A visit to the goblins unexpectedly helps solve a problem for the Greyback family
Any hope that they might have been able to get in and out of the bank without much fuss was dashed when the little family was given a very obvious royal treatment from even before the moment they crossed through the doors. The goblins in the foyer buzzed with excitement and did practically everything to welcome and greet them except roll out a red carpet. Witches and wizards doing business at the teller counter stared agog as Griphook and Gornuk came out bowing low with bright and sincere smiles on their pointy faces and shook all of their hands warmly.
"What a delight to see the family Greyback!" Gornuk announced loudly, his little chest puffing with pride "We had hoped you might visit soon. Allow us to personally escort you back through our offices, there's someone who's been eager to meet you," he said, beckoning them to follow down the same grand marbled hallway they'd visited before. When they passed in front of his familiar carved office door and paused there he chuckled impishly "Oh no, my office is not nearly fine enough to hold such an important meeting," he grinned mischievously with all his very sharp teeth on display, and Hermione couldn't help but giggle at him.
Looking around to make sure there weren't any other humans nearby, she ducked her head low and spoke to her goblin friend in a soft voice as they kept walking. "I'm really glad you weren't upset with me, Gornuk. It didn't occur to me how invasive my questions were until I had already sent you my letter, and I hope I didn't put you in an awkward spot here with the higher ups," she said out of the corner of her mouth, focusing her hearing on him and his heartbeat. It briefly picked up, but she had learned over the years that wasn't too terribly unusual for tense conversations.
He looked up at her and his grin softened "I am grateful for your courage to ask uncomfortable questions, my lady. You have the curiosity of a child, but the heart of a great diplomat," he said, and she felt warm from his praise. She stopped where they stood in the middle of the hallway to bow to him deeply, and he returned it with equal sincerity. She found herself quite glad she had made friends with this creature who was so alike and so different to her in so many ways.
"So are we going upstairs? I've been wondering what's up there," She asked curiously when they began walking again a moment later, gesturing eagerly at the gilded lift they were approaching at the end of the hallway. He barked out a hard laugh as sharp as a blade. Patting his belly, he chuckled and shook his head "Oh my no, my lady. Higher is lesser among our kind. If we went up all we'd find are the junior offices and the human staff quarters. No, we'll have the great honor today of going down. As far underground as we can go while remaining within the walls of the bank, in fact," he said proudly.
She looked at him askance and grinned conspiratorially "Gornuk, are you taking us to meet your boss?" She asked excitedly, and with a matching grin and a wink of one of his gleaming black eyes he nodded subtly. She couldn't help but exclaim softly, and suddenly felt a bit self-conscious. Glancing at her family and then down at her clothes she whispered to him "We're not… underdressed, are we? You'd tell me if we were, right? I don't want to insult him before we've even said hello," she asked nervously, pulling at the hem of her robes to straighten them of imaginary wrinkles.
As Gornuk opened the golden doors of the lift and ushered them in, he shook his head and his smile softened "When one's purpose is true, it matters not the clothes they wear nor the treasures they possess. Strange words to hear from a goblin I'm sure, but few things are more valuable than a nobility of spirit and the earnest desire to do rightly, both of which you and your family carry in spades," he assured her, and she was incredibly touched by his words. It was one thing to blow smoke up her arse if he and his people wanted something from her, but for all they were often accused of tricking witches and wizards with loopholes in contracts and laws, she had a sneaking suspicion that goblins weren't really capable of outright lying. If that was correct then it meant he had a very high opinion of her indeed, and though she was pleased she also felt as if it were somewhat unearned.
The doors of the lift opened and they walked out into a much more lavish and opulently decorated hallway than the one above. Rich tapestries in bold color laid out a stunning visual history of the proud race of warriors and craftspeople, and neither she nor Remus could scarcely draw their eyes away. Sconces shaped like gleaming golden fans inlaid with turquoise glass adorned the walls, cupping behind them luminous balls of light. The tinted glow from them made the hallway feel almost as if it were underwater, and Hermione held an image in her mind of a ship wrecked in shallow waters carrying innumerable treasures visible from the shoreline. Golden and blue, bright and reflective and flickering like a flame.
Two larger goblins stood guarding the door Gornuk and Griphook were leading them towards, wearing full body suits of gleaming silver armor and holding heavy axes that crossed at the blades and barred their way. They parted when they saw them coming, and nodded as the six of them passed, holding the door and allowing them entrance. Hermione's desperate curiosity was rewarded shortly, as the room they were led into was so beautifully decorated and everything within it was so finely made that it could have belonged to none other than the person holding the highest position the goblins held. This had to be the personal office of the chieftain himself.
