Goblin Magic

A/N: As always, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave me a review. I read every single one and I cherish them.

It may be a couple of weeks until my next update, as my work is once again being a complete bear. But I'll keep writing as much as I can!

Big thanks to alert reader and canon-goddess SouthernWitch69, for finding some words that I forgot to cap. You rock, Sun! If anyone sees an oopsie and wants to join the ranks of the alert readers, please email me at plaidpooka@yahoo.com. You can certainly leave such things in the reviews, but I prefer emails because I will get to them faster. Some times it takes me awhile to get through the reviews.

Huge thanks to my lovely and extremely talented betas, Vaughn and WolfMoonshadow. I don't know how I got so lucky as to be working with not one, but two of the best betas in the business. They rock!

Disclaimer: They are not mine; I only take them out to play.

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And still I'm standing here

-Queensryche

"In any event," Bill said cheerfully, "you needn't use any memory charms on me to keep your secret. It looks as if Severus was a pawn in one of Albus' games, so I can't blame him for what happened. I'm glad that you're taking care of him. From the looks of his Patronus, I imagine that he takes some looking after."

"He does," Ron said with a sigh. "It's really strange having him around. Sometimes he seems nearly his old self, but he won't eat or sleep unless you make him, and if something sets him off, he throws a tantrum like a six foot tall child."

"Hermione's told me a bit about that. It's a shame that we can't take him to St. Mungo's, but they'd have the Aurors in before you could say Azkaban."

"Enough about Severus," Hermione said a tad sharply. The thought of Severus, Aurors, and Azkaban was enough to make her want to change the subject. "What about that scroll, Bill? And what does it have to do with the vault that you showed to me?"

"Fetch the scroll that nearly gave me a heart attack, and I'll fill the boys in about the vault."

While Hermione retrieved the scroll from her bag, Bill described the vault that he'd wanted Hermione to see.

"I know that vault!" Harry said excitedly. "That's the one that the stone was in! It was Albus' vault, wasn't it?"

"That wasn't Albus' personal vault, although he had one just as fancy. That's a Hogwarts vault, made available to the headmaster and anyone he sees fit to give permission to access it."

"Why did you want me to see it?" Hermione asked.

"That's a long story," Bill said, taking the scroll from Hermione. Unrolling the scroll, he glanced over the cramped writing and Hermione saw that he once again went rather pale. "It's a long story, and it begins with this scroll. This is goblin magic, and it's a type of magic that they have kept carefully hidden from the wizarding world. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement would classify it as Dark Arts in a heartbeat."

"Is it Dark Arts?" Ron asked.

"I don't know...it's like comparing apples to oranges...it isn't anything like our way of thinking at all. The goblins consider it just, not dark, but it's pretty grim all the same. They don't handle justice the way that wizards do. They are a painfully fair-minded people, but they're very Old Testament--eye for an eye and all of that rubbish. They are fair, but they are not merciful."

"If the Ministry would classify it as dark, why haven't they done anything about it?" Harry asked, puzzled. "Can the goblins truly keep it that secret? After all, we know at least two wizards who know about it, you and Severus."

"You know, I was very puzzled that Severus had any knowledge about what's written on that scroll. But if Albus sent him looking for the cup, it makes sense that he'd be looking for a way to destroy it as well. So, yes, Severus and I know about this magic, and I expect that there are a handful of others who know of it as well," Bill said. "Personally, I wouldn't dream of talking to anyone about it. I fancy my skin too fondly for that."

"Surely the goblins wouldn't kill you!" Hermione said, appalled at the idea.

