February 1st approached more quickly than Hermione had expected, given the dreariness of January, and the week prior found her very stressed, doing her best to wrap her preparations for everything up.
Jade had agreed to attempt the fertility ritual with Milan, who had been excited and over the moon. The first ritual they'd be doing would be the night of Imbolc, February 1st, and Hermione had worked with her coven in the library several times, all of them theorizing elements to include and suggestions of couplets to use.
Before the ritual that night, though, Hermione had a busy day planned. The Wizengamot was that day, so she'd be Time-Turning for that. It was also one of the few days she could practice jumping the ley lines, so she was going to probably Time-Turn back to practice that more, too. And so long as it worked, she was going to 'jump' to Diagon Alley and return Harry's Firebolt to Quality Quidditch Supplies in exchange for a new, unjinxed one – just in time for the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game that Saturday.
It was this last one that Harry was most concerned with, even moreso than the ritual. He loaned her his invisibility cloak almost eagerly for her mission, which she had only explained to him in the vaguest terms.
"It's best if you keep the Firebolt hidden," Harry urged her. "If we can take care of this without any of the professors getting involved…"
"Agreed," Hermione said, nodding and taking the cloak. "Who knows what they would try and do?"
When Imbolc finally dawned, Hermione awoke alert and ready, determination flowing through her veins.
Classes passed in a blur. Hermione performed well in each of them, as expected, but she neglected answering questions in favor of centering herself. She wore the faerie stone beneath her robes, and she tried to feel for the ley lines crossing Hogwarts while her professors lectured. It was difficult, with so many crossing each other, but Hermione began to get a vague sense of different streams of magic throughout the castle, criss-crossing all over the place. It was a promising start.
The Wizengamot session was a lot of arguing that Hermione had nothing to do with. A few of the regional representatives had received complaints from their residents about the dementors constantly lurking around Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, saying their businesses were negatively affected and seeking damages from the Ministry. Fudge was affronted, taking this seemingly as a personal attack, and Amelia Bones was compelled to vehemently defend the dementors' presence, also arguing that they only patrolled at night. Several of the Sacred Twenty-Eight seemed amused at the tussle, and a few of them voiced support in favor of the shopkeepers – if the Ministry caused this damage to their businesses, surely it was up to the Ministry to take responsibility for all the consequences?
Hermione suspected it was just for amusement and because they were bored and liked stirring up trouble. She doubted any of them really cared what happened one way or the other with the shopkeepers.
The arguing did seem to tax Dumbledore, though, the twinkle in his eye fading and his smile becoming strained as he moderated angry people yelling and fighting. When the session was finally over, Dumbledore guided Hermione through the Floo and dismissed her immediately, practically falling backwards to collapse into his seat. Exhaustion lined his face, and Hermione was reminded that though he was incredibly powerful and had a strong presence, Dumbledore was over a hundred years old.
Hopefully his fatigue would keep him from paying too close attention to what all was going on in the castle later that night. Hermione had many plans to keep.
Tolly was practically vibrating with excitement when Hermione stopped by the kitchens to get her just before dinner. She was wearing an entirely different sort of pillowcase than she normally did, this one dyed sky blue with a large front pocket.
"It is meaning I is coming in peace," Tolly explained to Hermione. "I is also bringing a pie."
"That's… very kind of you," Hermione said, blinking. She didn't see a pie anywhere. "Do goblins eat pie?"
"I is not knowing," Tolly admitted. "But I is hoping they is thinking it is thoughtful anyway."
At Hermione's request, Tolly took them to a large pantry off of the kitchen, stocked with dry goods of all kinds. Wooden shelves went up the entire height of the walls, some of them probably 9, 10 feet high. There were wooden ladders on wheels attached to a track at the ceiling, presumably to help the short House Elves reach things.
"No one was here hours ago," Tolly assured her. "I is making sure."
"Excellent." Hermione squared her shoulders, adjusting the sword at her hip and the broom at her side. "Are you ready, Tolly?"
Tolly scrunched her face up as if she was about to get ice water dumped over her. "I is ready."
Carefully, Hermione kneeled down, encircling the House Elf's neck with the Time-Turner's chain as well. She twisted it four times, careful not to go back too far, and the pantry blurred slightly around them. The light coming through the window brightened, and once things steadied and stopped, Hermione took the chain off of Tolly.
"It's now early afternoon," Hermione told Tolly. "The other you is in the kitchen right now, doing whatever you did earlier today. No one will know if you go missing from the grounds, because you're right where you're supposed to be."
"I understands." Tolly nodded vigorously. "Is we going to be popping?"
"That's the plan," Hermione admitted. She looked at Tolly sideways. "Unless things go horribly wrong, that is."
"Missy Hermione is taking along a House Elf in case she is getting herself stuck," Tolly said slyly. "You is wanting me to save you if you is needing saving."
"That wasn't my original intention, but it did cross my mind," Hermione said, smirking. "Shall we try?"
