Menteur: Chapter 12: Folders

October 9, 1943

"Who's there?! Show yourself!"

Oh crap, cursed Hermione. Her head snapped up in panic, which caused it to painfully collide with a rock-hard underside of a massive wooden table underneath which she was kneeling. One of her hands automatically went to caress the aching spot, while the other quickly gathered scrolls from the floor, stuffing them into her little bottomless bag.

"By the order of Ministry, stop! This is a restricted section and entering without a permit is a crime!" the voice called again, this time much closer, and suddenly, Hermione realized that, maybe, this wasn't such a great plan after all…

It was only yesterday when she had followed young Voldemort into the ladies' washroom on the first floor of Hogwarts, and had encountered the mysterious medallion, which somehow allowed him to read her thoughts without casting any spell or charm. After the first shock of the mind-invasion wore off, she literally ran out of the place, not even bothering to dispel the invisibility charm, and headed straight to the library to do some research. To her dismay, those five hours hunched over various books and scrolls, proved to be utterly fruitless, since she did not come across even a single mention of objects having such powers. This fact distressed her greatly. Such thing in Tom's possession could be incredibly dangerous, especially to her. So she decided to take desperate measures and came up with a "bulletproof plan", which consisted of visiting the Ministry's secret Register of Possibly Dangerous Objects and 'borrowing' a list of all magical items in London's possessions. There she could simply read what exactly it does and how to handle it. And since they didn't know this trick in this decade yet, she chose to use same technique to infiltrate the Ministry as Harry, Ron and she used in their 6th year. Finding a perfect victim was simple, since The Prophet often published articles on Mynistry's employees and such, and obtaining a Polyjuice Potion wasn't any grand task either, since Slughorn's cabinet, to which, after a couple of well-structured lies and compliments, the professor himself gladly granted her an entry, was full of them. The next day, Saturday, only thing left for Hermione to do, was to wait for Amanda Hogglett, a registrar secretary, to pass through the deserted alley near her house, knock her unconscious, yank few hair, mix it into the PP, and she was off to Ministry. The plan seemed flawless when Hermione, visually Amanda at the time, successfully passed the wizard guarding the entrance, and was acknowledged by a friendly hand gesture and polite smile. All was going so well, until she opened the door of the actual register archives and hundreds of rows of ceiling-high filling cabinets came into the view. Keeping her cool, Hermione simply accioed London's folder, but that also proved to be quite difficult, because more than fifteen different boxes filled with notes and permits flew to her hands. Obviously, Professor London was a collector of oddities at some point… She sighed and carried the boxes to an empty table close by. It was late afternoon on the Saturday, so she did not have to worry about other employees stumbling upon her nosing around people's private records, and started going through the first folder. An hour later, the PP wore off, and that's when the one tiny flaw in her plan came back to kick Hermione's ass. She was nearly done, when two wizards entered the archive, loudly complaining about disadvantages of night shifts and lack of financial bonuses. They didn't see her at first, but then, as she was desperately trying to sneak out, she accidentally knocked over a large pile of books near the table, and therefore alerted the two worker of her presence.

Had she taken one more vial of the Polyjuice Potion with her, she wouldn't be in this mess…She could simply take a sip every once in a while, continue to pretend she is Amanda, and so have every right to be there…

But things are never really as we plan them, are they? Thought bitterly the witch and raised both of her hands and her wand high above her head, so they can see it and hopefully won't try to attack her.

For a brief moment she considered taking her chances and try to run away, but despite late hours, Ministry was still heavily guarded, not even mentioning the anti-apparation wards and many other security spells, which could knock her unconscious before she even raised her wand. And she didn't even want to think of what would happen, were her attempt to escape fail and she got caught… Interrogation under Veritaserum, which they would definitely do to find the reasons behind her interests in private files of a renowned spell-maker, never seemed like an experience she would like to partake in. That left her with only one other possible way out: lying.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" asked the taller one of the ministry workers as he cautiously neared the defenseless witch. It was an older man with many age spots caressing his receding hairline and slightly lumpy physique, but his precise movements spoke of throughout mastery of magic control, a retired auror, perhaps.

"My name is Serena Durand and I was looking for …" What was she looking for? Hermione had to come up with something believable, quickly! "..for …ehh..floo network office?" she stated hopefully, but the man frowned.

"The Register is quite far from the department of Magical Transportation, isn't it, Miss Dur'and?" the shorter one sneered in strong Scottish accent. He wasn't quite as impressive as the taller one, not only due to the lack of few inches in his total height, but also due to their obvious surplus in the belt and neck area. But he was notably younger and possessed a fully functioning wand just as well.

"I got lost." Lied Hermione readily, while employing her best eternally-confused-Fleur impression, but from the stoic faces of her captors it was obvious, that they didn't believe her one bit.

"Well, Miss" The taller, bearded one pulled her up from the floor, took her wand and quickly tied her hands behind her back with invisible magical binds. "You will come with us, because I'm sure the Aurors will be more than interested in how you got past the security."

The other picked up her bag and all three left the room, Hermione securely held between them.

"I swear I wasn't stealing anything. Really? What would I do with a bunch of papers and legal forms?" tried Hermione as they dragged her through the dark hallway towards the magical elevators.

"That doesn't matter. You were in the 'employees only' section of the building at 1.30 in the morning." Replied curtly the older one.

Was it really that late already? Wondered Hermione silently. No wonder, they didn't want to let her slip without a proof of her innocent intentions for being there.

"Is it really necessary?" She twisted her wrists slightly, testing the bonds. The last thing she needed right now was to be faced with a questioning Auror squad. "I did nothing. I was merely-"

But her grumble was cut short by a strong even voice calling after them from somewhere behind them: "What is going on here?"

To be continued…

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