The Locked Room
Chapter 1: Firsts
The flat was frantic on that Monday morning with flashes of bushy brown hair darting about from room to room. The bewilderment of Harry and Ron is not easily described. Ron stumbled out from his room, disheveled and squinting at 7:30 in the morning and groaned.
"Harry, what in Merlin's name is going on?" he inquired. Harry, who was indulging in his fourth cup of coffee since Hermione woke him inadvertently at 6:30, merely shrugged at the red-haired mess that stood before him in his underclothes. A few seconds later, a blur dashed into the kitchen and just as quickly dashed out again; causing Ron to jump at her sudden appearance and spill the coffee he was busy pouring into an obscenely large mug.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON, HERMIONE?" he bellowed. The blur stopped, or at least slowed down on one of her routes through the small kitchen long enough to say "WORK!" and then raced out again, arms full of papers and a bag bursting with more slung over her shoulder. The door slammed, and they heard a loud POP as she disapparated.
Ron sat down and gulped down his coffee. After about 15 or 20 minutes of this, Harry sat up straight and said, "Ohh, right."
"What?" Ron asked, still needing more coffee in order to understand.
"She's starting that job at the Ministry today."
"Ohh, right," Ron said.
"Department of Mysteries, wasn't it?"
Ron merely shrugged and stalked off back to his room. Harry sat in a practically catatonic state for at least another half an hour as Hermione arrived a few miles away at the Ministry, flushed and breathless with excitement.
Hermione stalked off down the hallowed halls of the Ministry, gazing at the Atrium with familiarity. She marched over to the lift and waited for the distant voice to state, "Department of Mysteries."
A thrill passed through her as she straightened her posture in anticipation of what was to come. She hurried down the corridor and opened the door to the circular blue room. She took out her wand – a difficult task what with her arms full of papers – and muttered "Point Me" once the doors had stopped spinning. She chose the northernmost door, and opened it, sensing how her marks from fifth year had been completely erased. A hallway appeared before her, lined with door after door, all locked, all forbidding. Her step slowed along the corridor as the complete anonymity of the office doors shut her out, and a panic began rising within her.
Finally, the door at the end of the hall was in front of her; the door she was meant to knock on. Hesitating, she knocked gently, almost afraid to break the pristine silence that had enveloped her. In a few minutes, the door opened quietly, and a deep voice beckoned her in. A man with a graying beard and grave demeanor stood up to shake her hand.
"Miss Granger?" he asked, and she nodded, "Welcome to your first day of training to become an Unspeakable."
Sitting at a round table in the center of an impossibly large room, Hermione was eagerly poised with quill and parchment, prepared to take down any notes at all. She almost jumped when the man with the graying beard began greeting the people present.
"You are all here today to become Unspeakables. For this reason, we must not become too familiar with each other apart from what is appropriate for our profession. It is also for this reason that any personal effects are not permitted in the offices or hallways. This is the most secret floor in the wizarding world, and we'd like to keep it that way. Unfortunately, as many of you may know, there was a disturbance of this secrecy a few years back when the incident with Lord Voldemort occurred."
Hermione glanced up at this reference to the battle she and the other DA members had participated in, indeed, they had initiated it, practically. No one looked at her as she cautiously scanned the room.
"Because of that unfortunate incident, our security policies have been tightened to an even larger degree. You will all be restricted to your departments and not allowed to go any where else on this floor other than the offices, this meeting room, your particular field, and, of course, the loo." Several people chuckled at this, but Hermione was frozen in a look of slight disbelief. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere else other than her own area? That wasn't what she had expected – she wanted to learn everything she could about the entire department! Her posture slouched a little in disappointment.
"The departments will be assigned in a few minutes." The director pointed to a stack of envelopes on the table in front of him. "You will each come up and get your envelope, go to the office indicated on the front of the envelope, and open it in private. All instructions are inside these envelopes including which doors you enter and what passwords you need. Once you have memorized the contents of the envelopes, you will bring them to me, and I will incinerate them in your presence. Understood?" The group nodded simultaneously, afraid to speak and intimidated by the seriousness of his demeanor.
One by one, they were called up and left the room, heads drooping, concentrating on the print inscribed on their envelopes. When it was Hermione's turn, she jumped out of her chair, hastily gathering her quill and parchment and took the envelope from the director. "Office 27" was scrawled on the front, and Hermione tried to remember the way back to the offices and refrain from following her impulse to rip open the parcel right there in the hall.