Tolly took Hermione's free hand, as her other held the Firebolt. "I is ready."
Hermione took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Her magic, once centered, could feel ley lines even closer now, it seemed. It was as if being closer to the earth made them easier to feel. Hermione focused on her intent, holding a firm sense of her identity and Tolly in her mind, and she reached out with her magic, her destination locked in her mind.
Her magic passed through the ley line and reached the thin veil of mist Hermione remembered from before. She shivered, and with a deep breath, she drew it aside.
There was a feeling of being twisted up and tightly squeezed, like being compressed into a sort of bolus as the ley line swallowed them up, and a cold, chill wind hit her body before she fell through another thin sheet of cold mist, popping out of the ley line with a gasp.
"I did it," Hermione gasped. She tried to catch her breath. "I did it!"
"You is doing it! And you is doing an okay job of it," Tolly praised, cocking her head. "It is being kind of fall-y and twisty, but you is doing an okay job." The House Elf beamed up at her, and Hermione found herself smiling back, breathless.
As Hermione caught her breath, she looked around. They had appeared not by Gringotts, as she would have expected, but at the entrance to Knockturn Alley. She reached out, curious, only to feel that the ley line here ran down the length of Diagon Alley before taking a turn into Knockturn Alley. The ley line itself didn't get close to Gringotts at all.
Well. It wasn't like it mattered, Hermione thought. It was just… interesting. She wondered if it was so no one could 'pop' into the bank to rob it.
As Hermione and Tolly made their way to Gringotts, Hermione interrogated Tolly about her opinion on her popping.
"When you is popping, you is going through the line," Tolly said wisely.
"I understand that," Hermione said. "What I don't understand is what you mean about it feeling like we were falling."
"You is falling through the line instead of walking," Tolly stressed. "When you is pulling back the veil, you is needing to step through it, not be toppling over."
Hermione knew what Tolly was talking about – there was the feeling of cool mist she had learned to draw aside – but she didn't know what it was.
"What's the veil?" Hermione asked. "What am I pulling back when popping?"
Tolly looked uneasy.
"Missy Hermione is aware of where Neemey is coming from?" she asked finally, large eyes darting around for eavesdroppers.
"I am…" Hermione said slowly.
"Well. That is being on the other side of the misty veil," Tolly said. "That is where you is falling into."
"I'm going through—" Hermione broke off, seeing the horrified look on Tolly's face, and quickly course-corrected. "I'm going to—popping is a shortcut through where Neemey is from?"
"Yes and no," Tolly said. She looked uncertain. "The lines, they is going through Neemey's homeland, as well as here, Tolly's homeland. They is running magic in both places. If you is popping, you needs to be in both places at once, or you is being just stuck in the line."
Hermione hadn't known that. She'd thought of the ley lines like rivers, starting at the source in the Faerie Realm, and then running down and through the earth. The way Tolly was explaining it, it sounded more like the ley lines were arteries and veins, pulsing magic through both realms at the same time, straddling the line between them and simultaneously in both worlds.
If that were the case, Hermione mused, what would be the heart of it all?
As they reached the bank, Tolly grew visibly more nervous, but she held her head high and her shoulders back, which made Hermione stifle a smile. It was clear Tolly was trying to act confident and proud, but with the size of a House Elf's head, holding one's head up and pushing the shoulders back, to lead with the chest and not the head, ended up looking very cartoonish and silly.
Hermione and Tolly entered Gringotts and got into a line, Tolly looking around with wide eyes.
"They is building all this?" she whispered. "This is—this is—"
"It's rather grand, isn't it?" Hermione said, helping her find the words.
Tolly nodded rapidly, overwhelmed.
"Tolly is rethinking this," she admitted. "If the goblinses can be building something like this, why would they be wanting anything to do with us House Elves?"
"You said you were family," Hermione encouraged. "Focus on that. Helping each other can come later, after there's some measure of trust built up."
They reached the front of the line, and Hermione bowed slightly to the goblin there, whose lip curled.
"Hermione Granger," it said flatly, eyes flicking to the sword at her hip. "Welcome."
Hermione couldn't tell from the goblin's tone if it was being sarcastic or not.
"Hello. I would speak with Bloodthorne," Hermione said.
The goblin raised an eyebrow.
"I would help you, if you would have it," the goblin drawled.
"It would have you leave your desk for an extended time," Hermione explained apologetically. "I would introduce the goblins to their long-lost family, and it would take some time."
"Family?" The goblin frowned and stood up, peering over the desk and looking down to see Tolly standing there, large eyes unblinking and slightly afraid. The goblin looked at Hermione quizzically. "You would claim goblins and… this… share an ancestor?"
"I would." Hermione kept her voice neutral. "Hence, it would take quite some time. I would speak with Bloodthorne on the matter, privately."
The goblin got up from its chair slowly, still peering at Hermione with suspicion.
"I will get Bloodthorne," it said finally. It waved a clawed hand at a bench against the far wall. "If you would wait there."
