Chapter 14
The Closing of Gringotts
Just a couple hours after his conversation with McGonagall and Dumbledore, Harry sat on his bed in Ron’s room reading a defense against the dark arts book Sirius and Lupin had given him the previous Christmas when he heard the front door open and a number of voices downstairs. Wondering what it could be about, he carefully bookmarked his page (he had been studying counter-jinxes for lessons with the DA), opened the bedroom door and descended the stairs. He was surprised to see Ron, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Ginny standing in the entry hall, apparently having cut their trip to Diagon Alley short.
Mrs. Weasley was talking animatedly to McGonagall, while Tonks and Lupin spoke to each other in hushed voices, both looking gravely serious.
“That’s right, closed! Wouldn’t let a single soul in,” Mrs. Weasley sputtered in indignation. “Had an entire mob surrounding the place asking for an explanation, but not one word. No sign or anything. First Bill, now this, the nerve of those nasty little creatures!” Professor McGonagall looked back at her with a frown.
“Closed? What could it mean…” McGonagall repeated.
“And of all the days to do it too!” Mrs. Weasley said in a huff. “We couldn’t buy any of the books, or clothes, nor potion ingredients…I’d bet half the students at Hogwarts won’t be ready for school tomorrow. Quite a time for the goblins to go on vacation!”
“I think this is much more serious than the goblins simply going on vacation, Molly,” Lupin said, breaking away from Tonks. His statement was met with an uneasy silence.
By this time Harry had reached the bottom of the stairs and joined the group. He leaned over to Ron and whispered. “What happened? Why are you back so soon?” Ron shook his head.
“We got there all right, everything seemed normal until we went to Gringotts. There was a whole crowd of people gathered around the place waiting to get in but the doors were shut. Some old bloke told us he had been waiting to get in the whole day. We waited around for a couple hours or so, thinking it was some kind of joke, but nothing happened. We weren’t able to get anything for school”all our money’s in there. Tonks and Lupin reckon something’s going down, something to do with V…Voldemort.”
They remained in confusion until late that night when Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mr. Weasley entered the house.
“Arthur! Kingsley!” shouted Mrs. Weasley as she ran to her husband. “Do you know what is going on?”
Mr. Weasley looked extremely tired. He paused for a second before talking and sighed before speaking. “The goblins have joined You-Know-Who, Molly.”
“Or at least You-Know-Who has persuaded them not to help us,” added Shacklebolt in his deep baritone voice.
Mrs. Weasley inhaled sharply and put her hand over her mouth. Harry exchanged nervous glances with Ron and Ginny.
“But, what about our school stuff? We’re not going to have anything…” Ron said hesitatingly.
“You’ll just have to make do,” was Mrs. Weasley’s replied sharply. Looking around at the nervous faces of Lupin, Tonks, Shacklebolt and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry could tell missing school supplies were the least of their worries.
The headline of the Daily Prophet the next day confirmed their fears. Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny were sitting in the back of a surprisingly roomy taxi that Mundungus Fletcher had “borrowed” for the trip to King’s Cross while Tonks read the article out loud:
“The wizarding world was shocked yesterday to find that Gringott’s, the largest financial institution in Britain, has been closed indefinitely. Hundreds of angry witches and wizards waited outside the bank in vain as the magical steel doors remained closed to the public. No explanation on the curious action was given until late last night, when head banker Griphook Kerchek issued the following statement from an upper balcony of the bank: ‘I am pleased to announce the indefinite closing of Gringotts and subsequent barring of all humans from our services. All gold contained in said institution is hereby confiscated.’
“Griphook, accompanied by other Gringotts officials and a number of security trolls, then went on to cite a number of alleged wizard injustices against the goblin race, including the Cambershook Massacre of 1630 and the Dervey Warlock Pact of 1812 (for the Ministry rebuttal to these charges see pages 3-6). Griphook’s final words as he retreated into the bank were: ‘You humans will not see even a knut until proper restitution for these crimes is made.’” Tonks read the last line slowly.
“This is not good,” said Lupin heavily.
“Only good goblin’s a dead goblin, I say!” blurted out Mundungus, swerving just in time to miss a post box.
Not until they reached Platform 9¾, however, did Harry realize the full impact of what the goblins joining Voldemort meant to the wizarding world. While there was usually an atmosphere of excitement and love as parents bid farewell to their children, today it was gone, replaced by a sense of panic and apprehension. Most of the parents stood huddled together in groups of three or four, each holding a copy of today’s Daily Prophet and talking in quick, panicked tones. Many of the students looked at the grown-ups and around the station with worried looks on their faces. Some of the younger children were crying. Harry was anxious to get on the Hogwarts Express.
As they made their way through the crowd a number of parents looked at Harry in astonishment and whispered to each other.
“Look, it’s Harry Potter!”
“It really is him!”
“Between him and Dumbledore, somehow we’ll get out of this mess.”
A couple of people even approached him.
“Hello Mr. Potter. I just wanted to tell you that I believed in you all along,” said one man, a tall, lean, middle-aged wizard who grabbed his hand and shook it enthusiastically.
