AN: Some very good points from the early reviews for how the end of this chapter was a little too rushed and out of character. I hope these edits made the motivations and events more clear. Vukk, as usual you have a keen sense of these things; thank you. I hope you will keep reading awhile longer and that the story improves. To all, thanks for reading and reviewing. It helps immensely, and I appreciate your time and candor!

Chapter 7 – Under Boston

Ragnok sat uneasily, with a wide, long conference table separating him from Ripsnout. He'd never liked being on other goblins' turf, so he was already on high alert. And he particularly hated Ripsnout, the little sod. And he knew Ripsnout knew it, given that Ragnok had never seen a reason to hide it. Humans may not understand them, but goblins had their own codes of conduct and Ripsnout skirted or outright flouted them enough to be widely unliked by almost all of the other main branches. Supposedly, his own goblins like him, though. So the fact that Ripsnout had asked for this meeting put Ragnok on high alert.

It was a given Ragnok had his security detail, and he'd made sure it included family members from Cairo and Japan, just to give Ripsnout pause on any direct attack, however unlikely it was. No, this was likely political in some way, a different attack, not frontal. All of Ragnok's security party and all of Ripsnout's had been safely through the formal customs that indicated Ragnok would be safe here, as would his team. And all of them could safely observe from behind a clear wall, bit only Ragnok and Ripsnout were in the room and only they could hear one another.

The room was, Ragnok had to admit grudgingly, comfortably and appropriately ostentatious. Gold filigree and inlay was woven in delicate curls of deep redwood, mahogany, and mixed with yew wood. Built-in shelves displayed important goblin relics from across the ages, featuring the legendary Axe of Render which really should have been kept in Cairo. The Gringotts in the colonies, though, was young enough that it didn't have many of its own relics, though, and Ripsnout had gotten his claws on it somehow.

"So," said Ripsnout far too cavalierly as he waved a clawed hand almost completely covered in rings. "Welcome to Boston."

Ragnok showed his teeth. "Thank you. You are so generous to have invited us."

Invited was too kind of a word for it. A direct challenge, with a loss of face for not showing up was more like it. Ripsnout had breached etiquette at the last board meeting and suggested the troubles in Zurich were not isolated, and that one of the main branches was behind it. He'd then called on Ragnok as head to investigate, going overboard on just how much of a moral authority Ragnok was, all the time making it more and more clear how little Ripsnout himself thought of Ragnok's lead. The challenge was a clear and open one to all goblins, and practically charged Ragnok with either complicity or negligence, if not outright responsibility. And so Ragnok had carefully compiled a team who could keep their mouths shut, just in case Ripsnout had actually managed to unlock his plans with Potter.

"Aah," growled the other goblin. "So nice of you and ALL of your friends to join us." The goblin hissed the last "s" annoyingly.

The emphasis on the word all was far too conspicuous. Did he know about the newest attack from Potter? It should be coming in a day or two.

"My goblin family thanks you again for your hospitality. Now, about what you broached at the board meeting, Zurich's instability. You know the problems, or so you indicated."

"Yes," said Ripsnout, picking a finger rudely enough that Ragnok could see the outrage in the eyes of his entourage watching in. "Something you as leader SHOULD know, or maybe DID or DO know."

"Which is…?" asked Ragnok after waiting several long moments.

"You've made a deal with the devil, old goblin. And it's going to cost you everything. I'll be leader of the board by tomorrow. You can either walk away with a nice severance package or a nice severed package, your choice. Am I not magnanimous?"

Ragnok cursed inside. So the little rotter did know something. But how much? This was mostly smoke so far and hard to prove.

"And I'd do this why?" Ragnok asked, intent on giving nothing away.

"Because I have your agents trapped in my dungeons right now, and I will be killing two of them shortly. I can leave one alive to confirm your role, but only one. Humans are so fragile, though, don't you know. Maybe I should let two live. Decisions, decisions."

Ragnok sat, keeping an unperturbed countenance. "My agents? All my goblins are accounted for."

Ripsnout slapped the table, making it shake. "Your human agents. Don't think I can't put it together. You were too obvious at our meetings. You've been in your place after the London break-in, but recently you've been sitting up a little more, speaking up a little more, being challenged a little less. Guess who's shut up recently? Zurich, of course, and I thank you for tweaking that arrogant ass Splitspear, but who else hasn't challenged any idea you had lately? Japan, but that's typical. You married that one. But Paris? Bellringer's always had it out for you. Cairo? Tombdust has been silent as a mouse for a few weeks now. Seeing a trend? You are blackmailing or coercing almost half the banks already, somehow, that much is obvious. Just like that," he snapped his claws, "you have the voting block back. In just a few months from the debacle at your own bank. So I got to wondering how."

