CHAPTER 5 - Tussle with the Goblins

AN: Here is another chapter for you guys. Enjoy.

Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley.

After leaving the Burrow, Harry went straight to Gringotts Bank. Now that his vault key is with him, he intended to splurge himself a little bit with the money that was in his vault.

As he entered the bank to access his vault, he remembered something important. Gringotts break-in. This was another biggest issue for Harry.

He didn't know what kind of charges will be levied against him for their conquest in the bank. He did break into Gringotts and released their dragon. And nearly half of the bank was destroyed. Some people lost their lives too. He was not looking forward to it.

Harry prepared himself for any punishment that will be imposed on him. In Voldemort's memories, the information about goblins was adequate. There were a lot of things Voldemort know about Goblins. But everything was present in his deepest memory. Like how he could not remember his own memories of his parents. It was there but without properly sorting his memories he could not remember much.

The thing that he can remember about goblins was that "GOBLINS ONLY CARED FOR PROFIT" and apparently they can't afford another war with wizards. That was almost zero information and nothing about the goblins.

He prepared some plans and galleons to deal with them. If it was something extreme, he even thought of asking Kingsley to intervene. He didn't want to go to Kingsley from the very beginning, the man being a politician and all didn't sit well with Harry, making him the last resort.

Harry dispersed his glamours walked into the bank and went straight towards the head teller. Having illusion charms, under polyjuice's effects or if the people were enchanted to look different, anything of that nature would bring the bank's fury. That was why he removed the glamour while walking into the bank.

The head teller saw Harry and spoke before harry could even open his mouth.

"Mr Potter Your business will be conducted henceforth by potter accounts manager Ironclaw. Nagnok here will escort you to your account manager" that was it, no more words exchanged between them.

'How the hell did the goblin identify him…his physical body has changed so much, that it would take some time to recognize him, even if it was his friends'. Harry's eyes searched for an answer and soon found it.

Oh yes, Probity probes. The Goblins started using it during these days. Probity probes were certain security measures to probe any magical concealment, glamour charms, illusions, and in identifying magical signature, etc…,.

It appears the goblins have Harry's magical signature recorded. A wizard or magical could change their magical signature through rituals or by themselves if they have certain control over their magic. But Harry's magic control level was not that high to achieve that.

While walking along with Nagnok, Harry's eyes wandered around the bank. It was just like any other day. No evidence here showed the damage and destruction caused by their break-in.

They both were walking towards Potter's accounts manager. Potter accounts had a manager, that was news to Harry. Accounts!, like there are more than one account.

He was led through a corridor with a series of doors present on both sides, with different names hanging on them.

Nagnok stopped in front of a door with the name 'IRONCLAW'.

"Please wait here" the goblin croaked. He then knocked on the door, after hearing a grunting sound he opened it and went inside. He returned ten seconds later, opened the door to invite harry in, and left.

The goblin that was sitting inside looked exactly like the one that was sitting at the head teller table. If it isn't for his new keen eyes, harry would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two of them. And also he could see them both having a different magical signature.

That was the advantage of having 'Mage Sight', one could differentiate magical signature from one person to the other without any external aid.

"Welcome, Mr Potter. Please take a seat. I am Ironclaw, Senior accountant for all the vaults and accounts belonging to the Potter Family"

As Harry took the seat opposite to Ironclaw, the Goblin began.

"We have a lot to discuss, from your family accounts statements to the recuperation…. for the stunts you performed in the Gringotts bank and vaults" Ironclaw grunted towards him.

Harry knew from the goblin's tone that this talk isn't going to be easy. He nodded at Ironclaw and gestured him to continue. The sooner he finishes this, the sooner he can take control of his vaults and money.

Ironclaw looked at Harry in light annoyance. The young man looked indifferent while he was speaking. The break-in has caused a severe backlash to the previous head manager and his clan. They even lost nearly 15 goblins, when you-know-who came to know about the break-in.

Now they have locked everything related to Potter and Weasley. Business transactions, vault handling, employees belonging to that family and everything that was related to Potter and Weasley accounts. Even the Weasley pair that were working in the bank was held up from their jobs.

And here he is, the Potter boy with little to no knowledge about his accounts. Even audacious is that the human was giving a very nonchalant attitude towards the whole matter.

Well, whatever, his job is to handle Potter vaults, what the human did with that is not his problem, it was his own consequence. Ironclaw withheld a sigh that was forming in his mouth.

While Harry looked indifferent on the outside, it was a subconscious act that was resulted from Voldemort's memories and behaviour. He didn't know he was doing it, while he was a little frightened on the inside, his mind already considered the goblin in front of him as a slight to his authority.

'Oh..shit. They wouldn't take his vault completely right?'

