He took a deep breath.

"We'll tell him he can have the sword after he's helped us get into that vault -- but we'll be

careful to avoid telling him exactly /when/ he can have it."

A grin spread slowly across Ron's face. Hermione, however, looked alarmed.

"Harry, we can't --"

"He can have it," Harry went on, "after we've used it on all of the Horcruxes. I'll make

sure he gets it then. I'll keep my word."

"But that could be years!" said Hermione.

"I know that, but /he/ needn't. I won't be lying... really."

Harry met her eyes with a mixture of defiance and shame. He remembered the words that

had been engraved over the gateway to Nurmengard: FOR THE GREATER GOOD. He

pushed the idea away. What choice did they have?

"I don't like it," said Hermione.

"Nor do I, much," Harry admitted.

"Well, I think it's genius," said Ron, standing up again. "Let's go and tell him."

Back in the smallest bedroom, Harry made the offer, careful to phrase it so as not to give

Any definite time for the handover of the sword. Hermione frowned at the floor while he

Was speaking; he felt irritated at her, afraid that she might give the game away. However,

Griphook had eyes for nobody but Harry.

"I have your word, Harry Potter, that you will give me the sword of Gryffindor if I help

you?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Then shake," said the goblin, holding out his hand.

Harry took it and shook. He wondered whether those black eyes saw any misgivings in

his own. Then Griphook relinquished him, clapped his hands together, and said, "So. We

begin!"

It was like planning to break into the Ministry all over again. They settled to work in the

smallest bedroom, which was kept, according to Griphook's preference, in semidarkness.

"I have visited the Lestranges' vault only once," Griphook told them, "on the occasion I

Was told to place inside it the false sword. It is one of the most ancient chambers. The

Oldest Wizarding families store their treasures at the deepest level, where the vaults are

largest and best protected...."

They remained shut in the cupboardlike room for hours at a time. Slowly the days

Stretched into weeks. There was problem after problem to overcome, not least of which

Was that their store of Polyjuice Potion was greatly depleted.

"There's really only enough left for one of us," said Hermione, tilting the thick mudlike

Potion against the lamplight.

"That'll be enough," said Harry, who was examining Griphook's hand-drawn map of the

Deepest passageways.

The other inhabitants of Shell Cottage could hardly fail to notice that something was

Going on now that Harry, Ron and Hermione only emerged for mealtimes. Nobody asked

questions, although Harry often felt Bill's eyes on the three of them at the table,

Thoughtful, concerned.

The longer they spent together, the more Harry realized that he did not much like the

Goblin. Griphook was unexpectedly bloodthirsty, laughed at the idea of pain in lesser

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 703