It all went wrong so fast Harry had trouble following the exact sequence of events.

In the beginning, he watched Griphook writing down his offer of valuable magical knowledge; a term that definitely intrigued the wizard in him. Such bargains were rare, especially those involving magic itself judging the value of the exchange. Should the gift be found severely lacking, it could have some unfortunate consequences for Griphook as semi-sentient primordial force of nature didn't like to be trifled with. Harry was amazed the goblin would even make such a proposal in the first place and was little suspicious of his motives.

But then again, Griphook probably just wanted to keep on living. While technically immortal, dying and changing bodies was no doubt unpleasant and tedious for their kind, giving him a strong motivation to try and stop Daphne from taking his head.

Harry could sense Daphne's excitement as she sat next to him and knew his girlfriend was just as eager to finally find out what Griphook's offer was. At last the goblin was done and Daphne picked up the paper from the table.

They both started to read.

Expecting some great magical secret, Harry felt let down to see it was merely a recipe for some kind of potion. He was aware it could still be priceless information but potions were never his thing, courtesy of Severus Snape. Also, he had no idea what the purpose of the potion was. There was a short text explaining it which Harry didn't understand. He was about to ask Daphne when waves of overwhelming emotions coming from his girlfriend figuratively smacked him across his face.

Ever since the ritual, the subconscious connection between them allowed Harry to more easily tell Daphne's true state of mind and vice versa. As far as Harry was concerned, it was a gift from the heavens. Apparently, too many relationships crash because couples pretend like nothing is wrong instead of talking about their problems and resolving their conflicts. Avoiding such scenario was doubly important for Harry and Daphne who had been raised in totally different worlds and in many cases taught to have diametrically opposite reactions to the same stimuli.

But in this case, Harry would have been able to easily tell Daphne's mood just by looking at her, ritual or no ritual. Surprise, confusion and fear rapidly flashed across her beautiful face before it settled on anger... and hatred.

And then it happened. Daphne summoned wand into her hand and tried to kill Griphook. She didn't actually say the incantation for the killing curse but Harry could tell she very much wanted to. He briefly wondered what stopped her before sensing the change in magic around them as it accepted the bargain they'd made with the goblin.

'Oh...' Harry thought, realizing that whatever secret Griphook had shared with them, it's now been judged by magic and deemed valuable to the two of them. Daphne must have realized it too as a moment later, Harry felt a new emotion from her – helplessness.

In most situations, the blonde tended towards displays of supreme confidence. But Harry knew there was a vulnerable side to her as well even though she didn't show it very often. In fact, this was only the third time Harry was seeing her like this.

To his eternal shame, both of the previous times were his fault. Or at least the first one was. It happened when he'd revealed Voldemort's true blood status. At the time, Daphne was still his enemy and treated him atrociously so Harry felt like punishing her by rubbing in her face the fact her beloved pureblood father died serving a halfblood bastard.

It came as surprise to Harry how much he didn't enjoy the effect his spiteful words had. Daphne might have used dirty tricks against him as well as humiliation and threats, but he still hated causing her such pain. And that was when he'd still thought of her as enemy! Now that he was in love with the girl and she with him, the day he deliberately made her cry was among Harry's worst memories.

As for the second time, it wasn't technically his fault, but still directly sparked by his actions. It happened when Daphne was about to reject their relationship because she didn't want to abuse his love by unwittingly using him for her political goals. It was a misunderstanding of the worst kind but luckily, Harry managed to talk her out of it...

Seeing Daphne so distressed once more, Harry instinctively reached for her hand to provide some comfort but his gesture was ruined when a terrible gurgling sounded in the room which he soon identified as Griphook's laughter.

The blasted goblin was laughing at Daphne! He was laughing at her suffering!

Harry dearly wished he could go back in time and smack his younger self silly for the way he treated Daphne in the beginning. He wished he could tell himself she was the future love of his life and not his enemy. But sadly, he couldn't do that. All Harry could do was look forward and make sure he or nobody else ever causes Daphne such a pain again.

