“Griphook, Bill, Fleur; thank you for joining me”, Harry smiled as they entered his office.

“Harry Potter”, Griphook looked into his eyes and nodded. “You have come a long way”.

“Malfoy-Potter now, in fact, but thank you”, Harry smiled, and looked Bill and Fleur with gratitude. “Please, sit down”.

“I will start by sharing confidential information that we were previously withholding from you”, he addressed the Goblin. “About that cup my friends and I were stealing from the Lestrange vault”.

“Oh?”, Griphook looked at him.

“The Dark Lord used a forbidden, dangerous and spiritually fatal form of dark magic in order to safeguard himself from physical death, which he feared above all, to his detriment. He would split his soul into fragments, and place those fragments into physical objects, so that they would anchor his soul to them in case of his bodily death. That cup, guarded in the Lestrange vault, was one such object, and we absolutely needed to retrieve and destroy it, because only when all such anchors tethering the Dark Lord to the world were destroyed, could he be truly killed. I saw his fate, when I temporarily died, and I understand fully why this method is so fatal and so universally abhorred. His soul exists in a limbo, in a state of permanent and fatal damage, unable to proceed to any meaningful afterlife, in a state worse than death or hell”, he shivered. “I wanted you to know that, so that you would understand that we didn’t break into that vault because we are thieves. We did it because we were at war and we were fighting the enemy”.

Griphook was deep in thought. “I see”, he nodded. “It makes sense now. I know that you didn’t take anything else, and I also know how much gold is in your family vault. You were extremely wealthy then, and even more so now. I thought you might have been retrieving some ancient artefact of family value that was stolen from you in the past, but your explanation makes even more sense in light of your character”, the Goblin grinned. “Especially since it led almost immediately to the duel between you and the Dark Lord, which you won”.

“We didn’t want to spread the truth about this dark magic of soul-splicing because we didn’t want to give foolish people ideas about how they could destroy themselves by trying to achieve immortality, but I thought I owed you the truth, since you personally assisted us”, Harry smiled.

“And I personally betrayed you in the end”, Griphook smiled back.

“I know why you had to do it”, Harry nodded. “We were discovered and you had to save yourself, taking the Sword of Gryffindor. Which brings us to the next matter I wished to talk to you about”, Harry closed his eyes and sighed deeply. Then he opened them, looked at Bill and Fleur, who sat there with obvious curiosity, and looked back at the Goblin. “I wish to negotiate new terms of conduct and a treaty between the Wizards and the Goblins”.

The Goblin just looked at him. “Go on”.

“As you know, the Sword of Gryffindor returned back to the hat when summoned by someone worthy – in this case Neville Longbottom, who used it to slay Nagini, the snake of Voldemort. This means it is spellbound to its true owner, Godric Gryffindor, and the fact that this spell still holds invalidates the Goblin interpretation of ownership. I wish Goblins to renounce their interpretation forever, accept that the fact of selling their artefacts to the Wizards means a final renunciation of any claim to such artefacts, and I wish Goblins to renounce any hostility to the Wizards, and sign a treaty of true peace and friendship. In return for such concessions, I now invite you to state your demands”, Harry nodded.

Griphook gave it a thought. “We wish to be treated as equal citizens with full rights, and we wish to be allowed the purchase, creation and use of wands the same as Wizards”, he looked at Harry daringly, expecting him to refuse.

“I agree to your terms”, Harry nodded. “I expect you will have to confirm this treaty with your side, as I will do with mine, but as far as I am concerned – and I am a person of great influence in our community – consider this to be a done deal”.

Griphook sat there in shock. “You are indeed a very strange Wizard, Mr. Malfoy-Potter”, he waved his head incredulously. “I wouldn’t have believed it if any other came to us with such a proposal, but I believe you are quite serious”.

“I am indeed”, Harry smiled, shaking the Goblin’s hand. “As head of the Auror office, I am officially clearing this treaty as a matter of national security, and expect its acceptance by the Minister and the Wizengamot to be a mere formality”.

“I honestly never expected to see this day”, Bill smiled. “But I’ll drink to it regardless”.

…

“You know, now that the Goblins have been given equal rights, I think I’ll accept that offer to move to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, since Harry did all the work for me and I honestly don’t see what else is there to do”, Hermione smiled at Lyra. “I used to think I wanted to work on rescinding the old pureblood laws after securing the rights of House Elves and Goblins, but you and Harry beat me to it, so I am now completely out of ideas. So, what would you recommend?”

Lyra gave it a thought. “Come work at the Auror office. You’ll get to work with Viktor, and it’s a pretty slow and safe job, now that we pretty much cleaned up the main threats. Also, you did get the offer to join along with Harry after the war, forfeiting entrance exam, and I just renewed it”.

“Yes boss”, Hermione cuddled with her smiling sister.