22

Harry and Bruzon stood back by the vault for a good minute before either of them spoke.

"All that and he's going to destroy it? Such a shame." Bruzon huffed.

"You're telling me." Harry replied, thinking of the process that went into creating a horcrux. And Tom had never even gotten to use one of them towards his so-called immortality. Such a waste of life. Of time and effort that could have been put towards far better causes.

Harsh language issued from around Bruzon's chest – most certainly not the goblin's voice – surprising Harry so badly that his wand was out as soon as the quick issuance was over. Bruzon tensed and fished out a large piece of jewelry from underneath his tunic. It could only be described as gaudy; a huge hunk of gold, red, and green as big as Harry's fist. The voice spoke Gobbledegook, so Harry had no hope of understanding the words, but the meaning was clear from the tone.

There was a pause, and Bruzon drew his sword. Harry felt the first trickles of adrenaline and slid his wand from his sleeve. The Goblin King strode forward, following Tom's path. He snarled into his amulet, fisting it tightly and gesturing with his sword. The voice came again, then a barked word from Bruzon…

Then nothing.

"Bruzon…" Harry started lowly.

"We have some intruders; goblins from a rival faction. There is an attack in the upper levels, but a few were seen descending into the vault levels. They have likely been stopped at the dragon, according to one of mine." Bruzon growled. "They were not able to get me proper information about the size of the threat, but assumed an attack size roughly the same as before."

"Damn."

Rushing out of the side hallway, Harry nearly fell into Bruzon's small guard. The eleven goblins were all at arms, backs to Harry and Bruzon, swords out and bristling. Tom stood back from them, wand out, watching and waiting.

"Bloody fucking hell." Harry muttered

The intruders, as it turned out, were closer to them than they thought. And far larger in numbers than the assumption the goblin had reported to his king.

The dragon hadn't stopped anything or anyone in the slightest.

A virtual army of goblins awaited them at the entrance to the special vaults, spread before the exit, wall to stony wall. The dragon was held in a far corner of the cavern by three goblins wielding clankers, cowering with its head ducked under a wing. They were far enough away that Harry couldn't hear the racket they produced, muted by the droning murmur of the rest of the enemy goblins.

The guard that Bruzon had brought with them was heavily outnumbered; maybe twenty to one. But Bruzon had already called for reinforcements through his amulet, and muttered occasional updates to their group here and there. Their group waited further back out of sight, unwilling to move forward against such odds. The enemy seemed to know they were there – they pointed and gestured rudely to the tunnel they waited in – but was content to let them hide. They knew they had only one way out.

Bruzon and his guard spoke quietly, and occasionally glanced at them, but Harry and Tom stood back, not far, but not close enough to hear the murmured orders. The goblin seemed content to wait for his backup to arrive to begin any altercation. Tom seemed content to wait as well, but Harry was getting antsy. He wanted to run. He and Tom might even make it, but Bruzon and his entourage probably wouldn't. And Harry couldn't leave them to die.

Bruzon turned on his heel, heading in their direction. Harry saw him release his amulet, allowing it to dangle at his neck.

The vampire was on them before they knew it.

The first goblin fell to the ground like a string-less puppet, hard and heavy. The second managed a gasp before he, too, met the ground. The third almost raised his guard in time, but he only got his own blade embedded in his throat. By the time the vampire got to the fourth goblin, Harry was still stunned motionless. But Tom, with a flick of his wand, summoned Bruzon bodily away from his guard to stand between Harry and himself. There were seven more goblins left of the King's Guard, but the vampire was making good time.

Bruzon yelled wordlessly, taken off guard and not happy about it.

"Blazenhook." Bruzon snarled into his amulet. "Where. Is. My. ARMY?!"

No answer.

The goblin king swore in his native tongue. Or, at least, Harry assumed it was swearing.

"They've taken over the floo room." Bruzon muttered.

Tom shot a curse between two of Bruzon's guard, but it missed the vampire completely as it moved in a blur from side to side. Harry saw the man's lip curl in irritation and his wand came back closer to his chest, floating back and forth slowly, like a snake weaving, waiting for a moment to strike. Harry attempted to get a look at the vampire, tried to aim his wand, but had no luck. There was always a friendly goblin between him and the target.

