—✧—✧—✧—✧—
NINETEEN THE LIGHT IS COMING
(TO GET BACK EVERYTHING
THE DARKNESS STOLE...)
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"GREGOROVITCH HAD the Elder Wand a long time ago," says Harry, a few days later. The four of them are standing in a quiet area of the house, away from anyone who could overhear. Holly stands next to Hermione, brows furrowed. Most mornings, Harry will go outside and make sure that Dobby's grave is fine... Holly's avoided returning since he was buried, since she felt like she was going to drift back to the afterlife when they were putting the house-elf to rest.
"I saw You-Know-Who trying to find him. When he tracked him down, he found that Gregorovitch didn't have it anymore: it was stolen from him by Grindelwald. How Grindelwald found out that Gregorovitch had it, I don't know — but if Gregorovitch was stupid enough to spread the rumour, it can't have been that difficult... And Grindelwald used the Elder Wand to become powerful. And at the height of his power, when Dumbledore knew he was the only one who could stop him, he duelled Grindelwald and beat him, and he took the Elder Wand."
"Dumbledore had the Elder Wand?" says Ron. "But then — where's it now?"
"At Hogwarts," says Harry.
"Let's go, then!" says Ron.
"It's too late for that," says Harry. "He knows where it is. He's there now... But Dumbledore didn't want me to have it. He didn't want me to take it. He wanted me to get the Horcruxes."
"The unbeatable wand, Harry!" says Ron.
"I'm not supposed to... I'm supposed to get the Horcruxes..."
Harry begins to zone out, like he's been doing a lot recently. Holly and Ron exchange a look of worry, and she holds back her comment that this has been happening a lot more recently. She knows that there's some sort of connection between the two of them, but she finds it weird, how right now, it's getting worse and worse...
A few minutes pass, and Harry finally comes back, blinking a couple of times and looking at them irritably. "He's just gotten the wand," he tells them.
Holly tries, "Just because he has that doesn't mean—"
"Yeah, I know," says Harry. "I'm going to go outside for a bit."
Holly nods, as he walks out of the room. Ron puts a hand on Holly's shoulder, before they walk back into the kitchen, where Bill and Fleur are.
✧
HOLLY HEARS SOMEONE KNOCK at the door to the room she's sharing with Hermione, as she's running one of Fleur's brushes through her hair. Harry steps into the room, as she places the hairbrush down on the dresser, crossing her arms.
"I didn't mean to snap earlier, but I'm sorry for it," says Harry. Holly frowns at him, and he looks at her for a minute, hesitating to say something. Finally, he looks away, and he says to her, "I just—Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm the one that's meant to survive."
She can feel her stomach sinking.
"OK," she says, hoping he'll continue.
"Maybe if I die, everything will be sorted," he tells her. He sits down on her bed, an old camping one, so that Hermione can have the proper one, whilst she gets better. Holly sits down next to him. "I know it sounds mad, but I just — how many more people are going to die for me? Dobby's dead because of me, so's everyone else. My mum and dad are dead because of me—"
"No, they're not," says Holly, holding onto his hands. "They're dead because of an awful man. You weren't the one to cast the Killing Curse, you didn't put that knife in Dobby's chest. You can't blame yourself for that..." She frowns. "And if you're the one that dies... That doesn't mean you can't come back."
Harry looks at her oddly. "What do you mean?"
"I came back," says Holly. "If you die, I will personally talk to Death and get you back..."
"But that's because he said you were supposed to live a long life, what if—?"
"If I'm meant to live a long life, who do you think it's going to be with?"
Harry looks at Holly. She stays quiet, her eyes on him as he looks deep in thought, his brows beginning to furrow again.
"What was it like, to die?" he asks.
"I suppose, it doesn't feel like anything," she tells him. "One minute you're here, the next you're not. The afterlife is the strangest part, really, but you can't exactly predict it, because it changes for every person..." Holly smiles weakly. "Mine's Durmstrang."
"Does anything stay the same?"
