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chapter sixteen;
vault 66 & sleep
Gringotts wasn't as grand as Amaya expected it to be.
Yes, it was all set in marble and imposing amid Diagon Alley, but inside it was a lot less magical than what Amaya was used to. In Spain, the wizarding bank was in Wizarding Madrid, and it was fucking spectacular. She could feel the magic overflowing from every surface, nearly seeing it in the air amongst vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows depicting the journey of the creation of the bank. The magic in Gringotts was imposing nonetheless, it just didn't overwhelm her, it was sharp and cold, and undeniably strong with its wards—just not strong enough.
Amaya had realized that the moment she walked in. They did have wards set in place, and by top-notch Curse Breakers most likely, but they were made to prevent break-ins from wizards relying on a wand, or at least not in tune with magic like she was taught to be.
Her father used to say, "The only way to keep a fine wizard out of an establishment, is to either get rid of all magic or achieve the point in which the magic is so overwhelming just the slightest meddling could kill. Otherwise, it can be manipulated. Well, only by a fine wizard that is."
Gringotts had strong security, strong enough that if Amaya wasn't raised to be a thief she might've been unable to manipulate—alas, she was, and it might have taken her a while, but Amaya could fairly easily work around the bank's magic.
Nevertheless, today wasn't the day for heists. That day, Amaya planned to go into the bank and merely watch, learn, and perhaps see what hidden treasure her father had left in the bank.
Which had to be somewhat stupefying seeing as the goblin they'd be talking to at the bank stuttered the rest of his sentence the moment Amaya set the key to the vault on the counter.
"Vault 66?" he said, his voice barely concealing his surprise. "Who did you say you are Miss?"
Amaya and James exchange a look. Glancing around the bank, Amaya fixed her leather jacket, trying to conceal the muggle trousers and short tank top she had underneath—she was starting to regret not wearing a dress. The way the goblin, Odbert was his name, was looking at her was akin to the look the Guardas had when they told her she'd been thrown in jail.
"Amaya Santoro de la Cerda," she answered clearly, doing her best to imitate how haughtily her mother would say the name.
"De la Cerda?" James asked with a frown just as the goblin's brows raised a fraction and he questioned, "Santoro, you say?"
"My mother's surname," Amaya quickly explained to James before turning to the goblin with a nod. "Yes, Santoro. I believe my father was a client of yours?"
"Your family, Miss Santoro," corrected Odbert, his beady little eyes sparkling in greedy excitement. "Oldest foreign family in the bank."
"Well, I wish to visit my vault," said Amaya firmly.
The goblin fingers tapped on the key and he pursed his lips. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, Miss, not without proof of who you are."
"Proof?" James asked, and Amaya could hear the incredulity in his voice.
"Yes, yes," said Odbert, "Such an old vault comes with higher security, Mr. Potter."
"When you say proof," Amaya began, "Do you mean—"
"A blood test, Miss Santoro." He reached for something under his desk and then placed a golden plate atop the counter, placing the key on top of it. "Just a drop will do."
The plate, goblin made, was waning off a type of magic Amaya had never felt before. It was channeling the key's magic and the imprints of its users. She figured it was used to see whether the magic aligned.
Odbert passed her a knife but Amaya wasn't stupid enough to give him her blood just like that. Instead, she made a nick the size of a paper cut on her finger with magic and touched her finger to the plate.
When she raised it, the imperceptible dot of blood on the plate disappeared, and the gold shimmered for a moment before it went still. The goblin pursed his lips again. "Follow me to your vault, Miss Santoro."
James and Amaya shared a victorious look and Amaya snatched her key as the two of them followed the little goblin.
Odbert took them to a little cart that ran through the tracks intertwining beneath the surface, miles down to the various vaults in the bank. It was efficient, seeing that it was the only way to get to the vaults since there was an Anti-Apparition charm around the bank. It was rather close to the one in Madrid, in terms of vaults miles down within the Earth, only in the wizarding bank in Spain, they'd created their own type of Floo Network that could be used for better access—one could argue though, it wasn't the safest.
The moment they sat down on the cart, James put his arm over the back of his seat. "How come I never knew you had your mother's surname?" he asked her and Amaya looked up at him with a shrug.
"Never came up I guess. It's not the name I use." She glanced around to see Odbert sitting down and felt the carriage jerk on the tracks. "What do you think will be down there?"
"Gold?" he said as the cart started moving, and Amaya rolled her eyes. James smiled. "Whatever it is, it'll be fine."
"Thanks for coming with me—" Amaya's words broke into a shriek when the cart fell down a slope, faster than she would've expected, and she heard James laugh.
Amaya didn't even have time to glare at him because the next moment they were taking a sharp turn that had her praying for every Saint her mother used to teach her, and cursing like a sailor as she grabbed onto James' arm, her nails surely leaving marks on his skin with every turn and twist they took.
