Now I can fight with righteous indignation again!

Reluctantly leaving the pet shop behind, Annie followed her newly acquainted friend Hermione as they walked along Diagon Alley. Before long, they reached the middle of the alley, near the intersection with Knockturn Alley, where Gringotts Wizarding Bank stood. It was the largest and most distinctive building in Diagon Alley, a towering white marble structure.

Standing before the gates of Gringotts, Annie blinked and furrowed her cute brow, eyeing the strange building with suspicion. There was an aura inside that she didn't like at all. It felt similar to a kind of creature she despised—a truly detestable presence!

Though she loathed it inwardly, she knew she had to go in to exchange her money. Hermione, walking ahead, had already turned back several times to urge her on. After a moment's thought, Annie decided to just go in and endure it.

Following behind Hermione, the two of them passed through the Bronze Door and then the second Silver Door before entering the spacious Marble Hall. Dozens of goblins sat behind tall counters, some busily scribbling in large ledgers, others weighing coins on scales, and still others inspecting gems with eyepieces. A few adult wizards stood in orderly queues before the counters, waiting patiently to conduct their business.

So it really was these disgusting monsters...

When Annie saw the creatures behind the counters, she understood. Even outside the building, she had sensed that loathsome aura from them—a greedy, insatiable presence. She knew it would be these ugly, avaricious beings! These little monsters called goblins existed on the Valoran Continent too, though these ones looked slightly different from the ones she knew. Still, the aura was essentially the same.

"Tch! Why do these short little monsters get to sit on such high counters?"

Approaching an empty counter, Annie muttered discontentedly. The counters were far too tall—at least over a meter and a half high! Even adult wizards would probably have to look up at those despicable goblins. She couldn't understand how the mages here allowed such greedy monsters to manage their money.

Annie hated these vile creatures, especially the way they sat on high platforms and looked down at her. In her eyes, they were nothing but base, filthy monsters—how dare they act like this? If this were Valoran, any creature that dared to look down on a mage with that kind of gaze would have been burned to ashes by a hot-tempered wizard long ago! Watching the orderly queues of wizards, Annie couldn't fathom why they tolerated it.

"Shh! Keep your voice down, Annie." Hermione quickly signaled Annie to be quiet, making sure the goblins above didn't hear.

Having visited Gringotts many times, she knew these goblins weren't exactly friendly to wizards. Right now, Hermione felt it was best to just exchange their Galleons and leave, without provoking them further.

"I'd like to exchange one hundred and fifty pounds for Galleons, please!" After warning Annie, Hermione turned and stood on tiptoe, straining to hand over several pound notes.

But the goblin at the counter didn't take the money immediately. Instead, it lowered its head and stared down at Annie with a sinister gaze, fixing her for several seconds.

It had clearly heard what Annie said. Seeing this, Annie glared back without flinching. So what if you're up high? You short little monster—if you dare jump down, I'll definitely be taller than you!

After a long moment, realizing it couldn't intimidate little Annie, the goblin reluctantly backed off!

But it still let Hermione's hand grow sore from holding out the money before finally glancing at her and deliberately dragging its feet before taking the notes. After a while, it coldly pulled out a small pouch of Galleons from under its counter and tossed it carelessly to Hermione. Its haughty, dismissive expression nearly made Annie explode with rage.

Hermione caught the Galleons the goblin had thrown, stuffed them into her satchel, and carefully secured them. Then she signaled Annie to bring out the gold coins she wanted to exchange. But the coins were too many and too heavy—Hermione couldn't lift them up.

Fortunately, the clever Miss Granger knew the Levitation Charm, an advanced spell. She pulled out one of those short wooden wands Annie had seen before, pointed it at the large bag of gold coins, and chanted: "Wingardium Leviosa!" The bag of coins slowly floated up, drifting all the way to the counter in front of the goblin.

Oh? Watching Hermione cast the spell like that, Annie felt a sense of novelty!

If she wasn't mistaken, the spell seemed to require three elements: gestures, incantation, and the wand's aid, all working together to complete it. But... was it really necessary to be so complicated?

