Chapter 3 Once upon a train
Diagon Alley had been crowded beneath overhanging eves and long shadows, the press of buildings and people had been enough that Harry could ignore the strangeness of the Overworld. The trip through the city with Hagrid had driven Harry into blind panic.
The cavern had no roof. The clouds had made it possible to ignore the reality with the force of will required to ignore the rapidly degrading ward and the power to exterminate everyone within five hundred meters long enough to complete the rune replacement and prevent said explosion. The clouds parted as Hagrid rambled on again about how Dumbledore himself had requested Fluffy to help guard the you know what from you know who. Which was supposedly a secret, although with his continued mention of three heads and, shouldn't have said that, Harry was sure Fluffy was either a cerebus (three headed dog that is indeed fluffy) or a Runespoor (three headed snake that is definitely not fluffy), had Harry convinced that staying within a hundred yards of Hagrid would get any Gringotts warrior danger pay, from a race that considered dying on the job to be part of the standard contract.
The clouds parted, and Harry began to shake.
There was no roof. The sky loomed above him worse than any abyss of the deeps because no matter how far you fell down, you would be crushed eventually on uncaring stone. The bones of the earth were always beneath you, and its hot burning blood would reduce you to the components from which you were formed faster than the gentle embrace of the earth mother, but just as irrevocably. The sky had no end.
Harry began to stumble. Heart hammering, sweat breaking out on his face, he was having trouble breathing. The sky, the endless pitiless blue emptiness that Harry knew gave out only to airless black space where no magic dwelled, no air, no wards of magnetism to keep you from the dragon's breath that was solar wind. A cold beyond cold, fire beyond flame, and emptiness beyond death opened aboce him without a single stone to protect him.
Hagrid, oblivious rather than uncaring, placed a big shovel paw behind his back and shoved him into the train station of Platform 9. Pressed into the harsh and ignorant crowd of rude shoving people, with the clash and clamour of sounds and the looming roofs of a busy train station, Harry could feel himself begin to relax.
No goblin child had been outside a cavern since the 1700 and the lost Third Goblin Rebellion. They told stories in the caverns of Goblin villages, mixed villages of Goblins and Wizards before the statue of secrecy enshrined the rise of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses, and the concentration of wealth and power that entailed. It hadn't been real. They had the star cavern, which young goblin lovers would stroll beneath to talk of things beyond blood and gold, contract and feud, but on some level you knew the magic was projected on stone. Goblins lived and died under tons of stone, deep within the earth our mother and her magic.
Father sky was a half remembered and forgotten relative, sung of on most ancient saga, but you never expected to meet him on the way to a ruddy train station. No one told him how vast was the sky, and how small a goblin. Hagrid didn't notice. Half giant and all oblivious, he probably didn't care.
Hagrid wandered off to "see a fella about a bird", leaving Harry on the platform with no real idea how to get to platform 9-¾. I mean sure, go three quarters of the way past platform nine towards ten and you should be near, but it had wizard wards, not comfortable goblin ones. How was he supposed to tell?
"Noodle. I need your eyes." Harry hissed in Parselmouth, causing his Rock Viper to slither out his left sleeve and taste the air.
"Half blind, all stupid goblin boy. You are lucky you are warm and useful for moving up stairs without making me scrape things. You are lucky I hate you less than slithering home in the rain." Noodle hissed, being the well behaved and adoring familiar that he was.
Noodle tasted the air with is tongue and tugged him farther left. It was more accurately described as platform nine and two thirds. Either that represented a degree of security consciousness that Hagrid being sent for secret things tended to deny, or a level of mathematic sloppiness that explained Gringotts monopoly on wizard banking. This being his way to school, Harry was beginning to fear for his educational future.
Passing through the gate onto the platform, he saw Hermione Grainger observing a stoop shouldered boy being lectured by a rather formidable ancient witch wearing a stuffed buzzard as a hat. The buzzard was eyeing Hermione with deep suspicion, and in turn Hermione was eyeing something in the boy's hands with equal suspicion.