"No," says Holly. "But you can sort of will things to happen... Once you get used to it there, anyway. The only rule is that you can't touch souls in the afterlife."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll be connected forever," says Holly. "So if you touch a soul that's dead and you come back, you'll be connected to them regardless... It'll be like part of your soul's dead, I guess..."
"Oh," he says.
"You can touch Death, though."
"That's comforting."
Holly rolls her eyes.
"Holly?"
"Hm?"
"If I die, you've got to keep on living... I don't want someone else to sacrifice their life for me. I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for me."
"I promise I'll move on," says Holly, even though she knows it's a lie. But she knows that this is affecting him, and if he believes her, then he'll be reassured... All she wants is for him to happy... As happy as he can right now. "I'll be fine." She smiles softly at him. "And, um, if you die, I will personally drag you out of the afterlife."
"I thought you couldn't touch people," he says, and he smiles softly.
Holly gives him a look. "You know what I mean, Potter."
A small smile spreads across her face, and he smiles back, kissing her softly. They pull apart, and Holly looks up at him. She's about to open her mouth, but the door swings open, with Ron and Hermione. They walk into the room, Ron closing the door behind them.
"Did you tell her, then?"
"Tell me what?"
Holly frowns at them.
"We're going to break into Gringotts, to get the real sword of Gryffindor."
Holly looks at them oddly for a second. Slowly, a grin spreads across her face.
"Sweet."
✧
"I HATE THIS PLAN," says Holly, her hair now black curls, having taken Polyjuice Potion to look like Bellatrix. She looks at the other three — and Griphook, a goblin that once worked at the bank — with distaste. Ron's had his appearance change, too, enough that he looks like someone else, so they can pass him as just another Death Eater Harry and Hermione are going to be under the cloak, with Griphook, so that they can smuggle them in without Gringotts realising what's going on.
Apparently, at Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix had seen the Sword of Gryffindor and panicked, presuming they had gotten into her vault. So, by the sounds of things, there's a Horcrux in there, and from process of elimination they've decided that it must be Hufflepuff's cup, considering Holly was fully adamant that the diadem wasn't in the vault, because if her mother had hid it, how would she have gotten access to that vault? So, they're going to retrieve the cup, using Griphook's expertise of the bank in exchange for giving him the sword afterwards.
The five Apparate outside of the Leaky Cauldron. Holly checks her reflection in the shop opposite the pub, making sure she looks convincing as Bellatrix. She changes her posture a little bit more, before she thinks, perfect, and walks inside the pub, making sure she doesn't bother to keep the door open for Ron to follow behind, thinking, I never saw Bellatrix do that.
"Madam Lestrange," she hears the landlord say, nodding.
Holly doesn't exactly reply, just nods in response, copying the way that she saw Bellatrix respond to greetings from other Death Eaters, the ones that weren't as important as her. She sees a man in the corner looking at her, obviously scared, and Holly grins back. That's what she would do...?
She glances over her shoulder, towards Ron, who's a great deal behind her. "When you were told to come with me, that didn't mean from a distance," she says, and she gives Ron a look, as if to say, hurry the fuck up! She takes out Bellatrix's wand, which the others had gotten when they escaped Malfoy Manor, and she taps the brick wall.
The bricks in the wall begin to move to the side, revealing Diagon Alley. Holly looks over at Ron again, and they exchange a look before stepping into the street, the walls lined with posters of Harry's face, declaring him Undesirable Number One. She looks away, and tries to look straight ahead, avoiding looking around at the endless amount of shops "closed for the time being." People stand in the doorways to closed shops, bandages covering parts of their bodies. Holly grits her teeth together, thinking, we're doing this for them, they'll all be fine soon, once we get these Horcruxes, once—
"My children!" a man shouts, storming up to Holly. She frowns, panicking. "Where are my children? What has he done with them? You know, you know!"
Holly looks at the man, dead in the eye, thinking, I'm so sorry for saying this. "You've got to be more specific," she says, an awful smile on her face. It twists into a scowl, and she snaps, "Get out of my way."
The man lunges at her, about to grab her throat. But, a burst of red light sends him flying backwards, hitting the floor. Holly turns, and finds Ron with his arm outstretched, pointing his wand at where the man had been.
