Chapter 303: The Yule Ball

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

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25 December 1994, Durmstrang

The atmosphere in Durmstrang was very different on that fated day. Everyone was excited for the event, strangely, even more excited than for the tasks themselves. At least with that done, there would be a lot less love proclamations and desperate people wanting a date for the ball.

It was a bit insane how much a simple ball created so much pressure. Honestly, it wasn't this tense during the tasks.

The Great Hall had been completely transformed, taking on a cozy Scandinavian vibe with a touch of Norse mythology. Evergreen garlands with twinkling fairy lights and silver ornaments hung from the rafters, making the place smell like a winter forest. Instead of the usual long tables, there were round ones covered in white tablecloths, set with cool-looking rune-engraved silverware. Ice sculptures of dragons and wolves were dotted around the hall, glowing softly under the enchanted lanterns.

The hall had been closed for the better part of the day for the preparations and Harry could see why. They must not have wanted anyone to mess with their hours, maybe even days, of effort. Harry stood at the entrance hall, patiently waiting for his date alongside many others…

Finally, he saw her. Daphne Greengrass stepped into view, and Harry's breath caught in his throat. She looked amazing. Daphne wore a deep emerald green dress that flowed gracefully to the floor, the colour making her blue eyes stand out even more. The dress was simple but elegant, with silver embroidery along the neckline and hem that sparkled in the light. Her blonde hair was styled in soft waves, falling gently down her back, with a few strands pinned back with a silver comb shaped like a snowflake.

Her makeup was just right, enhancing her natural beauty with a touch of colour on her lips and a bit of shimmer on her eyelids. She walked with an easy confidence, smiling warmly at Harry as she approached. She looked beautiful.

The blonde turned towards him with a smug smile, "Now, that's the expression I was going for, Potter. Do you still regret that we won't be spending the Yule Ball dancing?"

"You look beautiful," he simply stated, "Do you think Tracy will be able to pull off… all of this."

She blushed, "We, ladies, have our secrets. Don't worry, she'll be able to pull it off. I already have an extra dress ready, and I left Blaise a copy of your suit as well."

Harry snorted; Daphne had also picked out his suit to match her robes. He didn't see the difference, to be completely honest, a suit was a suit, after all, but apparently, she disagreed.

Seeing her now, Harry regretted not scheduling the heist to be on another day, but unfortunately, Yule was the perfect time for it. He had, at first, only chosen this date for the alibis it would have given them, but it turned out that the tri-yearly inspection of vaults happened during the least busy day of the year, Yule and that provided a small vulnerability in their process that he planned on exploiting. Every vault is checked for security reasons every ten years or so, but they weren't all checked in the same year, after all.

They both sat for the feast, ate gracefully, made sure to have as many conversations as they could, and danced for a bit. It would have been a perfect date if they didn't have to leave right afterwards.

They both left the ball hand in hand; Daphne having pretended to have hurt her ankle. Harry quickly put on an invisibility illusion the moment they were out of sight and created a portal to his room in the Hogwarts Express.

When he arrived, he activated his beacon and used it to create a portal. Tracy and Blaise walked out of the portal, looking excited. The brunette gave them a mock outraged look, "You're late!" before bursting into giggles.

Harry quickly hugged them. He had missed them a lot more than he expected, "Alright, I don't have much time until the portal closes. The Polyjuice is on the dresser. We've already put in our hair and labelled the flasks. I enchanted it to vibrate whenever fifty-five minutes passed without you taking a sip, so don't worry. Anyway, Daphne left some instructions about your makeup and stuff. Have a great time."

Blaise gave him a warm smile, "Thank you, mate. We really appreciate this…"

"Sure, but remember, we don't want anyone to know that we aren't at the ball."

"It's not our first time dealing with your shenanigans, Harry. We don't want to know what you're planning. We'll just go with the flow."

Daphne whispered something in her ear and they both giggled. Deciding not to waste even more time, Harry stepped through the portal and grabbed Daphne with him.

They found themselves in an abandoned room in Hogwarts. He had asked them to remain in the castle during the holidays because he needed a place that was rich with magic to power the beacon. The first they did was activate the signal for Wormtail to proceed with the plan.

Anyway, they both changed their clothes into casualwear, and he created a portal to Diagon Alley. A few minutes later, they heard a crack of apparition and a familiar balding man walked towards them, "Wormtail."

"Harry… I got the things you asked for. Dolores Umbridge is asleep in her home…"

He handed them some hair and Harry quickly put it in the vial of Polyjuice. When he handed the potion to Daphne, she grimaced, "Why am I the one who has to drink this?"

"Because you're a girl… I don't know how to walk like a woman or act like one, really. If it had been a man, I would have gladly drunk it…"

"Yeah right," she gritted out before drinking the potion.

The transformation looked unsettling, and more than a little disturbing. Still, by the end of it, she did look like Umbridge, meaning that Wormtail didn't screw up. She snarled and grabbed the hideous pink robes that the rat Animagus was holding, before casting some privacy charms and changing.

As she did so, Wormtail came to him and asked, "Look, I know you don't like me, but I can't help but worry… Why did you ask for this stuff? Did Umbridge do something to you?"

Harry snorted, "That's none of your business and it would serve your mistress well not to talk to anyone about it."

He saw the magic take effect as the rat Animagus glared at him. Yeah, he didn't like the man. Outside of betraying his parents, he also threatened Daphne to get him to enter the Gardens of Avalon… The magic that bound him to Daphne was strong and one that could not be broken. Blood oaths were tricky like that, especially when there was no way to dissolve it in the wording of the oath.

