Disclaimer: the characters and the world belong to J.K Rowling.

A/N: A shorter chapter, because I didn't want to include it in the next one, or the previous one.

Chapter 45: Going Gringotts

-Harry-

I had been called to the headmaster's office again, for the second evening in a row.

"Hello Harry," he said quietly as I entered the door. "Please have a seat."

I sat down, frowning. "There are a couple of things we need to go over, regarding Sirius' will."

"Okay," I said. "Didn't we cover most of it before the funeral? I got Kreacher, Grimmauld place and the money –everything basically."

"You did," Dumbledore said. "But there is the question of what you want to do with the estate. As it is now, you're paying a lot of fees to Gringotts for them to keep your account open, despite the fact that you don't need the account."

"You're proposing that I move everything to my own vault, so that I only have to pay for one?"

"Yes, that would be most wise," Dumbledore said.

"I'll make sure to get it done," I said. "Was there anything else?"

Dumbledore hummed thoughtfully. "I was thinking about inviting someone I know here to the castle, one who might be able to help us with finding the horcruxes. Do you think that's alright?"

I shrugged. "We don't even know how many there are yet," I said. "If we're lucky, we've destroyed all of them already."

Dumbledore smiled. "It's a shame you didn't manage to win the Felix Felicis potion in professor Slughorn's competition then."

I scoffed. "As if that would make a difference. I still don't understand how Davis won–"

"Headmaster!" one of the portraits suddenly screamed. The man in the portraits had eyes wide open in horror, his brown hair in disarray.

Dumbledore snapped around. "What is it, Robbard?" His voice held a sharp edge I'd never heard before.

The man in the portrait breathed heavily, as if he had just ran a marathon. "Break in." The man was shaking visibly. "Break in at Gringotts. Now." He whispered the last part.

Dumbledore dashed to his feet, immediately going over to one of his desks and started to do something with one of his instruments. He sent a glance at me. "Do you want to come?"

I was almost too stunned to speak for a moment. "I…Yes! I can help."

The headmaster nodded. "I know you can, I may not like it, but you are one of the best we have." He removed a card from his robes, pointed his wand at it. "I'm sending a message to the order," he explained to me.

Fawkes flamed into the office with a flash.

"Just one thing before we leave." Dumbledore gave me a grim look. "You need to listen to what I say. You are the one who needs to survive. Prioritise yourself."

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

If he was valuing me so much, why would he invite me to come along?

He held his arm out, I took a firm hold of it. Fawkes flew at us and with a flame, we disappeared.

-()-

-Gustav-

"Mother, can I have an ice cream?"

"No, Gustav you can't, all of your teeth will fall out if you eat more sugar."

Her hand in mine, she walked towards the bank. I pouted but followed after, waddling along. "Please mother, I'm six, Emil was allowed to eat how many ice creams he wanted when he was six."

"Did he tell you that?" my mother asked. "Uhh, then he wasn't telling the truth, dear. Now, we must hurry, dad is cooking your favourite lasagne for us. We need to get home before it's cold and Emil has eaten all of it."

All of a sudden, I found a little more speed in my steps.

The mother went up to the tall table and spoke to the weird goblin. Most of what they said was just adult mumbo-jumbo about weird things like taxes and debt.

Bang!

The doors to the bank slammed open, revealing a cloaked figure. The person approached the table by the end of the room, every single eye glued at the hooded man.

Things started to go back to normal, people started speaking again, as the hooded man started conversing with the goblin. Minutes went by, I found myself staring at the cloaked figure by the table. The man didn't move a single muscle, nor could I hear a single word he said, despite the fact that the weird goblin looked ready to burst with anger.

Then it all snapped.

Before anyone even had time to react, the cloaked man grabbed the goblin and flew away, towards the entrance to the vaults.

There was complete silence for a moment, then the goblins left their posts. They opened drawers and took out swords and shields. One of them approached the customers, a long knife in hand. "Leave," he bit out. "Leave or die too."

The doors opened once again to the meek crowd inside, revealing a group clad in red robes. I noticed some shoulders relaxing in relief.

Despite this, my mother dragged me along, towards the exit, but then, the doors slammed open again.

In the entrance stood four people, each clad in black. One of them was a pretty woman with black hair, two of them almost identical, evil-looking men.

The last one smiled at us, his eyes red like rubies. My mother stood in front of me. "No"!" she screamed. She was clutching her wand in her hand, shaking violently.

People ran and panicked all around me.

Then the four people started to shoot spells at people.

The last thing I saw was my mother lying down on the ground in front of me, something black coming out of her mouth. Then, a green light, and nothing.

-()-

-Harry-

We arrived in the Leaky Cauldron, it was entirely empty. Not even the barman Tom was to be seen. The hairs on my arm stood on end. An explosion rocked the house, followed by a disturbing rumbling. Dumbledore moved towards Diagon Alley, his wand in hand. I was not far behind, my wand clutched like my life depended on it.

