Chapter Thirteen
Gringotts Escape

“We’ve been discovered!” Griphook said as he looked up at the waterfall. I made an angry noise, pushing my self to my feet. Harry pointed his wand at the old goblin again as I shook out my black hair.

“What now?” I snapped, kicking a pebble.

“We keep going” Harry said as Hermione’s head snapped towards the tunnel.

“Harry, I think I can hear footsteps!” She said, panic in her voice and making me roll my eyes, which Jamie saw.

“Come on” Harry said, following Bogrod. The others started to move but Ron noticed that I hadn’t moved.

“Alicia?” He asked, making the others halt. “Come on”

“I’ll catch up” I said absently, taking a step towards the oncoming danger. Jamie’s hand wrapped round my wrist tightly and I glared at it. “Let go”

“Don’t be an idiot” He said sharply, pulling me along. “You can’t do any good when you’re in Azkaban”

“Is this a female thing?” I said through my teeth, trying to yank myself free. “Do you think I can’t look after myself?”

“You know I don’t think that!” He said angrily, yanking me round a corner.

“Right- so explain this sudden bout of protective behaviour then! Not letting me go to Godric’s Hollow, now this!” I tried to break free again and his grip tightened, making my hand go numb.

“Look at what happened! It was a trap! Look at what happened to Harry!” He snapped, glaring at me over his shoulder as we turned another corner. The others, who were plainly ignoring us, saw the dragon and ran back round the corner.

“If I went, that might not have happened!” I shouted, pushing my hair back over my shoulder as the dragon spat fire towards us. I raised a hand palm up towards it, making the fire part round Jamie and me as I glared at the blonde.

“This is ridiculous!” Jamie yelled, throwing my wrist away. “You can’t prevent everything! Why are you trying to start an argument?”

“I don’t have to try!” I shouted back as the fire continued to roar round us. “Ever since Christmas, you’ve been treating me like I’m a porcelain doll- like I could break at any moment! It’s gotten worse since Malfoy Manor!”

“Maybe because I care about you!” Jamie shouted, his face red. “I don’t want to see you hurt anymore!” He made an angry noise and stormed away, meeting the others as they came back into the tunnel.

“Don’t walk away from me!” I snapped and Ron glanced at us nervously.

“Shut up, Alicia” Jamie said coldly, launching a pair of clackers at my head, hard. I snatched them out of the air, glancing and muttering angrily.

“Both of you shut up” Harry said, his patience gone. “Find the cup- Alicia, try to find a way out”

*

“The dragon?” Jamie yelled as we flew high over London. “That was your great idea?”

“I channelled my inner Hagrid! At least we’re out!” I shouted back, looking over my shoulder. Harry was looking over the side of the dragon behind me, Hermione sobbing behind him and Ron swearing loudly behind her. Jamie was glaring at me over Ron’s shoulder.

“If you’re going to start arguing, can you please do it later?” Harry yelled over the wind, making me smile and fall silent. Jamie turned to watch the land fly away underneath us.

“Is it just my imagination, or are we losing height?” Ron shouted after a while, peering over the side of our scaly ride.

“I really want to say it’s your imagination, but we are” I yelled, following it with a sleep deprived, hunger- fuelled, half- mad laugh that cut off dramatically when Harry said jump. In the fall, I somehow ended up in Jamie’s arms, clutching him tightly and squeezing my eyes shut.

We hit the freezing water hard, the shock making the breath fly out of my mouth in a rush of bubbles as I opened my eyes to see the green world we’d landed in. Jamie grabbed my waist and kicked us out of the mud, towards the surface. We emerged last, a bit of weed in my ice blue hair, making the others glance at me as I started to sob. Jamie laughed, pulling me towards the shore.

“Why are you crying?” He asked as Hermione pulled a bottle of Dittany from the beaded bag and started handing out dry clothes.

“I don’t know!” I cried as he pulled my shirt off, my teeth chattering and making him laugh. I wrapped my arms round myself as he pulled my shoes off and tipped the water out of them before yanking my jeans off and pulling a black halter neck dress with a skull and crossbones design on it over my head.

“Come here” He wrapped me in a hug after he’d changed into a pair of dry robes, letting me cry into his chest. “It’s okay, we’re okay” He repeated, stroking wet hair, which was still icy blue. Harry glanced at me and I knew his thoughts- this was the colour my hair was when we first met. Hermione gave Jamie two bottles of pumpkin juice and he helped me open mine due to my shaking hands.

“Well, on the up side, the lovebirds are friends again and we got the Horcrux” Ron said, watching his hands heal and not seeing Jamie’s rude hand gesture. “On the down side-”

“- no sword” Harry said, shooting a confused glance at me as I stopped crying and hiccoughed.

“That double crossing little scab…” Ron muttered as I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. Harry pulled the cup out of his jacket pocket and set it on the grass.

“What’ll happen to it, do you think?” Hermione asked suddenly, staring across the lake at the dragon. “Will it be all right?”

“You sound like Hagrid” I said, smiling while Ron shook his head.

“It’s a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It’s us we need to worry about” He said seriously.

“What do you mean?” Jamie asked, frowning at him as he pushed his hair out of his eyes and picked the weed out of mine.

“Well, I don’t know how to break this to you, but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts” Ron said, making us all burst into laughter. Once we’d started, it quite very hard to stop, but we managed it, all of us sprawled across the bank on our backs and coughing or hiccoughing.

