Chapitre 18: Chapter 18:
It was the middle of December; the holidays would last until a day after new years, so as to let most families enjoy all the given celebrations, Rodrick would be joining one of his friends for the occasion although he was quite clueless on what to expect.
The quartet of friends was currently inside their own train compartment bound away from Hogwarts. He was quite surprised to find that outside of Hogwarts, snow wasn't all that prominent, compared to the school anyway. It seemed that magic was used to help give the ground around Hogwarts a more wintery feel as well as make it colder. He was sat near one of the corners staring out the window before his attention was called back again. His group of friends had been trying to figure out who the blonde wizard was, Daphne simply couldn't hold onto that piece of information to herself, although, to be fair he never explicitly told her to keep it a secret. When she'd told Tracey, Rodrick only found it fair to tell Blaise. They had been arguing on about it since breakfast, He'd given up early on, he'd told them with no lead they had nothing they could go on. Leave it to wizards to be too stubborn about it. Blaise had actually suggested that Hagrid was in fact in disguise on that day.
Rodrick got up from his seat; his friends stared at him curiously, he shrugged and told them he was trying to get a book out of his trunk. Blaise promptly grabbed his arm and yanked him back onto the seat surprising the boy.
"None of that Rodrick, you've read more books than the rest of our year combined in the past couple months," he said with a tone that brokered no arguments.
Rodrick was still gaping at him; he'd never seen Blaise act like this before. Am I really that bad? He thought. He turned towards the girls in front of him to see their reaction; they were both nodding thoughtfully. Rodrick sighed and kept himself on his seat. It seemed to spite him the rest of the group started grinning at him like vultures. The smiles only dropped when Rodrick threatened to hex all of them; they turned to laughter instead.
Their compartment door opened, Rodrick turned his head to see the intruder, Draco Malfoy.
"Ah, wrong cabin," The blonde haired youth muttered before he disappeared out.
It seemed none of his friends had seen the boy; he'd popped his head in and out too quickly.
"Who was that?" asked Daphne.
Rodrick was still staring at the door. "Blonde..." he muttered. Malfoy's father? But why? And why hadn't Draco said anything? He couldn't really be sure, it was somewhat difficult trying to remember the man's features. Probably a spell.
The trio was now staring at each other wondering what was wrong with him.
"You ok?" Blaise asked with a hint of amusement at Rodrick's dazed face.
Rodrick turned to stare at him before muttering. "Yeah. I think I know who came to visit me," the words seemed to anchor all three students attention.
"Who was it?" asked Tracey eagerly, a grin lit up her face.
"I don't know their name," Rodrick replied with a passive voice.
The three students cocked their heads to the side at this; all three stared at each other. Daphne took a wand out and aimed at Rodrick's skull.
"What?" He asked.
"Trying to see if there's anything inside there or not," She said, her lips were trying hard not to twitch up.
"Very funny," The boy replied, "I mean I don't know the particular person, I just know it's probably a Malfoy," he added on.
The three stared at each; they looked like they were having a conversation with their eyes.
"You mean Lucius Malfoy?" asked Blaise.
"Probably, although why he was interested in me, I have no clue." shrugged Rodrick.
Rodrick's mind wandered away from the current moment; he was trying to remember something from the previous night. He remembered feeling stressed out in the morning but couldn't remember why. His Grandfather didn't even show up last night much to his irritation. He was taken out of his thoughts when his friends started to discuss any possible plans during the holiday, Lucius Malfoy completely forgotten. The group, mostly Blaise, had kept on mentioning Rodrick needing a new outfit for the next term. Rodrick scowled when Tracey told Daphne to give him pocket money to save up for the clothes. It seemed the group had found making fun of him an enjoyable pass time. Having enough of all the jokes regarding his current state Rodrick took out the key he'd found the previous night and showed it to the rest.
Daphne swiped it out of his hand with a smile on her face. "I'll be deciding how much you can take out young man," she said in an attempt to sound like an adult, the high pitched voice only gave it a comedic effect.
Rodrick levitated her off the ground, his hand lazily outstretched for the key. The trio laughed far too loudly for her taste; even Tracey couldn't help herself although she had an apologetic look on face. Daphne turned from embarrassed to irritated as she took out her wand and spluttered Rodrick with a water spell.
Daphne took her seat next to Tracey with a grin on her face. Rodrick used a heating spell on himself to dry up his clothes. Once the laughter died down Tracey asked him which vault the key was for but Rodrick shook his head feigning ignorance.
He knew very well whose key it was.
Blaise quipped that he'd stolen the key from his trunk.
