Harry Potter is owned by JKR

Chapter 57

Harry yawned as he sat down next to Liz for the early morning briefing and set his coffee on the table, the two of them flanked by Matt and Ron. To their left and right, two more bleary-eyed Auror teams sat, one headed by Robinson, and the other by Mackenzie. Several of the other Aurors also nursed morning coffee, but everyone snapped to attention as Robards steamrolled into the room. The door thunked shut behind him and locked itself, and Harry sat up straight and leaned forward as the Head Auror began speaking.

"Today's special operation is to destroy the Inferi infesting Abney Park Cemetery, in Northern London," Robards said as a top-down map of the cemetery appeared on the large briefing parchment at the front of the room.

"Despite the repelling wards, two muggles have died at the cemetery in the past two days," Robards said, "the wards are good at repelling people who intend to enter the cemetery, but since some muggles walk through there as habit and don't notice they're entering the grounds, the wards are less effective, and the risk of a Statute breach was deemed too high to delay any further."

He gestured to the map.

"The entire grounds are surrounded by a powerful blood ward, except for this entrance which was weakened by Lieutenant Potter when he escaped," he said, and a red circle appeared at one end of the map, "the ward will prevent anyone from escaping, which is obviously not ideal, but it also keeps the Inferi in, so we cannot remove it. After two days of experimentation and in consultation with the Department of Mysteries, we have found that the Inferi burrow into the soil when there is no prey present, and only climb out when someone approaches. The best way to deal with them is from the air where they can't reach us, so we will be using brooms for the operation. At least one person from each team will need to land to draw the Inferi to the surface, where they can be incinerated by the others. The ground for ten metres around our entrance to the cemetery is stone, so we should be safe to mount up there. Since I'm sure some of you have forgotten, here's your reminder: Inferi are Dark abominations; normal healing magic will be less effective, and may not work at all. Don't get caught, and try not to set the forest on fire."

Harry glanced to his team members in turn. Ron and Matt both shared apprehensive glances, but he saw fear in Liz's wide blue eyes, not surprising given she was the weakest flyer out of all of them.

"Don't worry," Harry said, "we make sure to stick together and cover each others' backs. Inferi are mindless. If we keep our wits about us, we'll be fine."

The team nodded back to him, and Harry stood up as the room cleared out. Aurors filed towards the floo, and a pair of Ministry employees passed out brooms out on the way. As soon as Harry hit the Ministry exit, he apparated directly to his bedroom at Grimmauld to retrieve the Firebolt leaning against the wall, and then popped back rejoin the rest of the Aurors.

"No way am I doing this with some Ministry Cleansweep," he thought.

The three teams of Aurors spread out and made the short walk to the cemetery under disillusion to avoid the muggles. In the dim pre-dawn light, there were few up and about, mostly pet owners walking dogs along the nearly deserted streets. The mist which had been so thick when he escaped with Draco had made another appearance. Though visibility was much improved, he still couldn't see farther than fifty metres. Harry climbed the steps into the graveyard and the blood wards made their presence known, a chill in his bones, as he crossed the threshold.

"Still active," he thought.

Disillusionment sprayed off blue-robed Aurors as they entered the graveyard so they could avoid one another in mid-air. Harry kicked off and made a quick circuit of the staging area. Even with the grim and dangerous task before him, flying still lifted his spirit. Almost directly below him, the deep scar in the stone walkway that had previously been filled with at least seven Inferi now lay empty, and there was no sign of them anywhere. The rest of the squad joined him in the air.

"Right, we'll start at that patch of dirt there and work our way towards the chapel in the centre," he said as he pointed to the ground, "Stay close and cover me."

He descended to the ground and dismounted. Harry slowly walked along the wide stone path as sounds of spellcasting arose from the other groups. With an unearthly moan, an arm burst through the soil to his right, and an Inferius started to climb its way out of the dirt, bugs infesting its skin and falling to the ground.

"Incendio!" Ron, Matt, and Liz said, and it ignited and quickly flopped forward at the waist to fall still, flames still licking its body. Harry hadn't even kicked off the ground. He looked up into the air and gave everyone else a thumbs up and a lopsided grin.

They repeated the procedure several more times, with he and Ron switching off acting as bait. Harry quickly realised that the briefing had been right: if there were no people nearby, the Inferi went back to hiding underground. It was slow going as in addition to being thorough and not wanting to risk injury by moving too quickly, they also wanted to be careful to avoid damaging as much of the flora in the cemetery as possible. The sun rose higher and burned off the fog, though it remained mostly overcast. Drifting on his Firebolt to stay out of the columns of smoke drifting up from small fires, Harry recalled his quidditch days at Hogwarts as he absently fried another Inferius.