"We need to move." Tom said in a low voice.

A crash. A clash of swords, claws, shields, and the crunch of teeth in a goblin's neck. Harry threw a hand out against the wall behind him, steady but nearly sick at the spray of blood spewing from between the vampire's jaws. The creature paused long enough for Harry to see its pale skin peeking out from beneath the black sleeves and hood. Tom shot off another curse, but in a blur, the vampire moved onto its next target, avoiding it altogether.

There were now five of the guard left. The army still awaited them outside the entranceway. They had no exit back the way they'd come. "Even if your army arrives soon, Bruzon…" Harry winced. "I don't think they'll beat the vampire to us."

"Now Harry, no need to be pessimistic." Tom huffed. Harry shot a glare at him, but didn't reply.

With no obvious cue, Tom's wand spewed fire in an arc around the vampire's path. It seemed he'd blocked the vampire in, a line of fire between them and the vampire and the remains of Bruzon's guard. Harry would've argued to try and save their lives if the vampire didn't already have its claws around the throats of the last two. The snap of vertebrae reached his ears and the limp bodies were dropped to the ground.

The tall, lean figure paced closer. Assuming that the damned thing cared a whit about fire, it was blocked off from them. Of course, one of the things Harry had learned about magical creatures was that the muggles usually got a thing or two wrong about what could kill them. Even the idea that his newly acquired silver dagger might hurt it was iffy. They had covered vampires only briefly in their D.A.D.A. classes. And with vampires being humanoid…well, learning how to kill them was not really encouraged in school classes.

"Run! Now!" Tom shouted. Startled away from the sight of hungry flames, Harry clasped Bruzon's arm and dragged him into a run, following after Tom. They skirted the fire, a small gap left open for their escape, and entered the cavern, turning sharply to the left. They were running directly towards the corner where the dragon was being kept. It was away from the main body of goblins. None of them seemed to want to be near the dragon, and there was no guard for the three dragon-keepers who had their backs turned.

"No, no, no, no, no, no…" Harry muttered under his breath. He thought he might have an idea what Tom was planning. If it was anything like the ideas popping into his head, he wasn't going to like it. And besides, he wasn't particularly enamored of dragons after the Triwizard tournament.

"Mr. Riddle…?" Bruzon seemed to have an epiphany and tried to slow their pace immediately, but Harry hauled on his arm and tried to drag him. The king was solid muscle. Pulling him along was not possible, despite the height he had on the king. Bruzon dug his heels in and would not budge from his place.

"Bruzon!" Harry bit out while tugging half-heartedly, dreading the next words to come from the goblin's mouth. He stopped pulling and turned halfway back towards the stubborn king.

"I will not leave the battlefield. My army will not arrive to see me fleeing my enemies." He growled.

"Your guard is dead." Harry bit the words out grudgingly, never one to treat the dead lightly. "We don't know when your goblins will get here!"

More fire flew over their heads. Tom was throwing up barriers to prevent the vampire and the goblin army from moving forward. The heat made Harry sweat, burning his eyes with salt. He wiped at them furiously. Between one blink and the next, his eyes caught movement and he jerked the goblin king down raising his wand at the same time.

"Protego!"

It was useless. His charm could only protect from magic, not physical objects. The dagger aimed at them slid through it like it wasn't there and then continued through the skin of Harry's left shoulder almost as smoothly. He barely registered the pain until the warmth of blood bloomed down his chest. He gritted his teeth.

He looked up, hunched over Bruzon. Just past the flames, staring at him intently, stood the vampire. He – and now that Harry could see his face, he could tell that the vampire was certainly male, though his features bordered on androgynous – was tossing a blade in his right hand. It flipped, the vampire caught it, then tossed it again. With his left, the vampire slowly drew another blade from the pockets of his heavy cloak. Harry's eyes widened and he touched his shoulder. The vampire's vibrant red eyes met his own and the creature smirked.

"Shit. Run, Bruzon!" Harry pushed and pulled at the goblin, not sure why another dagger hadn't come flying at him as of yet, but not taking it for granted, either.

