Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 91: ⠃⠗⠇

Harry's hand paused in mid-air as he was filling the bag with coins.

"Hermione... " Dan said, his voice a steady warning.

"Oh, Harry!" she gasped and he heard a thunk as she set down the album and smelled dust rising in the air.

Harry tried to fill his lungs with air again... but was only able to take a shallow breath. He set down the bag and rocked back, grasping his knees. Hermione scrambled over to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him tight.

"I'm so sorry, Harry—I was thoughtless," she said.

They rocked together for a little bit and then Harry lessened the hold on his knees and Hermione let him go. He patted her hand. He tried to compose himself and felt around on the floor for the bag and resumed counting, though he had forgotten where he was. He figured he had enough for a while and stood up slowly.

Gargnuk grumbled impatiently.

He drew in a deeper breath and tried to speak, but his voice wasn't back yet. He closed his mouth and eyes, then tried again.

"Did you want to ta-ke some of th-em with us, Hermione? The bo-oks?" he asked—his voice cracking and his lungs burning with the effort to breathe and talk when what he really wanted to do was cry.

"Um, only if you want to, Harry," she said quietly.

"Why don't you choose a couple that you think might be interesting," Harry said.

He heard Hermione going slowly back over to the books and then coming back to him.

"Here, let's take these," she said, tapping his hand with the edge of a book.

He shook out his staff and opened the storage window and then grasped the top one and put it inside, then grabbed the second one. They both felt as if they were bound in aged leather. The first one was smaller and lighter, the second one more substantial. He pushed them into his staff. He put about twenty galleons in his pocket to convert to pounds and put the rest of the bag in his staff for later.

Hermione was quiet as she offered her arm to lead him back to the track and the clanking cart. He listened as Gargnuk sealed the vault again.

"Here is your key, Mr. Potter," Gargnuk said.

"Thank you," Harry said and placed it back in his staff.

Harry felt as though his brain were being rattled as they rode back up the track to the surface—the lurching cart seemed intent on making his head hurt.

Why hadn't he thought to look around his vault more the first time he visited? What if he'd found those books and albums earlier? When he could see?

He tried to push away the desire to see the images. It was just like the Mirror of Erised—tempting him with what could have been not what was.

When they had converted his galleons to pounds and he had stored them safely in his staff, they went back outside. The sun had come out for a bit and though Harry had to close his eyes to the painful brightness of the sun, he did enjoy the warmth on his face.

Hermione had brought out the map that Godric had made for them and was unrolling it.

"Haripreet, it's a tactile map—do you want to see where we are and where we're headed?" Hermione asked. "Hmmm. I wonder how... "

"How what?" Harry asked.

"How Godric marked the map so that you could read it... I should have paid closer attention. I think it was his quill—I don't think he was casting a spell," Hermione pondered.