"They keep this magic secret, Hermione. I think that they'd kill anyone who threatened that secret. That's why I was so nervous when you brought that damned scroll right into Gringotts. There is one hell of a lot that I admire about the goblins, but I wouldn't dare believe that my association with them would protect me if they found me with that scroll. They are a hard and sometimes rather nasty people, and they would do whatever they deem necessary to keep their people, their traditions, and their magic safe. The goblin wars were no picnic. In the end, the only way that the Ministry could deal with them effectively at all was to offer them a great deal of autonomy. Goblins may be under Ministry rule on the surface, but the truth is that they govern themselves. If a goblin commits a crime in the wizarding world, the Aurors don't take them to Azkaban, they give the criminal to the goblins to deal with."

"And what happens to them?" Ron asked.

"It depends on the crime," Bill said, pausing to take a long drink of his ale. "They have their own prison, and some goblins spend time on the wrong side of the bars. They value money very highly, and some wrongdoers are made to give up part or all of their wealth to pay fines. But some goblins, the ones that do the worst crimes, are never seen again."

"They kill them?" Hermione asked with a visible shudder.

"Worse than that, in my opinion. Oh, they end up dead, no doubt about that. But they aren't quite free. That's what that scroll is about. It's got a goblin soul magic spell on it."

"Soul magic!" Hermione said, wide-eyed with excitement. "That must be why Severus gave it to me in the first place. He said that we can't destroy the cup until we separate the soul from it."

"Sensible," Bill said, nodding his head. "The soul gives the cup too much power. Take the soul out, and it's just a cup. A magical cup, certainly, but not indestructible."

"But what is this soul magic? And what does it have to do with the Hogwarts vault?" Hermione asked.

"You noticed that vault seven hundred and thirteen has no key...no visible means of entry?"

"Yes, of course. Swarf touched it to open it, and he said that only a goblin could do so."

"Too true. That door recognizes a goblin's touch, and they've made it even more specific than that. Voldemort broke into that vault by using the Imperius Curse on a goblin and forcing him to touch the door. Now, the door only will open for specific goblins, ones who have proven themselves able to throw the Imperius off."

"That must be one complicated ward," Harry said with admiration.

"It isn't a ward at all," Bill responded. "It's too complex a set of ideas for a ward to handle. Even when the door recognized all goblins, it wasn't a ward that did that...it was a goblin."

"A goblin!" squeaked Ron. "What did they do, transfigure one into a door?"

"I didn't think that you could transfigure magical beings into inanimate objects," Hermione mused. "How did the goblins manage that?"

"They didn't transfigure a goblin," Bill said and then paused again to drain the last of the ale from his bottle. "They had a criminal, one who had done something they considered unforgivable. They removed his soul from his body and placed it in the door. That door is animate. It is a living, thinking door that has the consciousness of the goblin soul that resides within it. They can give the door all sorts of complicated instruction and it will comprehend anything that a live goblin would be capable of understanding."

"That's horrible!" Ron nearly shouted. "Can you imagine it? Being trapped in a door, day after day. It's enough to drive a person batty!"

"I told you that it was grim," Bill said simply.

"Hold on a minute," Harry said. "You said that this was the soul of a goblin that had done something terrible--something bad enough that they couldn't forgive it. How can they trust such a person to guard anything? It seems to me that a criminal like that would be more likely to cause trouble than to do what the very people that turned him into a door wanted him to do."

"Ah, but that's the trickiest part of all," Bill said. "You see, if the animate vaults behave for a period of time that is decided in their trial, then the goblins will release their souls when their debt is paid. The soul is freed to move on to the goblin's idea of the hereafter, and according to goblin tradition, that soul is free and blameless in the goblin afterlife because it has paid its debt in full. Animate vaults who misbehave will have their souls moved to some worthless trinket where they will be trapped for all eternity."

"Nasty piece of work," muttered Harry.

"It's Machiavellian," Bill agreed. "I told you that while I do admire a lot about the goblins, they are a pretty nasty lot. I try not to judge them, because their ways are not our ways, but I'd rather face a pack of rabid werewolves than get on the wrong side of the goblins."

"So, the vault that we visited has a goblin soul trapped in it, and they used goblin soul magic to accomplish that," Hermione summed up. "What's on that scroll then?"

