𝟏 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟖
"what the fuck was that?!" donghyuck yelled when they landed on the floor after stepping off the cart that took them through a whole rollercoaster to get to the vault.
"i'm never doing this again." yunhee repeated, leaning over, thinking she was about to vomit, instead she saw herself in the reflection of a puddle looking like her usual self. "the potion has worn off already. i'm back to yunhee."
"it's the thieves downfall, washes away all the enchantments." griphook told her. "can be deadly."
"that's great. i don't think i could have looked at bellatrix for any longer." chenle grumbled.
"try living with her." jisung said as he helped jaemin up from the floor.
"just out of interest, is there any other way out of here?" renjun asked as the other goblin turned around.
"what the devil are all you doing down here? thieves! you gave up the..."
"imperio." yunhee said, her wand pointing to the goblin. he inhaled, a relaxed smile on his face.
there was a sudden sinister roar in the distance and everyone tensed, looking around for the source. they made their way towards an opening in the wall and found a large pale dragon chained up.
"bloody hell! that's an ukrainian ironbelly." chenle gasped and griphook handed him an instrument.
"the poor thing." yunhee mumbled, noticing the chains wrapped around it that dug into its body.
"not such a poor thing!" donghyuck exclaimed when the dragon stood up, ready to attack them. griphook aggressively shook the instrument in his hand which created a rattling sound and the dragon reacted by backing away.
"it's been trained to expect pain when it hears the noise." griphook told them, leading them around the room and past the dragon.
"still a poor thing. that's awful!" yunhee said, watching the creature cower into the corner while whining. they entered the vault, the door locking shut just as the dragon sent fire towards them.
"lumos." mark whispered, pointing his wand at the dozens of items inside the vault.
"accio horcrux." renjun said, but nothing happened.
"doubt that'll work." jaemin mumbled, accidentally walking into a table and knocking a gold goblet over.
"it was worth a try."
he picked up the golden object and it shook, duplicating into another one. he quickly dropped it and it hit the ground, continuing to multiply.
"what the hell."
"they've added the gemino curse! everything you touch will multiply." griphook said.
"i've found it! it's up there." mark said, pointing to an item at the end of the vault in the very far corner. "throw me the sword!"
jeno tossed him the sword as more things began to multiply, flooding the room completely. everyone was panicking, trying to move which only caused more of a disaster.
"everyone, stop moving!" jisung yelled and they all froze. he realised that when the items would touch, the curse would be activated. so as long as they stayed still, they would be fine.
the items briefly stopped multiplying as they all waited in an intense silence for mark to reappear. his hand shot out through the pile he had made and he crashed down beside chenle, the horcrux landing in front of griphook who snatched it.
"we had a deal!" mark shouted.
"the cup for the sword!"
"here!" he dumped the sword in front of him and griphook tossed the horcrux to jeno who put it back inside of his bag.
"i said i'd get you in, i didn't say anything about getting you out." griphook mocked, using the other goblin's hand to open the vault door so they could leave.
"i do not want to die like this!" jaemin yelled, struggling to make it to the door that mark and chenle had already reached.
"this is so stupid!" yunhee shouted, feeling herself sink under the items. a hand latched onto her wrist, stopping her from sinking any further.
"you good?" jeno asked, hauling her towards the door.
"now i am." she replied as they ran towards the railings. "is everyone out?"
"one... two... five... eight." jaemin counted everyone. "gosh. i feel like a mother doing a headcount of all her children."
"uh... duck!" jeno yelled, pulling yunhee and jaemin behind a pillar as spells were fired at them by the guards.
"we have to do something. anyone got ideas?" jisung said, narrowly dodging a spell.
"renjun, jaemin, aren't you the smart ones?" mark asked. "surely you've got something."
"i'm magic and general smart, not how-to-get-past-a-dragon-and-guards-that-want-to-kill-us smart!" renjun responded.
"i think i might have something, but i don't know if you'll like it." yunhee said. she aimed her wand at the railing. "reducto!"
"it can't be that bad, right?" chenle asked. "um... why are you running? yunhee?! what the hell?!"
he peered over the side of the pillar to see her clinging to the dragons back. she waved at them to do the same and without hesitation, they jumped onto the dragon as it attacked the goblins and guards below them.
