It's a good thing this chapter didn't take long to write, because this week has just been information overload.

I've done an idea drop. Basically I open a word file and just type constantly for ages and get everything out of my head. There were some interesting ideas in there. A few about this story, some for original stories and weirdly enough I re-wrote the first two chapters of Light in the Shadows from Yugi's perspective.

So all in all a productive week in terms of story writing; probably not so much in terms of actual uni work.

Still...new chapter!

Chapter 10: The First Step

When Harry wandered into the kitchen a few weeks after they had escaped from the Burrow he found Hermione going over her list of things they needed to break into the Ministry.

Harry dropped into a seat at the table. He was immediately presented with a cup of tea and plate of still sizzling bacon. "Thanks Kretcher." Harry said to the elderly House Elf before turning to Hermione. "Is there anything else on the list?" Harry asked her. He really hoped that she would say no. They had been collecting things and spying on Ministry personnel for the last week and Harry was starting to get antsy. He just wanted to get this over with. He felt like the longer they put off breaking in the more likely it was that something would go wrong.

Their other slightly pressing problem was the recent appearance of various wizards watching Grimauld Place. It made leaving and arriving difficult and Harry was certain that if it hadn't been for the Invisibility Cloak they would have been caught by now.

Hermione bit her lip. "I'm just not sure Harry; we won't get a second chance at this. If we something goes wrong the first time that's it. I don't want anything to go wrong." Her eyes were still on the parchment in front of her.

Harry gritted his teeth. "Come on Hermione. There is only so much preparing we can do, at some point we are just going to have to go and try."

"Are we going in today?" Ron yawned from the doorway behind Harry. He had asked this same question every morning for the last four days.

Harry turned, his friends red hair was sticking out at all odd angles and he was rubbing his eyes. Kretcher had cleaned out three of the bedrooms for them and they were now able to the sleep on the slightly more comfortable lumpy mattresses within them. It made sleeping slightly better and they were all doing a lot of catch up.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I really don't think we're ready yet. There are so many more things that we need to find out before we do anything."

Ron rolled his eyes and flopped onto a chair. "Come on Hermione, we're never going to know everything." Apparently Hermione's slightly panicked look was enough to make Ron add around another yawn. "Okay so tomorrow then." Hermione swallowed and looked between the two of them. Finally she nodded.

Harry thought that was going to be the end of it, and admittedly he was a little nervous himself. After all they were about to break into the place that was determinedly hunting them down. One wrong move would get them arrested and then most probably, promptly killed.

Hermione however, had one more point to make. "Harry there is one thing that I think we need to talk about."

Harry frowned and thought through everything that they had come up with. They had a way in, a plan for moving around, a way not to be recognised and even a tentative escape plan. What else was he forgetting? Hermione supplied him with the answer. "What are we going to do with Yugi?" She asked.

Ron perked up and nodded. "Hey, I'd forgotten about that. Yami will kill you if anything happens to him." Harry winced. While this was true Harry wished Ron hadn't reminded him.

Other than that first conversation after they had talked to Mundungus, the topic of what Yugi was going to do while they invaded the Ministry had never again come up.

"Well I guess we leave him here." Harry glanced over at Kretcher who was polishing cutlery. "Kretcher, would you look after Yugi while we go to the Ministry?"

Kretcher looked up and his bright eyes glimmered happily. "Kretcher would be honoured Master Harry."

"Right." Harry said. "Now all we have to do is convince Yugi to stay here." Harry wondered if he looked as doubtful as Hermione and Ron.

As it turned out, Yugi was very much opposed to being left behind. Harry had never heard the little elf so vocal. He followed Harry around for three straight hours pointing out every single advantage there would be to having him along. Apparently there were a lot of them because Harry was almost certain that Yugi didn't actually repeat himself. When at the end of the lengthy speech Harry was still determinedly telling him that he would stay with Kretcher, Yugi went in search of backup.

It took him under an hour to talk Hermione, Ron and Kretcher around to his views.

Harry examined at the four of them in utter disbelief. Hermione met his eyes, Kretcher was staring at the floor and Ron was examining the table with a great deal of interest while Yugi tried hard not to look too smug.

Harry shook his head and gave in. He knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it if he didn't. "Fine you can come with us, but you stay under the Invisibility Cloak and out of the way and if Yami hears about this then you all take the blame. Leave me right out of it." All four nodded and Kretcher vanished into the kitchen to hide and make dinner.

Hermione hastily pulled out their plans to go over again, most likely to distract Harry from his irritation.

