Harry Potter and the Refugees of Time

Chapter 4:

A Question of Provenance

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to the Harry Potter franchises or empire, not do I own anything of the Russian empire, although we do have a nice replicate Faberge egg. No money being made, no claims of ownership, nothing, squat

Rating: K

Synopsis: AU (so don't gripe about historical inaccuracies), Post-Hogwarts from Harry's POV. No shipping

Late August 2018, Gringotts', Honeblade's Office (continued)

Facetcutter now stood. "Now, about this stone..."

Honeblade nodded to Facetcutter, and remarked to the family "You all now present us with a unique problem. Because of this, I have requested the presence of Tarjwielder, the Senior Account Manager of the Romanov imperial account at Gringotts St Petersburg."

With this, a distinguished-looking older goblin entered the room. Nicholai stood to object.

"Honoured Goblins, our account manager was named 'Shattererofshields' and I remember his well. I do not know this goblin."

The newly introduced goblin nodded to Nicholai and said "Good sir, I do remember you, when my father was your accounts manager. I was his junior apprentice and observed from a hidden position, to learn the trade. My father was killed along with his three senior apprentices when the Bolsheviks tried to take over the bank, yelling 'private property is theft from the people'" Smiling to the other goblins, he continued "you must know that to our people, this is heresy!"

"Your steward and his assistant were also at the bank when the attack came. They fought well, but my father and his assistants fought extremely well. The usurper government supressed the news of the attack on the bank, as their attacking force had been completely obliterated while the bank stood. They tried many times to claim the assets of those they had murdered or driven into exile. To us, honourable combat and right of conquest is a given, but murder and theft are unacceptable. Their demands were always refused."

Honeblade glanced to me and suggested (formally) "Lord Potter, would you please explain the ritual we are about to conduct to our companions?" At my look of astonishment, he smiled and nodded. I returned the nod.

Turning to the family, I said "What you are about to witness, and perhaps participate in, translates as the Rite of Recognition. I believe this is considered a sacred ritual to the goblins, although I confess I do not understand their culture or religion sufficiently to be sure of any distinction between them, if there is one. Whichever it is, it is very important to them. All will stand, and the officiant will recite the names and deeds of the honoured fallen warriors. All respond, in whatever language you choose, 'The name is spoken! The name is heard! They will be remembered and honoured!' This is followed by a yell of defiance in the face of death."

"I do not know your religious beliefs well enough to know if the ritual conflicts with them. If this ritual is at odds of your own faith, you do not need to participate, but you would be expected to stand during it."

Nicholai looked to his family, who all nodded. Formally, he stated "We will participate." Alexei looked excited by this interesting event.

I continued "Honeblade has granted you a significant honour. By accepting the judgement of the rite of identity, you have all risked your lives voluntarily in pursuit of truth. For this action, he has called you companions for the purposes of the ritual."

Nicholai looked shocked, but turned to Honeblade and stated formally "Sir, my family and I thank you for this honour."

We all stood. The guards at the back of the room moved their weapons into a formal presentation posture. Tarjwielder began declaiming in the goblins' language, and four times, we recited the response. The younger Russians seemed to really enjoy the yell at the end of each announcement. Then Tarjwielder began declaiming in what I assumed to be Russian from the looks on the faces of the family, giving the names of Mikhail Valentinovitch Kroskuntrisky and Ivan Ilyich Kuriakin, each followed by our responses. He smiled at us all and said "Thank you." And we all sat again, except the Tsar.

He bowed to Tarjwielder, and said, "Honoured Goblin, on behalf of my valued steward and his assistant, I thank you for honouring their courage and sacrifice. The goblin smiled and said "They fought well at our side. It was their right and their due. We honour all our fallen, whoever they might be."

"Now, to prove my identity, I will reveal a secret that we are not to reveal to outsiders except in special circumstances. As a senior manager at Gringotts, I have the authority to declare this to be such a condition." With this, he looked to the other goblins who all nodded. "There are things to identify secrets about accounts that are only passed from a senior account manager to his replacement on his retirement, or on his deathbed, which are often the same in our culture. As my father was dying in the foyer of the bank and his other assistants had already succumbed to their injuries, he pulled me close enough to hear him say the word 'corsets'. I am sure you know of which I speak, although he did not have time to explain exactly what he meant before he faded into the void."

