Britain was dotted with wizard homes that had been 'lost' over the years: abandoned, belonging to a family that had died out, or hidden by a charm that hadn't passed down the line. When these lost homes were found again, sometimes it was impossible to identify the proper owners. Rather than leave them abandoned forever, the Ministry allowed Gringotts to take possession of them and offer them for Squatter's Leases. Request one, pay 50 Galleons for the lease, and live in the house for seven years, and it was yours. It was an amazing deal, as long as someone didn't mind a fixer-upper and the risk that whatever caused it to be abandoned was still around.

Bill Weasley suggested it to Hermione after the war, when she was trying to figure out adult life. She'd been hesitant to go to Gringotts so soon after robbing them, but the deal was too good to pass up, and the goblins acted perfectly professional the entire time. Even now, she waited in an office for only a few minutes before the door opened and a goblin stepped inside with a manila folder in his hand. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but my name is Gurnig," he said, making his way to the chair behind the desk.

"I remember. You helped me get my Squatter's Lease."

"That's right. Now they tell me you have a problem with the house?"

"Yes, you could say that. The previous residents were killed there."

He wrinkled his forehead and looked through the folder he'd brought. "Are you certain? We don't have any information on the previous res…" He trailed off, and a look of realization crossed his face. "By any chance, do you mean the previous tenants?"

"Tenant, resident, what's the difference?"

Gurnig put a hand up defensively. "The information is in a different part of the file, is all." He flipped a few pages. "Oh, yes, I remember this. Mrs. Rowle and her friends. That was a very sad situation. They left a great many people missing them. Perhaps not the kind of people the Daily Prophet pays attention to, but a great many nonetheless." He looked up at her expectantly.

"Why wasn't I told of this?"

"It isn't Gringotts's policy."

"Why the hell not?"

"Meaning no disrespect, Miss Granger, you are demonstrating why not. A week ago, you were happy with your house, and with our service getting it for you. Now you are not. Nothing about the house has changed."

Hermione sighed. "No, but I have."

"Yes, and I'm very sorry for it, so I'm glad we did not cause it."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Please. You set me up. You knew I'd find out sooner or later, after I was stuck. This is a little payback for the Lestrange vault, isn't it?"

"Not at all!" Gurnig said. He lowered his voice and added, "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't say that too loud. If the CEO knew you believed that, she'd have my head." Returning to a normal tone, he said, "It is true that some goblins thought you were very brazen to come to us for business after the robbery, and wished to 'pay you back', as you said. Bogrod was rather eager for the chance, actually. Most of us, however, were gratified that you continued to trust our services despite knowing our deficiencies. The CEO herself hand-chose three goblins to find you a home that would please you: myself, Griphook, and Tenters."

Gurnig flipped to another page in the file. "Tenters was a little blatantly self-serving when he chose the house in Warwickshire for you. It's been on our books for nearly 40 years, and we've been unable to place it because of a house-elf who did not want a new owner. You were not yet studying them, but already you had a reputation for being a strong proponent for their rights. He felt if anyone could get on that elf's good side, it would be you. Griphook and I thought he was crazy to suggest it.

"Griphook chose the house in Gloucestershire. He knew you were Muggleborn and that you love learning. It is a short walk from a Muggle library, close to Muggle transportation so you could easily visit your family, even close to a good Muggle primary school if later you have children and want to give them that early education. The house was also move-in ready, which most of our Squatter's Lease houses are not. He thought you would feel very at home there. Frankly, Tenters and I both thought he was crazy. It was too much Muggle; you'd have to hide yourself too much at home, and who wants that?

"Then I chose the Delamere Forest house. And Tenters and Griphook both thought I was crazy, so at least there is symmetry. I realized the house needed work, and that it was simultaneously in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by Muggle tourists. But when I met you, you reminded me very much of Mrs. Rowle."

"You knew her?" Hermione asked.

