Chapter 43:
"We're in trouble; they suspect," said Harry as the door slammed behind them and he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak. Griphook jumped down from his shoulders and Hermione looked frightened; neither Travers nor Bogrod showed the slightest surprise at the sudden appearance of Harry Potter in their midst. "They're Imperiused," he added, in response Ron's confused queries about Travers and Bogrod, who were both now standing there looking blank. "I don't think I did it strongly enough, I don't know…"
"What do we do?" asked Ron. "Shall we get out now, while we can?"
"If we can," said Hermione, looking back toward the door into the main hall, beyond which who knew what was happening.
"We've got this far, I say we go on," said Harry.
"It'll be difficult to get out, but if they know it'll make it harder to come back again." Alicia said "We did the hard part, we've got what we need."
"And getting out?" Ron asked
"We'll work out something." she muttered "Let's focus on getting to the vault first."
"Good!" said Griphook. "So, we need Bogrod to control the cart; I no longer have the authority. But there will not be room for the wizard."
Harry pointed his wand at Travers.
"Imperio!"
The wizard turned and set off along the dark track at a smart pace.
"What are you making him do?"
"Hide," said Harry as he pointed his wand at Bogrod, who whistled to summon a little cart that came trundling along the tracks toward them out of the darkness.
"By the way, you could have just handed the wand over?" Ron said to Alicia
"No I couldn't, that would have been stupid. You heard Travers, they know we escaped and they know the wand's gone and they know who took it." Alicia said "The last thing we need is confirmation by giving them Bellatrix's wand stolen by Harry Potter." Ron looked unsure but did not argue. "And it was a silly thing of identification to ask for too, Ollivander's been taken from the Malfoys, and apparently the Malfoys and Bellatrix are all locked inside, Gregorovitch is dead so how could she get a new wand? And if she's locked up how would the Goblins know which is her's? I mean really?" Alicia rolled her eyes. "Goblins are supposed to be smarter than that."
Griphook gave her a look as they all climbed into the cart, the six go them all crammed in together with the goblins at the front and the four at the back.
"Maybe they did it because they know who's got the wand?" Harry said
"Then I'm insulted they think me that stupid." Alicia responded.
With a jerk the cart moved off, gathering speed: They hurtled past Travers, who was wriggling into a crack in the wall, then the cart began twisting and turning through the labyrinthine passages, sloping downward all the time. Nothing could be heard over the rattling of the cart on the tracks. Alicia's hair was blown behind her along with the robes as they swerved between stalactites flying ever deeper into the earth.
Alicia had never been this far down into Gringotts. They took a hairpin bend at speed and saw ahead of them, with seconds to spare, a waterfall pounding over the track. Griphook shouted, "No!" but there was no braking: They zoomed through it. Water filled Alicia's eyes and mouth: she gaged as she could not see or breathe: Then, with an awful lurch, the cart flipped over and they were all thrown out of it. The sound of the cart smashing into pieces against the passage wall echoed. Alicia had Bellatrix's wand out but Hermione shriek something first. Instead of crashing, they glided back toward the ground as though weightless, landing painlessly on the rocky passage floor.
"C-Cushioning Charm," Hermione spluttered, as Ron pulled her to her feet. Alicia stood up and shook her wet hair before she realised it was her hair. The rippling was gone, her robes were too big, and she touched her face to feel her own before turning to the others. Ron was himself again too, red-haired and beardless.
"The Thief's Downfall!" said Griphook, clambering to his feet and looking back at the deluge onto the tracks, which clearly had been more than water. "It washes away all enchantment, all magical concealment! They know there are impostors in Gringotts, they have set off defences against us!"
Hermione checked for her bag, Alicia did the same, Harry searched for his invisibility cloak and Bogrod was shaking his head in bewilderment. The Thief's Downfall seemed to have lifted the Imperius Curse.
"We need him," said Griphook, "we cannot enter the vault without a Gringotts goblin. And we need the Clankers!"
"Imperio!" Harry said again; his voice echoed through the stone passage. Bogrod submitted once more to his will, his befuddled expression changing to one of polite indifference, as Ron hurried to pick up the leather bag of metal tools.
