22. Fulfilment of a promise
They re-emerged on a narrow side street a safe distance from the riverside gate, in case the entrance was already guarded. Harry slipped out to check the surrounding area while the others waited in the alley. From their hiding place they could neither hear nor see anything unusual above the distant roar of traffic. The street, which remained empty apart from them, seemed enveloped in an eerie quiet.
'Is it really possible that the Ministry's visible now?' said Hermione as she paced back and forward on a short section of the street.
'And if it is,' said Isaac, 'will our magic be detectable now?'
'I hadn't thought of that,' said Hermione.
'They will have a playbook in preparation for today,' Isaac replied. 'And their wizards will have a checklist of specific things to do. For example, if the Ministry is going to be exposed, they will probably want to try and seal it magically. Another thing for them to do will be to
use magical detection to keep tabs on other wizards in the Ministry and around it. And if they're really forward-thinking, they'll want permanent magical detection, over as wide an area as possible.'
'How wide do you mean?' said Hermione.
'The whole country.'
'Can they do that?'
He looked grimly at her.
'The trace for underage wizards covers the whole country. How hard can it be to have something like the trace, but for all wizards?'
'Not that hard,' Hermione replied. 'The Death Eaters were pretty good at having magical detection all over the place too.'
Isaac nodded.
'I remember.'
After a few minutes Harry returned.
'I've been as far as the Monument. Nothing unusual on Cannon Street and Upper Thames Street.'
Hermione sighed in relief, but Harry went on.
'But when I was up by the Monument, I noticed something strange: the ground felt like it was moving. Only very slightly, but it was noticeable. Particularly to me, because I was on the lookout for anything unusual, but I also saw quite a few people stop suddenly in the street and pause, as if they were listening out for something. Most people were walking about oblivious though, so I couldn't be sure.'
They stood still for a moment, trying to detect any movement in the earth. Beneath the incessant vibration of traffic and the rumbling of nearby trains, there was a very distant sound and a vibration of a different kind, as if from the grinding of metal against rock. It seemed to come from below, from beneath the streets and the traffic and train tunnels. Whatever it was seemed to be rising.
'Something is happening,' said Isaac.
'Something's moving underground,' said Hermione. 'Something very big by the sound of it.'
Harry looked down hard at the ground beneath their feet. The rumbling seemed to be growing louder, and the vibrations multiplying. Then he looked up at Hermione, his eyes wide.
'Do you mean what I think you mean?' he said.
Hermione returned his gaze and nodded.
'The Ministry is rising to the surface.'
They looked at each other in silence.
'London's going to look a bit different after this,' remarked Isaac.
'I have a question,' said Harry. 'Why would the Ministry rise to the surface anyway?'
'It's a fair question,' Isaac replied. 'And I can only speculate as to an answer. Consider that the Ministry has been constantly growing under the streets of London as more and more has been added to it over the centuries, and is even present at the surface via its many entrances, which are woven into the fabric of London's built landscape. Because of all this, it exerts a kind of pressure on what lies above it and adjacent to it: tube tunnels, cellars, pipes and the rest. And given all this, the enchantments in place on the Ministry have to do two things: keep it concealed of course, but also alleviate the pressure it exerts on what lies around it. I could be wrong, of course, but that's why it might rise to the surface.'
'Why does nobody ever mention this at the Ministry?' replied Harry.
'How often does the Auror Office discuss building maintenance?' asked Hermione by way of a reply.
'I see what you mean,' Harry replied.
'Whatever the reason,' Isaac added. 'You can bet that Mr Morley and his friends will be the first ones at the door.'
'What's more, what's going to happen to everyone who's inside the Ministry?' said Hermione. 'There must be thousands of people in there.'
'We have to warn them,' said Harry, who was already halfway down the street when Hermione called him back.
'Harry, wait!'
'What is it?' he said.
'Why don't we … well just try phoning someone?' Hermione replied.
'Who do you want to phone?' said Harry. 'Ron doesn't have one.'
'Yes, despite his infatuation with muggle gadgets, he never got one,' Hermione murmured, her mobile phone already pressed against her ear.
