Bryan's sudden silence stretched on, becoming increasingly uncomfortable. It made Bogrod, the goblin responsible for managing Gringotts' British branch operations, grow more anxious and uneasy with each passing second. His fingers twitched nervously at his sides, and a thin gleam of sweat began forming on his forehead.
In reality, despite their reputation for ironclad integrity throughout the wizarding world, goblins were not nearly as bound by contracts and good faith as most naive wizards believed them to be.
Over the centuries, they'd developed certain... flexible interpretations of their agreements, loopholes that benefited goblin interests while technically adhering to the letter of their contracts.
For wizard vaults that had been definitively confirmed to have lost all living inheritors for ancient families that had died out completely in wars or plagues, with no distant cousins or bastard children left to claim ancestral wealth, the goblins had been quietly splitting the accumulated treasures with Ministry of Magic officials for many years.
It was a mutually beneficial arrangement that had enriched both parties considerably, filling goblin coffers and Ministry pockets.
This profitable scheme had continued uninterrupted and undiscovered until the previous Minister of Magic, growing increasingly nervous about potential exposure, had approached Gringotts management several years ago. He'd warned them that the matter risked being publicly exposed and causing a massive scandal that would destroy careers and reputations.
Only after that uncomfortable meeting had such practices become somewhat less common and considerably more discreet, though they had never stopped totally.
Even for those particularly unusual vaults where goblins had signed formal agreements explicitly stating that inheritance rights could be claimed by anyone holding a specific token or meeting certain predetermined conditions, if too much time passed without anyone appearing to claim them, the goblins would eventually conduct what they euphemistically termed 'periodic cleanings' and 'maintenance assessments.'
However, Bogrod had just hastily consulted the internal records kept in Gringotts' archives, and found to his surprise that Salazar Slytherin's personal vault remained completely intact after a full millennium.
This remarkable restraint wasn't because the goblins didn't covet the legendary treasures surely contained within—quite the opposite. They'd fantasized about the vault's contents for centuries. Rather, their restraint stemmed from a much more practical concern: the vault door itself bore Slytherin's own powerful protective magic, woven by one of history's greatest wizards.
Despite numerous attempts over the centuries using every method and spell at their disposal, the goblins simply couldn't open it.
"Mr. Watson?"
Bogrod's nervous voice finally broke the heavy silence. He wiped anxiously at the beads of sweat now trickling down his forehead with one trembling hand.
He had heard the rumors circulating through goblin networks that Bryan Watson had once approached Mr. Barnah at Gringotts' Paris headquarters several years ago, demanding that the British Gringotts branch provide a list of wizard vaults they had illegally opened and inappropriately seized over the decades, as well as detailed documentation of the profit-sharing arrangements with corrupt Ministry officials.
"Are you planning to visit Salazar Slytherin's personal vault today?" Bogrod asked carefully, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Oh, of course—"
Bryan snapped back to attention from his deep contemplation, shaking off whatever thoughts had been occupying his mind.
He glanced at the nervous sweat now covering Bogrod's forehead and noticed his evasive eyes that kept darting away from direct contact. His mind stirred with understanding of what was likely making the goblin so uncomfortable.
He nodded with a slight, knowing smile.
"Then, might I trouble you to show me the way?"
"It would be my honor, Mr. Watson!"
Bogrod bowed deeply at the waist, his nose nearly touching his knees, secretly breathing a profound sigh of relief.
The goblins' fear of Bryan Watson stemmed not only from his reputation as the most powerful wizard of the current age, acknowledged and respected by wizards throughout the international magical community but also from his unusually good working relationship with Mr. Barnah, which gave him leverage over their operations that no other wizard possessed.
"Let's go—"
As Bryan followed Bogrod toward the door leading deeper into Gringotts' restricted areas, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Amelia hadn't followed him. She remained standing awkwardly by the leather sofa, watching his retreating figure with anticipation and hope shining in her eyes.
When she heard Bryan calling for her with a gesture, her previously restrained expression immediately brightened with pure joy, her face lit up like a child receiving an unexpected gift.
Compared to when he had first met Amelia back in New York, she was clearly somewhat more 'lively' now. This positive change was probably because she had unconsciously found something to lean on.
"The Gringotts vaults are all underground, aren't they?"
Amelia hurried to catch up, looking around the corridor with curiosity as she asked, "How exactly do we get down there? Through the fireplace network? Some kind of magical lift?"
"Oh—"
Bryan shrugged.
"I haven't actually been down there myself either, but I've heard from others that they use a mode of transport that isn't particularly comfortable."
Soon after this ominous warning, Bogrod retrieved a small leather pouch that jingled with coins from behind the counter and led them through an unmarked door set into the side wall of the magnificent entrance hall.
