Note: Second part of today's triple bill (you lucky people), and a brief soiree with the Order now. No, I haven't forgotten them! They're still out there, searching for horcruxes without much success, but someone's had a breakthrough…

Chapter Thirty-Six

Mad Enough to Try

The Order of the Phoenix, despite its existence having been dogged with disaster from the very inception, despite having lost its leader and many of its most valued members and allies was, contrary to whispered opinion, still very much alive and well. The morale of the group, however, was not quite so steadfast, and whilst it had been waning gradually since the night of Dumbledore's death, this deterioration had become ever more rapid after the third horcrux had been found at Hogwarts by the very people who weren't supposed to be looking for it.

This situation, however, had not put off Bill Weasley. As a trained cursebreaker, he was used to danger. One could say that he lived for it, although recent werewolf encounters might have tempered his enthusiasm for such escapades slightly. All the same, Bill was determined not to be got down by his doom-mongering colleagues. It was to this end that he had continued to research the possible locations of the remaining horcruxes, going about his task in a logical and methodical manner. After a good few weeks of theorising, he had finally come up with a solution, although he was not quite sure whether the rest of the Order were going to be up to acting upon the said solution. It was, by no stretch of the imagination, extremely dangerous and would probably be fruitless. There was a very small chance of success, so small that it was virtually non-existent, but exist it did and therefore Bill decided that he was going to focus on the possible merits of his plan rather than the numerous disadvantages.

He apparated straight into the Order's latest meeting place, traditional wizarding etiquette having been suspended in favour of heightened security measures. After the Ministry had fallen and the Burrow had been attacked, the Order had shunned a permanent headquarters and taken to meeting in various different places that were determined by coded message a few hours before the conference was due to take place. As long as they didn't use the same place twice in a row, they were fairly certain of not being detected.

Bill was the last expected member to arrive, the others were already sitting around the meeting table on makeshift chairs made from upturned boxes, and Lupin rose to cast the customary protection charms once Bill was safely seated. The candles that served to light the room did very little in the way of providing heat, and the Order's breath was rising as a misty cloud in the chill November air. Today's meeting place was the cellar of Ollivander's all-but-abandoned shop in Diagon Alley. After the wandmaker had recovered from his incarceration at the hands of the Death Eaters, he had decided to cut his losses and leave the country for a while, loaning the use of his premises to the Order for as long as they needed a safe house. There was not much in the cellar; the marauding Death Eaters who had kidnapped its owner had made easy work of the stock, but there was space and debris enough to hold a decent meeting. Bill looked around at his fellow members, performing a mental head-and-limb count to check that everyone was more or less unharmed since the last time he saw them. His father was there, looking rather tired but otherwise healthy; then Remus and Tonks, Hestia, Kingsley and Elphias Doge. McGonagall was unable to leave the school and the other members were tied up with various important tasks, the full extent of which Bill was not sure of. They all looked much the same as the last time that he had seen them, only perhaps slightly more worn and put upon. The stress of this seemingly interminable war was getting to them, that much was perfectly clear. The problem was the waiting. That was the real killer. You-Know-Who was taking his time, watching them sweat, no doubt hoping for them to break from the inside out without his having to lift a finger. Oh, he'd strike eventually. He'd get them at their lowest ebb, when victory would be quicker, easier and sweeter, knowing that he had caused them to bring about their own demise.

As determined as the Order were for such a situation never to occur, they could not help but notice the steady and sly march of the darkness into the everyday life. Legislation was being passed like nothing the world had seen before; never had the judicial system worked so ruthlessly efficiently. On top of it all, people were still disappearing, muggles were still being murdered without specified reason and the community was still being quietly terrorised. Bill thought about his own mother. From all the accounts he had heard and from the few times that he had spoken to her in person, she had not left their safe house since they had moved into it. Darkly, Bill wondered if she would ever leave it again.

