A quick casual questions around the office informed Harry that Malfoy was on leave all week and wasn't scheduled back in the office until the Monday after the New Year's.
Harry relaxed into his chair and started in on the paperwork. There was the New Gringotts' case he had to detail out his notes on which kept him busy up until lunchtime. Still, he found a few pieces missing from his report and he thought he might have to go back to the New Gringotts to ask a few more questions. He wondered if Ron would want to go with him.
"Sure," Ron said enthusiastically. "There's a new pastry shop that just opened up and I wanted to get something from there..." Of course, that didn't surprise Harry. "For Hermione, you know."
"Right," Harry said with a wink and went to grab his coat and travelling cloak. "Let's get the questioning out of the way. Then we can get lunch."
-
They arrived at Diagon Alley and headed up the road towards where the New Gringotts was. The shops of Diagon Alley were never shy in sporting the Christmas spirit, still Harry felt as though maybe it was becoming a bit too much. Even the leather whips and chain shop that was new to the Alley had a Santa on the window was flogging a leather whip around. Ron nearly choked at Santa's not so very Santa suit.
"Let's get this over with," Ron said and they walked into the front doors of the New Gringotts.
Harry asked to see the Manager and he and Ron were led to his office right away. The Manager had reported the culprit they'd caught had no association with the Wizarding Bank, but upon more investigation, it'd turned out Borys Gleb used to have an account at New Gringotts but it was terminated.
"Oh, we were hoping you wouldn't bring that up..." the man said.
"Why? Why was his account terminated? When we'd caught him and questioned him, you would have to know he'd tell us that information," Harry said.
"He was very demanding and we didn't like—I mean, we weren't a good match..."
"Why?" Ron asked, and Harry was glad he'd chimed in. With two Aurors, the man would cough out the truth.
"Why shall it matter? He was caught wasn't he?"
"Yes. But we need to know his motivation behind causing a ruckus at New Gringotts, so we can make sure it doesn't happen again," Harry said.
"It won't happen again," the man said. "We have higher security—"
"Just tell us the truth," Ron said, his voice taking a more authoritative tone. It wasn't even Ron's case, but Harry was happy to share the responsibility. He knew Malfoy had brought the case to the Ministry as the bank staff didn't even want to report the incident in the first place.
"Some of our elite clients aren't comfortable with individuals like Mr Gleb, and he didn't have much wealth in his vault so we asked him to see services elsewhere," the man said, albeit a bit reluctantly.
"You discriminated against the man? Why?" Ron asked.
"We didn't discrimina—"
"Don't lie, Sir," Harry said, irritated.
"Gleb. I know that name," Ron said, and Harry was about to say they'd just caught the man so naturally, the name would be familiar, but the look in Ron's eyes indicated something more. "Remember, Harr, when we were just in training, Gleb...it was one of the Death Eaters we'd caught in Donechchyna?" Then Ron turned around and looked at the Manager.
"That was many years ago," Harry said as he turned, too.
"You discriminated against him because his family was once Voldemort empathizer?"
"Gleb is only twenty now, so that means, when his relative was caught, he was a kid. He wouldn't have been—"
"You can see why we were right though," the Manager said. "He started a riot in the New Gringotts' and harassed our employees—"
"Because you wrongfully terminated his account," Ron said. "Trust me; I'm no former Death Eater empathizer for this is pure illegal. The man had nothing to do with the war, or its supporters."
"I knew there was more to this than what'd met the eye," Harry said.
"We're going to have to report this," Ron said, turning towards Harry and Harry nodded.
"File what exactly?" the Manager asked, his voice quavering.
Harry stood up first, and then Ron followed him. They peered down at the New Gringotts' Bank Manager when Harry spoke, "The suit of prejudice to the Ministry's Central Department of International Banking. I happen to know the Department Chair."
As they walked out of the office, Ron chuckled slightly. "Hermione's going to have a field day with this."
Harry laughed along with Ron and he was feeling great. He was glad he'd caught the minor detail in the Junior Auror's notes and followed up on the lead. After the war, the Purebloods were constantly discriminated against and Kingsley had wanted to make sure it didn't happen when he was in charge. He didn't want the wizarding world to get away with any more legal bias. Everyone would be treated equally, regardless of the fact that this time, it was the Purebloods who were the victims. Harry looked up to Kingsley as a strong symbol and was happy to follow his lead.
Every fibre of his being that was feeling confident came crashing down when he exited the bank with Ron and heard his name.
"Potter."
Malfoy was standing just outside, and it was probably coincidence they came across each other.
"Malfoy," Harry said with a start, and then forgot how to speak. So much for not seeing him until Friday evening.