The Art of An Ending

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Beginning of the End

Avery had been about as mad as she had expected he would be when she returned to the flat a few hours later, though it was nothing compared to how Draco and Pansy reacted upon her eventual return to Hogwarts after the end of the Easter holidays.

"What-" Pansy slammed a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Erica the morning of her return, ignoring the wary look Erica shot her, "-the hell is this?"

She glanced down at the article. It was, of course, all about the Gringrotts break-in, and depicted two red-heads who had first caused a diversion within Diagon Alley before holding one of the goblins hostage and entering the Lestrange vault. The article stated that nothing had been stolen, though they had made an escape on one of the dragons the goblins kept within the bank guarding the lower vaults, and Erica inwardly thanked Bogrod for his help.

"It seems even ordinary people are getting a little agitated," Erica grinned, glancing down at the picture which someone had snapped of herself and Rabastan clinging to the dragon's back as it took off on the steps of Gringrotts up into the sky. "That-" she tapped the image of the man, "-is Rabastan Lestrange."

"That's- you-" Pansy spluttered, before turning to Draco, who had thus far been silently watching the exchange with a rather amused expression. "I told you it was Erica! I told you! I told you! I told you!"

"I never said it wasn't," Draco shrugged, "I only said I didn't think she would have managed to rope Avery into breaking into Gringrotts with her."

"You aren't even asking the important question," Erica huffed slightly, pushing her Arithmancy essay to one side as she finished the conclusion. They were in the mostly-empty common room, all but a few seventh-years having already retreated to bed, though they didn't seem to be paying any mind to the sixth-years' conversation.

"You got the Cup!?" Draco breathed, drawing back a chair and sitting down quickly, Pansy quickly taking the one beside him.

"Yeah," Erica grinned. "It's upstairs with the others. I figured Gringrotts seemed like a likely place, and because it wasn't in my vault and Bellatrix was his self-proclaimed most loyal servant, it seemed like a likely choice. I still can't believe it was actually there though."

"That means there's only the snake left though," Pansy seemed barely able to contain her excitement, though the realisation of what that meant hit her soon afterwards and she soon calmed back down, sobering up immediately. "Which means that the wards will have to be brought down soon."

"I'm going to wait until Dumbledore is out of the castle," Erica shook her head. "I think it's highly likely that he'll feel it if we destroy all of those Horcruxes all at once, which means he'll come here eventually at some point anyway, but we have to make it so that he doesn't suspect us, and that it merely seems like we're planning on defeating Dumbledore and setting up a trap for him."

"Have you figured out how you're going to do that yet?" Draco frowned. "I get putting the Dark Mark up over the Astronomy Tower, but then how-?"

"If we bring down the wards and pull the Death Eaters in before then, then it'll cause a diversion so nobody will question the Dark Mark," Erica told them quickly, "and then we head down to Nagendra and destroy the Horcruxes. Hopefully, he'll assume its Dumbledore and Harry, and when those two eventually return- because there's no way Harry will pass up an opportunity to go Horcrux hunting, let's face it- we can kill Dumbledore and go after the snake."

"Still not on the whole killing Dumbledore front," Pansy crinkled her nose, shaking her head slightly. "If he's dying anyway, then wouldn't it be best to let him just go naturally?"

"We need some way to prove my loyalty to my father so he lets me get close enough to kill Nagini," Erica shook her head this time. "As it stands now he's suspicious of me, and with the destruction of the Horcruxes he'll only become more agitated and protective over Nagini, meaning killing Dumbledore may be my only way of proving myself to him enough to make him let me be close."