Goblin Auction Ⅳ

The haughty, domineering face of Corban Yaxley is inordinately pleased as not only had they polyjuiced into three members of a potion's guild, but easily managed to place the goblin guards under the Imperius curse to get them to open a door leading to the underground vaults. However, the two goblin guards had no authority to open the vaults as they were Gringotts' guards and not tellers.

"How do you think we should do this?" Jugson impatiently snapped. "Shall we go back upstairs and try to grab a teller?"

"Don't be a fool!" Selwyn snapped in a cruel, harsh voice. "We'd either be caught or have the time to return a second time. We're already running out of time as it is!"

The tall, thin, Travers strokes his crown of bushy beard in thought. His long nose is slightly tinged red at the coolness of the cave. "Then, what if we don't?" Travers coolly suggested.

"What?" Corban Yaxley snapped his long ponytail and whipped his back at how fast his head spun around. "I did not come all this way to merely turn back and tell the Dark Lord that we were incapable of doing his bidding."

"No, what I mean to say, is what if we purposefully triggered the traps using those two," Travers pointed out. "They'd take the brunt of the curses and make it that much easier for us to break inside."

Yaxley whirls around and points his wand at the two dull-eyed guards. "I order you both to do your best to break into vault #713! And use your lives if need be!"

"Understood," the two guards duly answered as they took up their spears and charged the vault with no keyhole. Immediately their goblin magic began to cause sparks to appear as the four men wisely retreated a safe distance away. The goblins kept attacking the vault over and over as their bodies were wounded and bruised by the powerful spells set in place until at last their bodies broke and they fell still to the ground.

"We'd better hurry," Jugson snapped. "Their attacks must have triggered some kind of alarm."

The four men rushed forward to only freeze at seeing a slender, medium-sized, masked figure wearing a plague doctor costume. The four men instantly point their wands at the silent figure who merely shows empty hands in signs of peace. "Who are you?!" Jugson rather agitated shouted.

The masked plague doctor merely brings their finger to their lips as if saying, "Shush." But does not speak as Travers wisely says, "We'll leave you to your business if you leave us to ours."

The plague doctor merely points at vault #713 and then holds out their finger to them, shaking it side to side as if saying, "Naughty, naughty."

"Are you here for the vault as well?" Selwyn said in a cruel eager voice that thirsted for bloodshed and violence. The plague doctor slowly shakes their head, before vanishing without a single sound.

All four men blankly stare at the empty spot before them as Jugson says, "I hate to say this, but did that plague doctor just apparate out of Gringotts? Isn't that supposed to be impossible?!"

"It would appear not," Yaxley drily said as he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the empty space before them. "The Dark Lord would like to hear about this." The other three men grunted in unison before they all rushed forward and attacked the vault door.

With both powerful and talented wizards under their combined skills, the vault door was finally forced open after a heavy onslaught of spells. Green poisonous smog pours out as they all impatiently wait for the smoke to clear.

Tasting victory at hand, Yaxley rushes inside not hearing the crunching sound under his feet. With eyes darting around, he finds the small vault completely bare and empty. "Was it moved?" Yaxley roared in rage as the other men dove inside to search for the philosopher's stone.

"I think I found it," Travers finally said as he pointed to the scattered melted pieces of a once blood-red gemstone on the ground and underneath some of their feet.

Instantly Yaxley falls to his feet and roars with rage, "Who would ever be so foolish as to destroy the philosopher's stone?"

A loud creak seems to answer that question as they all glance up to see the plague doctor innocently wave at them from the entrance, before slamming the vault door shut before their very eyes. They all scramble to their feet too late as the poisonous green fog is triggered upon the vault door closing as they all frantically cover their mouths.

"Open the door!" Jugson shrieked as the rest of them pointed at their wands in an effort to blow the door open and escape. But the green fog was much too strong and fast acting as only moments later Jugson fell to the floor. The next to fall was Selwyn as Yaxley and Travers weakly struggled to remain on their feet.

"I'll kill that bloody Plague Doctor if it's the last thing I do!" Yaxley swore as Travers finally succumbed to the poisonous fog. As his eyesight grew dizzier and dizzier, he tried firing shot after shot at the door to only see it remain closed. Unable to even scream in rage, Yaxley can only point his trembling wand at the merciless vault door.

Unable to remain standing Yaxley weakly fell to the floor and to his relief he heard the door being opened. Finally, they were being rescued was Yaxley's last thought as he collapsed on the ground. But had he looked at the goblin shadow on the floor he'd seen how eerily it stretched in the green fog to resemble that of a cowled figure, death.

One thing that had not occurred to any of the four Death Eaters is that the goblins are not required to report any intruders nor turn them over to the Aurors. An oversight really, but one that the goblins had conveniently used for many years. There were very good reasons why Gringotts was never broken into and better reasons why there were no tales left of said attempts. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.