Witches and Wizards, and child version of the same were greeting each other with the styled disinterested formality of the pure blood elite, and the happy over expressive chaos of muggle born and raised children. Hermione of course was entirely too much Hermione to be bothered with either, or really notice why she should.
"Harry, that boy isn't wearing gloves." Hermione said, going so far as to point her wand at him, causing two Aurors to draw and point at her in the sort of reflex that sprayed bits of girl all over a train station.
Noodle struck like lightning and disarmed Hermione. Holding her wand under its fangs and hissing at her as she frowned at Noodle and every adult head turned to her. The jagged lighting surrounding the lecturing ancient witch with the boy argued she was not planning on stunning Hermione for her faux pas.
"Morgana's tasty tits Hermione, a wand is a weapon. You point it at people in a crowd and you will be lucky if they find enough to bury you. If Noodle hadn't taken your wand away, that witch with the ugly hat would have left nothing but bushy hair and a smoking pile of cremated Grainger." Harry said as two Aurors a steaming mad witch and confused boy with a toad converged on them.
"EXPLAIN YOURSELF THIS INSTANT!" said the old witch, wand still sparkling but held in a duelist off line position 30 degrees off target and low, ready to snap and release in one motion. The Aurors, on some signal known only to them had now positioned to face the confronting groups just off line of each other so they could observe, evade, and if need be, fire on either at need.
"I am Hermione Grainger, muggle born witch, and I was pointing out to my goblin friend that I was observing a young boy working with a dangerous animal without gloves. He could be poisoned, in fact he most probably is poisoned, but I haven't covered any medical textbooks so I can't really tell how serious it is." Hermione charged ahead with total obliviousness to the hand of the Auror that clamped down on her shoulder, intent on arresting her.
"Now see here, you are as clearly mistaken that this animal is dangerous as that that boy is a goblin. While I admit he lacks the noble bearing of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom that my Neville has, he isn't goblin ugly. Now you will explain why you have drawn your wand on the heir of an ancient and noble house, or I will see your wand broken and your expulsion before you even reach Hogwarts!" Augusta Longbottom, witch of witches, boomed angrily.
Harry learned diplomacy from his father at the same time he learned assassination from his mother, and was reasonably certain Hermione knew neither. For that reason, he decided to be the token goblin of sense in this escalating drama.
Taking Lady Longbottom's wand holding right hand in his own, he bent down and brushed his lips over her scarred knuckles with the wizard courtesies his mother had beaten into him. If her son was both wizard and goblin, he would not bring shame to her hearth in either world.
"Heir Potter, son of Griphook of Gringotts, greets Dowager Longbottom. As a young warrior apprentice of the Clan Hematite, it has been my pleasure to clean the Heads of the Hundred. I have many times cleaned the head of Gorm Longbottom, who came to raid England and the goblin village of Cloomb in 893." Harry said looking up into the burning eyes of Augusta Longbottom, easily as fierce as his own mother.
Nevill's eyes grew wide, the Auror said a really dirty thing Harry promised himself to look up later, because it sounded too foul not to use at some point and Hermione looked shock.
"You boast of being an enemy of my house, and a goblin, even though you also claim to be Harry Potter, heir presumptive of House Potter?" Augusta claimed, not reclaiming her hand.
"The Heads of the Hundred are the center of the clan temple, where the ashes of our fallen lie in state before being returned to the earth. Only one hundred heads, the hundred greatest enemies the Clan has ever fought rest in this temple. In over a thousand years, there have never been even a hundred warriors the equal of Gorm Longbottom, and a thousand years worth of Goblin warriors have heard the glory song of his final battle. My father would be well pleased to hear that the blood of the Longbottoms runs swift and hot as in ancient days." Harry said, for Goblins didn't just nurse grudges, they petted them, fed and watered them, and sung them to sleep every night. Enemies like that didn't come around every century; they must be cherished.
"That was reasonably well spoken, for a goblin. What is this nonsense about gloves and wand waving?" Augusta said, relaxing out of execution and expulsion mode, and into mother's best mode of talk-fast-enough-and-it-might-be-chores-not-lashes. Harry resolved to talk fast.
