The Department of Mysteries

John was a mess and he grabbed the front of Sherlock's robes.

'Why did you do that?' Sherlock asked gently.

John shook his head, barely breathing. 'I saw what Hermione was planning. I thought I could help, but - but I - I -'

'It's all right,' Sherlock murmured. 'We don't have to go, we can stay here.'

John shook his head again. 'No, no, no, we have - have to help Sirius - I have to save him.' John stumbled over to the nearest Thestral. He couldn't quite see it, but he groped around until he felt its mane beneath his fingers. 'I can do this,' he sniffed.

Sherlock didn't say anything, but John could feel his doubt.

'Don't you want to see what Mycroft has got hidden in there?' John said, giving Sherlock the best smile he could manage.

Sherlock rolled his eyes, but allowed John's weak convincing to work, and felt his way to another one of the Thestrals.

Dean went over to Cas and put a hand on his shoulder before he could mount his Thestral.

'You sure about this?' Dean asked him.

Cas took a deep breath and his eyes glowed very briefly, but to Dean's surprise, he gave a small smile. 'I can handle it,' he said. 'You're right, I should harness my power, and I think some Death Eaters will be good target practice.'

Dean grinned. 'Well all right. Stay close to me. I've got your back, okay?'

Cas nodded, but caught Dean's sleeve before he went to his own Thestral. 'Are you sure about this?'

Dean shrugged and sighed. 'No, but I'd hate myself if y'all went without me and something happened to you.'

Cas squeezed his hand. 'It'll be fine,' he said. 'I'll protect you.'

Dean smiled again. 'Is that right?' he said, returning Cas's squeeze. 'You know what? I feel much better now.'

Cas beamed and mounted his Thestral.

'We all ready, then?' Harry called once they had all finally climbed onto a Thestral each. Then he addressed the horse he was sitting on. 'Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London,' he said uncertainly. 'Er… If you know where to go…'

For a moment, the Thestrals did nothing at all. Then with one sweeping movement, they extended their wings and rocketed upwards one after the other. In moments they were over Hogwarts grounds, passed Hogsmeade, and as night began to fall, they passed over small collections of village lights.

The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon only the lights of Muggle towns gave them any clue of how far from the ground they were, or how very fast they were travelling.

On they flew through the gathering darkness, faces stiff and cold, legs numb from gripping the Thestrals tightly.

Abruptly, they began to descend, the Thestrals hurtling towards the pavement. Despite their great speed, the Thestrals touched down lightly, quiet as shadows.

'Never again,' Ron said breathlessly, after toppling from his Thestral. 'Never, ever again.'

'Where do we go from here, then?' Luna asked, smoothly dismounting her Thestral.

'Over here,' Harry said, pointing them towards an old, vandalised telephone box.

'We can't all fit in there,' Cas said, eyeing the box dubiously.

'Sure we can,' said Dean. 'Come on.'

It was a tight squeeze, and more people than should have been possible all fit themselves into the box.

'Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two,' Sherlock called out, and Ron managed the dial. Once he was done, a cool female voice sounded inside the box.

'Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business.'

Harry groaned and rattled off all their names. 'We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!' he said angrily.

'Thank you,' said the voice. 'Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes.'

The badges rattled out of the metal chute. Hermione scooped them up and handed them out.

'Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium.'

'Fine!' Harry said loudly. 'Now can we move?'

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past the glass windows. The scavenging Thestrals slid out of sight and a soft golden light hit their feet. They were all tense as they reached the Atrium, but no one was waiting for them.

'The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening,' said the woman's voice.

The door of the telephone box burst open, and they all tumbled out of it. The Atrium was eerily quiet. There were no fires burning under the mantelpieces and the only sound came from the water streaming steadily from the golden fountain.

'Where's the security?' Dean muttered, looking around warily.

'I don't know,' said Harry. 'Come on, it's this way.' He led the way through the Atrium to the lifts on the other side.

