Darker Than Dark Wizards. After Harry left the shelter, Albert, concealed beneath the Disillusionment Charm, quietly slipped back and silently used a spell to subdue Griphook and Gornuk, who were discussing the matter in Goblin language.
"Just as I thought, they're all cut from the same cloth."
Albert knew better than anyone how difficult it was to make goblins betray their own kind and help them steal something from a Gringotts vault.
Harry's offer of the Gryffindor Sword as payment certainly carried enough weight.
But the goblins had never expected them to keep their word, yet they still wanted to get their hands on the Gryffindor Sword.
Their little schemes could not fool Albert, whose Legilimency Skill Points were extremely high.
From the very beginning, Albert had never placed his hopes in the goblins' trustworthiness.
He was not that foolish.
Just as the goblins did not trust them either.
So it was still more reliable to follow his own plan.
Though it did have a hint of cleverness backfiring on itself, most of the time, he still preferred trusting his own intelligence and judgment.
It was a common flaw among geniuses.
Although Albert was an impostor, a fake genius was still a genius.
Albert's source of confidence came from his strength.
Using Legilimency again, he dug more useful information from the goblins' minds.
After learning that the old goblin Bogrod was the key to opening the Lestrange vault, Albert experienced the limits of Legilimency for the first time—or rather, the limits of goblins.
A goblin's mind was not a book that could be flipped through at will.
Once he intensified the Legilimency, it would cause irreversible damage to the goblins' brains.
Considering that neither side bore any deep grudge against the other, and that the goblins before him would be