Twelve hours later, we stood outside the Ministry, after having taken on new appearances. I looked over to see Hermione, now Mafalda Hopkirk, a petite and blonde woman.
I turned to look at the boys' new appearances. Ron was now a short, mousy man called Reginald Cattermole. Harry had grown about six inches, and was now Albert Runcorn, a powerful, intimidating man.
As we passed a shop window, I admired my new appearance. I was now very average looking. My hair was a medium brown, my skin was a caramel color, and I was of a regular height. I hoped that my average looks would help me to stay hidden, since I would be nervous anyways. I had taken some papers from her pocket when I took her hair for the Polyjuice Potion. It appeared she was a temporary employee working as a secretary. Morgan Hadden didn't seem to be incredible in any way, so I hoped blending in would be easy.
I followed Hermione. I maintained a distance to her, since I didn't know if our new personas were acquantances. We both headed into a public bathrooms and waited in lines for stalls.
My hands were shaking as I waited and waited. Finally, it was my turn to go in. I took a deep breath and went in to the stall. It was truly the point of no return.
Five minutes later, we were all in the atrium. I spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione, and we all got in the same lift.
At the next floor, a man I recognized as Yaxley, the Death Eater, got in the lift. The air got really tense as we didn't know how to interact with him.
"Cattermole," Yaxley said. "It's raining in my office."
Ron snorted. I couldn't blame him, it was a funny .
"You think that's funny?" Yaxley asked, shaking his head. "Well, it isn't my wife whose blood status is being challenged today... I would get on fixing it or your wife may be in an even more dire position..."
At the next floor, they both got off, and a woman stepped on. "Morgan!" she said.
I turned around to face her. "Yes?" I asked.
"You're going to be late!" she said. I had no idea who she was, but I decided to trust her. "You're so absent minded."
"Right," I said. I looked to my right towards Hermione and Harry. Harry just nodded at me, which I took to mean to follow her.
"You're working for Evan Smythe this week, department of Magical Transportation. And you're nearly late! He's in a meeting with Greg Hammond in ten minutes. Here's the notes, go!" She thrust a folder into my hands and we got off the lift.
In my chest, my heart beat wildly. Part of me was overwhelmingly stressed out. I had screwed up every bit of Harry's plan. I had no idea what was going to happen from here... I would just have to play it by ear and hope I didn't get left behind. The other part of me was ecstatic... Greg Hammond was my father, and he was here, he was alive, and I was about to see him. I couldn't wait. I wondered if I would be able to keep my cool, then remembered I would have to. I tried to take a deep breath as we walked into his department. She pointed me towards a conference room and I went in.
I found Evan Smythe in there alone, waiting for me. "You're late," he said. I remembered him from some of my father's work parties when I was younger. Although he was probably my father's best friend at work, he was cranky. I may have been late, but I was still there before everyone else was.
"I'm sorry," I said. I took my seat and opened the folder the mystery girl had handed to me. In it,.I found a quill, so I prepared to take notes.
A few other men filed in and prepared for the meeting, but my dad was last to get there. Seeing him walk in to the room was surreal. Although it had only been a few weeks since I had last seen him, he had changed dramatically. The hair at his temples was even grayer than previously, and the bags under his eyes had gone from being a sign of a slight workaholic to a serious sign of something worse.
Perhaps the thing that scared me the most is that he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. The made me question everything. Where was Vera? I hoped Madeline and Cecelia were with their father. They would be safe there, at least.
I realized I was too focused on the fact that I was in the same room as my father and not focusing on take notes and making it look like I was supposed to be here. Dad started talking about how they were focusing on monitoring the Floo systems. It sounded like the new program was blocking as much travel as possible for Muggleborns. It was hard to believe my father was in charge of these horrid measures, but I tried to convince myself he was just playing the part, much like I was right now.
"All right, I believe that is enough for today... Smythe, a word?" he asked. Everyone else slowly filed out.
Smythe turned to me. "Wait in my office, I've got a task for you when I'm done in this meeting,: he said.
As soon as I left the room, Dad went to shut the door. I waited outside and could still hear them.
"Any word from your daughter?" Smythe asked.
I realised they were talking about me. It felt so odd.
"No," he said. "I have begun to fear the worst..."
I just blinked. My father thought I was dead. That was so painful to me... I had caused him so much pain. Was it worth it? I could easily blow my cover here and now and go home and everything would be all right.
"How is everything else going?" Smythe asked.
"I'm afraid today may be my last day here," he said. "Things are getting dangerous. Even though everyone believes I've left Vera, there is an awful lot of suspicion."
"Where are you going?" Smythe asked.
"Vera's sister has a vacation home in France, may be best to hide out there for awhile. Robert will be safe, he's working at Gringott's with the Aurors. Katherine... well, obviously she doesn't want to be found..."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do," Smythe said.
"Thanks, Smythe," my father said.
I was so engulfed in thought that I almost didn't duck down the hallway when Smythe left the room. My mind was already made up. I was so close to my father, my mind was already made up on what I was about to do.
It took a few minutes for my father to leave the room. I followed him down the hallway towards his office.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
Dad turned around. "Can I help you?" he asked.
"I just... I just had something I wanted to say," I said.
"Well, come in," he said, holding the door to his office open for me.
My hands shook. I wasn't so secure in what I was about to do, but I was doing it anyways...
"Katherine is okay," I said.
"What?" he asked, this time actually paying attention to what I was saying.