The lift clattered into sight, the noise echoing throughout the Atrium. The golden grilles rattled open and they dashed inside, Harry jabbing the number nine button. As the lift descended it continued to rattle and jangle, until it halted at the bottom.

'Department of Mysteries,' said the same cool female voice, and the grilles slid open.

They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torch that flickered in the rush of air from the lift.

Harry led them down to the end of the corridor, but stopped just before a plain black door.

'Okay, listen,' he said. 'Maybe a couple of people should stay here as a - as a lookout - '

'And how're we going to let you know something's coming?' Ginny asked, eyebrows raised. 'You could be miles away.'

'We're coming with you, Harry,' Neville insisted.

'Let's get on with it,' Ron said firmly.

Harry sighed and finally opened the door he'd been dreaming about all these months.

They all marched through it, into a large, circular room. Everything was black including the door and ceilings. Identical, unmarked, handleless black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool light reflected in the shining marble floor.

'Someone shut the door,' Harry muttered.

'No, don't!' Sherlock hissed, but it was too late. Neville had already moved to close it, and as soon as he did, there was a rumbling and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. For a few seconds, the blue flames blurred together to resemble bright neon lines as the wall sped around. Then, as suddenly as it started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.

'What was that about?' Ron whispered fearfully.

'It's to stop us knowing which door we came through,' Sherlock told them. 'Or which one we need.'

'How're we going to get back out?' said Neville uncomfortably.

'Well, that doesn't matter now,' Harry said forcefully, 'we won't need to get out 'til we've found Sirius.'

'Okay, so where do we go, Harry?' Ron asked.

'In the dreams, I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room - that's this one - and then I went into a room that kind of glitters… We should try a few doors,' Harry said. 'I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon.' He hesitantly raised his left hand, his wand held tightly aloft in his right, and pushed the door directly in front of him.

It swung open easily, revealing a long rectangular room, with lamps hanging on low golden chains. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for them to swim in; a number of pearly white objects were drifting around lazily in it.

John's head pounded. The white things drifting around felt like spikes in his mind. He had to stop looking at them and lean against a desk to fend off the nausea already rising in him. He took a deep breath and pressed the spot on his hand that Sam had shown him, and the pain subsided.

'What're those things?' Ron whispered.

'Are they fish?' breathed Ginny.

'Aquavirius Maggots!' Luna said excitedly. 'Dad said the Ministry were breeding - '

'No,' said Hermione, sounding odd. She moved closer to the tank. 'They're brains.'

'Brains?' Ron said in disgust.

'Yes… I wonder what they're doing with them.'

Sherlock looked around. 'This must be the Office for the Study of Thought,' he told them. 'I heard Mycroft talking about it once.'

Glimmering eerily, the brains drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green liquid.

'Let's get out of here,' said Harry. 'This isn't right, we need to try another door.'

'There are doors here too,' said Ron pointing around the walls.

'In my dream I went through the dark room into the second one,' Harry said. 'I think we should go back and try from there.' So they went back out to the dark, circular room.

'Wait!' Hermione said sharply, as Luna made to close the door. 'Flagrate!'

She drew with her wand and midair and a fiery 'X' appeared on the door. When it clicked shut, the room rumbled and the walls revolved again, this time with a red-gold blur amongst the blue.

When all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.

'Good thinking,' said Harry. 'Okay, let's try this one.' He pushed open another door, his wand raised.

This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular. The centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre. There was a raised stone dais in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that they were amazed it was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black veil which, despite the complete stillness of the air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.

As soon as John laid eyes on it, his nose began to bleed and panic welled up inside him.

'Who's there?' said Harry, jumping down onto the bench below.

'Harry, come back!' John hissed, and the veil continued to flutter and sway.

Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit.

'No, don't!' John called, but now the others were stepping closer to look at the archway. A few of them, including Cas, seemed completely entranced by the veil.

