Ginny, Hannah, and Blaise had come back from the stealth mission looking decidedly worse for wear. The latter two were literally unconscious and injured and Michael was doing his best with them, along with Hermione. More and more, Harry had sympathy for her as a jack of all trades himself.
"What the hell happened?" Ron asked. "We put together this team to stay out of sight and you get spotted?"
"No, the mission went just fine and on our way back, we just tripped!"
"There's no need to yell," Neville said. "We promise we'll be understanding. Not everything that we do is going to be successful." He looked back at everyone else. "We can't afford to underestimate the enemy. If anyone's been discontent with the pace of things, this is why."
No one said anything. Ernie wanted to learn from Hannah about healing, though that was mainly because he wanted an excuse not to be in combat, but still serve in a useful role. He seemed like he was a genuinely caring person and he was not exactly, at least in Harry's opinion, a coward; he just knew what his skills were. Could anyone say he knew what his skills were if he did not also know what was not a specialty?
"Tell us what happened," he said.
"We thought things were going well initially. The Lestranges don't exactly live in a manor, they live in a beautiful garden that's been enchanted to hell and back. It never rains and it's always this dreamy twilight, and the ground is squishy under your feet. I don't know where they store their stuff, but if you think about it, that's most of the boxes checked for what you want in accommodations."
"Did they have a kitchen, though, or did House Elves take care of everything?" Hermione asked before looking back to Blaise.
"It had to be the latter. The whole garden, as far as I could tell, didn't take up all that much lateral space, though there are enough trees there for a modicum of privacy."
It was hard to wrap his mind around what the place might look like, but conceptually he supposed it made sense. Discontent with their environment, the muggles built houses a long time ago, but at least some of the druids would have just made their environment more comfortable for them. The residence was most likely either a new construction from old spells, or it had changed hands countless times, and probably not by buying and selling.
"So... you had time to search the whole place?" Harry asked.
"We did. There wasn't anything good there. I can't imagine where they keep their stuff- when we were almost done, someone or something realized we were there and attacked us. Blaise tried to get us out a few times, but Hannah was knocked out while defending him and I was shielding the other way- at some point he must have regained consciousness and grabbed hold of us before Apparating."
"Hannah might have tried to warp herself a few times," Ernie said. "I remember she was one of the ones who wanted to learn it."
"She wouldn't have just left us there-"
"That doesn't matter," Ron said. "Why was it possible to just disapparate in the first place? Did they not have jinxes in place?"
"They must have been relying on no one knowing where they lived," Hermione said, shaking her head a little. "According to Parkinson's memory, they don't exactly entertain. I gather that Malfoy is supposed to face the public, and for truly secret meetings, with just the inner circle, they go to the Lestrange... residence."
"They have to have stuff, though. They can't have existed all these thousands of years and not have stuff lying around-"
"Where's your stuff, then?" Daphne asked. Everyone else looked at her and she rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I couldn't resist." She resumed paying attention to the healing process and it made Harry wonder if she had some reason to be especially concerned about one of them.
"They could have a vault," he said. "Going to the manor had me thinking that if the Malfoys have such a secure place to live, it can't be that much better to have a space in Gringotts. They might not even want the goblins touching their gold."
"Even if they were similarly prejudiced, though, the Lestranges wouldn't have that option," Ginny reasoned, following his logic. "They could be keeping some stuff in someone else's manor, where there's space, but at that point, you might as well just give it away. The point of having it all is to possess it and keep it from other interests- if you gave the Bulstrodes a painting, of course they'd hang it, and then what's the point of having bought it if it's on someone else's wall?"
"Voldemort himself also isn't one to care about whether or not goblins get their hands on certain things, at least not as a matter of principle," Harry said. "He wouldn't mind storing something important there."
Everyone who was not in the know about Horcruces looked around like there was something they were missing. Neville was asking if it was something they needed, or something that they just wanted to get out of the hands of the enemy, and in that case he might have been thinking about getting the vault sealed shut, but that was most likely the worst option for them. They needed to get access to the vault, and soon, before anyone realized they were after it. The failed stealth mission had put them on the clock, and all they could do was more quickly. Unfortunately, even though they had something of a head start, the enemy would probably realize what they were trying to do, and figure that the pieces of his soul were not safe in their current hiding places.
"We need to put another team together. I've got a vault in Gringotts, so I'm going," he said.
"Can't take both of us, Mate," Ron said. "Take anyone else you like."
"Let me redeem myself," Ginny said.
"You're not getting punished for failure," Hermione said, looking up again. Blaise had regained consciousness and Michael had taken a step back from Hannah, suggesting she was out of danger. "You shouldn't volunteer for missions because-"
"I might need her," he said. "I need to speak with the recruits. "One of them might know more about how to get past the bank's security-"
"Wait, are you talking about robbing them?" Daphne said. "Are you mad? The goblins are never going to let you get past them. They're bloodthirsty little monsters who know exactly how to keep it in their vaults. Everyone who's anyone knows that they're only nice to you if you're fantastically wealthy."
