After the door shut itself nice and tight, the vault was very, very dark. The only source of light was Tony himself and Thor's hammer. Not an ideal Horcux-seeking situation, in other words.
"Hey, wizards. Mind giving us a little light in here?"
There were three murmured spells, and their wandtips ignited, spreading three narrow beams of light across the cavernous room. The beams illuminated countless gold coins, a cage containing some long-dead creature, and a crown perched atop a skull.
Then a scoff could be heard. "You followed his instructions perfectly," Loki said. "A little light, indeed."
There was a crack, as though he'd slammed his scepter down on the ground – then an orb of eerie green light gathered itself and hovered in the middle of the room, casting its pallid light over everyone. It didn't make anything look pretty, but at least they could see.
Tony raised his arm, which was now a rather unpleasant looking puce color. "It clashes, but it'll do." He turned back to the wizards, who were all looking in different directions.
"Now then. What exactly are we looking for?"
"Well… we're not quite sure," Hermione said hesitantly.
Everyone stared. "That's helpful," Tony noted when no one spoke.
"We don't know exactly what it is, but it might have something to do with Hogwarts."
"What, we have to find a warty pig in here?"
Harry didn't even bother to reply to that. "Anything linked with Hogwarts might be it – anything to do with the four houses. So if you see anything with an eagle, badger, lion, or serpent, point it out."
"I-spy – Horcrux edition," Tony muttered to himself as he used JARVIS to scan for anything related to the animals Harry mentioned. It wouldn't be so hard – except Bellatrix clearly had a hoarding problem. Gold was all very well, but skulls wearing crowns? Tony couldn't imagine a situation where a need for that would arise. 30+ swords lying about the place seemed a bit like overkill, too.
"Harry, what about –" The words broke off in a cry as Steve dropped the chalice he was holding. Immediately the innocent-looking cup split, quickly multiplying into dozens of cloned, white-hot cups.
"They have added gemino and flagrante curses!" Griphook yelled. "Anything you touch will burn and multiply!"
"You couldn't have told us that after we started picking up stuff?" Tony grumbled.
So now everyone had to be extra careful, to avoid treading on or bumping into any of the expensive junk piled about the place. The more they looked, the less likely it seemed that they would ever find it.
Harry thought he found it at one point – extracting a long ruby-hilted sword from Hermione's abyss-bag, he carefully touched it to the surface of a golden cup – no explosion of cloned cups. So that was a loophole on picking things up, but on closer inspection the thing wasn't a horcrux anyway. How Harry knew, Tony couldn't even begin to fathom, but if it worked, it worked. That was all that really mattered at this point.
After more searching and a few more treasure explosions, Natasha pointed out what appeared to be a badger upon a golden cup, tucked against one of the highest shelves in the vault. Harry was already facing that direction anyway – the expression on his face clearly said they'd struck gold.
"Okay, Hermione, pass me the sword," Harry began to say, "And levitate me—""
"That won't be necessary," Tony said dryly. Reaching over, he picked up a golden plate at random. In his metal-covered gauntlet, the plate did not multiply.
He could pick up the metal without burying everyone in burning copies – and he could also fly. Waving away Hermione's offer for levitation, Tony smoothly fired up his repulsors, glided to the rafters, and plucked the golden cup from its hiding place. He tried not to think about what was lurking beneath the golden exterior as he landed. Hermione offered her bag, and Tony dropped it in – it landed with a resounding, satisfying clunk. The horcrux was theirs.
Tony waited for a moment, to see if he'd activated any Indiana-Jones style booby traps, but nothing happened. After awhile, Clint shrugged.
"Well, that was easy," He said.
"I'd tell you to knock on wood right now if I wasn't worried about setting everything on fire," Bruce said, looking at the miniscule piece of wood table showing underneath the multitudes of expensive shiny objects.
There was suddenly a cry and a thud, as Tony saw something go flailing through the air. Immediately he looked to Thor – the god was looking guilty.
"He startled me," He said sheepishly.
The goblin Griphook had apparently been scuttling around the piles of treasure for some reason – the noise had startled the thunder god, who had kicked out and sent the goblin flying into the door. Tony quickly made a mental note not to startle Thor in the future.