Ragnok polished a claw. "I have work to keep my position, something I've done since before you first latched onto your momma, you worm. That is called politicking."

"Or is it treason, when you are directing attacks on our own banks?"

He was glad he did not pale easily, but that was a bit too close to home. Still, hard to prove, so Ragnok remained stoic on the outside.

Ripsnout was beyond caring. "I just dug in the right spots, and just as your agents tried to dig into my bank! And so we are going to sit here until I bring one, maybe two of them here to confirm to you and all of my and your agents that you are guilty."

Ragnok waved a claw. "I don't have all day."

"WE WILL STAY HERE!" shouted Ripsnout, slamming a button under the table. An alarm started to go off and guards flew into the room. "Go, bring back whatever is left of them."

With a salute over their hearts, the guards rushed off.

##

Thousands of feet below, the battle was about to engage. Harry found that the battle reflexes he'd trained so hard for were still fresh. As the cart started around the last corner, he could see the scales on the legs of the dragon before anything else, and his mind charted best attack points automatically.

"Now!" he yelled. With a flick of his wand, the projectiles he and George had made exploded out of the cart and around the corner toward the dragon, which belched out a flame that blew past their cart and out into open air, incinerating the projectiles with it.

As the cart finished the turn and they faced the dragon directly. Harry didn't wait for the cart to come to a stop or even reach the platform. He was over the side and jumped, rolling as he hit the platform. As he came up, he spun his wand in a wide arc, spewing a torrent of water at the dragon. On the opposite side, George and Ron were out of the cart as well.

George threw a wheeze which combined with the water. Together they exploded into a thick, taffy-like substance which coated the dragon, making it disappear from view. While it was, the trio were an explosion of action. George pulled out a handful of wheezes and began flicking them into the corners of the area and taffy. When all were there, he flicked his wand one more time, and the entire thing sizzled with electricity.

"Electrical wall up! That might help for all of 2 seconds!"

Ron had been surveying the area, and began digging a hole under the train rails. "We're going to need a place to hide when it breaks through. A compulsion charm to ignore this should buy us some more time."

Harry meanwhile ripped apart the cart, transforming the bits into a golem army. "Not much time left! These will only last a second against it too. Ron, tell us when that hole is big enough!"

The taffy exploded out, hitting the electrical wall. It popped and crackled so loudly Harry's eardrums shook painfully, but it held. Behind the ripples they could see the dragon, still shaking itself clear of the taffy. In moments it would reorient, and actually be angry.

George ripped up a part of the platform and hastily etched a rune on the heavy stone. "We'll place this over top of us. Charlie taught me this one; it should cover us long enough to dig to another spot."

"Now!" yelled Ron.

Harry animated his golem army, and flicked his wand so that some were on the walls and ceiling, some ready to attack and others to flee from the dragon at all angles. That should keep it busy chasing shadows and give it a focus other than them for a long time.

George jumped into the hole in the platform, rapidly swishing his wand to start burrowing down and away from the entryway. Ron followed, and Harry was right behind him, just as the dragon started forward and launched a blast that hit the electrical wall. In moments, it had shorted it out and the flames burst through. They hit with power and fury, the heat incinerating the golems that hadn't already turned and fled and the strength of the wave ripped and blew the remaining rails for the cart out of the chamber as well. By then, though, Harry had flipped George's rune on top of them, entombing them in darkness. He then cast a compulsion charm to ignore the area on top of it, although dragons were notoriously impervious to mind magics.

The silence was shocking. "Good job, you two. We needed every one of those seconds to get out of there."

George puffed from down the small corridor he had made, "Well, now we just need to find a way out before it gets done chasing your army and comes back to realize something is wrong with its hall. That rune can distract and confuse, but when there is nothing else for it to do? It will find it."

Harry started strengthening the walls behind them, transforming them into hardened concrete with rebar, and then granite.

Ron, between them, thought carefully. "The maps on this level were incomplete. We couldn't find any specific vault users from this level to talk with, but we did find some old diaries that discussed protections. Ragnok's maps helped too. If we go due east, we go out under the ocean. Not helpful. North gets us to the river if we're not careful. If we go west, we stay in Gringotts a lot longer, so I think we should aim south."