"My muggle born friend here, while ignorant of the perceived threat of a pointed wand, is both wise and concerned for the wellbeing of her fellow students, and noticed that the boy beside you was carrying a dangerous toxic creature in his bare hands without any form of protection. She was justly concerned for his health and wellbeing, and out of justifiable concern for his health, acted injudiciously and forgot her wand was in her hand when she pointed out the Suppression Toad." Harry said.
"What?" Came from Neville, Augusta, and one of the two Aurors.
"Merlin's left saggy nut, I think it is!" Came from the second Auror, releasing Hermione's shoulder in shock.
Hermione, as if triggered into lecture mode, immediately initiated an info-dump.
"Suppressor toads are raised underground by goblins in England and Dwarves in Scandinavia for the magical neurotoxin produced by their skin. It is a key component in any number of potions used to neutralize magical aliments or to stop the advance of curses in wounds, but the base neurotoxin reduces magical conductivity in the witch or wizard handling them, in some cases reducing them to virtual squibs. He really shouldn't be handling one without dragonhide gloves, and even then only trained magialzoologists, master potioners, or certified master healers should be handling them at all. Not children." Hermione concluded her lecture with a smug smile that made Harry grin. She was at least as oblivious as Hagrid to personal consequences, but in her it was actually funny.
The swearing Auror was busy producing an magical bubble from his wand, surrounding the toxic toad Trevor, while Augusta scourgified Nevils hands with teary eyed intensity.
Neville was heartbroken as his toad was taken away. He looked at the toad being removed by the two Aurors and began to cry.
"I wanted a pet, but Gran wouldn't allow it. Said with my accidents I would just get it killed, but uncle Algie got me Trevor and he was the first pet I ever had. Algie told me if I care for it every day, handled it all the time and proved I could bond with it, then he would get me an owl. Now I lost Trevor too."
Lady Longbottom was engaged in an intense argument with one of the Aurors under a privacy charm and seemed to be missing Neville's distress. Harry was at a loss what to do, knowing that if someone tried to take Noodle just because he was slowly poisoning him into squibhood he still wouldn't want to let go. Noodle was Noodle.
Hagrid finally arrived with a large cage in hand, a huge snowy owl of fierce and intelligent demeanor scowled back from the cage.
"'Here you go Harry. Got you a bit of a gift. This here is a post-owl. Dead useful critters your postal owl. This here is from Dumbledore himself. A bit of a welcome to the wizarding world." Hagrid boomed, and Harry was instantly torn.
Dumbledore was not an ally. He had delivered him, curse and all, to muggle relatives who, if the Gringotts investigatory services were to be trusted, hated magical beings with the sort of depth that used to end in witch burnings. He could not accept a gift from an enemy and enter into debt. Magically debts were strings a powerful wizard or witch could use to manipulate or bind you. Dumbledore was in the top two for powerful and the unquestioned top in manipulative in the wizarding world. He could not accept it. He could not reject it.
Harry remembered the sayings of Sharptooth the Wise.
"He who has one problem, must solve it. He who has two problems, if he is wise, will trick them into solving each other, then clean up whatever is left."
Taking the cage in one hand, he strode to Neville Longbottom and using his public proclamation voice began to speak. He noticed Madame Longbottom banishing her silencing charm to hear, and put his full force into projection so that everyone on the platform could hear.
"Heir Longbottom, though our actions were undertaken with the hope of protecting your health and power, Hermione Grainger, and I, Harry Potter, Heir Potter, have cost you the companionship and use of a devoted companion and magical ally. This cannot be allowed to stand. Please allow me to offer this magical Post Owl, selected by Albus Dumbledore himself, as a gift to balance the offence and wrong offered by myself and miss Grainger to Heir Longbottom and the House of Longbottom."
Nevil gripped the cage not by the top handle, but my the bars. This left a small boy and large owl staring unblinking into each other's eyes at a range of about two inches. The stare went on some time, before the owl decided that they might indeed get on, and butted nose to beak with the boy, before finally blinking. Harry noted that while young Longbottom looked soft, that cage was ruddy heavy, and the boy seemed to not notice its weight at all. Definitely more there than his old gran noticed.