Half expecting a blade to his back as he ushered the Goblin King forward, Harry saw Tom finishing off the last of the three dragon keepers. The dragon was beginning to creep forward and so was the goblin army, seeing their prey had separated themselves from the pet vampire.

Bruzon followed freely now, allowing Harry to drop his hand down. He left the blade in, knowing better than to remove it. They circled behind the bucking dragon, which was now roaring and huffing in its rage. Closer now, he saw the evidence of years upon years of abuse; missing scales, cuts, burns. His heart twinged, but he didn't have the ability to help it right now.

Bruzon moved to stand to the side of the dragon, next to Tom. Carefully, they remained out of the dragon's sightline. How it didn't see the massive plumes of flame spewing from Tom's wand, he didn't know. Bruzon looked useless next to the wizard, with his sword brandished and no one to stab. Harry glanced at his own shoulder. From what he could see, he hadn't lost too much blood, but the more he moved, the less likely it would stay that way.

The enemy goblin army still stood between them and the exit. The vampire had disappeared from the other side of the fire barrier. Bruzon's backup hadn't come yet. Harry didn't know exactly what Tom was planning, but he knew allowing the dragon to stay chained up wasn't part of it. That, Harry could help with.

The massive chains were pulled taut with the dragon's weight. One link was easily bigger than Harry's head. He picked a link and brought his wand close.

"Incendio." He whispered. It had taken him a while to learn the workings of this spell. Tom had shown him. He'd known the basics and had been able to cast it before, but he'd never known how versatile the spell really was. It could create a spark, lighting household fires, or it could create a barrage of flames, like a muggle flame-thrower. But if you could concentrate the power of the spell, it was more like the welding torch he'd seen a construction worker use one day in London. The flame was blue, barely visible, but Harry didn't dare hold it close. He held it to the chain, and the metal immediately began to glow. Red, orange, yellow, white, the metal melted away like heated butter.

The link, compromised, bent with each pull the dragon gave, but it held. Harry quickly stepped over the chain and moved to the next one at the dragons left leg. The metal bubbled quickly. This link didn't just bend. It snapped. Harry didn't realize until too late that he was in danger. The dragon reared one last time. When it came down, its wings flared. One flap was all it took.

The chains whipped free, lashing around him so quickly he was lucky they didn't slice him apart. He dropped to his knees and avoided the right chain narrowly, but fire burned across his chest a moment later. The edge of a broken link had sliced his chest open.

Harry curled forward, shoulders curling in. His left shoulder caught fire as the motion jarred the knife in his wound. His vision flashed white for a moment, and he almost emptied his stomach, but his pain tolerance was high. His right hand and the wand he held in it came away slick with blood as he breathed his way back to his feet and forced himself to ignore his injuries.

He looked up to see that the enemy goblins were beyond frantic. The dragon was among them, and Harry saw more than one goblin disappear down its gullet. Fire roasted them in their armor. Tom still faced forward, guarding them, but he no longer threw fire. He threw rocks with unerring aim, bashing in heads and breaking bones. Bruzon came back to Harry.

"That was brave." He said with a raised brow.

"No, that was stupid." Harry managed a laugh. "But if it gets us out of this mess, I'm alright with it."

Bruzon's belly-deep laugh somehow put energy in Harry's bones. The goblins were a warring race, and they enjoyed a fair fight. The dragon had helped to balance the scales a bit. But their exit was still blocked, and they still had no clue where the vampire was.

Harry grabbed a corner of his robe, balling it and pressing it to the deep cut in his chest, careful to keep a good hold on his wand at the same time. He felt a mild flash of irritation, glancing at his useless left arm. He could lift his arm but only from the elbow. Anything more would only aggravate the knife wound.

They creeped along the wall that led to their exit. Harry called to Tom and the older wizard began sidestepping slowly towards it as well. In the din the cavern was producing, Harry could hardly hear either of his two companions, but somehow, Bruzon heard something from his amulet. He put it close to his ear, then brought it to his lips as he yelled into it. Back to his ear, and a broad grin parted his mouth, baring teeth. Harry and Tom paused and Tom cast a charm. Harry wasn't sure what it was called, but it seemed like a silencing ward, lowering the volume around them.

