Ch. 53 — Seeing Double
Ready?" Commander Ginny said.
The Quantum Mirror had been moved from Area 51 to a wide corridor in the secure storage facility on the Base. It was facing the wall and the Marines were lined-up on either side of the corridor behind the mirror. There was a cloaked camera hidden on the wall relaying what it saw in the Mirror to a display facing Ginny and other Marines.
The dark wall did a good job of making it look as if the Mirror was inactive. If any Goa'uld saw the mirror activating, all they would see would be the dark wall and not the platoons of Marines waiting for the go signal.
They probably wouldn't even realize anything had happened.
"Okay. First team, guard Dr. Jackson and the Mirror on the other side. Second team, secure the door to the room. Third team, secure the room. Once the room is cleared, Second team remain on the door, First and Third, move out into the hall. The rest of the platoon will join you. As they come through, start clearing the floor, then the rest of the SGA facility."
She was repeating what they had already been told . . . several times.
"First Platoon, take your gel-tabs now." Ginny waited a moment for them all to take their Felix Felicis. Dr. Carter nervously looked at the tablet given to her earlier, then took it.
Everyone was on their hoverboards for truly silent movement, even if they hadn't magically silenced any sounds they made, and blocked their scents. The only way a Goa'uld would notice them would be if a Marine physically ran into them.
For the most part, they would be firing stunners at near point-blank range.
The two from the Alternate Reality had been outfitted with standard SG-Team spacesuits and given the maximum of practice that could be fit in an hour. At the end, they were somewhat competent on the hoverboards and could control the basic functions of the suits. After seeing the non-magical invisibility tech of the suits, Dr Carter shook her head and muttered, "No wonder they beat off the Goa'uld."
Major Kawalsky had been astounded at the heads-up tech in his helmet that let him see and communicate with the Marines while they were invisible.
"Ready?"
Dr. Carter signalled the Quantum Dialling Device was at the proper Alternate World.
"GO!" Ginny said.
The three Marines and Dr. Carter reached from the sides of the Mirror to place their hands on the surface, two on each side.
Luna suddenly darted forward, crouched low on her hoverboard to slip under their arms to join them.
An instant later, all five were on the other side. They immediately activated their tech cloaks and vanished from sight.
Ginny, Harry, and Hermione all sighed. The Marines chuckled and laughed, they had never doubted she would in the first group, regardless of planning.
Teams Two and Three immediately moved up to beside the Mirror.
"GO!"
The six Marines, three to a side, touched the Mirror. They, too, appeared on the other side, then vanished.
The next six waited for the signal.
It was a tense five seconds before two members of team Three appeared on either side of the door then vanished again. That was the signal that the room hadn't any Jaffa or Goa'uld in it.
Revelio was a simple method to determine if there were any hostiles in a room, or even nearby.
One of them cast an illusion on the door to look as if nothing had changed in the room if any Jaffa or Goa'uld happened to walk by.
"GO!" ordered Ginny.
As fast as was practical, sets of six Marines moved up beside the Mirror and touched it. As they started to go through, she added, "Platoons Two, Three, and Four, take your gel-tabs now!"
It took less than a minute for First platoon to go through. Ginny provided the Go signal for each group.
"Second Platoon, Secure a way to the surface!" They also took less than a minute to pass.
"Third and Fourth platoons, clear the rest of the Mountain! As you catch up to Second Platoon, they will join you."
Third and Fourth platoons were just as quick to pass through and scatter towards their different objectives.
All one hundred and eleven Marines, including the Platoon Major and his two Lieutenants were through the Mirror.
Then the rest waited for the SGA all-clear signal from Dr. Carter. Ginny looked at SG-1 and Major Kawalsky. "Take you gel-tabs, now!"
The five non-wizards looked at the gel-tabs they had been given earlier.
Ginny sighed. "Trust us, those gel-tabs will help you survive!"
Shrugging, they finally took them, then pulled up their helmets.
Between their magic, tech cloaks, and hoverboards, in under five minutes the Marines had the important sections of SGA under their control, and the entire facility in ten. Revelio made it possible to hunt down the Goa'uld and prim'ta no matter where they were, and the hoverboards made the Marines movement silent and fast. Magic ensured the Goa'uld never had a chance to see the Marines, should they somehow have been able to break the tech invisibility.
The Jafa never knew what hit them.
