"Fleur!" Hermione called through the house as she bolted down the stairs to the kitchen.

Harry had never seen Hermione run that fast, and he didn't even have time to put his pants back on before following her. "Hermione!" he called, finally catching up to her in the kitchen, digging through Fleur's first aid kit.

Today would be the day; she knew it. She had been gaining a little more feeling in her arm with each day, and she'd tried not to use it too much just in case using it would slow down the healing process, but she woke up with the feeling of pins and needles from her shoulder to her fingertips. She thought she'd been dreaming at first, but as she came to, it was still there. A giddy laugh broke through as she sprang out of bed and down the stairs with Harry right behind her.

"Hermione, wait! What's going on?!"

"My arm," she panted, pulling out a bottle of nerve potion (she hadn't needed the healing for a few weeks now) and downing it. "I can… I can feel something. Like it's asleep. Like the circulation's coming back, Harry! My whole arm!"

She barely finished drinking before Harry had her pinned against the wall, kissing her fiercely as her knees nearly gave out. Instinctively, her right hand gripped his side and pulled him closer, the small vial shattering as she dropped it to the floor. She could feel his magic, his energy (and strangely, his libido) surging through her like a firecracker. Eventually, reluctantly, Harry pulled away to give them some room to breathe, but didn't move her from the wall.

"Enough of a boost?"

"Yeah," Hermione panted as their eyes met. "Definitely."

"I know I'm part Veela, but I didn't think my reach extended through the entire house."

Harry immediately backed no less than ten feet away from Hermione, whose entire face and neck turned a deep shade of red. "Fleur, I'm… I'm so sorry, we were just-"

"Gonnagochange," Harry blurted out on his way up the stairs, sneaking as close to the wall as possible to avoid touching Fleur as he passed her, trying to avoid the knowing wink she threw his way. Hermione still felt like she was buzzing.

"I'm sure you didn't call me just for me to see all that," Fleur laughed, waving her wand to quickly clean up the broken glass. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes," Hermione finally answered once her brain turned back on and she began to clench and unclench her fist. "I… I can feel… the circulation coming back in my arm. That's why… I took a potion and… Harry, um… well…"

Fleur immediately ran a diagnostic spell, the grin spreading on her face. "How does it feel now?"

"I… I'm a little lightheaded," Hermione answered honestly, "but I'm not sure if it's from that or..."

"Probably a little bit of both."

"We… we put some runes on each other yesterday to try to reinforce the bond," Hermione explained as she looked up at her own chart.

"Yes, Harry told me. You're not wrong about being lightheaded." Fleur pulled a small bottle of blood replenisher from her bag and handed it to Hermione. "That should help with the pins and needles. Since you haven't had to really use that arm in a while, the sudden healing of the nerves and blood vessels has your body trying to… compensate for the feeling by pushing all of your blood into it, which is pulling it from elsewhere. This should help give you a little extra until you can regulate yourself."

"Thank you." She didn't mind the taste nearly as much this time.

Harry came back down the stairs, though he still wouldn't make eye contact with Fleur, which Hermione thought was hilarious.

"Well?" he asked, keeping an eye on Hermione. "Any change?"

"The weird feeling's starting to go away," she explained as she took a seat at the kitchen table, flexing and unflexing her fingers to get the blood replenisher flowing a little faster. She quickly took Harry's hand with her right one, and he closed his eyes, focusing on their energy on testing their exchange. He could feel pins and needles in his fingertips, too, and he wondered if it was working. Had him just kissing her last night with the rune inside of him contributed to her healing?

A few minutes later, Hermione let go of Harry's hand and opened her eyes. She was almost in tears, moving her arm all around and rolling her shoulder. "Oh my God, I was so worried I'd always have a problem with it," she grinned, and Harry couldn't help but lean over to kiss her again.

"I was, too," Fleur mused, "but it seems like the runes worked, no?"

They pulled apart and both sighed with relief.

"So… what now?" Harry asked.

"I probably shouldn't push it, but I do remember making a promise about one thing I would do once I could use my arm again," she smirked, her left hand resting on Harry's knee. It almost seemed strange, feeling both of her hands on him at once again, but he immediately remembered her promise.