Not three steps later a plump old witch dragging a small, shy looking boy behind her scurried towards Harry with her arm outstretched. “Greetings Harry! This is my son Quinn, he’s just starting at Hogwarts. You’ll watch out after him, won’t you?”
Soon Harry was desperate to get on the train. After saying a quick good-bye to Mrs. Weasley, Tonks and Mundungus, he leapt on board, dragging his luggage (which was considerably lighter this year) behind him.
“Wow Harry, you went from nutter to hero in just one summer,” Ron said in amazement as he climbed on board, followed by Hermione and Ginny.
Hermione huffed indignantly as she looked back at the gathered crowd waiting on the platform. “Two months ago most of these people were slandering you and Dumbledore. Now they’re waiting for you to save them. People can be so stupid.”
“Yeah Harry, no pressure or anything, but you’ve got to save us all,” Ginny said with a laugh. “You’ll especially make sure nothing happens to my poor little Ron, won’t you?”
Harry somehow found it hard to laugh.
“Well, we’ve got to go to the Prefects compartment,” said Hermione gesturing to Ron (who had a look of distaste on his face). “We’ll check with you later. Let’s go Ron.”
Harry and Ginny found an empty compartment and stowed their luggage. They hadn’t been there a minute when the door slid open and they were joined by Neville Longbottom.
Of all the years they had spent at Hogwarts together, Harry had never seen as big a change in Neville over a summer as he did this one. While he hadn’t grown a whole lot, there was something in his countenance that looked older, more mature. His face was still plump, but there was a sober, almost determined look in his eyes. Harry thought back to the letters Neville had written him over the summer.
“Hi Harry, Ginny. Do you mind if I sit with you?”
“No, come on in,” said Harry.
“How was your summer Neville?” asked Ginny.
Neville had just begun telling them about his summer when the door slid open and they were joined by Hannah Abbott and Terry Boot.
“Hey Harry, can we sit with you?” Terry asked as he sat down, not waiting for the answer.
As they talked about the summer more people joined them, mainly past members of Dumbledore’s Army. They all seemed to want to know what Harry thought of everything that had happened with the war so far and what he thought Voldemort was going to do next. Harry felt quite overwhelmed with all the attention and wished he were alone in the compartment with just Neville and Ginny again. He exchanged a couple of pleading glances with Ginny, who shrugged and smiled at him.
About the fifth time the door opened Harry was pleased to see Ron standing in the doorway, looking astonished to find the compartment full of people. He was soon joined by Hermione, who raised her eyebrows and looked momentarily surprised, then said coolly, “Harry, can you come with us to the Prefects compartment for a second? Oh, and Ginny and Neville, you better come too.” Harry was grateful for her quick thinking.
“Blimey, Harry. I hope this doesn’t keep up the entire year,” Ron said as they made their way towards the front of the train.
“That makes two of us,” Harry muttered back.
They sat in the Prefects compartment, which felt considerably cool and comfortable. Harry told them about the conversation he had had with Dumbledore and McGonagall the previous day, about how they wanted the DA to continue and he would continue taking Occlumency lessons. He also told them about being reinstated to the Gryffindor Quidditch team, though he thought it best to keep the part about being named team captain a secret.
The old witch with the food cart had just begun to make her rounds when he remembered the last part of the conversation. He told them about Dumbledore’s mysterious response to his asking about the Gryffindor ancestor.
“And then McGonagall kind of looked at him and said, ‘the Half-Blood Prince?’. He nodded at her, then looked at me for a long time. Finally he said something about how it would be easier to show me rather than to explain it and maybe after one of our Occlumency lessons he would.”
“The Half-Blood Prince?” Hermione repeated thoughtfully. “I’ve never heard of him, maybe with a little research we could find out more.”
“Er…Who’s the Half-Blood Prince?” Neville asked confusedly. It had just hit Harry that Neville wouldn’t have had any idea what they had been talking about. Hermione quickly filled him in.
“So Dumbledore said that this Half-Blood Prince could stop the war, but he hasn’t any idea where he is?” he asked once she had finished her explanation.
“Yes,” Hermione answered.
“But how? What would he do?”
“We don’t know. Dumbledore never said. I imagine we can find something about it in the library though,” Hermione said, a far-away, glossy look in her eye.
“Well, actually, he said that if we knew what had happened to him, then the war would be over,” Harry interrupted. He wasn’t sure if there was a difference, but felt like it was worth mentioning all the same.
The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was uneventful, with the exception of Draco Malfoy’s traditional drop in on Harry and his friends. He had been in the middle of a conversation with Pansy Parkinson when he opened the door, saw who was in the compartment, sneered and looked like he was about to say something mean, then changed his mind and left without a word.
“Probably just remembered that shiner you gave him over the summer and decided to keep his fat mouth shut,” Ron said to Harry as they laughed.
As the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station and Harry made his way to the carriages, he couldn’t help but feel he was in for his most interesting year at Hogwarts yet.