Hermione was given a room in one of the concrete, dome-shaped buildings. The entire building housed only a bed, a wooden chair, and a toilet, all in the same oval room. It was the only building and bed large enough to fit a wizard, she was informed, and Hermione wondered if the goblins had made a special place for her to stay just because she wouldn't fit in their homes.
After setting her things down and resting for a bit, Hermione set out to explore, her sword and wand strapped around her waist as she wandered. She set a Point Me location on her temporary home, ensuring she would be able to find her way back to it, before setting off in a direction at random, curious to see the goblin way of life.
She didn't get far before goblins noticed her, and it wasn't long after that for multiple goblins to come up to her, asking her questions or offering her their thanks.
"You may be wizard, but you have saved my children," one brightly-tattooed goblin told Hermione earnestly. "When we would have perished from the elements, your loan saved our lives."
"I'm really glad to hear that," Hermione said honestly. "I'd hate for anyone to perish, err—"
"Jadeblade," the goblin said, nodding to her, and Hermione bowed slightly.
"Pleased to meet you, Jadeblade," she said. "Has your family recovered now?"
"We would not be alive were it not for you," Jadeblade told her. "Would you see my children? I would have them thank you personally." The goblin offered Hermione what seemed like a smile, though it seemed vaguely menacing, showing many sharp, pointy teeth. "I would have them learn their manners while they are still young."
"Ah, of course," Hermione said. Jadeblade grinned at her, and Hermione offered a tentative smile back, following the goblin back to its home.
The goblin's home was a few blocks away, off of what seemed to be the main street or thoroughfare by a ways, and Hermione felt her breath catch and her heart sink as the houses grew poorer in quality and construction, many of them looking abandoned or broken down, large chunks of them missing.
"What happened here?" Hermione asked quietly.
Jadeblade looked at her, beady eyes roaming over her face.
"Wizards cast a spell," Jadeblade said finally. "It was percussive and shook the earth violently within our Hold. Many structures fell; many goblins were crushed and died."
Hermione felt sickened.
"I'm so sorry," she said. She bit her lip. "I know that doesn't really help anything, but please know that I'm appalled that wizards did that to you."
Jadeblade shrugged, dismissive.
"You would help us, where other wizards would harm us," Jadeblade told her. A smirk stretched on thin lips. "You are different, Hermione Granger."
They stopped in front of a curvy house with a flat roof. Hermione was aghast to see that half of the house crushed and missing.
"This is your house?" she said, horrified. "It's still broken!"
"The loan is helping with that," Jadeblade assured her. "See? We have a temporary door while the constructors continue with their daub. We all fit in one room for now, and we would be patient while we would wait for the rest."
Jadeblade made a loud cawing noise, and abruptly the temporary door burst open, many tiny goblin children springing forth. They screamed and ran around Jadeblade, who smirked.
"Hermione Granger, I would introduce you to my goblings," Jadeblade told her. "Children, say 'hello' to Hermione Granger."
Most of the goblin children stared at Jadeblade with confusion, before one of the taller children finally spoke up.
"In English, mother?" the child groaned, and Hermione blinked. She hadn't realized Jadeblade was female.
"Yes, in English," she told her children. She said something else in Gobbledegook, which Hermione figured was probably the same instruction in the goblin children's first language.
"Hello Hermione Granger," the eldest gobling told her, smiling at her with many pointy teeth. "Thank you for the gold to fix our house."
"You're quite welcome," Hermione assured the child, who grinned and sneered at its mother, who sneered right back.
The other goblings did their level best to greet her and thank her, and Hermione was amused to hear just how they butchered the pronunciation of her name. She was used to people not getting her name right, but the "hear-my-aahn" and "her-moe-no-neek" were new ones.
Jadeblade looked over at Hermione.
"I would apologize for my children's English," she said. "They would learn English sooner, if not for the house."
"It's not a problem at all," Hermione assured her. "I wouldn't expect them to learn English at their age; I probably should have thought to try and learn the goblin language before coming here."
Hermione's eyes were drawn back to Jadeblade's house, which looked partially collapsed. There were still large chunks of rock and wall lying around the structure, fallen. She examined the fallen chunks, her eye scanning over the parts before she looked to Jadeblade, hesitant.