In the next moment, he jumped out of his chair and vaulted over the table in an impressive feat of athleticism. Harry made a mental note to have the distance of his jump measured later, suspecting it to be his personal record. Before Griphook could even turn his head in response to his sudden motion, Harry smashed his fist into the goblin's face with all the might he could muster in light of their magical bargain. Luckily, he still succeeded in knocking him unconscious. At last, the infernal beast stopped laughing and fell silent.

"Take him away!" he barked at the two guards. "Throw him back into his cell!" Seeing the urgency on his face the guards scrambled to obey. Very soon he was left alone with Daphne, who was practically catatonic at this point.

"Daphne... love... talk to me," Harry spoke softly, taking her hand in his again. He felt her trembling under his touch. "What's wrong?" he asked but his girlfriend didn't respond, just staring ahead silently. Harry wasn't even sure she could hear him right now. After few more futile attempts to communicate with her, Harry scooped her up in his arms and carried her over to the couch.

He briefly thought about taking her to the infirmary but then decided against it. He suspected Daphne's current state was due to combination of learning the secret which thoroughly shocked her for some reason, being stopped from performing a spell by magic itself, and finally being humiliated by Griphook's laughter, all in rapid succession.

Harry's instincts were telling him all she needed was time. And so he gave her time, holding her in his arms and talking to her. He kept promising that everything would be alright, hoping beyond hope he wasn't lying. He still had no idea what that potion recipe was but he was confident whatever it was, they'd be able to get through it.

It was probably only few minutes before Daphne started responding but to Harry it felt like eternity.

"Harry... it was them… goblins. I don't know how, but they did it. They destroyed Atlantis!"

Harry opened and then closed his mouth, not sure what to say in response. Daphne's words certainly raised many more questions than they answered. Atlantis?! How did they come to that? It was clear to him he was missing something. For the moment though, Harry simply relished in the joy of hearing her speak again before posing the first inevitable question.

"What do you mean?" he asked while carefully pulling out of his pocket the damned paper that started this whole mess. Harry had stuffed it into his pocket so Daphne wouldn't have to look at it. Even now her eyes widened as she saw it once more. Harry cursed inside and was about to hide it again from her but the girl grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"I'm not making any sense to you, am I?" Daphne asked and smiled weakly.

"No," Harry answered honestly before gently stroking her cheek. "But it's alright, love. Take your time," he told her and she nodded gratefully. Harry then watched as she stared at the paper intently while biting her lip, no doubt trying to find the suitable words to share with him. Finally, Daphne sighed and said. "I don't even know where to begin..." she admitted rather helplessly but Harry was determined to help her if he could.

In his hand, he raised the piece of paper with the goblin's writing. "Let's start with this then," he suggested. "What is it? What did Griphook write there?"

All that was mentioned on the paper beside the recipe was that it was a potion to remove magical protection from inverterum. While that seemed clear enough as far as instructions went, Harry had no idea what inverterum was, making it the first thing he asked Daphne about.

"It's – it's another name for orichalcum," she answered him and Harry's eyes went wide.

"Orichalcum?!" he asked in shock. "You mean as in the metal the Greengrass trident is made out of? The one you said contains enough energy to potentially destroy the entire Europe?! That orichalcum?!"

Daphne simply nodded. "It's commonly accepted that Atlantis was destroyed by orichalcum detonation," she told Harry before furrowing her eyebrows. "But it shouldn't have happened! The protective enchantments are an integral part of the metal's essence. It shouldn't be possible to strip them away under any circumstances."

"Goblins have figured out a way... figured out a way how to blow up orichalcum," Harry whispered the terrifying conclusion that was on both their minds. "But how do you know it was them who've destroyed the island?" he asked next.

Goblins possessing the knowledge made them definitive suspects, but Daphne seemed to be absolutely certain of their guilt for reasons that eluded Harry. He was also confused as to why this revelation proved to be so soul crushing to Daphne. He knew the girl was very proud of her family's history which made the fate of Atlantis a personal issue for her... but to this degree?

