Chapter 53: Department of Mysteries

We reached the Ministry in an hour's time. A very scary, painful hour it was. So, when we landed in front of the old telephone box, Hermione, Ginny, and I practically kissed the ground. I had never missed the stability and firmness of cement so much in my life.

Harry quickly guided us into the telephone box, where we all got nametags. Mine said, "Ami Coy: Rescue Mission."

The telephone box then plunged into the ground, and eventually revealed the large, beautiful room that is the Ministry's Atrium. In the center of the room was a golden fountain that featured a witch, a wizard, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. I had been in the Ministry one before with my aunt, but that was many years ago. I didn't remember it being so magnificent, and yet, so ominous. It was deathly quiet, and there wasn't another soul in sight.

"Come on." Harry whispered. Our seven pairs of feet squeaked against the hardwood floors as we sprinted to the lifts. We squished into the noisy lift, which took us down and down and down until we reached the Department of Mysteries.

My heart thumped loudly as we stepped into the long corridor. At the end of the hall was the tallest door I had ever seen. Each step we took toward the door made the prospect of fighting Death Eaters more and more real…

Inside the door was another room. It was shaped like a circle, and the walls were lined with more doors. At least a dozen of them. Ginny and I exchanged nervous looks, before turning our eyes to Harry. He studied the doors carefully, when the room suddenly began to rotate. I took a step back as if to regain my balance, but it wasn't the room moving. It was the wall, and the doors moved along with it.

"What was that about?" Ron asked when the wall stopped spinning.

"To keep us from knowing which door we came from." I said immediately.

Harry nodded. "We should try a few doors. I'll know the right one when I see it."

Trying all those different doors was the last thing I wanted do, but I followed the rest of my friends through the door directly in front of us.

This room was mostly empty, except for a few desks placed around the room and a large fish tank in the center. There were round, gray objects floating lazily in the tank.

"Are they fish?" asked Ginny. I took a step toward the tank. Definitely not fish. I took a few more steps towards the tank, as if in a trance. Hermione appeared next to me.

Luna suggested that they were Aquavirius maggots. No one responded.

There was something very strange about the objects in the tank. I felt like I had to see what was in there. As Hermione and I examined the tanks, I noticed that each object was wrinkled, and had two equal halves…

"Brains." Hermione whispered, and I knew she was right.

"What is the Ministry doing with brains?" I said quietly, moving even closer to the tank.

"Let's get out of here. This isn't the right room." Harry said.

Hermione followed Harry and the others out of the room. I took one last glance at the tank of brains, and left.

The next room we tried had seats lined around the walls. In the center was an old, stone archway. A black veil hung from the archway.

I didn't find this room as enchanting as the brain room. Instead, I found it very chilling and wished to get out of there as soon as possible. Harry, however, approached the arch carefully. "Can't anyone else hear it?" He asked. "There's people in there!"

Luna said she could hear the voices, too. I looked at Hermione; she looked annoyed and nervous. Hermione ushered Harry away from the arch, reminding him of our mission.

In the room with the doors, we tried another door. This door didn't open, but it gave off a powerful aura. It seemed exotic, yet very familiar. Hermione, practical as always, told us that this couldn't be the right door. But this door seemed so right…I looked at it with longing when Hermione dragged me and the others away.

When we entered the next door, Harry said immediately, "This is it!"

I squinted against the bright lights that the room radiated. It was like a disco ball on steroids. I never got to discover what the bright lights were because Harry said, "This way!" and we rushed to follow him through another door.

The next room was filled to the brim with shelves, each lined with small glass orbs. Harry continued to run through the aisles, looking for a particular section. I held my wand tightly as I sprinted after him. My hand was sweaty.

We reached row ninety-seven, but there was no sign of Sirius. No sign of anyone, in fact. The only thing you could hear was our rapid breaths and the sound of Neville running to catch up with us.

"I don't think Sirius is here, Harry. Or ever was…" Hermione said quietly, stating what the rest of us were thinking. Harry turned away from us in shame. I wasn't particularly mad, though. I would've done the same if there was a chance someone I cared about was in danger.

I was about to say that none of us blamed him, when Ron said, "Have you seen this, Harry?"

Ron was looking at one of the orbs on a shelf. "It's got your name on it, Harry."

We gathered around to look at the orb. It read: "S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter."

All eyes were on Harry. He slowly reached up and took the orb off the shelf, studying it closely. My heartbeat started going at a mile a minute. I felt as if we had reached the climax of a scary movie, and the music was playing louder and louder, when:

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me," said Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father.

Several black figures appeared out of the shadows. Death Eaters. Ginny and I both raised our wands, slowly, but Hermione shot us a warning glance.

Lucius Malfoy and a Death Eater that I recognized from the news, Bellatrix Lestrange, began to speak with Harry. They revealed that Sirius was truly not here, and Voldemort had lured Harry to this spot to get the prophecy, because only Harry could pick it up. Malfoy mentioned something about it describing why Harry had his scar.

