94 Diagon Alley

Then floats like a wave.

"Wait a minute, ma'am," said the doorman, raising the detector.

"You just checked!" Hermione said in Bellatrix's arrogant, domineering tone. Travers turned his head and raised his eyebrows. Confused, the doorman stared down at the thin golden detector, then at his companion, who said somewhat blankly, "Yes, you checked them just now, Marius."

Hermione strode forward, Ron at her side, invisible Harry and Griphook behind. Beyond the door, Harry glanced back: both wizards were scratching their heads.

Two goblins stood in front of the second door, and the silver door was engraved with the verse that the thief will be punished. Harry looked up at it, and suddenly a razor-sharp memory came to him: the day he turned eleven, the most amazing birthday of his life, standing here with Hagrid beside him Said, "Like I said, you'd be crazy if you tried to rob this bank." Gringotts seemed to him that day a magical place, an enchanted treasure trove with so many hidden in it. He had no idea about the gold in his name. He never thought he'd come back to steal...but seconds later, they were standing in the huge marble foyer.

Behind the long counter, goblins sat on high stools to receive the first customers of the day. Hermione, Ron and Travers walked towards an older leprechaun who was examining a thick gold coin through his glasses. Hermione had Travers ahead of her on the pretext of introducing Ron to the hall's features.

The goblin threw the gold coin in her hand aside, said "Little Leprechaun" casually, then said hello to Travers, took a small golden key that he handed over, checked it again also gave him.

Hermione stepped forward.

"Mrs Lestrange!" said the goblin, obviously surprised, "Ah! You- what can I do for you today?"

"I want to get into my vault," said Hermione.

The older goblin seemed to flinch. Harry glanced around. Not only did Travers stop and look at her, but several goblins looked up at Hermione.

"Do you have... ID?" the goblin asked.

"Identity? I—I—never asked for me before!" said Hermione.

"They know!" Griphook whispered in Harry's ear, "They must have been warned that someone was going to be an impostor!"

"Your wand will prove it, ma'am," said the goblin, holding out a trembling hand. A horrific thought suddenly occurred to Harry, realizing that the goblins at Gringotts knew that Bellatrix's wand had been stolen.

"Do it now, do it now," whispered Griphook, "use Imperius!"

Harry raised his hawthorn wand under the invisibility cloak, pointed it at the older goblin, and said softly for the first time in his life, "Out of body!"

A peculiar sensation quickly entered Harry's arm, and a tingling warm current seemed to flow from his mind, following muscles and blood vessels to connect him with the wand and the spell he had just cast connected. The goblin took Bellatrix's wand, examined it carefully, and said, "Ah, you've made a new wand, Lady Lestrange!"

"What?" said Hermione. "No, no, that's mine—"

"New wand?" Travers walked back to the counter, the goblins still watching, "But how did you do it? Which wand maker did you find? "

Harry took action without hesitation: he pointed his wand at Travers and whispered again, "Out of body!"

"Oh, yes, I see," Travers said, looking down at Bellatrix's wand, "yes, it's beautiful. Does it work? I always thought wands It's going to take a while to get used to, don't you think?"

Hermione seemed completely bewildered, but Harry was deeply relieved that she accepted the odd changes without a word.

The older goblin behind the counter clapped her hands, and a younger goblin came over.

"I'm going to use a jingle." The older goblin said to it, the young goblin quickly left, and soon brought a small leather bag to the older goblin. Filled with tinny metal. "Okay, okay! Come with me, Mrs Lestrange," said the older goblin, jumping off the stool and disappearing, "I'll take you to your vault."

He appeared at the end of the counter, happily running towards them, the contents of the small leather bag still tinkling. Travers stood very still now, mouth wide open. Ron looked at Travers in confusion, drawing attention to the strange phenomenon.

"Wait—Bogrod!"

Another goblin hurriedly ran around the counter.

