Chapter 18 – Liar's Poor Pinky
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Previously on The Forgiven. Grimm, Liar, and Norse have finished making preparations for their heist of Gringotts.
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(In the Underground Base)
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Grimm downed a whole mug of black coffee in one go. She could feel the bitter caffeine hone the edges of her mind. The Forgiven leader needed her brain functioning at top gear for what came next. She looked to each side of her and saw Norse knocking back a shot of Fire Whiskey and Liar smoking a cigarette. They all had their own pre-mission rituals she supposed.
"Everyone ready?"
Norse silently strapped a large knapsack over her shoulder and nodded. Liar took one burn of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground.
"Masks on," Grimm ordered.
They slid steel masks over their faces, bearing similar resemblance to ornate knight helmets. Each of them were intricately forged with an animal visage in mind. Grimm's was a fox, Norse's was a bird, and Liar's a lizard.
"Take us out, Liar."
"Bodyslide for three," he grinned.
The Forgiven felt a great swooping sensation as they were sucked into a vacuum and slipped out into the middle of Diagon Alley. In front of them stood Gringotts Bank, the most heavily, fortified establishment in the world with a reputation to match—but not for much longer, maybe.
The three Forgiven held their wands out, and blasted the doors open. On brooms, they flew past the receptionist lobby and into the back, making for the entrance to the tunnels.
Guards tried to stop them. Both human and goblin workers pointed all manner of wand and weapons at the intruders. Spells flew, but missed their marks. With the Forgiven's element of surprise combined with their ridiculous speed, it was only given the bank workers were not able to respond with their best.
Norse, who was in charge of the route, flew in the lead; followed by Liar and then Grimm. As they passed through the preliminary parts of the building, they stunned and blasted as many employees as they could. As unfortunate as it was for the workers, the injuries were nowhere near lethal or too severe.
The plan was to make a scene large enough to concentrate a majority of Gringotts' resources at the entrance. This would delay the sortie of pursuers and provide more time for the Forgiven to crack the vault and escape.
As Norse finally reached the entrance of the tunnels, her broom lost all ability of flight.
They had entered the no fly zone, where anti-flight charms were cast all throughout the underground section. Norse jumped from her falling broom and rolled upon hitting the rock solid floor. Liar and Grimm did the same.
The three evaluated their surroundings with a careful eye. Dark brown and black colored the insides of the tunnels. There was little light revealing the pathways and vault doors. Train carts sat at the ready for anyone needing transport. Although the place was huge, it felt stagnant and suffocating at the same time.
"They'll be pulling sentries to the entrance. No pursuers for a while." Grimm turned to the almost pitch dark tunnels and frowned. "A lot darker than I remember."
"What's wrong, our brave and fearless leader? Afraid of the dark?" Liar teased.
Grimm ignored him and addressed her actual concern.
"Norse, you'll be alright on navigation? I won't be able to provide much light."
"I have the layout committed to memory. Moving through would be as easy if it were completely dark."
"Cocky, girl," Grimm smirked. "Alright then, moving on to Phase Two."
Norse morphed into her penguin form, and mentally voiced.
"Slide~ "
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The Forgiven barreled down the tunnels at blinding speed. They were probably moving faster than if they had used the train carts.
The Penguin-morphed Norse was sliding on her belly. Her wand nestled in her beak was casting a frost spell, which glazed everything in her path with an icy sheet. The slippery surface and the smooth bird stomach allowed them to travel as fast as if they were falling.
Sitting atop the penguin's back was the large knapsack Norse carried with her, and on top of that was Grimm and Liar. The Forgiven leader was morphed into her fox form, while Liar was perched on her back, in his gecko form. In Grimm's teeth, was her wand, which controlled a shining ball of light that bounced in front of their party, partially lighting the way they traveled.
For a few minutes, the Forgiven sped through the tunnels like this. Though, they were on mission, the three of them couldn't help but enjoy how fun it was.
Barreling down the underground channels was like riding a rollercoaster. Combined with the adrenaline of stealing; Grimm, Liar, and Norse, were experiencing something of a euphoric high. It was absolutely thrilling.
They banked hard into the turns. Sometimes sliding high enough, they looped around the ceiling. They jumped gaps as wide as small canyons. Their hearts leapt with every daring maneuver.
But as quickly as the thrills came, so too did it vanish.
Grimm, Norse, and Liar prepared themselves for the upcoming section. According to the maps, there was an unavoidable juncture coming up ahead. They needed to pass through it to get to Voldemort's vault. The problem was the possible dragon resting there.
Sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn't. Several dragons patrolled the depths, while others stayed stationary. The Forgiven's intel didn't reveal which this one was.
"I'm betting twenty Galleons it's there," said Liar.
Grimm frowned mentally.
