Author's Note: This is a side fic to the heavily AU Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus and while most of the characters in this are recognizable outside of the context of that story the events taking place are not. To fully understand what's going on I recommend at least reading part of the original story.

Growing up Bill had never been the center of attention, at least as far as he could remember it, as the oldest he was always pushed slightly to the side for the younger more troubling brothers. With first Charlie and then the twins he'd been expected to grow up the fastest to help out around the house, to have a certain maturity, which in itself wasn't bad but meant that he lost his flair for dramatics at a very young age. Bill's ideas of dramatics, of adventure, was in his work which had nearly caused his mother to tear her hair out but aside from the dangers that sometimes accompanied curse breaking he'd still consider himself to be safely out of the lime light.

Only a few years later and Charlie had been raising dragons.

So it was a bit unusual, unprecedented really, to find himself the center of attention at his family's dinner. Part of it could have been that Charlie was off in Romania, and thus unavailable for their mother's forceful attempts to persuade him into a line of work that didn't involve man eating fire breathing monsters, and also that with it being August the twins were less liable to get into mischief being at the Burrow rather than at Hogwarts. Somehow though, Bill decided that it was more to do with the goblins than anything else.

More importantly why, in the first time since the goblin wars, the goblins had closed the bank on a seemingly normal day for no apparent reason.

Bill could safely say that he didn't really understand goblins, even after a few years of working for Gringotts. Most of their interactions were limited to them sending him off to some ancient part of the world and telling him to make sure they could get into a tomb without killing themselves first, the Egyptians were notoriously nasty in guarding their treasure. When not on a job he'd be researching at Gringott's behalf within the bank itself, which mostly involved him in a back room with pepper-up and piles of texts.

Your average wizard assumed that goblins were greedy and while they did clearly enjoy controlling the flow of money in the wizarding world Bill wasn't quite sure that statement was entirely accurate. At the end of the day he wondered if it was really about the money or if it wasn't about something else entirely. Wizards were never hired as tellers, wizards did not touch a galleon as far as goblins were concerned, you could own an account but you would never learn how to navigate through the catacombs of the bank. The only wizards who worked at Gringotts were curse breakers like Bill, foreign ambassadors, or else those in charge of publicity. After much thought, when drawing and redrawing runes had lost his interest, he didn't wonder if it was really about politics.

He never thought much about politics, he'd rather leave that to people like Dumbledore and maybe even his father, but he couldn't help but notice that the goblins were treated a little bit better than their other non-human counterparts. By holding the money no one would even dream of declaring goblins to be dark creatures like werewolves or even centaurs, thanks to the goblin wars every wizard was aware precisely what it meant to try to get that money back and was thus unwilling to even consider driving them out of the country.

Banking was not about the money; it was about insurance.

These were things he didn't talk about though, he didn't like politics, and as a light wizard who advocated for the rights of supposedly dark creatures he did sympathize enough to keep his mouth shut. Besides between Charlie raising dragons, the twins raising hell at Hogwarts, Percy striving for perfection, and Ron and Ginny looking forward to school there had rarely been an opportunity to bring it up.

The dinner table that night at the Burrow was fairly full, only Charlie in Romania was missing, and after the talk about getting Ron his Hogwarts supplies and trying to keep the twins out of mischief and being very proud of Percy and his new status as prefect their attention had turned to Bill and the closing of Gringotts.

"The Prophet wrote the other day that Gringotts was closed, without any explanation, I'd never heard of that happening not even during the war." His mother had said her eyes distant as she thought back to the days when the dark lord had prowled through the streets of London with his Death Eaters.

"The ministry found it more than a bit alarming, in every break room you'd hear about it, you'd almost think it was the start of another goblin war." His father added.

"It was a bit of a spectacle inside the bank too." Bill said, he'd been in his usual office space at the time doing a bit of research after returning from Greece, and he hadn't noticed anything at first but then he'd seen managers pouring one by one into one of the larger conference rooms near where he was. At first it had simply been the managers but then the flood of goblins had grown until by the time he had left work it had seemed as if the entire goblin nation had entered into that meeting. He'd tried asking one or two of them, Griphook who he knew fairly well, but no one had even stopped to look at him each looking more alarmed than the last. For a moment Bill wondered if they hadn't been attacked or else if someone had just prophesized that it was the end of the world.

That'd been the day before they closed returning the next day he'd find a locked door and an empty building and no one at all in sight without any explanation. It wasn't until later in the rumor mill at work that he'd get any idea of what was going on.

