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Chapter 17

"Ah well, we sent someone to monitor the incident at your home this morning. We can't interfere if they stick to the rules, but we wanted to monitor if they stepped outside of the rules at all. However, the man we sent never came back," said the head of the Aurors.

It was at this point that an eagle owl came swooping into the office through a post window and dropped a letter bearing the seal of Gringotts into Harry's hands.

A sense of foreboding washed over Harry and opened the letter.

Mr Potter,

One of the individuals you captured this morning is not a member of one of the families you have sworn feud with and is claiming to be an Auror who was sent to monitor the situation at your home this morning. Please make all haste to come to the facility as soon as possible so that this situation can be cleared up.

The letter was unsigned, probably because the goblins were a little nervous at being associated with illegally kidnapping an Auror. Harry showed the letter to head Auror Williamson.

"Looks like your man got caught up with the death eaters, so let's get him out before we do anything else." Harry then turned to Professor McGonagall. "Headmistress, may I trouble you for the use of your floo?"

Permission was of course given and Harry, Hermione, and head Auror Williamson flooed to Harry's house. After picking himself up off the floor in front of his fireplace, Harry asked Dobby to bring him one of the portkey coins, and when the elf returned with one wrapped in a napkin the three of them went outside, out from under the effects of the House wards, and they all put a finger on the coin at the same time.

They were all whisked off and once again Harry fell victim to the curse that was magical travel that wasn't his own Stepping. When he stood up he saw that he was in a worked cave and was surrounded by a squad of fully armed goblins all with their weapons drawn and pointed at them.

"Afternoon everyone. I got a letter saying to get here as quickly as I could." Harry said to them, showing them he didn't have a weapon in his hands and turning his palms to the goblin with the most gilding on his armour assuming he was the one in charge here.

The goblin growled out a few words in the goblins' language and the goblins surrounding them all moved their weapons back into the rest position.

"Mr Potter we were not expecting you to come through the prisoner entrance. We recognise your wife, uh future wife, but who is this other wizard with you?" The goblin asked.

"Sorry, with the urgency of this matter, I used the fastest method I had at hand to get here. This is Head Auror Williamson; he was with me looking for his missing Auror when I received the letter so it seemed best to bring him with us. How is the Auror being treated? And may I ask your name?" Harry asked.

"During processing, we discovered his credentials and his name so he is currently in a comfortable cell while we work out what needs to happen."

Considering the specifications he had agreed on with the goblins for the Normal cells he didn't expect the comfortable cell to be that comfortable. He expected that there was actually something to sit on that wasn't the bare stone floor, that it was warm enough to not be uncomfortable, and that lunch was served hot and on time.

All luxuries the death eaters wouldn't be enjoying. They were locked In bare stone cells that had nothing in them save for a solid door, enough heating Charms to keep them from needing medical attention, a bucket, and an extremely bright light that turned off and on every two hours at the start but would get five minutes added to the timer every day making the prisoners feel like time was passing ever slower for them. The other thing was each prisoner wore a set of magic suppressing cuffs, and only the cuffs, and there was a magically binding contract and a blood quill stuck to the inside of the door. It would be interesting to see which of them cracked first and signed the contract.

The goblin in charge of the greeting squad led them to the goblin who was in charge of the little prison. IronBlood had only agreed to run this place because it was a good opportunity for him to work on his smithing. He was a crafter at heart and wanted to work on some pieces he had inspiration for. This job gave him the opportunity to indulge in his passions. The running of this little prison was rather straightforward. So it was unsurprising that they found him in the workshop working a pair of bellows while grumbling about the furnace not being hot enough.

When IronBlood saw Harry he grinned. "Ah boy, perfect, get your arse over here and point that stick of yours in there and cast a ventas spell for me."

Harry shrugged and did exactly that. Harry had never seen dragon flame before, well if you didn't count baby Norberta and Harry didn't. But if he had to guess the flames in the furnace were suddenly exactly what he would expect to see.

"Ah that's it, a few more seconds of that and the draw will be enough to sustain her as long as long as she has fuel. Now I suppose you are here about the Auror?" He asked as Harry blew more and more air into the furnace.

