for this evening, who made suggestions and what he might infer from the suggestions. In short everything. For that I'll give you… A goblin talent of gold from my personal vault reserves? For your team… When I have that information. And I will not hinder you and your actions here tonight."
"You say nothing about the witch or whom else we may be here for."
"I suspect Lord Black will be taking a hand in these things. And has already made good payment to you." He cocked an eyebrow and a closed lip smile that spoke of something feral and hungry at her.
Ballbreaker snorted some humans much smarter and more observant than others. Ballbreaker grinned delightedly behind her mask, here was a human who knew when and how to bargain. A goblin talent was what the Ministry called a kilobar of gold or silver at 99.999 % pure. A kilobar was the regulation 32.15 Troy ounce commercial bullion bars. This was an international standard weight and purity that could be traded in the magical or non-magical world with very little effort at all on either the black or white market. A fortune to be sure but with his access to the ministry vaults as a department head he would be reimbursed by the Ministry or Lord Black would, that was not a concern. That everything they were doing was legal made it sweeter for her team. But it was his last sentence of the offer that sealed the deal for her and she wanted to make the deal, it was just good business.
"Make it two goblin talents, gold, and you have an accord." She was no fool to leave out the clan chief or her fellow teammate who wasn't here out of this deal, a third of a talent of gold each was a nice bonus. Plus, the rest of the second talent would pay for the costs of extracting information from Selwyn-Umbridge with the clan getting whatever was left. Thus ensuring that there was no bad blood from the clan for having to support their actions and they wouldn't have to pay for themselves. Yes, a years pay for a nights work with no costs but time and materials they would be reimbursed for to the bank was a very nice bonus for this mission and good for the bank. And Lord Black was already paying three talents beforehand and three more after and the first-generation society a half talent of silver for every slave rescued tonight. It was going to be a very profitable night.
Gizbar Solomon Cragenmoor-Diggory/Croaker smiled after a time, "We have an accord!" he said and the unformed spell bond between them firmed up to seal the deal. Cragenmoor-Diggory donned his concealing face hood and became Croaker again. "Please don't strip Gemini there he happens to be somebody I actually trust and I recruited him personally. Handed me his wands and be sure to get the third one in his boot and I will hold them until he awakens." The wands were dutifully surrendered without grumble at a hand sign from Ballbreaker, she was a good sort would see the goblin reimbursed.
"Now whom else are you here for?" Ballbreaker grinned behind her mask and levitated the body of Amicus Carrow out of the bag. Croaker merely raised an eyebrow and smirked in delight behind his mask as he trotted down the cell block following the goblin and her sleeping victim. She quickly identified the correct cell and stunned the occupant. Whom she was very surprised to find in the form of a very large grim and not in the human form. Both of Croakers eyebrows had disappeared into his long grey-and hair when he saw the grim. Ballbreaker huffed and with her war gauntlet forced the animagus back into his human form and petrified him on his back next to the sleeping Amicus Carrow. A slight cut on the left-hand of the sleeping Sirius Black and a few phrases in the war tongue and the goblin had imbued another electrum amulet with blood and magic from the sleeping Lord. A cut of the knife through the skin below the breastbone of Carrow and the amulet was inserted into the body to rest against the sternum under the skin. Another spell closed the wound and disappeared all traces of blood. A spell switched their garments, the filthy prison togs of Sirius Black for the plain white loincloth of Carrow.
"I see many things were lied about in those days, there is no dark mark, curiouser and curiouser," said Croaker. Ballbreaker just grunted, hissed and growled a longer series of phrases in war tongue and they watched Amicus Carrow take on the visage of Sirius Black. The faint outline of the medallion faded as it appeared to meld through the sternum and chest bones of their victim with a sickly purple light under the skin. They left him there in the cell on the leather pallet of the raised stone bed. While the real Sirius Black was levitated up and out of the cell and the door relocked behind them.
"Aren't you afraid he will talk?" Asked Croaker.
"One cannot talk when one's speech centers in the brain have been destroyed by a targeted curse. This will never be discovered, the first Monday in May the amulet will reduce him to ashes and vanish the ashes and itself." Croaker nodded in appreciation somebody had been doing some very detailed and long-term planning as horrific as it was. Then he shrugged Carrow should have been in here a long time ago. He was completely indifferent to the fate meted out to death eaters of any stripe.