"relashio!" jaemin yelled, his wand pointed at the chains that kept the dragon down.
it freed the creature and it began climbing up the cliffs and mountains until it broke through the floor of gringotts where all the elves were doing their paperwork. the group covered their heads as the dragon then smashed through the glass and paused at the top of the building.
"now what?" mark asked.
"i really don't want to do this, but... reducto!" yunhee fired at the dragon's tail and it let out a cry of pain before it took off flying into the sky. she rubbed the side of the dragon. "sorry, friend."
"your friend tried to kill us all a couple of minutes ago." jisung mumbled as they flew above water.
"i think we'll have to jump." mark said when he saw that they would be approaching land soon.
"when?"
"now!"
"are you mad!" renjun yelled, afraid to fall from so high up in the sky.
the others began dropping and it was only him and yunhee left.
"take my hand! we'll drop together." she told him, holding her hand out to take.
when he did, she let go of the dragon. they both fell into the water, sinking for a moment, then swam to the surface. she turned to renjun, his hair flattened on his forehead, and tried to not laugh at his horrified expression.
"wasn't too bad, was it?"
"that was bloody scary." he replied and she laughed, knowing that would be his response.
they swam to the rocky land not too far away from them and climbed out the water, their clothes sticking to their bodies, a feeling they all hated.
"he knows, you-know-who," mark told them. "he knows we broke into gringotts. he knows what we took, and he knows we're hunting horcruxes."
"how is it you know?" jisung asked, confused.
"i saw him."
"you let him in? you can't do that!" jeno said as they hurried up a grassy hill.
"i can't help it, alright?!"
"never mind that. what happened?" chenle interrupted as jeno placed his bag on the floor, opening it up and taking out clothes.
"he's angry and scared. 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. i mean, he's already blocking off yunhee's dream and visions of the future."
"you're what?" jaemin asked, turning to yunhee.
she forgot she hadn't told him and donghyuck about being a seer. they sort of had an idea that she was powerful and had abilities because the other death eaters had mentioned it previously around them and because voldemort desperately wanted her. they just didn't have much time to dwell on it.
"i'll explain later."
"and there's more. one of the horcruxes is at hogwarts." mark explained, taking off his shirt to change into a new one.
"what? you saw it?" yunhee asked, watching him. she knew it wasn't the right time or place, but she couldn't help it. he clearly worked out in his spare time.
"i saw the castle and rowena ravenclaw. it must have something to do with her. we have to go there, now!"
"well, we can't just waltz into hogwarts all of a sudden. we need to plan this." renjun argued, handing yunhee a towel after putting on a fresh jumper. she covered her body in the towel, shivering, as they all continued to argue about their next move.
"none of our plans have ever worked though." jeno replied.
"but snape is headmaster now. i'm sure we could just walk through the front door, but none of you can." donghyuck said, motioning to the other two slytherins.
"fine. we'll go to honeydukes in hogsmeade and take the secret passage in the cellar." mark suggested. "there's something wrong with him, you-know-who. i can't follow his thoughts anymore, it's all disconnected. nothing makes sense."
"it could be the horcruxes. maybe he's growing weak or dying." chenle suggested.
"no... it's more like he's wounded. he feels more dangerous. anyways, it's finalised. tonight, we'll go hogsmeade and find a way into hogwarts."
"well, what do we do now? i'm freezing." chenle mumbled, placing a towel on his shoulders.
"yeah, and you won't get any warmer with wet hair." yunhee said, snatching the towel.
she stood in front of him and rubbed the towel against his hair to dry it. he bent down a bit for her to reach him better, his face closer to hers now that they were at the same height.
"hi." he grinned and she felt her cheeks heat up.
"bye. dry your own hair." she dropped the towel on his face then moved over to jeno's bag. she pulled out a fresh set of clothes and removed the towel from around her. "mark, hand me the invisibility cloak."
"what? why?" he asked, but handed it to her anyway.
"because i want to change."
"do you really not trust us to not look? we're not perverts." jaemin said. he wasn't mad or trying to make her feel guilty. he was only teasing.
