Safe and Sound

“You look quite different with blonde hair,” Ron commented as Hermione and I came up the hill. Hermione looked extremely comfortable, as she wore Bellatrix’s body after taking the poly juice potion. Everything she was screamed Bellatrix, save for her facial expression. I myself had temporarily died my hair and change the contours of my face as well as eye color. “Are your eyes purple?”

My head nodded, but I wasn’t really listening to Ron. I was making sure that my inner voice was going to stay where she was. It seemed that Harry’s threat really took a hold on her. She knew that he wasn’t messing around, and a part of me knew it too. The worse half of me lay sitting in the corner of my mind, hiding and hating. I hoped she would be quiet for all of this.

At first, the trio hadn’t wanted to bring me. They thought I was going to be a huge liability- which I absolutely was- and they refused many times, before I pointed out my knowledge of what was in the vault, and my knowledge of the number of the vault and such. They needed me.

So we had dress up Ron and myself to look different, and Hermione had taken the polyjuice potion, though I was thinking now that I should have been Bellatrix. After all, I knew her inside and out, and I better than anyone knew how to behave. Hermione was far too timid, but knowing her, she’d pull through.

All of us looked around as the goblin walked up the hill. I personally didn’t trust the little creature, but I wasn’t sure if it was after years of knowing how vile they were, or if it was because I simply didn’t trust anyone. Regardless, I was not happy he was coming, though he was essential.

“Ready?” Harry asked, sticking out his hands. We all took up and apparated as one, landing with a bit of a wobble in Nocturn Ally. We were very quiet as Harry and the goblin through on the invisible cloak.

“Madam Lestrange,” a man greeted walking by, nodding his head. He was clearly a death eater, but more of a snatcher. I knew this from his ratty clothes and because I had never seen him before. He also didn’t have the mark on his arm as of yet.

“Morning.” The man paused, looking at her strangely. My fists clenched and I almost hit Hermione in frustration. The inner voice in my head cackled very loudly at that. It struck me that maybe she was silent because she thought we would fail. “That was stupid.”

“Morning?” I demanded, hissing at her. She gave me an apologetic bow of the head. “You’re Bellatrix Lestrange. You know who she is and what she does. Now act like it and don’t make me have to talk for you!”

My words were harsh, but they seemed to work as we walked into the bank. Ron and I hung back, following Hermione, since she was playing our lead. The goblins paid us no mind as we walked through their marbled halls. The seed of doubt was still flowing from my other half, but I ignored her, or at least tried to.

At the tall desk, we stopped, waiting for the head goblin to take notice of us. he was studiously ignoring us, continuing about his day as he wrote a letter. Annoyed, Hermione cleared her throat, causing him to look up at her, surprise falling across his face as he saw who she was. My heart fluttered.

“How can I help you, Miss Lestrange?”

“I would like to go to my vault.” He paused, staring at her. Hermione tried to give him an intimidating look, but it wasn’t working. He called for someone, and I watched as one of the higher ups came, talking to him quietly. “I don’t like to be keep waiting.”

They both looked at her then, the higher up leaning over the desk and smiling at her. “We require your wand for identification, Miss Lestrange. Precautions.”

“They know,” Griphook whispered from where he and Harry were invisible. My blood ran cold and I glanced around, trying to decide what to do. They knew we had her wand.

“I hardly think that should be necessary,” Hermione snapped, trying to find a way out of this as well. The goblin was unmoving, though.

For a moment, it seemed as if all would be lost. My heart was pounding in my chest and I grabbed my wand, ready to put up a fight. The voice in my head was laughing, but she was ready for a fight too. If I died, so did she. And she didn’t want that.

But then I heard the quiet incantation, and the glazed look come over the goblins face as Harry whispered, “Imperio.”

“Right this way, Ms. Lestrange,” the goblin announced, gesturing with his hand in a most delighted manner. My heart slowed down and I felt the girl in the back of my mind bellow out, which made me smirk evilly.

We followed the short creature around the counter and down the clammy halls that led to the different vaults. Getting onto the cart, I suddenly felt sick. Riding on the carts at Gringott’s was one thing that I had never been able to get used to, especially because the Malfoy’s vault was always so deep down.

The contraption lurched to life and I grabbed Ron’s arm tightly, since he happened to be sitting next to me and I couldn’t see Harry. A few minutes later, when the cart was hurtling down the tracks at a nauseating speed, Harry removed the cloak, making me sigh in relief as he wrapped an arm around me.

My eyes closed as the cart wheeled around a corner, making me squeeze my lids tighter. The voice in my head was absolutely silent, because even the old Reagan hated these things. Give me a broom or any other device and I was fine. But these god for saken means of travel made me want to hurl.

Taking another sharp corner, I snapped my eyes open when the sound of the brakes being thrown on startled me. The high pitched screech of metal against metal grated against my ears, making me clap my hands over them to save my ear drums.

Hurtling forward, we went right under a water fall, only for the moving vehicle to slow and stop moving. I looked around at the others, noticing that Hermione was back to Hermione and that my hair was now a soaking black. “What the-“

My words dropped into a scream as the seats dropped us, our bodies falling quickly through the empty space. I realized that I was about to die and I closed my eyes, screaming in my mind that I loved Draco, as the sirens above me on the cart went off.

I was only faintly aware when Hermione’s voice called out and we stopped, hovering above the ground slightly, my breath coming in quick tuffs of air as I breathed in an out in relief. We hit the ground then, a grunt going around in unison.

“What the bloody hell was that?” I demanded, throwing the angry comment to Griphook as I shoved myself up from the ground. He glared at me with his beady black eyes, no fonder of me than I was of him. “You going back on your word, goblin? I’ll have you for it.”

It was more of the old me shouting through my lips, but I was unwavering as he glared at me. “It’s a special waterfall, washes away all enchantments, Miss Potter. Now if you will, follow me to Ms. Lestranges vault.”

As Hermione and Ron slowly started to follow the goblin, I grabbed Harry’s wrist, holding him back for a moment. Our identical pairs of eyes met for a moment in silence and he was nodding, touching my shoulder. “I know. Don’t trust him. I believe you. You and I are in this together, yes?”

I licked my lips before nodding curtly once. The voice in my head raged and started screaming at me, but I thundered a single command in my mind to shut her up. She did. “Until the end, brother.”