"If the Goblins ever find out I did this, I'd have so much more to worry about than losing my job..." Bill pointed out as he was in a conference call with several other people.
He, Remus, Dumbledore and Moody were on one projection, using Remus' phone, Hermione was on another and Harry sat alone at the desk in his dorm room, discussing their next move.
"And there'll be so much more to worry about if we don't do this, so get over it." Moody snapped.
"Children, children..." Harry spoke in a teasing tone before his tone returned to a more serious one. "We get it. There's a lot of risks involved in trying to rob a Gringotts vault. Especially one as heavily guarded as the Lestrange vault would be. We just need to get over that small problem before I can off Voldemort."
"Small problem, he says." Hermione rolled her eyes. "If that's a small problem to you, what would be a big one?"
"Voldemort taking over Britain and trying to move onto the rest of Earth. Taking this risk seems insignificant in comparison to letting that happen." Harry said.
They all made noises of agreement.
"Anyway, I've got a couple copies of the Gringotts layout. I've sent one to Hermione and if you can call Dobby to you when you're not at school and somewhere where you're alone, you'll get them as well, Harry. Fully detailed maps and such of the various entrances, exits and the level where the Lestrange vault is." Bill spoke up. "There's also several notes in there on the protection spells on the place, other types of protection and the types of weapons that the guards typically have that you'll get as well."
Harry whistled. "Bloody hell, Bill. You did well. How'd you get all of that without being caught?"
"If I can break into ancient pyramids older than Hogwarts and not get harmed by the curses and booby traps in them, I can easily make my way through the security department." Bill pointed out.
"Some security department that is if a single wizard can go in there and retrieve several copies of such highly classified information without authorisation and without getting caught." Moody muttered.
Harry couldn't help but agree with him.
"If it comes down to it, I'll go and do the break in myself." Harry vowed.
"As if I'd let you go do something like that on your own. You'd just get yourself killed and then where would the rest of us be?" Hermione scoffed."I'll be going with you. Someone has to provide some sort of calm, rational mind during the whole thing!"
"I guess that's settled then. Hermione and I are going to be robbing a bank sometime in the near future!" Harry exclaimed cheerfully.
"Do you really have to put it like that?" Hermione asked.
"That is what it is, Hermione. You'll have no choice but to rob the bank to get the thing. His people are everywhere and I'm fairly certain that the goblins are leaning towards his side right now..." Bill pointed out.
"Enough about that. It's settled! Potter and Granger are doing the infiltration mission. Case closed." Moody barked.
Harry and Hermione looked at one another.
"Great." Harry spoke after a few moments of silence. "Now that we've got that out of the way, I've got to get to classes. Can't afford to skip out on anything at this stage of the game..."
"Well then, get going! Education is important and if you learn something that helps keep you alive in the process..." Hermione practically dismissed him, just at the projection with Remus and co. disappeared, hers going just a few seconds afterwards.
Harry sat in a secluded area of the park, different to the area he normally spent time with Roxy in, waiting for Dobby to arrive with the documents he was supposed to bring.
He paced up and down and wrung his hands nervously as he waited for the House Elf to arrive.
"Calm down, Harry," he said to himself. "Dobby will get here just fine, he will bring all the documents you need..." he paused in his pacing. "to break into an already highly secured facility teeming with goblins that seem to sympathise with Voldemort and retrieve an item from the vault of the worst Death Eaters out there, whose vault is bound to have even more protections on it than the average one..."
He moaned in frustration.
"Why do I feel so nervous about this?" He asked himself aloud. "I've done even worse than this. Surrounded by Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the Little Hangleton graveyard, the Ministry incident, the mission to rescue Dana, Andrina and the others, among other incidents..."
"Perhaps because this means that it's all coming to an end. If this mission is successful, all that's left to do is to off Voldemort himself..." Harry chuckled wryly. "All that's left, indeed. I say it as if having to kill him would be a minor bother..."
He plopped himself down in the grass beneath a particularly large tree to continue his wait.
Dobby popped in a few minutes later, holding a large, sealed envelope.
"Master Harry! It is good to see you! Dobby be bringing the important papers, he is!" the eager House Elf handed over the envelope, his hand shaking with so much excitement at getting to see Harry again.
Harry had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at Dobby's excitement.
"Thank you Dobby. It's good to see you again. How are things going for you?"
"Dobby is doing fine, he is!" Dobby exclaimed. "Dobby is not knowing what exactly he is giving Master, but he knows it is safe since it comes from the Headmaster and he senses no bad magic coming from it..." he eyed the envelope briefly. "Plus Dobby is being told that spell is on it so only Master can open it..."
"Well, thanks again, Dobby." Harry smiled encouragingly at the Elf. "You do get a small allowance and the shops here in Magix are more open to other beings and such so why not treat yourself to something nice before you go back to Earth?"
Dobby's eyes practically lit up at the very idea.
"You is a very good Master! So kind to Dobby you are! Dobby will go now!"
Dobby disappeared with a loud crack.
With the House Elf now gone, Harry glanced down at the envelope in his hand.
Running his finger lightly across the seal, the envelope slowly opened up and when he peeked inside, he saw several sheets of parchment inside it, some coloured differently than others.
