Chapter 534: Golden Cup
Chapter 534: Golden Cup
"Did you find something, Liam?" Dumbledore asked as he entered the room, hearing Liam's shout. At this moment, he noticed Sirius Black and Liam standing on a scaffold over three meters high. Liam was waving his wand, studying the wall, while Sirius Black stood to the side, his wand emitting light to illuminate the area.
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore", Liam said confidently, raising his voice to be heard from the scaffold. "The magical defenses on the outer door and walls are extremely strong. If we want to break through them, it will take a lot of time, and I'm worried the Goblins upstairs will notice something is amiss. So, I tried to find another way, and it seems my judgment was correct."
Liam then moved a large tapestry hanging on the wall and approached the section of wall behind it. "This wall is the shared boundary between the Black Family and Lestrange Family vaults. The defenses on this wall are much easier to bypass compared to the outer defenses."
Under the watchful eyes of Dumbledore and Sirius Black, Liam waved his wand and chanted a spell, while pulling handfuls of silvery powder from his spatial bag and sprinkling them onto the wall. The powder quickly adhered to the wall and, under magical manipulation, transformed into a series of twisting runes. These runes, initially the size of coffee cup bottoms, soon shrank to the size of mung beans and then formed a thin silver thread, outlining an area as large as a door.
"Now for the next step", Liam said, nodding at his handiwork. He then pulled out a black knife with silver engravings from his spatial bag and began carving runes into the outlined area. The knife, imbued with specific magic, carved through the stone as easily as it would through soft wood.
After about seven or eight minutes, a hexagram ritual array, filled with intricate runes, appeared on the wall. Liam stepped back to inspect it, ensuring everything was in place. He then reluctantly pulled out a bottle of golden liquid from his spatial bag and, using his wand, guided the liquid to cover the engraved grooves, filling them completely.
Once everything was in place, Liam put away his tools and began waving his wand, chanting in High Valyrian. The section of the wall he had outlined was enveloped in a mist of golden and silver light. The seemingly impenetrable wall first emitted a swift green glow, followed by a black glow with a metallic sheen. These glows detached from the wall, forming light orbs that floated in front of the hexagram ritual array.
Within three minutes, over a dozen light orbs of various sizes were floating in front of the array. Once no more orbs emerged, Liam waved his wand. The section of the wall, now encircled by the silver thread, transformed into a malleable substance, extending outward to envelop the light orbs. It then solidified into a square stone block that fell to the ground.
"Done", Liam said, turning to the others. "It's done. I think we can go through now. We can leave this stone here and I can use it to restore everything when we return."
"Good job, Liam. I must admit, everyone has their strengths. Even if I were to attempt to break these magical defenses myself, I wouldn't be as fast as you. It seems bringing you along was the right decision", Dumbledore nodded. "Let's see if my guess was correct."
The three of them peered through the gap in the wall, using their wands to light the way. Liam's eyes widened in shock. Unlike Sirius Black's vault, which was piled with various currencies, the Lestrange Family vault truly reflected the wealth accumulated over a thousand years by one of the oldest Pureblood families. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with gold coins and golden cups, silver armor, pelts of strange animals with spines or wings, potions in ornate bottles, and even a skull still wearing a crown. Liam roughly estimated that the value of the wealth here exceeded that of the Dale Kingdom's newly accumulated treasury.
Liam was the first to step through the gap and began examining the area he had opened. He had chosen this spot carefully, directly above a pile of gold and silver artifacts. The reason for this was that all the treasures in the opposite vault were cursed with Fiendfyre and enchanted with a duplication charm. If the vault door had been opened from below, touching the cursed items would have been unavoidable.
"My parents hid the truly valuable things in the house before they passed away. They didn't trust Goblins", Sirius Black said, looking around the room. "Only Kreacher knows where those things are hidden, and it refuses to tell me the treasure site. It insists that it will only tell me once I have a child and that child turns seventeen, saying that the wealth should be left to a true heir of the Black Family. But to be honest, I don't believe they left much of value. Our clan had already started declining when I was young; otherwise, Narcissa wouldn't have married a nouveau riche like Malfoy. According to tradition, the Black Family only marries into the oldest Pureblood Families."
From Sirius Black's words, it was clear that compared to the truly ancient Pureblood Families, the Malfoy Family's claim to being Purebloods was rather weak. It was well-known that the Malfoy Family was one of the few court Wizard clans that followed William the Conqueror to this land. As a result, they had long-standing ties with the Muggle world, and even one of their ancestors attempted to marry Queen Elizabeth.
This naturally made them less respected by the truly ancient clans, yet they still viewed themselves as superior and looked down on smaller clans. This left them in a somewhat awkward position in the British Wizarding World. If not for their shrewd business sense and vast wealth, few would be willing to associate with them.
This is why Draco Malfoy only had Crabbe and Goyle, both from smaller clans, as his followers. Even then, their loyalty was tenuous, as evidenced in the seventh book of the series, where Draco's two lackeys clearly stopped following his orders.
"I think I've found it", Dumbledore said, raising his wand after climbing the scaffolding to stand beside Sirius Black. Following the light from his wand, Liam saw a small, two-handled Golden Cup placed in a gap above a shield and a Goblin-made helmet on the highest shelf. Using Eagle Vision, Liam could see that the Golden Cup was intricately crafted, with a raised, lifelike badger relief carved into it.
Liam realized that everything on this shelf was a treasure, far more valuable than the items haphazardly piled on the floor below. Given Bellatrix's character, the items on the top shelf must have been gifts from Voldemort. Liam thought maliciously that even if Voldemort had given Bellatrix a half-eaten chicken leg, she would have cast a preservation spell on it and placed it at the top of the shelf.
"Clearly, Accio won't work. Let me think—", Dumbledore said, studying the position of the Golden Cup for a few seconds. "This should do it."
With that, he waved his wand, conjuring a silver rope out of thin air. He directed the rope to extend and fly straight toward the Golden Cup on the top shelf. Once the rope reached the cup, Dumbledore flicked his wand, and the rope wrapped around the cup like a living snake, tied itself into a knot, and began to shorten, bringing the cup back to Dumbledore's hand.
"Powerful magic", Liam said, his eyes wide. During his earlier inspection, he had discovered that these sealed vaults were filled with strong magical interference. Being able to perform long-distance magic in such conditions was a clear sign of skill. Liam knew he could do it too, but he doubted he could do it as effortlessly as Professor Dumbledore. If he had to retrieve the cup, he would probably use the Hookshot on his forearm to pull it over.
"I believe I was right—this is exactly what we need", Dumbledore said, examining the cup and breathing a sigh of relief. "Our goal here has been achieved."
After that, Dumbledore looked around the Lestrange family vault and shook his head with a hint of regret. "I'm getting old, and sometimes I can be a bit greedy."
(End of Chapter)
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