Disclaimer: we don't own Harry Potter or the Harry Potter universe. Those belong to J. K. Rowling and her wonderful muses.
Author's Note: thank you everyone for reviewing! I'm glad my little twist surprised everyone. Here's a secret. It surprised me too the second I wrote it. I finally got back my internet and phone lines (I've been without them for a month or so) and so I'm finally back to business. Also, I have two new betas who are stupendous and so helpful, I don't know how I managed without them before:) also, Vocare Prabia is now on another site called Wizards Tales and will soon (hopefully) be on Schnoogle in Fiction Alley. So, if you want to read the new, improved, spotless version of VP (same story, less spelling and plot mistakes) then look at my profile. I should have links to both sites in the coming days.
Note: Posted before beta-ing. Will be revised in a few days for spelling and grammar.
Chapter Thirty Seven: Ministry Red Tape
Ginny's eyes opened before she was fully conscious. As she looked around, she was conscious of someone staring at her, though for what purpose, she wasn't sure. As she became aware of herself, she slowly sat up and looked around. She was immediately aware of the cold and the bars on the window. The furnishings in the room were Spartan in nature, with a plain wooden desk to one corner and a vanity off beside a large black wardrobe.
Draco Malfoy sat on the edge of her bed, his eyes distant and cold. When he noticed that she was awake, a wide grin spread over his face. "Good to see you're finally awake, Weasley. I was starting to think I'd hit you too hard."
"Why didn't…" she paused, licking her dry lips, "why didn't you just use a Stunning spell on me?" He looked extremely amused by her question.
"Where's the fun in that?" He levitated a tray with food and a goblet of water. "You'll be seeing my Master fairly soon so I expect you to be presentable. We're also going to deal with several of the unpleasant members of your universe while you're up." He wrinkled his nose. "I don't know how you stand it."
"Stand what?" Ginny muttered, rubbing the back of her head. She was still not quite sure what was going on. She was aware that Draco was with her, she was aware that her head was aching, and she was aware that she should be scared. But she wasn't. She was somewhat fascinated by the whole turn of events.
"Don't you worry about it." Draco said in a leisurely voice. He's making fun of me, Ginny realized with a hint of irritation. And maybe a little curiosity too.
"Where am I?" Ginny tried instead.
"An undisclosed location in an undisclosed town. We wouldn't want you blabbing to Potter in case you get away now do we?"
"Well what's the good in keeping me around if you're not even going to tell me anything?" And then she added, almost without thinking, "It's not as if anyone would believe me anyway."
"Potter not believe you?" Draco's eyebrows slowly went up. He looked cute confused, Ginny noted with a slight trembling in her heart. She tried to stay focused but her mind was wondering to some things about Draco other than his obvious detachment from reality. She suddenly drew herself up short. Something terrible happened to him and I've got my mind in the gutter! Come on, Gin, stop being so useless!
"Well, I'll admit he believes me now because of where he's from and all, but no one else would believe anything I have to say."
"And why's that?" He leaned towards her, resting his chin against his palm as he stared at her without a hint of modesty – typical Draco. Ginny felt herself starting to blush but she fought down the urge to shrink back and frowned at him.
"You know very well why." She looked around slowly. "Because of the Chamber, of course."
"Why don't you refresh my memory?"
"What'll you give me?" Ginny said. Draco's lips twitched the way they always did when he was amused.
"Well, I could refrain from killing you right now."
"As if you would."
"You have no idea what I'm capable of."
"I've seen you with your cat. You can't be that bad."
Draco made an exasperated snorting sound. "What the hell is up with that? How much of a damned coward do I have to be to fawn all over some cat Potter sent me? It's enough to make me want to kill myself."
"I think it's adorable." Ginny said firmly.
"You would." Draco said, reclining in his seat. "I can't believe I'm such a… a…" Ginny couldn't help feeling surprised. Draco was never one to scramble for words. Was he really so flustered that he couldn't think of a word bad enough for his supposed poor behavior?
"As I said, I think it's adorable."
"Weasley, if you don't stop calling me adorable, I'll think you like me or something." Draco said amusedly.
"What makes you think I don't like you?"
"Well, for starters, I'm not the Draco Malfoy from your universe. I'm from the same place Potter's from." Draco said. He leaned forward, staring at her face.
"Sure you are." Ginny said, frowning. "You almost had me convinced. Except that we've done this before."
"We've done… what before?" Draco demanded, leaning even closer.
"Well, we've left school together before." Ginny said, feeling a tiny seed of irritation taking hold of her. Normally Draco didn't bother her, not to say that Draco wasn't annoying. He was plenty annoying. Thing was, Ginny was a bit smarter than him, and more patient. She could usually stay a few steps ahead of him when it came to making jokes and poking fun at the other (especially in front of the other Gryffindors and Slytherins). Suddenly, being in front of him now, she felt strangely… lesser. He had never been intimidated by her, but he'd always had respect for her. The way Draco was looking at her now, she didn't recognize it. There wasn't respect in it. Just curiosity.
"Go on." Draco said.
"Er, what?"
Patiently, he said "You said we've left school together before. Tell me more."
"Why? You were there."
"Tell me anyway."
"Okay." Ginny said. She felt herself start to blush again and scowled at herself. What was wrong with her? She'd never felt this flustered around Draco before. They'd snogged tons of times and he'd nearly seen her naked that one time (it was an accident, but not an unpleasant one) but here he was just looking at her, and not even in a sexual way, and she was acting like a complete weirdo! She resolved not to let him bother her. She resolved this by staring at the wall just over his right ear.
"Well, it was during a really sunny day at Hogwarts. I was studying for a Charms test and you snuck into the Gryffindor tower. My roommates were in the Great Hall so it was just me. You went up and just said, 'Let's get out of here, I can't take it anymore.' And then we snuck first into Hogsmeade and then we went to this little Muggle stop you somehow knew about and we took a car. You didn't know how to drive one since your dad is so anti-Muggle but I did so I drove us. We didn't drive too long, it wasn't even much of an escape or anything, but we went to this little meadow and I taught you how to drive." At this, Ginny felt herself grinning. "You were determined to get it right. You almost drove us off a cliff because you didn't know how to stop and you kept hitting the accelerator." Ginny giggled. "And then when you could finally drive somewhat well, you insisted you drive back to the spot we'd gotten it from and so we ended up missing dinner. You didn't care though. You took me to the kitchens as if you'd planned to skip dinner the whole time. You got the house elves to make us our own private feast. You said you'd take me farther away next time we did that." And now she finally looked at him. "So I know you can't be telling the truth. About not being who I know you are."
He was looking at her very oddly.
"I cannot believe how stupid I am in this universe." He said, fascinated. "And I didn't try to take advantage of you or anything? Please don't tell me I didn't at least try to feel you up. Because if I didn't, I'm going to fear the worst and say that I'm probably homosexual."
"You're not!" Ginny growled, immediately angry. It wasn't the suggestion so much as his insistence that if he was dating her, it meant he had to be gay. What the hell was this?
It wasn't that she was homophobic. Of course she wasn't. Percy was bisexual and the family had been suspecting Charlie for a while now but… well, that didn't mean her boyfriend had the… the right to turn gay! Wait… what was she even talking about? He hadn't said he was gay. He was being sarcastic.
He seemed to know exactly what she'd been thinking because he had the most horrendous smirk on his face. Ginny glared at him.
"Start being crazy again, I like you better when you're trying to kill me."
"Ah, I will soon, don't you worry about that." He said with a lazy smirk. "It's just too easy to infuriate you."
"Shut up, Malfoy."
The door opened then and someone poked their head into the room. Ginny felt her skin crawl, just a little, when she saw that it was Bellatrix Lestrange. She'd seen wanted pictures of her all over Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley after she and some other Death Eaters had escaped from Azkaban. Seeing her now, in the flesh, made her start to realize that maybe Draco was telling the truth and he really was planning to kill her or do something like that.