Hermione bowed. "Thank you."
She led Tolly over to a bench. Tolly was quaking in her pillowcase, clearly nervous, and Hermione's heart went out to her as her large eyes darted around, paranoid and alert.
"Everyone is staring at Tolly," she muttered, shaking her head back and forth over and over. "Tolly should not have come."
"House Elves aren't commonly seen," Hermione said. "I think people are just surprised."
"House Elves are not supposed to be seen," Tolly stressed. "A good House Elf is cleaning everything when peoples is asleep, and is cooking things in places where humans are not."
"You're not exactly doing normal House Elf duties right now, though, are you?" Hermione pointed out. "You're being an ambassador. I'd think being seen would be perfectly normal right now, wouldn't you?"
Tolly tilted her head, considering this deeply.
"That is making some sense," she conceded. Her quaking slowly stopped, though she still seemed on edge. "Tolly is being an ambassador for her people," she said, seeming to draw strength from the statement. "Tolly is an ambassador."
Hermione held back her amused smile and only let pride show in her eyes.
Bloodthorne came out some ten minutes later. When he did, to her immense surprise, he was accompanied by two other goblins behind him – ones wearing silver beaded wigs.
"Hermione Granger," he said. He bowed and grinned at her, showing her many teeth. "If you and your guest would follow me?"
Hermione stood and bowed as well. "With pleasure."
Bloodthorne led the party down two stone corridors and into what looked like a large conference room. Instead of being done entirely in stone and concrete, though, this one was rather grand, the large table being made of marble, the chairs another shade of marble with red velvet cushions to sit on. Hermione took a seat, Tolly climbing up onto the chair next to her. Tolly produced her pie as if from nowhere (had that been shrunken in her front pocket?) and set it onto the large table, and the goblins sat on the opposite side of the table from them.
"Earspike tells us you would introduce us to kin," one of the wigged goblins said, once they were all settled.
"I would," Hermione said confidently.
The goblins exchanged incredulous glances, while Bloodthorne looked amused.
"You are always bringing chaos and the unexpected, Hermione Granger," he pronounced. He turned to the small House Elf and bowed his head, eyes glittering. "Greetings. I am called Bloodthorne."
"Oh!" Tolly looked very surprised being addressed directly by the goblin. She popped up to stand on her seat, giving Bloodthorne a very flashy bow back. "I is Tolly! I is the Head Elf at Hogwarts."
"And what business would the Head House Elf from Hogwarts have with the Goblin Horde?" one of the wigged goblins asked dryly.
"I is not here as Head Elf," Tolly said indignantly. "I is here as an ambassador." She paused, reflecting. "Though, I maybe was picked because I is being Head Elf. But that is being another thing altogether."
"And you think we are kin?" Bloodthorne prodded. "Truly?"
"Yes!" Tolly looked more sure of her footing now. "We is getting a new elf at Hogwarts, who knows all the stories and is telling us where House Elves and goblinses are coming from! We is both coming from the same line, many many many many years ago. Tolly will tell you the story Neemey told her, so you can be listening and be believing it too."
The goblins all exchanged a significant look.
"And if we would believe you?" one asked. "If we would say you are kin?"
Tolly beamed.
"Then we would be being family!" she exclaimed. "We is being family then, and we can be helping each other and visiting at the holidays like families is doing normally."
The goblins looked thrown by this.
"Holidays?" Bloodthorne asked, puzzled. "And… you would just want to visit us?"
"Or you can be visiting us," Tolly amended. "Hogwarts is having a big kitchen. Tolly is not sure what kind of kitchen the gobinses is having."
"I believe the House Elves are just looking to see if you are, indeed, kin," Hermione interjected smoothly. "If you are, the House Elves of Hogwarts are looking to build a relationship and trust with you, so you might mutually aid each other. They think their magic may be able to help you, and that your knowledge may be able to help them."
Bloodthorne looked thoughtful, while the council members nodded slowly.
"Welcome, then, Ambassador," the taller silver-wigged goblin said. He bowed, his compatriot bowing as well. "We would hear your story, and we would listen to your tale."
Tolly's eyes lit up.
"I is telling it, then!" she declared. She clapped. "The story is starting long long ago, back when—"
Hermione bowed to the group, excusing herself now that the introductions had been made, and Bloodthorne escorted her out of the bank.
"I believe today is a school day," he remarked, giving her a slow, suspicious look. "Would you be skipping school?"
"I would never," Hermione said, indignant. "I would just be here and there, too."
Bloodthorne smirked, before shooing her out.
"I will make sure your elf gets back safely," he told her, waving his claws. "Go and cause your chaos somewhere else, Hermione Granger."
"You like my chaos," Hermione shot back, holding her chin up. "Admit it."
Bloodthorne cackled, grinning with beady eyes and showing many teeth.
"Goodbye, Hermione Granger," he bid her, eyes gleaming. "I would see you again, soon."