'It should be the head manager who should have attended this meeting instead of Ironclaw. And what compensation? I killed a dark lord to save your asses bastard'

'Uh….I should pay the reasonable amount. Because it was me who caused the destruction'

'If only I had enough power, I would have destroyed this vermin'

A multitude of thoughts and voices were performing a symphony inside his mind.

"You are a harder person to track. We tried reaching you through various means from 31st July 1994"

"Trying to contact me, why?"

"Your trust vault has been operating without your input from 1st August 1991 to until today. Due to your absence, the authority was given to your late magical guardian, Dumbledore when he was alive, who appointed Mrs Molly Weasley to look after your accounts from 1992. It has been under the same management till today"

Harry had to force his mind to think of matters other than anything regarding Dumbledore. For the past two days thinking of Dumbledore always made him lose his cool.

He took deep breaths for a few seconds and nodded for Ironclaw to continue.

And the goblin proceeded to give him a book, which appeared to be a record book. He recognized this because in the memories and his mind supplied the answer 'Ledger's book'. Voldemort had seen ledgers of death eaters that looked exactly like these multiple times.

"I heard that I have several accounts here that belong to Potter Family. That means I have several vaults and ledgers too right".

"Yes, but those books will be given to you only after the family vault recognize you as Potter family lord or if you are wearing Potter Family head ring. The same goes for Black Family too"

"Black Family?"

"It appears Black has named you as his heir, so you are eligible for testing out for the Black Family vault too. But those testing would be our last task of the day" replied Ironclaw and placed several ledgers on the table.

He read the words printed on the ledgers one by one. POTTER HEIR TRUST FUND, POTTER FAMILY TRUST FUND, POTTER FAMILY ALLOWANCES, DOREA CHARITY FOUNDATION FOR THE NEEDED.

"Now that these matters are dealt with, we will talk about more serious matters, the recuperation for your actions on May 1st of this year. A Break-in, in our Gringotts bank that happened a few days prior"

Ironclaw closely observed any changes on the other party's face while he said that and frowned.

It appears whatever the goblin expected did not happen as Harry Potter was looking at him apathetically. As if viewing him as a….lowest life form, like how every other wizards and witch looked at the Goblins.

On the other hand, Harry was internally distressed. He knew this was going to happen. So he readied himself for the consequence.

He had prepared….well, his mind was coming up with many methods for dealing with goblins if the remuneration is unreasonable. Like moving the Potter family vaults out Gringotts. Pressuring the Bank through political means.

With him being the boy-who-lived and Potter family head, which is one of the richest wizarding families (from Voldy's memories) moving his vault out of Britain will create a huge blow to the goblins. Now that he knew that the Black family vault also may come under his control, goblins would have no way to deal with the consequences if he moved his money.

It may even be the start of another Goblin-Wizard war, which he was sure that the wizards would win.

Goblins may have been a warrior race once and maybe still are, but they cannot dish out the firepower of the whole of the wizarding race.

Against wizarding Britain, they may succeed. But against the whole of the wizarding world. A big NO. They may even get wiped out as a result. Them being only native to European (North America too, but after a war, they settled in Europe with Bank branches built in America) continent their population is also low. Not so low as they are still a nation, but while compared to the whole wizarding population they are low.

Voldemort has done his research on goblins during the first war because he didn't want his plans to be messed up by the presence of goblins. That was why Harry was almost sure his settlement would work out.

Suddenly the door was opened and a goblin soldier with spear and shield in their hands walked in. Both goblins, soldier, and Ironclaw conversed for some time in Gobbledegook and both turned towards him at the same time.

"It appears our conversation will be continued in the presence of Manager Ragnok", saying this Ironclaw proceeded to leave the room following the soldier.

'Things may get messy it seems' Harry thought.

Harry followed Ironclaw and the soldier while thinking about Ragnok, Gringotts Head Goblin. He once heard Bill talking about an associate in Gringotts named Ragnok.

An employee, but high in the goblins order. They both may be the same goblin. If they were the same person, then he may pass the tide with fewer losses. Harry was coming up with some other ideas to adapt to the current situation.

…....

There were already three goblins present along with the Gringotts head. Those three goblins looked old, even older than Gringotts head. They along with Ironclaw, sat at a semicircle table opposite to him like some kind of investigative committee. Just like his first court hearing.

Harry didn't want to appear weaker in front of them. So his magic subconsciously acted to his need and started to exert some pressure on the room.

The one in the middle, he guessed Ragnok, looked at him with narrowed eyes and started the conversation.

"Let's get on with it, shall we. Welcome, I am Ragnok, current Head-manager for the Gringotts Bank Headquarters, London. The other three present here with me are elders, representatives from the Goblin Nation. They were here to investigate the break-in that occurred four days prior. Fortunately, the culprit being here made their job easier for them.