The room was bigger than her house, and an entire wall of it was one massive set of bookshelves. The opposite wall held displays of armor and weapons so masterfully crafted she almost didn't feel worthy to look at them, for she knew the complexity of their construction was surely well outside of her human understanding. A desk that looked like it had been carved entirely from the monstrous innards of a single enormous tree stood regally in a place of pride at the far end of the study, and a relatively small goblin stood in front of it. His face was by far the most youthful of any other goblin she'd seen anywhere in the bank so far, and there was a charmingly boyish grin on his face. His hair was a deep reddish brown, and flopped down over his forehead reminding her fondly of Ron. His teeth were sharp but not quite as long or menacing as she expected. Maybe goblin teeth grew with age, or they just had dozens of them like sharks.
Like every other goblin in the bank he was dressed impeccably in a three piece suit. Where the rest of his brethren often wore suits that were too big or baggy in places, the closest approximate size that fit out of clothes made for human children rather than adult goblins, his was exquisitely tailored and fit him like a glove. It was a subtle plummy maroon, and it complimented his complexion beautifully. A gleaming silver chain hung from his waistcoat to his jacket pocket, and altogether he looked quite posh.
Glancing next to her and realizing that Gornuk had fallen to one knee in front of his chieftain, she lowered herself into a similar position, bowing her head and waiting for him to address her first. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father hesitate and then copy her, and Remus and Harry did the same. The chieftain shook his head with a smile, "Please friends, rise! My uncle is far too formal, I would never have such honored guests lower themselves in such a way before me," He said with good cheer, and Hermione's brows shot up to her hairline. She looked at Gornuk askance to find him smirking at her, every one of his sharp teeth on display. She grinned and laughed loud, jostling his shoulder with her own.
"May your blade be ever sharp, your majesty," Hermione said, rising to her feet and slipping into a perfect courtly curtsy. She was sure Narcissa would have glowed with pride if she'd been there to see it. "And may your coffers runneth over, my lady," the chieftain responded with a grin "You do know a thing or two about our culture, it seems," he said delightedly.
With a thoughtfully appraising look he glanced between the members of her little family "Before the day is done I'd like you to know even more. We goblins are a secretive people, and we have steadfastly kept humans at arm's length for all our collective memory. However, I see no humans before me here and now. I see two proud races of magical beings who have more in common with each other than we do with humans. Who can help one another, and stand stronger together than apart," he said compellingly, planting his closed fist onto his flat palm.
With a beckoning gesture, he led them over to a set of two cozy little couches in front of a merrily blazing fireplace. The chieftain sat in the middle of one, with more than enough room for Griphook and Gornuk to sit comfortably on either side of him. Her father on the other hand looked antsy when he realized that not all four of them would fit on one couch together, and so she rested a hand on his shoulder and sat on the arm of the couch closest to him to ease his mind. The chieftain seemed embarrassed by the seating arrangement.
Gornuk glanced pointedly between her and the empty little armchair between the couches. She could have sat there, and it might be less awkward in the long run. She frowned at him, and looked meaningfully at her father's fists clenched anxiously on his legs and shrugged helplessly. The goblin was her friend but she wouldn't abandon her dad when he was so keyed up.
Wanting to break the ice, she barreled ahead fearlessly "I'll be frank, your majesty, we've already decided as a family that Harry's going to claim his heir ring while we're here today, and that the two of us will have our father and Remus act as our proxies on the wizengamot when the session opens in October. We only know the bare basics of the political process and how it works and what powers we'll actually have to make changes. If there's more you need from us or specific things you need us to do you'll have to be quite upfront with us."
"We already have some allies - we know we can count on the Weasleys and the Malfoys no matter what, and we've heard good things from the Longbottoms, the Fawleys, and the Shafiqs. There are a lot of other young scions of the great houses in our year that we're going to try and reach out to in the next few weeks as well. We've also spoken with the centaurs of the forbidden forest and the Hogwarts house elves and they've both agreed to stand with us, but we still need help figuring out what's going on with the elves. There's some kind of geas on them that they can't talk about. I wish I had been able to get more done since you wrote to us Gornuk, but that'll have to be enough for now," she said, realizing she was beginning to ramble.
