Puzzle

Mars walked through Diagon Alley, roaming her dominion in the dead of night. After spreading out from Knockturn Alley for the past year, she controlled most of Magical London. She'd even placed people within the Ministry itself. Nothing happened inside without her knowing about it.

No one else dared go out at night. No one knew about her; everyone assumed anything bad that happened was due to Voldemort. The great Lord Voldemort, who had no power within Diagon Alley. No, it belonged to her. London belonged to her.

Being the undisputed Queen of Diagon Alley, she knew when a certain threesome entered her territory. Her eyes and ears had reported that Harry Potter and his friends had come out of hiding and were planning something on Gringotts. A break in, perhaps? It didn't matter to her. The goblin were more or less loyal to her, which pleased Voldemort enough to keep his non-existent nose out of it. So when one of them got wind of a plan to infiltrate Gringotts, they informed her immediately, knowing that she would sort it.

Under the cover of night, she stalked through the streets, listening, waiting, scanning the minds of every living thing around her. Harry Potter was known to use an invisibility cloak, which meant there was little doubt that he was using it now to hide. As if something so trivial could fool her.

She caught whispers in the night from a side street near her. They weren't as stupid as they seemed; they'd picked one of the best spots to survey Gringotts. Mars walked as though she hadn't heard anything, creeping around behind them. At least the fools were smart enough to whisper and not talk as though no one else in the world had the gift of hearing.

Mars stood behind them, not making a sound, hidden by the black of night. She listened to them, gathering their positions from when they spoke or moved. After a few minutes, she'd worked out where they were, then walked up behind them and stabbed Granger in the back.

She ripped off the cloak from them with one hand as Granger fell, then hurled a stone at Potter's throat.

The boy clutched his throat, unable to call out for help or cast a spell, as Weasley threw a stunner at her. Mars side-stepped it and rammed another blade into the boy's gut. She took it out, allowing the barbs to tear out a chunk of his side, then slashed his throat.

Potter recovered, and with tears in his eyes, threw another stunner at her. She ducked down and knocked his legs out from underneath him, then bashed him in the head with the hilt of her knife.

With him unconscious, she slit Granger's throat for good measure, then confirmed that both she and Weasley were dead.

She eyed the blood on her hands with glee as her cleanup crew arrived and disposed of the two dead bodies. It was so hard sometimes not to laugh when she got her hands dirty. Like getting to go out and play after a long day of studying.

"And send word to Riddle that we've got his boy," she said to one of her henchmen. "I'm sure he'll be delighted to see Harry Potter again."

She strode out of the alleyway, cleaning the blood off herself, then walked up the marble steps to Gringotts. Through the dim light, she caught the number and smiled.

"Hey, Moon," she said, "I think I've got something you want."

Hermione held her arms around a shaken Luna.

"Are you sure it's Gringotts?" Hermione asked.

Luna nodded, her whole body shaking.

"Mars looked right at it and called for me," she said. "The street number on Gringotts is 738, and the number was written diagonally over the floor, like you said."

"Which means Diagon Alley, of course. It wasn't one number, it was two. The first is the address, so the second must be the vault number."

Luna took a few more breaths as Tutela nestled against her.

"Are you going to be alright?"

Luna nodded and tried to smile. Hermione couldn't think of a time she'd seen Luna so shaken.

"Another Hermione, Ron, and Harry were trying to break into Gringotts," Luna said. "I think they were looking for Hufflepuff's Cup. Mars found out about it, and… and…"

Hermione held Luna as tightly as she could. They'd made an agreement before: only Luna was allowed to bring up tearing out someone's throat, and only Hermione was allowed to bring up killing Rose. That wouldn't stop either of them of dreaming about it, or worse, dreaming about killing other friends.

"It wasn't me," Hermione said, hoping she was helping. "You didn't kill me, Mars killed some other Hermione. I'm sure that one was an obnoxious know-it-all who had it coming."

To her surprise, Luna managed to laugh a little. Even Hermione hadn't thought it was that funny.

"It's not that, it's… I hate how much Mars enjoys it. When she's killing people… she feels a little like I did when I was with Toad."

Hermione didn't know to which emotion Luna was referring, nor did she want to find out. All she needed to know was that Mars was nuts, and Rose wasn't that bad.