"Wish I'd gotten to play more," he thought. Despite being the youngest seeker in over a hundred years, through a combination of detention, suspension of the quidditch season, or running for his life for one reason or another, he'd only played in a handful of matches.

He caught a hint of movement out of the corner of his eye, not unlike spotting a snitch flitting in the distance against the crowd or the pitch. He squinted as he stared towards the chapel. Between the branches of a few trees, he spotted some kind of markings appearing on the ground. He drifted to the side to get a better angle.

"What in Merlin's… a circle?" he thought.

His eyes widened in alarm as his brain put the pieces together: someone under disillusion was inscribing a ritual circle on the stones near the chapel.

"Ron, on your broom, now!" he shouted, and yanked the Firebolt towards the chapel. Wind roared in his ears as he quickly outpaced the rest of the squad. He angled as best he could, aiming for the top of the trees nearest the chapel, then levelled out to try and get a clear view on a flyby.

Just as his line of sight cleared the last branches, the circle of runes glowed a bright orange, followed by a pulse of magic, and the Firebolt shuddered and plummeted. Harry jerked back on the stick and as luck would have it, it wasn't completely disabled. His descent slowed but not enough, and he threw his arm in front of his face to protect it from branches as he tumbled through the tops of a few trees and then to the hard stones before the chapel. For an instant before he impacted, he spotted a dark silhouette inside the ritual circle, a wizard holding some kind of staff.

"Or a broom?" he thought.

Then he rolled and tumbled as best he could as he skidded across the stones, the Firebolt clattering next to him. He winced as he struggled to his feet and wordlessly cast a few revealing charms, to no avail. His elbow made a clicking sound as he flexed it, but it still worked.

"At least nothing's broken," he thought as he worked his shoulder. Cries of pain and confusion echoed around the cemetery as Aurors plummeted to the ground, followed by moaning and groaning as the Inferi surfaced to attack the suddenly stranded wizards.

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron shouted. He and Matt crashed out of the woods, twigs stuck to their robes and hair.

"Careful, there's a disillusioned enemy nearby," Harry said, "where's Liz?"

A walking corpse deeper in the woods burst into flame and jerked to the side as Elizabeth Moore flung it away from her.

"I'm here," she said as she picked her way through the undergrowth, "what the hell happened?"

"Ritual, there," Harry said as he pointed at the blackened circle on the ground, "disenchanted all the brooms. Or rather, mostly disenchanted."

He picked up the Firebolt, ran his hand over the deep scratches on one side, and attempted to kick off. It wobbled and barely rose into the air.

"Mine's completely twacked, Matt's too," Ron said, "I bet the Firebolt is the only one that's still semi-working."

Red sparks shot into the air across the graveyard, Aurors in trouble calling for backup. His heart hammered from the fall and the deadly trap they found themselves in, but he forced himself to slow down, to think.

"Okay," Harry said, as he tried to sort through what had quickly turned into a disaster, "first things first, save as many Aurors as we can. They're going to create a safe zone near the entrance where we came in, so… Matt, take the broom and get Liz back there, she can help heal anyone injured in the falls. Then you fly out and look for the red sparks, help anyone in trouble and ferry them back to the entrance."

"Got it," the big man said with a salute. Harry passed the Firebolt over to him. He straddled it while Liz mounted behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. The broom wobbled as it rose, and the two Aurors vanished towards the entrance of the cemetery.

"Come on, the nearest sparks are this way," Harry said. He and Ron sprinted along the stone path towards the sound of Aurors shouting and spells blasting apart trees. Ahead of them, a mass of Inferi ran in the opposite direction. Some of them noticed the pair and turned around to charge at them, but Harry and Ron were too quick. Corpses exploded into fire and dropped to the ground as Harry took care of the ones on the left and Ron the right. The difference of having Ron with him instead of Draco was like day and night as the two worked in tandem to alternately immolate or wordlessly shunt the animated corpses aside.

"Just a few more," Harry thought as they attempted to link up with the stranded Aurors, desperately fighting with their backs against a moss-covered stone entrance to a crypt. Finally, they broke through, and Harry spotted Mackenzie and a younger dark-haired Auror he didn't recognise.