"Oh? Which family vault are you talking about? Your names linked to quite a lot."
The two girls tried to hold in their sniggers, Both of them knowing his mom's particular history, Blaise promptly turned off the sarcasm feature in his brain deeming it dangerous to himself.
Rodrick showed the group the note that had appeared with the key, warning him not to use it openly. The group stared at it uneasily, Blaise looked about to say something before he was cut off by Daphne. She'd grabbed the note from his hand and threw it outside one of the windows.
Rodrick somewhat angered yelled out at her, demanding a reason.
She slapped him telling him to be more careful about showing strangers that kind of thing, warning him the ministry could and would order a search on the vault and himself if the note had been seen.
Rodrick stared at her a little shocked but nodded his head. 'Dammit, get it together you idiot.' He admonished himself. Blaise looked like he was barely holding onto his laughter while Tracey only had a worried look on her face. The group spent the rest of the journey contemplating what dark magic, artifacts and at some point dark wizards were hiding in the vault. 'Can these guys take anything seriously for more than a minute?' Thought a bemused Rodrick before he added on that there might be dark creatures inside as well.
When the train had arrived, the group split off to find their respective families, Rodrick stayed back next to Daphne waiting for hers to appear. Alone she turned to him and asked whether he already knew which vault it belonged to, he smiled in response not saying anything. She rolled her eyes before she skimmed through all the families in an attempt to find her parents..
A ball of fluff crashed into her. Rodrick's eye quickly snapped to the sound and found the younger Greengrass girl hands locked around Daphne. He had surprised expression on his face while Daphne looked dazed from the hug.
When she'd seen him the girl's eyes bulged before she shouted out his name. Rodrick put his finger to his mouth in an attempt to quiet her down to Daphne's amusement. The parents showed up after both smiling broadly at their daughter; She leaped into their arms each in a hug when they got close enough.
Rodrick stared at the situation, feeling awkward, unsure of what he should do. Her parents stared at him with a smile which only made him more nervous. Cyrus gave out a hand in an attempt to shake his. Rodrick took it. The awkward atmosphere seemed to grow before he felt Daphne's arms around his shoulder.
Rodrick stared at her when she let go questioningly.
"Well no-one else looked like they were gonna hug you," she said with a straight face. "You looked pretty jealous" she added on with a smirk.
Her parents were staring at their daughter trying to hold their laughter in.
Rodrick finally found his words, "You know if it wasn't awkward before...it is now," he remarked with a stoic expression.
There was a small silence which was followed by laughter from the Greengrass family. Rodrick raised his eyebrows suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea after all. The group greeted each other properly after that. On their way towards the Greengrass Manor, Rodrick and Daphne were quietly whispering to each other trying to decide whether to tell her parents about Malfoys strange interest. The whispering stopped however when Astoria started pouting that no-one was paying her any attention, this led to a strange conversation about never before-heard-of-creatures that the girl had seen in some sort of newspaper. 'What is wrong with this family?' Rodrick shook his head.
Mrs. Greengrass had turned back to the kids and asked them if there was anything they wanted to do for the day. Rodrick mentioned needing a new wardrobe, eliciting a chuckle out of Daphne, who'd seen his muggle clothes already. Roxanne had looked at him before she asked him whether he needed any help regarding money, he quickly shook his head. She gave him a smile and spoke.
"It's not a problem, you saved my daughter's life," She said kindly.
"It's fine really," he said before taking out the key he'd been given.
Roxanne eyed the key out of interest before she whispered something to her husband. Cyrus examined the key in his hand and noticed what kind of vault it might belong to before he smiled and told Rodrick he could take him to Gringotts later. Rodrick gave him his thanks before he fell in step with Daphne. Daphne had a mixed expression on her face; she once again told Rodrick not take it out so often like that in case someone might recognise it.
"Anyway," she added with a small smirk, "Imagine if the vaults empty, would be really awkward if you needed my mothers help then don't you think?" she had a slight twinkle in her eye.
Rodrick frowned slightly, that idea certainly hadn't crossed his mind. his thought, however, was put at ease when Cyrus spoke up.
"That vault is unlikely to be empty; the key's made for a high-security vault, if it belongs to your family then you really shouldn't be too worried."
This prompted a mixed reaction out of the group, Rodrick, and Astoria who were clueless about the whole thing. Daphne who had a thoughtful look on her face, she'd previously been to Gringotts. While Roxanne looked quite relieved knowing he wasn't likely to have concerns about his future. Cyrus explained what entailed Gringotts to assign such a vault to Rodrick on the way to the manor.