"Excuse me, could you please trouble yourself to exchange all these gold coins for Galleons? Thank you!"

Hermione put away her wand, feeling quite proud. She was very satisfied with casting that spell. She was about to enter her second year, but even many older students couldn't perform this charm!

Hearing that it was a large bag of gold coins to exchange, the goblin didn't dawdle this time. It quickly stood up, comically reaching out its short little hands to grab the floating bag, which was as tall as itself. When it opened the bag and looked inside, its ridiculous big eyes flashed with gold, widening even more! Then, thinking of something, its eyes darted around for a moment before it swiftly retied the bag.

After tying it shut, it leaned forward and carefully examined the two little girls below the counter, its shifty, malformed eyes betraying unknown thoughts! At the same time, it glanced around at the surrounding crowd, and seeing that not many people were paying attention, it pondered for a moment longer.

As if making a decision, it narrowed its eyes and quickly cast a spell on the bag of gold, making it vanish entirely—who knows where it hid it. After stowing the bag away, it slowly sat back down in its original seat and continued writing something, as if nothing had happened.

"Excuse me! Are our Galleons ready?" After waiting a long time, an impatient Hermione spoke up when she saw the goblin ignoring them.

Surely it had been long enough—it had taken the gold, written quite a bit, so the transaction should be complete, right? So where were the exchanged Galleons? The deposit receipt? Or a check, if the wizarding bank offered that service.

Hearing Hermione's question, the goblin merely tilted its head and gave the two little girls a mocking glance before turning back, picking up its quill, and continuing to scribble pretentiously in its large ledger.

If Annie had used mind-reading on it now, she would have found the goblin thinking disdainfully: Gold? Hmph! You still want gold? I've seen nothing, and I certainly haven't seen any mysterious bag of gold coins! What naive little girls. Humans are so stupid! Haha... I love fools like this! Bringing me so many shiny treasures—let there be more of these stupid wizards!

"Hello! Dear Mr. Goblin, excuse me! Where are our gold coins? Where are they now? I think it's been long enough—you should have exchanged them by now!" After waiting even longer and seeing no reaction from the goblin, Hermione recalled some unpleasant rumors. She hardened her tone and began to question it.

"Gold coins? What gold coins? Little human girl, weren't those dozen or so Galleons already exchanged for you? I saw you put them away." The goblin pretended to be annoyed, looking at Hermione, then pointed a bony finger, signaling her to check her satchel.

"A dozen... Galleons?" Hermione instinctively felt her satchel as the goblin suggested. Inside was something hard—the Galleons she had just exchanged for her one hundred and fifty pounds.

Hermione stood dumbfounded for a long moment until she realized the goblin's true intent. Then she looked up at the creature with disbelief.

God! Oh, Merlin! It—this goblin! It actually dared to swindle their gold coins in broad daylight? No wonder it had dragged things out—it never intended to honestly exchange those coins! Those thousands of gold coins—had it hidden them away and embezzled them? This shameless thief! Vile robber!

"You! How dare you do this? You stole our gold! You bandit, despicable goblin, thief! Robber!" Hermione felt utterly shaken.

In a wizarding bank, a goblin had made off with such a huge bag of gold coins! Those were worth at least several thousand Galleons... She couldn't just let it go, so she started screaming.

Her voice immediately drew the attention of nearby wizards and goblins at other counters. Though they didn't know what had happened, they all turned to look at the two little girls standing below the counter and the goblin employee above, whose face was shifting between shades.

Annie, who had been curiously observing Gringotts and taking in the hall's layout, turned her head in confusion at Hermione's scream. She had no idea what had just happened—she hadn't been paying attention.

It was only Tibbers who gleefully reminded her in private: That stupid, reckless goblin had just embezzled her belongings... something like that.

Annie finally understood what had occurred, but she wasn't too angry. Confident and unafraid, she didn't rush to act.

She didn't really care much about the gold or money. She was just a bit puzzled: Did they really think she was that easy to bully? Or did she just naturally look like a pushover? Ha! How interesting—very interesting!