"Maybe breakfast first, now that you've woken up the whole house," Bill chimed in as he came down the stairs. "Is everything okay?" He smiled wide as he saw Hermione sling free. "Wow! Look at that! You're all patched up! We're all in trouble then, aren't we?"

Hermione just grinned. "Not you! You're helping us!"

"You catch on fast, Granger."

"Well, since you requested it, you can start cooking," Fleur patted Bill's arm and started making the coffee.

"I can help if you like, Bill," Hermione quickly offered. "At least small things. I need to get used to using both hands again, you know."

"Yeah, of course. Come on over."

Harry was content with just watching her work. It wasn't too obvious, but he could tell her left arm struggled sometimes. She'd have to work on building her strength back up before they could even think about going to Gringotts, but he knew she'd be vigilant.

He was right - Hermione seemed very eager to train, like she had been after the werewolf attack. Not only did she drag Harry out of bed (some mornings) to revamp their workout routine, but she was also dedicated to adjusting to the ins and outs of their bond. Ron quickly became the liaison between them and Ollivander while he was at Muriel's.

"He's not thrilled you brought runes into things," he shrugged one afternoon over sandwiches, "but he's glad you're leaning into it. And says the ones you chose were your best bet. But he also said since there's not a lot of research with bonds, everything beyond what he said is speculation. All of it is, really, but he'd love to take a look at the journal you've got. Or… a toned-down version, since I know what's in it."

Hermione blushed, but Harry had gotten used to it, especially around Ron. She didn't need to know he had in fact bragged one night when Ron snuck them back some firewhiskey Fred and George had, and, in result, Ron now knew way more about Hermione (and Harry, if he was being honest) than he ever wanted to.

"Now we're test subjects, are we?"

"Look, mate, I'm just the messenger."

Harry rolled his eyes. "So no one in the entire world knows what's going to happen to us?"

"Guess not. But think of how historical it'll be when you two make it out alive because of runes and a soul bond!"

" If we make it out alive."

"Speaking of which," Hermione interjected, "if we're all done eating, we need to get back outside."

The next three months flew by between training and Ron going back and forth with the Order and Ollivander. It was wearing him out, but it made him feel useful when he wasn't training and it gave them the added bonus of giving Harry and Hermione plenty of alone time.

By the end of April, shared nonverbals came fairly easily when they were concentrating, and it seemed like the runes really were making a difference, which test dummy Ron could vouch for. He'd gotten more bruises in that time than he remembered ever getting in his life as some spells came a little more violently than planned. They acted almost as a single unit in training, which Hermione found herself becoming more and more okay with as the days went on. The closer she could be with Harry, the more she could feel him, the safer he was - she could feel him like an extra heartbeat. And it fueled her to be better for him.

What was even more alluring to her was their sex life after the runes. She figured it might change, as Gebo ruled over sex magic (she'd briefly looked into it in her studies, and while it didn't seem like anything they wanted to necessarily focus on, the side effects didn't seem to be anything she'd reject), but she never expected to be able to connect with him on the level she did when they were intimate. She could feel his pleasure, and he could feel hers, which resulted, more often than not these days, in them finishing at the same time. And for once, she honestly couldn't be sure that she wasn't turning into Harry after all, but right now, she didn't mind.

Fortunately, the Dark magic seemed to keep itself away most of the time, and she couldn't feel it that much or she'd just gotten used to it. When she felt herself getting agitated and worked up, Harry would wrap his arms around her or kiss her and it wouldn't take her long to block it out. They still stood by their values that love was going to get them through the war, and, like Hermione had kept telling herself time and time again, her worry of Voldemort being able to get to her like he could with Harry had proved itself nonexistent. If anything, it proved to be a good thing - she could now perform Sectumsempra without crying, which she saw as an accomplishment. She vowed she'd never use it unless her life depended on it, but at least she had the option.