The morning dawned bright and sunny. Harry peered out of his bedroom window as he waited for Yugi to finish getting dressed. Surely today should be dark and gloomy. It almost seemed as though the day was laughing at them; mocking their attempts at resistance.

"Harry, is something wrong?" Yugi asked, his voice slightly muffled by the shirt he was pulling on.

Harry turned from watching the various wizards watching from the street. Yugi was doing up his top button and watching Harry curiously. Harry shrugged. "I dunno, I'm just nervous I think."

"Why?" Yugi asked.

"You mean you're not?" Harry was a little disbelieving.

Yugi smiled. "We have been working on this plan for ages, and they will not be expecting us to appear in the very centre of the Ministry."

"What if they catch us?" Harry said. It was the same point that had come up several times during the late night discussions into their forth coming invasion. Every time someone had cautiously mentioned it, someone else had changed the subject.

Yugi looked at Harry and for the first time he looked worried, gnawing on his lip in thought. Suddenly he brightened. "The fake-Shades!" He said in delight.

Harry frowned. "What about them?" He wondered where Hermione had put the black spheres.

Yugi giggled in delight and clapped his hands. "I cannot believe I did not think of them before. If someone comes close to catch us, we break one of the fake-Shades. That will distract everyone because nothing they do will affect it. I remember Yami and the twins talking about how they work, they power themselves off the magic people try to use against them, including anti-Shade spells. To the wizards at the Ministry it would seem as though a super-Yami had arrived. We can get away in the chaos."

Harry's face slowly split into a grin, the butterflies in his stomach stopped their fluttering and he scooped Yugi up and ran down stairs. "Brilliant." He yelled.

Arriving in the kitchen with a delighted flourish, Harry and Yugi proceeded to fill Ron and Hermione in on the last bit of their plan. Hermione and Ron both agreed that the idea was a good one. Hermione fished into the beaded bag which still held all their supplies and handed each of them one of the pitch black spheres. "Only for emergencies" Hermione insisted. "We've only got the four of them and we can't contact Fred and George for new ones." Ron pocketed his and jumped as his darking raced across his fingers and out of his pocket.

"Bloody hell." He exclaimed. "I keep forgetting it hides in there."

Harry grinned, and rubbed the bracelet he still wore to keep his darking close by. It was easy to forget about the little shadows sometimes.

Hermione suddenly gasped and hurtled to her feet, fumbling with the beaded bag and pulling out the Invisibility Cloak. "We're going to miss the first wizard arriving." She cried and threw the Cloak at Harry and Yugi. Ron jerked to his feet and the four of them lurched towards the front door. Harry yelled goodbye to Kretcher as they went. "Good luck Master, dinner will be ready when you return." The House Elf called back happily.

Harry picked Yugi up and pulled the Cloak up as they reached the front door. Taking their places on the front step Harry, Ron and Hermione linked hands and with a nod and one concentrated effort they spun off into the heavy darkness of apparition.

Harry had much more practice landing now and was able to almost walk out of re-appearing. Hermione pulled Ron down the alleyway which they had chosen for the first person swap.

Yugi slipped out of the Cloak and peered around the corner carefully. He had volunteered himself as lookout. Yugi's sharp eyes were a bonus and being barely two feet off the ground meant that not many people noticed him while going about their business.

After a few moments, Yugi waved his hand over his shoulder, the signal that the first wizard was approaching. Hermione rolled her wand around in her fingers, gave nervous look at each of them and leant around the corner. The use of the stunning spell was now limited entirely to life or death situations and as such it had forced Harry and his friends to become a little more imaginative in their planning. Particularly in knocking people out.

Harry didn't pay attention to Hermione as she lured the wizard over. He was in charge of Polyjuice potion and was busy retrieving the three sealed vials from the bottom of the beaded bag. Harry opened the first vial and after harvesting a few hairs from the now unconscious wizard he added them to the vial and watched it sizzle.

They had tried as hard as they could to pick out three people who worked in the Department of Mysteries. However after careful decisions aided by the fact that the Unmentionables tended to get to the Ministry oddly early; they had picked out one Unmentionable, an Auror and one of the Under-Secretary's. The unconscious wizard was the Auror and as Ron changed into him Yugi motioned for Hermione to hurry over.

Harry watched; vial of potion ready, as Hermione leant around the corner to catch the Under-Secretary's whose face she was going to borrow. Once the woman was also unconscious Hermione changed into the larger set of robes they had 'borrowed' for her to use.