"Yes, you have my man in one of your cells." Williamson inserted himself into the conversation.

"That has yet to be proven human. It's possible you have lost an Auror elsewhere and we currently have a death eater under some type of disguise. Two separate incidents are being mistaken for one. Still, we shall go and discover the truth shortly. I can't leave this furnace for five minutes but then we can go see this supposed Auror." IronBlood sounded more bored than worried about the reaction of the head of the British Aurors.

It was then that Harry realised that he had forgotten to make introductions. So that is exactly what he did. Yet neither man seemed to change their attitude.

IronBlood poured a sack of what looked like glittery charcoal into a hopper attached to the furnace and after that, he placed a couple of billets of what Harry thought was goblin silver in the furnace to heat up ready for working. Harry had no idea what the final product was going to be but he had no doubt it would be one of the artifacts so prised by the goblins.

With the metal needing time to heat up to working temperature IronBlood had the time to show them through a winding mine shaft to where the supposed Auror was being held. Harry was mostly right about what was considered a comfortable cell save for one detail. There was a magical wireless outside the cell playing music from one of Magical Britain's most popular radio stations.

"Hey, boss." Said the man lounging on the wooden shelf that passed for a bed as soon as the door to his cell was opened.

"Auror Smith report!" Williamson barked at him, probably because the man was acting so casual.

The man named Smith jumped to his feet and stood at attention. "Sir. With the intelligence that the fighting was to begin at dawn today, I was tasked with surveillance of the Potter property to gather further intelligence as to who was or wasn't a death eater. I left Auror Headquarters at 6:30 and made my way to Hogsmeade via apparition. I disillusioned myself and went to watch the Potter House as it was considered a likely target."

"A number of suspects arrived and were obviously waiting for the moment they could legally attack the building and anyone inside it. Unfortunately, while their behaviour was suspicious none of them said or did anything to confirm that they were indeed Deatheaters."

"A number of them disillusioned themselves and moved to watch the house, obviously intending to set a trap. Then when dawn broke, there was a blinding flash and a deafening boom, and the next thing I knew I was here stripped of all my gear and being questioned at the point of a spear. That is all I have to report." Smith finished.

"Bright light and loud bang?" Williamson sounded sceptical.

"That was my doing." Said Hermione. "It's a rune stone I made, a flash of light bright enough to make you rub your eyes and see spots for a minute and a bang loud enough to leave your ears ringing. Not dangerous on its own but one hell of a distraction if you're not expecting it. I'm sure as Aurors you can appreciate just how much of an effect having your opponents distracted for half a minute can be."

"Doubt it would be effective more than once though." Said Williamson dismissively.

Harry was starting to not like the man. At first, Harry had been understanding as the man was searching for his man, but since they had arrived here he had been dismissive both to Master IronBlood and to Hermione. Harry was starting to suspect it was because they were a goblin and a first generation, so Harry stepped in. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. The normal wizarding response to a threat is to put up a shield charm and that won't stop either light or sound and purebloods tend to be slow learners. I would expect it to work at least seven times before they work out they need to do something new." Harry smirked as he saw the look of annoyance on Williamsons' face.

"Well, at least we have confirmed it was you Mr Potter, and your family that attacked an Auror in executing their duties." Said Williamson with a flash of triumph in his eyes.

Harry couldn't help it, he laughed. "An Auror who was knowingly standing disillusioned among a group of disillusioned death eaters who were attacking my house. An Auror who has only been detained for half a day while we sort out that he is in fact an Auror and not one of the death eaters and has suffered nothing worse than a Stunner and a headache. Go ahead. Slap the cuffs on me. The best outcome for you is that your department looks incompetent. More likely the public will think it's entrapment."

There was a coughing sound as IronBlood cleared his throat. "I'm afraid Mr Potter, that Auror Williamson cannot arrest you right now."

Williamson interrupted. "I most certainly can."

"Not here you can't. This is Goblin territory. Goblin law is the law we follow here, and here neither of you are an Auror, you are guests of our nation. Which is why I can do this. If either of you wishes to leave this prison I will need a magically binding vow that this wasn't a premeditated attempt to trick Mr Potter so you could arrest him and deprive the Goblin nation of the contracted recompense for the use of our facility." IronBlood had a near-manic grin on his face. And now Harry understood why the bank directors had wanted this goblin for the job.

