Once again, My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.

Chapter 64: The Goblins

Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, March 2nd, 2006

"Well, Mum's not pleased about my decision to celebrate my birthday in another world," Ron said.

"What do you mean?" Hermione looked up from her ever-growing notes.

He held up the package with his birthday gift. "It arrived a day late, and the home-made fudge is half the usual size," he explained.

"Ah." She nodded. "The other Molly has similar ways of expressing her disagreement with certain choices. Although... didn't you explain that it was the safer choice to celebrate in my world?"

"She probably thought that was just an excuse," he replied. It hadn't been just an excuse, but it hadn't not been one, either.

"Ah." She shrugged. "Well, she'll come round?" She cocked her head.

"In time." Mum didn't hold grudges like Ginny - who still brought up certain events from their childhood when she was mad at him - did, but it took time for her to forgive. Especially if it might require her to admit she hadn't been entirely right about something or someone.

"Time… ask me for anything but time." Hermione sighed.

"We're working on everything we can," he told her. "Dumbledore's busy with the goblins, we're working on the Fidelius Charm…"

"And we still need a plan to test ways of destroying a Dementor," she said.

"That's not as urgent as providing the Ministry with enough funding that they can abolish Azkaban," he retorted.

"Bribing them to abolish Azkaban," she corrected him.

He shrugged. "As long as the prison is abolished... the end justifies the means?" He didn't have to point out that they had already broken a lot of laws dealing with the Russians and their stooges.

She frowned, then sighed. "I still don't like it. You shouldn't have to bribe the government to do the right thing."

"Don't tell our government that - some of the ministers might die from shock," he joked.

She didn't laugh. "I just want this to be over."

He hesitated a moment, then asked: "Do you feel responsible for it? Azkaban, I mean."

"No, of course not," she replied - a little too quickly, he thought. "I didn't install it. Or want it to continue. But if I could make it disappear and didn't do so, I would be responsible."

Ah. "Do you think your friends are responsible?"

Another sigh. "I don't think so. They're just… They have different priorities."

He made a noncommittal sound.

"I think they're just… too close to the Ministry."

"They're part of the Ministry," he told her.

"Yes." She frowned at him. "They're caught up in all the paperwork and the meetings and the presentations, and the budget numbers. All the politics. And they forget that certain things shouldn't be subject to compromises or deals."

"Slippery slope?"

"No!" She shook her head. "They're not corrupt - not in the sense of the saying. But they're… I don't know."

"Part of the system?" He shrugged. "Luna had similar problems with my choice of job."

"And you worked through it."

"Yes. For a while, we couldn't talk politics. Well, that wasn't unusual - Mum forbade talking about politics after Luna and Percy had a go at each other when they both were teens."

"I can imagine," she replied.

He snorted. "Yes. Anyway, we just… didn't talk about my job or her activities for a time."

"And that worked?"

"Well, we could always talk about books and games, TV shows, music, movies…" He shrugged again.

And she frowned again. "We didn't have much like that to talk about during the war. Harry and Ron had Quidditch, but… the muggleborn players had been banned, and that gave any talk of Quidditch a sour taste. And neither of them was much of a reader, not that I had many books with me that weren't needed for the war, so…" She closed her eyes. "We mostly talked about school. What we did and what we missed."

"Homework and studying?" He grinned at her.

She frowned at him but she chuckled as well. "Not often. And now both of them are married with children, and so…"

"...they talk about their kids all the time." Ron had experienced that himself with some school mates who had gotten married after finishing school.

"Yes, and I can't really contribute. I'm an only child, so I can't even relate to having siblings."

"Didn't babysit either, hmm?"

"No." The 'of course not' remained unsaid, but Ron still heard it clearly.

Yet… "Have you ever thought about having kids?"

"I don't have time for kids. Not with everything that needs to be done."

"I mean once you have the time," he said. "Have you ever imagined having kids?"

"Who hasn't, at least once?" She shook her head. "But it's all pointless if we don't resolve our current problems."

