The heavy door of Bellatrix Lestrange's vault slammed behind us, trapping Ron, Hermione, Harry, Griphook, Bogrod and I inside.
The vault was dark, almost pitch black, and yet even in the dark I could see the glimmer of the treasures which the Lestrange family had collected over the years. "Lumos," I murmured, the tip of my wand lighting up faithfully and giving me a better view of the expansive vault, which was larger than any vault I'd ever entered. Everywhere you looked were signs of the Lestrange family's wealth, from the mountains of galleons, the old silver armour, the solid gold candlesticks and ancient tapestries to the stack of large, blood-red rubies that covered an entire table.
"Blimey," Ron breathed under his breath, lifting his own wand to look around the room. For two people who had been brought up with only just enough money for our basic needs, someone having as much wealth as this at their disposal was unimaginable.
Harry was not distracted by the immense fortune that sat around us, stepping forward and scanning the room. I dare not breathe, worried that a single breath might distract Harry from whatever he was doing. I knew that he was searching for the horcrux, and trying to connect with it, but he had never cared to explain in further detail how he would know which of these fine objects was the horcrux, although I expected that was because he didn't actually know himself. He could just tell, although the magic and reasoning behind it was as blank to him as it was to the rest of us.
Ron, Hermione and I followed his lead, each of us searching for ourselves even though we could have walked past the horcrux and not known. "Accio horcrux," Hermione tried, although nothing happened. Ron looked over his shoulder and gave her a sympathetic look. "You're seriously not trying that one again, are you?" he muttered. Hermione sighed.
"That kind of magic won't work in here," Griphook hissed suddenly. The three of us looked at him - he looked as uneasy in the Lestrange vault as we did.
I turned back and watched as Harry had drawn ahead, and then I crept after him, my eyes squinted as I searched for the slightest hint that there might be somebody hiding within the jewels. It would be the perfect time for Bellatrix to attack us - in a locked room surrounded by objects that she had no doubt enchanted to attack any who didn't share her blood. I scowled for a moment as I realised that I would most likely be safe - I was a Black after all - but I couldn't kill her and help the others. So I watched carefully, ready to attack.
"Is it in here, Harry?" Ron asked desperately, Harry's silence making us grow more and more nervous. "Can you feel anything?" Ron added.
Surely Harry would have noticed it by now? Had we really broken into the most secure place in the entire Wizarding World, snuck past a dragon and then entered the vault of the most bloodthirsty and psychotic woman I had ever met, just to come out empty handed?
Then, Harry nodded slightly, stopping suddenly and turning his head slowly to his left, and then back again. Then, he looked up, his body seeming to tense as if he could hear something that we couldn't. I followed his gaze, and it settled when Harry's did, on a small, golden cup at the top of a pile of treasure.
This was it, this was the horcrux.
Suddenly, Hermione gasped as she stumbled, not looking where she was going, and a golden bracelet fell off of the table next to her and clattered loudly onto the floor. We watched in horror as the bracelet rattled and then burst into two, with another two splitting from that, each duplicate duplicating itself again and again. "It's the Gemino curse!" I shouted, pushing Hermione back so that she didn't touch anything else. "It burned me, when I touched it," she whimpered, holding her hand to her chest. I looked at it and saw a hot red burn had appeared, her skin scalded and blistered.
"That's it," Harry shouted, pointing at the cup as if he were oblivious to what was going on. "Up there!"
Ron shuffled to move away from the rapidly duplicating bangle and in doing so he knocked a silver plate off of the table and onto the floor. He too shouted in pain as his thigh was burned, and then staggered away as the plate also began to multiply.
"They've added the Gemino curse," Griphook repeated with a snarl, "everything you touch will multiply!"
Harry looked around at us frantically and for the first time seemed to realise that Ron, Hermione and I were stood in a sea of rapidly growing objects. "Give me the sword," he barked at Hermione, who reached into her beaded bag and drew out Godric Gryffindor's sword, which shone like a beacon of light in the darkness and gloom of the vault. She tossed it at Harry, who caught it by the hilt, and then staggered forward through the golden pile towards the cup. I tried to keep moving, determined that I wasn't going to die by being suffocated by a silver flagon, but this seemed to only make it worse.