'What are you saying?' Harry said loudly at the veil.

'Nobody's talking, Harry!' said Hermione, sounding scared.

'Someone's whispering behind there,' Harry said, moving even closer to the archway.

'Come back!' John said, dabbing at his bleeding nose but refusing to get any closer.

'Is that you, Ron?' Harry asked, ignoring John.

'I'm here, mate,' said Ron, walking around the side of the archway.

'Can't anyone else hear it?' Harry demanded.

'We have to go,' John called down, getting more and more distressed, hopping from one foot to the other.

Cas nodded, gazing at the archway, equally horrified and intrigued.

'I can hear them too,' Luna said, now also ignoring John. 'There are people in there!'

'What do you mean, "in there"?' demanded Hermione, now sounding angry. 'There isn't any "in there", it's just an archway, there's no room for anyone to be there. Harry, stop it, come away-' She grabbed Harry's arm, but he resisted.

'Harry, we're here for Sirius!' John called desperately, taking one shaky step down and feeling ice in his veins.

This at last seemed to get through to Harry. He snapped out of his trance, shaking his head slightly.

'Let's go,' he said, stepping away from the archway.

Hermione led the way out, while Ron had to drag Neville away from the veil.

They went back into the dark circular room, deep relief washing over John.

'What do you think that arch was?' Harry asked.

'I don't know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous,' said Hermione, again inscribing a fiery cross on the door.

Once more, the wall spun and became still again. Harry approached another door at random and pushed. It did not move.

'What's wrong?' said Hermione.

'It's… locked…' said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it didn't budge.

'This is it, then, isn't it?' said Ron excitedly, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open. 'Bound to be!'

'Get out of the way!' Hermione said sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where the lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, 'Alohomora!'

Nothing happened.

'Sirius's knife!' said Harry. He pulled it out from inside his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. When he withdrew it, however, the blade melted and still the door would not open.

'Let me try,' Cas said quietly. He stepped up in front of the door and held out an arm. His eyes glowed and a faint white light emanated from his palm, but still nothing happened.

'Right, we're leaving that room,' Hermione said briskly, marking the door with another cross.

'But what if that's the one?' said Ron.

'It can't be. Harry could get through all the doors in his dream,' Hermione said, while Harry tucked the now useless handle of Sirius's knife in his pocket.

'You know what could be in there?' Luna said eagerly, as the wall started to spin again.

'Something blibbering, no doubt,' Hermione said under her breath.

The wall stopped spinning and Harry pushed open another door, and finally gasped, 'This is it!'

The room was filled with a beautiful sparkling light, gleaming from hundreds of different kinds of clocks, lining every surface and hanging between bookcases. A busy, relentless ticking filled the place. The source of the dancing, bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room.

'This way!' said Harry, leading the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks towards the bell jar.

'Oh, look!' said Ginny as they drew near, pointing at the bell jar.

Drifting along in the sparkling current inside the bell jar was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar, it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draught it's feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it drifted to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg.

'This must be the Office for the Study of Time!' Sherlock said excitedly, pressing his nose against the bell jar.

'Keep going!' Harry said sharply, as Sherlock and Ginny both showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird.

'You dawdled enough by that old arch!' Ginny said crossly, but followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it.

'This is it,' Harry murmured.

Everyone tensed, wands drawn, and waited for Harry to open the door. He pushed it and it swung open.

Inside were high ceilings, like a church, and full of nothing but shelves covered in small, dusty glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle brackets set in intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, they were burning blue. The room was very cold.

John took one step over the threshold and was immediately assaulted by hundreds of voices shouting, crying, gasping in his head. He clamped his mouth shut, so as not to give them away, but doubled over clutching his head.

Sherlock too felt the noise reverberating in his mind and his eyes watered. He grabbed John and yanked him back through the door. 'Deep breath,' Sherlock whispered. 'Push them away.'

'You'll help me?' John mumbled, rubbing his temples.

