Chapter 1: Infiltrating the Law
The front door burst open, and a man in a suit charged in. "Where the bloody hell are you?!" he growled and then walking into the closest room and found a woman and her child, the people he was looking for.
"Why are you here?" the woman asked, as she was standing in the corner of the living room of her own home, holding her 8 year old son close to her. A man was there, and he was pointing a gun at the woman and the boy who was scared and crying in her arms. "Why did you come back?"
"Because you are freaks of nature, demons," the man said, taking off the safety of the gun. "And you have to be put down!" Bang!
Josh woke up with a start and sat up from his bed. He was covered in sweat and his head was throbbing in pain for some unknown reason. He wiped his face to clean the sweat, wondering what the heck he was dreaming. Josh sighed as he moved his feet off of his bed and to the floor, then leaned his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.
That dream felt like it wasn't a dream at all, but more like it happened in real life. But the question was, who did it happen to?
Josh took his face out of his hands stared around his dark bedroom as though expecting to see something unusual there. As it happened, there was an extraordinary number of unusual things in this room. A large wooden trunk stood open at the foot of his beds, revealing cauldrons, black robes, notes, and assorted spell books.
He stood out of bed, passing his desk that was littered with rolls of parchment, maps of a certain building, and a cage where his horned owl, Shadow, was perched and looking out the open window. Josh glanced through the window and saw the unfamiliar streets of London, because this was Josh's new home, which was only a couple of blocks away from the Ministry of Magic. His old home was empty because his mother was arrested for helping a fugitive and Josh was given a new home with his Grandfather and his grandfather's free House-Elf, Tibby.
Josh exited his room and into his own private bathroom, turning on the light and looked into the mirror. A sweaty average boy of fourteen, only wearing his pajama bottoms, looked back at him, his grey eyes puzzled under his short black bed-hair. He was still getting used this look as his mother had put glamour charms on him, where his hair used to be brown, and his eyes were brown too.
His mother had lied to him all his life, saying that his father was a muggle, though in truth that he yet to believe, was that his father was Sirius Black, the fugitive she helped, and was arrested for.
Josh sighed, walked back into his room, and sat down at his desk were his notes and a map sat right in front of him. He picked up and looked at the map he had 'received' from his grandfather. It was a map of the eighth level of the Ministry of Magic, where it held many departments, but there was one department in particular he was interested in.
The Ministry of Magic Public Information Services. This was where he was going to found out who his real father was. He tried getting the information in public with an employee there but he was too young to be allowed the information, so there was only one way to get what he needed to know, and that was to sneak in and get the information himself.
Josh placed down the map, noticing an unopen letter next to it. It was a letter he had sent to Daphne trying to reconcile his friendship with her, but the letter was sent back with no reply or anything. He had messed up a couple of friendships his last year at Hogwarts. He practically put his other friendships with the Gryffindors before the Slytherins besides giving them the equal amount of friendship and time.
He did reconcile his friendship with Blaise by writing him, visiting his home, and helping him produce his patronus which was a jaguar. And they even hung out at Diagon Alley a few times, messing around, and walking through Knockturn Alley, browsing the shops with curiosity.
Josh leaned his head on his arms, and stared out the window, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and then...
Crack! And Josh's eyes snapped opened at the loud crack, automatically placing his school papers over his notes and maps.
"Good Morning, young Mr. Anderson!" came the sound of Tibby's voice.
"Morning," Josh groaned as he sat up and stretched out his body. He turned to see Tibby in his bright yellow pajamas, holding a trey full of breakfast.
"I have your breakfast here," Tibby said, placing the trey onto Josh's desk, "And the Daily Prophet, if you want to read it, and your Grandfather wishes you a good morning and told me to tell you not to go down Knockturn Alley anymore. It's a dangerous place, you know," Tibby spoke, picking up Josh's dirty laundry while Josh ate his bacon.
"It's not that dangerous," Josh murmured with a smirk, opening the Daily Prophet, Tibby leaving with Josh's dirty laundry through the door.
