Yes, another chapter! Again, thanks for reading, everyone, and please please please review! I love reading them, and I love knowing what you guys think. The structure's finally coming together, and hopefully things will start moving quicker from now on. So, on with the show!

Disclaimer: Not mine, just messing with the characters a bit.

"Phew...you're not gonna believe this, mate, but I think he's on to me."

Ron Weasley rolled over on his bed, facing the noise, and grunted.

Harry leaned with his back against the wall before sliding down to a sitting position on the floor.

"I mean, I knew he could sense that someone was there; that's why I was hiding, you know?"

"How were you hiding?"

Harry always loved talking with a sleeping Ron. He was the most cognizant out of anyone Harry talked to, and at times, it was almost like his friend was seeing him. Once or twice he had opened his eyes, though he was still asleep. Somehow, Harry knew that if his situation was to ever change, it would be Ron to help him.

Harry sighed. "I snuck into V's chambers between Mallix."

Ron snorted forth a laugh. "I don't know how you came up with that name, but somehow, it fits."

"I know. That's why I love it."

"What happened?" Ron shifted again against his pillow, and Harry was reminded of the Gryffindor dorm back at school, staying up late and chatting about quidditch, or whatever happened to be on either boy's mind.

"He knew I was there. But more than that, he almost captured me again. I don't know how, because he couldn't see me, but he cast this spell that stopped me from going through the walls. I only just made it through the window."

"The window?"

"Yeah." Harry sighed, and shifted his leg. "If this leg wasn't broken before, I'm sure it is now. Makes walking a bit difficult, but I'm getting better at apparition."

"Just remember the three D's." Ron mumbled with a soft grin.

Harry laughed. "Yeah. Destination, Determination, Deliberation. You've told me enough times."

Ron's face grew more somber, and his eyes slid open. "Harry?"

Harry shifted his weight against the wall, ignoring the goose bumps that always rose along his flesh when Ron did this. He hadn't been seen in a long time, but Ron was as close as it came.

"Yeah?"

"If you're dead, how can you get hurt again? How could you break your leg?"

Silence filled the room as Harry considered his answer. It was the same question that had been plaguing him for twelve years. But now, with recent events, he felt a swelling in his chest as he finally knew the answer.

"I'm not dead, Ron."

"Matheson, back here!"

"It's MacFully, you pinheaded dolt!"

"Right, right, and I'm the Queen of England."

"No, you're Reginoodle."

"Oh, right."

The two men traced their way through the maze of corridors they now found themselves in, passing an old piece of parchment between them.

"Once Bartholomew gets here, we'll be able to finish this map. The whole South end is blocked off." Reginald muttered, looking over the blank spaces on the parchment.

"Yes, and he seems to be taking his sweet time." Sir MacFully muttered.

Reginald leaned against the leftmost wall, and looked out at the fork ahead of the two. "Do you think maybe we should help him along some?"

MacFully stroked his mustache and grinned. "I think that may be in order. Where are we now?"

Reginald consulted the map they had been working on for the past few weeks. "Let's see, we should take a left up ahead, and that will place us in the men's toilet just off the lobby."

"Brilliant." MacFully raised a hand to his face, quickly twisting a dark ring on his finger twice.

The red stone adorning the ring darkened for a moment, before a blurry face seemed to swirl into existence within.

"Bartholomew, come in." He whispered to the ring.

Nothing happened for a moment, then the face became much clearer in the ring. Brown hair and hazel eyes stared up at MacFully.

"Where are you two? I can't get into courtroom ten at the moment; there's a full trial on!"

"Bartho, get up into the atrium, head to the men's toilet. Then, get into the second stall from the left. Let us know when you're in position."

Bartholomew raised an eyebrow, but nodded. His face went blurry once again.

"Alright, let's go."

Ron frowned. "What do you mean you're not dead? Voldemort killed you."

Harry shrugged, leaning against the wall and idly rubbing his right knee. "I don't really know how it's possible, but I'm pretty sure I'm not dead. Like you said, I wouldn't be getting more hurt if I was."

"Was that you in the forest, after we were ambushed?"

Harry smiled sheepishly and nodded. "Yeah, I was trying to lead you out, but do you know how exhausting it is to keep contact with things? Those footprints were really hard to make."

"Is that why they disappeared?"

"Uh-huh." Harry frowned and pointed at Ron. "And I thought I'd led you far enough out of the forest to where you'd recognize it, and then you just turned around and headed straight off back into the forest, you big dummy!"

"I wasn't exactly on top form, you know."

Harry noticed movement to his left and spun around. An old man was peering curiously into the room, his long white beard tucked into his purple nightgown. Harry stared at his half-moon spectacles for a moment, thinking, before taking a deep breath.

"Ron, I need your help."

"Anything, Harry. What do you want me to do?"

Dumbledore frowned slightly, watching Ron talk in his sleep.

"I want—I want you to repeat after me." Harry decided, a grin starting to spread across his face.

"Repeat after you? Why?"

"Just do it. Say, 'Harry Potter isn't dead.'"

"Harry Potter isn't dead."