"What we've always missed is the most crucial piece of evidence – the how," Daphne explained. "Knowing what we now know, the rest of the evidence fits against them almost perfectly. So perfectly I wonder why no one ever considered that possibility."

"What evidence?"

"For starters, there was a huge world-wide goblin rebellion right after the disaster," Daphne told him before displaying a chilling smile. "Those useless cretins sorely underestimated our kind. Even with Atlantis gone, its colonies were still strong and there were other strongholds of magical folk around the world. We defeated them with embarrassing ease."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "Suspicious... but they could have just taken advantage of the chaos. After all, you said even Blacks had attacked you at that time," Harry reminded her while touching the gemstone in the silver necklace around Daphne's slender neck.

He gave it to her on their first official date and didn't regret it one bit as the girl loved to wear it and it looked amazing on her. The way the onyx stone, dark as the night, contrasted with her flawless white skin... Harry had never seen a more beautiful sight. The stone was irregularly shaped which was very unusual for jewellery, he thought. It had Harry puzzled until Kreacher explained it represented the Black family territory as it was shaped at the time. It was the ultimate testament to their family's vanity and pride.

And now it graced the lovely neck of the Lady of House Greengrass.

It was a source of unending glee for Daphne she was the one to end the ancient feud between their families by snatching away the last Black heir. It also amused Harry to imagine how his Black ancestors would have loathed his entire existence. In essence, he had unintentional played a prank on the entire Black line that would've had Sirius rolling on the floor with laughter. Not only was he a halfblood and therefore unworthy as heir in eyes of many pureblood supremacists, he also fell in love with Daphne Greengrass, heiress to their enemies. Not only that, he submitted to her, willingly subjecting himself to her whims as the beautiful blonde took complete control of him and their House.

"Yes, that's a very good point," Daphne said and smiled approvingly. She always loved it when Harry took an active interest in his pureblood heritage. "There were many wars going on at the time," Daphne continued, "A decade of blood, the historians call it. That's probably why nobody ever made the connection. Plus you'd also have to consider what happened before the fall of Atlantis."

"And what was that?" Harry asked with trepidation but deeply interested. He was always amazed to see Daphne's analytical mind at work. It was similar to how Hermione's worked and yet also very different. Subtly and not so subtly, his former friend always made it clear Harry's (or anybody else's) input wasn't particularly wanted or needed. In contrast, Daphne always made sure he felt like part of the process, even when she already had a particular conclusion in mind. It was a small thing but it made his conservations with the pureblood girl so much more pleasant and natural by comparison.

"Few decades before the disaster, there was another minor rebellion... after which the goblins threw a big tantrum and declared they no longer wished to share the surface us," Daphne told him, saying the last part sarcastically.

"W-what?!" Harry gasped as the staggering implications dawned on him. "You mean they haven't always lived underground?!" he asked and Daphne shook her head, explaining that goblins used to be surface dwellers just like humans. Harry supposed that made sense given the fact both wizards and goblins were originally humans before the latter were radically changed by magic's first appearance in the world. Harry's train of thought was finally derailed when Daphne posed him even more shocking question.

"If you were planning to devastate Earth's entire surface with a massive explosion, where would you hide in order to survive?"

Harry's mind went still as it made the connection between the two events and he finally reached the chilling conclusions the blonde was trying to lead him towards.

"I've told you my family belonged to Atlantidian nobility," Daphne spoke next and without waiting for his response, she continued. "Well, every Greengrass in the last two thousand years wondered whether it'd possibly been one of our relatives who did it. Whether one of our blood had been responsible for destroying the greatest magical nation there ever was," she said and looked at him sadly. "Now I know it wasn't us. It wasn't even other purebloods. I should be relieved but I can't say it brings me much comfort."