'It's ringing,' she announced. 'Demelza? Are you in the Ministry right now? Has anyone raised the alarm about a security leak? Well, have you noticed anything strange? Like what? Well like the entire Ministry rising up out of the ground? I'm serious. Deadly serious. Something very big is about to happen, I think. Or if it doesn't then I'm insane so there's nothing to worry about. You have to get out of the Ministry now, while you still can. But first, if you can, go and tell Ron and Mr Weasley that the gates are open and the witch-hunters are coming. If they don't believe you, tell them I'm begging them just to check. Then if nothing happens they can have the satisfaction of knowing I've lost the plot. Ok? Umm … I don't know where exactly, somewhere near a Ministry entrance.'
'If the Ministry's really going to come to the surface, we're going to have to try and defend it somehow,' said Harry in Hermione's other ear. 'We'll need as many people as we can get in front of it. If it even has a front, that is.'
'We'll be outnumbered,' said Hermione.
Harry shot her a brief smile.
'Of course we will.'
As soon as they emerged from the alleyway, the first signs that things were not exactly normal were evident straight away. More and more people were stopping in the street, listening to the faint rumbling coming from below. One man in a suit was even crouching down on the ground, his ear turned to the pavement. The streets were filling up as people came out of their offices to investigate the vibrations.
They made their way through the swelling crowds, making for the nearest Ministry entrance, wondering if it would still be hidden when they got there. On their way they heard the word 'earthquake' several times. Near St Paul's the crowds were larger and more agitated. There the talk wasn't of earthquakes, but of 'something unnatural'. They cut through the back streets, avoiding the main avenues, which were increasingly swarming with crowds, now interspersed with police. As they emerged out of one alley, they heard a man's voice clearly pronounce the word 'witchcraft', making everyone turn their heads nervously. A street away from a Ministry entrance they found their way blocked by a police cordon holding back a rapidly swelling crowd. Suddenly Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and whispered 'I just saw one of the witchfinders!' Harry passed the message on to the others, and they quickly ducked down a quieter side street. Here, the incessant rumbling was stronger than ever, and they all had the distinct feeling that the ground was shifting, buildings and all.
'It's on its way,' Isaac muttered, nervously scanning the pavement.
A group of twenty or thirty people ran past in the street beyond.
'How long before we see it?' said Harry, craning his neck in the direction of the crowd.
'Not long, I reckon,' replied Hermione.
'How many people are there in your Ministry?' asked Rachel.
'It's not my Ministry,' replied Isaac. 'But there are a lot of people in there.'
'There's scarcely a wizarding family in the country that doesn't have at least one person working there,' remarked Hermione. She paused and looked round bleakly. 'We all have friends and family inside.'
'Do you think they're doing anything down there?' asked Harry.
'It's hard to say,' said Isaac. 'Who's going to believe a couple of people running around the Ministry saying there's been a security leak of apocalyptic proportions, if no one knows where the leak is? Up here we can feel the rumbling. Inside maybe they can't feel anything.'
Hermione had her mobile phone out again.
'Ginny?' she shouted. 'Don't hang up! This is an emergency! You've spoken to Ron? Can you see anything? Nothing? You can't feel that the Ministry's about to pop out into the middle of London? I'm serious. Get out of the Ministry now.'
'Before they seal the exits,' added Isaac over Hermione's shoulder.
'What did you say? I can't hear you very well.'
The line was starting to break up.
'Look, how much does it cost you just to go outside for a minute? Pretend you're going for a cigarette.'
Then the connection was lost altogether.
'Maybe they've started,' said Isaac grimly.
'If they're sealed in, we need more help from outside,' said Harry. 'Do you have Caius's number?'
'Good idea!' said Hermione, leaping on her phone again. 'I suppose this still works … Caius, it's Hermione. It's happening. We're outside the Ministry. The streets are full of people and the witchfinders are about. Ok, see you in a minute.'
She looked up.
'He's summoning the Coven. They'll be here in a minute, I hope.'
Just as she finished speaking, a deafening noise rent the air and a wave of pure force swept down the street, buffeting them and almost pushing them over. Once the wave had passed they rushed forward, out past the end of the street. A vast open expanse twice the size of Trafalgar Square had opened up in the middle of central London. The maze of office buildings that just a few minutes had been just across the street were now visible over on the far side of the square. The vast new square was black and shiny and seemed to emit a black, baleful light. The crowds writhed and shouted behind police cordons. Just in front of the police cordon, they could make out a group of people they recognised as Mr Morley and his closest associates. Mr Morley had a megaphone in his hand and was trying to broadcast a message to the crowd, only a part of which was listening to him. He had a look of almost crazed excitement about him. From where Hermione was standing, his message was mostly unintelligible. But she managed to catch one significant fraction of it.