"Why the first Monday?"
"They only do headcounts Sunday night after they hosed down the prisoners in this wing otherwise the elves just come through and slap a bowl of gruel down twice a day. And the guards will be few as the rest celebrate the solstice."
Ballbreaker stopped outside the cell door of Bellatrix's husband. A second stunner made sure the wizard was asleep. Followed by being reduced to a rigid board. The door swung open under the under Wharton's keys. "If you would sir, please levitate this… wizard… down to the ritual circle, we have need of his presence there." And soon goblin and wizard were back in impromptu ritual room with their prizes in tow. The room had been slightly expanded and a second runic circle added. Into this one they placed the now naked form of Rodolphus Lestrange with the naked form of Alecto Carrow. Really not a bad looking witch at all if she wasn't a raving lunatic blood purist and suspected necromancer. Six fist sized lumps of runic inscribed bloodstone and practically glowing with the magic held within them were set at calculated points in the salt of both circles.
Croaker again raised his eyebrows. Inwardly he was telling himself he was going to have to up the training of his agents if the goblins had more crews like this one. Working so swiftly. After he found out who they actually worked for. It had to be Lord Black but it could be others. Maybe there was possibility of an alliance there? Who knew?
Unless the first-generation society was involved. Yes, that explained the mix of materials and the pattern of the gear, the compact magic he was seeing enchanting most of the goblin's gear, and that made sense. He'd a great deal of respect for their chain breaker agents, far too many of the people he wanted to hire had been refused by the Ministry because of their heritage and political leanings. Most had vanished into the ranks of the society. Or sadly fallen to the house of chains, whom he was forbidden to move against by the Ministry without evidence, which he was not allowed to gather. Who knew what kind of training the first-generation society's agents were getting and from where? That set off several more trains of thought and noted them to himself. Things to look at later. He needs to focus on the now.
Surprisingly enough his other unspeakable code-named Gemini, was spread eagle and stuck against the far wall and appeared to be wide-eyed and awake. Taking everything in and saying nothing. He looked at his boss and he could feel the raised eyebrow behind the concealing magics of his hood. Croaker just shrugged and made an inpatient gesture explanations could wait until later. He did show the wizard his wands so he would know that he would be getting them back. Which seem to relax him quite a bit. Good he would not be a factor going forward with the ritual.
He watched the two goblins who had reconfigured the circles take positions one at either end of the double circles. Polar north and south if he was any judge. And taking staves from dimensional pockets and place them on a bloodstone in front of their position. This time high goblin phrases with power and intent behind them flowed into the bloodstone's and modulated the release of the energies with in the stones through the two circles and the power was maintained by repeated low chanting in high goblin. The salt glowed sickly black and began to burn. But it wasn't pure sea salt he could smell something else impregnated within it, an essence of something plantlike, something hungry.
Several minutes passed and then Bellatrix began to scream as her body arched up from the circle but her hands and feet remained in place. A black twisting wraithlike form was prized back from her body only to be sucked into the body of Alecto Carrow who began screaming the scream of the damned as Bellatrix collapsed into a boneless heap of her circle and groaned. With a snap of magic and low flash of light, the last of the salt burned away leaving a sickly salty smell in the air. That's what he smelled, essence of black triffid and greater Venus fly trap sap. Interesting that they would use it here, a question for the arithmeticians and the herbologists.
Ballbreaker, who had not participated in the ritual, stunned the screaming Alecto and handed her two team mates vials from her own stores. They quickly downed the rejuvenating potions she had handed them as she redressed Alecto in Bellatrix's filthy uniform with a spell, and had the same amulet implanted as had her brother within minutes. Soon both she and Rodolphus, were levitated out of the room by Ballbreaker and one of her fellows back to their cells. While the last went about erasing all trace of the ritual that had been done there.
"Croaker is that you?" breathed a whispered feminine voice. He moved over to look down at the supine and groggy witch.
"I am he who took over from the one who hired you. Identify please." He said formally.
"The codename is Topaz, passphrase 'always pure in magic, always against the dark to protect our world'."