Finally, Harry understood Daphne's earlier reaction. It made him even angrier on her behalf. The fist he had used on Griphook tingled and he fiercely regretted the fact magic had stopped him from doing something worse to that goblin bastard than knocking him out. He knew they'd made a pact not to kill him but surely he could've been allowed to at least knock out some teeth?!

"Fucking bastards!" he cursed, shaking the paper in his hand angrily. "But is this thing even real? Couldn't Griphook be lying?" he asked hopefully, grasping at straws.

"Magic wouldn't have judged his offer worthy if it'd been a lie," Daphne pointed out. "Sadly, it's legit."

"Right," he said and sighed, knowing she was absolutely right. Harry then vocalized the thought which has been slowly growing in his mind. "I've a feeling keeping his head isn't the only reason he told us..."

"And you'd be correct in your suspicion, I think," Daphne agreed and frowned. "Keeping his life is part of it but I expect he and other goblins hope we'll use this knowledge to destroy ourselves," she continued and frowned even more. "Technically, they shouldn't even know there's any orichalcum left in the world as the knowledge is under Fidelius. But that spell always had very unusual interaction with their kind."

"Luna was able to sense the Trident even through the Fidelius..." Harry mentioned, recalling the strange memory of the young blonde staring intently at the object she couldn't really see. So he knew for a fact the spell had its limitations. "But why tell us only now?" Harry wondered next. "And how come Griphook even knows?"

"The second question puzzles me too," Daphne admitted. "I wouldn't expect a random cart driver to possess knowledge like this. But then again, we don't know who he'd been in ancient times. He could've been someone much more important back then and only fell on bad times recently. As for why now, I expect it's because there are countless rules preventing them from doing just that."

"Doing just what?" Harry asked in confusion and Daphne immediately answered.

"Conspiring to use our creations to hurt us, interfering in our affairs, providing magical knowledge with hostile intent... you name it," Daphne listed off. "In fact, this might've been the first time since the fall of Atlantis when they had the opportunity to share this information with us... second time if the Tunguska incident had also been their doing," she told him before exclaiming sorrowfully. "And it's all my fault, Harry! What was I even thinking, bargaining with a goblin?!" she cried with bitter regret.

"Griphook was able to tell us now because... because the bargaining clause overrides the other treaty points," Harry extrapolated from her words and watched as Daphne merely nodded in confirmation.

"I should've had him killed the moment he stepped into Greengrass manor," Daphne declared wistfully. "If only I'd done what was expected of me right away, we now wouldn't be in this mess!"

"I'm sorry..." Harry whispered, the tone of regret in his voice echoing his lover's. The blonde looked at him in confusion. Harry merely smiled at her weakly and shook his head, not elaborating further.

To her credit, Daphne didn't voice it. Perhaps she didn't even think it. But as far as Harry was concerned, he figured this situation was entirely his fault. It was only for his sake Daphne had stayed her hand, unwittingly giving the bastard an opportunity to trick her. Not for the first time did he wonder if his morals made him a fool. Daphne had repeatedly told him she loved the fact he was a good man. She even suggested he was exactly what she needed to balance her personality. That she needed a good man in her life just as much as Harry needed a bad woman. It was a nice romantic sentiment. But could it be Daphne had it more right than he did in situations like this and instead of making her a better person, his moral compass was leading her astray?

It all felt eerily similar to the situation with Hermione.

For Harry's sake, Daphne had refrained from many harsh punishments she would've otherwise doled out on a rebellious muggleborn who refuses to submit to her authority. Hermione thought she had it terrible so far and that the pureblood girl was completely evil. But Harry's former friend had no idea just how much worse her situation could've been if it weren't for Daphne's mercy. How awful her life could have become if Daphne Greengrass really had been the heartless amoral monster Hermione believed her to be.

In any case, what've being merciful towards Hermione accomplished so far other than the girl cursing Harry as a traitor and spitting on their friendship?

If he had stayed out of it from the beginning, Hermione would've had suffered so much more at Daphne's hands, being punished for any infractions as well as for just being a muggleborn. The idea was so unfair it boggled Harry's mind but at least Hermione's suffering would've been temporary as by this point in time, she'd be fully broken and happy again. The two of them might've even still been friends.