"You really want to bet against us?"
"Thirty Galleons."
"Good on you, Norse. Fifty! Come now, Grimm. We're already gambling with our lives. Might as well gamble on them too."
"…..A hundred it's there. Bad feeling, it's there."
"Always the cynical bet."
"Is it too late to change my wager, Liar?"
"What? Why?"
"Because Grimm's instincts for misfortune are always correct," Norse lamented.
"….Shite."
The three reached the end of the tunnel and came upon the juncture. It was like the insides of a hollowed out tower. Cylindrical in shape with various cave entrances lining the walls.
And in the middle of it all was a vicious looking dragon. The beast seemed frayed, but still dangerous. Fire glowed in the reptile's stomach and its semi-torn wings unfurled wide enough to blot out what little light there was.
When the Forgiven tried to maneuver around it, flames poured down their path. Norse veered away and lost all of her speed and momentum. The penguin morphed back into her witch form and brandished her wand, preparing to do battle with the dragon. Liar and Grimm also returned to their original forms, wands out at the ready.
Because they were connected through Legilimens, the Forgiven leader read into the panicked minds of her comrades. Norse wanted to fight to the death. Liar was thinking of a way for them all to escape. Grimm sighed and remembered why she was chosen to lead the Forgiven, and not them.
With sound mind and determination, the small, blue haired witch steadied her breathing. Feet squared forward and stable. Wand gripped firm and focused. Every millimeter of her posture exuded solidarity and strength.
Grimm drew eyes with the colossal dragon with an equally powerful glare.
"Imperio."
The word was spoken low, but it echoed the cave's walls. Grimm's will shadowed the beast's mind and fought to conquer its soul. Never breaking eye contact for even a moment, in the face of the monstrous creature that could end her with a single breath, or a swipe of its claws.
A single bead of sweat traced Grimm's face. Her breathing was slow and methodical. Unmoved, she was as she forced the Imperius curse on the dragon, fighting for every millimeter of territory. Though, she looked calm and unperturbed, her eyes burned with a ferocity unlike any other.
Finally, she relaxed.
Liar and Norse calmed at seeing the vacant eyes of the dragon. After several years of knowing her, their leader continued to annoyingly impress them.
Grim breathed a deep breath and flashed the two a smile.
"Well…that was exciting. Let's move on, shall we?"
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The Forgiven entered a grand hall, which at the end, they could see the door to Voldemort's vault. Lining the walls were more than twenty carved knights standing at almost two stories tall. Unlike the tunnels they passed through, great blazing torches lit every corner of this room. The three robbers moved nervously through the way.
"This does not bode well…"
"No. No, it doesn't. Didn't need you to literally spell that out, Norse," Liar chuckled as he brushed the floating words away.
"VIP vault. The best safety deposit Gringotts has to offer, which includes—surprise—unrecorded, additional security. Wonderful…." Grimm commented with a bitter tone.
They all eyed the knight statues with increasing paranoia. Every one of them, dwarfing the intruders and carrying a giant weapon to match. Swords and spears all pointed towards the center path.
"Tis not foreboding at all."
"Indeed. But for now, it doesn't look like they pose a threat."
Liar picked up a rock and chucked it at one of the statues. It shattered on a knight's helmet, but the sculpture did not respond. Norse loosened up a bit upon the test.
"Phase three. My turn~"
The Forgiven strode to the end of the hall and stopped in front of Voldemort's vault. Liar kneeled down and pulled out his Skeleton Key. A few taps and some wand waving followed, probing and testing the door's defenses.
While their resident thief was busy with the lock picking, Norse and Grimm stood guard behind him. Their wands pointed at the ready, and Norse's knapsack at their feet.
*BANG!*
"Oops."
Grimm and Norse turned around with a start.
""'OOPS'?!""
"The lock's a touch more complicated than I had initially anticipated."
"Liar…" Grimm growled.
"Okay, okay. A significant more complicated than I initially anticipated."
The stone sentinels began moving from their nooks in the walls.
"Liar…!"
Liar was no longer listening and cut off his Legilimens to fully concentrate on the lock. He also pulled out a pair of earphones and plugged one into each ear.
"Pressure ! Pushing down on me~ Pushing down on you~ No man asks for!" he sang along to his music.
Meanwhile, Norse and Grimm were trying to blast the titanic statues away, as one by one, they woke from hibernation.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
"Bombarda Maxima!"
Great boulders flew apart as the two Forgiven launched exploding spell after exploding spell at the stone behemoths. Their legs, fracturing under them, caused them to fall under their own weight. Arms crumbled and dropped their weapons.
Contrary to their first thoughts, defeating the golems was not difficult. They possessed daunting size, but it made them huge targets. Grimm and Norse began thinking they could very well neutralize the threat without much problem.
