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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 298: Opening the Vault
The vault gate began to shake as Harry attempted to overpower the protections embedded inside.
Despite how old this particular vault was, the goblins who created it had made sure it was extremely secure, even by modern standards.
Harry knew there was a more efficient and discreet way of doing this. He recalled seeing Bill Weasley opening ancient vaults with relative ease and without triggering any protections. Unfortunately, that required a very specific set of skills… skills he did not possess.
The vault gate shook again.
"Are you trying to break it or open it?" Daphne took another step back. She was beginning to doubt Harry a little bit.
"I'm not sure… whatever occurs first, I suppose." Harry said calmly.
"I believe our goblin guide must be on his way to inform his superiors about our… 'misdeed'." Xenos commented.
Daphne gasped. Everything happened too fast and she hadn't had time to digest it at all, but she had just realized something important.
"The goblins are going to arrest us! By Merlin, we are criminals!"
"Relax, it's going to be fine. Let me deal with the goblins when they come here." Harry said.
Daphne could not help but become more nervous at hearing this.
"By 'dealing with them', you mean…"
"I'm not going to kill them, okay? I have sort of an idea."
"Sort of?..." Daphne raised an eyebrow.
"Yes!, sort of!. But that is for later. Now… allow me to concentrate. This work requires finesse." He huffed in annoyance.
Daphne nodded and remained quiet. She may not know much about opening goblin-made doors, but she could believe it was a very difficult and delicate task.
Harry continued to pour raw magic into the door, hoping to break the defenses that were keeping him from being able to use transfiguration on it.
During the previous fight, he had made use of an external source of magic so his personal reserves were still intact.
He could feel something on the other side, calling for him. It was much more intense than during his previous visit, and it was getting progressively stronger.
This must mean the gate is being weakened, or at least that's what he thought.
Feeling a bit relieved to know that his method was showing results, Harry continued pouring more and more of his magic into the gate.
Soon enough, sparks of light could be seen across its surface with their naked eyes.
"I got you!" He coursed even more magic, and this time it shook more violently. Harry knew it...it was almost there. All he had to do now is give it a last push.
"But, I must say, Miss Greengrass," Xenos started.
"You shouldn't worry too much about the goblins. Our previous actions against the nundus were merely an act of self-defense. I'm sure they will be reasonable."
Daphne tried to ignore the vault gate shaking and considered Xenos's words.
"Mmm… maybe we can get away with only an apology and some monetary compensation. I mean, we haven't really caused any real damag—"
At that moment, the gave stopped shaking and making noises, like it had finally been defeated.
"The defenses are down! I think I can no—" Before Harry could finish his sentence, the vault gate exploded into large metallic chunks that went flying everywhere.
The gate had become unable to contain the immense amount of energy that had been concentrated inside, so when its protections finally failed, it blew up with violence.
Daphne and Xenos hurried to drop to the ground and heard the pieces of the vault door passing close by and crashing against the walls of the chamber.
For the next several seconds, they heard a cacophony of unsettling noise as everything around them seemed to be destroyed.
Once it was finally over and silence returned...Harry looked back at the mess he had just created.
There were large pieces of metal embedded into the walls and one of them had hit one of the other vault gates, causing some serious damage to it.
He was glad to see that Daphne and Xenos were fine. None of the parts were even close to touching them since they had been standing near the center of the chamber.
This was not the ideal outcome he had hoped for. And this will certainly make things more difficult with the goblins, but…
'What's done is done…'
He saw as Daphne and Xenos stood back up and looked around at the disaster before going back to stare at him with complicated expressions.
Harry could not guess what they were thinking at this instant. So he just pointed at the hole left behind by the absence of the vault gate.
"I… I opened it."
"You don't say…" Daphne had her arms crossed and a deep frown on her face.
"I did tell you to stand back." He did say that.
"And what happened to the whole 'This work requires finesse' thing you said before?..." Daphne glanced around the chamber again.
"I don't see much finesse here..."
"This is certainly not the way I… but I suppose it doesn't matter much." Xenos didn't seem to mind it.
"But the goblins will not like this one bit…" He added.
"Those guys are never happy, anyway… let us go inside. No need to waste more time here." Said Harry.
Daphne peeked at the park entrance. As much as she wanted to yell at Harry a bit more, her curiosity about the contents of the vault was stronger than anything else.
The three of them stood before the entrance. It was too dark to see anything beyond a couple of feet into the vault.
"Here we go…" Harry aimed his wand forward.
"Lumos."
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