Alas, the idea of Hermione's mind and personality being pulled apart, stomped upon and finally remodelled by Daphne was something Harry couldn't stomach at the time. He still couldn't stomach it and he'd never be able to. And as a result of his weakness, their friendship was now over forever. Deep down, Harry knew his former friend was never going to be happy in the world Daphne wanted to build where there will no doubt be various restrictions placed on muggleborns. Which meant Hermione was likely going to spend the rest of her days being miserable, assuming she manages to avoid breaking any of the new laws and suffering the consequences. Worse, she'll always be bitter over Harry's perceived betrayal and pose a constant threat to Daphne and him.

But while Harry might never have the heart to do anything about his former friend, the same mercy did not extend to the goblin nation. Not after today.

"Perhaps we should just kill them all," Harry said after a while, shocking Daphne (and himself) by his words. "The goblins, I mean," he quickly clarified. "If they've been conspiring against us for thousands of years, it's clear the treaties are not enough to keep them in check," Harry said and frowned in thought. "Come to think about, why haven't we killed them already? I mean haven't they lost like a hundred wars against us?" he pointed out.

Knowing how cruel the ancient purebloods were by modern standards, the fact goblins were still alive after so many lost wars (and even allowed to take care of the wizarding gold!) made no sense to him.

"Well first of all, Harry, let me express my appreciation for thinking along those lines," the blonde said, looking at him desirously while Harry raised an eyebrow at her reaction. Leave it to Daphne to be delighted by the fact he was actively thinking of committing genocide. She snuggled up to him and they briefly kissed. "But sadly, we can't do that. It would destroy us all."

"W-what? Why?" Harry stammered in surprise.

"In the past, our ancestors tried to severely reduce goblin numbers with ultimate goal of complete extermination but... bad things started to happen," Daphne explained and shuddered. "There's a significant amount of evidence indicating their existence is what's currently anchoring magic to our world."

Harry gaped at her like a fish before asking with shaking voice. "A- are you seriously telling me destroying goblins would mean... destroying magic?" he gasped in shock and when Daphne nodded, he protested, "But that makes no sense!"

"That's because I'm condensing an extremely complicated topic like theory of magic into a single conversation," Daphne defended her words with slight annoyance. "It all relates to the way magic exists in our world which is just... strange."

"I've read about that," Harry murmured, recalling some of the books and articles he'd read in Greengrass library. It'd started with Harry desperately wanting to read some of his mom's research papers but sadly not understanding a single sentence. Sue Li, the librarian angel, then recommended some books to provide him with the general background, including early history of magic and creation myths.

Many of the books posited that magic was unnatural in context of the reality... anomalous in the way it interacted with other physical forces. It was almost like somebody had created a perfectly logical world and when it was finished, decided to add magic into it at the last moment. And since magical humans only appeared twelve thousand years ago, it's quite likely it'd really happened in that way.

The authors also suggested this to be the chief reason why muggles never managed to detect magic using their scientific instrument. Magic was orthogonal to everything else, very real and powerful and yet ultimately unnecessary to fully explain reality the way non-magical humans thought about it.

"The goblins seem to act like a lynchpin, keeping magic tied to our universe. It's why our ancestors ultimately opted to integrate them as much as possible into our society and keep them under control," Daphne finished her explanation.

Harry frowned as he thought about everything he just learned and how it related to what he'd learned before. "Then goblins are right... they are what all humans were meant to become when we were given magic," he murmured with disappointment.

"What makes you say that?" Daphne asked with curiosity.

"Well, if their existence keeps magic in the world..."

Daphne shook her head and smiled. "Imagine you have a poster nailed on a wall. Are the nails the most important part or is it what's on the poster that matters?" she asked challengingly.

"Okay, that's good point," Harry conceded with a laugh. Going with Daphne's metaphor, one could argue the poster is damaged and most twisted where the nails pierce it, exactly the way goblins are. Harry shook his head and decided it was time to finish this.