Hermione and Ron gathered up their own clothes and returned them to the beaded bag. All this was done in relative silence, each of them focusing on not forgetting anything. Finally Hermione turned to Harry. "Right Harry, now you and Yugi keep out of sight and Ron and I will go and get the Unmentionable." Hermione fussed with the beaded bag.

"It's okay Hermione, I know what to do." Harry insisted. Of all of them Hermione was the most nervy. Harry was actually sure that he would have been more nervous if it hadn't been for the fact that Hermione was so frightened. It made him try harder not to show how skittish he himself was.

After Hermione and Ron had departed together around the corner, Yugi knelt over the two unconscious adults.

Yugi examined the two humans and tapped his chin thoughtfully. Then he glanced up at Harry. "Cover your ears Harry." He said.

Harry frowned. "Why?"

Yugi looked down at the two humans. "I am going to make sure that they do not wake up any time soon and blow your cover."

Harry was still confused, but he covered his ears with his hands. Yugi proceeded to sing a low sweet, sleepy song which even through his hands made Harry's eyelids droop.

Once Yugi motioned for him to lower his hands Harry asked. "What was that?"

Yugi smiled up at him. "It is a lullaby." The smile faltered slightly. "Used to encourage children to sleep, with a bit of magic it will force you to sleep for several hours." Harry waved his wand and the two sleeping humans were pushed into an abandoned theatre which led onto the alley.

Harry looked down the alley, Hermione and Ron should be almost back now. Harry bent down, scooped the Invisibility Cloak off the floor and handed it to Yugi. The tiny elf gathered the armfuls of material and looked up at Harry who narrowed his eyes slightly. "You promised." Harry said. Yugi sighed, but pulled the overlarge Cloak over himself and vanished from view. "Remember stick close." Harry told thin air. Yugi hummed a quiet affirmative.

Ron and Hermione arrived around the corner Ron had one hand fisted around several hairs. Harry held out the vial as Ron grinned. "He's headed home, projectile vomiting as he goes."

Harry downed his Polyjuice Potion. As soon as Harry had changed they made their way to the public bathroom which was the new employee entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Harry nodded firmly to those wizards and witches who nodded to him. He felt over aware of the small invisible hand clutching the edge of his robe.

There were numerous wizards in the small tiled room, all complaining explicitly about the new method for entering the Ministry. Harry threw a guarded glance at Ron, who was watching the people entering the stalls intently.

As the man in front of Harry pushed open the now 'vacant' stall door Harry wondered how this worked. This was one of their little downfalls, they had no idea exactly how they were able to get into the Ministry from the toilets.

As the next cubicle became available Harry stepped into it and nervously straightening his blue robes. "Are you here?" He breathed as softly as he could. Hoping that Yugi was listening and nearby. There was a gentle tug on Harry's robes and Harry felt the elf lean against his leg. Harry looked at the toilet in front of them.

He frowned; this was where their plan could go terribly wrong. Suddenly there came several flushes and the doors to the neighbouring stalls opened. Harry looked at the toilet and nearly groaned.

Seriously, could they have thought of something more disgusting?

Reluctantly Harry stepped into the toilet bowl and was immensely glad when his feet remained magically dry. Harry reached down, held out his arms and waited for Yugi's hands to wrap securely around his elbows before straightening with the invisible bundle clutched to his chest.

Harry fumbled a little, but finally managed to pull the flushing chain. With a whir of water and a horrible dropping sensation they fell through the piping. Harry dropped onto his feet, jarring his knees, into the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Harry bent over as though to check his shoes and set Yugi on the ground before straightening to look around for Ron and Hermione.

It was difficult as there were people arriving constantly and it was hard to see two people who he didn't really know in the crush. Eventually Harry spotted the two half-familiar faces in the crowd and started to shove his way through the throng. Harry had to trust that Yugi would stay as close as he could. When the three of them met up they exchanged nervous glances. They couldn't be seen to be too friendly, as none of the three they were mimicking knew each other very well.

Harry gave Hermione a determined smile. They were in. Now came the hard part. They needed to get into the Department of Mysteries and the Auror's Office all without anyone realising who they were or what they were doing.

Writing from here on in could be interesting. I've been writing this story in my free three hours during the week, which is about all it takes for me to completely finish a chapter. However from here on out I lose those hours.

I don't think it will impact anything because I tend to cram writing for this in even if uni doesn't really permit it, but if an update is late then I'm hurrying to finish off the chapter.