Smith had offered to give his vow immediately but Williamson had stuttered out. "You can't use magic to compel a testimony, it's illegal."

"It's illegal in magical Britain. We aren't in magical Britain right now." Harry answered. "It's one of the reasons I came to the goblins with my proposal. The Ministry doesn't have the power to raid this place and free my prisoners, I don't have to worry about a file being left out and this location being leaked to Voldemort and his people, so no mass breakouts like you had from Azkaban. If Master IronBlood says you can't leave without an oath, I have no authority to change that."

"I'm the Head of the Aurors, if you detain me it will cause an international incident." Williamson was sounding nervous now.

"Until everyone hears all you needed to do to go free was take a vow and say you weren't trying to target Warlock Potter." Smith interjected, " Boss, with how much Warlock Potter is respected in our society and with the recent trends of people refusing to give vows to get themselves out of trouble you would be declaring yourself a death eater. Stop getting snitty* just because you don't like your pureblood pride taking a whack. Take the damn vow and let's get out of here. I have plans tonight."

There was some grumbling but Williamson agreed to take the vow. Getting out after the vows were given was a lot harder than getting in. The goblins had apparently devised wards that let you portkey into a certain spot without making a hole you could portkey out of. The way out had you passing through seven checkpoints that, like the high-security vaults at Gringotts, required a goblin to touch the very thick metal vault door. And the goblins were on the far side of the door so cursing even one of them would be a challenge, let alone all seven of the needed door openers.

As they walked out, Head Auror Williamson stubbornly kept his mouth shut and refused to say anything. Auror Smith on the other hand was quite cheery and asked Harry. "So how did you know where I was? I was sure I was out of the way and I was being careful not to move around to avoid distortions in my disillusionment."

Harry considered for a second if he was going to say because it could get back to the wrong people but realised quickly that as the information was public it wouldn't take long for anyone to figure it out. Still, a test was in order. "I would have thought an Auror could have worked it out already."

"Well, I have a theory I was hoping you would confirm. It's your Animagus from right?" Smith asked.

Harry was right it wouldn't take much effort to work it out. "Yeah. Falcon eyes are better than human ones and there are a lot of smaller distortions in disillusions that most people wouldn't notice. To be fair, I wouldn't have noticed even in my falcon form if I wasn't looking for them. Unfortunately for you, the death eaters have used the whole 'having more people waiting invisible' trick on me before, so I was specifically looking for it."

"Makes sense." Smith nodded, then changed the subject. "This is a pretty incredible setup you have here. Must have cost you a mint to get the goblins to cooperate enough with you for this. I'm starting to think the Ministry should get the goblins to run our prisons instead of dementors."

Harry shuddered at the mention of dementors. "You won't find any argument with me about trusting the goblins more than dementors. And they're far more reliable than soul-sucking monstrosities that will switch sides when given a better offer to feed on innocent people. But to do that the Ministry would actually have to treat the goblins with respect. And let's be honest, there is a better chance of Lucius Malfoy declaring his love of muggle-borns, muggles, and the muggle world than the Ministry treating the goblins with the respect they deserve. As to what they are getting in this deal I'm afraid that is covered by confidentiality. There are only a limited number of people I can tell and you, I'm afraid, aren't on that list."

"Fair enough. I wouldn't want to break a contract I had with the goblins either." Smith acknowledged.

Meanwhile Hermione, despite walking next to Harry, was talking to Master IronBlood. "So you're a crafter, is that a hobby or your trade?"

"It used to be my trade, but things happen and I'm more of an administrator now. Though I am technically retired. Still, a bad investment or two left me needing to take this job, one that is pretty slow-paced and has a forge I can play making this a good opportunity. What of you youngin? What do you look to do once you finish your schooling? From what I have heard of you your grades are fantastic. I'm sure Gringotts would be happy to offer you a job when the time comes."

"I'm not sure yet. I was thinking about an academic apprenticeship but after that, I want to do something worthwhile." Hermione admitted.