They eventually found a small building that belonged to the ministry; it looked like an ordinary office from the outside. When they entered Rodrick was surprised to find a single fireplace. Cyrus explained that these buildings were set by the ministry for any families that lived too far from the station, he flashed Rodrick the key needed to open the door. He had added on that if any other key were used then a simple muggle office would instead appear. Rodrick didn't need to ask to know such a building would've either cost a lot of money to set up or required the right links. Daphne had previously told him that the manor was somewhere in the north of England, he'd expected a much longer journey then this.
Arriving at the Greengrass Manor, Rodrick couldn't help the awed look on his face. The room they had floo'd into was massive, it looked like their dining room if he was correct. It was spacious; there were ornaments on each of the walls followed by different portraits, some of them wizards and some looked like old family photos, each one was moving. The dining table looked to be half the size of one of the house tables at Hogwarts. Expensive looking silverware lined the whole of the table with oak chairs surrounding it. The floor looked almost reflective. There were two suits of armor surrounding the three doors in the room. One Door led to the living room which was in turn connected to a staircase while the other led to a hallway that led to the exit, the third resulted in the kitchens. When they all came out of the fireplace, a strange looking creature popped up in front of them, levitating all their trunks and asking whether the masters needed any food. Astoria dismissed the creature cheerfully; this had prompted a smile to appear on the creatures face before it took all the belongings elsewhere. As Rodrick was looking around examining the room, Daphne explained what a house elf was.
Rodrick was 'treated' to a tour of the mansion, the better word would be dragged around, by Astoria Greengrass. Daphne was currently indulging her parents on everything that had happened over the last few months, anything she hadn't written in a letter anyway. 'Hopefully, she isn't too detailed,' Thought Rodrick, some spells shouldn't be mentioned.
During his tour Rodrick couldn't help but admire the Manor, it had several guest rooms, a large garden filled to the brim with all kinds of flowers, with a large cherry tree near the middle. A backyard presumably used by the girls as a play area (playing here seemed to involve hexing each other nonstop) Astoria told him how they used to have a large shed there, it had apparently disappeared in an 'accident.' There was Cyrus's study which the two children avoided; they also avoided the master bedroom. Daphne and Astoria seemed to have their own rooms, Rodrick would be given one of the guest rooms to stay in, his room was the one next to Daphne's much to Astoria's annoyance, she'd been hoping he could sneak her some sweets. When she'd told him that, he couldn't help the laughter. When he'd seen his room he was quite shocked, it was almost twice the size of the one in the orphanage, and he'd shared that one with two others. There was a single bed with two counters on each side; large curtains covered the windows. It had two indoor closets.
He found his trunk at the bottom of the bed. Rodrick stayed in his room and began to unpack his trunk before he realized that he very likely wouldn't be using any of the things inside, he'd planned to replace all of it as soon as he could. He decided to leave the clothing inside and took out everything else, books, wand and school supplies. He closed the trunk with his clothes and placed it inside the closet. Daphne at this moment had barged into his room before grabbing his hand with a smile on her face. She practically dragged him down back to the dining room where he saw the rest of the family sat around the table. Lunch. The family had an amused look on their face when they noticed Rodrick been dragged around. Roxanne seemed to whisper something to Cyrus's ear and, to Rodrick's surprise the man's expression became pointed, he was half way from glaring at Rodrick, almost appraising him about something. Daphne did not notice, she merely pulled him onto a seat near her. Cyrus's pointed stare didn't leave his direction. Roxanne elbowed him to be a little more civil while trying hard not to laugh.
Lunch was a draining affair, Rodrick knew he had to keep some form of etiquette when eating with a pureblood family, but it was harder than he'd thought.
The adults surprisingly looked at him in approval, for an orphan he was doing quite well. Astoria had taken it upon herself to teach him how to eat. There were so many problems with that, Rodrick didn't know where to start. For one thing, she was on the opposite side of the table, meaning she had to speak quite loudly for him to hear. Second, from the looks of it, she was still learning herself and finally, if the laughter around the table was anything to go by he was either not doing it properly or copying the girl a little too much. Roxanne nudged Daphne's shoulder urging her to help explain some things. Things went a bit more smoothly for him after that.
