On a tropical beach somewhere on Andros, Roxy, Rainer, Athena, Anahita and Krystal lay stretched out on beach chairs, looking fabulous in very fashionable swimsuits and drawing the attention of males and females alike as they relaxed.
Or rather, as most of them relaxed.
Roxy had long since taken off her sun hat and was now fiddling with it nervously.
"Roxy, I didn't invite you to Andros to worry yourself sick about your boyfriend. I invited you here for us girls to relax- and you're not relaxing!" Rainer, who was lounging next to her sat up straight, nearly tossing aside her magazine and looking at her friend in annoyance, over the top of her gold-rimmed shades.
"How can I relax when said boyfriend is likely to be off doing something really dangerous right now?!" Roxy exclaimed.
"For real, Roxy. You've wound yourself up so tight over the past few weeks, you look like you're about to burst. You need to relax!" Athena, who was on Roxy's other side, spoke up.
"It's true. You've gotten kind of clingy to Harry for the past few weeks. No wonder he's been avoiding you and your calls..." Krystal, on Rainer's other side spoke up.
"Ouch." Anahita winced in sympathy. "But Krystal and the others are right. I hope you realise that. You know who he is and what he's got going on. Surely you realised that you couldn't be at his side for everything related to that Voldemort creature, right?"
Roxy sunk down into her chair, sulking.
"I know..." she muttered quietly. "I just hope that if he's really up to something right now, that he's safe..."
Harry, as he walked closely behind Bellatrix-Hermione on Diagon Alley, dearly wished he could be someplace else.
In his last few visits, the Alley had indeed become a more tense, sombre place but now, with Voldemort in full control of Magical Britain, it seemed even more depressing than ever before.
Wanted posters of various Order members were plastered across the front of several boarded up shops; his own face on posters even bigger than the others and carrying the highest reward for information leading to his capture.
Several shops dedicated entirely to the Dark Arts had sprung up, selling items that would gotten the sellers and buyers instant tickets to Azkaban if things were normal.
Even the sky seemed to have taken on the current mood in Magical Britain the clouds a dark grey and looking as if they'd erupt with rain at any moment.
People dressed in rags, with various incorrectly healed injuries that left some of them looking deformed and others with bloodied bandages, huddled themselves in doorways and the few stragglers in the street moved as fast as they could to get out of the apparent Death Eater's path.
Without incident, they made it to the front steps of Gringotts and when Bellatrix-Hermione looked around, as if trying to see if Harry was still near her, he tapped her on the shoulder and whispered: "I'm here."
To her credit, she did not give a highly noticeable start.
The Goblin guards, who usually flanked the entrance, were replaced by two wizards, holding long, thin, golden rods.
Bill had warned them about that.
Harry knew that he couldn't allow either Hermione or himself to be scanned by those things, so a quick repeated Confundo took care of the guards, allowing them to enter the bank with their deception undetected.
The cart made its twists and turns deep into the depths of Gringotts, far deeper than he or Hermione had ever been, guided by the goblin they called Bogrod.
Harry sat nervously behind Hermione, his wand in hand, ready for anything.
The cart approached a waterfall and Harry's grip tensed around his wand.
The Thief's Downfall.
Bill had told them about it; that it was a potential obstacle they could encounter; that it would cancel any enchantments on a person or object... it would work on him and Hermione. If she'd taken Polyjuice Potion instead of the Shapeshifter Potion it would have completely obliterated her disguise...
Harry whispered into Hermione's ear: "Be ready."
Hermione nodded.
The cart went through the water and lurched violently as Harry and Hermione barely managed to put up shield charms to protect them from the watery onslaught.
The cart sped up and derailed; going straight off the tracks and as they plummeted to the ground, they would have been killed for certain if Harry hadn't cast a Levitation Charm on them all...
Harry's heart beat rapidly in his chest, as did Hermione's judging by the look on her (actual) face.
Bogrod looked around wildly. "What? What's going o-"
"Imperio!"
Harry quickly called out the Imperius Curse for the first time in his life the feeling of the spell spreading through his wand hand feeling as if said hand was the puppet strings and Bogrod was the puppet.
After collecting themselves, they made their way around various twists and turns on foot until they found Bellatrix's vault and entered it.
Inside was much bigger and more occupied with treasures and money than his own many items of which looked like items he would never wish to own.
He glanced across the vault at Hermione, who was randomly drifting between Bellatrix's form and her own thanks to the combination of the watery assault they'd just been through and the effect of the Shapeshifter Potion still in her system and judging by the look on her face, she felt similarly to him.
"We need to get the goblet out of here quickly. They suspect." Harry said, removing his Invisibility Cloak and stowing it away.
Hermione levelled him a glare that would have made lesser people (magical or Muggle) cower in fear.
"You... don't... say..." Hermione flicked a patch of wet hair out of her face as she went further into the vault.
For a brief moment, Harry wondered what Ron would have had to say if he was present.
He put the thought out of his mind quickly. There was something much more important at the moment to deal with...
He lit his wand and shone it around the vault, taking in some of the treasures on higher shelves his wand raising higher and higher, until...
"Look! It's over there!"
