A few weeks had gone by since the plan was set and it was finally time. Today was May 1st, 1998, Griphook was healed and ready, as Harry already explained to him the plan they came up with. Griphook actually ended up liking it better. Over the time they were at Shell Cottage, Bill and Fleur informed of updates from others. The Weasley's were still all fine, only Ginny was at the school.

The Order were staying vigilant in hiding, except Moody, who was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts still. Minerva had approved Moody teach them outside the curriculum to sixth and seventh years to prepare for the inevitable battle. It was mentioned that Andromeda Tonks lost her husband, Edward; he was captured being a muggle, tortured and killed.

Harry and Sirius learned that Remus and Tonks now had a son. Edward Remus Tonks-Lupin, Teddy, for short. Nymphadora had given birth just a week before the group arrived at the cottage. Aside from the sad news of Andromeda's husband being killed, all else seemed well with everyone just waiting to make their move in the final battle. Today, it was time to break into Gringotts.

Severus had provided the Polyjuice potion and the hairs were added for Narcissa to drink it down. With help from Fleur and Hermione, with Narcissa's wardrobe, they put together an outfit resembling Bellatrix, then after she hugged her son and kissed her husband; she drank the potion and transformed into Bellatrix.

Harry handed Narcissa the wand belonging to her sister, and Narcissa worked out Bellatrix's voice to be convincing. Harry hugged Severus and kissed him gently, promising they'd be together again shortly and then he told the rest that it was almost over. Standing outside the cottage, Sirius was glamoured into black robes that had belonged to Lucius while he was a Death Eater, even the mask. Harry had his cloak and the sword.

The four of them connected hands and apparated right to Diagon Alley. Appearing closer to Knockturn, but hidden away, the sword was put in Hermione's bag she'd lent for Narcissa to carry, then Sirius threw the cloak over Harry, who was carrying Griphook on his back to minimize the space while under the cloak and not bump anyone. Reaching Gringotts, Narcissa elegantly walked through with Sirius beside her, silent, calm and approached the main desk.

"You there, goblin," Narcissa commanded. "I wish to enter my vault." She added.

"Oh, Madam Lestrange! So nice to see you again, but weren't you just here some weeks back to check your vault?" The goblin stated.

"And since when is it any of your business when I choose to see what is mine?" Narcissa chided firmly. "I'm here to withdraw, so if you would move along and stop wasting my time…" Her tone was sharp. It was perfect.

"O-Of course, Madam. But if I may…Request to see your wand? It's policy after your last visit, informing there may have been intruders under false pretenses." The goblin inquired.

"You may request and I shall deny. If you're aware I reported the incident, you've no reason to suspect me! My lord is not a patient man and the item I seek to remove is for him." Narcissa scowled.

"I'm afraid I must insist," Spoke another goblin now, stepping up to the podium.

"They suspect she's an imposter, they've obviously been warned that her wand was stolen." Griphook whispered to Harry.

"But we have the wand." Harry stated.

"Ollivander revealed that her wand was unyielding, did he not? It may be one that is only loyal to its first owner. If Bellatrix came here and reported her wand stolen, they'll wonder why you have the original!" Griphook revealed. "Do something, quickly or we're done for. If she refuses and they insist on a blood test, we're getting captured or killed!"

"Narcissa, give him the wand." Sirius told her. Harry scooted over to the desk letting the Yew wand slip into his hand. "Harry's got it under control."

"I suppose, if I must," Narcissa sighed and withdrew the wand to hand over.

"Imperio!" Harry cast as the golden dust surrounded the goblin, but only Harry saw it, no one else thankfully. With an inhale, the goblin smiled while holding Bellatrix's wand. "You will see that Bellatrix has a new wand to replace the one that was stolen. This is Bellatrix Lestrange. You will accept her identification and take her to her vault." He ordered.

"Ah, I see you've had a new wand made, Madam Lestrange. I can see you are who you say. Please, follow me? I'll take you to your vault." The goblin informed, handing the wand back to Narcissa.

