THE DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES-054
"Over here," Harry says, making his way over to a telephone box and opening the door when they got to London. "Come on!" he urged the others. Diana and Sam hurried in, followed by everyone, then Harry last. "Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!"
Ron did it, his arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial; as it whirred back into place a cool female voice sounded inside the box.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business,"
"Harry Potter, Diana Black, Sammy Black, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger," Harry said quickly. "Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Kodaline Scamander, Benjamin Edwards, Delaney Edwards, Luna Lovegood. . . we're here to save someone unless your Ministry can do it first!"
"Thank you," The coolly female voice said. "Vistors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
Eleven badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Diana scooped them up and handed them to everyone before adjusting her own.
Diana Black
Rescue Mission
"Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium,"
"Fine!" Diana snapped loudly. "Now can we bloody move, please?!"
The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose past its glass windows; blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.
A clink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose against their bodies. Diana bent her knees and held her wand as ready as she could in such cramped conditions as she peered through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them Atrium, but it seemed to be empty.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening," The woman's voice said.
The door of the telephone box burst open; Diana toppled out of it followed by the others. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain.
"Come on," Harry said quietly as he helped his girlfriend to her feet and the eleven of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain towards the desk where the watchwizard was, but the seat was deserted.
They passed through the golden gates to the lifts. Harry pressed the nearest 'down' button and a lift clattered into slight almost immediately, the golden grills slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside.
Harry stabbed the number nine button; the grills closed with a bang and the lift began to decent, jangling and rattling. Diana could not remember how noisy the lifts were and the loud noise made her feel nervous, not knowing if Voldemort could hear their arrival.
"Department of Mysteries," The cool female voice said and grills opened.
They stepped into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the life. Harry turned to a plain black door, Diana followed him and was ready.
"Let's go," He whispered, and he led the way down the corridor. Diana was right behind him, her icy blue eyes darting around through the darkness.
"Ok, listen," Harry said, stopping again within six feet of the door. "Maybe. . . maybe a couple of people should stay here as a—as a lookout and—"
"And how're we going to let you know something's coming?" Ginny asked, her brows raised. "You could be miles away,"
"We're coming with you, Harry," Kodaline said, and her boyfriend nodded in agreement.
"Let's get on with it," Benji said firmly.
Harry sighed, turned to face the door, and walked forward. It swung open and he marched forward, leading the others over the threshold.
They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handles black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor made it look as though there was dark water underfoot.
"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered.
Neville obeyed and Kodaline regretted not stopping him. Without the long chink of light from the torchlit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections on the floor.
Diana grabbed someone's hand from behind her and a glow of scarlet and silver lit the space between them. Sam squeezed her hand as a great rumbling noise was heard and the wall began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating.
For a few moments, the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.
"What was that about?" Ron whispered fearfully as Ella shifted closer to him.
"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through," Ella said in a hushed voice.
"How're we going to get back out?" Neville said uncomfortably.
"Well, that doesn't matter now," Harry said forcefully. "We don't need to get out until we've found Sirius—"
"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently.
"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.
"I don't—" Harry began. He swallowed. "In the dreams, I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room—that's this one—and then I went through another door into a room that kind of. . . glitters. We should try a few doors," he said hastily. "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon,"
Harry marched straight at the door now facing him, Diana and the others followed him closely behind and he opened the door.
After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the expression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimming lights that Harry had told them there were.
The place was quite empty except for a few decks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to win in; a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.
"What're those things?" Ron whispered.
"Dunno," Harry said.
"Are they fish?" Ginny breathed.
"Aquarius Maggots!" Luna said excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry was breeding—"
"No," Hermione said. She sounded odd. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."
"Brains?"
Diana joined her at the tank, and sure enough, there could be no mistake now she saw them at close quarters. Glimmering eerily, they drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green liquid, looking something like slimy cauliflower.
"I wonder what they're doing with them?" Hermione questioned.
"Probably some creepy shit," Diana replied.
"Let's get out of here," Harry said, grabbing Diana's hand. "This isn't right, we need to try another door."
"There are doors here, too," Ron said, pointing around the walls. Diana's heart sank; how big was this place?
"In my dream, I went through that dark room into the second one," Harry said. "I think we should go back and try from there,"
So they hurried back into the dark, circular room.
"Wait!" Hermione said sharply, as Luna made to close the door of the brain room behind them. "Flagrate!"
She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery 'X' appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue, and when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already taken.
"Amazing, Mione," Diana said, giving her a wobbly smile.
"Good thinking," Harry added. "Ok, let's try this one—"
Again, he strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open. This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the center of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep.
In the center of the pit, there was a raised stone dais, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, creaked, and crumbling that Diana was amazed the thing was still standing.
Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered back curtain or veil which despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touchy.
"Who's there?" Harry said, jumping down on the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway.
"Careful!" Hermione whispered as Diana watched her boyfriend anxiously.
When Harry scrambled down the benches one by one, Diana and Sammy decided to follow him. They reached the bottom of the sunken pit.
