The Plague Ship
Synopsis: What might have happened if Sirius had been a bit more proactive after the dementor attack on Harry and Dudley? AU, and Hermione had not gone to Grimmauld Place, deciding to spend time with her family. No super-powered Harry.
Timeframe: Starting early August 8, 1995, then continuing afterwards
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Potterverse, so quit asking for loans or donations.
Chapter 5: Revelation and Extraction
Harry Potter entered the foyer of Le Banque Gringott. He was very nervous, as this was his first real opportunity to make a total mess of the French language in a very public setting. He also knew that goblins were a very touchy bunch who could be insulted easily. One might say they had a chip on their collective shoulders when dealing with wizards, which made him wonder why they worked in a business that required them to put up with magical humans on a daily basis.
He walked across the large and ornately decorated lobby, followed closely by his godfather who was keeping a wary eye on everyone around them. Harry might be in danger of abduction, but Sirius was in danger of being handed over to the dementors.
Harry moved to the reception desk, and in very badly pronounced French said "Pardonnez moi, monsieur."
The goblin looked up in surprise. "You called me Sir. You must be a very strange wizard."
Sirius turned to Harry and explained "He is surprised you called him Sir. Not many wizards would do that. He thinks you're a bit strange."
The goblin looked even more surprised, and spoke in English. "Ah, you are English. In that case, you are very strange wizards, because the English do not usually speak to goblins with the courtesy. And, Monsieur, I see you understand our language well. How may I help you today?"
Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "I wonder if it is possible to get money from my vault in London, through this office. I have no way of returning to London to access my vault."
The goblin looked at Harry with some suspicion, and made a subtle gesture to one of the guards. The guard looked at the two wizards carefully, and went into an antechamber. He soon returned with a relaxed face, and came up to the reception desk accompanied by a goblin in a more ornate uniform. To the receptionist, the apparently more senior spoke in the goblin language, saying "These are the two we were told about. I will look after it. You have done your task adequately.
The receptionist relaxed visibly. To be told by a superior goblin that you had performed your work adequately was praise, and an indication that you would see another sunrise, as reprimands had dire consequences.
Turning to Harry and Sirius, he said in English, "Gentlemen, if you will follow me please? We were advised to expect you."
Harry looked at Sirius in panic. "They found us."
The goblin smiled. "Mr. Potter, our information came from French sources. I can assure you that you are quite safe from the English authorities here. In fact, had you gone to Gringott's in London, you could have found sanctuary there as well."
Turning to Sirius, he nodded and said, "Mr. Black, we have looked into your accusations of malfeance on the part of the British Ministry, and find your claims justified. My superior is expected to present you with good news."
He ushered them into an office decorated with bars of gold and silver, as well as various weapons. The blades appeared discoloured, and Sirius went over to look at one. He shuddered, and muttered under his breath "I was taught to clean the blood off my weapons before putting them on display."
They heard a laugh from a door at the back of the office, and a goblin in yet more ornate clothing entered the room. "Mr. Black, you see that our customs differ in that regard. My people leave the blood on the blades to demonstrate that they are not just showpieces."
The goblin, dressed in the height of ornatitudeness, nodded to the two, and gestured to two bricks on a side table, each with a golden dagger in front of it. The bricks looked like they were made of lead, and had a slight depression in the top.
The goblin spoke again. "Mr. Black, I am informed that you had participated in this ritual, but I doubt that your young charge has done so. Please proceed." His face took on a seriousness showing that this was a very serious stage of the business at hand.
Sirius looked at Harry. "Before the goblins will allow any discussion of money or inheritances, they require absolute surety of identity. These so-called 'blood-stones' determine if you are who you say you are. There have been many instances where wizards have tried to claim money that is not their own, sometimes polyjuiced to look like the real people, and this prevents it. In my case, I am probably in their records, but I doubt that you are. They will have charmed the stones to test your descent from your parents."
Speaking to Harry in a whisper, he added, "I assume that my ability to describe the ritual to you is part of the test. I should also point out that those who fail this test do not get to leave the office alive. So it is very fortunate that we are who we say we are."