George kept disappearing rock and stone and dirt as he asked, "And which way am I going?"

"East," said Ron after he did a quick check with his wand.

"Dammit. That means south is digging right under that dragon. It's going to notice."

"Go west," said Ron. "Second best."

"Where does it take us out?" asked Harry, as he started using a boring spell rather than vanishing the material. "If the dragon finds the tunnel and breathes one blast in here, we're dead. We need out fast."

Ron nodded, thinking, "The banshee tunnel."

"George?" asked Harry over his spell, already starting to sweat from the exertion, but they were moving quickly now.

"On it," he said, sifting through his wheezes.

"Ron?"

Behind him, Harry's friend tapped him on the shoulder. "Take a break, Harry. Let me take over for a bit. We all need to be as rested as we can, although the banshee is more strategy than brute force like the dragon."

"Which is why I was asking you," Harry panted, happy for the reprieve as Ron slid by him and continued making their way due west.

"We block our ears and hammer it. Banshees don't have the strongest physical attack."

"And after it?"

Ron shrugged, still boring. "We see if the goblins send forces to us or leave it for us to have to come out of our hole. I suspect we will get a bit of a break."

They continued in silence for several moments, but the tunnel was getting warmer and warmer. The boring spell expended heat, after all. Finally, though, Ron paused, his shirt now soaked through too. "Ok, that was 300 paces. We should be under the banshee chamber."

George patted them both on the back and then shoved something forward. "Put these in your ears."

Their transfigured earmuffs from before having disappeared, Harry happily shoved the waxy substance in his ears, and all sound disappeared. Deciding to take not chance, he cast a spell to dull his hearing senses as well, something he had learned to cast when Ron and Hermione got going in one of the arguments and at some parts of the Weasley family gatherings.

George stepped to the front, and drilled a hole at an angle, allowing them to walk up and out. As soon as it opened into the air, though, a wave of air blew them backwards, sending them sprawling into a pile in the tunnel. Laying there, they could see a pale light at the other end of the tunnel, starting to grow. The dragon had found them.

"Out!" yelled Harry, and the three pushed against the wind from the banshee and flung themselves out and away from the hole.

Through some freak of luck, the flame from the dragon burst out through the hole they had dug, and slammed straight into the banshee that was hovering above the hole to attack them. With a final screech, the banshee disintegrated, with little wafts of her remains floating off.

"Well," said Harry, forgetting or not caring that no one could hear him, "That is a surprise."

He pulled the wax out of his ears, and turned to the hole, which still spouted steam and small tongues of flame where the detritus of the tunnel had caught fire. He levitated a block from the platform over to cover it, and it settled with a satisfying squelch. Another charm, and it was sealed without any gaps.

Harry stood and looked around, joined by Ron and George who gave each other a quick high five as they chuckled in relief. The platform looked like the other, although Harry could admit he hadn't spent a lot of time looking at it. It was a long, thin, narrow opening with vaults spaced every fifty feet or so. At the far end, just barely visible, the tunnel dead-ended. Turning the other way, the tunnel opened out into the large main chamber, one of three old openings, apparently. One with a dragon, one with a banshee, and one with a giant. And now, they were stuck in the middle one.

They walked to the main opening, slowly. As it opened up before them, they could look up at the torches lining the cart path and vaults that dotted the wall. Above, in the shadows, flashes of light bounced down, glinting off goblin armor. The three stepped back out of sight before the goblins above noticed them.

Harry couldn't help but vocalize the situation. "So, we're stuck between a giant and a dragon, with goblins waiting for us if we win."

Ron nodded, thinking.

George dug through his pockets. "I don't have much more, guys. I left most of my good stuff in the room for tomorrow."

Harry turned to his old friend. "What do we know, Ron?"

"Well, that dragon is a Horntail, we all know it. Charlie told us it takes at least eight handlers to take one down. Now, you are well above normal power, Harry, but those are trained handlers with specialized spells. So I think direct frontal is out."

Harry nodded. He'd been face to face with enough dragons for a few lifetimes now. This was not an old and blind one, but a Horntail in its prime. How the goblins had managed that was a mystery. He looked over toward the dragon chamber, the entry of which could be barely seen from their position. Nothing was coming from it yet; so far, so good.

Ron continued, "As for the other way, even if we did manage to get past the giant alone, which normally takes five full wizards, we'd just be deeper in the dungeons. So there's no real benefit to going that way. Am I boring you, Harry?"

