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Ratty Apartment, Ratty Apartment Building, London
–Damian Hawthorne–
From experience, he knew Goblins took gold as currency as well, converting it to Galleons for a modest (read: ripping off) fee, as long as the person had an existing account. Now, he did not have an account ready, not one that he was sure would not alert anyone to his existence anyway, so he'd held off on opening one.
That was until now. He was sure that opening a Gringotts account was standard procedure for every student to attend Hogwarts, Muggleborn or otherwise. With that thought in mind, he snapped his finger, as a small bag of holding slithered out of one of the few cupboards in the kitchen, full of gold, naturally mined. It was pretty easy to mine as well, considering that he had magic. There were tons of gold mines where the easily reachable gold and other minerals were all mined out, leaving behind smaller chunks that would cost more to mine than they were worth.
To the companies relying on hard labour and machines anyway. He had magic on his side, resulting in his bag of holding that currently held over a quintal of freshly mined gold. Not the purest quality, but this was just an experiment to him. He wanted to see what the Goblins would say and what their official policy as well as exchange rate, was for this kind of thing.
Surprisingly, there was not a single overarching global policy that every Gringotts branch had to follow. It was all up to the local teller. Not even the Manager, the goblin at the front desk, could decide he wanted to screw you, and unless you knew what you were doing, the goblins came out on top most of the time.
He'd looked, but the only thing he could say with certainty was that banking in the magical world, sucked. At least compared to what he was used to before he was dropped here. But, hey, he had magic here, so it all worked out great.
Shaking his head, he opened the door, locked it with a mental flick of a switch, and faced the still smiling William. He had to say, for someone said to be the bane of crime in Magical Britain, as well as the second coming of Moody himself, William really did not look like much to him.
"Let's go," He said and then took the man's hand as they teleported, right in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Well, this was certainly going to generate attention, which was why he was glad that he came prepared and was already in a disguise. No need to attract even more attention.
William noticed it, his eyes widening minutely at the speed with which he donned his disguise, but ultimately, let it go as he walked to the entrance of Diagon Alley. The sooner he was done with this whole thing, the sooner he could go back to his training. The main reason for today's visit was his wand and to see if it was anything special or not. Not to toot his own horn or anything, but he was an otherworlder. Maybe it actually meant something in the magical world?
Aside from that, a Gringotts bank account was the second most important one. He really needed an identity for easy above board transactions, and using his real one for stuff that could not be tracked to anything dangerous was more than enough for him.
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After they were done with the books, the robes, they moved to Gringotts. He made sure to get the bare minimum requirement of robes, as William explained that Hogwarts had a fund assigned for the less fortunate of magical children. He was not going to take any money from the noble family, not unless a few things radically changed in the future.
Not to mention, once he had his own account up and running, he should be able to get as many enchanted robes, with as many features he wanted. Though, realistically, he will be buying a couple with every possible enchantment on it and then just replicate it with ease, with his own selection of fabrics.
There was this fabric he found in Italy, that was so soft and smooth, it was quite literally magical, despite magic not being involved. They only did special orders, though, and last he heard, they were full for the next two years.
Shaking his head, he focused on the gleaming building, noting the mean looking Goblins in the hallway, as well as the statues present at the entrance, that painted the goblins in quite a flattering light, especially since he could see their diminutive stature scurrying about behind the employee partition quite easily.
Scars, muscles the size of actual life size goblin torsos, and weaponry that looked far more intimidating than it was practical to be wielded for use.
"Don't be intimidated," William tried to reassure him as they walked on the gleaming white marble floor, with a cacophony of noises that exploded in his ears as soon as they crossed the threshold of the bank. Suffice to say, it was unnecessary.
There were multiple booths, with a few people in every line. Knowing what to do, he made a beeline for the goblin with the nameplate that read Inductions, which was a weird way to name the goblin who was responsible for new accounts, but hey, to each their own, he supposed.
As he stood in front of the booth, he had to look up at the goblin who was doing his best impression of an ignorant fellow. It grated on him a bit but he realised that this was just part and parcel with the whole goblin banking situation. They loved their power plays with wizards, despite losing half of all the wars they ever waged against the wizards.
