A/N: I don't really like this chapter anymore, however, I wrote it months ago and so I'm afraid it had to stay. Furthermore, it was not my intention to upload this chapter today (May 1st), and no disrespect was or is intended.

Chapter Thirteen: The Goblin's Gift

After a short trip in a Gringott's cart, Ron and the Grangers had been taken to another part of the bank. When they arrived, the goblins shared a long and surprised sounding conversation in Gobbledygook before taking Ron into another room. However, the moment Ron entered this room the goblins had used magic to put him to sleep before conducting the magical scan on him.

Ron had reawakened to Bogrod standing over him.

'You're awake,' said Bogrod.

'Yeah, so is there anything wrong with me?' Ron replied.

'We ran several diagnostic scans, temporarily removing your Trace, and I can reveal what we found.'

'And?' asked Ron.

'We found a Magical Block had been placed upon your Magical Core, affecting your Magical Output and retention,' said Bogrod.

'Did you get rid of it?' Ron asked.

'We did, and we also know when it placed upon you and by whom,' said Bogrod.

How?' asked Ron.

'Magic always leaves traces, Mr Weasley, the block that was placed upon you was by Arthur Weasley and it was done on the second of February nineteen eighty-four,' said Bogrod.

'I wonder why, though …' said Ron.

'Some parents place Magical Blocks on their children for different reasons, such as that they live within close proximity to muggles, or even childhood trauma.'

'Well, we don't live too near muggles … but childhood trauma? The only really traumatic thing I can think of was when Fred turned my teddy into a spider …'

'I can only speculate but I think your father most likely placed that block on you because you were so traumatised that you were letting off bouts of magic that could have harmed your siblings,' said Bogrod.

'Perhaps, but does that mean that I'll now be able to remember what I read from now on?'

'Yes, you will, Mr Weasley.'

'Would this block have come off by itself?'

'Yes, our scans showed that it was due to come off on the first of March, nineteen ninety-six,' said Bogrod.

'Wow; that would have given me three months to be able to study properly for my O.W.L.s …'

'Indeed it would …'

Ron sat there and thought before another thing suddenly occurred to him.

'Did you say that you temporarily removed the Trace from me?'

'I did,' replied Bogrod.

'Can you remove the Trace from an underage witch or wizard permanently?'

Bogrod half grinned and said, 'Yes, we can, but it's against wizarding law.'

'Since when do goblins give a shit about wizarding law?' asked Ron.

Bogrod's grin was a full one now before he said, 'We don't and we never will.'

'So, would you remove mine and Hermione's Traces?'

'We would but the illegal removal of a Trace is not covered in our service,' Bogrod said.

'How much would it cost?'

'Twenty Galleons, each,' replied Bogrod.

'I need to talk to Hermione about this, will that be all right?'

'Of course,' said Bogrod.

Ron then left the room to talk to Hermione, who was sitting with her parents. When she saw him she jumped to her feet and ran to hug him tightly.

'Are you all right?' she asked.

'Yeah, they found what was wrong with me; it was a Magical Block affecting my Magical Output and retention, and my father did it when I was three,' Ron replied.

'Why?' she asked.

'Dunno, I can only guess, but there's something more important I have to discuss with you,' said Ron.

'Such as?' asked Hermione.

'During the examination, they temporarily removed the Trace from me so I asked Bogrod if it could be removed from us permanently, and he said about it being against wizarding law, so asked him when did goblins ever care about wizarding law, so Bogrod says that they could do it, but it's not covered in the service and it would cost twenty Galleons each, so what do you reckon, shall we get it done or not? After all, the Trace is an invasion of privacy, and it only really affects muggle-borns and a small percentage of half-bloods because they don't live in a wizarding dwelling.'

Hermione looked up into Ron's eyes and made her decision.

'Let's do it, then,' she said.

Ron and Hermione went back into the other room and gave Bogrod their consent before being given a sleeping draught.

When they both came around, Bogrod told them that the Trace had been removed from them both, but there was one last surprise.

A group of sixteen goblins walked into the room carrying an enormous trunk. They set it down in front of Ron and Hermione.

'What's this?' asked Ron.

'A gift from the Goblin Nation, Mr Weasley, a rare gift indeed, but then they are of no use to us, so take them and enjoy them,' said Bogrod.

'What are they?' asked Hermione.