He nodded, and they went back to researching wordings for her spell.

Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, March 4th, 2006

"I have good and bad news," Dumbledore announced. "I shan't ask you which you want to hear first, though," he added with a smile that was just a little less sly than his usual one. "The good news is that I have successfully confirmed that Gringotts has sealed copies of a number of records dating back centuries. Which is also the bad news."

Ron suppressed a groan.

Harry frowned. "They don't have copies of every single record, then?"

"No, they don't. Unfortunately, they have been keeping track of wizarding families, and the Weasley family is a rather old one as well as a prominent one, so I fear we have to assume that the goblins possess copies of the records we altered." Dumbledore sighed, though Ron couldn't help feeling that the old man wasn't quite as unhappy about this development as he was acting.

"That's a logical assumption," Hermione agreed. "And while they don't offer any of the services of a solicitor, it's quite obvious that knowing about inheritances and who is eligible for them might well be very profitable."

"Especially if they know who doesn't know about a vault they inherited," Ron added. The goblins could keep the contents of a vault if they were the only ones who knew an heir existed. Or they could sell the information to others - such as heirs lower down the line.

"But that means we need to break into Gringotts. Again," Hermione complained, sighing genuinely.

"Well, there are alternatives to breaking into the bank, although they require turning a goblin - and, as with humans, I don't think one should trust a traitor, even if they are working for one's own side, with crucial information. It would be too easy for them to turn that into leverage," Dumbledore said. With a smile, he added: "Therefore, I agree with your assessment."

"But that'll be very, very difficult. We managed it before, but our plan won't work again. They check for muggle disguises on the way to the vaults nowadays," Hermione told them. "I asked my friends. Without giving the game away," she added with a frown.

"Oh, I wasn't planning to copy your - quite effective and ingenious - plan, Dr Granger." Dumbledore's lips twisted into a hint of a smirk. "Although I am planning to use something you stumbled upon during your own mission."

Hermione blinked. "Dragons?"

"Correct."

"Dragons?" Harry asked.

"To be precise, the information that the goblins kept dragons chained up - and that one of the dragons went on a rampage inside the bank. You never found out what happened to the animal, did you?"

"It didn't break out of the bank, so I assume it was either killed or subdued;" Hermine replied. "But what exactly are you planning?"

Dumbledore's smile widened.

Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, March 9th, 2006

Goblins Torture Poor Helpless Dragons!

Statute of Secrecy In Danger Because of Gringotts?

Diagon Alley Was Almost Destroyed In Dragon Rampage!

Goblins: Die Unerkannte Gefahr

Gier der Goblins Gefährdet Drachen

Gobelins et Dragons: Un Mélange Explosif Pour Tout Le Monde

"It looks like Dumbledore's media campaign is off to a good start," Ron commented after looking through the half a dozen newspapers and magazines on Hermione's desk.

"It seems so," she replied, pursing her lips.

He frowned a little. "What's wrong?"

"With the exception of The Quibbler, none of the newspapers or magazines is from Britain," she explained. "It's obvious that this is a campaign."

"As long as it leads to the result we want?" He shrugged.

"We could've kidnapped a goblin, interrogated them and then obliviated them," she said.

"If we found a goblin who knows what we want," he retorted. "Which is probably difficult." More difficult than finding a corrupt politician, at least. More dangerous as well.

"This just feels too... " She waved her hand. "Too complicated. Too convoluted. All this just to get someone inside the bank to look at the tunnels?"

"That's probably the point," he said. "Who would suspect us to go to such length?"

She raised her eyebrows. "My Harry and Ron?"

"But they won't oppose us, will they?"

"No, they won't. They already know we're planning something, but they won't stop us," she admitted.

They wouldn't stop her - Ron had no doubt that Hermione's friends would be acting differently if she weren't involved. "So what's really bothering you?"

She sighed once more. "Dumbledore's too smooth. Running undercover missions in Wizarding Britain? Now a press campaign involving the Americas, Magical Prussia and Magical France? A few months ago, he hadn't even set foot in this world."