"Come on, this way, run!" Harry shouted.

The tall trainer and the younger Auror made a break for it while Harry and Ron cast furiously. More Inferi had come from their back though, and they were forced to change direction. Even with four wands, there were simply too many, and Harry spotted some kind of monument, a series of steps leading up to a set of large plaques. All around them, hordes of Inferi pressed closer through the trees and tombstones.

"If there's any truth to that secret weapon to defeat You-Know-Who, now would be a pretty good time!" Mackenzie said as they backed up another step and he threw up more red sparks.

A vision of a massive firestorm consuming all the Inferi came to him, but that kind of power was well beyond Harry.

"Keep casting, don't let up," Harry said as he dodged backwards and up another step away from rotted claws and fetid teeth.

A row of Inferi several metres back ignited in flames, and Harry looked up to see a quartet of brooms, led by Robards, all of them concentrating spellfire down around them to drive away the Inferi and give them a moment's respite.

Robards landed next to Harry.

"You're with me, you three, on those brooms!" he shouted, "move, before they swarm us again!"

"You saved us," Harry said.

Robards paused.

"Same bloody team, Potter," he replied, "get on."

Harry mounted behind the Head Auror and blasted Inferi on the ground as they kicked off to follow the others already skimming above the treetops and shrinking into the distance towards the entrance of the cemetery. He focused on aiming and setting Inferi ablaze as they passed over, and as the Cleansweep vibrated beneath him, and wondered how many of his colleagues had been wounded or killed.

"Imperio."

Robards stiffened in front of Harry, but before he had a chance to react, a red beam lanced into the broom from their right, and it suddenly stopped vibrating as they pitched forward.

"A finite!" Harry thought, but then then he could only react on instinct. He covered his face as again branches tore at him as they fell through the trees, and snapped off a quick arresto momentum to partially break his fall just as he hit the ground. Pain exploded in his left knee he tumbled into a grave marker, but it could have been much worse. Harry pushed against the cold, moss-covered stone to get his feet back under him. The slightly overweight Head Auror landed neatly on both feet and turned to face Harry, a slightly glazed look in his eyes, the same look Viktor Krum had had fourth year in the maze.

"Shit," Harry thought. The Inferi were still behind them, and the sound of moaning and crashing through branches and undergrowth came to him as Robards' wand stuttered, then launched into a dizzying stream of jinxes and curses. Harry tested his leg and found it bore his weight as he parried and dodged to the side, and even managed reverse a few spells back at Robards. That bought him a precious few seconds to pull his cloak out of his pouch. He duelled furiously with the Imperiused Head Auror as branches fell around them and deflected bludgeoning curses shattered boughs and headstones alike; there was no doubt Robards would kill him now if he could. With his free hand, Harry threw the cloak over himself.

"Confringo," he thought as he aimed at the ground between him and Robards. The powerful blasting curse threw up rocks and debris and a tree toppled to the ground, branches snapping as it fell. Harry used the break to pull the hood down and vanish completely, then took off, hobbling through the woods. Though invisible, his footsteps were still visible on the ground, and moving underbrush no doubt clearly marked his passage as he made for a stone path. He felt a spell coming from behind him and ducked behind a tombstone as a stunner flew over his head, then rolled onto the stone walkway. Robards burst from the woods a split second later, and, from beneath the invisibility cloak, Harry sent a wordless stupefy at him. The red beam struck Robards dead in the centre of the chest and he collapsed to the ground. Harry took a deep breath, and then noticed at least a score of Inferi following them through the woods, clambering over headstones and felled trees.

"Fuck," he thought as he looked at Robards' prone and unconscious form. He pulled the cloak off again.

"Hey, you! This way!" he shouted.

Knee feeling better by the second, he threw red sparks up as he sprinted down the path, away from Robards, and the Inferi veered as one to give chase. Harry crested a ridge only to skid to a stop as more Inferi charged up the path ahead of him.

"Maybe didn't need to shout so loud," he thought as he tore off into the woods again, still firing red sparks into the air. His knee ached and it felt like a shank stabbed his side with each breath, but to slow down would mean a grisly death, torn to pieces by the Dark abominations, so he kept sprinting and throwing down obstacles wherever he could. He ran around a small rise, spotted a large, rectangular mausoleum, and, lungs burning, turned towards it. Just as he was about to jump and make a grab for the lip, a figure appeared over the top, Lester Robards, his wand aimed straight at Harry.