Then she looked at the smug, short, ugly goblin standing on the counter, and her irritation grew. Since when did lowlifes like this dare to mess with her? As she'd always thought, her hatred for these creatures wasn't unfounded.

"Watch your words, little girl. You can't just say things like that. Otherwise, the consequences will be severe!" The goblin pretended to be displeased, standing up and walking to the edge of the counter, leaning down to warn Hermione in a low, menacing tone, hoping she'd back off. Otherwise, hmph!

"You did! You took our gold and didn't exchange it for Galleons! You're a thief! Robber! Bandit!!" Seeing the goblin still denying it, Hermione shouted angrily.

She had only come to Gringotts to do business, but she never expected to be robbed by the bank itself! Who would believe that? Yet it had happened right before her eyes, Hermione Granger's.

"Guards! Guards! Over here! Arrest them and send them to the Ministry of Magic. Charge: causing a disturbance at Gringotts. Let them deal with it severely!" Not wanting to drag things out and risk unnecessary trouble, the goblin, seeing that warnings were useless, snapped its fingers and summoned the bank's guards.

Two guards in crimson-and-gold uniforms, who had been standing by the hall, immediately approached. One, a tall human wizard guard, stood before Annie and Hermione, blocking their view and creating a sense of visual pressure. The other, a goblin guard, positioned himself behind them, forming a perfect pincer.

These human guards were mostly adult wizards hired at high pay by the goblins, possessing strength comparable to ordinary Aurors. They had powerful magic, quick reflexes, and could handle both basic security and disputes between wizards and the bank. Gringotts had many such guards.

"You two! Please cooperate with us." The human guard in front merely stared expressionlessly at Hermione, completely ignoring the smaller Annie. He didn't think this little girl could cause any trouble. Instead, the ten-something-year-old student-like girl needed more attention—she might know quite a few spells.

"You—how dare you still act like this!" Hermione was so furious she could barely speak.

Naive and only twelve years old, she was now being harshly schooled by the cruelty of reality! Blinded by rage, she reached into her pocket for her Scepter, intent on teaching that wretched Goblin on the counter a proper lesson.

Seeing Hermione's reaching motion, the two Guards exchanged a glance. The human Guard in front stepped forward swiftly and firmly grabbed Hermione's hand, while the other Goblin Guard behind immediately clamped down on the slightly shorter Annie's shoulder. They now planned to forcibly escort the two girls out—just a pair of little girls, after all, they weren't about to draw their Scepters yet.

"Little girl, I'll warn you one last time! Come quietly with us to the Ministry of Magic, or don't blame us for using spells." The human Guard, having seized Hermione's hand, stared coldly into the girl's frightened eyes as his other hand swiftly pulled a Scepter from her pocket—the very one she had been about to draw.

The other Goblin Guard, however, wasn't so restrained. Goblins held no goodwill toward humans! So, putting force into its hand, it tried to shove Annie down to the floor and bind her for transport. Perhaps now it could add another charge to these two human girls: attempting to use a Scepter in Gringotts Goblin Bank with malicious intent!

"Waaah!!"

The Goblin Guard that had reached for Annie's shoulder had just begun to push when its entire palm was suddenly ignited by the flames erupting from Annie's body. The fire that left Annie's body spread like Fiendfyre, racing up its arm toward its shoulder.

Instantly, it let out a shrill scream, stumbling back several steps before collapsing to the ground and rolling around. It seemed it was trying to smother the terrifying flames clinging to it with this method.

"You... filthy... monsters! How... dare you... steal... my money?!" Annie lifted her head, her small face taut, each word spoken with deliberate force. And more importantly—that Goblin behind her had dared to put its dirty hand on her shoulder?

The moment she finished speaking, blazing red flames began to pour continuously from Annie's body. Her eyes, now scorching bright and glowing like molten lava, swept over the Goblins standing on the counter.

Annie had long found those wretched Goblins insufferable! And now she had caught an excuse to lose her temper, hadn't she? Haha! Come on, come on—stand up high all you want, steal my money all you want!

"You are courting death!!!"