Harry shook his head, turning from his observation of the large main chamber. "Boring? No. There are still some of my golems climbing the wall out there. They are out of dragon sight now, but soon he'll be able to see them, and if he can get out of that chamber, he can and will get into this one. If we could get the dragon on the ground, in this tunnel, I think I could finish it…"

"Then why didn't you use it, before?!" Ron roared incredulously.

"It's a one off spell, Ron. The power it takes would leave me completely useless afterward. So it's a last resort kind of thing. Because if I try it and it doesn't work...but we aren't safe here. So we can try to fight our way, which is likely death, we can 'flee' toward the giant, and fight to the death. But I like your boring idea."

Ron looked around. "Huh? Uh, no, Harry, you couldn't be thinking…"

Harry nodded, with a crazed grin. "Yeah. Also a one off, so I'll be completely dependent on you two once I do it."

Ron shook his head. "That's even crazier than the last time we broke into Gringotts."

George, though, nodded. "Do it. It will take all of them out. Serves 'em right!"

Ron raised his hand, drawing a quick chuckle from Harry. "Yes, Hermione?"

"Um, how do we get out, then?"

Harry chuckled more as he started leading the other two back down the tunnel, picking up speed as they jogged down the way. "That is the job for a master prankster and a strategist. I'm just the muscle. I figure you have about one minute to figure it out before I make the first break through. About a minute and a half after I start before we're dead if we sit here."

"And we may not have much more than that," said George, pointing back down the tunnel, which stretched into darkness behind them, but was now pinpointed by long blasts of light. "The dragon is out. Harry, you need to start now. I'll be down the hall trying to obscure us and buy you that extra half minute, Ron. I'll be back in exactly a minute, and I'll be ready to enact whatever you say, so make it good."

"Luck, George," called Harry as he did a quick point me for the harbor. Satisfied, he then waved his wand in front of him, taking a two-handed grip. He pointed his wand directly at the harbor and unleashed a blast which shook the foundations of Gringotts as it started cutting a swath to the Boston Harbor, ready to unleash all of it into the bowels of Gringotts.

"Luck Ron!" called George as he ran off.

"I never agreed to any of this," though Ron morosely as he realized all three of their lives we now very directly in his hands…

The splinters in the wall and ceiling above them started in forty-five seconds, and George was back within seconds, looking at Ron with wild eyes.

"Here's the plan," he yelled loudly enough so Harry could hear too.

Harry nodded, his entire body drenched in sweat now. "Make it quick! I can't hold this much longer!" he grunted out, his forearms starting to shake.

At the other end of the hall, a loud thump that resonated throughout the chamber indicated the dragon had arrived. As it did, though, Harry broke through. At first a trickle of water started, sloshing down around their feet and creating a rivulet down the chamber. Within mere moments it was a gush, and Ron and George quickly grabbed Harry as he fell to the ground, passed out from exhaustion. They dragged him out of the path of the water, which suddenly roiled down and shot into the chamber like the bottom of a sluice dam, pouring straight toward the dragon.

"I'll be next to him!" Ron shouted to George. "Help me get him up there!"

George nodded. "I'll be right beside you! We won't be able to see so hold his hand! Leave your other free for me, and we'll swim up together!"

They used the taffy wheeze, and locked Harry into place, and then Ron, who cast a bubblehead charm over both of them.

"Remember," he yelled at George, "as soon as the water stops rushing by, we have to use a leviosa to push ourselves out and up. Swimming will burn up our oxygen too fast. Bubbleheads only usually keep for an hour or so. Keep wands unlit until we're out so they don't see anything; let them assume we're dead."

"Think we'll have enough air?" asked George.

Ron shrugged, as the water roared by in a torrent now. It pummeled the dragon, which flew off. The water shot out into the main chamber, and started the slow process of filling it up. George fastened himself to the wall, and cast a bubblehead as well, and grabbed Ron's hand, barely managing to force both otf them, against the pressure of the water, back and up against the taffy. It was a special creation; he harder the water pushed, the harder the taffy would hold. Once the pressure on it eased off, though, thy should be able to ease out. Of course, dragon-sized pressure before showed there were limits to its power.