"Oh Merlin!" Said Gemini from his place on the wall. Croaker negligently released him with a wave of his wand. And the other wizard staggered to his feet and straightened up as he came over to the witch. Croaker handed him his wands, which quickly disappeared.
"And now you see Gemini, one of the secrets I was here to discover. She is one of us and she was betrayed by one of us. Hired by the one who was Croaker before me by the codename. She was betrayed by one who did so for their own advancement or agenda. This is an ultimate secret. You will not discuss it with anyone else, who doesn't already know."
"Yes sir, I will comply," Nodded Gemini. "Damn I hate mole hunts."
"Yes, we certainly have that ahead of us and our fellow Icepick carries the mark of a death eater with a device over it which suppresses its effects on others or our ability to detect it. That too was something we learned here. We will begin hunting by finding a way around that device." They were silent for a pair of minutes as they contemplated the task ahead of them.
"He made horcrux's," breathed the witch at their feet. All motion in the room froze. Ballbreaker who had just walked back in the room was the first to recover and walk over to the witch.
"How many and who made them!"
"Lord Voldemort, otherwise known as Tom Marvolo Riddle Head Boy of Hogwarts and a Slytherin class of 1943. My husband had me place one of the infernal things in our vault at Gringotts behind traps." All three goblins in the room growled as Bellatrix, in the throes of exhaustion, fought to keep conscious. "One was given to Lucius Malfoy… another was stolen by Regulus Black, what became of it I... He died under Voldemort's wand refusing to give up its location. If… the Lord Black is still alive have him talk to Kreature, Voldemort said something about using an elf… Reggie had given him. That could only be Kreature and he would not come to my call then. He serves the House of Black. I think there may have been two more I'm not sure…" Bellatrix began to nod off as her strength began to fade. "You can track them if you find one. Tacitus knew of a method it's in his writing…." And then she was unconscious.
"Well, she just made sure were going to keep her alive, and that every knut spent here was worth its price in blood," breathed Ballbreaker.
"Yes, but if I'm not mistaken, we are in a pickle of our own making. We can't get into that vault without her or her husband and I'm pretty sure the ministry has the keys locked away in their effects box."
"We could get a new one issued to her," said Ballbreaker.
"I doubt it," said Croaker. "I suspect her husband knew she was an unspeakable going into the marriage, happy to corrupt one of our agents for his Lord. And she is not a witch formed in the same vein as her aunt Walburga or Dolores Umbridge. And he would have taken pains to limit what she could do at the bank without him present, while he was alive."
"Make sense misogynistic bastard got a good-looking witch under his thrall and got to stick it in our ass and we never even noticed," Said Gemini darkly.
"Those two witches Black-Black and Umbridge-Selwyn couldn't get laid in a Turkish whorehouse in Istanbul." Mumbled Ballbreaker unthinkingly as her mind whirled through the permutations of what was discovered here.
"A good thing that one is dead and that the other is someone nobody will ever consent to marry willingly, and is thankfully sterile now," Said Gemini. Croaker nodded in agreement but lost in thought.
Ballbreaker chuckled in what sounded like agreement as she levitated Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black were levitated into the transport package to join Selwyn-Umbridge and sealed up and inflated back into its cylindrical rigid form for ease of transport. A nice bit of magic that too bad it had been used for such despicable purposes on the whole but it certainly looks to be a better way to move prisoners than they already had. He was definitely going to have to look into that for the DMLE.
"Pity the slave catamite she keeps for her pleasures." Ballbreaker said as she waved and all the books and bags and jars sealed on the table sealed and closed themselves and disappeared into the bag and then into her dimensional storage. "The methods they use to make the house of chains uses to… condition… the catamite's kills them within ten years and my understanding is she has ordered a new one to replace him, had him just three years. Being rougher on them than many of their commercial customers. Unwilling to have him… Repaired is the communication we intercepted. She did say if they could find one who was a pureblood she would pay extra to not have them sterilized."
This blandly delivered but very twisted statement made both men grimace. Both the other goblins finished the last of their cleanup around the room. And Croaker and Gemini washed the room with a spell that would make it impossible for anyone to find out what had happened here this night.
Ballbreaker paused and seemed to be talking with somebody else, somebody elsewhere in the fortress. So the helmets had a form of communication between. That's good to know and also protected them from dementor's and probably had other affects built into the construction. Definitely something for projects division.