As soon as Dr. Carter reappeared in front of the Mirror, the five transited the Mirror and headed for the Stargate. Ginny followed on their heels with two teams of Marines. As soon as they got to the Stargate, the two Carters would install a proper dialling device and shut down the Stargate to all traffic. No one would be coming in or leaving without their permission. O'Neill and Kawalsky would be splicing the power-booster into the power conduits to reach the distant Ida galaxy, home of the Asgard. At that point, Doctor Carter would take over in contacting the aliens.
Hermione took Ginny's place and turned the Mirror around for easier access. She looked at the eager and waiting hundred-and-sixty-two pilots now lined up to either side of the mirror.
"As soon as we get the go-ahead from Second Platoon, take your gel-tabs and go through.
"The exit tunnel is a service tunnel and should be wide enough to easily fit one of the XE-wings . . . hopefully without folding the wings. Make sure you activate all cloaking before exiting the tunnel.
"Requirement squadrons, First Squadron, secure the airspace over the mountain. Second, Third, and Fourth Squadrons, start a sweep across the world. Any cargo or passenger ships are to be forced to the ground. Use your best judgement!
"The three assigned to the GCU are to immediately head up to the Ha'taks. The GCU has all the programming and cloaking tech and magic already engaged. Just pull it out of its expanded bag, and send it the activation code as soon as you are within five-thousand miles of the targets. It will signal when it is done.
"When it's done, haul it back to low-earth-orbit with your tractor beams. Send the second activation code. All Jaffa resistance should cease once it completes an orbit, about ninety-minutes.
"It'll build an underground storage room and send the Jaffa there, sedating them as it did the ones on the ha'tak. It will send you the ground location for the Jaffa on planet. The designated XE-wings will maintain overflight in that region until the captured Jaffa are dealt with. The Gao'uld captured will be in the brig in SGA."
"Galileo Squadrons, after emplacing the Platforms in L-four and L-five, the designated units are to tow a Ha'tak to each for the cluster of Weapon Platforms to use them as raw materials as they duplicate themselves. The rest of you head for the Asteroid Belt to bring back a few asteroids to supplement what the Ha'taks supply.
"Remember, full cloak at all times, including the special tech!"
Ten minutes after the all-clear was given for SGA Complex, the route to the surface was declared secure. The pilots processed through the mirror as quickly as the Marines. Honestly, getting the pilots to the surface, even on the hover boards, took longer than clearing out the SGA!
As planned, each pilot carried his ship in a featherlighted expanded bag. While each bag was far bigger inside than normal, it hadn't taken more than an hour for the teams powering-up the marble spell-stones on the Weapon Platforms to make the full set of four hundred expanded bags — a bit more than they needed, but it never hurt to have extra!
It did delay the powering-up schedule of the Weapon Platforms in their Reality by a couple of hours, but that was well-worth the sacrifice.
As soon as the XE-wing fighters cleared the area around Cheyenne Mountain, they would start sweeping across the planet. They wanted to actually use their ships instead of simply training all the time, and who knew how long it would be before they could do this again?
Besides, they all wanted to paint that silhouette of a death Glider just below the cockpit window on their XE-wing, if not several.
Plus, they were in a race against how fast the GCU could round-up all the Jaffa, which would put a stop to their fun. They didn't know that Luna had slightly altered the programming on the GCU to only collect the Jaffa from a Death Glider as it was hit by the lasers or plasma bursts from the XE-wings. It would also collect the pieces before they hit the ground to decrease collateral damage as much as possible.
With several hundred Death Gliders currently in the air, most of the Requirement's pilots were going get those silhouettes!
The last group of XE-Wing fighters through the Mirror were the four squadrons from the Battlestar Galileo. Three squadrons' pilots, fifty-seven, each had five expanded featherlighted bags, one for their ship and four for the Weapon Platforms they needed to emplace. The fourth squadron would fly cover for the other three.
Seven of the pilots were carrying Fuel Depots. Those were to be placed in orbit around Uranus and Neptune with an eye towards resupplying the naquadah consumed by the Medical Unit, the Food Replicator Unit they planned to build, and for any new X-wing fighters and Runabouts that might be built in the future.
The Fuel Depots had the patterns for those in their memory banks. After much debate, the DSF had decided that they wouldn't include the Battlestar plans, or any other heavier offensive ships.
Harry and Hermione followed the last pilot through to the other world. They would be taking the Runabout in his bag to London.
