Chapter Eleven: The Heist
"These clothes are riding up in places I don't actually have," Sirius Black complained. Kushina was still getting used to 'his' voice: a feminine, purring rasp that made her skin crawl a bit for all that she'd engineered his transformation. Normally applying a henge to another person was tricky bordering on impossible, but as a fuuinjutsu master she could cheat a bit. The seal she'd inked on Sirius' back would hold him in Bellatrix's image until it ran out of chakra or she dispelled it.
"Yes, well, I'm not exactly comfortable, either," Kushina shot back. "I haven't worn a corset since… well, before I had Naruto. At least your face is covered." Sirius wasn't wearing his own face, but apparently his cousin was even more widely hated in magical Britain than he was. Diagon Alley was its beating heart, so he wore a hat with a heavy veil.
"My face is the only part of me that is adequately covered! Remus will never let me live this down," Sirius muttered.
Studying Sirius' outfit and her own, Kushina had to admit that there was a reason they were both attracting a lot of looks from passersby. Bellatrix's wardrobe apparently was all black and tended toward low-cut, tight dresses with lots of leather around the sleeves and waist, accented by straps and lace elsewhere and leaving plenty of skin exposed. I'd have had to clean up Minato's drool with a mop if he'd seen me in something like this, Kushina reflected wryly. Unlike Sirius her face was uncovered, though she'd made use of a minor henge to make her hair and eyes dark and her features more aristocratic.
A few blocks into Diagon Alley Sirius' pace slowed when he spotted a wanted poster pinned to a notice board. "Huh. I guess it's a good thing you're in disguise too, Kushina," he noted.
"Why?" Sirius pointed silently. Moving closer, Kushina studied the poster. "What the- that's me!"
"Looks like it," Sirius agreed. The picture of her face was not only photo-accurate but moving on a short loop. Someone had rather artistically added blood spatters to Kushina's cheeks and put a shifty, almost deranged look in her eyes that screamed 'criminal'.
"WANTED: Abductor of the 'Boy who Lived'," the poster actually announced in an authoritative male voice. "In addition to kidnapping, this witch is implicated in multiple violent murders. If seen, contact the Ministry of Magic. Do not confront."
Sirius watched Kushina's face slowly turned redder as she listened. "How did your authorities get that image?" Kushina asked. "The only people who know what I look like and that I protect Harry are Death Eaters!"
Sirius sighed. "The Death Eaters infiltrated the Ministry of Magic under You-Know-Who. It would seem that they still have some influence."
Kushina frowned. "But how would it benefit them even if the aurors did take Harry from me?"
Sirius scratched his chin. "No idea," he confessed, "but we have to assume they have a plan." He rested a hand on Kushina's shoulder, feeling the tension in her frame. "C'mon, nothing we can do about that right now."
"Fine, but I'm going to find out who's responsible for this," Kushina growled ominously, cracking her knuckles. "Just see if I don't."
Settling down to his afternoon tea, Professor Dumbledore sneezed loudly.
"Bless you, Headmaster," Minerva Mcgonagall murmured over her own teacup.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Someone must be talking about me," he murmured as he added a generous dollop of honey to his drink.
Kushina and Sirius made it to Gringott's without being challenged - only ogled. Inside, Sirius took the lead while Kushina kept her eyes open. The bank floor thronged with wizards, witches and goblins, while behind the high counters more goblins towered over their customers despite their diminutive height.
For all that Sirius clearly loathed his cousin he did a fine job of mimicking the movements Kushina had witnessed in Remus' pensieve when Sirius had shown her his memories of Bella so she could craft the henge. Bellatrix moved with an effortless grace that was occasionally interrupted by manic changes in direction and focus. Kushina had been impressed and made wary by the speed of movement she had noted as well.
Sirius glided up to an empty counter and somehow managed to glare down his nose at the teller looming above him. "Goblin," he demanded stridently, "I am here to access my vault." He lifted his veil enough for the goblin in a dark suit to see it, and Kushina saw the goblin's eyes widen slightly before he glanced down at his ledger.