"Katherine," I said my name slowly. "Is okay."
"How do you know?" he asked, stepping around his desk towards me.
"I..." I hadn't thought this far into the plan. I had the opportunity to completely lose my cover. It was here. It was tempting me...
"Do you know where she is?" he asked. I edged closer to the door. He was nearly menacing.
"She is safe," I said, deciding this was not the time to blow my cover. "I promise she is safe where she is. Don't go looking for her. When it's the right time, she will find you."
And then I bolted. I was running down the hall, knowing I needed to get back to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and we needed to get out of here. As soon as I rounded the corner to a different hallway, I ran into something.
"Oof!" I said, getting knocked to the ground. I looked up and didn't see what I had run into. My heart was beating a million times a minute, and I wasn't thinking clearly enough.
"Kat!" Harry hissed. "I'm under the invisibility cloak, get under!"
For a brief second, I saw part of his leg as I got under the cloak. We rearranged the silky material to cover us both, and I was able to let out a sigh of relief.
"Morgan!" my dad called, bounding into the empty hallway. He looked confused by the fact that the hallway appeared empty. He shook his head, and continued walking, but Harry pulled me to the side.
"You went and found your father." he said, an eyebrow raised.
"Well, mostly I was playing the part of Morgan," I explained.
He sighed angrily. "Come on, Kat. You've caused enough trouble today... we need to get Ron and Hermione and get out of here."
I was pissed at him acting like this was completely my fault. I claimed some responsibility, but not all of this was my doing... fate had thrown me in this position, and he knew that.
I took a deep breath and realized that the middle of the Ministry was not the place to get in a shouting match with Harry, so I needed to calm down and focus on finding Ron and Hermione and then getting all of us out of here safely.
"Where are they?" I asked.
"Shh!" he shushed me. I could just see how angry he was at me. "Ron is still fixing Yaxley's office and Hermione is down in the court rooms with Umbridge. We'll go get her first. I'm getting out from under the cloak, but you stay close."
Suddenly I was alone under the cloak and he was already halfway down the hall. It was as if he wanted to lose me. I kept up though. We took a lift down, down to the court rooms.
A cold gust of air hit my feet, and worked it's way up my body.
"Dementors," he hissed.
We walked down the hallway and it just got worse... it felt as if someone had grabbed me by the hair and shoved me face first into my worst memories. The worst parts of my relationship with Adam... missing my mother... Vera making me feel so unwelcome in my own home...
"Harry," I choked out, not sure I was going to be able to continue. We walked past the huge dementors. I had never been this close to one before and hoped I never would be again. They were the most terrifying thing I had ever encountered.
"Just keep moving," he said.
There was a terrible, thick air that was hard to breathe in. I felt like I was gasping for air that my lungs had no idea how to use. Before we went any further, he ducked back under the cloak.
"No, no, I'm a half-blood! I'm a half-blood, I tell you! My father was a wizard, he was!" the sound of someones sobs filled the dense air as two large wooden doors opened.
"This is your final warning. if you struggle, you will be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss," Umbridge's voice sounded over the screaming man. It was such a disturbing sight that I felt sick to my stomach.
"Next- Mary Cattermole," Umbridge's sickly sweet voice called.
I knew that was the wife of the man that Ron had impersonated. Harry led me into the courtroom behind Mary. She was crying and that masked our noise.
The room was eery. Dementors were everywhere, and it felt colder than the hallway. We were in a hell on earth, that was for sure. Umbridge was sitting on a platform with Yaxley on one side of her and Hermione on the other.
Harry took us up the steps of the platform towards Hermione. I didn't pay attention to Mary Cattermole sitting below us. Her sobs went right through me, so I paid attention to where I was stepping instead.
We climbed up the platform to get to Hermione. Up here, it felt much better... the effects of the dementors were weakened by Umbridge's Patronus. I held my breath as we passed Yaxley and Umbridge, terrified of tripping and revealing that we were there. We got right behind Hermione and then waited.
"We're behind you," Harry whispered.
I watched her jump and nearly spill her ink pot. I gasped, thinking that would give us away, but Yaxley and Umbridge were both focused on Mary Cattermole. I could see a glint of gold hanging around Umbridge's chest...
"...Mafalda, pass me the questionnaire," Umbridge said.
"Oh, yes, of course," Hermione said, shuffling through the papers. She handed it to Umbridge. "That's pretty, Dolores."
Umbridge looked down at the pendant. "Oh, yes. An old family heirloom. S is for Selwyn... I am related to the Selwyns. Indeed, there are few pure-blood families I am not related to."
I could see Harry fuming beside me. I wasn't exactly sure where to go from here. I would have to wait for Harry to reveal what he was doing next.
He took his wand out of his wand out of his pocket and raised it. He didn't seem to care that his arm was now visible outside of the cloak. "Stupefy!"
Umbridge crumpled forward, hitting her head. My eyes shot to Yaxley, who looked rather confused. "Stupefy!" Harry shouted again. He slid to the floor.
Harry tugged off the Invisibility Cloak and I took a second to just reflect on exactly what we were doing here. The eeriness of the Dementors, the fact that we had just taken down two extremely powerful government workers...
It was surreal. For the first time, it clicked just how important what we were doing was. And I was ready.
Author's Note: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I could give you a ton of excuses on why this chapter took ages, however, they're just excuses. I hope you guys like this chapter, hopefully the story is starting to get exciting. Let me know.