Chapter 91
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"Did you contact Black and Lupin yet?" Pansy asked as soon as Rebekah strut back into the Chamber.
Rebekah was holding Morgana Le Fey's book again, revisiting the ritual they needed to do again. "Yeah, Snape let me use his floo," She said, flipping from one page to another before going back to the first.
"Probably knowing that you'd find another, more dangerous and against the rules kind of way otherwise," Theo said. "Found it yet?"
Rebekah nodded, falling to her knees as soon as she was close enough to the futon while still continuing the turning of the pages. "I don't know how this will work though."
"Well," Draco smiled. "That's a first!"
"Oh, shut up," Rebekah punched his leg gently. "From what I've seen, the ritual was supposed to be done once and is irreversible. But since we're adding to it and not trying to break the bond, it should work fine."
"Should?"
"Will."
Before any other plans could be put into action, there was a certain little ritual that needed to take place.
Logan and Astoria were new to the group, newer than the rest of them and so had not received the strange chain bracelet tattoos that signified the group.
It took several hours of preparation and Rebekah even had to go back in time with the potion to be accurate with the timing, but she had the small goblet lit up in the middle of the Chamber within minutes.
The Marked Crown had warned the two new members, telling them the pain was extreme and unlike anything they had ever felt. They laughed when the two shook their warnings off and collapsed as soon as their blood hit the goblet.
The already Marked members furrowed their brows as the tattoos on their wrists and palms seemed to heat up and slightly burn.
The mark of their bindment and connection of loyalty was no longer a chain that went around their wrists and up their palms.
Instead, on both wrists of each member was a new Mark.
Around each of their wrists was a crown shaped cuff tattoo, going around in a perfet circle to link up back together without mistake. Evenly placed, there were nine points that went towards their hands to signify their membership but each of them had a different colour.
The colors were there to represent their families, Draco had two silver coloured tattoo cuffs around his wrists while Theo had emerald ones. Tracey's family had bronze in their crest and so that became the colour of her cuff while Astoria had gold and Daphne had rose gold. Strangely enough, Blaise had a lapis blue colour that was vibrant against his skin while Pansy held cyan around her wrists. Logan's cuff tattoos were a brilliant maroon red while Rebekah had royal purple.
"Neat," Daphne said, looking at her palm before comparing it to Pansy's. "They've changed again. I love the colours though."
"Now we all match," Theo nodded to himself. "Right. So what're we doing with Voldemort's plan of getting you to the Ministry?"
"We're giving him what he wants," Rebekah took a breath. "I want to know what this prophecy is about and the only way I could learn about it is by getting it myself."
"They're gonna try and capture you," Draco said.
Pansy looked confused. "Who?"
"The Death Eaters,"
"Right," Pansy said. "I can't come with you, nor can Draco, or Theo, or Draphne, or Astoria. We'd get captured and tortured for helping you. Voldemort would either hurt us or our families."
"I'm not going to ask you to come with me," Rebekah said.
"Why don't you ask Annie Shaw?" Astoria said quickly. "She's a confirmed candidate for the Higher Court."
Rebekah nodded. "She's good with Hexes. Annie comes and Ginny will follow. Anyone else?"
"Luna can take my place," Theo nodded to himself. "Little crazy but she knows her stuff."
Rebekah looked to Blaise, Logan and Tracey, the only members that could go with her without repercussions on their families if Death Eaters did come for them.
"I know that look," Blaise snorted. "You're not leaving without us."
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Ginny, Luna, and Annie joined the four Crown members.
Those that could see the Thestrals helped those who could not.
Rebekah had her hand wrapped into Tatia's mane, keeping a soft but firm grip on her as she and the others propelled themselves into the sky. The sun was beginning to set now, turning into a dark red shade as the final moments of the day came and went as they flew.
The air was cool, something that did wonders for them as nerves and anxiety went through all of them.
Over Hogsmeade and the mountains and valleys, it surprisingly didn't take them long to land in Warner Village. It was partly a Wizarding place, so of course they would have a telephone box that was attached to the Ministry.
"Where are we?" Ginny asked, dismounting the Thestral with a small misstep.
"Warner Village," Rebekah said, jumping off quickly. "Tatia, keep out of sight with the others. I found this place in my third year. Get inside the telephone box."
They all huddled into the box, squished but fitting in with the door closed.
"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two."
Annie reached it, quickly whirling in the numbers as the dial turned back into place before a woman's voice sounded inside the box.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"Rebekah Potter, Blaise Zabini, Tracey Davis, Logan Romanov," Rebekah stated swiftly. "Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Annie Shaw. Let us in! Reason to believe someone is hurt!"
"Thank you," The woman's voice said, the clicking of badges quickly sounding after. . "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
The badges were handed out and pinned to their shirts and whatnot.
"Visitor 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."
They waited a second before they felt the telephone box shudder and the pavement quickly began to rise outside the glass window. There was a dulled grinding sound as they sank, the Thestrals disappearing outside the window as light became scarce the further they went into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening."
The doors of the telephone box opened swiftly, letting them all step out without tumbling or falling over one another as they saw that the Atrium was empty. No fires burned in the Floo mantelpieces set into the walls. The only noise they heard was from the gushing of water from the golden fountain of Witches and Wizards supposedly being superior than other creatures.
They all remained quiet as they sprinted down the hall and straight towards the security desk.
"Where in Merlin's name is everyone?" Ginny asked as they arrived at an empty security desk, Blaise stepped behind the desk and tried to figure the thing out.
Luna hummed. "You-Know-Who could have assumed that Rebekah was going to show up and didn't need the interference that the security would have posed."
