And know it's time for the disclaimer, my way of saying that, in case you couldn't guess, I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 9: The Dragon
She landed roughly on her hands and knees, scraped, but still alive. Shaking, she scrambled to her feet, looking around at the pieces of the shattered cart, trying to figure out how she had survived. To her side, Ron and Malfoy were also getting up. There was still no sign of Harry. The goblin stood before them, hand held aloft, face furious.
Next to her, Travers raised his wand. "Drop that! Now!" barked the goblin. With a sharp click, the wand fell to the stone floor. The goblin walked closer to the group, examining them all carefully. "What triggered the Thief's Downfall?" he snapped. There was a pause. "Speak up!"
"Um, w-what is the, ah, Thief's Downfall?" Ron asked falteringly, shaken.
"That waterfall that we passed through." explained the goblin, black eyes narrowed. "It detects and washes away all enchantment." He glared at each of them. "Something triggered it, and so the cart was thrown off of the tracks. You would all be dead now if I hadn't cushioned your fall."
"It was those three!" yelled Travers. "Look at them! He-he's Harry Potter, trying to rob the Malfoys!"
Malfoy turned to face him, scowling. "If I was Potter, wouldn't the, er, Thief's Downfall have washed away my appearance? I told you, I am Lucius Malfoy."
Travers looked confused. "But..."
Malfoy turned away from him. "This man had my associates under a paralysis charm, which must have triggered the Thief's Downfall." he coolly told goblin. "He was threatening them and me, wishing to rob my vault."
The goblin examined Travers, pondering Malfoy's words. He turned to Hermione and Ron. "Is this true?" He asked. They both nodded nervously.
"No!" Travers yelled, looking from Malfoy to the goblin and back again. "No – I wasn't trying to – to rob anybody! These three are impostors! You see, look..." He grabbed Hermione by the sleeve. "Her hair was blond before, right? She was in disguise! She's that Granger girl, the one that is helping Potter!" Hermione pulled herself away, trying not to look frightened. "And the boy," Travers continued, "Weasley for sure! See? He was disguised before, but now he has red hair! They are the ones who triggered the waterfall thing!"
The goblin examined them carefully. "They do seem different," He muttered to himself.
"But I'm with them!" Malfoy almost shouted. "Even if they had a few cosmetic, ah, enchantments," He stumbled, "They are still with me, and I still want them to accompany me to my vault! He," he pointed to Travers, "was threatening us, telling me that I was Harry Potter!" He gave a forced laugh.
A stiff silence fell, as the goblin closely studied each one of them. Finally, he slowly ordered, "Come with me all of you, – I don't want any trouble! – you will all be put in custody and searched."
"No!" shouted Malfoy, "I am Lucius Malfoy, and I demand – "
He was interrupted by a cry of surprise from Travers. "Who – " There was a flash of red light, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The goblin yelled something up the corridor, something that Hermione couldn't decipher, then fell down in a red flash as well.
"Are you guys alright?" Harry asked, taking off the invisibility cloak.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, throwing her arms around him in a hug. After a second she pulled away, asking, "What happened? Where were you?"
Harry folded the cloak and tucked it inside of his robes. "I got into the cart next to the goblin, in the front. I was there the whole time."
Ron scowled. "Then why didn't you help us with that Travers bloke?"
"He took my wand, remember? He took all of our wands. I just barely got mine back. Wrenched it out of his hands. Oh, here – " he held out his hand, which grasped Hermione's and Ron's wands. "He had these, too."
Hermione grabbed her wand, smiling thankfully at her friend. "But what about Malfoy?" She asked, suddenly remembering.
Harry looked confused. "He didn't have his wand."
Hermione glanced to Malfoy, who was leaning over Travers. "He's right, it's not here," He said nervously, drumming his fingers. He anxiously patted his trouser's pockets. A look of surprise passed over his face; he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. "What the..." He asked, stroking the side of the wand. After a moment, he shook his head dismissively. "Oh well." He looked up at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "We have to get out of here... I'm betting that we'll be seeing some more people down here shortly. Could one of you carry the goblin?"
Harry leaned over, throwing the goblin over his shoulder. "'Kay," he grunted, "Let's go."
"Wait!" Malfoy cautioned. He took a step closer, bending down to examine the goblin. "Does he have the Clankers? We need the Clankers."