He slid them out and began reading the first one which turned out to be a letter from Bill, giving an overview of the contents.
His eyes widened as he took in the information laid out in the letter.
"Bloody hell, this is a lot, and this is just the summary..." he murmured as he took it all in.
He resealed the letter, tucked it inside his jacket and zipped it up.
Standing up and stretching, he left the park, contemplating the actions he was about to take.
"Are you okay?" Roxy asked him over the projector phone. "We haven't really talked in about two weeks what with all the work piling up on both of us. You with all your assignments, both written and practical, me and my stuff..."
"Fine, fine. I guess the school work is just getting to us both at this point..." Harry shrugged it off, though he was well aware that Roxy's guess wasn't it.
"I mean, in my year, it's like the Enchantix race is on. Athena and Anahita already have theirs and they like to rub it in to the rest of us that they were the first of my dorm mates to get it. Krystal got hers last week when she got permission to leave school for some important Linphean event and ended up saving her mom from some crazy carnivorous plant and..." Roxy trailed off when she noticed that Harry wasn't really listening to her.
"Are you okay?" she repeated her earlier question. "You seem really distracted and you're not usually like this..."
"I'm fine. Just fine. Just thinking of things I have to do soon." Harry said.
Roxy raised an eyebrow. "Not even exams have you like this. What's going on? Is it related to Voldemort?"
"Something like that," Harry murmured. "That's all I can say for now. There are some things even I can't tell you."
Roxy regarded him suspiciously and if he didn't know for a fact that she hadn't inherited her mother's talents for mind magic, he'd swear that she was trying to read his mind, even through the phone.
"You're planning something," she spoke after a while. "you're planning something big and I don't like it."
"You don't have to like it," Harry said. "I'm not about to drag you into this particular scheme. I can't ask you or your realm to fight my fight for me. You've done enough as it is and I can't thank you and your family enough for that."
His girlfriend scowled. "You don't have to ask me. I want to fight with you! I don't like the idea of you going out there to fight Voldemort alone!"
"First off, I like the idea of you fighting Voldemort even less." Harry's tone was terse. "Second, I've faced him several times before I even met you or knew that your kind of magic exited. Third, who says that I'm going to be alone? I'm going to be fighting him alongside people who know about him and the kind of magic he can use even more than you do."
"But-" Roxy started, but Harry cut her off.
"Once again, I'm grateful for the help that you and your people have given me. Really, I am. But are you really ready for something like this? Remember that mission where we captured the Carrow twins? They almost killed you and they were just Death Eaters. What if it was Voldemort himself? Then you'd be dead for sure!" Harry exclaimed. "I do not want your death on my hands!"
"But if I died, my death wouldn't be on your hands!" Roxy appeared to be getting more and more frustrated as she spoke. "It's not as if you would have been the one to cast the spell to kill me!"
"That wouldn't even be a guarantee!" Harry rubbed his temples, bidding the budding headache he felt to stop. "You could be caught in the crossfire!"
"The Winx-"
"The Winx are who they are. A bunch of talented, powerful fairies yes, but they got pretty damn lucky a lot of the time. They weren't even trained to fight the kind of war I'm fighting." Harry pointed out. "Their fights escalated out of a bunch of schoolyard brawls basically. Mine started with Voldemort murdering my family and trying to kill me. Where do you even go from that sort of thing?"
"I don't like this at all. I really don't." Roxy scowled.
"Do you think that I do?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Your part in this is basically done now. Your people are safe from him in Tir Nan Og. You rescued your subject from his clutches. You did a lot of damage to him in the process. What else do you need to do? It's not your realm's war!"
"I just don't want to see you hurt!"
"I don't want to see me hurt either, but I know that it can happen. What I don't want is for you to be hurt and then I start blaming myself for it. I've blamed myself for enough deaths already. I blamed myself when Cedric died, I blamed myself when Sirius died, when Ron died... I've even had thoughts of the fact that if I were never born, Voldemort wouldn't have gone after them with such a vengeance and they could be alive to this day..."
Roxy sighed. "I understand. I don't like it at all, but I understand. Do what you have to. I'll give you all the space you need. I have my own things to do anyway."
"When you say 'give me space'..." Harry trailed off.
"It means just that, Harry. Giving you the space you need," Roxy answered. "I'm not going to distract you from whatever it is you're doing now. I'm not going to bug you about it. I know you'll never tell me anyway and there are better things for me to be doing. I just hope that when all is said and done, that you're still alive and well. And if there's anything I can do to help at all..."
Harry smiled weakly. "Not in this case, Roxy. Not in this case."
"Fine," Roxy nodded. "whatever works for you."
With that, she ended the call.
Hedwig flew into the room at that moment and landed on her perch, hooting at him as she did.
"Hey girl. You just missed the fun," Harry sighed. "Roxy says she's fine with what I've got to do now, but I know that she isn't. Who does she think she's kidding?"
"Sounds a bit like you sometimes," Hedwig spoke up. "Stubborn and getting into things that aren't good for her..."
Harry eyed the bird over the top of his glasses. "Great, thanks for that, Hedwig..."
"No problem!" Hedwig took the owl treat Harry offered and began to much it, completely content.
The young wizard flopped back into his bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating the road ahead.