Chapter 61.4- Doom Days

“You said it was a sizable sum last time. Sirius, I think I need you to be more specific now. How much did you bet with the goblins?”

“Thirty thousand galleons” He said.

“Lovely. And what were the odds?” I tried not to say anything about how much he had staked here. In truth, I’d probably have wanted to get in on the action, but the tournament had strict rules about that.

“Considering I was placing my bet before the tournament even started, and on a contestant that had never dueled competitively before, and on top of that happened to be younger than all the other contestants? They gave me 50 to 1 odds.” He said. I whistled once I finished the math.

“Well, I can see why they’re pissed. Are you sure they’ll pay though?”

“Most definitely. They’re not exactly from one of the bigger clans so they were all too willing to take the risk, but even the middling goblins have some serious gold on them. They’d probably have to liquidate an investment or two, but they can definitely afford it.”

“I didn’t ask if they had 1.5 million galleons to give you Sirius. I asked if they would. Two different questions, no?”

“Are you surprised that I just happened to place a bet with goblins who walked up to me with an offer? Shouldn’t I have been more careful? Done more investigation? Made sure they could pay”

“Yes on all accounts, Sirius. Yes on all.”

“And yet, I didn’t. Because while Goblins are known to be greedy bastards, everyone expects them to keep their word…” He said meaningfully. Okay, I could see where he was going now.

“So if they don’t pay you, all you have to do is raise a stink about it and then they lose reputation points.”

“Even worse. Not all the goblins are related. Just like wizards have different families and nations, Goblins have different Clans and Tribes. The thing is that wizards look down on them so most people don’t know this. The goblins are fine with this misconception because it means trust earned in another country carries over worldwide. But what happens to that trust if word spreads of goblins refusing to honour a bet? The other clans would waste no time in finding the erring goblin and using them as an example. And then when that happens, they’ll still see to it that I get my money.” He said.

“Well, someone’s thought this true”

“Yeah, well, they’ve been trying to buy me out of my bet since before the quarter finals. That’s their best offer yet, but something tells me they’ll come back with a much improved one by tonight”

“Willl you take it?”

“Hell no. I’ll be taking all my gold, baby. On that note, do be careful about what you eat or drink. They have no compunctions cheating to get ahead of a bet. Especially if I can’t prove they did it.”

“So you think they’d poison me?”

“Maybe. Or they’d simply add something to your food to make you fail the medicals tomorrow before the duel. If you get disqualified for doping, they win, after all”

“I’m starting to think that this bet of yours wasn’t worth the trouble” I said.

“Look around. That bet of mine is going to pay for all this, and then still have enough left over for us to get you all new robes” He said.

“I have no issue buying my robes myself” I sniffed.