'Of course.'

John nodded and squeezed Sherlock's hand before hesitantly stepping back into the room. The voices came again and John's wand wavered, but both he and Sherlock pushed against them. They couldn't dull the sound completely, but it was muffled enough to allow John to move forward.

Harry peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves, but there was no one there.

'You said it was row ninety-seven,' Hermione whispered to Harry.

'Yeah…' Harry murmured, looking up at the silver figure fifty-three set into the shelf below another blue candle.

'It's this way,' Hermione whispered, squinting at the next row.

'Keep your wands ready,' Harry said softly.

They crept forward, glancing behind them as they went. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelves. Some of they had an odd, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.

They passed rows and rows, listening hard for the slightest sound of movement.

Most of the orbs had a dull, creamy coloured light, but John slowed to a stop when they came across a whole section of orbs that glowed a faint, light blue.

'John!' Hermione hissed.

John shook his head. He stepped closer to the orbs and they felt strangely familiar. The voices still itching at the back of his mind faded away, and as he approached the nearest one, he saw that the label underneath had a date from the last November, and it read:

J.H.W to D.W

Dean Winchester

and Castiel Edlund

'What are these?' John whispered, but as he reached up to touch the orb, Harry whispered impatiently.

'Come on!'

John reluctantly left the orb and followed Harry further into the room.

'Ninety-seven!' Hermione whispered as they reached the row they were looking for, but there was nobody there.

'He's right down at the end,' said Harry. 'You can't see properly from here.' He led them between the towering rows of glass orbs. 'He should be near here,' whispered Harry. 'Anywhere here… really close…'

'Harry?' Hermione said tentatively, but he didn't respond.

'Somewhere about… here…' he said.

They reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. There was nobody there. Only echoing, dusty silence.

'He might be…' Harry whispered hoarsely, peering down the next row. 'Or maybe…' He hurried to look down the one beyond that.

'Harry?' said Hermione again.

'What?' he snarled.

'I… I don't think Sirius is here.

Nobody spoke, but Harry went running up and down the aisles, looking for any sign of Sirius.

John held his head in his hands, beginning to feel dizzy, and crouched down, while the others shifted about uncertainly.

Ron wandered down the row they were in, peering at the labels on the shelves, until he stopped in front of one.

'Harry?' he called.

'What?' came Harry's voice from a distance away.

'Have you seen this?'

'What is it?' Harry said, striding back into their aisle.

Ron pointed at the orb he was looking at. 'It - it's got your name on,' he said. The orb was dusty and appeared not to have been touched in many years.

'My name?' Harry said blankly, stepping closer. He craned his neck to look at the spidery writing on the label, where a date from some sixteen years previously, and below that:

S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D

Dark Lord

And (?) Harry Potter

Harry stared at it.

'What is it?' Ron asked, sounding unnerved. 'What's your name doing down here?' He glanced along at the other labels on that stretch of shelf. 'None of the rest of us are here.'

'Cas and Dean are,' John said, getting to his feet again.

'We are?' Dean said, perplexed.

John nodded. 'I saw it further up.'

'Harry, I don't think you should touch it,' Hermione said sharply as Harry stretched out his hand.

'Why not?' Harry said. 'It's something to do with me, isn't it?'

John tensed, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. 'I don't think you should touch it either,' he mumbled, gripping his wand tightly.

'Don't, Harry,' Neville said suddenly, looking as though he couldn't take much more suspense.

'It's got my name on,' Harry said. He closed his fingers around the dusty ball's surface, lifted it down from its shelf and stared at it.

Nothing happened at all. The others moved closer to Harry, watching him brush the spun glass ball free of dust.

Then, from right behind them, a drawling voice spoke.

'Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me.'

Welcome back everyone! Thanks to Morgan Teri Befan and megasauruss for the reviews!

Also shout out to megasauruss for getting into a professional course! Good luck!

See you all next time :)