"Stop moving," Hermione shouted as Ron and I struggled. We did as she said, staying as still as possible, and then the multiplication seemed to slow, and then stop, except at when Harry was riding the top of the monstrous pile, stretching as far as he could with Gryffindor's sword to snatch the horcrux. Then, he was lost from our sight, and even that pile stopped growing as Harry stopped moving.
"Harry?" I shouted, turning my head to frantically look at Ron and Hermione. What if Harry was dead? We'd never find the horcrux in the pile of identical cups and jewels before we were killed ourselves. "Harry!" I screamed again.
Then, the mountain of malevolent jewels seemed to erupt as Harry burst out, brandishing Gryffindor's sword like a medieval knight and with the golden horcrux clasped tightly in his other hand along with his wand. I gasped as a tidal wave of jewellery and precious metals came tumbling towards us, Harry tripping on something invisible and throwing the cup as he fell.
Griphook, who had been pushed up against the door with Bogrod, grabbed the cup and held out of Harry's reach. "We had a deal, Griphook," Harry snarled. The goblin curled his lip and sneered at Harry. "The cup for the sword," he snarled, gesturing towards Gryffindor's sword. "Harry we need the sword to destroy it!" I shouted, buried up to my neck in the metal. If it were me, I would have run the goblin through with the damned sword right there, and then snatched the goblet and made my escape. But I didn't have the sword, and Harry was a thousand times more honourable than me, so he reluctantly held the sword out to the goblin. Griphook snatched it and then tossed the cup, which was quickly caught by Hermione, who then tucked it into her beaded bag, safe.
Griphook cradled the precious sword his chest and then scowled at Harry, an evil grin appearing on his face. "I said I'd get you in," the goblin hissed, "I didn't say anything about getting you out." Griphook grabbed Bogrod's hand and ran it over the door, which rumbled open and freed the goblins.
"Ron!" I shouted for my brother, my face almost buried. He couldn't move to help me, and yet I found I was able to stretch my hand out beneath the objects and my fingertips brushed against his. "Hold on Li," he shouted over the din of the multiplying metal, "we're going to get out of here!"
I shut my eyes and squeezed his hand, the metal heavy and weighing down on my lungs, making it harder and harder for me to breathe. Then, just as it was all about to become too much and I was about to slip into unconsciousness, another hand enclosed around mine, and Hermione dragged me free and Ron along with me, enough of the metal having escaped through the open door to allow her to move. Harry had already chased after Griphook, but Hermione hauled me free of the metal and the moment I was out, my strength returned and I helped her with Ron. Then we clambered over the advancing sea of metal, out of the vault and after Harry.
The four of us burst to a halt at the top of a balcony, overlooking where Griphook and Bogrod were moving past the dragon. "Thieves! Stop them!" Griphook shouting at a rapidly advancing group of guards. The treacherous goblin escaped, stopping his shaking of the rattle and leaving Bogrod behind.
"Foul little git," Ron cursed. "At least we still have Bogrod," he added.
That was when the Ukrainian Ironbelly let out a tremendous roar, and with it a stream of flames, engulfing the goblin within it, and because he was under the Imperius curse, Bogrod didn't even scream.
Ron's face became a mask of horror as he looked at us. "That's unfortunate," he stammered.
A moment later, the guards arrived and started sending curses in our direction. I dragged Hermione behind a column, Ron and Harry jumping behind the opposite one, and we cowered from the curses. "Has it been like this the entire time?" I asked in disbelief. Hermione nodded, "yep, pretty much."
I scowled and then spun around, sending a curse right back at them. "Avada kedavra," I shouted, my wand doing it's faithful gruesome word and hitting a guard straight in the chest. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at me in horror. "What?" I retorted to their looks, "I've got the dark mark, remember? I'm not exactly sweet little Juliet anymore."
None of them replied, but instead they followed my lead, sending curses back, although kinder ones than mine.
"We can't just stand here, whose got an idea?" Hermione shouted over the din of exploding curses. "You're the brilliant one," Ron shouted back, a killing curse narrowly missing him. In anger I leaned out and sent the killing curse right back at the sender, striking him dead. Now definitely wasn't the time to try and 'stupefy' our way out of this.
