Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my ideas.

"Every creature in the Underground gets documented for the records, but because Hoggle is an illegitimate piece of filth on our father's side he doesn't register as a proper citizen," Higgle began. "There's seven of us in all, including Hoggle. There's Hedgewart, Hogbrain, Hoghead, Hogwart, Hogwash, and myself." Sarah blinked.

"Hey, wait a second, I recognize some of those! The King never got Hoggle's name right and called him those instead." Now that she thought about it, hadn't she also called Hoggle Hogwart? Higgle nodded.

"We all look pretty similar. It doesn't help that our names aren't very creative. We're descended from the line of Hog, you see," he explained. "Anyways, back to the point at hand. Officially on the record, it says we're a family of 6, so when the King moved to exile Hoggle, the only name he could find closest to Hoggle's was mine. We were born in the same year, that's why our names are so similar," he added as a side note. He wanted to get all the details down so they wouldn't ask as many questions at the end. He'd barely started and they were already interrupting.

"But couldn't the King just send him away without looking for names? It's not like he didn't know Hoggle's," Hermione pointed out. Higgle held back a frustrated sigh.

"Look. We may be a whole different people from you wizarding lot, but we still have laws and rules and paperwork to deal with just the same as you all. The King could banish as many people as he pleased this very moment, but he'd also have to document it for the records and legal purposes." Sarah couldn't believe how normal it sounded. Paperwork and laws! Then again, the last time she'd run through Goblin City, she'd sort of destroyed a lot of it with Ludo's help. Not a lot of time to admire the structure of goblin society, she supposed.

"So the King found your name in the register and probably assumed he'd misheard Hoggle's name and had you exiled from the Underground to Gringotts bank," summarized Harry. The goblin nodded. So that's what Griphook had been talking about when he first demanded they find Sarah. Things were starting to come together and Harry was glad at least one situation was beginning to get resolved.

"But why would working at Gringotts be such a horrible punishment?" asked Ron. Handling money all day didn't sound that bad to him. If looks could kill, Hoggle would have dropped dead on the spot at the look Higgle now aimed at him.

"Because," said Higgle, still glaring at Hoggle, "there's hardly any fae magic in the air Aboveground. You humans survive through eating creatures and plants and drinking water. But what about your magic? It's based in your own energy, so you replenish it by eating, just like anything else. The Fae eat and drink, but out magic comes from a deeper part of us. We are magic and therefore need to be surrounded by it to survive. When we're deprived of it, we slowly wither and grow weaker until we die from magic deprivation. It takes years, maybe decades, to get to that point, even hundreds of years if you're especially old and powerful.

"You knew I'd been sentenced to exile for your crimes, but you did nothing about it. I've been up here dying while you've been off who knows where, as healthy as ever!" Higgle shouted at Hoggle. Hoggle winced and looked away.

"I'm… I'm a coward," he admitted, ashamed. "I couldn't go back there. I was already Aboveground with Sarah, celebrating, when I got the news the King was looking for me. I thought he'd just drop the charges when he couldn't find me. I never thought he'd press them on you," he apologized. "When I found out, it was too late."

"You could've come back and cleared up this whole mess!" Higgle screamed at him. He lost the last of his composure and pointed at Hoggle accusingly. "We've always treated you like one of our own, always taken care of you and protected you because you were the youngest, but it looks like all our efforts to spare you from Father's temper just spoiled you rotten," he said, disgusted.

"I'm sorry," whispered Hoggle. He sat on the floor with his hand covering his eyes. He couldn't bear to look at any of their faces. "I'm sorry."

They stood there watching him for a moment in awkward silence. Then Ron spoke.

"So now what? Do we keep the original plan and go to the Underground and meet the Goblin King?" Harry deliberated for a moment before nodding and standing up.

"Tell you what, Hoggle," Harry said. "If you help us get to the Underground, we won't turn you in or let anyone know you helped us. We'll get Grip-Higgle's exile revoked on our own. Is that a deal?" Hoggle nodded and raised his hand.

"Deal." They shook on it. Harry turned to the rest of them and said, "It's getting late and we've all got a lot to think about. Let's get some rest and start tomorrow."

