Gringotts

We apparated onto the streets of Diagon Alley. It was dark and gloomy unlike the usual alley filled with many witches and wizards. Again I felt another rush of guilt. While we were out hunting for horcruxes people were dying everyday and yet I still decided to break Harry's wand. The only witches and wizards roaming the streets were those in favor of The Dark Lord. Harry grabbed my hand tightly pulling me with him flat against the wall as one wizard noticed us.

"Madam Lestrange," The wizard called out for Hermione with a strange smile.

"Good morning," Hermione replied in her usual voice tone. The wizard stared at her for a moment suspiciously and thrown back before walking away.

"Good morning? Good morning? You're Bellatrix Lestrange, not a school girl!" Griphook muttered.

"Hey! Easy!" Ron said pulling Hermione to his side.

"If she gives us away, we must swear to use that sword to slit our own throats. Understand?"

"If that happens I'll make sure to use you as bait goblin," I said in a firm tone.

"No, he's right. I speak stupid," Hermione said taking deep breaths.

"Okay. Let's do it," Ron whispered. Ron and Hermione were first to enter the streets, both being disguised as death eaters leaving just Harry, Griphook, and I. Everything about Griphook was extremely bothering me. His eyes did not leave Hermione's bag containing the Sword of Gryffindor for even a second.

"I don't trust Griphook," I whispered into Harry's ear.

"Why? What's up?" He whispered back taking out his cloak of invisibility from Hermione's bag and handing it to me.

"He's too greedy."

"You're not wrong, but this is the only option. Let's catch up with Ron and Hermione," he said kneeling down in front of me. Before I could get on his back, Griphook rushed in front of me and getting on his back instead making Harry jump. He looked back up at me confused eyeing Griphook and I.

"It's fine, I can walk. I was stabbed in the stomach not my legs," I whispered throwing the cloak of invisibility around the three of us. Harry still wrapped an arm around my waist holding me close while we walked behind Ron and Hermione towards Gringotts. No goblins bothered to look up at us as we entered Gringotts. We walked down the aisle towards the very end carefully following behind the two. When Hermione reached the end of the aisle she cleared her throat in hopes to get the goblin's attention. The goblin didn't even bother and continued to do what he was doing.

"I wish to enter my vault," Hermione said as we reached the end.

"Identification?" The goblin asked not looking up at her.

"I hardly think that would be necessary."

The goblin finally looked up stopping what he was doing, "Madam Lestrange."

"I don't like to be kept waiting," She said trying to speak more bitchy. The goblin didn't reply and walked down his podium.

"They know she's an impostor. They'd be warned. Bogord knows," Griphook whispered pointing at the goblin at his podium.

"Harry... What do we do, Harry?" Ron whispered. From behind us, I could see a security guard walking towards us and that we'd caught many goblin's attention.

"Madam Lestrange, would you mind presenting your wand?" Bogord asked walking back up to the podium with another.

"And why should I do that?"

"It's the bank's policy! I'm sure you understand, given current climate."

"Let's walk a little closer," I whispered drawing my wand and walking towards the podium.

"No! I most certainly do not understand!" Hermione shouted.

"I'm afraid, I must insist," the goblin said, the security guard getting closer.

"Imperio," I whispered the spell pointing my wand towards Bogord. Green mist came out of my wand and the goblin sniffed it all in.

"Very well, Madam Lestrange. If you would follow me?" The goblin smiled stepping down his podium again. Hermione and Ron looked at each other confused and started to follow the goblin inside the vaults of Gringotts.

"That was impressive," Harry whispered following behind them.

"Perks of being a death eater's daughter isn't it?" I scoffed taking the cloak of invisibility off once we stepped onto a cart leading deep inside Gringotts. As soon as we walked on the cart, Griphook jumped off of Harry's back sitting at the very front to drive the cart. The cart started off moving slowly soon catching it's speed. Harry held me tightly as the cart began to move extremely fast along the rails. The rails resembled one of a rollercoaster with many spins and high drops. The cart was moving aggressively giving me a sick stomach and a slight headache, worse than usual strangely.