….That was, until the stone soldiers began regenerating.
Like time rewinding backwards, the rocks that were blown apart glowed and returned to the statues' bodies. Also, it may have been the Forgiven's imagination, but the sentries seemed to be moving faster.
Behind them, they heard a sudden,
*Shik*
"Oops."
"Liar! If you say that one more time…"
"…."
"Liar? What's going on back there?"
*Cough cough* "Nooooothing," the wizard called back.
Grimm and Norse knew it wasn't nothing. The coughing was something they were especially sensitive to.
"What is it?"
"I'm fine! Almost got it. Nothing to fret over. Totally nothing bad happened just now!"
Grimm grimaced.
"You've got three more minutes, or I'm calling this off."
"Plenty of time…Three minutes! *Cough*"
Grimm refocused on the golems in front of her. Norse's thoughts flowed into her mind.
"They will only continue to regenerate! I advise a change in tactics!"
Norse's arm tensed as she drew a wide slashing motion.
"Gladii Abscindere!"
A jagged wave formed in her wake, and soared at the legs of all the statues. The sentries' feet were torn and slashed from under them. Their upper torsos fell to the ground with an earth shattering quake.
"Hastas Affigo!" Grimm roared, thrusting her wand like a sword.
The spell cast with a howling wind. Her targets were punctured full of holes and flew into the walls and floor. There, they were pinned by invisible spears, effectively stopping their movements.
Both of the witches' wands splintered, and they deftly drew new ones out to replace them.
The giants were stalled for the moment, but still lumbered on. It was only a matter of time before they regained their mobility and attacked again. The Forgiven would need something more.
Norse glanced at the knapsack at her feet. Grimm also thought the same, but shook her head.
"Only as a last resort. We need as many shots as we can for the escape," she muttered.
If only Liar would just hurry up and–
The two felt a gust of wind blow from behind them. They turned to see Liar finally manage to open the vault. Grimm and Norse caught a glimpse of the inside and saw it was mostly empty. They fought the urge to look. At the moment, they had to concentrate on fighting the sentries, more than anything.
They could hear Liar running into the vault with panted breath. It sounded like picking the lock took a lot out of the wizard.
"Are you focking with me?!" his thoughts reverberated from the inside.
Legilimens was reestablished and Grimm responded.
"What?! What's in there? Don't tell me there's nothing! That would be just perfect…"
"There's something, but—Whatever, I've got it. Let's bug the hell out of this bloody hole!"
Liar appeared out of the vault, clutching his bleeding right hand. Grimm and Norse stared at the small trickle of crimson that flowed from his wound. The wizard detected their thoughts and shamefully revealed his hand.
He was missing his pinky.
"I lost it while I was picking the lock, okay?! Not a big deal, but I could use some help with the bleeding."
Grimm closed her gaping mouth and grit her teeth.
"This is gonna hurt."
"You don't say—Ahhh!"
Grimm singed the bleeding nub and closed the wound with burns. She then added a layer of healing and protection to it, but that was all she could manage for the moment. Regrowing it would take at least a day.
"Good to go?"
"FArk, that smarts!"
"Yeah, you're good to go."
Grimm grabbed Liar by the arm and joined Norse.
Together, they turned towards the exit and the statues stalking towards them. They lifted their wands in unison and incanted together.
"""REDUCTO!"""
Three blares of scarlet enveloped the chamber. The top halves of the golems disintegrated into nothing but dust. Though, as powerful as the spell was, the silt-like particles were already beginning to reform into their original structures. But enough time was bought for the Forgiven to run past them.
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Down, down, down, the three flew into the tunneling depths.
They had taken to their Animagus forms, Liar and Grimm riding on Norse's penguin back. Following them were the stone golems, who had shaped themselves into giant boulders. The scene looked very much like something out of an old adventure movie.
Though, the sentinels were slower, there were more of them. And they continuously attempted to surround the intruders by using various routes. The odd thing was, the Forgiven weren't trying to reach the surface, but going deeper and deeper into the vaults. Which was also a good thing, because if they were trying to move uphill, the golems would surely catch them.
"You've explained this part to me a thousand times, but it still sounds insane," Liar voiced telepathically.
"Which is why Phase Four will work. The Goblins never thought anyone would try this," Grimm answered.
"Shall we wager on it?"
They could feel Norse give a hearty laugh along with the question.
"Oh, fock all! Two hundred we don't make it?"
"Three hundred, we do!"
Norse and Liar turned their thoughts to Grimm.
Their leader flashed them a fierce smile.
"Five hundred, we make it!"
The Forgiven reached the end of the lowest tunnel of Gringotts. Out of a cavern wall, the three flew out. Below them was a hole measuring at least a hundred yards in diameter with no bottom in sight. To the naked eye, the chasm looked like an endless fall into the abyss, but Grimm knew better.