She nods at him, knowing that Bellatrix wouldn't say thank you, but shit, Holly feels thankful. They continue walking, finally reaching Gringotts. Holly keeps on thinking to herself, this is what I've seen Bellatrix do, but every so often, she'll think back to Durmstrang, and she acts a little like how Karkaroff used to. She sees Susannah appear as they finally walk into the bank, Holly's diamond necklace currently tied around her ankle, hidden beneath a thick leather shoe and tights.
"Why, Madam Lestrange!"
Holly stops in her tracks. She almost widens her eyes, but thinks, no, Hol, fuck, act like Bellatrix! Would she be scared shitless? No! If you tricked everyone into thinking you hated Harry for a good two years, you can trick everyone into thinking you're Bellatrix for one fucking hour. C'mon, Hol, step up!
She turns around, recognising the man from the summer.
"Travers," she says, neither politely nor rudely. She glances at Ron, placing a frown on her face as she turns back to the man. "How are you?"
"Well, I confess I am surprised to see you out and about, Bellatrix."
"And why is that?"
Fuck, Hol, turn down the Margo!
"I heard that the inhabitants of Malfoy Manor were confined to the house, after the... ah... escape..."
Holly immediately thinks of Draco and Atticus. She shakes the thought out of her head before the worry becomes clear on her face, thinking, they'll be fine, they'll be fine...
"The Dark Lord forgives those who have served him most faithfully in the past," she says in a contemptuous drawl. Holly gives him a look. "Perhaps your credit is not as good with him as mine is, Travers..."
And then Ron stuns someone.
Holly raises her eyebrows.
"How did it offend you?" says Travers.
"I don't think that matters, considering it can't do it again," says Holly, smirking. She thinks, I fucking hate every single second of this and I, quite honestly, miss just lying about 'hating' someone.
"Some of the wandless can be troublesome," says Travers with a nod. "While they do nothing but beg I have no objection," — bit dodgy, but all right, she thinks — "but one of them actually asked me to plead her case at the Ministry last week. 'I'm a witch, sir, I'm a witch, let me prove it to you!'" He does a squeaky voice, making fun of the woman. Holly forces herself to smile. "As if I was going to give her my wand — but whose wand are you using at the moment, Bellatrix? I heard that your own was—"
"Taken by Potter?" says Holly, twisting her lips. Travers nods, interested. "That didn't happen. I have my wand here, see... I don't know what rumours you have been listening to, but you seem sadly misinformed... There's no need believing in something if you don't know all of the details, now is it?"
Travers doesn't reply to that; instead, he turns to Ron.
"Who is your friend? I do not recognise him."
"This is Dragomir Despard," she says. "He speaks very little English, but he is in sympathy with the Dark Lord's aims... He has travelled here from Transylvania to see our new regime."
"Indeed?" he says. "How do you do, Dragomir?"
Ron grunts in response.
Holly makes some comment about how she wants to be on her way, which is enough for Travers to walk them further into the bank, where they can speak to one of the goblins and ask to enter the vault. She feels her heart hammering in her chest, sets of eyes watching her as she walks down the centre of the room.
She reaches the desk, and the goblin says, "Madam Lestrange! Dear me! How—how may I help you today?"
"I wish to enter my vault."
"You have... identification?"
"Identification?" says Holly, raising her eyebrows. "I have never been asked for identification before!"
"Your wand will do, madam," the goblin says.
Holly hands it over, the realisation smacking her in the face — the goblins know the wands' stolen. She feels her stomach tying into knots, until she hears Harry's voice quietly whisper next to her, "Imperio!"
The goblin, now under the Imperius Curse, looks up from examining the wand.
"Ah, you have had a new wand made, Madam Lestrange!"
Travers frowns. "A new wand? But how—?"
"Imperio!"
"Oh, yes, I see," says Travers, looking at the wand himself. "Yes, very handsome indeed... And is it working well? I always think wands require a little breaking in, don't you?"