"I thought that you would have guessed by now, Hermione," Bill said, giving the scroll in his hands another look. "I have no idea where Severus got this, but it's the goblin's soul release spell."

"He was living with Voldemort after he left Hogwarts," Harry said. "We've heard that Voldemort gave him access to his books."

"That explains it then," Bill said. "It's almost a sure bet that Voldemort is one of the few wizards that know about goblin soul magic. The way he tried to break into that vault suggests that he knew what he was about."

"So what do we do with it?" Hermione asked, peering at the scroll with obvious unease. "Can you show me how to destroy the cup, Bill?"

"No, that's not a good idea. I'd have to teach you Gobbledegook, to start with. Smart as you are, that could take years. I think that I'd better handle this spell myself. I've never tried this sort of magic before," he said as he read over the scroll, "but it seems pretty straight forward. Only one thing worries me. When I release the soul, what do we do with it?"

"Severus told me that we should just let it go," Hermione explained. "He said that without an object to anchor it, it would be drawn back to Voldemort himself."

"Is that wise?" Ron yelped. "Won't that make him stronger?"

"Does he seem weak to you now?" Hermione snapped, not realizing how much she sounded like the man who had told her those very words.

"Hermione's correct," Bill said, chuckling. "Having only a fraction of his soul hasn't affected his power any, though it has obviously affected his humanity. That settles it then. We release his soul, let it fly back to ol' snake eyes, and with any luck at all, he won't even realize that he's regained it."

The discussion over, Harry fetched the cup for Bill. Bill read over the scroll carefully a few times, and then he was ready to begin. Standing in the middle of the library with his wand drawn, Bill began to recite from the scroll. Though he clutched his wand tightly, he made no motions with it. Goblins did not use wands, so no movements were involved.

"Vuhk nahk hkals tu Oghor-hai.

Vuhk thrakat burzum tu Oghor-hai.

Ihkls nels, ihkls ilsvat vuhk.

Ihkls irn vuck hket.

Rehkizirat... vutizirat... vehkazirat... rehkenzirat.

Hke, hkati nels."

Though Bill's voice went on, Hermione stopped trying to pay attention to the words. She'd been considering learning Gobbledegook, but Bill's recitation made her think twice. The language was guttural and harsh, which sounded very ugly to her English ears. In fact, she'd bet that Bill would end up with a very sore throat before he was done reciting that spell.

It seemed that Bill's voice droned on and on, but the spell only took around five minutes to complete. As Bill voiced the last line, a sickly, greenish-gray vapor rose from the cup and hovered for a moment over it. Then it slowly rose to the ceiling where it disappeared from sight.

"Ugh! Filet of Voldemort," Ron muttered, his eyes still trained on the ceiling.

Walking over to Bill, Harry bent down and picked up the cup. "It's harmless now. Do we really need to destroy it?"

"As much as I hate to, I think that we should," Hermione said sadly. "The headmaster told you how Tom Riddle seemed obsessed with founder objects. If he finds out that we have Hufflepuff's cup, he won't rest until he recovers it."

"You're right, Hermione," Harry agreed. "I hate to destroy it, but I suppose it's for the best."

Reluctantly, Harry returned the cup to the floor. Drawing his wand, he paused for only a moment.

"Deletum!" Harry said sharply.

The cup on the floor seemed to waver in their sight for a moment. Then, with a flash of yellow light, it was gone. The destruction of the Horcrux was a cause for celebration, and they all grinned and laughed as Ron passed out more bottles of ale.

"What will you three do now?" Bill asked, after they had settled down a bit.

"Well, with the cup destroyed, that leaves two Horcruxes to go. We're positive that Nagini is one, and Hermione says that all we have to do about her is kill her to destroy that Horcrux. That only leaves one unaccounted for. It will be hard to discover, but I can't help but think that we're much closer to our goal now that the cup is destroyed."