"Can I keep him Gran?" Neville asked, his eyes no longer crying, but the signs of his tears still visible on his face. The elder Longbottom gripped Neville's shoulder and replied to Harry stiffly.
"House Longbottom accepts your gift, and deems itself well satisfied with this weregild. House Longbottom is pleased to see that House Potter continues to breed heirs of honour and strength, as caused our houses to ally in ancient times." Augusta offered, nodding regally to the gathered children before stalking off with one Auror in tow.
Hermione, while socially challenged was not actually stupid, read the tension on the platform and took the temporary distraction as the opportunity it was and grabbed both boys firmly.
"This is getting political, and I am only three hundred pages into the Politics of Wizarding Britain, and that is about fifteen hundred pages from well grounded and at least twenty five hundred from totally caught up. We should get on the train before something socially awkward happens."
Harry and Neville shared a grin as the young witch pried her wand from a venomous magical reptile, and proceeded to head butt the dangerous snake in what Neville greatly feared was true unconcern. Hermione was not a normal witch. Somehow, her presence made Harry being a goblin almost reasonable if only in comparison.
As Neville, Harry, and the newly named Hedwig the Owl made their acquaintance, Hermione teased a small cage from her trunk, containing a live white mouse.
"Harry, I researched Rock Vipers, and did you know the black colouring indicated a dietary imbalance? A properly fed Rock Viper's scales will have a slight purple sheen. I brewed a mineral supplement potion and have been feeding it to this mouse for a week. Please see that he eats it." Hermione said, releasing said mouse into the compartment. Seeing owl and Rock Viper, the mouse immediately bolted and ran for its life.
Noodle slithered from Harry's sleeve and began to chase the running mouse around the compartment and eventually under the seats. When Harry drew his wand to stun the snake, Hermione slapped it down stating firmly.
"You baby Noodle too much. He doesn't just need mineral supplements, he needs practice in hunting live prey. Rats give him a lot of meal for not a lot of work. Mice require even more work, no risk at all, and are more tasty than really filling. Think of it like a workout and vitamin pill wrapped in dessert." Hermione stated as she lifted her arms and the mouse darted across her lap, and Noodle lunged just past her flat chest to bite it.
As he wrapped it in a ball of happy snake, all three children observed. Harry with humour, Hermione with satisfaction, and Neville with a blend of shock and awe. As the snake began to slowly devour the potion fortified nutritional mouse supplement, the children began to talk.
To Hermione and Harry, Neville's background was somewhat more exciting than the boy who lived. Harry considered himself a somewhat average goblin. Somewhat challenged in the sword department, but having a wand was theoretically the stronger weapon, but otherwise an above average but not outstanding goblin.
Neville's stories left Hermione and Harry more than a little worried.
"Uncle Algie was worried I had no magic, so he kept trying to make me manifest. Once he tossed me off the pier to see if it would manifest to save me. Eventually he dropped me out a five story window just as Gran was coming back from tea with Grizelda Marchbanks and instead of going splat I bounced all the way to her and Grizelda, proving I wasn't a squib." Neville said, feeding Hedwig an Owl treat with quiet joy.
Hermione looked concerned. "That is child abuse. You could have been killed." She said.
"Without a display of accidental magic, the whole Longbottom House was getting worried the heir had no magic at all. Uncle Algie just wanted to help." Neville said.
"He was the one who gave you a Suppressor Toad and told you to handle it every day. Unless you have more magic than a cauldron full of dragon's blood you should have been a squib by now!" Hermione raged.
"Where is Uncle Algie in the line of succession? I mean, if you should prove to be a squib, or say fall of a dock and drown, or fall out a five story window head down and break your neck, who becomes the new Lord Longbottom?" Harry asked.
Neville froze. Hedwig hooted loudly as the Owl treat had paused half way to the bars, and Neville's hand was shaking so bad, the bird slowly and gently pried the treat from his hands rather than snapping it. Neville turned to face Harry and Hermione and whispered simply.
"Uncle Algie is heir after me." Neville's face was long, pale, and endlessly weary.
Hermione, neither being pureblood, nor possessing anything resembling goblin dignity, tackled Neville for a combat hug. Not being gifted with a wide emotional range she could express with words, she had come of huggy people, and knew when hugs were indeed the language needed.