"Do you have anything else to suggest?" Ginny asked. "They're not going to just let us into the vault."
"It may not be terribly realistic to suggest that they will betray one of their customers, but that's more realistic than trying to break in, and then out," Hermione said. "I'm sorry, but I'm with Daphne on this one; you may have been in the place a few times, but without any real understanding of how to get in, it makes more sense to try to negotiate."
"We could use Parkinson," Ron suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"We bring her in and basically have her say what the Death Eaters have planned for goblins."
"They probably know already," Hermione said. "The average person seems to think most of the same things about them."
A few of the pure bloods groaned. Two years earlier, she had only one friend who grew up in the magical world, so it was easy to see why she thought that everyone bought into the same kinds of canards. In reality, though belief that the goblins and trolls and merpeople and whatever else were distinct in meaningful ways from humans was widespread, it was quite rare for those same people to dislike them. Almost always, learning about how they behaved and how their societies worked was more likely to result in friendly relations, and what she had been doing was ultimately out of ignorance. Nearly everyone who grew up in the magical world had varying beliefs on the different species and races, and at least in his opinion, each one was somewhat closer than 'they are exactly like humans, specifically muggles'.
"It's not terribly likely they'd believe she could really say what their plans were," Michael said, saving the discussion somewhat. "Even if she's related to one of them, that doesn't mean she knew anything, and we could have just changed her memories."
"Then we'll let them go and look for themselves," Ron said. "We'll take one of them with us. We'll get them inside the operation, or we'll capture a real Death Eater."
It was obviously a bold strategy, and relied on several assumptions, but it stood to reason that if they could get a goblin into their operation, beyond the public talking points, then they could prove that the enemy presented more of a threat than just political upheaval, or a reversion to some previous policy. Most likely, the wiser members of their organization had said that if there were any changes in order, they were only to change things back to how they were a few years earlier, understating their role in making those changes happen in the first place.
"They're going to improve their security," Hermione cautioned, probably aware of what he was thinking even without using Legilimency. "We'll also need someone a fair bit less genteel than Malfoy, who could most likely make a sales pitch, even under torture. I hate to ask this, but are Bullstrode's parents just as dumb as she is?"
"They might be, but from the sound of it, it'd be hard to get in," Ginny said. "You could say that I overheard that Gibbon lives in a regular muggle house in the London Outskirts."
"That sounds almost too easy," Harry said. "Do they not think anyone else knows about it?"
"They were making fun of him for it," Blaise said. "It was one of the only things that we learned while there. They know we know, though, so they could be waiting for us there."
"That means that it would be better to hit some other target," Ron said. "We need someone who will be home at the time, and someone who would know enough of the plans about the goblins." He looked at his sort-of girlfriend before back at everyone else. "Goblins trust each other, and they'll be able to tell if we've manipulated one of them."
"What about the Crabbe and Goyle?" Hermione asked. "They might know something."
No one had time to identify all the bodies in the ivory tower incident, but the chances that they were two of them was high. If they still had living parents, though, then they would serve the purpose of the DA even better, though they had no idea how they would have responded to the disappearances of their respective sons- it was just as easy to imagine them getting more zealous in serving Voldemort as it was to imagine them falling into a depressive state. He had not heard Goyle's name come up when he was in the graveyard a few years earlier, but it was hard to imagine he was unrelated.
"It's decided," he said. "We'll figure out the details on the way, and we'll have to be faster than the enemy. They'll realize we're not going to Gibbon's house before long, and even if they don't know about what we want with the goblins, they might figure we'd look for another easy target."
"I'll scout the place," Ginny said, volunteering. "Blaise can get me there-"
"He's not in a condition to do shit, get Ernie. I'm going with someone who's got a prayer of not being on a list yet to Gringotts; they have to know we're taking this seriously." Daphne grabbed his arm and he took it as his cue to apparate. "Decisive," he commented as they walked in Diagon Alley. It was evening, so there was a good chance of not being seen, but there was no way the bank was closed.
"There was no need to agonize over it. I can be quite certain that my parents aren't Death Eaters. If I've been seen with this group, it was only by Malfoy or someone who probably didn't recognize me." Harry threw his cloak over himself as she spoke.
"How did you keep from being recognized in all the time that you were going to our meetings? I can't believe it was just a fake name."
"Why, because I'm so pretty that everyone must have noticed me?"
"I wasn't the best with introducing myself to people before fifth year. I didn't want anything to do with most of the castle."
"If I remember correctly, most of the castle didn't want anything to do with you." He frowned, though she could not see it.
"I didn't blame them for thinking I must have cheated to get into the Triwizard Tournament."
"How could you, though?" she asked. "Isn't it stupid to suggest that you could have broken a simple rule that the school and the Ministry were both trying hard to enforce?"
