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dragonhideboots (dragonhideboots) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-03-17 22:07:00

Entry tags:

!1998: 03, !incomplete, bill weasley, harry potter, hermione granger, ron weasley

Who: Bill Weasley and Hermione Granger (Ron and Harry might join eventually?)
When: Late afternoon
Where: Shell Cottage
What: Bill stumbles upon Hermione making some plans and advises on Gringotts security.
Rating/Status: No warnings. In progress.

Bill arrived home with feet dragging. Despite his best efforts, he'd caught the cold that'd been going around the bank (and the same that Hestia had, he suspected). He'd left early despite the increased workloads put on him at the bank. No amount of Pepper-Up was going to keep him sitting in there for a minute longer. He'd promised to take some case files home in exchange for the early departure and he planned on working on them under a blanket in the study in that big leather chair he liked so much.

He was also happy to get out early because he didn't particularly like the thought of the Trio, Luna, and Griphook hanging about the house by themselves while he and Fleur were at the bank. Their schedules were different, but did overlap a good bit, and Bill always rushed home anxiously, somehow expecting the worst when he usually found the group just playing idle games of chess or reading.

Clearing his throat for the hundredth time that day, Bill entered the cottage and shed his coat before fixing himself a cup of lemon tea in the kitchen. Harry and Ron were staying in the study on camp cots, but Bill'd seen them on his way in and figured they wouldn't mind him taking back the space for a bit. He opened the door, tea and work files in hand, stopping in surprise to find Hermione in the room with a spread of documents, looking very much at work.

"Oh, hello," he said casually. "Didn't think anyone was in here. Came home a bit early. Mind if I join you?"

He turned his head to look discretely one of the large papers nearby. It was a plan of a building, and it looked eerily familiar...

"Mind if I ask what you're up to?" he added.

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-18 02:57 am UTC (link)

Hermione was generally very good about planning out her studies so that she wasn't caught with things out, but she'd been going over her translation of Dumbledore's notes again, the bit about the Cup and the Diadem, and had forgotten that the blueprints Griphook had drawn for them that she'd been going over earlier with Harry and Ron were still unrolled on the table.

When he spoke, her eyes went wide for a moment, and she snapped closed her notes and reached for the map, starting to roll it up. She said, "Nothing important," and sounded hurried and caught, and for all the world like she wished he wouldn't ask any more questions about it, even though she knew he would.

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-18 03:05 am UTC (link)

"Really?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "I know you three are trying to do this on your own, but it doesn't mean you can let the rest of us in on part of the plans or at least help with some of it."

He set his files down on the table and sunk into the big leather chair with a sniffle.

"I didn't mean to sneak up on you, but I've got the rest of the day off and that drawing looks suspiciously like Gringotts, so if there is something I can do, I'm offering to help."

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-18 03:14 am UTC (link)

Hermione pursed her lips, still feeling caught, but she sat back down and let the parchment map roll back out across the cluttered desk. It was unmistakeably Gringott's, but there was no way she could tell him anything they'd been discussing about it earlier.

"I know that we've been secretive, since we've come here. We don't mean to be rude, you've been very hospitable..." That sounded like a supremely weak explanation. "But I can't tell you what we're looking for. It's important, for Harry, that it stays a secret. Dumbledore wanted it that way."

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-18 03:23 am UTC (link)

He leaned back in the chair and thought for a moment.

"I don't doubt that you three have big plans and that you know what you're doing, but if that's Gringotts, and I have a very good feeling it is, then you're going to be faced with some incredibly difficult security measures."

He cleared his throat with an irritated grimace and continued.

"I'm sure Griphook has given you a wealth of information, but remember that both Fleur and I work on the inside and still have general access. I trust you enough to say that I don't need to know what you're trying to get to in order for me to help you."

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-18 04:31 am UTC (link)

Hermione thought about that for a moment. They'd talked about whether or not asking Bill would have been a good idea, but they hadn't been able to agree. She didn't think they'd ever gotten past the idea that they'd have to divulge the horcruxes if they were going to ask for help from the Order. If Bill was offering without their having to...

She looked at him, then back at the map. "There's a vault, a very old, very deep vault, that we need in to. It's likely one of the oldest in the bank." And likely to have the highest security measures available, but she didn't think she had to tell Bill that.

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-22 03:37 am UTC (link)

"Old vault means old money, which means pureblood," Bill said, nodding. "Can I look at the map?"

He leaned forward and took a long sip of his tea, wincing a little as he swallowed.

"The first obstacle is just getting and past the front desks. Anyone going downstairs needed a goblin guide before, but with the new security measures, you actually might have an easier time getting through with the wizard security. Polyjuice is the obvious first choice, though their are methods in place to detect it once you try to get into a cell and it recognizes the false form. Griphook might have a better way of getting around that obstacle than me."