Anastasia stood and placed a garment on the table. "I think he must have meant one of these." Her mother looked shocked, but the young woman turned to her and said "Mama, I have told you that I prefer the newer more comfortable garments, and this is the time to reveal how we saved the jewels."

Tarjwielder's eyes widened, and he held his hand out and stated an incantation. The corset seemed to inflate as the presence of a host of small pockets appeared on the garment. Each pocket seemed to be full.

Nicholai nodded to his youngest daughter and said "After the 1905 so-called revolution, your father and Father Grigori both advised us to hide some of our more portable 'wealth' in a form that could be carried secretly, and your father put the spell on it so no one would know that the garments were anything but what is typical for them. This is why they were not taken from us during our imprisonment."

Tatiana looked to Facetcutter and blushing added "It was under my left breast that the stone you hold rested."

Honeblade smiled. "Your explanations are satisfactory. Facetcutter, please continue."

The jewelmaster nodded and looking to Tarjwielder explained. "Your situation has been explained to me. Therefore, the value of this flawless emerald is either one and three quarter million galleons, or zero, or everything you have and are."

"In the first case, had the jewel not had an extensive and well-known provenance, its value would be the first amount. However, as its existence is or was well-known to be part of the riches of the imperial family, there are many claims of ownership, including several cadet branches of the family and until such claims are adjudicated, it would hold no value to yourselves on the open market. However, if its current status and source is revealed, your own current existence would also be revealed, and your family's safety would be in extreme jeopardy."

"Therefore, it would be my recommendation that the stone be cut into a large number of smaller jewels, which could be sold over time on the more-or-less open market, and probably netting more than my original quote. If this were done by human jewelers, the cutting and polishing would lose about one-tenth of the mass of the stone, but f the work is done by our master jewelers, they can recover the fine dust and articles, and through their magic, reform the residue into new stones of excellent quality. The 'new' stones would constitute our fees for the work, and you would net over a million galleons. Certainly enough for a comfortable middle-class lifestyle."

I stood, and suggested "Perhaps it might be prudent to create and sell the fragments through other dealers or locations around the world." Facetcutter scowled and stood glaring at me.

Honeblade looked at me sharply. "Lord Potter, are you suggesting our services are inadequate?" This question had serious ramifications to my future health, as it implied that I had questioned the integrity and competence of Gringotts. Calling goblins incompetent is definitely unwise.

I bowed my head and asked for pardon. "I do not have any question of the quality or integrity of your workmanship. I apologize as I misspoke. My concern was only for the security of my guests. The less the jewels origins can be traced, the safer they are. That was why I asked, only that."

Facetcutter looked to Honeblade and nodded. Security and safety of those they protect is an important consideration, and on that basis he accepted this concern as valid. There is a goblin maxim 'Protecting the ones under your shield is your most sacred duty'. He added "The articles will be surreptitiously marketted through Gringotts' trusted dealers around the world, for exactly the reasons you state. That was our intent as well, otherwise considering the number and quality of other jewels that we expect to see here, the market would be flooded and the prices would plummet, and wouldn't want to see that, would we?""

However, it reminded me not to state such an opinion again without cause.

Honeblade smiled. "Now, to this unique problem that you have presented us with. Since your disappearance, a number of claimants have presented themselves as the rightful heirs to the throne of Russia, as presumptive heirs. As such, all have demanded that Gringotts recognise their claims over all others, thereby granting them ownership of the imperial vaults. All have their own vaults and are reasonable wealthy, but the imperial vaults would increase this substantially."

However Nicholai Romanov, when each made their claims, we conducted an assessment of the state of your life, as we keep records and monitors on the lifestate of all those who hold substantial vaults with Gringotts. In each test, the results were that your status was 'indeterminate'. We had only encountered this result twice before in our records, one where the person had ingested a large dose of the Draught of Living Death, and the other who was experimenting with time travel.

