Plays Money, Money, Money by ABBA. JUST TO BE EXTRA CLEAR, WHEN I MENTION BELLATRIX, I MEAN HARRY LOOKING LIKE HER. THE REAL DEAL IS STILL ROTTING IN AZKABAN.
In a dark and forgotten room, one where the shadows were much deeper than normal, and where silence reigned supreme, there was suddenly a loud pop.
"Ah-ha," Harry-Bellatrix exclaimed amongst towering piles and piles of gold.
The plan's first part was successful, if the absence of sirens and goblin guards was anything to go by.
Not wasting any time, the dark-clad woman got up and headed towards the door, making sure not to touch any of the objects that were sticking out here and there. She could feel the malevolent effects on them, ready to cause harm to anyone who dared to touch them.
Bellatrix found the ginormous door and pressed a hand against it.
She allowed her senses to spread and search for any living presence, despite knowing that there shouldn't be anyone near her at this time. It was a testament to her and Sirius's research that she felt a goblin, who was at the periphery of her senses, leave.
If, for some reason, their calculations were incorrect and her entrance raised an alarm, Bellatrix would have still followed their plan, lest the goblins manage to find and secure the weak spot in their wards. That's why she came at the less dangerous moment.
"Open," she said, and the ancient wards protecting the vault answered to Harry's magic.
The door moved on its own, closing once Bellatrix walked through it.
She was in an all-familiar tunnel with tracks in front of her that led deeper into the earth. Now she just had to go a few vaults back.
However—
"Did we seriously forget to plan about me actually getting into the Lestrange vault?" she muttered in disbelief, moving closer to the unoccupied tracks.
She dared to look down and quickly took a step back. She couldn't see the bottom.
Thankfully, she wasn't any random wizard.
"Right," Bellatrix mumbled, inhaling deeply, and made herself drift into a very familiar mindset that she had been cultivating; at this point, it was practically as easy as breathing. "Feel the current in the air, sense its movement... let it flow through you, then grasp it."
Unlike her crude attempts back at Hogwarts, the air immediately followed her command… and lifted her off the ground.
If Voldemort could do it, then so could she… but that was definitely not the reason she learned how to fly without the need for a broom.
Bellatrix moved gracefully through the air, following the track rails backwards, while making sure that no one was heading her way. It'd be awkward, not to mention dangerous, if a cart suddenly came her way.
It didn't take her long to pass by a few similar platforms to the one she had been previously on, and finally find the Lestrange vault. However, unlike the previous vault, this one had a guard.
'Oh boy,' Bellatrix thought and moved forward, letting the air go and allowing herself to touch the ground.
The guard was metallic grey in colour, with an immense wingspan, long talons and rough scales said to be as hard as steel. Or at least it was supposed to be like that.
Instead, this Ukrainian Ironbelly was pinkish, with no sign of the metallic lustre it was said to have, and had multiple scars throughout its entire body. Its scales didn't look rough at all, and it looked malnourished.
Despite all that, the dragon was still as fearsome as ever, and were it anyone else, they'd have been frightened when it slowly opened one deep red eye.
Bellatrix couldn't care less, though, in fact, she got excited as the dragon was made aware of her presence.
The beast—now alert— quickly got up, and she had just managed to cast silencing wards before it let out an almighty roar that shook the whole cavern.
Harry would never find out, but the cackle he let out at the challenge was eerily similar to the real Bellatrix's laugh.
The dragon was enraged at the puny human's lack of seriousness, and it snapped its head in her direction, making Bellatrix see its chain for the first time.
"Oh, you poor soul," she whispered, her humorous mood gone, and walked closer.
If the dragon was baffled by her actions, it didn't let it show. Instead, it seemed to grow more and more enraged as Bellatrix got closer.
As soon as Harry entered the Ironbelly's biting range, he flexed his magic.
Suddenly and out of nowhere, another roar, much more ferocious and wild than the one before, reverberated throughout the cavern.
Harry didn't take his draconic form, but he allowed himself to become as much of a dragon as he could while retaining his human shell.