Originally if the offender responsible for the break-in or theft in Gringotts were identified, we would have given the punishment ourselves. And the investigative report would be submitted to the ministry or DMLE. But your situation is a little bit complicated"

He snorted at the last statement too, complicated might be an understatement. Harry didn't like where this was going. They had already named him the culprit.

The Goblin's tone didn't ease his mind. He knew the mistake was on his side, but you got to give respect for the power right.

At this point, Harry's mind was being heavily influenced by Voldemort's memories.

"With you being celebrated as a national hero and all, the ministry ….." As Ragnok was going on and on with his monologue, a goblin to the right of Ragnok interrupted him.

"What was the reason for your break-in? You broke into the Lestrange Family vault. We don't exactly keep a registry for any family vaults. But from the state we found the vault, we concluded that you may have taken a minimum of one item or a maximum of ten items" the way in which the elder goblin asked the questions irked Harry.

It was just like how Fudge questioned him during his trial.

He held back his desire to lash out and thought for a moment and said, "There was an artifact of extreme importance that was needed to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort"

He heard the sharp intake of their breaths. Looks like even the goblins are afraid to hear the name. Plus he was not going to tell them anything about Horcruxes. He already planned to oblivate both Ron and Hermione of that information.

"Why did you not come to us. If there was an artifact that would have aided you in killing You-know-who, we would have gladly assisted you in any manner"

He was surprised at that statement. What game are these cretins playing? Good cop and bad cop drama. He had seen several of those during his childhood and even used this strategy sometimes.

"I had thought you sided with the ministry that was under Voldemort's control, if I had come here directly I would have got myself captured". The presence of death eaters all-time in the Gringotts also didn't assure him at that time.

The first goblin spoke irritated, "We never supported You-who-who. The ministry went under his control faster than we expected. If we had been given a proper time or you wizards have given your aid at the right time we may have defeated him".

Harry narrowed his eyes at him. He remembered Dumbledore reporting about his failure in negotiating with goblins.

The Goblin realized what Harry was thinking about and spoke, "Yes, your Dumbledore came here along with Bill Weasley for negotiating terms of cooperation. But Mr Dumbledore wanted the wizards to be captured alive and handed over to the ministry. So we had rejected the alliance"

He scuffed internally. Dumbledore and his second chances are the things that really made the war go downhill.

"We were all ready for war with You-know-who. Your escapade in the bank cost us nearly fifteen lives. You were personally responsible for one death. When you-know-who came to know in whose vault the theft had happened, he killed a total of fourteen people. Griphook, the goblin who helped you in the break-in was also one of the casualties. Before all of this, you-know-who had even killed a goblin family near Nottingham. So the war was inevitable between us and You-know-who "

Harry could somehow able to make out the reason for this session. Vengeance, retaliation, a payback, and they want an outlet. They can't take it out on him publicly but they can do it indirectly by making his life difficult at Gringotts. They can't take on the wizards openly too. But the death eaters are open season' There were several other reasons but Harry could only guess this much.

'These little fuckers are just using me as a gateway for their revenge. Hmm…'

"As of the payment for the destruction you caused in the Gringotts bank and for the loss of a dragon, we the goblin nation proposes for you to hand over the death eaters to us. Two dragon eggs from your family-owned reserve. Because you did release a full-grown dragon. If the breed is Ukrainian Ironbelly two eggs are enough. If it is not then four eggs of any dragon breed of class-V is necessary. And lastly, any goblin-made products present in your family vault must be returned to the Goblin Nation. Of course in the case of wizards marked death eaters are more than enough"

Harry looked at them as thinking if they were making a joke. Giving up on those wizards' lives to goblins will make the wizarding population look down on him, as even his status, as man-who-won will be hard-pressed to save his image and future.

Regardless of his status, the lives of those people are in the hands of the ministry and the judicial, not him. Even he was not sure, whether the captured death eaters would get sentenced. As nearly every one of them are purebloods and the declining Britain economy would need their help in revitalizing their society.

Harry also did not like this method.

First, he will have to overcome Kingsley and DMLE, which is itself a difficult task. Second, he had plans prepared for them. Bringing those death eaters under his command is a simple matter. He will just have to act a little like Voldemort and they would become subservient to him (they are dumb as sheep if one goes then rest will follow through), with Voldemort's memories it is a simple thing.

And the last thing was, the way the goblins acted towards him. Like he owes them something and should accept their proposal without any consideration. But still, he did not want to confront them, after all, it was his mistake for breaking into the bank.

"If you want galleons, I will pay them. If the destruction of the infrastructure is the problem, then I will have an architect to help you in rebuilding them.