"As you were not dead, apparently, we also tested the status of your son and, according to our records, your designated heir. His results were the same. In light of these results, we refused to pass ownership and recognition to any of the claimants. However, as their claims were all roughly equally valid, in the event that your death and that of your son could be confirmed, we would need to adjudicate the claims in accordance with our laws and contracts. As such, they all received bank statements of the condition and amounts in the vaults, so that none all could claim malfeasance on our part or that of any of the other claimant."

"Now, the tests indicate you are who you are, and that you are most definitely alive. Therefore, the imperial vaults are yours, until such time as you designate the transfer of ownership to others. In spite of this, given your issues with personal security, we cannot announce this to the claimants, as it will, as they say, blow your cover."

"Further, in discussion with the Goblin High Council, who are the supreme authority in our Nation, we cannot claim that the vaults have been lost through incompetence or theft, as these would reflect very badly on the Nation. In addition, as each of the claimants have their own vaults, they would see from the performance of their own accounts that these excuses were not realistic. We required a solution that would protect not only our accounts, but our reputation and our honour."

"The proposed solution, which has been approved by the High Council, is that we will open a new set of vaults and accounts operating out of the London branch of Gringotts, in names to be decided with yourselves. The value of the gems you carry would be deposited into these accounts, and in addition, the three-quarters of interest on the imperial accounts will also be deposited therein. Over time, the non-liquid assets of the imperial vaults will be moved over and the liquid assets will also be moved, at rate of one-half of one percent per year until the deaths of the current claimants, after which the rate will increase."

"This 'cooking-of-the-books' with necessarily take time, but as royal families tend to think in terms of generations and not quarterly returns, we think this will work. We may need to provoke some financial disturbances to mask the operations, but the safety of our account holders is a primary consideration to us.

"To claim that the decreases in the vaults are due to bad investments would usually require the execution of the current account managers. The Council has decided that this would not be proper as the manger has been providing excellent service in an honourable fashion."

I could almost hear Tarjwielder's sigh of relief at this news. I knew that if the honour of Gringotts and the Goblin Nation required it, he would proudly go to his death, but I was also sure that he had other plans for the weekend.

I stood and bowed to the panel of high-ranking goblins. "May I suggest an alternative, or added feature of your plan? I know that the human wizarding world is more adept at confundus charms than are goblins, as this effectively is lying, which as you know humans are very good at. In fact, my profession depends on it. Could the account reports for the imperial vaults, which are supplied to the other claimants, have such charms applied to the critical pages, which would prevent the casual reader from paying attention to them. By this point, a hundred years after their first publication since the Tsar and his family disappeared, I would doubt that they are read any more than in a very cursory fashion. A slight, shall I say, blurring of the details would likely go unnoticed while the documents would still be perfectly accurate and a rigorous examination would still be possible. A diversionary tactic, perhaps?"

The goblins all looked at each other. To them this still sounded like lying to their clients. However, the recipients were not really their clients as far as these specific accounts were concerned. At least, not yet, and now likely never. As warriors, diversionary tactics are a well-used tradition.

Honeblade nodded to the other goblins and then turned to me. "As the plan was approved by the Council, this will have to be approved by them. Thank you for this suggestion. As this does not affect our other business of today, shall we proceed with that?"

Before we left the office that day, new bank vaults had been opened for people who, until that day, had not existed. At Alexei's suggestion, the family Nicholson had been created, with parents Nick and Solveig (a common Norse equivalent of the Tsarina's childhood and personal nickname of 'Sunny'), daughters Holly (as Olga means 'Holy'), Mary, Toni, and Stacy (granting her wish), and son Luthor. Alexei had been reading comic books and found the idea of the name Alexei Luthor funny. Names that they could easily remember.

Half of the value of the gems, carried in the women's undergarments, would go into the parents' vaults, while the rest would be split equally among the children. A new will was drafted, indicating that one the deaths of the parents, one-third of the vaults' values would go to Luthor, and the rest split to the daughters. Revisions would be made if and when the children had families of their own.

A/N: Another recommendation: The Obligatory Marriage Law Fic, by Luan Mao, with second chapter/omake by Aealket. A very different take on Harry's reaction to the marriage law.