DISCLAIMER! 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. New Movie is coming in April! Hurrah! Yeah, for Fanfiction – a great place to stretch your imagination and enjoy someone else's creativity too! The is the sequel to The Potter Cartouche.
Author's note: I posted Chapter 26 as Chapter 25 without putting 25 up. Apologies. Chapter 25 is where they got rid of Tom Riddle, and Madam Marchbanks proved how prejudiced the purebloods are against half-bloods and muggle-born.
Chapter 27 Saturday Morning AftermathStart at HogwartsThe Daily Prophet was late on Saturday morning. The owls arrived about halfway through breakfast while several students lingered over cups of pumpkin or orange juice. The older ones had asked for tea and compared homework. At the staff table, the professors and headmaster were animated with discussions about their classes and students. Then the postal owls flew into the Great Hall and began dropping copies of the newspaper onto the tables in front of the subscribers. The headline caught everyone's attention, and there was a mixture of silence and loud exclamations; FIGHTING IN GRINGOTTS! Goblins Go to War with Norway!
The newspaper included a dozen magical pictures of the goblins in the bank's lobby rushing away from the counters, drawing knives, and shouting curses. The wizard who contributed the memories for the pictures remained in the hall until he saw a running fight between the London goblins in their Savile Row suits and goblins wearing horned helmets like Vikings from the history books. And there were rough-dressed wizards in the fighting as well. The wizard's memory ended with him running from the bank just as the front doors slammed shut.
Flitwick moved as soon as he read the headlines and glanced at the photographs. Headmaster Bennet was only moments behind the charms professor while Deputy Headmistress Longbottom struggled to control her tears. At the Gryffindor table, Neville rose and shouted, "Send word, professor!"
Bennet hurried toward the room beside the Great Hall, where a floo was available. There he found Flitwick yelling at someone on the other side of the floo, "Let me in! You have my student Harry Freshgold Potter! I demand to visit with him! Is he well?"
The exchange continued for a full two minutes until the flames turned green, and the two professors hurried through. In the Gringotts receiving room, Flitwick and Bennet were met by overlapping goblin knives pointed at them.
The commander growled, "Put all wands and knives away. No visitors are permitted to hold their magical focus within the bank today. Touch it and die."
"Of course," Bennet said. "We must see Heir Potter! Is he well?"
"Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe," cursed Flitwick. "Freshgold was guaranteed safe! Where is he, you smelly gryhiglzehwe?"
"He is well," the commander replied. A young goblin, too young to be a warrior yet, ran into the room, and the commander said, "This is Goldie, my son. He will guide you through the hallways to the royal cavern where King Ragnock's guests are gathered to argue about runes this morning."
"Are they talking about runes?" asked Bennet. "What about the attack?"
As the two Hogwarts professors hurried through the hallways, Flitwick noticed that every goblin and human wore a badge with the word 'London' printed on it. Twice they saw prisoners being led along the hallways. In shackles and gags, these goblins and hit-wizards shuffled along toward the royal cavern.
"Few visitors are present this morning," the young goblin said. "Do not speak to any of the prisoners. The king is cutting off heads and awarding gold left and right, so be careful."
Flitwick glanced at Bennet and said, "You're not in Britain anymore. This is a goblin kingdom, and Ragnock owes allegiance to the muggle queen as an ally. Come along."
The hallway opened into a large cavern, certainly as large as the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Bennet paused for only a moment when he noticed the poles embedded in the floor with decapitated heads on top of them about seven feet off the floor. The heads included goblins and wizards, and Flitwick growled when he noticed that three of them had silver knives embedded in eye sockets or foreheads.
"That's Harry's spells," the charms professor informed the new headmaster.
Flitwick and Bennet were presented to King Ragnock, one arm wrapped by a bloody bandage. The king's other arm lay across his lap with a bloody battle-axe still gripped in his hand.
"Greetings, Filius Flitwick, cousin of Ironstream," the king greeted the half-human.
His anger still evident in his tone, the professor bowed his head as he replied, "Greetings, King Ragnock of Gringotts London."
"Why have you and your headmaster ventured into the royal cavern this morning?" the king asked. He looked at an advisor who also wore a bloody bandage around one leg and asked, "Is it still morning?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," the goblin replied.