"I've got something, but it's mad!" Hermione shouted. I rolled my eyes. "It's better than standing here and nearly getting killed," I shouted back. Hermione nodded, and then sprung out.
"Reducto!" she shouted, blasting away the metal railing. "Cover me," she barked at me. I nodded and then sent curses flying at our attackers. In the meanwhile, Hermione jumped back against the wall and then sprinted forward, leaping off of the balcony and soaring through the air. Then, she landed on the back of the dragon, and clung on for dear life.
The Ukrainian Ironbelly roared at her weight and sent a wave of fire at the guards and goblins who were attacking us, momentarily scaring them into hiding. "Well come on then!" Hermione screamed back at us. Not hesitating any longer, I copied what she had done, pushing myself back as far as possible and then running as fast as I could, jumping into the air and landing against the dragon. I clambered upwards and wrapped one of my legs over its back, sitting astride, and then Harry and Ron were there too. Hermione spun around, pointed her wand at the chains holding the dragon down and shouted "relashio!" Instantly the chains snapped and the dragon was free and roaring at the guards who had made it's life so painful.
The dragon sent a burst of fire at them and then looked upwards towards the tiny beam of sunlight hundreds of feet above. It was too narrow for the dragon to open its wings, but instead it climbed up the rocky face of the Gringott's vaults, oblivious to the guards below sending curses upwards. We hung on as tightly as we could, leaning to the side in which the curses would reach us, and held our breath as the dragon climbed ever higher. A cart carrying guards sped along the track towards us, sending curses straight at us, but the dragon simply broke the track in half with it's monstrously sized feet. The cart shot off into the air and its occupants to certain death.
It seemed like only moments later that we had reached the top of caverns and come to the flooring of the main hall of Gringotts. I grimaced as the dragon smashed through the grating, sending rubble and dust everywhere and the goblins screaming in fear. I watched helplessly as the goblins started to run, screaming at each other to run, and the dragon let out a stream of fire. It had come to hate goblins, clearly, because they had been responsible for what had indubitably been many years of torture.
The dragon stood up, smashing the diamond chandeliers aside and stretching up towards the great glass dome in the ceiling, which was the final obstacle stopping it from reaching the daylight it hadn't seen in so long. We held on tighter than we had ever held onto anything as it climbed upwards, easily smashing the glass and metal aside as if it were nothing, and then we felt the warm, late Spring sun on our faces.
The dragon stopped and panted, scanning the city of London around it. It was a remarkable view from up here - you could see the distant muggle skyscrapers and the river bending through the city, muggles walking around the streets like ants, oblivious to what was going on. The dragon seemed to revel in the soft breeze against it's skin, the sun in it's eyes. Even though it was an overcast day and not the finest, the dragon looked like the happiest creature in the world.
Too bad that I had to do something, because goblins and guards were gathering in Diagon Alley below, pointing up at us and firing curses. "Now what?" Ron shouted.
"Reducto!" I screamed, sending the curse backwards and hitting the dragon on the tip of its tail. I had never heard such a roar as when the dragon threw back its giant head and screamed with pain, before taking off with a jolt. "Hold on!" Harry screamed as the dragon leaped from the roof of Gringotts, flapping its wings for the first time in years and trying to remember how to fly. Its tail dragged along rooftops and knocked away chimneys and slate, and I felt my stomach drop with fear as I realised that the dragon didn't know how to fly.
Then, miraculously, an instinct seemed to step in and the dragon soared, climbing higher and higher, leaving Gringotts behind. I let out a whoop of delight as we flew over London, the dragon's wings stretching the same length as a regular sized street, and we were free.
The dragon roared in delight, and Ron did too. "That was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" he shouted at Hermione, who blushed in happiness at Ron's words. I smiled at her and nodded my head, and even Harry beamed in appreciation for Hermione's brains.
The next stage of the plan wasn't yet thought of, but for now I relished in the fact that somehow, we had escaped with the horcrux, and we were flying. For the moment at least, I relaxed and enjoyed the rush of the wind through my hair and the steady beat of the dragon's heart beneath my leg. We had escaped, and we were free.