Because it did. Oh it did. My heart was pumping and my head was speeding. This was real.

The alley was filled with smoke. A jet of light flew towards us, slamming into a shield created by Dumbledore.

"Be ready, Harry. Be ready for anything," he ordered. I remained stunned for a moment. The rubble and the smoke and the dust and the smell and the noise was all so much.

Dumbledore strided forwards. He dodged another attack and shielded against the next. Shouts came from the smoke and the occasional colourful flash illuminated a silhouette or two through the heavy cloud of dust and smoke.

I gulped and followed. Dumbledore waved his wand and the smoke was driven away by a great gust of wind. Cloaked men stood by the entrance, spewing spells at red robes without thought nor aim. Explosions threw the cobblestones in the air, making the aurors dive out of the way.

Dumbledore summoned a shield and stopped a jet of light a mere moment before it would have struck the unknowing auror.

I was broken out of my stupor and rejoined my headmaster. The Death Eaters focused on us, countless sparks flew against us like arrows. We avoided them deftly, shielding in the right moment. Then we returned fire.

Dumbledore's spells struck opponents like they were homing to their targets. Not a single moment was wasted.

I animated a heap of rubble into a charging lion which dived against the small crowd. It knocked one against the wall with a sickening crunch. The next one was pinned. The rest retreated inside and the doors shut with a loud bang. A blue sheen appeared over the wall; they had created a shield.

Dumbledore approached one of the aurors. "Mr. Rush, how is the situation looking?"

The grey-haired auror grimaced. "We don't know. We got a call that someone had broken into Gringotts about thirty minutes ago, we arrived on the scene, nothing was seemingly wrong. Then they came, the death eaters." The author's eyes were wide with fear. "He was with them, headmaster. He was with them." The man closed his eyes tightly. "There was so much blood, so much death. They forced us out of the bank and then they kept us out here."

Dumbledore nodded. "How many men do you have?"

"Ten men who can fight, plus myself." The man wiped the sweat off his brow. "Reinforcements are on the way."

"We don't have time for that," Dumbledore said. "Have they kept hostages inside?"

The man swallowed. "You-Know-Who killed them all."

The headmaster sighed. "Alright, gather your men. We're going in."

Rush nodded. "We're with you, sir."

"Tell everyone to be careful, Rush." Dumbledore looked out over the gathered aurors. "I don't want to visit anyone's family."

The auror, Rush, chuckled. "It's fine sir, my wife would beat me to hell and back if I left her."

Dumbledore didn't reply. He gave me a nod. I approached the door with hesitant steps.

"It's nothing too fancy." I sent a 'reducto' against it. The blue light was absorbed with no apparent impact. "I think I know how to do this."

I remembered the first task, when this spell had been used to shatter Dumbledore's stand.

The blue shield shattered like glass. The door flew off its hinges. A scream came and disappeared quickly, when the door came to rest.

Spells whisked past us. I moved inside next to my headmaster, shielding and retaliating.

Someone screamed behind me, I shut it out numbly. It was time for that later.

I took cover behind a pillar. My breath was laboured, my hands were shaking. The scream played in my head. I heard the thuds of spells hitting my pillar.

The scream played through my head, covering all else.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't do this.

I breathed in and out erratically, the sounds of the battle were enormous. It was screaming inside my ear, blocking everything else.

"Harry," someone said calmly in front of me.

I opened my eyes, there wasn't anyone there.

"Think with your head, not your heart." The voice was female, I knew who had said it. She wasn't here though.

Rowena Ravenclaw wasn't here.

But she could be, through me.

I was the apprentice of Rowena Ravenclaw, what would she say if she saw me like this?

I clenched my fists, the sounds of battle became muted.

With a dive, I emerged from the pillar, firing two jets of purple light. They each struck a target, making them fall to the ground, knocked out cold. I sneered and advanced. My body worked on its own, moving my wand as if a painter. I was dancing around the daggers of death.

Cloaked figures fell around me without me noticing. Soon, complete silence echoed in the hall.

Then it all came back in a staggering wave. Groans of pain and crackling fire. The smell of fire and blood. The tingling of power in my fingers.

Dumbledore stood by a door, the one leading deeper into the bank, down to the vaults.

I looked around, felt my stomach quench. My eyes grew misty. A mere metre from where I stood, Rush was laying on the ground, his right arm severed and a large gap in his throat, where blood was pouring out like lava from a volcano.

Red was smattered and smeared along the walls. I had to watch my steps for blank pools and charred parts.

"Harry!" Dumbledore beckoned me over to the entrance to the tunnels. "He went down into the vaults. Together with Mr and Mrs. Lestrange, I believe."

I nodded. "Let's go." I stared down the tunnel emotionlessly, making sure to remember every single body, every single face and every single family as I went down. "Let's fucking kill them."

A/N: There'll still be a chapter on Friday, don't worry.