The next day was the first day of the trial. Hermione was taken to a large concrete building, but it was no taller than any of the others.
"We're all going to fit in here?" Hermione said, blinking. "I guess I expected some sort of auditorium."
Bloodthorne smirked.
"You would not be wrong," he said. "But you imagine it wrong."
As they entered and went through the halls, they emerged onto a balcony, and Hermione realized what he meant. Instead of building up, the goblins had built down.
The balcony overlooked what looked like a gallery, two tables, a circle, and a large podium. The gallery was slightly tiered, allowing better views of the actual trial, and everything looked like it had been made out of either stone or concrete. It reminded Hermione remarkably of what the setup in the Wizengamot had been.
"We would be on the left," Bloodthorne said, directing her to a set of concrete stairs. "Stoneshear would be waiting for us."
Sure enough, Stoneshear was already at the table. He sneered at them when they arrived.
"I thought you would be on time," he said nastily.
"I thought you would be able to tell time," Bloodthorne shot back. "We would have been able to tarry ten minutes and would still arrive on time."
Stoneshear snorted and rustled some papers in front of him, and Hermione hesitantly took the seat behind him that Bloodthorne directed her to.
"Err," she said. "What am I supposed to do?"
Stoneshear gave her a dismissive look.
"You would stand as the holder of the lien," he informed her. "Your presence is more a legal necessity than a functional requirement. Braincleave might call upon you, but otherwise, your job is to sit and nod when necessary."
Well. That sounded straight-forward enough, Hermione figured. If she didn't have to do much, she stood much less of a chance of messing anything up or disrespecting the goblins. It would be kind of fun to watch and just learn what their legal system was like.
She shifted and quietly cast a Cushioning Charm on her own seat when no one was looking. Concrete might be easy for the goblins to make seats from, but it wasn't very comfortable.
As Hermione looked around, she found herself growing more curious. The room was rather... plain.
For a courtroom, which she would expect to be somewhat of a big and dramatic thing, it was all dull gray stone, without a sense of majesty or importance or grandeur. It seemed more functional than anything, similar to the plain and functional natures of the goblin homes. Was Gringotts grand and elaborate, then, because it was an interface with wizards and needed to intimidate them, while goblins natively preferred more simple things? Or had someone else built the building for Gringotts, and the goblins were just the ones that owned it now?
More goblins filtered in over the next few minutes, including one who wore an odd wig made of golden wire and beads who sat at the high podium. A few goblins who seated themselves at the right table shot dirty looks and sneers at Hermione's table, which Stoneshear and Bloodthorne returned.
When everyone who was needed had assembled, including a large crowd to watch, the goblin wearing the golden wig drew a giant golden sword, nearly as long as the goblin was tall.
"We are assembled as the Horde, and for the Horde, we seek justice," he said. His beady black eyes dared anyone to object. He moved to press the giant sword into his podium through a slit in the stone. "Together."
"Together," the goblins all declared.
The golden sword slid into place, gleaming brightly on the front of the stone podium, the hilt holding it there, staying above the slot.
"Tell us, Stoneshear," the judge bid. "What would you accuse Braincleave of?"
"I accuse Braincleave of bribery," Stoneshear said, standing up and sneering. "I have reports of him offering more than the listed price of goods in order to get them faster."
"Braincleave would deny such a charge," Moldedge said, standing and sneering back. "What Stoneshear calls 'bribery', I would call 'commerce'. Braincleave offered gold for goods. Where is the bribery in that?"
"Braincleave offering more than the set price of a good to skip the line would destabilize our entire society," Stoneshear shot back. "All of the Horde are equal. Braincleave sought to use his gold to rise above and move before others."
"Destabilize our society by offering more than usual for some roots and cloth?" Moldedge spread his arms wide, sneering. "Would our society really collapse from such a small thing? You exaggerate."
There was a loud metallic dong as the judge rang a gong to his side.
"I would hear the accounts of the offense," he said. "Stoneshear, bring your witnesses."
Hermione watched as several different merchants, one at a time, were put on what she'd roughly refer to as 'the stand', each made to recount their interactions with Braincleave. Each witness account took a long time, as every miniscule piece of testimony was examined by both Stoneshear and Moldedge.
Hermione grew bored, shifting restlessly in her seat. Though the details differed a little, it was clear that Braincleave had offered each of them more than the set price for a good in an attempt to get it sooner or get more than the amount allotted to each goblin. She wished the judge would just agree with Stoneshear and put an end to the parade of merchants' testimony.