"We have instructions," it said, bowing to Hermione at the same time, "excuse me, Mrs Lestrange. We have been given something special about Lestrange's vault. instructions."

It whispered hurriedly in Bogrod's ear, but the Imperius goblin pushed him away.

"I know there are instructions. Mrs Lestrange wants to look at her vault...very old family...old customers...this way, please..."

It was still dinging towards a door in the hall. Harry looked back, and Travers was still standing there as if rooted, his eyes blank and abnormal. Harry made a decision: With a flick of his wand, Travers followed. The wizard followed meekly behind them, and they passed through the door into the rough stone porch, illuminated by burning torches.

"There's trouble, they're suspicious," Harry said as the door slammed shut behind them. Griphook jumped off his back. Seeing Harry Potter suddenly appear among them, neither Travers nor Bogrod showed the slightest surprise, just stood there blankly. "They're under the Imperius Curse," Harry added, answering Hermione and Ron's bewildered inquiries, "I think my spell might not be strong enough, I don't know…"

Another memory flashed through his mind, it was the real Bellatrix Lestrange, screaming at him on his first attempt to cast the Unforgivable: " You need to be cruel, Potter!"

"What are we going to do?" Ron asked. "Let's get out while it's still possible?"

"Is it possible?" Hermione said, looking back at the door leading to the hall, who knew what was going on behind that door.

"We're here, I said let's go," said Harry.

"Okay!" said Griphook, "then we need Bogrod to control the cart, and I no longer have that right. But there is no place for the wizard on the cart."

Harry pointed his wand at Travers.

"Out of the Body!"

The wizard turned around and walked briskly along the dark track.

"What did you ask him to do?"

"Hide," said Harry, pointing his wand at Bogrod, and the goblin whistled, and a cart rolled down the track from the darkness. They climbed into the cart, with Bogrod and Griphook in front and Harry, Ron and Hermione crammed into the back row, when Harry made sure he heard shouting in the hall behind him.

The cart jumped into motion, faster and faster: they whizzed past Travers, who was writhing into a crevice in the wall. Then the cart began to swerve down the maze of passages, dashing down, the rattling of the carts so Harry couldn't hear anything. They kept making sharp turns among the stalactites, racing towards the depths of the earth. Harry's hair fluttered back, and he kept glancing back. They likely left huge footprints behind them. The more Harry thought about it, the more stupid he felt, to disguise Hermione as Bellatrix, with Bellatrix's wand, which the Death Eaters already knew who stole it—

They descended to a depth that Harry had never been in Gringotts before, and quickly took a sharp turn, only to see a waterfall in front of them rushing down the track. With only a few seconds to react, Harry heard Griphook shout, "No!" but unable to brake, they sped past. Water filled Harry's eyes and mouth, and he couldn't open his eyes or breathe. Suddenly the cart slanted and overturned, and they were all thrown out of the car. Harry heard the cart smash into pieces against the wall of the passage, heard Hermione screaming something, and felt himself sliding, falling to the stone floor as if it were weightless, not hurting at all.

"Minus-shock-shock," Hermione choked, and Ron pulled her up. But Harry was horrified to see that she was no longer Bellatrix, just Hermione standing there, soaked in oversized robes. Ron had red hair again and lost his beard. They realized it when they looked at each other, and touched their cheeks.

"Anti-thief waterfall!" said Griphook, climbing up and looking back at the curtain of water pouring on the track, Harry knew that it was not just water, "it will wash off All the spells, all the magic in disguise! They know someone is breaking into Gringotts under their name, and they've activated their defenses!"

Harry saw Hermione checking the presence of her beaded pouch, and hurriedly reached into his jacket to see if the Invisibility Cloak was missing. As soon as he turned around, he saw Bogrod shaking his head suspiciously, and Anti-thief Falls seemed to have removed the Imperius Curse.

"We need it," said Griphook, "without Gringotts goblins can't get into the vault, and we need jingles!"

"Out of the body!" Harry said again, the voice in the stone corridor