At the Ministry

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

'You know,' said Hermione the next morning, 'I reckon Kitty ought to come with us, even if she might have to stay under the Invisibility Cloak, the whole time, but think about it, if for some reason, we aren't able to come back here, then Kitty might not ever be able to know where we are.'

'Why won't we come back?' said Ron.

'Yeah, and I want Kat to be safe. What if…if we get caught at the Ministry?' said Harry.

'That's what I'm saying. If we get caught, Kitty will never come to know. And then someone might find her here, and god knows what will happen then,' said Hermione.

'Oh ok,' said Harry, 'But Kat, I want you to stay hidden under the cloak. Under no circumstances, are you to come out of it. If we get caught, then you will write to Remus in that diary, and ask him to come get you at once. And you're not to come after us.'

'Yeah, whatever,' said Kitty.

They made their way onto the front step with immense caution. They could see a couple of puffy-eyed Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square.

Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then came back for Harry and last of all for Kitty.

After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, Kitty found herself in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of their plan was scheduled to take place. It was as yet deserted, except for a couple of large bins; the first Ministry workers did not usually appear here until at least eight o'clock.

'Right then,' said Hermione, checking her watch. 'She ought to be here in about five minutes. When I've Stunned her…'

'Hermione, we know,' said Ron sternly. 'And I thought we were supposed to open the door before she got here?'

Hermione squealed.

'I nearly forgot! Stand back.'

She pointed her wand at the padlocked and heavily graffitied fire door beside them, which burst open with a crash. The dark corridor behind it led, as they knew from their careful scouting trips, into an empty theater. Hermione pulled the door back toward her, to make it look as thought it was still closed.

'And now,' she said, turning, back to face the other three in the alleyway, 'we wait.'

Little more than a minute later, there was a tiny pop and a little Ministry witch with flyaway gray hair Apparated feet from them, blinking a little in the sudden brightness: the sun had just come out from behind a cloud. She barely had time to enjoy the unexpected warmth, however, before Hermione's silent Stunning Spell hit her in the chest and she toppled over.

'Nicely done, Hermione,' said Ron, emerging behind a bin beside the theater. Harry and Ron together they carried the little witch into the dark passageway that led backstage. Hermione plucked a few hairs from the witch's head and added them to a flask of muddy Polyjuice Potion she had taken from the beaded bag. Ron was rummaging through the little witch's handbag.

'She's Mafalda Hopkirk,' he said, reading a small card that identified their victim as an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office. 'You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens.'

He passed her several small golden coins, all embossed with the letters M.O.M. which he had taken from the witch's purse.

Hermione drank the Polyjuice Potion, which was now a pleasant heliotrope color, and within seconds stood before them, the double of Mafalda Hopkirk. As she removed Mafalda's spectacles and put them on, Harry checked his watch.

'We're running late, Mr. Magical Maintenance will be here any second.'

They hurried to close the door on the real Mafalda. Harry and Ron got under the cloak with Kitty. Seconds later there was another pop, and a small, ferrety looking wizard appeared before them.

'Oh, hello, Mafalda.'

'Hello!' said Hermione in a quavery voice, 'How are you today?'

'Not so good, actually,' replied the little wizard, who looked thoroughly downcast.

As Hermione and the wizard headed for the main road, Harry, Kitty and Ron crept along behind them.

'I'm sorry to hear you're under the weather,' said Hermione, talking firmly over the little wizard and he tried to expound upon his problems; it was essential to stop him from reaching the street. 'Here, have a sweet.'

'Eh? Oh, no thanks…'

'I insist!' said Hermione aggressively, shaking the bag of pastilles in his face. Looking rather alarmed, the little wizard took one.

The effect was instantaneous. The moment the pastille touched his tongue, the little wizard started vomiting so hard that he did not even notice as Hermione yanked a handful of hairs from the top of his head.

'Oh dear!' she said, as he splattered the alley with sick. 'Perhaps you'd better take the day off!'

'No…no!' He choked and retched, trying to continue on his way despite being unable to walk straight. 'I must today…must go…'

'But that's just silly!' said Hermione, alarmed. 'You can't go to work in this state…I think you ought to go to St. Mungo's and get them to sort you out.'

The wizard had collapsed, heaving, onto all fours, still trying to crawl toward the main street.

'You simply can't go to work like this!' cried Hermione.

At last he seemed to accept the truth of her words. Using a reposed Hermione to claw his way back into a standing position, he turned on the spot and vanished, leaving nothing behind but the bag Ron had snatched from his hand as he went and some flying chunks of vomit.

'Urgh,' said Hermione, holding up the skirt of her robe to avoid the puddles of sick. 'It would have made much less mess to Stun him too.'

'Yeah,' said Ron, emerging from under the cloak holding the wizard's bag, 'but I still think a whole pile of unconscious bodies would have drawn more attention. Keen on his job, though, isn't he? Chuck us the hair and the potion, then.'