'… Today we have been proved right. For years we have been saying that magic is real, but deliberately kept hidden from us. And today a den of witches is being raised to the surface, emerging into the streets of London right before your eyes, a black growth right in the heart of this great country!'
'Oh no, not this idiot again,' remarked a voice suddenly at Hermione's side. It was Caius Hanmer, together with Meredith Dulse, Serena and the rest of the Coven of the White Tooth. The sudden arrival of 13 people dressed in black robes caused a disturbance in the crowd, which surged around them, trying to back away.
'What are you looking at?' shouted Caius in a loud voice. Then, suddenly, the crowd turned away, their gaze transfixed by the vast black square that spread out in front of them. The smooth black expanse was now bulging and swelling. At first there was just a protuberance about ten feet across out in the centre of the square, but soon the swelling spread to every corner. In the space of a few minutes, the protuberance had grown to the height of a two-storey house. And it was still growing. As the black mass began to tower into the sky above the heads of the crowd, Mr Morley looked on silently in satisfaction, occasionally whispering to his associates. The mass stopped rising when it had reached about six storeys into the sky. Then its smooth dark exterior began to develop contours, grooves and hard edges, until standing in the middle of the square was a sprawling complex of buildings of varying heights, all shrouded in a sinister black light.
'So that's what it looks like above ground,' said Harry.
'Why is it covered in this black light?' asked Hermione.
'I don't know,' Isaac replied. 'Maybe it's the magical protection of the Ministry leaking out into the atmosphere.'
A hush fell over the crowd as it contemplated the Ministry of Magic, silent and swathed in black.
'What next?' said Caius.
'I don't know,' said Hermione, turning to Isaac. 'Do you think the new vow wizards will try to seal the building to stop anyone getting out?'
'That's exactly what I expect them to try and do,' he replied.
'We need to find them then,' said Harry.
'The first thing would be to get through this crowd,' Caius added.
'That's just the problem.' replied Hermione. 'We need to get to the other side of the crowd, but then we'll be the ones surrounded. We'd have to blast our way out.'
'True, but we're going to have to start using these things at some point,' said Caius, revealing his wand, which was poking out of his sleeve.
'Caius is right,' said Harry. 'We're actually going to have to start using spells on muggles at some point.'
'I know,' said Hermione. 'But even if we just stun them, it would still look like we're killing them. We might trigger a full-scale riot.'
'Looking at some of the blokes in the crowd, I'd say that's precisely what they came down here for,' remarked Caius, pointing to a group of well-built and intimidating men standing not far from Mr Morley.
'Mr Morley's rent-a-mob,' Isaac remarked.
'They've got a kind of Friday night in the town centre air about them,' commented Caius.
'Yes, but I think they've got a bit more in mind than a drunken brawl at closing time,' Isaac replied.
Just then, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned brusquely, his hand on his wand and his body tensed in readiness for confrontation.
'You won't be needing that just yet,' said a familiar voice. It was Argenta Coyle, with Demelza standing right next to her.
'Argenta! Demelza! You made it out!' exclaimed Hermione.
'I wasn't in the Ministry when it all started kicking off,' said Argenta. 'I was busy trailing the Goodwins. They were out furniture shopping, bless them, when they got the call from Morley that the gates were open. I've been looking for you ever since. But first Demelza found me. I reckon she must have been one of the last to get out of the Ministry.'
'I feel bad about leaving everyone behind in there,' said Demelza, staring up at the Ministry. 'I tried to tell as many people as I could. But virtually no one believed me.'
'That's no surprise, sadly,' said Isaac.
'I managed to speak to Ron Weasley and Mr Weasley through,' Demelza continued. 'Ron didn't want to believe me at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he began to think there might be something to it. He told me to go and find you. He said he would gather together as many people as he could, and that we should meet outside. So I jumped into the flue.'
'It was still working then,' said Hermione.
'Yes, but it was a much rougher ride than usual. I almost passed out. It spewed me out on the pavement on an alleyway somewhere round here. That's where Argenta found me.'
'I was on Carter Lane when Demelza jumped out at me from Wardrobe Place,' Argenta confirmed.
'Fell out of Wardrobe Place, more like,' Demelza remarked.
'They may have blocked the flue entrances to the Ministry,' said Isaac.
'How is everyone else going to get out?' said Demelza, looking fearfully around the group.