Hermione whipped around to see Harry pointing at Hufflepuff's cup sitting innocently atop the highest shelf.
"We can't use magic to Summon it to us, but we could use magic to get to it..." Hermione mused aloud.
"Right. Levitate me up, Hermione. We need..." Harry paused as he heard the sound of a ruckus outside; likely a horde of goblins approaching the vault to protect it.
Hermione wordlessly levitated him towards the goblet, but as he went up, Hermione's arm became unsteady and he crashed into a suit of armour, causing several copies of it to spring into being; stating to fill the vault, which seemed to feel smaller and smaller by the minute-
Harry screeched out in pain as one suit hit him in the chest and judging by Hermione's scream, she'd also been hit.
The suits of armour were white hot and if they affected him like this, even while he was wearing such protective gear, he hated to think of what would have happened to him if he wasn't wearing it...
Unsheathing one of his swords, he reached for a handle of the goblet barely hooking it as Hermione's levitation spell seemingly cancelled itself, resulting in both him and the goblet crashing into the ground hitting a pile of silver plates which multiplied themselves, adding to the amount of blistering hot treasure which was now threatening to either crush them or burn them alive.
Scrambling across the rising tide of cursed treasure and ignoring Hermione's screams of pain, he reached for the goblet and held onto it for dear life ignoring the heat threatening to fight its way through the thick gloves he was wearing.
"I've got it, Hermione!" Harry raised the goblet aloft. "I've got it, we can go-"
The sounds outside the vault grew even louder and the door suddenly swung open, revealing a battalion of very angry looking goblins, holding weapons that looked as if they would appeal to only the most brutal of sadists.
Hermione was already in action; firing off several defensive spells as the goblins launched their attacks.
Harry tossed the goblet into a bag he carried specifically for that purpose and joined Hermione in the fight.
Several jets of various coloured light flew into the swarm of goblins, causing various effects as he and Hermione fought to create a path out.
"We'll never beat all of them like this!" Hermione screeched as she Stunned one goblin, only for another three to start attacking her in his place.
They ran around a corner, only to see more guards, both human and goblin advancing on them...
"We need to go up!" Harry shouted.
Without another word, he created an energy sphere around the two of them, that immediately lifted off the ground.
Harry kept his wand focused on maintaining it.
"Hermione if you help me, this thing will get us out of here faster!" Harry called out, winging as a dagger thrown by one of the goblins hit the shield and plummeted back to the ground, narrowly missing the eye of the very same goblin who had thrown it.
Hermione nodded, touching her wand to her side of the sphere and focusing her power into it.
The bubble gained an instant burst of speed shooting past several levels, almost in a blur as it made its way to the top, crashing through the ceiling; into the main floor of the bank-
Where the real Bellatrix Lestrange was standing, looking at her doppelganger with a look of complete and utter rage.
"YOU!" she shrieked, barely pausing as she cast a Killing Curse at them. "How dare you break into my vault-"
"She's supposed to be out of Britain! That's why we chose today! What-" Hermione wondered aloud.
"We can wonder about that after we get out of here alive!" Harry called out as he swung his sword, deflecting another spell from her, although the moment it connected he felt as if he felt every bone and tooth in his body rattling from the impact.
He made a small hole in the dome and tossed out a few Spell Spheres, causing random effects amongst the goblin guards who had now re-emerged on the main floor, now completely devoid of customers, who had sensibly begun exiting when they saw Bellatrix entering.
"We need to get out of the door! We can't dispatch the Horcrux if we're killed here!" Hermione exclaimed.
The two of them screamed as the energy dome suddenly broke apart, just as they reached the doors, which had been sealed shut.
"Harry, cover me!" Hermione turned to the doors.
Harry turned back to the rapidly approaching Death Eater.
"You think you can fight me Potter? You dare invade my vault and think you can escape from here alive?" Bellatrix shrieked as she fired curse after curse at him rapidly.
"I don't have to fight you. I just have to get out of here." Harry shot a spell that created a metre long ruby which would have impale Bellatrix through the chest, had she not stepped aside at the last second.
At that moment a spell from Hermione caused the door to explode, sending several clumps of brick and metal soaring through the air.
Harry skidded a bit towards Bellatrix from the force of the explosion, but that effect was countered by the fact that she too, was pushed away by the explosion's force.
"Let's go!" Hermione screamed.
Harry wasted no time running behind her as fast as his legs would carry him.
They sprinted out into Diagon Alley to the general astonishment of people there, who soon began running for cover as the fight spilled out into the street.
Harry grabbed Hermione firmly around the waist as he shot off another spell at the pursuant Death Eater hot on their heels and Apparated away.
As they left, Bellatrix pulled a silver dagger from her sleeve, flinging it with all her might and were it not for the giant wall of ice that sprung up in its path out of seemingly nowhere, it likely would have caught one of them.
Two cloaked figures watched from the shadows of a gap between two shops nearby, smirking to themselves as they took in the unfolding chaos and disarray filling the Alley as Bellatrix shrieked in rage and begun flinging Killing Curses at random people who had been unlucky enough not to escape the initial flurry.
The two figures chuckled and high-fived before disappearing.
Their work there was done for the day.