After breakfast, Josh got dressed and ready. He put on a new holster he bought on his right wrist and stuck his wand inside then put on a black longsleeved shirt. He also wore black pants and black converse. He the opened the drawer on his desk that held his grandfather's deluminator, and pocketed it. He also pocketed a Revealer, just in case the words were invisible.
Josh then pulled out a box with three W's on it. It was a gift from the Weasley Twins called Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Items that the Weasley twins invented with their own two hands and magic. They sent Josh a sample package of a few items, for all the pranking he did a while back with him, but didn't do it anymore, now. But don't get him wrong, he would laugh at a good prank, if it was funny enough.
Josh opened the box. Inside held a bunch of prank candies called skiving snackboxes and Weasley's Wild-fire Whiz-Bangs prototypes, or fireworks, otherwise known as distractions. He pocketed some pranked candy just in case he was got, and some Whiz-Bangs so he could advert the wizards and witches. Josh then left his room, and down the stairs.
"Tibby! I'm going to Diagon Alley with Blaise!" Josh shouted when he hit the front door.
"Okay, be home for Dinner!" Tibby shouted back, and then Josh left the house and onto the streets of London, and walked near the street.
"What took you so long?" spoke a voice behind Josh.
Josh turned around to see Blaise Zabini leaning on a tree. He was taller, taler than Josh, and wore a dark suit. He looked too fancy for a fourteen year old.
"Could you be any more inconspicuous?" Josh asked his best Slytherin friend.
"What?!" Blaise said, looking over himself. "They're dark clothes."
"Yeah, but it's a suit," Josh said.
"Well, at least I'll be the one who'll blend in," Blaise said, leaning off the tree. "Instead of looking like some obvious secret spy."
"Yeah, yeah," Josh spoke, waving Blaise off. "Come on, let's do this." Blaise nodded and the two friends began walking the streets of London, and arrived as the Leaky Cauldron minutes later.
Blaise and Josh entered the pub, and saw that it was practically empty except with two wizards drunkingly singing in the corner. Tom was at the bar cleaning his glasses as usual.
"I don't see why we have to use this Fireplace instead of yours," Blaise said as the two teens walked over to the fireplace.
"If i use my grandpa's floo, then Tibby will hear we went to the Ministry of Magic and would have told on me," Josh said, grabbing some floo powder.
"I hate traveling by floo," Blaise spoke, grabbing his own handful of floo powder. "I wish I could apparate."
"Yeah, you and me both, bud," Josh replied, tossing in the powder, then said loud and clear, "Ministry of Magic!" and then disappeared through the green flames.
Josh exited the flames and into the Ministry, Blaise following seconds later.
They were standing at one end of a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor. The peacock blue ceiling was inlaid with gleaming golden symbols that kept moving and changing like some enormous heavenly notice board. The walls on each side were panelled in shiny dark wood and had many more gilded fireplaces set into them. Every few seconds a witch or wizard would emerge from one of the left-hand fireplaces with a soft whoosh, the same ones Josh and Blaise emerged from. On the right-hand side, short queues of wizards were forming before each fireplace, waiting to depart.
Halfway down the hall was a fountain. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard.
Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of their wands, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblins hat and each of the house-elf's ears, so that the tinkling hiss of falling water was added to the pops and cracks of the Apparators and the clatter of footsteps as hundreds of witches and wizards, most of whom were wearing glum, early-morning looks, strode towards a set of golden gates at the far end of the hall.
"Follow me," Josh said, Blaise nodded, and the two joined the throng, wending their way between the Ministry workers, some of whom were carrying tottering piles of parchment, others battered briefcases; still others were reading the Daily Prophet while they walked.
Blaise looked around, surprised that the adults weren't paying any attention to them, especially to Josh who wasn't wearing any kind of robes or a suit, just regular clothes.
"Do you know where you're going?" Blaise asked, following Josh.
"Of course I do," Josh answered, looking back at Blaise. "I been through the atrium before and too the lifts, but I haven't been to where we're going."