Things had been quiet on the warfront, which was a little unnerving, but they used it to their advantage to keep training, even pulling Bill and Fleur into it to work with some new techniques. It was almost too easy. Fleur had managed to find an outfit similar to something Bellatrix would wear for Hermione to use at Gringotts, though Hermione had tried to argue that it revealed way too much cleavage until Ron reminded her that it wouldn't be hers . Still, being sexy around Harry was one thing, but she'd never worn a corset before, and it felt a little strange in the company of Griphook especially, who they'd barely seen for five months.

Bill let them know that the first of the month would most likely be the best time to pull off the heist, as the end of one month and the first of the next were their busiest days getting everything audited and sent out. They were usually more lax about security (not that it would make anything easy, just a fraction easier) because they didn't have the time or staff to deal with it.

"I know, they do have a flaw," he said, "but you only know if you work there. That's probably their best kept secret, really."

The night of April 30th was spent pouring over the plan until all four of them knew it inside and out. Even Griphook muttered a half-hearted complement about how well thought out it was, though he still wasn't sure it would work. But that wasn't his problem, and he made sure they knew that.

Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't say anything further. Then, she encouraged everyone to get a good night's sleep, though she and Harry stayed up a little longer, making sure their bond was solid in case anything went wrong. At least, that was the excuse.

The next morning, Fleur had laid out a breakfast for them, but the only one who ate was Griphook, who took his time while watching the trio sitting at the table around him. Hermione knew they probably should eat something, but they were too nervous, and food didn't sound good at all.

An hour or so later, Hermione was trudging up the beach in Bellatrix's clothes. It was difficult to walk through the sand in heels, and she felt so out of place in this new body, more than she remembered feeling with any other Polyjuice Potion she'd taken, but maybe it was just in her head.

"Bloody hell, that's a sight," Ron chuckled. He'd disguised himself in the best Death Eater clothes he could find and used the spell to grow out his hair and beard. Enough that they would remember it was him, but otherwise, no one outside their group would recognize him as Ron.

"Well, how do I look?" she asked.

"Hideous," Harry teased, trying to hide all the things he was thinking about doing to the form of the woman in front of him. Even though he knew it was Hermione, the sight of the woman who had tortured her, carved that scar into her arm, and made her lose use of said arm for the past few months, burned every nerve in his body. "And you have extra, right?"

Hermione nodded. "I have enough that we should be good for a few hours if we need to, though I hope we don't. I really hope we don't."

"Me too," Harry agreed. "Griphook, you can give the sword to Hermione to hold."

Griphook gave Harry a pointed stare, but complied, lowering the sword into Hermione's bag.

"Yes, I still promise you'll get it when we're done," Harry continued. "Come on." He gripped Hermione's hand tightly, linking their fingers together. It definitely felt different than usual since it wasn't Hermione's hand, but the last time they'd been in Diagon Alley, it hadn't gone well. They'd talked about it - the enchantment removers seemed to only be inside shops and not in the alley itself, so they should be safe. And Bill confirmed that Gringotts would never allow something like that to be placed on their doors. The goblins were too proud to let others think they could let anything get through those doors that shouldn't be.

They hoped they could prove them wrong.

He could feel her nervousness, and she could feel his. Holding hands was the most they could do at the moment. When they Apparated into a back alley, Hermione was already holding her breath in anticipation of something going wrong. When it didn't, she finally exhaled.

"I'll go check if the coast is clear," she whispered, waiting for confirmation from everyone before peeking her head out to the main walkway. It was mostly empty, luckily, but a man did give her a strange look.

"Good morning," she said softly before cursing herself and quickly moving back into the shadows.

"Good morning?!" Griphook whispered. "Honestly, you're Bellatrix Lestrange, not some dewy-eyed schoolgirl. Keep that up and you'll get us all killed."

"You're right… I'm sorry. I'm just nervous."

"You don't have time to be nervous."

"It's all right," Harry quickly interjected. "Let's just get going, okay? Was there anyone else out there?"

Hermione shook her head. "Empty."

"Perfect. Ready?"

"Ready as I'll be."

It was nerve wracking to walk through a dilapidated Diagon Alley with Harry's face on posters lining the walls as Undesirable No. 1, and there were even a few wanted posters for Hermione and Ron as well.