"At least my sister didn't enjoy killing people," Luna said. "She only did it because she had to."

Hermione smiled, easing her grip on Luna. That was one thing on which they agreed: Rose wouldn't have killed anyone, especially not Professor Dumbledore, without having a good reason. Lavender, maybe, but not Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape. She wished the others would see that.

She hadn't spared much thoughts to her friends at Hogwarts. They'd stopped trying to get them to talk about where they were, which itself was a blessing. It was annoying being in the middle of a conversation only to hear "Where are you?" for the hundredth time. As if asking another hundred times would wear her down.

"Well, at least now we know it's Gringotts," Hermione said. "And we've got a vault number. All we need to do now is get inside Diagon Alley, where people are on the lookout for us, get inside Gringotts, where people will be on the lookout for us, get to a vault that we don't own, get inside the vault, then deal with whatever Rose left guarding the next clue."

"The vaults change position," Luna said, shrugging off Hermione and running her hands through her hair. "So we'll need a goblin to help us."

"I might be able to use find the path, and it might even work with the mine carts. If we're lucky — so not a chance — it might not be that hard to get inside the vault."

"They're resistant to magic."

"Of course they are. Why wouldn't they be?"

���And we haven't got the key either, so the goblins won't help us willingly."

"People must lose their vault keys all the time."

Tutela and Crookshanks began their patrol of the area as Hermione and Luna brainstormed more ways to get inside Gringotts.

"Alright, back up," Hermione said. "First we've got to get to Gringotts itself, and we can't do that as fugitives. If we try getting inside Diagon Alley, we'll get snatched up and arrested on sight. We've got to figure out a way to get in without being seen and get to the mine cart without anyone noticing. Do you know how often they change position?"

Luna tilted her head and likely conversed with the voices in her head while Hermione packed up her things and cleared away their campsite. It'd been weeks since Dartmoor, longer since she'd seen another human being apart from Luna, and she was beginning to think it was taking its toll on her. They'd been moving around in random directions as they'd worked through the clue, avoiding the Ministry as best they could. The only close call was with some people definitely not associated with the Ministry, judging by the electronics they'd used to try finding them. Ever since, Hermione had started using magic to clear away any heat signatures after they slept. They hadn't had any close calls since, so she kept hoping they'd lost them.

No hallucinations yet, so it can't be too bad.

It should've concerned her more that hallucinating was her threshold for too much stress, but she was too worried about staying ahead of the Ministry and Slytherin to care.

"Not really," Luna answered at last. "Often enough that Mars can't go snooping around in her world for it."

As though a new toy had been taken away, Hermione felt a little let down. Her mind had already started thinking of possibilities for Luna's gift.

Hermione decided they'd had enough of worrying about that — there'd be plenty of time for that later — and switched topics.

"I've been meaning to ask, how come you call yourself Losha?"

"It means 'Little Moon' in Dwarven."

"I know that, but why not call yourself Moon? Like how you call the others by their assumed names."

Luna stopped running her hands through her hair for a moment.

"When I think of 'Moon', I think of who I used to be. The girl that lived in Hogwarts with you and Toad. But Losha is the guardian of the Forbidden Forest, the union of all my other selves. Losha can be Moon or Mars or Neptune or Saturn."

As they removed all traces of themselves, Hermione began to wonder a different question.

"What about the forest? Are they alright without you?"

Luna — or Moon, or Losha — looked at her with sad eyes.

"I think so. The centaurs are nervous. They started seeing something happening in the stars. A comet that wasn't supposed to be there flew through, creating a triangle with Mars. They said a war was coming between three sides. Before I left, Magorian told me it was still coming."

Hermione nodded, remembering the comet to which Luna was referring.

"We'll get back there as soon as we can. If you don't mind, I'm going to keep calling you 'Moon'."

Luna — no, Moon smiled at her.

"I… I miss it when Toad called me Moon." She touched her broach. "It's not the same, but it's a little piece of him."

Hermione took her hand as Tutela and Crookshanks returned to the camp.

Neither said anything before they left for London. They still had a few days to go before they got there. It might've been two days if they were walking straight there, but they had to avoid civilization at all costs.