It was weird, how on a broomstick, Amaya could go as fast if not faster than the little cart, spin around in the air, and even fall with full confidence, but a ride on the rickety cart had her stomach twisting, her soul leaving her body a couple of times.
She was hanging on to James, who was highly amused, for her life. She would kill him if they left the cart alive, how could he have forgotten to tell her it would be a torture device to test her body's grip to life?
The ride was long and sickening, they got splattered with magic water along the way that Odbert assured them was just the "Thief's Downfall" that was set in place to prevent thieves (a piece of information Amaya did not know about). By the time they got to the sixties, the cart had slowed down on a steady incline, until it stopped in its tracks in front of the door to vault 66.
Amaya didn't waste a second to get out of the torturous contraption with James cackling as he landed on the ground next to her, bumping her shoulder. "Come on, Maya, it was fun."
"Fun?" She felt like gagging, her stomach flipped upside down.
James' grin was lopsided as he looked at her, smoothing her hair down as she glared at him murderously. "Exhilarating, don't you think?"
"I think my soul left my body somewhere around the first few vaults," she replied with a scowl, batting his hands away from her and James laughed, tucking them in his pocket.
"Key, Miss Santoro," Odbert made himself known again, standing in front of the grand door to the vault, that even from where she was standing, half dizzy still, felt different than the ones they'd passed by.
Amaya passed the goblin the key, grimacing when she wobbled on her feet the slightest and James snorted from behind her. She glared at him again and he looked up innocently.
The goblin took the key and placed it on the door, twisting it once before the whole door seemed to shake, the doorway around gleaming a red color before a spot in the middle of the intricate design forged of metal and glass in the door began glowing the same color.
"What's happening?" asked James, sounding as confused as Amaya when the door didn't open.
Odbert placed his palm upon the glowing red, ignoring them, and something clicked from inside, and yet the door remained closed. He looked back at Amaya impatiently. "You're to open the door, Miss."
Confused, Amaya walked in front of the door and touched the glowing red spot in the middle of it. She felt a wave of magic rush into her before it left completely, and when she stepped back the door to the vault vanished, leaving way to the inside.
And fuck, was James right. Gold piled up in turrets, trinkets of every kind laid upon furniture that seemed ancient and yet still in good condition. Artifacts were strewn around the vault that seemed bigger than she would've expected it, with paintings hanging on the walls and the ground, statues, and busts everywhere, and Amaya recognized several as items her father had stolen and not sold.
"I will wait outside for you," said Odbert, as Amaya and James stared at the inside of the vault in amazement and surprise. "I must not go further."
"You mustn't or you can't?" asked Amaya and Odbert pursed his lips.
"It is an old vault, Miss. International and there's a leeway to personal security. Your ancestors made sure no one could steal from the vault." He looked paler now. "There's no magic inside."
Amaya's lips parted and suddenly the sickness from before was nothing compared with what she would feel if she walked into the vault. "No magic?"
"Well, there's enough to keep a wizard and a muggle afoot," said the goblin bitterly. "Any goblin that steps foot inside perishes. Or so the stories go."
That made sense, Amaya thought. Wizards had magic of their own and as long as that kept strong they could inhibit somewhere without magic for some time, and Muggles were used to little magic on their own. But Goblins, and magical creatures, their magic was not solely their own, they relied on the environment they lived in to provide them with magic, like humans needed air.
James' hand slipped into hers and he tugged her closer, making Amaya look up at him. He looked at her, his brows furrowed. "You know we don't have to go in?"
She rolled her eyes, forcing a smile on her face. "Of course we do. Besides, my family has been gathering a secret fortune for centuries, fuck if I won't explore it."
"Off we go then."
And they walked into the vault and even prepared for the feeling, Amaya felt a chill crawl up her spine when suddenly the air around them felt void of any life, stiffing almost, and all she could do was urge her magic to wane off her so she felt warmer.
"Fucking hell," James cursed with a shudder. "You had to live in a cell like this?" he asked horrified and Amaya nodded with a click of her tongue.
"Yup." She changed the topic fast before James had the chance to pity her. "Let's look around shall we?"
She let go of his hand and walked further inside the vault, looking around at the many treasures left not only by her father (and Goldsaint) but Santoros in the past who felt it wise to guard some of their possessions across the sea in a vault so safe it lacked magic.
She found a random pouch amongst the piles of gold, embroidered with gold stitching upon emerald silk, with pearls scattered across it, and it felt luxurious as if it used to belong to kings and queens, and knowing her family's influence, she wouldn't be surprised if it did.
When she reached inside, she found it to be about thrice as big as the outside. So she started filling it up with gold. That way she wouldn't have to come back for more money and could pay the Potters back for all their hospitality.
"Hey, I found a painting of you!" James's voice echoed through the vault. "You look adorable."
