Harry took to decorating and finishing the coven house with relish.
"I'll be here all summer," he said cheerfully. "It'll give me something constructive to do."
They all went to Diagon Alley to look for books on magical construction and building before returning with their small haul, everyone scanning for anything helpful they could use. There were a few spells, but they were very advanced, and they eventually decided on using a mix of magic and muggle to get by.
Magical light globes were obtained from Horizont Alley, ones that proclaimed they could get "as bright as the sun", as well as a chandelier and another large central light structure.
"I want to see if I can figure out how it works," Harry admitted. "If I can take this apart, and then hook it up to a muggle ceiling fan, and get that to work off of the enchantments…"
"It is summer," Luna mused. "It's bound to get humid and hot in here eventually."
Mosquito nets were procured from a local muggle hardware to go over the windows. Harry and Luna also got piping and a wire mesh, to Hermione's surprise.
"The idea is we'll plant moss here," Luna explained. "It can have dirt for roots in the middle, between two layers of mesh, and the moss will grow out either side. That way, the moss can filter the room for us – take out the humidity and anything bad in the air, and give us clean, good air on the other side."
It was the oddest air purifier Hermione had ever heard of, but she was curious to see if it would work.
They worked on the house project Monday and all day Tuesday, but Wednesday, Hermione needed to see the goblins. She'd intended to leave the others happily working on the coven house while she went to Gringotts instead, but Blaise gave her a pointed look, and it was with a hesitance that Hermione slowly nodded, leading Blaise to get to his feet and join her instead.
"We're going to Gringotts to handle a couple things," Hermione said briskly. "Does anyone need anything from Diagon Alley?"
"Gloves," Susan said immediately. "Magical work gloves or gardening gloves, if they have them. Not something like potions or Quidditch gloves."
"Can you get a magical pot for us?" Harry asked. "Like a rice cooker or something? I haven't figured out how all the stuff in the kitchen works, and it'd be nice to be able to make at least something here until it's all set up."
"Bring back yourselves, and that is what I want the most," Luna said, and Blaise frowned.
"What, you don't need anything?" he asked.
"If I must say something," Luna said, eyes dancing, "then bring me back a rose."
Hermione snorted. "We'll try not to get captured by a beast."
As they headed off to Luna's house to use the Floo, Hermione grumbled about the walk through the brambles.
"We need to get the coven house put onto the Floo network," she said. "That's a Ministry visit, and I'm not sure what kind of check they do for that sort of thing, but we'll need to figure that out."
Blaise shrugged. "Susan might know. She's been around the Ministry a lot."
"Not a bad idea," Hermione mused.
"So what are we doing with the goblins?" Blaise asked, eyeing Hermione sideways. "Going to spearhead another strike or revolution?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Hardly. I just want to discuss my accounts."
The Lovegood Floo took them first to Hermione's house, where she ran up to get her sword. Blaise eyed it curiously when she came back down.
"They take offense if you don't wear that when you're there?" he asked.
"They do," Hermione said, smiling weakly. "It's a bit weird wearing it in Diagon Alley, but I've gotten used to it."
Blaise whistled. "Fair enough."
It was early enough in the day that not many people were at Diagon Alley yet, and they had an uneventful stroll from the Leaky Cauldron down the road to the bank. Hermione paused at the entrance, looking at Blaise.
"Just… follow my lead," she said finally. "I work hard to be polite to the goblins."
Blaise raised an eyebrow, but he nodded wordlessly, and Hermione pulled open the door and went inside.
There were few people about this early, and voices were a soft murmur within the hall. One goblin was counting sapphires at the counter while another helped a witch. When it was Hermione's turn, she bowed to goblin.
"I would speak with Bloodthorne," she requested.
The goblin sneered at her. "Would Bloodthorne speak with you?"
"If you would ask him, you would know," she shot back.
The goblin smirked, hopped off its stool, and walked away.
"What was that?" Blaise whispered. "Who's Bloodthorne?"
"Bloodthorne is… sort of my account manager?" Hermione ventured. "He's been the goblin helping me the most since I entered the magical world."
The original goblin came back with Bloodthorne, who smiled widely at seeing Hermione and Blaise, showing many pointy teeth.
"You would trust a companion with your affairs?" he cackled. "Hermione Granger, oh, your trust would ruin you if I were to not to help you keep your guard."
"Blaise is very trustworthy!" Hermione protested, and Bloodthorne cackled again, leading them through the bank to a private consultation room.
"I have contracts for you to sign," he informed her, handing her a stack of parchment and a quill. Hermione sighed but began signing them, wincing each time as she wrote her name, blood shining on the signature line. Blaise's eyes grew wide, but he had the sense not to say a word about the quill.
"As before, some of those offered loans have failed the terms of their agreements," Bloodthorne told her. "They have forfeited their collateral. As was our agreement, you have first rights to it, before it is sold."
"Oh," Hermione said, surprised. "Um. Okay. Sure. We can look at it now."
Bloodthorne summoned a smaller goblin to him, muttered something to him rapidly in Goblidon, and the younger goblin scurried away, presumably to fetch a cart while Hermione kept signing contracts, not bothering to read each one. Finally she finished, and Bloodthorne packed them away with satisfaction.
"Thornbite will be back shortly," he said. His eyes gleamed. "Now, Hermione Granger, what would you want to discuss with Gringotts?"
Hermione took a deep breath.
"I want to buy a business," she said. "I have no idea how to go about doing that. Not in the wizarding world. I was hoping for help."
Bloodthorne snorted.
