Shortly Harry, Ron, Hermione and the two Peters had apparated to London, but far away from the diner.
Harry felt very odd going right back into the danger with his friends, just after taking a massive hit himself.
He felt like he should be somewhere else, resting from the mental damage the entire thing had taken on his mind, but no – for the greater good right? The words echoed in his head.
Maybe that was the entire reason his friends kept looking at him, as if to check if he was okay. And they were right to check on him – without the combination that was magic and his powers he wouldn't be doing anything right now.
Or maybe they were just scared of how inhumanely fast he had moved earlier today.
The streets were nowhere as crowded, Harry speculated that it could be the commotion they had attracted to themselves, scaring people away from the street.
So – weird multiverse-breaking lightning and the universe caving in on itself didn't scare people, but a magic fight in the middle of London did? Made as much sense as this entire situation.
"It's here we left them", Hermione opened the door to a run-down building and they followed.
Ron closed the door behind them after they all were inside and locked it. In one of the corners snoozed five knocked out people lying in only their undies.
"Don't worry", she said when she noticed Harry looking at them. "They're out for a few more hours."
That sure inspired confidence, thought Harry sarcastically.
They gathered together in a circle – Hermione and Ron did not look confident in this plan, completely the opposite, the distress increasing in their mannerisms and expressions were plain as day.
He didn't blame them – after all, they were about to break into the one place they'd never thought they had to break into.
Breaking out Sirius from the Hogwarts tower had been nothing in comparison, after he had broken out of Azkaban in which he had spent one year in after the supposed 'evidence' of him being a Death Eater had surfaced along with the murder of Peter Pettigrew, when it was far from the truth and the complete opposite.
Harry still remembered aunt Petunia's shrieks and pleas as her husband got dragged away. Of course, the breakout at the prison had only made people surer that Sirius indeed worked for Voldemort because hardly anyone got out in that short amount of time.
Sirius had escaped all the way to the Shrieking Shack, where the truth had been revealed – a whole mess of hearsay and conspiracies.
Lulling Fluffy to sleep to stop what they assumed was Snape from getting the Stone, or even creating the D.A under Umbridge's unsympathetic rule of Hogwarts was nothing in comparison to what they were about to go out and do.
Impersonation, breaking and entering, and eventually theft. All those things could land them live time in Azkaban, especially when Voldemort was in charge.
This was more comparable to when Harry and Cedric ended up at the graveyard and neither of them knew where they were, lost and confused before one of them were killed without warning. The return of Voldemort.
Harry pulled himself out of his own head and memories when Hermione loudly cleared her throat, looking right at him like he had just interrupted a very important lecture of hers.
"You're ready?" Hermione asked, handing out bottles with a different color for each person.
"Ready? No. Scared to bloody hell? Yes", said Ron.
The potion Harry got, had a feldgrau yellow color to it and smelled like moldy leathery cheese, Ron's was a bleak orange and Hermione's a pleasant heliotrope color – the two potions the Parkers got were both a different shade of red, the stench from Peter's making Harry queasy.
"What even is this?" Peter took a whiff of the potion, immediately his face turned to that of someone that just had gulped down an entire lemon followed by very spicy hot sauce.
Harry looked at Hermione, she looked very amused and smug. In a way, he loved when she had that expression on her face. Not because it usually meant a lecture of something kind was coming, but something with that look that just screamed Hermione.
"Polyjuice. The quick summary, it's a potion that makes a person assume the appearance to that of the persons' pieces which you add to the potion. We're going to take the appearances of Ministry workers; we have no idea who they are but their names should be on their tags."
Harry swallowed the spit building up in his mouth. "No time like the present I suppose. Let's steal an Infinity Stone. Gem, whatever."
Ron and the Peters nodded – Peter pointing at Harry. "What he said."
"Cheers", said Hermione.
They raised and clinked their bottles together before going ahead to drink it.
Harry made sure to drink his as fast as possible and not taste the polyjuice itself. He cursed quietly when he ended up tasting it anyway. It was like swallowing liquid cabbage pudding that had been left out in the sun during a hot summer week.
He made an involuntarily vomiting noise but swallowed it anyway. Ron simply furrowed his nose in light disgust after emptying the bottle, while Hermione had the look of someone that just had tasted something they didn't expect to taste a specific way. Pete didn't react beyond waiting for something to happen, smacking with his lips, feeling the aftertaste. "That wasn't too bad, it tasted like raspberry cream infused with mustard."
Peter was bending over in pain, his face virtually turning green.
"What even is that description?" Peter screamed his lungs out. "That was terrible!"