"Um," Harry looked at the goblin, before answering, "No. He must have dropped them somewhere... or left them in the cart." They all gazed around at the rubble, the debris that was all that remained of the cart. "Accio Clankers!" Harry called feebly, to no avail. Nothing came. "Too deep in the vault, I guess," he said anxiously. "We won't have time to, ah, find them, will we?"
Malfoy glared down at the broken pieces of cart. "No. Not a chance." He furiously scratched at his hair. Finally he let out a sigh. "Let's go, quick, before more goblins find us."
"But Malfoy!" Hermione said, frightened, "What about – ?"
"We'll deal with the dragon when we get there." He said crossly, walking away without a backwards glance.
"W-wait! Malfoy!" Ron yelled after him. "I'm not just – we can't just face a dragon without any sort of preparation! There's no way! We... we just need to find those Clankers."
"Then stay here. Get caught." Malfoy answered exasperatedly, not turning around, or even slowing down.
The three friends paused a moment, watching as Malfoy walked ahead into the dark stone corridors. They listened to a sound that drifted through the hallway... the sound of something very large, very dangerous, and not too far away. Hermione rubed her hands together. We've made it this far, she thought to herself, and if we're caught, we may just as well be cornered by a dragon. Taking a deep breath, she ran after Malfoy. Behind her, Ron and Harry hesitantly followed.
It didn't take long at all for them to reach the last turn in the corridor. Hermione glanced around the corner, though she hardly needed to do so. The sound of rough scales scraping against stone, the low rumble that made the floor vibrate, the feeling of sudden heat and dryness in the air... they all made it quite obvious what crouched beyond. However, seeing the pale dragon chained to the floor of the massive chamber still sent a wave of frightened awe coursing through her.
"Merlin," she whispered.
"How will we get in?" Harry asked, raising his wand slightly. The dragon was crouched over the vault doors, and was not going to be easily moved. They had needed the Clankers, Malfoy had said, because the dragon had been taught to fear the noise that they made.
As they all pondered their dilemma, Malfoy studied the dragon, eyebrows raised. Hermione watched him curiously as a flicker of worry crossed his face. After a moment, he turned to the group. "The Lestrange vault is that one, nearest to us," he said quickly. "Do try to hurry in there." Having said that, he pulled out his wand, and ran out into the chamber, shouting, "Protego!"
"Malfoy!" Hermione shrieked.
"Are you daft?" Ron yelled after him. He didn't stop.
"Come on," Harry urged, watching the dragon as he followed Malfoy, roaring furiously. "We have to hurry, we can't leave him out there long." He shifted the unconscious goblin on his shoulders. "He'll be okay," he added quickly, seeing Hermione's frantic look, "the bloke isn't an idiot. He's got no wish for a heroic death, and I'm sure he's planned accordingly."
She smiled gratefully, before they all dashed to the Lestrange vault. Harry pulled the goblin off of his shoulders with a grunt and pressed its hand to the door. He stepped back, watching as the wooden door melted away and vanished, revealing the mess of treasures that lay inside of the vault. "Okay," he breathed, taking in the disorganized dump of innumerable, invaluable riches, which lay in piles, gold upon silver. It covered the floor in heaps, and covered the walls, piled upon shelves. "Malfoy said to not go in or touch anything until we are sure of where this thing is... so look for a small, golden cup, or something with Ravenclaw's eagle on it..."
"But there's so much stuff in there," Ron said, biting his lip, "And it could be buried in any one of those piles, or inside one of those boxes," he pointed to the back of the vault, where a row of chests lay, closed and locked.
"Just look!" Harry ordered.
Hermione peered into the vault, trying desperately to see the small cup. Just once she looked back, hearing the dragon roar, and tried to find Malfoy, to see how he was doing. He was across the room, a protective charm surrounding him like a pane of glass, flashing light from his wand into the dragon's face. Hermione cringed; the bright flashes revealed deep cuts across the dragon's muzzle. "He has been taught to be afraid of the noise the Clankers make," She remembered Malfoy's rather nonchalant words from their planning sessions. She felt bile rise up in her throat.
After a moment more of studying the scene before her, the pale young man beneath the large, ill kept dragon, she sharply turned back to the treasure in the vault.
Finally, Harry shouted, "It's there, it's up there!" He pointed up to a high shelf, where, indeed, a small cup, gold, with two handles, glittered in the light from the chamber.
