Although the ball was over, the students' enthusiasm hadn't diminished in the slightest. Even after returning to the common room, they kept on discussing it rather than choosing to go to bed.
This resulted in everyone getting up late on the second day after Christmas. When Kael went down for breakfast, there were barely a handful of people in the vast Auditorium.
"Kael, there you are." Sirius walked in from outside, grinning. "I was just considering whether I should head over to the Hufflepuff common room to find you."
"Looking for me?" Kael asked. "Is something up?"
"Did you forget..." Sirius glanced around, then lowered his voice so only Kael could hear, "that vault key we talked about over the holidays..."
At this, Kael couldn't help but stand up from his seat.
"So, you can go to Gringotts now?"
"I've been able to for ages," Sirius said. "Where did you think I got the gold for the Firebolt from?
"It's just you still had school, and I was busy with other things too. Now we've both got time…
Of course, we could wait till the end of term, if you've got other plans for Christmas break."
"No, now is perfect." Kael said instantly. "But there's a problem—am I allowed to leave the castle?"
"Technically, no." Sirius replied. "Unless we get the Headmaster's permission."
"Then what are we waiting for..." Kael stuffed the remaining bread on his plate into his mouth in a few quick bites, and headed with Sirius straight for the Headmaster's Office on the eighth floor.
...
"You two wish to leave school?" Dumbledore was a little surprised to see them,
"Yes, Headmaster Dumbledore." Sirius glanced at Maxime and Karkaroff in the office, and said in a perfectly casual tone, "I've prepared a special Christmas present. I can't bring it here, so I want to take him to see it."
Dumbledore hesitated. "But it's a special time. Kael is participating in the Triwizard Tournament—there are a lot of eyes on him..."
"We're going to Diagon Alley," Sirius said, "It's very safe."
"That's right," Kael added.
"If it's only Diagon Alley..." Dumbledore hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded. "Well, all right. I agree...
"But how are you getting there? The train left yesterday, and won't return till the holiday's over."
"The train?" Sirius looked visibly disgusted. "That thing is way too slow. I had enough of it when I was at school. We're heading to Hogsmeade and borrowing the Three Broomsticks' fireplace."
"If that's the case, there's no need for the extra trip." Dumbledore pointed a finger at the office's fireplace.
In a blink, the flames inside turned green.
"Hogwarts is connected to the Floo Network too?" Sirius said in surprise.
"Normally it's closed, but I can open it temporarily for a few hours," Dumbledore replied. "Will five hours do, or do you need more time?"
"That's absolutely plenty, we'll be back before lunch," Sirius said, leading Kael over.
As the two vanished from the office, both Maxime and Karkaroff's faces changed a bit.
Before the second task began, the Champion Kael suddenly left Hogwarts... This odd behavior looked pretty suspicious to them.
And a present that can't be brought into the castle... That excuse is just too fake. Do they take everyone else for fools?
"Olympe..." Karkaroff couldn't help but ask, "At Beauxbatons, is it this easy for the students who stay over to leave school?"
"Of course not," Ms.Maxime replied. "Unless their name wasn't on the stay-over list from the start, even during holidays, no student is allowed to leave."
"Same at Hogwarts." Dumbledore smiled. "But this time is special. That boy Kael did Professor Black a big favor during the holidays, so I guess he wants to thank him a little.
"All right, let's not worry about them. Where were we? Oh right, about the scoring standards for Champions in the second task, I think…"
Faced with Dumbledore's obvious topic switch, Maxime and Karkaroff grew more convinced that Kael's little trip away was definitely connected to the Triwizard Tournament.
With that in mind, their gazes at Dumbledore changed just slightly.
Well, what do you know, Hogwarts is the home team and they're still pulling tricks... Pah, shameless.
Dumbledore didn't seem to mind at all, continuing calmly with his opinions.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
After emerging from the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace, Kael and Sirius headed straight for the backyard.
Since Christmas had just passed and it was still early morning, the bar was empty—only Old Tom was behind the counter, wiping a row of clean glasses.
"Kael, and Black?" He greeted them with a smile. "Anything you'd like to drink?"
"No, Tom, maybe next time." Sirius shook his head.
Then the two of them entered Diagon Alley via the entrance, making their way to the front of Gringotts.
Looking up at the shiny bronze doors at this time of year, Sirius asked, "Did you bring the key?"
"Of course. I always have it with me." Kael reached into his pouch and pulled out a golden key, handing it over.
Sirius took the key and went straight into Gringotts.
