A Place of Contemplation
by Jardyn39
Chapter 8: The Siege
He had almost got the end of the corridor, when echoing voices reached him. Harry dived behind a column at the side and waited for them to pass. He heard a door slam, and again there was silence.
Harry was about to move further down the corridor, when a flying memo fluttered past his ear. He turned to watch as the memo dived into a small hole above a door back where he'd come from. He doubled back to the door on the other side.
Opening the door cautiously, he realised the inside of the room was dark, but he could hear distant voices. He entered and closed the door quickly.
Another memo entered the room and dived down a pipe protruding at the far end of the room. Shrouded in darkness, Harry approached the long balustrade along one side of the room. He crouched down and peered through the balusters.
He appeared to be on a balcony, looking down onto an enormous operations room.
On the wall opposite, Harry could see a central tapestry lit from behind by many lanterns, that looked like a cross sectional map that rotated slowly, highlighting certain areas with moving symbols. It took a moment to realise he was looking at a three dimensional representation of the tunnels under Gringotts bank.
Either side were smaller tapestries, with changing lists of text. They looked like situation reports and troop movements.
Harry peered down. On the floor of the room, far below, were rows and rows of desks, all manned. Memos flew wildly just above their heads.
He was just straining to see what was immediately below, when Harry heard a door opening. He ducked down quickly, afraid he was about to be discovered.
"Well, Commander, what do you have to report?"
Harry looked around and realised the voice must have come from an adjacent balcony. He crept closer to listen.
"The operation can begin at any time, but we will need a further hour to get all the trolls angry enough."
"An hour is acceptable. You may begin when ready."
"Yes, Sir."
Harry didn't recognise either voice.
"Everything is proceeding to plan? They have no idea what is about to happen?"
"No, Sir. We are sure. We got the Giants in place in the East tunnels last night. The calming charms worked perfectly. There was no noise to warn of their arrival at all. They will wake in a howling temper though."
"Well, that's the idea. Those stinking goblins won't know what hit them."
"Yes, Sir. Are you sure we need the trolls as well? You know we've got no control over them at all, even less than the Giants."
"Are you prepared to tell his Lordship his plan is flawed?"
"Um, No! I didn't mean to suggest anything like that!" exclaimed the Commander, with genuine fear in his voice.
"I thought not. There shouldn't be a problem provided we have enough men to kill the trolls afterwards as well as pick off any remaining pockets of resistance."
"What about the Giants?"
"They will kill each other, no doubt, when there aren't enough goblins and trolls to go around. The few that remain should not prove too difficult to contain."
"We could have a lot of casualties, though."
"An acceptable level of casualties, yes."
The Commander hesitated before asking, "Are you sure we are only going to find goblins down there?"
There was an audible sigh before the other said, "I really don't care. If there are dragons, the trolls and giants will face them first. I would remind you we have yet to discover any evidence of dragons down there, have we? All there have been are traps and deceits so far."
"Those traps and deceits have caused us significant casualties. I lost my best division last week, and we still don't really know what the goblin numbers are."
"All the more reason to end this siege now we have the means. They may be clever, but the goblins won't be a match for the shear mindless brutality that we are about to send into the tunnels."
"I'm more worried about what will happen when that shear mindless brutality realises they have been betrayed again," said the Commander in an undertone.
"Just keep thinking about the gold in those vaults."
"Yes, Sir," the Commander replied dryly, possibly thinking that he was unlikely to see much gold for all the efforts of his men.
"Good. Proceed as ordered, Commander. I will inform his Lordship later. He has left orders not to be disturbed for the present."
"Sir!" said a new voice.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" said the Commander. It sounded like the senior wizard had left as a door was opened and closed again.
"I've increased the number of men guarding the bridge, but there still aren't enough."
"His Lordship wanted more men for the Reception. You will have to make do with the men you have, Lieutenant."
"But, Sir," pleaded the Lieutenant. "If the barricade fails, the trolls will come right back at us!"
Harry looked down at the map again, trying to identify where the bridge and barricade were. The map rotated and an area was highlighted in red. Harry tried desperately to memorise the map, but he realised this would be impossible. The goblin tunnels were designed to be impossible to navigate.
He realised he needed someone who knew the tunnels.
He crept towards the door, intending to follow the Lieutenant. Harry reached for his pocket, and only then realised he was missing his wand. Snape still had it, and he hadn't thought to grab the torturer's wand.
Harry cursed to himself silently before exiting. He straightened up and hid himself behind the deep door reveal. His options were limited without a wand, but he had retained his Legilimency skilled even without his magic. Hopefully, his stay at the island had focussed those skills too.