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-23 01:15 am UTC (link)

Hermione handed him the map with her lips pursed, she wasn't sure she should tell him specifically which vault, but he might have better advice, too, if he knew.

"It's the Lestrange family vault we need in to," And remembering what Lestrange had done to them, capturing them, breaking her wand, she couldn't help but really spit out the name. "Griphook has been helping, but he's sure that's the right vault. He was trying to get in to it when the mess at Gringott's happened."

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-23 01:55 am UTC (link)

"Lestrange, huh?" Bill said, taking the map and scanning it. The location looked right, at least. "It's going to be hard to get down there, especially to that section. Even if Polyjuice won't fool a vault, it'll fool the staff."

He thought for a moment and his eyes suddenly widened.

"There's a back employee entrance to the building," he said. "Sometimes, if we have high-profile clients, they'll be escorted through there by staff. If there were some way for you three to be disguised as an old blood family and their financial planner or something, I imagine I could walk you through there quite easily. I have enough contact with these groups through my department that a meeting with some old money about their estate planning wouldn't seem out of place."

He studied the map for a few more seconds and then tapped his finger on the box representing the vault.

"This is where we'll run into trouble. Griphook will raise suspicion if he's walking with us. We'll need to disguise him in some way that'll keep him unnoticed until we get down there, and then he'll have to do the work of getting into the room."

Glancing at the closed study door, he asked, "Is he around, do you know? It might be good to pick his brain about some of this, and I've got a proposition to discuss with him anyway."

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-23 02:10 am UTC (link)

"I think he's in the back garden," Hermione said, leaning up enough to watch where he was tapping. "Other goblins support Griphook, though, if he could just be kept out of sight...Did you want me to go and get him?" She sighed, taking the map back though and leaning back in the seat again, instead.

"We've trusted polyjuice so many times, but it hasn't gotten us in much trouble yet, so I suppose. If we could somehow get something from the Lestranges to make it more authentic, that might be better." Her thoughts went to Neville, to what she knew of his parents, and her mouth set into a determined sort of line.

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-23 02:21 am UTC (link)

"I don't know how we'd get it from them," Bill said. "Unless we waited and hoped they came to the bank and didn't notice me yanking their hair or something."

He gave her a crooked smile.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll go grab him. I need a tea refill anyway."

He left her in the study and stopped in the washroom for a swig of Pepper-Up before fixing some more tea in the kitchen and taking the steaming mug outside to the garden, scanning the landscape for the goblin.

"Griphook?" he called, shivering. "It's Bill. Are you out here?"

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-23 02:39 am UTC (link)

"Out there, in here," Griphook was sitting on an overturned log, looking out over the tempest of the waters below the cliffs, his warty nose scrunched up in something that looked exceedingly like distaste. Or maybe worry. If he had to be trapped with some wizard, he supposed he could do worse than Bill Weasley, but he wasn't liking his position any more now than he had in the basement of Grimmauld.

Back in the study, Hermione rolled the map back up and then made a quick note to herself in her translation notes before she shrunk down everything enough to put into her satchel and then left the study, finally. She should tell Ron and Harry that she had talked to Bill about it – she only found Ron, though, first, and so she tugged him into the room he and Harry were sharing.

“I told Bill enough about Gringott’s that he could help us,” was how she started. “Not the horcruxes or the hallows, obviously, but about needing into Lestrange’s vault….”

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geroffme
2010-03-23 02:45 am UTC (link)

Ron let himself be tugged, probably hoping for some sort of exchange that didn't involve plans and maps and outlandish plans that were sure to see them all horrifically murdered. ... But things had gone back to normal, more or less. He made a face, just slightly put out.

"Well ... that's good," he conceded. There was no one else he would have trusted to get them in safely and unbetrayed. Poking around in the Lestrange vault still felt like suicide, but that was that. "He'll get us inside, if anyone can. But he'd damn well better have a fool-proof plan for getting us out."

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sonofastag
2010-03-23 11:55 pm UTC (link)

Harry had been outside too, but had seen Bill approaching Griphook, and headed inside. The goblin was helping hem, and he seemed all right - but something about him just gave Harry a case of the creeps, most of the time.

He let himself back into the cottage, shrugging out of the coat Bill and Fleur had gotten for him, and walked in to the room he shared with Ron, stopping when he saw Hermione and him standing there. "Ermm. . ." Harry was really rubbish at telling when they were having a hushed conversation about saving he wizarding world, and when they were having a quietly awkward conversation he really should back out of the room to let them have alone, most of the time.

