บท 40: Chapter 40
She noticed the goblin looked agitated as he spoke. She tried to see where this was going.
Ragnok closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "Then, two years ago, something happened that had never happened before. Two adult witches, sisters, one born a half-hour after the other, were to inherit a modest amount, and the will stipulated that the older sister would inherit the majority, including an old gauntlet. The gauntlet was tied to the family magics. When the older sister attempted to take possession, the gauntlet rejected her, causing her great pain. We were puzzled, and re-took blood from the two sisters. Just like we thought, the older sister had been born first. It took some of our cleverest researchers days to figure out what had happened. When we adjusted our ritual to write down not just date-of-birth, but years lived as well, we saw that the younger sister was now older."
Daphne could now see where this was going. This was not good.
"It turned out that the younger sister had once journeyed with a time-turner, and was now a half-hour older than the older sister." Ragnok opened his eyes. "This might sound like a one off, but it isn't. We've been dealing with the shifts in time of our clients for hundreds of years. It's not something we're unfamiliar with. We had to go through all our records and re-adjust them all to include a 'current-age' line. Hundreds-of-thousands of documents. We had to re-take blood from many of our major clients, and introduce new rules requiring taking blood before any age related decision is made. Somehow, something had happened to change the very laws of magic. And eventually, we determined the change had happened in the summer of 1988, in late July or early August."
Morgana's bum. She glanced at Harry again, who hadn't moved an inch the whole time.
"The same time that you, a time-traveller who has travelled further than anyone outside of myth and legend, took a lordship, which your date-of-birth should have precluded you from taking." Ragnok's knuckles were white where he gripped his desk. "You, Lord Slytherin, somehow changed the laws of magic."
Her heart pounded. Was this the moment a dozen goblin guards would pile into the room, and drag them away?
Harry opened his mouth. "I didn't."
"…"
"…"
"Then what?"
"It is as you said. Only the higher powers can change the laws of magic."
Ragnok's voice softened. "One of the higher powers intervened in the world, and changed the laws of magic, to give you a lordship?"
"Two higher powers actually."
"Karzak Turlk!" Ragnok swore.
"Can we assume your discretion in this matter?"
Ragnok looked at her betrothed as though he had grown five extra heads. "Lord Slytherin. I will have to make a report to my king, but other than that I will do my best to endeavour your secrets stay secret. I always do for all my clients, and I have no interest in annoying any of the higher powers."
Oh, thank Merlin. It looked like they weren't in trouble. Dragon stomachs were not in her immediate future. Daphne's breathing slowed.
Harry wore the smile of a man who has been told today's weather will be sunny. "Excellent. Then maybe we can move onto other business? I think you'll find it quite interesting."
Ragnok remained silent for several moments. He leaned back, and barked one loud laugh. "Certainly, Lord Slytherin." The goblin flashed that toothy smile once more. "Like I said, I like the interesting ones."
Two hours later, they left the bank. The exchanges after the time-travel revelation had been all business, and the two males had been throwing around many words and phrases Daphne didn't know. The gist of it was that Harry's numbers were mostly correct, that the goblins would look for a suitable piece of land for Slytherin Manor, and they'd be staying in contact by owl while they were at Hogwarts. If everything went well, she and Harry would inspect and approve the site plans during the Christmas break. Construction would begin within weeks, and if everything went well, the manor would be finished less than a year later. Just in time for Christmas of their second Hogwarts year.
She glanced towards her betrothed. "I still can't believe we got out of there alive. I thought we were done for."
Harry grinned. "You doubted me, Daph? I'm hurt."
"Prat."
"You seemed quite happy once we got into discussing the details of the manor. I thought you were going to start picking out curtains."
Her cheeks tinted. "Well, it's important! I mean, I know it's going to be years until we're married, but this is going to be our home for the rest of our lives."
"We have a good six months to talk about the details."
"True."
"There is one thing that worried me though."
"What?"
"Remember when he mentioned our Hogwarts letters, and how they work on family magics?"
"Oh yes." Daphne recalled a short discussion about how various artefacts determined people's ages. "Ragnok called it the Book of Names, but he said it still used date-of-birth, not time-lived."
"Yes… but what name will it give me? Who will my Hogwarts letter be addressed to? What will the class registers refer to me as?"
She immediately saw the problem. "Oh, damn."
"So, to safely get into Hogwarts and confundus the Book of Names, you need to get hold of this invisibility cloak?" Daphne was sat in a Harry-conjured garden chair overlooking the Greengrass flowerbeds, where she'd first seen Harry whip out his wand, two and a-half years ago. Harry sat opposite. An afternoon breeze blew through her long, blonde hair. Birds sang in the trees.
"Yep. And the cloak is in Potter Manor."
"Mmmm…." She thought about it. Harry was testing her, she knew. He often did this. Instead of just telling her what they were going to do, he'd ask her for a plan, and then poke holes in it. She took out a quill, and started doodling on Harry-conjured parchment. Damn, he was useful. Harry went back to his book.
Eventually, she looked up from her work. "Okay. I have it."
Harry gave her a nod to continue.
"Your Weasley girl is tied to the Potter wards, right?"
"You mean Ginny? Yes, she is."
"Right. Ginny. We wait until John Potter tries to invite her over again, then you sneak into the Burrow, stun the male Weasley who's friends with John Potter, and give him draught of living death. Then you levitate him over the Burrow wards where me and Ginny will be waiting. That's so the wards record him leaving." She glanced up to see if Harry was following.
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