After the experimental subjects had all left, Hermione put away the newspaper, took Loren's hand, and the two of them headed out for lunch.
It was already close to noon—the perfect time to eat.
They went to the same restaurant where they'd first shared a meal with Professor McGonagall. Loren's cooking was great, sure, but eating out once in a while was a nice treat.
After lunch they returned to the newly purchased shop and then stepped into the small world.
Inside the small world, Loren had also set up a little cottage as a place to rest, so they'd never have to skip a midday nap for lack of space. Lately he cherished the habits he'd built up before; he'd found that only when he kept to those habits did his focus stay steadier and stronger.
After their nap, Hermione decided to stay in the small world and have Loren travel home through the Floo Network, then let her out afterward. She really didn't like the Floo—convenient as it was, it always left you covered in fireplace soot. A single spell could clean it off, of course, but she didn't want Loren to see her with ash all over her face.
Loren had no objection. He was a pragmatist—whatever worked best.
Just as he was about to leave the small world, something occurred to him. He stopped, turned, and said to Hermione, "I'm about to go on a very cool adventure, my beautiful lady."
Hermione, who had been reading to the side, sprang to her feet with eyes shining. "What adventure? Whatever it is, I can't wait."
She'd been feeling a bit lost lately—in magic and in life—so she craved a different kind of stimulation, which was why the words came out so fast.
Loren immediately took Hermione's hand. They stepped out of the small world and reappeared inside the new shop. Though puzzled by his sudden move, Hermione trusted him and chose not to ask; she simply followed.
Under Loren's lead, they arrived at the courtyard of a Muggle home. Loren opened the cellar door and brought Hermione straight down.
In the dark cellar, Hermione reflexively activated the magic-vision built into her alchemical goggles. The first thing she saw was a magical sigil Loren had left on the floor.
With a few deft moves from Loren, a passage opened in the ground.
Only then did Hermione finally ask, "Loren, what are we going to do?"
"Steal a dragon from the deepest part of Gringotts," he replied, still piloting the small boat he'd just summoned along the underground waterway.
Putting that together with what he'd said before, the quick-witted Hermione immediately figured out where the dragon in Loren's small world had come from.
"Of course," Loren added, tone dry. "That dragon was one the goblins kept to guard a vault—abused by them for who knows how long. I took pity on it and rescued it. And with goblins being goblins, they'll have dragged in another dragon to guard the vault. I'm far too kind-hearted to sit by while any living thing is mistreated."
Hermione couldn't help bursting into laughter at his sing-song sarcasm.
Soon the boat bumped to a stop. After their last incursion, Loren had blocked the downstream tunnel to keep the goblins from tracking him. He first confirmed the remaining section hadn't been discovered and was still safe, then began excavating again—only, he couldn't use his wand openly. The Trace on wands can pick up nearby magic, so you only brandish one where witches and wizards already gather. The Ministry will sometimes turn a blind eye to underage casting in those places; but for what they were about to do, Loren absolutely couldn't wave his wand around.
With the help of other magic and alchemy, they quickly reached the final stretch of the tunnel. Rather than break the last crust of earth, Loren first probed the outside with magic. As expected, the goblins had learned from last time: they'd set up wards and alarms around the dragon's pen. If Loren emerged through the original opening he'd be discovered at once.
He'd anticipated that, so he started digging sideways while scanning. The goblins had learned, but not by much—the alert field wasn't very large, limited to the space from the vault frontage back to the tunnel mouth. Other spots were the same as before.
He chose an exit along the corridor leading into the high-security vaults; and just like that, the two of them slipped into the deepest section of Gringotts.
When Hermione touched down safely, an odd sense of achievement flickered through Loren. In the original story, Hermione had been forced to impersonate Bellatrix to sneak into a vault and almost got caught; now, with him guiding, they'd gotten in without a ripple.
Hermione couldn't help looking everywhere as they moved along—a place most people might never see in their entire lives.
They rounded a corner, and a huge dragon loomed in front of them.
Its appearance was especially striking: glossy crimson scales, a lion-like snub nose rimmed with a fringe of gleaming golden spikes, and bulging eyes. Loren recognized it at a glance—a Chinese Fireball. But this one's condition was pitiful.
Scars crisscrossed its body. Some wounds had begun to knit; others were still wet with blood—clearly fresh. It seemed the goblins hadn't fully broken this dragon in yet, but the vault still needed guarding, so they'd shoved it here to both "train" it and make it work.
Remembering Loren's lessons, Hermione didn't charge in. She switched to the magic-vision of her alchemical goggles and began a careful sweep.
Loren was pleased with her methodical approach. At least she'd learned how to be bold with a plan.
In truth, he'd already scouted every detail earlier, but since Hermione was taking point now, he stood back to see how she'd solve the problem.
The Fireball had noticed them long before. Worried it would make a racket and disrupt Hermione, Loren had already smothered it under a crushing aura. Under that pressure, the dragon trembled and kept quiet.
The warding here was designed to do two things the moment it detected an intruder: notify the goblins and release the dragon's shackles so it could be loosed against the enemy. The goblins had been stingy with their setup—the array was crude and lacked precious components to harden it—so Hermione easily snipped its external link to the goblins. She took a deep breath and stepped into the warded zone.
The array reacted, but with the link cut it didn't raise an alarm. It only undid the dragon's chains, granting it "freedom."
Freed, the dragon still didn't move, shivering under Loren's pressure.
"Beautifully done, Hermione," Loren praised, seeing she'd freed the dragon without tipping off the goblins.
"Of course. I'm amazing," Hermione said, happily taking the compliment and even planting her fists on her hips.
"Alright, alright—no need to get carried away. Don't make me take it back," Loren teased.
At once Hermione glanced over—and saw Loren standing at the severed node she'd cut earlier, threads of magic still sparking from his hands. With her intelligence it took her only a heartbeat to spot her oversight: she'd cut the array's external feed. If the goblins never received the ward's periodic "all clear," suspicion would rise.
The instant she'd severed the link, Loren had been simulating the ward's heartbeat with his own magic, which was why the goblins hadn't noticed anything off.
Seeing she'd realized it, Loren said nothing more. He simply handed the small world to her.
Hermione took the small world, walked up to the Chinese Fireball, and—meeting no resistance from the trembling beast—herded it inside with ease.
When Loren reclaimed the small world into his personal storage, he pointed to the floor at his feet, signaling Hermione to deal with the ward's aftermath. She circled him several times, still unable to find a perfect solution. The dragon had been stolen; if she reconnected the ward directly, they might be exposed.
In the end she pulled out her alchemical kit and, right there on the spot, built a little device to mimic the ward's heartbeat and stand in for Loren's manual feed.
Under Loren's tutelage, her alchemy had long since surpassed the Hogwarts student level. She finished it quickly.
"Your alchemy has improved a lot," Loren said.
Hermione didn't preen—she heard the thread of dry mockery in his tone.
"Stealing someone's property and leaving a trail—what exactly were you thinking?" he added.
She flushed, instantly realizing she'd been careless again.
Loren drew out a heap of prepared clay from his storage and began casting. The clay reshaped into the likeness of the Chinese Fireball and settled back into the dragon's former place; the chains snaked into position and clasped around it as if they'd never been opened.
A moment later, Loren withdrew his sustaining magic, and the clay-forged dragon lost its "life," solidifying into a stone statue once more.
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