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Part Four-Children of the Storm
"Ready?"
Harry flashes a smile at Susan and straightens his shoulders. "Yeah, let's go."
The two of them walk out of the narrow alley that runs down one side of Gringotts, their eyes fastened on the building. Most people don't pay much attention to them first, even though it's a Hogsmeade weekend and therefore they should have been in Hogsmeade, not Diagon Alley.
But then a tall man in the plum-colored robes of the Wizengamot stops and takes a good look at them, and shouts something. The crowd around them begins to grow, with people starting to shout both his name and the words, "What are you doing?"
Harry doesn't actually know what's causing them the most consternation: the fact that he's Harry Potter, the box of wands he has floating in between him and Susan, or the banner Susan is carrying that proclaims WAND RIGHTS FOR GOBLINS!
It might be the combination, come to think of it.
He and Susan get most of the way up the front steps of Gringotts before anyone thinks to stop them. And then it's the goblins on guard at the doors, rather than any of the wizards or witches shouting in the alley behind. One of the guards comes down to meet them and aims her axe at Harry. "What are you doing?"
"Bringing you wands."
"Those are wood blanks."
"No, they're real wands, purchased from Ollivander's," Harry assures her. They are, too. He went to Ollivander's shop a few weeks ago by Floo and explained what he wanted, and although Ollivander dithered at first, trying to insist that a wand must choose a wizard, he eventually gave in to the challenge.
Harry doesn't know if all the wands are newly-crafted or if Ollivander included some that he hasn't been able to find matches for before this. It doesn't matter that much. The symbolic gesture and the future matter a lot more than whether all these particular wands will find goblin wielders.
The goblin stares at him with her face twitching, and then says to the smaller male goblin who has halted behind her in uncertainty, "Fangbreaker. Go fetch Griphook."
"Yes," Fangbreaker squeaks, and darts off.
The female goblin plants her axe on the steps, and eyes them. She does such a good job of ignoring the shouting behind and below them that Harry is impressed. She has green eyes and green skin and green-grey armor that seems molded to her skin. "My name is Bloodcaller. Did someone tell you to do this?"
"No. Although I did discuss it a little with Griphook."
"No one among the wizards and witches?"
"Some of the followers of Lord Slytherin also discussed it," Susan replies. Harry sneaks a glance at her and sees her smiling. Yeah, she's really enjoying this.
"Do those followers include members of the Wizengamot or the Ministry?"
"Some of them have relatives in the Ministry," Harry says.
"Like my aunt. Amelia Bones," Susan adds, when Bloodcaller adopts an expression which Harry is sure means that she can't be expected to know who every human showing up in front of Gringotts is.
Bloodcaller frowns a bit, but says nothing as Fangbreaker comes back out of Gringotts. "They say come in, and move your arses as fast you can," Fangbreaker says breathlessly, then winces when Bloodcaller just looks at him.
Bloodcaller sighs and faces Harry and Susan. "I suppose you had better enter."
"How did you get the idea to bring wands for us?"
"It seems like the biggest problem for some goblins, from what Professor Flitwick at Hogwarts says." Harry is standing in front of Griphook's desk deep in Gringotts, and Susan is standing beside him, smiling. The box of wands is on the desk. Griphook is staring down into it. "We talked to him."
"Just him? A half-goblin? None of our people?"
"I sent a few owls," Harry says. "To you and a few other goblins Sirius named that he knows. I didn't get any responses."
"Yes, because we thought it was a prank."
"Sorry?"
Griphook gives a great sigh and leans back in his chair to stare at Harry. "You know that the Ministry will be furious," he says. "There are numerous reasons that they don't want us to have wands, most of them predicated on their fear that we'll grow too powerful if we have them."
"Lord Slytherin would never let you face the Ministry alone," Susan says at once. "And this is just the first prong in a campaign that he's going to fight for all kinds of people. So if it wasn't this, it would be something else."
"We would still have preferred to not do this now."
"Oh, the timing is bad? Would something else be better?"
Griphook plants a hand on his face, claws wrapping around the sides of his mouth, and mutters something that makes Harry abruptly glad he doesn't know Gobbledegook. "We did not expect to do anything about this in my lifetime," he says, not looking at them. "It has been goblin generations since we last made a serious attempt at carrying wands. Longer still since we had human allies who decided to risk this."
Harry does feel a little bad that he never tried to coordinate with the goblins through the Floo or something. "Oh. So we should take the wands back?"
"I did not say that."
"What are you saying?"
"That it would have been nice if you had planned this. Included us."
"All right. I can do that from now on. Sorry for not doing it before."
Griphook eyes him as if he doesn't believe Harry, which is fair. Then he shakes his head. "Have the confrontation with the Ministry somewhere other than Gringotts," he says. "Wait for word from us. But leave the wands here. We will try them and see who among our people might match with them."
Harry nods. "Sure."
For some reason, that makes Griphook lean forwards over the desk, hands shooting out to grip the sides. "You are not afraid of goblins having wands?" he says, and he sounds almost like he should be speaking Parseltongue. Ahalam stirs around Harry's neck. "Not afraid of what will happen next?"
"Not more afraid than of humans having wands."
Griphook narrows his eyes. "You don't know enough of history."
"It's not well-taught at Hogwarts."
Griphook just waits some more, and waits. But Harry doesn't know what he's waiting for, so he can't help.
Abruptly, Griphook gestures towards the tray of wands, which drops behind the desk and down what seems to be a hole in the floor. "Get out of my office," he says tiredly. "Wizard-children. Spoiled children. Children of the storm who do not know what they have unleashed."
Harry just nods, because it seems best, and he and Susan walk out of there. There's a large crowd of people waiting for them outside the bank, who all start shouting.
Harry lifts his chin. He bet that no one would get violent in the middle of Diagon Alley. Time to see if he's right.