"Forgive me; I have not slept. The Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe invaded Gringotts London yesterday, and too many of my warriors sleep in the arms of death today for me to rest yet."
"Who dared to invade Gringotts?" asked Bennet.
"Norway's goblins and hit wizards dared to invade and think they could conquer! They came seeking battle, and we gave it to them."
Motioning toward the heads on poles and the captives, Ragnock added, "But they lost. My warriors slaughtered them, and our magic was greater."
Flitwick asked, "How goes the war?"
"It is over," Ragnock smirked. "With mighty magic, Gringotts London invaded Gringotts Norway and conquered their caverns in a single night."
Flitwick frowned, "How high was the cost?"
Ragnock grinned, displaying the golden tips on his teeth. "I lost six warriors when I invaded Oslo. The entire tribe of gryhiglzehwe slobbered and danced in mindless gold lust while my soldiers slaughtered their mercenaries and then captured the whole of the goblin horde. This glorious day, I am King of Gringotts London, Oslo, and Narvik."
"Congratulations, Your Majesty, but I beg, where is Freshgold?"
Motioning toward Bennet, Flitwick said, "The headmaster and I left the Great Hall as soon as we saw the headlines in the Daily Prophet. Harry's safety is our greatest concern this morning."
"Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe," cursed Ragnock. "Did a reporter arrive yet?"
"Not yet, sire," replied Ironstream, calmly beside the king.
"Where is that worthless goblin who married my hideous daughter?"
An advisor replied, "Bloodhook is escorting Freshgold and Dobby Elf to the royal cavern."
"Are they crawling on the stones this morning?" roared the king. "I sent for them five minutes ago."
At just that moment, the goblin walked into the cavern – his head was wrapped in a bloody bandage – followed by Harry Potter with his loyal house-elf at his side. The elf wore his strange brown robe with a hood and a walking stick, but the elf wore two pairs of long woollen socks on his feet and ears, and he carried a large sack overflowing with more socks.
Flitwick visually examined the teenager and saw no sign of injury though the teenager didn't look at the heads mounted on the poles.
"Ah…good Freshgold, you have arrived. Did you get any sleep? I haven't had any sleep yet and am tired," Ragnock announced.
Bowing his head, Harry replied, "I did sleep, Your Majesty." Glancing at Dobby, Harry said, "Someone forced me to drink a dreamless sleep potion last night."
"M stupid wizard needed to sleep without dreaming about dead goblins and hit-wizards," the elf replied before he walked over to a prisoner from Norway, threw the man onto the floor and removed the man's socks.
"Give me back my socks, you bloody elf!" roared the Norwegian hit-wizard after spitting out the gag in his mouth. (Goblins have excellent translations spells up and running in the royal cavern).
"No, Dobby likes socks, and you not need socks when King Rag of Rocks takes your stupid head and puts on poles. Dobby wants socks before blood on them."
The hit-wizard turned pale and remained silent. Gesturing toward all the prisoners, Harry asked King Ragnok, "Are you going to chop off their heads?"
Ragnock sniffed, "I took the head of the king of Oslo and all his kin last night. I might spare the Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe goblins if they swear loyalty to me on their magic, and the Phvyhgs mercenaries will sign contracts to work for me for five years."
Harry turned to the mob of prisoners and said, "Swear to King Ragnok. He has enough heads as trophies. If you don't, you'll all end up as food for his dragons."
While the crowd of prisoners made their pledges of loyalty to King Ragnok, Harry made his way to the headmaster and professor.
"Good morning, Mr Potter," Bennet said. "Are you well? Are there healed wounds or bruises under your clothes that I can't see?"
"I didn't get touched in the fighting," Harry replied but paused when Flitwick cleared his throat and pointed to the sliver knives sticking in three of the heads on poles.
"Well, Dobby and I were…"
"No, Mr Harry Potters, not make Dobby complicit in his battle!" the elf insisted as he stuffed more socks into his sack.
"We ran away from the fighting toward the family hallway leading to the family dens, but the mercenaries and Viking goblins appeared behind us," Harry explained. "I protected the hallway with the shield on my ring and threw silver knives at the Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe."
