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 6: Allies

Harry and Sirius sat in Grishnak's private office in the lower levels of Le Banque Gringott de Paris. Harry was resting after having the horcrux in his scar removed, and Voldemort's soul-fragment destroyed. A re-test of his blood showed that the bloodstone (and hence Gringott's) accepted him as the true Potter heir, and that the 'extra' presence was gone.

Bill Wesley and the goblin soul-catcher remained in the room with them.

The manager of the Paris branch of the goblin's bank had just explained to them that Gringott's had been the final arbiter of wizarding inheritances and family lines for many centuries, so from this point there could be no disputes or counterclaims by so-called distant relatives.

He also noted that, similar to very old customs, conviction and imprisonment for major crimes did not alter inheritance rights in any significant way. Smiling in the manner that would frighten small children, he also noted that Sirius' imprisonment for murder had been noted and confirmed by the goblins as a complete fraud, but as it dealt with wizarding politics, they had originally felt that it was none of their business. As he pointed out, the goblins' credo was that wizards come and go, dark lords come and go, even old families come and go, but gold lasts.

As it now became apparent that Harry had been kept completely unaware of the wizarding inheritance laws, and had never been told the terms of his parents' wills, the goblins saw that there was some serious skulduggery being committed related to inheritances and funds, and to them this was intolerable. There were people, goblin and human, who were going to experience consequences.

Grishnak pointed out that to the goblins, Sirius was the Head of the Black family. Under goblin law, Sirius was a direct descendant of the previous family Head, and his disinheritance would only stand if there was another direct descendant to challenge for the title. As there was none, Sirius was 'It'.

Sirius and Harry had originally come to visit Gringott's (Parisian branch) to see if they could access Harry's vault in London, through the Paris branch. It was now explained to them that, as Harry was the Head Presumptive of the Potter family, he could access his money through whatever branch was most convenient. Upon either his majority or emancipation, he would become the Head of the family, and could access other family vaults as well. This was the first Harry had ever been told that there were other vaults.

As they sat and Harry recovered his strength, Sirius and Grishnak discussed the issue of Voldemort's quest to take over England. Grishnak pointed out that the conquest of the island nation was only his first step, if his information was correct.

This revelation came as a surprise to the elder wizard, who asked where this information came from, and would it be possible to arrange a meeting with the people involved.

The goblin smiles, and said "I suspected that you would be asking something like that, and I have arranged for some people to arrive in a few minutes. I believe it is a truism in muggle commerce that business is just war on another battlefield. They must have got it from us, because this is just a basic fact of life in my world. What you would call a business meeting, in our language, it translates as a council of war. I think that, in this case, it is a more appropriate term for our upcoming meeting. You will have noticed that I had Mr. Weasley and Clawhand stay – I suspect their input may be valuable."

A few moments later, a number of people entered the office, and a goblin (apparently of a lower rank) opened a partition connecting the office to a larger conference room. Among the people were General Delacour (in uniform this time), an older witch with strawberry blonde hair who looked a bit familiar to Harry, and to his surprise, Mad-Eye Moody and Professor Dumbledore. Several of the group were wearing dark muggle-type suits with slightly oversized jackets, rather than wizards' robes.

Dumbledore looked quite unhappy.

To Harry's surprise, Dobby and a group of seven other house-elves also joined them in the room. Dobby ran over to Harry and hugged his leg. Harry asked the elf what he was doing there.

Dobby smiled and answered, "Dobby is loyaling Harry Potter Sir. These elves are bound to Hogwarts, and are in danger from bad Riddler. Oldun," gesturing to an elf so old and skin so wrinkled that he made a Shar-Pei look like a military-made bed, "is being last elf who bonded with Old Headmaster Gryffindor. Lucretia, here,", indicating an elderly female elf "was being Helga witch's personal elf – Puff-lady witch was so loyal to Hogwarts, she was made 'Honourary Elf! We be value loyaling. When the two founders died, they passed their elves to Hogwarts. If bad Riddler man is winning, Hogwarts elves who serve the castle are being in danger. We come to help save Hogwarts and Harry Potter Sir."

Harry asked, "Who is this Riddler you speak about?"

He answered for the elves. "Harry, you know that Lord Voldemort's true name was Tom Riddle. He is the bad Riddler."