Were there Wizards in this world?
He had barely stepped through the Mirror when a Lieutenant standing beside the Mirror snapped to attention and delivered a crisp salute. "Admiral, Sir!" he quickly barked out. "Major Haskel said to tell you that we captured two Goa'uld in the SGA Complex, Apophis and his son, Klorel. Both are in the Brig, stunned."
Harry glanced at Hermione, then nodded to the serviceman. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Tell the Major to give them Draught of Living Death, if he hasn't already. We will deal with them later." They had been hoping they could catch Apophis, this time. Removing him now meant less problems in the future. Which was why they had brought a variety of potions with them, including veritaserum.
There were quite a few questions they had for the System Lord. Things like, What secrets don't you want anyone to find out? and What secrets about your fellow Goa'uld do you know that could be used to set them upon each other? as well as, How would you entice your fellow Goa'uld to attack each other, wasting their time and resources?
"Yes, Sir!" The Lieutenant said.
"Is there anything else?"
"Yes, Sir! We have rescued Major General Hammond. He is currently receiving an update from the Major on our situation!"
Harry glanced at Hermione again, with raised eyebrows.
She nodded back.
"Lead on, Lieutenant," Harry said.
On the way, the Lieutenant informed them that one of the ha'taks had landed on the mountain, which was how they had captured the two Goa'uld leaders. It had also changed plans, a bit.
First squadron had to wait until they were all in position over the mountain to engage the Ha'tak. As per their training runs over the previous months, they planned to take out the power distribution systems, first, the ship's communications systems, second, the defensive batteries third, then take out the Death Gliders that had been launched in the meantime.
Second, Third, and Fourth Squadrons, planned to assist First until the Ha'tak was not an issue. Once the local Goa'uld Death-Gliders were wiped out, then they would start their sweep across the world.
A few minutes later they walked into a meeting room where Major Haskell was finishing his briefing for General Hammond.
It looked as if the man had had a few rough days.
Harry walked up the man and held out his hand. "My name is Admiral Potter. Head of the Defensive Space Force." He turned and waved his arm at Hermione. "And this is my Number One."
"Admiral, Number One," the General cautiously replied, and somewhat put off by the fact everyone was still fully-suited and the helmets hid their identities.
Harry grinned, even if the General couldn't see it. "I have an excellent working relationship with Lieutenant General Hammond in our reality. He asked me to relay his best wishes to you, if you were still alive."
"He's been given an Invigoration Draught and most of his medical issues were superficial wounds and cuts," Major Haskel said, after saluting.
"You'll be happy to know that all of Cheyenne Mountain is now under our control, and the Ha'tak parked on the mountain will soon be a non-issue," Harry said to the General.
There was a tremendous crash and shaking as something massive slammed into the mountain. Dust knocked loose from the ceiling lights drifted down on them.
"The other Ha'tak will soon be taken care of as well," he added.
He looked over at the Major, then back at Hammond.
"I'd like to stay and explain things further, but I have other pressing obligations at the moment." He reached into the bag slung across his side, pulled out a folder, and handed it to the General. "This includes a summary of the equipment we brought through from our reality that we will be leaving in your control, as well as summary instructions on each one — full instructions are available from the units, themselves. Also included is a masterplan of the programming for the Weapon Platforms and Fuel Depots for the next few months as they duplicate themselves and make more X-wing fighters and Runabouts." He paused. They would be bringing through a squadron of X-Wings to leave behind when they took the XE-Wings back through.
While he was talking with the General, the Lieutenant was informing the Major of Harry's instructions regarding Apophis and Klorel.
Harry looked over as the Lieutenant stepped back. "Major?" Harry said.
"Yes, sir?"
"Stay with the General and help him with the documents. I'm sure he'll want to inform whatever officials are still in Washington about what's going on." He looked back at the General. "You yanks are going to have to do some serious grovelling to the rest of the world for your rash actions in sending a nuclear bomb through the Stargate and getting Apophis to send a conquering force to Earth."
He frowned. "You can tell the officials that they cannot hide that information as we will be telling every major government the truth when we inform them that the Goa'uld and Jaffa have been removed. Additionally, the Asgard are coming to ensure that the Goa'uld do not come back.
"One of their conditions will be the removal of your Stargate.
"If you ask nicely, they might allow you to connect to Beta Site and retrieve the personnel you sent there, first.
