Order Only: Private message to Alice, Remus, Sirius, Bill, and Charlie

[alt_rachel]

So I got a tidbit of intel from Jason today. Apparently Bellatrix is rather more worried about her own payroll than we might have assumed.

The 'treasury' was in Voldemort's personal name. So when he died, it wouldn't have gone to the government, but to his heir -- but his heir was Harry.

Is there something about this we could exploit? It's a bit mad Voldemort had the treasury essentially in his own pocket, but of course he wasn't planning to ever die.

Comments

[alt_alice]

That's rather interesting, yes.

...Does it correspond with the signals you've been getting from the Goblins, Bill and Charlie?

[alt_bill]

Bloody hell.

It could.

They spoke in English to me when we were negotiating. But they conferred with each other at the other end of the table in whispers, in their own language, and I caught snatches, and--

Bloody hell. It was such a small detail. It didn't even dawn on me until now.

Charlie, they used the -ide endings. Not the -ine endings. Gristalskide, not gristalskine. That's a word that means 'chain of custody,' as in chain of custody of the money, but it's used in private inheritance matters. Not in public ones, as you'd consider a discussion of the Protectorate's treasury to be. And 'Skrzykaktalide,' not 'skryzykaktaline." I think. That's, um, the 'handing down' like, descent of the money. But yeah, that's a word you'd use if you;d talk about a family custodian, not a public custodian. It's subtle, I didn't even see it until now.

You know, he may be absolutely right. Voldemort would consider the Protectorate his personal piggy bank, wouldn't he?

Who's Harry's heir? It doesn't matter that he never married and he didn't have children. The goblins always consider everyone to have an heir; you just have to discover who it is.

Could it be Hermione?

[alt_bill]

Or it could be Draco.

Merlin. If it is...it's a good thing that Lucius and Narcissa have already left the country. I mean, he's of age now. But they probably would have wanted a much different deal with us.

If Montague's right, then what we would need to do would be to say that we believe we are negotiating with them on behalf of Harry's heir. And then we would present whatever proofs they request; they'll be specific about what they want.

Sirius, Remus: how would Draco or Hermione be likely to react to this? They've both had a horrible time of it, and if it's true, I can't help but think it will come as a terrific shock.

[alt_sirius]

I sincerely doubt that inheriting the wealth of the nation from Voldemort, through Harry, would have had any bearing on Narcissa's decision to sign a third of their fortune to Draco. She knew exactly what she was doing, Bill: Paying a bribe.

As for Draco, I can't speak for him but he'll probably find it singularly ironic. I don't think that means he'll want the gold but I believe he'll see the practicality of seizing it and applying it to our needs.

Probably the faster we could do that, the better for him.

[alt_charlie]

Oh, Merlin's balls, that's diabolical.

Yeah. That could be it. And it makes perfect sense.

Let's you and me go talk to them tomorrow together, maybe having two-of-the-clan-speaking-with-one-voice will help. Maybe we can get them to confirm that before we bring it up with Draco. I don't want to have to make him think about it before we know it's necessary.

[alt_bill]

Good plan. Yes, let's do that.