The duelling robes were a thing of beauty. Just placed there on the wooden mannequin, they looked decidedly deadly.

The inner vest was a pale-green sleeveless jerkin with a shallow V-neck. It seemed to be made of the smooth inner hide of the basilisk. It was trimmed with acromantulan silk and looked well-fitted. There was a silken hood at the neck too.

There was a wand-holster on the left-wrist as well. Strictly speaking, wand-holsters were only meant for Aurors and hit-wizards but Darius was sure the goblins never paid much attention to ministry guidelines anyway. According to Goreclaw, it enchanted with expansion charms, auto-summoning, anti-theft and a few more choice spells.

The trousers were a shade of green so dark, it almost seemed black. It was form –fitting and looked very sleek and deadly. The belt looed fairy normal, except for the basilisk-design made with actual basilisk hide on the buckle! The boots were made of the outer, scaly basilisk hide and in the same shade of poisonous green as the actual creature.

On top of this ensemble was a knee-length, dark shimmering green, basilisk hide, leather overcoat. It was just a few shades lighter than the trousers and looked fantastic. It was long but quite battle friendly. The upper portion was form-fitting and had three black belt-buckles in the torso region to cinch it tight in the torso region. The rest of the overcoat flared out to allow free range of combat movement. Acromantulan silk was generously used to set off the coat and give it a more formal look. Certainly a far-cry better than the utter joke that other wizards called duelling robes.

There was a scabbard made of the same scaly green hide as the boots at the back. It was paced across with the opening at the right shoulder. Of course, meant for the sword of Gryffindor.

The entire ensemble was heavily magicked with goblin enchantments. There were protective spells, on top of the already impressive natural defences provided by a 1000-year-old basilisk hide. It also had self-repair, auto-resize, auto-clean, temperature control and other utility spells.

The words ‘Dressed to Kill’ come to mind.

Anyway, Goreclaw also offered to have it blood-bound to Darius. The process would be the same as the one with the Grimoire but there were some added complications. The Grimoire, though a font of magical knowledge, itself had very little, in fact negligible amounts of magic. The binding therefore didn’t have any negative influence on Darius. But the duelling robes were heavily magicked and thus not as simple. Though it won’t have any effect when worn, it would eat up close to a tenth of his magic when it is sealed. That is the price of storing it using magical means. Of course, the percentage would reduce with an increase in his own reserves but the effects will be there regardless. But the advantages of having such an armour at the ready at all times was too much to pass up on and Darius consented.

The robes were quickly bound to him and he could have the robes on within a fraction of a second. It was extremely useful. He also felt the magic within me start to regenerate as soon as he put the robes on. He would lose a tenth of his magic reserves every time he sealed the robes but immediately start regaining them when it was unsealed. It seemed a fair exchange to Darius. The robes were extremely durable ang could easily shrug of most middle-tier spells without any effort. It would be a great boon in any combat, especially group fights were large numbers of spells flew around. Thankfully, the binding only sealed enough to account for the enchantments on the robes. The passive defences provided by the hide didn’t really count, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to bind them even if he had twice the amount of magic.

His request to bind the sword was immediately shot down though. There were so many enchantments on it that even the goblins couldn’t tell all of them. And there was no telling what all the sword had imbibed over the centuries. Trying to blood-bind it was almost certain to get him killed. According to the goblins, claiming it would have to be enough for him.

He did plan to use that particular property of goblin-crafted steel though. There was so much unused potential there. Imbibing it with the killing curse or a dementor were two things that sprung to mind. The basilisk venom, for all its lethality, still took a few moments to take effect. A sword that could kill with just a touch or one that could suck your very soul was a different matter though. So much potential!

Meanwhile, Sirius was busy with the Black account manager Sharptooth. He had last seen this particular goblin when he was in his early teens. He had left the family by the time he was sixteen and didn’t really have any reason to see him after that. But he was the Lord Black now and he had to look after the family wealth. His mother had passed away only a few years ago and the accounts were not as bad as they could have been but there was still some work to be done. Also, in attendance was the Potter account manager Goldtooth. As Harry’s rightful legal guardian, Sirius could also help him take care of the Potter accounts and thus the presence of the second goblin.

There were a lot of discussions about restarting businesses, collecting fees, clearing up old estates and so on. The Potter and Black families were both well of and their properties were extensive.

Sirius also fulfilled a childhood wish of his. He invited his favourite cousin Andromeda back into the Black family. He also invited her husband, Edward Tonks and daughter Nymphadora Tonks. They would get a simple invitation from Gringotts and if they agreed to it, undertake a blood ritual to reconnect them to the family magic. It was a momentous decision, only possible if the Head of Family gave an invitation personally.

He was also able to write of Bellatrix from the family. He held off on Narcissa and Draco for the meanwhile on Darius’ advice. He said they may be able to come around in time. Seizing Bellatrix’s personal vault had been a great pleasure though.