"It's not a disaster to lose the Stargate, there's a second one in Antarctica you can dig up, just don't let anyone else know this until after the Asgard and Goa-uld have left.
"When the Asgard arrive, there won't be any trace of the Ha'taks, Goa'uld, or Jaffa here, tell them the Goa'uld, Apophis and Klorel, immediately left with their Jaffa when they heard the Asgard were being petitioned for protection and were considering saying yes."
Hammond was listening with narrowed eyes.
"General, Major," Harry addressed them both, "I must be off. Good day." He turned and left with Hermione only a step behind him.
"And now," Harry said the Hermione, "Let's see if there is a Leaky Cauldron in this reality."
The trip to London was fast, once they took their Runabout from the expanded bag. Once outside, they could see ha'tak was in three large pieces and the battle for air supremacy had been easily won by the XE-wings.
It took them longer to get above and back down through the atmosphere than to travel between the two cities.
The time-zone differential made it late afternoon in Britain, rather than the early morning it had been at Cheyenne Mountain.
They took pictures as they approached London, which had not escaped damage in the invasion. Death Gliders had razed large streaks through the city to demonstrate their superiority. The airports, both civilian and military were pockmarked with ruined planes, burnt buildings, and crater decorated runways. There were numerous sections still ablaze, with the local fire departments doing their best to bring them under control and put them out.
It took them a bit of time to orient themselves, but whereis took them right over the old Pub.
From above, it was easy to see the Alley, for them. A quick check showed the entire Alley had a Muggle-aversion charm on it.
While that would prevent any muggles from seeing and noticing it, a strafing run by a Death Glider ran right through part of the Knockturn Alley. You didn't have to see the Alley to accidentally hit it while targeting the buildings on either side!
While they could see people in the Alley, they were mostly to the edges and moved quickly from one store to the next. There was none of the dawdling that Harry and Hermione were used to seeing in the Alley.
They quickly notified the DSF forces with a General Alert over their radios that there was a version of Diagon Alley in this Reality. That meant that some, if not all, of their personnel would be subject to Entropic cascade failure if they stayed longer than forty-eight hours. They couldn't take any chances and all personnel would be rotated back to their native Reality at the end of their shift while others took their place until the situation was settled. Under no circumstances was anyone to stay for longer than forty-hours.
Their own notice-this-not spell on the Runabout prevented any of the people and other creatures who were in the Alley from seeing them pass overhead and set the ship onto the burnt-out remains of the section that had been destroyed in Knockturn Alley.
On the trip over, the two had discussed what they should do in the event they found The Leaky Cauldron. As soon as they were down, they hopped out and picked their way through the wreckage to Knockturn Alley's little street.
They took a quick look around, then stopped and stared. On every shop's window was a large poster. Across the top in large black block letters, it said "Undesirable No. 1." Below that was a close-up picture of Harry! In red print below that it had his name, "Harry Potter" with a black banner underneath proclaiming "REWARD: 10,000 Galleons for information leading to his arrest. Contact the nearest Auror or Ministry Employee if sighted."
They exchanged disbelieving glances
"What in Merlin's name happened here?" Harry said incredulously.
Hermione just shook her head.
"We definitely need information," she said dryly.
They turned around and made their way back to their Runabout.
"We can't trust anything the Prophet says," Harry stated. "And all our friends are at Hogwarts right now. Trying to start a conversation in The Leaky Cauldron, or elsewhere, would have people asking us how we didn't know this!"
"The Ministry is too dangerous, obviously," Hermione said pensively.
"Plus, what would we say to anyone? 'Hi! We're from an Alternate Reality and you should trust us!'" He snorted. "From that poster, I'd say they'd immediately think we were polyjuiced or transfigured to look like Harry and Hermione in order to trick them into telling us where he is!"
They sat staring out the windows into the ruined section of Knockturn Alley for several minutes. "Gringotts?" Hermione suggested.
Harry shook his head. "While I could give blood that proved I was Harry Potter, I doubt our story of being from an alternate reality would be believed . . . despite our spacesuits." He paused. "We need someone who would know we were telling the truth." He stared glumly into Knockturn Alley.
"Dobby!" Hermione exclaimed. "Dobby would both know you were Harry and know there was a second Harry, too!" She looked at him excitedly. "With two Harry's he would have to believe us! And he could get us the information we need!"