"Do you know what happened?"

"Well, bits and pieces, you have to understand that they rarely tell us human employees…" He hesitated over the word politics, there it was again, but it really did seem to be what he meant finally he said, "That sort of business, it's not really what we're hired for."

"You know about Lily Riddle, right?" He asked for Ginny and Ron's sake, being children they might not have paid attention, but it was a general given that everyone old enough to be a Hogwarts student had at least heard of Lily Riddle; as expected they all nodded, some seeming more confident than others, but everyone at least having heard her name.

Most people weren't sure what to make of Lily Riddle, she generally was overshadowed by dark lords, but she did never the less have her own chapters dedicated to her in history books even if they were a bit briefer than Grindlewald's and You Know Who's. In some ways Bill found that in spite of her gruesome reputation with as well as other competing crime lords she was a much more sympathetic figure than You Know Who. As rumor had it she considered herself to be neither dark nor light but was still a supporter of equal rights for both muggleborns and magical creatures. Of course, those were the rumors, for the most part she just seemed to do her business.

Working at Gringotts he'd soon be introduced to a new view of Lily Riddle. One would think that the richest and most important client would be an old pureblood family like the Malfoys, Bill had assumed that throughout school, but this was nowhere near the truth. If the Malfoys were as rich as kings then Lily Riddle was as rich as a god. Whenever she stepped in you could see at least five managers stop what they were doing and immediately bring her files and accounts to bring her up to speed on the daily happenings in the economy. They treated her not just as a client but as an investor and instigator in the economy, sometimes going so far as to ask her what changes they might expect in the market place as if she was a consultant.

He remembered first seeing her and thinking how different he'd imagined her in her head. He'd pictured someone closer to his age, a tall lean woman, with features like ice and eyes like flint. Instead she was a skinny little girl, too young to go to Hogwarts even, dressed in cheap muggle clothing with hair a really weird color of black and her eyes… It was hard to describe them, they weren't hard like he imagined, certainly there was steel in them but they seemed to be filled with light. They were the most brilliant shade of green he had ever seen.

He had personally never spoken with her, she usually didn't stick around too long to chat with employees especially the inconsequential human ones, but he had always wanted to. Ever since that first day, seeing her walk into the bank with her hands in her pockets casually strolling along as if she was just anyone but not quite, he had wanted to know what it was like to talk to Lily Riddle even if it was only one time. He supposed it was the sense of adventure in him, Charlie raised dragons, Bill wanted to talk to Lily Riddle.

From gossip at work he'd learned that she effectively owned not only the black market but also Wizarding Britain itself as most of the government officials were in debt to her from the last war. Step into Knockturn Alley, no matter where, and it was acknowledged that you were on Lily Riddle's turf and that anything you did there was on her terms. In some ways the center of the government wasn't at the ministry but at Riddle Incorporated, it was just as well then that she didn't do politics.

Another employee had put it better than Bill could.

"As far as I know she has no interest in politics, never has, she only meddles when they try to shut her down or she thinks it's a good money making opportunity. She's never tried to take over the country or push out any ideals of any kind, she just does her thing and expects us to do ours."

Lily Riddle didn't own the country because she didn't want to, that's what Gringotts believed at any rate, and judging by the goblins' faces they believed it as well.

"Well, I wasn't out there at the time but they say Lily Riddle walked in, only her hair was red instead of black. It was still her, she was dressed pretty much the same as usual and acted the same, but she had changed her hair color for some reason. Anyway so she's walking in with Professor Snape, who's in this muggle suit looking really uncomfortable…"

At this point he was cut off by one of the twins, "The old bat was with Lily Riddle?"

Judging by Fred and George's expressions this wasn't so much a shock as a grand opportunity that was presented to them to torment and slander their Potions Professor for his alleged acquaintance with Lily Riddle famed dark potions brewer as well as something akin to a dark lord. He almost felt bad for Snape, but looking back he really had been a terrible professor and deserved everything the twins threw at him.

"Severus, with Lily Riddle, are you sure?" His mother asked.

Bill nodded, "He's pretty recognizable, at least to us human employees since most of us had him for Potions, so I'm pretty sure it was him."

"Well, go on, what happened next?" Percy chimed in with an impatient look on his face to get past Snape and get to the details.

"So she walks up to the teller as if it's business like usual and he's getting ready to deal with her when all of the sudden she says, 'Nope, it's Ellie Potter today'."

