CHAPTER 8
"The Circle of the Magus Spellcraft?"
"Yes, but most people call them The Battle Mages." Ron replied to Harry's question: "They specialize in combat magic, stuff like fireballs, lightning bolts and snow storms. They are split up in 5 groupings, first there is the Blazing Order, they specialize in fire magic. Then there is the Order of the Frozen Tide, they specialize in Ice and cold magic. The group here are the Thunderers, they specialize in lightning and electricity, the ones you see here are two Thunder Sisters and a Thunder Lord. Fourth is the Society of the Soothing Light, they are the healers of the Circle. And Last is the Druidicar who specialize in Nature Magic."
"That a sounds like a lot of power is at their disposal. Why aren't they helping with the fight against Voldemort?"
* flinch * "They were banished from England 18 years ago because they refused to help fight you-know-who." Ron answered.
"BORING!" Aurora suddenly jumped between the two of them: "I thought we where going to buy stuff here."
"Yes, but we have to get money from Gringotts first." Harry said smiling.
"Well let's go then." Aurora had already started walking towards Gringotts oblivious to the fact that the two thunder sisters guarding the door were looking suspicious at her.
Harry and Ron quickly ran to her and walked by her side up the stairs of Gringotts. They saw the two woman grab their spears tighter and obvious were getting ready to fight, when one of them pointed at something and both pairs of eyes opened wide, the bowed for the three of them and stepped aside.
"What was that for?" Harry couldn't help himself from asking Ron.
"I have now idea. But the wizarding world doesn't know much about the Circle since they are very secretive and have been gone for 18 years." He answered.
"I know!" Came from beside them.
"What?" They answered at the same time.
"Look at the look at the man with the staff over there. Look at his forehead."
They both looked at the thunder lord standing at one of the counters trying talk a goblin out of his hiding place under the counter. But what was most interesting was that he had a small silver piece of jewellery on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt.
"That's it Harry. The thunder sisters out there must have thought that you were a thunder lord." Ron explained cheerfully at the solved mystery.
"Me? A thunder lord? Just great, as being the-boy-who-lived isn't enough trouble." Harry replied rather grumpy.
"I don't think you're a real thunder lord, you just appear to be one because of the scar, you better hide it in case the real thunder lord doesn't like it." Ron replied.
The two hadn't noticed that Aurora had crawled under the goblins counter and had started a conversation with him, much to the annoyance of the thunder lord who was now completely ignored: "Hey Girl! Will you get out of there. I need to have access to my vault and this stupid little,.. " He didn't come further then that because a very angry looking Aurora came from under the counter: "HOW DARE YOU!!!! YOU'RE TERRIFYING HIM!!!" Seeing his distress she calmed down a bit: "How do you expect any help if you scare them to death. Maybe you should act a bit nicer to them."
"Right. Just a nice as the ministry was when they kicked us out of the country just because we didn't want to take sides?" he replied in a rather soft voice.
"Well that wasn't nice from the ministry but it wasn't the goblins vault. Now the Griffty down here will go down but me and my friends will have to accompany you and you have to promise not to harm him. OK?"
"Ok, but the harming part as long as he doesn't do anything to threaten me."
"Deal. He Griffty can you get our vault key's too?"
"Ok but I need to see the key's." the goblin stammered.
All four of them quickly whipped out their keys and shopped them to him. He nodded and moved towards the cart to move down to the vaults.
"Well do it from Lowest to Highest security, so first is Mr Weasley's." Griffty told them.
After a short ride they came to Ron's family vault. Which to Harry's surprise had a larger amount of money in it then usual. He gave Ron a questioning look.
"My Mom has her first book published recently: Magical Cooking made Easy. It sells pretty good."
After that they went on to Harry's vault which hadn't changed since last year he was here. He quickly scooped some galleons and sickles in his bag and closed his vault again.
"Very good." Griffty said obviously less nervous now that he was in the gringotts maze. The thunder lord would need his help to get out. So he would probably not kill him: "Next up is Mr. Lords vault." And the cart started moving again deeper and deeper down under London.
After a long ride they came to a vault with large double doors: "All right Mr. Lord, this is the Circle's Vault in England. Take what you need."
They turned the keys in both locks and a soft buzzing could be heard. Then the vault doors slid open. Inside where piles and piles of galleons, sickles, knuts and gems. The thunder lords walked inside and started to search trough the piles of gems. Suddenly he stood back up with a look of triumph on his face in his hand was a light-blue gem which seemed to make a soft humming sound.
Harry looked at the gem and then it him: "Excuse me sir, but is that a Mirashory Gem?"
"Yes it is, Mr Potter. I'm picking it up as favour for the Order of the Frozen Tide. Since this Gem is specialized in Cold Magic."
"You know who I am?"