Bennet's lips twisted to hear his student use a goblin curse, but Flitwick growled, "Don't use those words. Only a warrior who carries a goblin blade can use those words."
"Mr Harry Potters gots a goblin blade now," Dobby said sorrowfully. "King Rag of Rocks give it to Mr Harry Potters when wizard with new runes makes bubblehead charms that let King attack Viking Goblins in Osolos, Norways."
"A knife?" asked Flitwick.
Harry pulled out his knife, an eight-inch blade with a hilt of gold engraved with goblin runes and the king's emblem. Flitwick fell silent, and Bennet turned pale, "Potter put that away."
"It's okay, headmaster. The king told me to pull out my knife anytime I wanted inside Gringotts," the teenager replied. "It is a second magical focus, like my wand."
Flitwick sighed, "We'll add lessons for wielding the knife to your schedule, Freshgold."
"What happened with the Masters?" asked Bennet. "Did they endorse the papers from Tofty and Smithers?"
"Not yet," Harry admitted. "Most of them slept through the invasion."
Bloodhook said, "And they haven't awakened yet."
Dobby whispered, "Mr Harry Potters be turning off ill-intent."
"Okay, Dobs," the wizard said and very shortly after that, the sleeping wizards began stirring.
"What happened? What magic is this? What did you do to us?" shouted the groggy Masters of Runes. It took an hour for the wizards to get cleaned up, get some food and drink, and settle down. During this time, Bennet sent his Patronus to Augusta with news that Mr Potter was well and without injury, and Flitwick spoke to their guide, the young goblin from earlier in the morning. After an animated conversation, the half-human began snickering whenever he glanced at Harry.
"What's so funny, Flitwick?" asked Bennet after five minutes of the half-goblin's snickers that erupted whenever he looked at the young wizard.
"The goblins…they're not waiting for their pups to hatch this autumn to name their children after Harry Freshgold Potter. Our guide was named 'Hornet' until this morning when he asked to change his name to 'Goldie' until he is old enough to be blooded. Naturally, his father and mother agreed. This morning, there are four Harry's, four Potter's, eight Fresh's and seven other 'Gold's or Goldie's' in the goblin youth that volunteered to carry messages and act as escorts today."
"That's a great honour," Bennet admitted though he grinned while Harry Potter blushed brightly.
Dobby whispered, "Dobby stays invisible, so no goblin eggs named Dobby."
Ragnok disposed of the final goblins and hit-wizards as Professors Tofty and Smithers returned to the royal cavern after meeting with Minister Diggory and bringing the wizard up to date with the status of the bank and the problems with the Masters of Runes.
SCENE BREAK: Ministry for Magic
"The goblins will deal with the guild of masters of runes," Smithers told Diggory to relieve his concerns. "Some individuals manipulated the meetings to arrange for the invasion yesterday morning. Ragnok owns Gringotts Oslo now, and he'll get the names of every wizard who brought about the invasion."
"What about the goblins? Will they walk away?" asked Diggory.
Tofty snorted and said, "King Ragnok killed all the goblin conspirators last night in Oslo. That king and his family were all executed, I'm certain. We should return and hope to prevent a bloodbath of wizard's blood."
SCENE BREAK: Back in Royal Cavern
Professor Tofty and Professor Smithers greeted the Italian Professors and reviewed the demonstrated runic arrays from the previous night. The Masters of Runes continued to shout and demand proof without the confidentiality agreement.
"Stupid wizards!" roared King Ragnok. "Your own laws demand you keep Freshgold's secrets. If you ignore your laws, your magic will kill you or worse, leave you muggles."
The Masters of Runes argued until King Ragnok reminded them about the Norwegian wizards who sat in cells waiting for trials as conspirators to invade Gringotts London.
"Those Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe will answer my questions," Ragnok replied. "Some of them will die by the axe before the end of the day. Do you want to join them?"