"Harry, I think I can hear people coming!" said Hermione, and she pointed Alicia's wand, which he had as Alicia had Bellatrix's, at the waterfall and cried, "Protego!" They saw the Shield Charm break the flow of enchanted water as it flew up the passageway.
"Good thinking," said Harry. "Lead the way, Griphook!"
"How are we going to get out again?" Ron asked as they hurried on foot into the darkness after the goblin, Bogrod panting in their wake like an old dog.
"Let's worry about that when we have to," said Harry.
"Told you it'd be difficult." Alicia mumbled.
"Griphook, how much farther?" Harry asked
"Not far, Harry Potter, not far…"
And they turned a corner and saw the thing for which they had been warned of, had been prepared for, but which still brought all of them to a halt.
A gigantic dragon was tethered to the ground in front of them, barring access to four or five of the deepest vaults in the place. The beast's scales had turned pale and flaky during its long incarceration under the ground; its eyes were milkily pink; both rear legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led to enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor. Its great spiked wings, folded close to its body, would have filled the chamber if it spread them, and when it turned its ugly head toward them, it roared with a noise that made the rock tremble, opened its mouth, and spat a jet of fire that sent them running back up the passageway.
"It is partially blind," panted Griphook, "but even more savage for that. However, we have the means to control it. It has learned what to expect when the Clankers come. Give them to me."
Ron passed the bag to Griphook, and the goblin pulled out a number of small metal instruments that when shaken made a loud, ringing noise like miniature hammers on anvils. Griphook handed them out: Bogrod accepted his meekly.
"You know what to do," Griphook told Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione. "It will expect pain when it hears the noise: It will retreat, and Bogrod must place his palm upon the door of the vault."
They advanced around the corner again, shaking the Clankers, and the noise echoed off the rocky walls, grossly magnified. The dragon let out another hoarse roar, then retreated. They could see it trembling, and as they drew nearer scars made by vicious slashes across its face came into focus. Someone had tortured it to train it to retreat.
"Make him press his hand to the door!" Griphook urged Harry, who turned his wand again upon Bogrod. The old goblin obeyed, pressing his palm to the wood, and the door of the vault melted away to reveal a cavelike opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, silver armour, the skins of strange creatures — some with long spines, others with drooping wings — potions in jewelled flasks, and a skull still wearing a crown.
"Search, fast!" said Harry as they all hurried inside the vault.
Alicia looked all around the vault but before she could get a good look at anything, there was a muffled clunk from behind them: The door had reappeared, sealing them inside the vault, and they were plunged into total darkness.
"No matter, Bogrod will be able to release us!" said Griphook as Ron gave a shout of surprise. "Light your wands, can't you? And hurry, we have very little time!"
"Lumos!"
Alicia's wand lit up as Harry's did. Ron and Hermione lit there's too and Alicia moved to have a look at the many treasures. There were glittering jewels everywhere, the fake sword of Gryffindor was lying on a high shelf amongst a jumble of chains. Ron and Hermione were also searching before Hermione broke the silence.
"Harry, could this be — ? Aargh!"
Hermione screamed in pain, and the twins turned to her in time to see a jewelled goblet tumbling from her grip. But as it fell, it split, became a shower of goblets, so that a second later, with a great clatter, the floor was covered in identical cups rolling in every direction, the original impossible to discern amongst them.
"It burned me!" moaned Hermione, sucking her blistered fingers.
"They have added Gemino and Flagrante Curses!" said Griphook. "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!"
"Okay, don't touch anything!" said Harry desperately, but even as he said it, Ron accidentally nudged one of the fallen goblets with his foot, and twenty more exploded into being while Ron hopped on the spot, part of his shoe burned away by contact with the hot metal.
"Stand still, don't move!" said Hermione, clutching at Ron.
"Just look around!" said Harry. "Remember, the cup's small and gold, it's got a badger engraved on it, two handles — otherwise see if you can spot Ravenclaw's symbol anywhere, the eagle —"
"We don't need to be burned and buried, and we don't need anything that's not the cup." Alicia said as she looked around.
