Wow, who knew Gryffindor was spelled with two f's? Not me! Well, I'm heading for the hills, I think it'd be best if I hide out for a while and hope that Joanne Rowling never has to see this. I'm hoping that I can change this embarrassing error soon…until then; forgive me!

Chapter 15: The Ministry

There was fire, fire had engulfed the entire lobby of what Harry knew was the Ministry of Magic. He could hear screams, loud and terrible. The statues that had been left in their place after the last attack from Voldemort were once again alive and fighting. It was no longer shimmering and magnificent, it was only alight by flames. The damage was overwhelming…Harry could no longer see…

Harry woke up to someone shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to find the familiar red hair and freckles staring down at him.

"Ron…what is it?" Harry yawned.

"Hermione…she's in your bed! You can't have girls in the dormitories, Harry…you just can't! What if someone found out? You got to get her out of here before everyone else wakes up," Ron whispered. It took Harry a moment to realize that Ron hadn't awoken Harry over his dream. Maybe that's all it was; a dream. Harry looked down at Hermione, still sleeping peacefully beside him.

"She stays," Harry said shortly, drawing the curtains around his bed. Hermione stirred and slowly looked up at him.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Nothing; nothing you need to worry about," Harry said. Hermione yawned and rested her head back down. Harry started playing with her the brown curls of her hair while she struck up a quiet conversation.

"I wonder how Percy is doing; we haven't heard from him in ages," she said.

"He obviously doesn't want us to hear from him 'Moine; I think he's still sided with Fudge,"

"How could he be? Fudge was so wrong about everything…how could he still believe in a man like that?"

"I don't know, I really don't know. I think it might have something to do with him being so ambitious; y'know, Fudge was the Minister, he could've helped Percy get a good job," Harry said.

"But he's not Minister anymore, he can't help Percy get a good career now that he's frowned upon by the entire wizarding community,"

"Percy's just a complicated guy, I guess. He's just confused with everything that's happened. I mean; all that he trusted turned out to be wrong. Maybe he's just trying to keep hold of himself by staying solid in his decisions," Harry said.

"Maybe…"

They both lay in bed for a while longer, talking about Percy among other things. Being Sunday, they had nowhere to be. Harry knew that they had missed breakfast, but he didn't care, and by the looks of it, neither did Hermione. Some time later, an owl came soaring through the window and landed next to the bed. Harry grabbed the Daily Prophet that came and nearly shouted at the front page. At that moment, Ron came bursting through the door, carrying a letter and the Daily Prophet.

"Harry…Ministry…attacked…" he gasped. Harry, already out of bed, showed Ron the paper letting him know that he understood what had happened. Hermione, completely confused, grabbed the paper from Harry. She put a hand to her mouth and raced out of the room, apparently to get dressed.

"Ron, has anything happened to your dad? What about Percy?" Harry asked once they met Hermione back down in the Common Room.

"Don't know, mum just said that I had to get down there. You guys can come, too, since you're practically family anyway," he said.

"Oh Ron, I hope everyone is alright!" Hermione said, wrapping her arms around him.

"I'm sure they are, 'Mione, I'm sure they are," Ron soothed.

The trio headed down to the Great Hall, looking for Dumbledore. Once they found him, he informed them that they would be transported to Grimmauld Place on the Knight Bus immediately. Ginny was already waiting for them, standing beside Dumbledore looking utterly frightened. Hermione gathered her into a reassuring hug while whispering soothing words into her ear.

"Hey there, gang. Ready to head out?" Tonks said from behind them. The usually exuberant Auror looked exhausted. Her hair, which was known to be bright, looked dull. Her face seemed strained; her smile was forced and her eyes were empty. They nodded, and together made their way outside to be greeted by Stan.

"'Ello again! Welcome back to the Knight bus; let's get a move on!" Stan said. As always, he seemed unaware of the serious events that happened around him.

"Hey Stan," Harry said, taking a seat in the back of the bus.

The bus took off with a loud bang! and they were hurled out of their seats. Instead of even attempting to climb back into their chairs, they opted to spend the ride sliding around the floor of the bus. Thankfully, the ride was over soon and they quickly stammered from the bus in front of Grimmauld Place. Mrs. Weasley was already waiting by the door. Everyone rushed inside and Ron bombarded her with questions.

"Is dad okay? What about Percy? What happened? Where is everyone?"

"Ronald," Mrs. Weasley said. "Slow down, your father is fine. I'm not sure about Percy, nobody has heard about him yet,"

"Can we go down to the Ministry?" Ron asked.

"Not yet, dear. They're still…cleaning up," she said carefully.

"Mum, what happened? Did anyone die?"

"You-Know-Who attacked. He had many followers with him; nobody saw it coming. Many good people died; they're still searching for other bodies…nobody is truly certain of the total damage," she answered.

"When can we go there?"

"When they say it's alright, Ronald," she said.

The group was left in the lobby of Grimmauld Place; Mrs. Weasley made an obvious effort to distract herself by cleaning the kitchen. They went upstairs to Harry and Ron's room and talked quietly while anxiously waiting until they were allowed to go to the Ministry. It seemed like an eternity before Tonks opened the door.