Turing to the goblin, he asked "Does it matter which stone I use?" The goblin shook his head
Taking the dagger in front of one of the stones, Sirius said to Harry, "Take the dagger in front of the stone, and prick the middle finger on your left hand. You might assume that most people would prick their thumbs. Bad mistake." Harry took up the dagger in front of the other stone and did this as Sirius performed this part of the ritual.
The elder wizard then said, "Now, squeeze out three drops of blood and drip them into the depression in the top of the stone."
Harry followed these instructions, then watched in amazement as Sirius' stone instantly turned to gold. His stone fluctuated back-and-forth between the lead colour and gold for a minute, and then settled on gold.
The goblin smiled. "Welcome to Gringott's of Paris, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter. As you can see, it took a moment for Mr. Potter's blood to be recognised as the legitimate heir of his parents, through their own records which are in Gringott's files. Mr. Potter, you will now be recognised in any branch of the Bank anywhere in the world."
"I am Grishnak, manager of the French branches of Gringott's Bank. I have spoken to my cousin Ragnok, in London, and he has commented that young Mr. Potter was most unusual, in that he wished to know the name of the goblin who served him. Courtesy and respect are returned where they are shown. Most wizards show us no respect, and that disrespect is also returned to them in kind. The Potter family has been known for centuries as being a respectful line, although I have to say, Mr. Black, that the same cannot be said for some of your ancestors"
At that moment, the brick that Harry had used started flashing between gold and black, and a siren sounded. The guards standing by the door tensed up and brought their weapons to a ready position. Grishnak held up a hand, telling them to hold off, and looked at Harry carefully, staring at his scar, then turned and barked something to one of the guards.
Harry had turned very pale. Grishnak turned to him, and said softly "It seems you have an uninvited guest with you. Don't worry, the stone accepts you as the rightful Potter heir, so be calm, but there is something else there as well. This must be investigated."
The guard bowed, and left the room quickly. He returned soon with another goblin who was not in office finery, but in what looked like medical or healer garb. The new goblin looked at Harry closely, and then look at his scar. He took out an instrument that looked like a pocket lens and examined the scar. Turning to Grishnak, he spoke rapidly in the Goblinish, and Harry thought he heard the name 'Weasley' spoken.
Grishnak nodded as if to concur with the medical (?) goblin's assessment, and the medic (for that is what he was) went to a communications device and spoke rapidly. Again Harry thought he heard the name 'Weasley'.
Grishnak gestured to chairs, and said "This will take a short while as we get the curse breaker to the office. I offer tea, or would you prefer butterbeer while we wait."
Harry accepted the tea, as he felt he needed a bit of comfort and stimulation, as neither he nor Sirius knew what was happening. Whatever it was, it was certainly very important to the goblins. Why a curse breaker was required was a mystery. Particularly for what had been intended to be a simple withdrawal of some pocket money.
After about half of a very nerve-wracking hour, a tall red-headed human entered the room carrying a toolbox, and bowed to Grishnak. Words were rapidly exchanged, with Grishnak pointing towards Harry. The tall man smiled and nodded, responding in the goblin tongue.
The man looked familiar to Harry, but a bit unfamiliar at the same time. Somehow, it seemed the wrong place to be, in order to be familiar; Harry just couldn't place him. He wore his long red hair tied back in a pony-tail, and had a large fang dangling from one ear.
The man turned to Harry and held out his hand. He said, "Hi Harry. You may not recall, but I'm Bill Weasley. I have heard about you for years from my brothers, and sister and my mother, and we met last year. It's great to see you again. However, it seems you have a bit of a problem, which has my bosses rather puzzled. A puzzled goblin is not a happy goblin, so I was called in to see what is going on."
He approached Harry and stared at his scar. Taking out an odd device from his toolkit, he examined the scar more closely, and then turned to Grishnak and spoke quickly. The manager went to his desk and placed another call, and another goblin soon entered.
Bill turned to Harry and said, "You've got a weird sort-of parasite in that scar of yours. I've seen a couple of that kind of thing attached to rare objects, and heard of others, but I've never actually seen one on a living person before. It's kind of like a leech charm, which would drain your magical power a bit, but this one is different, and very rare."
