Snakes and Ladders (Fem!HPxLM) (DISCONTINUED)

Chained by Fate

Hazel found herself being shoved through the doors before they slammed closed behind her with a resounding BOOM. She took a deep breath before going further into the room, which she could now see was a large office. She glanced behind her and found that the goblin had not followed in behind her.

Hazel doesn't know what she had been expecting when she first stepped into the room, but what she saw made her stop short.

The office was massive, to put it simply. The floor was made of deep mahogany wood, buffed and polished to the point of being able to see your reflection. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined two walls, balconies cutting across the middle of both bookshelves; the far wall was what Hazel assumed to be enchanted windows displaying a beach view. If she stared long enough, she could see the image shifting, a mirage, one could say. There was a singular bookshelf with a split staircase leading to either balcony. A large rug covered the majority of the floor, and an unlit fireplace sat beneath one of the balconies. 

A sizeable plush sofa sat in front of the staircase, a leather armchair off to the side, and a circular coffee table in the centre of the room. 

A cough brought Hazel back into the present, and she blushed, finally remembering she wasn't alone. Hazel looked to the large desk at the apex of the room, laying eyes on who she assumed was Ludlig for the first time. To her surprise, he wasn't a full goblin. He seemed to be half-human, standing much taller than other goblins and with a more human face with more hair on his head. 

The only features that eluded him from having goblin blood were his ears being that of a goblin's and his fingernails being impossibly long and sharp. Looking closer now, Hazel could see he also had a slightly larger than the average nose, but it wasn't misplaced on his face; she just thought it looked closer to Professor Snape's nose than that of goblins.

She curtsied slightly, and the man? Goblin? Before her smiled in what would be a gentle manner had his teeth not been as sharp as his nails. Hazel just smiled back slightly.

"Ms Potter, I assume?" Ludlig asked, and Hazel nodded. "Please take a seat; we're going to be here a while, I'm afraid; we have a lot to go through".

Hazel made her way across the room and sat on the plush sofa, finding it to be as comfortable as it looked, and watched as Ludlig rounded the desk and sat on the armchair, which she could now see was made of dark green leather, contrasting beautifully with the almost gold-yellow of the sofa. Hazel noticed Ludlig had brought a small stack of parchment and a small, opulent penknife.

Ludlig placed the items on the small side table between the sofa and the armchair before shifting to be seated more comfortably, crossing one leg over the other and steepling his hands, elbows resting on his thighs and then looking at her. Hazel tried not to shift under his gaze. Being closer to him now, she could see more of his goblin qualities and found his eyes interesting. While his left eye was that of a goblin's, completely black with only a sliver of white to distinguish the iris, his right eye was a bright blue and human.

"To start, Ms Potter, I want you to prick one of your fingers and allow three drops to fall onto the parchments."

Hazel nodded and picked up the penknife, briefly turning it in her hands and watching the colours in the mother-of-pearl handle shift before she dug the very tip of the knife into her index finger, watching as the blood pooled to the surface with a stony expression and dropping the three drops onto the parchment stack as instructed. 

Hazel healed her finger without fuss and turned to Ludlig, the question on her lips.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now," he replied, "we wait".