Chapter 12
I knelt down in the dewy grass beside Hedgely, who had thrown his arm over his face in an attempt to muffle his sobs. I did not know what to say to him after he had been betrayed by a man he had lived with since he was a small child, who had taught him everything he knew and was the closest he had to a father figure.
My mind was reeling. I had only known Professor Flip for a few days but I was shocked by this revelation that he had been working for, who knows how long, with an evil wizard he was pretending to fight. It now made sense to me why Professor Flip had always worn long sleeves, even when he was boiling hot, but why had he been so insistent that I was important to saving the wizarding world? If I was a tool to help defeat the Dark Lord, then why hadn't Professor Flip killed me already? Or had everything he said been a lie?
I don't know how long Hedgely and I stayed outside, but eventually we went to sit in the room where I had spoken to Mum and Dad through the floo network. Hedgely hurled himself into an armchair and stared gloomily into the unlit fireplace.
"Hedgely," I said, shuffling nervously from foot to foot, "I know you're upset, I am too, b-but I... I don't think we should sit here and mope. We have to do something."
He turned his bloodshot, red rimmed eyes on me.
"I know," he croaked, "but before we do anything else I want to find out more about Professor Flip. How long has he been... one of them? Why did he want me to kill the invisibilis monstrum if he was fighting for the same cause? What did he want you for?"
I nodded.
"How are we going to find out?"
We lapsed into a thoughtful silence that was broken when Hedgely said,
"Dudley, I have an idea, but it won't be easy and it will be dangerous. Extremely dangerous. But I need your help to do it..."
I sighed.
"Hedgely, everything is dangerous. Leaving home was dangerous. Fighting monsters is dangerous. Just being alive is dangerous. Now, what do you have in mind?"
An hour later, I was shocked to find myself standing in the middle of St James' Park, London. I brushed some grass off the old pair of Hedgely's wizarding robes I was wearing, and rolled up the sleeves. Despite having fit Hedgely when he was twelve, they were still too big for me now, but at least they would help me blend in where we were going.
I scanned the parkland, taking in small children playing hide and seek and some joggers, before catching sight of Hedgely several feet away, prodding a tree.
"What are you doing?" I called as I made my way towards him.
"I think I found it!" he exclaimed, shoving his wand into a knot in the tree. The bark on the trunk rolled back to reveal a secret doorway. I blinked.
"This is the entrance to-"
"Shh!" Hedgely pressed his finger to his lips in a 'be quiet' gesture.
"The entrance changes so people like us don't get in! Security's very strict these days," he whispered, "Do you remember what you have to do?"
I nodded.
"I keep my head down and try to blend in. I don't say anything, let you do any talking and do whatever you tell me to."
Hedgely let out a breath.
"Okay. Let's go!"
He took hold of my elbow and guided me through the opening. It was very dark and I was overwhelmed by the sensation of falling, before light flooded my vision and my feet touched down on a polished marble floor.
I gasped at the sight of witches and wizards bustling past, wearing their billowing robes and odd hats. Paper aeroplanes, that I assumed were enchanted, soared high above their heads, near the high, domed ceiling. Fireplaces lined the walls, each with a bucket of Floo powder next to it. In the centre of the room stood a horrific statue, to which I immediately turned my back, with a shudder.
"Welcome," Hedgely breathed in my ear, "to the Ministry of Magic, home to crimes and corruption."
He steered me away from the statue towards a row of empty elevators. We chose one at random, and Hedgely pressed one of the golden buttons that dotted the wall next to the doors. As they were about to close, a short woman wearing a bright pink dress patterned with kittens called out shrilly,
"Hold the lift!"
Hedgely stiffened and reached over to open the door for her. She nodded her gratitude before tottering into the lift to stand in front of me. The top of her head barely reached my chin, and I could see the dandruff that sprinkled her greying brown hair. I shuffled away from her in disgust. She eyed Hedgely and I with her bulging, toad-like eyes.
"You boys look awfully young to be in the Ministry. Do you have a problem?"
Hedgely's face paled, and when he didn't answer her, I blurted out,
"We're just looking for the toilet!"
Hedgely shot me a poisonous look and the woman raised her eyebrows. Hedgely gave a tentative laugh and clamped his hand on my shoulder,
"Please excuse my brother," he said, "He's just joking. We are here to complain about the Floo network. It has been awfully slow recently, and it has been a great inconvenience to our family."
The woman nodded understandingly.
"I have the exact same problem! If the network was any slower, I would have been late to work today! When you get to the Department of Magical Transportation, you tell Edger Brown that Dolores Umbridge supports your complaint."
"Thank you," Hedgely forced a smile, which she returned, before turning her amphibious gaze on me.
"And you," she wagged her finger in a condescending manner, "stop making jokes that embarrass your poor brother. Looking for the toilet, indeed!"
She gave a high, tinkling laugh, causing the green locket around her neck to glitter as it caught the light. She was still cackling when the lift arrived at her floor, and she stalked off down a long corridor.
When the doors closed behind her, Hedgely rounded on me.
"What did I tell you?" he hissed, "Don't say anything!"
Before I could defend myself, the doors swung open again, and Hedgely got out. I scrambled after him, making sure I didn't get lost in this peculiar place.
I didn't know how Hedgely knew where he was going, but we eventually stopped outside an oak door marked with the letters E and F, that Hedgely opened and stuck his head inside.
"Right," he said, "There's nobody there. I'll stand here and distract anyone that tries to go in, while you look for a file on Professor Flip. Read it quickly, but put it back in the same place or they'll notice."
He shoved me roughly through the door, clearly still upset that I told that weird women we were looking for the toilet. I found myself in a room filled with large, metal filing cabinets, each labelled with two or three letters.
The cabinet I was looking for was near the back of the room. I flicked through folders, each with a name and photograph attached to it. I learned that Janet Farrell suffered from acne, Herbert Fergus sported a large pair of glasses and that Jeremy Fillis was recently deceased, before I found what I was looking for. Archibald Flip's file didn't have a photograph; instead, bright red letters spelled out the words HIGHLY DANGEROUS.
I took the file out of the cabinet with shaking hands, and flicked it open. I skimmed the first few pages, but came to a stop when a paragraph about 'death eaters' caught my eye.
Flip was part of the Dark Lord's inner circle before his disappearance. He spent a period of time in Azkaban.
Why had he been in Azkaban? The name sounded familiar. I thought it was a small, eastern country, but I wasn't sure why. Had Dad's drill company traded with the people in Azkaban? But why would Professor Flip go there?
I shrugged the confusion off and read on, about how he had been the only death eater to confess to his crimes and beg for forgiveness. The ministry agreed to let him leave Azkaban under various conditions, as he would be useful to them because...
I stopped in my tracks and read the sentence again. And again. And again. It didn't change. I sank to the floor, cradling the file on my lap, sweat beading my forehead.
That couldn't be true. It couldn't. But it made sense as to why Professor Flip had enjoyed seeing the invisibilis monstrum and hadn't tried to escape them. Because Professor Flip didn't just study them... he had created them.