"Do you want to ride in front or behind me?" Y/n asked Hermione.
"Behind." Hermione said. Y/n could see that she still looked slightly shaken up from their encounter with Grawp and the centaurs in the forest.
"Here, I will help you up since you cannot see them." Y/n said offering out his hands to her.
Hermione took his hands and Y/n pulled her to stand close to him and they looked at one another. "This has been a difficult year, but I could not be any prouder of you then I already am Hermione. I do not say it as often as I should, but I love you. Promise me you will keep yourself safe tonight."
Hermione just wrapped her arms around him as he did the same to her and they held one another. Y/n was scared, not for what could possibly happen to him but for what could happen to Hermione.
"How're we supposed to get on?" Ron's voice could be heard faintly grumbling and they pulled away now. "When we can't see the things?"
"Oh, it's easy." said Luna sliding obligingly from her Thestral and marching over to him and Ginny. "Come here..."
"Give me your hands again." Y/n said to Hermione and when she did so he placed them on the Thestral's back and helped lift her onto it. Hermione did not look comfortable at all being sat upon a creature she could not see. Y/n pulled himself up upon it now sitting in front of Hermione, He felt her arms slink around his waist though he was sure it was not just for affection but also for reassurance of something to hold onto during their flight.
"If you are a give us a smooth journey I shall be sure to come and visit with some lovely cuts of meat should I survive this." Y/n whispered to the Thestral and it turned its face to him.
He found there was a way of lodging his knees behind the wing joints that made him feel more secure, then looked around at the others. Neville had heaved himself over the back of the next Thestral and was now attempting to swing one short leg over the creature's back. Luna was already in place, sitting side-saddle and adjusting her robes as though she did this every day. Harry was sat rather like he was but Ron and Ginny were both looking a uncomfortable on their Thestrals as Hermione was.
"This is mad." Ron murmured, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horse's neck. "Mad...if I could just see it..."
"You'd better hope it stays invisible." said Harry darkly. "We all ready, then?"
They all nodded and Harry looked down at the back of his Thestral's glossy black head and swallowed. "Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then." he said uncertainly. "Er...if you know...where to go..."
Y/n watched as Harry's Thestral shot up to the sky and then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated him, the wings on either side of his and Hermione's own extended, the Thestral crouched slowly, then rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply that Harry had to clench his arms and legs tightly around the horse to avoid sliding backwards over its bony rump. Hermione gave out a loud shriek and Y/n did not think it was possible for her grasp on his waist to get as tight as it did as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a blood-red sunset.
"Are you alright?" Y/n called back to Hermione.
"I really hate flying!" Hermione shouted with her eyes closed tightly.
Y/n did not think he had ever moved so fast, the Thestral streaked over the castle, they were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade, Y/n could see mountains and gullies below them. As the daylight began to fail, Y/n saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills.
"This is bizarre!" Y/n barely heard Ron yell from somewhere behind him, and he imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support.
Twilight fell, the sky was turning to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon only the lights of Muggle towns gave them any clue of how far from the ground they were, or how very fast they were travelling. Y/n's arms were still wrapped around his Thestral's neck as he wondered how much time had elapsed since they had left the grounds.
On they flew through the gathering darkness, Y/n's face felt stiff and cold, his legs numb from gripping the Thestral's sides so tightly, but he did not dare shift his position lest he slip...he was deaf from the thundering rush of air in his ears, and his mouth was dry and frozen from the cold night wind. The only thing that was keeping him warm was the heat that came with Hermione holding on to him, limited though it was it provided him with some comfort. He had lost all sense of how far they had come, all his faith was in the beast following Harry's Thestral ahead of them, still streaking purposefully through the night, barely flapping its wings as it sped ever onwards.
But suddenly Harry was moving downwards and the head of Y/n and Hermione's own Thestral was suddenly pointing towards the ground as well and they actually slid forwards a few inches along its neck. They were descending at last... Y/n had to wince as he heard Hermione shriek behind him.
Now bright orange lights were growing larger and rounder on all sides, they could see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that were windows. Quite suddenly, it seemed, they were hurtling towards the pavement, Y/n gripped the Thestral with every last ounce of his strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the horse touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and Y/n gave a heavy sigh of relief as he let go of it's neck.
