"Stop him!" the goblin supervisor roared, his sharp face flushing with fury. "No one steals from Gringotts!"
At his command, more than a dozen goblins rushed forward. Their long fingers tightened around weapons and wands, and their expressions were twisted with the kind of rage only goblins could show when their gold, pride, or authority had been challenged.
Goblins were not weak. Wizardkind had fought them in more than one rebellion across history, and although the goblins had ultimately failed to overturn wizarding rule, no one with sense mistook that for helplessness. Their magic was old, strange, and dangerous in ways most wizards barely understood.
Tyler raised the stolen wand. "Serpensortia!"
Black light burst from the wand tip, and a massive serpent slammed onto the polished marble floor. It was enormous, more than twenty meters long, thick as three grown men standing shoulder to shoulder, with a long forked tongue flickering between curved fangs that flashed coldly in the bank's enchanted light.
The Snake-Summons Spell produced very different results depending on the wizard who cast it. In the hands of someone like Draco Malfoy, it might create a snake only a few feet long, useful for startling an opponent in a school duel. In the hands of someone like Voldemort, the same spell could summon a monster large enough to fill a room.
In the end, the strength of magic always depended on the power behind it. Tyler's magic poured into the spell like a flood, and the creature born from it was anything but ordinary.
"Attack," Tyler ordered.
The great black serpent opened its mouth and lunged at the goblins. Its body whipped across the hall, scales scraping against marble with a harsh, heavy sound.
The goblins struck back with their own magic. Bursts of light hit the serpent's scales, but most of them did little more than make it thrash more violently. The creature hissed, coiled, and drove forward, forcing the goblin guards to scatter.
"Stupefy!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Tyler cast from the side, picking off goblins whenever they tried to regroup. Red flashes and binding spells shot through the hall, dropping one guard after another without wasting unnecessary effort. He had not come here to wipe out every goblin in Gringotts; he only needed them unable to interfere.
Boom!
The serpent's tail swept across the floor and smashed through a line of goblins, knocking them aside and sending them crashing into desks, counters, and columns. The once-ordered marble hall of Gringotts had become a disaster of overturned carts, scattered coins, broken stone, and panicked screams.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Tyler turned toward the collapsed entrance. With the tip of his wand, he began carving a black magic array into the rubble blocking the bank doors.
The array was designed to stop enemies from entering. It would resist spells, interfere with forced entry, and even rebound attacks from the outside if properly activated. Its only serious flaw was the cost: it required a large amount of life force to function.
"Go."
Tyler flicked his wand, sending several unconscious goblins into the center of the array. His expression remained calm, without hesitation or pity.
"Reducto."
The spell struck, and the array awakened at once. Dark light spread through the carved lines, drawing power from the offering and turning the ruined entrance into a flickering barrier that seemed almost alive.
The black magic array glowed faintly. Anyone who stared at it too long would feel as though their soul were being pulled toward the darkness at its center.
"That should hold the Aurors for a while," Tyler murmured.
He had created the barrier for one reason: time. The Ministry would respond to an attack on Gringotts far faster than it had responded to the Leaky Cauldron, and Tyler needed enough time to reach the vaults before the Aurors could storm inside.
Once the array was complete, he turned back toward the goblin supervisor.
"Imperio."
The Imperius Curse struck cleanly. The goblin supervisor stiffened, and the fury in his eyes faded into blank obedience.
"Take me to the vault where Dumbledore stored his item," Tyler ordered.
The Philosopher's Stone's location was meant to be absolutely secret. Dumbledore would never have told the goblins what had been placed inside that particular vault, because there was only one Philosopher's Stone in the entire wizarding world. A treasure capable of producing the Elixir of Life was too tempting to trust to greed.
If the goblins knew what they were holding, who could say what they would do? Even if the Stone technically belonged to Dumbledore, goblins had never been creatures who ignored profit when the reward was large enough. If the benefit outweighed the risk, they might dare even to offend the greatest wizard alive.
Under the Imperius Curse, the goblin supervisor could not resist. He turned stiffly and led Tyler out of the wrecked marble hall, through a door, and into a narrow stone passage beyond.
The corridor sloped steeply downward. The goblin whistled, and moments later, a small cart came rattling along the rails from the darkness.
Tyler climbed in after the goblin supervisor, and the cart shot forward. Wind tore past his hood as they plunged deeper beneath Gringotts, rushing through twisting tunnels that dropped far below the street.
The goblins had built their vaults hundreds of meters underground. The older, wealthier, and more important a family was, the deeper its vault tended to be. The vaults of the ancient pure-blood families lay at the lowest levels, where protections grew more dangerous and the darkness felt heavier.
The cart ran for an unknown length of time. At last, it slowed and stopped before a vault marked with the number 713.
There was no keyhole.
"Open the vault," Tyler ordered.
The goblin supervisor stepped forward without hesitation. Controlled by the Imperius Curse, he could not refuse. He lifted one long finger and tapped gently on the vault door.
With that touch, the door vanished.
Tyler stepped inside immediately. The vault was almost empty, with only a small package lying within it. It was wrapped in dirty paper, plain and unimpressive enough that no one who saw it would imagine it contained one of the most precious objects in the world.
He picked it up and opened the wrapping. Inside lay a bright red stone, beautiful in a quiet, almost humble way. Yet Tyler could feel the magic inside it, deep, rich, and astonishingly pure.
There was no doubt. This was the real Philosopher's Stone.
Even Dumbledore would not have expected someone to rob Gringotts openly and succeed. He was brilliant and experienced, but he was not a god. He could not calculate every possibility, and he certainly would not assume that someone other than Voldemort had also set their eyes on the Stone.
"The Philosopher's Stone," Tyler said softly. "Finally."
He placed it into the pouch at his waist.
The true objective had been completed, but Tyler did not leave. Since he had already robbed Gringotts, it would be a waste not to visit a few pure-blood vaults along the way.
Most of those old families had either supported Voldemort or benefited from the world he tried to build. There were not many good people among them, and Tyler felt no guilt about taking from their vaults.
"Take me to the Lestrange vault," Tyler ordered.
"Yes, sir," the goblin supervisor answered respectfully.
They returned to the cart. The goblin climbed in first, Tyler followed, and the small vehicle shot deeper into the underground tunnels.
Meanwhile, outside Gringotts, the news had already reached the Aurors investigating the Leaky Cauldron. Kingsley, Dawlish, and the others hurried through Diagon Alley and arrived before the ruined bank entrance, where dust still drifted from the collapsed doorway.
"Someone robbed Gringotts?" one Auror said, staring in disbelief at the blocked entrance and the dark glow pulsing over the rubble. "That has to be a joke. Gringotts is supposed to be the safest place in the wizarding world after Hogwarts."
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