Alas, it was not to be - Stoneshear waited until he had run out of merchants to examine to summarize his argument.
"Imagine if every goblin did this!" Stoneshear exclaimed, glaring at the crowd. "Our society would crumble, overrun with greed. Braincleave would put the good of himself over the good of the Horde, and he would bring ruin to us all!"
Moldedge seemed to take a very different approach.
"There are no laws against what Braincleave has done," he said, sneering at everyone. "He offered gold for goods – that is commerce, not corruption. There is no law against what he has done, so he cannot be held in the wrong."
"There has never needed to be such a law before," the judge said. He scowled at Hermione. "There was never a genuine possibility of a goblin having enough gold to bribe someone before."
That sounded like he was blaming her for loaning gold to the goblins, which was really all Bloodthorne's fault. Hermione wisely held her tongue.
"Would you fault what has allowed the Horde to rebuild faster than ever before?" Bloodthorne said, standing and holding his arms open. He sneered. "All others who took loans used them for good, to fix their homes and feed their families. Only Braincleave used his to try and cheat the system and society."
There were hisses from the audience, and Bloodthorne's sneer widened. Moldedge looked annoyed, but the judge nodded, thoughtful.
"This is a new thing to contemplate, for the Horde," the judge reflected. He stood, taking the handle of the golden sword in his hands. "We shall contemplate this, and we shall seek justice in the morning together."
"Together," the goblins echoed as the judge pulled the giant sword from the podium. He sheathed it in a special sheath behind him and carried it with him, the sword too long to wear on his belt, and descended from the podium.
The other goblins rose and began talking to each other, mingling and sneering. Hermione looked to Bloodthorne and Moldedge.
"…That's it?" she said. "All that happened today were witness statements and some arguments."
"You say that as if it is nothing," Stoneshear sneered. "Today proved the validity and truth of our case."
"All that remains is the outcome, now," Bloodthorne said, nodding to Hermione. "Braincleave did what he was accused of. What the Horde will do about it now remains to be decided."
"Err…" Hermione said, faltering. "Then… why am I here?"
Bloodthorne's eyes gleamed.
"Because you are the guarantor of his loan," he said slyly. "In his loan, Braincleave attested that as part of the terms of the loan, he would not use the gold he was loaned to in any way act against the Horde or our society."
"If necessary, you are here to call in his loan," Stoneshear informed her. "If he will not change his ways, it may be the only way to prevent his selfish actions. Without gold, he cannot bribe others."
That made a sort of twisted sense to Hermione, she supposed. She was just glad court was done for the day, really – the miniscule examination of the details of each witness had seemed to stretch on forever, even though she'd only been there a few hours, and her body was sore from sitting on stone for so long.
"Do you need me the rest of the day?" Hermione asked Bloodthorne. "I want to go try something out."
Bloodthorne's eyes gleamed at her.
"I would not," he told her. "Though I would bid you be careful, Hermione Granger. Braincleave may have friends who would object to your presence in the streets."
"Thanks," Hermione said, biting her lip. "I'll keep an eye out for that."
Hermione sought to find a group of goblins in the mossy center of the city to help her out, greeting goblins who didn't seem to be in the middle of anything to ask if they might spare a few minutes. More than a few were surprised but seemed almost excited to be asked by her for help, abandoning their previous entertainments to follow her instead.
As she went around, she learned that the female goblins were the ones with bright iridescent markings on their skin, while male goblins had none. Male goblin head sizes seemed to vary, however, while all the female goblins' heads seemed proportional to their frames. Hermione wondered what caused the differences, but she opted not to ask more detailed questions. She didn't want to offend them by asking about sensitive topics.
Soon, she had gathered a small group of eight goblins and had them line up: three women, and five men.
"I have a box here," she said. "In this box are rods."
She emphasized the word very carefully.
"They are made of metal," she told them. "They are made of gold, silver, copper, nickel, aluminum, pewter, and bronze. The smithing on them is probably very bad – I am not a smith with anything near the skills of a goblin of the Horde."
The goblins looked at her, puzzled.
"I would have you come and take a rod," she emphasized. "I would have you pick one up and test it and see if holding one over another brings you a sense of euphoria or joy."
The goblins seemed to shrug.
"We will do as you would have us," one of them said. "Where would you put your box?"
Hermione set the wooden box out carefully on the ledge of the small raised area in the middle of the moss, and the goblins surrounded it. They quickly decided it was more efficient to spread out the rods so more goblins could access them at one time, and soon there were dozens of thin, spindly-looking pieces of metal balancing on the ledge, glinting different colors in the light.
