In Harry Potter as Neville Longbottom - Chapter 57: The Lestrange Vault

Have you ever seen a mountain of gold? No. Okay. How about a small hill of gold bricks? Nope. How about gold cups and gold plates or gold chalices? Nope. Well, then you can’t understand the mood of Neville looking inside the vault of the Lestrange family.

Madam Bones sent letters from the ministry expressing concerns over the vaults of wizard families in Britain and Gringotts had to do a maintenance check of their security features. That basically includes the dragons chained to the bottom as guard dogs, the waterfall of truth (Thief’s Downfall) that can reveal any hidden magic and finally the vault security charms.

Our beetle reporter, Ms. Rita Skeeter, used this opportunity to enter the bank and managed to reach the vault of the last DADA professor, Late Professor Quirrell quite easily. This vault was on the higher ground considering the lack of heritage and wealth of Professor Quirrell.

She found a small dark corner and then changed back to her human form. After that, she used the enlarge spell to bring the Portkey – an enchanted galleon, back to its size and activated it. As soon as the portkey worked, she was transported to a small hilly area where Madam Bones was waiting for her.

Madam Bones had no idea if the plan will work, and the chances were close to none. After all, no one ever managed to break into Gringotts and then made out alive. At least she had no idea about such lucky thieves.

So, she waited alone and then she was pleased and for the first time, happy, to see the face of Rita Skeeter. Without wasting time, both witches went back to the vault where Rita Skeeter, again, changed back into her Animagus form and ran outside the vault door before the goblins could close it.

The same process happened with Lestrange Vault, and Ms. Skeeter managed to fulfil her promise to Neville and Madam Bones quite easily. However, unlike what many would have thought, Ms. Skeeter left without any attachment after fulfilling her part of the contract.

She had the knowledge about the Geminio and Flagrante Curses in the vaults and knew there was no point in trying to steal anything from there. The same could not be said about Neville who found himself in one corner of the vault and had his jaws dropped on the floor.

He knew the ancient families like Lestrange were rich, but this was even his idea of rich. In the movies, this vault was quite small and hardly had such riches, but the reality was quite different. A family-like Lestrange which has roots from Britain to America, heritage spanning across centuries and continents and a business empire divided into multiple levels, this amount of wealth was beyond words.

Neville waited in the hidden corner, cursing the charms that made it impossible for him to steal all this wealth. Otherwise, he would just quit Hogwarts, search for the hidden Horcrux and fulfil his plans without any worries. He can hire private tutors, potion masters and anyone else if he ever required, from all this wealth and he would still be richer.

“What the fuck they were even thinking before joining the Voldemort? So much wealth, so much potential. All wasted! Bollocks!” Muttering under his breath, Neville waited patiently before the goblins, dressed in proper English noble attire, left the vaults.

“Okay…Focus…Focus…” Talking to himself, Neville walked very carefully. He made sure to not touch anything and carefully walked in the narrow space. However, he had no idea what the Hufflepuff’s Cup actually looked like or where it was stored?

To make the matters worse, there were already multiple gold chalices and cups thrown around.

“Fuck me and fuck those fanfics. How can anyone be sure if they picked the right Horcrux in all this gold maze?” Neville stood in one place and kept thinking about how to identify the real cup and finally thought of one idea.

He took out one vial of the recently made Aqua Benedicta potion, shook it properly and use the spray charm to create a small cloud of potion that dispersed in the air. After waiting for five minutes which felt no less than an eternity, one of the golden cup placed on a higher shelf gave a slight buzz.

“Gotcha!” Using the floating curse – ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ he floated the Horcrux carefully and then placed it inside a wooden box he prepared beforehand for this heist.

Taking a deep breath and wiping the droplets of sweat that covered his forehead, Neville used the Portkey to move back to the empty shop at Diagon Alley. Then using the floo channel, he went directly to his manor.

In this way, the first robbery of Gringotts, which no one noticed or even heard about was finally done and he finally got his hands on the second Horcrux. Madam Bones, on other hand, had to fight a giant rat.

Yes, a giant rat. It was easy to defeat the vile beast but the shock of having a giant-sized rat attacking her face made Madam Bones so frightened that she directly used the blasting curse – Confringo, in a hurry. The result of such an unconscious choice of spell resulted in a small vault splattered with blood and meat of rat across the walls.

Madam Bones had to take a minute to calm down before searching the vault carefully and finding three important items. One Circe Chocolate Frog Card that had a sign from James Potter, a small diary that had information about various charms and hexes Professor Quirrell practised in secrecy and finally a map that had various places marked for some reason.

Madam Bones also collected three crates that were filled with various personal items and then went back to ministry. As the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she had enough authority to hand over these items for further investigation without raising any flags.

She also sent a letter thanking Neville for his ideation and help in this matter and stated that she is proud that the son of her juniors never used such a method for personal gain. She also thanked him for providing him with a perfect spy in the shape of Ms. Rita Skeeter.

While the owl flew from the ministry window, Neville was in meeting with the same beetle in the letter.

In the study room, Ms. Rita Skeeter was walking to and fro inside the study room. She was waiting for the young boy to come and provide her with the new residence permit located in American land. She already received the money and other things but the deeds of the land of the safe house were with Neville.

To put magical charms on it and keep it safe, in case she is ever hunted by Goblins, she needed those deeds urgently. Ever since she came back from Gringotts, she was unable to sit or move properly. She had never done something like this ever before.

She used her animagus form to eavesdrop on certain individuals but using her animagus form to steal something was first for her. She had to drink lots of juice to calm her nerves from all this excitement at this age.

Neville first stored that Horcrux box safely in the newly purchased expandable trunk before locking it with multiple security charms and hiding it in his personal room.

When he walked inside his study room, he was greeted by the sight of Ms. Skeeter giggling like a fool.

“Ahem!” He coughed and Ms. Skeeter was startled.

“Ah! Well, Lord Longbottom. I have kept my part of the bargain. Haven’t I? But, I think the last piece of our agreement, the deeds of my safe house in America are still not in my hands. That’s not fair. Right?”

“The desk. In front of you. All you needed was to calm down and take notice of this letter that is right there with your name written on it, Ms. Skeeter. Anyway, here it is.

Also, thank you for being such a great help and I hope your future endeavours with Lady Bones will be as exciting and fruitful as this one.

Have a great day.”

Neville hurriedly kicked out the seductive beetle who wore stronger perfume this time. There is Hermione and Pansy in the manor and he can’t be thinking crooked thoughts at this age.

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