Harry's eyes widened and he threw up a protego as he slid to a stop, but the orange bolt of fire sailed over his head and immolated a pursuing Inferius.

"Don't just sit there Potter, get up!" Robards shouted as he waved him forward and launched a series of incendios at the Inferi.

"Okay, free of the Imperius, I hope?" Harry thought as he scrambled to his feet.

He ran the last few metres, leapt up and caught Robards' outstretched hand, and the Head Auror hauled him up the rest of the way. As he scrambled the last bit though, above Robards, he spotted a shimmer in the air, an imperfectly cast disillusion.

"Revelio!" he shouted, but his spell was parried, and the little shimmer shot off low over the trees.

Robards turned to look towards the sky, then back to Harry questioningly.

"They've gone," Harry said.

"Never mind that, focus on these fuckers," Robards said as the Inferi came into view.

Harry nodded to him and the two turned their wands against the oncoming horde. Inferi pressed closer, and closer, charging through burning corpses and over pits blasted by the two Aurors, until the nearest were directly below them, standing on the bodies of their fallen brothers to reach for the lip of the mausoleum. Then a spell sizzled in from behind them and blasted one to pieces.

"They're here!" Ron shouted as he swept by astride Harry's Firebolt. A dozen Aurors on brooms arrived from the east and scoured the grounds in front of Harry, blasting the area around the mausoleum until every last Inferius was a smouldering wreck. The sickly-sweet scent of burning, rotted corpses filled the air, and Harry let his arm drop to his side in exhaustion.

"Alright sir?" Robinson asked as he alighted on top of the mausoleum.

"Alright Robinson," Robards replied, "any other groups stranded?"

"Negative, sir, this was the last of the Inferi," Robinson replied.

Robards nodded.

"Casualties?" he asked.

"Five, two serious, but no deaths," Robinson replied.

Robards nodded again.

"Get the wounded to St. Mungo's, organise a sweep of the grounds to make sure we get any stragglers, then coordinate with the obliviators and Muggle Worthy Excuse Department to explain this mess," Robards said.

"They're already on their way, what with the Dark magic and all," Robinson replied.

Robards hitched a ride with Robinson, and Ron dismounted and handed Harry his Firebolt back.

"Thanks," Harry said with a deep exhale, "Matt and Liz?"

"Both fine," Ron replied, "not looking forward to this debrief though."

Harry agreed, but as they returned to the DMLE, his knee now severely swollen and throbbing with every heartbeat, he found Fenlok, the goblin liaison, seated in his desk chair.

"There you are," the young goblin said as he hopped down, "come with me."

Ron started to follow, but Fenlok held up a hand.

"Just Harry Potter," he said.

Ron shrugged, and Harry let himself be led away.

"What's this about?" Harry asked as he limped along.

"The DMLE rebuffed Gringotts' request for assistance. Ragnar sent me to bring you," Fenlok replied.

"Regarding…?" Harry asked, but Fenlok merely shook his head, and led him via floo to the goblin bank.

Harry followed him past the tellers, to the manager's office, where Gragnaff, Ragnar IV, and Ugluk the Bold, the latter once again wearing goblin plate armour, engaged in heated discussion. The goblins fell silent and turned as one as Harry entered the office, Auror blues streaked with soot and scuffed from the duels at the cemetery, Firebolt still held in one hand. Dennis Creevey, hands bound by manacles, stood off to one side. His pleading eyes widened when he spotted Harry.

"What is he doing here?" Ugluk asked as Fenlok closed the door, "he, who admitted to stealing from the bank?"

"He is here at my request, as my guest," Ragnar replied.

"Ah, I see it now, you have staged this event to weaken my hold on Gringotts," Ugluk said, "it will not work, Ragnar."

"Nonsense," Ragnar said, and he turned to Harry, "Harry Potter, you once offered assistance in the case of a potential international incident. Will you swear to secrecy everything you observe here today?"

"Err… it might help to know exactly what's going on," Harry said as he hobbled forward a few more steps.

Ugluk scoffed and sat down heavily in one of the chairs near the desk.

"There was a break in, and something of value was stolen from a secure vault," Gragnaff the manager said, "at around the same time, Dennis Creevey notified us of an abnormality above the vault."

"A bid to paint himself in a positive light," Ugluk said.

"That's insane! If I was involved, why would I be stupid enough to stick around, much less tell you what it is," Dennis said. He turned to Harry, "I swear, I didn't do anything wrong."

"Okay, okay… why don't we start from the beginning," Harry said as he massaged one temple.

