Chapter 26-The Artificial Bloat

"Frieda told Jagobin everything?" George asked disbelievingly. "How did she even know about Carina in the first place? She just sat here with us and said she couldn't believe Carina didn't tell her any of this."

"And then she conveniently vanished," Scorpius said. "I can only guess to tell Jagobin everything she'd just learned."

"One of the risks to getting everything out in the open," Leo admitted absent-mindedly.

"But why get involved with Jagobin in the first place?" George asked.

Scorpius leaned back against the wall. "Why else? Anger. Wouldn't you be angry if your family abandoned you? Wouldn't you want to take revenge on them? Frieda knew Leo's family was protecting this Pearl. She called on Jagobin when she found out Leo's mother was coming to the cottage she was staying at in Italy and they met her there. Frieda was the one to turn Mrs. Wespurt into an owl. That's why she wasn't murdered or kidnapped. Frieda wanted to ruin Myra Wespurt's plans, not get her killed. She wanted to punish her by putting the Pearl in the wrong hands. How she ever managed to put an inheritor's curse on Luna Scamander is anyone's guess. Those things are murder to write, not to mention illegal to anyone who isn't authorized by the Ministry to use one."

"The Wespurts knew that and didn't want to rat out Frieda," Nathan reasoned. "After all, she is still family. They don't want her to have a criminal record. That's why they didn't tell us anything. But they were wrong when they said it wasn't important."

"Who cares?" Leo said. "Frieda is a criminal. We can't tell the magical authorities what's happening now. They'd put Frieda away and this wasn't her fault."

"What are you talking about? Of course it was her fault. She needs to take responsibility for her own actions," Scorpius told him.

"She's a thirteen-year-old orphan who made a mistake," Leo spat back. "As if you've never made one of those. Besides, she's my cousin and my parents were heartless towards her."

"They didn't tell the police," George pointed out.

"To save their own skins, not hers," Leo said. "Knowing them, they only thought about the repercussions of having a convict in the family on their social well-being. They didn't think about her. I need to do better. I can't just abandon her and Carina to Jagobin. I need to find a way to save them, even if I have to do it alone."

"You won't have to do it alone," Rose told him. "Carina is my friend too."

"For the last day," George reminded her.

Rose gave her a look. "Well I wasn't asking you to come with us."

"Are you crazy? Of course I'm coming. Somebody has to look out for you two."

"Don't think I'm not going," Nathan added.

Soon everyone had volunteered to go, save the dwarves.

Leo looked at them.

"You must be out 'a yer bleedin' mind if you think I'm 'a just agree 'a go into Jagobin's lair without hearin' yer plan to do it first," Darius told him.

"For once, I agree with Darius," Sloane said. "If we go in there with our axes raised, we'll be turned to stone on the spot. Goblin magic isn't as strong as wizard magic, but used right, it can defeat us all."

"Don't worry," Leo said. "I know some people who can help."

So he's not that bad after all, Scorpius thought. He thought back to how Carina had vouched for Leo and he'd stuck a dirty toothbrush into her mouth. In that moment, he wished he could take that back. Because she was right.

Scorpius was right. He was right all along. I feel that chemical cleaning agent against my tongue and the roof of my mouth thinking about Frieda and how wrong I was. He might've been talking about Leo at the time, but he was right in the end. Part of me is so naïve and I'm not sure where it comes from after so many years of watching people. I should have become like Leo who hates discriminately, but I didn't and I wonder if it's because I'm the Sun Slave, as Darius and Sloane call me.

I sit in the giant, dusty room alone for some time before Jagobin enters proudly with Frieda. He doesn't show pride openly with a smile, but I can tell it swells inside of him until he sees that I am unsurprised by her presence and he tries to hide that something deflates inside of him. In fact, I think I have surprised him more than he has me in the short time we've known one another. I didn't fight when we met, I didn't run back to Hogwarts, I knew he was a half-breed, and now I know about Frieda.

I am playing a dangerous game. I should be trying to make him underestimate me so he doesn't know my strengths, but my ego is too big. I never thought I would admit that, but it's true. My need to appear mysterious and smarter than I really am is my main fault. It has been from the beginning. It's the reason Leo found out about me so easily. I cannot let it fail me again. I have to keep my mouth shut.

Frieda strides in behind him and she looks different. She isn't smiling maliciously or gleefully, nor is her head down and crying. She just seems empty and blank like she has no emotion. She doesn't wear her Ravenclaw uniform either. She's in her nice wintry grey robes.

They stop in front of me. I think they're waiting for me to make some smug comment, which I almost do, but I restrain myself and yawn as I wait, leaning against one of the many empty storage crates they keep lined against the wall. Being so relaxed near people isn't in my nature. It feels odd to force myself to be so.

For a moment, we are in silence and I wonder if the entire point of walking inside was to parade Frieda around the room. Frankly, I don't see why he's even shown her to me. She's his spy. Why would he reveal her secret? And that's when I realize. He doesn't intend on ever letting me leave. I didn't expect much different, but it's surprising how much confidence he places in his own plans. I have to take advantage of that. Frieda is my only hope.

"Get up!" he shouts, walking quickly towards me. "I want to see that you're not an idiot."

"You will fail," I say, getting to my feet. "I am quite the idiot."

He stops and examines me from top to bottom. "I think you're lying."

"I'm not lying," I say. "I've made a great deal of mistakes." I look straight at Frieda. "And if I could do things differently, then I would for I now realize I'm not nearly so clever as I always thought."

Frieda knits her eyebrow, staring back at me. I think she understands. I look away and back to Jagobin.

He smiles.

"I have a story to tell you." He opens his mouth and proceeds to tell me that which is perhaps the longest story I have ever heard. He walks slowly though his childhood and creeps through his life sector by sector. I think he means for the story to be one of triumph and pride, of how he rose from the ashes of Voldemort's reign to build his own black market empire. His eyes widen and his voice builds to one of power. He is quite histrionic and I can tell he's given this speech many times before. Perhaps that's how he's gotten so many followers. He is an incredible speaker; however, the tale strikes me as nothing but a large brag. He talks about how much more intelligent he was than everyone else, how much harder he worked, and how much more successful he'd become. I look behind him at Frieda and she rolls her eyes. Is this how he's intended to get me to cooperate?

He speaks of the large monetary share he gives his gangsters, kept securely in his own bank accounts to be given to them upon request. The whole thing is so ridiculous, at first I want to laugh, but then I realized that these are goblins. Goblins control the banks. If he can control the money his own supporters get, what else can he control? There's already a figurehead that controls the banks, but I suspect Jagobin has significant power among his kind. He has the magic of both a goblin and a wizard and a demeanor that demands respect. With his so-called "empire," he could easily be controlling the banks. The goblins would surely die before they asked for help from anyone with their corruption.

Before long, Jagobin is finished in a scream of victory, standing atop a wooden crate in a galvanized state, arms taut far above his head. Frieda and I just look at him. He hops down and turns to grin at me, his cloak flying behind him theatrically.

"Together, we could bring balance to the goblin and wizarding races!" he says to me.

"Together is an interesting word to use," I say, "considering it implies equality. I would never be equal to you, Jagobin, nor would you ever treat me as such." No doubt he has asked the same of every goblin in this building.

"You are a psychic," he returns.

"And such tells me that the way in which you plan on bringing balance between our races is precarious at best."

"Precarious peace is better than none at all."

"So now it is peace? That is quite different from balance, I assure you, and I doubt we would agree on how to go about making it."

"You would be surprised."

"I doubt it. You're angry and the wizards need to be taught a lesson about how to treat other races, starting with the goblins; however, I doubt using their assets will do more than create a power struggle."

He seems to be settling into the fact that I'm a psychic. I'm glad I kept the limits of my power to myself. He can just assume I know his plan and I'll let him fill in what I don't know.

"Power is the only way to get respect."

"Power is a way to get respect. It's your way, not mine."

He smirks. "And I suppose you think you have respect, then? Does this girl respect you?" he asks me, gesturing to Frieda who looks back at him coolly. "Tell me, where are your friends and family? Do they give you respect? Or don't they exist?" I stay quiet. I have no defense. "Perhaps think about my offer some before you question me."

"And what is your offer, pray tell?"

"Become my protégé, earn my respect and trust."

"And if I decline?"

He smiles. He seems to enjoy doing that. "I'll think of something creative."

He exits the room and I look over at Frieda. She just stares at me for a long minute.

"I'm surprised to see you here," I said.

"Heh. You—."

"I didn't think he'd actually let you into his lair."

She stops and gawks at me. "Don't tell me you knew?"

"Well, don't give me too much credit," I tell her, jumping to sit on one of the wooden crates. "It took me a long time to put the pieces together."