The goblins wandered around, picking up rods and holding them, before putting them down again. Hermione watched patiently, biting her tongue. There was a large chance this might not work, but she was hopeful nonetheless.
For several minutes, there was nothing; just goblins picking up and putting down sticks. Suddenly there was a commotion, and the goblins all crowded around one of the others. Hermione hurried to join them.
One goblin in the center was holding what looked to be a bronze chopstick in his hand. He looked awed.
"It spat," he said. "But it was from me."
"Would you do it again?" another goblin bid. "Please. I would see?"
Obliging, the goblin waved the metal stick, and golden sparks spat out of the end. The goblins gasped, their eyes wide.
"It is from me," the one holding the rod emphasized, his own eyes wide. He clutched the fist of his empty hand to his chest. "I can feel it. The sparks are from me."
"May I see it?" Hermione asked politely.
Wordless, the goblin handed over the rod, and Hermione examined it, squinting at the markings on the end.
"Bronze with mandrake," she said, nodding. She handed it back to the goblin and withdrew her notebook, writing it down. "Good."
Some of the goblins returned to picking up rods, but a few goblins lingered around her, shooting her looks. After a time, Hermione finally looked up to meet their suspicious glares.
"You," one of the goblins said, eyes beady and suspicious. "What are these, that you would have us hold?"
"These are rods," Hermione said patiently.
"But what is a rod?" another goblin demanded, her markings flashing.
Hermione bit her lip.
"Well," she said, hesitant. "Really, all it is… it's a bit of metal with a bit of a plant inside of it."
The goblins continued to look suspicious. Hermione sighed.
"They are made of metal, at least, of the metals I could get and transfigure or melt with spells," Hermione said. "I tried to keep them thin to be proportional to your hands, but I think maybe I went a bit too thin. And they have bits of magical plants inside of them – I tried to get plants that had a sort of consciousness to them, despite being plants."
"And why," the goblin said, her eyes flashing, "have you brought us these?"
Hermione gnawed on her lip.
"The Ministry of Magic defines 'wands' as an instrument, made of a specific type of wood that surrounds a core of a magical substance from a creature, that is used to cast magic," she said finally. "Legally speaking, wands are made of wood and magical animal parts."
The goblins' eyes widened, and Hermione continued.
"I have brought you rods," she emphasized. "They are made of metal and magical plant parts. They are not, under any definition, classified as a wand."
"But Bonemace was able to make sparks," a goblin murmured. His teeth flashed as he grinned, eyes narrowing. "Not unlike what would happen if a wizard waved a wand."
"Well," Hermione said lightly. "You're a culture that smiths metal and lives in the earth. Is it any wonder that metals and plants might channel your natural magic well?"
The goblins exchanged a devious, beady-eyed look, and they scurried back over to the ledge, exploring the many rods that had been set out.
Hermione watched and took notes. Some of the rods were able to spit sparks for some of the goblins but not others. The ones not made of alloys, like the golden and silver ones, seemed to spit brighter sparks, but they worked much more rarely, it seemed. None of the rods with Leaping Toadstools or Bouncing Bulbs seemed to provoke any reaction, while Venomous Tentacula and Devil's Snare cores seemed to be more responsive to the goblins holding them.
Over time, their little experiment grew, nearby goblins coming over to investigate and joining the crowd, eager to take a rod and wave it. Whenever a goblin managed to produce sparks, there was a collective terrifying exclamation of joy, and the lucky goblin in question would hurry over to Hermione, who would note the rod and mark it down.
Later in the afternoon, after Hermione had made many pages of notes, a goblin approached her directly, wearing an odd sort of smock.
"Hermione Granger," he said, bowing low in front of her. "You may not remember me. We have met before. I am called—"
"Silversmite," Hermione said, recognizing his voice. She smiled. "You made my sword."
Silversmite straightened, grinning with many teeth.
"Tell me, Hermione Granger," he said, moving to sit near her. "What have you done with these 'rods'?"
While other goblins continued to sort through the metal chopsticks, Hermione explained to Silversmite what she had done. He seemed initially appalled that she would destroy currency to extract the metal from it, before frowning.
"If you can coin base metals, I do not see why one could not un-coin them," he said. He shook his head, hissing. "Still. Pure base metals would be better."
"They probably would be, but I didn't have access to those," Hermione pointed out reasonably. "I had to work with what I had."