The meeting began in earnest at that point and Bill was thankful for its intervention, dragging him out of his self-destructive spiral of thoughts and refocusing his mind on his latest findings. He was anxious to present them to the rest of the group but at the same time he didn't want to get everyone's hopes up only for someone to point out a fatal flaw in his plan and them ending up back at step one. He listened patiently to the others' reports, a frazzled Hestia leaving early to get back to her protection duties, looking after important muggles and the families of influential muggle-borns. Bill wondered whether Hermione's parents knew that they were being watched. Hestia and her team were really stretched far too thinly across the country, but the stoic little witch was loath to let anyone into her circle lest they turn out to be untrustworthy. She struggled on, the satisfaction she got from knowing that her unwitting charges were still in one piece at the end of another day being worth the inconvenience.

Lupin reported that all possible negotiations with the werewolves had completely broken down, Greyback's influence being far too great amongst the lupine community. Whether it was through awe or fear, the wolves would be following the dark side of the moon. They'd surmised as much a long time ago, but it was still a worrying thought to know that all their possible supernatural and inhuman alliances were really no longer possible.

"Bill," said his father eventually. "You said you thought you had something regarding the… things."

Bill found it funny that the pieces of You-Know-Who's soul which they sought could have such an influence akin to their owner. Ever since Harry had first delegated the task of their location to the Order, the items had been known simply as 'things' or 'you-know-whats'. As strange as he found it, Bill knew that he did the same thing himself.

"I've been thinking about possible locations," he said. "After all, he's not likely to hide them anywhere. Look at where they've been found so far – they were either places of personal importance or entrusted with a valued member of his inner circle. On top of that, wherever the hiding place is, it's got to be fairly well protected. So after much thought, I came to a conclusion that had been staring me in the face." He paused. "Where's the safest place in the wizarding world?"

The others looked at him blankly for a moment before realisation dawned on them. Tonks broke into a grin.

"Gringotts," she said. "You think he's hidden one in Gringotts?"

Bill shrugged.

"It's worth a try," he said. "You can't get much better protected than the highest security vaults at the bank."

"Does You-Know-Who even have a Gringotts account?" asked Lupin doubtfully. "It's not the sort of thing you ever think about, evil wizards making withdrawals."

"He's got an account," said Bill. "He's definitely got one. The vault was frozen after the first war when he disappeared, no-one's been into it since, not even the goblins in charge of clearing out dead vaults."

What Bill did not let on was that he had seen that very vault when he had first begun working for Gringotts and he was receiving his training. When a vault was frozen, the goblins meant it literally. He had seen the block of ice that completely encapsulated the door and its jamb, goblin magic that he didn't have the slightest clue how to undo. No-one was going to be getting in and out of that vault in a hurry. Bill could still remember the involuntary shiver that he had given on seeing the smoking tendrils wafting from the ice and cooling the surrounding air to an almost freezing point. The sight had remained with him vividly ever since.

"Even so," he continued, coming into the part of his plan that he was not quite so sure of. "I don't think it would be in there anyway."

"Why not?" asked Tonks.

"Because it's standard practice to empty the vaults of the 'dead' if there's no Will," said Bill. "You-Know-Who didn't know that his vault would be frozen; and although he could perhaps manipulate the goblins whilst he was around to do the manipulating, they held no fear of him after his supposed death. Well, a little, enough to freeze the vault rather than empty it. But You-Know-Who couldn't guarantee that. No, I think it'll be in someone else's vault."

"But if it was in someone else's possession and they didn't know what it was, then isn't there more chance of it going astray?" asked Kingsley. "I mean, look at the diary."

Bill grimaced involuntarily, not wanting to be reminded of the dread item that had almost cost his sister her life.

"That's true," he said, "that's why it couldn't be in just any one of the Death Eaters' protection." He pulled out a scrap of parchment. "I made a shortlist, but I keep coming back to one name. It'd have to be a very old familial vault: they've got the best protection and the most junk to hide it in amongst. And it would have to be someone he really trusted above all the others."

