Chapter 16: Ra
He sat at the counter, like any of the others stationed there. Only those who knew him knew who he really was and he knew that they would keep his secrets. This was something that he did, even if he wasn't particularly fond of it. His prowess were not in this area. It was more in tactical planning and strategizing and leading his team to success. That was how he had become popular.
That was how he had become the ruler. That was how he had been elected king.
Ragnok.
That was who he was.
Leader of the Goblin nation at Great Britain.
Unlike the wizards, whose concept of democracy was laughable at best, the goblins despite being known as a warring society, had very strict protocols in place.
After their last war with the wizard, which was lost (anything they didn't win, especially in battle was considered a defeat for them), there was a huge rebellion within the goblin ranks. The wizarding world remained blissfully unaware of the fact that the goblin on whose word the human-goblin war had sprung up was now buried a further six feet under and the concept of monarchy abolished.
Too much power given to one person irrespective of race or specie, the goblins had realized, only leads to disastrous results.
The result was to elect the best among them for a duration of time, when they would be king and would be the representative of the goblins to liaise with the wizards.
And Ragnok was now king.
His reign hadn't been without its problems. When both mankind and goblin-kind thought that they could experience peace for an extended period of time, there was the problem with the Dark Wizard Grindelwald.
It had taken an eternity for the humans to sort that issue out. The goblins had kept well clear of it so that it didn't become an inter-species war from an intra-species one.
Thankfully for everyone concerned, Grindelwald had realized early on that fighting against the goblins was unnecessary, or rather could be attended to once he had taken care of the wizarding world.
The goblins had not suffered per se, but as with any situation involving war, there were large losses that they had made. It was said that wars have a way of making some more wealthy, but that hadn't been the case for the goblins.
Once Grindelwald had been defeated, there had been some semblence of peace for a while.
Before the next Dark Wizard had decided it was his turn to take over the world.
And this one seemed to be the worst of the lot, looking down upon the goblins as if they were filthy creatures and not sentinent beings that needed to be eradicated in order to prevent the spread of a vicious disease.
Again, the goblins had not been directly assaulted. The ones that had suffered, Ragnok could find no direct trace to wizards and so was unable to take action against them. He had had half a mind to go on a quest of revenge, but common sense had prevailed. He had no intention of destroying the lives of thousands of goblins on an emotional decision.
And so he had waited and watched once again.
Then, unexpectedly and totally out of the blue, news came that the latest Dark Wizard had been defeated. While the wizarding world had rejoiced for a long while after the downfall of the terrorizer, the goblins had remained calm.
They had seen too many false dawns for them to jump about and celebrate. And they were pretty sure that the status quo would not change for them despite this latest defeat.
And unlike the humans, the goblins knew that there were ways to side-step death. The goblins knew that the reprieve they had gotten due to the downfall of the one who called himself Lord Voldemort was only temporary. They had an inkling of what he might have done to tie himself to this plane of existence.
Unfortunately for the goblins though there was no one they could share the information with.
This had been a problem both ways. The wizards had never accorded the goblins felt they deserved and this in turn had led to the goblins treating its human customers pretty poorly. Rude behaviour towards human clients had become the norm among the goblins themselves.
Much to the disappointment of Ragnok.
Oh, he was no saint. He too tended to treat the humans with disdain. But unlike the rest of his subjects, he was a lot more subtle with it and did not use it on every human he encountered. He would talk to the human for a couple of minutes and ask a couple of probing questions which would invariably dictate to Ragnok the language he would need to use with the human.
Which was why, here in the present, he was utterly confused as to what to do with the young man seated in front of him.
The boy, no young man had been extremely polite to him and had even managed to remember the name of the goblin who had shown him to his vaults the previous time round. While it wasn't surprising that the young man could remember the name (names in general were easy for humans to remember), it was the fact that he had correctly managed to identify the goblin in question that had surprised Ragnok.
The young man had no inkling he was speaking to the ruler of all goblins, yet had spoken in the same measured and polite tone that he always seemed to use with them. for Ragnok, who often rued having taken such a shift, this was a welcome relief.