They morphed back into their human forms as they plummeted free fall into the darkness. Liar and Norse started blasting parts of the wall apart and constructing a shell from the debris. While they did so, Grimm opened the knapsack and dug into its contents.
With a cartoonish sort of flare, a great cannon larger than the bag it was stored in was whipped out. It was the kind of artillery usually placed on a fortress or a pirate ship. Apparently, the weapon was used in an ancient magical war, and the Forgiven had "procured" the antique on one of their missions.
Grimm zeroed in the sights and made sure the alignment was correct. She then lit a fire at the end of her wand and touched it to the cannon's fuse. The witch pulled the rope with a hard jerk.
*Boom*
Artillery fire roared as the magic shell was shot into the abyss below. A few moments passed, before they heard a distant echo of the projectile impacting some manner of surface.
Grimm reloaded the cannon and fired it again.
*Boom*
This repeated itself a few more times. The Forgiven gaining more and more momentum in their free fall, while the sound of the exploding surface approached closer and closer. Nervousness began setting into the three, but then they saw it.
Lava began spouting from the bottom of the hole. Its glow like a small, distant sun.
Grimm looked to the sides of her and saw Liar and Norse finished constructing their protective shell. The two joined their halves, leaving a pocket sized hole facing up. Inside, the three pointed their wands at the opening.
"This is insane."
"I'll hear your complaints later, Liar."
"This is mad!"
"This is wicked fun."
"I think I'm going to shite myself."
"Not in here, you're not," Grimm barked. Secretly, she made a small prayer. "If there's a god up there—Please, please, I beg you….
…Stay the FOCK out of our way!"
The three Forgiven tensed their hands and concentrated on their magic.
"""VENTUS MAXIMA!"""
Wind surged from their wands and propelled their shell faster down into the pit.
With a great splash, they hit the molten lava and descended into its depths. Norse quickly sealed the hole in the shell to prevent the lava from entering. Long, tense moments passed—every second more grueling than the last. All the while, they dove ever deeper into the underground volcano's depths.
"Are we there yet?" Grimm groaned.
They could hear the lava bubbling outside the shell.
"Not….yet….!" Liar answered.
"How about…now?"
"Not…helping, Norse!"
The wizard's eyes were closed in deep concentration.
"Now? Are we out of the anti-apparition zone, yet? Check now, Liar."
"Honestly…! If the both of you would just—"
Their reprieve came without warning. They didn't even feel the vacuum sensation when Liar Apparated them outside of Moody's house.
All three collapsed on the poorly kept lawn. Their nerves completely shot and their bodies, which were taut throughout the ordeal, finally gave out.
For a while, Grimm, Liar, and Norse, just laid there. Their clothes were in complete rags. They threw off the masks they were wearing. Dirt and soot covered their faces. The three basked in their tired silence. None of them wanting to meet the Forgivers downstairs, who eagerly awaited their report.
"So what the hell was in the vault?" Grimm finally mustered the breath.
Liar began digging around his cloak. While he did so, he groaned.
"I just remembered, I'm missing my focking pinky."
Grimm and Norse laughed and coughed at their friend's misfortune.
The wizard tiredly pulled out the prize of their heist and held it up for the others to see. Grimm eyed the object with confusion, and then scorn.
"A goblet… We did all that….for a bloody, FOCKING goblet."
She smacked her face.
"It isn't even that big!" Norse exclaimed, while grabbing it.
"Well, it's probably some evil, stupid, death cup if it was in Voldemort's vault," Liar said bitterly. "Asshole goblet. Gaudy, overly decorated, piece of shite. Can hardly believe his great and evil darkness owned something like this."
"A shame you'll never have a fancy drink with his Lord Voldiness."
"Oh, yeah? Why's that?"
"Because you can't do the fancy pinky thing anymore."
Norse punched Grimm's arm, as she contorted with tears in her eyes. Her silent laughter threatened to rupture her gut.
"Too early?" Grimm questioning Liar's silence.
"No! I'm just ashamed I didn't think to make the joke first!...*Sigh* Rest in peace, little friend," the wizard lamented, as he held his bloodied nub to the sky.
"May Liar's pinky rest in peace."
"And take its place in pinky Valhalla!"
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Explaining the Escape
Writing this in case how they escaped wasn't clear.
Gringotts is an anti-apparation zone. There are charms and all sorts of security preventing one from tunneling in or out of the tunnels. Except the bottom, which is without anti-tunneling measures, because it's full of lava. "Why would anyone try to Apparate in or out of lava?" the Goblins thought.
So the Forgiven exploited that weakness and sank into the molten area, far enough to leave the anti-apparation zone, and that's how they were able to teleport out.