"What is that, Griphook?" Harry yelled looking down at a waterfall below the rails. Griphook didn't reply attempting to stop the cage and failing. The cart didn't slow down at all nor stop and continued going along the rail at an intense speed. Griphook continued to try stopping the cart creating sparks as he slowed the cart down but it didn't come to a complete stop. The cart continued to move slowly through a waterfall before stopping in the middle of the rail. Once the cart had made it past the waterfall, the effects of Ron and Hermione's polyjuice disguise wore off and we were all drenched. We were all in the middle of catching our breaths when the seats on the carts folded, dropping us all of the cart falling fast.

"Aresto Momentum!" I yelled giving us a pause just before we hit the ground.

"Well done, Evelyn," Ron said catching his breath.

"Oh no, you two're like you again," Harry said helping me up to my feet.

"The Thief's Downfall, washes away all enchantment. Can be deadly," Griphook said.

"You don't say. Just out of interest, is there any other way outta here?" Ron scoffed.

"No."

"What the devil are all you doing down here? Thieves! You gave up the..."

"Imperio," I casted the spell at the goblin again turning towards Griphook. "You best be glad that's not you." I was out of breath more than usual and a lot more tired, still feeling a bit sick in the stomach with a light headache.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked pulling me away from the others while they were catching their breaths.

"Yeah, probably just still tired."

"I knew you shouldn't come. Take the cloak and leave before you start feeling worse."

"The reason I am tired is because you didn't give me a chance to rest Potter, nothing serious," I said making Harry laugh slightly. My laughter was cut off abruptly feeling extremely sick in the stomach and feeling like throwing up. I quickly covered my mouth gagging slightly. Harry quickly wrapped his arm around me looking at me extremely concerned.

"Are you--" He was cut off by a strange roaring sound echoing through the cave-like building.

"That doesn't sound good," Ron said looking over at Harry and I.

"We best go check it out," I said taking the opportunity to change the subject and started to walk towards the source of the sound. As we got closer to the source of the sound, it started to sound more clear. It sounded like something breathing. A creature breathing.

"Bloody hell!" Ron said as we turned a corner seeing a dragon all chained up and bloody with cuts on it's skin. "It's an Ukrainian Ironbelly."

"Here," Griphook said handing Ron a strange gadget made to make noise once shook. The dragon noticed our presence and got up roaring breathing out bits of fire. As Griphook began to shake the gadget the dragon backed away towards the wall roaring in pain. Ron hesitated for a second but soon began to shake the gadget slowly following behind Griphook and walking past the dragon. "It's been trained to expect pain when it hears this noise."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione yelled. No one replied. It was a barbaric thing to keep a dragon in such poor condition going as far as torture but as of right now, we had to get past. My heart broke staring at the dragon roaring out flat against the wall. It's pupils were as grey as it's skin. I don't know much about dragons but it looked like it was blind. I began picking up my speed and walked past the dragon faster to maybe end the pain for the dragon earlier.

We stopped in front of a vault door where Griphook used Bogrod's hand to open the door. Leaving the continuous roars of the dragon behind, we entered the vault. Inside was a tremendous amount of gold and other treasures. The door closed behind us locking itself leaving us in the pitch darkness.

"Lumos," Harry said taking out his wand providing us light. Ron, Hermione, and I too took out our wands lighting it to look around the vault.

"Blimey!" Ron yelled looking around at all the golden treasures.

"Accio Horcrux!" Hermione yelled though nothing happened.

"You seem you're gonna try this here, won't you?" Ron said with a slight smile.

"No kind of magic would work in here," Griphook muttered standing right in front of the exit.

"It's in here, Harry? Can you feel anything?" I whispered walking behind him. He didn't reply and continued to look around locking his vision on a golden cup sitting on top of a pile of gold. I heard something drop on the ground followed by Hermione's gasp and turned around to face her. On the floor, the piece of gold began multiplying itself rapidly.

"That's it! Up there!" Harry shouted continuing to look at the golden cup. As Ron and Hermione moved around stepping away from the multiplying ring more objects were dropped. Each time it did, it began multiplying rapidly.