"We need to move I think the jig is up. Somebody was walking in the far door of the house of chains workrooms downstairs while the other half of our team was walking out the other door. There's been spell fire down there and our team is extracting out. We have two minutes to make the boat or we need to find our own way out. I suspect the drunken and incompetent guards will manage to lock the place down in about five minutes."
Ballbreaker moved to the wall quickly as she was speaking with a palm sized quartz crystal she pulled from a dimensional pocket. She placed one of the keys from the under wardens key ring in the palm of her war gauntlet set the crystal on top of it made into a fist with the part of the crystal showing and press the crystal against the wall. Quick hard intent filled phrases in war tongue followed and the crystal sank in the wall faintly pulsing in the darkness as the lights failed.
"And I just gave another reason for us to leave, the dementor in the execution room at the end of this wing will be set free into the cellblock in three minutes. Sadly, one or more of the cells will not be properly secured. Please give my condolences to the Dowager Lady Lestrange on the death of her husband and brother-in-law. My apologies also if you wanted to question Rookwood and a few of the others, Rookwood is too dangerous to live, and two or three others are window-dressing to muddy the waters. You should know that Gringotts laws for widows about vault access are very different when there is no male heir."
"Then it is very good thing we already have a portkey out and we can use it here," said Croaker. He took the portkey charmed key fob out of his pocket and clicked it through one of the loops on the ends of the levitating transport package. "Portis!" He intoned, adding a lot more power than had been in the original charm and the charm spread through the entire container. "Everybody grab a handhold." Quickly everybody had a handhold through a carry loop at one of the corners. He looked about for one instant to be sure everyone was set. Then the port key activated it was a rough ride out of the wards as the lockdown was coming into effect, but they made it out. They all stumbled as they landed on the wharf next to the prisons boat on the mainland but managed to stay on their feet.
"It has been an invigorating and extremely enlightening evening but," said Croaker as he and Gemini stepped back from the floating container and his portkey disintegrated. "I believe this is where our two groups need to part company. If I could be present for the questioning please send an owl to Gemini's wife and she will get the information to me about where to go. I suspect Lord Black will take charge of Sirius and Bellatrix. One of their subsidiary properties would be best for such meetings I think."
"And who is Gemini's wife?" Said Ballbreaker. You could hear the smirk in Gemini's voice,
"Ask Bellatrix about the sister who ran and why. What happened to Bellatrix could also explain a few things that happened to my wife, somebody is going to get my wand on them, if my wife doesn't get them first."
Ballbreaker blinked, damned smart wizards, she could wish more of them were like that, it would be more of a challenge getting around them. Then she grunted and slapped her own portkey to the container and she and her team members latched on and disappeared with it into the ether without a word said.
"How about a drink at your place Ted, your wife always keeps a very good whiskey. Though I suspect were going to have to be doing some charms to see who else may have been doctoring it." Both apparated away. But not before Croaker set a passive monitoring crystal into an iron hook on the side of the pier. They tacitly ignore the goblin one that had just been emplaced. Watching the response of one's supposedly allies and enemies very enlightening especially as to their priorities. Both men were not surprised later that the house of chains response team came and went at least three hours before Dumbledore arrived; and that the ministry response team who was supposed to come, never arrived.
Nor were they really surprised at what they found at Gemini's house. He, his wife not to mention his daughter was not pleased at the flushing potions and spell removals. Gemini's phone bill that month went up a bit, short calls nothing but code phrases passed to parties unknown, some disguised as wrong numbers, but not one pinch of floo powder was used or owl sent. The goblins found that an interesting technique. The daughter was the one who found the tiny recorder crystal/transmitter they had left on her father's robes.
"We should talk later; I will not be angry. Trust but verify it is something one should do when one is hunting enemies or searching for allies," Croaker had said before the crystal joined the one Ballbreaker had put on Croaker's robes in a lead box, interesting that. A cunning wizard, surely a worthy opponent someday.
(End Flashback)
Back at Gringotts…
"Then again Amicus Carrow is a monster and should remain undetected, the excitement that starts after the charms work activates will be quite amusing. What with the new under-warden, not the brightest candle in the mine is he." Said Sharprock and both goblins smiled sharp toothed smiles at each other, then sip some more brandy.
