Colleague Conversation and Confession
Aight, so just to get this clear, while goblins are usually a broad term, in this case not so much. In HP world, they are 3ft tall gremlins that are hideous, BUT, they never said anything about their daily lives, so imma just paint over that gray area with my own colors. That and I'm going to make things a little different.
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MEANWHILE ~ in Gringotts.
Daggertooth walked down from his desk as his shift ended for the day. As he walked into the 'safe' area for goblins he deactivated the glamour that was on his earring. Instead of going straight home, he decided to stop by the nearby bar and spend a few sickels. When he finished haggling with the barkeep and bringing the price of his drink down a few sickels, he started to walk to a table, before noticing Shatterfist with a few empty mugs and wondered what was wrong.
Shatterfist and Daggertooth were childhood friends that persisted through their lives working with each other, and as they grew older they decided to stick together with one another, because although goblin relationships were always business, goblins being friends with one another was rare. When they took their job at Gringotts, they decided to share a house, yet the house was big, so they decided to teach smithing, economics, bargaining, and fighting styles to the little ones that lived around them.
As he walked over he said, "Shatterfist, today is your day off, why is it that you are here and not at home teaching the little ones?"
Shatterfist looked up from his reflection in the half-empty pint to look at the one he didn't want to call friend. He looked at Daggertooth, inspecting and appreciating what he saw. Daggertooth was shorter than the average male Goblin, being 7 inches shorter than his 3'11" height. He had a softer face as well, with his features less sharp and his ears a bit longer, with his nose shorter than the two-inch on his own face. Daggertooth was also small and lean, not sporting the muscles that most goblin smiths had. As he compared him to his own big and unwieldy frame, with muscles that tore some of his clothing and claws that grew to cause trouble, he wondered why he was able to remain friends, albeit his hate with that word, with this specific goblin. And then he thought about how he managed to survive against those two, well, demons that he was called to assist that day.
(When I read 'goblins', the first time I ever read the books, I thought a civilized version of the creatures usually seen in most video games and Goblin Slayer, so basically the same, but less ugly, and green. When I saw the movies, that changed to, well, the movies. Now, I've discovered Fanfics, and the intricacies that were listed in some of the goblin interactions made me rethink it to a different version. Basically shorter version of elves, and instead of an elegant beauty, more hard and firm grace, with a longer nose{usually 3 in. can grow to 2-5 in. however} hidden by an object with an activated glamour to look like the movies.)
He got out of his thoughts when he felt a sharp pain on his ear and clasped his hand to it as he looked up to see Daggertooth retrieving his own hand and frowning at him. "You got lost in thought again, what are you so busy thinking about?"
Shatterfist didn't want to reveal his thoughts to Daggertooth, so he thought up a quick lie, "I was thinking about those people that you called for me to see, how did you deal with them? They were like demons!"
Daggertooth quickly picked up on the lie, but couldn't figure out what it was about as there was some truth in what he said. "They were perfectly fine, in fact wondrous really. I truly have no idea of what you mean, what did you do that made them like that?"
Shatterfist slightly paled in the dim light of the bar, before trying to save his hide from Daggertooths' glare. "All I did was my job, I showed up and they got angry that's all."
He turned into a sheet of bleached parchment when he noticed Daggertooths' face turn redder. "I know you're always lying to me when your right ear twitches in the same way you smith, and whenever you do something wrong, you call them demons as well." Daggertooth stated, and then took a drink from his stein. He then looked back to Shatterfist who was mentally cursing his obvious lies.
"Tell me," Daggertooth continued, bringing Shatterfist's attention back to him, "WHAT DID YOU DO."
Shatterfist felt infinitesimally small when he answered in a nearly indiscernible whisper, "I may have tried to kill their pets."
Daggertooth's trembling figure froze, and Shatterfist felt an ethereal ice cold hand grab the back of his neck as Daggertooth told him, "Follow me."
Daggertooth finished his stein and put it on the table, before he lead Shatterfist to their house a few blocks from the bar. As the crowd watched the door close, they heard the bartender say, "Betting on whether or not he did something stupid at work and what his punishment is starts now."
Every one of the patrons started placing bets, as the duo went into the room that they had for sparring and training in their home.
"Get into your armor, we're going to spar." Shatterfist could only nod as the hand from earlier dug its claws in, and went to retrieve his armor from the case it was held in.
When he finished putting it on, he saw Daggertooth waiting for him in the small arena at the center with his work clothes and two small hammers. "A-aren't you going to put on armor for the match?" he asked, sweating heavily, as he knew what it meant.
"No, now come here." Daggertooth simply stated, motioning him to come with a crook of his finger.
Shatterfist knew that Daggertooth was livid, as he only used the hammers to punish him in the worst way possible, by making him repair his armor, which on a bad(good) day, could take at most a week, at worst, a few months.