Dumbledore's eyes widened, and he stepped further into the room, keeping silent. He watched as Ron shifted slightly, still staring blankly at the wall across from the bed.

"He's in this room right now."

Blue eyes began to twinkle slightly.

"And he sees you spying on his friend you lemon drop-sucking old goat!"

Albus' mouth dropped open, and his eyes widened, before his face split into a broad grin.

"Harry?" He whispered slightly. "Are you really here?"

Harry jumped up as quickly as his now broken leg would allow, threw his right arm out in a welcoming gesture and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "DUMBLEDORE!"

Ron shouted out in surprise and jumped up from the bed, looking about wildly.

"What? Dumble—oh hi, sir." He mumbled, recognizing the man in the doorway.

Dumbledore continued smiling. "Well, my boy. I daresay we have much to talk about, don't we?"

Ron blushed. "I-I guess so, sir." He ran a hand through his hair, not quite meeting his mentor's gaze. "Um, how long were you in here?"

Albus smiled. "Long enough. It seems we have many things to clear up, wouldn't you say?"

Harry stared between Dumbledore and Ron, and nervously licked his lips. After a moment's hesitation on Ron's part, Harry smacked his friend upside the head. "Come on, say something!"

Ron flinched slightly, and nodded. "Yes, I guess we do, sir."

The old man gestured to Ron, who followed him out of the room. Before the door closed, however, Dumbledore looked back into the seemingly empty room.

"Oh, and Harry, if you are there and not a figment of two people's exhausted musings, you had better come along as well."

He turned away, and the door closed behind him with a click.

A broad grin spreading across his face, Harry saluted the door where Dumbledore had been standing, before following as quick as he was able.

"Okay, I'm in position." Came the whisper from MacFully's ring.

He twisted it and raised it to his mouth. "Okay, flush the toilet, then step down on the second bolt from the right, the one against the wall. Once you do that, then sit down and stay there."

Bartholomew sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I don't even want to know how you two find all this stuff."

Reginald leaned in and grinned at Bartho's face. "Because we're brilliant. That's how."

"Now just do it, and we'll see you in a moment." MacFully finished.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bartholomew out."

The man's face faded from view, and Reginald and MacFully were left standing in a dark corridor waiting.

"You think he'll do it?" Regionald grinned.

"'Course he will. It'll just take a few moments so he can deem it safe." MacFully stroked his mustache lovingly.

"Can't believe he'd think us capable of pranking a secret entrance to a secret tunnel in the Ministry of Magic. And why did you have to grow that ridiculous thing, anyway?"

"Honestly, the nerve of him. And for your information, this mustache is very dashing, you know? All the rage amongst the elite of society, which I note you are not." MacFully finished with a sniff.

Reginald leaned against the wall, while pointing at the hairy log in question. "It looks like a ferret. I keep expecting it to start twitching. It's rather distracting, actually."

"Ooh, good idea. Twitching mustaches, five sickles each."

"To replace the non-twitching ferret on a truly deserving target."

"Exactly."

There was a sound of a toilet flushing nearby, and after a few seconds, a panel in the wall slid open to reveal Bartholomew sitting on a toilet and gripping its sides with white knuckles. While Sir MacFully turned to greet the newest member of their odd group, Reginald pulled out his wand, and cast a quick spell.

"Ah, here he is, the man of the hour." Reginald greeted, tucking his wand away while stepping forward and helping the slightly taller man to his feet.

"It flushes you into the wall? Why didn't you tell me this?"

MacFully grinned, his mustache now twitching merrily. "Well, that would have taken all the fun out of it, now, wouldn't it?"

Bartholomew sighed. "Well, what did you two hooligans call me all the way here for?"

"Hooligans? Really?" Reginald pushed Bartho's shoulder, guiding him down the dark corridor.

"We get no respect, I tell you. Turn right here."

"Exactly my point, Mac-whatsits. How many people could have found a secret underground catacomb of passages and tunnels right in the heart of the ministry?"

"Access to every room and office held within? Is it left here, or right, I can't remember."

"You have the map, dolt."

"Oh, right."

Bartholomew sighed, and let the garrulous men lead him deeper into the maze of passages they'd found.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" He finally asked, after what seemed like ages.

"Right here." MacFully gestured to the empty hallway ahead of them.

"Here?"

"Yes, Bartho, oh ex-curse breaker extraordinaire. Don't tell me you don't feel it."

Bartholomew closed his eyes and felt the ambient magic around himself. Taking a deep breath, he let his magic flow around him, feeling out the walls and floor, and- "Holy crap."

Reginald grinned. "There it is."

MacFully's mustache chattered its agreement.

Bartho opened his eyes and stared at the hallway ahead, before quickly casting an occulomagi spell that would allow him to see the wards ahead. His breath caught at the multiple layers intricately placed along the hallway, woven into the very stone around them.

After gazing at the wards for a few minutes and doing a preliminary scan, he canceled the spell and turned to his companions, his eyes bright and excited.

"And where does this lead to, exactly?"

MacFully and Reginald grinned, and for a moment, they almost looked like twins.

"The Department of Mysteries." They answered together.