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Eliot isn’t used to having downtime while on the con, but the Claridge auction isn’t for another two days. After he gets Alec the items he needs to make the fake book, Eliot is at loose ends. He decides to use this excess time to go to Gringotts bank and get the spells on his glasses renewed. Working for Damien Moreau was Eliot's first introduction to magic; especially dark objects and curses. Under Moreau, others dealt with magic, so while he knew it existed he hadn't known very much about it. One of the first things he did after he left Moreau was learn as much as he could. Then he went to a Gringotts branch and got protective magic items. His most prized piece: a pair of glasses that warned of dark magic on objects. The spells had to be renewed regularly, but it was worth the expense as they had saved his life a dozen times.
Walking into the alley Eliot sees a number of people with dark objects on them. More so when walking by Knockturn alley than in other places. One such person, he notes while walking: Lucious Malfoy, it's not a surprise that he has dark objects on him. It stands out because he is walking into Flourish and Blotts and one of the dark objects is book shaped. Eliot makes a note to check it out after Gringotts and continues on his way.
The appointment doesn’t take long and as he’s exiting the bank he sees Parker leaving Sugarplum's sweet shop with a large bag and a slightly manic grin on her face. Eliot feels a brief surge of exasperation and then immediately resigns himself to corralling Parker for at least the rest of the afternoon.
“Dammit Parker,” Eliot says, walking over to her, trying to disguise his fondness with irritation.
“Eliot! Chocolate frogs may be my new favorite chocolate!” Parker starts to rapidly talk about all of the candy she stole from the sweet shop.
Eliot mostly listens until he sees Lucious going into Madam Malkins and he no longer has the book-shaped dark object on him. He immediately picks up his pace a bit and heads towards Flourish and Blotts. He doesn’t notice that Parker has trailed off and is paying more attention to her surroundings as she picks up on his tension. They’re still a store away when the bookshop’s door opens and out spills the redheaded Weasley clan. He almost misses it at the very end, the youngest has a red glow on her bag.
“Shit!” Eliot curses and runs a hand through his hair. Making a quick decision he turns to Parker, “Parker -”
“What is it Eliot,” Parker has her serious face on already, curiously following the redheads with her eyes having read that they were who Eliot was focusing on.
“The youngest kid’s got a dark object on her. Based on the size and shape it’s the same object Malfoy had on him earlier,” Eliot responded.
Parker’s eyes narrowed and she looked around, assessing the best way to get close enough to the girl, and asked “what size and shape is it?"
“It's small and rectangular, probably a book. It’s in her cauldron -” Eliot grabs her arm before she can take off, “Parker be careful, use your gloves, don’t let it touch your skin.”
Eliot let’s go and Parker vanishes into the crowd. Before he can worry too much Parker is back and holds up a slim black book to him. Eliot nods as he pulls out a pair of gloves and puts them on. Carefully he takes the book from her and turns to head back to Gringotts. They employ many high-quality curse breakers, he’s brought them dark objects before, they’ll know what to do with the book. Parker follows him quietly for now, but he can almost feel the curiosity emanating from her.
Trying to head off some of her questions Eliot explains, “I have no idea what kind of dark object this is. My glasses give an aura to dark objects, they’ve been a very useful piece of equipment on retrievals. Any dark objects I find I take to the curse breakers at Gringotts. They can be pricey, but they’re the best so it’s worth it.”
He sees Parker nodding out of the corner of his eye, “Those are pretty neat, not sure I could use glasses though. Mostly I avoid magical items anyway, they’re more trouble than they're worth. Besides, money is better.”
Inside the bank, Eliot goes to the line that he always uses, at the counter he says to Kraggrit, “I have a dark object for either cleansing or destruction. I just acquired it and know nothing about it, except that it pinged my glasses as dark."
The goblin nods and reaches for a piece of parchment and gestures to it, "please place the item here for assessment."
Eliot carefully placed the journal on the parchment. The parchment immediately starts filling with information. Eliot can’t read it, it’s written in the goblin’s language, but the amount of information doesn't bode well. In his past experience the darker the object the longer the scroll about it.
"This is most concerning. This is a very dark and illegal object. Please place a drop of blood on this piece of parchment to certify that you did not create this object and that you acquired it specifically so that it could be destroyed.” Kraggrit slides a piece of parchment forward and a small dagger.
Eliot grimaces, he’s done this for a number of dark objects in the past, but it still bothers him every time. The parchment contains the normal statement, basically the same as what Kraggrit said. Eliot picks up the small dagger and pricks his finger, letting a drop fall on the page. The parchment glows golden for a moment and his name is filled in on the name line.
Kraggrit takes the parchment and places it, the assessment scroll, and the journal into an envelope that seals with a golden glow, and says “As soon as we know more about the object and what needs to be done to it we’ll let you know. Most likely it will be destroyed, but a number of tests must be performed first. Is there anything else Gringotts can help you with at this time?”
“That’s it, thank you for your help,” Eliot responds.
As the pair leave the bank Eliot does his best to put the book out of his mind. There’s nothing he can do about it and it’s in the hands of those who can best take care of it. The team's confrontation with Moreau is getting closer and he needs to put all of his focus on that.
“Let’s get Hardison some orange soda and gummy frogs on our way back to the hotel,” Parker says, showing that her focus is also back on the con.
Six Months Later
It’s only been a few days since the team got back from San Lorenzo, and Eliot is standing in his kitchen feeling a little lost with the threat of Moreau gone. Tapping at his window makes him turn and see an owl with a letter for him. Eliot gets the letter, gives the owl a treat, and sends it on its way. He sits at his kitchen table, the letter is from Gringotts.
The first page is the customary information that the dark object he gave them couldn’t be cleansed and was destroyed. The second page is a handwritten note from Kraggrit. The contents state that over the course of Gringotts’ investigation they discovered that the book was one of seven objects created by Tom Riddle Jr. who later became the dark lord Voldemort. With the destruction or cleansing of all of the objects, Voldemort’s wraith was successfully banished and he will not be able to return.
The last page is a letter from Harry Potter. It’s a short letter, just a simple thanks to Eliot for starting the process that freed the kid over some dark magic left behind by Voldemort the night he killed Harry’s parents. There’s not much to it, but it reminds Eliot of all of the good that he’s done with Leverage. He may not have adjusted to finally being free of Moreau yet, but he knows what the future will hold. Leverage will keep helping people and while it may not seem like much on the large scale, for each person they’ve helped it has changed their life profoundly. So he’ll keep on this path, with his crew he’ll keep doing the things that help others.