Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Title: Leaving for Better Pastures (Working Title)
Posted Date: November 5 2023
Tags: Manipulative Dumbledore, Canon Goblins, Gringotts Heist, Muggleborns and half-bloods leaving, Sirius faking death, Bad Remus, Bad Nymphadora, Bad Order of the Phoenix, Alive Amelia Bones
Possible Challenges: Good Misguided Ron, Hogwarts gets destroyed
Possible Pairings: Harry x Hermione x Susan, Harry x Small Multi
Loud alarms blared about the stone corridors, followed by the loud stomping of boots and clanging of metal armour and spears as the goblins rushed about to secure Gringotts for imminent attacks. The year was wrought with plenty of rumours and death, and the ministry of magic was not helpful with the constant denials of Voldemort returning from the dead, only to be disproved by the dark wizard appearing in the ministry in an attempt to steal something from the Department of Mysteries, supposedly a prophecy involving him and the boy wizard named Harry Potter. The boy was previously slandered over the news and now vindicated for telling the truth for the whole of last year, but the boy had disappeared after being sighted boarding the Hogwarts Express to go for his sixth year. There were supposedly others that have gone missing but no one was paid more attention than the boy.
Shortly after that, Hogwarts got attacked a few times, supposedly by Death Eaters or sympathisers from within the school, but Dumbledore did not do much other than giving out empty assurances that Hogwarts was safe but they needed to find Harry Potter to stop Voldemort as the Chosen One coined on the newspaper. It was honestly pathetic from the goblins' point of view that the wizards and witches were so desperate to deal with the dark lord and his followers that they want to foist all the responsibility on the shoulders of a boy barely hitting his majority and let him do all the dirty work while they kept their hands clean and pick up the pieces the boy would be leaving behind.
Not that it mattered much to the goblins. They only cared if the boy was alive or dead to handle the vaults.
What was problematic was the fact the humans were not doing much to stop the mess, and it ended with Dumbledore getting killed by his own Potions Master, the same man who he kept pledging to have his greatest trust to many an eyeroll. Shortly after that, the Ministry got invaded again and this time it was successful with several dead or missing like Amelia Bones.
Now two days after, Diagon Alley got attacked and the Death Eaters were on their way to try and take over Gringotts, no doubt trying to take hostage all the British families' fortunes. Not On their watch, they would show the wizards what happens if they angered the goblins. They only won the last rebellion because of the casualties that came from both sides and the Ministry tricking them.
They cannot fight openly by the treaty but they can be the guards protecting the bank, which in turn would lead to fighting a glorious battle. Trust in the wording.
The goblins went off into the corridors leading to the bank, leaving the paths behind them empty with the sounds of the alarms going off. After a while, the shadows shifted irregularly before a head appeared in mid-air to inspect the place they passed by.
"I think we got their attention." Dean Thomas quipped while wincing from the loudness. He pulled back from the cover that was hiding their presence in the corner and turned to look at Harry, Hermione and the twelve odd people waiting in dark clothes with harnesses attached to them. "Okay we should be ready to go now." He compounded on that bit while fiddling with his watch to start the timing.
"Hermione?" Harry turned to the girl who was checking something with her wand and biting her lip before nodding.
"Okay, I found them, take the corridor there, we can commandeer one of the carts if we are lucky, otherwise we have to use the brooms." Hermione pointed with her hand.
"All right then, masks on." The others nodded and pulled down the ski masks they had brought along to hide their identities and to act as air filters in case the goblins have any airbourne defences they were not aware of. "We have 2 hours before the goblins return from the front doors and only one hour left for the Time Turner, start moving." The group quickly moved to where the tracks were, and thankfully there were carts for them to ride on. They got in then and pulled the levers to start moving down the tracks, and before long they stopped by one of the vaults. It was a very imposing door to say the least, with enough spells on it to render any attempts to breach the defences useless and alert the goblins to their location. And this being one meant for the higher value clientele like the Malfoys, it would be suicidal to attempt breaking down the security.
That is, if they were going at it like regular wizards and focusing only on the doors.
"Globas." Hermione aimed her wand at the rock wall around the hinges. A small patch of rock turned smooth before coming off the wall with a sucking pop and rolled on the ground as a smooth globe of stone. They watched a few seconds before nodding at the part of the wall still bearing the hole. "It worked!" She gave out an excited whisper at the success.
"We can celebrate later, the clock's ticking." That got everyone to start casting the same spells about the door with four keeping an eye out on both sides of the track, and it would be 2 minutes later that the door was pulled out with a few rune stones attached to keep it afloat and granting them access to the vault's contents.
"Okay, the plan is working. Split up and move to the other vaults and do the same." The others nodded and split up as arranged in their training, making short work of the vaults that belonged to the known Death Eaters and thankfully on the same floor while Harry and his group focused on getting all the contents into expendable trunks with modified bottomless charms. Once done, the group moved the vault doors back into position and used some of the earlier globes of earth to secure them in place before patching the remaining holes.
"Time!" Dean called out to them as they were halfway through their collection from the Nott family vault.