"Mrs. Weasley would like to speak to you in the kitchen," she said before closing the door. When they opened the door to the kitchen, they could see that something was wrong. Mrs. Weasley had tears in her eyes while Mr. Weasley tried comforting her by rubbing her back. The twins were seated at the table; it looked as if they didn't know what it was they were going to be told yet. They all took their seats and waited for the news.

"Percy…" Mrs. Weasley said. "He's…gone…not dead, dears," she said when everyone jumped. "At least we don't think so…nobody can find him. He was working during the attack…now he's missing," Mrs. Weasley started to sob and rushed from the kitchen. Harry leaned to Hermione.

"I dreamt this," he whispered. She nodded her understanding, but nothing could be done at the moment, they could now leave for the Ministry.

The Knight Bus was packed with witches and wizards who were ready to help in the Ministry. It was a silent ride, everyone wondering how Voldemort could get into the Ministry twice without facing difficult opposition. It was clear that the side of the Dark was equally, if not more, powerful than the Light. Harry shuddered, until that moment he honestly believed that they would win…

The bus stopped and it was time to enter the Ministry. The phone booth was cramped as many wizards pushed themselves inside, all the nametags now read: Cleanup Volunteer. Harry put his on and waited as the elevator slowly descended into the Ministry of Magic. The doors opened and he heard Ginny gasp in terror.

The lobby, unusually bright and busy, was dark and quiet. The walls were almost completely destroyed, the debris was scattered across the floor. Also on the floor were bodies; bodies from both sides that had died serving their leaders. Pools of blood were under each corpse, but as time went by, the floor would soon undoubtedly be engulfed in one large puddle. The statues were demolished; nothing remained of them except tiny bits of gold here and there. The fires Harry had seen in his dream were out, but the smell and ashes remained. Other volunteers were working, searching through the wreckage for clues and survivors.

"Most of the entire Ministry looks like this," Mr. Weasley said from behind him. "We're mostly here to try to cleanup and also to see if we can find Percy…you all can split up and just do what you can," Mr. Weasley left them, he was most likely needed elsewhere.

"Well…off we go," Ron said as he started to climb over the fallen pieces of the ceiling. "I guess we should do what my dad said, y'know, help where we can," the rest of the group shrugged in agreement.

It was hard work; not only did they have to move heavy objects, but also move and put a name on the bodies of those who had fallen. It was a long while before Harry finally decided that it was time to get out of the lobby. The other three thought that he was right, and together, they went to the elevators; Fred and George opted to stay behind. Once they stepped off the elevators, it seemed to be a mutual consensus to go to Percy's office to see what they could find. The walk to the office seemed long; there were witches and wizards everywhere repairing the damage that had been done. Papers lay strewn about, desks were broken, and walls had collapsed. Harry could only think that he was in some form of hell and wanted nothing more than to make it all better.

The door to Percy's office was intact; it looked as if it wasn't touched. The glass, which had Percy's name on it, was dark so no one could see inside and the wood surrounding it was brown. Ron turned the bronze doorknob; it was locked.

"Dad, why is the door locked?" Ron shouted to his father, who was at the other end of the hall. "I thought we searched everywhere for Percy!"

"Oh, I'm not sure anyone's looked in there quite yet, I mean, we didn't think he would be there with the attack going on," he answered, making his way over. "Let's have a look!"

The door was opened and everyone rushed inside. It was a small room; it was clean and organized. A tiny desk was in the corner opposite a filing cabinet. There were newspaper clippings and certificates in frames on the wall, and there was a coat stand by the door; Percy's coat was still hanging on it. Mr. Weasley immediately went to the desk and starting searching for any sign of where Percy may have gone; it didn't take long. The group stared frozen on the spot as Mr. Weasley picked up what was obviously a letter and read it. Mr. Weasley slumped into the chair at the desk, letting the letter slip from his hands. As he stared fixedly at the wall holding his chest, Ron grabbed the paper and brought it back to the group.

My dear Arthur Weasley,

It appears that not only do you have something I want, but I have something of interest to you as well. The stone, you muggle loving fool, I want it. You know where it is, or at least the youngest son of yours does, Ronald is his name, correct? You see, Mr. Weasley, I know about you and your entire family. I know that you're all against my forces and myself. Now you must know that I am perfectly capable of killing you and your children, in fact, I don't have to go far for young Percy. He's beside me at this very moment, not on his own free will of course. I will give you a short amount of time to reveal the stone's location to me; if you do not comply I will personally kill each of your children one by one. That about sums it up; wouldn't you agree?

The letter was signed with the Dark Mark; the skull seemed to look right into the eyes of everyone there; Harry looked right back at it. In a wave of red hair, Ginny collapsed to the floor. Ron gathered her in his arms while she cried uncontrollably.

"R-Ron…P-P-Percy…he's got him! You-Know-Who's got him! Ron…what're we going to do?" she sobbed.

"Shhh, it's okay, Gin, it's okay. We're going to get him back, it's all going to be okay," Ron muttered into her ear as he rocked her back and forth. "It's all going to be okay…"