She looked at their faces to see that their brows were arched high over wide eyes and even wider toothy grins. "Enough for now?" The chieftain murmured to his uncle incredulously "Enough for now she tells me! My dear lady, what you've done in a matter of weeks would be enough ground work and intelligence to satisfy our cause for years to come! There are members of our high council that call me a radical for hoping we can get it off the ground within the next decade. Our lives are much longer lived than yours, and the humans have always done everything they can to stymie and inconvenience our efforts. We have unfortunately come to expect the grinding of bureaucracy's wheels to be drudging and slow, one of life's few constancies that can be safely planned upon. I'm afraid I feel overwhelmed by how much you've accomplished. In my wildest dreams for our races working together in alliance, I hadn't imagined anything to come of it until you children had graduated school at the earliest," he said earnestly, and she was taken aback at both his sudden pessimism and the depth of emotion she saw in his black eyes.
He shook his head then, frustration appearing on his face "And yet you bring me this opportunity now, one I am not ready for. One I had not thought myself ready for, perhaps. I am young as well, my lady. Not quite as young as you, but young for my people - a goblin barely grown of only seventy five. I will not see this opportunity you have brought before me wasted. This information and this network of magical beings is the fragile start of something too precious to let slip between my fingers. Please, Lady Greyback, tell me of the others you have met with for we know so little of them. We are aware that like ourselves the elves are seen as servants to the wizards, and that the centaurs are seen as little more than beasts, but we have not considered their plight and how our people might strengthen each other," he admitted, and she thought him very wise for such a young leader of his people.
She looked at her father questioningly and he shrugged, still far out of his element and willing to let her take the lead. Turning back to the chieftain, a thought occurred to her "Your majesty, we have a house elf bonded to our family. Would she be able to safely come here if we called her?" She asked him hesitantly, and he lit up and nodded enthusiastically "Yes, of course! What brilliant luck and coincidence. By all means, please do summon her here to my office," he offered.
She reached over and tapped Harry's shoulder, and he called out quietly but clearly for Kipper. She arrived with a gentle displacement of air, and perched happily upon his knee "Young Master Harry is needing Kipper?" She asked, then gasped when she looked around and realized she was not in place of wizards. The goblin chieftain rose to his feet and she slid to the floor and knelt in front of him "Like is recognizing like, and Kipper is being honored to serve the goblinsies great king," she said with the weight of ceremony, making them all pause.
"Kipper, are the goblins a part of the geas?" Hermione asked softly, desperate to know but still not wanting to bring harm to the sweet elf who had already suffered enough for one lifetime. She cursed her own dogged curiosity, for the first time in her life wishing she'd been born able to be satisfied with what she did and didn't know. The elf in question however, looked at her in awe and adoration and slowly shook her head, mouth dropping open and hanging agape "Young Mistress Hermie is finding it, she is finding the loophole!" She cried ecstatically, her voice like a squeaky toy. She leapt up onto the girl's lap and hugged her as tightly as her little arms were able to, starting to weep with joy.
"Young Mistress Hermie is wanting to know, and Kipper is wanting to tell her so badly, she is! Kipper is having headaches and getting confused every time she is thinking about telling her Mistress Hermie, and she is thinking about it every day! It is breaking the geas to be telling a human, but Kipper's family is not being humans, but they is being very close to humans. Almost humans, still too close to be telling. They is only being different enough to be knowing and not be made to forget. But that naughty old Nilliams is being very tricksie by going and telling young Mistress to get the information from Kipper, and so every day Kipper is thinking of how she can be doing this. How she can be letting her young Mistress Hermie know without telling her," she said, tugging on her little ears. She looked up at her with wide eyes and a grin and leaned into her with a contented sigh.
"But Goblinsies! Kipper's little Missy Hermie is being so clever! Goblinsies is not being part of the geas at all - they can be knowing and Kipper can be telling them, so they can be telling her young Mistress! Oh this is being such a relief for Kipper," she announced joyously, leaning back further into Hermione's side until she might as well have been a warm content little puddle of elf.
From their seat across from her, the chieftain and their accounts managers were frozen in place, thoroughly stunned expressions on their pointed faces. Gornuk glanced at her father and Remus "If one of you two fine gentlemen could please cast a secure privacy charm, then we shall go over to his greatness' desk and hear what Miss Kipper has to tell us there," he said a bit breathlessly. Kipper gasped and her whole body flushed a dusky green, and she covered her face with her tiny hands "Master goblinsie, Kipper is only being Kipper!" She insisted, shaking her head back and forth. Harry chuckled and patted her back kindly "I dunno, I rather like the sound of it, Kip. You deserve a title after everything you've done for us. I wish I could give you mine," he said a bit forlornly.