"First the graveyard, and now this," he thought.

Ragnar motioned to Gragnaff, the bank manager, who stood up.

"There is a secure vault in the second sub-level of the bank. The vault only opens for an hour each sunrise. Any attempt to magically alter the vault or any individual entering the closed vault will trigger an alarm and a security response. Someone was able to access the vault and steal something of value, from inside a safe within the vault," Gragnaff said, "we only discovered the theft when the bank opened this morning and found the safe had been accessed. A glamour had been placed over it to make it appear undamaged, but the lock had been destroyed. Concurrently, the wizard boy brought the damage to the vault to our attention."

"It was cut with an oxyacetylene torch," Dennis said.

Harry stared at Dennis in the wake of the confident proclamation. He wasn't exactly sure what an oxyacetylene torch was, but it sounded like Dennis knew what he was talking about.

"Like a welding torch?" Harry asked, and Dennis nodded.

"Impossible, no muggle technology could cut through ten-inch goblin forged steel," Ugluk said, "speak, wizard, tell us how you stole it."

"I told you, I don't know anything! My dad's a welder, I've seen cuts like that before," Dennis said, "I knew it could be trouble, so I brought it to my supervisor's attention like I was taught."

Harry saw it in Dennis' eyes, a desperate fear of being sent back to Azkaban.

"What was stolen?" Harry asked.

The three goblins glanced at one another, and then Ragnar turned to Harry.

"Before I respond, you must swear to secrecy," the goblin regent said, "the bank's reputation cannot afford publication of another breach."

Ugluk scoffed.

"He asks a thief to keep his word," he muttered.

Ragnar ignored him and held Harry's gaze.

"I swear," Harry replied, "and I will help in any way I can. It's important that goblins and wizards can work together."

Ugluk sneered at him but Ragnar and Gragnaff both nodded.

"The bank's stockpile of orichalcum was stolen," the goblin regent replied, and from the gravity he spoke, Harry got the feeling that should have meant more.

"Sorry… what is that?" he asked.

"This? This is the wizards' saviour?" Ugluk said with a gesture.

"Silence Ugluk. It is not his fault his education is deficient. He has been trained in their ways, he was raised by muggles, and he is willing to listen. That is enough for now," Ragnar said.

Once again, Harry bristled at the insult to his Hogwarts education, but considering he'd never completed his seventh year and the glaring historical omissions from Binns' classes, he supposed they weren't far off the mark. Ugluk threw his hands in the air, and Ragnar turned back to Harry.

"Orichalcum is a magical alloy, manufactured by goblins, which is the key ingredient to infuse our metals with magical properties, such as our vaults, but also including armour and weapons. It is why magic is repelled by goblin armour," Ragnar replied, "the formula is a closely guarded secret, and it is far more valuable than gold."

Harry nodded slowly as he recalled how the goblin forged Sword of Gryffindor absorbed only substances which made it stronger.

"The goblins can forge metal with various properties, and it seems this orichalcum is the key," he thought.

"And… you said it was cut with a muggle welding torch?" he asked Dennis.

The boy nodded vigorously.

"I'd like to see the break-in site," Harry said.

Ragnar led the way out of the office and down a circular set of wide stone steps. Smokeless torches lit the hall at regular intervals. They made a few turns and arrived at a cordoned off area of the sub-level. A burnt smell akin to garlic reached Harry's nose, and he breathed deep. They reached a section of the hall where the four-inch thick stone floor had been removed and stacked on top of another section. Metal lay beneath the stone, except for a block of metal set on the ground, revealing a square hole into vault below. Globs of formerly melted steel, now cold and dark again, lay next to the hole, residue from whatever had been used to cut them.

"This is where the break happened," Gragnaff said as he gestured to the floor.

"May I?" Harry asked.

Gragnaff motioned for him to proceed. The block of metal was cut cleanly near the top, but more ragged near the base. Three iron rings sat on top of the block of steel, attached by spots of yellowish residue.

"We believe the thief used an adhesive to attach a pulley to lift the broken piece of vault," Gragnaff said as he motioned to scuff marks on the floor, "it was a rather clever way to get around the wards against magic. The safe was cut by the same method as the vault, and a glamour placed over it so it appeared whole until we tried to open it."

Harry nodded and approached the hole.

"What's the torch look like?" Harry asked Dennis.

"It's a long metal rod, with dials on it, connected to two large air tanks," he replied, "the flame shoots out of the end and the knobs control the flow of oxygen and acetylene. That garlic smell is the acetylene."

