This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
The delivery of the Potter heirlooms to Gringotts sets off another firestorm – Felicity and Ironstream argue about the memories in the pensive but Ragnock and Sowsbreath come up with a plan.
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Chapter 28 Ragnock's New Normal*(+++++)*
SCENE: New Normal at GringottsAn elf popped into Ironstream's office as soon as he sat at his desk. The goblin stared at the elf – Happy, if he remembered correctly – was assigned to the hospital department at Gringotts. For a moment, he reviewed all the arguments fifty years ago when Gringotts began a medical service for the human employees and the fuss by traditional goblins against offering services to the bank's wizards and witches.
Their opinions changed after three severely injured curse-breakers were turned away from Saint Mungo's because several purebloods were suffering from sniffles that day. The bank's profits were impacted by the death of one of the wizards and the slower than normal recovery period for the other two wizards.
"Goblin Irons comes with me to Healer Grosses office now!" the elf demanded.
"What is the problem, Happy?"
"Healer Grosses needs Irons to help with powerfulness heirlooms of Mr Harry Potters!" replied the elf.
'Heirlooms?' wondered the goblin who rose from his desk and followed the little elf through the busy hallways of the bank as goblins and wizards set about their daily tasks.
In the healer's private quarters, Ironstream found the witch examining a large pile of books, a large projection pensive, and a shiny cloak that she draped over her shoulders before her entire body disappeared.
"There's a letter," she said in greeting and pointed to her desk where Ironstream found the latest news from Hogwarts. The cloak had caught the healer's complete attention.
"We must catalogue each of Harry's letters," Ironstream said before he began reading. "He can publish a book after he graduates and make a fortune with the wild adventures…"
The floating head of the healer frowned and replied, "I would be much happier if he didn't have so many adventures – in the first six weeks of his education at Hogwarts! It's not December and we've had trolls…"
"I agree," the goblin interrupted the witch and turned to the letter.
Flipping the hood over her head, Felicity vanished from the room for a moment before reappearing in front of the mirror as she removed the cloak and carefully folded it into a small handful of material that could vanish into any pocket with ease.
Ironstream sighed and rubbed his temple while Felicity pulled a potion bottle labelled 'Calm Goblin' from her pocket and handed it to the Potter account manager.
"Not this early in the day," he replied as he waved the potion away.
"We must go to Ragnock now…" he said. Then he paused and referred back to the letter before stating, "Harry's got elves."
Felicity grinned, "You know Harry, he makes friends of dragons and owls and goblins. Why shouldn't he make friends with elves?"
"No, I mean 'Potter Elves', from his legacy as the heir of the Potters," Ironstream explained.
"I don't know…" Felicity began to say then she called for Happy. The little Gringotts elf appeared in the healer's room instantly – she been there all the while.
"Yes, Missy Healer Felicities?"
"Did you meet the elves that brought these items to my room last night?"
"Yes, Missy Healer Felicities. We always meets new elves when they comes so they know where vaults and peoples are."
"Why did Harry use elves to bring these things?"
"Elves comes to find Missy Healer Felicities so they can comes back fastest when they needs to talks to you or brings you things from Mr. Harry Potters."
The goblin nodded and referred to the letter, "See if you can call 'Apollo'. He's the one Harry mentions the most."
"Apollo, I need to speak to you," Felicity announced; she'd dealt with Gringotts elves for years and was pleased when the little fellow popped into the room almost instantly.
"That was a fast trip down from Scotland," Ironstream stated and the elf nodded.
"Our master, wonderful Mr Harry Potters is great powerfuls," the elf bragged and thumped his chest. "All Potter elves strong now!"
"Hello, Apollo. How is Harry this morning?"
The elf bowed before the healer and reported, "Mr Harry Potters and Missy Hedwig Snowy Owl drinks potions and eats breakfasts in Greatest Hall with the other little badgers and ravens this morning. They have transfiguration with Miss Kitty and then DADA with Mr Wildeyes."
In the next few minutes, with suitable prompting questions, the elf explained how all the Potter elves went to Hogwarts back on 1 August to fight the fire, and in the confusion that day, they felt, found, and rescued the Potter family heirlooms.
"And who did you talk to about this?" asked Ironstream.
"Missy Fawkes Phoenix tells elves to take Potters books, Potters memory bucket, and Deathly Hallow cloak to hide untils we meets Mr Harry Potter. We takes lots and lots of books back to libraires."
"And the phoenix?" asked Ironstream. "Did she help you?"
"She's askes elves to bring fires to her in Whisker's office. She spreads it with her wings and makes lots of ashes to be the things we hides," Apollo reported. "She laughs and sings the whole times!"
"Who knows that Harry has these family heirlooms?" the Potter account manager asked.
