Disclaimer: The same as the previous chapters.

Chapter 76

There were a handful of occasions when Snape had to come to the Ministry of Magic. But he had never been into the offices meant for the grass-root officials nor had he been in the twin sharing little spacious ones. The office was neither too small nor was it too spacious. But it was cramped with cabinets of files and parchments. Two desks facing each other occupied much of the space. One could distinctly say the left side of the room, including the large desk, was Blaise Zabini's. The man had grown up under Snape's guidance. His desks were in order. The Headmaster eyed the former students and nodded in approval.

The other men might have just noticed the five Knights of the Undead hovering around the right side of the office room, but Snape could tell that there was a wall of illusion shrouding that space. He had started feeling the chills and Potter and Malfoy both had stepped forward and approached him.

Harry whispered close to his shoulder, "It's the same in here, I feel warm and cold breezes, I taste sea salt in my mouth and I can also smell flowers."

Draco had jerked his head and Snape brought out his wand and stepped closer to Hermione's desk. Finnigan and Zabini too had palmed their wands eager to follow the others, but the knights of the undead barred them. The moment the three men stood just inches away from the desk, stacked high with files and littered with parchments, the air around started crackling and an invisible magical force rippled through the small space. Draco noticed even the Undead Knights shimmered in their place.

The moment the invisible barrier vanished, Blaise gasped," Merlin, how can this be even possible! Granger had stacks and stacks of files and tomes, quills, and whatnot tumbling over the place, where the hell did all of that go!"

Snape hummed, " Probably, that too was an illusion. After all, you too weren't supposed to know of her clandestine missions."

The Italian looked at the empty table and muttered," I suppose so Sir, that would explain…"

Harry pointed," That journal looks much like Tom Riddle's diary to me." And Draco inhaled beside him, sharply. Snape had leaned closer and after mumbling several detecting spells, he picked up the journal and turned the front cover open. Though he tried to flip the pages, they won't budge."

Harry suggested," Maybe we need to write something on it," touching the cover slightly. Malfoy was looking at it from his side and he could distinctly see the dust dancing over the page shifted on its own. He exclaimed," No, its keyed to the three of us," and grabbed at the cover.

No sooner had his fingertips brushed against the leather-bound, all of them watched, small scrawling handwriting appeared over the blank paper.

Finnigan opined," But Sir, that's just a handful of doodles!" when the others looked at him oddly, he gulped and grew quiet.

"Indeed, Finnigan, your assumptions are correct. Though these are more than just doodles. Each of those small artworks is a symbol or a signifier. We will all recall that Miss Granger was not keeping well enough after she had returned from her last mission. If she couldn't have managed to write a diary entry, this paper of scribbled artwork is the only available code to learn more about her missions."

Harry was mumbling under his breath and Snape finally noticed a dicta quill was hastily scratching over a small notebook over his shoulder, " A sunset, an ostrich, a Chinese hat with numbers 8000-130-520-150 scribbled around it and a cross mark on Chinese hat, a bedouin, an aqua blue necklace with Malika written within its center, a pyramid. Along with several sage leaves…" when he had spoken the last two words, he glanced over at the former potion master and looked away.

Blaise mulled over," Probably it contains the details of her secret missions and adventures as a Horcrux destroyer. Otherwise, there is no point in keeping this journal. Though I still can't understand why she chose to leave it here. I mean the office is not that safe."

Draco had circled the table. He countered," Probably because she didn't plan for it. Maybe she wanted to hide it somewhere else, but before she could, she was attacked or she had the breakdown at the Archives. Though…"

"Why would she go to the archives and not look for Shacklebolt, or me, or you Blaise, anyone else for help?" Harry opined.

"Because she knew she didn't have much time. I also think she intentionally went down to the archives of all the places, because it is the only deserted place in the entire building. If she could feel it coming, that would be the safest place. The bowels of the ministry is much like the bowels of Gringotts or Hogwarts. They warded with ancient magic. It is just impossible to bring the whole place down. Whatever is trapped inside her is certainly not that old neither is it that powerful...And I strongly believe, she knew Draco would be around and that he would come to her aid no matter what," the godfather stared at his godson from across the table. The younger man met his eyes and then looked down to study the other two books lying over it.

Harry had gone around the table and had joined his childhood nemesis. They picked one of the two folios. But to their surprise, the books immediately flew off their hands and landed on the other side of the desk, right in front of Snape. Harry had lunged forward, but his feet connected with something solid poking from under the desk.

"Ouff! What on earth," he winced, while Malfoy caught the revolving chair, which had slid away.

"Pottah! Look down!" he exclaimed.

Harry had immediately dropped to his knees and a little later, he stood shaking on his feet, holding a long scabbard wrapped up in a Gryffindor scarf.

Snape had paled and both Finnigan and Zabini had noticed the five Knights of the Undead drop on their knees to pay respect to the weapon in Potter's hand.

"Potter kept that on your person and if possible keep it hidden, and none of you breathes a word about it," the Headmaster hissed urgently.

Once Harry had tied the artifact around him and hiding it well under his robes, he heard the Potion Master speak to both Zabini and Malfoy and noticed his long fingers pointing at a strange-looking crest etched on a page, marked with a red ribbon in one of the books. The five knights were mostly stitching by his head, and Finnigan mused," Probably they will continue to stitch with you, now that you got something of great importance."

"Sush, Seamus, we got to be deceit, there is a lot more to unearth and we are not even close to learning what has affected Hermione so much," Harry admonished.

Snape huffed," It has to be a crest of an established line of Purebloods."

"Sir, all Pureblood bloodlines are accounted for, and they have their family crest documented by the Ministry and there are rules and standards to be maintained. There has to be an established date and a family motto imprinted over it," Blaise argued.

Malfoy nodded beside him," He is right, Sir, I have never seen this in my life, to begin with. And as Blaise said, there is no date, even identifying family motto is missing. It's just a vulture perched on a cliff…" he trailed off, when the hovering Knights of the Undead had started chuckling among themselves.

Seamus had shifted back and so had Blaise, but the other three waited for the ghosts to calm down. Arwyn stared at Snape and chortled, " Aha! A vulture without eyes to see, talons severed and beak broken. Yet he survives hanging over the Cave of Death, barely living on his mother's dark magic."

Snape smirked," And I suppose, that is all you will ever say on this matter."

Arwyn nodded," That's the general order Sire. But we aren't worried. Missy has friends and family she is bloody proud of. And our swords will protect you all." The ghost's eyes had stared pointedly at the other book and then it had nudged its head towards the door to the office. Gracefully, Snape had picked the book up and cracked it open. He read the first entry, under his breath "Quirrell Riddled Scrib." He closed it and turned the book over and concluded it must be a copy of the original since the telltale protective spells and discreet dark magic were absent. This revelation jolted him and forced him to acknowledge, Granger did learn or teach herself enough Dark Magic to make copies of dubious journals.

Draco too had followed Arywn's gestures. The godson had blanched but he kept his face as emotionless as possible once Snape had glared at him.

Harry drew back their attention to the desk, his face twisted in confusion," This is not a desk. There are no drawers."

Snape tapped his wand at the smooth surface and muttered, "finite incantatum."

In front of their eyes, the whole thing shrunk and transfigured into a standard wooden ruler. Simultaneously the five Knights of the Undead vanished in thin air.

The headmaster's lips curled at the edges and he drawled," and Mr. Zabini, I think at least the mystery of the locked office is solved, now if both of you could show us the way to the Archives?"