Within two minutes, Ron stood before them, as small and ferrety as the sick wizard, and wearing the navy blue robes that had been folded in his bag.

'Weird he wasn't wearing them today, wasn't it, seeing how much he wanted to go? Anyway, I'm Reg Cattermole, according to the label in the back.'

'Now wait here,' Hermione told Harry, who was still under the Invisibility Cloak, 'and we'll be back with some hairs for you.'

Harry and Kitty had to wait ten minutes, but it seemed much longer to Harry, skulking alone in the sick-splattered alleyway beside the door concealing the Stunned Mafalda. Finally Ron and Hermione reappeared.

'We don't know who he is,' Hermione said, passing Harry several curly black hairs, 'but he's gone home with a dreadful nosebleed! Here, he's pretty tall, you'll need bigger robes ...'

She pulled out a set of the old robes Kreacher had laundered for them, and Harry came out of the cloak and retired to take the potion and change.

Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall and, from what he could tell from his well-muscled arms, powerfully built. He also had a beard.

'Now, Kat, stay hidden,' said Harry.

'Blimey, that's scary,' said Ron, looking up at Harry, who now towered over him.

'Take one of Mafalda's tokens,' Hermione told Harry, 'and let's go, it's nearly nine.'

They stepped out of the alleyway together. Fifty yards along the crowded pavement there were spiked black railings flanking two flights of stairs, one labeled GENTLEMEN, the other LADIES.

'See you in a moment, then,' said Hermione nervously, and she tottered off down the steps with Kitty to LADIES. Harry and Ron joined a number of oddly dressed men descending into what appeared to be an ordinary underground public toilet, tiled in grimy black and white.

Hermione crouched into a cubicle, and Kitty after her, under the cloak.

'You go first, and wait for me,' whispered Hermione.

'Hurry up!' said a raspy voice from outside.

'We have to flush ourselves in?' Kitty whispered.

'Looks like it,' Hermione whispered back.

They both stood up. Feeling exceptionally foolish, Kitty clambered into the toilet.

She knew at once that she had done the right thing; thought she appeared to be standing in water, her shoes, feet, and the Invisibility Cloak remained quite dry. She reached up, pulled the chain, and next moment had zoomed down a short chute, emerging out of a fireplace into the Ministry of Magic.

She got up clumsily and hurriedly got out of the fireplace, after making sure that the Cloak was covering her properly. The great Atrium seemed darker than Kitty remembered it. Kitty received a heavy blow on the back of her legs. Hermione had just flown out of the fireplace behind her.

'You're here, Kitty?' she said.

'Yes,' said Kitty, 'What now?'

'There's Ron and Harry,' said Hermione. Kitty looked where she was looking and saw the ferrety wizard and the tall man Ron and Harry had transformed into.

Hermione and Kitty hastened to join them.

'You got in all right, then?' Hermione whispered to Harry.

'No, he's still stuck in the hog,' said Ron.

'Kat?' whispered Harry.

'It's alright, Harry,' said Kitty, 'I'm here.'

'Come on, let's get going then,' said Ron.

They joined the stream of witches and wizards moving toward the golden gates at the end of the hall, looking around as surreptitiously as possible, but there was no sign of the distinctive figure of Dolores Umbridge. They passed through the gates and into a smaller hall, where queues were forming in front of twenty golden grilles housing as many lifts. They had barely joined the nearest one when a voice said, 'Cattermole!'

They looked around: Kitty's stomach turned over. One of the Death Eaters who had witnessed Dumbledore's death was striding toward them. The Ministry workers beside them fell silent, their eyes downcast; Kitty could feel fear rippling through them.

The man's scowling, slightly brutish face was somehow at odds with his magnificent, sweeping robes, which were embroidered with much gold thread. Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, 'Morning, Yaxley!' Yaxley ignored them.

'I requested somebody from Magical Maintenance to sort out my office, Cattermole. It's still raining in there.'

Ron looked around as though hoping somebody else would intervene, but nobody spoke.

'Raining ... in your office? That's…that's not good, is it?'

Ron gave a nervous laugh. Yaxley's eyes widened.

'You think it's funny, Cattermole, do you?'

A pair of witches broke away from the queue for the lift and bustled off.

'No,' said Ron, 'no, of course…'

'You realize that I am on my way downstairs to interrogate your wife, Cattermole? In fact, I'm quite surprised you're not down there holding her hand while she waits. Already given her up as a bad job, have you? Probably wise. Be sure and marry a pureblood next time.'

Hermione had let out a little squeak of horror. Yaxley looked at her. She coughed feebly and turned away.

'I…I…' stammered Ron.

'But if my wife were accused of being a Mudblood,' said Yaxley, 'not that any woman I married would ever be mistaken for such filth, and the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I would make it my priority to do this job, Cattermole. Do you understand me?'

'Yes,' whispered Ron.

