On the 1st of September, the goblins called off their strike and Gringotts reopened its doors for bu
On the 1st of September, the goblins called off their strike and Gringotts reopened its doors for business, to the relief of magical Britain’s various farming families, just in time for them to sell their autumn harvest on the international market.In his office in The Wixenomist’s London Headquarters, the magazine’s Finance Editor, Zacharias Smith frowned over reports which lauded the unprecedented export deals on Britain’s autumn crop. Exports which, in his opinion, all seemed to be suspiciously concentrated around a number of very recently established firms in the Eurasian Steppes – all of which resulted in dead ends when further investigated.The Editor-In-Chief, Augustus Blythely agreed that this was suspicious indeed, but demurred from publishing anything which was remotely fearmongering in nature without conclusive proof one way or the other. The Wixenomist did not indulge in baseless speculation, he reminded his Finance Editor, and that, it seemed, was that.Mr Borgin, strolling down Diagon Alley to his store to open shop for the day on the 5th of October, was horrified to find Finlay Montmorency sprawled on the doorstep of his shop, his eyes glazed and mouth wide open – a trickle of blood dribbling down his cheek – and a rowan stake through his heart. Someone had carved the letters BNB on his forehead. Mr Borgin sent the Aurors an anonymous tip, hastily shifted as much of his wares as he could to the back room to avoid investigation and then made himself a cup of tea to settle his nerves.They never discovered who murdered Finlay Montmorency.Over the next few weeks, the average amount withdrawn from Gringotts by the average Wixenomist employee rose from 10 galleons to 50 galleons.Michael Corner, picking up on Zacharias Smith’s hints opened a bank account with Barclays and deposited a total of two thousand pounds, drawn from his account at Gringotts on the 8th of October.Drusus Fawley folded the last of his letters (We are pleased to acknowledge the receipt of ….) and sat back with a sigh of relief. The last of the Fawley autumn harvest had finally been shipped off and received at the other end and now they had at least four months before the winter crop started coming in. This was the fifteenth of October.Ten days later, an unfortunate incident in the Trans-European Floo Network led to the destruction of a huge part of a vegetable import from France. Incidents on the Trans-European Floo Network had been on the rise of late and not even the closest examinations made by specialists from the Department of Magical Transport, or the Department of International Magical Cooperation – or even the Unspeakables – revealed what the cause for all these incidents were.It was put down, in the end, to mischance born of age and magical decay and the Department of Magical Transportation began drawing up plans for a new Trans-European Floo Network. On the first of November, all across Europe, the goblins abandoned their mines, shut the doors of their banks and went on strike. -- source link