Her eyes had widened at the surprise, but they only grow in size as she shakes her head. Suddenly, she looks visibly upset. "Well, then, then why didn't you say anything?!" It takes but a second for her to look on the verge of crying. My back straightens. "Why didn't you ever confront me about it?!" Drops of water loosen from her eyes and stream down her face. She must've wanted to cry the entire time she was in here. That was why she never spoke. I don't very well know how to deal with tears and for all I know they could be fake, so I pretend they don't exist.

"How long have you worked with Jagobin? Just this year?"

She laughs in the midst of mopping her face with her fingers. "Just this year? Before I even started at Hogwarts."

I jump down from the crate. "What?"

"He's my half-brother, Carina! Two decades before my father even met my mother; he had Jagobin with some goblin woman. That's why Jagobin has me here. That's why he trusts me. We're kinsmen."

I know it is the wrong question to ask, but my curiosity gets the better of me. "Is your father still alive?"

"You think Jagobin would keep him alive after what he did to him? He blames our father for his very creation into the twisted being he is and all the ridicule he had to suffer. He practically worships the mother who died giving birth to his half-breed form."

"Careful what you say. Jagobin could be listening."

"Hardly. He's too conceited for that." Her voice cracks as she says it. She stuffs her cloak into her mouth to stifle the sobs she lets out.

I walk towards her with a blank expression. She looks back up at me and takes the fabric from her mouth, sniffling.

"And you don't even believe me."

"I believe your story," I tell her truthfully. "I just don't understand why you're crying. You told Jagobin all about me not an hour ago."

She gives me a disgusted look. "Obtuse as ever, I see. Do I really need to spell it out for you? I hate it here. I hate this place. I hate Jagobin! I want to kill this life and start fresh, even if it is back in the orphanage. I told Jagobin because I was angry. You never told me any of that! You never told me you were psychic or cursed to live alone! I was stupid and wanted to surprise everyone. I acted to spite you instead of being logical like a true Ravenclaw would have. But how could you never talk to me, even when you knew about me?! How could you never confront me on any of what I've gone through in all the time we've known one another?"

I throw my hands up. "Frieda, you have a sea of disciples. I honestly thought you would have told one of them. I thought you had friends that you entrusted everything to and that they did likewise in you. I never pictured us as good friends at all."

"We aren't?" she asked. This seemed obvious to me, but she looks genuinely surprised. I am surprised at her very reaction.

"Frieda…we barely speak and when we do, it's only for a short time. We don't know much of anything about one another—."

"That's not true."

"What's my surname?"

She stops and looks at me. "Your surname?"

"My second name. My last name. What is it?"

"That…that's not fair! You're cursed!"

"It wouldn't matter, Frieda. When you do talk to me, it's because you want something and that's it."

"That's not true."

"When you found out I was friends with Rose, you were immediately suspicious she was using me, weren't you? Suspicious because you try to do the same thing constantly."

"I do not! Maybe I just wanted something interesting to talk about or do once in a while. That's how friendship works, Carina. You scratch my back, I scratch yours."

"I don't remember you ever doing any scratching."

"What do you think I'm doing now? I know the way out of here. I can help you escape."

I nod. "I appreciate the thought, Frieda, but I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't want to be."

Frieda's face drops. "What are you talking about? Are you mental? Jagobin kills his prisoners."

"I've lived too long trying to keep secrets from everyone. That way of life worked when my curse was wholly controlling me, but now things are changing. People remember me and the things I do. I can't keep track of who knows what. I'd just rather everything be open. Besides, he wouldn't kill me. Not when he wants to use me, though I'm not sure how he intends on getting the Pearl without Leo."

"He doesn't. The plan was always obvious. Snatch Leo when he's out of Hogwarts protection. He knows my aunt and uncle wouldn't dare contact the magical authorities. Mr. Wespurt would lose his job as an auror if they knew all that has happened. They acted stupidly and because of that Jagobin has always had the upper hand. All they've done is made him wait which just gives him more time to prepare. The instant Leo leaves Hogwarts, they'll know and have the drop on him. The fight will be over before it starts."

I smile. "I gather Jagobin is more used to flexing his muscles than he is to forming plans."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that everyone we told in addition to the Wespurts and Scamanders are coming to save me. Even without auorors, that's still roughly twenty people on our side. Tell me, how many people are in Jagobin's organization?"

"Well…I—I don't know. He's extremely slippery when it comes to how his business is run. He calls it 'compartmentalization.' He says things run better when one faction of his group doesn't worry about the others. I've personally only seen five other goblins and I only know three personally, but that's probably isolated. I'm barely ever here, after all."