Harry got excited, too. "And he could either take us to Harry or bring him to us!" He stood up from the Pilot's seat and faced the back of the small cockpit.
He cleared his throat. "Dobby!" he said authoritatively. Nothing happened for a second. He glanced at Hermione and sighed, then said "Dobby!" again.
This time there was an immediate POP! and the house-elf was standing there.
"Dobby be here Harry Potter Sir! Dobby be happy Harry Potter Sir called him! What can Dobby do for Harry Potter Sir?" The house-elf was excitedly bouncing up and down on his toes. He glanced around curiously at the inside of the Runabout's cockpit. "Dobby wonders where Dobby is, he does," he said softly.
"You're looking good, Dobby," Harry said. He had been worried that if there were posters calling Harry an Undesirable, then maybe Dobby might be in trouble, too. Fortunately, it looked as if he had worried over nothing.
"I'll get right to the point, Dobby. I am not your Harry Potter, I'm a Harry Potter from another reality."
Dobby looked at him with no understanding in his eyes and stopped bouncing. "But," Dobby said slowly, "Magic says you are Harry Potter Sir." He stared at Harry with his head tipped in curiosity.
Harry nodded. "Yes, I know. I want you to find the other Harry Potter, your Harry Potter. I think that if you look hard enough, you will notice very subtle differences between us." He paused. "For one, I think I'm older by several months."
Dobby frowned and tugged reflexively at his ear with one hand.
"Go on," Harry urged him. "Maybe closing your eyes will help.
Dobby slowly nodded and closed his eyes frowning heavily and tugging hard on his ear. He slowly shook his head. "Dobby be feeling only you," he said sadly and pulled his ear again.
"That's alright, Dobby, I know this is hard. Maybe you're too close to me." He thought a moment. "Maybe go to Swansea, and see if you can sense anything from there, besides me. If not, then go to Manchester, Carlisle, and Hogwarts. When you find the other Harry, or can't, then come back here."
Dobby gave him an uncertain look, then nodded and disappeared.
He returned almost immediately and took a defensive stance. He stared at Harry and Hermione with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "Is you using time-backer?"
Harry shook his head. "We are not using a time-turner. As I told you, we are from an Alternate Reality where things are very different from here. That's why I wanted to talk to you." He held up his wand "I swear on my magic that what I have told you, and will tell you, is the truth as I know it. So mote it be!" He paused a second, then said "Lumos." His wand lit up.
Dobby nodded slowly, then the wariness disappeared and he began bouncing again. "Harry Potter Sir is even greater than Dobby realized!" he declared happily.
"Calm down a bit, Dobby, I need your help."
Dobby stopped immediately and stared at Harry intently. "Dobby will listen closely to Harry Potter Sir."
"I would like you to tell me about the world so we can figure where things changed between our Reality and this one." He paused. "I'll start with how I met you." He described Dobby appearing in his room, and then blocking the Nine-and-three-quarters portal. He followed that with Dobby hexing the Bludger, and their conversation in the Hospital Wing that night. He then recounted meeting Malfoy and Dobby after killing the Basilisk and saving Ginny, and subsequently freeing Dobby.
Dobby confirmed it all.
Dobby didn't know about Third Year because he hadn't been at Hogwarts until November of Fourth Year. But he confirmed everything that had happened during the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
It was the next year that things went off the rails. While Dobby had shown his Harry the Room of Requirement for Dumbledore's Army, his Harry did not find a spaceship.
Unfortunately, Dobby's knowledge of current events wasn't nearly as helpful as they had hoped. He had stayed at Hogwarts, and only things that impacted Hogwarts had attracted his attention.
One piece of shattering news was that Sirius, in this Reality, was dead.
The following year in Hogwarts at least seemed to be the same, with Slughorn being the Potions Professor and Snape moving to DADA. The next note of a major change was that Dumbledore had somehow ended up with a cursed arm.
Dobby told them the house-elf rumour-mill said that he had been cursed by a ring he found while hunting for something he thought important. The rumours had said he was dying.
Christmas passed without an issue of any sort.
Dobby was in tears when he recounted how, at the end of Sixth Year, Draco had let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts with a Vanishing Cabinet, and Snape had killed Dumbledore before running off.
Dobby knew from the other House-elves that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had taken over the Ministry over the summer, and Harry Potter had gone on the run with Hermione and Ron. And now, Snape was Headmaster at Hogwarts.