"As it is, the Carrow twins poured out a lot of gold keeping themselves out of prison. If justice had been served properly, they would have put their heads on a pike pole for the crows. The goblin way to deal with treason. It has to be karma." Nodded Ragnok sagely speaking with firm conviction on both of the last points.
"Yes, I agree." Said Sharprock and filled both her glasses with more brandy. "Especially when Ballbreaker parting gift kisses six of the twenty death eaters in that wing. No way to trace it wasn't Bellatrix without blood tests they didn't do before they incinerated the body and scattered the ashes when the dementor's were done. Witch and her bonded don't mind her being red headed now either," Ragnok grinned a toothless smile.
"Ballbreaker deserves a little praise for quick thinking like that."
"I'll tell your granddaughter you said that."
"I'll deny it, keep her on her toes for not spotting Croakers fourth wand, but she did earn her bonus that night." Ragnok's grin faded as he considered some of the other things that had happened.
"True. Especially, with the information Bellatrix is getting us as she is healed. Never thought she was an unspeakable field agent. Albus Dumbledore has a lot to answer for having Snape grass her out, if that is what we suspect happened, if Malfoy didn't do it, that man had a positive genius for compromising people. I'd really like to know how and why that was done and to whom." The room was silent except for the crackle of the fire and clink of glass as the two goblins sat and drank some more. Ragnok grunted and spoke gravely.
"Croaker will get back to us on that horcrux we found in the Lestrange vaults and the one Lord Blacks townhouse by weeks end. Right now, he's busy neutralizing Albus's agents in the Department of Mysteries while the old goat is in the hospital in Geneva."
"Any further information on that?" As Sharprock.
"Only the bare facts that the international papers have printed. Surprisingly no statement has been made by the ICW security services about the incident. And given the history between the new minister and Albus not to mention the acting chief warlock nobody's in any hurry to get him back. I do know there's a name attached to the other side of it but apparently the ICW security is better than ours. We will get more information in a couple of weeks from the goblin clans whose agents were at that duel."
"Is Lord Black and Croaker angry about what happened to Bellatrix?" Queried Ragnok, "I know I damn well would be if I found out one of my allies had grassed out one of my agents. Fair bet their head would be in a pike pole within the hour of me finding out."
"Lord Black is volcanic and with good reason but he's keeping it under control. Croaker had Albus put on the Department of Mysteries Undesirables List in the warding matrix at winter solstice and has refused all private contact since. The team with Black and the Unspeakables is looking at Tacitus' works and building a detector for horcrux magic. When they aren't being more horrified at reading Bellatrix's ongoing debriefing."
"Croaker thinks we should be talking to John Windsor, his conclave and the First-Generation Society about a lot of different things."
"Most of those questions have already been answered," said Ragnok. "I'd like to be a fly on the wall for those that have not."
"With Lord Bruce in power all the pressure Albus put on John Windsor and consort Potter-Vance through the Ministry is stalled." John Windsor was one of the few publicly acknowledged parselmouths, like all the men in his conclave. Dumbledore has slandered every man in that conclave and anyone from the ministry who would simply talk to John for fifty years. The ministry vitriol against the first-generation society since Voldemort died was slanderous and inflammatory. With Fudge and the death eater block dead… Ragnok blinked at the permutations of what that meant roll through his mind before he spoke again.
"We won't be able to openly talk to either party that's for certain. Too many eyes working for the Purists and that ivory tower monk to have him or their representative come here to the London offices, we can meet him in the Paris, Dublin or Brussels offices. The British have very few friends in those towns over the last hundred years and fewer since Albus came to power."
Left unspoken was that with most of the generation who fought Grindelwald dead few remember that he advocated neutrality for magical Great Britain while Grindelwald slaughtered a third of the magicals in Europe. Only when the fighting had damn near wrecked magical Europe from the Caucuses to the Pyrenees, did he enter the fray. Because of this he is not deferred to overseas like he was in Magical Great Britain. Who only remember his defeat of Grindelwald in a duel. And he was a compromise between the American and Soviet bloc mages for supreme mugwump.
