A/N: So, fair warning, some things are going to mirror the movie rather than the book because I had a better image in my head of the events from the films rather than the books and it was easier for me to write it that way. So, just wanted to make ya'll aware. So... yeah, that's it. Happy Friday!

Tallyho!

Chapter 20:

When the scenery around them stopped spinning, Draco looked around him. They were in a small alleyway in Diagon Alley. He looked at the group and made sure that everyone was there, which they were. He looked to Hermione, waiting for her to dictate what happens next.

"Ready?" she asked. They nodded. Griphook climbed onto Harry's back and Ron covered them with the invisibility cloak. Hermione straightened her posture and put on a stoic facade before taking a deep breath and walking out of the alley with Ron, Draco, and Harry following close behind.

While walking to the bank, an older wizard bowed his head and said good morning to Bellatrix (Hermione). Not trusting her voice, she simply gave the man a curt nod and kept walking with her chin held high. Draco resisted the urge to smirk; Hermione may have been nervous but she was a natural at this. He only hoped it would be enough to fool the goblins.

Her walking slowed as she entered the bank. Every footstep against the marble floor felt as if it were making every second longer. She kept her breathing steady and never looked anywhere else except straight ahead at the main desk in the bank. Draco and Ron followed close behind, very aware of the eyes on them but neither faltered in their step or appearance as they tried to remain as calm as possible.

Finally, Hermione approached the desk. The goblin sitting there did not acknowledge her at first. Hermione cleared her throat.

Nothing.

She cleared her throat a little louder this time and the goblin looked up. He at first looked surprised to see Bellatrix Lestrange there but quickly recovered his composure.

"Why, Ms. Lestrange. What a surprise." he said.

"I wish to enter my vault." she said, her voice far more confident than she felt.

"Of course," the goblin said, "just allow me one moment Ms. Lestrange."

As soon as he walked off, Hermione silently released a breath she didn't know she had been holding. So far so good. The goblin seemed to believe her; hopefully he would be quick so that they could get down to the vaults. Hermione raised her eyebrows expectantly as the goblin returned but her breath soon caught in her throat as another goblin returned with him, this one much older with glasses and a menacing stare.

"I wish to enter my vault." she said again to the older goblin. He studied her.

"Not a problem, Ms. Lestrange," he said in a fake pleasant tone. "If you would let us see your wand, we'd be happy to lead you to your vault."

Uh oh, she thought. Think fast. "I fail to see why that is necessary."

"It is for precautionary measures." the goblin said.

She scoffed. "'Precautionary measures.' Right. This is ridiculous. I want to enter my vault. I will not argue about this."

"We cannot let you enter your vault without seeing your wand first, Ms. Lestrange."

"I am not here to play games." she threatened, darkly as she narrowed her eyes.

"Nor am I." he replied.

Hermione stared him down as she debated what to do but before she could react, a puff of magic appeared next to the goblin and his face immediately relaxed into a creepy smile. It was then, that Hermione realized Harry must have used the Imperius charm on him. Although she was against the use of Unforgivables, she was grateful for Harry's quick thinking.

"Very well, Ms. Lestrange," the goblin said in a creepy high pitched tone, "if you will follow me."

As soon as they were in the cart room, Hermione, Ron, and Draco all let out the breaths they had been holding and Harry and Griphook threw the invisibility cloak off. He gave it to Hermione who stuffed in a bag that she had hidden underneath her cloak. She had put an undetectable extension charm on it so the bag was much deeper on the inside than its outside suggested. She had also stuffed the sword of Gryffindor in the bag earlier that morning for safe keeping.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed, "I was sure we were done for. Well done, Harry! I never would have thought of using the Imperius curse. And you, Hermione, you were just brilliant! There was a moment there that I really believed you were Bellatrix."

Hermione gave Ron a weak smile as she took deep breaths to even her rapidly beating pulse. She felt a hand hold on to hers and looked at Draco. "You alright?" he asked. Not trusting her voice, she nodded.

"Come on," Griphook said, "we don't have much time."

They all piled into the cart (the Imperiused goblin included) as Griphook hit the gear and they were off. Hermione never let go of Draco's hand as the cart rocked back and forth on the tracks. Harry looked uncomfortable and Ron looked like he was about to vomit any minute but kept his nausea down. They were in the cart for what felt like minutes before they saw a giant waterfall a few feet away. Griphook began to scramble as he tried to stop the cart.

"Griphook," Harry said, "Griphook, what is that?"

