Chapter 151 – The Heist (3)
The door to the vault opened relatively quickly, forcing the goblin under my control to deactivate all of the magical seals on it. When it finally pulled open, behind it, we could see multiple chests filled with gold overflowing onto the ground. Besides them, ancient artifacts were piling up on each other, and the rocky walls were filled with hanging robes, masks, and cloaks, giving us a look at a chaotic, hoarder-like cave. It was more like a niffler's hidey-hole than a vault in Gringots.
"Don't touch anything!" I said, stopping Lockhart from coming close, mesmerized by the vast array of seemingly priceless artifacts. "They are for sure cursed or worse. First, we will need to do something about that first. Quincy?"
"On it." She nodded, pulling out two flasks and splashing their bright green contents onto the chests, making a sharp, pinging noise echo within the room.
"What is that?" Eleonora asked, curious about her invention, smelling the air, trying to discern it.
"It's her own concoction." I explained quickly, "It reacts to curses. The noise you heard was the signal that I was right; all of these were placed under a spell. Touch it, and who knows what happens."
"So, what now, then?" She asked again while Quincy picked out another vial, poured it into the chamber, and let a dark purple puddle gather on the stone floor.
"Thinking that potions are for only drinking is a narrow viewpoint." She explained while drawing out her wand, aiming at the thick liquid on the ground, 'stirring it' with her hand's movements. "The Philosopher's Stone is a potion, did you know that? It is a self-brewing potion, replicating itself via the elixir of life. The process is slow, so you would need hundreds upon hundreds of years to let its dew collect to have a second stone... Or you could drink it and extend your life. Anyway, what I learned is that a true alchemist makes potions that are more than simple drinks."
While talking, she was keeping her hand moving slowly in a clockwise direction, affecting her concoctions. The purple spot very quickly turned into a cloud that she only had to blow at once, letting it spread around the room as we watched everything begin to simmer within as if a handful of glitter had been thrown upon it.
"How pretty..." Eleonora mumbled, but her amazement was turned into wonder when Quincy snapped her fingers, and we could see and feel the same thing when we watched the muggles' big, blocky televisions. It was the same feeling of buzzing, static electricity wrapping around everything within the vault, followed by a very similar buzzing and crackling before it all disappeared in a snap. "What happened?"
"All the curses have been forced to expire." Quincy giggled, and I knew she was incredibly proud at that moment. She should be! I wonder how old Professor Slughorn would react if he saw what she managed to do. "No matter how good the defenses are, if an inanimate thing forces them to activate, no? But would they work on nothing but air? Well, as you can see, they won't. Whatever they put on them was against thieves, against flesh and bones touching them, not to deal with something that only mimics it."
"Then? Can we...?" Lockhart asked, but I shook my head, directing one of the goblins to walk in and touch the closest chest.