When lunch was over the family decided to journey to Diagon Alley to get any last minute Christmas shopping done, with the holiday less than ten days away it was best to get everything done early before the rush of wizards started to appear. Rodrick was quite happy; it meant he would get a chance to visit the bank and take out some gold 'if he found any.' Arriving near the center of the area, the group decided to split up, Rodrick wanted to head to the bank immediately. Daphne had at first tried to go with him thinking it might cause a problem if her parents went instead or he was alone. Rodrick was thankful but preferred going by himself; Her father then told her he wouldn't let her go off without a guardian anyway. Rodrick had nodded agreeing to this wholeheartedly before the man used the same excuse on him as well, this caused a small chuckle to come out of the girls. It was decided that the girls would go about their shopping while Cyrus took Rodrick to the bank himself.
He nodded hesitantly.
They were standing outside the bank, Rodrick was staring at his feet wondering whether this was a good idea or not.
Cyrus having noticed his discomfort, asked what the issue was. Rodrick didn't reply.
Cyrus put a hand on his shoulder and got down to face him.
"You know your family," It wasn't a question.
Rodrick stared at the man in front of him for a moment before he nodded slowly.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of you know, even if you're not a pureblood," The man said, surprising Rodrick.
'That's what he thinks the problem is?. Rodrick thought, perplexed, he shouldn't be surprised really. The Greengrass family would obviously have at some point grown up to those ideals. Rodrick raised his head slightly.
"I am not worried about Purebloods not accepting me," the boy started, "I am worried about everyone else going against me for..." Rodrick couldn't finish it. Frankly, he'd said too much as it is.
Cyrus took the hint for what it was; his expression took a sharp edge to its features. "You're not responsible for your family," 'What exactly does he have on his shoulders?' Thought the Greengrass patriarch.
Rodrick's lips took on a weak smile before he turned around and faced the bank. "Can you tell me for certain that I wouldn't be prosecuted if the ministry or anyone else found out what my family did?"
Cyrus felt uneasy, he'd met people who'd had death eaters for family members, but none of them ever acted like this... 'perhaps its bigger than that...' Cyrus thought darkly. The boy was right, there were some wizards that were mistreated for their family members crimes, if this boy's family did something worse, then he might be right to be wary. Cyrus gave him a reassuring smile; he had no intention of harming the boy, especially after what his wife had told him. The boy didn't seem like a bad child at least, he'd be more worried if it were someone similar to Malfoy's brat. Cyrus cleared his mind of the thoughts.
"Does Daphne know?" he asked
"No, I'll probably tell her if she keeps asking though," the boy said with a hint of amusement.
Cyrus let out a soft chuckle before he urged the boy to go on ahead alone.
"If you need any help, feel free to come out and ask me."
Rodrick looked up wide-eyed before he thanked the man and made his way inside the bank.
This wasn't the first time Rodrick had visited the bank however, the last time wasn't to open up a vault. He was here because Lucius Malfoy had needed to get something out of his own vault. He recognized the head table at the front with the familiar goblin, 'Groophick?' Rodrick wondered if that was his name. 'I should probably ask just in case...'
The goblin's name turned out to be Griphook, 'Close enough,' thought Rodrick. He handed him the key, and for a split second Rodrick could've sworn he saw the Goblins eyes bulge. The goblin turned towards him and studied his face before a frown appeared on it.
"You don't look like them," the goblin said.
"Them?" Rodrick replied with a small edge to his voice
The goblin had stared around the room before his attention was brought back to the boy.
"You know who I am referring to."
At this Rodrick bristled, 'Surely he's smarter than this.'
"Then you must understand why I don't look like them...Voluntarily" the boy added.
The goblin's eyes slowly rose before he chuckled, he took out a piece of paper and asked Rodrick for his finger.
Rodrick hesitantly put his finger forward before he a felt a prick on it and saw some blood drip onto the piece of paper. A couple of seconds later and a small pattern seemed to appear on the paper. The goblin quickly scrunched it up and burnt it as soon as he saw it.
"Very well, you are who you say you are," The goblin confirmed.
Rodrick couldn't help the question.
"Who were they?" he blurted out, he knew his grandfather and the fact that he'd never actually married, not publicly anyway, but he hadn't known his parents.
The goblin eyed him for a moment before he asked to follow him.
Rodrick followed the goblin down to the vaults area, it took a while before they reached his vault. On the way, the goblin explained what he knew of his parents.
He was a Grindlewald from his mother's side; she was an only sibling. She had married some pureblood however when Rodrick asked who the person was the goblin couldn't answer. His mother had apparently divorced the wizard after Rodrick had been born so as to keep the Grindlewald name, and of course remove any of the potential traces that came from marital contracts. As a result, Rodrick had no vaults to his name beside the Grindelwald one, at least for now.
"Although I highly doubt you would need another... When your grandfather was in his war, he certainly knew what to collect," The goblin said with a strange sense of respect.