Well, she could handle it. Ginny set her chin and began reminding herself, over and over, of the things she had gone through in the Chamber of Secrets. She had very nearly died. If Neville hadn't come and rescued her life, she would have died. Not only that, she may have ended up killing someone this time. Harry had told her it hadn't been her fault before, that she had been possessed, but she couldn't suppress the guilt that overwhelmed her just remembering the things she had done. She could still remember strangling Hagrid's roosters and speaking Parseltongue to the sink in Myrtle's bathroom, crawling in the muck and over animal bones as she went to see the Basilisk. She remembered never to look directly into its eyes lest she die instantly, but she remembered seeing huge hunks of its body as it slithered around her, always delighted to see her, always eager to go slithering in the pipes.
She shuddered, remembering its eager desire to rip and tear people. Deep inside her, she felt the familiar yank of Tom. He was still there, somewhere inside her head. He had been strangely quietly ever since Harry had shown up. She remembered a time when he would torment her dreams, persuading her and pleading with her to do things, to find things out for him. It was primarily because of him that she had become so reclusive, avoiding friends and groups of people, even refusing to read the Dailey Prophet in case something set him off. It wasn't until Harry came along and introduced her to Draco that things had changed.
"- and he tried to run so the Dark Lord had him placed under Cruciatus and now he can't walk." Bellatrix was saying. Ginny blinked and shook herself, angry that she had missed something.
"I should have expected the coward to run." Draco said, looking smug. "Never mind. He won't try it again, even if he could walk. Master always knows how to pound any sort of rebellion out of the people he meets."
"I see." Bellatrix glanced at Ginny and then looked around. She wanted to ask something, that much was obvious, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to say whatever was on her mind.
"What is it?" Draco finally asked when he couldn't contain his curiosity. Except, of course, he didn't say it impatiently. He said it in a drawling voice, as if it didn't matter what she had to say. Bellatrix looked directly at him and frowned. She wasn't accustomed to Draco (or anyone, for that matter) speaking quite that way.
"It's just strange, to see the Dark Lord behaving the way he does. His ambitions were never exactly… the same." She struggled to find the words. "Our actions were always more of a show than real. We made threats, we tortured some and killed some, but it seems so minimal compared to some of the stories he's told us."
"What do you expect?" Draco drawled. "He went all the way. He did everything he swore he would. That is, except for kill Potter. But that will come later." He smirked.
"Why would You-Know-Who want to kill Harry?" The words were out of Ginny's mouth before she could stop them. Draco and Bellatrix both looked at her.
"Don't you know?" Draco asked. He said it patiently, as if he were speaking to a child.
"I don't know why he would, unless he were…" and she stopped, really thinking about all she had heard so far. Draco from Harry's universe, the Dark Lord acting strangely and… and then it made sense. "Oh Merlin." Ginny whispered.
"She's smarter than she looks." Bellatrix said in amusement.
"Don't go jumping to conclusions." Draco said. He stood and made his way to the door. "Coming Weasley? It's best not to keep the Master waiting." Ginny stood up mechanically, her mind racing. She knew she was in danger, more danger than the Chamber. Was she going to be murdered?
The fear took hold of her so tightly that she suddenly couldn't move, could barely breathe. She was going to die. She was going to be murdered. Oh God, he wasn't like anyone here, he was powerful like Harry. He was powerful like Draco. Only, he was even more than that because he was the Dark Lord!
She suddenly remembered how it felt to be in the Room of Requirement with Harry as he taught. His aura would expand as he explained something to her and Draco, his eyes would flash, his magic would be so strong. She remembered the way that he just seemed to come alive, how the room would come alive around him. And the fear became even worse as she realized that she was about to meet the anti-Harry, the evil to his good, the root of evil in a world far stronger than her own. And somehow she knew that the Dark Lord would have something much more creative than death in mind for her. Would he torture her? She thought she knew what torture was, she had always thought she could handle anything after the Chamber of Secrets, but did she really know what it meant to be tortured to the point of insanity? Did she really have the courage to keep her mouth shut?
"Weasley." Draco said impatiently. He watched her and, slowly, realized that she was having a panic attack. "Hey Weasley, calm down." He said, his eyebrows arching up in surprise.
She didn't answer. Instead, she fell to her knees, gasping for breath and gripping the edge of the bed beside her. She started to black out, so intense was her terror, before two strong arms jerked her upright and someone slapped her, hard. She jerked back, staring up into Draco's furious face.
"Save your energy for the Dark Lord." Draco growled. "There's no fun in killing yourself." He started dragging her towards the door. Terror took hold of Ginny again and she dug her heels into the carpet, digging her nails into his wrist and trying to jerk out of his grip. It was suddenly necessary, imperative even, to get away from Draco. She couldn't, she just could not, face the Dark Lord.
Draco growled and ignored her nails. He dragged her from the room, kicking and screaming.
Leonardo Langdy sat behind his desk, his quill scratching at a yellowing parchment with green ink, scritch scritch, scritch scritch, dip, plop, scritch scritch. He was sending a note of complaint to the Minister of Magic. He was requesting that the Ministry stop trying to send interns to the Department of Mysteries since these innocent (and sometimes not-so-innocent) youths had a habit of disappearing after a few days, usually after fooling around with some of the more dangerous doors. He was requesting that the Minister please consider, for the sake of all parties included and present during these proceedings, begging the Minister's pardon, that these youths find other departments in which to practice their obviously useful skills. The Department of Mysteries was a serious and full-time commitment that interns were not generally prepared to deal with.
Feeling satisfied with himself, Leonardo (Leon to his friends) rose from his desk and moved towards the doorway. Opening his office door, he moved out and down the hallway towards the lift that would take him to the Minister's main office. He would hand deliver his message and make sure an owl couldn't "accidentally" not reach the Minister. It was ridiculous, how much the Ministry ignored the Department of Mysteries sometimes. It was, after all, the main reason the Ministry had been construed in the first place.
As he walked, he felt the strange sensation of being followed. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed something quite strange. Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was leading a group of five students and Minerva McGonagall. Three of the boys were easily recognizable. Ronald Weasley, son of Arthur Weasley, had the tell-tale fiery red hair typical of his lineage. Beside him was Neville Longbottom, the Boy Who Lived (everyone, even a sheltered Untouchable from the Department of Mysteries, knew that). And, of course, there was Draco Malfoy, though why he was with this strange assortment of companions, he didn't know. As for the other two teenagers, he was fairly sure that one of them was important somehow. He certainly walked in a way that suggested importance. He couldn't put his finger on a name, though.
"Good day, Albus! Minerva, you're looking splendid today." Leon said happily as he slowed his pace to wait for them. He liked Albus and Minerva. They were smarter than most of the Ministry workers (at least the ones in positions of power) and they were great sources of information. Leon, being the head of the Department of Mysteries, didn't get out much. That and they always gave him the impression of knowing more than they let on. And, being the head of the Department of Mysteries, Leon was always fond of mysteries.
"Leon, how are you?" Albus said pleasantly as he continued walking. Leon quickly kept stride with him, grinning.
"As good as can be. What has you at the Ministry today? No bad news, I hope. We already have enough of that going around with those escaped-," and he paused as it came to him. The boy, the boy he hadn't been able to place… Potter. Harry Potter. Son of Lily and James Potter. Oh, this would have gotten awkward had he finished his thought. "Well, things have been busy. What do you need?"
"I'm afraid we do have a bit of a crisis." Albus said apologetically. "I would love to stay and chat. Unfortunately, we have to meet some Aurors immediately."
"Oh, of course! I had no idea it was that serious." Leon's mind raced, curiosity threatening to overtake him. How he wanted to know what was going on! He started following them, despite his better judgment. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I don't think so, my old friend." Albus said with a small smile. "There are forces at work that, I am afraid to say, will have little to do with the Department of Mysteries."
The Potter boy perked up and stopped walking altogether. Strangely, everyone else did as well and gave him a funny look. "You're in the Department of Mysteries?" He demanded, arching an incredulous eyebrow. Leon frowned.
"I am the head of the department." He said, feeling no small amount of pride consume him. And why not? He was proud of who he was! He had earned his position, and without any help from anybody. The Department of Mysteries was usually ignored in the political arena since there was nothing about it that dictated social policy, specifically because the department was, as its name implied, mysterious.
"Has anyone tried to break into the Hall of Prophecy recently?" The boy demanded. Leon felt the blood drain out of his face and collect around his toes.
"How… how do you know about that?" He said in a soft whisper.
"I just do, that's not important. Has anyone tried to take a prophecy from the Hall?" Harry Potter. That was the boy's name wasn't it? Leon felt himself swell protectively.
"Mr. Potter, I don't think that's really any of your business-,"
"Leon, it is important." Albus suddenly said. Leon turned to glare at him but found that Albus too looked a little curious about Harry's answer. Professor McGonagall was looking flat-out confused by the whole situation. Well, he was all for learning something new, but there was more than one reason the Department was mysterious. Unspeakables were not meant to be spoken to or to speak of their work.
"The Hall of Prophecy holds a lot of… painful memories for my friends and me." Harry said carefully. "This may sound ridiculous, but we were in there once, in the Hall of Prophecy. We saw a prophecy and some rather nasty things happened. I just want to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again."
Leon opened his mouth to protest but the words died in his throat. The look in the boy's eyes… it was so serious. He wasn't lying, he was certain of that. Leon frowned, considering his options. He could certainly tell them, couldn't he? It may help him more than hurt him, after all. He was up against a wall right now and just letting the confusion wash over him would not help anyone, most especially him.
"There have been strange incidents in the Department recently." Leon finally acquiesced. "The cabinet filled with Time-turners mysteriously started shattering and repairing itself, over and over. The prophecies within in the hall started spontaneously exploding, some all at once and others at strange times. We don't know what to make of it but we've been handling it." He couldn't help adding the last part. Unlike the sluggish inefficiency of the rest of the Ministry, the Department of Mysteries secretly prided itself on being up-to-speed and quick when decisions were made. They didn't have to wait for higher-up orders before they could act.
"As I thought." Hermione said, biting on her thumb nail. "We're influencing this universe with our proximity to it. It's very likely that the two may merge completely. The seams dividing us are slowly unraveling."
"Thank you for your help," Harry said. He looked to Dumbledore and a little worry came to him. "Sir, can we find the Aurors now? We have to get Ginny back."
"Yes." Dumbledore said, also looking worried. McGonagall began ushering them away.
"What are you talking about?" Leon demanded, his eyes wide. He jumped when he felt the brush of… something against his shoulder. He turned his head but nothing was there. When he looked back, the group was walking away. "Hey! Dumbledore, what the bloody hell is going on?" He demanded, running after them.
James slowly exhaled when the man had gone and huddled closer to his wife and Sirius under the Invisibility Cloak as they hurried down the hall. Sirius very quietly apologized for touching Leon and Lily whispered back that it was alright. Together they shuffled and scurried to the doors of the Department of Mysteries. As they neared the door, they waited to make sure no one would be coming in or out (especially Leon) and then quickly withdrew the Invisibility Cloak. James stuffed it into his pocket and opened the door, waiting for his two companions to go inside before closing the door.
"Okay, we don't have more than a few hours. Harry's counting on us to find this prophecy of his before we can go back."
"But didn't he and Hermione just say in the hallway that the prophecy shattered? And who's to say it even existed here? Chances are more likely that it would belong to Neville." Sirius said as he looked at the circle of possible doors.
"It may be the key to everything." Lily said, peering at the doors. "It wasn't destroyed, I don't think. I have a hunch anyway."
"That's the one." James said, pointing to a door to their far left and a little behind Sirius. "I remember when Leon gave me the tour while I was still training to become an Auror. See? I told you I'd remember." James went and opened the door, frowning as he looked inside.
Sirius arched an eyebrow and mumbled to Lily. "How in the name of Merlin would he know the difference between the doors? They all look the same to me."
"Don't think too much about it." Lily said, a hint of amusement in her voice as James closed the door and waited for the room to stop spinning. "Whatever method he was using, it obviously isn't working."
"I'll get it." James said irritatedly.
"Whatever you do just hurry, this place gives me the creeps." Sirius said. He felt a shiver go up his spine inexplicably. He had been to plenty of haunted and frightening places before but being here, in this place, made him feel as if cold water had been poured down his spine. This was somehow even worse than Azkaban with the dementors. He shuddered and waited impatiently for James to pick another door.
"Aha! I found it!"
"It was dumb luck." Lily said as she went into the room. James glared at her back as Sirius followed after her and James, making sure to close the door.
They were inside of an enormous, dark room. Sirius jerked when they started floating into the air. He quickly grabbed hold of James's hand and James also grabbed onto Lily (though he had to get her ankle since she started floating before either of them). A star floated by them as they went.
"Huh, you don't see that every day." Lily said as they went past it. Sirius snorted and held on to James, watching as they passed a cluster of stars gathered together not too far from the lone star.
As they went, James said "We'll get there soon. We could have gone directly to the Time Room but if what Leon said was true, there are probably Unspeakables there trying to salvage the wreckage that's going on there. This way we can sneak in directly to the Hall of Prophecy before anyone can see us."
"What exactly did you do to get to view the Department of Mysteries? It's not exactly a common tourist attraction, even for Aurors." Sirius said, highly curious. When Harry first suggested sneaking into the Department of Mysteries to check out a hunch Hermione had about the prophecies, James had been the first to suggest the three of them. When he'd been vague about knowing his way around the Department, Harry hadn't left much time to question him about it. Sirius was curious though, especially because James had never mentioned it to him.
"Well, do you remember my bachelor's party?" James said.
"Er, not all of it." Sirius said with a grin.
"Do I even want to hear this conversation?" Lily demanded from a little above them. She twisted her body to watch a comet flash by her, speeding off into the darkness.
"I won't go into detail," James hastily said, "but Leon showed up at one point. He got pretty drunk and said some interesting stuff about the inside, namely some of the lesser known rooms. Even the Hall of Prophecy was pretty famous outside of the Department and there were rumors of other rooms. I've always been interested in it."
"I remember you talking about interning there after Hogwarts," Sirius said thoughtfully, "but then when your dad was murdered…" He left the rest of the thought unspoken.
"Exactly," James said, "I became an Auror. Getting back to my story, while he was drunk, Leon started making outrageous bets with some of the more sober party-goers, namely the stripper-,"
"Stripper?" Lily said in an interested voice.
"Sirius's idea," James said, which was a blatant lie, "anyway, so he was telling her his life's story and how much money he made. She got interested and started talking about marriage."
"She wasn't particularly right in the head." Sirius added since Lily was still glaring at James. "She was harmless, promise."
"Anyway," James said a bit impatiently, "He almost asked her to marry him. I intervened and sent her off in Remus's direction, which he probably never forgave me for, and he said he would owe me a favor for saving his life. That favor was getting a tour of this place."
"Is that really true?" Sirius demanded. It sounded too whacky.
"Of course that's not the story." James said, smirking. "I just made it up to see how pissed off at me Lily could get."
Lily kicked James's knuckles as they coasted by an especially large planet with seven small moons. Sirius snorted into his hand. He knew the real story behind it was probably less complicated, probably James's father took him before he'd died. James was always like that though, making up outrageous stories to hide the pain of memories better left forgotten.
"I think we're here." Lily said as she took hold of a doorknob. She pushed open the door and touched down on the floor. They stepped into the Hall of Prophecy and started walking down the rows, looking for the one Harry had mentioned.