'Then attend to it, Cattermole, and if my office is not completely dry within an hour, your wife's Blood Status will be in even greater doubt than it is now.'

The golden grille before them clattered open. With a nod and unpleasant smile to Harry, who was evidently expected to appreciate this treatment of Cattermole, Yaxley swept away toward another lift. Harry, Kitty, Ron, and Hermione entered theirs, but nobody followed them: It was as if they were infectious. The grilles shut with a clang and the lift began to move upward.

'What am I going to do?' Ron asked the other three at once; he looked stricken. 'If I don't turn up, my wife ... I mean, Cattermole's wife…'

'We'll come with you, we should stick together…' began Harry, but Ron shook his head feverishly.

'That's mental, we haven't got much time. You three find Umbridge, I'll go and sort out Yaxley's office, but how do I stop a raining?'

'Try Finite Incantatem,' said Hermione at once, 'that should stop the rain if it's a hex or curse; if it doesn't something's gone wrong with an Atmospheric Charm, which will be more difficult to fix, so as an interim measure try Impervius to protect his belongings…'

'Kat, go with him,' said Harry suddenly, 'You're good at charms. Have you ever tried an Atmospheric Charm?'

' No, but I've read all about them,' said Kitty.

'Yes, you come with me,' said Ron feverishly.

At that moment the lift juddered to a halt. A disembodied female voice said, 'Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Bureau,' and the grilles slid open again, admitting a couple of wizards and several pale violet paper airplanes that fluttered around the lamp in the ceiling of the lift.

'Morning, Albert,'said a bushily whiskered man, smiling at Harry. He glanced over at Ron and Hermione as the lift creaked upward once more. The wizard leaned toward Harry, leering, and muttering 'Dirk Cresswell, eh? From Goblin Liaison? Nice one, Albert. I'm pretty confident I'll get his job now!'

He winked. Harry smiled back, hoping that this would suffice. The lift stopped; the grilles opened once more.

'Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services,' said the disembodied witch's voice.

Harry saw Hermione give Ron a little push and he hurried out of the lift, followed by Kitty and a few other wizards, leaving Harry and Hermione alone. The moment the golden door closed and the lift descended.

'Where's Yaxley's office, d'you think?' said Ron.

'I dunno, let's follow the others who came out of the lift,' said Kitty, still hidden in the cloak.

Ron and Kitty followed a large blond wizard, who took off for a corridor on towards the left. He disappeared into the first door on that corridor.

'This is it!' said Ron, pointing to the second door, on which hung a sign bearing Yaxley's name. 'Come on.'

Ron and Kitty hurried over to the door and threw it open. Great sheets of rain, was pouring relentlessly form the ceiling, battering the office, like a hail of bullets. Ron covered his head with his arms.

Kitty pointed to herself and said, 'Impervious!'

Then she did the same to Ron. Both of them entered the steady downpour.

'Now,' said Ron, 'What do you reckon?'

'Finite Incantatem!' said Kitty pointing her wand at the ceiling. Nothing happened.

'Oh no!' moaned Ron, 'try that impervious thing Hermione said.'

'Wait,' said Kitty, still pointing her wand at the ceiling, 'Meteojinx Recanto!'

Pink sparks flew out the tip of Kitty's wand, and the rain ceased at once.

'Come on, now,' said Kitty, 'let's go find Harry and Hermione.'

Ron and Kitty walked out of the office and back towards the lift. It was empty except for Harry.

'Did you manage it?' said Harry, once they got in.

'Yes,' said Ron, 'Kitty did something, I dunno. But it stopped raining.'

'Guess what,' said Harry, 'I managed to get into Umbridge's office.'

'You did? And did you find the locket?' said Kitty eagerly.

'No,' said Harry, 'it wasn't there.'

'And where's Hermione?' said Ron.

'She had to go to the Courtrooms with Umbridge. Couldn't refuse…' said Harry, but before he could finish, the doors opened again and Mr. Weasley walked in with an elderly witch.

Harry, Ron and Kitty got out.

'One moment, Runcorn,' said Mr. Weasley. 'I hear you had information about Dirk Cresswell.'

'Sorry?' Harry said.

'Don't pretend, Runcorn,' said Mr. Weasley fiercely. 'You tracked down the wizard who faked his family tree, didn't you?'

'I… so what if I did?' said Harry.

'So Dirk Cresswell is ten times the wizard you are,' said Mr. Weasley quietly.

'And if he survives Azkaban, you'll have to answer to him, not to mention his wife, his sons, and his friends…'

'Arthur,' Harry interrupted, 'you know you're being tracked, don't you?'

'Is that a threat, Runcorn?' said Mr. Weasley loudly.

'No,' said Harry, 'it's a fact! They're watching your every move…'

'You can do whatever you…'

'I am,' said Harry, 'Now excuse me, I have some business I must attend.'

Harry turned on his heel, and walked off, a little behind Ron and Kitty.