Entry for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 5, Finals Round 2 - Wigtown Wanderers vs Caerphilly Catapults
Position: Keeper
Prompt: Viktor Krum, Vault in Gringotts, Vampire, Vase
Word Count: 1,600
Betas: Aya Diefair, DinoDina
AU.
The Hidden Things
Icy cold wind hit Viktor's face and whipped through his hair as the cart swayed unsettlingly on the tracks while it raced deeper and deeper into the endless labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gringotts. His stomach constricted at the motion, but he forced himself to ignore it like the pain that shot through his arm from Fleur digging her nails into him. She was obviously just as anxious about the ride as he was.
Whenever the wheels of the cart screeched sickeningly on the tracks, he cursed those who'd come up with the idiotic idea of a bank in the depths of the earth only accessible by an old cart that sounded like it could fall apart at any moment. It made him seriously miss the safety standards of the wizards in Germany; they would never have built a death trap like this.
Viktor almost threw up when the cart came to such a sudden halt that Fleur was pushed into his back, and the goblin grimaced at the scream she released.
"Vault 2389!" he exclaimed in an annoyed, and almost disgusted, tone while climbing from the cart and over to the heavy steel door in the wall.
Normally, it wouldn't have been a problem for Fleur and Viktor to follow the goblin, but the ride had affected them both so much that their legs didn't want to obey them. Wobbly steps carried them to the door, and Fleur almost dropped the key she pulled from the pocket of her jacket, her slender fingers shaking.
"Key, please!"
"I volunteer to walk ze whole way back up. I don't want to get on zis… zing again. Eet will kill us!" Fleur exclaimed, her voice quivering and her beautiful face so pale it appeared almost white.
Viktor had to admit to himself that he would gladly walk with her, no matter how deep in the earth they were already, but he still remembered the speech of the goblin before they'd gotten onto the cart – without a Gringotts goblin, it was impossible to get out of this labyrinth again.
Deciding not to think about this issue any further, Viktor watched how Fleur handed the key – acquired in decidedly less than legal ways, not that they cared much – to the goblin and the little creature unlocked the door, the hidden locks crunching and creaking as if they hadn't moved in decades. For Fleur and Viktor, that was good news – it meant that the object of their desire was likely to still be inside the vault. When the heavy door slowly swung open, they exchanged a short glance and drew their wands, lighting them with muttered words.
The air was thick inside the vault, leaving a weird smell of old inside the nostrils. Fleur frowned as she moved through the door next to Viktor, hoping that they wouldn't come across anything dead. She wasn't sensitive, but rats still weren't her favourite things to spot, especially when deceased.
Slowly stepping deeper into the huge cave, they let their gazes wander over the huge piles of gold gleaming and blinking in the light of their wands to a diverse collection of vases covered in thick layers of dust. One corner of the vault accommodated a giant wardrobe made of black wood, decorated with artfully carved ornaments. In another they could spot a huge pile of old chests and dusty statues, some broken, as if they'd been tossed there carelessly.
"So, where do we start?" Fleur asked with a little frown after inspecting the chaos briefly. Viktor smirked at her, seeming a little patronising, and whipped his wand in a cocky, almost bragging manner.
"You sure you're a witch, Delacour? Accio stake!"
He stretched his free hand out triumphantly, ready to catch the object he expected to launch towards him, but nothing happened. For a few seconds, he stood there frozen, then his ridiculously confident smirk fell upon the realisation that he was looking like a fool, making Fleur snort.
"Sérieusement, Viktor? Of course zey put a spell on it, it won't be zat easy. Come on, big Quidditch star. Afraid of getting your hands dirty?"
It was her turn to smirk now, and keeping her wand between her fingers, she approached the pile of chests, not hesitating for a second before touching one of the dirty and dusty lids and opening it. "Only diamonds."
"Where would you hide the one thing in the world that could kill you?" Viktor mused, having grimaced at her behind her back but now concentrating on their mission again.