Ragnok had heard of young Mr. Harry Potter, Scion of the House of Potter and the Heir-Apparent to the House of Black. Ragnok had no idea if Harry was aware of the latter title, even if he could have guessed the former. After all, who in the wizarding world (goblin kind included) had not heard of the young Lord to be?
In Ragnok's honest opinion, he had been much amused by the way in which Mr. Potter had been portrayed. For the last year, the articles on him had always painted him in a negative light while at the end of it he had been proven to be right. The year before that, during the time the Triwizard Tournament had been held, Mr. Potter had again been the central focus even though there had been three other contestants.
The intelligence that he had managed to gather on Mr. Potter had shown him to be neither a delusional attention seeker nor had his prowess been waxed lyrical. The reports had been quite simple - that Mr. Potter was more powerful than the average wizard at his age and that he was fairly intelligent and competent. The report had stressed on the fact that Mr. Potter seemed to be particularly skilled in Defence and that he was a natural leader.
Nothing about the personal and social traits of Mr. Potter's had been mentioned.
Which had led to Ragnok looking at Mr. Potter in no small degree of confusion.
Of course, he would be delegating the task of taking Mr. Potter to his vaults to one of his subjects, most likely Griphook.
But it was after aspect of the visit was done, that Ragnok had to decide how to best approach the entire situation.
One thing was abundantly clear to Ragnok - if that Dark Lord got control of Gringotts, then it would be hell for everyone, both human and goblin kind.
And as the ruler of the goblins, for Ragnok, the survival of his own people was of paramount importance.
While choosing to aide the Dark Lord would only pay off in the short term and would fail spectacularly in the long term when Voldemort turned his attention to the goblins instead, and more importantly, would be morally reprehensible, choosing to side with the Light also made no sense.
Ragnok had observed that the Light was splintered in so many different ways that it was laughable to even think that there was a united opposition to take the Dark Lord down.
And openly supporting the Light would mean that they would be leaving themselves to be attacked, which in turn would only cause more and more problems.
No, the best would be to stay neutral.
At least from the outside.
If nothing else, for its own survival, the goblin nation would need to ensure the total and utter destruction of Voldemort.
They had their own brand of magic.
They had their own set of skills.
Unfortunately, they would have to remain neutral.
At least from the outside.
It was for matters on the inside that Ragnok was wondering how to best talk to Mr. Potter. Obviously, he couldn't just spring it on the young man.
And since most of the humans in the bank did not recognize Ragnok, it was best that he did not reveal himself either.
Ah, he had just thought of the perfect excuse to set up a follow-up meeting with Mr. Potter once his vault visits were done.
"Mr. Potter. Good morning to you as well! As you are already familiar with one of our staff members, I shall ask Griphook to take you down to your vaults if that is fine with you?" A nod was his reply with a softly uttered "Thanks!", before Ragnok continued.
"I believe we have much to discuss Mr. Potter especially about your accounts. Once you are done with your vaults, if it pleases you, could you please call upon me, Occamrazor, to go through the audit of your accounts?"
Seeing the look of worry on Harry's face, Ragnok quickly continued, "There is nothing to worry. This is standard procedure that we extend to all of our clients, particularly ones that will be reaching their majority soon. As you will be considered an adult in the wizarding next July, I think it is best that you receive this information now"
Ragnok was glad that he did not have to lie. Well, not outrightly.
True, the goblins did usually discuss the audit of accounts with their clients.
True, the goblins did make sure that the wizard or witch reaching majority soon was well aware of their accounts in case they were orphans.
False, the goblins did not extend this to all their clients. In fact, it was done only to those who were of the Noble Houses in the wizarding worlds as they were the only ones with possible contentious vaults that they needed to be made aware of.
False, the goblins would generally take a fair bit of time to conduct their audits. The reason for the delay was more to do with the passive-aggressive behaviour of the goblins than the actual time needed to do the audit itself.
