Made up more by spectators drawn in by the possibility of a confrontation than any real need to do their banking, most of the crowd had broken up by then, leaving only a short line on their side of the rope.
"Follow me," Hermione said, letting go of his hand. It was only when it was gone Harry realized how soft her hands were.
The goblin on the far right had no one in front of him, even though there were more than enough people waiting in line. Stepping over the rope brought them no added attention from the guards; Harry was sure they were being watched since they had first started to move. The teller in question looked flustered for a moment, perhaps because he looked younger than the others, his hair a solid black rather than a dappled gray or white.
After shuffling through some papers for a moment the teller brought up a magnifying glass in front of his face - which promptly disappeared, the glass showing exactly what was underneath his skin. They both jumped in alarm, Hermione's hand finding his again.
"Oh, sorry," the goblin murmured, taking the glass down and spinning it around before peering at them through it again. Harry didn't want to know what it was he was seeing.
As they recovered from their shock, the goblin put down the magnifying glass and produced a clipboard, flipping through several pages before finally stopping and looking at him.
"I am showing that cheques have already been issued for your account, Mister Potter, did you need more or-," he glanced to their joined hands, "did you wish to set up a joint account?" the goblin asked as if desperately trying to remember how to set one of those up.
"Er - no," Harry said, his hand springing from Hermione's to flatten down his hair. That's what he had forgotten; Barchoke had sent him cheques almost two weeks ago and he'd promptly stuck them in his desk and forgot about them.
"I'm the one who wants an account," Hermione said primly before fishing out a small sack of money and placing it on the goblin's desk.
The young goblin looked at her again. "Aren't you rather young for a human?"
"Yes, but I'm old enough to manage my affairs on my own without a magical guardian," she replied.
"I think there's an extra form for that," the goblin muttered to himself before looking for the required documents.
Even with him helping to explain things, it took a bit of time to walk Hermione through the overly particular legal process. She didn't like the idea of a Blood Quill at all, though once he explained its place as a security measure against fraud - and the goblin saying it would only be required once unless she specifically stated otherwise for added account security - she began to see it as a rather sophisticated way of doing things.
The next snag happened when Harry tried to transfer money from his account into hers to try and pay her back for her father being charged extra; she kept trying to lower it again. He maintained the roughly twenty galleons she had deposited should have cost him one hundred pounds, but instead had cost him three hundred. Even if she refused to allow him to reimburse all of the extra cost, she had agreed to him reimbursing one hundred pounds of it, which at a normal rate would double her money.
"But you said you'd only be reimbursing for five pounds of the exchange rate," she said stubbornly. "If the rate had been ten instead of fifteen, three hundred pounds would've gotten thirty galleons, meaning it should be ten you give me, not twenty."
"And if you take a third of the original muggle money and use the original exchange rate of fifteen then he only owes you six and two-thirds," the teller added unhelpfully. "Tell me, do all humans not like money? Because they seem to think it's just you," the goblin said, pointing to his right.
They glanced over to see the nearest two tellers were staring at them like they'd never seen humans before. Harry found his voice before Hermione did.
"Ten's fine," he said sheepishly, filling out the transfer form before she could start arguing for six.
It wasn't long before they were able to leave. Hermione had opted not to use a Blood Quill but only a magical signature, though she insisted her chequebook should include a small ledger so she could keep track of expenses herself.
"Do you need to go back to the Leaky Cauldron so you can pick up your cheques, or do you just want to get started?" she asked as they made their way back down the street. "From what I remember, I should have more than enough to cover you if you run out, even if you go mad at Madam Malkins. Then we could double back when we're done and you could reimburse me."
"But if we did that, you'd try to talk me down again so it'd be like I hadn't given you any money at all," he replied with a smile. Harry figured he hit pretty close to the mark when she didn't have a response so he just went on. "If Dobby were here-"
With a pop! the elf in question appeared before them, causing them to have to quickly stop or run over him. Harry couldn't help but notice the smudge on the pillowcase he wore and his face as Dobby handed him his chequebook and Blood Quill.