Blaise nodded and continued to follow Josh, passing the great fountain where Josh noticed sickles, knuts, and galleons in the water and a sign that said:
ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF MAGICAL BRETHREN WILL BE GIVEN TO ST. MUNGO'S HOSPITAL FOR MAGICAL MALADIES AND INJURIES.
Josh and Blaise then stopped teen feet away from the golden gates. Seated at a desk to the left, beneath a sign saying Security, a wizard in peacock blue robes sat there, reading the Daily Prophet.
"So, how are we going to get past that guy?" Blaise asked.
"Did you even read my notes on this?" Josh asked, reaching into his pocket
"I skimmed them," Blaise replied, watching the security guard. Josh sighed and pulled out a whiz bang. "What are you going to do with that?"
"I'm going to use it as a distraction," Josh answered, walking away towards the fountain. Blaise watched as Josh lit the whiz bang prototype and then dropped out of sight, behind a small newspaper stand. Josh then walked back to Blaise smirking, and a second later...Bang! The fireworks set off in blue and white sparks, blowing up the news stand in the process.
Josh and Blaise watched as people were confused and running away in shock, screaming as if someone was attacking. Josh looked over to the golden gates to see that the security guard had run off to investigate the fireworks.
"Come on," Josh said, grabbing Blaise and leading him through the golden gates.
Jostled slightly by the crowd, Josh and Blaise slipped through the gates into the smaller hall beyond, where at least twenty lifts stood behind wrought golden grilles. The two joined the crowd around one of the lifts.
"What level are we going to?' Blaise whispered to Josh, both still unnoticed by the other people who were busy trying to get around.
"It's a small department on level 2," Josh answered.
With a great jangling and clattering a lift descended in front of them; the golden grille slid back, and Josh and Blaise stepped into the lift with the rest of the crowd and the two found themselves jammed against the back wall, hidden behind all the witches and wizards who probably didn't know they were there.
The grilles slid shut with a crash and the lift ascended slowly, chains rattling, while the same cool female voice they had heard in the telephone box rang out again.
"Level Seven, Department of Magical Games and Sports, incorporating the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters, Official Gobstones Club and Ludicrous Patents Office."
The lift doors opened. Josh and Blaise glimpsed at an untidy-looking corridor, with various posters of Quidditch teams tacked lopsidedly on the walls. One of the wizards in the lift, who was carrying an armful of broomsticks, extricated himself with difficulty and disappeared down the corridor.
The doors closed, the lift juddered upwards again and the woman's voice announced:
"Level Six, Department of Magical Transportation, incorporating the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office and Apparation Test Center."
Once again the lift doors opened and four or five witches and wizards got out; at the same time, several paper aeroplanes swooped into the lift. Josh and Blaise stared up at them as they flapped idly around above their heads; they were a pale violet colour and they could see Ministry of Magic stamped along the edge of their wings. Blaise and Josh looked at one another and shrugged.
As they clattered upwards again the memos flapped around the lamp swaying from the lift's ceiling.
"Level Five, Department of International Magical Co-operation, incorporating the International Magical Trading Standards Body, the International Magical Office of Law and the International Confederation of Wizards, British Seats."
When the doors opened, two of the memos zoomed out with a few more of the witches and wizards, but several more memos zoomed in, so that the light from the lamp flickered and flashed overhead as they darted around it.
"Level Four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office and Pest Advisory Bureau."
The doors opened and only a little flock of memos flew out. The doors clanged shut yet again.
"Level Three, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, including the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee."
Everybody left the lift on this floor except Josh and Blaise. The remaining memos continued to soar around the lamp as the lift juddered upwards again, then the doors opened and the voice made its announcement.
"Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters and Wizengamot Administration Services."
"This is us," Josh spoke, and the two exited out of the lift into a corridor lined with doors. "We have to get to the Public Informtaion Services, and find a way to get into the back where the records are kepts."
The two teens began walking down the corridor but stopped at a window which sunlight was streaming through. "How the?" Blaise breathed out.
"How is that possible?" Josh asked, moving closer to the window seeing the sky and buildings. "I thought we were underground?"
