Chapter 9

The man known to the magical world at large as Lord Voldemort was furious.

After the elimination of the Malfoy line, he had been forced to change his base of operations from Malfoy Manor. This wasn't to big an issue, and while annoying, it wasn't truly important in the grand scheme of things, nor was it unexpected.

Old family homes, like the Malfoy's, were often protected by ancient wards and protections that, due to their nature and age, were truly formidable. It wasn't unusual for these wards to be almost unbreakable, and a team of dedicated wardbreakers was often required to bring down such wards. It was why he'd left Malfoy Manor, rather than waiting for whomever inherited to property to bring them up, forcing him out.

He was confident that the Malfoy fortune and property would pass to one of his other followers anyway, most likely his trusted lieutenant Bellatrix. And even if it wasn't Bellatrix, there were numerous other followers of his that could inherit the property and monies the Malfoy's had left behind. So he knew he would be let back in, in short order.

Only that hadn't happened.

Voldemort didn't know who had inherited after young Draco's death. And, since the young blonde hadn't actually made will to be read, inheritance was determined by Gringotts, who would find the person with the closest and biggest claim.

And sadly, thanks to the goblins magically binding confidentiality oaths being much more secure than the oaths one had to take to work at the Ministry, Voldemort didn't have one spy among the goblins to inform him. And the goblins themselves were too prideful to willingly serve him, and those he had captured in the past had been much more resilient to torture than most witches and wizards.

If they would work with him, Voldemort might actually respect the creatures, but since they wouldn't, he would need to crush them...After he had taken over the Ministry at least. Voldemort had studied enough military history to know that you didn't willingly begin a two-front war unless you were extremely secure in your position, and even then, fighting on two fronts was often disastrous. It was far better to secure one objective, then prepare for the next before you began a new campaign.

Besides, with his horcruxes in place, Lord Voldemort was immortal. He had the time to build his empire slowly and securely, rather than rushing it and failing due to his hurry to see things done.

For that reason, Voldemort didn't even know who to target. Oh, he could bring down the manor wards, he had a team dedicated to the task for those occasions where he couldn't trick the owners into bringing them down, or else catching them outside of those wards. If need be, he even had the knowledge and power to bring down such wards himself, though it was somewhat tiring.

But there was no real point. He had other followers who could host him.

That had, sadly, been the beginning of his problems however.

Businesses that had, albeit in secret, supported him, been attacked and burnt down. Many of these businesses had provided his forces with goods and services that were highly regulated by the Ministry, for whatever reason. Some had even been fronts to raise money for his cause.

Wards on businesses had always been different than those on homes, simply due to the fact that you needed to have customers coming and going for the business to even survive. Thus, aside from having his people protecting those places, he really couldn't do much to defend them.

But his Death Eaters kept proving their worthlessness.

Someone was not only able to burn these businesses, but also to kill his Death Eaters...and the DMLE, investigating these arson's and murders, could only conclude that most of his Death Eaters were being killed by a simple piercing curse.

As if that wasn't bad enough. Someone had even managed to successfully hunt down and wipe out Fenrir Greyback's entire pack. Fenrir himself was the only survivor, and that was only because he had been attending to Voldemort at the time of the attack. The only plus side was that Fenrir was furious at the loss of his pack, but it would take the violent werewolf time to rebuild, and had cost Voldemort one of his most dangerous, and favorite, tools of terror.

The only hints as to whom was doing this were the occasional witness accounts of a figure in a green cloak and armor. No doubt the same person who had first attacked Azkaban and killed his followers there.

And he had absolutely no idea who the hell this person was, nor what their motivation beyond attacking him was. If it wasn't for the violent methods used, He'd assume this was one of Dumbledore's lackeys.

His only consultation was that, thus far, apparently neither the Ministry nor Dumbledore knew who this person was either.

One thing Voldemort was sure of, was that once he got his hands on whomever was causing him so much trouble, their death would be long, slow, and painful.

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"Son of a bitch!" Ivy Potter yelled, as Winky pulled the spike from her shoulder.

Ivy's last attack on a business aiding the Death Eaters hadn't gone so smoothly. Sure, she managed to burn the building, and kill the Death Eaters trying to protect it, but one of them had been clever, and gotten lucky.

He'd apparently figure the armor she wore protected her from many spells. So instead he'd transfigured a metal spike and banished it at her. She'd noticed it, luckily, and dodged the first spike, bust she'd missed the second, which had gotten her in the shoulder. And while her armor was enchanted, it hadn't been a match for all the force and momentum of that spike, especially when it had all been concentrated on it's point.

Luckily, Ivy had long ago learned the advantages of being ambidextrous, so she'd been able to kill the bastard that had gotten her.

In some ways, she supposed it was probably for the better. She only had two more stores to go before she exhausted the knowledge she had gotten from Lucius anyway. And while she had no doubt there were more stores that secretly supported the Death Eaters, she needed more intel before she found them.

And that meant that Ivy was going to have to either find someone else she could interrogate, or else change tactics. And Ivy suspected she'd have to change tactics at some point anyway.