"With the Soviet bloc fracturing it's only going to be a few years at most before the world begins to realign. In the real that depends on what the Americans do. In the magical world I expect chaos in the East as the Soviet bloc ministries come apart seeking a path forward. I suspect we will have a whole batch of tinpot dictators out there or kleptocratic oligarchs working together and unfortunately a great deal of hope turned to misery if that happens.
"Regardless of what happens Albus could be removed by natural attrition, especially if there are younger more energetic voices, or the many enemies he has made outside this country, come to power. Makes me wonder about the background of Tom Riddle and why Albus let him get away with murder at that school? And why blame Hagrid for it? I also wonder what the source of bad blood between John Windsor and Albus is? Something tells me it's important."
"Having a man all but run you out of the magical world and his henchmen try to judicially murder you repeatedly are not indications of friendship. And he was behind the ministry not recognizing the man's title and right to a seat on the Wizengamot. He's one of my subsidiary accounts. I can tell you this, treating him like a knutless muggleborn is not a way to get on the good side of a Prince of the House of Windsor. And how stupid the ministry was not to face facts." Ragnok nodded at Sharprock's comment.
"That and he is supporting the first-generation society for parties unknown, I suspect his niece is involved, that's important in the long. Albus can't even get the time a day with their guiding counsel and the Ministry and he ignore the Crown."
"I love William Bruce's first act as minister. Having us audit and publicize the results of the audit of the ministry's finances didn't help the purist cause."
"If I ran the bank for the clan like ministry does it finances. My head would be on a pike pole the day after that report came out. Did you know they found a hundred and eighty-five people who were still drawing a salary even though they've been dead ten or more years!"
"I know Goreblade down in ministry financing has grumbled about it for years, but couldn't get anyone in the ministry to listen, too many people scooping into the vaults in question or using them for cover. William Bruce did listen and will be far less inclined to talk or listen to Albus 'advice' about the day-to-day running of the ministry.
"But Bruce's true masterstroke is limiting every member of the Wizengamot's access to the ministry administrative offices themselves. It's allowing the realignments recommended since the end of the Grindelwald War to go through without too much screaming and yelling. Or at least restricting it to the floor of the Wizengamot, some of the diatribes against the realignments today were quite entertaining, waffling between incoherent exhortations to tradition and the good works of a relative in a favored department and blasts against the inefficiency of some other families members work at the ministry. I will be surprised if there isn't more use of the dueling salle going forward."
"The thought of a few of those wrinkled prunes offing each other has an appeal and Minister Bruce eggs them on. He just sits there and smiled serenely and saying, 'we will take it under advisement and get back to you at a later date' is the clearest statement I have ever seen for 'no, go pleasure yourself and let me work' from a minister since Henry Potter was director of the DMLE. All with the best bureaucrat's bland smile and a blizzard of legal precedents. He gets them to think they're actually getting something for their lay about relatives when nothing good is going to happen for them but early retirement or a slight increase to their modest severance package."
"Yeah, the proposed restructuring has clear and delineated lines of authority and procedure that hasn't existed in that building since the early years of Grindelwald's war. The best thing they've done so far, from our point of view at least, has been to formerly move goblin and dwarf liaison from the Begins division in the Magical Creatures Department to the foreign affairs department, along with Muggle relations being staffed for the first time since Queen Victoria was crowned. It helps to retire two thirds of senior staff, outside the aurors, to the pension fund as they are past mandatory retirement. Which surprisingly enough the pension fund is in good health, even with the flood of new additions that will come from the forced retirement program Bruce's imposing over the spring."
"Yeah, retiring most of the members of the ministries personnel department hiring board the first day was another masterstroke. And will have the most long-term positive benefit for the ministry going forward. It helps that a good many of their patrons keeping those over aged hidebound fools in their positions died at Nott Manor."
"Not to mention Albus still being in hospital." Albus will be lucky to keep the chief warlock's position by the skin of his teeth, thought Ragnok. "Pellinore Crabbe and the legal affairs committee are like attack dogs that have been let off the leash. And are getting a lot of good if cautious press for the things they're doing. Then they send out that book detailing all the treaties separating the magical world and the Crown and how they're supposed to interact is an uphill fight that way, but they seem to be getting the message through. In the long term I think his work is going to be crucial."
"Yes, the wizards are beginning to remember the rule of law must apply to everyone or it won't work."
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