A battle ensued, if you could call it that. Daggertooth wore light armor, or armor that had weight enchantments on it so he had little to no hindrance to his speed, compared to Shatterfist's bulk, and sluggish armored movements, he wasn't able to land any hits at all on Daggertooth, who was wearing silk, almost airy clothes. By the time they were done, in five minutes, Shatterfist was on the ground wearing armor that looked as if it had been chewed by a dragon, while Daggertooth only had a light sheen of sweat and his clothes sticking to his body.
"I had managed to make good relations with those twins," Daggertooth started, as he sat on the ground, "Whenever I manage to set you up with a good job, you either strike it really well with the bad ones, or screw up whatever credibility I give to the good ones." he finished with a sigh.
"Tell you what, if you manage to catch me in the next minute, I'll do you one favor," Daggertooth said as he stood up and started putting away the hammers. "I'll even fix your armor, and stay in the room to make it easier for you, how's that sou-"
He was cut off when he was pushed up against the wall, with Shatterfist's arms blocking him in, and one of his feet were being stepped on to make sure he couldn't run out from under said arms.
"I-I never said start." Daggertooth stuttered, as he knew he couldn't escape this hold. A small voice told him that he wouldn't want to anyway, which he quickly shook off.
"I remember you teaching me about wording, and you said in the next minute, not in the minute after." Shatterfist said with a timbre that surprised Daggertooth. "You never intended for me to catch you. Did you?"
Daggertooth was shivering at the dominance displayed by his, friend? 'You want more than that' another voice, like a snake, whispered in his mind. "No." he said in a mere whisper.
"Well as both punishment and my favor, I'll take a little extra liberty with it, just this once." Shatterfist said, as he tilted his head down.
'You can have all the liberty you want' The same voice, more prominent this time, said as Shatterfist gave Daggertooth a kiss that seemed to last forever.
Shatterfist pulled away, and smirked at Daggertooths' glazed expression. He then left the room, leaving to go to his workshop in the basement. When he arrived there, his expression crumbled into one of anger, of which was only directed at himself. He took off his armor and set it aside before grabbing his ores, and throwing them in anger. His tools, as precious as they were to him, soon followed. When he couldn't find anything else, he looked at the other side of the room, where he hadn't disturbed anything, before crumbling down and silently crying to himself in front of Daggertooths' worktable.
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A/N : Yes, I am evil. But for those of you who might seem disgusted at the side romance of the two goblins, just think of small elves with longer pointy noses, and you have the general idea of what the goblins look like without their glamour.
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Hogwarts - Headmaster's Office
Minerva sipped her tea, and much to her amusement, it was lemon tea. She sat across from the Headmaster in a similar chair transfigured from the floor, with a table holding a tea set in between them as they sat in front of the headmaster's window.
"Harry Potter joins us this year, does he not, Albus?" she asked, taking another sip of, surprisingly good, tea.
"Why yes, yes he does. I hope he's been growing up well." he said, with a smile on his lips, before his look turned somber. "A shame that he lost his parents so young. I daresay that it is easier, as it is better to not know, and wonder, than to know, and miss."
"While I agree with you on that, others will disagree." she spoke, only to return to her tea.
"Thankfully he will be able to make friends here. While I have never met him, I believe that he would make good friends of Mr. and Mr. Weasley." After he said that, he smiled at the memory of the waltzing socks they gave him for Christmas last year.
Minerva took a sip of her tea, before making a small sound which drew Dumbledore's attention. "Remember the odd names on the list?"
Albus nodded as he confirmed, "Three first names, one missing middle name, and missing last names?"
"Yes! Those exactly!" Albus smiled at her excitement, as it is rarely seen. "Do you remember the Siamese brothers Chang and Eng?" He nodded. "The twins are exactly like him, not to mention they're a Metamorphmagus as well!"
Albus' eyebrows disappeared. "Like Mrs. Tonks?"
"Yes! Exactly like her! Almost."
"What do you mean by almost Minerva?" Dumbledore said, his eyebrows returning from their trip into his hairline.
"They are also able to assimilate creatures as well, and chimerize their body with the animals that they have assimilated. Not only that, but just like any metamorphmagus, who are able to change their body to mimic people, they are able to partially separate, keep their heads apart bodies together, or just put everything as a uniform construct! They are essentially able to do self transfiguration without thought!" McGonagall spoke, her excitement becoming more prominent with every word.
She then calmed down suddenly to his surprise. "The boy, John, is also a very good cook, a shame that they didn't have leftovers. I would've brought some for you."
Albus couldn't help but chuckle at his friends' behaviour, if there was one thing that he could tease her about, it is her love for food that gets to her. She immediately blushed, before turning away and taking a long sip of her tea.
"Wasn't there a third?" Albus asked her after she finished.
"Surprisingly, no, there wasn't. I'd believe it was a mistake, but that book has been working for centuries without fail, so why now?" she attempted to take a sip, only to look at her cup filled with air, before the teapot started to fill her cup again. "Thank you."
"Much obliged. I have no doubt that it's not the book's fault, it is most likely something else, what it is however, remains to be seen. Let us wait, because if there's one thing time has taught us both, is that patience is a virtue." Dumbledore said, as he relaxed into his chair.
Minerva looked at him, before following suit, and relaxing as well.