"Brilliant!" Ron breathed.
Hermione didn't say anything, just sighed in immense relief. She rushed into the vault to grab the cup, ignoring the sudden heat that surrounded her like a furnace. However, she brushed a suit of armor walking in. It began to shake and totter. She let out a yelp and rushed back out of the vault, watching in shock as the armor multiplied, identical suits of armor springing into being around it.
"What happened?" She gasped.
"Hermione! Look at your sleeve!" Harry said. She fingered the spot on her sleeve that had brushed up against the armor: a large hole had been scorched into it, letting off the putrid odor of burnt cloth.
"It burned me..." she whispered. "It must be some sort of protection spell,"
Suddenly a new noise filled the chamber, coming from the dim corridor. A clanking, ringing noise, the noise of metal on stone. For a moment, the dragon's roars grew silent. Then they began anew, but more desperate. Roars of pain and fear, no longer anger.
Between the dragon's cries, Malfoy yelled from across the chamber. "Those are the Clankers!" He shouted hoarsely. He said something else as well, but his words were lost as the dragon again began to rumble.
"More goblins must be coming!" Hermione cried. She, pulling out her wand, turned toward the chamber's entrance. "Protego!" she hissed.
"Good thinking," Harry said, rubbing his hands nervously.
"But how long will it hold?" Ron fretted. "Let's hurry and get that cup."
"But how – ?" Harry pondered aloud. After a moment, he turned to Hermione. "We can't bring the cup down to us with magic, so I've got to get up there."
She understood what he was saying perfectly. "Are you certain?" She asked. "Should Ron or I do it?"
"Just hurry!" He yelled, running into the vault, careful to avoid touching anything.
"Levicorpus," she whispered, watching as Harry was lifted in the air by his ankle.
As he reached to grab the cup, Hermione cast a nervous glance back at the Chamber's entrance. In the corridor beyond, only kept out by a thin protection charm, a mob of goblins swarmed. One wizard, towering over the goblins, approached the doorway, wand out. Travers, it seemed, once again conscious. Hermione cursed herself for not thinking of taking his wand before. "Hurry!" She cried, trying to reinforce her spell, "They'll be through in a moment!"
"Agh! I've g-got it!" Harry called. "Liberacorpus!" Hermione cringed as he cried out in pain. In seconds he was out of the vault, shoving the cup into his pocket, nursing his burned and blistered hands. He also had something tucked under his arm, but before Hermione could see what it was, the spell over the entranceway failed, and a flood of goblins poured into the chamber. The chamber echoes with Clankers. The dragon gave a hoarse roar, shrinking back into the wall. Hermione tried to see Malfoy beneath it, but couldn't.
"Stupify!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand into the mob of goblins. He began to fight his way through them, Stunning Spells flying from his wand. Hermione and Ron joined in.
Eventually, Hermione stopped even wondering where Harry could possibly be leading them. She set her mind solely on stunning as many goblins as possible, hoping that Harry had a plan, knowing that, in all likelihood, he didn't. Every now and then, she would see the face of Travers among the goblins, but he would always disappear before she could hex him.
The dragon roared again, and Hermione felt the heat of a jet of flame nearby. A brief pause followed, before Harry cried, "Relashio!" Hermione glanced back as the cuffs around the dragon's leg cuffs broke open, banging loudly. "This way!" He yelled at his friends.
"Harry – Harry – What are you doing?" She cried desperately. She couldn't understand... Were the goblins not enough? Did he need to release the dragon as well?
"Get up, climb up, come on – " He yelled, working his way up on the dragon.
Seeing his plan, Hermione madly scrambled up the hard, steely dragon scales, pushed along by Ron. "Malfoy!" She shrieked. "Malfoy! Get on the Dragon! Malfoy!"
The dragon seemed to realize that it was free, rearing up with a roar. Hermione clutched at the scales, franticly trying to stay on top. "Malfoy!" she called again, desperate.
"Over here!" She heard him yell, voice barely carrying over the dragon's roars and the goblins' clanking and cries. She leaned over, looking down at the ground beneath the bucking dragon. Malfoy was there, trying to climb up the dragon's heaving sides, but was repeatedly thrown off.
"Here," she cried, reaching down. "Grab my hand!"
"No!" He cried. "I can't!"
"Please!" she shrieked as the dragon began to move forward, toward the chamber's entrance.