Grishnak gestured to the group indicating that they should move into the conference room area, and take a seat. Standing at the head of the table, he proceeded to introduce the group, including Ragnok from Gringott's of London, representatives from Group 9 ¾ from the Holy Roman Empire, Bureau 3 3/4 from the Ministry of Magic of the Venetian Republic, and MI 5 ¾ from Britain, and many others. The witch from MI 5 ¾ pointed out that the magical branch of the British Secret Service was in no way connected to the Ministry of Magic, but to the muggle Ministry of Defense.

As each person's affiliation was stated, all ending with the ¾ suffix, Harry groaned loudly. As the group laughed at this, Dumbledore said "Harry, you must know that we hold firmly to tradition in our world."

Signor Primavera of the Venetian Republic added, "Someone back in the Byzantine Empire came up with the ¾ for the magical branches of the government, and I guess it stuck. Tradition may be silly, but, there it is."

Harry asked about the national affiliations. The 'German' laughed. "We at the HRE don't recognise Napoleon's alteration of the organisation of our country, nor the subjugation under the Prussians. Again, tradition. We like it the way it was. In Britain, your reorganization incorporating Scotland was before 1700, so the Ministry reflects that."

The blonde witch smiled at Harry, and said, "I'm Amelia Bones. As you just heard, I am in charge of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in our Ministry. My niece Susan is in your year at Hogwarts. She has spoken highly of you, and I am pleased to finally meet you." Harry returned the greeting and the smile.

Grishnak stood and announced "My friends, to business. I invoke Goblin Secrecy Level 7 for this meeting." A pulse of magic spread through the room, jarring everyone in it.

Harry looked surprised. He asked, "What was this spell?"

Grishnak nodded to him. "This meeting, the matters we are to discuss, and the identities of the people attending must remain secret. The spell imposed a block on anyone revealing what transpires here to anyone but people who have been cleared by this office. Any attempt to do so has consequences." Harry had heard about the 'consequences' of annoying goblins.

Grishnak gestured to Andre Delacour, who stood up. He began, saying, "As some of you may already know, we recently apprehended Delores Umbridge of the British Ministry entering France illegally with intent to kidnap Harry Potter."

At this point Dumbledore shouted, "No. You must release her immediately! I insist as Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. You have to let her go!" He reached into his robes and pulled out a paper bag, taking a candy from it.

Grishnak thrust out his right hand and shouted an incantation in Goblinish. Dumbledore froze in mid movement to get the candy to his mouth. Although the rest of his body was immobile, his eyes flicked back and forth in panic.

Grishnak looked to Bill Weasley, and ordered "Weasley, Clawhand. Now!"

Bill and the goblin took the candies from Dumbledore's hands and put them on the table. The both cast spells over them, and the bag and the candy glowed in various colours. The two nodded to Grishnak, grimly.

Grishnak nodded, and turned to Delacour, saying "It appears your information has proved accurate." Turning back to Bill Weasley, he commanded, "Proceed."

As the redhead murmured incantations and waved his wand around the rigid headmaster, Grishnak explained. "General Delacour's people have questioned Delores Umbridge extensively, and it seems she has been supplying the Professor with his lemon drops for some time, many years in fact since she was a prize-winning potion student and a favourite of the Professor. They have been laced with potions which caused the professor to overlook some details and facts, and prevented him from following up on some inconsistencies, such as Mr. Black's incarceration, and the presence of Death Eaters on Hogwarts Board of Governors and in the Wizengamot. This has subverted Mr. Dumbledore's actions for the better part of fifty years. These compulsions are being removed from the gentleman, as we speak. The lemon drops were also charmed to be extremely addictive, so that Mr. Dumbledore would be forced to continue being dosed with the compulsion potion for years."

As the wizard and the goblin completed their spell-casting, and steam coming off him had ceased, Dumbledore collapsed in his seat in tears, saying "What have I done? What have I done?"

Sirius Black looked at the old man with pity and loathing, and said, "The problem, Headmaster, is that you have done nothing! You let things happen that should not have happened. You allowed Harry to be abused for years by his relatives. You set him up to fight Voldemort, but with absolutely no training – you were setting him up to die! In all the years since Harry weakened Voldemort, you did nothing to capture any Death Eaters, and when they ones that were caught bribed their way out of jail, you did nothing! You were the Chief Warlock, the Supreme Mugwump, and you did nothing!" If Harry had not pushed Sirius' hand down, he would have whipped out his wand and killed Dumbledore on the spot. Several of the goblin guards had been prepared to intervene forcibly if necessary to stop Black – it looked like they might also like to take a swing at Dumbledore themselves.