'I'm not sure,' Isaac replied. 'And even if the witchfinder's wizards aren't doing the blocking themselves, the sheer displacement of the Ministry building may mean that the usual ways of entering and exiting it won't work.'
'Oh my goodness,' said Demelza, 'All those poor people inside.'
'Demelza, you did everything you could,' said Hermione, putting her arm around her. 'Thanks to you, they at least had some warning, and some people at least are taking action.'
Suddenly, Isaac interrupted them.
'Look over there,' he said, pointing out across the square to the darkened Ministry building. As they looked, they could make out a single light shining at ground floor level.
'Is that a way in? Or a way out?' asked Harry.
'Quite possibly both.'
They continued to stare at the point of light, which slowly widened, until it was visible enough for more and more of the crowd to notice it. Suddenly a tall man stepped out of the crowd and strode across the square in the direction of the light.
'It's Skelton,' said Isaac. 'He obviously thinks it's an opening. He's going to close it.'
'That might be the last way out of the Ministry,' said Hermione.
'It could well be.'
'Time for magic to come out into the open,' said Harry suddenly. He was already pushing his way through the crowd in the direction of Skelton. Meanwhile, the point of light was getting wider.
'Harry wait!' Hermione called out. He paused for a moment and looked back at her.
'You're not going without me this time,' she said, and started off after him. He turned and smiled, following her every step with his gaze and reaching out his hand to her once she got near. She grabbed it and together they pushed their way through the crowd.
Skelton had already covered half the distance to the source of the light when Harry and Hermione emerged from the crowd and stepped out onto the sprawling black expanse in front of the Ministry.
'Hey wizard!' Harry called out. He felt a hundred pairs of eyes on him in an instant.
Skelton kept walking. All the time, the light was growing.
'Skelton!' he shouted again. This time, Skelton stopped and looked over his shoulder. Harry took his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at him, glancing sideways at Hermione. She stood silently next to Harry, her wand also pointed at Skelton.
'What are you doing with that?' Skelton called out in a mocking, nonchalant tone. 'Are you a wizard or something?'
'Why don't you get your wand out, Skelton?' Harry shouted in reply, his arm still outstretched. 'Let everyone see what you can do.'
'Someone will be along to deal with you in a minute,' replied Skelton. 'And as for you,' he said, turning towards Hermione, 'you must be very stupid to expose yourself in public like this. You might be the first witch to burn in London for a few hundred years. Now, if you'll excuse me.' He began to turn back.
'Well if that's true,' said Hermione in an even voice, her eyes shining darkly, 'I've got nothing to lose. I may as well take you down with me.'
'I'd start praying for forgiveness if I were you,' replied Skelton. Harry and Hermione heard the sound of footsteps approaching from their right. 'And sooner rather than later.'
'I will,' replied Hermione in the same even tone. ''I'll begin my repentance right after I deal with you.'
Skelton looked from Hermione to Harry and then at the crowd behind them. He glanced repeatedly to his left, and seemed to make some impatient gestures in that direction.
'Skelton, you're a wizard and we all know it,' Harry continued in a loud voice. 'We even went to the same school,' he called out, addressing the crowd behind him. 'A school of witchcraft and wizardry.' Catcalls and shouts of anger could be heard from the crowd behind him. Somebody launched a missile from the crowd, which flew over Harry and Hermione's heads and landed not far from where Skelton was standing.
'He's the wizard, not me!' Skelton shouted at the crowd. His tone was no longer nonchalant.
'You've got a choice, Skelton,' Harry cried. 'Either you take out your wand and fight me like a true wizard, or you keep pretending and I'll shoot you down anyway.'
Skelton seemed to lean forward for a moment then paused again. He looked at the crowd watching from behind where Harry and Hermione stood. Then he glanced to his left. At last he reached in his pocket. Before he could take out his wand, Harry and Hermione both fired stunning blasts from their wands, and he crumpled to the floor. Then the crowd exploded, surging forward from behind Harry and Hermione and simultaneously from their right. Harry and Hermione were engulfed by the crowd in an instant and surrounded, but as they turned they found that the hands laid on them were those of Caius and Isaac, who had surged forward a moment ahead of the mob. Now the Coven of the White Tooth had formed a cordon around them, firing warning shots from their wands over the heads of the crowd to drive it back. But as Harry and Hermione turned back towards the Ministry, where the point of light was still growing, they found their way blocked again, this time by Stephen Morley himself, Chloe Goodwin and a group of aggressive looking men.