The little goblin sat up blearily – it was only then that he realized he had the sword of Gryffindor clutched in his long-fingered hand. Tony knew there was a replica lying around the vault here someplace, but…
Before his suspicions could resolve themselves, Griphook grabbed the old goblin's hand and pressed it against the vault door.
Everyone turned to see Griphook run from them, the sword held high over his head, yelling 'thieves, thieves!" Alone, he would have been easily taken out, but he was soon absorbed into a large group of goblins, all holding lethal-looking weapons and advancing on the vault.
But still, they were just goblins. With no magic to their name, they wouldn't have posed much of a threat alone. No, it was the black-cloaked wizards approaching behind the goblins that worried Tony, as well as a panicky dragon who was still belching flame.
"MOVE!" Someone shouted, probably Clint – everyone rushed out of the vault, with Harry grabbing the old goblin as they left. The vault sealed shut as soon as they left.
Once they were out in the open, the wizards immediately began spraying beams of light in their direction. Most looked to be red and gold, but there were a few green lasers mixed in there. Great.
Here we go again, Tony thought to himself. This was just like the manor all over again. Except this time they were miles underground, surrounded by goblins, wizards, and a very pissed-off dragon.
So maybe it wasn't so much like the mansion. And, all things considered – Tony preferred the manor. At least worst case scenario there he could have used some high explosives to bring the place down and aid their escape – here, high explosives could easily mean the end of everyone in the cavern. He didn't mind ending the death eaters, but he had a feeling the Avengers wouldn't be happy with their part of the deal.
Luckily for the Avengers, the goblins liked their architecture – there was room enough for all as they ducked behind one of the large curved pillars ringing the place. Tony could hear spells cracking off the stone.
Thor was looking murderous. "I will take care of the goblins," He said in a growl, and before anyone could suggest otherwise he leapt forward from their hiding place. Yelling incoherently, he brought the hammer down onto the ground with all his considerable force – the shockwave that emanated from the blow knocked the entire horde of goblins off their feet – the dragon's head swung round seconds later and engulfed many of them in flame.
Thor stood for a moment, admiring his handiwork – then Tony swooped down and dragged him back behind the barrier, just as a green laser shot through the space Thor had previously occupied. "You want to stand and enjoy the show? Fine. Just do it from under cover."
Now things were going to get tricky. The wizards were advancing, the dragon was on a rampage, the goblins were quickly regaining their feet… and the Avengers were still hiding behind a pillar. How heroic. Tony fired up his repulsors, intending on drawing fire so hopefully at least a few of them could escape back up the tunnel, but before he could, Loki jumped directly into the line of fire.
He could hear shouts and exclamations of surprise as he wizards tried to hit their new quarry – but with speed and dexterity that hardly seemed possible, the god of mischief managed to evade every blow, darting just out of reach of every beam of light.
But then Loki's luck ran out – a green laser arched forward, aimed directly for the middle of his golden helmet… when suddenly Loki wavered and disappeared, only to reappear seconds later, a few feet away.
And then Tony realized Loki was still crouched behind the pillar. So the god currently doing acrobatics avoiding spells was actually an illusion. Huh. That was actually pretty helpful.
For a moment it seemed like the ruse would work – everyone crept sideways, towards the tunnel and a possible exit – when suddenly the dragon was barring their way.
Tony didn't know whether the dragon could actually see what it was doing, but it didn't much matter. Everyone scattered, and not a second too soon – the dragon reared and engulfed the entire pillar in flame. The illusion of Loki's winked out the moment his concentration broke, and the Avengers were out in the open and scattered, easy targets for the wizards and their killing spells.
Easy to aim at, maybe, but the Avengers weren't going down without a fight. Melee time – but this time, everyone was a little more prepared. Tony immediately took to the air. Two spells bounced harmlessly off him as he picked off four wizards who didn't have the foresight to look up. Two more quickly fell to his beams, then he was forced to land by a particularly nasty death eater firing green lasers at him. Tony's concern didn't last long, though – while firing potshots at Tony, Natasha crept up from behind and dispatched him quickly with her dagger. She spared him a nod before darting back into the fray.