"Hermione, we have landed." Y/n said to her and he immediately felt her let go him and the sound of shoes hitting the pavement below quickly followed.
"Well done." Y/n stroked the Thestral's mane for a moment then slid from its back to the pavement.
Ron landed a short way off and toppled immediately from his Thestral onto the pavement. "Never again." he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his Thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again...that was the worst..."
Ginny touched down on the other side of him and slid off her mount a little more gracefully than Ron, though with similar expression of relief at being back on firm ground, Neville jumped down, shaking and Luna dismounted smoothly.
"Where do we go from here, then?" she asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip.
"Over here." Harry said. He gave his Thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered telephone box and opened the door. "Come on!" he urged the others, as they hesitated.
Ron and Ginny marched in obediently, Y/n, Hermione, Neville and Luna squashed themselves in after them and Harry then forced himself into the box after Luna.
"Rather a tight squeeze this entrance..." Y/n said.
"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" he said.
Ron did it, his arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial, as it whirred back into place the cool female voice sounded inside the box.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Y/n Grindelwald, Hermione Granger." Harry said very quickly. "Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood...we're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"
"Thank you." said the cool female voice. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
Half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Hermione scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head, he glanced at the topmost one, Harry Potter, 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!" Harry said loudly. "Now can we move?"
The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past its glass windows, the Thestrals were sliding out of sight, blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.
A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose up their bodies. Y/n kept a tight hold on his wand as he could in such cramped conditions as he peered through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them in the Atrium, but it seemed, to be completely empty. The light was dim, there were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but as the lift slid smoothly to a halt he saw that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening." said the woman's voice.
The door of the telephone box burst open. Harry toppled out of it, closely followed by Neville and Luna. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat and the house-elf's ears continued to gush into the surrounding pool.
"Come on." said Harry quietly and the six of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain towards the desk that sat deserted, they passed through the golden gates to the lifts. Y/n pressed the nearest 'down' button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside.
Harry stabbed the number nine button, the grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. Harry had not realised how noisy the lifts were on the day he had come with Mr. Weasley, he was sure the din would raise every security person within the building, yet when the lilt halted, the cool female voice said. "Department of Mysteries." and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.
They followed Harry towards the plain black door that he had been dreaming about for months and months.
"Let's go." Harry whispered, and he led the way down the corridor, Luna right behind him, gazing around with her mouth slightly open.
"Ok, listen." said Harry, 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?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."
"It is also a plan that failed a mere few hours ago." Y/n pointed out.
"We're coming with you, Harry." said Neville.
"Let's get on with it." said Ron firmly.
Y/n knew Harry did not want to take them all but he had no choice he turned to face the door and walked forwards, it swung open and he marched over the threshold, the others at his heels.
They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling, identical, unmarked, handleless 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." Y/n heard Harry mutter.
He wished Harry hadn't given this order. 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 in the floor.
They waited for Harry's guidance now but there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating.
Hermione grabbed Y/n's arm as though frightened the floor might move, too, but it did not. For a few seconds, 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?" whispered Ron fearfully.
"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through." said Ginny in a hushed voice.
Y/n looked around to see that she was right, he could no sooner identify the exit door than locate another on the jet-black floor, and the door through which they needed to proceed could be any one of the dozen surrounding them.
"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably.
"Well, that doesn't matter now." said Harry forcefully, and clutching his wand tighter than ever, "We won't need to get out till 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 but stopped.
"Take a moment to think, we cannot afford to make mistakes." Y/n said to him.
"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 ignoring Y/n's advice. "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."
He marched straight at the door now facing him, the others following close behind him, set his left hand against its cool, shining surface, raised his wand ready to strike the moment it opened, and pushed.
It swung open easily.
After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were not the glittering, shimmering lights as Harry had seen in his dreams. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in, a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.
"What're those things?" whispered Ron.
"Dunno." said Harry.
"Are they fish?" breathed Ginny.
"Whatever they are, I do not think they are good." Y/n said wearily.
"Aquavirius Maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding..."
"No." said Hermione. She sounded odd. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."
"Brains?" Y/n asked.
"Yes...I wonder what they're doing with them?" Hermione said.
Y/n and Harry joined her at the tank. Sure enough, there could be no mistake now they 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 cauliflowers.