Ragnok had been mightily relieved that Mr. Potter had agreed to meet up with him, though he could see that something had tickled Mr. Potter's fancy.
Deciding to ask him about it later, Ragnok called for Griphook and sent him off with Mr. Potter after a quick conversation in their native tongue (which actually wasn't Gobbledegook) to bring him to one of the office rooms that was used for the very same purpose to hold audit finding meetings.
Once Mr. Potter had set off on his errand, Ragnok had gone to his own room, deep within Gringotts and had summoned the account managers for both the House of Black and the House of Potter.
As the House of Black was far more wealthier than the House of Potter, even though they could roughly trace their origins to the same time period, there were two people who were overseeing the Black account. The Potter account on the other hand, was being seen to by a single person.
The three of them were in Ragnok's room awaiting his presence.
The person taking care of the Potter account was a goblin by the name of Sharpknife, a gritty and rather cynical goblin who was very good at his job.
The person taking care of the Black account was a goblin by the name of Bluntaxe, a slightly uppity and snobbish goblin who too was very good at his job.
Bluntaxe was assisted in his endeavour of maintaining the Black accounts by a human who had joined them just over a year ago and had proved to have quite the knack for dealing with numbers and with goblins.
None had doubted her powers with a wand. She had shown ample skill with it in her final year of schooling.
As the champion from Beauxbatons.
Fleur Delacour.
Each of them bowed to Ragnok as a manner of respect and greeting and Ragnok did the same. He might be their ruler, but beyond titles he believed in respecting individuals as well.
Ragnok had then led them outside and to the meeting room that he had arranged, all the while explaining to them in their native tongue the series of events that had transpired upstairs. It was an unwritten rule that all conversations in Gringotts, except the ones with the customer, were to be done in the goblin's native language.
They had gotten themselves seated and Ragnok began going through the Potter account first, as it was the smaller of the two. Most of the transactions had been straightforward. No unexplainable transactions. Regular interest credits and regular expenses.
They were just about to start with the Black account audit when there was a knock on the door and Harry entered feeling quite awkward and a little lost. Griphook, who had held the door open to announce him to the people within bowed to all of them and left, but not before being surprised by Harry's bow in return. Once Griphook had left, Harry had bowed to each of the four members in turn and when he had seen Fleur, he had walked up to her and shook her hand.
Fleur had been pleasantly surprised to see Harry there. Her opinion of the "leetle boy" had changed ever since the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament and she greeted him warmly and helped make the introductions to the others.
When she was about to introduce Ragnok to Harry, Harry grinned prompting the leader of the Goblin nation to ask him why he was grinning.
"No offence to you sir, but the name you had picked for yourself told me immediately that it wasn't your name but something which you had come up with on the spur of the moment. In the muggle world, there is a saying called Occam's Razor, which essentially states that the simplest explanation is almost always the most likely cause of the event."
Ragnok also began to guffaw loudly, telling him that it was indeed the first time that he had used the name and that the next time he would try to use something that did not have such an Occam's razor explanation in the muggle world.
He then proceeded to tell Harry his real name and hearing that Harry very nearly fainted. Much to the amusement of the other three males in the room, Harry had had to be supported by Fleur for a short period of time.
Eventually common sense and manners caught up with him and Harry bowed deeply to Ragnok and apologized profusely for having taken the mickey out of the ruler of the goblins.
Ragnok though just laughed the whole issue off before turning serious.
"Now let us get down to business. As you are well aware for goblins, time is money and so we like to jump right into the important stuff as quickly as possible.
I believe you have received a letter from us a while back. It was sent in accordance with the late Lord Black's wishes which he had outlined in great detail.
We at Gringotts do not know the contents of the letter and we do not wish to know. It has been the preferred way of operation of Gringotts for a long time now and I see no reason to change the same.
Now, the reason we are here as I had mentioned to you earlier is to look at the audit findings of your accounts.