"Very well, Ms. Lestrange," the goblin replied in a reedy voice, "your key?"
Here we go, Kushina thought.
Sirius huffed irritably. "My key has gone missing. I require a replacement."
The goblin frowned. "Unfortunate," he muttered. "You are aware that the fee for creating a replacement will be debited from your existing funds in the amount of one hundred galleons?"
Sirius waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, yes," he replied breezily. "It is of no concern to me. Work quickly."
That actually earned a glare from the tiny goblin, but he scribbled away in his ledger before climbing down from his perch. A doorway opened in the paneling before them, and the goblin beckoned. "This way please, Ms. Lestrange, and…" he looked at Kushina curiously.
"Ignore the squib," Sirius spat, "she's only here to fetch and carry." Kushina fixed her gaze on the floor, looking suitably chastened. The goblin only shrugged and vanished into the revealed hallway. Sirius and Kushina followed.
"Aren't you laying it on a bit heavy?" Kushina asked quietly. "That goblin looked like he would cheerfully stab you. We're trying to avoid notice here."
"If I didn't act like that they would be more suspicious," Sirius explained. "This is what Bella is like."
At the end of the hallway the goblin had already climbed into a mine cart. Sirius followed suit and took up most of the seat, with Kushina squeezing herself in on one side. The goblin pulled a lever, and off they flew. Kushina reflexively grabbed for the edge as they approached the first sharp turn in the tracks, but the abrupt change in inertia she'd been anticipating never occurred. Sirius didn't even flinch, while the goblin gave Kushina a condescending look. Right, Kushina reminded herself, magic.
The stomach-churning ride through the goblin tunnels went on for several minutes, and Kushina struggled to keep track of how many turns they'd taken by the end. She didn't want to have to try and get out of Gringott's vaults on foot, but acknowledged the possibility.
When the cart slowed and stopped, Kushina noted immediately that they were not alone. Sirius stepped out of the cart onto a wide platform in front of an ornate vault door carved into the bedrock, and he frowned at the two armed and armored goblins waiting for them, accompanied by four constructs that Kushina realized after a moment of study were empty suits of golden armor that nonetheless moved and tracked the new arrivals with their heads. "What is the meaning of… all this?" Sirius demanded, waving a hand at the unexpected security.
"A precaution only, Ms. Lestrange," their guide replied with an oily smile. "It has recently been made policy here at Gringott's whenever a key has to be replaced."
Sirius huffed. "Very well; get on with it. I don't have all day."
"Form your connection with the vault, Ms. Lestrange. If it accepts you, your replacement key will be formed."
Sirius lazily raised his wand, while Kushina swallowed hard. Let's hope this works. A beam of light sprang from the tip of Sirius' wand, striking the lock on the vault door. A moment later energy pulsed back along that line from the vault itself. Sirius held still, letting the magic flow back and forth. The goblin studied the display before nodding grudgingly. "The vault recognizes you. Now we will form the key." He carefully raised a blank key, placing it in the line of argent magical energy. It was seized in the flow, and drifted into the lock under its own power. A moment later the magic faded and Sirius lowered his wand. The goblin removed the key, which was now notched to match the lock, and examined it before handing it to Sirius.
Sirius didn't offer any thanks, only stepping around the goblin and turning the new key in the lock. Metal slithered and moved all across the door's surface, and when it stopped there was an opening before them. "Come now, squib," Sirius instructed Kushina harshly. She obediently followed him through the door and into the vault. The portal slithered shut behind them at Sirius' gesture, leaving the goblins behind.
Kushina studied the interior of the Black family vault in surprise. Stacked on the floor in the center of the room was a small mound of gold coins. "Seriously?" Kushina muttered. "That's how you store your money?"
"Only the really wealthy families," Sirius replied with a shrug, already perusing a shelf of books bound in black leather. "Most wizards and witches just open an account to manage their money. The vaults are… more of an old-school indulgence for the well-heeled." Sirius plucked a tome off of the shelf and opened it to examine the contents. "Here it is," he exclaimed. "Soul prisons, spells to wound souls, using souls of the dead to enhance spells?" Sirius shuddered. "This is some dark stuff, but it's the one Remus wanted."