The goblin didn't have time to respond as he was too focused to stop the cart. He didn't stop it in time, however, as they drove underneath the waterfall and the cart suddenly came to an immediate stop. Suddenly, the tracks vanished along with the bottom of the cart and everyone was falling very fast with no way of stopping.

As they got closer to the ground, Hermione pulled out her wand. "Aresto Momentum!" she yelled. Suddenly, everyone stopped just a few feet above the ground then dropped to the hard surface. All four groaned as they stood up. "Thanks Hermione," Ron said.

She nodded before her eyes grew wide in recognition. "Ron, you're you again!"

He looked at himself and realized that sure enough, the red hair was back as were his blue eyes. Draco and Hermione realized the same about themselves. They stared at each other wide eyed before hearing an angry voice behind them.

"What the hell are you all doing down here?!" the goblin yelled, the Imperius curse clearly no longer in effect. "Do you realize that what you've just done is illegal? I should have you all arres-"

"Imperio." Harry said, and suddenly the goblin was back to his creepy happy self. Hermione looked disapprovingly at Harry but he didn't notice. "Griphook, what was that?"

"Thief's Downfall. It washes away any and all illusion charms. I forgot about that."

Harry huffed. "Alright, well, too late now. We're here right?" Griphook nodded. "Fine," Harry said, "let's get moving. I don't want to be here any longer than we have to."

They all nodded and followed Griphook as he led them to the vault. They walked into a large open atrium with high ceilings; in the middle of the room was a huge dragon with sad eyes and chains on it's legs. Griphook walked over to a basket where shakers were and handed one to Ron. "It's been trained to think that the sound means pain." he explained.

"That's barbaric." Hermione said, appalled. Griphook said nothing. Her heart hurt as she watched the creature cry out as Griphook and Ron shook the shakers. Draco grabbed Hermione's hand to comfort her but it didn't soothe her as much as he would've liked. As they exited the room, they walked upstairs and down a hall that would lead them to the vault. When they got into the vault, Griphook took the Imperiused goblin's hand and placed it on the vault door. Immediately, the door unlocked and opened into a large vault packed with gold, money, and trinkets of all sorts of value. The Golden Trio walked into the vault in awe while Draco just looked around it uncomfortable. Being in his aunt's vault didn't feel right to him and he wanted to turn around and run but stayed. He wouldn't walk out when they needed him most.

"Can you sense it, Harry?" Ron asked, pulling Draco out of his thoughts. "Is it here?"

The brunette grunted in pain as he touched his scar. "Yeah, it's here."

"Accio horcrux." Hermione said. Nothing happened. "Well, it was worth a shot."

"That kind of magic won't work in here," Griphook said.

Draco looked around, careful not to touch anything as did everyone else. Suddenly, he heard Harry gasp. "There!" he said, pointing to the back of the vault. "That's it!" Draco followed his line of sight and saw Helga Hufflepuff's cup sitting in the back of the vault on the highest shelf. The problem was there were shelves of other items underneath the one that the cup was on. As they tried to figure out how to get the cup, there was suddenly a loud clang and a yelp.

They all looked to find Ron holding his hand and a gold goblet on the floor quickly multiplying faster than they could count. "Weasley!" Draco exclaimed. Before Ron could retort Hermione screamed as she bumped into another object that burned her and immediately began to duplicate. As the duplicated items began to pile onto one another, other objects would get hit and begin to duplicate as well. The room was overflowing with items so quickly that they were struggling to find places to put their feet.

"Grab the cup!" Hermione yelled at Harry. "We'll try and clear the way!"

Harry grabbed the sword of Gryffindor from Hermione's bag before charging towards the pile of items that was growing in front of him. Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Griphook tried to move some of the objects out of the way but were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the sheer amount of how fast the objects were duplicating.

Harry was climbing up a large pile of items that continuously kept growing. He was beginning to struggle as the objects started to surround him, making it more difficult to move. Just as he was inches away from the cup, the pile overwhelmed him and suddenly Harry could no longer be seen.

"Harry!" Hermione called in fear. The pile he was buried under had stopped moving and duplicating. It was dead silent in the vault. Then everything came back to life as Harry popped out from the pile, cup in one hand and sword in the other, and began to maneuver his way out of the now moving pile. He grunted as he struggled against the force of the objects. Hermione, Ron, and Draco were fighting the force of the objects as well as they were also surrounded. Harry grunted as he fell down and lost the cup only to see it being picked up by Griphook.

