Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 294: Unauthorized Access
"I have never seen you scream like that before…" Harry commented after the cart finally stopped.
"You knew!" Daphne exclaimed.
After stopping at what seemed like the end of the rails, the goblin pulled another lever and the cart was propelled down the hole at a ninety-degree angle at a ridiculous speed.
"I wanted it to be a memorable experience."
"I'll give you a memorable experience!" Daphne punched his shoulder.
"We have arrived, you can get out…." The goblin sounded somewhat annoyed already.
"Xeno, you look a bit paler than usual," Harry noted.
"Oh, I'm perfectly fine…. blegh…" He vomited next to the goblin.
"Ahh!" Daphne jumped out of the cart.
"Damn wizard! Get off my cart," the goblin shouted.
"I didn't see that coming," Xeno said calmly as he didn't just unload inside the cart.
"It must have something to do with—blegh!…"
"OUT!"
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"So… here we are. The Ancient Vaults," Harry announced.
They could hear the goblin complaining in the back.
"You know, I could clean that with a single spell," Harry offered.
"No!, we can have wizard magic here. It could trigger the alarm and we would all die." The goblin continued to use his dirty rag in the most efficient way possible.
"What kind of alarm is that?." Daphne wondered.
"I'm really sorry about that," Xeno apologized again.
Harry had already given the goblin several more galleons. Otherwise, they would have received more than some insults in goblin tongue.
"Where is the Peverell one?" Daphne looked around.
There were only half a dozen torches illuminating this large circular chamber, so it was almost impossible to distinguish one vault from another.
"Over here." Harry was feeling the same connection that he felt during his first visit, but this time it was much stronger. He quickly located the door with the Peverell symbol on top.
"This is it…. the end of my research," Xeno said with mixed feelings.
"Hold it, wizard!" The goblin dropped what he was doing when he saw Harry approach the vault door.
"You can't do that!"
"I haven't done anything… yet," said Harry.
"You were authorized to access the Potter Vaults and only the Potter Vaults," the goblin said.
"If you try to open any other vault, the security…."
"But if I can actually open the vault, doesn't that mean that I had permission?" Harry asked, while taking something out of his pocket.
The goblin glanced at the vault that Harry had in front of him.
"Are you a Peverell?"
"Distantly related…" Harry looked at Xeno.
"Maybe…" he then added.
"Are we sure about this?... perhaps there is another way to access that vault." Daphne was starting to have doubts. Despite having the key, this may not be enough to open the vault gate if it also requires having enough Peverell blood.
"Maybe we could search for the descendants of the main family." After all, Anthony Peverell left his house a long time ago, and since then, his bloodline must have been thinned out in favor of others.
"It will be fine! This is fate. Harry is the chosen one! The door will definitely open for him," Xeno claimed with absolute confidence.
Harry turned around and took a better look at the vault door.
The design was a bit different from his family's. It looked much more ancient and rustic.
But he could still easily recognize the place where he had to insert the key and put his hand.
He looked back at the key he was holding. It was definitely as ancient as this gate and it carried the Peverell symbol on it.
"This has to work..."
"Wait, wait! This is very irregular!" The goblin was starting to panic.
"We must return to the ground level and speak with the manager, Yellow Scar."
"And then we have to go through all of this again?" Daphne asked.
"Since I am already here… I may as well give it a try." Harry held the key with his left hand and placed his right one on the metallic plate, despite the goblin's complaints.
Harry felt a pinch on his index finger and knew that some blood had been drawn and gave the key a twist at the same time.
The group stood in silence, looking at the vault door, waiting with anticipation to see if it would open.
The key was sucked into the gate without warning, and this one then began to make a series of noises.
'This is different...' Harry noticed that this was not what happened when his father opened the Potter vault.
"It's opening!" Daphne exclaimed.
"See? I told you. Harry was fated to be here, at this very moment, and to—"
"Silence!" The goblin screamed, startling everyone in the process.
"Listen!"
Harry felt that something was wrong.
The noises coming from the gate had stopped all of a sudden, and now there were different ones from somewhere else.
"Oh no!" The goblin hurried to return to his mine cart.
He wasted no time getting inside and began to pull levers, not caring anymore about the mess that Xeno made.
"Where are you going?" Daphne glared at the goblin.
"The security measures! You blasted wizard! You have triggered the alarm with your reckless behavior. Now the defenses have been activated." The goblin pulled one last lever, and the cart began to move backward.
"Defense system?" Harry could detect something opening, but it was none of the vault doors. The sound came from somewhere further away.
"Hey! You can't leave us here!" Daphne wanted to catch the cart but it had already gotten too far away.
"You are doomed!" The goblin's cart disappeared into the darkness.
"Maybe I was wrong after all," Xeno realized.
"You think?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Still… it was me who created this mess…. let me deal with them." He added.
"Them?...." Daphne then began to hear steps.
The source of the sounds was a large hole that had appeared between two of the vault doors.
From this hole, a four-legged creature emerged into the main chamber.
The feeble light of the torches did a poor job of showing its features.
But for those who were a bit familiar with it… they could easily recognize it.
"Is that what I think it is?" Xeno asked. "Because if it is, we are in some serious trouble."
"What do you think it is?" Daphne was sure she had seen it before in some books, but the name evaded her.
"Try not to breathe too much." Harry stepped forward.
"That is a nundu."
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