The Spanish wizards continued to protest with the king, who finally agreed they could leave but only after signing statements they witnessed nothing of Mr Harry Potter's advancements. The Italian wizards all signed the confidentiality agreements. In a private chamber, Harry demonstrated creating the four-layer brother plates using sheets of paper, golden nuggets, and simple rocks from the chamber floor. The wizard gifted the six Italians with a dozen four-layer brother plates, making the Masters of Runes more accepting of the young wizard's confidentiality. Tofty and Smithers were also gifted with a dozen sets of plates, leaving Professor Flitwick to grouse, "Mr Potter, you give away galleons like water."
King Ragnok directed the Masters of Runes to write their report and statements that he would approve before they left for home. Harry left with Headmaster Bennet and Professor Flitwick to return to Hogwarts. Dobby collected the socks of the remaining prisoners and popped away as his wizard stepped through the floo.
SCENE BREAK: Hogwarts AgainIt was late in the afternoon when Harry returned to Hogwarts, and Professor Flitwick escorted him to the Gryffindor Tower, where his friends (and Ron) welcomed him 'home' and asked lots of questions about the fighting at Gringotts. Glad that no one asked about runes for once, he described the Viking goblins and the hit-wizards with their helmets with great horns and their knives and wands. Lady Augusta sent an elf with an invitation to tea, where she and Professor Carter checked him from head to toe. Satisfied that he was well, she admired the knife given to him by the king and grounded him from flying for two weeks.
"You shortened my life by a full year," Augusta fussed while she fed him biscuits with perfect tea while Neville read out loud from the special edition of the Daily Prophet with more details about the fight in Gringotts. This Saturday Supplement arrived via Hedwig with more pictures of the fighting in the hallways and caverns. Harry's friend read the story and photos from one of the surviving hit-wizards who shared his memory of silver knives flying through an impenetrable shield and pinning wizards and goblins to the stone walls around them. The wizard was quoted saying, "There was flight after flight of silver knives flying faster than any spell. They came out of nowhere!"
Harry's adventures were discussed at every table in the Great Hall at supper, even Slytherin. Many students were afraid of him, but the others reassured their classmates. One upper-year student said, "Potter's done nothing but look out for us here at Hogwarts. In his second year, he killed the basilisk. And the story is he banished the Dementors. Do you remember them?"
Most telling for the students was the arrival of Fawkes, who landed in front of Harry and fussed at him for five minutes with ideas of how he could have done things differently.
"Yes, ma'am," he told the phoenix. "I'll do more testing next time I wear more than one of my runic arrays. The castle wants me to use the Come and Go Room for testing."
Everyone knew the boy-who-lived was forgiven when the phoenix moved to sit in a chair next to one of her students so he could eat and feed her the grapes, cumquats, and apple slices. Headmaster Emeritus Dumbledore whispered about the dangers of the boy going dark under the influence of goblins. However, he stopped when Flitwick leapt on the tabletop and stepped around Bennet and Longbottom's place settings to kick the old wizard's plate and flagon into his lap and remind Dumbledore that he would be glad to give the wizard a demonstration of his duelling skills anytime he wanted.
"Goblins know that magic is magic – there is no such thing as dark and light in magic. It is stupid wizards who don't study all magic and understand there is a balance!"
That night, Dobby placed silencing charms around his wizard's bed and remained at the foot of the bed to wake Mr Harry Potter when his nightmares returned. There was only one episode, but Dobby quickly woke Harry, fed him a small cup of hot chocolate and got his teenager back to sleep. The elf managed several hours of sleep as well and popped away before dawn to begin his share of the chores at Hogwarts.
CHANGE SCENE: Sunday and the Dancing HeadsThe interest in Gringotts continued the following day with the expanded Sunday edition of the Daily Prophet. There were pictures of King Ragnok and his advisors, still wearing their bloody bandages (though the wounds had all been healed) because the bandages proved they'd bleed for Gringotts in battle. There were pictures of the Viking helmets and weapons taken from the dead and captured attackers and photos of the prisoners.
Augusta Longbottom asked Professor Lupin, "Don't people in Norway wear socks? None of these wizards or goblins have socks?"
Remus looked through the paper and agreed, "It does appear strange. I'm certain they wear socks in Norway because of their winters."
