The Black Account

A/N: Written for Round 5 of the Quidditch Fan League

Team: Montrose Magpies

Position: Beater 2. Round setting is a tale on Dirk Cresswell. Scene picked: A day at work.

Prompts used: 4 (word) calculator / 14 (word) sealing

Beta'd by my fellow Magpies.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Dirk Cresswell was an employee at the Goblin Liaison Office, a rather prestigious position in the Ministry of Magic. He could grin sometimes at the short-sightedness of pure-bloods: they felt they were 'too good' to deal with goblins on a daily basis, so the office was staffed mainly with half-bloods and Muggleborns like Cresswell himself. Yet the G.L.O. directly influenced the wizarding economy, and was an important factor in how inheritances were handled.

Today was not a good day though. He had received an order that he just knew would annoy the goblins, but there was no way around it. Cresswell fought the scowl that threatened to appear on his face as he ascended the steps to the Gringotts Bank. It wouldn't do to offend the goblin he was supposed to meet before he even said a word.
Cresswell waited in line until he got to the counter, and addressed the goblin: "Dirk Cresswell, of the Ministry of Magic. I have an appointment with Gornuk."

The goblin behind the counter ignored him, just moving coins from one pile to another. Cresswell couldn't help his curiosity, and leaned over the counter to see what the goblin was doing. Immediately, he was met by a hostile glare.

"Must you interrupt me, wizard? I need to convert these Galleons to Muggle currency. I can help you once I am done," the goblin grumbled.

"Maybe I can help? What is the current exchange rate?" Cresswell asked. He took out a pocket calculator he had on him and hovered his finger over the buttons.

The goblin looked intrigued at the device, then said: "Gringotts currently offers fifty-one pounds twenty to the Galleon. I have twenty-three galleons here in total they want exchanged."

Cresswell typed in the numbers. "You owe them one thousand, one-hundred and seventy-seven Pounds, and sixty pence," he stated.

The goblin blinked slowly, then wrote it down somewhere. "Please wait." Cresswell waited patiently as the goblin continued his work.
A few minutes later, he looked up. "You were right. What is that device?"

"A standard pocket calculator," Cresswell explained. "The Muggles sell these for a few Pounds."

"Gringotts thanks you for your information," another goblin spoke up. Cresswell turned to the new speaker: this second goblin was wearing much finer clothes, indicating he was of a higher rank than the lowly teller that he had first spoken with.
"Cresswell was it? With me," the new goblin said. Meanwhile the teller goblin put away the coins, and was ready to deal with the next wizard in line.

Cresswell followed the goblin past the desks and through an ornate door. "I didn't catch your name earlier," he said as he followed the creature.

"I did not give it to you yet, wizard," the goblin replied. He stopped in front of a door – Cresswell wondered how he knew which one, none of the many they had passed seemed to be numbered – and opened it. Cresswell followed him inside.

The goblin sat down behind a desk, and indicated the chair on the other side. Cresswell sat down, and the goblin spoke: "I am Gornuk. You wished to see me, wizard?"

"Thank you for seeing me, account manager Gornuk, I hope the day finds you well," Cresswell said respectfully.

"Gah! Stop wasting my time! Get to the point, or do I need to have you kicked out?" Gornuk scowled.

Cresswell swallowed, and continued: "Have you heard Madam Walburga Black died?"

Gornuk nodded slowly.

"With Sirius Black in Azkaban and his brother Regulus missing and presumed dead, the Minister has declared the direct male line of the Black family extinct," Cresswell continued. "I am here today to have the accounts transferred to Draco Malfoy, as the closest heir to the name."

Gornuk jumped up, fury on his face: "You wizards presume too much! Gringotts shall not be a party to theft!"

Cresswell paled, an angry goblin who accused you of theft was never a good thing! "Please, Gornuk, I meant no offence!"

"Gah! Tell me why I should not have the guards kick you out?" Gornuk sat back down, but was still scowling.

"Gornuk, do you not see the Black title should pass on?" Cresswell hoped he was not angering the goblin further, but he had to follow his orders. "There are no living descendants in the main line, that of Arcturus Black, and Arcturus himself is as you know declared insane. With Sirius imprisoned for life, the only other direct descendant of Phineas Black left is one Alphard Black, but he is disinherited, and has left Britain. Lord Malfoy went before the Ministry and successfully argued that with the family now all but extinct, his young son Draco should be declared the new Head."
Cresswell didn't need to explain to Gornuk that this would mean that the Black accounts would be drained into Malfoy's coffers, sadly such a thing was all too common.

"Very well wizard, show me a trial report for Sirius Black that locks him away for life, and Gringotts will consider allowing the Black family to be absorbed by one of the cadet branches," Gornuk said smugly.

Cresswell let his relief show on his face as he thanked the goblin: "Thank you, Gornuk. Will you have time again next week? I will find the trial report, and return with it."

The goblin nodded, and clapped his hands. A guard appeared to take Cresswell back out.

–-

"What do you mean, there is no record?" Cresswell looked at the DMLE clerk in disbelief. "Did you lose it somehow?"

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement does not 'lose' trial records, Mr Cresswell," the clerk looked at him as if he were a smudge on the side of his shoe. "If the record is not here, there was no trial. Honestly, I'm not surprised: with all the Death Eater trials at the time, things were handled a little sloppily."

"So what am I supposed to do then? I promised Gringotts I would get them a copy!" Cresswell yelled.

"Not my problem, is it? Good day, sir."

–-

Cresswell again stood in line at the bank. Fortunately he did not have to wait too long before he again sat in Gornuk's office: the lines moved much faster today. He didn't notice, but all the tellers had a Muggle calculator on their desk now.

"Well wizard? Did you bring me the trial record?" Gornuk had a wide grin on his face.

"There is none," Cresswell admitted. "But you knew that, didn't you?"

Gornuk just grinned some more, and Cresswell was getting annoyed. "For all the fuss you make about wasting time, you don't much care about wasting the time of others do you?" he blurted out.

Gornuk actually laughed, "I like you, wizard! Most of your kind either treat us like scum, or only pretend to be respectful... you on the other hand did Gringotts a great service by introducing us to these 'calculators', and now you actually talk back to me!"

Cresswell looked at Gornuk as if he had two heads, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Everyone always said the goblins demanded respect, but now Gornuk seemed to be glad Cresswell lost his temper?

"Tell you what wizard, I'll do you favour," Gornuk continued. "I'll save you the problem of having to inform this 'Lord Malfoy' that his own Ministry is responsible for his problem, by denying Lord Black a trial... you can tell him that it was us Goblins who were responsible for sealing the Vaults, over irregularities."

Cresswell let out a sigh of relief, "That would save my arse," he admitted.

Gornuk laughed again. "You, I can deal with. Tell your Ministry that if they need to send a wizard, we'll only accept you. Now, off you go, you have wasted enough of my time."

"Until the next time, then," Cresswell said. He walked out the bank and was back in the Alley before realisation hit: he had just become the most important member of the Department. His future was secure... despite only being a junior member, he now knew that one day, he would be the Department Head.