Harry
The lights in the hallway finally extinguished themselves signalling that his mother had at last gone to bed. He had been staring at the light creeping into his room from under the door for a few hours now and was relieved to finally see it disappear. He closed his book on occlumency and legilimency and set aside all of his notes as he got up from his bed and quietly tip-toed over to the window that he had already cracked opened slightly earlier that day.
The time between now and when he arrived at home had been the longest hours of his life. It took all of his willpower to remain in his room and not try and risk leaving early. His parents had not helped his anxiety very much either. His mother and father had very clearly been worried and upset when they picked him up at King's Cross Station. As soon as they got home neither one of them had let him out of their sight for the first few hours as if something might come attack him at any second in their living room.
A few hour into his time back home his father, shortly after hearing the news that Alina was one of the students missing, went to Sirius's house to be with his friend. He hoped that his father being there did not hinder Daphne from being able to sneak out. His mother had tried to avoid discussing anything about the situation with him but during the few times she spoke to him he learned that Professor Kingsley had gone to see Marik's parents to tell them the news that Marik was missing too. That had been the moment he had lost it a little.
Throughout the whole train ride home and the time he was stuck like a prisoner in his living room with his mother the thought of Marik actually being gone had never really crossed his mind. To be honest nothing had really crossed his mind or sunk in at that point. However after picturing how sad and upset Marik's parents must be right now brought him to reality, and it brought the pain with it. For the first time in a long time he actually cried. It was only normal right? His best friend and his cousin were both missing… and maybe even dead…
After a few minutes of crying he had done his best to dry his eyes and wipe away the tears. In the end the more he thought about Marik the more he felt better. Marik would be giving him hell right now if he found out that Harry had cried. So with that in mind he told himself no more tears and stay positive, that's what Marik would be doing right now. So even though the rest of the night after that had still dragged on at a snail's pace, he at least felt better than he had earlier.
Still trying to be as quiet as possible he picked up his wand from the window sill and slowly lifted the window up. Thankfully his room was on the first floor and climbing out would not be his biggest challenge of the night. Lifting one leg up over and outside he quietly climbed into the night.
Even in a large well-lit neighborhood like Godric's Hollow it was still almost pitch black outside. He could only see a few feet in front of him even with all of the light from the street lamps. Looking back into his room before he set off he checked to make sure the pillows he had stuffed under his covers at least somewhat looked like they could be him under the covers.
Close enough. He thought to himself. If his mother actually walked in his room there was about a two percent chance she would not be able to tell it was not him but oh well. If getting in trouble meant he got to help save Marik and Alina it was worth it. Quietly again he slowly closed the window behind him before turning and heading down the sidewalk.
He, Hermione, and Daphne had planned tonight for the most part down to the dot. The ministry employee entrance was just three miles from his house and about the same for everyone else. Hermione would have the longest journey of the night at four miles to their agreed meeting spot since her house was a little bit further outside of the city. The guest entrance to the ministry was a little bit further of a walk compared to the guest entrance but neither he or Daphne new if the guest entrance allowed entry at this time a night like the employee entrance did.
Unfortunately once they got inside the ministry they had no plan but to wing it. He had been able to easily snag one of his mother's hairs for Daphne's polyjuice potion. Luckily living with a woman meant odds were good you could find a shed hair in any room of the house. The plan was for Daphne to do the same with her mother as well.
Hermione would get his mother's hair and when they arrived at the ministry entrance they would wait for another employee to well… That part of the plan wasn't to well worked out either. He still wasn't sure if they could even stun a ministry worker, let alone if it was worth the risk. In the end he just stopped worrying about it and added it to the everything-will-be-okay-just-wing-it section of the plan. The walk to the ministry was one he had made a few times before with his mother throughout the years growing up.
Even though his mother could easily floo, apparate, or portkey to the ministry she would often walk to work. She used to tell him when he would complain about having to walk the distance that the muggle side of her missed some of the simple things that got missed in all of the magic. He still never really understood what she meant but he chalked that down to not growing up with a muggle family.
After making his way out of his neighborhood the world around him became much brighter. The streetlights in the city along with the countless number of still lit windows of people at work lined the streets. He pulled the hood over his head further down. Even this late at night he was not the only one out in the city. In fact there were still a large number of people walking around like him and he passed a good number of pubs that were still full along his journey.
