Chapter 71

Of course, Severus could easily take everything from the goblins by force and just make them work for himself, but he was too lazy to do this, and why quarrel and make enemies out of them when you can just make an alliance, why do we need these problems? Such thoughts hovered in his head when he thought about them. 

Moreover he didn't want to demonstrate his strength by concentrating the attention of all of magical Britain and the world as a whole on him by attacking one of the branches of Gringotts, one of the most protected banks.

Severus did not seek power or world domination, he only wanted to have enough strength to protect himself, his loved ones and live a quiet life, not needing anything, one that he did not have in his last world where he had to constantly fight and lose his friends, comrades-in-arms and teachers, so by the end of his life he was left alone so as not to experience the sorrows of loss anymore. 

He did not want to repeat his fate again, so often the wizard behaved with restraint and tried once again not to take the lives of those who themselves were not going to harm him. 

Although the goblins behaved rather arrogantly, he did not care about them. For him, they were like ants, which would take only a second to kill, and it was an interesting thing to watch them. 

Therefore, he did not pay attention to their "quirks". Certainly, if they try to cross the line by sending, for example, assassins after him, or accuse him of something by falsifying evidence in order to take his galleons, then even the dragon and the Ministry of Magic will not save them. 

After all, Snape hated one type of people more than anything- traitors. 

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After returning, he continued to work on potions together with Nellie, who, according to her knowledge, could easily give competition to any fourth-year Hogwarts student. 

The next day, in the morning, as soon as he passed the goblin guarding the entrance, Griphook almost immediately intercepted him and led him to the main goblin. 

Going down to the floor below and passing by the "guards", he was met by the same captain, to whom Severus handed over the wand, and after that the door opened and he entered the room. 

"I take it, you agree?" Severus looked at the four old people with a smile, while not paying attention to the thick-browed goblin, looking at him very unkindly. 

"We agree, but about the third condition…" 

"It will not be more difficult than the first and second, and it will also touch gold," Only after hearing these words did they relax a little. 

"Here you burn greedy creatures, but it's even easier ..." 

"Well, that suits us." One of the goblin said with a smile.

"That's nice." Severus nodded looking at them.

Two contracts almost five centimetres thick appeared in Severus's hand. 

"Read and sign, all the details are written in it. The contract is magical, if broken, your blood will boil from the inside." 

One of the goblins was glancing contemptuously at Severus, as if saying: "How can a person compare to them in compiling documents,".

The other goblin snorted and began to study the "book", and with every minute their faces became more and more shocked. 

What Severus gave them was the very definition of an ideal contract, everything was taken into account in it: what each party is obliged to do in any of the possible situations; all costs and benefits for both parties in any situation; even absolutely all cases of non-compliance with the contract by one of the parties. 

This really shocked the goblins, because the pathetic little man was able to do what they could not, defeating them at their own "game". And after that, they looked at him with such glances that even Severus himself felt a little uncomfortable. "Is there something wrong?"

"Did you write it?" one of the old goblins asked, unable to restrain himself. 

"Yes." Severus replied.

"Young man, did you happen to have any goblins in your family?" Gruhajah, the head goblin asked with interest, causing Severus to almost choke. 

"Don't joke like that. Of course, I have nothing against you, but I am human."

 "The looks and sharp mind, like a true goblin!" grinned the elder in the hat, causing Snape's right eye to twitch.

"I agree with you, not to mention his craving for gold, right? There was definitely a goblin in his family!" Even the look of the thick-browed goblin softened, but he decided to remain silent. 

Finally, the head goblin raised his hand, and everyone quickly fell silent. "You really surprised me, how about working with us after school, we promise a good position and salary."

"I think I'll refuse, why should I work, when I already have "Pockets full" of Galleons, I can buy anything-anytime," the wizard dismissed with a smile. 

"It was as if there was a goblin in his family," the thick-browed elder finally spoke. 