Frowning, Amaya walked towards his voice and found James staring in amazement at a portrait hanging on the wall, of Amaya when she was about two years old, dressed in a little white lace dress, her cheeks chubby and rosy, and she smiled at whoever was painting her. She was waving her hands around, babbling about.
"How did you know it was me?" Amaya asked, clearing her throat when her voice broke.
She didn't know why seeing the painting made her heart clench. Perhaps it was the fact she looked so happy and careless, and childlike in the portrait, or perhaps it was the fact that her father found it important enough to keep in the safe. Or maybe it was the lack of magic that caused her body to react weirdly.
"Your eyes," James said with no hesitation.
Amaya frowned up at him and then looked at the baby in the picture, tilting her head. She knew it was her, there were multiple portraits and pictures she'd had to sit through and she'd seen most but... Her eyes were dark, there was nothing special about them, even if the baby version of them was younger and fascinated with the world.
"What about them?"
James smiled. "They turn the color of whiskey when the light hits. Like amber almost."
The baby in the portrait turned her head, and like James said her eyes turned whiskey when the light hit. And then baby Amaya noticed them at last, and her smile grew bigger, her little chubby arms reaching out to them in the painting.
In all honesty, Amaya wanted to reach into the painting, pick the baby up, and make sure she'd never see the horrors that she went through. But that wasn't possible, so she just turned around and tugged James along so they could explore the rest of the vault.
By the time they got back to the Manor, Amaya had almost thrown up from the ride back to the bank, and again when James apparated them home the two didn't mix well. James had apologized with a grimace and offered to make her some tea.
He'd been like that since the day she'd told him everything. Making sure she knew she was cared for and to be honest, Amaya was starting to get used to it. To wake up every morning next to him after a night of not being able to keep their hands off each other. Of working all day on the heist, and studying the Horcrux, without a minute passing when she didn't think about when she would see him next, so she could hear about his day, and tell him about hers.
Perhaps she was getting too used to it. And despite every good thing, there was always that voice in her head that whispered things she was choosing to ignore but still heard. Whispering that Amaya was just a convenience for James, a girl who moved right next door. Whispering that she wasn't worthy of him—maybe that was why she'd been avoiding the topic of labeling what they were because once it became real, it could easily be torn down.
She wasn't ready to let him go. Quite frankly she didn't think she would ever be able to. Not unless he told her to get lost.
The week was chaotic. For once, Remus and Amaya had come up with the brilliant idea of analyzing the diadem's Horcrux magic and creating a device that would sort of work like a compass, pointing to the direction of a Horcrux when in its vicinity.
That was harder than they thought. Just being near the damned thing, made Amaya sick to her stomach and Remus' wolf was so fussy his sass had turned into passive-aggressive comments about any and everything every time they took the Horcrux out of the box.
"Oh, please enlighten me with your vast knowledge of everything. It's not like I've heard that story a million times before." He'd said that after Amaya told him she liked her tea with a bit of lemon in it.
The diadem affected them, but by the end of the week, they'd both grown accustomed to it and found solutions to reduce its magical presence over them, like not having it out of the box for longer than a few moments, and sometimes, spelling the box so it could let some of its magic through so she could analyze it without it being overwhelming whilst Remus began fixing a muggle compass they'd bought to be able to hold the magic they needed.
Twice in that week, Amaya had been called to Longbottom Hall to heal Order Members who'd been cursed when traditional healing had only managed to stall the afflictions. Lily had come up to her after Amaya had siphoned a curse out of one of the members, with a smile verging on a grimace.
"Does it hurt? To deal with dark magic?" she asked and Amaya had explained it didn't, as much as it unsettled her. She was just identifying it and making sure to take it away, transforming the magic into something that would be safe to be around. By the end of her explanation, Lily's eyes were sparkling with curiosity. "Could you teach me how?"
Amaya smiled. "Of course. I'm already teaching James how to, he can sense magic I think, but we haven't exactly gotten into healing yet."
"Do you think I can learn the basics before Remus and I have to leave for our mission?" Lily asked, "I want to be able to heal him properly."
"I think so. Are you nervous about the mission?"
Lily nodded, scrunching up her nose. "I'm the only one responsible for ensuring Remus doesn't die. I'm scared for him, you know? Going out into a pack of werewolves? He's strong but still..."
"Well, if it helps, Remus is more nervous about you seeing him consort with werewolves than for his safety."
"He can be so dense."
"Yup."
Lily shook her head and smiled. "Whenever you have time, just send me an Owl and I'll meet you for a class. Though I think Marlene would like to learn as well."
"I can go over to yours," Amaya suggested and Lily grinned.
"Oh, yes, that would be grand. We can have a girl's night in Marls' house."
And they did. Amaya met Marlene's parents and her little brother, Angus. Her mother, Elspeth had made Amaya sit down for lunch with the rest of the family before the girls went upstairs.
