Getting Out.
"Wake up Draco, please wake up..." she sobbed. Draco groaned
and Ginny slapped his face. Draco sat up and felt a hand grabbing his hair. He
screamed and tugged away from the assailant and he and Ginny scrabbled to their
feet and ran out of the circle into the smoky light of the burning library.
Draco and Ginny span and saw at least a dozen pairs of red eyes
watching them back away from the far side of the room. One screeched and the
air was hot with fire. Draco saw a ball of fire heading for Ginny's tear-soaked
face and he shouldered her aside and behind a nearby bookshelf.
Ginny stumbled at Draco's feet and Draco grabbed her forearm
roughly and dragged her along the aisle and deeper into the labyrinth of books.
Behind them the screeching multiplied and fire began to rain down around the
fleeing pair as shelf after shelf disintegrated in blistering balls of light.
The hot choking ash cascaded around them, turning their mouths and nostrils
black with soot and their eyes red with tears.
Percy Weasley was still crouched in a ball under his desk in his
office high in the Ministry building. He heard his door open with a sharp bang.
Footsteps staggered to his desk and he heard a heavy, rasping breath gasp and
slobber a few feet above his head. Percy instinctively felt in his pockets for
his wand and cursed himself for making a noise: the breathing above paused.
Footsteps came around the side of the desk slowly and heavily.
Percy kept his eyes shut and screamed as he exploded from beneath
his desk and on upwards into the prowler. Percy succeeded in cannoning the shadowy
figure into the recesses of the apartment and feeling almost weightless with
fear, he leapt onto his desk and turned to make for the door. He reached the
door but froze when he heard the prowler cough out "Percy!"
Percy stopped and looked at the figure sprawled across the two pot
plants and wastepaper basket in the corner. It was his father, Arthur Weasley.
Arthur looked back and the pair laughed, letting their nervousness flood out of
them. Percy helped his father up and they hugged.
"Right you, let's get out of here!" said Arthur.
"How dad?" whined Percy.
"Oh flipping heck son. Use your noggin!" smiled Arthur
and began to chalk out an apparation circle on the floor.
"But dad, we cannot apparate into or out of the Ministry
offices! A lot of institutions have defences and such which-"
"Unless revoked, you fool. Article 16, 1982 Emergency
Charter? You know the one. That big fire in Scotland Yard in '81 brought that
about."
"What big fire?" asked Percy, helping his dad move his desk
and joining in the spell preparations.
"Oh, well, never officially declared of course. National
interests and all that. Point is, in case of a real emergency, defences like
the ones used against internal apparition are dropped."
"Why dad?"
"Eighteen people died in that fire. Not the first to do so
either. The procedures are there for security, but in some cases, they can get
in the way and cost lives."
"Oh, so what's the emergency? Why is my secretary dead?"
Percy paled at the memory of seeing her dead in the outer office.
Arthur felt silent as he took a few moments to mutter the last of
the incantations over the circle. Percy checked he still had his wand and
looked over their handiwork as his father sorted out the portal. Eventually,
Arthur said "Voldemort supporters have taken the Ministry. SMS are out in
force, but we've been told to get out. I stayed behind to come find you. I've
found you, thank heavens, and now we are leaving."
"But dropping the defences to get us out? Wouldn't that leave
us exposed to even more attack?"
Arthur stopped and turned to his son, pulling him firmly into the
circle. As the lights of the portal began to rise up and surround them he said
solemnly "The defences were dropped to allow Voldemort's people in the
first place."
"But dad! To drop the defences -"
"I know. Someone at the top's playing on Voldemort's
team."
Percy hugged his father as the light surrounded them. Then panic
filled him. "Dad! Ginny's here today!"
"What? I thought that was next week -"
"No dad! It's..."
The light absorbed them utterly. Everything was light. It seemed a
long time later when the light subsided, but in reality, it was less than a
millisecond: the effect was called 'time-stuck' as no one could remember the
long and complex technical synopsis, which included words like 'causality
osmosis via event paradox'. Percy knew he was half-way through speaking but his
mind was free to act, even though his body and that of his father's seemed
frozen. And by the time Percy realised he could think whilst being frozen in
time, despite the fact that time could not be measured in this state, the
apparation was over and Percy and Arthur appeared in a back alley two streets
from the Ministry building where occasionally staff went to reach a really good
sandwich shop on its corner some sunny lunchtimes. 'Time-stuck' was how it was
described and no-one would spend much breath trying to explain the sensation
for fear of having nightmares about it, so it remained a side-effect best
forgotten about.
"...today." stuttered Percy.
The alleyway was crowded with SMS officers and some Ministry staff
being led away. Two large male SMS Officers came ambling over to the Weasleys
immediately.
"Come with us, please gentlemen," demanded the senior of
the pair.
"Sorry, but I must go back," stated Arthur, trembling
and looking pale.
"No dad," urged Percy.
Arthur tried to run back to the Ministry offices, but was easily
caught by the two men.
"Get off me! My daughter's in there!" The two burly SMS
officers ignored Arthur's pleas and physically dragged him to safety.
Percy ran alongside him shouting "Dad! Dad! It's Okay!
Dumbledore's with them! You know he'll protect them, no matter what!"
Arthur went silent and stopped resisting the SMS officers as they
were taken to safety.
Albus Dumbledore could hear the screaming from directly above him.
He could hear Ginny and Draco screaming nearby and tears flooded his eyes. He
wished he could help them and tried once more to move, but the pain in his
stomach pinned him to the corridor wall. Looking down at the crimson wound in
his own body, Dumbledore winced in pain and regret. Blood was spreading out
around him in a crimson puddle, every inch it expanded seemed to him a measure
of his own time left.
Albus blearily looked across the corridor at the headless pair of
corpses opposite. He had resorted to the sort of magic he had not used for so
long and wished he had never had to use in the first place. He remembered the
investigations and journeys of his youth, exploring and exposing the cadres and
covens of the many dark factions opposed to the Ministry and it's ideals.
His counter spells had worked well and his death spells had been
short and the victims would have not felt any pain. Albus cursed his own
stupidity for he was dying of a sword-wound to the stomach.
"Swords!" he muttered. "These so-called wizards are
barbarians! In my day, a wizard needed only his wits and a wand to survive.
Weapons are for the weak and stupid!" His rant over, exhaustion started to
make him drowsy. He glared at the simple bloody sword at his side. "Not
even a magical one," he concluded.
Albus knew he must keep focussed and stay awake, so began chanting
a mantra to help imbue a meditative state. In his heart, he knew this would
only prolong his life a scant few hours at most, but old Albus was not ready to
give up his life just yet.
To be continued...
Disclaimer:
The characters and setting are all thanks to J.
K. Rowling. I claim no ownership of these characters, though the events I put
them through are all mine. Mwah hah ha.