The Lieutenant exited and proceeded at a pace down the corridor. Harry closed his eyes and concentrated.
The Lieutenant slowed as he succumbed to Harry's influence. Fortunately, the Lieutenant was too distracted to resist as his memory was modified.
He turned around as Harry stepped out from the doorway.
"Ah, there you are," said the Lieutenant. "The Commander said I'd find you waiting for me. Follow me," he ordered, "we are going to the bridge."
Harry nodded and hurried to follow the hapless Lieutenant.
As they descended the steep stone stairs that lead from another doorway, Harry wondered if he was doing the right thing.
Stein could wait, but Harry knew that he was taking quite a risk with Neville's well-being by trying to assist the goblins now. Harry knew that Neville would be tortured for information, but Stein had wanted him kept alive and the goblins sounded like they were in trouble.
He didn't know what he could do in just an hour, but Harry was utterly determined to help if he could.
*
The Lieutenant ushered Harry through each of the security checkpoints. Fortunately the guards were somewhat distracted by the preparations to end the siege. Men and summoned materials were hurrying to their positions.
As they marched, Harry was struggling to interrogate the Lieutenant's mind as well as discover the weaknesses of the bridge.
In the end he compelled the Lieutenant to remember in his mind the route Harry would need to take to get back out of the tunnels.
At the same time he got the Lieutenant to tell him verbally about the bridge.
"We can access the bridge from a rope ladder down into the chamber from just up here."
They reached a small opening and Harry gasped seeing the size of the cavern that stretched out in front of him.
The Lieutenant grabbed hold of a rusty iron handle fixed to the rough stone wall, and proceeded to climb down the ladder.
Harry grabbed the handle and looked over the edge.
Far below a narrow looking stone bridge crossed a deep chasm. There was a glow of red lava deep down. On the far end was a large barricade that looked like it was on fire.
"Where the hell did they come from?" cried the Lieutenant from a few feet below.
Harry looked again and smiled. The goblins did have dragons. Two enormous red dragons were taking turns to attack the barricade.
Harry hurried down the ladder.
"Why haven't you just blown the bridge?" shouted Harry.
"We can't! This is the only access across for miles. The goblins have been trying to destroy it for months!"
Harry reached a ledge and joined the Lieutenant about halfway down. He was surveying the battle.
"Good, they've killed one dragon and the other is falling back."
Harry barely hid his disappointment.
"What are those shields?" he asked, pointing at the still smoking barricade.
"We got them from the Giants," replied the Lieutenant with a grin. "They are mostly dragon hide, but incredibly strong and durable from the attack side. They are special in that somehow the Giants know how to make them and still have the hide retain the dragon's magical protection. They will never burn they way through!"
"This side looks fairly flimsy though," commended Harry, looking at the extraordinary arrangement of scaffolding that supported them.
"Well, it has been difficult to reinforce them. The goblins have been sending some other nasty surprises that have killed everyone who climbs in there."
"What are they using?"
"We don't know yet. They are too small to see in this poor light. I'm hoping it won't matter shortly. Come on! We have to be in position before they release the trolls!"
The Lieutenant was scurrying down the lower part of the ladder.
Harry crouched down, deciding what to do. The barricade didn't look too strong, provided he could survive long enough in amongst the scaffolding. He could see now why the Lieutenant was so worried about holding the bridge.
On the far side, where the barricade faced, there was a wide flat approach. If the trolls charged along there, their natural path would be to continue down and along the bridge. They needed the barricade to divert the flow of the charge further along another path that was a slight incline.
He immediately abandoned his plan to destroy the bridge, deciding to take down the barricade instead.
Harry climbed down the ladder, but paused to give the Lieutenant an idea.
"You!" shouted the Lieutenant. "Go and reinforce the barricade! Now!"
"Yes, Sir!" shouted Harry jumping off the bottom of the ladder and ran through the bridge guards who were cowing behind any debris they could find.
*
The barricade was manned by only a few guards, although many more were dead at their posts and still burning.
No one tried to stop him as Harry climbed into the darkness under the scaffold.
There was a scream from somewhere above, and suddenly a body crashed through the scaffolding. Harry grabbed then man's wand and conjured water to douse the flames.
Harry checked the man's pulse. He was dead.
The shields ahead were now glowing red hot and smoking as the remaining dragon resumed its attack.
Harry quickly examined the structure supporting the shields. These were little more than thin timber buttresses and a light framework tied together with rope. Like most wizard constructions, it looked very unstable.
He was about to begin blasting, when he through he saw a quick movement at the corner of his eye.
Then he remembered. Something was down here with him. It must have been whatever the goblins had sent to stop the barricade from being reinforced.