"Griphook!" Harry said, straining against the force of the objects. He reached out for the cup but the goblin held it back.

"The cup or the sword, Potter! Take your pick!" he said. Harry looked to Hermione who gave him a small nod before he tossed the sword to Griphook who threw the cup back to him as he finally crawled out of the pile. Harry tossed the cup to Hermione, who stuffed into her bag quickly, before looking back at Griphook and seeing that he was walking out of the vault.

"What are you doing?!" Harry exclaimed.

"I told you I'd get you into the vault," Griphook said as he sneered. "I never said anything about getting you out."

"Griphook!" Harry called as the goblin walked out of the vault and began to close the door. At once Hermione and Draco looked to each other and knew what to do. Together, they pointed their wands to the objects and yelled "Finite Incantatem!" All at once, the objects stopped moving and they booked it to the entrance, shoving the door open before it closed completely. As they ran into the hall, they found that Griphook was already gone and the goblin that Harry had Imperiused was standing in the middle of the atrium near the dragon. But that wasn't their biggest problem.

When the vault had been opened, it seemed an alarm had gone off and a huge amount of goblins were now in the atrium, wands at the ready pointing at the four teenagers. "Shit," Draco said as spells immediately began flying towards them. They each hid behind a wall next to the opening of the hallway as sparks flew past them. Suddenly they all felt extreme warmth and the spells stopped for a moment. Hermione took a peek and saw that the dragon was breathing fire towards the goblins who were now hiding behind large columns in the atrium (except the Imperiused one who wasn't so lucky). She took the break to her advantage to think of a way to get out of there. She looked around and saw the high ceilings then looked back at the dragon. There's got to be a better plan than that...

She flew back behind the wall as a spell came flying towards her. She looked next to her at Draco who looked scared out of his wits. She grabbed his hand in reassurance before looking towards Ron and Harry across from her. "We've got to get out of here! Any ideas?"

"You're the smart one! You come up with something!" Ron yelled.

"I've got one idea but it's mad!"

"Just do it!" Ron said.

She took a deep breath before turning towards the fence that was in between the two walls they were hiding behind. "Reducto!" she said before hiding her face as the fence blew off the wall. She took a few steps back from the opening, careful not to get hit by any spells coming towards them, gave herself a running start and jumped onto the dragon's back. Harry, Ron, and Draco looked at her dumbfounded as she adjusted herself on the creature. "Well come on, then!" she yelled.

Harry was next to jump onto the dragon and after him was Ron. Draco was last but as he latched onto the dragon, his foot slipped and he almost fell off. Thinking quickly, however, Harry grabbed his wrist and began to pull him up. As he got closer to the top of the dragon, Ron grabbed his leg and helped pull him up so he would be sitting on the dragon. As soon as Draco was up, Hermione blasted off the chains on the dragon and the creature immediately took flight. As the dragon went higher and higher in the air, the spells began to have a harder time reaching them. Hermione almost sighed in relief until she realized that they were going to burst through the roof.

"Watch your heads!" she yelled before ducking and covering her head with her arms. The boys did the same right before the dragon burst through the roof. They kept their heads down as they burst through two more layers and then finally the main floor of Gringotts. The dragon flew right past the beautiful chandelier in the main entryway and straight through the windowed ceiling. As the dragon got a taste of fresh air, it paused on top of the roof to breathe it in. Hermione took that moment to shake the glass out of hair and check on the boys.

"You guys okay?" There was a mumbled yes from the boys. "Good, hold on tight. This is going to get rough." All three held onto the person in front of them as Hermione turned around and blasted the dragon's rear end with a weak enough spell so it wouldn't hurt it but it would get to move. The dragon got the message and lifted its large wings and took flight. Soon, Gringotts and Diagon Alley were far behind them.

"That was brilliant!" Ron said as the shock weared away. "Absolutely mad but brilliant!"

As any visible civilization vanished, the four quickly realized that they needed to get back to Grimmauld Place. Question was: how? As if to answer their question, Harry noticed that they were now flying over a large body of water. He looked forward and saw that land was close by; he just needed to time it right.

"When I say jump, jump off the dragon and into the water, okay?" he instructed.

The other three nodded. Harry waited a moment. "JUMP!"

Immediately, all four jumped off the dragon and fell into the freezing cold water of the lake. It took a second for each to resurface but as they did, they all went towards land. After ensuring that everyone was okay and that Hermione still had the cup (she did), they all clasped hands and apparated back to Grimmauld Place to regroup.