"Speaking of titles, young sir…" came a grumbly voice on the other side of the couch, and the children were both quite embarrassed to realize that they had forgotten all about their actual business at the bank. Griphook stood with his arms crossed, stern frown ever present on his face. He reached into his waistcoat and withdrew a ring box, and Harry gulped nervously but bravely came forward to take it from him all the same. With a dramatically arched brow and a smarmy little smirk, Griphook informed him "This box has only the heir's ring, sir. We don't want a repeat of your sister's alarming feat of magic. Unless of course, you'd like to try your luck and take a shot at the lord's seat? There are no other living claimants to challenge, after all," He said, and he might as well have been wearing horns because he was as tempting as a little devil.
Speaking for the first time since arriving, their father growled lowly in his throat "He'll do nothing he doesn't precisely desire to do, banker," he rasped angrily "it was only by accident and chance that my daughter did what she did, and your colleague admitted he had no idea what consequences could have come from it. So don't pressure my son, or we'll leave here today empty handed and not return," he added with an air of finality. Griphook's eyes flew over to his chieftain, who was halfway between the couches and the desk and shook his head with a frown.
"Don't press your luck, old chap. You are only here in your official position as young Mr Greyback's accounts manager. He and his family are here as my guests and as friends of the horde," the young goblin warned sternly, before entering into the bubble of silence Remus had cast around his desk. Hermione could see him and Gornuk and Kipper sat at it seriously, their heads bowed in fraught conversation. She couldn't hear them and their lips were blurred so she couldn't even guess as to what they might be saying either, and she was impressed by the magic. While she watched them, curious despite herself, Griphook quietly and calmly walked her brother through invoking his magic and challenging for the heir's seat of house Potter.
She turned her head to watch him as she heard him begin to speak the words, the sea green of their shared magic spiraling around him in the air and his eyes glowing an electric green "I, Harry James Potter Greyback, son of James Fleamont Potter, grandson of Fleamont Henry Potter, claim a birthright to one day lead this house and do so challenge the Potter family magic to find me worthy as its heir!" He intoned with an echo in his voice that reminded her of Amalthea and lady Hekate, and reached out for the box. Griphook fumbled with it for a moment and she almost thought he might drop it before he corrected and handed her brother the ring.
It was a heavy thing, designed to fit an adult man's hand, but it was lovely. Unlike the Black ring there was no tarnish or patina, it was a warm well-worn gold, and the stone at the center of it was an enormous cabochon ruby. When her brother put it on the air in the room crackled around him, and his hair rose on end like he'd been zapped with static electricity. Spinning in place on his finger, it resized down to fit him without making any more drastic changes to its shape or design. It was still a lovely gold ring with a giant red stone at the end of the day, just a little smaller. On the side opposite the gem, a glint of writing caught her eye "There's something engraved on the back, Harry! What does it say?" She asked, desperately curious.
He looked down at his hand and brought it close to his face "I think it's something in Latin. It says… Animo et As-astutia?" He said wonderingly, looking up at his sister with wide eyes. To both of their surprise the man next to them let out a snort, and they whipped their heads around to see him shaking his head fondly "I haven't heard that in years… Animo et astutia means spirited and shrewd. Those are the Potter words, Harry. Your father quoted them almost daily when we were at school together. It was his justification for every prank and plot, that his family's words literally instructed him to be bold and clever. He was such a scamp our James," he said with a wistful smile. He looked between the two children "I can't rightly think of any other words that describe either of you better, if I'm being honest," and Harry dutifully endured him ruffling his messy hair.
Hermione skillfully dodged his hand reaching out to tousle her curls, as they were already too wild and tangly to survive being mussed without also needing a brush to intervene afterwards. Her father laughed and pulled her into his lap, and pressed his nose into her curls that she knew so reminded him of her mother "You are an awfully crafty pair, much too mischievous for your own good. I'm not surprised to hear it's hereditary," he rasped with a grin, and she giggled and elbowed him playfully, and he in turn pretended to be winded by the soft blow.