"Can we even find it with this much treasure?" Ron demanded
"It's not Bellatrix's and she worships You-Know-Who, so I imagine it'd be hard to get to, but in prime position." Alicia mumbled as she was looking at the walls and shelves. They directed their wands into every nook and crevice, turning cautiously on the spot. It was impossible not to brush up against anything; Harry sent a great cascade of fake Galleons onto the ground where they joined the goblets, and now there was scarcely room to place their feet, and the glowing gold blazed with heat, so that the vault felt like a furnace.
Alicia rose her wand higher and higher to look at the walls, ignoring the treasure immediately around her before Harry's voice sounded.
"It's there, it's up there!"
Alicia, Hermione and Ron all turned their wands. The little golden cup sparkled in a four-way spotlight: the cup that had belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, which had passed into the possession of Hepzibah Smith, from whom it had been stolen by Tom Riddle.
"And how the hell are we going to get up there without touching anything?" asked Ron.
"Accio Cup!" cried Hermione, who had evidently forgotten in her desperation what Griphook had told them during their planning sessions.
"No use, no use!" snarled the goblin.
"Then what do we do?" said Harry, glaring at the goblin. "If you want the sword, Griphook, then you'll have to help us more than — wait! Can I touch stuff with the sword? Hermione, give it here!"
Don't pull it out! Alicia snapped at him mentally. It'll give Griphook the chance to take it! Harry ignored her. She didn't trust the goblin to follow their bargain anymore than he expected them too.
Hermione fumbled inside her robes, drew out the beaded bag, rummaged for a few seconds, then removed the shining sword. Harry seized it by its rubied hilt and touched the tip of the blade to a silver flagon nearby, which did not multiply.
"If I can just poke the sword through a handle — but how am I going to get up there?"
The shelf on which the cup reposed was out of reach for any of them, even Ron, who was tallest. The heat from the enchanted treasure rose in waves. As the four of them tried to think, the dragon roared on the other side of the vault door, and the sound of clanking joined it, growing louder and louder.
They were truly trapped now: There was no way out except through the door, and a horde of goblins seemed to be approaching on the other side. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and saw terror in their faces. Alicia was staring at the cup.
"We can't use spells on the cup, but we can use it on each other." She said, ignoring the clanking from outside.
"Hermione," said Harry as the clanking grew louder, "I've got to get up there, we've got to get rid of it —"
She raised her wand, pointed it at Harry, and whispered, "Levicorpus."
Hoisted into the air by his ankle, Harry hit a suit of armour and replicas burst out of it like white-hot bodies, filling the cramped space. With screams of pain Alicia, Ron, Hermione, and the two goblins were knocked aside into other objects, which also began to replicate. Half buried in a rising tide of red-hot treasure, they struggled and yelled as Harry thrust the sword through the handle of Hufflepuff's cup, hooking it onto the blade.
"Impervius!" screeched Hermione in an attempt to protect herself, Alicia, Ron, and the goblins from the burning metal.
"Aguamenti!" Water spilled over the treasure from Bellatrix's wand and the sizzling of the water on the hot treasure caused steam to rise. It didn't cool any of it down and Alicia stopped.
"We need to get out of here!" Alicia cried as she, Hermione and Ron were waist deep in treasure. Hermione and Ron were trying to keep Bogrod from slipping beneath the rising tide, but Griphook had sunk out of sight and nothing but the tips of a few long fingers were left in view.
Harry seized Griphook's fingers and pulled. The blistered goblin emerged by degrees, howling.
"Liberacorpus!" yelled Harry, and with a crash he and Griphook landed on the surface of the swelling treasure, and the sword flew out of Harry's hand.
"Get it!" Harry yelled, fighting the pain of the hot metal on his skin, as Griphook clambered onto his shoulders again, determined to avoid the swelling mass of red-hot objects. "Where's the sword? It had the cup on it!"
The clanking on the other side of the door was growing deafening — it was too late —
"There!"