"I—"
"So, if you will follow me, Madam Lestrange," says the goblin, stepping down from his desk, holding onto a weird leather bag. "I shall take you to your vault."
Another goblin rushes up to them. "We have instructions," he says to the Imperiused goblin. He glances at Holly. "Forgive me, Madam, but there have been special orders regarding the vault of Lestrange," and he begins to whisper something in the goblin's ear.
Holly opens her mouth to say that her family has used Gringotts for centuries — both Lestrange and Black — but before she can, the Imperiused goblin says, "I am aware of the instructions. Madam Lestrange wishes to visit her vault... Very old family... Old clients... This way, please..."
She follows the goblin, Ron and the Imperiused Travers behind her. The door slams shut behind them, and Harry pulls the cloak off. "We're in trouble, they suspect something's wrong," he tells them. "I Imperiused them, but I don't think I did it strongly enough, I don't know..."
"Well, what do we do?" says Ron. "Should we leave now, while we can?"
"We've gotten this far," says Harry. "I say we go on."
"At least now we don't have to stay fully hidden," says Hermione. "It might make things easier...?"
Harry nods.
"We need Bogrod to control the cart," says Griphook, referring to the other goblin, apparently called Bogrod. "I no longer havethe authority... But there will not be room for the wizard."
Holly's about to say she'll cast Imperius, but Harry does it again; and this time, it works well, Travers disappearing to hide for the time being.
The rest of them clamber into the cart. She can hear shouting in the distance, coming from the main hall they had just left. Holly grimaces, and thankfully the cart begins to move along the tracks, starting with a jerk.
The cart gathers speed quickly, hurtling along the tracks to the point that Holly's convinced they're going to accidentally fly off at some point. They go straight through a waterfall at lightning speed, the water washing away their enchaments. Holly glances down and sees the black curls changing back to her white-blonde hair, her clothes becoming looser than they had been the minute before.
She hears Griphook explain it, how the water is meant to wash away all magical concealment, how it proves Gringotts knows that there are imposters within the bank. But she feels funny: it doesn't just feel like the water washed away the effects of the Polyjuice Potion. She feels as if part of her mind has been cleared, and suddenly she remembers what her mother said — the map to the diadem is in her mind.
And the thought hits her.
The diadem's hidden in Hogwarts.
"I know where the diadem is!" she lets out. "The water — it lifts magical concealment! I know where it is! I know where it is!"
"Where is it?" says Harry.
She looks at Griphook, and she frowns. "Hang on."
The cart turns another corner, and they reach the end of the track. As it screeches to a halt, a large dragon appears in front of them; a massive thing, with scales turning white from being underground for so long. Holly squints her eyes for a moment, and she says in disbelief, "Is that...?"
"It is partially blind," says Griphook. "But even more savage than that." It can't be, she thinks to herself. Harlow has Vivien, you made arrangements last year... Vivien's safe, they didn't hurt her, they didn't blind her... "However, we have the means to control it. It has learned what to expect when the Clankers come. Give them to me."
Ron passes the leather bag to Griphook.
"It will expect pain when it hears the noise: it will retreat, and Bogrod must place his palm upon the door of the vault."
They get out of the cart, walking on the outside of the stone clearing to reach the Lestrange vault. The dragon roars in pain at the sound of the rattling Clankers, scrambling backwards. Holly doesn't look at the dragon, scared it could be Vivien.
"Make him press his hand to the door!" shouts Griphook.
Harry points his wand at Bogrod, urging him to do so. They watch as the goblin presses his hand against the door, allowing the vault's door to disappear, inviting them in.
"Search, fast!"
They try to look for the cup, but Hermione reaches her hand towards something similar, and screeches in pain. The golden goblet falls from her grip, multiplying in the air as it crashes against the ground.
"It burned me!"
"They have added Gemino and Flagrante Curses!" says Griphook. "Everything you touch will burn and multiply — and if you continue to handle the treasure, you will eventually be crushed to death by the weight of expanding gold!"
"OK, don't touch anything!" says Harry.
Ron nudges something by accident, twenty goblets appearing out of nowhere.