"Ah, looking for something fulfilling. I can understand that. Even if the things you humans find fulfilling often seem strange to me. If you were a goblin child I would recommend you try your hand at crafting. Alas, no one is ever going to accuse me of understanding a teenage witch. So I can only wish you luck."

Soon they were through the seven security doors and to an area where they could travel from. For a moment Harry thought he would have to reveal his ability to Step to the head of the Aurors, a man who was pissed off at Harry already and would immediately take it to be an illegal apparition. Luckily, however, IronBlood handed Harry a coin. "A portkey that will take you right back to the street outside your Hogsmeade house." Harry offered the two Aurors a lift out but they both decided to apparate themselves straight back to the Ministry.

Considering where they were due to land, Harry and Hermione got permission from IronBlood to disillusion themselves before taking the portkey back. It was a precaution that it turned out wasn't necessary. After Harry picked himself up they saw that the street was deserted. A combination of people avoiding the place after hearing that something had happened there earlier in the day and the lingering fear that the wizarding public had that if they ventured out for too long they were likely to be possessed by the spirit of Voldemort.

Still, even Harry and Hermione who were less afraid of Voldemort and knew exactly what had happened this morning didn't hang around in the street, they were at war after all.

As soon as they were inside Harry checked his watch. It was already halfway through the last class of the day so there was no point rushing back up to the castle. "Should we wait around to see Fleur?"

"Harry, Fleur won't be back for over two hours, and we really should get back to school as soon as we can," Hermione said.

"Counterpoint, we did leave our lunch halfway through, the Headmistress has no clue when we would get back and she is probably teaching a lesson right now," Harry said, hoping to sway her.

"Harry, the Headmistress teaches eight classes a week. The chances are she is in her office worrying if we have been arrested for assaulting an Auror. And dinner won't be too much longer. Come on, we have to floo back to school. Besides, Williamson may have floo called McGonagall so we would get in trouble if we are late." Hermione said and Harry knew she was right.

As Hermione pulled Harry to the floo fire he asked. "Do we need to do something about Williamson? He clearly has some anti-first-generation prejudice."

"No Harry. At least nothing like that and definitely not now. We can't afford a war on multiple fronts. His vow proved he isn't a death eater and that will have to be enough for now." She grabbed a pinch of powder from a wooden box that was kept by the fire and threw it into the flames turning them green before she pulled Harry in with her and called out "Hogwarts."

The two of them came tumbling out of the fire, Hermione being affected by Harry's curse as she had travelled in the floo with him. "Bloody hell Harry, is that what floo travel is always like for you?" She asked the thing she was going to say forgotten in her struggle to keep her feet and prevent her face from breaking on the floor.

Hermione was right about Headmistress McGonagall, she wasn't teaching a class right then and she was sitting at her desk preoccupied with the fate of her two students. She immediately demanded a full explanation as soon as she was sure the two teens weren't going to fall flat on their faces.

Harry explained everything. The whole story had the headmistress rather unsure of what she should do. Two of her students had left this morning to partake in a battle caused by one of them legally declaring war on a lot of admittedly bad people. Now it turned out they had somehow accidentally knocked out and kidnapped an Auror. There was a part of her that was screaming that her students were out of control and that they needed to be in detention for the rest of their time in the school. Another part of her wanted to praise Harry for actually managing to successfully negotiate with the goblins who were notoriously anti-wizard.

In the end, the headmistress decided that none of the things apart from leaving the school without permission were any of her business beyond the fact that they were good reasons to have left the school. So she dismissed the two teens with a reminder that they would have to go see their professors for the classes they had missed and find out if there was any homework they needed to do.

-ϟϟϟ-

Fleur was having a very mixed day. Elaine was once again off, though this time it was planned time off rather than her kid getting the sniffles. So she was back working with Viperclaw again, only this time he had her working on paperwork from a client she knew. She didn't particularly like this person so it wasn't a conflict of interest. She threw herself into the paperwork hoping to get this man fined for every galleon she possibly could. After all, any pain she could cause Albus Child abducting Dumbledore was well deserved and she would be happy to be the one delivering it.

