"Mr Malfoy," Umbridge called, the moment the bell had rung. "Please stay behind a moment." Dioleh glanced at him just in time to see him compulsively grip his hands into fists. With feigned clumsiness, Dioleh knocked over her inkpot, spilling ink everywhere. Draco frowned, giving her a surprised look. He had never seen her be so clumsy. When he saw the worried look on her face, he understood. She did it on purpose. The room cleared apart from the three of them and Blaise who, sensing that something was wrong, had opted to help Dioleh. "Why haven't you been in my class?"
"I've been a little under the weather," he replied, clearing his throat in a vain attempt to ground his voice.
"Funny, Madam Pomfrey hasn't seen you," Umbridge said with a forced pleasant expression.
"Nothing more than a headache," Draco said. "Seemed quite a trivial matter to bother her with."
"Without a note from Madam Pomfrey, you are not permitted to miss class," Umbridge said severely. "Next time it happens, it will be detention. You are dismissed." Once she had left the room, Dioleh let out a breath.
"Well, it could have been worse," Blaise said with a shrug.
⥖✦✧⦽✧✦⥗
"Okay," Andre called, clapping his hands together. "This meeting is called to order." He, Dioleh, Imani, and Draco sat down on the sand in the hideout. "First thing to decide, when are we going to break in?"
"It has to be before school gets out before we're all separated," Draco said. "But I wanted to run something by you. I think I know another person who could help. I might be able to through, but with this person's help, I defiantly could."
Narrowing his eyes, Andre asked cautiously, "Who?"
"Blaise. His father worked in the Ministry before he died," Draco explained. "He has an eidetic memory. He knows that level of the Ministry like the back of his hand. I know that none of you trust him, but I do and I swear he wouldn't jeopardize anything."
"How do we know we could trust him?" Imani asked, cutting off the indignant protests from Andre beside her.
Suddenly growing awkward, Draco scratched the back of his head, admitting, "Well, he...he kind of knows?"
"Knows what?" Andre asked, his voice lowering dangerously.
"I didn't tell him," Draco defended evenly, raising his hands in surrender. "He figured it out after I told him about what the Dark Lord wanted from me and that I did technically know who it was."
"And you didn't try to deny it?!" Andre cried angrily.
"He would have seen right through me," Draco replied. "And besides, I trust him with my life. He knows about my family's connection to You-Know-Who and he's never done anything to hurt me."
"We'll put it to a vote," Imani decided, cutting across Andre's indignant sputtering. "All those in favour of bringing in Blaise?" Draco and Imani raised their hands.
"Sorry, Andre," Dioleh said before raising her hand as well.
"That's majority," Imani said. "We bring him in."
"I can bring him now," Draco suggested, glancing at his watch. "He's probably just doing homework."
"Okay," Imani said. He got to his feet and soon was gone.
"Are you two crazy?" Andre hissed. "Not only do you want to bring him in on this, but you also want to lead him straight to our hideout."
"Andre, calm down," Dioleh sighed. "Draco trusts him and I trust Draco. It's as simple as that. If it makes you feel any better, I learned how to wipe memories in case anything goes wrong."
"You best hope nothing does," he sighed. A few minutes later, Draco jumped down into the sand and Blaise quickly followed.
Looking around at the sand and the water, Blaise smiled, remarking, "Cool." The two boys sat and looked at the very tense Andre. "Relax, Rodreguez," Blaise said easily. "If I wanted to do something about what I figured out, I would have done it back in September." With a prominent smirk, he added, "I'm just glad I'm the only one who's ever figured it out."
"We need your help," Imani said, rolling her eyes and cutting off whatever unspoken battle was happening between the two boys.
"Draco filled me in," Blaise said. "The Department of Mysteries is empty most of the time between five in the afternoon and three in the morning. If you want to get in there, it needs to be between those times." Scooting back, Blaise began to make a rough sketch in the sand. "There's a long hallway here with doorways all along here." He drew circles along the line he had drawn. "Those are courtrooms. What we want is here at the end." He made another circle at the end. "That leads into the Department of Mysteries. The first room you'll come to looks like this."
He drew a large circle and quickly sketched out several doors on the inside. "Most of these doors are easy to get into, but, unfortunately for us, we'll be looking for one of the rooms within a room. That door will be locked, but there are eight doors in that room. Two are locked, which actually helps us narrow it down. The other six doors are unlocked but in one of those rooms is a locked door. That's what we're looking for."
"How do we unlock it?" Draco asked.
"I won't be easy," Blaise admitted. "It'll take a lot of power and no siren magic. They probably have spells set up to detect all magic not from a wizard or witch. I think I can learn the spell though."
"What's behind the locked door?" Andre asked.
"The two other locked doors," Blaise corrected. "One leads to the world's largest collection of love potion and the other is classified. Even my father didn't know."
"How do we get down into the Ministry?" Dioleh asked.
"Visitor's entrance," Blaise replied with a smile. Shrugging slightly, he added, "Just give a false name and their records will trace to whatever name we say and not us. Security at the Ministry truly is pitiful. I've been planning a break-in since I was five." Draco smiled, catching Dioleh's dumbfounded expression. Rubbing his hands together with a gleeful smile, Blaise asked, "So when do I get to fulfil my life's dream?"
"We need to do it as late as possible before the end of term," Andre said. "The less time they have to regroup, the better."
"Okay," Imani said. "Last day of term. Any objections?" When no one said anything, she declared, "Then it's decided. December 18th."
"Only thing is, how do we get there?" Dioleh asked.
With a growing smile, Draco said, "I think Blaise has an idea."
Blaise frowned, confused before his eyes suddenly widened and he exclaimed, "No! Malfoy, no."
"Oh, come on, Blaise," Draco prompted. "What's the point if no one ever sees them?" Blaise sighed, his lips drawn into a slight pout.
"Fine," he muttered. "But if anything happens to them, I'm holding you personally responsible and you'll pay triple what they're worth."
"Fine," Draco said with an off handed shrug.
"Okay, what exactly are we talking about?" Andre asked, brows furrowed worriedly. Blaise and Draco gave each other smug smiles.
"Dray, I'm worried," Dioleh said with a good-natured smile.
"You'll be fine," he said. Dioleh raised an eyebrow at him.
"December 18th, meet here at nine o'clock," Andre said finally, shaking off his confusion. "Let's just hope we can pull this off."