As always, they stayed away from any roads, clearings, or anything that looked like a path. They left no trace that they'd been there, apart from the occasional snapped twig. Crookshanks stayed in the trees to keep a lookout for trouble, and Tutela stayed ahead of them to warn them before danger got too close. Hermione had added blindsight to her repertoire of spells, making her feel less useless than when she was the only one who wasn't helping them not get caught.

It didn't stop her from feeling useless in a fight. It'd crossed her mind several times that Rose had broken into Gringotts on her own with relative ease. Hermione could use invisibility and find the path, likely along with blink, and it'd be easy to get inside and find vault 410. But she couldn't take Moon with her if she did, which meant Hermione would be up against whatever was waiting for them alone. Moon had managed to take down the Adamantine Clockwork Horror on her own, but she'd been working on surviving and fighting for years, not to mention the experience Neptune and Mars had. Hermione had what little experience she'd gained from Rose, and the ability to call out the black ooze that Hermione was still worried was doing damage to her whenever she used it.

It's probably doing Wisdom damage. You should see a Cleric about that.

Hermione calmed herself before Moon picked up on it, reminding herself that thinking something in Rose's voice didn't make it true. In fact, it probably made it false simply because Rose had said it.

Oi! I heard that!

Now I'm arguing with myself. Brilliant.

She shook it off and continued trying to work out how to get into Gringotts. Tutela and Crookshanks could slip inside unnoticed; even with criminals on the loose, she knew from experience that Wizards were morons and didn't get suspicious of animals. She'd learned that when no one had been suspicious of the fact that Scabbers had lived for 12 years.

I can use disguise self to get inside, but what about Moon?

The same question kept coming up: how to get Moon inside? Unless she'd worked out how to become an Animagus over the past few years, she was out of luck. Although knowing Moon…

<Moon, are you an Animagus?>

<Not yet, but Mercury's going to teach me once I've got the chance.>

Depending on what Moon's form was, Hermione might've found her answer. If it was a bear or something noticeable, they might have trouble. Knowing Moon, it would be something horribly conspicuous or something that couldn't go on land, like an elephant or a whale.

<Work on it tonight when we set up camp. I've got an idea. The two of us might not be able to walk inside Diagon Alley, but the two of us aren't going to walk inside Diagon Alley.>

<That sounds like a brilliant plan, Brain.>

Having never heard Moon use sarcasm before, Hermione hoped her sarcastic voice didn't sound exactly like her normal voice. It wouldn't have surprised her if it did; Moon's voice didn't seem to change unless she got angry.

<I'm still working through it, but I think we can get in. I'm going to need to work out disguise self and alter self, but I think this will work.>

A few days later, a woman and three animals arrived at Diagon Alley. Hermione had used disguise self to take on the appearance of Aurora Lux, being the least conspicuous looking person of whom she could think. Crookshanks walked by her side. Being her kneazle, no one questioned this.

As it turned out, Moon's animagus form was an arctic fox. While this delighted Tutela to no end, as they had played together the entire time Hermione had been talking about the plan, Hermione herself had initially expressed doubts about it. An arctic fox wasn't exactly indigenous to England, or Europe for that matter. Nonetheless, Tutela and Moon had gone ahead, and, according to both of them, no one was suspicious of either animal, nor of the fact that they walked together. Some noticed, some laughed, but Moon insisted she didn't smell suspicion on anyone. She'd verified that her runes were all still working, so Hermione went forward with her part of the plan.

Hermione and Crookshanks walked into Diagon Alley, and no one was any the wiser. It was surreal, hearing other people talking for the first time in months. They milled about, going about their daily lives as though nothing were wrong. They had no idea that things were spiraling out of control. Slytherin was making a move, and Hermione was sure it involved Umbridge somehow. She hadn't worked out how it did yet, but she hadn't been able to keep up with any news since going off the grid.

As she walked, Tutela and Moon trotted up alongside her. While she would've thought people would notice, Moon informed her that no one cared. Hermione figured they were on edge about two women, not a crazy animal lady.

On her way through, Hermione grabbed a copy of the Daily Prophet. Sure enough, on the front page there were pictures of her and Moon, with the title "Still at Large". The article still neglected to tell anyone why they were criminals, apart from being "connected to the New Death Eaters".