She explained she'd chosen plants that seemed to be more 'alive' than others, ones that had some sort of magical consciousness. Silversmite seemed skeptical of her claims, but he brightened when she mentioned she'd brought some with her.
"Raw ones?" he clarified. "Ones that would live if transplanted?"
"Hopefully," Hermione said, shrugging. "I don't know how well they would do with the climate down here, but we could try?"
Silversmite called something out in Goblidon, and two goblins came running over, one with bright jeweled markings, the other with a very large head.
"Hermione Granger, I would introduce you to my apprentices," Silversmite said proudly. "Rustedge and Kunaite."
The two goblins bowed low, and Hermione bowed back as best she could from a sitting position.
"I'm pleased to meet you," Hermione told them. She offered a smile. "You are doing well?"
The goblins glanced at Silversmite, who nodded, before responding.
"The smithy is doing well, now that it has been rebuilt," Kunaite said slowly, her eyes darting around. "Silversmite is teaching us so we might make our own forges someday."
"Apprentices," Silversmite said seriously. "I would tell you of a great opportunity Hermione Granger has offered us."
He began to converse rapidly with them in Goblidon. Each syllable was short and rapid, one right after another, and Hermione wondered how they could make sense of it, how they could tell where one word ended and another began. At one point, Hermione saw their eyes go wide, and they glanced at her and then over at the crowd surrounding the rods.
After he was done explaining to them, Silversmite looked satisfied. The two apprentices were looking at Hermione with a new respect.
"Now," he said. "I would have your thoughts."
"If the plants are potentially dangerous, I would plant them away from others, where injuries would not occur," Rustedge said. "It would be far from the smithy, but the precaution would be necessary."
"I would keep them close, as they would require special care," Kunaite said, considering. She stroked her pointy chin thoughtfully. "The smithy has no room. But there is a wreck two land lots down. If the wreck would be removed, and the land repurposed…"
Silversmite's eyes lit.
"That would have potential," he said.
"We would need to talk to the council," Rustedge said, scowling. His whole face scrunched up as he made a disgusted face, and it was fascinating to watch. "They would demand to know why the smithy would deserve more land than the rest of us."
"I suspect," Kunaite said slyly, "that they would consider it a worthwhile investment, for the potential that would result."
"I think you'll get your chance soon," Hermione said, watching as a group of several goblins wearing beaded silver wigs approached the dais, attracted by the commotion and unexpected crowd of goblins. "If I'm not mistaken, they're coming this way."
The wigged goblins pushed their way through the crowd to the rods with authority. Hermione watched as their eyes went wide, and accusations and loud protests in Goblidon broke out. The council goblins seemed to be furious, only for their anger and dismay to turn to astonishment as the other goblins argued and countered them. Several of the wigged goblins glanced over at Hermione with sharp, suspicious eyes, and Hermione grinned slightly and waved.
The goblin council finally marched over. Silversmite stepped forward to address them, and a rapid conversation that Hermione couldn't make sense of in the slightest followed. After a long argument and bickering session, one of them turned to her.
"You have these magic plants?" he asked.
"I have some of them," Hermione admitted. "I'm not sure if they've all survived and are still alive, but hopefully?"
"And why have you brought them?" he demanded.
Hermione gnawed on her lip.
"Well, I mean, if you liked the rods and make your own, and you wanted it to be sustainable…" She shrugged. "You'd need to get new samples of them from somewhere, wouldn't you?"
The goblin gave her a flat look.
"You would arm the goblins," he said, his voice like steel. "You would give us wands."
"Rods, not wands," Hermione corrected, her eyes narrowing. "Not illegal under the Ministry. Something the Ministry knows nothing of."
The goblin glared at her for a long moment, before breaking into a wide smirk, eyes glinting and showing many teeth.
"You would arm the goblin Horde," he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "You. A child wizard. You would arm us all."
"This is part of a research project and an experiment," Hermione said in exasperation. "I didn't even know if it would work."
"But if it would?" the goblin challenged. "Already, you would be prepared with plants to transplant into our Hold?"
Hermione her lip.
"Look," she said finally. "Your homes are in ruins. You can't use magic directly or easily, only through tools, and because of it, your Hold is a shade of what it once was. Are you really going to refuse the first thing that could help you fix your city and help the Horde that's come along in years?"
The goblin looked over the crowd, more of whom had found rods that produced sparks for them, each time provoking a cheer.
"All within the Horde are equal," the goblin informed her. "All goblins would need a rod."
Hermione shrugged amicably.
"Well," she said easily. "Then I guess Silversmite should get started making new ones soon."