Staying silent, they eventually made it to the back and were in the cart, traveling through the cave network with Griphook driving and the other goblin heavily imperioused with no idea what was going on around him. As they rode on the cart, Griphook looked ahead to an upcoming waterfall.

"We're in trouble." Griphook warned. "I forgot about the waterfall. It washes away all spells and enchantments. It will know we're not who we said…"

"So what's going to happen?" Sirius asked.

The cart went through the waterfall and stopped abruptly. Narcissa was back to normal, so was Sirius, even though they were still in the clothes. The cart opened up and sent them falling below. Right before they hit the ground, Harry pulled his wand. "Aresto Momento." He said as they stopped fast, levitating just inches from the ground, then hit with a thud.

"Good thinking, Harry…" Sirius said as he got up, then helped his cousin. Harry and Griphook got up on their own.

"Hey, what are you doing down-," The goblin began.

"Imperio!" Sirius cast this time and the goblin went quiet, back to smiling and standing there.

"Alright, Griphook…Now what?" Harry inquired. The cart had been blaring an alarm, then it stopped and returned backwards.

"We'll have to find another way out." Griphook said. "For now, let's go. It won't be long until they all come. We're close to the vault."

The four of them walked together, to a large cylinder looking room where growling was heard. "I don't like the sound of that…" Narcissa admitted.

"You'll like the sight of it even less, but it's necessary to guard the higher priority and security vaults." Griphook told them. Coming around the corner, they laid eyes on a white dragon, chained in the middle of the large area. Griphook handed them noise makers.

"Shake them. Or get blasted, it's trained to associate the noise with pain. It's the only way past it." Doing the only thing they could, they shook the noise makers and the dragon flinched away, trying to drown out the sound. Soon, they got up higher and to a door. Griphook used the imperioused goblin's hand to open it up and they stepped in.

"Accio Horcrux." Narcissa tried, nothing happened.

"That kind of magic won't work in here." Griphook informed.

"It's fine…" Harry told Narcissa and Sirius. "It's here…I sense it." He looked around. Sirius bumped a table and items fell, quickly multiplying.

"Gemino curse!" Sirius realized.

"Not just duplicates, multiples." Narcissa stated. "Harry, hurry…We'll get overrun by it all."

"I just have to-," Harry stopped as he heard the parseltongue whispers and looked up to single it out. "There! That chalice, it's gotta be the Hufflepuff cup!" He pointed.

"Stop moving so the items will stop," Sirius suggested.

"Hand me the sword," Harry asked. Narcissa carefully pulled it from the bag and handed it to Harry, who adjusted slow to get up the gaining pile to hook the handle of the cup and bring it down into his hand. "Got it!" He announced. The items were still multiplying. "Okay, let's get out of here." As they were trying to get out of the piles, Griphook was by the door and with the items multiplying so quickly, Harry staggered to hold his ground and the cup went flying from his hand. Griphook caught it and went for the vault door to exit. "We had a deal, Griphook!"

"The cup for the sword!" Griphook reminded. Harry lifted the sword and tossed it towards him. Griphook smirked as he caught it and then threw the cup their way, Sirius managed to catch it. "I agreed to get you into the bank, I never said I'd help you get out."

Using the goblin's hand, the door opened and Griphook ran out with the imperioused goblin. Narcissa, Sirius, and Harry raced to get out before the door closed, ending up on a small wooden ledge. Griphook was already past the dragon with the other goblin, then he abandoned the goblin there and got out.

The dragon easily fried the goblin and then other goblins were racing in to catch the intruders. "We need to get out of here, and we can't apparate." Sirius said.

"I've got an idea, but it might be madder than you saying we should break in here, Harry…" Narcissa said.

"Open to anything at this point!" Harry told her.

Narcissa aimed her wand for the chains on the dragon and fired off two spells to shatter the metal. The dragon thrashed around and took to the air, rising up towards the trio. Narcissa used a spell to break the wooden rail and she leapt herself onto the dragon's back. "Come on, quickly." Narcissa urged. Sirius and Harry, shocked, but shrugged and ran across to jump on. Narcissa shattered the last chain and the dragon took to flying up and crashed through the ceiling, which was the floor of the main part of the bank tellers, then up through the roof until they were outside.