'The largest known collection of Agnitio Phials anywhere in the world,' said Bogrod.

'Agnitio Phials, you're joking!' said Ron, astounded.

'No joke, and as I said, they are of no use to us, we only have them because we thought wizards would want them, however, we were mistaken, so please take them,' said Bogrod.

'Er, how do we just take them out of here? That trunk is bigger than Hermione!' said Ron.

'You or your mate simply touches it with a fingertip and say shrink,' said Bogrod.

Ron did as he was instructed and watched as the trunk shrank to a convenient pocket size.

'How do I get it to return to its normal size?' asked Ron.

'You or your mate simply touches it with a fingertip and say expand,' said Bogrod.

Hermione touched the trunk and said, 'Expand.'

They watched as the trunk returned to its normal size, so Ron shrank it again before he slipped it into his pocket.

Ron then stood up and offered his hand to Bogrod. Bogrod looked surprised but pleased as he shook hands with Ron and then Hermione.

Once they left the room, Ron and Hermione told her parents that they had had their Traces removed and about the other Goblin's gift.

Bogrod gave Ron and Hermione a key each for their vault before they went back home to finish their packing.

When they had returned home after a long drive, they collapsed on to couches in front of the television. Ron took out the shrunken trunk and expanded it once more. Ron opened it to reveal the several hundred small Phials containing knowledge and skills. The goblins had obviously taken a lot of time and effort to compile this huge collection, and they had separated them into sections. A magical section and to their surprise a muggle section, with everything carefully labelled. Hermione, meanwhile, had found the instructions on how to use the phials. According to the instructions, you simply held the open phial to your nostril and snort. She relayed this to Ron and so he picked up one of the phials to try it out and see. Hermione noticed it was marked "French".

'You don't speak French, do you?' asked Hermione.

'Nope, not a word,' Ron replied, before taking the phial.

The three Grangers watched as Ron's eyes opened and closed rapidly as the knowledge was absorbed by his brain. When he finally looked at them all, Ron said, 'Do any of you speak French?'

'Hermione and I are fluent,' said Helen.

Ron then turned to Hermione and said, 'I love you so much,' in French.

Hermione smiled and said, also in French, 'I love you too.'

'Bloody hell, that's amazing,' said Richard.

'Yeah, and there's loads of languages here, does that parchment of instructions say whether muggles can use them?' said Ron.

'Just a moment …' she said as she then started to read the rest of the parchment. 'Yes, muggles can use them, but I would say using the ones with magical knowledge would be pointless.'

Ron then handed the French phial to Richard and he copied Ron in taking it the way he did before whispering something into his wife's ear making her blush.

Ron then took out more of the languages and used them too.

Hermione began to look through the trunk too but made her search for the non-magical skills.

'Fencing and sword play, driving and advanced driving – oh!' said Hermione as she read out her finds.

'What's wrong?'

'The driving phials, and who the skills have been copied from …' she said in a sad voice.

Richard asked, 'Who is it?'

'Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna …' she replied.

'No way …' Richard whispered.

'Sorry, but there's an ignorant pureblood in the room …' said Ron.

Richard turned to Ron and said, 'Fangio, Prost and Senna are perhaps the greatest racing drivers of all time.'

'Oh,' said Ron.

'Not to mention the fact that Ayrton Senna died last year during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola,' Richard finished.

'Oh,' said Ron again.

Hermione put the phials back into the trunk and continued to look for more as Ron looked through the other end of the trunk.

'Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms, Herbology … Arithmancy, Ancient Runes …' said Ron, listing aloud his finds.

'We should use the Defence one, given the fact we've had two bad teachers and two good ones, so we're due to have a bad one for the next two years …' said Hermione.

'We've also got a bad Potions teacher, Hermione,' said Ron.

Hermione looked up at Ron and nodded before going back to her search.

'Gun marksmanship, knife skills, anti-terrorism training … interesting,' said Hermione.

'Really?' asked Ron.

'With all these we can make you into a real James Bond, can't we, Ron?' said Hermione, smiling at him.

'Add in those driving skills phials and you may be right, love,' Ron replied.

'Well, whichever ones you two decide to use can wait until tomorrow, we need to eat and then go to bed,' said Helen.

The others agreed and so they ordered Chinese takeaway, which Ron had never eaten before so Hermione ordered for him, before going to bed and falling asleep seconds after their heads hit the pillow.