The crack of Apparition echoed through the narrow, cobblestoreets of Diagon Alley, startling a nearby flock of owls perched on the post office awning. The familiar sights and sounds of the wizarding world rushed to greet Harry, Luna, and Daphne, like a warm but chaotic familiarity. The faint st of roasted chestnuts and butterbeer lingered in the chilly winter air, blending with the hum of magical activity.

  “I ot believe you actually just pulled off a transatntic Apparition!” Daphne excimed, her tone caught somewhere between awe and e as she stumbled slightly, regaining her ban the uneven cobblestones. She spun to face Luna, her usually posed demeanor crag for a moment.

  Luna merely shrugged, her silver eyes twinkling with mischief. “Oh, it wasn’t that far. I’ve gone farther before.”

  “Luna,” Harry said dryly, reag for his wand, “I’m pretty sure Daphne’s point is that most wizards don’t casually hop tis like they’re taking a stroll through Hogsmeade.” He cast a quick Muffliato charm, ensuring their versation wouldn’t carry to the curious passersby who were already sneaking g them.

  “Daphne,” Harry tinued, his voice ced with both amusement and exasperation, “unless we took a sic route through Asia, we didn’t just cross the Atntic. We went across the entire tial Uates first. You know, food measure.”

  Daphne gaped at him, her hand rising to massage her temples as though the absurdity of it all was giving her a headache. “You’re telling me we casually bypassed thousands of miles of nd and o without a sed thought? Side alonging both of US! Do you two even uand the kind of magic you’re throwing around?”

  “Daphne, I literally trol the moon and the stars. By you’re own rating I am slightly above Ultimate Css. The amount of beings who fight me on equal standing theoretiaclly be ted on one hand.” Luna crifies.

  Daphared at Luna, her jaw sck as she processed what she had just heard. “You trol the moon and the stars?” she repeated, her voice rising incredulously. “And you’re just… what? Casually throwing that out there in the middle of Diagon Alley? Like it’s a perfectly normal thing to say?”

  Luna smiled serenely, as if Daphne’s rea was exactly what she’d expected. “It’s not something I usually bring up. But given your s about the Apparition, I thought it might put things into perspective.”

  Daphne looked at Harry, her eyes wide with disbelief. “And you’re fih this? You’re not eveely ed about the implications of yirlfriend being some celestial powerhouse?”

  Harry shrugged, a small grin tugging at his lips. “After everything we’ve been through, Daphhis is pretty low on the list of things to be ed about. Besides, I literally got adopted by Hestia st week. I’m also both the master of Death and the Doom Syer apparently. So all in all. You get used to it.”

  Luna snickers as Daph out an exasperated groan, throwing her hands in the air. “Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you? I’m clearly the only sane perso in this group.”

  Luna tilted her head, looking at Daphh an almost childlike curiosity. “Does it really bother you that much? I promise I’m very responsible with my powers.”

  “It’s not about responsibility, Luna,” Daphne said, her voice a mix of frustration and awe. “It’s about the fact that you’re walking around like an ordinary witch when you’re clearly not. And now, on top of everything else, you’ve dragged me into this insanity.”

  Luna’s serene smile didn’t waver. “Insanity be fun, though. Don’t you think? What fun is there in making sense?”

  Before Daphne could muster a retort, Harry stepped in, pg a hand on her shoulder. “e on, Daphne. Let’s get totts before you have a full-blowential crisis. We’ve got ats to sort and goblins to deal with.”

  Daphne huffed but allowed herself to be gently steered toward the t white marble bank. “Fine. But if one more impossible thing happens today, I’m officially deg this trip cursed.”

  The trio asded the marble steps otts Wizarding Bank, the t white building looming over them as imposing as ever. The great bronze dleamed in the winter sunlight, and two goblins in polished armor fhe entraheir sharp eyes trag every move with the kind of alerthat made Daphne instinctively straighten her poblins and Devils never exactly got along.

  Ihe vaulted ceiling stretched high above, glittering with deliers of goblin-wrought crystal. The hum of activity surrouhem: goblins scuttled between ters, part scrolls clutched in cwed hands, while witches and wizards queued impatiently to duct their business.

  Daphne brushed the snow off her cloak as they approached the main ter. “I swear, if this is as chaotic as the st time I was here, I’m going to—”

  “Don’t worry, Daphne,” Harry interrupted with a grin. “I’m sure it’ll be... smooth.” The glint in his eye suggested he didn’t believe that for a sed.

  The goblin at the main ter, a wiry creature with sharp features and an air of perpetual irritation, gnced up as they approached. “Name and purpose?” he snapped, his quill pausing mid-scrawl over a ledger.

  “Harry Potter,” Harry said calmly. “I o access my vaults. Also, we’ll be addressing the ats tied to the newly restored houses of Hufflepuff, Ravencw, and Gryffindor.”

  The goblin looked up sceptical before his eyes froze on Luna, “Of course Prince sort and Princess.” The goblin responds with a smile. Causing Dapho have aential crisis, goblins do not smile. Daphne’s head soward the goblin, her eyes wide with disbelief. A goblin. Smiling. It was as if the ws of nature had suddenly decided to rewrite themselves. She pihe bridge of her nose and muttered under her breath, “Great. First transtial Apparition, now this. What’s , house-elves unionizing?”

  Harry, unfazed, offered the goblin a polite nod. “Thank you. We’d like to proceed to the appropriate vaults and review the ats.”

  The goblin’s smile widened—widened—and he gestured for anoblin, this one slightly taller with a ledger already in hand, to e forward. “Griphook will escort you. He has been assigo oversee the affairs of the aral houses, per your uatus.”

  Luna, ever the picture of calm curiosity, leaned in slightly toward the smiling goblin. “How delightful. You don’t see this sort of warmth from goblins often.”

  The goblin ined his head, his demeanor almost reverent. “Princess, it is an honor to serve one such as yourself.”

  Daphne opened her mouth raised her finger before just shutting it and looking at Harry and Luna utterly defeated.