Harry flicked his wand to get the dragon flying through the air, and it flew ahead towards the water. "That was mad, Cissa!" Sirius glared, then smiled. "But so much fun! You would have made one hell of a Marauder." Narcissa had to laugh a little.

"Is this the fun you and your friends had?" Narcissa asked as Sirius nodded.

Harry only shook his head as they rode the back of the dragon off into the sky.

. . .

After riding for so long, feeling they were safe; it was time to get off the dragon.

"This is as good a place as any. We're above water," Sirius told the two he was riding with. "Better let Severus know,"

Harry focused on the bond, calling Severus to him. "Alright, they should be here any moment. Let's jump," Harry informed.

Just across the way, on the land, Severus appeared with Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Lucius.

"Where are they?" Lucius inquired.

"My guess would have to be there…" Ron pointed to the incoming dragon.

"Or there, jumping off," Draco added as three figures were seen letting go and falling straight into the water below.

"Come on," Severus urged as they got to the edge and helped bring in Sirius, who was aiding Narcissa. Harry came along last, breathing hard, crawling to land with wide eyes. "Harry?..."

Harry had been seeing visions in the water while he swam. It wasn't just Voldemort going on a mass murdering spree inside the bank because it was reported Bellatrix's vault was broken into. Harry saw flashes of the Ravenclaw's diadem and he just figured out where it was.

"Are you alright, darling?" Lucius asked his wife while pulling a towel for her while Ron got one for Sirius and Hermione brought over another for Harry.

"Yes, thank you…" Narcissa panted as she accepted the warm hugs from her husband and son, happy to see them again.

"How did it go? Where's Griphook?" Hermione asked.

"The backstabbing little shit left us there." Sirius remarked. "But we got what we went for…" He held up the cup.

"That means there's just the diadem…" Draco realized.

"And I know where it is now…" Harry panted.

"Y-You do? Did touching the cup show you in the vault?" Narcissa inquired.

"N-No…Just now. In the water." Harry finally stood with help from Severus, who embraced him for warmth and gratefulness he was okay.

"Alright, tell us what happened after we get you three changed into dry things and warm." Severus informed. "We'll set up camp."

"No. No setting up camp, we're finishing this today. Tom's pissed. He knows what we did, he knows what we took…He just slaughtered a bunch of goblins at Gringotts, including Griphook. I saw the aftermath and no, I did not see the sword. It wasn't with Griphook's body." Harry stated. "Tom's about to make his move, we're out of time."

"You're certain?" Severus questioned.

"Entirely. We're going to be fighting for our lives against him to get that last horcrux. He's not just angry, but scared too." Harry mentioned as he put his palm to his scar. "He knows what we're after, just not which one. I managed to block that much from him."

"He should be." Ron scoffed. "Scared, I mean."

"You let him in?" Hermione asked.

"I didn't mean to. Everything at the bank, I wasn't focused…" Harry sighed.

"Harry, you can't do that." Hermione chastised.

"Hermione, I can't always help it, alright?" Harry told her firmly. "I sure as hell can't focus when Tom's angry because it sets off the scar and we were pretty far from Severus. When we're closer, his shields extend to strengthen my own."

"But Harry if he finds out what we're after…" Ron started.

"He knows what we're after. Just not which one we're after. And what does it matter?" Harry informed. "When have any of our plans actually held? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose. This is the end of this mission, we knew it was going to get hard…" He reminded.

"You three need to be dry and warm, then we'll work a plan to get the last one today, depending on where it is…" Lucius informed.

"Hogwarts." Harry told them. "The last one is at Hogwarts. It's the diadem of Ravenclaw. I saw it in flashes, I just can't figure out where in the school…" He revealed.

"We'll find it, Harry…But there's a problem. Death Eaters have invaded the school and taken over. We heard it on the Potterwatch radio program while you three were at Gringotts. We don't know the status of anything beyond that. If we go to the school, we need to be prepared to fight and we need to round the Order."

"We have no way to contact them out here." Draco reminded.