Deciding to break the ice, Neville started the traditional Hogwarts train question.
"So, what House do you think you will sort into? My father was Griffindor like both your parents were Harry." Neville asked softly.
Both Hermione and Harry answered in stereo; "Hufflepuff!"
Neville looked confused. "Griffindor is the house of the brave, the house of warriors. Goblins are all warriors, I thought you would be one too. Gran says I have to be as well."
Hermione snorted. "Hufflepuffs are about hard work and loyalty, not charging off to get killed so someone else can be lord over a little bit more land or another seat in the Wizardgamot."
Harry tried to put it into terms for Neville. "Do you know why after a thousand years Gorm Longbottom's skull is still in the House of a Hundred? Goblins fight all the time, but in a thousand years, no one else has impressed them enough to take his place."
Neville, embarrassed he didn't' know a story about his own house and ancestor shook his head.
"Gorm Longbottom lead his longships (that is where Longbottom comes from, long ships with many warriors), to raid England and dared to raid a goblin village for its gold and magical artificts. He struck before the nearby clans could rally and was back to his ships before the warriors of the other villages caught them.
When they were loading the ships, Longbottom took a handful of his men to hold the shore while the other hundred plus got the ship out to sea. He and his chosen men held off a whole village full of goblins so the men he lead could get away. The fought in a line, defending each other until none of them were left, and by the time they fell, the ship with all the goblin loot and all the men he had lead were out to sea and beyond goblin revenge.
Those five men followed him out of loyalty to Gorm Longbottom. Gorm Longbottom chose to lead the forlorn hope out of loyalty to all the men he lead to that shore. The primary virtue of the warrior isn't courage, it is loyalty.
As a goblin, we take no thing unearned, and we defend what is ours to the last drop of blood and magic. We value hard work, and loyalty beyond all other virtues. Bravery without loyalty is hubris. Knowlege without loyalty is useless. Cunning without loyalty is evil.
Hufflepuff is my only possible house." Harry said.
Neville looked troubled. He turned to Hermione. "And you?"
"I am a muggleborn witch. Women in your society are second class citizens. I am a muggleborn, every single advantage to rise in status, power, and wealth by my own abilities is given freely to those simply lucky enough to be born pureblood. The only advantage I have on my own is hard work. The only advantage I can gain is friendship; I can't become rich, wellborn, or pretty simply by trying hard. I can build loyal friendships allowing us to work together, to be strong where each other is weak, and succeed together where the wizarding world would rather see us all fail as individuals.
Hufflefuff is my only possible house. Plus our head of house is Madame Sprout, the best Herbologist in all of Wizarding Europe. House Longbottom fortunes are build on their greenhouses, you could do a whole lot worse than spending your education under her." Hermione said with the sort of matter of fact tone she took to pointing out this way was up, that way was down, and of course I am always right.
Neville was still chewing on that when the compartment door slid open and three sneering first years entered. The lead was a blond boy with slicked back hair and aristocratic features. The other two looked like half trolls, but were dressed as wizards.
"Is it true? Is it true that Harry Potter is in this compartment?" The young blond sneered haughtily. Harry had a feeling he practiced that sneer for hours ever night in front of the mirror. He sighed, already tired. The bank was filled with these overbred, over sensitive, over indulged lordlings on a daily basis, it was one of the reasons that Gringotts provided dueling pits for goblins to take sword and axe to each other twice a day just to get through a single shift dealing with these...customers.
Harry stood, brushing his hair back from his goblin silver marked Soweillo scar.
"Yes, I am Harry Potter." He said simply.
The young boy strutted forward, offering his hand. "Draco Malfoy, Heir Malfoy. These are my friends Crabbe, and Goyle. I see you have been slumming with squibs and mudbloods until now. Not to worry, take my hand, and I will see you introduced to the Right Sort of people.
I can help you make the sort of connections you will need in the years ahead. Wizarding Britain is ready to change, it is better to be part of the change, not crushed under it." Draco sneered.
