Gringotts Adventures: Breaking the Bank
Welcome back to Gringotts Bank! In our first exploration, we followed a questionable goblin and opened Vault 687. Today’s journey to Gringotts will give us more color, secrets and adrenalin because we’re going to rob the wizarding bank! Remember how Harry Potter was so interested in the secrets of Gringotts’ depths? After six years of waiting (poor Harry!), he’ll finally get to explore them again but maybe not as he expected. Be ready for our heroic mission: Bellatrix Lestrange keeps one of Voldemort’s horcruxes in a high-security vault, and the destruction of these dark artifacts is crucial to defeating the Dark Lord.
Today we have two fun tasks as we revisit 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank: 1) photograph this second part in an absolutely new way by giving more color to the magical building; and 2) re-tell part of the eighth movie but make the atmosphere seem more alive rather than use a dark grey palette that made the film feel gloomy. The set itself has double meaning, providing storytelling opportunities and minifigures from both the first Harry Potter film and the eighth film—a movie that has not been explored through LEGO sets that much.
Breaking Into Gringotts
We begin our tale in the alley outside Gringotts. Disguised as Bellatrix Lestrange and her fictional accomplice Dragomir Despard, Hermione and Ron are making their way to the bank along with Harry and Griphook. Oh wait, you don’t see Harry and Griphook in the photo? They are under the invisibility cloak, of course! Harry is looking at the poster with his face that reads “UNDESIRABLE NUMBER ONE.” Well, times change...
Amazing new Death Eater minifigure and perfect mysterious location for this unexpected meeting!
Death Eater: “Madam Lestrange!”
The Death Eater Travers greeted Bella as he stepped out from the dark street corner... and here Hermione makes her first mistake. She draws herself up to full height with as much contempt as she can muster like any good Bellatrix would.
Hermione: “And what do you want?”
Griphook: “He's another Death Eater!”
As Griphook whispered into Harry’s ear under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry warned Hermione to take it easy on her “friend” as they proceeded to the bank.
Speaking of magical fabric, have you ever wondered what it would look like beneath the Invisibility Cloak? Now we can see the events from Harry’s perspective. But quick! Cast a spell over the goblins so they take you to Bellatrix’ vault!
Harry, Ron and Hermione headed deep into Gringotts to find the vault. Speeding down the minecart track, they took a hairpin turn, saw a waterfall and zoomed right through it. Water filled Harry’s eyes and mouth, he could not see or breathe... to his horror he saw that Ron and Hermione were no longer disguised as Bellatrix and Dragomir—their assumed faces had worn off!
Griphook: “The Thief's Downfall! It washes away all enchantment, all magical concealment! They know there are imposers in Gringotts—they have set off defenses against us!"
Exposed as their true selves, our heroic crew made haste to Bellatrix’s vault, unaware of the trick that lay before them…
Fools Gold
For this second part, I’ve made a special bonus for our magical journey—the interior of a high-security vault at Gringotts! The cave-like opening is crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins, goblets, silver armor, and the skins of strange creatures.
But danger awaits our heroes among the ancient treasures of the wizarding world. Will they find the treasure they seek before they are discovered? It’s about to get really hot in here...
Harry’s wandlight passed over shields and goblin-made helmets set on shelves rising to the ceiling... until suddenly it found an object that made his heart skip and his hand tremble.
Harry: “It’s there, it’s up there!”
Harry, Ron and Hermione pointed their wands up and saw a little golden cup that sparkled in the three-way spotlight. This cup had belonged to Hogwarts founder Helga Hufflepuff, then stolen and transformed into a horcrux by Voldemort.
As Harry reached for the cup, his hand brushed a few of the other treasures. Suddenly the gold and silver trinkets burned hot and multiplied: a shower of identical cups and goblets covered the floor with a great clatter, rolling in every direction, multiplying again whenever they touched a person.
Griphook: “If you continue to handle the treasure, you will eventually be crushed to death by the weight of expanding gold!”
Half buried in a rising tide of red-hot treasure, Harry finally understood the Gringotts’ warning: “So if you seek beneath our floors a treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware, of finding more than treasure there."
Summoning his strength, Harry stretched and used Gryffindor’s sword to hook the handle of Hufflepuff’s cup on the blade without touching it, but the expanding treasure was taking its toll.
Harry caught the horcrux despite the pain of the hot metal and then found himself sliding uncontrollably on an expanding avalanche of fiery gold and silver that bore him, Ron and Hermione out of the vault.
Instantly Griphook betrayed them and took the sword—their only weapon against horcruxes—and ran away, shouting for help from the guards. All he ever wanted was that Goblin-made sword…
With the guards approaching, Harry, Ron and Hermione needed a way to escape Gringotts and fast. They ran into a chamber and saw a gigantic dragon who guarded the deepest vaults. The rumors were true!
“The beast’s scales had turned pale and flaky during its long incarceration under the ground; its eyes were milk-pink; both rear legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led to enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor. Its great spiked wings, folded close to its body, would have filled the chamber if it spread them. It let out a roar, and a gush of flame flew out of its mouth.”
Suddenly inspiration, or madness, came to Harry. Pointing his wand at the thick cuffs chaining the beast to the floor, he yelled, “Relashio!” The cuffs broke open with loud bangs and Harry ran toward the blind dragon who just blasted a hole in the ceiling. The way was open! Harry, Ron and Hermione mounted the dragon and hung on for dear life.
The dragon blasted its way out of the passage into the marble hallway of Gringotts then up through the shattered glass dome on the roof. Stretching its wings, it turned its horned head toward the cool air and took off into the sky with Harry, Ron, and Hermione still clinging to its back, flying to freedom.
The LEGO brick-built dragon is one of LEGO’s best and provides a wonderful conclusion to our photographic journey through Gringotts.
Without a doubt, 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank lets us turn the book into multiple colorful adventures. From exploring the architecture of the building to its many play features, hopefully these articles have shown you how some light, sculpting clay, and a camera lens plus a little bit of imagination can launch your adventure to new heights!
DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by The LEGO Group. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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