'Take a good look at them!' shouted the Witchfinder. 'Here are your valiant wizards and witches. They've barely crawled out of the ground and they're already attacking the innocent!'
Harry and Hermione looked at the growing light and then at one another.
'The public relations effort is going to have to wait a bit,' said Hermione.
'What do you reckon?' asked Harry. 'Alohomora times one hundred?'
'Something like that,' Hermione replied, a grin leaking onto her face.
They turned and raised their wands high over their heads, firing off twin blasts that arched over the Witch-hunters and coalesced with the light coming from the Ministry. The Witchfinder urged the mob forward, and the men began to ran towards Harry and Hermione. At the same time, Isaac, Argenta, Demelza and the Coven stepped forward, their wands raised. The men hesitated and the two sides stared each other down in the square. Then the silence was broken by a new voice.
'Oi, tosser!'
Ron Weasley stood in front of the dark Ministry building, light spilling from the hole around him. Alongside him were Ginny, Percy, Mr Weasley and a handful of other Ministry wizards, including Kingsley Shacklebolt himself, his face a mixture of shock and hardened defiance. Vantricia Bellu, his assistant, was at his side.
'Are you talking to me or to him?' shouted Harry at Ron.
'Both of you I suppose,' came Ron's withering reply.
Mr Morley turned angrily towards the Ministry. Then he turned to Chloe Goodwin.
'Close that hole, now!' he shouted.
Chloe Goodwin drew out her wand, and began firing at the group in front of the Ministry, who parried every shot. She paused and another standoff began.
'We're going to have to join forces, you know,' called out Hermione to Ron.
'I said we'd be there if anything ever happened,' shouted Ron. 'And here we are. We're true to our word, unlike some people.'
'Well done, do you want your medal now or should it be awarded posthumously?' shouted Hermione in return.
'Feeling pleased with yourself?' Ron continued unabated. 'I can see the self-satisfied smirk on your face from here. I'd know that look anywhere, I've seen it a million times!'
'Ron, if you don't shut up I'm going to send you back down that hole into the Ministry!' shouted Harry. Mr Morley and the crowd were for the moment transfixed, trying to comprehend the apparent disharmony in the wizards' ranks.
'Sticking up for your girlfriend are you?' said Ron, shifting his wand so that it was angled right in Harry's face. 'I never did get the chance to give you what's coming to you.'
'Well, why don't you right now?' replied Harry, pointing his wand at Ron.
'Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think we're really very interested in your sordid little menage-à-trois,' shouted Mr Morley, suddenly regaining his focus. 'But maybe we can find a cell for the three of you to share!' Chloe Goodwin was the first to react. She smiled as she fired a series of shots at Kingsley Shacklebolt, which he only just managed to parry.
'We need to get to where Ron and the others are,' Hermione called out. The others nodded. The next moment they all disappeared, even Rachel, before reappearing next to Kingsley and the Weasleys, just in front of the Ministry. Immediately they turned and put up a magical barrier to stop the witch-hunters or the crowd in general from coming any closer. Almost immediately the barrier came under attack.
'Before we say anything else,' began Hermione, looking at the tense faces before her, 'please can we call a truce until we get out of this situation?'
They paused for a moment. Then Ron nodded. Hermione glanced at Ginny. To her surprise, Ginny returned the glance.
'Yes, we should,' said Ginny, a clear-eyed, cordial look. I don't deserve it.
'We owe you that much.'
Hermione could see Ginny's eyes shift to look at Harry. She couldn't bear seeing what his expression was.
'Thanks,' said Harry gently. The look of composure on Ginny's face trembled but remained intact.
'It's a waste of time us being here if we don't work together,' said Harry.
'You're right about that,' Ron replied.
They looked around. The witch-hunters and the crowd behind them were visible through the semi-opaque magical barrier. Hermione turned quickly to Ron.
'Is there anyone else trying to get out of the Ministry?'
'I don't know,' said Ron, looking back and squinting into the light behind him. 'I think I heard voices behind us somewhere.'
'If you're inside, you can't tell what's going on,' Ginny added quickly. 'We only found out that something was interfering with the Ministry when we tried to get out and found the doors blocked.'
'I tried to make an announcement,' said Kingsley, stepping forward. 'But it was as if nobody could hear me.'