The Ironbelly felt and heard the Abyssal Reaver standing in front of it, hiding behind a human face, and immediately cowered back.
It even started whimpering as Bellatrix kept moving towards it, instead of the vault's door.
"Don't worry," she hissed in parseltongue and broadcast her intentions through magic. Thankfully, it had the desired effect, seeing as the dragon calmed down a little. "I'll free you."
Having said that, Bellatrix raised her wand and made quick work of the surprisingly sturdy—or not so surprisingly, considering what they held—chains. If one could see the magic of an enchantment, it didn't take much effort to dismantle it.
"Wait here," she commanded, and saw the dragon nod, before heading to the vault's door.
'Ah, fuck.'
Now, Bellatrix had two choices.
She could either go guns blazing and wreck the vault's door or take her time to go over its really extensive enchantments and get inside without alerting the goblins.
The longer she stayed in the bank, though, the higher the possibilities of someone finding out.
'And how will I sneak out a dragon?' she mused, a smirk slowly curling on her lips.
Really, there was only one way of action!
Taking a lot of steps back, Bellatrix took out her wand and aimed at the door. She allowed her magic to condense so that she could pour more power into her spell.
"Bombarda maxima."
As soon as she uttered the spell, a deafening boom sounded through the cavern, and Bellatrix was sure that it reached all the way up to the bank after it tore through her silencing wards. Should have used more power on those.
"Do you think Sirius is going to be mad?" she asked the Ironbelly. Was it her, or did it look paler than before? "You almost have your natural colour now, congrats!"
Bellatrix quickly made her way through the wrecked door and felt it. She felt it all.
There were wards, upon wards, to stop all of the magical signatures from leaving the room, and any lurking senses from coming in. However, now that she was inside the room, she almost took a step back from the revolting feeling that assaulted her senses.
Concentrating on the golden cup at the end of the room, she noted the many protections it had on itself and summoned a gust of air to bring it to her. It almost worked like Accio.
She quickly conjured a small satchel and wore it, putting the cup inside.
"Okay, let's go," she hissed and ran through the air, before jumping on the dragon's back. Again, if the Ironbelly was surprised, it didn't show it.
The scales were actually as hard as steel, despite not looking so, and the beast did not even seem to feel her.
A wave from her hand removed any lingering magical traces that she left behind.
With a roar, it reared, and Bellatrix dug in her knees, clutching as tightly as she could to the jagged scales as the wings opened.
It scraped against the ceiling as it dived toward the passage opening.
For a moment, Bellatrix wondered whether the dragon could actually get out, belatedly realising that it was actually huge.
To her immense surprise, though, it opened its mouth and belched flame again, blasting the tunnel, whose floors and ceiling cracked and then crumbled.
By sheer force, the dragon clawed and fought its way through.
'This will take ages,' she thought, noting that the Ironbelly could actually take them out with enough time, and if the goblins didn't stop them. Said goblins were actually closing in on them.
Deafened by the crashing of rock and the dragon's roars, Bellatrix pointed her wand at the offending stone and yelled, "Defodio."
Using the spell, she carved through earth and stone with ease, and away from the shrieking and clanking goblins.
At one point, the spell almost felt like it was going to fail; however, it quickly powered back.
"What the fuck?"
They passed an underground lake, and the great, crawling and snarling beast seemed to sense freedom and space ahead of it. Behind them, the passage was full of the dragon's thrashing, spiked tail, of great lumps of rock, gigantic fractured stalactites, and the clanking of the goblins seemed to be growing more muffled, while ahead, the dragon's fire kept their progress clear.
And then at last, they had blasted their way out of the passage into the marble hallway.
Bellatrix laughed at the shrieking goblins and wizards that ran for cover.
The dragon, on the other hand, had room to stretch its wings for the first time in who knew how many years.
Turning its horned head toward the cool outside air it could smell beyond the entrance, it took off, and with Bellatrix still cackling on its back, leaving the bank and launching itself into the sky.
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Chapter 131: It's Finally Over