Ron emerged from the green flames. He was stood in the main atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
'Ah, Ron.'
Remus Lupin was stood before him. Well, he wasn't the Remus that Ron knew but he was presumably this reality's version of Remus. He looked far older, but otherwise looked fairly similar.
'Department of Mysteries,' Remus said, turning to Harry and not-Hermione. 'Weird things have been happening there for a while, but they've been escalating recently. Tonight, a member of the unspeakables went missing.'
Harry nodded.
'Hang on,' he said. 'What if this is some sort of trap? What if whoever did this is trying to lure us in?'
'We'll just have to put up a good fight, then,' not-Hermione said. Ron had wondered when she was going to speak up. But her words didn't ease the nervous tension in his stomach, especially given that he knew that she was not the Hermione of this world.
'Split into groups,' Remus said. 'Harry, Ron, Hermione; you three come with me. Tonks, you and the other aurors split up into standard battle groups. Spread out and search each area. This department is enormous, and we don't know what we're dealing with, so stay alert and keep your eyes open. Death-eater activity is highly likely.'
With that, Ron followed Harry and not-Hermione as they walked after Remus towards the lifts at the end of the atrium. The four of them packed into a lift, and Remus hit the 'department of mysteries' lever.
One fast lift ride later, they spilled out into the department itself. The torches on the walls were lit, but the department still felt dark and mysterious. Tonks and the other aurors began to assemble in the corridor around them.
Everyone drew their wands, and set off down the corridors in their pre-determined groups.
Ron found himself walking behind not-Hermione. Partially because he found it eased to mind to be able to keep an eye on her, and partially because Harry was focusing too much on the corridor in front to pay much attention.
The four of them reached the end of the corridor. Unlike the central corridor of the department, the torches were very rare here, and so all of them had cast Lumos.
However, they clearly couldn't see perfectly because, barely a few seconds later, Harry tripped over something. He stumbled against a chain that was hanging against the wall, and a loud clunk was heard.
Suddenly, a whirring sound began, and a section of wall slid to the side, opening up a passageway.
Ron immediately trained his wand on the opening. But no one appeared from the shadows within.
Harry and Remus locked eyes and nodded. The two of them set up slowly into the passageway. Not-Hermione followed, and Ron brought up the rear. He was glad that not-Hermione hadn't tried to walk last; perhaps she hadn't realised what he knew.
Soon away, the passageway turned into a staircase, which descended down deeper. The four of them followed the stairs downwards. Ron didn't want to think about how far below London they now were; possibly even lower than the vaults of Gringotts.
Eventually, the stairs levelled out into another corridor. A grotty, woodworm-infested door was stood at the end. The walls around them suddenly felt very familiar to Ron, not to mention the dank darkness all around them, luminated only by the light of the four wands.
Remus nodded at Harry again. The older wizard pointed his wand at the lock, and the door slowly creaked open.
They all passed through the door. Ron felt his stomach turn to ice.
It was the huge room he had seen in his vision. The darkness was barely kept at bay by a few torches stuck here and there against the slimy walls. A huge machine took up much of the space of the room; it had clearly been so enormous in his vision that he had assumed it to be part of the wall.
Several cages were stood nearby. Through one of them, Ron could see the shape of a figure in the robes of the missing department employee.
Without a word, Remus cast a patronus, which flew upwards and into the ceiling. Clearly, it had been sent to take a message to the other aurors.
Ron found himself walking to the machine. By the light of his wand, he could see that it was covered in strange markings, as if some sort of unusual magic was being used to create something. The markings definitely looked like the runes used in older spells; Ron even spotted a couple from the library book he had used to create Polyjuice Potion with his own Harry and Hermione back in their second year. The memory did little to allay his worries.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ron saw Harry approach one of the cages.
'H… Harry?'
Harry's face went white. His mouth dropped open.
'Hermione?'
Ron spun round. Sure enough, the Hermione that he had seen in his vision was peering out between the bars of the cage. Her bushy hair was ragged and her eyes were wide with fear.
'H-how?' Harry gasped. 'But… there's two-'
'Harry!' the Hermione in the cage screamed, urgently. 'Look out- behind you!'
Harry turned, but too late. He was hit with a spell that knocked him over, crashing against the cages around him.
Not-Hermione was still pointing her wand at him. Her smile was twisted in a demented way.
'What are you doing?' Remus exclaimed, drawing his wand. 'Hermione, what-'
Not-Hermione's wand swung again, and Remus was suddenly tied with chains against the wall.
'Oh, I do love a sweet little reunion,' she grinned, wickedly, as she turned back to face Harry. 'But I'm afraid you've all been rather too trusting.'
Dun-dun-DUN! XD
Apologies for the shorter chapter this time around, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion! And -once again- if you leave a guest review, please be aware that I won't be able to answer any questions you might have asked.