He nodded with a wry smile that lacked any humour. "I wouldn't want him as an enemy."

"I don't want that either," she replied. "And he isn't our enemy. We have the same goals."

But what if their goals started to differ?

Grimmauld Place, London, Britain, March 10th, 2006

"You haven't played in any tournaments since last summer. Many experts are wondering about your ability to keep up with the top ten players on the Tour. How are you feeling about your chances?" The journalist asked, her notebook ready even though a recorder was running on the couch table in Sirius's living room.

Ginny smiled widely, but Ron saw that she was leaning back a little in her seat. She wasn't as confident as she was trying to appear. "Actually, I've used the time away to train hard - I'm fitter than ever!"

The journalist wasn't letting up, though. "But you haven't played a professional match in months. Such a lack of practice has often proved fatal for other top ten players trying to make a comeback."

Ginny showed more teeth. "Well, we'll have to see about that, won't we? I'm planning to give a good showing at the French Open."

"So you'll be using the time until then to acquire match practice?"

"I never play a game just to practice," Ginny retorted.

"Well, you certainly aren't lacking confidence. Now there've been a lot of rumours about your break. You dropped off the face of the earth, and with your boyfriend involved in the Granger affair, which shook Britain and culminated in several violent incidents with high body counts, you must have been under a lot of stress."

"Those were some very stressful months, yes. But that's in the past, now."

The woman leaned forward. "Anything in particular that was especially stressful?"

Harry, sitting next to Ginny, frowned. Ron did the same - this was supposed to be an interview for a sports magazine. But that question seemed to be more aimed at asking about the whole affair, not tennis.

Ginny, too, had realised that. "I'm not going into details. We're here to talk about tennis," she said. "Your next question?"

"Sorry. Since you haven't played in months, you've lost a lot of points and therefore fell out of the top ten. Has that influenced your choice of tournaments?"

Ginny smiled widely. "I've already secured a wild card for the French Open as well as for Wimbledon. People have been quite understanding about my circumstances, for which I am grateful."

Ron suppressed a chuckle. People understood how popular Ginny was - even or especially after her involvement in the 'Granger affair'. And there was no way Wimbledon wouldn't do everything they could to have the best female British tennis player take part in the tournament. The added notoriety would draw larger audiences.

He didn't quite tune out, but he relaxed a little as the next questions were focused on tennis again. Things were returning to normal, at least in this area.

Ginny sighed as soon as the door had closed behind the journalist. "I hate her! Did you notice how she was fishing for information?"

"She's a journalist; that's her job," Ron replied.

"Information about Hermione's portal, not tennis - she didn't even try to get any gossip about our relationship," Ginny added with a glance at Harry.

"For which I am grateful," he replied. "I'm also happy she didn't try to pry answers out of me."

"She probably knew it wouldn't work," Ron commented.

"And she thought it would work on me?" Ginny shook her head. "I've been handling interviews for years! There've been times when I've had more interviews in a few months than you've had in your whole life! Why would she think I would let something slip? I've got the most experience of handling the press out of all of us! I've got a good mind to call her boss and complain!"

"That would only confirm that you know classified information," Ron pointed out. "Or start rumours about another crisis between you two. Like when we were guarding that princess." That hadn't been a fun month for anyone involved.

"Don't remind me! That was your fault, anyway." Ginny huffed.

"My fault?" Ron stared at her.

"If you had been more seductive, the press would've thought she was having an affair with you instead of trying to pin it on Harry!"

Ron scoffed. "Really? You think I should've seduced a spoilt princess who made Malfoy look like a humble saint just to spare you some gossip?"

"Can we skip the sibling squabble?" Harry cut in.

Ron nodded.

"Alright," Ginny agreed after a moment. Then she turned to Ron again. "And how is the work on Hermione's big spell coming along, anyway? I would like to be able to play at Roland Garros without having to worry about being kidnapped by spies."

"We're working on the wording."