'Hello?' suddenly they heard a voice emanating from the source of light. Harry stepped into the light and looked down. Through the light he could make out a face, although not one he recognised.
'Hello,' he replied. 'Are you trying to get out?'
'Yes,' replied the wizard. 'Can you help us?'
'Are there more of you?' said Harry.
'A few. What's going on up there? Something weird's happening, but we can't tell what it is.'
'Take a look for yourself,' said Kingsley.
The wizard's eyes widened in amazement as he looked out at the vast square and up at the façade of the Ministry now framed against the sky.
'How is this possible?'
'No time to explain,' said Harry. He and Kingsley reached down and took hold of the wizard's hands. In a moment they pulled him up out of the Ministry and he came tumbling out onto the black square.
'Thanks,' said the wizard, pulling himself to his feet and sticking out his hand. 'Vladimir Strang. Broom testing and type approval.'
'No time for that now,' said Harry. 'Let's get the others out too.'
'Hello?' came a woman's voice from the light-infused hole. 'Is somebody there?'
'Absolutely!' Harry called out, reaching down into the hole. A delicate hand with sculpted nails, rings and an ornate silver bracelet reached out from the light.
'Are you there, Minister?' came Myra Tremayne's voice.
'Yes, Myra, I'm up here,' Kingsley replied stiffly. 'We've got a bit of a situation here.'
They pulled her up out of the hole and for a few moments she seemed to lose the power of speech altogether, her mouth opening and closing as she looked out over the square.
'It happened,' said Kingsley. 'What we were warned about has happened.'
Myra looked at Kingsley then across at Harry and Hermione.
'Well then,' she said, rediscovering her voice. 'We'd better do something about it.' She reached into her patent leather bag and pulled out her wand, a look of determination on her face.
In the space of a few minutes, another dozen Ministry wizards and witches who had gathered around the exit had been pulled out into the square. The cordon was still holding, although it was beginning to crack and fray.
'What's the plan?' Caius called out from the cordon. 'We can't hold them for much longer!'
'If they break through we'll be overwhelmed,' said Mr Weasley.
'I'm staying here,' said Kingsley. 'It's my responsibility to stand and fight, whatever happens.'
'I'm not going anywhere either,' said Myra Tremayne firmly.
'Good for you, Myra,' said Kingsley.
'But what are we hoping to achieve after all?' said Percy Weasley. 'The Ministry's right here in the middle of London! By now the whole world's watching us!' he said, waving his hand in the direction of the crowd, which writhed back and forward behind the cordon. Police sirens filled the air and above them they could hear the sound of helicopters flying overhead, circling the Ministry building.
'What do you expect me to do?' said Kingsley 'Just slip away into the night? I have a responsibility to the people who are still inside.'
'They'll have the army here in a minute,' said Isaac. 'This could turn into a riot.'
Kingsley looked out at the chaos in front of him.
'The rest of you should all go,' he said. 'I'll stay here. I don't care if they arrest me. I'm the Minister, the buck stops with me. I'm not worried about the police or the army.'
'The safest thing in the circumstances would be for the police and the army to secure the scene before anyone gets killed,' said Hermione. 'But we need to draw off the new vow wizards. Then in the meantime hopefully as many people as possible can escape from the Ministry.'
'Whoever escapes here will need a place to rendezvous,' said Isaac. 'Somewhere they can get to before the witch hunters put up their own magical barrier.'
'What do you mean?' asked Percy.
'They will want to track all wizards in the Ministry and around it,' said Hermione. 'And if they manage, it will mean that anyone doing magic around here will be traceable to them.'
'Including if you try and apparate straight out here,' added Argenta.
'But where should we head for?' said Harry.
'I have an idea,' said Isaac. 'Look up there.'
He pointed in the direction of a run-down 1970s office block that rose up into the sky, surrounded by a cluster of older, lower buildings.
'That's Muirton Tower,' he continued. 'It's due to be knocked down soon. The building's already empty above the third floor.'
'Are you suggesting the Ministry relocates there?' said Percy Weasley, a hint of disgust in his voice.
'Not exactly,' replied Isaac. 'Apart from being mostly empty, the building has one key advantage for us.'
'What's that?' said Ron.
'Its height,' said Isaac.
'Why is that helpful?' Ron asked. 'Apart from the fact that we'd have a nice view of this fiasco.'