"Jadeblade," Hermione said finally. "I would like to try something to help you."
Jadeblade blinked, beady eyes fixed on Hermione. "You would help us?"
"Yes," Hermione said. She took a deep breath. "But it would use my wand," she admitted.
Jadeblade looked taken aback at this, then resolved and determined.
"Bloodthorne has spoken for you, and you have already saved us before," she said. "Use your wand, then, Hermione Granger."
Nodding with gratitude, Hermione slowly withdrew her wand. She saw Jadeblade take several large steps back from the corner of her eye, but Hermione stayed focused on the house's remains before her instead. She would probably be skittish seeing a weapon that had destroyed her people, too.
Hermione took a deep breath, clearly visualizing what she wanted to happen.
"Reparo."
The remains of the house began to move, floating up and beginning to reassemble themselves into walls. Hermione held her wand steady, watching as they did so. It was as she feared – there were large cracks present, undoubtedly where some pieces of the wall had turned to dust and been carried away. She bit her lip, considering.
Pulling on her air elemental, Hermione pushed on the air to hold the blocks in place, levitating them steadily. Once she was sure she could do this in the back of her mind, Hermione gestured toward the ground.
"Aguamenti."
Water flowed from her wand, making mud on the ground, which Hermione levitated to fill in the large cracks. She wasn't sure what composed the daub goblins used to make their homes, so she layered in Sticking Charms as best she could, before drying the wet mud with Incendio.
When she was done, the house stood before her, whole. There were still definite cracks in it, but smaller ones, and the wall was warped slightly in places, and it definitely needed a roof put back on, but it was at least structurally whole. Satisfied, Hermione wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to Jadeblade, who was stunned.
"There, that should help," she told her. "You'll need to have the constructors still fix the cracks and do the roof, and I'm not sure about—"
But Jadeblade started shrieking, her eyes wide, pointing at Hermione. She was yelling something in Gobbledegook, something Hermione couldn't understand at all, and other goblins were running out onto the street to hear Jade's screams. Her children started shrieking as well, a cacophony of alarm going up, goblins running out into the street to stare at her.
Petrified, Hermione ran.
There was a loud yell, and Hermione saw a crowd of goblins chasing after her. Panicking, Hermione sprinted through the streets as fast as she could, never so glad of her height as she was now. Her long legs allowed her to quickly outpace the goblins, and she ran back to the mossy clearing as fast as she could where she had last seen Bloodthorne.
Bloodthorne was there, along with Stoneshear and many other goblins, setting up small fires and cooking pots. Hermione skidded to a halt in front of Bloodthorne.
"We have a problem," she said, panting. "I did something. I tried to help fix someone's house, but she started shrieking, and then there was an angry mob, so I ran—"
"If you would stop your panicking—" Bloodthorne gave her a sharp look "—I would be able to understand the issue at hand."
Hermione took a deep breath.
"A goblin called Jadeblade wanted to show me how her loan had helped her family and her house," she told Bloodthorne. "But half of the house was still in shambles. I offered to help her – I asked her before using my wand – and then reassembled most of the house. It still needs some work, but probably a lot less than it did. But she started shrieking – I didn't know goblin homes were sacred or special, I don't know what I did—"
Bloodthorne started cackling, and Hermione glared, very put out.
"This isn't funny!" she snapped. "It's my first day here, and I already got an angry mob after me!"
Bloodthorne cackled.
"Shrieking?" he said. Hermione nodded. "Like this?"
Bloodthorne let out an ear-piercing shrieking scream, one that sent chills down Hermione's spine.
"Yes," she said, pressing a hand to her heart. "Just like that. Only over and over again, screaming."
Bloodthorne laughed.
"How would wizards express awe and excitement?" Bloodthorne asked her, pointy teeth glinting. "Would you be quiet and reserved?"
"No, generally we cheer and clap…" Hermione trailed off. "Hang on, that was excitement?"
"I would daresay it was," Bloodthorne said, smirking at her.
"How am I supposed to know that?" Hermione asked, astonished. "It sounded like a threat!"
"Goblins express good things in higher tones," he informed her. "War cries and negative things are lower in tone."