The two wound up having to pass a waterful; the goblin promptly started to stare at Rodrick's face, even more. Rodrick was confused at the sudden action before the goblin spoke.
"So that's what you look like, you really do resemble them, you've your mother's eyes though."
Rodrick stared at the goblin impassively.
"Why would you know such a thing about her," he asked with a dangerous tone to his voice.
The goblin had chuckled before he mentioned that he'd never forget that day.
When Rodrick questioned him more, the goblin gave him a tale he didn't expect.
"Your mother brought you to Gringotts as a babe and practically told every single Goblin there at the time who you were. She forced the head goblin at the time to sign a document stating you as heir and that no one else would be allowed to touch a single part of the vault, not even herself. When the head goblin had argued that you would need a legal guardian before you could open the vault yourself. Your mother took out her wand and threatened him with the killing curse if he didn't agree. The goblin hesitated for a second. The goblin looked almost awed before the next part, "Your mother, without waiting a second further, tortured him," The goblin had a smile on his face at this. "Mind you, we goblins usually have an issue with you wizards attackin our kind, that particular goblin, however, seemed far too fond of the ministry, he'd given too many of your kind far too much liberty. What your mother did was something near half the bloody room had wanted to do at some point. You can understand we were quite happy she showed up. After he had realized no one else would help him, he signed the paper fearing for his life. He resigned that very evening."
Rodrick was shocked, to say the least. When the goblin saw his expression, he couldn't help but chuckle. He was left speechless. He couldn't help the few tears that came to his eyes. His grandfather had explained to him before that she'd been hunted down because some wizard had found out about her name, it was the whole reason he was so wary of anyone else finding it. Hearing this story only made him feel even more guilty thinking about all the things she must've gone through to keep him hidden.
It had taken a while before Rodrick could control his emotions, the two had finally arrived at the vault, the door looked cursed. Rodrick's eyes gaped at it, when he turned to the goblin, he found a way face.
"Your grandfather was a dangerous being..." The goblin turned towards the vault door.
"Touch that door with the wrong blood and key and you'll feel the Torture curse run your body ragged. Which then alerts the sleeping dragon so as to have it chew your head off." The goblin seemed to slow at this part; his eyes looked distant. "And if by some miracle you managed to get in, every object in that room was cursed by him, taking it out of the vault removes the curse and you boy are currently the only one with the blood to do it. Believe me when I say this. You. Do. Not. Want. To. Get. Cursed. By. Gellert Grindelwald,"
Rodrick gulped at the sudden tension that took over, when he stared into the goblins eyes, the look awe and respect disappeared. All he could see was cold, distant eyes. 'What the hell did my grandfather do?' He made a note to ask
Rodrick entered the vault.
His eyes widened; the vault was filled to the brim in galleons, there were rubies, gems, emeralds everywhere. The vault was massive, he spotted three bookshelves inside filled to the brim with Books, the goblin noticed him eyeing the books before he shuddered.
"Apparently some of the darkest magic available. Some old goblin looked through it with Gellert present, he came out with a broken mind, Gellert followed him after chuckling, he said the book wasn't even cursed."
This only seemed to entice the boy, even more, the thought churned the goblin's stomach. Rodrick stared around and found all kinds of different artifacts; he saw several cloaks, rings, capes, necklaces and strange contraptions he'd never seen before. All of them had one thing in common; there was so much magic glowing off them, Rodrick felt suffocated, even the bloody galleons seemed to be cursed. His grandfather did not joke around with his property.
There was one particular item that caught his interest; it was a necklace that hung from a rope attached to the ceiling, it was placed in the middle of the room. Rodrick made to reach it, only to have the goblin stop him. "Everything in this vault is off limits until you turn 17 especially that necklace," Rodrick made to protest before the goblin added on that he would be receiving his own vault filled with Galleons to use for himself. Once he reached 17, it would merge with the main vault, and he would be given complete access. The goblin, however, grumbled that the stuff should be closed off until he was at least 50.
He did, however, mention that his vault would have a far larger amount of galleons that he could take out compared to the average child vault, thanks to his mother's contract. 'His family might- Was crazy as hell, but at least they took their lives seriously.' Thought a bemused Rodrick, there was a lot to get used to.
One thought did enter his mind, however. When did his grandfather have the time to visit Gringotts? As far as history is concerned, when he'd entered the UK he'd stumbled into a duel with Albus Dumbledore. And why did he even have the urge to suddenly hide away this much wealth and never use it himself?
For a strange reason, for once, Rodrick doubted his grandfather might actually answer his questions
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone