Harry reached down, helping Hermione up out of the manhole. She looked around carefully, observing the street around them. He had done that a moment ago, and nothing had changed. He looked again, too, though. His heart was racing and they were nowhere near where they needed to go.
Hermione gave him a determined look, and then smiled. He nodded in response, following her lead through the winding streets. How she had memorised the complicated path from this specific exit to the destination, he was not sure. Harry had never come here from this direction.
They wound, walking unhurriedly from street to street, passing dozens of buildings, short and tall. The air was wet as a cold London fog rolled through. Harry felt droplets collect on his cheeks, but didn't bother to wipe them away. They would be back in moments, in any case. As a side effect - and a positive one, for once - the streets remained fairly empty. Those who did pass by all hurried, scurrying to and fro with or without brollies.
At last, the winding streets were left behind, and they came to the spot Hermione had picked out. It was between two hedgerows with very little visibility to the streets on either end. The Muggle houses on the right and left were completely invisible behind the overgrowth. It was perfect.
"You ready?" she asked.
Harry nodded, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. As one, they removed their necklaces, depositing these in their robes. Harry pulled out his wand and began the careful transformation they had practiced, shortening Hermione's hair and changing it to a dirty blonde, her nose became longer and cheeks more defined, the eyes were suddenly a faint green. He didn't know enough Transfigurations to safely change her height or much else, but the face and hair would do enough. When he had finished, Hermione made her own changes to his face. He couldn't see it, but he felt his hair reach down to his shoulders, its suddenly curly ends a faint brown.
She nodded at her work, and they both focused, picturing the place they would be going, the destination that awaited them. As long as the alert took a while to sort, they should be able to get in and out without trouble. Should was the keyword. They only had one shot at this, and Harry hoped all of their planning would be worthwhile. Turning, Harry felt the hard compression of Apparition, keeping his focus despite the growing terror within.
Then, he was standing in the long Atrium, looking across at the statuary that marked the entrance to the seat of Wizarding Britain's government, the Ministry of Magic. It had remained the same each time Harry had entered: a Wizard and a Witch with a goblin, centaur and house elf looking at them in an adoring way. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward, feeling rather than seeing Hermione beside him. They had agreed not to speak or take notice of each other, at first. Two random individuals approaching were much less noticeable than a pair entering together.
They filtered into the crowd, and flowed over to the lifts. The security at the front desk vaguely watched everyone, not focusing on any individual. Harry saw dark circles under the nearest guard's eyes, his eyes wandering from the floor to the people as he jolted from near-sleep to alertness. Harry looked away, focusing on the crowd ahead and the lift he was entering.
Of the many lifts, only was headed downward, marked by a floating arrow that appeared to be an arrangement of fireflies in a glass above the lift doors. Harry entered this, followed by Hermione and one, grumpy-faced old man. He never glanced at the two of them. Harry hoped his nerves made him look like a petitioner to the courtrooms on level ten. After a moment, all of them exited onto the ninth level, and the man hurried off, taking the only door at the end of the hall without a look behind him.
"How many people do you reckon work down here?" Hermione asked, frowning after him. The expression looked strange on her altered expressions, very much in the way she would frown, but on a face that did not quite fit it.
"Rita didn't really say much about it," Harry said, shrugging. "We really couldn't come at night. It would be too obvious, and they have more guard now than they used to."
"I know," she said, sounding regretful. "It's unfortunate we didn't know somewhere we could hide until nightfall, but…"
Torchlight here barely lit the dark tiled walls and floors. Harry's eyes had a tough time adjusting after the light in the Atrium, but they could not wait to be noticed by the next person to come by. Harry strode forward with Hermione at his side. A part of him wondered how long it would take before they received the alert that Harry and Hermione's Trace had been noticed, and at the Ministry, of all places! They could put on their necklaces, of course, but the spells protecting their identity would immediately disappear. In a balance between recognition and detection from the Trace, they had had to gamble that the Trace would take longer.
"I wish we had a better indication of where to look," Harry grumbled, earning a shrug from Hermione.
"So, there you go," Harry said, sitting across the booth from the woman. "Is that what you were looking for?"
"Yes," Rita said, giving her most winning smile. "That will do perfectly."
"So," Hermione asked, "when will you start looking?"
"It's in the Department of Mysteries," Rita said. "If what you're looking for is anywhere in the Ministry, it will be there. I've got access anywhere else I want."
"You knew?" Harry asked, irritated.
"In Wizard's Chess," Rita replied, smirking, "never tell your opponent your strategy. If you had known I had information, you might have tried to force me to give it up. Journalists are not fools, Harry Potter."
"Where in the Department of Mysteries?" Hermione asked, glaring at the older woman.
"She only knew what she knew," Hermione replied, lighting her wand and walking up the hallway. "We're frankly lucky to get that much information."
They approached the end of the hall, coming up on a plain, black door. Harry pushed it inwards and they faced a room full of doors. They had been here once before, when Death Eaters forced him to take the prophecy. That had broken before it could be used by Voldemort, but the whole of it had left a rather nasty impression in Harry's mind. The darkness and pale, blue/white light of the torches did little to lift the mood. They had discussed this, but neither of them could remember anything about which door was which. Harry suspected the fear and worry of it had wiped that from their minds, if there wasn't a magical source for the forgetfulness.
"Pick one?" Harry asked.
"Let's try this one," Hermione said, opening a door third from the right hand side. "It would help if we had found anything about what could create this barrier."
The room was wide, with seating going up on all sides. In the centre, an archway stood with a fluttering veil covering the gap. This was not one of the rooms they had entered the first time. Harry frowned. The arch was certainly of importance to someone, but would it make a barrier?
"Should we check it out?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, faintly. She looked at the archway with uncertainty, but didn't say anything. They entered, closing the door behind them. No one was in this room, which was a fortunate thing. Harry pulled out his wand and began to circle the dais that held the archway. It had nothing behind it. Literally, the archway stood on its own, like it had been taken from some palace or other building long ago.
Harry shook his head. "I d-" he began, then he stopped.
There was a whispering coming from deep within the archway, if deep was a possible place for something that was no wider than he was. He couldn't make out what the voices were saying… they sounded familiar, somehow, like he should know who was speaking. Still, it meant nothing to him.
"It looks old, Harry," Hermione said, still standing by the closed door.
Harry turned, seeing her hold her arms, her eyes staring at it.
"I don't think we should go near it," she said. "It feels… wrong."
"Do you hear the voices?" Harry asked. "I can hear whispering."
"Come on, Harry," Hermione said, gesturing with her left hand. "I don't think this is what we're looking for."
"But the voices…" Harry began.
"We have to keep moving," she said, her voice stronger. "We don't know how long it will be before someone finds us."
"Oh- okay," Harry replied, giving one last look at the arch before returning to the door with Hermione.
She gave it a final suspicious look and they entered the room of doors. The walls spun around them as the door shut, making Harry dizzy for a second. He shook his head when it finished. Each door looked identical to the ones before it.
"Ah, that's right," Harry said. "It rotates them. That's why the Death Eaters wanted me to hold the door while they opened another one. That would keep it from becoming all tangled up!"
"So, we try each door, and just keep one open while we do it?" Hermione asked the air, nodding. "Just a crack, though. Enough to glance in without getting too much notice, right?"
At the last she looked at Harry, and he nodded, agreeing. They opened the doors one by one, starting from the one right behind Harry. The first had vats full of strange lumps. Harry dismissed it immediately, and they moved on to see rooms with other odd things. The fourth was the room of prophecy they had seen before. There was one completely locked.
"Alohomora!" Hermione tried, frustrated to see no change. "Alohomora! Do you know any other unlocking spells?"
Harry shook his head. "That's the normal one. I don't think I've run across another… maybe? I can't think of any."
"Let's come back to it if we don't find what we're looking for," Hermione said.
They moved methodically onwards, keeping the previous door cracked while they opened the next one. Somehow or other, they had not run across any of the Unspeakables, the Ministry officials who worked in the Department of Mysteries. Harry couldn't imagine why, but he didn't want to question the luck. It was possible they focused on one mystery together each day.
"There's only four more doors," Hermione said, looking at Harry with a frown. "Maybe this isn't …"
"We have to keep trying," Harry said. "It shouldn't take long to try the last few."
Hermione nodded, her frown remaining. Harry opened the next door, and his eyes blazed with amber light. His arm instinctively covered his eyes, but that did not prevent the light from reaching their target. His closed eyes had bright purple swaths coating the face of it. Unlike magical lights Harry was used to, this light did not fade. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked into the room. Beside him, Hermione gasped.
"The crystal tree," Harry managed to utter. "How?"
"Harry," Hermione asked, "what is it?"
"It's… I don't know," Harry said, chuckling. "I just know that there are four of them, and they were in the Room of Requirement, somehow. I saw them there once. I thought I saw them when the Room sent me to Gibraltar. But how they got here…"
"So, they took this from the school?" Hermione asked, sounding shocked.
"They stole it," Harry said, feeling an anger bellowing in his stomach. How could they have taken this from the school?
"So, this is what's making the barrier?" Hermione asked, awe filling her voice.
"It must be," Harry said, stepping towards the light without realising he was walking.
He stopped himself a few steps from the tree itself. This close to the tree, somehow his anger had washed away. There was something so beautiful in it, like a song he had never heard or… Harry couldn't think of how to describe it properly.
"Whatchoo two doin' in a place like this, eh?" asked a grizzled wizard stepping around the glowing tree. "Youz not Unspeakables…"
Harry watched the man, trying to see if he had any colleagues around. The man shouldn't be able to recognise them. They were in disguise. That did not mean they would escape extra inquiries as they had been found deep in the Department of Mysteries. The Death Eaters in the Ministry, particularly, would be interested to find out who was snooping around their special barrier.
"We're… just here to clean," Hermione invented, trying to sound calm. "Someone reported a mess, and I'm afraid we've gotten a bit mixed up."
"We don't have Magical Maintenance down here," the man said, eyeing them suspiciously. "What are your names?"
"I'm Matthew Henry," Harry said, using the name they had agreed upon.
"And I'm Romilda Avers," Hermione added. "I guess this is some mix-up. Apologies."
"We'll go check in with our supervisor," Harry said. "Maybe he's been hitting the Firewhiskey a bit early…"
"I told you it sounded funny," Hermione told him, looking at Harry angrily.
"You said?" Harry replied, confused. Hermione gave him a significant look, and he caught on. "I told you they never have maintenance down here and the old man must be daft!"
"Sounds just like a man to pretend he knew long before he actually did," Hermione said, huffing and turning her back. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips.
If it wasn't so serious, Harry might have busted up laughing. The whole situation was so absurd and he had no idea how the man could possibly believe their story.
"Look, just get back up topside," the man grumbled, sounding irritable. "Take yer argument with ya, right?"
"Ye-yes, that might be best," Harry said.
Hermione only crossed her arms in a really good likeness of a huff, emphasising what Harry had said.
"Out the way you came," the man said, "and out the next door to the right. That'll run straight up to the lift. Got it?"
"We got it," Harry replied, leading Hermione out of the room.
He had opened that door when Hermione shut the other one. The look on her face was amused, and excited somehow.
"Come on," he said. "The man will check on us shortly."
"No, come this way," she said, running over to open a door halfway across the room.
"What?" Harry asked.
"We can't leave without getting the tree out of here," she said, "and we'll never get it out of here during the day. We need somewhere to hide."
She waved him over when the door was open. "Shut that first," she said, pointing to the door he was holding.
Not thinking, Harry shut it. He hurried over.
"They could find us at any time," he whispered as he came even with her. "How do you know they won't find us down here?"
"I don't think you can track anything down here," Hermione said. "If they noticed us, it will be a very minor blip and seem like something went wrong with their monitoring spells. We should be able to hide out here for hours."
"If the man doesn't find us," Harry pointed out. "Or someone else."
"It's worth it," she said. "We have to try. Now, go in, I'll shut the door so he doesn't find us in the entry."
She half pushed Harry into the room. Harry's eyes went wide as he saw which she had chosen.
"The prophecy room?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, walking past him. "It's large and probably rarely occupied. We could hide in some remote spot and hear anyone coming long before they came nearby. We wait until nightfall and slip out, grab the tree and Apparate with it from the Atrium."
"Hopefully we can move it," Harry said, following.
"We'll have to figure that out when we get there," Hermione said. "We should have time."
"Alright," Harry said. "I guess, worst case, we can fight our way back to the Atrium to escape. Let's just hope no more than one person at a time comes across us."
Hermione nodded, and then said, "Let's keep quiet, for now. We'll crouch over there, watching and listening for anyone coming."
Time passed, slowly. Harry stood occasionally, stretching, but remaining as quietly as possible. Hermione glanced around when he did that, and gave him a smile and a nod. Harry wasn't sure how much time had passed. It just felt never-ending. He had to keep alert, though. The faint glow that rose and fell on the rack of prophecies nearby was the only change, and that slow, gradual. It was a bit hypnotic, though. Several would change from light to dark in a group and then nothing would happen for some time.
Every once in a while, there was some distant sound. It could be an experiment in another area, maybe even just doors slamming in the hall. Harry really couldn't tell. He gripped his wand a little more tightly when that happened. But each time, nothing happened. After a few minutes, Harry relaxed a little. If Hermione was tensing as much as he was each time, she gave no sign. She remained perfectly quiet. In the quiet, he could hear her breathing, and his own. Both were relatively slow and quiet.
Eventually, all sounds stopped. Ages passed without a sound. Hermione didn't tell him what she was waiting on or how she meant to know when the Ministry had shut for the night, but she did not show any sign of indecision. She looked deep in thought, though. Harry had spent a short time trying to come up with the best way to move the tree. Levitation made the most sense. Maybe one of them could hover the tree into the lift and the other be ready to defend. There could be a guard on the ground floor, but one guard was not the same as a dozen Death Eaters. He would take one over many any day.
"Okay," Hermione said. "That should do it."
"How'd you know?" Harry asked, confused.
"The prophecies on this row glow periodically, right?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah?" Harry asked. "A bunch of them change at the same time."
"That one, though," Hermione said, pointing to a random one, "changes every ten minutes. I counted the first one off and then just noticed how many times it changed."
"Brilliant," Harry said.
Hermione smiled. "Let's go take care of that tree."
"I figured one of us could levitate it," Harry said, "assuming it isn't held down in some way. And the other can be ready if anyone finds us."
"That sounds very sensible," Hermione said, nodding as she opened the door back to the hall of doors.
"I'll get the other door," Harry said, walking across to the other side of the hall.
He pulled open the door and saw the blaze of amber light hit his eyes again. Hermione was beside him before he noticed he had walked into the room again. Blinking Harry turned his eyes away from the tree for a moment.
"It kinda draws you in," Hermione said, shaking her head. "I don't know how that man was not affected."
"It was like this last time, but more," Harry said. "With all the trees… it was … overwhelming."
"Well, let's see if we can lift the tree and get it out of here," Hermione said. "We can work out how to stop the barrier later… if taking it doesn't do that."
"And how to get it back to Hogwarts," Harry said. "That's where it belongs."
"Right," Hermione said, frowning. "Later. For now… Wingardium Leviosa!"
Harry felt a stab of something, like a spike of anger or pain. He wasn't sure what, but the tree must have been behind it. The tree floated and the feeling went away. There was something, uneasy, like a worried sort of feeling. But it fell to the background as the light sent its soothing feeling over him again.
"Did you feel that?" Hermione asked, her hand wavering.
"Keep it in the air," Harry insisted. "I … I did. I think it felt it and was … scared?"
"The tree?" Hermione asked, looking at him, startled.
"I don't think it is a tree," Harry said. "It thinks… feels."
Hermione looked at the tree, doubtful, but looked away, clearly trying to resist the feelings the tree gave her. "Let's keep it from brushing on things, in any case," she said. "Whatever it is… I can feel something from it."
Harry led the way, his wand held out in front of him. They backtracked through the hall of rooms, and down the empty corridor to the lift. The place felt as empty as it had been earlier, but he was sure that it was more so. The Ministry was after hours, so very few people would be around. They might just pull this off.
Harry crowded into the back of the lift and Hermione was at the front, keeping the tree floating carefully in the middle. The lift moved for a very short time, stopping in the Atrium with a faint bell sound. Harry couldn't see anything until Hermione moved out and took the blazing bright tree with her. He stepped out and could only see up to the Magical Brethren statue. The security desk was empty. What luck!
As he took a couple steps, the hair rose on his arm and he thought he heard a sound.
"Get down!" he called out.
He ducked down as a dozen spells flew through the air. A heavy thud from beside him filled him with dread before the tree struck the ground with an even worse feeling. It felt like the universe was crying and in pain. If Harry hadn't been low to the ground already, he would have fallen over. From cries across the Atrium, the mysterious attackers had felt the same without any preparation.
Harry shot a look at Hermione, and could see her, unconscious and breathing heavily. The tree, however, had fallen on its side, the amber glow almost an angry shout in his eyes. Shouts began to come from the other end of the hall. Whatever affect the tree had had on them seemed to be fading. Harry crawled over, his wand still grasped hard in his right hand. He sent spells over his shoulder and ahead and basically in any direction he could manage as he crawled to Hermione's side.
He couldn't see who was there or how many. All he saw was Hermione and the blazing light of the tree. Taking Hermione's arm by she elbow and the tree with as tight a grasp as he could manage with his wand hand, Harry turned, focusing on where he wanted to go. As he went, a blaze of red light seemed to close on him, mere metres, one metre, no metres….
The hard compression felt worse than ever, nearly shaking him out of it in the first instant. His grips on Hermione and the tree might as well have been grips on oiled sails being pulled away by a gale. But he hung on. With every last ounce of his strength, Harry clung to the tree and his girlfriend. He couldn't let go. Even if it broke his arms - as it seemed it might - he couldn't let go.
Then, with a crack, he felt solid ground below him. Immediately, he took a look at Hermione. She still breathed steadily, more easily than before. The tree pulsed, its amber blazing forth in this small alley. It seemed… bewildered was the best term he could think of. He didn't mind it for the moment, though he knew he would have to move it soon. That would draw attention if nothing else did.
Waving his wand over Hermione, he said, "Ennervate! Finite!"
Hermione shook and her disguise disappeared. She looked up at him, herself again, and awake. Harry smiled at her.
"I'm so glad you're okay," he said, helping her up.
"What happened?" she asked, shaking her head. "Where are we?"
"The alley," he said. "The emergency one. Someone was waiting for us, but I think the tree falling confused them enough I could Apparate us here. We need to get the tree into the hideout, for now. They will find this entrance, but I didn't know how far I'd have to carry you and the tree."
"I'm fine," she said. "I'll carry the tree. Let's get down there."
She levitated the tree again, descending into the manhole while Harry watched for anyone coming. How had they found them? That was far more than one security guard. Maybe the Unspeakable warned the people in the Atrium? Maybe he had been a Death Eater, in fact, and Voldemort had suspected it might be Harry and Hermione? He shook his head. No way to tell.
Harry descended after Hermione and the tree, seeing no one else coming. They could sort all that out later. For now, at least, she was safe. They both were. And they had the tree. They could break the barrier. They would find a way.