"No, I'll make it!" He took a step back, then, gritting his teeth, leaped up, scrabbling at the scales as he hit them. He seemed almost about to fall again, when the dragon suddenly lurched backwards. With a cry, Malfoy flopped over, hitting the back of the dragon.
Just as he began to settle, the dragon leaped into the air, flying towards the passage opening. Hermione shrieked as it dived toward the door. "We'll never get out, it's too big!" She screamed. However, through fire, force, and sheer desperation, the dragon blasted through the entranceway, sending stones flying into the passage. The goblins yelled madly behind them, but their cries grew more and more distant as the dragon worked its way up the corridors, climbing toward the fresher air. Hermione pulled out her wand, crying, "Defodio," trying to enlarge the passageway for the dragon. Soon Harry and Ron both joined her, carving out the ceiling. Behind them, stones and rubble piled up.
"I – I don't know if it'll be able to make it out!" She cried, to no one in particular.
"Of course it will!" Malfoy yelled back. "You saw what they've done to the poor beast! He'll get out or die trying – and killing a dragon is not an easy thing to do!" The image of the beast's muzzle, scarred and mutilated, came to her mind. Of course he would make it out. He wasn't going to back down, not for anything.
"You know," Malfoy called, "'Draco,' in Latin, means 'dragon'!"
"Then I guess you'd know all about them, huh?"
He gave a short, barked laugh. "Not really. Never put much study into the beasts. Maybe I will, when this is all over!"
Suddenly, over the crash of shattering rock, Ron cried out in surprise. She peered over her shoulder to see Travers, who must have climbed on back at the bank, grabbing his leg, trying to tug him off balance. Ron gave him a kick, sending him skidding backwards. He yelped, trying to stop himself from falling off the dragon. He had almost skidded off, when he grabbed at one of the dragon's back legs. He clung to it desperately, yelping as his wand slipped away from him was lost from sight.
"Who are you?" He moaned
Nobody answered him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were trying to enlarge the cavern, and Malfoy was gazing back at him, eyebrows raised. "Who are you?" He hissed, a bit louder. All around, rocks broke and tumbled. Hermione, still shooting spells, turned to watch him. "I know you are not Lucius Malfoy! He is back at Malfoy Manor!"
Draco leaned toward him as far as he could without losing his grip on the dragon. "What if I'm Draco?" He called, shaking as the dragon burst through a row of stalactites.
"You can't be him, either," the Death Eater barked. "The real Draco Malfoy is at Malfoy Manor, too!" He gave a short laugh between his heavy breaths. "I saw – "
At that moment, the dragon burst out of the stony corridors, into the marble hall at the front of the bank. Terrified goblins and wizard dived out of the way as the dragon pushed toward the grand silver doors. With a cry, Travers lost his grip around the dragon's leg and tumbled to the floor. Before Hermione could turn to check on him, to make sure he was alright, the dragon burst through the bank's doors, leaving them hanging on their hinges as it took to the skies, outside, free.
It rose above Diagon Alley, higher and higher. Hermione, sobbing in both terror and exhilaration, watched as Gringotts bank shrank away from view.
After a few minutes of watching the land beneath her shrink, crying, she shouted up to Malfoy, "What – what did Travers mean, b-by the real Draco Malfoy?" Glancing at him, she caught her breath. He had gone deathly pale, his eyes wide and dim. "W-what did he mean?" she repeated, slowly.
Draco shook his head slowly. "I... I don't know..." he said falteringly, "But it can't mean anything good..."
The dragon climbed higher yet, and soon London was lost from sight.
-o-o-o-
ThisBirdTooHasFlown speaking: There! They got into the bank, they got the Horcrux, and they got out of the bank... all without using an Unforgivable Curse! Not even once! Ha! (That always irritated me in the book. It's like the Unforgivable Curses are only unforgivable when bad guys use them. If Harry uses them, then... well, I digress.)
Wow, thank you all for the lovely reviews! They really make this writing feel a lot more gratifying.
Speaking of which, I have a proposition. In the next few chapters, (okay, maybe a bit more than a few,) I hope to reach 50 reviews. This is a bit of a landmark for me. In fact, the idea has made me so happy that I am willing to...
a) write a one shot
or b) draw a picture to post on DeviantArt
... based on a prompt that my 50th reviewer provides, should they so desire. (PG rated, please, and Harry Potter oriented.) So how about it?