"Yes, I do. One of my guards is a telepath and send me a mental message telling me about your interesting scar. Don't worry, I'm not angry or anything, It's not your fault that you have it. Well we better move on, I got a dead line to make."
And so they got back into the cart and it started moving again. They where going even deeper then before. Suddenly the cart came to a stop. "Where at you vault miss Black. It is one of our highest security vaults. If somebody without the key stops the cart even close to this vault one of the hidden cages will open and will release the bone trolls who are immune to magic. Oh and this vault is invisible until you show you're key.
Aurora got her key and held it up high according to Griffty's instructions. The world around them became blurred for a few seconds and then a small platform appeared with a silver/white door on it. On the door a weird symbol was drawn. Unconsciously she traced the symbol with her finger, it started to glow and when she was finished it faded away. The Door became transparent, and what they saw inside made everybody gasp for air.
Inside the vault were mount and mount of galleons, piles of gems and many weird cubes the size of a dice, the cubes were emitting a soft golden glow, but what caught everybody's attention was the small rod floating in mid air in the middle of the room. It looked a larger than a regular wand and looked around 32 inches long, carved in it's wood were small roses from which the leaves were painted red. The rod is making a soft sound that sounds like a song.
"Oh my? Is that the Rod of Elorin?" Ron asked completely stunned.
"Yes it is." Said the thunder lord rather taken by the sight. "It was supposed to be lost 10 years ago. It's magical signature just vanished."
"It was my Mum's." Everybody looked to Aurora, completely taken by her sudden statement.
"I remember her using it to defend me 10 years ago against the mass of death eaters attacking me. Somebody must have put it in this save after her death." She explained to them.
"That does make sense. This vault has such strong magical defences that it probably overshadows any magical signature." The thunder lord told them.
Aurora walked over to the floating rod and grabbed it. The sound became stronger and the rod stated to glow in a bright blue light it started to shrink and stopped once it was about the same size as a regular wand. It still had the roses painted on it though.
"Well, It seems like the Rod of Elorin has become the Wand of Elorin." Ron said sarcastically.
"At least you don't have to buy a wand." Harry told her.
She giggled: "True, mister Ollivander will have to do without my money." She looked around: "What are all those weird cubes?"
"I have no idea." Harry and Ron said at the exact same time." they looked surprised at each other and started laughing.
"Each cube contains one million galleon Miss." Griffty told her.
Ron slumped to the ground.
"He fainted!" Harry told the other in surprise: "Never thought Ron would do that, although I can't blame him their must be hundreds of these cubes."
"How do you use them, Griffty?" she asked the goblin.
"You press all the sides at the same time and ten second later the cube will shatter and the gold will come out, miss."
She nodded, turned around and had to suppress a giggle at the sight of the butterfairy admiring her reflection in the piles of cubes. filled her pouch with galleons and sickles and one of the cubes, she grabbed her new wand and was about to leave the vault when something caught her eye, inside a small corner was a tiny shivering figure. She walked towards it and saw it trying to squeeze itself even more into the corner, she stopped walking and tried talking to it: "Hello. Who are you?"
"Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Plllleeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeee don't hurt me."
She was rather surprised by the fact that she could understand him: "Why can I understand what you say?"
"Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me."
"Look I won't hurt you, my name is Aurora Siriana Black and I,.. "
"Mistress?"
"Huh? What did you call me?" she asked a bit stunned.
"It is you." The little thing suddenly burst out of the corner and flew to her face and started licking it.
"Ack, hey what are you,." she said giggling.
"I'm sorry mistress, it really has been a long time since you last saw me. You must have been three years old." It told her.
Slowly a memory drifted back into her mind: "ZiZi!" she yelled suddenly making everybody jump.
"Uhm, I still prefer the use of my full name, Zizorzizondus." It started but was interrupted again.
"I remember you know, you were my birthday present when I turned one. But you left on some special quest when I turned three."
"Correct, when I returned three years latter you were gone. I teleported into this vault knowing that at sometime you must come back here." He answered looking rather sad.
"Excuse me miss, but why are you talking like that little dragon talks to you?" The goblin asked her.
"They can't hear you?" she asked him.
"No I con only communicate telepathically with one person at a time. Once I had enough training with it I can talk to more at the same time."
"All Right, if you're ready let's go."
"I'm ready Aurora." He sad on her shoulder and she walked out of the safe. It closed behind her.
She heard Harry talking to Ron behind her: "Hey Ron, what is that thing anyway?"
"I think it's a Pseudo Dragon but I'm not sure. They're supposed to be extinct."
The said in the cart again and started moving again, rushing back to the bank. Aurora was happy, not only had she a wand but she had also her long time friend back, this day couldn't get any better.
A longer chapter than usual since I couldn't log in last week. Did anybody else had that problem? Send some charcters Please! Preferably by E-mail.