Harry asked, "You say it is a leech. Does that mean it is hurting me?"
Bill smiled. "Well, I can guarantee it's not doing you any good! This is something that I have seen in old Egyptian documents and tombs – the old Egyptians were obsessed with Death and Immortality. Harry, I have to ask, have you ever been near someone being killed?"
Harry blanched. "Last year, Cedric Diggory was murdered right beside me."
Weasley shook his head. "I do know you have had that scar for longer than that. I remember hearing stories about you and your famous scar for years, even before we met. My mother used to read stories about you to my little sister, who I think fell in love with the Boy-Who-Lived before she was out of her nappies. Or rather, Mum taught her to be in love with the BWL. Sorry about that – I know you hate the term and your fame, even if my youngest brother seems jealous of you. More to the point, when precisely did you get that scar?"
Harry looked shocked. "I've always had this scar, I think. As long as I can remember, anyway. I have been told I was there when Voldemort murdered my mother. Is that what you mean?"
Bill Weasley looked at Grishnak, and nodded. They spoke quickly in Goblinish, then Bill turned to Harry and said, "This is worse than we had originally thought, but there have been some speculation on this point in 'the trade', ever since Ginny got that cursed diary that you destroyed. Thanks for doing that, by the way."
Harry said, "I thought that incident with the diary was a big secret!"
The red-headed wizard nodded. "It's not widely known outside a small specialised circle, which I happen to be part of because it touches on my work for Gringott's"
"Harry, your scar is a Horcrux, also called a 'soul-anchor'. Back in the day, high-class Egyptians used to create them to try to avoid death – they were terrified of it. The problem is that they can be created only by murdering someone – they're really dark magic. Making one rips your soul into pieces, and you can't be killed completely as long as your horcrux exists. The reason Voldemort continued after you survived his killing curse is because of his horcruxes. To get rid of him, we have to get rid of them."
"Among us curse-breakers, we have discussed the likelihood that he created a lot of them. His name means 'Flies from Death' and it is thought that he is trying to become immortal."
Harry and Sirius both gasped at this revelation, although Grishnak just nodded grimly.
Bill continued. ""We also have discussed that the reason you survived his killing curse was that his soul was not sufficiently intact by that point to cast it with enough power – the fact that your mother was killed just before that was thought to contradict that, but if killing her created the horcrux that is now in your scar, that might have been what dropped his soul's power just below the threshold of what was needed for the spell. Note that when you attended his resurrection, he had his servant Pettigrew kill Mr. Diggory. It was only once he had a group of his followers there, all feeding their power into him, that he tried to kill you himself."
Seeing their horrified faces, he added, "Sorry about that. Talking about this kind of stuff is a bit of an occupational hazard for guys in my business. Anyway, it has been suspected that Voldemort had created the diary as a Horcrux, because the image of him you saw would be consistent with the time that Myrtle Green was killed at Hogwarts. Whether the one you carry was created intentionally, or accidentally, when he murdered your mother is a question, but also a moot point at this moment. It exists now, and is sustaining itself by draining some of your magic."
Gesturing to the goblin who had just entered the room, Bill said, "I'm going to remove it, but I have requested the presence of a soul-catcher. Clawhand here, on top of being a first-rate curse-breaker, is also a top notch soul-catcher, which is a rare specialty even within the curse-breaking community. Whatever form the soul fragment is in, we definitely do not want it to get loose. We are going to trap it, and destroy it. Now, the ritual may hurt a bit, but you will be magically stronger after we are done."
Sirius spoke up at this point. "Bill, I gather that you get into some pretty lethal curses and wards, in your work." Bill nodded with a grim countenance.
Sirius nodded thoughtfully. "Does that mean you know how to cast the same spells?"
Bill nodded. "To get through them, you have to know how they're put together, so yeah. I know how to cast them. Why do you ask?"
Sirius said quietly, "Just a thought, but that might be a very useful skill to have at our disposal in getting rid of Voldemort for good."