Behind her, she heard the screams of agony, the shouts of defiance, the loud orders of Warfist and his soldiers battling the abomination. Alexandra continued to run, the only light now provided by her wand and the Lumos spell. She passed several crossroads, mounted to volleys of stairs and then stopped, the previous march and the recent run having taken their toll. In the distance, a loud growl echoed, followed by dozens of screams.
Turning to nearby corridor which was mounting in the direction of the surface, the young witch started to breathe a bit more easily. The temperature, which had been so hot near the salamander it was downright hellish, had come back to more lukewarm levels. The pandemonium created by the roars, growls and the racket caused by the weapons and the spells was now low in the distance and decreasing even lower in intensity.
Climbing massive stone stairs which looked like they had been taken recently by a goblin army, or at least the eleven-year old witch hoped so, Alexandra tried to hurry her pace. Despite the admirable and suicidal courage of the goblin warriors, the expeditionary force had more likely than not no chance against this kind of hybrid Balrog-salamander.
With hindsight, she supposed fleeing cowardly in the dark without firing a spell in the enemy's direction was not a glorious thing she would trumpet in the Great Hall of Hogwarts at dinner, but for now staying alive was more important. If curse-breakers with decades of experience at the job of dealing with lethal threats and battle-hardened goblins could not stand against the entity, then she, a non-magical-raised witch with barely nine months of magical education was not going to change the odds. Warfist, Sturmwald and the others potential candidates for Gryffindor could try their best. Alexandra was looking for the exit.
Soon the stairs she took ended and she arrived into corridors growing increasingly larger. The great halls they had passed on their one-way ticket to hell were close, or at least she hoped. The mustering had come too suddenly for her to bring more supplies than a bottle of water and a chocolate bar in her pockets, both of which had been respectively emptied and eaten what seemed to be hours ago. Alexandra had never visited the citadel before, and she totally ignored if there were plans for exceptional visitors. The torches were becoming more frequent, though, which allowed her to stop casting the Lumos.
Finally, the long and large corridors ended and the great halls she had believed to be dwarf-built hours ago started to appear before her tired eyes. The raven-haired witch pressed her walk, almost running now to escape this place which had become a jail in which there was an entity of darkness. Turning a pillar, she began to run with her last forces and...
"No! No!" Alexandra knew there was no one to hear her, but in that particular moment she didn't care. The huge steel gates of Brise-Roc, the last thing separated her from salvation, were closed.
As she approached from the doors, tendrils of black energy became evident, implying that whoever had brought the salamander had also barricaded the doors.
Gathering all her power, Alexandra Potter took her wand, pointed it at the closed gates and shouted "BOMBARDA!"
The Bombardment Charm struck the gate, creating a respectable explosion. She was forced to immediately take cover behind a pillar, however, as one blade of shadow stabbed the place she had occupied seconds before. A grid of darkness materialised in front of the young witch, coating the gates in a darkness-like substance. Looking again, she noticed there was not even a dent on her target.
"I am so screwed..." The green-eyed witch sighed.
Alexandra was alone, the entire expeditionary force was likely dead, and she was trapped inside a fortress with a thing which made the Balrog Gandalf fought in the Moria a minor problem. The Potter Heiress supposed the situation could be worse. In fact no, it couldn't. Being in the position of Sam in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol was not something which could be described as 'good'.
Somehow, she was going to find a solution. Somehow. Amazing at how little these thoughts cheered her up.
12 July 1992, Ministère de la Magie, Paris, France
A loud, shrieking alarm resonated in the corridor the French Ministry reserved to the use of its employees working for the French Goblin Liaison Office.
By treaty, this sound was supposed to inform the wizards and witches working here that one Gringotts fortress located on the French national territory faced a serious attack. In theory, in less than ten minutes the corps of the French Chasseurs de ténèbres, counterparts of the British Aurors, should have been alerted and wizards apparating to defend the citadel wherever the attack was taking place.
Alas, the building in question was empty. All the workers were currently celebrating the birth of the first daughter of one of their members in a bar of Magical Paris. The employees working the week-end, who should have been here to alert the Ministry in case any urgency manifested itself, had falsified their reports to go drinking with his friends, courtesy of a large bribery by a mysterious wizard who happened to be a member of the Exchequer. The replacement was currently in holidays in French Polynesia, drinking coconut juice, the result of a lottery he had won also thanks to a member of the Exchequer.
The alarm sounded for hours, in vain. After the Great Goblin Rebellion of 1791, the wizards had completely isolated this branch of the French Ministère de la Magie in order not to be perturbed by the loud roars and guttural speeches the goblin race was so fond to use in presence of wizards. The other alarms directly linking Brise-Roc to the other goblin citadels under the French territories had already been disconnected of course before the grand plan went into effect.
✨ Want to read the next chapters early?
Unlock 20+ advance chapters and get exclusive perks by joining my Patreon!
🔗Join here: Patreon.com/Makimafic
---
💎 Patreon Tiers
🥉 Tier 1 — $10
📖 Access to 20 advance chapters
🥈 Tier 2 — $20
📚 Access to 30 advance chapters
🎁 Extra exclusive benefits
---
🔥 Patreon Benefits
📚 Read 40+ advance chapters early
👥 Join a private fan community
📝 Access exclusive unreleased novels
[ ] 🚫 Enjoy a 100% ad-free reading experience