Allow me to introduce the various account managers one of whom I believe you already know. Sharpknife, who oversees the Potter account and Bluntaxe, who oversees the Black account. Ms. Delacour here assists Bluntaxe in managing the Black account as it is huge.
Now, I am sure you are curious as to why there are two personnel managing the Black account while there is only one for the Potter account. And I am sure you have worked out the answer as well.
Yes, the Black account is huge. In fact it is so huge that having a single goblin take care of it would be the equivalent of the death sentence.
And if you are confused as to why the Black account managers are also here, it is part of the late Lord Black's wishes as well. He instructed Gringotts to arrange everything so that you would become the next Lord Black. And as Gringotts recognizes Head of families based on blood and magic and not based on criminal records, Lord Sirius Black continued to be the Lord Black after the death of his father even though he had been imprisoned.
That would conclude the part of the meeting that I had stated to you."
At this, Harry's face shot up and his eyes narrowed at the leader of the Goblin nation. He had hoped there would be no deception with the goblins but it seemed like that was not the case. He was tempter to draw his wand but knew, after hearing it from Hermione, that drawing a wand in Gringotts on a goblin was as good as asking for a death sentence.
Harry said nothing but stared at Ragnok in anger. For his part, Ragnok did not so much as flinch and met Harry's gaze with his own.
Ragnok had realized the problem. The way he had phrased it made it sound like he had tricked Mr. Potter into the whole thing and now he was suspicious of the true motives of the goblins.
It was definitely not the type of tone he had wanted to set for the meeting as well as the proposed relationship.
Before the silence became any more uncomfortable, Ragnok decided to clear the air.
"Mr. Potter, please do not misunderstand us. Perhaps my choice of phrasing was poor. It is not that we were waiting for you from the outset and had decided to plan this meeting and other intricacies beforehand. In fact, I planned this only after studying you at the counter. The latter part of the meeting that I must stress is quite important came about entirely based on our interaction this morning. And as details of the meeting are best kept under wraps, for we too do not know just who might be listening, I had to come up with a plausible cover."
"The second part of the meeting I wanted today with you is something that cannot leave the confines of this room. This is for both our security as well as yours. You are not required to give an Unbreakable Vow or anything of that sort. Goblin magic will take care of that while you are within this room."
Seeing the eyes still narrowed and surmising correctly, Ragnok continued, "I assure you Mr. Potter that nothing will be done without your consent. Only once you agree to not speak of it unless given permission by me (and likewise if I wish to inform someone, I would need your permission), can the content be revealed. And no, unlike the Unbreakable Vow, the goblin version does not result in the death of the person who breaks the vow. We find it to be rather tasteless. There are so many ways to ensure that secrets don't get revealed than to kill the person involved.
In goblin magic, the person simply won't remember the exact content when talking to someone else about it. So you will be dancing around the issue for a while but will never be able to tell it.
Like I said, the choice will be entirely yours, but I am sure once I have given you an outline of the meeting, you will agree to be bound by the goblin charm"
Seeing his guest's face visibly relax and then a nod, Ragnok released the breath he did not even realize he had been holding.
After having paused for a sufficient amount of time and deciding to talk before the situation got awkward again, Ragnok began to talk again, "Let us get on with it shall we? It is going to be a long day ahead."
It did turn out to be a long day. While the Potter account was done quickly, the Black accounts took an exceedingly long time. Fortunately for Harry, Sharpknife, Bluntaxe and Fleur all ensured that they kept the language as simple as possible. This proved beneficial to them as well, as they ended up finishing the audit faster than they had expected.
Harry, hearing that had been horrified. If this was the short version, then he shuddered to think what the long version would be like.
He was also getting a little agitated. When he had left Privet Drive this morning, he had assured his Aunt that he would be back in time to do the gardening and would do double the usual amount of chores as payment for being dropped off in London.
And yet here he was, still stuck in London, with only the less important stuff out of the way.
Harry's agitation and nervousness was noticeable to all those who were present in the room. While Bluntaxe and Sharpknife were put off by it, deciding like most of their human customers, this one too seemed to want to be at a different place the minute his affairs had been completed, never mind the fact that it was the ruler of the goblins who had specifically asked for it.