“What are we going to do, though?” Hermione said as I wiped my face, leaning against Jamie’s stomach. “He’ll know, won’t he?” Her words seemed to trigger my ability because my vision blurred and I was jolted sideways as the blue sky vanished, being replaced by a dimly lit room.

Voldemort was standing in front of a group of Death Eaters, a terrified goblin kneeling between them and their master.

“What did you say to me?” Voldemort said, his voice high and cold, making me narrow my eyes. I glanced around, spotting Bellatrix in the crowd, her face bruised and pale as she stared at the trembling goblin. “Say it again!” Voldemort murmured, but the creature stayed silent. “Say it again!”

“M- my Lord” The goblin stammered and I saw his wide, terrified black eyes glance up quickly. “M- my Lord… We t- tried t- to st- stop them… Im- imposters my Lord… Broke- broke into the- into the Lestrange’s V- Vault”

“Imposters? What imposters?” Voldemort questioned as Bellatrix turned completely white. “I thought Gringotts had ways of revealing imposters? Who were they?”

“It was… It was… The P- Potter b- boy and the- and the Da- Daniels girl and th- three accomplices…” The goblin stuttered. I stared at Voldemort, wondering why he was interested in me and watching as fear rippled across his face quickly.

“And they took?” He said loudly, the fear entering his voice, making it higher and colder. “Tell me! What did they take?”

“Don’t answer, don’t answer- please don’t sat it!” I said, glad I wasn’t able to be seen or heard.

“A- a s- small golden c- cup, m- my Lord…” The goblin muttered, visibly shaking.

Voldemort let out a terrifying scream of rage, the Elder Wand slashing through the air. The gobbling fell and the Death Eaters scrambled for the door quickly as the Wand fell again and again, some of them falling with each flash of green. I watched as Bellatrix and Lucius, who looked slightly battered too, threw people behind them in their hurry for escape.

“What are you thinking?” I said as Voldemort stopped killing and began to pace through the dead. His snake-like face contorted in thought. He changed direction, striding over bodies to the door and into the garden, where he said something in Parseltongue. I cringed as Nagini came out of the shadows beside me, slithering towards her master.

I sat up, gasping, and head butted Jamie in the nose, making him lose his worried expression.

“Sorry! Sorry!” I said quickly as he swore, clutching his nose. Blood trickled through his fingers and I apologised again as he moved his hand for me to fix it. “Episkey… I really didn’t mean to do that” I added, waving a hand over his face. He winced as his nose reset before speaking.

“I know… What happened?” I asked, glancing round to find Ron and Hermione leaning over Harry.

“Same thing as you, I guess… it’s only just happened” Jamie said, tapping his nose nervously. “What did you see?”

“You- Know- Who finding out about the cup… it was scary” I said, grabbing the beaded bag and thrusting my entire arm inside in, routing through the mayhem inside. “You know, I still don’t like that snake of his…” I shivered as I pulled out my backpack by one of the wings.

“Why did you bring that thing?” Jamie asked, frowning at the red plastic heart shaped bag with black leather wings.

“In case of an emergency, I packed a few things of my own” I said, dropping the beaded bag next to Hermione and walking away from the others, Jamie following me.

“What sort of emergency?” Jamie frowned, watching as I pulled out a pair of black leather trousers and a black leather corset top, which I changed into. “Alicia, what sort of emergency?”

“A really big emergency where a dress would get in the way… Can you tighten that leg for me?” I said absently, motioning to the laces up my left leg. He did as I asked, still frowning. I then pulled out a pair of heels that had buckles high up my thigh, which I fought with for a second.

“Stop” He said finally, catching my hand as I reached for the bag again. “I want you to tell me what you know” He said, putting both hands on my face, making me look at him.

“I told you- I saw him find out about the cup” I said, not looking at him directly. His fingers smoothed the skin behind my ears, making me glance at his face.

“I said what you know, not what you saw” He said patiently. I sighed and decided to dodge the answer.

“You know, while you were in that vault, I had another vision” I said slowly, watching the light shine behind his eyes. I knew that it would always be there whenever he looked at me and it made my heart squeeze. “When we find the Horcrux, that only leaves You- Know- Who and his creepy snake… We’ll go after them… it’s really dangerous”

“Have you seen someone die?” He said, jumping to the worst conclusion.

“No!” I said quickly, shaking my head. “Nothing like that… But, if they was to happen, what would you want to do before?”

“I don’t get it” He said simply, staring at me. “Are you talking about…” He raised an eyebrow at me and I felt the smile tilt my lips slightly.

“Naughty…” I said, tapping his nose lightly. “I meant something that was permanent… that you haven’t had yet” I said, watching him carefully. He seemed more confused than before and I giggled. “You know… something that’s linked to that ring in your back pocket” I added and he sighed, pulling it out.

“Can’t keep anything secret…” He mumbled, looking at it. “Fine… you can have your surprise early then” He slipped the band onto my third finger on my left hand. I ignored it, cold against my skin and wrapped my arms round his neck, pulling him closer.

“Well… If we find the Horcrux quick enough…” I smiled slyly and he kissed me roughly, making me giggle again. He let me go as Harry sat up, sweat pouring down his face. He explained that he’d seen what I had, also saying that the last Horcrux was at Hogwarts. I pulled my longbow and a quiver of arrows from the bag, strapping them to my back before covering them with a light weight black cloak with a large hood.