The house-elf who served the staff table in the Great Hall appeared, and the faculty members immediately noticed the elf wore a pair of clean but mismatched woollen socks on her feet. The elf bowed politely and announced, "Cookie says that the great and wonderful Dobby Potter Elf won socks in battles with nasty wizards and dirty goblins from Viking Norway. Dobby washes socks and gives them to poor house-elves with cold feet."
"Dobby took their socks?" asked Augusta asked for confirmation.
The elf nodded her head and explained, "Mr Harry Freshgold Potters knocks their socks off, and Bloodhook-Bloody-Axe tells Dobby Elf he can have socks that get knocked off. So, Dobby Elf knocks down wizards and goblinses and takes their warm-warm socks. King Rag of Rocks thinks it great!"
Don't you want a matching pair of socks?" asked Professor Lupin.
The elf giggled and replied, "That be boring. Cookie has one green sock and one black sock. That much more fun."
Headmaster Emeritus Dumbledore frowned and said, "Why do the elves get socks from the loot of the war? That's terrible that the poor defeated goblins and wizards have cold feet."
Reading more articles in The Daily Prophet, Augusta commented, "Albus, they got to keep their heads attached to their necks. They can buy new socks now that Rag of Rocks is their king."
Harry Potter with Neville and the other Gryffindor students strolled into the Great Hall for breakfast and Hedwig flew in with her wizard's copy of the newspaper.
"Oi! Potter! Look on page four! You're famous again!" shouted a witch from the Ravenclaw table. Everyone in the hall shuffled their newspapers to find the identified page where the paper's editor placed the articles that reported on Harry's demonstration of his runic arrays that made the dozens of four-layer plates that he then gifted to the Masters of Runes. The masters admitted they could not speak about the actual techniques used but agreed that they worked incredibly quickly without reservation.
Professor Tofty and Professor Smithers spoke about Potter's contribution to Gringotts counter-attack. They explained, "The goblins used some secret magic to disarm the entire tribe in Oslo, and Mr Potter used runes to create a bubblehead charm that would fit on the Gringotts London goblin warriors and last for as long as they needed it. He made 3,000 artefacts so that every goblin warrior in London had one."
The reporter added that when she asked how long it took, the professors shook their heads and said, "He tested the first one for over an hour, but then when it proved to work, he made three thousand in under three minutes from a pile of rocks with one nugget of gold and his new magic."
"That'll put the kneazles into the chicken house," said Bennet. "I'll check all the wards, and no, Dumbledore; you can't have access to them again."
The headmaster looked right toward Flitwick and said, "Filius, talk to Mr Potter about his new training today. There'll be visitors trying to get into the castle to talk to him."
In the kitchens at Hogwarts, where the elves went about their tasks while wearing their trophy socks, the kneazles wandered in for some cream and tuna fish. One of the elves laid The Daily Prophet down on the floor for the kneazles to look at the pictures, and several of the intelligent creatures seemed to take great interest in the photo of the heads mounted on stakes in the royal cavern.
As soon as possible, four kneazles found Dobby Potter Elf, and the elf had an exciting conversation with the two males and two females before popping away from Hogwarts with the four and returning without them later.
Recognising the kneazles were plotting something, Dobby spoke to Cookie about taking four kneazles to live in Gringotts London. They immediately climbed the poles to sit on the heads staring across the royal cavern.
"Kitties will nightmare Dumbledores tonight for certain," Cookie said. "Cookie be warning elves in his tower."
In the early morning hours, Dumbledore woke from restless sleep to find the heads of Gravis McMillian, Severus Snape, Alastor Moody, Bartemius Crouch Sr, and Millicent Bagnold on poles marching around his bed. And then his own head appeared on a pole while a goblin carried it around the bed chanting, "White Bee's head on display! White Bee's lost his sting!"
Screaming, the headmaster emeritus ran down the stairs to his office and tripped. Albus landed hard on his face, and an elf popped into his office to grab him by his nightclothes and pop him to the infirmary. The elves immediately cleaned the wizard's bedchamber and removed all the poles and the cabbages the kneazles used for Crouch and Bagnold's heads. When the kneazles reappeared, the elves returned their trophy heads and advised, "Too many pranks gets youse in trouble. Be's careful and don't get caught."
END OF CHAPTER