"Our best bet is to get back to the school, reform the army and the Order…By my guess, the school is going to become the grounds for the final battle and that is happening today or tomorrow." Harry told them. "It's time to end this."

With nothing else said, for the moment, Narcissa, Sirius, and Harry were able to get changed privately into dry clothes and warm up. Harry, Sirius, and Narcissa recanted to the others what had happened with the bank, how they escaped on the dragon. Harry went over the vision again, but there was nothing in it for the location of the diadem other than Harry being absolutely sure it was at Hogwarts.

"Alright, so we have the cup that we can't destroy yet because the sword has not reappeared to us." Hermione remarked.

"But once we regroup with everyone at school, we can get Ivy's fang to destroy the cup and the diadem." Draco reminded.

"Once we find the diadem. We have no idea where it could be and Hogwarts is huge." Ron added.

"Once we get into the school, I should be able to narrow it down based on where we go…" Harry stated.

"Yeah, how are we getting into the school?" Sirius inquired to his godson.

"I think we should go to Hogsmeade, use the passages from the map…" Harry suggested to them.

"That's…Actually not a bad idea. The Death Eaters wouldn't know about those." Severus agreed.

"Are we forgetting Pettigrew was a marauder? He helped make the map, he knows its passages!" Sirius sighed.

"Pettigrew is likely dead. I told you, Tom likely killed him for failing to hold us prisoner." Harry rolled his eyes. "If they knew about the passages, they would have taken over the school way before now. I bet you Pettigrew didn't say a word, to use them as an escape since he runs from confrontation."

"That's a good point. But we still need to be prepared that he told them, and they're sealed off so we can't sneak in." Narcissa informed. "I support Harry's idea, we go to Hogsmeade."

"Okay, then we go to Hogsmeade." The rest agreed.

. . .

Much later that night, the group apparated to Hogsmeade. Which had been a mistake. As soon as they landed, a loud blaring alarm sounded.

"Well, we're done for." Ron said.

"Hide." Harry told everyone quickly.

Death Eaters swarmed the village, checking everywhere while Harry and the group tried to evade them as much as possible.

"Potter!" Someone whispered harshly behind them. "Potter, get in here, now." It was an old man signaling to them to enter his home. The group quickly scattered inside and the man gave motion for them to keep moving backwards and out of sight while he explained to Death Eaters that he was letting out his cat. The group waited as the man finally came to them. "Are you barking mad, coming here?"

"You're Aberforth, aren't you?" Harry asked. "Albus's brother."

"So the old fool did mention me to people. I find that shocking," Aberforth remarked.

"Actually, it was Elphias Doge, who told me Albus had a brother…" Harry admitted. "Said you two weren't very close."

"We were not." Aberforth agreed. "Seems you're just as fool as him to fight this battle. Do yourself a favor, boy, and give up. Get away from here, out of the country…You'll live a little longer."

"I can't do that. There's a mission to complete…" Harry argued.

"Another one of my brother's stupid attempts for the Greater Good? Don't make me laugh. He was a fool, and you don't strike me as a fool Harry Potter. So tell me, why risk your life?" Aberforth pushed.

"The mission isn't stupid, it's the only way to kill the dark lord. Albus knew that, we figured it out together and I've not come this close to give up now. You may hate your brother, but I don't. Albus might have made some bad choices, but he's done the best he can. I trust the man I knew. And I'm going to see this through, even if it does kill me. I'll take the dark lord down with me. Now, I thank you for helping us out. But we need to get into the school, so we'll be going."

"Wait." Aberforth stopped him. "There's no use venturing back out there. I know what you planned to use to get into the castle, and it's pointless. Albus told me about the passages, mentioning it before he died. Came to me and asked me to aid you, should you come looking for help." He continued. "The passages were sealed, you can't use them. But I do know how to get you into the castle…You'll have to wait here, though."

"Fine." Harry agreed.

Aberforth looked at a photo on the wall, a young woman. "You know what to do." He instructed as the woman bowed and turned to walk down the path of the picture, eventually going out of sight. "Might as well sit back and gather your strength. Once you're revealed, the battle begins." He snapped his fingers to bring over plates of food and drinks for them.