Counting on his fingers, Apollo replied, "Miss Hedwig Snowy Owl fussed but Mr. Harry Potters tells Mr. Plants and Mr Galleons about heirlooms. Mr Plant suggests to send items to Missy Healer Felicities and Mr Galleons says that goblins should cats… cata…"
"Catalogue?" offered Felicity when Apollo struggled with the word.
"Yes," Apollo replied, his head moving up and down in agreement. "Cataslogues the memories of Mr Whiskers so Mr Harry Potters has blacksmail on thiefs."
"Thief?" asked Ironstream – all goblins feared and hated anyone labelled a thief.
"Missy Hedwig Snowy Owl names Whiskers as thiefs and elves agrees!" Apollo insisted though he fell silent afterwards.
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Ironstream and Felicity agreed to hide the books in a new trunk that would be stored in Harry's current vault; she sent Apollo to Harry's trust vault for some galleons and then on to the shops to purchase a large, secure trunk for his master's possessions. But the two adults argued over the other two items.
"The cloak must be studied," Ironstream argued, when Felicity refused to hand over the cloak.
"Not until Harry is old enough to make an informed decision," insisted the healer.
"But we're old enough to make an informed decision!" the goblin argued while the healer frowned.
"No, your curiosity is overriding your usual common sense about what is best for Harry."
"Where will you hide it?" he asked.
She smirked, "In the trunk with his books in the vault. And you will be responsible for keeping everyone out of the trunk until Harry is older."
"You're evil!" declared the exasperated goblin.
"I am not!" Felicity declared with a smirk. "I have just discovered my dark side when it comes to looking out for Harry, but I'm not evil!"
"Here! Here!" echoed a new voice as the portrait of a long-dead goblin healer woke and joined the conversation. The portrait of the long-dead goblin hung on the wall in Felicity's sitting room and the two healers had developed a good relationship over the years.
The portrait shook her finger at Ironstream and said, "Behave Ironstream or I shall visit your wife and insist that she give you lessons in protecting youngsters!"
Ironstream's mouth snapped shut and he bowed to the portrait. "That won't be necessary, ancestor. This goblin has been rightfully chided by the mother of the youngster. The mother is always correct when protecting a little one."
The goblin shook his head and began to examine the pensive. He tapped on the rim with his knife, the goblin's 'wand' and there were mere sparks that rose from the cloudy interior.
"This is a pensive that projects the memories above the bowl with sound and even smell if the memory is strong enough. We should be able to see and hear the latest memory above the bowl."
Apollo popped back inside the room with a medium sized trunk that looked worn and old. The healer nodded her head but the goblin asked, "That's the best you could find?"
The elf grinned and nodded his head, "This be trunks with powerful notices-me's-not charm. We places trunk in Mr Harry Potter's vault, no wizard, goblin or elf ever notice unless looking for it particulars."
Grimacing, Ironstream asked, "Does it at least have expansion charms on the inside?"
The elf's face grew outraged, "Apollo's knowing trunks! This be largers inside than fussy goblin's vault!"
"Careful," Felicity whispered. "You'll not like the name the elves give you if you keep this up."
"Alright, alright," Ironstream conceded.
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SCENE: What About the Memories?Ironstream pointed to the pensive and said, "Did anyone try to use the pensive? It is supposed to project the selected memory above the rim for all to see."
The little elf told the healer and the goblin the story about the pensive. "Missy Fawkes Phoenix says that Whiskers fills the stone bowls with too manys memories to shows outside anymore. There be thousands of memories from Whiskers, dead peoples, living peoples and even some portraits inside the stone bowls."
Turning toward the portrait of the goblin healer from a century ago, Felicity asked, "Greenleaf, can a portrait give a memory for living goblins and wizards to view?"
The portrait of the goblin tilted her head in thought and replied, "I don't know. Let me ask around in the other portraits and I'll see if anyone has heard of it."
"I think we should dump out all the old memories," Felicity announced. "There's nothing in there that Harry needs to see!"
"No," Ironstream immediately objected. "I think Harry's friend Mr Finch-Fletchley had the right of it. We must catalogue these memories – who are they from, what they show. There could be important information in them."
"I don't…" the healer tried to argue. The idea of years of someone else's memories being viewed made her very uneasy.
"The gentlemen from MI-5 will be interested in them. They can use these memories to build a profile of Dumbledore and perhaps the other important people in Magical Britain."
Now it was Felicity's turn to close her mouth and think.
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Ragnock stared at the pair – Ironstream and Felicity Grossman were too frequently in his office this fall.
"I suppose this is my new normal," the director sighed. "What's happened this time?"
Ironstream set the pensive on the director's desk and handed over the letter. When he read the list of heirlooms, the director growled.
"A Deathly Hollow?"
