Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

The Goblin Liaison Office is part of the Being Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It is the section which takes care of the magical economy and the relations between goblins and wizards. It takes care of the law they set for running Gringotts as it is one of the only widely known institution run by a magical creature.

Draco didn't care much on how strict they make the rules since it wasn't anything of a bother. But rules such as opening a vault has always been up for debate, one either needed a large sum of money to get one or need to be associated with a wizarding family none the less. So for the young muggle-born wizard who didn't have enough money, opening a vault here was impossible until they grow up enough to work and create one for themselves.

Hermione who had never been down here was looking at the place curiously as she kept mentioning about how the place was similar to the ones she read on one of the books. Harry and Ron were sitting in front of the cart and Draco and Hermione were on the back. The cart-like usual moved at an incredible speed in a confusing manner.

After a while, the cart stopped and Harry and Ron got off the cart towards their vault.

"You can move on." Harry said to the Goblin who snorted and pushed the cart again, as they went deeper into the cave.

"How deep is it?" Hermione asked.

"A bit far away." Draco said, "The deeper we get the more significance the vault holds and is kept according to the wealth and prestige of the family."

"Then shouldn't yours be at the deepest part." Hermione asked she remembered that she had read somewhere that the Black family was similar to the Royal family in the wizarding world and were one of the richest.

"No." Draco shook his head, "Mine is important but not so much either, there are more families like the Lestrange family, who are much deeper than ours."

"Why?" Hermione asked as she looked more confused as to why Draco was so calm about it.

Draco shrugged his shoulders, "The vault such as the Lestrange's belongs to my aunt, but she is in Azkaban as well, unless she comes up with an heir the place should technically be orphaned and with a bit of help with the ministry, taking control of that place shouldn't be hard after sometimes, so I don't really care much about it."

Hermione was surprised hearing that as she looked at Draco, "All your relatives seem to be in Azkaban... by the way the thing you said with Mr. Weasley..."

"About the pure-bloods?" Draco asked as Hermione nodded,

"Well, we can take these things however we want to but the result would vary each time." Draco said laying back, "Right now, I am one of the few people who managed to get their respect and if everything goes well, I can calm them down but the problem lies with our past."

"What past?" Hermione asked as the cart suddenly stopped. Draco climbed over the platform and pulled Hermione up as he walked towards his vault with his key.

"The same past you know about, of course... the one with Volde." Draco said casually, "You see the situation is really in a sensitive stage right now, ever since Volde disappeared all of us have been silent and calm, we don't act irrationally but the opinion of public about is hard to change no matter how much low we stay as the pressure keeps building up."

"With the current raids?" Hermione asked as Draco nodded.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg." Draco said, "Internally we've all been pressurized, even though we still hold some power, it isn't the same as before."

"But they have done evil so don't they deserve the punishment?"

"They do." Draco said, "And most of the cruel ones are already in Azkaban, you see Hermione we were at the top of the food chain before this and people in this stage are more power hungry than you can ever imagine them to be, so when Volde came over to us saying he could give us more power, most of us didn't hesitate even for a second but with the fall of the Dark Lord we too fell with him. We tried to climb higher only to fall back down on the ground."

Hermione keenly listened as Draco opened the vault.

"Now with all the pressure and damage we want to climb back higher more than ever, they know with Volde, things like this isn't something more than a death wish but some of us wouldn't hesitate just to gain their reputation and power back." Draco said calmly, "So unless I can help them divert their attention else were, giving them what they want without causing any harm... all we are gonna get is a disaster."

Draco said walking inside his vault along with Hermione, "So if we punish them its war and if we just leave them alone it's going to be war again."

"Yes."

"But wouldn't that affect other wizards like me." Hermione said, "With pure-bloods climbing on the top, muggle-born wizards would suffer the most."

"I know." Draco said walking in front, "That is exactly what is hard about the situation, at the end of the day, I can't think of any solution where I can control the pure-bloods and make them happy and the same time not let any other wizards be affected by it. So the only way to solve this is war."

"War?"

"Yes... War." Draco said, "It might sound evil or even outrageous, but its the only way. Without blood spilling, there isn't any way to control the situation."

Hermione was silent, she didn't even have any interest in looking around her surrounding, "So are you going to start it?"

"Oh, not me." Draco said crouching down and picking up Galleons from the small pile on the floor as most of them had already been used and keeping them in a small enchanted pouch, "It's very simple actually, all I have to do is... do nothing and the war will happen."

"But you can stop it can't you?"

"I can try." Draco said lazily, "But I won't."

"Why not?"

"As you said, there are people who deserve punishment and these people aren't willing to change, so to bring the change the war must happen. And as I said, all I could do is try but when he rises back from the dead again, it will be nearly impossible to stop him."

"You mean..."

"Yes, Volde of course." Draco said, "Its bound to happen sooner or later."

"Then what about Harry?"

"That's his destiny." Draco said turning back and looking at her, "But this is all for the future, and future isn't always predictable. So I hope you can continue to train harder in magic than just focus on your studies."

Hermione was silent for a while as she suddenly felt a flick on her forehead as Draco was smiling at her. "Don't get too tensed up. I wanted to tell you the truth of the situation beforehand so none of this will come as a surprise to you in the future."

"Why?" She asked looking confused,

"Well, you have a tendency to get suspicious against me quick so just didn't want you to misunderstand if you ever see me standing in the opposite side of you." Draco said pulling Hermione's hand, "I, in the future may not be able to fight on the same side as you but even at that day, I hope you'll trust me enough that I will return to your side, for sure."

Hermione was silent thinking as Draco's breath slowly hit her face waking her up, as she realized both of them were too close.

"Don't try to take advantage of me, you idiot," Hermione said pulling her hands and pushing Draco as she ran further inside the vault. For the first time, she started looking inside the vault clearly to find many interesting things that amazed her.

Suddenly she felt something pull her back into an embrace, Hermione was about to complain as she looked back to find a skeleton holding her back with a knife in its hand ready to strike. Not knowing what to do she froze in place, when suddenly a bright light came out of nowhere, hitting the skeleton in its head breaking it apart.

"Don't run around carelessly." Draco said hurriedly coming over and checking on Hermione, "This place is filled with Dark items, and you might get cursed if you touch the wrong item. I don't even know what triggers them so don't run around here."

Hermione kept silent as Draco turned her over, again and again, to check if she was fine.

"Draco, why do I always freeze in a situation like this?" She asked.