Hermione looked at him though, and Harry guessed it was the former, so he didn't make one more in a series of lame excuses to give them room to possibly snog. (Or, more likely, not snog and eventually snap at each other.) "What's up?" Hermione repeated what she'd told Ron, and Harry nodded. "Yeah. . . I think it's better to tell Bill. Griphook nows loads, but Bill does too, and I trust him a lot more. If he thinks he can help, then I believe it. . . but we still don't know how to get into the Vault." They could polyjuice, but that raised the question of how you got Lestrange hair. Without dying in the process, since it wouldn't do much good then.

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-24 09:23 pm UTC (link)

Outside, Bill strode down to the cliff edge where Griphook sat. He perched on a nearby rock, coat wrapped around himself. He didn't particularly want to be out in the cold with a cold, but he knew he'd get more out of Griphook if he was gracious and patient with the goblin. Asking him inside for selfish reasons likely wasn't a good first move.

"Hello," Bill said. "I hope I'm not interrupting you. I was just speaking to Hermione. She told me about how they're attempting to break into Gringotts and she showed me that brilliant map you drew. I think we've started really trying to formulate a plan for a break in. Obviously, you know more than me about the place. If I get some mead for the lot of us, do you want to join us in the study and try to figure this out?"

"And," Bill added. "Before we get to that, I wanted to ask you about something else. I know you're aware of what's happened at the bank recently and I think it's horrible. The goblin employees are the most important part of Gringotts and this is definitely something the Order doesn't support. I was speaking with Lupin, you know, the werewolf? We were talking about the pack and how the reason a number of the werewolves turned to Voldemort was because of monetary compensation. I suggested a fund could be set up by the Order to help sway them back to our side. Do you think that the Gringotts goblins would be willing to negotiate a loan for the Order in exchange for our support? And once the War is done, we'd put pressure to get freedoms restored and the loan repaid?"

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cerebralwitch
2010-03-26 02:55 am UTC (link)

Griphook was pleased to have a financial question to think on, to be honest, and seemed to think about it for a moment before he made a short gesture which could have passed for a shrug. "We wouldn't involve ourselves at all if we couldn't see which way things were going for those who weren't wizards. They already order we can't keep wands, it was only a matter of time before these steps ... but I do not imagine there are goblins enough left in power to extend a loan. You need a wizarding loan officer on your side, and then goblins to offer the backing."

Upstairs, Hermione was heartily agreeing with Harry. "We should go down, then," She pointed out. "And plan things out. If we had a way to disguise ourselves as the Lestranges it would be far easier."

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geroffme
2010-03-26 03:03 am UTC (link)

"Great," Ron muttered, knowing it wasn't worth putting up any sort of real argument. It was the right direction to move in, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Disguise meant Polyjuice, and that was never pleasant. "I think I might actually rather go back to being that Muggle woman than walk around in one of those bastards' shoes. - Maybe Griphook will know some other way." Maybe he could disguise himself as a goblin. That would be slightly preferable.

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sonofastag
2010-03-27 02:56 am UTC (link)

Harry looked thoughtful, lips pursing for a moment. He had an idea for polyjuice. He didn't know if it would work, and he knew damn well Hermione and Ron wouldn't like it. So he kept it to himself.

He couldn't help but grin a little at Ron. "Well. . . if you'd rather walk about in women's shoes, we can let you be Bellarix, or someone else in knickers?" he suggested innocently. "I mean if you've got a taste for it now. Nothing wrong with that. We could ask Fleur to get you some skirts?"

Harry sidestepped out of smacking range, or tried to, and nodded to Hermione. "Yeah, let's go talk to Bill." He ducked out the door quickly.

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dragonhideboots
2010-03-27 08:36 pm UTC (link)

"Right," Bill said to Griphook as they began to walk inside. "The thing is, we'd need to do this...well, 'under the table' as they say. If I have my history right, the goblins have a share in the original investment of the bank, correct? The money that was used to found it and the interest accrued is property and right of the goblin board of the bank. Rather than attaching our names to any papers through an official bank transaction, this would have to be a rather private loan. We could do a binding contract...I know a bloke who can perform the spell."

It was incredibly risky to do a binding deal with a goblin, but if anyone knew the risk involved it was Bill. Besides, if they lost, they'd have nothing left anyway. If they won, the loan would be repaid over time.

"We can talk more about it later," Bill said. "I just wanted to bring it up as a possibility."

He held the door open for the goblin and then headed inside too, grateful to be warm again and digging in his pocket for a handkerchief to deal with a runny nose.

Just as he turned toward the study, he nearly ran smack into Harry.

"Looks like we're all headed to go talk to each other. How's the den sound? I'll get some snacks."

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