"it's not that..." she replied, throwing the cloak around her shoulders. "i don't know. i feel like we're always being watched and being out in this open field is even more uncomfortable for me."
"we understand. jaemin's just being an arse." jeno said, smacking the slytherin on his back.
"aw, no. jaemin's sweet." she said, then covered her head. "anyway, can you all turn away. even though you can't see me, i can see you facing me and it's weird."
"geez. so bossy." donghyuck joked, rolling his eyes as he turned around. he felt a hand smack the back of his head. "what the hell!"
"keep talking and you'll see what i do — actually, no, you won't because i'm invisible." yunhee laughed.
"you're a psycho, that's what you are. so—" he was cut off by something hard hitting his back. "OW! okay, i'm sorry!"
⚯͛
later that night, the group apparated to hogsmeade, but when they did, loud alarms sounded like cats screeching echoed throughout. they ran to hide under tables nearby, holding their breath, as people looked around the area. fortunately, the sound then went off somewhere else and the people left.
"this way." mark whispered, running out from under the tables. they followed him into an alleyway that led to a dead end.
"oh no." chenle muttered, shaking the gate that blocked their way.
from beside them, there was the sound of a door opening and then a voice spoke. "in here."
they didn't know what it was, but they got this feeling of safeness from the voice and hurried through the door. they passed by a man and most of them did a double-take.
"did you see him?" jeno asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "for a second, i thought he was..."
"dumbledore. me too." yunhee replied.
"mark. why can i see you in this?" jisung asked, gazing into some glass hung up on the wall. it looked like a mirror, only it reflected the face of mark instead of jisung.
"bloody fools, what were you thinking, coming here?" the man scolded. "have you any idea how dangerous it is?"
"you're aberforth," mark acknowledged.
"dumbledore's brother." yunhee finished. she recognised him from a dream she had long ago.
"it's you who i've been seeing in here. you're the one that sent dobby." mark said.
"why've you left him?"
"he's dead."
"sorry to hear that. i liked that elf."
"we all did." chenle mumbled, kicking a pile of dust on the floor.
"who gave that to you? the mirror?" mark asked, pointing to the mirror on the wall.
"mudungus fletcher, 'bout a year ago."
"dung had no right selling that to you. it belongs to..."
"sirius. albus told me. he also told me you'd likely to be hacked off if you ever found that i had it. but, ask yourself: where would you be if i didn't?" aberforth said, placing a tray of food and drinks down on the table. everyone hastily picked the refreshments up, starving after an eventful day.
"do you hear from the others much? from the order?" jeno asked since his parents were a part of it he hoped he could find out if they were doing alright.
"the order's finished." he replied. "you-know-who's won. anyone who says otherwise is killing themselves."
"we need to get into hogwarts, tonight." mark told him. "dumbledore gave us a job to do."
"did he now? nice job? easy?"
"i'm going into the other room." yunhee said, taking her drink and cookie with her and renjun followed, silently. she hadn't noticed him so when she went to take a seat on a sofa by the fire and he sat down on the armrest, she jumped, falling off.
he burst out laughing at her annoyed face and she couldn't help but laugh as well. he helped her up from the floor and she fell onto the sofa, listening to the soft sound of fire crackling.
"your laugh is beautiful by the way." renjun said.
"you are beautiful." she replied, rubbing her hands together. she wasn't lying. she still remembered when she had the biggest crush on him during second and third year and would only go to the library to bump into him.
"don't say that." he muttered, looking away.
"why?"
"because i'll fall for you even more." he said, placing a hand on his chest. "my heart is beating so fast right now. this is what you do to me... i'm falling hard for you, yunhee."
yunhee wanted to scream. this was not the right time. she was getting confessions left and right from her friends and didn't know what to do. of course, somewhere in her heart, she had feelings for them, but she was pushing them away.
"you've gone silent. sorry. i shouldn't have said it like this."
"no need to apologise. i just can't give you an answer right now." she told him, awkwardly moving her hair off her face and shoulders.
"i understand." he whispered, glaring down at his feet.
"don't be sad. i don't want things to be awkward between us. please." she said, patting his arm.
"of course not." he looked up, smiling.
"yunhee! renjun!"