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24 July 1943
In the morning I woke up with a great relief. A great burden had been lifted from me. Radagian's inheritance had been on my mind for a long time. In addition to the fear that it had been taken by others long before I was born, I was quite tense with the fear that if I could not get the inheritance and the worry that we would have come here in vain and risked our lives, combined with what had happened to us in the forest for the last few days. Now that I got the inheritance, even though we had not yet left the forest, there was a relief.
While we were having breakfast, we were talking about the inheritance and the tests.
Veronica said, 'So there will be many new inhabitants of the pocket dimension when we get home.'
Rubeus said, 'We still have a shortage of mammals. Almost everything the Radagian left behind is an egg-breeding species.'
Veronica 'We have to take things one step at a time. Sometimes you're in too much of a hurry.'
I realise that. Still, I don't see what I can do about it. I never had a problem in the first place, except for Riddle. The danger level of the wizarding world is pretty low, but then I realised I was in Marvel, and my knowledge of Marvel is mostly based on the MCU and the X-men movies, both of which are pretty dangerous. I've heard that comic books are more dangerous. In some comics, there were even series where Thanos slaughtered the whole universe. I still don't understand how I didn't have a panic attack.
Rubeus said, 'I know. It's just that a lot's happened in the last year. The Legacy, Riddle, you. It's all happened so fast, I feel like if I slow down, something's going to happen.'
Veronica 'Normally I'd suggest you do something to distract yourself, maybe watch a duel or a quidditch tournament, but unfortunately the war makes that impossible.
The ongoing war in Europe had caused the temporary cancellation of many large-scale wizarding events, both national and international.
I shrugged nonchalantly and we didn't talk much for the rest of breakfast.
After gathering all the camping gear, and after Veronica had disrupted the wards with a wave of her hand, we set off. Just as we crossed the boundary formerly occupied by the alert and warning wards, two petrification spells flew straight at me.
Just as I saw Veronica get hit by one of the spells and fall off her heidel, the second spell hit me. While the spell had no effect thanks to my magic resistance, a great flood of rage was unleashed inside me. First those damn spiders and now this. When I turned in the direction of the spells, I saw a single person wearing a black robe decorated with skulls. In one hand he had a staff with a skull on its head that looked as if it was made of bones. In the other hand he had another wand pointing at us. Not only me but even nature hated this man. Without even having to draw my wand, my magic was shaped by my anger. As the magic was released from my body, the surrounding nature energy responded to my call. As if everything was in slow motion, the uncontrolled spell was completed and suddenly blue and white lightning began to rain down from the sky. The last thing I noticed was that the man was hurriedly creating a shield spell. Then heidel, frightened by the bright lightning and thunder, threw me off him.
After a few seconds the lightning storm stopped. The first thing I realised after the dazzling and ringing in my ears was Veronica lying on the ground. Then the smell of burnt meat coming from the place where the unknown wizard stood before drew my attention. For a moment I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing, all that was left was a burnt corpse. Reality hit me with all its might a moment later. I had killed someone. I had killed someone. I stood there for a while without reacting. I was in shock. I vaguely heard Veronica standing up and calling out to me, but I couldn't react. I felt her come over and check on me. Then she went to check on the body. Next to the body was the man's skull and crossbones staff. I heard Veronica shout a curse word and then she pulled out her wand. What she did next shocked me even more.
'Fiendfyre.'
As the black flames from the tip of his wand burned the corpse and all that was left of it, he came running towards me and began to pull me in the direction where the heidel had fled. At the same time he was calling for the heidel.
25 July 1943
I was sitting in the camp, staring into the fire. God, it was the first time I'd ever killed anyone. Every time I closed my eyes, the smell of burnt flesh and the burnt corpse came back to me. I'd never killed anyone before. Not only that, I'd almost never even thought about killing. Even with Riddle, my plan revolved around getting him thrown in jail. It never even occurred to me to kill him.
Veronica said, 'Rubeus, that's enough. You need to snap out of it. You can't walk around the woods like that.'
Rubeus, 'I know. Just killing someone.'
Veronica said, 'If it makes you feel any better. You saved both our lives. That guy's staff wasn't just a staff. It's a sign, a symbol.