He turned slowly on the spot to survey the vault in its entirety again. "Where would I place a stake…"
"Stop standing zere uselessly, start helping me! You're ze muscle, I'm ze brain, remember?"
Her eyes gleamed as she threw him a teasing glance and Viktor rolled his eyes but obeyed, moving towards the pile of chests where Fleur was, too.
"I start to feel like we should have asked more questions before taking this quest. I mean, they pay good but I haven't come to terms with the 'don't ask any questions' thing yet."
Fleur's annoyed noise swallowed a distant creaking sound and she shrugged. "I don't care. I have bills to pay. One zousand Galleons for retrieving a stake is easy money I won't say no-"
A loud hiss behind them made them both freeze and their eyes widened simultaneously; they could feel the air shift behind them from quick movements, but neither of them dared to turn around, as if they were hoping that the cause for their shock was just an imagination.
For a few moments, it was almost completely quiet with only the heavy breathing behind them audible. A second later, all hell broke loose.
Fleur screamed when a pale, almost white hand with creepy long fingers and nails grabbed Viktor by the shoulder, the fingernails digging into the material of his robes before yanking him backwards easily – Viktor could only yelp in shock. Whipping around, Fleur watched how the pale, inhumanely thin figure pushed Viktor against the wardrobe that caused its door to slam shut. She didn't have the time to curse their stupidity – if only they'd checked the wardrobe first – because the creature now, closing one hand around Viktor's throat, bared its teeth; white fangs ready to slam into his neck. Panic rushed through Fleur's veins and she could only resign to be a spectator of the struggle for a long moment, not knowing what to do. Viktor's arms were flailing wildly, slapping and scratching the vampire, but he didn't seem bothered at all by it.
Forgetting about the wand in her hand for a less than glorious moment, Fleur stormed forwards to try and pull the vampire away, only to fly half across the vault as he easily threw her off him.
A pained groan escaped her when she crashed into the collection of vases, smashing one; the cuts in her hands were burning and warm blood flowed down her wrists as she tried to push herself up. Adrenaline was pumping through her body when she clumsily groped for her wand, having dropped it in the shock of the moment, and she instead gasped when her fingers closed around a much thicker wooden object. Her gaze jumped down to her hand, and then she realised that the thing she was holding was a stake made of a dark wood and was rough against her skin.
Just what they'd been looking for, coming in very handy in this moment.
Without hesitating for a second, she pushed herself onto her feet, the pain that had shot through her whole body earlier completely forgotten, and her grip on the stake tightened. The vampire was slowly leaning in, gaze fixed on Viktor's throat, and Fleur gathered all her strength as she sprinted towards the two and drilling the stake into the creature's back where she suspected its heart to be. It was easier than she had imagined, though the sounds the creature made were quite sickening, and it took her some strength to maintain her hold and not recoil. Viktor sunk to the ground when the vampire let go of him and followed him in falling a second later, crashing onto the ground limply, eyes and mouth wide open, but luckily it didn't move again.
"Guarding… guarding a weapon to kill vampires with a vampire… creative," Viktor panted after releasing a few curses in his mother tongue.
He slowly got to his feet again, though he looked truly shaken, trying to catch his breath, fingerprints shining red on his skin. Fleur rounded the vampire to grab her wand from the ground and muttered healing incantations under her breath, the tip pointed at her cuts, before she glanced at Viktor.
"Are you alright?"
"How nice that you're asking… I'm alive. And so glad we got that stake. Let's leave," he grumbled, taking wobbly steps to the vampire to pull the stake from his back, grimacing at the sound of flesh releasing the object.
"Aren't you going to thank me? I saved your life."
She pulled a white cotton tissue from her pocket and rubbed the blood off her healed arms and hands almost casually while following Viktor out to the cart. The goblin was waiting for them, looking unimpressed as if they were normal customers who'd just made a normal withdrawal – they both suspected that he hadn't been completely oblivious about the vampire stashed away in the vault.
"No, because you convinced me to take this mission. Without you, I wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place," he replied stubbornly, ignoring the glare she shot him.
"Next time I'll just let you starve, zen!"