"You've been 'working on the wording' for weeks!"

"Well, you can't rush these things. If something goes wrong, it could have disastrous consequences. Like people forgetting about you," he added with a toothy grin.

"Well, you don't need a spell to be forgettable!"

"What did I just say about not doing this?"

Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, March 13th, 2006

"How are you doing?" Ron asked wizarding Fred and wizarding George - from the door of their recently installed laboratory, of course. You never knew when their experiments would have 'interesting' results.

"Hmm? Oh, we're doing fine, Ron - other Ron," wizarding George replied.

"Hermione's Ron," his brother added.

"And what are you doing?" Last he'd heard, they had finished their inspection of the magical defences, but Hermione wanted to go over their proposed additions before implementing them.

"We're working on stones that are enchanted with Muggle-Repelling Charms," wizarding George explained.

Ron frowned - he wasn't a wizard, and he wasn't an expert, but… "Isn't that already a thing?" he asked.

"Well, if it is, we haven't heard of it. Usually, such charms are cast on a place. Our method will allow you to cast them on a rock, and then take the rock with you."

"Or drop it off somewhere."

"Ah." That would provide some advantages to casting the spell. Although… "Is there a demand for that?" Wouldn't a Disillusionment Charm work better if you wanted to hide? Coupled with a Shrinking Charm? People suddenly avoiding a particular space would be distinctive to an observer - at least to other wizards.

"Well…" Wizarding Fred grinned. "We've got a huge pre-order for this."

"'Huge pre-order'?" Ron blinked. Who would… Oh, no! "Luna."

Both wizards nodded. "She wants as many of these rocks as possible. So we're looking into runes to make one spell affect multiple rocks," wizarding George explained. "That would greatly speed up the process."

And allow the Lunas to actually create the nature reserves they wanted. "You're creating these rocks here?" They would drive out everyone except themselves and Hermione!

"Oh, no! Not with the Muggle-Repelling Charm! Do you think we're fools?" wizarding Fred asked.

"Don't answer that, please," his brother added. "We're testing it with a warming charm."

"If it works, we can sell them as well. They should be quite popular in Scotland. Or in other countries."

"We're thinking of 'Hot Rocks' as a product name, but we're not yet sold on that."

Ron didn't care about the name for that product. He cared - very much, actually - that the twins and the Lunas had apparently met and made a deal. "And how are the Lunas going to pay?" he asked. Neither of them was wealthy, and making so many stones had to be expensive. Although if that slowed down their plans...

"They gave us the idea," wizarding Fred said. "And it has so many applications… I guess once we teach our Luna how to do it, we're even."

"And even so… imagine helping to fool millions of muggles into thinking they have no business in those areas."

Both wizards grinned at him.

Ron closed his eyes. This was… bad, he guessed. Very bad. Although it could be worse. If anyone ever gave them the idea of self-replicating spells or items… They better never read some of his science fiction novels.

Once Hermione and Ron were back in her lab while wizarding Fred and wizarding George were presumably trying to develop said items, he asked: "How likely are they to create self-replicating spells or items?"

Hermione blinked. "Oh my…" She bit her lower lip. "As far as I know, it's impossible. You can't create spells with spells. Although an item that casts a spell on an item… that should be possible. In theory. In practice… no one has managed to develop such an item, and given the constraints that the need to cast individual spells on enchanted items put on the wizarding economy, I think if it were possible, someone would have done it already."

Ron nodded, feeling relieved - mostly. He didn't like to brag about his family, but his brothers were quite ingenious. And so were their wizarding counterparts.

Diagon Alley, London, Wizarding World, March 17th, 2006

"I still can't really get over the fact that it took less than two weeks for the ICW to send an inspection team to Gringotts," Ron said as he watched almost two dozen wizards and witches enter the bank under the watchful eyes of the goblin guards.

