A.N.: Hey guys, today it's just a short chapter. I hope you like it anyway. As always I am very interested in your theories about what might have happened or what could happen next. Don't worry, there are still at least 10 chapters ahead of you so a lot is still about to happen.

Chapter 26: The contract

5th of June 1981

"Well, this is really unexpected, Miss Granger," Grabruk said with a visible glint in his eyes. "At least one of these items has been assumed lost for a very long time. Would you mind explaining how they came into your possession?"

Hermione looked at the goblin addressing her with a serious expression before pursuing her lips. "This is where the tale starts getting dangerous. You see, as far as we know each of the items has been infused with a part of the Dark Lord's soul."

She saw the two goblins bare their teeth at this bit of information, but she chose to ignore it for now and just continued. "My friends and I are working to bring him down. This is the reason we are hunting for these artefacts."

Grabruk nodded carefully but looked at them with a guarded expression now. "I see. But I fail to understand why you want us to look at those items for you if you already know that they are sullied." Harrinuk the curse breaker nodded next to him.

This time it was Fabian answering the question for her. "You see, to bring the Dark Lord down, we'll have to destroy the pieces of his soul. There are only two ways known to us doing this: Fiendfyre and Basilisk venom. But both of them would destroy those valuable artefacts forever."

Gideon nodded before continuing for him. "We hope that with the help of the Goblin race there might be a third option though, one that might not be known to wizardkind. You have created these beautiful artefacts after all and we thought that if there is a way to save them, then it might be known to you."

Grabruk looked at them with growing respect in his eyes, before locking eyes with Harrinuk next to him. "What say you?"

The other goblin stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It has never been done before," he finally said and looked at the four of them with a stern gaze. "Usually our artefacts do not get sullied by this kind of dark magic and if they do, we were never asked for help before, as the wizarding race simply does not think it worth their effort to do so."

Severus looked at him with a raised brow: "Until now," he added and the goblin nodded absentmindedly.

"This does not mean that it cannot be done though," Grabruk continued and looked at them with a calculating expression. "but it will be a dangerous process and quite frankly I don't know if the effort will be worth for the goblin race. At the moment we are on neutral ground with the self-proclaimed Dark Lord and it would not be in our interest to change that sort of peace I believe."

"…except there's something in it for you," Severus added and looked at the two goblins in front of him with a knowing grin. But their negotiating partner didn't seem ashamed by the accusation and nodded matter-of-factly.

Hermione smiled. "You see, our only interest is to see those pieces of Voldemort's soul destroyed," she chose to use his name deliberately and saw the other occupants in the room flinch. "We do have no interest in keeping the artefacts afterwards, as our means to destroy the soul pieces would destroy them anyway."

At that, she saw a greedy light appear in the eyes of the goblins across from her. "So here is the deal I want to propose. Altogether there are five artefacts such as these out of there. Two are already in our possession and I know that another one in the form of the cup of Helga Hufflepuff is stored in the Lestrange's vault of your bank. If you agree to cleanse all the five artefacts for us you can consider whatever remains after the process as your payment."

Grabruk looked at her with his dark beady eyes. "Which would require us to take something of one of our customer's vaults in the first place," he said and Hermione nodded unimpressed.

"It would. But would said artefact be even considered a possession of the Lestrange's in the first place? It is a goblin made artefact after all and therefore it should have gone back into the hands of your race long ago…" she looked at them with firm eyes and saw her conversation partners shift their heads in consideration.

"She has a valid point," Harrinuk finally admitted and Grabruk grunted in agreement.

"She does indeed."

Secretly Hermione started to feel more and more convinced of the idea. If they could just convince the goblin race to help them, they would have gained valuable allies and hopefully destroyed another Horcrux in the same move.

"Do you expect the goblin race to align themselves with you against the Dark Lord?" Harrinuk interrupted her train of thoughts and looked at her with a contemplative gaze. "Because destroying the pieces of his soul would mean exactly that, wouldn't it?"

Hermione started gnawing at her bottom lip. "Not necessarily. We believe that by splitting his soul into that many pieces he became detached from them in the first place and would most likely not feel their destruction. But to be sure we would advocate destroying them all at the same time and killing the Dark Lord himself shortly after."

Her friends nodded alongside with her before Severus continued: "The goblins would not be expected to be part of that final attack nor any other attack against the Death Eaters. It would be in fact preferable if you did not involve yourself in any way except destroying the soul pieces. We do not want any suspicions towards you and your doings. It must not be discovered."

The two goblins silently conversed with each other again and Hermione dared to cast a careful look at her friends. They all followed the interaction with neutral expressions that did not betray their thoughts. It didn't take long until they were addressed by the bank employees again and Hermione was thankful for it, as she could barely stand the tension any longer.

"The terms of the deal you proposed to us, are acceptable. As soon as all five soul pieces are collected, Gringott's will provide a team of experts that will take care of their disposal. By performing this deed for you all … remnants will go over into the ownership of the goblin race again."

Hermione nodded in satisfaction and smiled at the goblin. "Very good, but the fifth soul piece will have to be provided by you, as we are not able to access the respective vault on our own."