Harry turned off the light in his shared bedroom with Ron.

"G'night," Ron said. Harry let out a yawn.

"'Night," he replied. He shifted in his bed and thought back to today's events. This day had been beyond weird, he decided. Sometimes, Harry still felt like his entire life was one big dream and he'd wake up and realize he was still living with the Dursleys and going to some school with a horrible gray uniform. He would worry he'd just imagined being a wizard and learning magic and that wonderful feeling of excitement and amazement at seeing Diagon Alley and Hogwarts for the first time.

Harry now felt the same about the Labyrinth and the Underground. It'd been hard enough to really wrap his mind around the fact that wizards existed all over the world in secret, blending in with muggles, and now he was supposed to accept that an entire kingdom of magical creatures lived right beneath his feet? Maybe his subconscious was making this all up and he was dreaming, and when he woke up they'd be back to trying to get Griphook to help them break into Gringotts. He'd just decided that line of thinking was too depressing to continue when he heard some laughter break the silence in the room. This was followed by loud shushing, along with some soft giggles. Ron groaned and spoke.

"What d'you reckon they're on about?" he asked Harry. Harry shrugged.

"Do you really want to know?" he replied. Good point. They ignored the soft noises coming down the hall and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Hermione weren't even close to sleeping. After the four split up, the two girls had gone straight to their shared room. The moment the door closed, the two girls began grilling each other with questions about each other's lives and experiences. Sarah learned Hermione was a muggle-born, meaning she hadn't known she was magical until she got the letter from Hogwarts, and also that they shared a passion for science and literature and all things David Bowie. Hermione told her that the wizarding world didn't come close to anything the muggle world had to offer in terms of music.

Wizards, she admitted, didn't really listen to much music. They spent their time more on spells and potions and trying to come up with magical ways to avoid doing the previous two. The two laughed as Hermione told her story after story of the times Ron and Harry tried to get out of doing schoolwork and ended up with detention and a mess. In the end, she always ended up doing most of the work for them, since they were her only friends and where would she be if they got held back a year? They were goofs, but she loved them both.

"What kinds of classes do you take in Hogwarts?" asked Sarah. The two were on the ground between their two beds, surrounded by animal-shaped pillows Hermione transfigured at Sarah's insistence. Hermione thought for a moment before answering.

"Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic, and some other courses depending on your scores and what you want to do in the future. Of course, I took them all, along with some more, last year. We didn't go back to Hogwarts this year," she explained.

"That's fascinating," Sarah breathed. "Even you guys get a history class. I wonder, do any muggle events ever overlap with your history texts?" Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course! Major events like the world wars and depression hit everybody hard. Not to mention, sometimes famous people in the muggle world aren't actually muggles." Hermione was ecstatic, talking with Sarah. She'd always wanted somebody to talk to like this, someone who understood both worlds and was interested in these sorts of crossovers. Harry had never been very studious, and since he had most of his education from Hogwarts, he knew almost nothing about muggle science or famous writers or other ground breaking people. Hermione leaned in closer to Sarah.

"You know the story about the apple falling on Newton's head, right?" Sarah nodded. "Do you really think the apple fell of its own accord?" Her eyes widened.

"No way." No way no way no way. Hermione burst out laughing.

"It's true!"

"But, but the idea of gravity was still all Newton!" Sarah protested. Hermione shook her head, grinning.

"It was planted like a seed in Newton's mind, and all he needed was a little push to put all the pieces together." Sarah's brain just couldn't keep up anymore.

"And Einstein? Don't tell me all those ideas came from some wizard messing with his head too!"

"Nope! Einstein was a wizard!" And at that, Sarah picked up a pillow and swung at Hermione.

AN: I hope you liked this chapter! Things are officially joining my world now, where the grass is made of chocolate and the Doctor exists (Yeah, I wish). But this story is definitely going on its own path and won't be rejoining anything canon for a long time. I would've posted this yesterday, but FFnet was having some weird login issue. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that second half of the chapter; it was ridiculously fun to write. PM or leave a review if you've got questions, thoughts you want to share, etc. Thanks!