Instinctively, Draco grabbed Hermione's hand, and brought her closer. 'This can't be happening...' he thought wildly. 'Not again...'
"I don't need your assistance, Cepheus!" Hermione said, a sharp, ringing tone to her usually composed voice. She slapped his hand away, and walked up to Bellatrix, an arrogant expression on Narcissa's face. Draco followed behind her, his mind racing. 'What the hell is she doing?'
Bellatrix turned around, refusing to meet her 'sister's' eye's for some reason. "Dear sister, what, pray tell, is your business here?" Hermione said, her voice wavering a bit.
"Attending to my vault of course..." Bellatrix replied, a bit of a rough edge to her voice. "I'm suffering from a cold, er, Cissy, I suppose you are intending to enter your vault as well?"
Draco raised a black, bushy eyebrow. "We're actually just going on our-"
Hermione interrupted. "What... happened to that goblin?" she demanded, a look of unusual curiosity gracing Narcissa's haughty features.
He looked in the direction of her accusing finger—for good reason. Said goblin had a preoccupied, daft look on his face. "Yes...missus, I suppose identification may pass my sharp gaze once this time! Shall we go?"
"What's going on?" Draco called out, watching Bellatrix suspiciously walk from the bank's front room, the goblin tottering drunkenly behind her. Hermione stepped on his foot harshly, the sharp edge of her high heel digging painfully into his shoe. He could catch bits of what she mumbled under her breath next—something about "provoke" and "almost there".
Bellatrix turned slowly, fumbling with something on her skirts. "Nothing concerning you!" she shouted violently; a few other goblins turned from their desks to watch. "Now we'll be going then..." she said in a quieter tone, pushing the loony goblin to a cart before them.
Hermione looked around quickly, studying the uncompromising-looking goblins behind her. "Why don't we...why don't we join you? Bella?" she asked, earning her a sharp pinch on the arm from Draco. She pushed his hand away softly, as if to say, 'Just trust me; let's go.' Her 'sister' stared at the two for a moment, and then nodded her head imperceptibly, beckoning them to the cart, and shutting the huge iron doors separating the levels of vaults from the main hall of goblins.
They all stepped in, trying to avoid the crack in the bottom of the wooden cart, and shielding their eyes from the huge light at its rear. Hermione grabbed Draco's arm instinctively, as it lurched forward, launching them into darkness. An odd look crossed his face, and she blushed, refusing to meet his eyes, and then looking toward Bellatrix, hoping she hadn't seen the affectionate exchange. Fortunately, she was instead peering out at something in the distance, a wall of some sorts—made up of a silvery blue, rippling fabric. "What is that?" she said, her eyes growing wide.
Draco looked incredulously at her, absentmindedly beginning to stroke his silky, black beard. 'Hasn't she been here before?' he thought to himself. 'Perhaps the regulations have changed...'
Suddenly, the blue drapery, became almost transparent as the cart's light hit it, and the cart itself dashed towards it even faster; as if it were possible—faster into the unknown. And then he felt water rushing down his back, and his beard began to shrink into nothing; his eyebrows losing its density as the water flowed. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut, as he turned towards Hermione, whose small frame seemed to drown in his mother's already overlarge brocade coat.
Hermione, however was staring intently at Bellatrix, who had hidden as far as she could under the cart's splintery seats; her ghastly black dress flying out behind her as the cart continued to speed forward. She had her grip set on Narcissa's wand, and he could feel her breathing heavily beside him. "B-Bella...Bellatrix?" she stammered, pulling out the wand as Bellatrix shifted from under the seat.
"Almost there, almost there!" the goblin, who they'd all forgotten, said cheerfully.
"Cissy..." the shapeless form of Bellatrix said. "I think I'm...I think I'm sick..."
Draco barked with laughter. "Sick? Since when has she hidden under a seat because she's been sick?" he spat. "This is an imposter." He snatched the wand from a protesting Hermione, and jabbed Bellatrix roughly in her back, earning him a resounding shout of "Bloody hell!"
"RON?!" Hermione nearly fell out of the cart, if not for Draco's steady hold on her.
"Blimey..." he said, holding on to the cart to lift himself up from under the seat. "Is that you, Hermione?" He noticed Draco sitting next to her. "What are you doing here, you little-"
"I'll explain in a moment!" Hermione interjected. "But why are you here?" she asked, at the same moment the cart stopped abruptly, launching them all out, before it zoomed onwards.
"Stupid...cart...I swear..." Draco muttered.
"Gonna tell your father about this, Malfoy?" another voice said.
"HARRY!" Hermione shouted, lunging at the space next to Ron, who had begun to pick at Bellatrix's black dress self-consciously.
"Over here." He replied sarcastically, to which Hermione ripped off his Invisibility Cloak, and Harry and another goblin came tumbling out, the former beaming ecstatically, and embracing her joyously. "We thought you had-"
"Okay, SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE HELL-" Draco started.
"Bloody hell..." Ron said, receiving a glare from his confused counterpart.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" he yelled, his voice reverberating loudly.
"Now, now, no need to worry!" the goblin said, apparently still as scatterbrained as before. He passed some sort of silver bell to Hermione. "Just ring this before you enter the next chamber!" he warned, waggling his bushy eyebrows up and down oddly.
"What's in the next chamber?" Hermione asked politely, leaning down to address him.
"The dragon." A voice supplied. They all turned around at once, to see the goblin who'd been underneath the Invisibility Cloak with Harry earlier. "This is Griphook, by the way." Ron whispered pointlessly to Hermione.
"Dragon?" Harry insisted. "You didn't tell us about a dragon!" He thought back to his fourth year, facing the rancorous Hungarian Horntail; and grimaced.
"Merlin's arse, I must going effing barmy..." Draco mumbled behind him, running a hand through his hair. 'How the hell are we supposed to go in there with a dragon?' the thought ran fearfully through his, and everyone else's mind.
For, out of the plethora of excitement, a heavy responsibility still lingered over the heads of them all.
Author's Note- So right now, you might be thinking "OMG what just happened..." Understandable. Not gonna lie, I thought that too after proof-reading this...But anyways! Like always please do leave your opinion (good or bad) in the review...section? box? I don't know...Oh, and also, particularly speaking to Isabella India, my Pinterest is purplepeacepen3. :)