Their footsteps echoed loudly as they walked slowly toward the dais. The pointed archway looked much taller from where they were now standing than it had when they had been looking down on it from above. Still, the veil swaying gently, as though somebody had just passed it.
"Dad?" Diana spoke, anxiety made her voice shake. She looked around, hoping to see her father, but no one was there.
Sammy reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, feeling her intense anxiety. "Ann, Harry, come on. I don't think we should be down here,"
Diana nodded, as her twin steered her back towards the others, but stopped when they noticed Harry wasn't following.
"Harry, let's go," Sam said, becoming anxious. "This isn't right, Harry, come on, let's go," Harry didn't move.
"Harry, please, listen to Sam," Hermione said, sounding scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam. "Let's go,"
"Ok," Harry replied, but he did not move. "What are you saying?" he added, very loudly, so the words echoed around them.
"Nobody's talking, Har!" Diana stressed, moving back towards him. She reached out for him.
"Someone's whispering behind there," Harry said, moving out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil.
Kodaline was frowning as well, hearing the same murmuring and whispering that Harry was hearing. She moved down towards them, making Neville try to reach out to her, but she hurried down and over to Harry.
"I can hear them, too," She said as the murmuring and whispering were becoming louder.
"Me too," Luna breathed, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. "There are people in there!"
"What do you mean, 'in there?" Diana asked, looking at her boyfriend and friends. "There's isn't any 'in there', it's just an archway, there's no reason for anybody to be there. Harry, stop it, come away—" She grabbed his arm and pulled but he resisted. "Harry, we are supposed to be here to save Dad!" She pulled finally pulled him away from the veil.
"Sirius," Harry repeated, still gazing, mesmerized, at the continuously swaying veil. "Yeah. . . let's go."
"That's what we've been trying to—well, come on, then!" Diana said, and she led the way back around the dais.
On the other side, Ginny, Benji, Ella, and Neville were staring, apparently entranced, at the veil, too. Without speaking, Diana took hold of her sister's arms, Koda grabbed Neville's, Sam grabbed Benji's, and Ron with Ella. They marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.
"What'd you reckon that arch was?" Harry asked his girlfriend as they regained in the dark circular room.
"I don't know," Diana said. "But whatever it is, it was dangerous."
She pointed her wand at the door and inscribed a fiery cross on the door. Once more, the wall spun and became still again, Harry approached another door at random and punched. it did not move.
"What's wrong?" Ella asked, her soft voice echoing around the room.
"It's... locked... " Harry said, throwing his weight at the door, but it didn't budge.
"This is it, then, isn't it?" Ron said excitedly, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open with Ben. "Bound to be!"
"Get out of the way!" Hermione said sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said. "Alohomora!"
Nothing happened.
"Sirius's knife!" Harry said. He pulled it out from inside his jacket and slid into the creak between the door and the wall. Diana and the others all watched eagerly as he ran it from top to bottom, withdrew it, and then flung his shoulder again at the door.
It remained as firmly shut as ever. What was more, when Diana looked down at the knife, she saw that the blade had melted.
"Right, we're leaving that room," Hermione said decisively.
"But what if that's the one?" Sam said, staring at it.
"It can't be, Harry could get through all doors in his dream," Hermione said, making the door with another fiery cross as Harry replaced the now-useless handle of Sirius's knife in his pocket.
"You know what could be in there?" Luna said eagerly, as the wall started to spin yet again.
The wall slid to a halt and Harry pushed the next door open.
"This is it!"
Diana squinched her eyes when beautiful, dancing diamond-sparkling light shines in her eyes. As her eyes became adjected to the brilliant glare, she saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, handing in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room.
The source of the dancing, diamond-bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room.
"This way!" Harry exclaimed, leading the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks, heading for the source of the light, the crystal bell jar quite as tall as Diana was that stood on a deck and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind.
"Oh, look!" Ginny said as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar.
Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar, it creaked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draught its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its eggs.
"Keep going!" Harry said sharply.
Diana steered her sister away as Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird.
"You dawdled enough by that old arch!" Ginny said crossly but followed Diana past the bell jar to the only door behind it.
"This is it," Harry said. "It's through here—"
Diana and the others tightened their grips on their wands as Harry pushed the door and it swung open. They were there, they had found the place: high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully on the light of their wands, as they raised them.
They hurried down the aisles, Harry leading them, muttering to himself as he went. The group stopped as he continued then he stopped.
"He should be here," Harry called towards them.
Neville tapped Diana on the shoulder and pointed at a tiny glass ball. She looked up at it and read it. It had Harry's name on it.
"Harry," Neville called. "It's got your name on it,"
Diana and Neville stepped out of the way as Harry picked the glass ball up.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, but shall have the power the Dark Lord knows not. For neither can live while the other survives," An eerie woman's voice said casting out from the glass ball.
"Harry!" Hermione said as the group noticed someone creeping towards them.
Harry walked in front of them as a voice spoke. "You know, you really should learn to tell the difference between dreams and reality,"
The creeper took off his mask, revealing Lucius Malfoy. The blonde man approached the group. "You only saw what the Dark Lord wanted you to see Now, hand me the prophecy,"