The problem she had was her name appearing on any of the parchment work. She didn't want to give Dumbledore any more reason to target her family. Not that Dumbledore needed much more of an excuse where Harry was concerned. He and his family had cost Dumbledore a lot when they had pursued him in the Wizengamot.

Viperclaw had seen her hesitation and had asked what was wrong. Fleur told him. "This client already has a vendetta against my family. I mean my British family, my betrothed. I'm worried that working on this will have him target us in retaliation."

Viperclaw nodded in understanding. "There is no need to worry about that. The documents you sign are internal bank documents. Dumbledore will never get to see them. And if he does target you or your family for retaliation somehow then we can enact some of our strongest penalties on him. Remember Gringotts may not get involved in your human wars, at least beyond specific contracts like providing guards, but as a bank employee you do enjoy a certain level of protection as long as it's related to bank business."

That had been all the reassurance she needed to get back to work. With her fears dealt with, Fleur really put her all into the work she was actually finding really interesting. By eleven o'clock she had already found enough evidence to justify over two hundred and fifty galleons in fines.

It was then that a runner had come to get Fleur for a one to one with one of the managing directors. This had Fleur nervous. There were only two reasons she would be called to the office of someone so high up: either she had been accused of stealing money from the bank and was about to need to prove her innocence, or something had happened with their deal with Harry and considering what had happened this morning it was obviously going to the latter.

Her fears were confirmed when the director didn't even bother to introduce himself but straight up demanded to know what she already knew of the bank's deal with Harry. She of course knew everything and told the director so. "I may not have been involved in the negotiations but my bonded betrothed keeps myself and our other bonded betrothed fully up to date with everything."

"Do you have a way to contact him immediately?" The director asked.

"Not on me. I can return home and collect a communications mirror but I can't guarantee Warlock Potter will be carrying his. This is class time after all."

"Don't bother then, we have already sent a letter, it will just have to be fast enough." the director sounded annoyed that his idea to get Fleur to contact Harry hadn't worked.

"What has happened? What is the emergency?" Fleur asked.

"I'm not sure what I can tell you." The director said

"I am authorised for full disclosure in the contracts." She insisted.

He looked at her for a moment trying to decide on what to do when he nodded and told her all about the Auror who was captured in among all the death eaters that had been captured this morning. He told her all the problems they were facing as they couldn't just let the man go without Harry's approval. Unfortunately, there was little that Fleur could do to help with that.

So Fleur was sent back to dealing with Dumbledore's paperwork. The whole time anxious over what was going to happen now that they had basically kidnapped an Auror. That was a situation that could get very complicated. She made a mental note to get Harry to add her as someone who could make decisions regarding the prisoners if he was unavailable and got back to trying to fine Dumbledore as much as she possibly could.

Fleur finished her shift and the first thing she did when she got home was grab her mirror and call Harry. Harry didn't answer so she grabbed the other mirror and called Hermione who did answer.

Despite the fact that Harry and Hermione were having dinner Hermione set the mirror on the table and they talked right there under a few privacy charms to keep anyone from listening in.

-ϟϟϟ-

The next day the papers were full of chaos. Not only did they have the story of what had happened outside of Harry's house with a number of 'Alleged' disappearances that Harry and the others had been expecting, but apparently Williamson and Smith had been talking to the press because there was a full description of Harry's prison run by hired goblin guards.

Then, as though they were trying to not be outdone, there were also two stories of 'Alleged' death eater properties being attacked by the random people who had joined what was supposed to be Harry's private little war.

There were no deaths reported anywhere, but both the 'Alleged' death eater homes had been burned to the ground. Harry wasn't exactly a fan of that. For one, burning down houses was a waste; it was one less asset that he could potentially strip them of when he got the warlock of the house to sign a full unconditional surrender. For the second, burning down houses had the potential to hurt innocents, children who were still too young to even open a door, and pets. Still, it made things harder on the death eaters and that was a positive.

The more Harry read the more it was clear that Skeeter was having the time of her life with all the stories she was getting. The articles were filled with phrases like "Warlock Potter doing more than the Ministry." He was surprised she hadn't tried to corner him for an interview yet.

A/N

Snitty* - short-tempered, petty and or rude.