They entered a stone corridor that seemed to have been carved directly from the bedrock centuries ago. Vigorously burning torches hung at irregular angles on the massive stone pillars on both sides, their flickering flames providing unsteady lighting for this dark, damp underground space.
Bryan had never opened a vault at Gringotts in all his years in the wizarding world, and this was genuinely his first time venturing into these depths. His curious purple gaze swept carefully left and right, taking in every detail.
He observed that beside the narrow stone platform where they now stood, waiting expectantly, there was a set of tracks, thin rails that gleamed dully in the torchlight leading straight forward into what appeared to be bottomless darkness.
After Bogrod put his fingers to his lips and blew a shrill whistle that echoed through the tunnel, a whooshing sound immediately came rushing back from the thick darkness ahead.
Within moments, a battered 'mine cart' similar in basic style to the small carts used to enter the dangerous underground passages of Knockturn Alley came clattering along the tracks and jerked to an abrupt stop beside their platform with a screech.
Bogrod, carrying a dimly glowing oil lamp, was the first to jump nimbly onto the cart. He tried his best to curl up his small body into the cart's front corner to leave the more spacious central positions available for Bryan and Amelia.
"Haven't you goblins ever considered switching to a more comfortable mode of transport?"
As he stepped onto the rickety cart, feeling it shift under his weight, Bryan said half-jokingly, half-seriously complaining.
He extended his hand courteously toward Amelia, whose face had already begun to pale on the stone platform as she stared dubiously at the ramshackle vehicle, and helped her climb aboard with a grip.
"You know, Mr. Watson—"
The old goblin smiled 'sheepish,' showing his pointed teeth.
"Goblins don't like to spend gold galleons where we see no clear value or return on investment. This system has worked adequately for centuries."
"Profit-making has both short-term and long-term aspects, you know. A comfortable experience might encourage more vault rentals... but you all clearly have your own priorities. Never mind, let's go—"
Bryan shook his head in resignation. One hand gripped the cold metal railing firmly, while his other arm moved to support Amelia's trembling body protectively.
And so, with a sudden lurch that made Amelia gasp, the shabby little cart started up without warning and rapidly gained terrifying speed, accelerating far faster than seemed safe or reasonable.
The icy underground air howled violently past Bryan's ears, creating a deafening roar that drowned out Amelia's short screams and frightened whimpers.
The cart twisted and turned through the maze-like network of passages with reckless wildness, sometimes ascending steep inclines that pressed them back into their seats, sometimes plummeting in stomach-dropping free falls that left them weightless for heart-stopping moments.
The powerful centrifugal force generated when making terribly sharp turns among dense clusters of hanging stalactites was difficult to resist even with Bryan's exceptional physical abilities, which far exceeded those of ordinary Muggles and even most wizards due to his rigorous training and magical enhancement.
After yet another terrifying free-fall dive that felt like it would never end, leaving Amelia's soul nearly departing her body in sheer terror, the speed as they finally neared the ground far below had exceeded the limits of her dynamic vision.
Everything before her flooding eyes was nothing but an indistinguishable black blur rushing past; she could see absolutely nothing clear. The suffocating sensation of air pressure rushing toward her face made her cling even more tightly to Bryan's arm.
"Oh, this won't do at all—"
Just then, Amelia heard Bryan's voice beside her speak with discomfort, his tone was strained.
Just as the wildly speeding cart beneath them was about to slide from the nearly vertical steep slope onto level ground with what would surely be a bone-shaking impact, Bryan's body suddenly became strangely blurred around the edges, losing definition. In an instant, he transformed completely into a hazy, insubstantial shadow.
Amelia's arms, still trying to grip him, found absolutely nothing solid to hold, just empty air where he'd been. But before she could open her mouth to scream in panic at his disappearance, she discovered with shock that she too had somehow lost all physical form, her body was transforming into the same ethereal state.
The speeding cart continued its wild journey, now carrying only the goblin's physical body and two cotton-like shadows that hovered weightlessly above the seat, no longer subject to the violent forces affecting substantial bodies.
"This is much better now—" Bryan's ethereal voice said with a long sigh of relief.
Although the overwhelming physical pressure on her body had disappeared, the dizzying lights and shadows still flashing before Amelia's eyes continued to make her feel intensely tense and disoriented.
She kept her nerves tense, not daring to make a sound and besides, she didn't actually know how to properly speak while in this strange, incorporeal state. She wasn't even sure she still had a mouth.
They were now at a very deep level far beneath Gringotts' surface buildings, having descended through countless twisting passages. The slightly cool, almost pleasant air that had hit them at the tunnel's entrance many minutes ago had gradually transformed, becoming more and more scorching hot with each passing moment.