Hermione, who, like him, was in disguise, snorted. "It isn't that surprising. First, Gringotts is technically a sovereign country, but isn't part of the ICW. Ever since the last of the goblin rebellions, Wizarding Britain has controlled its foreign policies, and Britain's standing in the ICW sank after Dumbledore's death and the war. While sending an inspection to Britain in response to newspaper articles would set a precedent no wizarding country wants, sending one to Gringotts circumvents that. The unwritten rules don't apply to goblins, apparently, and yet this will nevertheless be counted against Britain."

Ron winced. So their 'spy mission' had already damaged Wizarding Britain's international standing? They were off to a good start, and they hadn't even set foot in Gringotts. But… "And second?"

She took a sip from her tea. "Second, I'm quite sure Dumbledore greased some wheels, so to speak. At dinner last week, Percy was complaining about unexpected support for the motion proposing this inspection from the New World - among them the representative of the Free Republic of Maine and Vermont. Who, incidentally, is part of the inspection team."

"Ah." Ron nodded. Rosengarten's help, no doubt.

"Corruption is endemic in the magical world," she said.

"In the muggle world as well," he replied. Though usually a little more subtle, through lobbyists and lucrative contracts after leaving office.

"I'm aware of that," she told him. "It doesn't make it acceptable."

He didn't shrug. "At least we can use it for our own purposes."

She frowned some more. "We shouldn't have to."

"We also shouldn't have to break into Gringotts. For the second time."

She glared at him, but when he smiled at her in return, she - after a few seconds - sighed and smiled back.

Black Lake, Scotland, March 19th, 2006

"Mr Blackburn was most helpful," Dumbledore said with a smile that was a shade more smug than usual, pointing at a set of floor plans on the wall of the lounge. "Working with him and Dr Granger, I believe we have managed to pinpoint the location of the Gringotts archives."

"It looks like it's all the way down on the lowest floor," Harry commented.

"Not exactly. There are more floors below that one - the oldest vaults, or so I've been told."

"And they decided to open up all the floors to one giant shaft?" Ron frowned. That meant the goblins had abandoned most of the security that digging so deep had gained them.

"It's more that the goblins didn't fill up the shaft - it was originally a mine, as far as we know," Hermione explained. "They converted the mining tunnels into vaults as they ran dry - originally for their treasures. After several wars, they had lost those treasures, though, and the reparations they were forced to pay were too high for their remaining revenue from mining. They could've sold their items - goblin-made tools of all sorts are very expensive - but that would've gone against their traditions, so they decided to offer their vaults to wizards."

"And people trusted them?" Ron shook his head. If anyone had proposed letting the Germans take over the banking business in London after the war…

"Wizarding Britain had beaten the goblins in every war - that's why they're called rebellions, not wars, in the official records," Hermione went on. "If the goblins had dared to betray their customers, the consequences would likely have been fatal for the goblins."

"That sounds like a recipe for abuse. What stopped the wizards from claiming the goblins stole from their vaults?" Harry asked.

"Scrupulous bookkeeping - and, most importantly, sealed copies of every single record," Hermione said. "Their copies of the muggle records don't go as far back as we feared, but they still cover over two hundred years."

Ron blinked. "And protecting those records meant protecting themselves against fraudulent claims from their customers."

Hermione grimaced. "Yes. We have to assume that they are better protected than most of their vaults."

That was, in light of the stories Hermione had told him about Gringotts, a very sobering thought. And how are we planning to do this?" he asked. It sounded as if breaking into Fort Knox - without magic - would be easier.

Dumbledore smiled. "We won't be breaking into the archives - we'll make the goblins deliver the records we need to us."

Oh. Clever - if it worked.

"You want to challenge their records," Harry said.

Dumbledore nodded. "Twice, actually. Once so we can find out how their records look and how they are presented, and then again to switch or alter them." He smiled widely. "As I found out during my time as a field agent, it's far easier to break into the office of a Swiss court than into the vaults of a Swiss bank. I have no doubt that it is the same for Gringotts."