In the spacious marble hall, roughly a hundred Goblins sat behind long counters, some weighing coins on scales, others inspecting gems with magnifiers.
They made their way to the very front, where a Goblin was scribbling something in a huge ledger.
"Ahem..." Sirius cleared his throat. "We need access to Bellatrix Lestrange's Vault."
Hearing this, the Goblin looked up, his voice sharp and shrill:
"You don't seem to be Miss Lestrange."
"I'm her... cousin." Sirius grimaced, as if he'd swallowed a particularly nasty Multi-Flavor Bean.
"She asked me to get something for her."
The Goblin looked Sirius over, then seemed to remember something. "Ah, right, you two can meet.
"So... Mr. Black, did you bring the key?"
"Oh, here it is." Sirius tossed the key on the desk. "She gave it to me—should be the right one."
The Goblin took the key and examined it carefully.
"Yes, that's right..." he said. "Mr. Black, I must remind you, you can only remove one item from the vault, at most."
"I know better than you," Sirius replied impatiently. "I don't even want to look at most of that junk."
"Very well," he said. "I'll get someone to take you down to the underground vault. Griphook!"
Griphook was another Goblin. He led Sirius and Kael through a door behind the counter, into a narrow stone corridor.
A small cart waited nearby. They climbed in and set off.
The location of Gringotts' vaults was practically a labyrinth. They rode the cart at breakneck speed through winding passages for a good twenty minutes.
Sirius's face grew greener and greener. He held a hand to his mouth, looking like he might puke any second.
Kael, on the other hand, felt nothing special—just that the wind was kind of chilly.
Same as always: compared to a Phoenix's Apparition, this was like a children's coin ride—way too tame.
The surroundings grew darker and the cart picked up speed.
They sped through a waterfall, soaking their clothes, shivering from the chill wind blowing past.
But there was no help for it—without passing the Thief's Downpour, Griphook would never take them any further.
After about ten more minutes, Kael heard a weak, whimpering dragon's roar.
The sound was so feeble, there wasn't a trace of the pride a Fire Dragon was supposed to have.
"This is Gringotts' ultimate defense," Griphook said proudly. "A Fire Dragon ensures that any thief with designs on this gold pays the price."
Kael looked at him calmly, face unreadable.
At last, the cart stopped at a mountain ravine.
A creature with a lion's body and a human face was blocking their way.
The Sphinx Beast—a professional Fantastic Beast for guarding things, famous for riddles and word games. Wizards usually used them to protect valuables and secret places.
Newt had one in his case too, but since there wasn't much gold or jewels in there, it mostly bothered the Moonstruck Beast… Every time Newt went to collect manure from the Moonstruck Beast, he had to spend ages dealing with it.
Griphook got out first, said something quietly, and the Sphinx Beast slunk back into the shadows rather grumpily.
"Come on," Griphook beckoned, and Kael and Sirius quickly followed.
There was only one vault over the ravine. Griphook took the key, pressed it to his palm, and placed his hand against the door.
Kael watched the Goblin's movements with curiosity.
"Anyone but us Goblins who tried that would be sucked in—it'd swallow them and they'd never come out," Griphook leered, grinning nastily at Kael.
"Could you hurry up?" Sirius snapped. "Cut out the nonsense."
"As you wish."
No sooner had Griphook finished speaking than the tightly shut vault doors began to melt away, little by little.
For a second, Kael thought someone had flipped on the lights here—the dazzling golden glow almost blinded him.
He saw a pile of gold nearly ten feet tall, all kinds of strange animal pelts, Magic Potions in Treasure Bottles, and even a crowned skull…
"Come on," Sirius urged. "Grab what you need and let's get out of here."
"Okay." Kael glanced at Griphook. "Can I go in? Any special protection Charms inside?"
"There's Incendio and Doubling Charms," Griphook answered. "But since you have the key, those are temporarily disabled—until the door closes again. If you're nervous, I could retrieve it for you instead."
"No need." Kael walked in, deliberately kicking a Galleon by his foot.
The Gold Coin clattered a long way before landing with a 'ding' amongst other Galleons, without turning into two in the process.
Finally relieved, Kael walked in, Griphook shadowing him closely, clearly on guard lest he pocket anything extra.
Kael didn't mind. The gold here was tempting, but he had something even more important...
The vault was quite spacious and packed with things. Kael wandered around for five full minutes before, by chance, glancing up—and finally he spotted what he was looking for.
Right at the very top, on a jutting stone platform, was a small golden cup, carved with a lifelike badger and two ear-like handles at its sides.