Edit March 13, 2005 – Fixed some minor problems. D (Thank you MissDitzy)

Author's Note: Sorry 'bout the wait, people… hangs with head in shame

Misao, Demon Master - Hope you had fun with the boys. LoL.

Kow it all - Now I've written written written and finished another chapter. (LoL, I'm hyper today...)

Pussin Boots - That's kind of my style... I rush things. (Gosh I really am hyper today, aren't I?)

MissDitzy - C'mon! I need you. If you help me, you might just have saved my day.

Thanks also TomF'sAngelgrl, Jenna, Shading in Grey, Meethrillkittycatdudet, SeverusSnape'sLove, Bumperz


Chapter 33 – Returning to the Department of Mysteries

"Have you really considered this, Harry?" I asked. "Isn't the Ministry floo-proof now, with the Wizarding World on war and everything?"

Harry shook his head. "Well it is, of course, but as the Order is being approved of nowadays by the Ministry of Magic, you can floo directly from the Headquarters to there."

"Oh", I said.

"Now are you sure about this?" he asked once more.

I nodded. "Let's just go, okay? We'll have to be back before everyone wakes up and starts wondering where we've gone."

I hadn't mentioned that I had written that note, and I wasn't planning on doing so either.

Harry had grabbed some floo powder from the pot beside the fireplace. "I'll go first, then", he said, "and you'll come right behind?"

I nodded again. "Yeah."

He stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder and said, "The Ministry of Magic, the Atrium!" he said before he disappeared in the green flames.

I too took some powder, stepped into the fireplace, threw it and said, "The Ministry of Magic, the Atrium.".

A short while later, I brushed some dust of from my clothes and stepped out of the fireplace.

"Harry?"

"Sshush!" he said, grabbed me from behind and pulled me back behind the fireplace.

We were in what I believed to be the 'arrival hall' of the Ministry, where there were a dozen of fireplaces at least. Surely, they had been used for Ministry workers to get home and such when the usage hadn't been so restricted.

"Is there anyone here?" I whispered.

"I'm not sure", he replied. "But to be on the safe side…" He pulled something out from his pocket. His invisibility cloak – I had already known (or suspected) that he had got one. "Here", he said and covered us both with it.

I can tell, there weren't too much space in under there for two people, but surprisingly, I found out that I didn't really mind. I mean, whatever, there weren't much room there but we did fit so… so?

Yeah, anyway. We sneaked down the corridor and past a guard behind a desk (who looked not-so-awake, so we could probably have managed without the cloak) and in the end of the hall, we reached the two elevators, which we both had used over a year before.

Harry pressed the button, and the doors slid open. We walked in, still half covering ourselves with the invisibility cloak but not totally (so that if anyone would have been there, they would have seen two floating heads).

"Level one, right?" I asked.

Harry nodded resolutely, so I pressed the button for level one and we went down in silence. I bit my lip and glanced at Harry, who was in his own thoughts. I wondered slightly exactly how he had planned to retrieve his god father from there, but somehow I didn't want to break the silence, so I didn't ask.

The elevator stopped, and the door slid open.

"C'mon", Harry mumbled and threw the cloak over us again.

The corridor looked just like it had done when I had been there one year earlier; with the only light coming from the torches on the walls.

"Let's go", Harry said.

We walked down the corridor, heading for the plain black door in the end.

"This room, it spins around", Harry told me. "We'll have to mark the door we got in through so that we don't lose our bearing."

"Er… okay", I said slowly, not without a little bit of hesitation.

"You know you don't have to-"

"I know", I said. "Shall we go, then?"

The room, into which we entered, was circular and… well, the only proper word to describe it is black. I'd never been in a room with everything black before. As in the corridor, the only light came from torches on the walls.

When the door closed behind us, Harry drew his wand and said, "Flagrate". Thus, a fiery X appeared on the door. And barely had it done so, before the room swirled around. Instinctively, I grabbed Harry's upper arm, and this way I managed to remain standing. When the room had… stabilized itself again, the X seemed to appear on another door, but apparently, it was the door that had been moved and not the X.

I looked around in the room, and realized that there must be like a dozen doors. "Which door?" I asked quietly.

"If I'm not mistaken…", his voice faded away and he set off towards one door to our right.

I headed after him, and when he opened it he turned to me and said, "Yes, here."

Five seconds later, I found myself in something strongly reminding me of an amphitheatre. It was a rectangular and quite large room, at least larger than the previous one. The centre was sunken, and around the room were stone benches descending in steep steps. In absolute middle of the room, where the floor was sunken, stood the ancient archway I had read about, and it was hung with a ragged, black veil.

Not quite as I had imagined it.

"So this is it?" I whispered.

Harry nodded.

We made our way down to the centre, and when having reached the bottom, I walked around the archway. It looked pretty much the same on the other side, I could see the back of the ragged veil.

"Er, Harry?" I asked. "Behind the veil? It's not really possible-"

"Well not literally behind, of course", he snapped.

I was so startled by his sudden outburst that I said nothing, and we stood in silence for a minute or two.

"Sorry", Harry then said. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay", I said quickly.

He bit his lip. "You hear the whispering?"

I frowned. "Harry, what whispering? There's just you and me here. No one is whispering."

"Luna could hear it too."

"What whispering! I don't hear any whispering."

"That's normal", he explained, "but there is whispering from beyond the veil-"

"I'm not deaf", I said, "and I can tell, there's no bloody whispering!"

"It's like with the thestrals", Harry mused, "you're not blind either, but you can't see them. However", he said briskly, "that doesn't matter."

"So", I said slowly, "er, how exactly were you planning to do this?"

"I read something", Harry mumbled absently, "and I have a hunch…" He reached out with his hand, still walking towards the veil.

I frowned. "What are you doing?" I asked.

Harry stopped and turned around. "I think that it might be possible to stick one's hand through without actually falling, and then I think that we should be able to literally pull him back."

"Listen, I really don't think it's… what if you just fall through it too? There might be, like some kind of power that pulls you in there." Then I reached my hand towards him. "We should stick together", I said, "although I'm not exactly the strongest person but anyway…"

He took my hand, then he turned back towards the veil and took a few step towards it. He was just up against it now, and poked carefully at it with one finger on his free hand. Then he tried with his whole hand, and it just went straight through, before he snatched it back.

"What", I said urgently.

He held his hand up.

"What?" I asked again.

"Didn't you see it?"

"No."

"It sort of… glowed. But only for a second or something."

"How does your hand feel?"

"Fine. I think… it is some kind of energy."

I frowned. "But how could your hand just go straight through the veil?"

"It didn't go through, to the opposite side", Harry said, "I think…" he said slowly and shoved his hand through again, "go to the other side and have a look."

Still clutching his hand, I walked quarter way around, stretching my arm to reach, and peeked over on the other side. There was nothing, just the back of the black, tattered veil.

"There's nothing", I said and returned.

"Uh", Harry said and snatched his hand back.

This time I saw the glow, it sort of glowed for a couple of seconds, before it went back to normal.

"What happened?" I asked.

He frowned. "Something touched me", he said slowly.

"Wasn't that what you wanted?"

"Yeah… but I need the right person."

"Try calling his name?" I suggested.

Harry took a deep breath. "Sirius?" he said loudly and touched the veil with his fingertips. "Sirius Black!"

Then a clear, male voice stated, "Harry?"