"Mistress is needing to be more careful," Winky admonished, as she used her own form of magic to summon a couple healing potions before the elf began to heal and bandage the wound.

Winky may not have been an actual healer. But she had served the Crouch family for many years, and he often treated Bartemius Crouch Senior in his younger years, when he was still an Auror, rising through the ranks of the DMLE. So she knew, and had purposely learned, a fair bit about healing in that time. That knowledge and skill was serving Ivy rather well at the moment.

"Yous be drinking this," the elf demanded sternly, handing the potion to Ivy.

At the elf's stern look, the witch couldn't resist smiling as she downed the potion.

To be honest, this didn't hurt near as much as the Basilisk venom that had burned through her veins back when she'd gone into the Chamber of Secrets.

She didn't remember passing out as the sleeping potion Winky provided her took effect. But when she woke up, the hole in her shoulder was just another scar.

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Chief Ragnok was troubled.

It had been three weeks since his meeting with Ivy Potter. And while there had been some further communication between them, it had all been via paperwork and letters.

The first order of business had been the appointment of new managers to the Potter and Black accounts, then the audits of both accounts, as well as the consolidation of the Potter and Lestrange accounts into the Black accounts, which was the responsibility of these managers. The arrangements had also been made for the examination and disenchanting of numerous objects from the Black home.

Due to the tentative deals he'd made with Ivy should she succeed in vanquishing Voldemort, Ragnok had demanded reports.

He was determined not to anger Ivy, to give her reason to seek the aid she had requested from him and his clan elsewhere. He wasn't willing to aid her without proof of her capability, but Ivy offered something he, and many other clan leaders if he was honest, would gladly kill for.

Goblins had never been in favor of hiding magic from non-magicals. To be honest it was just one of many reasons that Goblins didn't get along with most magical governments. Oh, it wasn't out of any belief that all were worthy or intelligent enough to accept magic. The goblins desire for more contact and relations with the non-magical world came down to one simple fact...greed.

Warriors, craftsmen, bankers, lawyers...goblins were almost all motivated by greed. Not for power, though that could be useful, but for their gods. Goblins constantly attempted to prove their worth to their gods. If you could not prove your worth, you were not worthy of the afterlife.

You proved yourself by the amount of riches you collected in your life. The gods loved wealth, they judged your worth on the amount of riches you accumulated for your family and clan. The more wealth you collected, the better your afterlife.

And non-magicals were another source of wealth for goblins to tap into, thus allowing even greater rewards in the afterlife.

The problem was that, due to the various magical beings wanting to keep magic itself secret, and the fact that, while different from human magic, goblins had their own magic, goblins had fought against the statute of secrecy. They'd lost, of course, and had often rebelled against the restrictions governments placed on them. To gain even one nation that would allow them contact with non-magicals was an opportunity that couldn't be passed up.

Which was why he was so concerned about Ivy Potter's success or failure in regards to Voldemort, and thus why he had demanded reports.

It was those reports that concerned him. Specifically the reports on the cleansing of items from the Black home, and the consolidation of the Lestrange and Black Accounts.

There was one artifact found in the Lestrange vault, and another that had been collected from the Black home. They were a chalice that was decorated with the Hufflepuff family crest and a locket engraved with the Slytherin family crest. Both were discovered to be horcruxes.

Horcruxes were objects that a being had placed a bit of their soul into to prevent themselves from dying. It was truly horrible magic, and to the goblins, it was an abomination.

As greedy at ruthless as they were, to goblins, souls were sacred things. The willing mutilation of your own soul, which was required to make horcruxes, was perhaps one of the worst sins to them, earning the perpetrator an eternity in Askaren, the goblin version of hell (which some wizard had butchered when he attempted to name the prison Azkaban after it).

Ragnok did not know who had made the horcruxes, but he had a strong suspicion. He was simply waiting for confirmation from the cursebreakers assigned to the items.

And if Ragnok's suspicions proved true, Ragnok knew that he, and every other goblin of Clan Gringott, would do all they could to help Ivy Potter defeat the abomination that dared defile their lands by hiding a horcrux in their tunnels and vaults.

Such abomination could not go unpunished without all goblins aware of it risking their own souls to Askaren.

They would discover exactly who dared to split their soul. If Ragnok's suspicions were true, and Voldemort had indeed made both horcruxes they had discovered, they would find out if he made more, and they would hunt them down. And when all horcruxes were destroyed, they would aid Ivy Potter in eliminating the abomination that dared call himself a lord.

Even if they did not do it personally, they would send Voldemort to Askaren for his crimes. And there, he would be punished for all eternity.

This was the goblin way.

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So in this chapter I wanted to show that Voldemort is beginning to realize the damage being caused to him by Ivy, but I also wanted to show that it's not as easy as it may seem to outsiders for Ivy to do what she is, hence her injury. I also needed a way for Ivy to discover Voldemort's horcruxes, hence the goblin's discovery.

I hope you enjoyed.