Ch12. Gringotts yet again.
The next day Harry was on his merry way to Gringotts. This time, without a watcher who will report everything he saw to the Twinkles.
He skipped towards an unoccupied teller and cleared his throat. The goblin looked up from his documents and shot him an unamused glare.
"Hello, Mr. teller." Harry greeted before the teller could open his mouth.
"Business?" The goblin asked, annoyed.
"I would like to know what services Gringotts provides." Harry stated, shocking the goblin.
The vicious creature looked at him with a spark of respect for using his brain, something that is among wizards seen only rarely and passed him a book named, Gringotts and its services.
Harry took the book and was promptly ignored by the goblin. He went to the area with seats and started to read through it. When he was finished, he was completely flabbergasted at the stupidity of wizards!
Gringotts safeguards the gold, artifacts, books of a family, or anything they deposit into their vault. That's about it when it comes to their banking services. The riches earn no interest by being stored in Gringotts. Gringotts don't invest money for wizards nor does it offer to manage their businesses. It was nothing like the well of knowledge, called fanfictions, described! They were basically just a very costly warehouse with good safety measures.
When the family line dies and no heir is found in a century, Gringotts confiscates the entirety of the vault. There are a few exceptions, namely being Merlin's vault and Founder's vaults because even goblins can't access those without someone of their blood. Not that they did not try.
Borrowing from goblins is a fool's errand. The interests alone would butcher anyone stupid enough to do it. And if they can't pay? There are always mines under Gringotts where they and their family can disappear until the debt is paid. Except, in this case, the debt itself doubles. After all, they are not repaying in gold but menial labor! And the value of such is a lot less! They have to be fair!
The same goes for goblin-crafted artifacts. They consider them theirs and only 'borrowing' them to wizards who issued them. Of those, they are very possessive. Don't let goblins catch you with a goblin artifact that you or your family didn't issue. That could end badly for you. Very badly indeed.
Harry just shook his head in exasperation. The entire Gringotts service sounded more like extortion than banking. Even the monthly fees were ridiculous! There was a bare minimum fee for poorer wizards and then there was a fee for wealthy 'clients'. The little scammers calculated the fees by how much gold is deposited in the vault. The more there is, the bigger the fees.
'And nobody complained so far? How?' Harry thought with a frown. 'I thought they lost the rebellions. This looks like a win to me though.'
Alas, there was nothing Harry could do. He swiftly skimmed through the offered services as a beautiful smile bloomed on his face. He can't access Potter vault. Hell, he can't even inquire about it without his magical guardian knowing. But maybe he could…
He approached the same teller as before and again cleared his throat.
The teller yet again scowled at him in annoyance as he had to abandon his documents yet again, making Harry's smirk widen.
"I would like to request a blood inheritance ritual." Harry said, making goblin's mouth snap shut. He also deposited the needed ten galleons on the counter, annoying the creature even more.
Harry was ushered into a room with an old goblin in a shamanic tunic. In the middle of the room was a golden goblet connected to an intricate ritual circle drawn on the ground. The goblin shaman sneered at Harry and harshly passed him an ornate dagger.
"Three drops of blood." The creature grunted and gestured at the goblet.
Harry smiled and sliced his finger, letting three drops fall into the goblet. The goblin quickly confiscated the dagger and discreetly put it into his pocket. Seeing it, Harry's lips twitched upwards in amusement.
"You are not allowed to use my blood for anything else than this particular blood inheritance ritual." Harry flippantly stated, laughing his ass off in his head due to the rage-filled scowl the goblin shaman gave him as both felt the very obvious shift in the magic in the blood.
"Very well." The goblin sneered with utter contempt and proceeded to do the ritual with gritted teeth, doing his best to show Harry how worthless he considers him.
Harry considered coming to Gringotts more. The little ugly beasts were so much fun to screw with! But even he understood it would most likely be detrimental to his health in the long run. One of these times the short scowlers would find a way to fuck him over sideways and it could very well be the end-game for him. No matter how much fun he had with goblins, he would give them a wide berth unless necessary.
If he didn't forbid the goblin to use his blood, who knows what kind of vile ritual would it be used for? After all, it was willingly given blood. The goblin could do anything with it, ranging from harmless things like legally fucking him over either by betrothing him, getting access to Potter vault, or signing some magically binding contract in his blood to cursing his entire bloodline, enslaving him, or keep track of his whereabouts anytime they wanted. True, most of those would need some additional steps willingly done by Harry himself. They can't really sign the contract in blood for him but what if they gave him a quill with his own willingly given blood instead of ink? There are many loopholes in magic and these shorties had literally centuries and a lot of debtors in their mines to research them thoroughly.
Blood is an impossibly strong binder in magic. It is one of the most powerful magical ingredients. It is also the best conductor for rituals. And when the blood is given willingly… now that's just plain cheating. It is very hard to get willingly given blood though. Just picking up a bloodstain on the battlefield doesn't really count, you see. But having Harry willingly slice his own finger? Now that is a nice loophole. The blood was after all given willingly. All of it. Even the remainder of blood staining the dagger.
Nay. No way Harry is leaving his blood in the hands of these greedy beasts that are most likely already preparing for the next rebellion.
The ritual started and the circle under the goblet shined in bright red. It slowly spread through the room, sending a wisp of energy towards the floor, down to the vaults. Harry, enraptured by the magic bending according to the ritual watched the happenings with his special perception. He watched in amazed horror as the ritual checked magic signatures of specific vaults and compared them with his own magic and blood signature to find out if he has a right to the vault or not.
His horror was caused by the sole fact the ritual in itself used enough magic to bring down the entirety of Gringotts if the magic was channeled through a simple Bombarda spell!
By the quiet grumbling of the goblin shaman, Harry noted the shaman didn't feel what he did nor had he any control over the magic of the ritual after he initiated it. Harry sighed in relief, thanking Merlin for that.
'Yes. I will definitely dabble in rituals after seeing this little demonstration. If even a worthless ritual such as this can gather so much power from ambient mana then…' Harry's face split into a megawatt grin that sent chills through the goblin's spine.