"Let's get out of here." said Harry. "This isn't right, we need to try another door."
"There are doors here, too." said Ron, pointing around the walls.
"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!" said Hermione 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 tried.
"Good thinking." Y/n said impressed.
"Ok, let's try this one..." Harry said and again he strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised, the others at his heels.
This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre, or the courtroom in which Harry had been tried by the Wizengamot. Instead, of a chained chair, however, there was a raised stone dais in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Y/n was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.
"Who's there?" said Harry, jumping down on to the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway.
"Careful!" whispered Hermione.
Y/n moved now and followed Harry down the benches one by one until they reached the stone 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 stood than it had when they'd been looking down on it from above. Still the veil swayed gently, as though somebody had just passed through it.
"What do you think it is?" Harry asked Y/n.
"I...do not know..." Y/n said looking at the archway, He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there, all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.
"Sirius?" Harry spoke again.
"Let's go." called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. "This isn't right, come on, let's go." She sounded scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam, yet Y/n thought the archway had a kind of beauty about it, old though it was.
"Y/n, Harry, let's go, ok?" Said Hermione more forcefully.
"Okay..." Harry said.
But Y/n did not move. He had just heard something. There were faint whispering, murmuring noises coming from the other side of the veil. "What are they saying?"
"Nobody's talking Y/n!" said Hermione, now moving over to him.
"It sounds like whispering behind there." he said, moving out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil.
"I can hear it too." Said Harry. "Is that you, Ron?"
"I'm here, mate." said Ron, appearing around the side of the archway.
"Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry asked, for the whispering and murmuring was becoming louder, without really meaning to put it there, he found his foot was on the dais.
"I can hear them too." breathed Luna, 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'?" demanded Hermione, jumping down from the bottom step and sounding much angrier than the occasion warranted. "There isn't any 'in there' It's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there. Y/n, stop it, come away..."
She grabbed his arm and pulled, but he resisted.
"Neville, can you hear them and see it too?" Y/n asked him.
"Yes..." Neville could be heard saying.
"And Hermione...you, Ron and Ginny cannot I assume?" Y/n continued.
"I can't see or hear anything mate." Ron said.
"Me either." Ginny added.
Harry moved closer to it again.
"Do not touch it Harry." Y/n warned him and Harry stopped.
"Do you know what this is now then?" Harry asked feeling like Y/n knew something.
"No...but It seems to work in the same manner as the Thestrals, Only those who have witnessed death can apparently hear the whispers and see the veil. Whatever this thing is, it is connected to Death. And that makes it dangerous." Y/n said.
"Harry, please we are supposed to be here for Sirius!" Hermione said in a strained voice.
"Sirius. Harry repeated, still gazing, mesmerised, at the continuously swaying veil. "Yeah..." He took several paces back from the dais and wrenched his eyes from the veil. "Let's go." he said.
"That's what I've been trying to...well, come on, then!" said Hermione, and she led the way back around the dais. On the other side, Ginny and Neville were staring, apparently entranced, at the veil too. Without speaking, Hermione took hold of Ginny's arm.
Ron grabbed Neville's, and they marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.
When they were all out, Hermione inscribed another fiery cross on the door.
Once more, the wall span and became still again. Harry approached another door at random and pushed. It did not move.
"What is wrong?" asked Y/n.
"It's...locked..." said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it didn't budge.
"This is it, then, isn't it?" said Ron excitedly, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open. "Bound to be!"
"Get out of the way!" said Hermione 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!" said Harry. He pulled it out from inside his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. 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 Harry looked down at the knife, he saw the blade had melted.
"Right, we're leaving that room." said Hermione decisively.
"Good call..." Y/n nodded in agreement.
"But what if that's the one?" said Ron, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing.
"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream." said Hermione, marking 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?" said Luna eagerly, as the wall started to spin yet again.
"Something blibbering, no doubt." said Hermione under her breath and Neville gave a nervous little laugh.
The wall slid to a halt and Harry, with a feeling of increasing desperation, pushed the next door open.
"This is it!"
Y/n looked around to see beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. As his eyes became accustomed to the brilliant glare, he saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps. 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!" Y/n heard Harry say and he led the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks, heading, as he had done in his dream, for the source of the light, the crystal bell jar quite as tall as he was that stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind.