Kushina was still examining the room curiously. There were display cases full of knickknacks all over. Some things – like a large silver chalice with amazingly detailed engraving – were clearly valuable, while others, like mummified animal limbs and gobs of flesh in jars of preservative, were just gross. Kushina's eyes returned to the pile of gold in the center of the room, which made the mercenary instincts in her just itch. "Any particular reason we want your cousin to be able to access these funds?"
Sirius followed Kushina's gaze. "Not really; take some if you want, but gold's heavy and you're going to have to carry it out of here."
Kushina grinned in return. "Simple." Slipping a scroll out of the satchel she'd been carrying over her shoulder, Kushina unrolled it on the floor near the gold pile.
Sirius gave the detailed fuuinjutsu designs on the parchment a curious look. "What are those?"
"Storage seals," Kushina replied, pressing her fingers to one of the circles. It started glowing, and when she picked up a handful of gold and dropped it on the scroll, the coins vanished upon striking the seal.
Sirius blinked. "How much can that thing hold?"
"There are enough storage seals in this scroll to hold most of the pile," Kushina replied. "Give me a hand."
Grinning himself now, Sirius waved his wand, and gold coins started pouring into the seal on their own. Every so often the seal would flash red and Kushina would move the scroll, opening a new seal. The pile was mostly gone in minutes when Kushina held up a hand. "That's enough; only one more seal left. Let's get out of here."
"Wait," Sirius said, looking around the room. Spotting the engraved chalice on its shelf, he chuckled. "As long as we're robbing Bella we've got to take this. It was mother's pride and joy." He reached out, but when his fingers neared the narrow stem above the base, he snatched his hand back with an oath. "Damn, Bella cursed it. That would have been dangerous to touch."
Kushina's eyes narrowed. "Must be important, then," she murmured. Picking up the scroll, she activated the last seal and then carefully touched it to the chalice. It vanished, but when Kushina flipped the scroll over the seal had closed itself and turned black, ominous little wisps of darkness rising off of the seal. "Okay, yeah, not opening that without a lot of prep work," Kushina muttered. "Never seen a seal do that before."
"We should get out of here," Sirius said. Nodding in agreement, Kushina rolled up the scroll and slipped it into her satchel. Sirius opened the vault door with the key, strode outside – and then stopped so abruptly that Kushina almost ran into him. Skidding to the side, she saw what was waiting on the platform outside, and swore under her breath.
There was a second mine cart now, with another goblin guide escorting a slender woman with frizzy dark hair and a dress very similar to Sirius'.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my vault?" the witch screeched. Her hat and veil fell off as she drew her wand, revealing a furious face that was a mirror to Sirius' own altered visage.
"This is most irregular," one of the goblin bankers was exclaiming with a frown. "Two Bellatrix Lestranges?"
Bellatrix's expression turned murderous when she realized what was going on. "Imposter," she screeched, sending a hex winging at Sirius. He drew his own wand and batted it away, where it melted away a section of rock wall.
"No wands! No magic in the bank," one of the armored goblins exclaimed as both drew truncheons from their belts.
"Shut up you miserable midget," Bellatrix snarled. "You let this fake rob my vault!" In a single motion she hurled another jinx at Sirius, dodged the spell he'd cast at her at the same time, and then cast again, striking one of the goblins and sending him tumbling.
The attack on the guard seemed to activate the golden suits of armor. Two of them went for Bella, while the other two closed in on Sirius and Kushina. "Stand down, stand down," they intoned mechanically.
"Oh hell, this isn't good," Kushina muttered. "Don't suppose we can apparate out of here?"
"Not a chance," Sirius replied over the sounds of the spells flying back and forth at the Black cousins tried their best to murder each other.
"Great," Kushina sighed. Taking a step forward, she punched the first animated armor, sending it flying ten meters over the lip of the platform and down into the abyss below. The second one swung a sword at her that she parried with a kunai dropped into her hand from her sleeve. She launched a side kick at the construct, knocking it back into the wall beside the vault door with enough force that it collapsed into its component pieces.