That's ridiculous. They wouldn't call themselves the 'New Death Eaters', they're a cult. They'd just keep calling themselves the 'Death Eaters', so it can't be them, and people are too afraid of Voldemort to say his name, much less try and copy him.

While she wanted to get to the bottom of that, she didn't have the time. She and Moon needed to get inside Gringotts and get out before anyone started asking questions. Getting inside Diagon Alley had been the easy part. Now the four of them had to get inside the bank, get to the mine cart, and get to the vault.

Before they went to Gringotts, she had something to do. She stopped by the Owlery to send a letter.

"Who is it from?" the woman at the counter asked.

"Don't put anything for that," Hermione replied, not wanting to give anything away.

The woman eyed Hermione.

<That's suspicion.>

<Thanks, Moon, I noticed.>

"It's a love letter, alright? I don't want her to know it's from me."

The woman looked at Hermione as if to make a fuss, then decided it wasn't worth caring. Hermione paid, then the four of them continued to Gringotts.

Another problem had occurred to her as they neared Gringotts: there was only one mine cart. However that worked, apart from not well, that meant they'd have to get the mine cart back before anyone noticed. Knowing Rose, whatever challenge awaited them would take time. They'd also have to worry about the possibility of running into other people along the way. The mine cart could be in use. It could only work with some sort of key. Hermione had never been into the Gringotts vaults before, nor had Moon, so neither had a clue. There was no guarantee that it worked the same in their world as it did in others, so Moon couldn't ask for help either.

It's fine. We'll work it out.

While Moon had succeeded in using Mercury's memories to learn to transform, she hadn't been able to learn to apparate. Doing so typically required a wand, which Moon no longer had. That meant most of the information in Mercury's head about it was useless, and she couldn't use Rose's magic like Hermione could. If something went wrong, Moon had to rely on Mercury's abilities to get her out, while Hermione could easily use dimension door or teleport and leave everyone behind. Hermione hated the very idea of doing so.

All of this occurred to Hermione as she walked up to Gringotts and walked inside. People walked around, mostly exchanging money. She saw a spot marked "Vaults" and walked up to it.

"Vault number," the goblin sitting at the desk asked her without looking up.

"Vault 410."

She doubted simply asking would work, but she had to try anyway.

The goblin flipped through a book, then ran his finger down it.

"Identification."

She frowned. She'd expected a key, not identification.

"I'm sorry?"

"When…" The goblin looked up at her. He looked her up and down, narrowing his eyes at her. "When you opened the vault, Ms. Lux, you chose proof of identification instead of a key." He pointed at Reflectesalon. "Hand it over."

Wheels turned in Hermione's head as she realized what Rose had done. As she handed Reflectesalon to the goblin, she couldn't help but admire Rose. Hermione had chosen to take Lux's form because it was the first one that had popped into her head that wouldn't be suspicious, nor run the risk of running into the original. In all likelihood, Rose had chosen it for the same reason. If Rose had used a key, Hermione never would've thought to grab it off Rose, nor would Rose want to risk someone else making a duplicate key and opening the vault. What Rose had also known was that Hermione would grab Reflectesalon off her.

I wish you were here so I could tell you how brilliant you are. I might even hug you.

The goblin handed Reflectesalon back to her, then motioned for her to follow him. Once he got down from the desk, he pointed at her pack of animals.

"No animals inside the vault."

Hermione froze. Her plan, had this way worked, was to smuggle the animals inside with her. Failing this, she was going to leave, looking defeated, then cast invisibility on all of them so the four of them could sneak inside.

<You'll be fine,> Moon insisted. <Go, get inside. We'll figure out how to get in later.>

<But—>

<This way we're ready for any tricks. If something goes wrong, you can get out without worrying about us.>

Hermione couldn't argue with that, not with the goblin waiting on her, so she sent the three of them off. After they'd left, the goblin led her down to the mine cart.

Sure enough, there was only one cart, but she gathered people didn't go directly to their vaults too often. Either that, or the private vaults required a bigger deposit, so not a lot of people had one.

I'm going with that. That makes a lot more sense.