"I think I know where you're headed," said Lupin grimly. "Bellatrix Lestrange."

Bill nodded.

"It makes sense, I suppose," said Tonks drily. "I swear she was insane before Azkaban, and it's common knowledge that she's You-Know-Who's performing monkey. If he said 'hey, Bellatrix, take care of this thing that I'm not going to tell you what it is for me', I have no doubt that she'd do it without questioning."

The others laughed, but they all knew that the young auror's words were chillingly true.

"So what do you suggest?" asked Kingsley. "I know that you work for the bank but I doubt that they'd let you walk in and make a random withdrawal from the highest security vaults."

It was Bill's turn to grin, his expression masking the unease he felt with what he was about to suggest.

"I wasn't thinking of making a legitimate withdrawal," he said. "I thought that a more clandestine approach might be in order."

The others looked at him in a stunned silence for a moment.

"You're suggesting we break into Gringotts," said Tonks faintly.

"In short, yes," said Bill.

"You're suggesting we break into Gringotts," she repeated.

Elphias looked at him. The wizard was easily the eldest member of the party, but his age did not in any way reflect a declining mental state. He found it rather advantageous to play up to the expected stereotype of his being a deaf and doddering fool; the amount of information he had found out because people dismissed his presence as non-threatening was really quite remarkable.

"Well, if you're mad enough to try then I'm certainly mad enough to go along with you," he said.

"But!" Tonks began to interrupt, but Elphias ignored her.

"I think, given your knowledge of the bank, we might have more chance of success than any other would be thieves," he continued. "Do you know which side the goblins will ally themselves with?"

Bill nodded, a little unsurely.

"The goblins are fairly neutral in the general scheme of things. True, they have a magic of their own that is a powerful advantage for anyone in the middle of a war, but they know the true value of things and as such they are not easily bought or threatened. Gringotts is a formidable institution, but it's not one of the big three. Money is and always has been money, that can't be changed whoever's in charge. It's not as strategically important for anyone to have a hold over the bank, not like a hold over the Ministry or Hogwarts. Funds are advantageous, but if you can't use them then there's no point. " He paused. "Whilst I doubt we shall be betrayed by any goblins in that sense, they don't do anything for nothing. They'll wait till the price is right. They may help us, but they'll expect something in return, something we probably do not have to give. The goblins will give their services to the highest bidder."

"Well, let's hope that we can give them something that the other side can't," said Lupin. "Either that, or we trust ourselves enough to break in without insider assistance."

Bill shook his head.

"That wouldn't work. The carts only respond to the goblins and it's impossible to try and get through the cavern system on foot, much less get to the vault we want and out again. I've had a few ideas though. The goblins' financial year begins on the second of January. It's the only day of the year when the bank is fully closed, because they have to take a mass audit. Lots of hustle and bustle, carts flying all over the place, everyone paying attention to the numbers and not much else."

"Won't a bunch of shifty-looking wizards stick out like a sore thumb in the midst of a bank full of goblins?" asked Tonks.

"That's where the plan falls down slightly," admitted Bill. "But Fleur and I've been working on it. We're thinking that a series of small distractions might draw them away from the bigger picture long enough for some hitch-hiking to take place."

As Bill began to detail the finer points of their makeshift plan, he felt his confidence with it grow exponentially. On the face of it, there was a strong chance that they were going to attempt the impossible. It was probably one of the world's worst ideas ever, but it was the only shred of a clue that they had. Even if they managed to get into the vault, they had no idea what they were looking for once they got there, and there was always the chance that Bill's theory would come to nothing and that the 'thing' was indeed hidden in the frozen vault, or that it was not in Gringotts at all.

But if there was one thing that could be said for the Order, it was definitely mad enough to try.

Note2: And onwards once more! We're coming up to Christmas now. Yay! I was determined to have C&I Christmas up before real-life Easter but… that's probably not going to happen.