Chapter 10

Call on the Ministry

Lucius turned toward Harry who was over by Ginny trying to keep Bellatrix away from her. James watched Harry dodge a stunning spell from both Lucius and Bellatrix as he tried to untie his own hands. He finally succeeded just as Harry had been knocked against the wall. He ran up to Lucius and knocked him over. James grabbed the Death Eater's wand and pointed it at him, but Lucius hit James' arm and the wand flew out of his hand. Harry saw it and picked it up and ran toward Bellatrix who was almost to the door with Ginny.

"Let her go!" Harry yelled. "Expelliarmus!" Bellatrix's wand flew out of her hand and into Harry's. He ran at Bellatrix and pulled Ginny out of her grasp. "Stupefy!" he yelled at her. Harry then untied Ginny's hands and told her to untie the others. Just as Ginny turned her back, Lucius jumped on Harry and knocked him to the ground.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed.

"Get the others!" he yelled back. Ginny was hesitant to obey, but finally consented to Harry's command.

Lucius was on top of Harry, one hand on his throat, the other reaching for the wands in Harry's right hand. Harry was trying his best to keep his hand away from Lucius. As they were struggling, Harry saw James lying on the floor on the other side of the room, not moving. As they continued to struggle, Harry felt weaker and weaker. Lucius finally reached the wands stood up. He was too late, though. The other seventh years were untied and had jumped on Lucius and pulled him away from Harry. Ron, Hermione and Sirius were holding him down, while Lily took the wands away from him and stunned him.

Ginny was over by Harry, trying to help him up when Lily screamed.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, running over to Lily, followed by Sirius and Ron.

"He—he…" Lily stuttered.

Hermione gasped when she saw, Sirius yelped and Ron's eyes widened. James had been stabbed in the side. The knife was still there. Lily's eyes began to fill with tears. Then, Ginny screamed, "Harry!" He had collapsed on the ground, groaning.

They all turned to look at the two.

"What's happening to him?" Ron asked as he rushed over to Harry's side to try and help him up again.

"Ron, James is Harry's father! If James dies, then Harry won't exist!"

"We have to get back to the school, now!" Ginny exclaimed. She was helping Ron to support Harry.

"Come on, the door's still open," Ron said. "And our wands are in Lucius' pocket." Hermione bent over and grabbed the six wands and handed them to their owners and giving James' to Lily.

"Oh! Voldemort has Harry's!" Hermione said.

"Let's worry about it later, Hermione. We have to get them back to the school!" Lily said frantically.

"Shouldn't we first put a disillusionment charm on ourselves first? In case we meet anyone?" Hermione suggested.

"Good idea, but hurry! James Potter is not going to die tonight!" Sirius exclaimed.

Hermione started placing the charm on everyone and Lily said she could help. When they were done with that, Sirius levitated James and they made their way out of the room as fast as they could. Lily, Ron, Harry, and Ginny went first. They walked as quietly as possible, not saying a word, as they made their way down the long corridor. They followed it until they came to a staircase leading upwards. Lily ran up the steps as the others followed. When they reached the top, they heard voices. They couldn't understand what they were saying, but Lily didn't care. All she wanted was to get out of here with no trouble at all. Hermione, on the other hand, was curious. She had distinctly heard the names Harry Potter and James Potter. She wanted to know what they were saying. As they got closer, Hermione stopped to listen. Lily had noticed and turned around and walked toward her. "What are you stopping for? James is dying!"

"They're talking about Harry and James!"

"Of course they are! They're trying to kill Harry and James came to the future!" Lily whispered. "Now, unless you want them to die, you had better start moving again!"

Lily ran ahead to the front and walked as fast as she could down the hall. When they came to the end of the hall, they found a door.

"Should we go through it?" Sirius asked.

Lily walked up to the door and opened it. On the other side, was a tunnel. "Come on," Lily said and walked in. Ginny and Ron, supporting Harry, were right behind her, just as eager to leave. They walked on and when they finally reached the end of the tunnel, they found a door with several snakes on it. But there was something wrong with it.

"There's no handle!" Ginny said.

"How do we open it?" Sirius asked.

Lily took out her wand and said, "Alohomora." Nothing happened.

"What do we do?" Ron asked.

Just then Harry groaned. His head lolled back and forth and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He could no longer use his legs even the little bit he had been. Ron and Ginny stumbled as Harry let go of himself.

"Hurry," Harry said, though it was barely audible.

"Maybe we need to speak parseltongue to get it open," Ron suggested.

"Where did that come from?" Sirius asked.

"Voldemort is a Parselemouth. I just thought that maybe you need to say something in Parsletoung to get it to open. Like in Second year."

"Actually, that would be pretty smart," Hermione said.

"I still don't understand how that will help us!" Sirius said impatiently.

"Harry's a Parslemouth." Sirius and Lily gasped. "But we'll explain later if you have to know." Hermione said. "Harry, can you say something in parsletongue?"

"What?" he asked, but no sound came out, but they could tell what he had asked.

"Try 'open'," Ron said, if you can do it."

Harry opened his mouth to try and speak, but he only sighed and closed his eyes.

"Oh no!" Ginny exclaimed.

"That must mean James is getting worse! We have to hurry!" Lily said, frustrated.

"Now what do we do?" Sirius said frantically. "I'm not going to watch James die!" Sirius' face was completely pale now and grew even paler when the door opened from the outside. The five held their breath and backed up against the walls as two death eaters walked in. They were relieved when they passed by without acknowledging them. They hurriedly left out the door before it closed.

When the door had closed, Ron said, "We made it!"

"Yes, but where are we?" Ginny asked.

"We're in London!" Lily said, looking disappointed.

"That's great!" Ron exclaimed.

"How is that great?" Lily exclaimed. "Now we won't get to the school!"

"But don't you see, Lily? We're really close to the Ministry of Magic!"

"So?"

"My dad works there! He can help us!"

Lily's eyes glowed, as did Ginny's.

"Come on! We must hurry!" Ginny said.

"But wouldn't St. Mungo's be closer?" Hermione asked as they went as fast as they could towards the entry to the Ministry.

"No," Ron said. "But even if it were, don't you think they would have a really hard time believing that Harry's dad came to the future and now his dad is dying so Harry's in jeopardy of not existing?"

When they finally reached the telephone booth, Ron, being closest to the receiver, dialed the numbers six two four four two. As he did, a cool, female voice filled the telephone booth. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley. We're here to see Arthur Weasley."

"Thank you. Visitors please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

Just then, seven badges came out of the metal chute where returned coins are dropped; Ron picked them up.

Again, the female voice spoke. "Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium." The floor to the booth shook and the pavement rose up over the telephone booth as they entered the Ministry of Magic and they sunk into darkness. When they neared the bottom, a ray of light shown on their feet and slowly rose. When they reached the bottom, the lady said, "The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening."

As they entered the Ministry, Ginny commented, "This reminds me of when we went to the Department of Mysteries." She shuddered and Hermione said, "Try not to think about it, alright?"

"Come on, we have to find your dad," Sirius said. They walked further and further into the Ministry and came across no one. They headed for Arthur Weasley's office, hoping he was there.

"What if he's not here?" Hermione asked.

"He is," Ginny said. "He's had to work late almost every night since the news of Voldemort's return became public knowledge. It's more likely that he'll be here than at home."

They finally reached the office. It was at the end of a very long hall. They walked up to the double doors that led to the office. Ginny walked forward and knocked on the door. She waited for a few moments, but no one answered. She knocked again and once more, they waited. To their surprise, the door opened and in front of them stood Arthur Weasley.

"Ginny? What are you doing here? Why aren't you at school?" he asked. It was then, that he noticed the others behind his daughter. "What happened? Who are they?" Mr. Weasley asked, acknowledging Sirius, Lily, and James.

"Dad, we'll explain later. Right now, we need to get to the school. Harry and James are dying!"

"James? James who?"

"James Potter, sir," Lily said.

"James Potter? How?" Mr. Weasley looked at the boy who was held by a levitating charm.

"Voldemort," Ron said. "Please help us!"

"Alright. Listen to me. We need to get them to St. Mungo's now. It's the closest place. Now, come here, everyone. You can all apparate, correct?" there was a round of nods. "Good. I'll—"

"Dad, I don't have a license to apparate," Ginny said.

"You know how, though?" She nodded. "Alright, then. I'll deal with problems when the time comes. I'll take James and come back for Harry. None of you can take him because it's much more complicated when you're taking someone else with you. I'll be right back." With that, he disaparated.

There was silence as the group waited for Mr. Weasley to return. Harry had been set on a couch by the fire and Ginny was knelt beside him, moving hair from his eyes. She ran her finger over his scar. She thought about all the things Voldemort had forced him to go through. Thanks to Voldemort, Harry had no parents, he has had a near death experience every year since he arrived at Hogwarts. Thanks to Voldemort, Harry had to go through the Triwizard Tournament. Because of Voldemort's curiosity to find out about some stupid prophecy, Harry lost his godfather, thanks to Voldemort's fear of death, Harry has to stop attending Hogwarts, his favorite place in the world, and destroy all the horcruxes that help keep Voldemort alive.

Just then, Mr. Weasley appeared again and took Harry away, followed by the rest of the teens.

Mr. Weasley walked forward towards the desk to talk to the witch behind the counter.

"Excuse me," he said. "Here is the son of the person I brought a few minutes ago."

"Follow me, sir. Bring the patient. The others must stay out here."

The students made many pleas to be brought back, but to no avail. Mr. Weasley brought Harry back with him and they entered a room with two beds.

"I'll have a Healer in here as soon as possible," the witch said. Mr. Weasley nodded thanks and turned his attention to James. He examined the wound more closely. The weapon was still in his side and the bleeding had slowed. His robes were completely bloodstained. He carefully ripped James' robes and took them off as well as his shirt. He did not take the weapon out yet, for the blood was still coming. He would allow the healer to do that. Just then, the door opened and four Healers came in.

"What happened?" the first Healer asked.

"This young man was stabbed with a knife and he is still bleeding. We need to stop the bleeding and keep him alive or else the other young man will perish as well."

The Healers looked at Harry and gasped. "That's Harry Potter!" one cried.

"What happened to him?"

"Harry will be fine if you save this boy here from dying," informed Mr. Weasley.

"I will have to ask you to leave while we do this, sir."

"Very well, then. I'll go." With that, he left and joined the students in the lobby.

"Dad! Will they be alright?" Ginny asked.

"I do not know, Ginny. Right now, I think you owe me an explanation."