The four of them sat comfortably in front of the fire for quite a while after that, a happy little family, enjoying each others' company and waiting in pleasant quiet for their beloved elf and their goblin friends to finish their conversation. They almost forgot they were there on business and the children started to doze off from the sheer ambient warmth the flickering flames put out into the room, each of them leaning on the closest adult and starting to snore sweetly. Neither man was surprised they were still catching up on the sleep they'd missed the day before. Hands meeting over little shoulders and fingers entwining tenderly, Remus and Fenrir shared several very soft and meaningful looks as they wiled away an easy hour of their afternoon utterly peacefully and contentedly.
When their magical allies finally exited the bubble of privacy surrounding the chieftain's desk, they gently shook the kids awake. What they weren't expecting was for their goblin friends to look quite so shaken themselves. After conferring for so long, their already slightly greyish faces were ashen pale and their pointed features were slack with some emotion that might have resembled shock or fear. It was notoriously hard to be sure with goblins, but that seemed like it had to be an ill omen.
"Were you able to tell them everything we need to know, Kip?" Harry asked tightly, pretending not to notice the odd clamor of the goblins hearts or the sheen of sweat on their palms and foreheads. In stark contrast, the little elf was cool as a cucumber in December, and nodded happily "Oh yes, young Master! It is being such a relief to pass on the story, Kipper is never having had the honor. The Hogwarts elvesies is only doing it once every five years for the littlest ones to be hearing and memorizing, and it is being Nilliams who is always doing the telling. It be building up in the body and wanting to escape, but the elvesies is having to hold it in because none of the humans is being able to be told. Sometimes they is whispering it to each other, but only in secret and only when no little humans is anywhere near," she explained kindly.
She looked almost boneless where she had returned to sit perched on Harry's leg. Glancing at the goblins, they seemed distinctly less pleased "…Chieftain?" He asked tentatively, and the young leader nearly flinched at the sound of his voice. That more than anything else told them that things were dire.
He pulled a floral patterned silk handkerchief from his suit pocket and cleared his throat anxiously. "Forgive me, I feel it safe to say we weren't quite prepared for the scope of everything Miss Kipper had to tell us. Things we hadn't realized we'd forgotten about her ancestors as well as our own. In the spirit of honesty, I'm not even sure what or how much I should tell you all-" "Your majesty!" Hermione interjected hotly, standing and clenching her fists.
Fenrir pulled her down into his lap and clamped his huge hand over her mouth. He shook his head at her angrily furled brows and swatted her flank lightly with his other hand, "Reign in your temper, my girl. Think before you speak and let him finish first before you start barking," he commanded powerfully, pouring alpha into his voice, and although her face remained furious she obediently went limp in his arms.
When she turned her gaze back onto the goblin chieftain he looked every bit as young as he had claimed to be, and the fight left her. He dabbed gingerly at his brow with the handkerchief "You must understand, it was not just the secrets of the house elves that we were expecting to hear that was revealed to us by Miss Kipper. She has laid bare before us the origin of not only our species and her own, but also the human wizards who have indentured all of the other magical races. In doing so she has opened our eyes to the very source and nature of magic in this re- country… In this country. There are things she has told me that I will never be able to repeat to another living soul."
"What I can tell you is this; the house elves are indeed bound to serve by a power outside of themselves, but are generally quite happy to do so. They are descended from brownies, and are therefore creatures that must serve others in some capacity to live. It is only their unbalanced relationship with wizards that has at times harmed them. Once they initiate a bond with a wizarding family they can never break it of their own free will, no matter how hard they are worked or how poorly they are treated. Only the hu- wizards… only the wizards can sever the bond, which leaves the elves vulnerable. What has become apparent to us is that what the elves need out of this alliance we are building is not any attempt to free or liberate them, as such action would result in their deaths, but rather advocates to ensure their ethical treatment from the wizards they are bound to. Are you willing to commit to assisting them in this capacity? Others have empathized with their plight and tried to free them in the past, unwittingly putting their lives in peril."
The two children locked eyes for a moment and in the span of a second had a long mental conversation, then looked at Remus and their father consideringly. "You know we want to help, and we know you've agreed to do what you can, but ultimately you're the ones who'll have to actually serve on the wizengamot. It's an actual job - off the compound, working with stubborn witches and wizards, sometimes arguing but only ever using your words. We can make all the plans and write your speeches and advise you. There are hundreds of Hogwarts house elves we can talk to and get their opinion on about all of this. Will you do it? For us and for them?" Harry asked, impassioned and sounding very compelling to his sister's ears. She hoped their father felt the same way.