At a point in their conversation, I heard a very, very quiet voice whispering in my ear: Smash Shelves. It was Hermione who spoke to me. I copied Hermione and whispered to Ginny, who whispered to Ron, who whispered to Neville, who whispered to Luna.

I raised my wand, just slightly, waiting for the signal. I spotted a single orb on a shelf, and mentally made that my target. And then Harry's voice yelled, "NOW!"

And all hell broke loose.

"Reducto!" all seven of us yelled at once. It was soon raining with glass and shards, and the shelf structures swayed dangerously until they began to crash into one another, like dominos.

"RUN!" Harry shouted.

I put my arms over my head and sprinted forward. Pieces of glass fell scraped my arms and face, but I gritted my teeth and kept running. I heard shouts of different spells and curses. I looked behind me, and shouted "Stupefy!" at a Death Eater raising his wand towards Hermione.

I turned back and ran faster. Hermione pulled in front of me, but that was the last I saw of her. She turned a corner, and I followed, but I couldn't see her through the chaos. I stopped in my tracks, but Ginny and Ron pushed me forward. We ran to the nearest door, and dived in the room.

Luna fell on top of us. The four of us quickly scrambled up, and took in our surroundings. The room was very dark, and tiny lights glittered around us. Also, planets floated around us in midair. I had a childish urge to touch Saturn as it floated by, but I thought better of it.

Returning my mind to the situation, I went to lock the door.

"Collo-AGHH!" Before I could finish the spell, the door burst opened and I was slammed backward against a desk in the middle of the room. My head hit the top of the table, but I hoped back up and yelled, "Reducto!"

Some of the Death Eaters who had just run into the Space Room were blown backwards. However, one came straight after me yelling, "STUPEFY!"

"Protego!" I said, and rolled to the side. "Impedimenta!" I didn't see where the Death Eater landed, but I spotted Ginny having trouble with another Death Eater across the room. I shouted, "Stupefy!" at whatever black figure I saw as I ran towards Ginny. I yelped in pain when I was levitated and thrown across the room, hitting several planets.

Feeling very dizzy and tasting blood, I saw that the Death Eater had now grabbed Ginny's leg. "Reducto!" I yelled, but in my weak state, I missed and hit a planet. It was Pluto. However, it worked in my favor and when Pluto exploded, it sent the Death Eater flying. But the blast sent Ginny flying a few feet as well, and she screamed in pain when she landed on her foot.

I sprinted to her side, and tried to help her up. I heard Ron yell, Luna shout a hex, and a deep voice say, "Sectumsempra!"

I gave out a quick screech of pain, and saw that from my right hip down was now bleeding badly. Very badly. Luna shouted out another spell, before yelling at us, "Come on!" She was guiding Ron to another door, so I gritted my teeth and helped Ginny run-well, quickly limp- to the door.

We jumped through the door, and I shut it just as I heard a Death Eater scream, "Avad-"

I didn't even look to see where we were. I just closed my eyes and tried to slow down my breathing. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Hermione standing over me. Luna was telling the story of what had happened in the Space Room. She said Ginny probably had a broken ankle, and Ron had been hit with some spell and now he was very loopy.

Hermione helped me and Luna helped Ginny walk to another door, despite both our protests that we were fine.

Bellatrix Lestrange's high pitched voice came out of nowhere, "THERE THEY ARE!"

Hermione yelped, and shoved me through the door. Ginny landed next to me, and we were back in the Brain Room again. I didn't have time to regain my composure before we were joined by the rest of our friends and more Death Eaters. I hopped up, wincing in pain. I still shouted, "Stupefy!" and hit a Death Eater in the chest.

Despite the blood pouring out of my leg, my mind was working pretty fine. I shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and "Reducto!" at another Death Eater. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hermione fall to the floor, unconscious. Close to her sat Ginny, who couldn't stand due to her ankle. I tried to find a place to stand in between them, to protect them both, but it made me an easy target. Nonetheless, I stood my ground between my two friends. Another black shape came toward us. "Petrificus Totalus!" I screamed.

The figure froze in place, but another one came behind him. "Crucio!" the other Death Eater said.

My vision immediately blurred. I began to swat at my stomach, because I felt something ripping and tearing at me. I began to cry when the pain traveled from my stomach to my brain. I screamed but I couldn't hear anything anymore. I pulled at my hair, desperately trying to get the pain to go away. I vaguely remember vomiting.

Suddenly, the pain stopped. It still hurt, but the force had stopped. But with my mind turned to mush, I couldn't figure out why. I turned slightly and saw a blurred form of Ginny getting hit with red light.

Then her face appeared clearly in my mind, then Harry's, then Neville's, then Luna's, then Ron's then Hermione's. Following them were the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Tara, Lee, George, and finally, Fred. But his face was spotted with black.

Then everything went dark.