To this, Severus did not answer anything, because to convince the goblin of something is the same as telling the dwarves * to leave hammers and anvils and go to collect flowers. The latter could even kill for such humour.

"Okay, we agree, but paragraph seven hundred and twenty-five, prohibiting the use of this contract by the second party as an example for other transactions …"

"And what is not clear?" Severus looked at the head goblin with a smile. "Of course, this condition can be crossed out for a fee…" All four goblin's eyes lit up at the same second, as he said this.

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After almost three hours of deliberations, they finally signed four treaties. Two from Severus's side and two from the goblins, but the conditions were completely identical, so there would be no conflict between them. 

"Well, thank you for your cooperation." With a smile, Severus shook the wrinkled hand of Gruhajah, who nodded in response, baring his teeth. "And you, Mr. Prince, you have helped us a lot."

"I'm glad to hear it," Two drawings appeared in Severus hand as soon as he finished his words and he handed them to the old man. "The first one, for a set of leather armour and…" A roll of hide landed on the floor, the sight of which made the goblins' eyes light up.

"This is the material from which it should be made.' 

"That skin… where did you get Basilisk skin from, and in such quantity!?" 

"I bought it on the black market, can you process it?" Severus said after a second.

"Yes, but what about the rest?" The head goblin asked.

"I will leave it to you, and if you can do everything exactly as in the drawing, I will give the remaining metre to you, and I will also pick up the hardest conductive metal, the weight is not important…" and, opening the paper, he began to point to certain parts of the armour. 

One of the goblins quickly recorded all this in a notebook ... After a few minutes, they quickly calculated the total amount of Galleons for each material and work, billing almost nine thousand Galleons. 

And then they discussed about the mansion, the drawing of which was also already ready, because Severus thought about it even at the time when he lived in Severus's house, and he had already begun to prepare it at that time. 

Of course, in appearance, the house did not seem special, but rather ordinary, not counting the expensive materials, but that was only before Severus applied the runes and enchantments, and after that it would become a real fortress that no magician from this world could break through. 

After all, he especially tried on him, calculating every millimetre on which charms and runes would be applied, so that they would not conflict and act harmoniously. 

It was a very time-consuming job, which he was even a little proud of. 

In another hour, they finished their discussion, and according to Gruhajah, the mansion would be ready in two weeks, and the armor in a week and a half. As for the house, Severus will personally supervise the construction, which will begin tomorrow, but today they will be engaged in buying materials and moving them to the construction site.

And finally saying goodbye to them, once again rejecting their job offer and ignoring the question: "Maybe there were goblins in the family after all?", 

He left the office, where a slightly disgruntled Griphook was already waiting for him, who was again raised from his "throne". 

"Follow me, I'll take you to the safes." Griphook said.

"Certainly." Severus nodded.

"Hey little man," the goblin commander called out with a grin. "If you want to learn how to use a sword, I will give you a couple of lessons, of course, not for free." 

"Perhaps I'll refrain, thanks for the offer," Snape replied with a calm smile as he put the sword back into his purse. 

"Well, as you know, it's my business to offer, but if you change your mind, a thousand Galleons for the lesson." In response, Severus languidly waved away, because he was taught by a real sword master, and the goblin's suggestion sounded like a very good joke, from which the young man even smiled. 

Having descended into a rather gloomy room, illuminated by lanterns, they got into the trolley, which in the next moment drove off. 

Due to the fact that the Blacks, Lestranges and Malfoys were among the richest families, their safes were almost at the very bottom, so they had to drive for quite a long time. And the lower they descended, the larger the dungeon became, and, to the surprise of Severus, when they emerged from the closed space of simple safes, they found themselves in a huge gorge with bluish artificial lighting emitted by crystals. 

The gorge itself looked more like the real ruins of some extinct civilization. At the very bottom and along the walls, one could easily see the road leading up, as well as huge columns covered with unknown symbols, and almost completely destroyed buildings, somewhat reminiscent of residential buildings and a palace. 