He growled something rumbling and horrible at her, and Hermione flinched.
"That is what you would not want to hear," he informed her. "If a goblin would make such sounds at you, you would run if you want to survive."
"Got it," Hermione said faintly. "So… the high-pitched shrieking was good?"
Bloodthorne cackled.
"Hermione Granger," he said, beady eyes glinting, "if you truly fixed her house, something she has been struggling to make happen for years, I daresay she would dance for joy in the street."
As it turned out, Bloodthorne was right. Jadeblade had been so excited that she had called for her neighbors to see the magic that had happened, and her neighbors had celebrated with her with their own piercing shrieks.
Hermione bowed low, apologizing to Jadeblade profusely, explaining that she hadn't understood, but Jadeblade dismissed her apologies with a wave.
"I would not have you apologize for running when you were fearful," she said. "I would apologize for giving you such a fear, after you would restore my home." She winced. "I had forgotten you would not know Goblidon in my excitement, and that it might sound alarming to someone who did not know."
Hermione frowned. "Gobblelidon?"
"Gŏb-lĭ-dŏn," Jadeblade repeated, with all short vowels. "The goblin language."
It had never occurred to Hermione that the goblins would have their own word for their own language that wasn't Gobbledegook. Gobbledegook was a rather offensive term for it, actually, now that she thought about it – muggles used the term to describe meaningless unintelligible babble made up of too many jargon terms. Who had named the goblin language that, anyway?
"Goblin magic cannot restore houses," Jadeblade told Hermione. "This is why it would take many years to rebuild." She looked at Hermione sideways, beady eyes thoughtful. "Would you be able to restore another?"
"I could try," Hermione said, hesitantly. "No guarantees."
The neighboring house to Jadeblade's was entirely in shambles and abandoned. Without children around to worry about, Reparo and some well-placed sticking charms held most of that one together, to Hermione's satisfaction.
"That one worked out pretty well," she said, pleased. "It might need some structural daub for the cracks, again, but the big heavy part is done."
A small crowd had gathered a distance away to watch her use her wand. One of the goblins came forward, hesitant.
"Hermione Granger?" it asked.
Hermione blinked. "Yes?"
"I am Pyrite," it told her. The goblin paused. "I would… have you destroy my home backwards too?"
The goblin's words were hesitant, faltering, and Hermione smiled.
"Like that one?" she asked, gesturing. "Fix it?"
The goblin's eyes flew to Jadeblade's, who nodded. The goblin nodded decisively.
"Yes," it said firmly. "I would have you fix it."
This goblin's house was dome-shaped and made of concrete, and the yard looked like a construction zone with pails and bags of gray powder sitting around. The base had already been poured, it looked like, and there was a frame for the rest, but Hermione winced.
"I can fix things if the original pieces are still there, but I can't magically make concrete," she admitted. "I'm sorry. All I could help you with would be with water to mix and maybe levitating it into place or drying it?"
Jadeblade relayed this to the goblin, whose eyes narrowed.
"Water?" it said skeptically. "Where?"
Hermione blinked.
"Um, wherever you wanted it?" she said. "Do you want it in a bucket? Do you have a concrete mixed?"
Jade relayed this to the goblin, who scoffed.
"No," it said. "From where?"
"Oh," Hermione said, relaxing. "From my wand."
The goblin looked highly doubtful, and Hermione withdrew her wand. The goblin took several rapid steps back, its beady eyes alert, but Hermione kept a comforting smile on her face.
"Aguamenti."
One of the steel buckets filled with water, and the goblin's eyes bulged. He pointed at the bucket, babbling excitedly, before looking at Hermione.
"You," he said. "Wands… make water?"
"Yes," Hermione said.
Apparently, this was great cause for excitement.
Goblins, as it happened, did not have readily accessible points of water. There were a few groundwater streams that ran around the outside of the cave, near the edges and walls and mines, and getting water required a hike to the outer rim and lugging a bucket back. The goblin was excited to have Hermione fill all its buckets with water.
"Much easier to make solid stone, now," it told her with satisfaction.