"We are underground," said a quiet voice from behind Josh and Blaise. The two boys turned around and saw another boy, as tall as Josh, blonde hair, green eyes, skinny, with a slight pale complexion. He wore a blue sweater and jeans. "Those windows are enchanted. Magical Maintence usually decides what weather we'll get every day. I heard that they had two months of hurricanes one time they were trying to get a pay rise."
"Uh, whoare you?" Josh asked as him and Blaise stared at the other boy.
"Oh, um, William Nielsen," the boy answered shyly.
"Oh, good, well, you can bugger off now, we have business to tend to," Blaise replied, waving him away with his hand. William nodded, bowing his head and glancing at the two boys.
"Blaise," Josh warned his friend who rolled his eyes, then turned to William. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I couldn't be left alone at home, so my father brought me to work," William answered, raising his head.
"What's he do?" Blaise asked.
"He works for the Minister as an Ambassador," William answered. "But right now, he's here talking to the Head Auror so he can get some Aurors to help him with something."
"Yeah, that's great," Blaise said quickly, then turned to Josh. "Come on, Anderson, we got to go. I think I saw an Auror glance at us."
"Oh, right," Josh said, "Nice to meet you, William, but we have to get to the records room in the Public Informtaion Services place."
"I know where that is," William replied, as Blaise and Josh began to walk off. "It's through the Auror Offices."
"Wait," Blaise said, stopping Josh. "Through the Auror Offices? You didn't tell me that."
"Oh, uh, I guess i forgot to," Josh replied lamely, with a sheepish smile.
"How do you expect us to get past all them Aurors?" Blaise asked.
"Well, I didn't really know how, but I was going to wing it when we came to that part of the plan," Josh answered, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I can help," William said quietly.
"How wonderful," Blaise replied, ignoring William, and leaning against the wall. "I knew this plan wasn't going to be easy."
"Of course it wasn't going to be easy, Blasie," Josh said, leaning next to him. "We're in the Ministry of Magic. The place that runs the magical world of Britain."
"But how are we suppose to get past Aurors?" Blaise asked. "I mean, they're practically trained to see what's been missed to see or whatever. We're you going to throw another firework? Or what."
"I could turn out all the lights," Josh suggested. "But then we couldn't see. I could give them the pranked candy."
"How? We're not even suppose to be here!" Blaise hissed.
"I can help you," William said again, this time it was heard by Blaise and Josh.
"And how can you do that?" Blaise asked the shorter boy.
"Depends on what kind of candy he has," William said, nodding towards Josh.
"Well, I brought these..." he said, digging through his pocket and pulled out three pieces of candy, one red, one green, and one pink. "If I remember correctly, this red one makes your nose bleed, the green one makes you vomit a lot, and this pink one grows out your tongue. But i don't think we should use that one."
"Okay," William said, grabbing the green one. "Follow me, and try not to be seen." Blaise and Josh nodded and began to follow William.
They turned a corner, walked through a pair of heavy oak doors and emerged in a cluttered open area divided into cubicles, which was buzzing with talk and laughter. Memos were zooming in and out of cubicles like miniature rockets. A lopsided sign on the nearest cubicle read: Auror Headquarters.
They then stopped at the fist cubicle and found that it was empty, though the walls was littered with everything from pictures of wanted wizards and photographs of a family, to posters of their favourite Quidditch teams and articles from the Daily Prophet.
"This guy is pretty messy," Blaise commented, and the trio continued on, stopping at the next cubicle, where a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail was sitting with his boots up on his desk, dictating a report to his quill.
"Alright, Will, you're up," Blaise spoke. William nodded, but Josh stopped him.
"If we don't see each other again, well, thanks for doing this," He said. "I really appreciate it."
"No problem," William replied, "I was bored. It's the least I could do for whatever you guys are doing."
"We're going to see about Josh's real - "
"Well, thanks," Josh said again, interupting Blaise. "I guess we'll see you at Hogwarts, then?"
"Yeah, I'll be there," William asked, unwrapping the candy, that was half lime green, half green.