Harry had been taken to an elaborate room in a deep region of Gringotts. It was obviously a ritual room of sorts. There were a myriad number of ritual circles on the ground for all manner of uses. Sirius had wanted to come with him but the goblins were relentless in their refusal. The ceremony would involve an actual goblin shaman and they didn’t get involved often. There rituals were secret and the lesser number of people who saw them, the better.

He was led to a small stone dais in one of the larger rings. The guards left him there and another set of goblins dragged in a cage with a small pig in it. It was placed in the adjacent circle. A veiled goblin dressed completely in white walked in after that and got to work immediately. Evidently, the goblin shaman.

He began reciting in his guttural goblin tongue and the place thrummed with natural magic. The two rings lit up and a thin stream of blood flowed from the pig and connected the two circles. Harry began to feel cold and realised all the energy, the very heat in the air was gathering together and strange runes of light began forming in the air. They seemed to gather around his scar, the connecting line between circles and on the pig. It was an amazing sight of magic.

And suddenly there was a shooting pain in his pain. And as soon as it began, it was over. He seemed to be floating in the air and he could feel the magic all around him. He could feel his magic and the single point with the foreign magic in his scar. As soon as he was cognizant of it, the magic reacted and an amorphous blob of dark grey magic was forced out of the scar. It slowly formed to show the malformed face before it was dragged screaming into through the connecting line to the pig.

He was free. He had never felt so good before. It was like he had been carrying the greatest weight for years and it was finally off his back. He could feel the magic rushing through his veins and it was glorious. He could never have imagined how much the Horcrux had held him back. A part of his magic must have been permanently sealed to keep it in check.

The soul fragment was dragged along with Voldemort’s visage screaming and cursing inaudibly, till it reached the pig and was suddenly dragged inside. The pig gave one strangled squeal before it suddenly collapsed.

Harry was finally able to sit up and looked towards the pig. It took a couple of seconds before it got up again. It opened its eyes and they were blood-red. Unlike a human the soul fragment was able to take over an animal’s body pretty easily.

A goblin armed with a battle-axe stepped up from behind at broke the cage open with one swing of the axe. The pig squealed and made a futile attempt to escape. The goblin made an unerring swing and decapitated it with one swing. The head was lopped off and the pig fell over with one final shudder. Another Horcrux down. Harry had felt rather defeated after finding out the lengths to which Voldemort had gone to secure his life. It had abated a bit after learning how much Darius had done but it was nothing compared to actually seeing a fragment of his soul destroyed before his own eyes. It was extremely gratifying to behold. He was led away from the dais and he saw a couple of younger goblins walk in and started cleaning up the entire area out of the corner of his eyes as he walked out.

Sirius was waiting at the end of the corridor.

“Harry! How was it? Was it successful? Did it work?”

Harry had to grin at the overexcited antics of his godfather. But he was deeply touched by the concern all the same. There had been few in his life who cared as much and two of them had just freed him of a heavy burden he didn’t even know he had carried all his life. Though more of the credit went to Darius. The brotherly figure had helped him a lot since the start of his life at Hogwarts and this was just one more helping hand in a long list of others. He was truly grateful for what Darius had done. Though he was a bit grateful regarding the source of Darius’ information, it was still credible; maybe there was some true seer involved or something. He didn’t know and he didn’t care, just the efforts he had put in for him and his godfather was enough to earn him a heavy debt. He had been in the court on the day of Sirius’ trial and was in awe of the way Darius had got Sirius acquitted. Sirius had also told him of their conversation with the headmaster after the trial and it didn’t inspire ant warm feelings towards the kindly looking old man. Darius was right, Dumbledore was plotting something here regarding that dratted prophecy and it involved him. One thing was for sure, he would have to be more careful around the old man and also further practice occlumency with Sirius.

“No need to worry Sirius. The ritual went just fine. The soul fragment was destroyed before my very eyes. That’s another horcrux down. If what Darius says is right, we have only another two to worry about. We should ask him what we can do about those? The sooner we get rid of them the better.”

“That’s excellent, Harry! And I agree about the Horcruxes. The sooner they are destroyed the better. So far, including the one in your scar, four of them have been destroyed. The locket will be destroyed soon enough. There only remain two. Anyway, I’ve instructed the goblins to take their fees from my vaults. So, let’s go and meet Darius now.”

The two of them met with Darius in one of the waiting halls and were gob-smacked to see his outfit. It was nothing like they had seen. The outfit just seemed to ooze danger and looked absolutely built for fighting. Not to mention it looked far better than any wizarding robes ever could.

“Like the outfit? I had it made with the hide of a sixty-foot basilisk I personally slew last year. Anyway, let’s get back to Grimmauld place. We have some more stuff to discuss before we are visited by Andromeda Tonks and the two of you have to leave for St. Mungo’s.”

Saying so, Darius started to walk towards one f the fireplaces while enjoying the gobsmacked faces of the Godfather-Godson duo and trying hard not to laugh out loud. By the time the brain of the two rebooted after that startling offhand comment, they hurried to rush after him just as he stepped in to the roaring green flames in the fireplace.