I've got some techie stuff in here and I tried to keep in mind the anti-tech of the wizarding world while working it in so it's got some rules for using tech in magical environments. I'm bending canon, hopefully not breaking it outright. ...Also, I know JKR has been saying some things over the last week or two, if this causes a crisis in your HP faith, try to keep in mind that you can love a story and still think the author is a quack. For example, Gwyneth Paltrow, I love her as an actress, I think she's great. As a person, she sounds kinda crazy. I'm doing the same with JKR, you can love the world she created but you don't have to like her. I know it can be hard to separate the two, but I think it'll take the stress out of it for some people. Anyway, that's all, enjoy the chapter, I'll be back on Wednesday.

Sneaking into Gringotts

May 1st, 1998
Post-Hogwarts
-

Shortly after dawn, two days after rescuing the golden trio, plus Luna, Olivander and Griphook, there was a knock at the girls' rented door.

Jo sleepily opened the door, "Luna? What are you doing here?"

"Harry, Ron and Hermione planned with Griphook all night and set off for Gringotts just after dawn. They're going to break in. They think there's something inside that will help defeat You-Know-Who."

"Thank you, Luna!" Jo hurried back inside, got dressed and the ran down the stairs. She had not expected to find Dean also waiting downstairs. He and Luna were going to Ollivander's to pick through the wreckage and salvage anything they could. Jo dug her Nokia cellphone out of her pocket and dialed the only number on speed dial: Leilani's. They'd bought the phones a few weeks after they graduated, inexpensive but sturdy with a cheap plan. It was a handy way of contact in case they got separated.

The phones didn't work in high magic areas so using them inside Hogwarts was out, inside the upper levels of the Wheezes was iffy, inside the Hog's Head was out, on the street was ok. If Leili tried to use the phone in the Wheezes' main area, it would just fritz out and start smoking—the girls had tested this and had to go back to the phone shop pleading confusion and crisis. They'd been lucky; the shop assistant had never seen anything like it and therefore was easily talked into a 'defects in materials and workmanship' conclusion. The Wheezes had an old fashioned, rotary-dial landline that the twins spent their free time tinkering with, they hadn't gotten it to function yet but they kept trying.

"C'mon, c'mon, answer your phone…!" Jo chanted as she ran through the pub, out the door and down the cobbled street. She activated the protean charm that linked her necklace to Leilani's bracelet, but Leili took it off to sleep.

"You've reached Leilani Akina, I can't come to the phone right now so leave a message at the beep, thank you!" Beep!

Jo grunted her frustration; either Leili didn't hear it or the air was too clogged with magic for it to even ring. She picked up the pace from a run to a dead sprint, racing down the lane until she reached the Weasley's shop. She wove her way through the few people in the store, ducking past the assistant and hurrying up the stairs, taking two at a time. She pounded her fist on the door marked 'Fred'.

"LEILI!" she shouted. "OI! LEI-LI!" No answer. Leili could sleep like a rock under normal circumstances—unbeknownst to Jo, the room was cloaked in silencing charms so the occupants could not hear or be heard from inside, George's room was the same. "Alohamora," she said, pointing her wand at the lock, hearing it slide out of position before bursting through the door. The door swung open, slamming against the wall, waking the cuddling Fred and Leilani.

Leili sat up, pulling the sheet to her chest and crying indignantly, "JO! What the hell?!"

"They're going to rob Gringotts!" She half shouted, kicking a bra on to the bed from the floor.

"Fuck!" Leili shouted, throwing herself out of Fred's comfortable embrace, both of them now abruptly awake. "I'll fly ahead, see if they're even there. What do these three stupid-heads think they are doing?" She pulled on Fred's shirt and some shorts—she was at least clothed if not actually dressed. She tucked her wand into garter-like bands of lace around her right thigh.

"Saving the world, probably," Jo said before making her way downstairs.