"Griphook retook the floo room. My reinforcements have made contact with our enemy at our exit." He pointed to their way of escape. His grin turned feral. "They have vampire traps."

Harry wasn't completely sure what vampire traps were, but he liked the sound of them. They quickened their pace. There were few goblins left on this side, most were now inside the tunnel fighting against Bruzon's forces. The dragon had thoroughly occupied at least one hundred or more of the goblins' attentions.

Harry lagged back, moving more slowly than the other two. He grew more tense with each step. Where was the vampire? Why hadn't he thrown his other two daggers? He reminded Harry of a cat playing with its food.

xXx

Tom's battle instincts were thoroughly wetted. They flared at every sword flash. He had to deflect the dragon's flames here and there as they came too close. The finesse required to redirect the flames was something he'd preen about to Nagini. She was the only one who might appreciate it. Or perhaps Harry, when they became more familiar with one another. Dragon flames were pure magic and tended to break through any defense a wizard could throw up. That was why dragon keepers were so cherished. At least when they didn't get burned. Or crushed. Or eaten.

His companions moved slowly and carefully, which he appreciated. He saw that the goblin king was still unharmed, but Harry got another new injury every time he took his eyes off the boy. He knew where the dagger was from, but the gouge in his chest baffled him. Probably something to do with the rampaging dragon.

He had only intended on using the dragon as a shield until the king's goblins came, but apparently Harry had different ideas. While reckless, it had worked out quite well.

The dragon had thoroughly distracted all the goblins on the far side of the cavern, and though a few near them thought to come after their little group or go for the three clankers, they soon found that wasn't the best idea.

Tom's bloodlust was particularly sharp at the moment. He heard his own pulse in his ears and there was a feeling of giddiness in his chest. Perhaps that was why he was more focused on shooting out a goblin's heart with a stone than covering his group. And why he missed the vampire dropping down from the stones above them onto Harry's shoulders.

Harry collapsed from the weight and he heard a muffled shout of surprise. The vampire jerked the dagger from Harry's shoulder with an arc of blood and there was a grunt of pain. Tom trained his wand on the vampire, but it was too close to Harry to risk flames. He whipped his wand around and conjured a heavy rope. Slinging it at the vampire, he hoped to force it away. But the vampire caught it and pulled. Tom canceled the spell before he could be tugged with it. The vampire did jump away, though, hissing and holding its side in what looked to be pain.

Tom saw Harry holding a blade defensively with his left hand, close in to his body. He glared at the vampire and rose to his feet. The goblin king struck at the vampire with his sword, but it danced back and hissed some more. Tom poured flames at the vampire once more and it avoided them in a blur. Focused now on Tom, it threw the bloody dagger. Tom barely managed to sidestep it. Another dagger sliced through the meat of his left thigh, and he went down hard to a knee. He conjured a hard shield and gritted his teeth. Two more daggers glanced off of it.

A flock of angry, screeching birds fell upon the vampire and moments later caught aflame. The vampire screeched and darted away, into the slowly dwindling mass of goblins. A moment later, the goblin king and Harry were at Tom's side. He pushed himself up with an effort and moved forward without a word, blood soaking his leg, but eager to make space between them and the vampire before it came back for round three.

The dragon was subdued now, curled into a corner cowering from two goblins with clankers. They could see the king's reinforcements now, pushing further into the cavern. The enemy forces were now almost half of what they were. The king rushed ahead and spoke with two of his goblins, motioning towards Harry and Tom. They nodded and parted, shouting back at their comrades.

The goblin king turned back to them.

"Go ahead. Take the stairs my soldiers guide you to. The carts have been disabled; don't try to use them. I will take care of the rest. Griphook will tend to your injuries when you reach the floos."

Tom didn't argue. Harry started to, but Tom reached out and clamped an arm on his shoulder. He noticed the blade Harry had used to slice the vampire had disappeared.

"We're going." He told the goblin king. Harry's eyes grew stormy, but he clenched his jaw and nodded, giving Tom a once-over. Tom supposed he might not be looking so good. His leg was growing more numb than painful.

The goblins parted as they walked, the sounds of battle growing quieter with each step.