Chapter 33 – Plotting and Scheming

"...and we found out the locket of Salazar Slytherin had been stolen by Regulus Black, brother of Sirius Black, who then died, leaving the locket to the Black house-elf Kreacher. Since Kreacher could not destroy it, the locket remained untouched until that twat Mundungus Fletcher stole it, and in turn lost it to, wait for it, Dolores Umbridge-"

"Well, Hermione, that is exactly where I would have expected a part of the Dark Lord's soul to be," Lucius sneered, and I suppressed a chuckle and said sweetly:

"Of course, Lucius, we should have just asked you! At the time, though, I had completely forgotten you were an expert in keeping track of Horcruxes."

Lucius looked like he had just eaten one of Hagrid's rock cakes and I quickly proceeded.

"We broke into the Ministry, no, Lucius, we did not kill Umbridge, and stole the locket. Ron disappeared for some time and when he returned he somehow retrieved the sword of Godric Gryffindor which Harry used in second year to kill the Basilisk. Apparently Basilisk venom is one of the few things that can destroy Horcruxes, and so we were able to use the sword."

"I assume this is the sword that got my- that got Bella so agitated? The one you sustained was a mere copy?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well, funny you should mention it. I have done some thinking about just that, and there was something I couldn't get out of my mind. When Bellatrix thought we had broken into her Gringotts vault, she went completely mental- I mean, uh, you know what I mean. The thought seemed to disturb her greatly, even frighten her, and there is only one thing that scares that madwoman." I paused.

"I believe there is a Horcrux in her vault, one she might not be aware of, but after your little... accident, I have no doubt the Dark Lord has made it utterly clear that whatever he gave her was of greatest importance and to be kept secret. Of course those are only speculations, but..."

"We will go," Lucius said impatiently, interrupted me brusquely. "Your guess might be as good as anyone's knowledge, and we have to start somewhere. What precisely will we be looking for?"

"Professor Dumbledore talked to Harry about possible Horcruxes. There was his diary, which you know of, that is more of an exception though, its value being emotional rather than historical. Then we have a family heirloom, the ring that Professor Dumbledore destroyed and that ultimately killed him, in a way – I'll explain it later. We got rid of the locket, as I told you. Those are known and destroyed Horcruxes." I inhaled deeply.

"There is one cup, which belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, of which we know that the Dark Lord stole and killed for it, and since he always felt very connected to Hogwarts, I assume he'd consider it a worthy vessel for a part of his soul. Apparently the only known Gryffindor relic is the aforementioned sword, which is definitely not a Horcrux, but I'm betting there is an artefact of Rowena Ravenclaw's in his collection. Other than that..." I trailed off, wondering if I should even talk about something I was so uncertain of.

"Other than that? Hermione, do I have to start torturing you again in order for you to talk to me? Because I had hoped we were past this point by now," Lucius stated, sounding only half-annoyed.

"There is, one... theory I have," I finally admitted. "It's nothing more than a thought, based on loose clues at best, but... Well, I think his snake, Nagini, might be another Horcrux."

"Explain," he said cautiously.

"First of all, Professor Dumbledore himself said the control the Dark Lord has over the snake surpasses even what's to be expected from a Parselmouth, but that's not it. Have I told you that Harry took Occlumency lessons in fifth year so the Dark Lord couldn't use their strange mind connection to harm Harry?"

"Ah, you mean the mind connection the Dark Lord used in the very same year to lure you out of Hogwarts to the Department of Mysteries and-"

"Yes, Lucius, I remember." It was now again my turn to be annoyed, apparently. "If I may continue? Or would you prefer talking about the good old times? Because I have distinct memories of you failing to retrieve a certain prophecy, and-"

"You may continue," Lucius conceded, his lips dangerously thin.

"What happened before the great success that were Harry's Occlumency lessons, was that one night Harry saw Arthur Weasley being attacked by Nagini – it seemed to be a nightmare at first, but we ended up finding Mister Weasley bleeding heavily in the Department of Mysteries – wipe that sneer off your face – and just in time to save his life, too. At the time everyone was too worried to think about the nature of Harry's vision, but you know... Harry has only ever seen snippets of the Dark Lord's mind, little scenes through his eyes, and in his 'dream', Harry was Nagini. And I might be mistaken, but I think it means..."

"The snake is another Horcrux," Lucius nodded. He looked thoughtful. "He rarely let Nagini out of his sight back in the days, and now that he assumes the Potter boy is out there to fight him, I don't think it will be easy to gain access to one without meeting the other, too..."

"We'll worry about that later, though. For now we have the substantial problem of having to break into a Gringotts vault of a murderous maniac to destroy something that might or might not be a cup or something completely different," I sighed, and grew slightly irritated when I found Lucius smirking at me.

"Why, Miss Granger, I never took you for one to break into other people's vaults. You could go to Azkaban for that." There it was again, his all too familiar sneer.

I preferred Lucius when he was my silent prisoner, I thought, exasperated. Actually, I even preferred him when he just went around torturing and killing my friends.

"So I assume we should just walk into Gringotts and demand access to Bellatrix's vault, then?" I snarled.

"Do not be foolish, girl. I intend to walk into Gringotts and demand access to my vault." I could hardly prevent myself from hexing the smug expression from his face.

"Lucius, do I have to start torturing you again in order for you to talk to me? Because rest assured, I am not past that point at all," I warned him.

"As you are aware, I am Bellatrix Lestrange's brother in law, as well as a not-so-distant cousin of Rodolphus Lestrange – and probably of Bellatrix, too. As such, and considering that the Dark Lord has been storing important artefacts in the Lestrange vault for quite some time, I was granted access to the it around twenty years ago, and I would have noticed had anyone revoked it."

"So our actual problem isn't getting into the vault but getting into Gringotts unnoticed?"

I was too excited over this unexpected advantage to care about Lucius' self-satisfied tone any longer. This was way better than what I could have hoped for. Getting into the Wizarding Bank unseen by Death Eaters would be hard, but not impossible, and certainly not harder than breaking into the Ministry of Magic. We were both proficient enough in both regular and Dark Magic to pull it off. There were so many things that could go wrong, but I had endured enough not to let fear overwhelm me any longer, and I didn't have much to lose, anyway.

A deep calmness overcame me. I knew that from now on, there would be no going back and that there was no guarantee we'd make it out alive in the end.

"We'll take three more days to prepare," I said determinedly.

"On the fourth day, we'll Apparate to Diagon Alley at dawn."