It was Griphook who had seen it and Griphook who lunged. The goblin never expected the four to keep their word and so he held desperation in his face as, with one hand, he held tightly to a fistful of Harry's hair, to make sure he did not fall into the heaving sea of burning gold, and with the other, Griphook seized the hilt of the sword and swung it high out of Harry's reach. The tiny golden cup, skewered by the handle on the sword's blade, was flung into the air. The goblin still astride him, Harry dived and caught it, and although Alicia could feel her hand burning as it scalded his flesh he did not relinquish it, even while countless Hufflepuff cups burst from his fist, raining down upon him as the entrance of the vault opened up again.
They were all sliding uncontrollable on an expanding avalanche of fiery gold and silver that bore Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione into the outer chamber.
Harry shoved the cup into his pocket, and Griphook slid from Harry's shoulders the moment he could, he had sprinted for cover amongst the surrounding goblins, brandishing the sword and crying, "Thieves! Thieves! Help! Thieves!" He vanished into the midst of the advancing crowd, all of whom were holding daggers and who accepted him without question.
The only way the four were getting out was through and Alicia flashed Bellatrix's wand as Harry yelled, "Stupefy!"
Ron and Hermione joined in: Jets of red light flew into the crowd of goblins, and some toppled over, but others advanced, and several wizard guards were running around the corner.
There were only four of them and they could fight their way through, but then what? They had no goblin to get them on a cart and they couldn't get up and out. They'd be lost in the labyrinth. They'd wander forever.
The tethered dragon let out a roar, and a gush of flame flew over the goblins: The wizards fled, doubled-up, back the way they had come, and Alicia stared at the dragon. What if they flew out?
Alicia turned to Harry and he was staring at her too. It was inspiration, or it was madness, but it was better than what else awaited them.
Pointing his wand at the thick cuffs chaining the beast to the floor, Harry yelled, "Relashio!"
The cuffs broke open with loud bangs.
"This way!" Harry yelled, and still shooting Stunning Spells at the advancing goblins, he sprinted toward the blind dragon with his sister hot on his heels.
"Harry — Harry — what are you doing?" cried Hermione.
"Get up, climb up, come on —"
The dragon had not realised that it was free: Harry's foot found the crook of its hind leg and he pulled himself up onto its back. Alicia reached up and Harry heaved her up behind him.
The scales were hard as steel; it did not even seem to feel them. Harry stretched out an arm; Hermione hoisted herself up; Ron climbed on behind them, and a second later the dragon became aware that it was untethered.
With a roar it reared. Alicia dug in her knees and heels as she'd done on the thestrals and clutched to the jagged scales as tightly as possible. The wings opened, knocking the shrieking goblins aside like skittles, and it soared into the air. Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione, flat on its back, scraped against the ceiling as it dived toward the passage opening, while the pursuing goblins hurled daggers that glanced off its flanks.
"We'll never get out, it's too big!" Hermione screamed, but the dragon opened its mouth and belched flame again, blasting the tunnel, whose floors and ceiling cracked and crumbled. By sheer force the dragon clawed and fought its way through.
Alicia, ignoring the dust and heat looked up and raised the wand in her hand.
"Reducto!" and massive chunks of the passage were blasted into nothing by the strength of her spell.
Hermione caught on and with a raise of Alicia's wand yelled, "Defodio!"
The two girls and the dragon enlarged the passageway, carving out the ceiling as it struggled upward toward the fresher air, away from the shrieking and clanking goblins: Harry and Ron copied the girls, blasting the ceiling apart with more gouging spells. They passed the underground lake, and the great crawling, snarling beast seemed to sense freedom and space ahead of it, and behind them the passage was full of the dragon's thrashing, spiked tail, of great lumps of rock, gigantic fractured stalactites, and the clanking of the goblins seemed to be growing more muffled, while ahead, the dragon's fire kept their progress clear — And then at last, by the combined force of their spells and the dragon's brute strength, they had blasted their way out of the passage into the marble hallway. Goblins and wizards shrieked and ran for cover, and finally the dragon had room to stretch its wings: Turning its horned head toward the cool outside air it could smell beyond the entrance, it took off, and with Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione still clinging to its back, it forced its way through the metal doors, leaving them buckled and hanging from their hinges, as it staggered into Diagon Alley and launched itself into the sky.