Putting a hand to her forehead, Arachne exclaimed, "Das ist zu viel! Draco, this is too much all at once! First, you tell me that I must help our mother...then you tell me my father has left me something...where do we go first? To this Gringotts as you say, or to Narcissa?"
Draco gasped in surprise. "So does that mean you'll help me?"
Shaking her head at him, Arachne said, "Du bist seltsam. You ask me to help, and are surprised when I say yes?"
"It's not that..." Draco hedged. He didn't know what to say next, because he wished to avoid offending her at all costs. It wasn't a feeling to which Draco was accustomed. "It's just that if I were you, and I found out the woman who gave me up needed help, I'm not so certain I would give it to her."
"Du hast Recht, Draco. You are right, it is complicated, these things I am feeling right now. However, if I do not help, this Narcissa will surely die, and I will not have a woman's death on my conscience, whether or not she originally gave me up for adoption. As mentioned, I have lived a very good life–one she might not have been able to give me."
Draco considered the woman in front of him and answered, "You are a good person, Arachne. And I'm proud–very proud–to call you my sister."
"You must be a good man, Herr Malfoy, otherwise you would not have been trying so hard to save our mother."
"Shall we go to her first, then?"
"Of course, Draco. She obviously needs me more than some cold bank vault does. It has been waiting five years and can wait a little longer. Narcissa cannot."
"Off to England we go, then."
Within two hours, Draco, Arachne, Harry, and Hermione all walked quietly into Narcissa's room at Malfoy Manor. If possible, Narcissa looked even more pale and further gone than the last time Draco had seen her. He closed his eyes as if in supplication and ran a hand over his face. Was his mother already past the brink of revival?
Arachne held her Gringotts key to her chest, whispered something in German, and stepped up behind Draco and took his hand. He opened his eyes and turned to look at Arachne. "I suppose now is the time. Arachne, if you please."
The dark-haired woman still held Draco's hand as she dropped the key, reached into her pocket, and retrieved her wand.
She held her hand aloft Narcissa's bed and called out very clearly in German, "Brechen diese Beschwörungsformel nun!"
A shower of silver sparks emitted from the tip of her wand which matched the small dome of sparks that burst from around Narcissa's head. Everybody stood and waited with bated breath...but nothing else happened.
Draco hadn't known exactly what to expect once the Vow was broken...perhaps Narcissa would open her eyes, perhaps she would sit up, perhaps she would breathe a little easier. He hoped it would be any of those things, but instead there was nothing. After approximately five minutes, Draco hung his head in sorrow.
"We were too late. All of this...for nothing." His jaw twitched and his eyes shone with tears of anger and hurt.
"How can you say that, Draco?" asked Arachne. "I now have a brother I did not have three hours ago. You now have a nephew you didn't have three hours ago. It wasn't for nothing, mein Bruder. You will see. Come with me to Gringotts now. There we will find what Severus Snape has left me."
After Harry and Hermione promised to Summon them if Narcissa's condition changed at all, Arachne and Draco headed off to Diagon Alley.
Draco was very heavy-hearted and didn't hold out much hope for his mother. It was not in his nature to be optimistic, but Arachne tried her best to bolster his spirits regardless. It was a very kind gesture, from a woman who had barely met him five hours ago.
Once the pair of them had entered through The Leaky Cauldron, they went straight to Gringotts Bank. They walked up to a teller window, and Draco recognised the goblin who greeted them. It was Griphook.
"Hello, Mr. Malfoy," he said. His eyes bored holes through Draco's, and Draco knew that Griphook had remembered all too well about what had happened to him in Malfoy Manor's dungeon six years previously. Draco shivered as a chill went down his spine. Arachne looked at Draco with a question in her eyes, but Draco simply shook his head.
"Greetings, Griphook," Draco answered.
"How may I help you today, Mr. Malfoy?"
"You may help me by assisting this young lady." Draco brought Arachne in front of him.
"Key, please," said Griphook.
Arachne removed the key from her neck and gave it to Griphook. "Drawer 9160, Pangton" he said.
Another goblin came from behind him, took the key, and walked around the teller's desk to guide Arachne and Draco to the right place.
"Drawer, and not vault?" asked Draco. He was disappointed. Riding on the rickety old rails was something he quite enjoyed when he went to Gringotts.
"No, Mr. Malfoy,"said Pangton. "Were you unaware that not every account-holder here at Gringotts possesses a vault?"
"I suppose it never occurred to me, is all," Draco said.
"I see," answered Pangton. Arachne and Draco followed the little goblin quite a long way. The bank's foyer was extraordinarily large, but they walked to the end of it and beyond to get to the "drawers" of which Pangton had spoken.
"Gringotts usually closes out drawers and vaults after the last known living relative of a certain wizard's line has died. However, we were sent a note after Severus Snape died five years ago and told to mail a key to one Arachne Schwartz, who is his daughter. Are you her?" Pangton address Arachne. She nodded and stepped forward boldly.
"Gringotts nearly always requires a Goblin's palm to open the higher security vaults and drawers. But this one requires your own palm, Ms. Schwartz. Only then will we know you are who you say you are."
Arachne held out her palm to the indicated place on the large drawer. It lighted up for a time and went dark. Then Pangton took the key, placed it in the slot, and it turned and opened with a loud "click!"
The three of them peered inside the drawer. Arachne reached inside and pulled out a dusty letter with her name on it and an old book marked, "Advanced Potion-Making."
"This is it?" whispered Arachne.
"I don't think so," said Draco. "Look further back in the drawer."
Arachne gasped as she pulled out the drawer. Fifty stacks of ten gold coins each lay in the back of it. Five hundred gold Galleons. Snape had to have saved his entire life to get that much money, cosidering he'd worked as a school professor.
"He saved everything for you," said Draco, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Your father lived as a pauper his whole life, Arachne, when with this...he could have been a prince."
"Apparently, he was a prince," Arachne said, upon opening the cover of the old potions manual. "The Half-Blood Prince."