Harrinuk and Grabruk nodded with a toothy smile. "This will be taken care of. Let's draw up to necessary contract then because I am sure both sides need some sort of insurance, that all points we just agreed on will be followed accordingly."

"Excellent," Hermione replied with a wide smile and offered her hand to the two goblins across from her. "It's a pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen."

29th of September 1999

When Hermione came to her senses again her body didn't rest on the marble floor as she had expected it would, but on a comfortable and soft surface. She opened her eyes with a groan and looked around groggily. She was no longer in the big hall with all the counters but in a small room that was similarly decorated to the room she had seen in her recent flashback, only that there was a large comfortable bed in the room, which she was currently occupying.

"Look who's awake," Severus rich baritone rumbled next to her and when she looked up, her friend studied her with a sympathetic gaze. "You scared those goblins half to death and I had quite the task explaining to them, that these incidents are quite usual for you these days."

Hermione nodded with an unhappy smile. "Yeah, it's really annoying when it happens in public though. I hope I didn't make a total fool out of myself."

"Don't worry. Those goblins seem to worship the ground you walk on," Severus whispered just in time before the door to her room opened again and a well-known goblin stepped inside.

"Grabruk," Hermione greeted him with the smile and pulled herself up from the covers. "It's lovely seeing you again."

The goblin stepped next to her bed, before bowing his head deeply and offering her his hand in greeting. "Hermione Granger," he said and looked her up and down. "It is indeed a happy day for us now that you finally came to see us. We assumed the worst after we didn't hear from you again after…"

Hermione smiled a thin smile. "I was indisposed for the last several years I fear."

"So your friend explained to us," Grabruk said with a solemn nod. "It was actually quite the story, fitting for an honoured war heroine like yourself." He smiled widely at her and Hermione shook his hand with a happy smile.

"Not many see me as a heroine these days," she said with a rueful smile and thought about Remus and the others that disliked her for the things she did in the past. But Grabruk looked her with a mockingly raised brow.

"That is because most wizards are even more short-sighted than a mole. Don't worry yourself because of them."

Severus, who sat next to her, snorted in amusement but didn't comment. Hermione nodded with a smile. "Very well, then I won't." She swung her legs out of the bed and got up with a groan.

"You don't have one of these headache potions with you, Severus, do you?" she asked her friend, who immediately offered her his arm.

"Course I have one. I am not one of the short-sighted wizards after all." Hermione took the offered vial with a smile and downed it with one gulp. The effect was immediate and she released a relieved sigh.

"That is much better, thank you," she said and pressed his arm in gratitude.

"Does that mean you are up for a visit to your vault now, Madame?" Grabruk said and looked at her with a curious expression.

Hermione nodded but looked at him uncertainly. "About that… I don't remember opening a vault in the first place," she admitted and looked at him with pink cheeks. But the goblin smiled.

"That's because you didn't, I did," the goblin replied and offered her a toothy grin. "After the war so many of us wanted to offer you a token of their gratitude, but there was nobody we could send these things to. And so I decided on opening a vault for you instead."

Hermione looked at him with wide eyes. "I still don't understand. In our last conversation, I remember you emphasised that the goblin race was on neutral grounds with the Death Eaters and therefore didn't have much of a problem with them. What happened?"

But the goblin just smiled at her and shook his head. "You really have no idea what you did for us, do you?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not really, no."

"Then it is not my place to tell you. But as I was told your memories are returning to you bit by bit. So don't worry about it for now." With that he waddled towards the door. "And now give me the honour of escorting you to your vault. It's one of the most secure ones in our building, guarded by a dragon."

Hermione looked at the goblin in front of her with wide eyes. "You've got to be kidding me."

Hermione fell onto the sofa of Severus' living room with a tired sigh, before staring unseeingly into the air. Visiting her own vault was just bizarre and she still couldn't believe the amounts of gold and artefacts she had found in there. It was utterly surreal and didn't make sense at all.

"You can definitely afford a place on your own now," Severus commented dryly and put a steaming cup of tea in front of her on the table. But Hermione just stared at it, without making an effort to actually drink it. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to hold the cup at the moment.

"I knew you wanted to get rid of me," she said with a crooked grin, before shaking her head in disbelief. "Why is there so much money in my name Severus? It can't only be because I returned those artefacts to them, can it? They regarded them as their own anyway."

Her friend hummed in agreeance, before sitting down in one of the wing chairs. "They are regarding you as a war hero Hermione," he finally said and looked at her with unreadable eyes. "And I do have an idea why."

She looked at him with tired eyes. "But you won't tell me?"

He shook his head with a regretful smile. "No, not this time. But don't worry Hermione, it can't be too long until you remember yourself. And until then you could start thinking about what to spend all this money on. You could, for example, buy yourself a house-elf…" He looked at her with a teasing grin and Hermione couldn't help but throw one of the pillows after him.

"Why don't you just say that you want to get rid of me," she shouted, before throwing another one. Severus chuckled amusedly, before wandlessly levitating the pillow back at her so that it smacked right into her face. She laughed, before pulling out her own wand. It was obvious that Snape was trying to distract her and she found that just today she would let him get away with it.