"A folktale for children," Ironstream stated though the director's expression didn't change. The goblin pressed a rune on his desk and the door to his office opened immediately.
The goblin at the door was told, "I need Sowsbreath here soonest."
The young goblin nodded and closed the door.
"While we wait, tell me about the pensive," Ragnock instructed the pair. After hearing the information from Harry's letter and their own quick experiments with the pensive, the director rose from his chair to pace about the room for a moment.
"Yes, this is a conundrum for certain," the director admitted. "I find the idea of viewing the personal memories of the 'illustrious' Dumbledore to be distasteful, but the potential value of some memories makes it worth more consideration."
"The elf said there were memories of many different people in the pensive as well as memories of some portraits," Ironstream said.
Felicity bristled, "It feels like peeping…"
"No, it is spying," Ragnock corrected the healer. "Spying is the venue of governments. Wizards use portraits and ghosts…"
"We do have access to spies at MI-5 now," Ironstream stated.
Ragnock shook his head, "I won't trust them with this…"
Felicity joined the conversation saying, "They were honest about the werewolves. Sowsbreath met with known werewolves and saw them change into wolves, not the monster form. On the full moon, they make an animagus transformation into true wolves rather than the creature form that wants to kill people."
"And Sowsbreath reported that the government eliminated all the wild werewolves," Ironstream added. "A draconian step I'd never believe the muggles would take."
"But necessary and effective," Ragnock added with a nod. He admired the Queen's government doing what was necessary to end the werewolf threat.
At just that moment, Sowsbreath entered the room and the old goblin grinned, "What's the latest news from Hogwarts? The three of you in one room can only mean that something of interest has occurred."
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As Ironstream and Felicity repeated the news, Sowsbreath listened while pacing about the room. When they were finished, he read the letter and said, "We have to make decisions about two things – the cloak and the pensive."
Ironstream smiled for a moment thinking the old goblin would side with him and want to investigate the cloak. Felicity frowned preparing for more arguments before Sowsbreath said, "The cloak goes into a trunk with locks that only the boy can open. No one must play with the cloak or use it except for someone in the Potter family."
"Why?" asked Felicity.
"I believe the Potters are the rightful owners of one of the Deathly Hollows and for anyone other than a member of the family to use it would attract the attention of Death himself."
"What!" exclaimed Ironstream and Ragnock, as Felicity sank into a chair.
Sowsbreath grinned, "Did you try it on, Healer Grossman?"
"Yes, but for only a minute."
"Then I'm certain you did not come to Death's attention. As the legal guardian for the Potter heir, you must be able to handle such items."
Ironstream nodded and said, "And she argued with me most forcefully that the cloak was to be put away until Harry wanted to examine it."
"Now the pensive…" Ragnock reminded the others. "What shall we do with the memories?"
Sowsbreath stepped closer to the desk and peered inside the bowl. He tapped the rim with his knife and when nothing appeared about the bowl, he stuck in a finger. It was almost ninety seconds before he pulled the digit from the wisps of memories floating in the bowl and then rubbed his chin.
"This a gold mine of great worth," he stated. "For Gringotts and for our new allies."
The old goblin bowed before Ragnock and made his petition saying, "Director, the curse-breakers ask – no, beg – to take on the task of viewing, cataloguing and storing the memories from the pensive. We will view each memory, date it, make appropriate catalogue entries, and the correlate the memories to provide a comprehensive portrait of Dumbledore's knowledge and plans."
"And our friends from MI-5?" asked the director, interested in Sowsbreath's thinking.
Sowsbreath grinned, "I want to see Lovett's face when he sees the pensive full of the memories of Albus Many-Names Dumbledore. I shall have a Patronus worthy memory when he realizes the treasure trove of knowledge here."
"The pensive stays within Gringotts," Felicity insisted. "Those wizards might never return it if they got their hands on it."
"Agreed," stated Sowsbreath. "And we will only work on it with a team of four present. No one views the memories alone and different teams of my curse-breakers will take turns. And I'll insist on Lovett rotates at least three different wizards from his staff of muggleborns to assist."
"They have better systems to catalogue and cross-reference the material," Felicity said.
"I won't have electricality brought into Gringotts!" Ragnock declared. "The ministry would declare us in revolt and attack!"
The healer shook her head and explained, "They have manual typewriters that will make every page of every report clear and easy to read."
Then Felicity took a deep breath and added, "But as Harry Potter's guardian, I insist that there be nothing about Harry's origins kept. Any memories with hints about Harry…"
"Nothing about his origins," Sowsbreath agreed. "The damn prophecy and the story from James and Lily may have been recorded here but I'll demand oaths of silence from the curse-breakers and Lovett's muggleborns."
"Make it so," Ragnock commanded. "Let's hope we can get through the week without another Hogwarts cauldron exploding in our faces."
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