At that moment, Wentworth had already stepped inside Gringotts. As he observed the bustling crowd moving to and fro, he did not head directly to the business counters. Instead, he made his way to the lounge area of the bank and slowly sat down.
Seeing this, Cassandra and the others followed suit, taking seats beside him.
Wentworth gestured for Cassandra to take out the pendant he had gifted her, instructing her to channel her magic into it.
After doing as she was told, Cassandra looked at Wentworth with a puzzled expression.
"And then?" she asked.
Without turning his head, Wentworth scanned the crowd inside Gringotts and replied calmly,
"We wait."
At the same time, the Alliance wizards, who had been lying low throughout Diagon Alley, felt the pendant's sudden warmth and a faint but unmistakable summons.
Without waiting for further instruction, each of them silently rose, drew their wands, and began moving toward Gringotts.
To the astonishment of the other witches and wizards in Diagon Alley, groups of silent, wand-wielding figures emerged from nearly every shopfront. They didn't speak a word, but their stern expressions and the aura they exuded warned all to stay clear.
They didn't communicate, but their direction was unmistakably unified.
Anyone crossing paths with them instinctively stepped aside, intimidated by the weight of their presence.
Realizing something was wrong, some quick-witted witches and wizards began to make their way out of the alley entirely.
Inside Flourish and Blotts, however, the crowd was still dense. Bill Weasley felt a strange heat in his chest—alongside a pull, like a half-whispered summons—and curiosity drew him toward the shop window. He peered out onto the street.
Following the source of the pull, his eyes landed on the tall, pale building at the end of the alley—Gringotts. Seeing it, Bill knew immediately: the Alliance had made their move.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a deafening sound rang out, like thunder on a clear day. The entire bookshop fell silent, uncertain of what had just occurred.
But from his vantage at the window, Bill could see it clearly: above the rooftops of Diagon Alley—no, above Gringotts itself—a firework had exploded into the sky. A moment later, the unmistakable symbol of the Deathly Hallows flared into being, enormous and looming, lingering in the sky for all to see.
Outside Gringotts, a dense crowd of Alliance wizards had gathered. As Carrow unleashed the firework into the sky with a twisted grin, Rosier raised an arm and pointed directly at the bank's entrance.
The goblin guards standing at the gates now faced a sea of wizards. Their knees trembled, frozen with indecision.
As the Alliance encircled them, one particularly bold guard stepped forward.
"This is Gringotts. You—"
He never finished his sentence.
A curse shot from somewhere in the crowd, striking him squarely and hurling him backward—right through the great front doors of the bank.
And then, chaos erupted.
From within Gringotts, more goblin guards surged forth—joined by a host of short, sharp-eyed figures: the goblins themselves.
There was no need for words. As soon as both sides caught sight of each other, curses began to fly through the air. The battle had begun.
But it quickly became clear that the Gringotts defenders were no match for the Alliance.
The goblins, though clever and magically skilled, lacked wands to focus and amplify their magic. Against seasoned Pureblood combatants, their efforts had little effect.
Worse still, as the battle intensified at the gates, a dozen wand-bearing wizards emerged from among the crowds inside Gringotts—the same crowds the goblins had tried to evacuate to safety.
"Stupefy!"
Auston Greengrass was the first to strike, blasting the nearest goblin unconscious. He then scanned the hall, clearly searching for something—or someone.
With the bank now under attack from both within and without, Gringotts' hastily formed defenses crumbled instantly.
The wizards hired by Gringotts stood no chance. They were employed to deal with rowdy customers, not to face organized, well-trained Pureblood combatants.
And when they looked up and saw the Deathly Hallows symbol blazing in the sky, their morale shattered entirely. Most of them dropped their wands on the spot, signaling their surrender.
The goblins fought furiously to hold the line, but all they could do was delay the inevitable. The Alliance pressed steadily forward, their formation advancing deeper into the bank.
Inside, the infiltrating Alliance wizards quickly overpowered the few guards stationed in the main hall and engaged the goblins in close combat.
Though most of these goblins worked desk jobs and had little combat ability, they used their deep familiarity with Gringotts' layout to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the attackers.
Others, however, were not so fortunate—particularly the human clerks employed by the bank.
As spells zipped across the grand hall, these employees had no intention of dying for Gringotts. Most of them surrendered the moment the fighting broke out.
Still, Auston wasn't taking chances. He moved among the surrendered staff, confiscating their wands one by one.
When he approached a red-nosed curse breaker, he paused, pulling a photograph from inside his robes and holding it up for comparison.
The photo had been taken the night Bill had invited his coworkers out for drinks—this very curse breaker's flushed face clearly visible.
With a sigh, Auston turned his wand on the man. The red-nosed curse breaker looked up in confusion.
"What? You called me a bastard?" Auston said coldly. "How dare you."
The curse breaker blinked, stunned. "???"
But before he could react, Auston shouted:
"Avada Kedavra!"
The man crumpled to the floor, lifeless.
Scenes like this played out repeatedly in Gringotts' grand hall.
Moments later, Rosier strode into the bank with the main Alliance forces, some of them dragging unconscious or injured goblins behind them.
At the same time, Auston approached the lounge area of the bank, speaking softly:
"The main hall is clear, Master. The remaining goblins have retreated underground."
He paused for a moment, then glanced toward Cassandra and the others. Wentworth gave a small nod, signaling him to continue.
"And," Auston added, "as per your orders—all of the curse breakers who dined with Bill that night are dead. Not a single one escaped."
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