An item found in members of an underground organisation of mostly necromancers. If we had fallen into his hands, we would have ended up worse than dead.'
That explains why she burned the body and everything else. Fiendfyre will destroy all traces, magical and non-magical. It also explains why we rode for a day without stopping after finding the heidels.
Rubeus, 'What do we do now? Will they come after us?'
Veronica 'I don't think so. He probably didn't tell anyone to keep the inheritance to himself. Fiendfyre should erase any magical trace that could be traced back to us. We still need to get out of the woods as soon as possible. I don't want to be here if someone decides to look for your friends.'
Rubeus said, 'We'll leave tomorrow at dawn.'
2 August 1943
After dodging the last spell that was coming towards me, I finally threw myself in the middle of the training ground and sat down. I was out of breath. The last few days were like a storm. After leaving the inheritance area, we rode almost without rest and managed to get out of the forest in 5 days. 2 days earlier than we had originally expected. Our work was not finished there. It took a lot of time to place Silverscale and his tribe in the pocket dimension and then to categorise the treasures we had inherited. We decided to sell almost everything except the magic plants and animals. As it turned out, everything in the treasure, including the coins, was an antique and therefore quite valuable today. In Veronica's words, 'those stupid purebloods are going to pay a lot of money for this stuff', so today I was going to go to Gringotts to sell it all and then invest some of the money in some investments. What I was doing now was training, or rather spell deflection training, basically filling your wand with magical energy and hitting an incoming spell to deflect it. It seemed easy at first, but it was actually quite difficult. Misadjusting the amount of magical energy or hitting the wrong way could be interpreted as a recipe for disaster. Nevertheless, it was known as a skill that every good duelist should have in their repertoire. For about an hour I had been working in this training hall, which sent me small stinging spells of random strengths and times, from different directions. Veronica had set up a ward here for this purpose.
Veronica said, 'You're doing it again. You're being too hard on yourself. Take a break.'
I turned round at the sound of the door to the training room and when I saw Veronica I slowly started walking towards her.
Rubeus said, 'I know. Still, it never hurts to practice. Especially with an organisation of necromancers after us.'
As I was talking to him, we were walking out of the training room and into the mansion.
Veronica said, 'I told you, you don't have to worry about that and we both know why you're too tired to work. You don't want to think about that man. That's why you're overexerting yourself and occupying your mind.'
I just shrugged. He had me. I was still having nightmares about that man's death.
Rubeus, 'Why did you stop my training?'
Veronica 'Like I said, you need rest and relaxation.'
Rubeus 'I know. I have to go to Gringotts today. Dumbledore should be back in a day or two and then I'll rest.'
When we got to my room, I heard his voice behind me as I went in to change and take a shower.
Veronica 'Yeah, yeah, you workaholic maniac.'
... Two hours later...
I climbed the marble stairs with confident steps and entered the bank. Luckily, there was not a long queue at the teller's desk.
Rubeus 'Hello, do you sell antiques here?'
Goblin 'If you have items of sufficient value, the bank can buy them outright or you can sell them during monthly or annual auctions.'
Rubeus 'I see. Can I speak to an appraiser? I have a few items with me.'
At the same time, I showed the expanded bag I was holding in my hand.
Goblin 'Firstly, you must pay 100 galeons. If the amount of the items you will sell is less than 1000 galeons, you will not get this money back.'
I couldn't help frowning.
Rubeus 'Isn't the price a bit high?'
Goblin 'Time is money. Assessors don't like wasting time on useless items.'
There was nothing to be done.
Rubeus 'Can you withdraw the money directly from my safe?'
Goblin 'Safe key, please.'
Goblin took my key and put it in a little box in front of him. Then some words and runes flashed on the box. I think it said something in goblin. Then he took the key out and gave it back to me.
The goblin said, 'Rangurok will take you to the assessor. Please follow him.' At the same time, he was pointing to one of the goblins standing on the side with his hand.
I followed the goblin he pointed to me and went to a room further inside the bank.
Rangurok said, 'Our assessor will be here soon, wait in the room until he arrives.'