"20 minutes!" Hermione answered while her group had emptied out the Goyle family vault and were now replacing the door.
"We need to move faster. We can hit a couple more of the big ones at least, let's keep moving." Harry called them out before they got back to the cart and moved to the next set of vaults. Within the next hour and a half, they dealt with the vaults belonging to Parkinson, Crabbe, Avery, and a few others with members confirmed to be Death Eaters, having to switch trunks a couple of times as they had filled the earlier ones up to the point of testing the capacity limits. The crew were constantly on watch for the goblins, Death Eaters or even the rumoured dragons that guard the vaults, and they dared not stick around longer than the stated 2 hours.
"And that is Yaxley." Wayne Hopkins checked the name off the list he was perusing as the last of the coinage from the vault was transferred to the sixth expendable trunk. "That is the last of the big boys."
"We are running out of time and space." Terry Boot remarked as he checked the trunk. "We only have a couple more trunks, and they are the lower capacity."
"What about the Lestranges?" Susan Bones asked with a hint of eagerness in her words. understandable since she and her aunt were attacked and only saved by Harry over the summer.
"Harry managed to get Bellatrix thrown out of the Black Family to reclaim her personal vault, and the main vault does not have a lot of money other than books that he got earlier before this." Hermione answered while she supervised putting the door back.
"And they are in the highest security involving dragons, and we have yet to figure out going past them without alerting the goblins." Harry added on. "I already pushed my luck with them over the books and other valuables, and only with the goblin items found to bargain with them did they allow me to do so. And the goblins are still trying to get me to pay more."
"Should we start hitting the vaults belonging to Dumbledore's crew?" One of the others asked.
"We are running out of time for that, we focus more on the Death Eaters for now." Harry checked his watch. "And at the least, I have made arrangements to move all vaults belonging or bequeathed to me to either a separate vault under an assumed name or withdraw the entire lot so that they can't steal from me again. That ought to hit their pockets big time since they have been syphoning out of the trust vault."
"Hey, isn't this Snape's vault?" All turned to where one of the others was pointing. There was silence as they all turned to look at Harry, the majority holding hopeful expressions.
"Do it." That was his answer with a dangerous smirk, something that was reflected on the others as they made short work of the vault door and emptied the contents. Even Hermione was getting into it, likely because of the valuable potions books and ingredients she found in the vault, along with a certain text that was worth its weight in gold but was not given the care and attention needed, and was close to falling apart by a touch of a finger.
Snape just made a bad enemy out of her. No one disrespected books in front of her and gave her an Acceptable when twits like Malfoy got Outstanding for substandard potions handling! Even more so when he had valuable books that were falling apart in front of her!
"Guys, I think we need to get going." Their lookout called out. "I am hearing a lot of rumbling, and if I remember the timing, the goblins are close to finishing up the fight."
"Time to leave." Harry muttered before calling out. "Dobby." A few pops had several house elves appearing before them, one in particular dressed in what appeared to be a custom military uniform with socks wrapped around a make-shift helmet.
"Time to go, time to go!" Dobby bounced on his feet while looking around.
"Take us out." The elves reached out to Harry and the others, and in a blink of an eye, they vanished with a rune stone crumbling to dust and blown away after completing the job of hiding their magical traces in the bank, and done in the nick of time as several carts loaded with armed goblins appeared shortly after, the leader yelling at the others to check on the areas for intruders.
Somewhere in a house under wards, the group appeared with the house elves in front of a few adults, one of whom was a surprise for anyone not in the know as the man came up with a wand in hand.
"What was the thing we discussed before I was forced to leave on Buckbeak at the end of your third year?" Sirius Black pointed a wand at Harry who waved his hand at the elves to stand down, a task easier said than done with Dobby who looked ready to clobber the man with his bare hands if needed.
"We talked about the possibility of you taking me away from the Dursleys after we clear your name, and to get to know each other better. You were hoping to travel the world to see what has changed." Harry answered promptly, before smiling and shaking Sirius's arms. "We got them, and Snape's vault as well." Sirius let out a bark of joy at that.
"That is great, at least you guys hit the biggest money bags from the dark faction. Too bad we can't hit those from Dumbledore." Sirius remarked as the others went through their own identity checks and started to relay the news to the others.
"It was already a struggle to get this done." Harry went into the next room to deposit the shrunken trunks he had on hand and resized them to open up the drawers and show the contents. "At the least, we can be sure that Riddle would be having a harder time getting his operation going without money. And I rather not push our luck too much on this. The goblins were already hard enough to deal with legally."
"I suppose you are right." Sirius hummed as he watched the others do the same, some with great gusto at dealing a blow to the people that would degrade them.
"Something on your mind?" Harry's query drew a sigh from his godfather.
"Remus and Dora." His answer drew a scowl from Harry.
