At the customer service counter, Hermione asks to be admitted
to Bellatrix’s vault, and a goblin asks her for identification.
When the goblin says her wand will suffice, Harry realizes that
they must know Bellatrix lost her wand and must be expecting an
impostor, so he uses the Imperius curse to control the goblin’s
mind. The goblin compliments her on her new wand, which makes Travers
suspicious, so Harry controls him as well.
The entire party, led by the mind-controlled goblin, gets
into a rail cart and travels deep into the vaults. Harry curses
himself for the strategy they’ve adopted, realizing that the Death
Eaters know all about who stole Bellatrix’s wand, and that posing
as Bellatrix has already brought them too much scrutiny and attention.
When the cart passes through a waterfall and all of their Disguising
spells are undone, Griphook tells them that the Gringotts employees
have set up defenses indicating that they know impostors are present.
A dragon blocks the passageway to the vault, but Griphook shakes
metal instruments called Clankers, which the dragon has been trained
to fear, and it backs up. The mind-controlled goblin places his
palm to the door of the vault, and it opens.
Harry knows from his conversations with Dumbledore that
if a Horcrux is in the vault, it must either be the Hufflepuff cup
or else an unknown object, so they have no choice but to look for
the cup. Unfortunately, whenever they touch anything inside the
vault, it burns them and then multiplies into myriad worthless copies,
so that if they continue touching items in the vault, it will eventually
fill and crush them. They try not to touch anything as they search,
but this proves impossible.
Finally, they see the cup sitting high up out of reach.
The dragon roars outside the door, and the heat from the multiplied
treasure is overwhelming. Hermione Levitates Harry toward the cup,
but he knocks over a suit of armor, and they begin to be buried
in hot objects. Harry uses the sword to skewer the cup through a
handle as Griphook sinks beneath the burning treasure. Harry stops
to save him, letting go of the sword, and Griphook seizes the sword,
flinging the cup into the air. Harry realizes that Griphook never
believed Harry would keep his word, but he manages to catch the
cup again as Griphook disappears.
A crowd of goblins appears in the passage, there to apprehend Harry
and company. Harry uses his wand to free the chained dragon, then
the three get on the dragon’s back and ride it through the tunnel,
eventually emerging in the bank lobby, exiting through the door,
and flying off into the sky above Diagon Alley.