The records of those wars were kept secret by both sides, and he only stumbled upon them when he found a couple of old diaries being sold that contained detailed information about the war, from both sides.
Being the avid collector of knowledge, esoteric books, he was, he bought them. After all, there was a ton of gold just sitting there, back in his lair, and if he could not use it for his hobbies, what was even the point of that all, then?
After what felt like a minute, William cleared his throat and he smirked internally when even that did not elicit a response from the goblin with the golden monocle, supposedly reading something of great interest that they could not see.
As if done with his reading, the man folded the newspaper, and his eyes twitched when he saw it was the rag Daily Prophet, which the goblin kept on his table before looking down at him, "Yes?"
He was oh so tempted to just float up, and blast the goblin into the wall behind him, and he was reasonably sure that it would help him immensely since Goblins valued power above all, even gold, but that would just out his identity and suffering the company of a pompous goblin was worth the continued anonymity.
Barely.
"I would like a standard Hogwarts student account, please. Also, I have solid gold that I would like evaluated and converted into Galleons, to be deposited into my account at haste. I understand that dealing with gold above a certain level falls outside your normal duties so I will wait here while you get the per–goblin responsible for that specific service," He rattled off impatiently, noting the narrowed eyes and twitching face of the goblin who just glowered at him.
"Look, boy, I am perfectly capable of–"
The goblin froze in his tirade, as a distinct thump of the holding bag dropping on his table was heard. The goblin peered at the bag, before he huffed and opened it, his eyes widening minutely before he snapped the bag close.
The goblin took a deep breath and spat the words, as if the very air exhaled to voice the words pained him greatly, "Wait here."
The bag of holding was placed on the counter, as he waited for the senior goblin to come. The first hurdle was cleared, without much issue, if only a little lesson in patience, as he had to actively restrain himself from doing something that would have him forever declared an enemy of the Goblin Nation, making things quite inconvenient for him.
Hmm. Maybe there was a reason humans created the Central Banking system, despite it clearly being the reason for much strife and suffering across the planet, since it was ultimately humans who piloted the system and unlike Midas, most things that humans touched, did turn to gold or something approaching gold in terms of value, for a few moments before rapidly turning to coal, or something even worse, since even coal had some value to it.
He shook his head, the conspiracy theory sessions from his past life bleeding bias into his thoughts, as he waited for the senior goblin, who too, will use the power play tactic on the lower ranked goblin, making the goblin and, by association, them wait as well.
"What are you doing? If you needed money then—" William stopped speaking as he glared at the man. He then spoke, "I would like to speak privately with my banker now. If you want, you can wait outside. If not, I am perfectly capable of getting my own wand."
Oof. He could feel the man's mood rapidly withering as he processed those words and they might have been harsh but it was necessary. He could not have any of his dealings with the goblins revealed to the Ministry, or to the Hawthorne family, or really, anyone else, because William here heard something and could not keep his mouth closed.
"Fine," William whispered before turning around, "I'll wait for you outside. You still need to get your wand."
"Thank you," He nodded and turned around, just in time for the senior goblin to deign them with his presence. It showed on his face as well. He thought all of this to be beneath him. He was sure that the goblin would have the same respectful expression on his face when he was facing his own senior, just like the original goblin at the booth.
"So, wizard kid, I hear you have some gold for us," The goblin was all smiles and teeth for him, sharp and gleaming as they were. He grinned in return, not afraid in the slightest, as he magically nudged the Bag of Holding and made it thump against the goblin's chin, in a clear gesture of disrespect.
"Yes, that would be me."
Only, there was no anger on the man's face, like he was expecting. Only clear calculation in his eyes as he looked at Damian up and down.
Hmm. Maybe there was a good reason why this goblin was higher up in the goblin food chain. Pompous and arrogant on the outside, but atleast, this one was calculative enough to recognise when to back off.
The goblin grunted, grabbing the bag of holding, "Hmm. I believe this conversation is better suited inside."
Second hurdle, cleared.
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