The tunnel was full of water, but stayed below the level of their heads. The splashing and sloshing of it as each water particle fought to get through to the main chamber first extinguished all the lights, and the sound made talking impossible; it would be even worse once they were covered by water. The water itself wouldn't start to fill completely until the outer chamber reached this level. It seemed like forever, but in only a matter of minutes, the tunnel was full and silent under the oppressive weight of the water. Now they sat alone in the pitch darkness. Ron gauged the process, and figured the main chamber would be full within an hour, sooner if the hole weakened and widened, letting in more water faster. Which meant they should just have enough oxygen. He didn't like the odds.

Perhaps Ron's extensive divination finally paid off. It was only half an hour later, his bubblehead still holding, when he felt a rumbling in the rocks behind them. Harry's hand hadn't twitched, but it remained warm, so his friend was still just out from the exhaustion, but he'd clearly done a bang up job. George on his other side stayed warm to, but wriggled his hand every so often. Ron squeezed his brother's hand in support. But then the rumbles grew stronger, and Ron felt like he was being bounced or that the wall was shaking. And then, with a last 'CRACK' that could be heard reverberating through the chamber, Harry's hand was ripped from his own.

Frantic, Ron tried reaching over to where Harry had been, but the current took his arm, nearly separating his shoulder. He pulled his arm in close, desperate to find his best friend. He slid his hand across the wall, inching it along the taffy to resist the pressure of the water. All he felt, though, was a short distance until the wall was gone. The pressure from the rock had started to erode the walls of Gringotts. As it had it had, a chunk of the wall had snapped off and taken his friend!

He started thrashing with a berserk energy, tears falling as he pulled his wand and cast the most powerful lumos he could, but in the inky black underwater, he could only see a few meters. George kept a tight grip on his hand, struggling to keep Ron where he was. They fought and tugged, pushing and pulling as the water continued to flash by them. Both were exhausted and yelling at each other, although neither could hear anything but the water. As they did, they used up their own oxygen perilously fast. Eventually, the water level balanced and water from the hole stopped surging in. The taffy began to have some give, and Ron moved away from the wall, starting to swim toward the main chamber, wriggling from side to side waving his wand, looking for any sign of broken rocks or Harry, checking to make sure nothing caught on a column or settled in a vault door, but the current seemed to have swept the chamber clean.

George, though had other thoughts. As bad as it was to lose Harry, for that is what had to have sent Ron over the edge and Ron's lumos confirmed it, going to chase him would more than likely result in their own deaths. He knew his family thought he had a death wish ever since Fred had died, but the thought of losing another brother was too impossible to fathom. Himself? Maybe. But he couldn't let that happen to Ron! So swimming for the main chamber to possibly find Harry, maybe find his likely dead body but probably search in vain, seemed like an incredibly bad idea and not the best solution. Besides which, it was huge with loads of nooks and crannies. The odds were immensely against them. And then what happened next? Whether they found Harry or not, if they swam up for air, the goblins wouldn't kill them now. Oh, no; they would torture them for decades for destroying their bank! Of course, that was if the dragon and giant hadn't survived and were floating or flying at the top of the main chamber, the last bit of which was above sea level. And there was no way they could hope to go out to the chamber, find Harry, come back to the right tunnel, and still get to the surface with any oxygen left! Impossible!

Tears streaming down his own face, George kept his desperate struggle with Ron. He wanted to stun him, but if he did it was very possible both Ron and then Harry's bubblehead charms would fail, and then Harry would lose any chance, however remote, that he had. No, the best they could do was to get out and hope Harry's improbable run of horrible luck continued true; everything bad happened to him but he came out alive somehow. That was all George could hope for now. If they got out, they could contact Ragnok. As lead goblin he could be there almost instantly and search for Harry. As terrible as that sounded, that was their best hope.

With a quick bodybind, he had Ron trussed and no longer struggling, although he knew Ron was going to be furious with him. In fact, even in the dark he could feel Ron's body vibrate with rage and desperation. George knew that feeling better than anyone, with the loss of Fred he'd felt the same. Out of options and running out of air, George pushed Ron above him toward the hole Harry had created. The fight wasn't gone out or Ron yet, though, and the bodybind weakened quickly; George hit him with a leviosa and sent Ron rushing up to the harbor. George knew he still had to act fast; they weren't out of the woods yet. Ron would kill himself trying to hold Harry's bubblehead as well as his own for as long as he could. George had to have him out of the water before that happened or he could lose both his real and honorary brothers. With a surge of energy, he hit himself with a leviosa and shot up the pipe, cursing the goblins with tears in his eyes as he did and thinking of the fastest way to contact Ragnok, leaving Harry somewhere behind in the dark…