Harry looked around.
"Lumos!" he whispered.
The light beam only just caught the dark outline before it vanished.
"Friends," said Harry. "I've come to help the goblins. I'm going to take this barricade down. Take cover. Warn the goblins that trolls and giants are about to come into the tunnels if you can."
A head popped out from behind an odd shaped timber.
"You lie!" hissed the snake.
"They're coming!" cried a distant voice and it sounded like the dragon's attack had paused, presumably having noticed movement along the path.
Harry grinned and pointed his borrowed wand straight at one of the cross supports.
"Reducto!" he shouted at the top of his voice. The dry timbers exploded into dust.
Several snakes dropped down through the gaps between the scaffolds and disappeared down small burrows in the ground.
The structure lurched violently as Harry continued to aim and fire as fast as he could.
Finally, the barricade fell forwards in one, just in time for him to see the dragon being clubbed by the hoard of Mountain Trolls.
"No!" shouted Harry, levitating the remaining barricade timbers and rocks that were strewn around him, and hurling them at the trolls.
It took a while before the trolls appeared to notice him, but they charged as soon as they did.
With no time to see how the dragon was faring, Harry ran back across the now deserted bridge. The Lieutenant had called his remaining men back to the other side of the bridge at the mouth of a large tunnel opening.
Harry reached the ladder and began to climb, just as the first of the charging trolls entered the tunnel. He tried to pocket the wand, but in his haste he missed and it fell uselessly.
Cursing his clumsiness, Harry climbed up. He couldn't risk retrieving it, now that hundreds of rampaging trolls were in the main tunnels.
Harry hurried to retrace his steps along the path that the Lieutenant had remembered for him. Fortunately there were no guards on sentry duty now, having presumably fled.
*
He got back to the corridor and stepped out onto the plush carpet once again. The silence and serenity of this corridor was a complete contrast to the chaos in the tunnels below.
As he walked past, Harry resisted the temptation to look in on the operations room again. He wondered if they even knew yet.
Another door urgent and two junior officer guards ran out and down the corridor, totally ignoring him. They looked a little preoccupied.
"You can't just go!" one said urgently, pulling the other back.
"No? Just watch me! The trolls are overrunning the tunnels and the Giants are fighting amongst themselves."
"You mean things might not be going to plan?"
The other just snorted, as did Harry despite himself.
"You don't think someone should tell him?"
"You can, if you want. He left instructions not to be disturbed, remember?"
"What about the Commander?"
"He had the good sense to realise he needed to be back at the Ministry."
"Where are you going?"
"Anywhere but here. I'm not going to be around when his Lordship is looking for someone to punish!"
One man was left standing in the middle of the corridor. He appeared to be considering his options.
Just before he exited, he looked back at Harry, who was now wearing a cold, satisfied smile.
A glimmer of recognition passed across his face before he turned and followed his colleague.
*
Harry decided he was done with sneaking around.
He walked confidently down the middle of the corridor to the large ornate door at the end.
He cautiously opened the door. It wasn't locked, and he entered the enormous room which was surrounded by high ornate stone columns. The entire room was like an indoor quadrangle, with terracotta painted walls and gold leaf decorations. The floor was covered with a plush deep green carpet.
Across the ceiling, white clouds moved lazily around a deep blue painting of the sky.
The first thing Harry saw was Stein, sitting slumped in a plain chair next to the entrance door. His eyes were half closed and he was drooling down his front. Clearly, Stein wasn't quite the charismatic and terrifying leader is audience had been given to believe.
Harry heard something and spun around.
It sounded like a soft snort.
Harry hurried out into the centre of the room.
Sitting in a chair in front of a large ornate gold desk, was Snape. His arms were bound to the arms of the chair and his legs were each bound with ropes to the chair legs. He must have been obscured by one of the many columns.
Snape was gagged but unconscious. Harry pulled the gag off him and Snape began to revive. Harry struggled with the ropes binding him, but he was magically bound.
Harry heard another derisive snort. This one was much closer though.
He looked up.
"Harry, how nice of you to drop in."
Harry shuddered involuntarily.
Standing behind the desk was a tall thin figure with almost white skin. Bald apart from a few strands of white bleached hair, the figure looked at him with unblinking pale red eyes.
Harry stared in disbelief; his mind utterly unable to accept was he was seeing. He knew Voldemort was possessing somebody, but this was too much.
"I was just catching up with another old friend, Harry, as you can see."
All Harry could do was stare at the wide lipless smile and think, "No. It can't be true. No, it can't be."
The figure reached down to the desk and picked up a wand with unnaturally long, thin fingers.
"Crucio!"