"They have added the Gemino curse," Griphook said standing flat against a wall away from everything.

"Give me the sword," Harry yelled at Hermione sticking his hand out. She quickly pulled the sword out of her purse and threw it at Harry who caught it and started to making his way up towards the golden cup. On his way, everything he touched began to multiply fast. I didn't try to walk towards him noticing whatever we touched would multiply.

"Stop moving! Everything you touch will multiply!" I yelled at Ron and Hermione. Both of them stopped allowing nothing else around us to multiply. At Harry's side, the golden treasures began forming a mountain covering Harry up completely. There was a momentary silence while Harry was completely underneath all the treasure until he jumped out landing onto a pile of treasure towards us with the golden cup in his hand.

"Do it!" Harry yelled as he stumbled on the piles of treasure letting go of the golden cup. Griphook quickly snatched the golden cup before I could reach it holding it out for a clear view.

"We had deal, Griphook!" Harry yelled.

"The cup for the sword!" Griphook yelled back sticking out his hands. Harry quickly threw the sword at Griphook and he threw the cup at me. Hermione and I let out a scream struggling in the pool of treasure. I could feel a sharp pain on my stomach possibly from all the pressure the treasures were putting on my wound.

"I said I'll get you in, I didn't say anything about getting you out," He said using bogrod's hand to open the door again. We could only watch him leave the vault being stuck in the amount of treasure filling the room. Harry practically swam his way towards me wrapping his arms around my waist struggling through the amount of treasure pulling me along. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders in tears feeling the pain get worse.

"Griphook!" Harry yelled as we made our way out the pool of treasure.

"Thieves!" Griphook yelled not looking back at us.

"GRIPHOOK!"

"Hey, thieves!" Griphook continued to yell. By the time Hermione and Ron caught up with us, he was already using the noise-making gadget to get past the dragon. The goblin under the imperious curse however stood right in front of the fire smiling at us.

"We've still got Bogrod, we can get out of here if--" Ron was interrupted by the dragon breathing out fire straight at him. "That's unfortunate." Soon the security guards came running in firing spells at our direction. Harry helped me run away and took cover behind a wall with Hermione and Ron.

"We can't just stand here, You got any idea?" I yelled facing Hermione.

"I've got something, but it's mad! Extremely mad!" She yelled motioning towards the dragon.

"Harry, remember riding buckbeak in our third year?" I yelled catching my breath.

"Yeah it is one of the best things that happened to me but right now isn't exactly the time to talk about it," he replied out of breath.

"I thought so too. Reducto!" I yelled exploding the railing just beside me. Hermione quickly made a run for it landing on the dragon and hanging on to the spikes on it's back.

"Well, come on, then!" She yelled gesturing us to jump on.

"Do you think you can make it?" Harry said as Ron ran past me jumping onto the dragon.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Together," He said grabbing my hand and pulling me with him as he jumped onto the dragon.

"Relashio" I shot a spell at the chain holding the dragon down before grapping onto the spike on it's back. The dragon breathed out fire at the goblins and security guards before looking up towards the ceiling. There wasn't enough from for it to fly yet and it started to climb the walls heading straight up. While climbing, the dragon grabbed onto the cart rail breaking it and throwing off a small group of goblins. It didn't stop there and continued to climb breaking the ceiling and entering the top floor of Gringotts. It continued to breath out fire at the goblins before standing up, breaking the chandelier. The little bits of glass from the chandelier came down at us creating minor cuts on our face as the dragon broke through the glass roof and out into Diagon Alley. It stopped for a second just enjoying the fresh air and looked around the big world.

"Now what?" Ron yelled.

"Reducto!" Hermione shot a spell at the dragon's tail making the dragon roar and fly. It stumbled at first, probably for being enslaved underground for too long but managed to fly successfully.

"That was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" Ron yelled as the dragon flew up high into the air.

"Yeah, nice thinking Hermione," I said catching my breath. Harry wrapped his arms around me kissing my forehead gently looking at me worried. My wound was burning and sharp pains were pulsating from it. He reached down slowly lifting my shirt up a little revealing the bloody bandage. bits of blood were also on my shirt leaking out.