Ministry of Magic, Whitehall, London, Wizarding World, March 22nd, 2006

Breaking into a Swiss court might have been easier than breaking into a Swiss bank's vault, but breaking into the Ministry of Magic wasn't child's play, either. Although it didn't compare to breaking into the Kremlin, in Ron's opinion.

And he wasn't entirely convinced that using muggle means 'because the Ministry will only guard against magic' was the best course of action. Even though it meant that he got to take an active part instead of yet another wizard. Wouldn't the magical defences work against both magical and muggle means, anyway? But Hermione was confident that this would work.

So he sighed as he listened to the over-eager young witch telling him all about how difficult it was for a muggle to buy property in magical locations. And 'difficult' meant 'impossible', from what he could tell - the clerk was just too polite to say so to his face. If he hadn't been Hermione's fiancé, he probably wouldn't have even been granted a personal meeting with even a junior clerk in the Ministry.

It didn't actually matter - he was only here so he could place a few bugs in the room - but it was still annoying. On the other hand, Wizarding Britain wasn't the only country trying to keep foreigners from buying up their real estate.

When the witch had gone through all the supposed problems of verifying someone's identity when they couldn't use a wand for the second time, he cleared his throat. "Ah, excuse me - do you know where I could get a glass of water? I'm feeling a little parched."

"Oh!" She all but jumped up - she was probably as tired of this charade as he was and needed the break since she didn't just conjure a glass of water. "Don't worry! I'll fetch you a glass! I'll be right back." Good. That meant he didn't have to step it up and have her call her superior to get her out of the room.

As soon as she left the room, Ron stood as well and stretched before wandering around, admiring the artwork on the walls - and hiding a few enchanted bugs the twins' counterparts had come up with inside the room.

By the time the witch - Miss Browtuckle, he remembered her name now - returned, his mission was done. All that was left was another twenty minutes or so of listening to her explaining why the wizards didn't want muggle neighbours.

He'd suffered through worse meetings in the past.

Black Lake, Scotland, March 24th, 2006

Hermione sighed as she leaned back and paused the recording - which had been digitised from a film from a magical camera. The face of Madam Rosemarie Blinkelstorf froze on the screen. The old witch had been meeting with representatives of Gringotts regarding the ownership of her house and the surrounding area, which had been suddenly and surprisingly challenged. At least according to the documents she had been sent - the Ministry would be surprised about their actual origin.

Hermione pointed at the heavy chest, reinforced with metal bands, that two goblins carried inside, behind the goblin delegation's leader, with four more goblins guarding them. "If that chest is enchanted to block spells - and there's no reason to assume it isn't, given the rest of the security we've identified - then I don't see a way to switch the records before the goblins take them out to unseal them."

Ron nodded. "Not magically, at least."

"Yes." She frowned slightly as she looked at him. "Not to mention that we would have to copy the Gringotts' seal as well as the Ministry's seal."

"And that's not easy, I take it."

She shook her head. "Well, in the old Ministry, I would have said we could've borrowed the seal without anyone noticing, and then return it once we've prepared the fake documents. It would be very difficult today, I assume. But the Gringotts' seal? I wouldn't claim that it's impossible, but I don't know any method of successfully duplicating it. As with the enchantments that protect wizarding coins from being duplicated, the goblins guard those secrets very well."

"Hmmm." He rubbed his chin. "But they do need to actually unseal the documents. Otherwise, the records couldn't be read."

"You sound as if you have an idea."

He nodded. "I think I do. But it requires very precise timing - and for that, we need to prepare the room so we can alert someone outside."

She bit her lower lip. "That's… more complicated than bugging the place. The spells on the room prevent people on the outside from listening in - but they didn't prevent bugs placed inside the room from recording the meeting to be recovered later."

He nodded again - he had gathered that much.

"So, a device that picks up a signal inside the room, then moves outside to pass it on would work."

"That would work, but the delay it would cause would make the timing very tricky," he said.

"Better than impossible," she retorted. "But what's your plan?"

"A distraction at the moment that they unseal the records. Then we can switch them."