Harry sighed "Can you bring Harry, Hermione, and Ron here? Tell them I can tell them exactly where all the things they're looking for are." He paused. "Tell them I made a wizard's oath that effect."
Dobby POPped away.
While they were waiting, they received word that the GCU had been put into low-Earth orbit with the ha'tak and was moving the Jaffa to the Sahara Desert, as planned. The Weapon Platforms had all been placed at the two LaGrange Points, and that Fuel Depots were also in place in orbit around Uranus, and already at work making duplicates with helium-three power plants.
They were also waiting for the temporary-shutdown signal. As soon as the Asgardian ship was detected, everything would be reduced to minimal power to avoid detection — not more than a nine-volt battery. They weren't sure if the Asgard could detect the tech-cloaks used, and they didn't want to take the chance.
The XE-wings fighters would also power-down, using only their magical invisibility and notice-this-not spells to avoid detection.
So far, the Felix Felicis had worked exactly as it was supposed to, they had no losses of personnel or equipment at all. Harry could only hope the luck would last until after the Asgardian ship left.
The Death Eaters were in control of England, and they needed to do something about that.
Harry sent the order back that four Dropships from the Requirement, and the four Marine platoons from the Galileo, were to be brought through the Mirror. The Galileo platoons were to keep watch over Cheyenne Mountain and assist the General in getting word out that the Goa'uld and Jaffa were gone. With the Death Gliders wiped out, the XE-wings were to assist in moving the Goa-uld ha'taks to the LaGrange Points.
The Requirement platoons, those Marines with the most experience in handling Death Eaters were to come on the Drop Ships to England.
He would have more information for the Marines, shortly.
Then Dobby POPped back . . . without Harry, Hermione, or Ron. He was tugging his ears fearfully.
"Harry Potter Sir, Harry Potter Sir says he wants to meet somewhere neutral," the house-elf stated and tugged hard on his ears.
Harry looked over at Hermione. "Gringotts?"
She slowly nodded. "We can rent a meeting room there."
He turned back to Dobby. "We will rent a meeting room at Gringotts. Go tell Harry, Hermione, and Ron to change their hair and eye colours, the charms are simple enough. Do the same to their robes. Disillusion Harry's glasses and hide the scar with a bit of skin-coloured cloth and put a don't-notice-this spell on the cloth." He paused. "In fact, put a mild don't-notice-this spell on all of them. Not much, just enough that people won't give them a second look."
Dobby was nodding.
"That should make it so they can get to Gringotts unnoticed. I'll see if I can talk the Goblins into letting them apparate or you bring them to their front steps to save time. In any case, listen for my call when we get this set up."
Dobby was still nodding.
"That's all, you may go."
Dobby POPped away.
They once more headed out to Diagon Alley, this time with a more definite destination. On the way, they discovered that the GCU, being in a low-orbit could reach everywhere on the planet, which they should have realized. As a result, it had already finished moving the Jaffa to an underground bunker in the Sahara.
It immediately started working on the Food Replicator metal in the Earth's Mantle as source material. The Marines had already used portkeys to remove the naquadah. Most of the XE-wings were now fetching asteroids to both LaGrange Points.
The Alley was unlike any time Harry and Hermione had ever seen. There weren't that many wizards or witches in sight, and they all were staying close to the edges of the Alley and scurrying from place to place fearfully.
They exchanged glances, and copied what the others were doing, that is staying at the edges and moving quickly. On the way to the bank they saw three people dressed as Aurors walking in the Alley as if they owned it. They also noticed how people avoided the Aurors by ducking into any open shop as soon as they saw them.
They were dismayed to see that both Ollivanders and Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour were shuttered, and appeared to have been that way for months.
Their mild notice-me-not spells seemed to have worked exactly as they had hoped as they made their way into Gringotts unmolested and unnoticed by everyone except the Goblins. They quickly found a clerk without a customer at his counter.
"We are here to rent a meeting room for the rest of the day, say eight hours. We need a room so that two parties that don't trust each other can meet on neutral ground." He leaned over the counter. "We are disillusioned for Gringotts' protection. If any wizard or witch were to see us, the Ministry would be sending Aurors in. We will, of course, remove the disguises once we are in a room in which no random wizard or witch can view us." He paused. "If you could let us use our house-elf to bring in the other party, and take all of us out at the end, we would be willing to pay more."