Still, five minutes later, Dolores Umbridge came out and muttered, "Let's just get this over with. Wormtail, the wand, please."

The man gave her Dolores Umbridge's wand, a frankly unremarkable one, all things considered. Daphne also made sure that she had the vault key on her before speaking up once more, "Wait here in your rat form until we get back."

The man nodded before turning into his rat form and hid there. Daphne then turned towards Harry, "How do I look?"

"Exactly like Umbridge. The Polyjuice did its job. I think we're ready to do to Gringotts."

She nodded and started to walk there. Harry, though, activated his cloak and followed behind her in silence. As they approached the massive marble building, Daphne did her best to mimic Umbridge's stiff, self-important stride. The goblins at the entrance barely gave her a second glance, clearly recognizing the hated Ministry official. Inside, the grand hall was bustling with activity, but Daphne stayed focused, heading straight for the counter.

"Madam Umbridge," the goblin teller greeted with a sneer, not bothering to hide his disdain. "What can we do for you today?"

"I need access to my vault," Daphne replied in Umbridge's simpering voice, holding out the key. The goblin took it, inspecting it closely before nodding.

"Very well. Griphook will escort you," he said, summoning another goblin.

Daphne followed Griphook to the cart, with Harry trailing invisibly behind. As they sped through the twisting tunnels, Daphne kept her composure. It was impressive in Harry's opinion… He fully expected to have used more than a few compulsion charms on Griphook to avoid suspicion. Still, he reminded himself that this was the easy part. The real challenge would come once they reached the vault.

"Here we are, Madam Umbridge," Griphook announced, bringing the cart to a halt. He unlocked the vault door and swung it open, revealing a surprising number of piles of gold. Yeah, this woman was either taking bribes or stealing from the ministry because there was no way a ministry worker, no matter their position, could have this much gold…

Still, they weren't breaking into Gringotts to prove Umbridge's possible embezzlement, but to steal from one of the biggest and wealthiest clients in the bank… Daphne entered the vault without saying anything to the goblin, which was honestly something Umbridge would do and picked up a bit of gold into her bag before turning to Griphook and saying, "I am done. Get me out of here."

The Goblin sneered at her, closed the door, handed her the key, and waited for her on the cart, and they returned to the surface quickly afterwards. The Goblin escorted Daphne back and she exited the bank, but she did so alone.

With Harry being still in the bank, he waited for Griphook to return. The goblin was mumbling in Gobbledegook and Harry used this time to cast the Goblin compulsion charm on him, where he remembered seeing orders for the inspection of the Lestrange Vault… He groaned, kept grumbling once more, and summoned another cart.

Harry quickly jumped on the cart, which began twisting and turning far faster than it ever did when Umbridge was a passenger. It glided through the underground labyrinth that was Gringotts, sloping downward all the time. They were going deeper than Harry had ever been, deeper than it should have been possible without magic… It was frankly insane how expanded space had to be to fit all of the vaults in the bank.

Of course, that was when Harry noticed the waterfall ahead of him. He cast a spell to slow down his perception of time, then activated the cloak. He phased through the cart and cast a sticking charm underneath it, making him stick to it.

The infamous Thief's Downfall continued, and the best part was that Griphook wasn't even affected. Harry crafted the spell as a way to make a connection at the time and would not persist. Griphook simply remembered something, and felt a single inclination to do a certain action. It wasn't an active enchantment, the mind itself being fooled for a moment, meant that the action would continue… It was a very delicate charm, hence why it took him so long to craft it…

And since the enchantment didn't touch him, since he was underneath the cart, nothing happened. To be fair, it was unlikely that it could have messed with the cloak's magic, but to be perfectly honest there was no reason to risk it, and the water bouncing over him would have alerted Griphook.

It was also why he didn't want Daphne to come with him… Polyjuice potion could easily be washed out by the security measures…

Any sort of suspicion having been washed out; the cart continued downward until it arrived in front of a giant cavern. Griphook jumped out of the cart and Harry pushed himself up while phasing through it once more.

The goblin grumbled, this time using English, "Where the hell are they? I swear if they make me wait…"

Harry quickly deduced that it must have taken more than a few goblins to perform the vault inspection. He quickly cast another compulsion charm to get him to just do the inspection by himself and complain to his higher up later, hoping for a promotion…

The goblin grumbled once more before stepping forward. The moment he did so, he heard a loud roar and wave of heat coming his way… Right, the dragon. That was also a thing.

Well, at least things were going according to plan so far… Surprisingly… However, this was the easiest part of the heist, and he now had to deal with the most troublesome part of the affair, the vault's security.

Various security measures were offered by Gringotts and had to be personally selected by the vault's owner. Using dragons was a sign of luxury, but there were hundreds of security measures available too, and the goblins kept a tight lid on the security measures chosen by each family. And they could be very subtle, enough to take anyone off-guard.

First things first, he cast a compulsion charm on the goblin, getting him to daydream and ignore his task. It wasn't common knowledge, but the vault's security measures were often disabled during inspections… Harry didn't know if Griphook could do it, or if it had to be done remotely… It was better for him to handle them on his own quickly enough and then get Griphook to just open the vault.

Harry sincerely hoped that it was just the dragon, but it was likely not just that. The stories in his old life have been wrong before, many times in fact – Neville Longbottom being the boy who lived was proof enough – and he needed to proceed carefully and not take any needless risks… Hopefully, the odds would be in his favour.

After taking a deep breath, Harry slowly walked into the cavern… After all, he had a vault to rob.

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AN: So, finally some action and the start of the bank heist... It was surprisingly hard to plan out a compelling heist and I don't know if I did it well, so if you see something wrong please let me know. Anyway, also please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions...

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.