Their father's facade of a stern disciplinarian crumbled, and he sighed heavily "I can't say no to such an impassioned appeal. You're asking me for help in taking up a burden you're not ready for, to prevent it for a little while longer from falling to your young shoulders. Of course I'll help you, my son. You're both so good, and so kind and compassionate, I don't know what I did to end up blessed with such children. Remus, what do you say?" He asked, turning to his lover with a faint smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
"How could I not? For all I've tried to hide it, my lycanthropy has always been a relatively open secret amongst my friends and contemporaries. That would have been my greatest fear for most of my life - being outed or somehow discovered. I think now that I'd rather like to tell the world on my own terms. I am a werewolf, and I'm… well, it's a journey but I'm trying to come to be proud of it. Yes, I'll serve on the wizengamot and champion our rights and goblin and house elf and centaur rights. Someone bloody well has to!" He said, his eyes shining and a devilishly handsome smile building on his face. He looked lighter and younger and healthier than ever, a world away from the scared scarred man aged beyond his years who had come to their doorstep so long ago.
Their father looked utterly besotted with Remus in that moment, and she subtly nudged him in his direction. Without hesitation, he grabbed the other man around his shoulders and pulled him into a kiss. Her and her brother cheered delightedly and the goblins clapped politely, amused looks on their pointy faces.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
That night, while Hermione was in her bed in her room and Harry in his on the other side of the cottage, they silently touched minds and revisited the conversation from earlier in the day. Something had stood out to the both of them, something that didn't pass their smell test.
You saw it too, right? How he stumbled and only barely caught himself in time. Not just once but twice. What does it mean? The part that was Harry wondered, keen observer of behavior that he was. If I knew it you would know it also, she reminded him kindly, and focused the part that was her steel-trap memory on recalling exactly what had been said that afternoon.
The words he wouldn't say must be closely connected to the things he wouldn't tell us. He tripped over "country" and "wizard" and there was another word he was going to say instead for both. The first time he did it, he started saying something that started with an R, I'm not sure what it could have been that he chose to say country instead. Region maybe? The second time he corrected himself he started with an H sound and then said wizards instead, and I'm relatively confident he was going to say humans. He was talking about the house elf bonds that make them serve and who they're bound to, and it's not exactly like there are goblins or centaurs going around having house elves serve them, right?
That made them both pause. Are there other magical beings that house elves can bond with? They asked together in perfect unison, coming together briefly as a singular mind, thoughts racing.
That's a stupid question, we're magical beings and we're bound to a house elf, the part that was Harry realized a moment later, and they both felt silly.
Yeah, but Kip made it pretty clear that we're on thin ice as far as being non-human is concerned. Only barely not human. Very close to human. Human enough to not be able to be told the house elf secrets, the part that was Hermione added thoughtfully and a bit bitterly. She had sort of relished having a non-human identity, and hearing Kipper describe them thusly had made her start to feel like a fraud. Are we not just humans with extra steps? She pondered with altogether far too much ennui for a twelve year old. Her brother mentally grumbled at her, and she felt a sensation in her psyche somehow akin to her shoulder being jostled.
Humans or nonhumans or something else entirely, I'm still curious about Ragnok's motives, Harry thought. He's well spoken and didn't stutter anywhere else the whole time we spoke with him. It had to be that something about those two words he tripped over were lies, and most likely ones he isn't used to telling yet. Magic in this…country. He meant to say something different. Did he mean a different place? A bigger area or just more specific? And why the distinction between humans and wizards? Are there muggles that can bond with house elves? Are wizards somehow not humans? Didn't he also say something about house elves being descended from brownies - maybe wizards descended from something magical too and aren't entirely human either?
It's just more of the same, she thought frustratedly, everyone we try to get answers from only has a single piece of the puzzle to give us. They know more but they either can't speak about it or we aren't ready to hear it or it's too much for them to process. We need to try and find the others the goddesses said would be able to give us information. The ones who can speak freely. Remember? They said there was a wolf in the woods and a snake in the school that had important things to tell us.
Yes! The woods and the school are huge though, it could take us ages…
Well you wouldn't have known it, but the first night I met Amalthea she mentioned the wolf in the woods too. She didn't say anything about a snake, but maybe she and the centaurs can help us find the wolf, and once we do it'll be able to give us an idea of where to start looking in the castle?
Heads filled with thoughts of snakes slithering through the corridors and wolves racing through the forest, the two of them slowly drifted off to sleep.