She stepped inside the mine cart, which lurched forward without warning. It sped them down the tracks, forcing Hermione to hold on or be thrown off. Her knuckles went white, and her hair whipped her face. The goblin, however, looked delighted to see her so disoriented. The cart shot up, then fell down, whipped around a curve, spiraled upside down, then finally came to a stop in front of a vault. Sure enough, above the large door, the number 410 glimmered in the faint torchlight.

"Here we are," the goblin said, "vault 410."

He stepped out of the cart, walked up to the door, then ran his finger along the middle. A crack in the metal appeared, then the doors creaked open. The goblin beckoned her inside.

"Thank you."

She walked past him and looked around. The vault was empty.

"Are you sure this is vault 410?" she asked, looking back at the goblin.

"Of course it is," he said. "We goblins don't trick humans, humans trick goblins. Like pretending to be an impostor!"

"What are you talking about?"

"We got word a year ago that Aurora Lux wasn't real!"

<Moon, get out of Diagon Alley! It's a trap!>

<We're leaving now. We'll let you know when we're safe.>

Behind her, the vault door shuddered and began closing. She ran towards the goblin, but the door shut before she could reach him.

Hermione assessed her situation. She was locked inside of a vault inside Gringotts. If the goblins didn't leave her to die, they'd likely be calling the Ministry to pick her up. Once they figured out who she was, Umbridge would toss her inside her very own cell in Azkaban. That meant she had that time to figure out this clue.

She waited a minute for Moon, dropping her disguise as she did. After hearing nothing, she turned around and looked at the vault. Through her darkvision, she was able to see the thing that Rose had used to open up the vault, which she'd probably enchanted to be invisible unless Hermione herself were present.

She walked over to the puzzle box and picked it up.

"What are the odds that this isn't one exactly like the one Ozerl gave you when you first met?"

Hermione turned it over in her hands, then started to solve it.

<Moon, there's a puzzle box in here. Black with ruby red accents, sort of egg-shaped.>

<Sounds like the one Professor Ozerl gave Rose.>

<That's what I was thinking. I've almost got it.>

<We're out of Diagon Alley.>

<I'll meet you when—>

<Stay there. We can't get back after they've rearranged the vaults, and they'll be guarding that vault now, if they don't clean it out entirely.>

<How do you—>

<Mars told me.>

<Right. Well…>

Hermione looked down at the puzzle she was almost finished solving. She had no idea what would happen when she finished it, although she expected it would come to life and attack her. She didn't think she could do it without Moon, but her friend was right: this might be their only chance to get this clue.

<Alright. I'll stay here and solve it. But… I—>

<You beat Rose, so you can beat whatever she makes. I couldn't have beaten the last one without Toad believing in me… so I hope you know Rose believed in you too.>

Hermione closed her eyes and imagined Rose being there with her. She felt Rose's gloved hands on hers, helping her through the last of the puzzle.

I chose you, Brain. There's a reason for that.

Hermione slid the last piece into place, and the puzzle started to vibrate. She placed it on the floor, but it rose up and the pieces came apart. They spread into a circle, then lightning arced between them. Energy swirled inside the circle formed by the puzzle, creating what looked to Hermione like a portal.

<There's a portal here. I don't know where it goes, but I'm supposed to go through it.>

<Good luck, Brain.>

<Thanks, Moon. I'll see you shortly.>

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was all up to her. Rose had left this for her, knowing that she'd take Reflectesalon, knowing that she'd impersonate Lux. Every clue had been laid out for her. Rose trusted Hermione to do this. Hermione had killed her once; she wasn't going to let Rose down again.

She stepped through the portal.

Gringotts faded away, leaving Hermione inside a cavern. The walls were covered in moss and grime. Moisture dripped from the ceiling.

Hermione began to get the bad feeling she knew where she was. She'd fought constructs of Rose's so far, but this wasn't exactly another construct. This was a nightmare, but it wasn't hers.

After seeing nothing move, she started walking down the cavern. The rest of it was as dank as the spot in which she'd entered. Without her darkvision, she'd never be able to see. She couldn't hear much, but in the distance, something was shaking the cavern. Something that sounded like footsteps.

As she rounded a corner, she came upon someone trembling on the floor.

Not just anyone. The person whose nightmare into which she'd walked.

"Please," Rose whimpered, "don't let him hurt me."