"Abraxis Malfoy was cited as a strong Grindelwald supporter and apologist, having to buy his way out of treason charges with what was then a record fine to the Ministry, which do to war time expenditures, was more desperate for cash than anther jailed lordling. He didn't learn, and was arrested and fined again for support for the terrorist Knights of Walpurgis, who went on to become Death Eaters. His son, your father Lucius Malfoy broke Abraxis record with an even larger fine to get out of Azkaban with a totally unproved claim of being under the Imperius curse when he was arrested in a Death Eater attack, bearing the Dark Mark." Hermione smiled.
"Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, chapters 21-23, citations given to the trial testimony and the demand of prosecutors that your father receive the Dementors Kiss rather than simply a fine." Hermione concluded.
Draco actually spit in rage he was so furious. "You dirty Mudblood whore! Crabbe, Goyle, kick those overgrown teeth in, then throw her dirty blood body off the train!" He screamed
Neville and Harry almost hit each other as they rose from opposite sides, wands in hand, and blood in their eyes. Crabbe and Goyle were larger than either boy, but neither Longbottom or Potter seemed interested in doing the math. Hermione and Draco reached for their own wands but from beneath Hermione's hair came the fights short and brutal ending.
Noodle struck. Lunging from beneath Hermione's hair, he wrapped himself around Malfoy's neck and let his venom dripping fangs dimple but not pierce the Young Malfoy's cheek, causing Malfoy to scream like a child and fall trembling to the ground.
"You will not harm Mouse-Giver. You will not shout at Mouse-Giver. You will not point a wand at Mouse Giver, nor allow any of your slaves to do so, or I will bite you, and the vemom of my mothers line has never been resisted by any goblin, wizard, elf, or troll. You will die screaming, and I will watch. Tell him, speaker." Noodle hissed.
Harry translated and everyone in the compartment went still. A prefect in Slytherin colours appeared in the doorway, but chose wisely not to act.
The Malfoy heir saw the prefect and begged "Pucey, the Mudblood set her snake on me. Make it stop."
Adrian Pucey observed with the casual unconcern that Slytherin prided itself on, but the sharp eye of the returning captain of the champion Quiddich team.
"I rather think the gentleman speaking Parsletongue is the snakes master. I have a feeling if I so much as raise a wand or attempt wandless magic, House Malfoy will need a new heir, is that correct?" Prefect Adrian Pucey asked genially.
Noodle listened to Harry's hissed translation and rose up to observe the prefect more closely.
"This one isn't stupid. Ask it if it can muzzle and cage the one who threatened Mouse-Giver, or should I just kill it before it breeds further embarrassments to its line?" Noodle hissed, while Harry translated.
Keeping his eyes on the snake, Pucey bowed slowly and responded firmly.
"Right then, assure your snake I will take all three of these idiots to the Slytherin Prefect compartment and make sure they do not move, speak, or breed until I can turn them over to the staff at Hogwarts." Pucey smirked, utterly unconcerned at Malfoys tear filled eyes.
Pucey bowed to Harry "Speaker."
Again to Hermione "Mouse-Giver"
Lastly to Neville. "Heir Longbottom, receive the greetings of Heir Secondus Pucey. Love to chat, but have to take out the garbage. Come along Malfoy and mouth breathers!" Pucey said jauntily dragging Malfoy and kicking Crabbe and Goyle out the door.
Hermione looked confused. "Was he being polite?"
Harry. "We are going to be in a lot of trouble for this, I just know it.
Neville chose to answer both with a shrug. "Of course he was being polite, we were threatening to murder someone and doing social networking at the same time. It is practically a Slytherin orgy. We are definitely in trouble, but Hermione got her own name in Parsletongue.
Hermione straightened up and smiled. "Mouse-Giver. Noodle is such a thoughtful and intelligent snake. Harry, why couldn't you be more like Noodle?" Hermione said as she stroked the serpents crown and he snuggled onto her lap for warmth and adoration while he digested his nutrient enhanced mouse.
"This is why snakes only get sorted into Slytherin. No loyalty at all. Leave me for the first pretty face with a drugged mouse. I swear, I am getting a badger." Harry griped as the train steamed towards Hogwarts and an eventful year.