Delacour continued. "If I may continue? Under questioning, Madame Umbridge told us how she had been controlling things at the Ministry and dosing the Professor for many years. Several high-ranking members of the Ministry and Wizengamot are, or rather were, under her complete control. Her true actions and allegiance were unknown even to the Death Eaters, so that if they were ever questioned under veritaserum, they could reveal nothing."

Dumbledore shook his head in his hands, as he wept. "I am finished", he moaned.

Grishnak smiled. "No, Professor, only your enslavement is finished! You were enslaved through treachery, a process my people know well from dealing with wizards. You are free now to assist us in eliminating this threat to both our peoples. The fact of your potion-enslavement is known only to the people in this room, and as I pointed out earlier, that knowledge is covered by the secrecy I invoked."

Dumbledore looked at the goblin, and asked "Why are you doing this? Goblins have always kept out of wizarding affairs, besides the odd rebellion of course."

As Grishnak snickered, and the group smiled (with a close hand on their wands in case the implied insult gave umbrage), he added, "As I said, we questioned Madame Umbridge extensively, and discovered more of Voldemort's plans. Had he only wanted to take over the British wizarding world, we would have maintained our neutrality in the matter. However, his bigotry is not limited to your first-borns. His plan is to exterminate all non-humans who do not actively assist him, such as the were-creatures and the vampires are doing now. That threat includes my people."

"He wants our power and he wants our vaults. And he wants us dead. This we cannot allow."

Gesturing to the group of influential Europeans, the goblin added, "And once he has conquered Britain, he intends to conquer the rest of the world. This, they cannot allow."

Sirius interrupted and asked, "Professor, why didn't you give Harry any training. You claim he has to fight Voldemort, but you were setting him up to die. Why?"

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I could not figure out any other way. Before Harry was born, there was a prophecy that he and Voldemort could only be killed by the other, and neither could survive while the other lived. Also, that scar Harry carried is a Horcrux, a soul-repository carrying a portion of Voldemort's soul rendering him immortal. The only way to get rid of it is for Harry to die. Nobody knew about this – the knowledge of Horcruxes has been a dark secret for centuries."

Sirius smiled. "In that, Professor, you are wrong. You could not be more wrong. Bill Weasley and Clawhand here just removed the chunk of Voldemort's soul and destroyed it! For all your knowledge and wisdom, the goblins know things that we have forgotten or that have been suppressed."

"Professor, I fear you have come to believe your own legend, that you know things that no one else knows, or can know."

Dumbledore looked at Grishnak. "You knew about the Horcrux?"

The goblin nodded grimly.

Dumbledore added, "But what about the others?"

Grishnak nodded, "They knew about it as well."

Dumbledore shook his head. Pointing at the rest of the people in the room, he said, "I don't mean them! What about the other Horcruxes?"

Harry blanched. "There are more of them? Bill Weasley mentioned a suspicion about that."

Dumbledore nodded. I suspect there are, or rather were, seven. You carried one, the diary was another, and I have been looking for the other five."

Grishnak smiled. He ordered, "Weasley, Clawhand, I have a task for you!" The two curse-breakers smiled and bowed to him. Turning to Dumbledore, he asked, "Professor, I gather you have some idea where the other ones may be hidden?" Dumbledore nodded.

Grishnak bowed to the old wizard, and added, "Sir, we would very much welcome your input. You have been working on this for years, I suspect, and it would help us all to get rid of this threat. Will you assist Clawhand and Weasley, please?"

Dumbledore smiled weakly and nodded. Here was a chance to redeem himself for his numerous failings.

Harry looked at Grishnak. "You said that Umbridge was questioned a lot. Did you torture her? I know Voldemort is known to torture."

Grishnak shook his head. "We do not torture to gain information. We have found it is quite useless to do so, because under torture the subject will tell you anything to make it stop. The quality of the information gained in that manner is negligible. However, for discipline, or just for fun…."

He looked at the horrified look on the faces of the humans, and all the goblins started to laugh. "Just a little goblin humour, my friends."

Turning to General Delacour, the goblin directed, "Sir, please proceed."