73. Lucius said
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Severus was in his lab, working on a potion that he hoped would help Alice and Frank Longbottom. He had been working with their healer hopefully to affect at least a partial cure for them. He and Healer Duval had talked it over and decided before they tried anything else; the memories of their torture by Cruciatus Curse delivered by Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Barty Crouch Jr. would need to be removed first. As Healer Duval who was Muggleborn explained it; Alice and Frank were like a needle on a record player that was stuck at one point on a record and couldn't get past that point.
Severus having been raised in a Muggle household and had spent a lot of time at the Evans' home easily understood the analogy. Once the damaging memories were removed; his potion might be able to heal the nerves and muscle damage. He doubted they would be able to resume being Aurors, but they could do other things.
The floo sounded and Severus wasn't surprised to see Lucius' head sitting in the fire. It had been a week since their talk of visiting Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts to see if she might have been entrusted with one of the horcruxes as Lucius suspected.
"Narcissa is planning to visit Bellatrix's vault if you are free right now."
"Yes, but give me a moment to put my potion in stasis and I will floo over."
Lucius nodded and disappeared from the fireplace. Severus quickly put his potion in stasis, collected another magic suppressing bag and two pictures. He had found and copied a picture of the Hufflepuff Cup and the other he had used his magical camera to take a picture of the copy of the Ravenclaw diadem in Ravenclaw Tower. He also left a note for Harry and Lily if they happened to stop by. He flooed to Malfoy Manor and stepped out into Lucius' study where Lucius and Narcissa were waiting. He showed them the pictures. "We will be looking for either one of these. You will be able to recognize the cup by the etching of the badger on the front of it and the diadem by the large sapphire in the center and the two diamonds hanging directly below it," Severus explained.
"We had best get to it then," Lucius said.
They flooed to Gringotts and stepped out of the fireplace behind the counters. Zort spotted Severus and came over to greet them. He and Severus exchanged the customary ancient greeting and then Zort asked, "What may I do for you today, Professor Snape?"
"Zort, which goblin handles Madam Bellatrix Lestrange's private vault? This is Madam Narcissa Malfoy and her husband; she is in charge of her sister's vault while she is …unavailable."
All the Gringotts goblins of course knew that Bellatrix was incarcerated in Azkaban and would not be getting out anytime soon. Zort bowed to Narcissa and replied, "Trum has managed all the Lestrange vaults for many years now."
"I need to retrieve something from her vault so can you please ask Trum if he can assist us?" Narcissa requested.
Zort nodded. "I will summon him." He turned and did something with his hand and in a few minutes an ancient goblin walked up to Zort. "What is it you need?" He sounded rather cranky.
"Madam Malfoy wishes to access her sister, Madam Lestrange's private vault."
"Follow me," he ordered.
They got into the cart and rode down to lower levels. Like the Prince vaults the Lestrange vaults were on the seventh level. "Vault 705," Trum called out as the cart stopped. Narcissa, Lucius and Severus got out and stood in front of the vault while Trum went over and placed his palm on the door and it swung open and he stepped back. "I will wait here."
Narcissa and Severus went to step into the vault, but were stopped by Lucius who said softly, "Be careful as there's undoubtedly curses cast on the items inside this vault. Touch nothing!"
They both nodded and stepped into vault, but did not make any unnecessary movements. They scanned the contents, most of which Severus suspected had once belonged to people Bellatrix had killed or permanently injured.
Lucius who was the tallest suddenly said, "Up there on that corner shelf. It's the Hufflepuff Cup. I can see the badger on it."
Narcissa used a levitation spell to lift it and gently maneuver it down and into the bag Severus held open. They all looked at it, lying innocently in the bottom of the bag. Lucius shook his head and whispered, "It's causing my mark to tingle so it's definitely a horcrux ."
"It's a beautiful cup; it's a shame it has to be destroyed," Narcissa said.
"There will be nothing tangible left of the Founders except for Gryffindor's Sword," Severus added. He closed the bag, shrank it and placed into one of the many pockets in his robe. They left the vault and waited as Trum closed the vault and once again secured it with his palm. They arrived at the top and flooed back to Severus' quarters after which Narcissa and Lucius returned to Malfoy Manor. Severus checked his potion and casting a Tempus Charm saw it was almost lunch time. He placed the horcrux in his bottom desk drawer with the others they had found, locked and warded it. He would hand them over to Mad-Eye and Orion to be destroyed using Fiendfyre.
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