This got a reaction, Bill knew he wasn't telling the story in the most dramatic of manners, but that statement alone made it seem as if he had just reached the unexpected twist in the most engrossing of tales.

"Ellie Potter?!" It came from multiple people so he nodded to all of them.

"So naturally everyone in earshot becomes really interested, they all look at Snape, but he's acting like nothing's wrong. Like Lily Riddle with red hair really is Ellie Potter, and the weird thing is, looking at her they all said she looked like Ellie Potter would. She had the red hair and the green eyes, and some people said they could even see the scar under her bangs. Snape then took her key out of his jacket and demanded they see the Potter vault, just like it really is Ellie Potter and that they shouldn't even be questioning it."

The room was silent, waiting on his every word, and it was with a sheepish smile that he raised his hands in surrender to give them the very anticlimactic ending, "The next day I went into work and no one was there, Gringotts was closed."

"So what about Ellie Potter, was it really her?" Ron asked, he'd always been interested in stories of the girl who lived, not as much as Ginny but there'd definitely been a spark in his eye every time she would be brought up.

Bill shrugged, "I think that's what they were deciding in the meeting, humans weren't allowed in, but after that day the bank was closed they told us all that business would be resuming as normal and that until further notice we were to assume that Lily Riddle and Ellie Potter were two different people."

With that there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief, as if Bill had dispelled all their worries with that proclamation. There was movement at the table again, clattering of plates, and the general conversation resumed once again returning to a normal dinner state.

"Preposterous, as if a near sixty year old drug lord could possibly be Eleanor Potter." Percy said with an authority that he really should have had considering he was still in Hogwarts, "I'm surprised they bought it for even a second."

"Well I think it's pretty cool, right my man George?" Fred started in.

"Fred's absolutely correct, if ickle Ellie Potter is really ickle Lily Riddle she's pranked the world." George nodded in agreement with a grin that spoke of appreciation.

"Isn't Lily Riddle an old bat by now though?" Asked Ron, "She couldn't possibly be Ellie Potter, there's no way. Maybe they just look a lot alike or something."

"It's all nonsense really," Their mother said shaking her head, "The goblins are losing their heads if they're mistaking someone like Lily Riddle for Ellie Potter. Albus Dumbledore said he'd kept the girl safe so there's no way that someone like Lily Riddle could be off impersonating her."

"You're absolutely right, Molly." Their father chimed in with a smile as if all was well with the world.

Bill decided that he'd let them continue on like that, most people at work had after all. It'd only been in his office with stacks of books and sheets of paper that Bill had sat down and thought on what they hadn't been told. The goblins had only said to assume that they were two different people, not that they were. It had seemed not like they'd reached a decision but as if they were waiting for something, some new obstacle they'd have to face and account for. If Lily Riddle was Ellie Potter or even pretending to be Ellie Potter then it meant that Lily Riddle had finally started to get political and that probably wasn't a good sign.

Politics, there was a surprising amount of politics in curse breaking.

He didn't know what he thought about the whole thing, he'd need to see Ellie Potter in person, see her up close and look at her eyes to really tell. The most reasonable thing was that they probably looked alike, maybe both were small little girls with curly hair. With blood tests being what they were Lily Riddle couldn't dare impersonate Ellie Potter for long, she'd be found out immediately. Right now it just felt like a distant and somewhat ominous rumor, still though, he couldn't help but think about it.

The truth was that people didn't want Lily Riddle and Ellie Potter to be the same person to even be pretending to be the same person. Just like most people had spent the early years of the war denying the existence of the dark lord people would stick their heads in the sand until they had no choice to see what was right in front of them. He wondered if the goblins were the same, considering there had been a meeting with all of them, humans left out he doubted that was the case. They'd decided something in that meeting, maybe even that Lily Riddle and Ellie Potter really were the same person, and they'd decided to wait and see and stay neutral like they always did. It was too inconclusive, what they'd told their human employees, far too inconclusive to say that they hadn't decided that there was some truth to the rumor. Bill wasn't sure what he thought about that.

In truth he still wanted to talk to her, Lily Riddle or maybe even Ellie Potter if they were the same person after all, just once to see what it was like.

Other than that it really was too much politics for a curse breaker.

Author's Note: Because Lily Riddle as a messiah figure would be terrifying for the goblins. Written for the 400th review of Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus by vsama whose prompt was, "what happened behind the closed doors at Gringotts when the goblins found out that riddle and potter are the same girl." It's not a direct view into the goblin's activities but you can imagine that they were drawing up their zombie apocalypse plans, so I say this counts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter