At the end of the long, gloomy corridor, it's walls painted the same sombre grey as the slate floor, two figures sit in near darkness before a door that, devoid of any semblance of a handle, blends almost seamlessly with the featureless walls. Not that the casual observer would notice them, of course.
Cramped under the invisibility cloak, Tonks found herself absently studying her companion. She couldn't decide whether that moustache was silly or not.
"Nyphadora Tonks will you please stop staring at me." hissed Lupin.
The sudden breaking of the silence made her jump.
"Sorry," she grinned apologetically "I was bored."
Merlin's Beard was she bored. It had been exciting at first, sneaking into the Ministry and poking around in Department of Mysteries. She'd even admit that without Lupin's help she probably couldn't have got around the charms that secured level 9 nor figured out how to navigate it (although the route they'd taken into the Ministry itself was the same one she used to sneak in late and hung over a few times). But since then it had been tedium all the way, the occasional round of the Time Room, but mostly sitting and waiting. It bothered here that there were all these doors to explore, but Lupin was adamant she was to leave them alone, as they were 'nothing to do with us' and thus 'non of our business'. Which was a rubbish reason, in her mind.
"I'm not exactly having the time of my life either, Nymphadora." he whispered back.
No, he thought, guard duty was generally a lot less of a hassle without someone fidgeting incessantly and staring at you like you'd grown a spare head.
"Will you stop calling me that, for the umpteenth time. You make me sound like I'm bloody eight. I'm fed up with people talking down to me all the time."
"Well stop acting like it then."
"You know, you'd do a lot better at guarding if you weren't bickering." came a voice from the shadows. "Boo." Shacklebolt emerged from under an invisibility cloak.
"Is it two o'clock already?" said Lupin "Come on, Tonks, time to go home." ("Doesn't time fly when you having fun" grumbled Tonks)
Lupin glanced up and down the corridor, then unfolded to his feet and offered Tonks a hand, which she studiously ignored. A tangle of limbs later, she was no further from the floor than before and grudgingly accepted the hand up.
-x-
There was something particularly eerie about public buildings when they were deserted, Lupin found himself thinking, something inexplicably sinister about schools, hospitals, shopping centres after dark, like the absence of the usual hustle bustle left a shadow. The Ministry was particularly bad, the magic windows turned off for the night left gawping sockets of inky black. He shook his head and smiled to himself. This is where a penchant for silly Muggle ghost-stories got you – paranoia.
"Ouch!"
He jumped involuntarily at his colleague's outburst, and the invisibility cloak fluttered to the ground.
"Jesus Tonk, what happened?"
"Eh, nothing, wall bit me, sorry."
"Bit you?"
"You may have noticed that inanimate objects take a dislike to me," she said, gesturing to the corner of wall they had just rounded "that troll's foot umbrella stand in your hallway has it in for me in particular and …"
She fell quiet all of a sudden, a distracted look on her face.
"And?"
"Shush" her voice a whisper now, she patted the air gesturing him to remain silent "I though I heard something."
The silence felt thicker now they both strained to catch a second suggestion of intrusion. Then, there, from where they had just come a door creaked, and footfalls.
That way. mouthed Tonks.
Lupin went to throw the invisibility cloak over him, but Tonks shook her head.
Slow us down she unsheathed her wand Come on and took off (remarkably quietly) down the corridor.
-x-
Backs to the wall they moved like ghosts through the deserted corridors of the Ministry. From the gradually less cautious sound of feet and the muffled whispers, their quarry was aware of them, and panicked. Lupin was keenly aware that a frightened enemy was considerably more of a risk and less predictable than a confident one. Now danger really did lurk around every dark doorway and blind corner. He should make them stop, call for back up, Kingsley was only a couple of floors down, they didn't know how many intruders they were pursuing. He was putting Tonks in undue risk, their only goal was to keep the Death Eaters away from the Hall of Prophecy, and they were heading away from it, they didn't need to intercept anyone. But despite himself, the thrill of the chase urged him on, let him follow his pink-haired companion closer to their prey.
Ahead of them, the corridor of offices opened onto small reception area. The lift was in front of them, the an office and another corridor to the right, two more corridors to the left, and no sign of Death Eaters save for a rough grey cloak discarded in the middle of the floor. Lupin and Tonks looked at each other, then back at the cloak. It was, after all, possible evidences as to who they were chasing. Other than themselves, there was no sign of life. Cautiously, Lupin moved towards the grey cloth, Tonks following. He crouched down on his haunches to get a better look, poking cautiously in with his wand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tonks slouch dramatically against the wall next to the far left corridor. Boring her already, he mused.
"Av…!"
No sooner had the
syllable been uttered than Tonks grabbed the arm that had just
appeared from the corridor beside her and flipped it's owner off
his feet and onto his back.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Lupin immobilised him as he hit the floor. He pulled back their captive's dark mask; terrified eyes looked back at him. The lad was unfamiliar and scarcely out of his teens, the poor, stupid bugger.
"Remus look out!"
Lupin dropped as a bolt of red narrowly missed him, two more dark figures racing away down the far left corridor.
"Shit! There's three of them! We have to call for back up."
"Forget it" said Tonks "there's no time. Plus with all this magic fire the Aurors on-call will have been alerted, we need to get out of here too. Hopefully Kingsley can pick up that little fuckwit."
She stepped towards the lift. "They'll be heading for the fire escape stairs."
"They wouldn't go out that way, the fire escapes are alarmed too."
"No, but if they go for level four there's the utterly pointless ground-level Centaur entrance that is completely unused and unguarded"
She pointed her wand at the lift controls.
"Override code Prairy Oyster" she said, and the lift doors slid open "Gets around all the locks and user logs and whatnot. Secret passed from one trainee to the next for emergency hangover exits."
She pulled him into the lift.
"I'm surprised that one still works." said Lupin, Tonks raised a quizzical eyebrow "It was one of Jim's … Oh never mind."
The lift door opened onto the fourth floor main corridor, they tumbled out and raced towards the Centaur Liaison offices. As they neared them, there was the sound of a heavy door slamming. Around the corner, a long ramp tapered towards a large double door. They ran towards it and…
"Bugger, locked!" snarled Tonks as she collided with it.
Lupin stepped back, gesturing her to do the same.
"Alohamora!"
There was a loud pop as
the charms holding the door gave way. Lupin went to open the door,
but Tonks pushed past him.
"Ladies first." she said with a wink, and he couldn't help but smile.