"If you would find the owner of a business and offer them a large sum of gold, they would sell you the business," he said, waving clawed fingers lazily. "It would not be difficult."
"I think it's a bit more complicated than that this time, I'm afraid," Hermione said. "I want to buy the Daily Prophet."
Bloodthorne froze, then sat up slowly.
"You," he said, eyes glinting. "You would buy the wizarding paper?"
"That's the goal," Hermione said, holding eye contact steadily.
Bloodthorne stared at her for a long moment, before he threw his head back, cackling wildly. When he stopped, he grinned at her, showing many pointy teeth.
"I would help you with this, Hermione Granger," he told her, smirking deeply. "Oh, I would help you."
As they waited for the other goblin to return, Bloodthorne loosely sketched out a plan. He would go through account records to discover who owned the Daily Prophet. Based on that, he would try to discover what the annual profit of the paper was to make a recommendation about how much to offer to buy it.
"It may not be accurate; I would not know of the total expenses," Bloodthorne warned. He sneered. "Goblins do not do accounting and payroll for wizards."
Contracts involving the exchange of large sums of money were something that Gringotts often oversaw, Hermione learned. Gringotts would be happy to prepare the documents of sale for the paper, for a price.
"Wizards, when left to make deals, swear on their magic or life," Bloodthorne said. He rolled his eyes. "Useless. A blood-bound contract, iron-clad, is more helpful in betrayal than seeing your enemy rendered a muggle."
When the little goblin finally returned, it was pushing a large, heavy cart. It leaned on it, panting for a moment, before running off, and Bloodthorne dragged the cart closer to his desk.
"Collateral," he said, nodding. "First, we have an heirloom trunk."
The trunk was enormous, and keyed with five locks. Each time a lock was opened, a different compartment was revealed, most of them larger than the trunk itself.
"How deep do they go?" Hermione asked curiously. "This fourth one, I think I could stand in."
"Some heirloom trunks stretch space to go underground," Bloodthorne said. "I would not know the dimensions of this one; you would need to measure."
"I'll take this," Hermione said, pleased. "What a helpful trunk!"
Next up was an ugly ring. It was a tarnished silver and very square-shaped, with a manticore on the top, and Hermione was about to pass when Blaise touched her arm.
"If you would, I'll have this," Blaise said. "I've seen these, but never had one of my own before."
It wasn't as if Hermione couldn't afford it; she told Bloodthorne that she'd take the ugly ring as well, and Bloodthorne made a mark on his list.
She passed on a Hand of Glory, a heavy collar of pearls, took a book on magical plants, and passed on a creepy looking mask.
"We have another mask, but this one from Mahoutokoro," Bloodthorne said, setting a wooden mask on the table. "A mask, an ancient calligraphy set, a magical origami pad, and an enchanted fan of gold."
Hermione examined the set. The mask was wooden, carved and painted, but it didn't provoke fear or revulsion this time at least. The calligraphy set was a fancy gilded brush with multicolored inks, and the fan was beautiful, though Hermione was cautious when she picked it up.
"What does it do?" she asked.
"I would not know." Bloodthorne smirked. "I did not test the unknown enchantment on the fan."
Wary, Hermione set the fan back down, before looking at the origami pad.
"What's magical origami, anyway?" she asked. "How's it different?"
"I have only seen it but once," Bloodthorne said. "When the wizard offered this collateral, he folded a crane, which took flight around the room."
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's kind of cute, actually. Can I just take the paper pad?"
Bloodthorne rolled his eyes. "Taking only part of the collateral makes things complicated. You would do nothing simply, would you."
Hermione grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
Next was a small collection of strange-looking statues, all loosely shaped to be vaguely human.
"These are golems," Bloodthorne said.
Hermione stared. "Do they move?"
"If one knows the Hebrew spells," Bloodthorne said. "I do not know these, though."
Hermione passed on the golems, though she kept the idea of trying to make her own automaton in the back of her mind.
"Lastly, we have a reticule," Bloodthorne said, setting what looked like a small, beaded handbag on the table. "It has an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. We have verified its stability; we have not verified the enchanter had the required licenses to cast the charm on it when it was enchanted."
"A license to cast a charm?" Hermione asked, astonished.
"The Ministry doesn't like people doing Extension Charms willy-nilly," Blaise said from her side. "They're very difficult, and they're one of the easiest ways to get caught by muggles. They authorize people who make luggage and tents and the like to use them, but for something like a purse…" He shrugged. "It's anybody's guess."
Hermione looked at Bloodthorne. "It's stable?"
"It is," he confirmed. "We have determined it will not collapse."
"Then I'll take this, too," Hermione said, nodding. "Thank you."
Bloodthorne worked out the math on what Hermione now owed Gringotts for the collateral she had claimed, and Blaise started putting things into the small bag.
"This seriously fits this entire trunk," Blaise exclaimed, watching as the purse swallowed the giant heirloom trunk up, sitting there almost smug afterwards. "This is mad!"
"I want to learn this charm," Hermione said enviously, watching as it swallowed up Blaise's ugly ring as well. "If it's N.E.W.T.-level, I stand a chance, don't you think?"
"Don't see why not," Blaise said, feeding the book on plants and origami pad to the handbag as well. "I've never known you to not master something you put your mind to."
When Bloodthorne told Hermione the amount that would be deducted from her vault in exchange for the collateral, Blaise choked, but Hermione merely nodded and stood.
"You'll let me know what you find out about the Daily Prophet?" she asked. "I'm hoping to move quickly with this."
Bloodthorne's eyes gleamed. "I would send an owl, Hermione Granger, as soon as I learn."