"Sirius, those two are major risks to our plan, and let's not forget what they had planned for our deaths." Harry took a deep breath to control his temper, the two names being on a list of many that made him want to blow up. "I get it, Lupin is your friend while Tonks is your cousin. But they are following Dumbledore to the letter, and they had planned together to get rid of us so that Tonks can get the Black Family Fortune as some twisted idea of getting back at the people who threw her mother out. Lupin had gone along with Dumbledore's plans to kill us both so that he could get his hands on some of the items found in the Potter Family Vault since he was found unsuitable for the Lupin line. And that is not counting what that mongrel did to me when growing up. He and the bloody Order kept forcing me back with the Dursleys and wiping my memories away, knowing full well what they did to me! That bastard dared to act friendly back in Third Year, he must have been laughing at me for being so naive!" Harry was having trouble containing his voice volume which drew the attention of those closest to them. Susan and Hermione came along to calm him down by rubbing his back or gripping his hand gently. "Sorry."
"Don't be. It's my bad." Sirius scratched his hair with a grimace. "We already knew that Dumbledore was going to do something to me after that fiasco with the tournament, since I kept demanding access to you. With everyone doing their best to keep us apart," Hermione looked down at that bit with shame, "I knew that something was going to happen. Hearing what he had planned with Remus was the final straw." Sirius then palmed his face. "I am still trying to understand when did Moony become Dumbledore's Wormtail. And then there is Dora. Andromeda is not going to be happy when she hears this."
"It's no use thinking about it anymore. We already cut ties with most of those trying to tear us apart, and we managed to save most of the muggleborns and others along the way." Harry smiled at Hermione and Susan at that bit. "Too bad we can't get Ron out, Percy got to him before we could do anything."
"Molly would not let her children go, it is already a miracle we got the twins out of the country. At least Angela and Alicia were helpful for that part." Hermione remarked. "And I don't think Ron will leave his family unless something really drastic happens, and even then we still don't know if he is involved with the scheme to get us potioned and tied to the Weasley family." Harry sighed at that statement.
"We can think about this later. Right now, we need to establish our alibis." Harry and the girls moved to where the others were standing with a chain gripped in their hands and a single hourglass tied to it. Next to them was a small table with tags laid on them, with two gaps in between that had Harry frowning. "Who is missing?"
"Mine and David." Dean frowned in consternation as he searched his pockets. "I hope nothing has happened when we go back." A pop drew everyone's attention to an elf that looked slightly harassed but triumphant with the missing tags in her hand.
"Mipsy apologises for the late return!" The elf went to place the missing tags on the table. "Nasty wizards and witches try to accost Master Dean and Master David. Mipsy had to give the nasty wizards and witches a good scrubbing by the lake before dumping them at Gringotts."
"Where?" Harry's query prompted Mipsy to reach into her pocket and place a piece of paper on the table for the adults to scan.
"Master Dean said to read and leave this here while copying words on his last piece of colour paper in left pocket." Dean checked said pocket and found the paper with the same wrinkles and stain on it.
"Write the message, Dean." Harry turned back to the elf. "Are they safe?" Mipsy nodded her head eagerly.
"Future Young Masters are safe and going to the safe place. Mipsy returns to help Present Young Masters so that the Past Young Masters do not go missing and interfere with Future Masters." The elf paused for a while before she placed a hand on the head. "Mipsy is really confused with time travel." The others chuckled at that statement.
"Got it." Dean finished writing with a frown. "Mipsy, can you get extra security packs for David and myself please?" He barely finished when Mipsy snapped her fingers to present said packs. "Thank you so much."
"Any problems to worry about?" Harry asked.
"Just got to worry about the people that would be after us in the next loop." Dean shook his head at this. "Man, now I am getting confused with time travel."
"No time like the present." Everyone groaned at the pun Wayne made as the remaining trio grabbed the chain with Hermione reaching for the hourglass while Harry looked back. "We will see you in a few minutes back at the rendezvous point."
"I know, stay safe." Sirius nodded at his godson who turned to Dobby and the other elves.
"Okay guys, take us out." Dobby and the elves nodded, popping them out of the house to a location for them to use the Time Turner to prepare the alibis. Sirius let out a heavy sigh before turning to face the trunks.
"You okay, Sirius?" The father of Hermione came to his side.
"As best as I can be in this circumstance, Dan." Sirius answered. The man clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, let's get these trunks out of the way so that we can meet up with the kids." Sirius nodded and they proceeded to do their remaining tasks before leaving Britain for good.
Screw Dumbledore, the Order, Voldemort and their war.
They were getting out of the dumpster fire that was Magical Britain and living their lives in peace elsewhere.
Author's Notes:
This is based off another one-shot I read recently and cannot find (again), that was more of an aftermath type of story. This is from the beginning and likely a short one to show the collapse of Magical Britain. I also decided to play up the trope of Sirius faking his death at the veil and the trope of Bad Remus / Tonks.
As of Nov 3 2023, I have decided to transfer all the ideas from this collection to AO3 and start the process of cross-posting. The AO3 account is "rwby1989" (I cannot get my Kratos1989 name T.T) and I have written a couple of other stories there to test the site and environment. Two of which are a little spicy for FF to say the least ~.~
Fanfiction is really getting on my nerves. I have changed the email and set the whitelist, but it is not working.
Let's see if I can get one idea out by Christmas.