"Oh, look!" said Ginny, 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 cracked 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 egg.
"Keep going!" said Harry sharply, because Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird.
"You and Y/n dawdled enough by that old arch!" she said crossly, but followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it.
"This is it." Harry said again. "It's through here..."
Y/n glanced around at them all, Like him they had their wands out and looked suddenly serious and anxious.
Harry pushed and the door 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 in the light issuing from more candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, their flames were burning blue. The room was very cold.
Harry edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. He could not hear anything or see the slightest sign of movement.
"You said it was row ninety-seven." whispered Hermione.
"Yeah." breathed Harry, looking up at the end of the closest row. Beneath the branch of blue-glowing candles protruding from it glimmered the silver figure fifty-three.
"We need to go right, I think." whispered Hermione, squinting to the next row. "Yes...that's fifty-four..."
"Keep your wands ready." Y/n said to everyone.
They crept forward, glancing behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the further ends of which were in near-total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelves. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow, others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.
They passed row eighty-four...eighty-five...Y/n was listening hard for the slightest sound of movement.
"Ninety-seven!" whispered Hermione up ahead.
They stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. There was nobody there.
"He's right down at the end." said Harry, whose mouth had become slightly dry. "You can't see properly from here."
And he led them between the towering rows of glass balls, some of which glowed softly as they passed.
"He should be near here." whispered Harry, convinced that every step was going to bring the ragged form of Sirius into view on the darkened floor. "Anywhere here...really close..."
"Harry?" said Hermione tentatively, but he did not want to respond. His mouth was very dry.
"Somewhere about...here..." he said.
They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight, There was nobody there. All was echoing, dusty silence.
"He might be..." Harry whispered hoarsely, peering down the next alley. "Or maybe..." He hurried to look down the one beyond that.
"Harry?" said Hermione again.
"What?" he snarled.
"I...I don't think Sirius is here."
Nobody spoke as they watched Harry run up the space at the end of the rows, staring down them. Empty aisle after empty aisle flickered past. He ran the other way, back past his staring companions. There was no sign of Sirius anywhere, nor any hint of a struggle.
"Harry?" Ron called.
"What?"
"Have you seen this?" said Ron.
Y/n turned his head now curious as to what Ron was looking at.
"What?" said Harry, but eagerly this time as he strode back to where they were all standing, a little way down row ninety-seven, but found nothing except Ron staring at one of the dusty glass spheres on the shelf.
"What?" Harry repeated glumly.
"It's...it's got your name on." said Ron.
Harry moved a little closer. Ron was pointing at one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was very dusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years.
"My name?" said Harry blankly.
He stepped forwards. Not as tall as Ron, he had to crane his neck to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen years previously, and below that:
'S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.
Dark Lord and...Harry Potter'
Harry stared at it.
"What is it?" Ron asked, sounding unnerved.
"It looks like a crystal ball from divination..." Y/n said looking at it.
"But what's Harry name doing down here on it?" Ron said confused. He glanced along at the other labels on that stretch of shelf. "I'm not here." he said, sounding perplexed. "None of the rest of us are here."
"Harry, I don't think you should touch it." said Hermione sharply, as he stretched out his hand.
"Why not?" he said. "It's something to do with me, isn't it?"
"Don't, Harry." said Neville suddenly. Harry looked at him. Neville's round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense.
"It's got my name on it." said Harry.
And feeling slightly reckless, he closed his fingers around the dusty ball's surface. He had expected it to feel cold, but it did not. On the contrary, it felt as though it had been lying in the sun for hours, as though the glow of light within was warming it. Expecting, even hoping, that something dramatic was going to happen, something exciting that might make their long and dangerous journey worth while after all, Harry lifted the glass ball down from its shelf and stared at it.
Nothing whatsoever happened. The others moved in closer around Harry, gazing at the orb as he brushed it free of the clogging dust.
And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice spoke.
"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."
Y/n quickly turned his head to see Black shapes emerging out of thin air all around them, blocking their way left and right, eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at their hearts, Ginny gave a gasp of horror.
"Well. Well. Well..." A sharp male voice began and Y/n's body went rigid as it felt ice start to run through his veins. "Look who it is dearest..." The man said turning his head to a smaller figure standing beside him. "Little Y/n...all grown up. A shame he has turned into such a blood traitor..."