Tony went back to his target practice, when a sudden warning sprang up on his sensor – a green laser had come from nowhere. But before he could even thinking about deflecting it, a golden scepter batted it away.
"Do you enjoy flirting with death, Stark?" Loki taunted, speaking as calmly as though they were both alone in the workshop.
Something flickered in the corner of Tony's eye. He didn't think, just reacted – and deflected a bolt away from Loki's unprotected back.
Tony smirked. "Do you?"
Loki didn't answer. "I'll take that as a yes," Tony said smugly as he turned his attention back to the battle.
Against this group of wizards, the Avengers were holding their own – but there was a great clanging and bashing coming from one of the tunnels, sounding very much like reinforcements were on the way. And then, magic or no, they' be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They had to do something, and fast.
"I have an idea, but it's mad," Hermione said, her voice sounding tinny through the earpiece.
Tony cast around, but couldn't find the bushy-haired witch.
"Mad is good," Loki said, surprising everyone by answering. "What is your plan?"
Hermione answered by running from her hiding place… and jumping onto the dragon's back.
Tony stared. "That's your plan?" He looked at Loki. "What was that you said, about mad being good?"
"It usually is," Loki said, looking equally disbelieving.
The dragon continued to thrash and tear at its bindings, spreading its wings and spitting flame – hardly a comfortable mode of transportation, in other words. But where Hermione was, square on the dragon's back… unless it flipped over somehow, it was actually pretty safe. She'd just be in for some bronco riding until then.
With reinforcements coming up their only escape route, everyone quickly loaded up onto the flying fire-breather. The defending wizards attempted to keep them away, but the dragon decided it would be a good time to breathe fire, effectively keeping the Death Eaters at bay and allowing the rest to load up in the back.
"Get on, Tony!" Hermione screeched.
"Hell no. I can fly," Tony reminded her. The dragon may be inadvertently helping and all, but it was still an effing dragon. Besides, he could fly just fine without it. Aiming carefully, Tony split the shackles and aimed a light bolt at the dragon's heels. It reared wildly at the noise – as it did so, it clearly noticed it was free. With a roar that made Tony want to cover his ears, the dragon turned, sniffing eagerly, and darted up the main tunnel, head pointed upwards, clearly keen on escape. Tony sped to catch up with it.
The reinforcements caused some issues, though, as they met halfway in the tunnel. They didn't stop to chat, but several bolts of light arched to meet them as they sped past. The spells did nothing to the dragon, , bouncing harmlessly off the scales on its belly, but Tony was hit by several from the back. The runes on his chest were dangerously weak, whereas the ones on his back had given up completely. Still, they were nearly out. And he'd survived without magical protection before – it wasn't like he couldn't do it… but the insurance was certainly nice to have.
Soon they neared the end of the tunnel… and it became very clear they had a problem. The dragon wasn't going to fit through the small tunnel leading to the surface.
The dragon, however, didn't care and immediately began gouging huge chunks out of the rock in a desperate bid for freedom. He heard the wizards adding their spells to help, but they could have been attacking the rock with spoons for all the good it did. Sighing beneath his mask,Tony darted into the tunnel to help enlarge it, his repulsor blasts making much more headway than their tiny spells. So much headway, in fact… he blasted a hole through the lobby's marble floor.
Tony floated casually up through the hole, startling all the banking goblins going about their business.
"Hey there," Tony said nonchalantly to the goblins. "How're you all doing?"
There was dead silence for a moment, then a few of the goblins started screaming. "Just trying to be polite," Tony muttered as the screaming intensified.
Then the screaming increased tenfold as the dragon forced its head through the hole and pulled itself into the lobby. With everyone still hanging precariously on, the dragon spread its wings and laboriously threw itself through the glass roof and into the sky, with Tony in close pursuit. "Bill me!" Tony called back to the screaming goblins as the demolished bank disappeared behind them.
Whew! Hope you guys enjoyed that!
Also hope I didn't miss anything; if you noticed anything, just PM or review! :3
Also, as always, thanks TONS to all those still reading this story! You are all so incredibly awesome! 3