Leilani gave Fred a hurried kiss and an even more hurried explanation, "Sorry, Honey, I have to help Harry again!" before she cloaked herself in feathers, leaving phone and bracelet behind. She flew into the bank just in time to see Bellatrix, who she was pretty sure was not actually Bellatrix, and an unknown wizard disappear into the back. Leili turned around and met Jo outside.

"Human or bear?" Jo asked. If the kids were obvious she could go in as a human, if they had already gotten past the goblins they would need brute force to follow.

"Bear," Leili echoed, in bird form her speech was limited to stolen words she echoed back. Still, it was better than no speech at all, which is what most animagi had.

Without another word Jo shifted and then ran full tilt boogie into the bank, pushing past goblins and following Harry's scent. Jo climbed into one of the carts and clapped her paws around the brake, sending it hurtling after Harry who, now that they were no longer in public, had taken off his cloak.

The two carts sped through a sudden waterfall that stripped them all of their disguises, including animagus forms. With a screeeech and a stomach turning flip, the carts dumped their passengers sending them into a free fall towards a very hard ground. Hermione stopped them from going splat! about two feet from the ground.

Everyone briefly stared at Leilani's unconventional outfit, before Griphook—the only one unfazed—said, "They know we're here. They've set the defenses against us."

"Then get going!" Jo cried.

"The dragon has been trained to expect pain when it hears the clackers…" Griphook said and before anyone could come up with a better idea, out of the bag came the clackers.

The device made an awful noise that hurt everyone's ears, but ultimately did the job they were designed to do, the dragon got out of the way. They hurried past with Griphook and Bogrodwhose hand Harry placed on the vault door to unlock it.

Harry began to describe what they were looking for, a small gold cup among thousands of gold things.

Griphook warned, "Everything you touch will burn and multiply, but the copies are worthless—and if you continue to handle the treasure, you will eventually be crushed to death by the weight of expanding gold!"

As proof, Hermione yelped as she accidentally bumped into a piece of the horde and got burned for her carelessness.

"Okay, don't touch anything! Just look around! Remember, the cup's small and gold, it's got a badger engraved on it, two handles..." Harry's wandlight passed over shields and goblin-made helmets set on shelves rising to the ceiling. Everybody froze where they were and searched, using their own lumos to light the stone room.

"You mean to tell me that we're looking for Hufflepuff's cup?!" Jo hissed, making the connection before Leili.

"Yes!" Harry replied, forgetting she didn't know what he did. Higher and higher the beams of wand light went, until suddenly Harry found an object that made his heart skip and his hand tremble. He reached.

"Harry! Stop moving!" Jo called over the clattering of gold platters hitting the ground.

"We could use the sword!" Hermione called, pulling the blade out of her bag, but her reach still wasn't long enough.

"Hermione, gimme your bag. Hurry!" Hermione tossed the little beaded bag and Leilani caught it. The little Niffler on her ankle reached greedily for the mountain of gold he couldn't touch.

"How are you going to get up there?" Hermione asked.

"Like this," she said, shifting. She clasped the bag in her beak and flew, perching on the stone shelf that displayed the cup. She changed back, covered her hands in the fabric of the bag so the drawstring lip hooked over her fingertips and quickly grabbed the cup in both hands, shimmying it down into the body of the bag.

"You're animagi! It all makes sense now!" Hermione cried, elated at the epiphany.

Leili drew the string tight and tossed Hermione the bag, "I'm glad. Now, let's get the hell out of here!"

Once again, Bogrod's hand was on the door and they spilled out of the vault only to be greeted by goblins and wizards prepared to stop them.

"Stop them! They are thieves!" Griphook called to the other goblins, snatching the sword from Hermione's hand.

"Get out of here!" Leili shouted as Jo transformed and they both took off towards the goblins and wizards while the kids headed for the dragon.

Jo knocked the goblins down with great swipes of her paws and Leili stole wands away from the wizards, dropping them in the middle of the treasure pile—joy of having wings.

Then, realizing they had no way of getting out other than being arrested, which would put a serious damper on their plans, they hurried after the dragon and climbed up.