As she entered her office and removed the mysterious contents from their wrappings, she hastily scanned what it said.
The Time Room
"Tempus Fugit"
Door to the left of office doors
Feeling moderately distressed at the minimalist instructions, Hermione leaned back in her chair and memorized the three diminutive lines.
It was nearing the five o'clock hour, and Hermione and the rest of the Time Room Unspeakables were crowded around the large bell jar near the end of the room. Their eyes were glazed over from staring so long at the glittering jar, and the egg hatching slowly into the hummingbird and back into the egg as it made its way up and down the jar.
"We should probably get to work," one of the newest Unspeakables said, still staring.
"I don't fancy trying to repair any more Time-Turners," said another. Hermione looked sheepishly in the other direction, remembering that it was partially her fault that the Time-Turners were in a collective state of disrepair.
"What do you suppose the others are doing? What's in the other rooms?" a woman with curly, short red hair asked. The others merely shrugged, except for a pretty Asian girl with her long black hair swept back and narrow glasses perched on her nose who said, "Didn't you read about the battle here? It was in The Daily Prophet a couple years ago."
"D'you suppose that's why all those Time-Turners are broken?" a tall man with disheveled brown hair asked.
"I'm not sure what happened exactly," the Asian girl said, looking conspiratorially at the others, "but Voldemort was definitely involved. I know that there is a Hall of Prophecy somewhere in here. I've also heard something about a locked room that no one can get into because it holds the most powerful magic of all."
"And what's that supposed to be?" one of the others asked, gazing at this girl in blatant admiration.
"Love," Hermione said, without thinking. Several pairs of questioning eyes turned on her, including a pair of rather irritated black ones, doubting her behind thin wire glasses.
"How did you know that?" the Asian girl asked Hermione. Hermione began to panic. She wasn't supposed to know that, but Harry had told her after Dumbledore told him. Since Hermione had planned on being an Unspeakable for a while now, Harry thought it was fitting that she should know something about it.
"I – I just heard it somewhere," Hermione fibbed. A finely-shaped eyebrow rose in disbelief at Hermione's stuttering.
"I heard that too," the brown-haired giant said, smiling in Hermione's direction. "Hi, I'm Charlie, Charlie Perkins" he said, extending a hand in Hermione's direction.
"Hermione Granger," she murmured, "You've heard that, too?" she asked.
"Yeah, I heard that they keep it locked so no one will find out that something so mundane is the most powerful form of magic in the world."
"If that's true, which seems highly unlikely, I don't see why they would keep it locked all the time. If love is so powerful, wouldn't we want to be working with the magic more and trying to use it to our advantage?" the Asian princess queried.
"What's your name?" Charlie asked her.
"Marie," she said shortly. Charlie smirked in her direction. After a short pause, Hermione spoke.
"I think that if love is the most powerful magic in the world, then it could also be considered the most dangerous, and that's probably why they keep it locked up," Hermione murmured into her lap. Marie's upper lip showed her disdain for Hermione's opinion, and when Hermione looked up, Charlie was grinning at her. Hermione's stomach swooped a little and she found herself grinning back.
"I'm home!" she bellowed, barging into the living room with her arms full of papers. When no one answered, she yelled, "BOYS! Where are you?" She dropped everything on the couch and made her way into her bedroom to throw down her coat. Once she meandered into the kitchen, she found a hastily scribbled note on the table.
Hermione – Went to the Burrow. Meet us there later. Harry & Ron
Exasperated at the note, and the need to do any more traveling, Hermione sank into one of the kitchen chairs. Resting her head in her hand, she contemplated just crawling into bed and making her excuses to the Weasleys later when a tapping on the kitchen window above the sink shook her out of her reverie. A small white owl, looking like a baby Hedwig hopped onto the counter once Hermione had opened the window. Unrolling the tiny note, Hermione read its contents with a widening grin.
Would like to discuss today's events more with you over a drink (or several?). I'll be at the Leaky Cauldron around 10, and you should be too, or else it will look like I'm drinking myself into a desolate coma. Please come. Charles Perkins, Esq.
Perhaps Hermione would dash over to the Weasleys for a while… at least until 10.