After half an hour of waiting, when I was finally at the end of my patience, the damn goblin came in. I swear they do it on purpose. They deliberately make people angry and enjoy it when they can't do anything. Fucking goblins.
The goblin said, 'My name is Gurak. If you don't mind, let's get started right away. You know what they say, time is money.'
I couldn't help but wonder if this goblin in front of me was speaking politely. Anyway, I started talking, pointing to my bag.
Rubeus said, 'I'm Rubeus Hagrid. Would you like to go inside the bag? Or do you want me to take it all out, but I'll tell you up front, this room isn't big enough.'
Gurak ' In that case we'll have to move to another room. I can't go into customers' spatial possessions because of the bank's rules. There have been some hostage situations in the past.'
I was getting more and more surprised today. Was there really such a stupid person? Gurak must have realised what I was thinking from my facial expression, because he continued to speak quickly. 'Stupid people are never lacking.'
I just shrugged my shoulders and we headed towards the large room he would take me to.
When we entered a room larger than before, Gurak spoke. 'Is this room enough?'
Rubeus 'More than enough.' I had just reached for my wand when I hesitated for a moment. 'Am I allowed to use my wand here?'
Gurak answered with a small smile.
'I allow you to use your wand here.'
With a single flick of my wand, my bag opened and the items Veronica and I had selected came out of the bag and began to be arranged in the large room. Normally I can do this little show without a wand, but then I can't control it so precisely. Some of the items in the bag looked really fragile. Otherwise, the spell attached to the bag alone should be enough to bring out the contents.
Gurak watched with wide eyes as a large pile began to appear in the room. With the last pile of money coming out of the bag, it was all over.
Gurak 'Is there anything special about the coins?'
Rubeus 'As far as I can tell, they are all several centuries old, and some of them are not even today's currencies. I thought they might have some collectible value, and the others are some magical items, and some are just non-magical artefacts.'
Gurak said, 'You can sit on the edge if you want. I'll start analysing. It might take a while.'
Gurak pointed. After sitting on the armchairs in one corner of the room, I started to watch him. I could not understand exactly what he was doing. Goblins cannot use a wand and use their own methods to do magic. First he took out an item from his pouch that looked like a wooden board, but I thought it was gold plated. Sometimes he would just put the wooden board in front of or under the item, sometimes he would just use his glasses with multiple adjustable lenses.
The whole process took about two hours. It was really boring. I just sat and watched Gurak and thought. Now that I think about it, Veronica was right. I've been working non-stop since the day I came to this world, and for good reason. First Riddle, then the legacy, and finally there was the problem of the world I was in being fused with the Marvel universe. I was really too engrossed in my work. Now, when I sat for two hours without doing anything, I realised how busy I was.
As I was lost in thought, I realised that Gurak had finished his work and sat down in the chair opposite me. Clearing his throat, he began to speak.
Gurak said, 'I must be honest, I was not expecting such a large pile of treasure. Let's start with the various piles of coins. Most of the coins have no collectible value except for the metals inside. However, a few of them can be sold during our monthly auctions. As for the rest of the items, the details are on the list.' As soon as he finished his sentence, a written scroll came out from under the wooden board he held in his hand. After skimming it, he handed it to me.
I analysed the scroll for a while. The results were in line with the amount Veronica and I had calculated at the beginning. Some items were bought by the Gringotts themselves, while others were willing to be sold at monthly auctions. Two items were even good enough to be shown at the annual auction in January. The scroll also listed the price I would receive if I sold these items directly to gringotts instead of at auction, and the estimated price I could get at auction. In total, I was looking at a profit of 70000 to 80000 galeons, and that would keep me going for a long time.
Rubeus 'Do you store the items to be sold at the auction or do I have to deliver them on the auction date?'
Gurak 'If you want, we can collect it from your safe on the auction date on your behalf.'
Rubeus 'Okay, then let's sell all the items to be sold at the auction. I'll sell the rest to gringotts right now. You can deposit the money in my safe.'
The transaction lasted another half hour. A bit of haggling, a bit of signing the necessary contracts. Forty-five minutes later I left the bank with the steps of a happy and rich man.