"Well, seeing as we can't just murder them all, what do you wish to do about this?" he asked while glancing on the paper he still held in his hand.

At his question, Daphne stood up and paced across the room few times, deep in thought.

"We can't kill Griphook and will have to let him go once the current war is over. No way around that," Daphne said after a while. "Luckily, we'll be erasing his memories so he won't remember giving us the recipe. As for us... we should just destroy the paper and erase our memories of it as well."

Harry was surprised by the plan Daphne was proposing. Usually, she wouldn't shy away from magical knowledge like that, no matter how dark or dangerous. "Are you certain it's the right thing to do?" he questioned. "We'll have to also forget the fact the goblins know... that could come to bite us one day."

"I know," Daphne admitted unhappily. "But they don't have any orichalcum and can't really do anything. On the other hand, it's far too dangerous for us. Even if we agree never to speak of it again, can you guarantee someone won't extract the knowledge from us by force? Or that one of our descendents won't learn about it and decide to use it?"

Harry briefly smiled at the idea of them having children one day before he shook the thought away and said, "Daphne, I've been thinking... do you believe magic wants us to destroy the world?"

"Excuse me?" the pureblood girl asked, completely caught off-guard by the strange question, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

"It's just that I find it difficult to accept magic would've deemed the knowledge of value to us if all we could accomplish with it was to destroy the world," Harry told her and stood up to join her. "In fact, adding a little bit of orichalcum to our plan might just be a good insurance policy."

The girl's eyes went wide at his suggestion. "You can't mean – Harry, all the remaining orichalcum items were catalogued. Surviving families from Atlantis who still possess them swore never to use them in that way!"

Harry already knew that to be the case but he grinned nonetheless as he stepped closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Daphne... are you saying your ancestors really admitted all the pieces?" he asked in innocent tone.

Daphne's expression briefly became outraged at his suggestion but then she gave him a sly grin and her icy blue eyes became mirthful. "Embracing your Slytherin side again?" she murmured cheekily.

"Embracing your side," Harry corrected and the girl's expression briefly softened, touched by his words. "Just think about it," he told her in the end and Daphne nodded. She walked towards the window and looked outside in thought. Harry soon joined her as he hugged her from behind, planting occasional kisses on the nape of her neck.

After few more minutes, Daphne shifted in his arms and turned around. "I believe there's a merit to your idea," she told him and Harry could not help but smile happily at that.

"Really?"

"Yes," Daphne confirmed. "And you were correct before as well. My family hasn't acknowledged all the orichalcum pieces we possess," she told him before taking his hand. "Come... first we should see what our options are," she told him and Harry followed her out of the room.


Hermione entered the long corridor lined with various trophies. Hall of glory she'd heard few of the Greengrass staff call it. Hall of vanity she called it in her mind most of the time. Hall of colonialism and bigotry when she didn't have a good mood... which she supposed was most of the time these days.

The treasures on display at this part of the hall were plate armours. More specifically goblin plate armours, made from genuine goblin steel, and supposedly confiscated by Daphne's family from the defeated goblin armies after one of the rebellions. Hermione had become intimately familiar with each item on display, having been forced to dust them for weeks under the watchful eyes of the guard assigned to her.

The guard made sure she wouldn't escape or slack in the duties assigned to her. He didn't need to bother. There had been no chance for her to escape and as for slacking, that just wasn't in her nature. Even when being forced to clean around Daphne's home like a slave, Hermione did a great job like always. Some small part of her even took pride in it, as stupid as that was.

Hermione stopped in front of one of the more expensive looking armour suits. She wondered who used to wear it before Greengrasses stole it from them. A goblin general? A king? She supposed it didn't really matter.

Hermione brushed the chest plate with her finger, taking in the feeling of her skin against the magical metal. The mystery of manufacturing it was something the goblin nation had never shared with others and only few pieces of it were ever sold to wizards and witches, and only at exorbitant prices. According to the book Hermione read after her talk with Griphook, most goblin steel possessed by wizards and witches had simply been appropriated by force.

