The Contract

Chapter 2

The goblins not only sent an Owl to him, but he learned as he read the missive that there was another means of magical transportation. Apparently it was called Portkey, and it was five o'clock in the morning, they evidently didn't sleep. The Dursley's wouldn't be up for at least two more hours. Hopefully that would be long enough for him to get his answers. He had no idea what would happen afterwards, if he would have to come back here or not. Biting his lip as anticipation mixed with worry, he hastily got dressed in his best clothes, best being the least big and ruined. How Dudley managed to get holes in his clothes Harry had no idea. He didn't do anything, all he did was sit around pigging out or playing video games.

"Trerx," Harry murmured, and the letter glowed very briefly before Harry felt a tugging at his naval as he was yanked. Harry literally felt like he had been yanked out of his body before being slammed back into it. Embarrassingly he fell immediately upon landing. Grunting, he scrambled to his feet, his cheeks flaring red as he observed two goblins in the room.

"Good morning, Trerx," Harry said, "Griphook," remembering both of them well enough, Griphook had taken him to his vault just days before. He'd also been the one to tell him what happened to anyone who tried to break in.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter, my apologies for the long wait," Trerx stated, giving no excuse for the wait he'd had to endure. Not that it was a secret, unfortunately, the news was splashed all over the papers. Gringotts had been broken into the very day Harry had come, but he knew it was nothing to do with the teen. No, it was all because of the blasted stone which had been entrusted to them merely a week ago after being delivered from Paris, France. Nicolas Flamel was entrusting it to Dumbledore apparently, bad idea that, frankly he would be surprised if Nicolas ever saw it again, Dumbledore was up to something.

"It's okay," Harry replied, his tone demure, quite honestly, he hadn't expected to really hear from them. He was just so used to being let down by everyone around him. Called a liar or just being made out to be one, he'd all but given up on anyone actually keeping their word. The fact he had, endeared him further towards the goblins. Stretching down, he plucked the letter from the floor and slid it into his pocket.

"Take a seat," Trerx said, and both goblins took a seat on the large ornate desk.

Harry noticed right away, that this was a different room from before. It was small, warm and cosy, evidently an office of sorts judging by the silver metal file containers that lined the room. Once again though, they had dozens upon dozens of weapons affixed to the walls. The fireplace was roaring cheerfully, and Harry's stomach growled loudly when he spotted the food on the table along with files that he saw had 'Potter' on them in a perfect elegant scrawl. Not that he paid much attention, most of his was on the food, unobtrusively he thought, but the Goblins were paying considerably close attention to him. So, of course, they noticed.

Shaking it off, he slid into the seat, which was nicely padded and even felt warm too. Completely different from the sterile environment he had sat through the last time. He wondered if this was one of their offices, it would make sense for it to be. "Did you find a way?"

"Griphook and I looked through everything conceivable, normally we would tell you to find that out yourself and not to just trust us." Trerx informed him seriously, "Wizards have a propensity to trust everything they are told and not double check the findings." Griphook snorted in obvious agreement.

Harry stared at them in barefaced disbelief, not buying it for a second.

"Not all, just the majority," Griphook admitted with a grunt, it was quite disgusting to see them signing documents just because they told them what they said without fact checking everything. They drummed it into their customers to never sign anything without first signing it yourself.