"It wasn't as bad as this before we left," He said.

"No, not even half as bad. It didn't even hurt. Only uncomfortable. I think it might've reopened back at Gringotts," I said continuing to try and catch my breath.

"I'm sorry," he said kissing my forehead again. "I shouldn't have let you come."

"It's not your fault Harry. I was completely fine before we left. Besides, it was my choice."

"I'll kill her for hurting you," He whispered. I didn't reply and rested my head on the dragon's back as we continued to fly. I closed my eyes shut trying not to wince or show I was in pain for the entire flight. We continued to fly for what felt like hours-- years even. Harry checked in on me every now and then and rested his head on mine. Our faces were inches apart if not less. I felt safe under his arm and in his presence.

"We need to drop!" Ron yelled as the dragon flew over a familiar body of water, "The shell cottage is near. If we go any further we'll miss it. I say we jump!"

"When?" Hermione yelled.

"Now!" Harry shouted jumping off the dragon pulling me with him, his arm still around my waist. We dropped into the water and immediately the pain in my stomach intensified. Slight bits of water around me started to turn red from the blood coming from my wound. I struggled to swim in the pain and so was Harry. His arm was no longer around my waist. Instead, he pushed me towards Ron. Ron grabbed me underwater and helped me swim up above the water. I gasped for air and soon Harry too swam up above the water. He was staring into something like he'd always do whenever Voldemort was in his mind. Ron helped me towards the land and help me up as the rest of us got on land.

"He knows. You-Know-Who. He knows we broke into Gringotts. He knows what we took, and he knows we're hunting Horcruxes," Harry said quickly running over and wrapping his arms around me as Ron backed away.

"How did he know?" Hermione asked taking out dry towels and clothes out of her purse.

"I saw him," Harry said grabbing the dry towel and wrapping it around me. He didn't even bother putting on his dry clothes and just held me close to him.

"You let him in? Harry, you can't do that!"

"Hermione, I can't always help it! Well, maybe I can. I don't know! Never mind!"

"You should try learning occulemency," I said leaning onto Harry for support.

"What happened?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Well, he's angry... and scared too. He knows, if we find and destroy all the Horcruxes, we'll be able to kill him. I reckon he'll stop at nothing to make sure we don't find the rest. And there's more. One of them is at Hogwarts," Harry said.

"What? You saw it?" Hermione said.

"I saw the castle. And Rowena Ravenclaw. It must have something to do with her. We have to go there, today. Right after Fleur helps Evelyn."

"Well, we can't do that! We've got to plan, we've got to figure it out!"

"Hermione, when have any of our plans ever actually worked? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose."

"He's right," Ron said. "One problem... Snape's Headmaster now, we can't just move freely from the front door!

"Well, we'll go to Hogsmeade, to Honeydukes. There's a secret passage in the cellar. Harry and I used it in our third year to sneak into the Hogsmeade trip," I said.

"...There's something wrong with him. It's like, you know, in the past... I've always been able to follow his thoughts. And now everything just feels disconnected.

"Maybe it's the Horcruxes. Maybe he's getting weaker. Maybe he's dying!" Ron shouted excitedly.

"No! No, it's.. it's more like he's wounded. If anything, he feels more dangerous."

~***~

I examined the silver dagger Bellatrix used to stab me back at the manor. The pain in my stomach would return whenever I'd make any sharp movements but it was bearable.

"I agree with Harry, you know. I think you should stay behind," Fleur said walking up beside me.

"I'll be fine. I dueled you-know-who and made it out alive once. What less can I do?" I said. Fleur didn't reply and looked at me with slightly teary eyes letting out a sigh. "Besides, you entered the tri-wizard tournament. You've done things more dangerous than most of the things I did. Harry will keep me safe, I promise. I have to stay with him. You know what has to happen."

"Be safe. As safe as possible," She said placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Of course. Mind if I take this?" I asked showing her the silver dagger.

꧁♡꧂

Thank you for reading my story! Commenting / Voting greatly helps the growth of this story :)

I posted this on my conversations board but I think I should address it again. There were few things I wanted to clear from my last chapter.