"And the summer is only half passed," Bill said with a teasing grin. "Why, you might get Voldemort sorted just in time to head back to Hogwarts for your final year."

"I don't think we'll be that lucky," Hermione said with a sigh.

"Lucky? Are you mad?" groused Ron. "I like being out of school. I don't care if we ever go back!"

"You may very well get your wish," said Hermione, "and then where will you be? It's a lot easier to get a job if you've finished school."

"Fred and George do all right," Ron replied smugly. "I expect that I'll manage just fine."

"You know, Hermione," Bill said thoughtfully, "Swarf was quite taken with you. If you wanted to go into curse breaking, I imagine that he would take you on anytime. He wouldn't care if you finished school or not. They prefer to get curse breakers young and then train them at Gringotts."

"Wasn't that just a story you made up to get Swarf to take us on a tour of the vaults?"

"It was, but it's worth thinking about all the same. You would make a fine curse breaker, in my opinion."

Later, Hermione blamed herself for what happened next. She was the sensible one. She was the one that should have been paying attention. Unfortunately, she was daydreaming about what it would be like to be a curse breaker like Bill. She was daydreaming, the boys were talking and laughing with Bill, and no one was paying any attention at all to the clock.

At precisely nine o'clock, the small fire in the hearth turned emerald green and Remus came tumbling out of it. Remus had just enough time to look at Bill with an expression of appalled surprise before the fire turned green again. At that point, several things happened almost simultaneously. Draco arrived, his smile of welcome fading from his face as he saw Bill Weasley drawing his wand. Remus lunged at Bill, trying to knock his wand arm up as Harry, wand already drawn, stepped in front of Draco to block Bill's shot.

In an astonishing demonstration of control, Bill managed to keep from voicing the curse that was already on the tip of his tongue. His eyes darted quickly around the room as he reassessed the situation. Still standing in front of Draco, Harry had his wand pointed at Bill's chest. Hermione and Ron also had their wands drawn, but they didn't seem to know what to do with them. Having reached Bill, Remus grasped Bill's wand arm firmly and tried to get Bill to lower his wand.

"Release me, Remus," Bill said softly.

"Bill, you don't understand the situation," Remus said calmly but insistently. "You've got to give us a chance to explain what's going on before you go hexing anyone willy-nilly."

"I think," began Bill, roughly shaking Remus' hand off of his arm, "that Draco Malfoy is the source responsible for all of that pertinent information you've been giving the Order. You lot might have given me some warning instead of shocking the hell out of me."

"You were supposed to be gone by now," Hermione said rather lamely.

"Damn it, Bill!" Ron said. "I know you're too fucking clever by half, but how did you figure that out so quickly?"

"Malfoy arrived practically on Remus' heels," Bill said, putting his wand away. "It seemed obvious once I had a moment to think about it."

"May I come out from behind Harry now?" Draco asked cheerfully. "I think that the eldest Weatherby may have scared the pants off of me." When Harry stepped out of the way, Draco stuck one hand into his trousers and felt around. "No," he said cheekily, "they're still there."

"Draco," Bill said pleasantly, coming forward to shake the blond wizard's hand. "Sorry about almost hexing you."

"As if you could! If I hadn't been worried about hitting my unasked for protector, I'd have knocked you on your arse!" Draco said. His tone may have been a bit snide, but his handshake was firm and friendly.

More bottles of ale were passed out, and everyone drank and chatted as they calmed down. Eventually, Draco headed for the lab in the basement to visit Severus, and Harry explained to Remus about using the Pensieve to look at the odd spell that Severus used on the tower.

Harry hadn't progressed very far in that explanation when Draco ran back into the room.

"It's Severus," Draco said frantically. "He's gone!"

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Endnote: Those of you familiar with Tolkien's work may have recognized the words of Bill's spell. I'm certain that I have not done justice to Tolkien's goblin language, but I could not resist a small homage to the father of fantasy.