The steps heading up to Gringotts had never seemed so intimidating. Harry hadn't anticipated how heavy Griphook would be, and he could tell his back was going to hurt in the morning. Though, thankfully, they probably wouldn't have to worry about being killed this time. He and Hermione might just need to fulfill the rest of their relationship in Azkaban. He hated that Ron was the one by her side instead of him, but he absolutely understood why it had to be that way. He was also better at quick thinking than Ron when things went wrong. When.

The two guards standing in front of the doors were new, and definitely not part of their plan.

"They have Probity Probes," Griphook whispered in Harry's ear. "They'll know about any disillusions. She's not going to get past them."

"Miss Lestrange," one of them started, straightening a little. "Pleasure to see you. If I may ask you to stop for a moment."

"I'm sorry?" Hermione's answer came instinctually.

"Protocol, I'm afraid. Tightened security. Can't be too careful these days."

"N-No, I suppose not." Harry caught her look at Ron, who they'd stopped too, and quickly moved forward between them.

" Confundus ," he whispered, and the two guards backed off.

"Though I suppose we can make an exception for you, of course."

"As you should."

Hermione let out a shaky breath as soon as they got into the entrance hall, when they had a second alone. "Thank you," she whispered to Harry, though she couldn't see him.

Ron pushed open the large bronze doors leading to the main hall, and Harry felt Hermione's heart rate skyrocket. He wished there was more he could do, but instead, did his best to push calming energy towards her. As much as he could, at least, considering he was nervous as well.

She slipped a little on the marble with her heels, but caught herself as she took slow and steady steps up towards the counter. Hermione was focused straight ahead, but Harry let himself look around at the other goblins. A few of them picked their heads up as she walked by, and the farther they went in, the more eyes Harry could feel on them.

Stopping at the counter, Hermione cleared her throat when the goblin didn't even acknowledge her.

"I'd like to enter my vault."

"Do you have your key?" he asked, continuing to work on his papers.

"I hardly think that will be necessary."

The goblin finally looked up, jumping at little at seeing Bellatrix's face staring back at him. "Miss Lestrange, I'm sorry." A pause. "Of course you don't need your key. I will, however, require you to present your wand."

Hermione gulped. "My wand?"

"Yes. I'm sure you understand."

"No, I most certainly do not understand."

"Part of the security increases," he explained, reaching out his hand towards her with an increased air of confidence now that the shock had worn off. "Your wand."

"They know she's an imposter," Griphook muttered. Harry turned around - the guards that had previously been outside had come in, hands on their hips, ready to get their wands if needed.

Hermione seemed to be able to sense it, and after staring down the goblin for a few seconds, she pulled her wand out of its holster and gingerly set it on the counter.

The goblin picked up Bellatrix's wand, and Harry held his breath. So did Griphook, which made Harry even more uneasy. He gripped his own wand tightly, and Ron nearly turned to look at him for help. Hermione was rigid. Would Bellatrix have reported her wand stolen? Would they know she didn't have it?

"Very well, Ms. Lestrange," the goblin muttered, and Harry could see him making eye contact with the guards. "Please follow me."

Hermione let out a hum of annoyance and took her wand back from the counter, pocketing it again as she and Ron followed the goblin through the doors to the vaults.

When Harry relaxed a little, he heard Griphook mutter, "Don't get too comfortable. Something's going on." Instinctively, he moved closer to Hermione. He needed to stay by her side if anything went wrong, especially since he'd need to get in the cart with the two of them.

Harry heard the mechanism of a track change before a wooden cart slowly pulled to a stop in front of them, different from the other metal ones Harry had seen. The goblin opened the cart door and ushered them in, and if Harry was a split-second further behind, he wouldn't have made it in with them Griphook was holding tightly onto his shoulders as he rushed to sit, the door slamming behind them, catching a little bit of his cloak in the latch.

"Shit."

Ron coughed loudly to cover up Harry's voice.

The goblin smirked. "Enjoy your ride."

Harry's heart sank as the cart sped off. Once they were out of sight, he ripped the cloak off his head and Griphook moved to the seat next to him. "Enjoy your ride?! What the hell does that mean?"