"I don't know, to be honest. Dumbledore asked me if I asked an older student to put my name in the cup for me, and that made me think it was possible. It might have been some kind of trick, or just some way of clearing me of suspicion, though, asking me questions directly to prove that I wouldn't get flustered. At the time I thought he genuinely suspected me, at least for a moment, and then he decided to take my word for it, but he probably knew that even if I'd acted out in the past, it was only with good reason, and the cup had nothing to offer me. You're probably right in thinking that he would have taken every measure to prevent a simple workaround like getting an older student to put my name in." They reached the door to the bank. "To this day, I still don't know if it was possible for me to have entered myself, but evidently Barty Crouch knew some way of doing it."
They crossed the threshold together and walked up to the counter. It was bizarre the way that she could confidently move around, on guard, but with her wand away in her robes- she was not on guard in a combative sense, but in the sense that she was monitoring everything in the room. He wanted to continue his conversation with her, because he felt like it was getting somewhere, and they had never really talked before, but that would have to wait for another time.
"Miss Greengrass," the goblin across the counter said, recognizing her. Harry looked at the other goblins to make sure they did not all look alike to him, and he found that he did, in fact, recognize him as the one who had helped him back in first year.
"I would like to have a talk with you in private about a risk exposure."
"I'm not an insurer," he said, though it seemed he was still inclined to get off his high chair and lead her to a private room. They could have the conversation in a vault, but there was no need to go through all that much trouble. "What is the matter?" he asked, as soon as the three of them were alone.
"I shall start by saying I am under no impression that this conversation will not be related to others of your sort."
"I suppose there's no reason to pretend."
"Harry?"
He removed his invisibility cloak and offered his hand.
"It's nice to see you again, Griphook."
"Mr. Potter. I'm somewhat surprised that you would remember."
"I can't take too much credit. You were one of the first people I met in the magical world, and I didn't know I was going to see you once, and then not for the next few years."
"What is the real purpose of this meeting?"
"It's just what I said." Daphne leaned forward slightly. "It's just not my assets that are at risk. It's your ability to do business here."
"I beg your pardon?"
"We wish to invite you to see precisely what the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord has in store for the goblins and Gringotts. This invisibility cloak is the genuine article, as you can see. Your presence will be completely concealed the entire time."
"I am aware of the type of rhetoric used by the the blood purists. I have noticed differences between that and-"
"There might be differences, but it's nothing good either way," Harry said, interrupting. "They know they can't negotiate with you, so they're going to kill all of you. Maybe there are some of you beyond their control, but unless you want to join them out there, you should know that you should side with us."
"We know you have obligations, and we know that you honor your arrangements," Daphne said. "No one has to know about this. We're not asking for anything public or anything that anyone else would even notice. We don't expect you to just believe us, though, so we'll start by taking you with us." She extended a hand. "You know where the house of Crabbe is, Harry?"
"No, but it sounded like the others are working on it." She frowned slightly. Taking the goblin to the base first had not been part of the plan as she envisioned it. "We'll take you and we're not asking for confidentiality, as we said, we're asking that you simply recognize the nature of the problem. I can't put my cards on the table right now and tell you what we want, but it's not something huge. It's something you could pass off as an accident if the other goblins found out, and there would be virtually no way that anyone else would know. No one would trust the race of goblins any less if you gave us what we wanted."
"Then the nature of what you must convince me is the morality of the action, I suppose," Griphook said. "You understand that the problem is that I would know that I did something dishonest, and your task is to convince me that one wizard is different from another... that it's worth treating one differently from another."
"That's precisely it," he said. "We'd be pleased to take you through all the moral rules that we believe, but we thought we'd make it easy by pointing out the difference in how they would treat goblins specifically. We're not saying that you can't appreciate the fact that we believe a government should serve its subjects or that-"
"Spare me. I know what this is."
"Then you'll spare us some time," Daphne said. "The cloak should be large enough for you to hide under there with Harry, so even if we do find ourselves in a spot of trouble, he should be able to apparate you out of there. I don't anticipate that they'll be able to detect him, but if they dislike me so much that they decide to burn down the whole place, then-"
"I get the picture. I trust that neither of us have all day."
They took his hand and went back to the base, finding that the advance team had returned already. The Crabbe House was occupied only by a grieving mother, and there was enough material lying around that suggested she knew what the Death Eaters were planning. Other members of the DA regarded the goblin cautiously, but the leader raised a hand to cut off any other trains of thought before they could start.
"We're not trying to kidnap her. We're not doing anything dangerous. We're going in through the front door, and if necessary, we'll erase her memory after the fact." He looked over at his partner for the mission. It was perfectly clear to him that she had already thought of a plan that would serve their purposes, and he only needed to go along with it. Everyone else seemed to come to the same conclusion as Neville saluted him to go about other duties. Were they all getting that much better about tactical planning?
"There's nothing more to do here. Let's get going."