OHHHHHH SCARY!

(Hehehehehehe) well, here's the 4th chap.

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News of the death of the unspeakable spread like wildfire. Wanting to really know if it was true, everybody on the floor slowly made his or her way down to the Department of Mysteries.

Then they found him. The unspeakable was lying on the floor, barely able to live. It looked like he had been physically attacked, for blood was scattered in little drops on the walls and the floor. Healers from St. Mungo's had Apparated as quickly as they could over to the ministry and were trying to heal him. They confirmed that he was attacked by a spell. But unfortunately, the attacker had used an unknown spell on the unspeakable, so the Healers were of no help. Fudge wanted him to be interrogated right away to try to squeeze some information out of him.

The unspeakable's energy was fading very quickly, so Harry hurried to his aid and he asked him,

"Who did this to you?"

Everyone was silent, everyone was anxious to hear the answer if it was really what they thought it was. The unspeakable tried as hard as he could to utter his last words. But his strength left him, and he died.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry spotted his hand clutching a roll of parchment. He pulled it out of the man's dead hand and unrolled it.

"This is only a fraction of what I can do. Don't underestimate my power again."

The silence lingered in the air until the parchment burst into flames Harry's hands.

"Ouch!" he muttered. But no one heard him.

Once again, the ministry had broken out in pandemonium. The men were shouting and cooking up plans to rid of this phantom while the women were screaming and wailing and wanting to leave and never come back. All except for Harry and Hermione.

Hermione clutched Harry's arm and yelled over the pandemonium,

"Come with me, I need to talk to you." She seemed frantic and scared.

"Why?" Harry shouted back. "Where can we go? The whole place is going berserk!"

"Outside!" Hermione shouted, "Come on, we need to go… now!"

Harry raced behind Hermione as the two of them struggled through the crowd to the elevator. They were silent until they reached the lobby. Hermione grabbed Harry's burnt hand rather tightly. He flinched.

"Come on Harry!" she whispered. Looking around, she dashed out of the lobby into the phone booth elevator with Harry at her heels.

When they got outside, the sun had fallen and gave way to the moon. Hermione stood and stared out onto the horizon.

"Hermione, why didn't we just Apparate outside?"

Hermione blushed. "Um… didn't think of that… sorry…"

Harry crossed to a bench, sat down and examined his hand. It looked like Dumbledore's hand in his sixth year at Hogwarts.

"Aguamenti." Cold water spurted from his wand and poured onto his hand. Hermione heard the running water and turned around.

"Harry! What happened to your hand?"

She sat down next to him and conjured a bandage out of thin air.

"Your friend's letter caught on fire." Harry smirked. Hermione scowled.

"He's not my friend. Do you think I would approve of a killing of an innocent person?" she snapped at him while she wrapped the bandage around his hand.

"Sorry, I meant it as a joke."

Hermione sighed. "It's alright."

The twosome remained silent as Hermione finished wrapping up Harry's hand. When she finished, Harry uttered a thank you.

"No problem at all."

"I think we need to go back now…"

"Don't take me back there!" She leapt up. "He'll find us there and kill you… the phantom of the ministry. He will…." Hermione whimpered

"Don't say that!" Harry said, and stood up.

"My God! Who is this man? Who hunts to kill? I can't escape from him…"

"Hermione there is no such thing as …"

"The phantom of the ministry will always be in my mind."

"There is no phantom! What rubbish is this that every one keeps talking about?"

"It's not rubbish. I've seen him. Can I ever forget his face? It seemed like I saw him before."

In the middle of her thought, Hermione's tone changed.

"Yet his voice filled my sprit with a strange new sound, in the night there was magic everywhere! Through his magic, my soul began to soar…"

"Don't be silly, it was a dream, and nothing more."

"No, Harry, it wasn't." Hermione said softly. Harry stared at her, confused. She turned around and their eyes met.

"In his eyes, was all the sadness in the world. You wouldn't believe it. The murderer lurking in the ministry having a tender side. But I felt it. I felt as though I was the only one who understood him. He seems so familiar."

"Who is this…this person?" Harry inquired quietly.

Hermione ran into his arms. "Harry, I'm scared. Make this stop, please."