Fleur and Ragnok on the other hand didn't share the sentiments of the other two senior members in the room. While Fleur was concerned that Harry was probably not aware that he was broadcasting his feelings openly and could end up triggering a huge diplomatic faux pas, Ragnok was worried that Harry now had second thoughts about the second part of the meeting.
Or as Ragnok thought about it, the main course of the meeting, after the appetizer that was the account audits.
Nope that was bad. Ragnok realized that he should rather stick to decorum. Clearly, jokes on food were not his forte.
Sensing all pairs of eyes on him and realizing that more than one pair seemed to be disapproving of him, Harry was more than a little concerned. He wasn't sure what he had done now to upset the goblins and he very much wanted to get out of this alive. He turned to the only other human in the room and cocked his head slightly, in a manner that conveyed that he was confused as to what was going on and would like an explanation if possible.
Fleur obliged and walked over to him and whispered in his ear.
For the goblins who were watching the interaction, it was a source of great amusement as Mr. Potter's eyes first went comically wide while simultaneously, his lips formed the shape of the letter "O" and his throat supplied the vocals for the same.
It seemed that Mr. Potter had finally been made aware of the grey line that he was currently treading
Hastily he looked at Ragnok and decided to make his situation known to him. "Ragnok sir, I understand that my actions just now might have conveyed the wrong message that I am not interested in the second part of the meeting that you had mentioned. I would like to assure you that that is not the case. While I am not sure yet whether I will take the goblin equivalent of the Unbreakable Vow, I am definitely interested in hearing what you have to say.
Unfortunately, in order to get to Gringotts I had to compromise on a few things at the place where I stay. Well, the compromise not exactly working in my favour anyway. And I had told me Aunt that I would be back by a certain time to attend to those chores. While I do not really fear their reaction to me being late, I would like to avoid the added unpleasantness if possible.
As I will need to travel back from London to Surrey, I am sure you can understand my worry that staying for the second meeting, again as you mentioned it, the more important meeting, while my concentration is on figuring out the fastest way back won't really work. Could I request that the second one be rescheduled to a later date? But I honestly am not sure when I will be able to make it next. Would sometime during the Christmas break at Hogwarts be too late?
I hope you will forgive me if I have spoken too much and possibly in a manner that is disrespectful to the ruler of the goblins. However, I hope you see why I behaved the way I did and seek your understanding in the matter."
Harry finished talking and looked about nervously. He had heard that goblins favoured eye-contact as they used it to measure both the conviction of the person they were dealing with and because they were able to determine whether or not the person was telling the truth.
And holding Ragnok's gaze was a little terrifying to Harry.
For a long while Ragnok did not speak, nor did he look away from Harry and break eye-contact.
Finally at length, he spoke.
"I understand your concern Mr. Potter and I can safely say that once we begin the second meeting, it will surely take a lot more time than you could possibly have at Gringotts today. However, I am particular that I speak to you today on this matter. Your Christmas break will be too late for us as I hope to have something achieved by then, again the something beng defined by the meeting."
Seeing Harry begin to fret over the fact that he seemed to be caught between the devil and the deep sea, Ragnok continued.
"Not to worry Mr. Potter. I shall ask one of our goblins to take you back to your premises." Sparing a quick glance at Fleur, Ragnok continued "No offense Ms. Delacour but goblin transportation, like its human counterpart is instantaneous and so we will be able to save you", he turned back to face Harry, "your travel time. It also has the added advantage that it will not be detected by your Ministry."
Ragnok carefully watched the body language of Mr. Potter when he had finished. He seemed to be relieved that a big burden had been taken off his neck.
Smiling broadly, Harry turned to Ragnok, executed a short yet deep bow and spoke, "What are we waiting for? Let's start!"
The next couple of minutes was spent not in discussing the plans of the Goblin king, but in the loud guffawing of the three goblins in the room.