"That we make some cat food," the goblin saidwith a grin showing his pointed teeth.
"What?"
"The other option would be to wait until the case isover and have Gringotts do all that when they inherit the debt from the phonyinvestment," Lichfield explained.
"So who'd look after the cats?" Hermione asked.
"She would," Lichfield said as if it wereobvious. "She's not under arrest. We just detained her until she could bequestioned."
"And where do you get the legal authority to detainanyone?" she pressed.
"From him," Lichfield pointed at Harry."The business was listed under the Potter Estate, and I'm the lastrecorded bailiff for it. Since it's our assertion Dumbledore never had right tointerfere with it, it also means they didn't have the right to fire me, whichmeans I'm still on the job. I'm not going to press for back pay though unlessyou try ordering me around," he said to Harry with a look.
"So where does the cat food come in?" he asked,still puzzled.
"There's a lot of money to be made using the GoblinRegency's Internal Marketplace," Barchoke said.
"There's that much of a desire for pets?" Harryasked.
"Who said anything about pets?" the goblinasked.
Harry was obviously still a step behind but Hermione wasa step ahead.
"You eat cats!" she cried horrified.
"What's wrong with eating cats?" the goblinasked. "You know how hard it is to get a decent bit of meat when you livebelow ground? There's only so many fish to go around, we can only keep so manydragons, and they don't die that often. Plus, dragon meat is really tough tochew through. What did you think we ate, rocks?"
Harry was saved from having to decide where he stood onthe great cat food debate when Hermione got help from an unexpected source.
"I think I'll have to agree with her on thisone," Lichfield said, making his goblin friend look at him like he'd losthis mind again. "Those cats are bred with kneazles, meaning they'reincredibly intelligent," the bailiff explained. "Those cats will knowthey're just waiting for you to eat them. If they were normal catsthough-"
"They shouldn't eat normal cats either,"Hermione pressed.
"The French eat snails," Lichfield said with alook. "Should we go to war with them just to make them stop? It's not likewe're talking about eating centaurs and merfolk. You know," Lester said toBarchoke, "a much more reliable source of meat and revenue would come fromselling off those as the last chance to get kneazle-cats as pets and thenrestocking the place with normal cats. Gringotts gets the livestock since it'sthe owner and gets the money from selling them on the internal market; youcould even have old Mrs. Figg run the place since she knows what she'sdoing."
"A farm for cats too dumb to know they're notpets?" the goblin asked rhetorically. "There'd still a lot of legalissues to work through, but we'll take it under advisement," the Overseersaid, going back to making notes on his files.
Lichfield gave her a wink that said Barchoke just didn'twant to agree yet, which he counted as a win. The fact the win came at the costof condemning generations of 'dumb cats' to be goblin food, Harry didn't wantto think about.
"Speaking of recouping lost funds," the sullenOverseer said as he pulled a small bag from his pocket and tossing it to Harry."I suppose I can return this now."
Inside the bag was a single silver sickle.
"What's this for?" he asked.
"It's the sickle our owl took when he delivered myletter last week," Barchoke said as if it was obvious. "Every coin wemint has a memory of every person who handles it from the time it leaves ourdoors. We used it to verify you were who you said you were."
"Oh," Harry said, "I thought it waspostage."
"You'd pay for postage?" the Overseer askedwith a gleam in his eye.
"Doesn't everyone?"
"That's how the non-magical postal systemworks," Hermione agreed. "People buy stamps to use to send lettersand those funds maintain the entire system."
"If we could determine the price point needed tomaintain our flock of owls-," the Overseer muttered to himself as hequickly jotted down some numbers.
"Of course you'll have to factor in the cost ofroyalties of no less than five knuts per Gringotts post just for using theidea-," Lichfield said quickly.
"The idea didn't come from him," Barchokecountered, "it came from the muggle world."
"The idea for Gringotts to do the same was all himthough," Lichfield batted back.
"You really think he should be entitled to-,"the goblin's eyes darted back and forth and his fingers twitched as he did somefuriously quick calculations, "-roughly fifty four galleons and change permonth just from hereditary account statements alone?" the Overseer asked.
"Absolutely," Hermione interjected. "Theidea alone is probably worth much more than that. In the non-magical world anidea like this could be worth billions."
"When did this become a business negotiation?"the Overseer cried, holding up his hands to stop any conversation of Gringottshaving to pay anything. "One more word out of you," Barchoke pointedto Hermione, "and you're going to our legal department, even if I have toknock you out and drag you there myself."
Harry certainly didn't want the goblins to kidnap his -er - female friend - but Lichfield got a laugh out of it.
"Believe it or not," the old litigator said toHermione with a grin, "that's actually a compliment. It was said to memore than once." To Barchoke he said, "You know if Gringotts tries toimplement that, my divided loyalties will make me take you to court."
"I don't like it when you're on someone else'sside," the goblin groused.
"Speaking of business negotiations," Hermionesaid, corralling the adults to keep things on track. "What about anybusinesses trying to take advantage of Harry?"
"If you're talking about the shoe shop,"Lichfield gestured to Harry, "the kid pretty much gave him permission todo what he wanted, I just made sure the old pair was displayed for everyone tosee. It should start dispelling the myth of your globetrotting childhood,"he said to Harry with a look. "You get your next pair for freethough."
"It was another myth I actually had in mind. 'TheBoy-Who-Lived' book series," Hermione said seriously.
"That was actually one of the issues I was trying tofind a way to bring up," Lichfield admitted.
.....
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