Harry felt that slight bubbling feeling under his skin, his body seemingly being pulled from all ends to shape a man he did not recognize; his friends went through the same painful process –all at once – until they all were people they did not know.
Ron, now a small man in his forties reminding Harry of a ferret with a moustache; Hermione a short thin woman at least three or four times her age and a hair with hints of grey reminiscent of a small mouse; Harry had turned into a six feet tall man sporting a big black beard; Peter looked like a big, bald muscular man with not the kindest face and honestly was a bit intimidating; Pete just some robust, trustworthy-looking man that reminded Harry a bit of Vernon Dursley if he had Mrs Weasley's kindness.
"Put on these clothes", Hermione immediately distributed their respective clothes 'borrowed' from the knocked-out Ministry workers among them.
They undressed and quickly put on the clothes needed to play the part properly.
Harry felt weird; the faces staring back at him were unknown to him, he was in the company of a bunch of strangers and his friends had been swallowed by the ground.
"I'm some bloke named Reginald Cattermole – Maintenance Department", said Ron, looking at the tag on his chest.
"Mafalda Hopkirk – Magical Law Enforcement", said Hermione in a squeaky little voice, pointing to her tag. She held a tiny purple bag in her hand.
Harry quickly noticed he had no tag, none on his chest or in his pockets. He made sure to at least take his mask with him, tucked into one of his pockets; the suit he had to leave behind.
Pete scowled, looking at Peter. "Travers Murray – Magical Transportation. Who's that?"
"Don't ask me", said Peter.
Harry leaned towards Peter and glanced at his tag; it said Antonin Gudgeon – Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Hermione gave Harry a urging look, obviously wanting to know whose life he was about to live for a few moments.
"I'm nobody", he said. His voice was loud and gruff.
"You're not nobody. You're somebody", said Peter, Pete looked a bit ticked off at his comment.
Hermione pursed her lips. "He's right, you're somebody. Just do what everyone else does, act like you fit in and don't attract any attention to yourself."
"Because that worked so well last time", said Ron skeptically. "Mark my words this will backfire."
Now that Ron was skeptical, it rubbed off on Harry and he started to doubt the plan too. But he trusted Hermione to know what she was doing.
"If this turns out like last time, Hermione, we'll leave immediately, right?" he asked.
In return for his question, he got hit by Mafalda's tiny purse in the back of the head.
"Stop it you two, you're only making this worse", said Hermione.
Ron made a small grimace at Harry. Harry shrugged.
"That's a cute outfit", said Pete, examining Peter's fancy purple robes with tiny golden stars all over the cloak.
Peter looked away in discontent.
"Did your husband give it to you?" continued Pete.
Peter's head spun right back. "Dude", Peter shook his head.
"Oh come on, it's funny."
Peter's eyes darted between nothing in particular. "No, it's not."
"You're just jealous that I came up with that before you."
"Whatever, man", Pete rapidly made a little disapproving shake with his head.
"Let's go already", hissed Hermione between her teeth and opened the door.
With heavy footsteps Harry followed her, out and around the corner of the building, the others followed.
"Don't stick so close to each other!" Hermione whispered.
They kept following her with greater distance through the streets, down a pair of steps that led underground and stopped outside two bathrooms. A few people in robes stood lined up outside both, not very likely here to use the bathroom itself but something else; the place looked a bit run down honestly.
"This it?" Harry tried to convey with just his eyes and face.
Hermione made a tiny motion that very well could be a shrug. Without a word she snuck into a door labelled 'LADIES', Harry was about to follow her but Ron pulled him the other way and instead they took their place in the short queue going through the door with the label 'MEN' above it.
The line got shorter and shorter, eventually Harry, Ron and the Peters walked into the bathroom where people walked into the stalls. Harry didn't know what to make of this; was this the entrance?
The room was covered with in grimy white tiles, the stalls had a very worn-down look to them, not very inviting if Harry said so himself.
A few people looked his way but immediately turned away, some of them grimacing in what resembled fear.
He suspected that whoever he was imitating wasn't a very popular guy. He watched Ron enter one of the stalls, and he himself reluctantly entered the one adjacent the Ron had entered. Harry looked around; there was just a normal toilet and a rope hanging down on the side.
"Hey", whispered Ron. "Dad told me about these, you just have to step in the toilet and flush. It's a security measure."
Harry didn't make sense of what he had just told him.
"What?" Peter's voice echoed from another stall.
Ron didn't answer. What was the worst that could happen? Wet feet?
Harry crammed in both his feet into the toilet feeling like a complete idiot, reached for the rope and pulled it. The sensation was that of apparating; in seconds he stood inside a fireplace in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic next to the four others.