"Not well. She was, you might say, a friend of a friend, and they asked me to make sure she got a good house. When she came to me, her situation was very different from yours. She was newly married, wanted to start a family right away, wanted room so she could help friends who were not doing as well, and a forested place where she could turn into a wolf without running into another wizard, this was not something she would say 'no' to. But still, when I met you, I thought of her. Both of you were very intelligent and capable young women, you were each part of a minority that has not always been treated well, and both of you gave the impression of being someone who was going to change the world. She unfortunately did not live long enough, but you, I think, are going to do so, even more than you already have. I was very glad when you chose her house. In no small part because I still hold it over Griphook's head—Tenters, he has a temper; you don't want to mention these things to him—but also because, in a way, it made things seem less… senseless."

Hermione sighed. "I wish I could have met her."

"I think you two would have liked each other," Gurnig said.

She leaned forward. "I'm just not sure I can keep living in the house, knowing what I do now."

"That is unfortunate. You're halfway through your lease; it seems a shame to walk away before you own it outright. You didn't need to come here to inform us, though; an owl would have been fine."

"Wait, I'm not sure I'm ready to cancel, either!" Hermione said, putting up her hands. Gurnig raised his eyebrow in confusion. "I just want to know what my options are. I'm not ready to decide anything."

"Ah, I see. That I can certainly help with. Gringotts does, of course, offer mortgages; I think we can give you a very competitive rate. And if you need a realtor, we can recommend some that we've worked very well with."

Hermione blushed and bit her lip. "I'm not sure I have enough money saved for that."

"I assure you, Miss Granger, we can find an arrangement that will work for you," Gurnig said.

"What about another Squatter's Lease?"

He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "There was a time we could have done that for you, but not anymore. The Ministry, you see, they no longer allow us to start a second Squatter's Lease before the first would have run its course. They say it's to avoid criminals using our abandoned houses for hideouts. What criminal makes a seven-year commitment on contract parchment, I ask you?"

"So it's stay where I am, or buy outright, huh?" Hermione asked. "Or a flat, I suppose."

Gurnig thought for a moment, then put his hand up and flipped to the front of the file. "There may be one other option. Now, we would not normally do this, but you are one of our special customers, and we want you to be happy with our service. When you signed your lease, there was a clause included that if you found you were not happy with the house within a reasonable time, you could switch to another of the three."

"Yes, I remember. I didn't like that it didn't define 'reasonable time'."

"I recall. You were very insistent on that point, so I added a note that it would be a minimum of three months." He turned the paper around so she could see it, his slender finger sliding down to the note written in elegant copperplate letters.

"Right…"

"Fortunately for you, I did not write down a maximum time."

Hermione's eyes brightened as she realized where he was going. "You'd let me switch to one of the other houses?"

"As I said, normally we would not do this, but you are one of our special customers. Unfortunately, the house in Gloucestershire has since been taken by another tenant. We can tell them there's an issue with a prior claim…"

"No, I don't want to kick someone out of their house," Hermione said.

"That does leave the Warwickshire house."

Hermione threw up her hands and leaned back in her chair. "The one with the house-elves."

"House-elf, now. Natural causes, I assure you. The elder passed away recently, and I think you'll find the younger one is more tractable."

"I don't know." Studying house-elves was one thing, but living with one would be something else. If the house-elf didn't want her there, it would be a nightmare. But worse, what if the elf did want her there? A family geas wouldn't form with her until a year after she actually owned the house, but if she stayed long enough, eventually it would form. How could she do that, knowing an intelligent Being would be bound to her whether or not they wanted to be?

"Now, you must admit, it is a very nice house otherwise, possibly the nicest on our books," Gurnig said. "It wouldn't hurt to at least visit it again. There's no commitment, of course; the current house will remain yours unless you leave it for a year or explicitly relinquish it."

Then again, what if the elf wanted clothes and had no one to get them from? They were stuck to the house, even if there was no family to control them. That would be best of all, wouldn't it, giving another Being their freedom? Hermione and the house-elf would just have to tolerate each other as roommates long enough for her to become Mistress, and she could do it for them. "Well, like you said, it wouldn't hurt just to view the house."