But giving up those wizards' lives to you is hard. Dragon eggs are also not possible. I may be able to give you a full-grown dragon if the particular dragon consents to protect the vaults in Gringotts. And giving access to my family vault…." his eyes started emitting green light without him being aware "…..is even harder. I don't even know what is the situation my family vault is in. We can work something out I am sure or you can give me a new proposal"

"You must understand the severity of the situation, wizard. If our demands are not met then both Potter and Black Family vaults will be confiscated for the sake of compensation. You should think before you answer for our debts potter", the goblin on the other side snarled trying to oppress Harry.

By then Harry's emotion was starting to get out of control.

Even after removing all the unwanted emotions from Voldemort's memories, it was affecting Harry slowly. And his own magic wanting to lash out, as it was bound for more than a decade. As the meeting went on and on the minuscule amount of occlumency which harry built to suppress his emotion, shattered.

Harry's magic suddenly reacted and an aura emanated from his body like distorting the space forming a mirage around him. His power war trying to crush that particular goblin who spoke. His eyes turned completely white and light emitted out from it (consider avatar mode in The Legend of Korra or The Last Air Bender).

Harry's desire to kill the goblin grew higher and higher.

All of a sudden Harry felt a sharp pressure. Well not really pressure, it felt like a stinging sensation on his magical core. Like something grazing on his magical core. But it was enough to bring his mind back to his normal state.

The feeling that Harry had was the Goblin wards. Goblin-built wards were stronger than any average wards. Because they mostly use an entirely different magical formula and symbols from wizards and witches. Only a small percentage of wizards try to learn goblin warding and they are mostly employed by Goblins themselves. That is why it was told to the general population that Goblin wards are stronger.

Goblins would have warded the bank with every possible ward they could. But since it was a public institution, with a lot of regular customers, they only used heavy warding for the vaults present in their tunnels. For the rest of the bank, only general wards were used. Like Anti-Traveller ward (Anti-Apparation jinx/ward, Anti-Port key Ward), Anti-Summoning, Anti-flying, Barrier ward (complete lockdown)…etc. Hence why they recruit Guards (wizards, witches and goblin soldiers) to patrol the hallways and lounge.

The particular ward which Harry felt now was the Anti-magic ward. This type of ward was only used in the head manager's office and their palace (Kingdom), in case some intruder tried to reach the head goblin or to assassinate the goblin king.

Anti-magic ward disrupts a wizard or any other magical from connecting to his magical core, so the wizard/witch won't be able to use magic. But if the particular wizard is powerful to a certain level this type of ward is just a nuisance.

For Harry this ward was not even a nuisance, he felt the ward grazing his magical core, and he didn't even feel the pressure. That was all. But it still did the job, rational mind took over Harry.

After Harry's magic was brought under his control he too was surprised for a second, about how his magic readily acted on his will. He guess his emotions were getting out of control.

Everyone in the room were surprised by his sudden hostility, even if the discussion was a little bit one-sided with them demanding things, this sudden aggression startled them.

Security guards (wizards and goblin soldiers) soon flooded into the room and stayed put, not knowing what to do. In front of them was a wizard almost close to killing a goblin. Since they were inside the anti-magic ward, they were unable to respond to the situation.

Even if they can, they (wizards) couldn't do shit. Because the wizard that is threatening their employer was HARRY FUCKING POTTER, a bigwig in the Britain wizarding community. So they just stood by the door.

The goblin soldiers too stood by the side without doing anything. If a wizard can do this much with an anti-magic ward present, then it was not worth it, that much they knew.

The activation of the Anti-magic ward at the right time, cleared up his mind a little bit.

Harry stood up from the seat retracting his aura and closed his eyes taking a deep breath, his eyes returned to normal condition but they were still emitting a light shade of green. with him regaining the composure, he dropped the goblin from his clutches. He spoke in a low voice, but still, everyone could hear what was being spoken.

"You are the ones that don't understand the situation presented here. It was me who killed Voldemort. It was me who defeated his merry band of psychopaths. I am not saying that I won't pay for the damages I caused, I will pay for it. But what you are asking is too much. Make a new proposal ready and owl me. We can discuss it again. I will be waiting in Ironclaw's office to finish up my other tasks"

Harry stood up and walked towards the door. The crowd standing there parted ways to the side to make way for him.

As if remembering something he stopped near the door and turned to speak.

"And by the way, I will take full responsibility for the break-in. You don't need to go asking for any compensations from Ronald Weasley or Hermione Granger"

After finishing his piece Harry walked out of the room not waiting for a reply.

AN: At last I finished it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

How did the scene turn out? The scene where Harry lost control over his emotions.

I am planning to write a smut chapter. Harry won't be any gentleman with 1x1. He is starting to explore the other gender and sex life, will have a lot of flings. Do you people want erotic content or just want me to write a brief mention of the scene and finish it off.

The next chapter will be about the Vaults. If you have any ideas, put it in the comment section or in the reviews. You can also join the discord and post your opinion.