They stepped out as more people appeared where they just had been standing.
Harry did not like being back here at all.
It was bizarre – way too bizarre – being back in the Ministry for a third time. Fortunately, there were a lot of people they could blend in with, people that were rushing around, going from place to place and keeping to themselves for the most part but it was packed. Some vanished up in the fireplace, presumably back to the toilets, Harry thought.
His heart was beating faster as he thought of everything that could go wrong – what if they screwed up; what if the potion wore off suddenly; what if the Stone wasn't here at all; what if they were attacked and one or more of them were captured?
He looked at the others; the Parkers stared with amazed looks at what presented itself before them; Hermione's face was pale as bone; Ron had a discernible 'get me out of here' expression plastered all over his – or well – Reginald's face.
A shrill female voice suddenly echoed from somewhere: "If you possess information about individuals of impure descent, please report to Dolores Umbridge at the Muggle-Born Registration Commission immediately. Failing to do so will be penalized."
Harry definitely did something immediately, he recognized that awful shrill voice.
"Umbridge", muttered Ron before Harry could think it.
The place didn't look like it had when Harry had been here the last time or before his hearing mostly because of the giant obscene statue in the middle of the atrium, in the shape of witches and wizards standing on the bodies of dozens if not hundreds of humans, presumably Muggle-Borns, and a big black sign proudly stating in bold golden letters: Magic is Might.
Harry's stomach turned into an angry sickening knot seeing the appalling statue flaunt a very cruel message. He caught Hermione's look; her face warped for just a few seconds into pure anger but it was enough to make him remember not to get on her bad side.
Ron though, just looked like he wanted to hit someone very hard.
"Come on let's go, we look suspicious", Harry said and started walking, prompting the others to follow.
"We're are we going?" whispered Ron in his ear.
People passed by him and he just grunted with a shrug, attempting to stay in character or at least what he assumed the real person was like.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and the two Peters just kept on walking, completely without any plan now that they were here.
"Well this was stupid", said Ron.
"Think", said Hermione. "Who would be most likely to hold onto such a powerful artifact such as an Infinity Stone?"
Harry glanced towards the place he had heard the shrill voice, "Umbridge?"
Hermione had the face of someone that had known everything and now knew nothing at all. This wasn't like her.
"Maybe", she stammered. "Vol-I mean the Dark Lord?" She had a painful expression on her face, as if the words physically hurt her. But they had to blend in and couldn't go around screaming Voldemort's name.
She might have a point though, if anything Voldemort would be the one sitting on the stone – and now he couldn't get that picture out of his head.
"Who says he's even here?" Ron said.
Harry stopped dead, causing the two Peters to bump right into Ron and Hermione. He never thought of that.
Hermione was getting impatient, "Harry, decide. The clock is ticking, I don't know how long the potion will last."
Harry looked at her. They had three Spider-Men, he being one of them – if they had to, they would easily fight their way out.
"Oh don't look at me like that. You know what is at stake", she said, raising her voice.
Something about her tiny mouse-like voice sounding like Hermione lecturing him behind all the layers made him quietly chuckle without really knowing why.
He started walking again, this time faster, the others kept following.
"Umbridge it is then. And if she doesn't have it… we'll just get the information out of her."
"I knew we should've done this ahead of time", Hermione sounded stressed – she had every right to because this plan was the worst plan of all time. "
A scrawny man stood by a wall waving pink leaflets about, screaming at the top of his lungs,
"Is your fellow neighbour a blood traitor? Know how to deal with the problem when presented with it and how to report them!"
"What kind of rubbish is that?" Hermione whispered angrily.
"Ignore it", Harry said.
The man apparently thought Hermione wanted one and handed a leaflet out to her as they passed, which she took reluctantly, almost at once crunching it in her hand to a little ball.
"Guys, guys", whispered Peter as they joined the crowds headed for the lifts.
Harry looked over his shoulder at him, waiting for what he had to say.
"That Electro that really wanted a piece of me just walked by me", he said. "Be careful."
Harry's heart flew up to his throat as they stepped into a lift amongst several Ministry workers; they were here at the Ministry. The lift made a jump before quickly moving to whichever department they were heading to. He mashed the button saying floor nine – he remembered that's how he got to the courtroom since his last visits.
Hermione exchanged looks with Ron, Harry suspected they both thought the same thing.
"Cattermole, aren't you supposed to join your wife in the courtrooms?" said a chill voice somewhere amongst the crowd. Harry tried as best he could to look at the black haired, cold faced man that talked; he reminded Harry of a Death Eater he had seen years ago but he didn't know his name.