"Hermione…" a soft voice reached her ears. She turned around, but there was no one in sight.

Harry held her and stroked her hair. "It's going to be alright Hermione, we'll find a way."

He looked at her, helpless Hermione. "I'm here, he won't find you."

Hermione stared back over the horizon. "I just want to be free, no more phantom, no more of this rubbish that he's done to me."

She sat down the bench and huddled herself together. "If he finds me, it won't ever end. Harry, we'll be parted for ever…"

Harry sat down next to her. "Don't think of all of all this darkness."

Hermione and Harry looked into each other's eyes.

"Harry, please, you've got to help me."

"I will."

Hermione looked down at her watch (breaking the tender moment); it was 9:00 pm.

"We've got to return." Hermione said.

"Hermione," Harry said. But he didn't need to say anymore. Hermione understood, for she leaned towards him, and they met in a kiss. When they broke away, they were both smiling, and Hermione was glowing.

As they Apparated back inside, a light mist fell, and the man appeared out of the shadows. He had heard all of the conversation. Crossing to the bench, he sat down and was trying very hard not to cry.

"I did it for you," He muttered to himself. "but you betrayed me, and you denied all of what I could of done for you."

Silent tears started streaming down his face as he recalled going to school with her and being her friend. He remembered those golden times, until just about six years ago.

The man crossed to a lamppost and leaned upon it. He had been the happiest he had ever been in six years, and now was back to misery.

Then anger and jealousy took over him. "You will curse this day for now and eternity!"

The mist surrounded him, and he disappeared.

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"Harry! Hermione!" Veronica and Lizzie were looking for them.

"This is the second time this week!" Lizzie sighed. "It's starting to get a bit annoying."

"They'll turn up eventually." Veronica said. "Let's look in the lab again."

"You think she'll be down there?"

"They could be."

"WAIT!" Hermione ran over to them with Harry right beside her.

"Where were you two?" Lizzy asked.

"Outside… um, sorry."

"What ever. Did you guys see the look on Fudge's face when he had to put Pansy in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office? Ha! It was hilarious!" Lizzy told them rather excitedly.

"So I get my job back?" Hermione inquired.

Veronica shrugged. "I guess so. But I've never seen anything as funny as Pansy's face when she got her new job!" Now Veronica had the delighted look on her face.

"So what were you two doing outside?" Lizzie asked slyly. Hermione laughed.

"Just talking."

"Oh really, I'm gonna fall for a lame excuse like that."

"Honestly Lizzie, we were."

"Alright, suit yourself."

Everyone had by now resumed their regular jobs, but were still a bit cautious to look out for this 'phantom' that he called himself. About a half an hour later, things were back to the way they were. Harry, Hermione, Veronica and Lizzie were now discussing about security policies for Muggle Awareness of Magic.

"I think that we should just dump them in Iceland." Harry joked.

"No!" Hermione cried. "We can't do that! Not every Muggle is like your aunt and uncle."

"What about the disguise thing that Hogwarts uses? That's pretty convenient."

"But Veronica, that's for PLACES, not PEOPLE."

"All I'm saying is that… oh never mind."

"I think that what our system is right now with the obliviation is perfectly fine!"

"But Muggles still find out about us, Lizzie. We have to do something…"

"Um… Hermione? I think that guy wants to talk to you."

Hermione followed Veronica's stare and looked directly at the phantom. He was floating above the ground and his eyes locked contact with Hermione's. The office was dead silent.

Then, the phantom started floating closer to Hermione. Hermione backed up into Harry, who put his hands on her shoulders as if trying to comfort her.

But it didn't.

Each foot the man floated closer to her, a fireball forming in his right hand got larger and larger. People scurried away from him but without making a sound. He didn't seem interested in them. His eye contact remained with Hermione until she got too frightened and looked away. This made the phantom even madder. Then he stopped.

"GO! GO AND LEAVE ME!" he thundered at Hermione.

He then threw the fireball at her.

"Finite Incantatem!" she cried, pointing her wand at the fireball.

Inches from her face, it exploded, knocking Hermione out.

Harry, Veronica and Lizzie hurried to her side, wands drawn, just in case.

But he was gone.

The phantom of the ministry had disappeared.

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