"The Circle of the Magus Spellcraft?"
"Yes, but most people call them The Battle Mages." Ron replied to Harry's question: "They specialize in combat magic, stuff like fireballs, lightning bolts and snow storms. They are split up in 5 groupings, first there is the Blazing Order, they specialize in fire magic. Then there is the Order of the Frozen Tide, they specialize in Ice and cold magic. The group here are the Thunderers, they specialize in lightning and electricity, the ones you see here are two Thunder Sisters and a Thunder Lord. Fourth is the Society of the Soothing Light, they are the healers of the Circle. And Last is the Druidicar who specialize in Nature Magic."
"That a sounds like a lot of power is at their disposal. Why aren't they helping with the fight against Voldemort?"
* flinch * "They were banished from England 18 years ago because they refused to help fight you-know-who." Ron answered.
"BORING!" Aurora suddenly jumped between the two of them: "I thought we where going to buy stuff here."
"Yes, but we have to get money from Gringotts first." Harry said smiling.
"Well let's go then." Aurora had already started walking towards Gringotts oblivious to the fact that the two thunder sisters guarding the door were looking suspicious at her.
Harry and Ron quickly ran to her and walked by her side up the stairs of Gringotts. They saw the two woman grab their spears tighter and obvious were getting ready to fight, when one of them pointed at something and both pairs of eyes opened wide, the bowed for the three of them and stepped aside.
"What was that for?" Harry couldn't help himself from asking Ron.
"I have now idea. But the wizarding world doesn't know much about the Circle since they are very secretive and have been gone for 18 years." He answered.
"I know!" Came from beside them.
"What?" They answered at the same time.
"Look at the look at the man with the staff over there. Look at his forehead."
They both looked at the thunder lord standing at one of the counters trying talk a goblin out of his hiding place under the counter. But what was most interesting was that he had a small silver piece of jewellery on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt.
"That's it Harry. The thunder sisters out there must have thought that you were a thunder lord." Ron explained cheerfully at the solved mystery.
"Me? A thunder lord? Just great, as being the-boy-who-lived isn't enough trouble." Harry replied rather grumpy.
"I don't think you're a real thunder lord, you just appear to be one because of the scar, you better hide it in case the real thunder lord doesn't like it." Ron replied.
The two hadn't noticed that Aurora had crawled under the goblins counter and had started a conversation with him, much to the annoyance of the thunder lord who was now completely ignored: "Hey Girl! Will you get out of there. I need to have access to my vault and this stupid little,.. " He didn't come further then that because a very angry looking Aurora came from under the counter: "HOW DARE YOU!!!! YOU'RE TERRIFYING HIM!!!" Seeing his distress she calmed down a bit: "How do you expect any help if you scare them to death. Maybe you should act a bit nicer to them."
"Right. Just a nice as the ministry was when they kicked us out of the country just because we didn't want to take sides?" he replied in a rather soft voice.
"Well that wasn't nice from the ministry but it wasn't the goblins vault. Now the Griffty down here will go down but me and my friends will have to accompany you and you have to promise not to harm him. OK?"
"Ok, but the harming part as long as he doesn't do anything to threaten me."
"Deal. He Griffty can you get our vault key's too?"
"Ok but I need to see the key's." the goblin stammered.
All four of them quickly whipped out their keys and shopped them to him. He nodded and moved towards the cart to move down to the vaults.
"Well do it from Lowest to Highest security, so first is Mr Weasley's." Griffty told them.
After a short ride they came to Ron's family vault. Which to Harry's surprise had a larger amount of money in it then usual. He gave Ron a questioning look.
"My Mom has her first book published recently: Magical Cooking made Easy. It sells pretty good."
After that they went on to Harry's vault which hadn't changed since last year he was here. He quickly scooped some galleons and sickles in his bag and closed his vault again.
"Very good." Griffty said obviously less nervous now that he was in the gringotts maze. The thunder lord would need his help to get out. So he would probably not kill him: "Next up is Mr. Lords vault." And the cart started moving again deeper and deeper down under London.
After a long ride they came to a vault with large double doors: "All right Mr. Lord, this is the Circle's Vault in England. Take what you need."
They turned the keys in both locks and a soft buzzing could be heard. Then the vault doors slid open. Inside where piles and piles of galleons, sickles, knuts and gems. The thunder lords walked inside and started to search trough the piles of gems. Suddenly he stood back up with a look of triumph on his face in his hand was a light-blue gem which seemed to make a soft humming sound.
Harry looked at the gem and then it him: "Excuse me sir, but is that a Mirashory Gem?"
"Yes it is, Mr Potter. I'm picking it up as favour for the Order of the Frozen Tide. Since this Gem is specialized in Cold Magic."
"You know who I am?"