Hermione continued to feel the different pieces of the armour with her hand, now examining the round shield in detail. Finally, her eyes slipped to the goblin sword attached to the suit's hip. While working around the manor, Hermione had been forbidden from cleaning the swords. In fact, they'd forbidden her from touching weapons of any kind, going so far as to always give her blunt knives and dull forks to eat with. She was nothing but a mudblood slave to these people and so she had to be kept completely helpless at all times!

Hermione took a deep calming breath and let a finger brush the sword's hilt.

'One, two, three...' she counted in her head until heard a pop.

"What do you think you're doing, Granger?" a familiar voice asked from behind her.

Hermione turned around and saw the guard who had been assigned to watch her looking at her suspiciously. His wand wasn't pointed in her direction but he had it out and ready for use. She gave him the best panicked expression she could muster. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she cried apologetically while putting her hands up to show she had nothing in them.

"You're not allowed to touch weapons," the man chastised her as he stared at her with suspicion. "Hasn't lady Greengrass made that clear to you?!"

"She has... I'm sorry!" Hermione repeated. "I read a book about goblin steel and wanted to take a closer look and... I guess my hand accidentally brushed the handle." she told him while faking a look of embarrassment. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again!"

"I see," the guard said slowly before casting several spells on her which Hermione recognized as detection charms. Most likely, he was making sure she hadn't hidden any weapon on her body. When the spells confirmed she was currently unarmed, he relaxed a little.

"Make sure no further accidents happen, Miss Granger... or else I will be forced to report your behaviour to the Lady," he warned her and Hermione immediately nodded. Daphne Greengrass paying closer attention to her was the last thing she wanted. Hermione had a feeling being brought in front of the pureblood girl again would be her doom.

"C-can I still examine the goblin steel?" she asked uncertainly before adding like a stereotypical bookworm they all thought her to be. "It sounded really interesting in the book!"

The guard's lips twitched briefly. "Lady Greengrass has graciously allowed you to move around the manor freely and to make use of its facilities," he answered formally. "That means yes, you can touch and examine the goblin-made items at your leisure except weapons of any kind," he told her, stressing the second part, before finishing with. "As long as you don't damage anything, of course."

Hermione nodded at that fervently even though it was an unnecessary remainder. The goblin steel was so durable there was no way to damage it without magic, of which she's been incapable of since Daphne took her wand away. But even with a wand, she would've been hard pressed to actually damage the steel, requiring her to use incredibly powerful spells. The near-indestructibility of the material was why goblins had utilized it during their rebellions in the first place. It was also the reason why wizards and witches imposed severe restrictions on the defeated race regarding its use.

"Of course, thank you!" Hermione replied gratefully. Not wanting to push her luck, she decided to quickly vacate room. It was the right decision as she felt the guard's stare on her back as he no doubt performed a second round of detection spells on the armour suit to make sure she hadn't taken anything from it and stashed it somewhere.

Only when she was far away from the place did Hermione allow a smile to grace her lips while making a tally of the events in her mind:

It took the guard about three seconds to apparate inside the room after she touched the sword.

It was the same guard who'd been assigned to her while she was cleaning around the manor, meaning Hermione was somewhat familiar with his routine and behaviour.

He came in alone and from behind, with wand ready, but not directly pointed at her.

Did she miss anything?

There were still many unknowns that made her feel uncomfortable. For instance, Hermione was unsure whether he had any reinforcements standing by. And if he did, how fast could he summon them? But she supposed there was always going to be a risk involved in what she was about to do.

In any case, the most important thing she learned from the whole exercise was that the guard didn't know. Possibly even Daphne Greengrass didn't know. Had they actually known, they never would've allowed her to touch the rest of the armour and not just the weapons. Hermione's smile grew wider. She actually had a chance to do this!

Now she only had to wait for the right opportunity...