I stop and think to myself. He only brought six goblins with him when he came to the hospital. He had us easily matched, but if he'd brought more, we wouldn't have even given them a fight. Additionally, when I came here, I didn't hear a lot of noises. It was silent. You would think a busy headquarters would be filled with voices, but they're all probably away…on business.

I look over at Frieda and it puzzles me again how he seems to so wholeheartedly trust her. Frieda could easily fool Jagobin into thinking she was a genuinely loyal sister, especially if she started out being so and spends most of her time away from him, but why even bother to get her? She isn't a particularly talented witch and the fact that she even is a witch, to boot hailing from the part of the family he hates, should make him despise her. He killed his father. He was going to have Leo, technically his cousin, killed as well just for the Living Pearl. None of it adds up. The instant Jagobin learned about Freida, he should have killed her. So why didn't he?

My mind jumps back to something he said. He was talking about how the wealth distributed in his organization is equal and high, but if not even Frieda knows how many people are in the organization, maybe no one else does either and he's not really giving everyone a high share of the profits, it's just a tiny portion. Assuming he doesn't set anything to be claimed for taxes, there's only one way he could get away with that.

"If you had to guess, how many people would you say are in this organization?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "I really don't know. Maybe a couple hundred?"

"Why so many? You've only seen five."

"Because there has to be that many to operate everything that's going on here. You have no idea how much he gets done. The Living Pearl is a bounty for sure, but the main reason he hasn't taken a more active approach to getting it is because of how much he has to run."

"What kind of people does he take prisoner?"

"What does that have to do with—."

"You said that he kills prisoners like me. Who does he usually keep down here? Clients? People who get in the way? Workers?"

"All of those. Usually he catches the people he doesn't like pretty fast and shuts them up down here until he gets what he wants out of them. Now, would you tell me what's going on?"

I shake my head. "It's just a theory, but I have the feeling this organization is a lot smaller than Jagobin says it is. In fact, I'll bet the whole thing only runs on a couple dozen people."

"I told you, it's too big to run without massive numbers of—."

"He has more people. He just doesn't keep them around."

Frieda's eyes widened. "The prisoners," she said. "I had friends in Italy. A lot of them have old family ties to the mafia. Back when it was still prominent, the mob would take desperate, nameless aliens and hire them for discrete jobs. Then, they'd kill the strangers so there was no way to trace the crimes back to the main leaders of the organization legally."

"I'll bet Jagobin does the exact same thing. How much do you get paid?"

"I don't," she said. "I'm his sister and a witch. I'm paid in life. Why?"

"Because he was talking about how much he pays his workers and I have the feeling it's one of the reasons he artificially bloats the size of his organization's members. If the goblins working here think that there are hundreds of other employees, they'll think the pay is being spread throughout the organization and making their monetary gains naturally lower when, in reality, Jagobin keeps an overwhelming portion to himself. I'll bet the majority of the reason he leads people to think there are so many of them isn't just for the outside world, but his employees as well. It wouldn't surprise me if only those at the top of the chain here knew how many people worked for Jagobin, maybe not even them."

"So Jagobin might not be nearly as powerful as he leads everyone to believe," Frieda concluded. "It's all one giant illusion."

"He probably spends more time maintaining that lie than anything else."

"It is what keeps the aurors off of his back. They know they can't catch him. I just can't believe nobody's thought of it before."

"It could be untrue," I say again, "but, as you said, the organization does a lot a work and everyone knows it. That's what throws people off. Jagobin could just use expendables." I stop and look at Frieda. What if she's an expendable? What if that's why Jagobin keeps her close but not too close? It's so she'll trust him, not the other way around. I rush to her. "Can you get out of here? Will Jagobin allow it?"

"They'll know where I am," she tells me. "They're geniuses with tracking spells."

I nod. "That's expected. Please, though, be careful."

She smirked. "I should be saying that to you considering the circumstances."

"Leo will come to save me," I tell her. "But I can't be sure that he even knows you're here."

"It won't matter for me," she sighs. "I'll be found out one way or the other and I'll be punished for what I've done. I deserve to be."

"Freida," I tell her. "If you get the chance, run away. I don't want you to be killed in this."

She looks up at me. "Are you kidding? After all I've done, running away would be cowardice. For once, I want to be brave." She steps away from me, smiling. "And I know exactly how I'm going to do it."