"Yes, I do. One of my guards is a telepath and send me a mental message telling me about your interesting scar. Don't worry, I'm not angry or anything, It's not your fault that you have it. Well we better move on, I got a dead line to make."
And so they got back into the cart and it started moving again. They where going even deeper then before. Suddenly the cart came to a stop. "Where at you vault miss Black. It is one of our highest security vaults. If somebody without the key stops the cart even close to this vault one of the hidden cages will open and will release the bone trolls who are immune to magic. Oh and this vault is invisible until you show you're key.
Aurora got her key and held it up high according to Griffty's instructions. The world around them became blurred for a few seconds and then a small platform appeared with a silver/white door on it. On the door a weird symbol was drawn. Unconsciously she traced the symbol with her finger, it started to glow and when she was finished it faded away. The Door became transparent, and what they saw inside made everybody gasp for air.
Inside the vault were mount and mount of galleons, piles of gems and many weird cubes the size of a dice, the cubes were emitting a soft golden glow, but what caught everybody's attention was the small rod floating in mid air in the middle of the room. It looked a larger than a regular wand and looked around 32 inches long, carved in it's wood were small roses from which the leaves were painted red. The rod is making a soft sound that sounds like a song.
"Oh my? Is that the Rod of Elorin?" Ron asked completely stunned.
"Yes it is." Said the thunder lord rather taken by the sight. "It was supposed to be lost 10 years ago. It's magical signature just vanished."
"It was my Mum's." Everybody looked to Aurora, completely taken by her sudden statement.
"I remember her using it to defend me 10 years ago against the mass of death eaters attacking me. Somebody must have put it in this save after her death." She explained to them.
"That does make sense. This vault has such strong magical defences that it probably overshadows any magical signature." The thunder lord told them.
Aurora walked over to the floating rod and grabbed it. The sound became stronger and the rod stated to glow in a bright blue light it started to shrink and stopped once it was about the same size as a regular wand. It still had the roses painted on it though.
"Well, It seems like the Rod of Elorin has become the Wand of Elorin." Ron said sarcastically.
"At least you don't have to buy a wand." Harry told her.
She giggled: "True, mister Ollivander will have to do without my money." She looked around: "What are all those weird cubes?"
"I have no idea." Harry and Ron said at the exact same time." they looked surprised at each other and started laughing.
"Each cube contains one million galleon Miss." Griffty told her.
Ron slumped to the ground.
"He fainted!" Harry told the other in surprise: "Never thought Ron would do that, although I can't blame him their must be hundreds of these cubes."
"How do you use them, Griffty?" she asked the goblin.
"You press all the sides at the same time and ten second later the cube will shatter and the gold will come out, miss."
She nodded, turned around and had to suppress a giggle at the sight of the butterfairy admiring her reflection in the piles of cubes. filled her pouch with galleons and sickles and one of the cubes, she grabbed her new wand and was about to leave the vault when something caught her eye, inside a small corner was a tiny shivering figure. She walked towards it and saw it trying to squeeze itself even more into the corner, she stopped walking and tried talking to it: "Hello. Who are you?"
"Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Plllleeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeee don't hurt me."
She was rather surprised by the fact that she could understand him: "Why can I understand what you say?"
"Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me."
"Look I won't hurt you, my name is Aurora Siriana Black and I,.. "
"Mistress?"
"Huh? What did you call me?" she asked a bit stunned.
"It is you." The little thing suddenly burst out of the corner and flew to her face and started licking it.
"Ack, hey what are you,." she said giggling.
"I'm sorry mistress, it really has been a long time since you last saw me. You must have been three years old." It told her.
Slowly a memory drifted back into her mind: "ZiZi!" she yelled suddenly making everybody jump.
"Uhm, I still prefer the use of my full name, Zizorzizondus." It started but was interrupted again.
"I remember you know, you were my birthday present when I turned one. But you left on some special quest when I turned three."
"Correct, when I returned three years latter you were gone. I teleported into this vault knowing that at sometime you must come back here." He answered looking rather sad.
"Excuse me miss, but why are you talking like that little dragon talks to you?" The goblin asked her.
"They can't hear you?" she asked him.
"No I con only communicate telepathically with one person at a time. Once I had enough training with it I can talk to more at the same time."
"All Right, if you're ready let's go."
"I'm ready Aurora." He sad on her shoulder and she walked out of the safe. It closed behind her.
She heard Harry talking to Ron behind her: "Hey Ron, what is that thing anyway?"
"I think it's a Pseudo Dragon but I'm not sure. They're supposed to be extinct."
The said in the cart again and started moving again, rushing back to the bank. Aurora was happy, not only had she a wand but she had also her long time friend back, this day couldn't get any better.
A longer chapter than usual since I couldn't log in last week. Did anybody else had that problem? Send some charcters Please! Preferably by E-mail.