"I told you something was wrong, Potter. You think you could just walk in with Polyjuice Potion and get into one of the highest security vaults in here?" he scoffed.

"Hey, you said you'd help us," Ron chimed in.

"Yes, I said I'd help . I also said I couldn't guarantee this would work."

"Never mind all that. Where are we being taken?" Hermione asked.

"Holding vault, I'd imagine. They'll already have guards waiting to make sure we show up. These carts only go there."

They all gripped the sides of the cart and it took a sharp drop to the lower floors, walls of rock rushing past them before pulling them up to a flat track again, and Harry's stomach shifted back into place. "Guards?" He looked over the side of the cart - all he saw was a cavern below them - before quickly realizing that was a bad idea.

"Yes, Potter. Guards. So you better go ahead and give me the sword."

"I agreed to give you the sword once we got into the vault," Harry insisted. "You're not getting it until then."

Griphook glared at Harry, but sighed in indignation and quickly waved his hand over the door of the cart to unlock it so he could pull what was stuck of Harry's cloak in with them. "We've got exactly one minute until we get to the holding vault. In about fifteen seconds, there will be a landing that will pass underneath us if we jump at precisely the right time."

"What is that?" Ron interrupted, looking ahead to see a giant waterfall moving right over the track. "Griphook, what is that?!"

"Thief's Downfall. Honestly, you said you did research."

"It-" Hermione began, but she didn't have time to speak before a wall of ice cold water fell over them, chilling Harry to his bones as if he'd plunged into the pond after the sword all over again.

It was shocking enough that he almost didn't hear Griphook yell, "Jump!"

He grabbed Hermione's hand and did.

" Arresto Momentum! " Hermione yelled, and Harry had never been more grateful to land on his feet. The track must have been fifty feet above them. They would have been dead if Hermione hadn't slowed their descent.

"What the hell, Griphook?!" Ron yelled. "You expected us to survive that?!"

"Better dead than in the holding vault, I'll tell you that, Weasley. You'd better be thanking me."

"I'm not bloody thanking you for almost getting us killed!"

"Ron, calm down! Oh no… you look like yourself again," Harry sighed, looking over at Hermione. "So do you."

"That's the Thief's Downfall," she muttered, wrapping her shawl tighter around her shoulders. Harry went over to hug her, but being just as wet as she was, it didn't help much. "It washes away all enchantments and disguises so the guards know exactly who's breaking in. I knew it could be a possibility, but…"

"It doesn't matter." Harry could tell she was getting anxious at her lack of planning, and rubbed her back a little, careful not to drop the cloak. "What do we do now?" The caverns around them didn't look like there was any way out, much less off this small landing. There was a cart track about twenty feet from the edge, but there was no way they'd make the jump.

"They may come looking for us when we don't show up to the vault," Griphook answered, "but I have no idea how many guards they'll bring."

"Where will they come from?"

Griphook pointed to the track. "It's far enough from here that in case we survive, we can't jump to it."

"So what do we need to do?"

Griphook rolled his eyes. "They have a spell that will create a bridge from the cart to here. You'll have to take them down and take the cart."

"Bloody hell," Ron sighed, punching the rocky wall in frustration and cursing when his knuckles began bleeding.

"Seriously, Ron?" Hermione huffed. "We didn't bring a lot of medical supplies on this trip - I didn't count on you hurting yourself!" She pulled a small bottle of dittany from her bag and grabbed Ron's hand roughly, putting a couple drops over his hand. "You need to pull it together, okay? We don't have time to panic."

"That's all we've got time to do!"

"So we just have to wait for the guards, right?" Harry continued, and Griphook nodded. "How do we know which vault is Bellatrix's?"

"It used to be 948," he explained, "but it could have changed by now. In fact, it probably has. They could have changed it the moment we walked through the door."

"But surely it has to be in the same place, right?" Ron reasoned.

"There are many mysteries of Gringotts even I don't know, Weasley. But no. When vaults change, it… the entire layout of the caverns change with it, it seems. We always had to relearn. It's nearly impossible to figure out without a map."

