HP: The Duelist of Hogwarts - 458

Chapter 458: A Perfect Infiltration Is One They Cannot Trace Back to You

Silent casting was not a branch of magic, but a highly advanced casting technique.

Hogwarts did not teach it until seventh year, and even then no one expected every student to master it. Some witches and wizards could manage it only with the simplest spells, like Cleaning Charms or Mending Charms, and that was already considered impressive. To cast mid‑ to high‑level spells silently required real effort and genuine talent.

There was another rule of thumb about silent casting: the stronger and more polished your magic, the easier it was to learn. Generally, once a spell was at level four, you could begin practising it without incantations. By level five, or even level‑5‑max, mastering its silent form became much easier.

Sean’s Soul Displacement Curse was at a very high level. Training himself to use it silently had not taken long.

Now that work was paying off.

Under the influence of the Soul Displacement Curse, the Gringotts goblin fell instantly under Sean’s control and led them down into the depths of the bank. They hurtled along in the mine cart, dropping at terrifying speed through the darkness, until Fleur had no choice but to cling tightly to Sean’s arm.

After that, things became much simpler.

Guided by the goblin, Sean and Fleur opened the Lestrange family vault. Inside lay piles of gold and jewels, a scattering of magical artefacts, and, in pride of place at the very centre, Hufflepuff’s golden cup.

Sean asked Fleur to wait outside. He entered alone, slipped the cup into a dragon‑skin pouch, sealed it, and tucked it into his Undetectable Extension Bag. Then he swept his wand in a wide arc and stripped the vault bare, sending everything else pouring into his bag as well.

Once he was done, he stepped out.

The two goblins swung the vault doors shut and prepared to escort “the Lestranges” back out.

That was when the alarms began to shriek.

Sean spun on his heel, wand already rising to bind the goblins where they stood.

He was a heartbeat too slow.

An invisible force snatched both goblins away before he could cast, and they vanished from before Sean and Fleur’s eyes.

Left standing alone in the vault, Sean swore under his breath.

So much for trusting the original story.

“It seems my infiltration plan had a flaw,” he said wryly. “Looks like the goblins did notice us after all. We will have to fight our own way out.”

Fleur gave him a sidelong look and smiled. She was calmer than he was. In her mind, as long as they did not run into Dumbledore or Voldemort, no one in the world could stop Sean.

“It does not matter,” she said lightly. “Right now, we are the Lestrange couple. If we have to blast our way out, we blast our way out.”

Sean laughed, then turned to the chained dragon in the depths of the vault caverns.

Its scales had fallen away in patches. The ones that remained were loose and dull. Its skin had turned a sickly white. Its eyes, an unhealthy pale pink, were blind.

When they had come in, one of the goblins had used a strange metal device—something like a warped triangle—to lure the dragon aside. Only then had they dared to open the lower vaults. Now, if they wanted to leave, they would have to borrow the dragon’s strength.

Sometimes the original plotline was a deathtrap.

Sometimes it was very useful.

White mist began to fall in shafts from the ceiling. Sean recognised it at once.

Aurors from the Ministry were here.

Without further hesitation, he flicked his wand. Two chunks of rock reshaped themselves into stone copies of Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. He made the statues scramble up onto the dragon’s back, then raised his wand again and blasted apart the chains that held the beast in place. A few jolting stimulation spells later, the dragon threw back its head and loosed a furious roar, flailing its wings and claws as it clawed upwards through the caverns, belching sheets of searing flame.

By now, every Auror’s attention was fixed on the rampaging dragon and the two dark silhouettes clinging to its spine.

Sean and Fleur cast the Disillusionment Charm on themselves, vanishing from sight. They lifted off the ground with a burst of magic, skimmed past the distracted Aurors and slipped out of the underground vaults, out of Gringotts itself, and into a narrow alley opposite the bank. There, they dropped their spells, returning to their own faces and bodies.

Sean glanced at Fleur, who had also reverted to her original form. They exchanged a grin and were just about to leave when the dragon smashed through Gringotts’s roof in an explosion of stone and iron.

It beat its wings, trying to claw free.

The Aurors moved as one.

Spells flashed from dozens of wands, weaving together into an enormous net of magic that dropped over the dragon like a shroud. Other, heavier curses hammered into its flanks. Under the combined assault, the dragon finally collapsed, stunned, sprawling across the shattered rooftop.

Only then did the Aurors realise that the Lestranges on its back had been crushed flat when the dragon rolled, and that a moment later their bodies had crumbled into nothing but gravel.

By this point, it was obvious they had been tricked.

The real culprits were long gone.

The Aurors spread out to search for suspects, but no one was foolish enough to think they would find anything. They all knew the thieves were almost certainly gone by now. They were merely doing whatever was left to be done.

Watching them fan out, Sean and Fleur shared another quiet smile, then Disapparated from the alley and returned to Hogsmeade.

They went back to Hogwarts through the passage in the Shrieking Shack. After seeing Fleur safely to her office, Sean finally returned to his own room, Hufflepuff’s cup in hand.

He closed the door behind him.

Kurkan shot up from the bed like a released spring and twined herself around his neck. The snake sniffed him intently, then demanded, “You smell like dragon. You met a new dragon. Why did you not take me with you?”

Sean gave her a disdainful look.

“Take you?” he said. “If I took you, that dragon would already be in your stomach.”

“That would not do!” Kurkan protested at once.

“As if,” Sean snorted.

“You have changed! Sean, you have changed!” she wailed.

He rolled his eyes, plucked the would‑be tragic heroine from around his neck, and tossed her back onto the bed. Then he drew out a small packet of dried dragon meat and dropped it in front of her.

“Make do with that.”

Kurkan let out a delighted squeal, seized a strip and began to chew. How a snake managed to chew at all was anyone’s guess. Magical creatures, Sean thought, were remarkable.

He set his things aside and was just about to change his clothes when the two‑way mirror on his person began to glow softly.

Sean picked it up and activated the connection.

Dumbledore’s face appeared in the glass.

“Sean,” he said mildly, “that business at Gringotts just now… that was your doing, was it not?”