The McKinnons lived in a comfortable home, not at all like Potter Manor but comfortable nonetheless, and they were a lively family, joking around the table. Amaya was getting used to family meals whilst leaving with the Potters, but she found it strange that here that seemed to be the usual. If Amaya and J—if she ever had kids, there wouldn't be a dinner where she wouldn't make everyone sit around the table for supper.
Angus, Marlene's younger brother had just turned eleven and would be going out to Hogwarts come next September. Which, despite there being a whole year left, he couldn't shut up about, excitingly telling Amaya all the cool stuff he would do and that Marlene had told him he'd have to fight an ogre to get into Gryffindor and that he would surely kick the ogre's arse—Marlene's father, Angus Sr., had burst out laughing, and Elspeth had reprimanded all of them for laughing, Angus for swearing and Marlene for misleading her brother.
Angus was deeply disappointed the sorting was only done by way of a "stupid old hat".
That night, as Amaya lay in the bed they'd transfigured for her to sleep in Marlene's room (which they decided they were all staying in for the night), Amaya was pathetically terrified of falling asleep. Staring at the ceiling, covered in wooden panels with carved designs, Amaya couldn't help but think how this was the first night in a long time when she wasn't sleeping next to James.
And she knew that from the start. When the night wore off and the three girls had moved on from magic lessons to drinking games with an old bottle of scotch Marlene had stashed in her room, Amaya was so happy she didn't bat an eye to the fact that at some point she got roped into staying for a sleepover.
And now, like a moron, she couldn't sleep without James. Merlin, she was a mess.
"Maya?"
Amaya looked to the side to see Lily still awake, whilst Marlene was softly snoring beside her on the bed. "Yeah?"
"It's okay if you need to go home," she said with a sleepy smile, her eyes kind.
"What? I'm fine, I just take some time to fall asleep."
Lily didn't seem convinced. "Well, if you need to go home we'll understand."
Amaya sighed. "I'm pathetic aren't I?"
"No?"
"I can't fall asleep without James," Amaya said in frustration, "I'd say that's pretty pathetic."
Lily chuckled and shook her head. "Not pathetic. I couldn't sleep alone either months after my parents died. I would have nightmares if someone wasn't there. It's understandable, Maya."
"I'm sorry," Amaya said quietly and Lily shrugged.
"It's not your fault. If anything it's my fault... If I wasn't a witch they wouldn't have been targeted."
"You can't possibly believe that," Amaya said with a frown and Lily looked at her blankly. "It's not your fault, Lils, it's theirs. Voldemort and his Death Eaters. And if we're going to stop this war we can't blame ourselves for what they did."
Lily wiped a tear away and let out a laugh. "I'm glad we're friends, Maya. Now get your arse up and go to James."
"No, I'm fine here," Amaya said with a small smile, "I might slip out in the morning though. But I need to know I can sleep on my own."
Lily smiled. "If it helps, you're not alone. I'm here."
"Me too," groaned Marlene, her words muffled by the pillow before she fell asleep again.
Amaya couldn't help but smile back. She had friends.
And falling asleep was relatively easy after. And despite having nightmares she wasn't dragged into the worst memories in her mind. And although she did wake up in cold sweats at odd hours of the morning, wishing she'd just gone home, Amaya felt a sense of accomplishment.
Quickly she gathered her things, folded the sheets, and set them atop the makeshift bed along with a note thanking the McKinnons for their hospitality and telling them she had just gone home in the morning. Lily woke up when she was leaving and only smiled teasingly before going back to bed.
When Amaya got home, the sun was rising but still, she slipped into James' room and smiled when she saw him sleeping. Quickly she got underneath the covers making James wake up and he looked at her with furrowed brows as if deciding whether she was there or he was dreaming.
When he processed her presence he tugged her toward him, turning to lay on his back so she was half lying on top of him. "Did you have nightmares?" he asked, his voice husky from waking up.
"They weren't awful," she whispered and smiled when his hold on her tightened and his fingers combed her hair. "I just wanted to spend the last hours of the night with you."
"You missed me?" he asked, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.
Amaya pressed a kiss to his chest, a smile on her lips, and hugged him. "You could say that."
"Good. I missed you too, love," he said hazily and Amaya felt his breathing even out as she laid her head on his chest and he fell asleep.
For the second time that night, she fell asleep again, only this time no nightmares came.
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author's note:
not my best chapter, but who gives a shit?
also, it's longer than usual, but only because dividing it would mean two bad chapters instead of just one lol.
anyway, I'm not Spanish, so if my research about Spanish names and their composition is wrong do let me know.
Also, thanks for reading, I hope you like James and Maya as much as I do. And I hope the plot has been entertaining (I feel like I'm kind of losing hold of it, but I hope to get it back on track in the next few chapters)
xxx