"My wife?" asked Ron. "I mean, yes. That's where I'm heading now."
The man scoffed. "Your wife – Mary. Remember her? Maybe she isn't that important to you after all. She's being accused of her blood status, yet you are here, bumbling about?"
Ron did not answer, instead he made a sort of choking noise.
A familiar soft female voice talked, "Floor six – department of Magical Transportation." Almost as quick as people left the lift, more filled their spots.
"Morning, Runcorn", said a wizard with a big bushy grey beard who now was standing next to Harry, and Harry wondered nervously if it was him, he talked to – no, it could be some. "You heading to witness the trials?"
Harry didn't answer at first until the wizard looked straight at him. "Yeah."
"Nasty business, isn't it?" the wizard's word didn't reflect on his face, rather he seemed to pity the Muggle-Borns. "But if we want order in our world, we have to purge a few weeds."
Harry's fists crunched from how hard he clenched them, his lip trembling, barely managing to keep his composure and not crushing the old man's head like a pumpkin.
Finally, the lift stopped with a such heavy force that Peter slammed his face into Harry's shoulder.
"Floor Nine – Department of Mysteries", the cool calm female voice told them. The golden grilles slid to the side with a rustle – Harry walked out without even looking at the old wizard again, hearing the others following him notch in heel.
"Well take care, Albert", the wizard shouted after him.
"Albert Runcorn?" Hermione scrunched her face.
Harry did not answer her while they rushed down the corridor, past the many doors of the Department of Mysteries and down the stairs.
Harry halted in his steps as he recognized a raspy voice echoing down the hall leading to the courtroom accompanied by rapid footsteps – someone bumped into him; Peter again. "My friend – common sense, it's something you could benefit from! These people don't value strength or gifts – not like we do – let's take this place over, they would be no match for us!"
The ominous voice was followed by a manic laughter, it bounced eerily off the walls, slowly fading away into silence.
"You're insane, Osborn. We agreed only to hurt the spiders, no one else", said another voice that Harry had heard for most of his time growing up at aunt Petunia's; but it couldn't be, that's impossible – Sirius?
Harry's head was spinning, turning even – no – his entire world was spinning and turning; Norman Osborn walked past him and with him was Sirius. Sirius Black, the uncle he had watched die in his arms. It was if all of existence slowed down around him.
Harry didn't know if he was going to throw up, scream or laugh; maybe all at once – but he barely kept himself together as the blood thumped in his ears, his breathing as loud as the footsteps echoing off the walls and ceiling.
Both Osborn and Sirius looked at him with hardly any interest, and kept walking.
"It's not him Harry", Hermione's voice assured him somewhere in the distance, or maybe behind him, next to him – he didn't know. "He must be from another dimension."
"Just like us", Peter added.
"Right", is all he heard himself say.
He kept on walking still with the four others in his company. It was like a dream, like he just witnessed them walking down the corridor. What a god damn insane day this was. Yeah, completely mental and nothing made any sense anymore; first whatever had happened at the diner, breaking into the Ministry, and now Sirius working with the Goblin.
"I know you're hurting right now but you need to get over yourself, Harry", said Hermione impatiently, as if she could read his thoughts. "This isn't about us; it's much bigger than that. We need to focus on what's important."
"That's cold, even for you. Do you really think that's going to help, Hermione?" said Ron, scoffing.
"No, she's right", Harry heard himself say as his detached self, sort of re-entered his body, grounding him in reality again.
They stopped outside of the courtroom; Harry, Ron and Hermione drawing their wands.
Harry's gaze swept over the anxious faces of his still transformed friends," Ron, you're on point. Your wife – I mean – Reginald's wife is in there right now. Hermione and Peter, follow him-"
"Which Peter?" said both Peter's in unison.
Harry cursed under his breath, feeling a sting of compassion for mrs Weasley and wondered how she separated Fred and George or if she just didn't. "Just… any of you! Both of you! I'll be last. Spread out and be on look-out for the Stone. We're going to assume Umbridge is in there right now, distract her any way you can."
"Alright", said Ron with a smirk. "Let's break our seventh or eighth law for today and steal ourselves an Infinity Stone." He placed his hand on the doorknob and opened it.
Author's end of chapter notes: Even though I was reluctant to write the Ministry of Magic infiltration, I took my own spin (hehe) on it and made my best not trying to just re-iteriate the part, but I think the pay off for the entire infiltration will be worth it.
I also think redoing the entire Horcrux hunt beat by beat is the most boring thing a fanfic writer could do, but trust me I do not intend to take Harry and co on that exact journey, prepare for things to progressively get more crazier.