"A distraction outside the room but noticeable inside?" She didn't look convinced. "That's a tall order. And it might draw attention to the meeting."

"Not if it's easily explainable," he said.

"We can't let the twins do it; they'll be the main suspects," she replied.

"It won't be anything dangerous, just… noticeable," he explained.

"That will just make even more people suspect them."

"Well… if they're going to be suspected anyway…" He smiled at her.

She scowled in return. "Harry and Ron will investigate. And the twins aren't clever enough to fool them, no matter what they might think."

Ron wasn't entirely sure if she was right or if she was overestimating her friends. On the other hand, his brothers hadn't been able to pull his or Harry's leg ever since they had started being trained by Moody, so she was probably right. Hmm. Oh. "Well, then we'll have to ask the Lunas for a suitable distraction." He grinned. "Probably not a dragon going out of control, though - you already did that."

She gaped at him for a moment before she shook her head. "Absolutely not!"

Unnamed Highlands, Scotland, March 24th, 2006

"Absolutely not!" Wizarding Luna shook her head so vehemently, her hair was almost flying around her face. "We won't let you risk a poor defenceless animal as a distraction! The Ministry guards would hurt it! Or even kill it!"

"Told you so," Hermione muttered next to Ron.

He glared at her. She didn't have to rub it in. But he wasn't willing to abandon his idea just yet. "Are there any animals the Ministry wouldn't kill? Or couldn't?"

"That might've worked before the war," Hermione told him. "But the current Aurors and Hit-Wizards are fairly competent. And Harry and Ron could handle any animal. Even a dragon."

"We don't have a dragon anyway," wizarding Luna said.

"I don't want to use a dragon," Ron said. "What about bugs? A swarm?"

"They would definitely kill them," wizarding Luna replied.

"And some of the magical pests are dangerous. Doxies are venomous, for example. Enough of them could seriously hurt a wizard or witch," Hermione added.

"Alright." Ron rubbed his chin. "No using animals. But conjured animals aren't real, are they?"

"No, but you can't conjure magical animals," Hermione explained. "You could transfigure something into a magical animal, but it would lack their innate magic. In order to create, say, a dragon, you'd have to add a lot more spells to allow the result to not only look like a dragon but to be able to fly and breathe fire - and it would still lack the dragon's innate resistance to spells and curses."

"I'm not planning to use a dragon," Ron repeated himself.

"Well, a dragon as a distraction for the goblins would be a classic," wizarding Luna said.

"Which is probably why they don't want to use a dragon," Luna added. "Even though no one would think we would use the same trick twice, so it would actually help with hiding our involvement."

That would only work with conspiracy theorists, Ron thought. But they had clashed over that in the past, and he wouldn't rehash it. "I'd rather not risk it."

"And a realistic dragon transfiguration would be far too dangerous to unleash on the Ministry," Hermione said.

"You did unleash a real dragon in Gringotts," wizarding Luna replied.

"Yes. And I don't want to do it again."

Ron cleared his throat before the Lunas could push Hermione - it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it. "Anyway. A swarm of conjured insects. Say… locusts."

"Oh, yes!" Luna smiled. "Use the swarming African locust - they eat paper and parchment! Imagine the government with most of its paperwork eaten!"

"No!" Hermione protested. "Imagine the damage that would do to the Ministry's records! Their work would be hampered!"

That was Luna's aim, of course. "I think the Ministry employees could contain the swarm, couldn't they?" Ron asked.

Hermione pressed her lips together for a moment. "Well… they should. But they might not be fast enough to stop such a swarm from devouring the files in a department."

"That would be an acceptable loss. I suggest the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," wizarding Luna said. "They have the most intolerant policies with regards to magical creatures I've ever seen outside some enclaves in the New World. If not for pressure from the ICW and the business interests of potioneers, they might have eradicated several so-called 'pests'!"

"But they would be the quickest to react, wouldn't they?" Ron asked. "They would know how to protect their files."

"Most of them will probably be out, killing poor animals that just want to have a place of their own," wizarding Luna said.