'Because the enchantment will start from the ground and move gradually upwards,' said Argenta. 'The top floors of the building should stay above the magical barrier for longer.'
'If there is a magical barrier at all,' remarked Ron.
'There will be a barrier,' said Isaac firmly. 'Or at least there will be an attempt to put one up. That's why the tower would be a good temporary base for us.'
'Wrapping an enchantment around a magical object the size of the Ministry isn't something you can do in five minutes,' Kingsley added.
'And it'll take plenty of wizards to do it,' Argenta remarked. 'They're probably getting into position around it as we speak.'
'Well then, we need to slow them down,' said Harry.
'That means we'll have to split up,' said Hermione. 'Some of us need to go and look for wizards raising an enchantment around us.'
'I reckon I can find them,' said Rachel in a quiet voice, speaking for the first time.
'You think so?' said Hermione.
'Oh yes. And I could probably distract them as well.'
'That would be great. Isaac, you should go with her. You have the best idea of how the enchantment would be put in place.'
Isaac nodded.
'Hermione,' said Kingsley, 'you suggested drawing attention away from this opening, so as many people as possible at least have a chance to escape. Why don't you and a few others take care of that?'
'Ok,' said Hermione.
She looked up at the darkened Ministry building behind them. The sheer complexity of the building was overwhelming. Walls rose in every direction and at a multitude of different heights and angles. The building was like a giant black spider crouching in the square, stone tentacles arching into the sky and coiled around at ground level.
'The Ministry can still help us,' she remarked, pointing up at the facade. 'We can play hide and seek up there for hours.'
'And if Mr Morley sees you up there,' Harry remarked, scowling up at the battlements, 'he's sure to want to send people after you.'
'That's probably true,' said Hermione.
'Sounds like fun,' Ron remarked.
'Got a better idea?' she asked coolly.
'No,' he replied. 'So we'd best get on with it.'
Kingsley looked up to address the gathered wizards.
'Did you all hear where to go when we've finished here?'
The wizards nodded their acknowledgement.
'Don't apparate straight in there,' Hermione added. 'Take a roundabout route.'
Their own magical barrier was still holding, but was under repeated fire from curses and projectiles hurled from the crowd.
'Ron,' said Harry. 'You coming up?'
Ron glanced up at the Ministry building.
'Yeah, but I'll go my own way, thanks.'
'Suit yourself,' Harry replied. 'Caius, what about you and your lot?'
'Count us in,' said Caius.
Hermione turned back to the Ministry building and looked down the opening that led inside.
'What are we going to do about this opening? I'm worried the witch hunters are going to use it to go inside the Ministry. At the same time the last thing we should be doing is trying to block it. There are hundreds of people still inside.'
'Well, can we conceal it?' said Kingsley.
'That's a good idea,' said Hermione. 'But what with?'
'This, of course,' said Ron, stepping forward, the Deluminator in his hand.
'Good thinking!' said Hermione. 'Would you care to do the honours?'
He nodded, shooting her a sidelong glance. Then he opened the Deluminator and the light in the opening disappeared inside.
'Like I was saying,' said Kingsley. 'I'm going to stay here and keep this entrance open.'
'And I will go back down into the opening, to see if I can show the way to other wizards still inside,' said Vantricia Bellu.
'Are you sure, Vantricia?' asked Kingsley.
'Quite sure,' she replied.
'Our magical barrier isn't going to hold all that long,' said Caius.
'We'll make another one,' said Myra Tremayne.
'It'll take a few of us to keep the barrier in place,' said Kingsley.
'We can help with that,' came a voice from just across the barrier. 'If you're willing to fight alongside us.' When they looked in the direction the voice had come from, they could see that around another twenty or so wizards had apparated into the square, just next to the Ministry building. The wizards carried a banner with them, which bore the symbol of the Citadel movement. The wizard holding the banner was Tobias Destrument. He stood among the other wizards who had been imprisoned in Azkaban, flanked by his sister, Enid Blackledge, and his grandfather, Gondulph Belhaine.
'What do you say, Minister?' said Belhaine, his wand in hand and a thin smile on his lips. 'If ever there was a day when wizards put aside their differences, it's today.'
'You want me to stand and fight next to the man who tried to kill me?' said Kingsley, pointing at Silas Lashburn.
'It was nothing personal,' replied Lashburn.
Kingsley looked at the wizards on his side of the barrier then back at the wizards of the Citadel.
'For today at least we put aside our differences.'