And after a few more minutes, the cart finally stopped on a small, compared to a huge gorge, ledge, and Severus's gaze almost immediately caught on a chained dragon three hundred metres away from him, a little lower, who, upon hearing the sound of the cart, stared at them with hatred. 

"You shouldn't be doing this to him, if he ever manages to get rid of the shackles, the first thing he will do is kill you all." Severus said as he looked at the dragon.

"If he can," the goblin grunted and, turning around, went to the iron door, which swung open the next moment, opening a passage leading to twenty more safes. 

"Number 711 belongs to the Black family," he stopped in front of Severus. 

"You are not allowed to take anything from it, you can only look at the contents, nothing more. 

" I remember." Finally he touched the steel doors and they slowly opened up, revealing to Severus's gaze almost five large piles of gold coins and a pile of other jewels, and on the right and left in the stone wall there were a kind of shelves on which lay various kinds of artefacts and books. 

"If you count everything, it comes out to about a million ... and I thought I almost caught up with them, but okay, in two months I will definitely become richer than them," shaking his head, he looked at the goblin. "This is not what I was looking for, let's move on."

Glancing angrily at the smiling Severus, thinking that he was mocking him, Griphook closed the safe, reactivating the protective spell, and after leaving the room, the next door slammed shut. 

They did not go further on the cart, but, taking a lantern, they went on foot, going down directly to the dragon, whose muzzle was in a muzzle, and then, bypassing it, they went through another door, behind which there were only ten safes. 

"Number 809 is for the Malfoy family and 801 for the Lestrange family," the goblin explained calmly, touching the nearest one, number 809. 

As soon as the door was flung open, Severus's gaze was met with a picture almost no different from the one he saw in Black's safe, except that there were much more hills. 

"Not bad, not bad, almost a million and a half," Severus nodded with a smile, and after feeling a familiar aura, he shifted his gaze to the black notebook lying on the bookshelf. "And here he is," going into the safe, the wizard went to the shelf and took it in his hand. "You're not allowed to take anything from the safe," Griphook pointed out grimly, noticing his actions. 

"Of course." Taking a gold watch out of his pocket, Severus opened it. "Eileen, bon appetit," Severus said with a smile, and under the shocked look of the goblin, a black wriggling shadow escaped from the notebook, emitting a dark aura, while this was all accompanied by an unpleasant screech for the ears, from which the bank employee closed his ears. 

Although he tried to fight, after a few seconds, the shadow was pulled into the clock. Of course, Severus didn't leave a part of Voldemort's soul with her alone, but with the help of magic he completely bound him and gave him to be torn to pieces by the woman. 

One more piece and she could become a full-fledged undead and not be in danger of being dispelled... 

Putting back the notepad, he turned to Griphook. "Let's go ahead."

"What was it?" the goblin asked sharply, finally coming to his senses, although he was still looking at him warily. 

"Voldemort's Horcrux," but seeing the incomprehension on the goblin's face, Severus sighed tiredly, while leaving the safe. "Terrible" dark magic, splitting the soul with the help of murder and placing a shard in some object, and with the help of this you can get imaginary immortality, that is, resurrect from this shard, of course, if you don't go crazy first. Don't worry, no one will notice this: I've put a Horcrux charm on the notebook." 

"I need to contact the head goblin!" Griphook grimly said.

"Hmm, and also tell the Malfoys about this, they won't mind, I'm on good terms with the heir of the family, and the Lestranges will soon be gone. A little information for you. They insulted someone they shouldn't have - a year or two, and they will disappear."

"Y-yes! Three minutes!" Quickly running up to the bare wall, Griphook touched a small depression, and a scarlet magic circle lit up around his palm, and after a few seconds, Griphook already beamed and mentally began to communicate with someone. 

Severus realised this by shifting eyes and a variety of emotions appearing on his face. And with the help of Legilimency, he easily read his thoughts. And exactly three minutes later, the circle went out, and with a heavy sigh, the goblin headed towards the safe with the number "801".

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