After dealing with one of Harry's smaller worries, Tver stayed on at St Mungo's to watch the treatment of Mr. Longbottom.
This time, without any help from Tver or Miriam, Neville and Draco successfully treated Mr. Longbottom's soul disorder on their own.
Although both Longbottoms' souls were still weak and would require long-term treatment and rest afterward, the news still gave the Order of the Phoenix a tremendous boost.
As soon as Dumbledore received the news, he hurried over with whatever Order members were free. Even Mr. Weasley, who had originally been lying in a hospital bed, came along to join the excitement despite the bite on his neck still seeping blood.
Although Miriam later drove them all out of the ward on the grounds that the patients needed rest, everyone still returned to Grimmauld Place beaming and held a long-overdue celebration.
"The harder the times, the more we need news like this to lift our spirits, and reasons to celebrate," Dumbledore said.
Even if not one of the actual people involved attended the dinner...
Tver, meanwhile, did not get to attend either, because Lucius dragged him off to Malfoy Manor.
"I haven't been here in quite a while, but your manor has changed far too much, hasn't it?" Tver said in astonishment as he looked at the magnificent estate before him.
Malfoy Manor had already been the most luxurious among the pure-blood families, but since wizards had never been especially good at architecture or design, it still tended to pale beside truly grand Muggle buildings.
But now, if not for the white house at the center still looking the same as before, then just from the massive fountains, the two-story peacock statues, the rows of neatly planted avenue trees, and the rest, he would have thought he had arrived at some top ten luxury manor in the Muggle world.
"Ahem." Lucius's lips curled into a smug smile. "All of this was purchased from Muggles. Dirt cheap."
Seeing Tver arch a brow, he quickly added, "Don't worry, all of it was bought under Gringotts' name. Those goblins are making even more money than we are."
He clicked his tongue, not without envy.
The goblins of Gringotts could openly purchase things from the Muggle world, and there was no way for the Ministry's monitoring of wizards to uncover what they had tucked away.
But pure-bloods were different. Even though they earned more money, only a small fraction of it could actually be turned into physical goods.
"Don't say that, Lucius. If Mr. Fawley allowed you lot into the Muggle world, every last one of you could be richer than Gringotts."
A middle-aged goblin in a suit stood at the gates of Malfoy Manor, looking at Tver meaningfully.
Tver paid him no mind and casually waved a hand.
"Long time no see, Ingus. Looks like life's treating you quite well these days."
Greedy goblins really were a different breed. Before, they had still been pretending, saying it was all ordinary business done at wizards' request.
Now, after tasting the profits for a year and a half, they were already trying to egg Tver on into openly clashing with the Ministry and the Statute of Secrecy, fully entering the Muggle world so that the goblins could lurk behind the scenes and make easy money off it.
Sensing the threat in Tver's words, Ingus reluctantly lowered his proud head.
"Thanks to you, Gringotts' income has more than doubled, and goblin lives have improved considerably."
Gringotts' profits had never been all that high before. Minting coinage had to follow the existing flow of currency, so the goblins could not make much from that. Most of their income came from selling vaults and charging storage fees.
But Tver's intermediary business was a different matter. The goblins were only responsible for procurement. They did not have to spend a single knut on consumption or sales, and every bit of the markup became pure profit.
So now that the biggest share of goblin profits was effectively controlled by Tver, even someone as arrogant as Ingus had no choice but to bow his head before his benefactor.
Seeing that Ingus knew when to behave, Tver stopped pressing him. Too much was as bad as too little.
"Come on. I think they've been waiting long enough."
Tver strode forward without waiting, ignoring the Lucius left standing there and crossing the gates into the estate.
Lucius swallowed hard. Realizing that Tver had very likely already guessed what little scheme they had been up to, he hurried after him.
"Tver, I truly didn't know they'd been contacting one another in private beforehand, much less that they'd joined forces to pressure you!"
Lucius explained in a panic. Beside him, Ingus let out a cold laugh.
"The petty little schemes of your sort. Forget Mr. Fawley, even the goblins guarding the doors of Gringotts know all about them."
"It's nothing more than this. You see business in the Muggle world getting better and better, and you can't stand handing part of the profit to Mr. Fawley. And you especially can't stand that all of you grand, all-powerful wizards have to meekly do business with Muggles."
Lucius looked at Tver's expressionless face and grew more flustered by the second. Only then did Tver glance at Ingus.
"Greed is human nature. Don't you goblins want to make even more money?"
Ingus froze for a moment, not quite understanding what he meant.
"You're right, but I'm not like them. I've always obeyed your instructions."
Tver did not believe a single word of it. He stopped in front of the tightly shut doors, planted both hands on them, and pushed hard.
"So I've come to help all of you make even more money!"
Creak.
At Tver's words, the people who had been loudly gathered around the long table in discussion all turned in surprise.
"Professor Fawley?" one middle-aged wizard said, his voice tinged with panic. "You... you're here..."
Click. Click.
Tver did not answer at once. Instead, he walked toward the long table one step at a time. In the suddenly silent room, his footsteps sounded unnaturally distinct, like knocks on their hearts, echoing again and again.
Everyone's expression grew uglier and uglier as the atmosphere became steadily heavier.
Only now did they seem to realize just how stupid a decision they had made.
"Of course, young Avery. I was worried your father had influenced you, and that you'd become determined to return to Voldemort's side." Tver smiled as he spoke to the younger Avery, as though they were merely making polite conversation.
Though no magic had touched him, young Avery felt as if his body had frozen solid. In the end, he could only force a smile so fake it could not have looked faker.
"That... that was a misunderstanding, Professor..."
His father had been one of the earliest Death Eaters to follow Voldemort, so although he had been Snape's classmate, he had really only taken part in the latter half of the last war and had barely experienced the Dark Lord's brutally oppressive style of rule.
So under Tver's pressure, he was the first one to crack.
"A misunderstanding? Then that means you really did have other ideas, doesn't it?"
The smile vanished from Tver's face at once. Expressionless, he swept his cold gaze across the room, over each and every one of them and their differing expressions.
"Tell me. Did you convene this meeting because you meant to inform me that you've decided to go crawling back to Voldemort, that shabby old master of yours, rather than continue living as you do now, openly and comfortably, moving about the wizarding world in broad daylight?!"