"Stand still!" says Hermione. "Don't move!"
"Just look around!" says Harry. "Remember — the cup's small and gold, it's got a badger engraved on it, two handles—!"
They shine the lights of their wands around the vault, searching carefully for the cup. Quickly they realised that they were going to accidentally touch treasure, a mountain of coins appearing next to Harry, and a series of bracelets burning the back of Holly's leg.
And then, all at once, Harry shouts:
"IT'S UP THERE, IT'S UP THERE!"
The Hufflepuff Cup sparkles above their heads.
"And how the hell are we going to get up there without touching anything?" says Ron.
"Accio Cup!"
"No use, no use!" says Griphook.
"Then what do we do?" says Harry, spinning to look at Griphook. "If you want the sword, Griphook, then you'll have to help us more than — wait! Can I touch stuff with the sword? Hermione give it here!"
Hermione pulls the sword out from her bag. Harry jumps forwards, testing his theory by lightly touching a goblet nearby with the tip of the sword. The goblet doesn't multiply, and he looks up at the cup. "If I can just poke the sword through a handle — but how am I going to get up there?"
Harry glances around. Ron, the tallest out of them, still isn't tall enough to reach the cup using the sword.
They can hear shouting from outside. The goblins have realised what's happened, and Holly feels her heart race in panic.
"I've got to get up there, we've got to get rid of it—"
"Levicorpus," says Hermione.
Harry's sent into the air, but he accidentally hits a suit of armour, which begins to multiply around them, pushing them backwards. They touch random pieces of treasure by accident, and suddenly they're being squeezed into a smaller and smaller space—
"Impervius!"
Holly glances at the sword. She's the smallest out of them, she's the lightest. She turns to Ron, and shouts over the growing noise, "Can you lift me up there?"
"Maybe?"
"That's good enough!" she says. "Harry—"
He gives her the sword, and she attempts to climb onto Ron's shoulders, gripping tightly onto the sword as she manages to get the cup, sliding one of the cup's handles around the sword. "WE'VE GOT IT!" she announces...
... And then she falls off Ron's shoulders, into the pile of gold behind him.
Hermione shouts enough spells to protect Holly from the burning metal. She lets go of the sword without thinking, trying to scramble out of the growing pile of gold, and the next thing she knows, she sees Harry attempt to get hold of the sword and cup before Griphook can.
But Griphook grabs a hold of the sword, and Harry tries to fight it off of him, holding onto the cup, copies of the Hufflepuff Cup appearing around him. He takes the cup and shoves it into his pocket, and the four of them rush towards the door to the vault, a roar of "Thieves! Thieves! Thieves!" surrounding them as Bogrod's hand opens the door up for them again.
A group of goblins surround them. All at once, the four shout, "Stupefy!" and they run past them. Holly looks ahead at the dragon, realising suddenly it's the same breed as Vivien, it could be her, and in a moment of blind hope, she screams, "VIVIEN!"
The dragon reacts, moving her head.
Holly exchanges a look with Harry, and he starts to run towards the dragon, telling Ron and Hermione to follow.
"Get up, climb up, come on—"
Holly sits first, trying to tell Vivien, "It's me, it's me! I won't hurt you, we won't hurt you! You're safe now, you're going to be OK, Viv—"
Harry climbs onto the dragon last, having broken Vivien's chains. Vivien jumps into the air, her wings opening and sending some of the goblins falling over. Holly holds onto Vivien's scales, as Hermione shouts, "Defodio!" making the passageway grow in size, helping Vivien get out. The further they got from the noise, the quicker Vivien went, realising she's almost free of her prison.
The four of them shout spells to try and break open the door they had entered in, to get back into the main hall. Vivien slams into the wall, flying straight through it, the screams of goblins and wizards in the bank erupting around them. She continues to fly, breaking out of the bank and back into Diagon Alley, where she kicks herself off the ground once more and flies straight into the clouds.
—✧—✧—✧—✧—
THREE CHAPTERS N AN EPILOGUE N WE'RE DONE
i hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought!!