The Ministry Has Fallen

Chapter 9

"Not my usual style," he sniffed. "But it will do."

"Get used to it." Harry shrugged. "This is war. We don't have time for luxuries. You have five minutes to meet me outside this tent."

"You aren't just bringing me down here to kill me, are you?" Harry leveled an unimpressed look at Malfoy, who raised his hands defensively. "Just checking. This is an unusual situation; anything could happen."

Harry had led Malfoy past the rows of tents towards the pit at the edge of the camp. As they passed a specific cluster of rocks, Harry had had him slice his palm open and rest it against the largest boulder. The jagged face of the stone had wavered before Harry waved him through and the two stepped past the wards.

It was a cleverly designed illusion, and though the rock cluster was fairly obvious, it was nigh impenetrable with the amount of wards surrounding it. Additionally, it had an even handier charm attached that caused the memory of the area to quickly fade unless one was keyed into the wards. Anyone who happened to stumble upon the hideout would only forget it existed the second they left.

Entering the rock revealed a tunnel carved out by magic. Werelights dimly lit the tunnel's walls as Harry led Malfoy deeper into the ground. Finally, the slope seemed to level out, and dirt turned to stone. "This is incredible," Malfoy breathed as they passed sealed door after sealed door. "I had no idea the Shadow of the Phoenix had all of this...hell, I didn't even know this was possible!"

"It's amazing what a team can accomplish when their lives depend on it," Harry answered. He brushed a hand against a passing pillar. "It took us about three years to fully complete this. Impressive though it may seem, creating a bunker out of solid ground is not easy. We had all of our strongest wizards and witches working feverishly to get this finished. Now we use it to train our recruits. The pit up top is just for show and sometimes to give the trainees another arena to fight in." He motioned towards a door. "You won't be privy to the specific location just yet, but one of these rooms has a special trapdoor that leads to a lower level, which is where we hide our dungeons. We have a holding tent above ground for temporary usage, but our more permanent guests stay here in the cozy accommodations we have for them." Malfoy shivered as he became aware of the chilled air around them.

"Sounds like a real walk in the park," he muttered. "Why are you telling me all of this when I haven't given you a reason to trust me yet?"

"Because this is where your training will begin." The two stopped in front of the final door. "Think of it this way. If you fail, we won't have to worry about telling you anything, because you won't be able to remember. We have a unique team called the Modifiers. They specialize in the mental branches of magic - Legilimency, Occlumency, obliviation charms, and the like. They are so good at what they do, we can send a person walking out of here with every single memory intact, except the ones that have anything to do with the resistance. There are no gaps - not even the slightest doubt that anything is off. It's an undetectable difference too." Harry glanced at Malfoy. "So if you fail, don't worry - you won't even know there was anything to fail in the first place."

Malfoy stared back at him for a moment, before Harry reached forward and unlocked the door with a murmured password and tracing of a rune. It swung open and Harry gestured for Malfoy to step through.

As the door shut with a resounding thud, Malfoy glanced around the room. It was empty, save for the two chairs in the middle. One was a simple wooden chair, conjured from Merlin knew where. The other, Malfoy noted with a slight paling of his face, was heavily fortified with straps and bolts holding it to the stone below. Heavy wards tingled across the room. Two other people were there, though their faces were obscured by cloth draped across their face. Only their eyes could be seen, blinking expressionlessly at Harry and him.