"Sirius," Bellatrix screeched once she recognized his dueling style. "You dare to rob me?"
"Didn't think you'd miss it, luv," he replied cheekily, eliciting a scream of absolute fury from her. Bellatrix ducked under the arms of one of the armor suits attempting to restrain her and cast a hex at it that made it start to melt. With a flick of her wand she sent the other flying toward Sirius, who had to roll out of the way.
For a moment the platform was occupied only by humans and cringing goblins, but Kushina caught a flicker of motion from above and swore as a dozen more suits of armor dropped down from the ceiling above, landing with deafening clangs and splitting up to confront Bellatrix, Sirius and Kushina. "Stand down, stand down, stand down," all of them bellowed at once.
Bellatrix and Sirius were abruptly too busy defending themselves to continue their duel. Both retreated towards their edges of the platform, weaving spells rapidly to drive off their armored attackers. Kushina disappeared in a blur of motion, throwing golden figures off of the platform or shattering them to pieces in her wake. Unfortunately their numbers seemed endless; no sooner had she cleared the area around her than two dozen dropped in from above to replace them.
Seeing that the fight was rapidly becoming unwinnable, Kushina bowled over half a dozen armor suits with a blast of wind and then leapt to Sirius' side. "We need to get out of here!"
"Sounds good," Sirius replied, hurling spells out rapid-fire at any armor that got close. "Got any ideas?"
"Same as the night we met," Kushina replied. "Hold on!" She wrapped an arm around Sirius' waist, he got his around her neck, and then Kushina jumped. Fifteen meters up she met the curving cavern wall, sticking to it with her feet and free hand.
Below, Bellatrix was cornered on the edge of the platform, but Kushina's maneuver hadn't escaped her notice; nor had the book Sirius clutched tightly through the entire encounter. She took time to hurl a hex at them, but Kushina evaded it as she climbed higher, away from the fray. A snarl crossed Bellatrix's lips, and she tried a different tack. "Accio Black Grimoire," she shrieked. Sirius held on for a moment, but then the book broke free from his hand and flew into hers.
"Bloody hell, she got the book!" Sirius swore. Kushina paused, watching as Bella whirled in place and transformed into an inky cloud of writhing magical energy that took flight and fled along one of the railway tracks. "Let go, I can follow her!" Sirius called out.
"But I can't follow you," Kushina replied, maintaining her grip on Sirius and shaking her head.
"Harry needs that book!" Sirius protested.
"I know, but he needs you, too," Kushina countered. "It's too dangerous to go after her alone with the whole bank on alert; we'll find another way to help Harry." With that said she started climbing again, working her way around a curve in the cavern wall to break line of sight with the goblins.
"Damnation," Sirius muttered as Bella's dark cloud disappeared from his sight.
Gringott's vaults were deep underground, and Kushina was getting tired by the time she reached the top of the cavern. Fortune favored the pair soon after, though; Sirius spotted light, and after a short crawl across the roof they found a narrow crevice that led up to the surface. Kushina and Sirius emerged from the ground at the bottom of a twisting ravine well outside of London.
Grimacing, Kushina rubbed and stretched sore muscles. "That could have gone better," she admitted. "What are the odds she would show up right then?"
"Astronomical," Sirius replied. "Just our bad luck. Still, it's odd that Bella would go to Gringott's at all, given that every auror in London knows her face and has instructions to kill on sight. We only risked it because we needed that book; I can't imagine Bella risked Diagon Alley just to get money."
"Does it matter why she was there?" Kushina sighed.
"Not really," Sirius said, shaking his head. "Still, there's one bright spot," he added.
"Oh?"
"We've still got Bella's fortune and mother's gaudy chalice. Assuming she cares about either, she'll come for them and we'll have another chance at the book."
"True," Kushina admitted. "Well, I'm anxious to get back to Harry. Can you apparate from here?"
"Easily," Sirius assured her. "I'm anxious to be rid of this horrid transformation." He took Kushina's hand, raised his wand, and they vanished with a 'crack' of displaced air.