Hermione spent the afternoon trying her best to help the goblins repair broken structures. Most of them she could at least partially patch back together, but she was happy to fill everyone's buckets with water as she went around. There were a lot of goblins around, but judging from the number of houses, Hermione guessed there were even more goblins not around right now. She wondered at their population while she worked - were most of them up above, working in Gringotts? Were some of them farming at the far reaches of the Hold? Did they have more than one Hold?
Hermione was careful not to ask, though. Asking how big a species' population was the sort of question an enemy would want to know, and not information that a friend would necessarily need.
She contented herself with filling buckets with water instead. The goblins were eager for her to help them, and Hermione found herself curious with her mind wandering as she did. Did they think of her as a friend, now, helping them? Was this the goblins just greedily taking from her what they could to help themselves? She found herself hoping for the former, but she almost didn't mind if it was the latter - she didn't know if goblins were actually greedy, or if that was wizarding propaganda about their race as well. Either way, she was still able to help them - the goblins were definitely happy for the help and grateful - and that was enough for her.
A few hours later, the goblins were discussing something in a language she didn't understand when a voice hissed at her.
"How are you doing that?"
Hermione turned to see, to her surprise, what looked to be another human, shrouded in shredded, dark robes with a deep hood.
"I—it's just the Water-Making Spell," she said. Her eyes drank in the site of a deeply hunched over woman, like a crone from legend. "I thought I was the only wizard allowed in the Goblin Hold for centuries?"
That came out more arrogant sounding than she intended, but the woman snorted.
"'m not," she snorted. She lifted her skirts, revealing four warty toes on each foot. "'M a hag, girl, not a witch."
Hermione stared.
"Then… why are you down here?" she asked.
The hag snorted.
"Why not?" she said. "'m kept safe from the wizards, there's plenty roots for potions, an' the goblins trade me for potions they need." She smiled, revealing nasty, gnarled-looking teeth. "But I know enough, girl. Water-Making s'not easy."
"My friend taught it to me," Hermione defended automatically. "He's two years above me, so maybe that's why? But it's not hard, really."
The hag snorted.
"Your friend is advanced, then," she informed Hermione. "They don' teach Water-Making 'til after O.W.L.s."
"How would you know that?" Hermione challenged. "Hags aren't allowed to go to Hogwarts!"
The hag cackled delightedly.
"Oh, if only we were," she cackled. She grinned her gnarled smile at Hermione. "No. I used to be one of the enemies for the Defense Against Dark Arts practical. I'd get ter hang around an' watch the other exams."
"…you have to battle Dark creatures for the DADA practical?" Hermione said faintly.
The hag scowled.
"Not anymore," she sulked. "Ministry didn't think it was a good idea, in the 70s… too many people dyin' as it was, didn't want any accidents during exams…"
She muttered to herself for a moment, before her eyes snapped back up to Hermione's.
"If yer talented enough ter make water when yer thirteen," she said, "yer talented enough for near anything, really."
"Um," Hermione said. "Maybe someday."
The witch grinned widely. Her breath was dreadful.
"Helpin' the goblins ter start," she said. Her eyes glinted. "Remember the hags, yeah? Help us next, witchy girl."
Hermione watched, wide-eyed, as the hag slunk away. A moment later, the goblins approached her with their idea, knocking the matter from her mind. They wanted her to make one of their silver bowls bigger, and then fill the enlarged bowl with water. Willing to try, Hermione stood up and withdrew her wand. An Engorgio and Aguamenti shouldn't be too hard.
It was later during the celebrations that Hermione thought to ask Bloodthorne about it. Goblins were dancing and screeching around fires, feasting on the basilisk flesh, when Hermione was reminded of the ominous being she'd seen lurking about earlier.
"There was a hag," she told him. "What's a hag doing down here with the goblins?"
Bloodthorne scowled.
"An unfortunate symbiosis."
"…I'm sorry?"
"If a goblin would fall ill, she would make a deal with the ill one," he informed her, eyes glinted with loathing. "She would heal them now, in exchange for eating their body upon eventual death."
Hermione gagged, sure her face reflected her revulsion. Bloodthorne's expression was still dark.
"Goblins would be able to use more magic to help ourselves if we would have wands," he said. "But the wizard Ministry would not allow it."
He spat bitterly upon the ground, and Hermione wisely didn't bring the matter up again.