"Yeah," Logan said. "I doubt he wanted anyone coming to her rescue either."
Blaise found a buttom and the lift appeared within seconds, letting everyone inside before the doors closed and Logan jammed his finger into the button for the ninth level.
"Why is this thing so damn loud?" Blaise complained, rubbing a hand down the back of his neck. "They've never been this loud during the day."
"There's people bustling around during the day," Tracey stated, her hands clenching by her sides. "Right now, we're the only ones here."
"For now," Annie muttered, turning to Ginny, "Are we sure we're the only ones here?"
"We have no fucking clue if we are alone or not," Logan almost snapped. "And it's making me anxious and I hate being anxious!"
Rebekah put her hand on his wrist, just holding it for a second before hearing him sigh as the lift stopped and the doors opened after the voice announced they were at the Department of Mysteries.
The group of seven stepped out and into the hall, empty besides them and dark besides the flaming torch on the wall a couple metres away.
As usual Rebekah moved without waiting for them, striding down the corridor to get to the plain black door at the end of it. She did hear their footsteps that quickly settled into step with hers as she strode but she didn't stop her fast pace.
She stopped at the door, twisting on her heels to face the rest of the group with her. "Anyone staying behind to keep look out? No? Let's go then."
As soon as she turned back, the door swung open and she didn't stop her fast pace into the new room. It was circular and large, everything black including the floor and ceiling but there were small branches of candles around the walls, emitting a strange blue light. Black doors sat between some of the candles, none of them were fitted with handles.
With the door shut and without the long chink of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections in the floor below.
They all crouched when the ground shifted beneath them, turning the floor around until they couldn't tell which door they had come from from the rest of the unmarked black doors around them. They then noticed that it wasn't the ground that shifted but rather the walls around them.
For a few seconds, the blue flames blurred like neon lights shrieking around them.
"What the fuck was that about?" Tracey wrinkled her nose.
"Probably to stop us knowing which door we came in from," Ginny said, her voice quiet as her stomach settled again.
Rebekah sighed with a groan. "How the fuck is this supposed to work?
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Out of all of the rooms they had searched, the one with the Veil was the most interesting and dangerous.
Without even thinking, Rebekah had almost completely jumped down the thin stone benches that made up a semi courtroom like area around the room. While she knew she could have landed down the twenty feet without serious injury, injury of any type was very much a bad thing so she settled to sprint down the stairs instead of completely leaping.
While Tracey just followed Rebekah without a concern, Blaise looked to the others and just sighed as he and Logan followed the other two Crowns. They stepped onto the dias, getting closer to the Veil than before. The other three soon joined them on the raised platform to view the tattered curtain barely held together.
The Veil swayed as if someone had just passed through it.
Rebekah wrinkled her nose as she felt like she somehow knew someone was standing on the other side of the archway even though she couldn't see them. She had already taken her wand out, as did the others, but she twisted it in her grip like a pencil, trying to concentrate and get rid of the feeling she got from the Veil.
Mutters came from behind the veil.
Whispers of promises of seeing lost ones that wanted to get into their heads and plant themselves in deeply enough that they would go through the Veil to see the ones they thought they had lost forever.
"I can hear the voices," Luna muttered.
Logan nodded. "Same but I can't tell what they're trying to tell us."
Rebeka shook her head, turning her back to the Veil. "Dark Magic. Feels like death to me. Come on, this isn't the room we want."
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When a door refused to open, they left it alone because even they knew better to leave something that is purposely locked in the Department of Mysteries where dangerous things could happen at any moment.
They had to go through a room with thousands of clocks gleaming from every surface. It was loud as the clocks timed together like a march of a million footsteps.
After going to the last door, they finally found it.
The room was huge with a taller than they can see ceiling and full of nothing but towering shelves with tiny glass orbs on every only light came from the tiny candles on each shelf side, the blue flames cold and menacing as the Court walked into the room fully.
"Row ninety seven, right, Beks?" Blaise asked, watching as Reekah nodded. "Going right then."
"What are these?" Annie asked.
"Prophecies."
"Only someone who it is about can touch one," Logan said. "My mum was into Divination, this was a lesson she taught me about.
They crept forward, staring behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the farther ends of which were in near total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelf. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.
They passed row eighty-four, then eighty-five.
Blaise nodded upwards to the yellow little label, "Ninety-seven. If You-Know-Who wants you to be here, does that mean that there's a prophecy about you?"
"I hope fucking not," Rebekah said, now begining to walk down the asile. "Because I have toouch shit on my pla— Ah, for fuck's sake!"
"What?" Ginny said, scurrying over before she snorted. "Spoke too soon, Rebekah."
"Yeah."
A yellowish label had spidery writing on it with a date that was about sixteen years ago, along with a couple words which just made Rebekah swear:
S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.
Dark Lord
and (?) Rebekah Potter
A sudden rush of recklessness went through her as she closed her fingers around the dusty orb, taking it off the shelf. She wanted something excited to happen when she held it but all she felt was warmth. Warm like it had been in the sun for hours, softly warm from the light inside the orb.
The shuffle of feet and a whiff of a special perfume that she knew only a certain Pureblood wore as it was expensive and yet tasteful.
Rebekah lifted the orb up a little, letting the candle light catch the glass and sparkle. She smiled as she looked at it.
"Hello, Lucius," She pivoted on her heel, swiftly turning and grinning like a ferocious feline with the tendency to pounce first, ask questions never.
"I think you have something I need," Lucius Malfoy held a hand out. "Give it to me."
"Hmm… No."
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