Harry nodded.

"Were there any enchantments on the safe itself?" Harry asked.

"No," Gragnaff replied, "the safe is protected against magic, and cannot be altered by it… though, apparently a glamour placed on top of it did not trigger any alarm."

"So… magic still works inside the vault then," Harry said, and the goblin nodded.

"Once the vault was open, he could levitate something beneath the safe to lift it up," Harry thought.

He spotted two round scuff marks on the vault metal next to the hole and knelt beside them. So far, Dennis' theory was holding up.

"Those would be from the air tanks," Harry said as the boy nodded, "stand back."

"Appare vestigium," he said.

Golden dust fell over the entire hallway, and their footsteps appeared, moving in reverse towards the entrance.

"What the… Why is everything happening backwards?" Harry thought.

He focused as the spell shimmered over a long period of nothing, then golden footsteps, clearly human rather than goblin, appeared by the hole in the ground, and proceeded to walk this way and that as the thief made their heist.

"Looks like they apparated away," Harry said.

"Apparition from inside Gringotts is impossible," Ugluk said.

"A portkey perhaps? Or maybe they mounted a broom," Harry said, though it didn't look like kicking off on a broom, "you saw, they never walked away from this section of..."

He glanced around, wary of an adversary that might still be in the hallway.

"Hominem revelio," he said, but the only people nearby were himself and Dennis.

"Another goblin perhaps? No, they look like human footprints," Harry thought.

The golden footsteps walked away, mirroring the thief's approach.

"It's like they stood in this spot and completely vanished…" Harry said.

The golden dust faded into nothingness, but just as the spell ended, very faintly, a pair of golden footsteps walked backwards towards the hole and disappeared; the thief's departure, hours earlier.

"He departed before he arrived?" Harry thought, and then in an instant of clarity, the solution as to why his tracking spell worked in reverse came to him, and his blood ran cold, "a time turner! Whoever impersonated Avery, who duelled me in Adromeda's cottage, just stole the goblins' stockpile of orichalcum, and used the time turner to make his escape and literally walk out the front door before anything was even stolen!"

He attempted to keep his voice disinterested. If it could be used to ritualize a poison, spread over a wide area…

"Was anything else taken? What else could orichalcum be used for?" he asked, "and how much are we talking about?"

The three goblins glanced at one another.

"Nothing else was missing from the vault. Orichalcum has many uses, and is the most valuable metal in the world," Ragnar replied, "anyone would be able to divide it up and exchange it for a large sum of gold. The stockpile was twenty-seven and a half kilograms."

Ugluk the bold stepped up to Harry and pointed a finger directly at his chest.

"Perhaps you wizards wish to discover its secrets to manufacture it yourselves, or discover a way to penetrate our armour," Ugluk said.

Consumed by thoughts of the master duellist he'd faced in Andromeda's cottage, the insult barely registered with Harry. He stepped back and knelt to stare into the dark hole of the vault beneath him.

"There are definitely some evil wizards, they're currently trying to kill me… but I doubt that's the case, otherwise we wouldn't have given goblins more seats on the Wizengamot than any other Beings," Harry said.

"And yet, still a token amount compared to the number of wizard seats," Ugluk said with a sneer.

Harry stood up and tried to ignore the ache in his knee.

"Give me some time, the situation could be serious," Harry said, "I will keep it quiet and inform you of any developments. What's the usual process for something like this?"

"We would lodge a sealed complaint to the Ministry via my office," Fenlok replied, "the Minister and the Head of International Cooperation would determine the level of response."

Harry nodded.

"What about me?" Dennis asked.

Harry turned to Ragnar.

"Let him go," Ragnar said, "he is a child. Even if he could have executed such a cunning plan, it is like he said, he would not have stayed."

Ugluk glared, but Gragnaff produced a key from his waistcoat and released Dennis' hands, and the boy rubbed his wrists. Ragnar nodded, and the bank manager motioned for Dennis to follow.

"Any help while we pursue a formal investigation would be appreciated," Ragnar said, after they'd left.

"Of course," Harry said, "hopefully I can find something. If any orichalcum turns up on the black market, we may be able to trace it back."

Ugluk sneered at Harry but remained silent, and as Harry followed Fenlok to the Gringotts floo exit, another thought occurred to him: the break-in had been timed to occur at almost exactly at the same time as the DMLE operation to clear the Inferi.