The Ministry of Magic was a grand and sparkling building, and served as a source of pride to the bureaucrats of the Wizarding World. The building had been founded many years prior, when the era of monarchs had ended in both worlds, wizard and mundane. The everyday folk suddenly found themselves being given the power to choose who to lead them rather than just follow the orders of a king, and many people threw themselves into politics in order to gain wealth and power.

With so many wizards interested in the government, a so-called "golden" age of rules and regulation began, and many magical creatures realized that the verbal agreements they used to share with the humans had all suddenly needed to be written down, signed, and put away in vast rows of filing cabinets.

Rather than deal with the nightmare that was paperwork, many magical creatures left Great Britain or formed their own groups to claim protection rights. The Veela created their legendary enclaves, the rumors of which fueled the fantasies of every teenage boy who had ever had the pleasure of seeing one of these creatures. The werewolves and vampires formed packs within their respective groups, and these creatures of the night split up throughout Great Britain and its neighboring countries searching for places to live and hunt. Even the Mermen left their well known underwater cities, grouping together in a massive hidden lake and disappearing from the eye of society.

Surprisingly, there was one group that realized the opportunity given to them and actually formed written agreements with the Wizarding race. The goblins were violent and vindictive creatures, however their violence was usually only directed towards each other and was often just an excuse to bash dangerous weapons against each other to test their strength. The Wizards, well aware of the nature of the short but powerful creatures signed several agreements with them, including one that allowed goblins to create their own version of a wizarding wand known as a short stave.

Years passed, with fairly little interaction occurring between both races, until one fateful year came around. The Goblin Rebellion of 1612 went down in history as the most violent Goblin Rebellion that ever occured, with squads of armed goblins tearing through wizardkind with little regard for their own safety. The exact cause of this rebellion was written down as "unknown" in all official documents, and the wizards prided themselves on being the victors in the conflict. Using the opportunity presented to them, the wizards passed numerous laws to ban Goblins from using wands and prevented any and all representation of the Goblins in the Wizengamot from then till all time.

The Goblins were furious when they learned about the new laws, and talk of a second great rebellion instantly started among themselves. The drums started beating, old broken weapons were melted down and reforged, and the air grew thick with anticipation. War seemed inevitable, until one old goblin stepped forward in their underground square and shouted STOP!

Much like wizards, goblins grew stronger and wiser with age. Unlike wizards however, old goblins were significantly harder to find, as most goblins desired to die in the heat of battle and upon reaching their third or fourth decade of life set out on glorious, death seeking adventure. This resulted in the living majority of goblin society being young and inexperienced goblins, fighting to rise up in the ranks to one day have enough wealth and influence to fund their own glorious death seeking adventures.

With an elder goblin demanding to be heard, the drums slowed down and the forges were put on hold, as the goblins gathered together to listen to the only goblin to ever reach past a century in age. If any wizard saw this scene they would be astonished, as with a single word all attention was put upon the one armed goblin standing above the rest, with not a single distracted goblin seen for the miles around.

The goblin in question shone with a clear sense of purpose, standing tall and holding on to a beautifully decorated cane with his one remaining arm, the other side of him covered by a long and blood splattered cloak. This goblin went by the name of Ragnarok, a name given to him by enemies for his reputation of destroying all that crossed his path, regardless of how strong his opponent was. Ragnarok was considered a living legend, the Merlin of the goblins so to say, and when he spoke everyone listened.

"Hear me brothers and sisters, we must stop this foolishness at once! Going to war again will do nothing but cause us even more bloodshed and suffering then it already has!" The older goblin bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls of the underground cavern and reaching the ears of every goblin around. The crowd immediately started muttering amongst themselves, with a brave few even whispering that the old warrior had gone senile, as Goblins did not ever run away from the idea of war and violence.

One young goblin, who had no remarkable traits to him other than a small fang bracelet handing off his arms, bravely went up to the front of the crowd and asked "If we cannot go to war, what should we do o wise elder?" Ragnarok looked down upon the goblin, and lifted his only hand up while holding his cane. A small bag immediately flew out of the young goblins pocket, floating until it reached Ragnarok.

"We shall use this to prevent war, and we shall do it wisely" Ragnarok stated, as a single gold coin floated out of the pouch. The younger goblins looked confused, but the ones that had already fought and won their way to the top of goblin hierarchy simply looked among themselves and nodded. All creatures knew the value of pure gold, and with the goblins being the race with the most gold they immediately understood the potential they had in controlling it.

And so the Goblins started providing the wizards with gold, silver, and bronze coins, with each coin holding a constant value and charmed unbreakable with goblin magic. The wizards were naturally distrustful of these goblin coins at first, but greed soon won over and people started bartering and eventually selling goods and services with goblin money. Many years passed, and soon enough the bloodthirsty nature of the goblins was instead "understood" by the wizards to be nothing more than the viciousness of a banker. While the forges still rumbled underground, the humans grew ignorant of the original might of the goblin nation, and in fact the goblins did nothing themselves that would remind the wizards of their original nature.

It wasn't until just before the rise of Voldemort that the goblins took advantage of their control over the economy to get certain agreements passed between the wizards and the goblins. There was no need for a revolution this time, as all the goblins had to do was close the bank for a day and watch as the wizards began fighting amongst themselves. Unfortunately for the goblin nation, the original ruling of the wizengamot was unable to be overturned due to the magics that had gone into the laws, immense magic that would cause all wands to reject the goblin race and would prevent any goblin from setting foot into the ministry of magic.

While this was annoying to say the least, the goblins learned from their past and instead established a code of conduct between the two races, a code that was signed in blood by both the current minister of magic and the eldest goblin of the nation. This code would become the basis of any interaction between the two races, and while there was no love between wizards and goblins there was at least a sense of tolerance.

The goblins avoided meddling in wizarding affairs, and the wizards avoided doing anything to involve themselves in goblin ones. At least until one fateful day when a young man saw his only chance at a family get thrown through a midnight black veil and screamed…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all rights go to J.K. Rowling.