"Okay, when you don't see us," Josh started, "Eat the antidote which is the lime green part." William nodded and walked towards the scarlet robed man's open cubicle while eating the green part of the candy, and seconds later, William began to heave.
"Whoa there, son, are you alright?" the ponytailed Auror asked, dropping his feet to the floor, William heaved again and this time he vomitted all over the man who jumped up yelping, gaining the other Aurors' attention. But that wasn't what was horrible. What was horrible was that William continued to vomit, and the Aurors began to gather and ask questions.
"Is he alright?"
"What the bloody hell is going on?!"
"Oi! What is that horrible noise?!"
"What's wrong with him?!
When nearly every Auror in the office was there trying to figure out what was happening, Blaise and Josh began making their way through the offices, nearly running into an Auror who came out of no where. A minute later, Josh and Blaise exited through other oak doors into a hallway.
"This way," Josh said, leading Blaise right and down the corridor where the stopped at two more doors that were closed, but with a sign that said, Public Information Services.
"Is it closed?" Blaise asked as the two stared at the door. Josh tried the handle on one of the doors and found that it was locked.
"Weird, why are they closed?" Josh asked, lowering his right arm so that his wand could fall into his hand. He then raised his wand but Blaise pulled down his arm.
"What are you crazy!?" Blaise whispered, looking around and saw no one. "If you unlock the door magically, There are probably enchantments that will signal someone that there's a break in."
"No, there's not," Josh replied, looking at the door.
"And how do you know?"
Josh shrugged. "I just do," he said, raising his wand again, while Blaise got ready to run, just in case. Josh pointed his wand at the doorknobs, and said, "Alohamora."
Blaise closed his eyes strained his ears ready for the alarms to go off, but the only thing he heard was a click, and then the opening of a door.
"Blaise, are you coming?" Josh asked. Blaise opened his eyes to see Josh was half way through the door, and then nodded. "Well, come on," he said, leading his friend into an area that looked like a bank-like area, but it was totally empty.
"Where to?" Blaise asked as the door closed behind them. Josh looked around until he found the entrance to behind the counter area.
"This way," Josh said, and led Blaise through the counters, to the area that held desks and two offices, and a small hallway inbetween the two offices, leading to somewhere else. Josh then led Blaise through the hallways that had many doors, and stopped when he found the Witches and Wizards Records room. "Over here!" Josh said to Blaise who was looking in another room, then turned and followed Josh into the records room, where the two found that it was one of the biggest rooms they have ever seen filled with many and many filing cabinets, each with four drawers.
"Where do we begin?" Blaise asked, eyeing all the cabinets, Josh walking over to the first Cabinet with Aa written on it.
"They're in alphabetical order," he said, showing Blaise by pointing to the Aa. "We should find my file in An," he said, starting to walk down an aisle.
"And why are we looking for your file again?" Blaise asked, following his friend. "Cause you never really told me why."
"I know," Josh said, walking past Au, Ab, Aba, Abe, and so on. "There are so many different kind of names," he murmured.
"Well, are you going to tell me why we're looking for your file?" Blaise asked.
"Not until I know I'm sure," Josh answered, passing Ade. "I think we're almost there."
Blaise looked at the last cabinet that had Ae. "Almost?" he said. "We still have a long way." Josh ignored him and the two continued down the long aisle, and a few minutes later, they reached An.
"So, here we are," Blaise said as the two looked at the cabinets.
"Not quite," Josh said, walking dow the aisle a little more, and then stopped at And. He kneeled down, opening the third cabinet, second from the floor, and began to sift through the files, not finding what he was looking for. "What the bloody hell..."
"What is it?" Blaise asked, walking over to his friend. "What's wrong?"
"My file," Josh said, looking through the files once more, then loooked up to Blaise. "It's not here!"
A/n: Here's the first chapter of the fourth installment of Josh Anderson. Be patient, there will be more. And sorry if the Doc doesnt like his character's part. I can fix it. And I may have room for one new mythical beast character. Anyone interested? It has to be known though, in the HP universe. Well, hope you enjoyed. Review, if you want.