The temperature rose steadily as they went deeper.
This heat wasn't caused by the massive dragon that had been stationed as a guard deeper in the tunnels and had been temporarily driven away by Bogrod's shaking and clanging coins together and was now raging behind them which Bryan had seen earlier.
Rather, this intense heat came from something far more dangerous: the geothermal energy from the extreme depths of the earth itself, surging upward through cracks in the stone, transforming the deep tunnels into something like an oven.
Thick white smoke reeking strongly of sulfur drifted in clouds through the increasingly zigzagging, narrow stone passages that seemed to have been carved through volcanic rock.
By Bryan's conservative estimate, they were now nearly twenty miles beneath London's surface.
"The goblins' madness genuinely astonishes me—"
Looking ahead with alarm at the faint reddish glow now visible in the passage ahead of them, growing stronger with each passing second, Bryan's grave voice transmitted to Bogrod.
"You've actually dug deep enough to reach magma?"
"This cavity wasn't created by goblin mining, Mr. Watson!"
The goblins' physical constitution was truly puzzling and impressive. Even at such wild, dangerous speeds that would have killed most creatures, Bogrod still had energy to spare for conversation. His voice remarkably steady despite their speed,
"There's already a naturally occurring subterranean cavity deep beneath Diagon Alley that connects down to the Earth's molten core through a series of volcanic tubes.
We simply connected our tunnel system to its upper reaches through careful excavation. It took us decades of work. We're almost at your destination now, Mr. Watson—oh no! Oh dear!"
His final exclamation came as they suddenly burst out of the constrictive narrow passage at tremendous speed.
An enormous underground cavern revealed itself magnificently before Bryan and Amelia's astonished eyes!
They seemed to be approaching the sun itself, or at least a fragment of it trapped beneath the earth. Everything in their field of vision was bathed in intense reddish orange light, and this hellish red lighting came from far below at the bottom of the enormous cave.
The agonizing heat and absolutely dazzling brilliance radiating up from the boiling, churning magma that filled the cave floor like a lake of liquid fire left even Bryan momentarily breathless!
And the cart they were riding was sliding down the steep track toward that sea of magma below. The rails led straight toward the glowing lake of destruction. At their current rate of fall, in less than ten seconds they would plunge directly into the superheated magma, where even their bones would be instantly vaporized!
Whoosh—
At this critical moment, with disaster imminent, Bryan's shadowy form suddenly regained its full physical solidity with a pop. His face became stern and focused with absolute concentration as he fiercely waved his wand in a complex pattern.
Bogrod, who had been desperately yanking on the cart's primitive braking lever with all his strength, suddenly felt his entire body become light. A powerful invisible magical force held him firmly, pulling him from the cart that was still hurtling toward certain destruction in the Earth's molten core.
The magical grip lifted him up into the mid-air, then set him down on a narrow protruding stone platform on the steep rock wall about fifty feet above the magma.
Bogrod had barely managed to steady himself on the ledge, when a shimmering magical barrier descended over him like a dome, completely isolating him from the unbearable heat that would else have cooked him alive within minutes.
"What's going on here? What kind of vault access is this?"
Watching their abandoned cart finally reached the bottom of its trajectory and plunged into the magma with a tremendous splash, throwing up several pillars of liquid fire that rose dozens of feet into the air before raining back down as glowing droplets, his cheeks were flushed deep red by the intense firelight reflecting off every surface, and Bryan's purple eyes were sharp as he stared at the terrified Bogrod.
"I assume Salazar Slytherin's personal vault wasn't originally set up in molten magma?"
"Oh—"
The goblin himself was genuinely quite frightened by their near-death experience. His dark green skin had turned pale, almost gray. He stared down at the cart rapidly disappearing into the glowing magma, melting into nothing, and trembled as he stammered,
"Oh, of course not, Mr. Watson. I think... I believe that vault was perfectly normal when it was first established a thousand years ago."
"Was perfectly normal when it was established?"
Bryan narrowed his eyes in question.
"Yes... but you must understand, Mr. Watson, that a full thousand years have passed since then, and the underground magma level has risen quite considerably over the centuries due to geological shifts...
Oh, this isn't a section of Gringotts where goblins come frequently to conduct regular inspections. It's far too remote and dangerous. We... regrettably overlooked monitoring the changing conditions here—"
"So, you're telling me—"
Bryan's eye twitched.
"That vault is actually in magma now?"
"I'm... I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Watson. I... I think that's exactly the unfortunate situation we're facing."
Bogrod said with a genuinely mournful face, looking like he expected himself to be transfigured into something unpleasant at any moment.
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