"And let me guess, the guards don't have it?" Harry asked.

"Why do you think Gringotts is the safest place in the world?"

"Harry, can you maybe sense it like you could the locket?"

"Not from out here," he sighed. "Once we get in, sure, but not here. Not right now."

The sound of a cart rolling echoed off the rocks, and it was impossible to determine which way it was coming from. Hermione pulled Bellatrix's wand out again, with Harry and Ron following suit.

"There may be a way to use the wand," Griphook began, but he didn't have time to finish as five (thankfully human) guards in a larger cart stopped in front of the landing.

"There they are!" one of them yelled. The bottom of the cart magically extended, creating a thin wooden bridge across the gap to their landing. There definitely wouldn't be enough room for all of them.

Ron was the first to fire, causing one of the guards to stumble as he was knocked back, running into another one and pushing him off the ledge and down into the cavern below. Hermione's eyes widened. He was dead. He had to be by the time he hit the bottom. The guards started firing back as they finally stepped onto their ledge, and Hermione froze.

In a second, Harry was in front of her with a shield, and she jerked back into reality as light whizzed past her and exploded a piece of rock behind her head.

"Hermione, move!" she heard Harry yell, and she ran out from behind him with renewed clarity, throwing spells of her own at one of the guards, who fell, stunned, onto the ground.

Harry found himself taking the brunt of the attacks as he tried to distract them from Hermione or Ron, but once Hermione found her footing and her training kicked in, she tried taking some from Harry. Their dueling in the small space inside the tent had definitely come in handy, when there wasn't a lot of room to move, but the guards outnumbered them and they were faster.

Hermione felt something strange inside of her stop and make her stumble as Harry went down out of the corner of her eye, and she had to fight the instinct to protect him. There were still two guards left. Ron had one, and Hermione was on the other, the one who'd just taken down Harry. Now with his focus on her, he was blocking nearly everything she was sending his way, and she was starting to get tired. Griphook had plastered himself against a far wall, knowing they wouldn't hurt him, but it was clear that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were a different story.

She certainly thought about using it - this would surely be a situation where it was okay, right? But she couldn't bring the word out of her mouth. Did that make her weak? When it came down to it?

No. No, it didn't. These guards wouldn't kill them; she knew because Harry was still alive. They'd rather let them rot in the holding cell than give them the satisfaction of dying on the spot. The guard Ron was dueling tripped over one of the others and the split second of hesitance had him petrified before a crack in the wall took her guard's attention away just enough for her to stun him as well.

Only then could she breathe as she immediately pointed her wand at Harry. " Rennervate! " she panted, rushing to him and helping him sit up. "Harry, are you all right?"

"Fine, fine," he groaned, putting a hand up to his head, which came away with blood on it. "Little dizzy, though, but I'm fine."

Hermione pulled the dittany back out of her bag and pushed Harry's hair to the side to reach his wound. He hissed at the sting as it healed.

"Oh sure, he doesn't get criticized," Ron muttered, crossing his arms when Hermione just glared at him.

"Can you get up? We have to go. Ron, help me get him up."

By the time the two of them grabbed the Invisibility Cloak and pulled Harry to his feet, who kept assuring Hermione he was fine to walk on his own, Griphook had made his way over the bodies and into the cart, holding it for them. "Come on!" he called.

They stumbled into the cart and barely had enough time to find something to grab onto before Griphook grabbed the controls as they sped off. Hermione stuffed the Cloak into her bag. "Are you sure you're okay, Harry?"

"Positive."

"Where are we going?!" Ron yelled to Griphook over the wind rushing past them. At least they were getting a little dried off.

"The old Lestrange vault. We'll get close and see if it's in the same place. If it's not, I can try to use her wand."

"You mentioned that earlier. How can you use her wand?" Hermione inquired.

"It's not done very often, but sometimes we can use wands to locate a vault. We usually only reserve it for the deceased if the vault has to be emptied and transferred and the family doesn't have the key. It reads the wand to make sure the owner is dead, though, so I'm not sure it will work."

"It's worth a shot. Thank you, Griphook."

"Don't thank me yet."