"How do you plan to conjure such a large swarm without being noticed?" Luna asked.

"By preparing a 'cursed' object, I think," Ron said. "Like, say… a box that releases a huge swarm when opened."

"That sounds like something Fred and George would do," wizarding Luna said.

"And they would be the main suspects," Hermione pointed out.

"For the creation, yes - but not for its use." Ron grinned. "All they have to do is report it stolen."

"That sounds like a rather transparent excuse," Hermione retorted.

"That doesn't mean it won't work," Ron said. "As long as we avoid leaving traces. And leave the right traces for the Aurors investigating the theft. Besides, the other Harry and Ron wouldn't investigate the case since they're related to the victims, right?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Wizarding Luna looked surprised. "They'd know them best."

"The Ministry of Magic really needs better regulations for their Aurors," Ron muttered. "That would never fly in the Met."

"Don't tell me that you wouldn't have investigated a crime against your family." Hermione snorted as she frowned at him.

"Well, yes - but not officially," he admitted.

Hermione huffed. "Harry and Ron would realise who was behind this anyway as soon as they heard that your records were confirmed by Gringotts."

"Right." That meant they would have to ensure that the actual damage to the Ministry's paperwork was minimal. Oh, no! "Percy would know as well."

"Yes." Hermione smiled far too sweetly. "So… You better not use paper and parchment eating locusts. I suggest harmless but dangerous-looking animals."

She was right. Perhaps… "Death's-head hawkmoths!" he blurted out. "Harmless, but creepy!"

"Oh, yes." Hermione nodded. "That would work. A swarm of them would probably terrify some of the Ministry's employees."

"And the twins can claim that they developed it as a Halloween prank," Ron added.

"You know, I can't shake the feeling that something important - and bad - will happen today," Harry said. "It's Halloween. Something bad always happens on Halloween."

She frowned. "We haven't established that there actually is a correlation between the date and the events we experienced on that date in the past," she told him. "It could just be a coincidence."

"Well, Halloween traditionally is an important date," Ron said. "Some spells and rituals are supposed to work best on certain dates. Mum always casts certain household spells on the summer solstice."

"Yes. It's also known as Samhain," she told him. "And some dark spells might be tied to the date - but that doesn't mean that something bad will happen to us."

"Not to us. To me," Harry said with a gloomy face.

"None of the events which occurred on past Halloweens exclusively affected you." Really, sometimes Harry was a little… Well, it was understandable. "On our first Halloween, I was almost killed by a mountain troll, remember? And in second year, none of us was attacked, just Mrs Norris."

"Yes, but…" Harry shook his head. "I've got a bad feeling about today."

She suppressed a sigh. "Does your scar hurt?"

"No more than usual."

She nodded. Voldemort wasn't particularly active, then.

"Mate, we're in the middle of a forest, protected by a lot of spells and wards. If the Death Eaters were able to find us, they would've done so already," Ron chimed in. He clapped Harry on the shoulder. "Just relax. For once, we're safe from whatever might happen at Hogwarts. And so are all our friends."

Because none of them were at Hogwarts. But reminding them that the Death Eaters controlled the school would only make Harry feel worse. "Let's have a fancy dinner today," she said. At Ron's glance, she frowned. "I'm not suggesting I'll cook one."

He sighed in a very exaggerated manner that had her frowning and glaring at him - she was no chef, but she could cook just fine! But then she noticed that Harry was chuckling. Ah. She shook her head. "I suggest we use Polyjuice Potion and visit a restaurant. I know one in Wales, it's very good.

"Wales?" Ron didn't look convinced.

"The restaurant is French, with some Italian dishes on their menu," she explained.

"Ah! Sounds good!" He beamed at her, and, after some prodding, Harry started to smile as well.

Four hours later, they had to flee from the restaurant - Harry's scar was bleeding heavily, and he was screaming from the pain. And from what he had seen through Voldemort's eyes.

Voldemort was in Azkaban. Sacrificing people in a dark ritual.