He studied them with a sneer, then opened a book. After a moment, he looked up. "A thousand Galleons, in advance. The house-elf access will cost five hundred Galleons, also in advance, to call it, and five hundred Galleons for each trip."
Harry stared at him a moment.
"So, five hundred to call the house-elf," Hermione said and raised an eyebrow, "five hundred for him to leave, five hundred for him to bring in a person, and so forth?"
The Goblin scowled at them figuring out that it wasn't a single cost. "Yes."
Harry looked at Hermione and shrugged. It wasn't as if they really cared. She nodded and opened the bag slung across her shoulder.
"We don't have Galleons, so you'll have to convert these gold bars," she said pulling a kilogram bar out of her bag.
The clerk scowled at her.
"Each bar is roughly six-thousand Sterling Pounds, twelve-hundred Galleons, so a bit over a thousand Galleons after you convert them to galleons and take the attendant fee. The room is a thousand Galleons." She placed the first bar on his counter.
He grabbed it and began inspecting it.
"We expect our house-elf to be bringing and returning three people which will be three thousand Galleons, plus taking ourselves at the end of the meeting which is another thousand," she said, continuing to pull gold bars from her bag and stack them on the counter as she spoke. "The original call for our house-elf is five hundred Galleons," she placed a final bar on the counter, "I don't have any smaller bars, so whatever is leftover is to be placed in the Vault for Heir Harry James Potter."
A Goblin Guard had come over and was standing behind them.
The clerk weighed the bar, then submerged it in water. He gave them a distrustful look.
Hermione shrugged. "Cut them in halves or thirds or whatever strikes your fancy to see that they are solid Gold and not a gold-layer over lead or another heavy metal."
He narrowed his eyes, then did precisely as she suggested. He took each bar and cut it in half, but each cut was at a different angle and direction. No one could have predicted his cuts and created bars with gold all the way through only in the places he cut.
He looked up at the Guard then down as he wrote something on a parchment he pulled from a drawer. "Take them to Meeting Room Five. They are allowed to call one house-elf, who will fetch three others. At the conclusion of their meeting, the house-elf will take them all away. Remain with them and ensure they obey all rules. Give this to the Lobby Head." He held the parchment out to the Guard, who took it.
The Guard turned and headed for the back of the Lobby at a quick pace. Harry and Hermione followed, having expected that response.
The Lobby Head Goblin stared at them suspiciously. At a signal, four other Guards quickly came over, as well as a Goblin he recognized . . . Griphook.
He handed three parchments to Griphook. "Meeting Room Five, verify their identities." He turned back to his bookkeeping.
Griphook wasted no time. They went through the door beside the Lobby Head, took a side corridor, past two doors labelled simply one and three, and entered the final room. There was a desk by the door, which Griphook sat at. The four Guards each moved to a separate corner in the room. The Goblin pulled open a drawer and took out a knife. He slid one of the three parchments and the knife towards Harry. "Drop the disguise. Seven drops of blood."
Harry nodded. "Do I have permission to use my wand?"
"For the purpose of dispelling your glamour, only," Griphook said.
It took only a moment to do. They watched as the parchment filled out with a short genealogy of Harry James Potter, Head of the Potter Family, and his parents and grandparents. It also noted that he was Heir-secondary to the Black Family and eighteen years of age.
Hermione used the second parchment. Hers was similar except it listed her as Hermione Jean Potter née Granger, with an age of nineteen.
Griphook studied them and the two parchments. Apparently satisfied . . . it was hard to tell with his almost permanent frown . . . he opened a drawer and tapped something inside with a finger. "You may call your house-elf," he said looking up at them.
"Dobby!" Harry firmly said.
There was a brief pause, then a POP!
"Dobby be here!" he said, then he looked around.
"We are in Gringotts, Dobby, what the Goblins call Meeting Room Five. You can go get Harry, Hermione, and Ron, now. Tell them they don't need disguises, and they should look as they really are." He paused. "Also tell them that they have to ask permission of the Goblins to use their wands. We are under the same restrictions."
"Dobby is sorry, Harry Potter Sir, but Dobby can only bring Harry Potter Sir and his Hermy. Ron is not with them."
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. What had happened?
"That will do, Dobby. Just bring the Harry and Hermione."
Dobby POPped away.
Several minutes later, he returned with two people, Harry and Hermione.
The four stared at each other
The Goblins stared at two sets of identical people.
The four Guards pulled out their swords.
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