Still, even with there being a good number of people out on the street he did not want to risk being caught or recognized. If he wanted this plan to work he needed to remain unknown. The rest of the walk went by fairly quickly. Thankfully there weren't many turns along the way and he did not get lost. He did his best attempt at a power walk the entire trip and as he neared their meeting spot his legs were starting to hurt.
Man I need to work out. He thought to himself as he rounded the last corner.
"Harry. Over here," a voice whispered at him from a bench a few feet down the sidewalk from where he had just arrived. Even under a cloak and hood it was easy to make out from the blue eyes that it was Daphne.
"Hey Daphne. I'm glad to see you made it safe," he responded as he grabbed a seat next to her. Noticeably even though they were working together right now she still moved further away from him when he sat down.
"Where is Granger? She is taking too long," Daphne said in her usual cold voice.
"You know she had to talk further than us Daphne. Just calm down," he answered her.
"Calm down? Really Harry?" Daphne scolded him.
"Sorry," he apologized to her. "So were you able to get one of your mother's hairs?"
"Of course I was," she answered shortly.
"Do we need to add them to the polyjuice potion now? Or do we have to wait?" he asked her curiously. In just a few seconds things had already become awkward so he was doing his best to get a conversation going.
"We will wait until Granger gets here," Daphne answered quickly and again straight to the point.
"Have you ever tested it before?" he asked her another question in another attempt to start a conversation.
"Yes, a few times. Be prepared, it tastes like hell."
"Did you use it for anything cool?" he asked curiously.
"No," was all she said in return however from her facial reaction it seemed like she was lying.
"Oh come on you can tell me," he said, trying to poke her to tell him.
"Fine. I used it a few times to look like a fourth year girl that was getting private lessons with Flitwick earlier in the year," Daphne answered him.
"Why would you want to look like a fifth year?" he asked now curious.
"So I could get private lessons idiot." Her voice again returning to the cold ice queen voice.
"You have gotten private fourth year lessons from Flitwick. Wow thats impressive. How were you able to get away with it without him noticing?" he asked still curious and now impressed. From all Marik's stories he knew that Marik barely survived his second year lessons with Flitwick.
"I almost did get noticed, that's why I stopped. I didn't plan on doing it for long I just wanted help on some higher level magic."
"You weren't kidding when you said you weren't going to let me beat you again this year," he said trying to put on a smile when he did. For some reason it was good to see that Daphne was pushing herself harder this year. That made his extra effort this year feel even more needed and rewarding.
"Not that it matters anymore now," Daphne said, lowering her head as she did.
"Yes it does. Hogwarts isn't closed for good," he told her trying to sound confident.
"How can you say that? You don't know that," she asked him, making eye contact for the first time with him that night. He took note of her eyes as she did. She had tired bags under her eyes and her bright blue eyes were outlined by redness all around. She must have been crying. . . Even though he had briefly seen her cry on the express it was still hard to imagine someone like her actually crying. It seemed to make the situation even more sad.
"Because I do," he started to answer. "Because I know Marik. Even if he was taken or kidnapped there is no way in hell he is going down easy. Even if you hate him you have to admit if there is one person in our year that would best put up a fight right now it would be him. And I know that Alina isn't a pushover either.
"She was in the library over the summer just as much as we were, reading and studying the entire time. If she is half as good as you are there is no way she is not putting up a good fight too. We will get there soon, make all right at the school, and before you know it we will be back to how things used to be." Truthfully he really did believe what he told her.
"Thank you. I hope you are right," Daphne said, lifting her head back up as she did.
"Harry, Daphne is that you?" a voice he recognized as Hermione's whispered from down the sidewalk.
"Yeah Hermione come on," he answered back. A sigh of relief swept over him that she had made it there safe.
"Took you long enough Granger," Daphne said coldly as she stood up and started going through her bag.
"Good to see you too Daphne," Hermione sarcastically responded. Much like Daphne Hermione's eyes also looked red and tired from crying. He didn't like seeing her like that. "So I was thinking we should change the plan," Hermione announced as Daphne took a three vials with dark brown liquid out of her bag.
"Change what?" he asked her.
"I don't think we should use the polyjuice potion," Hermione answered his question.
"What? That was the entire base of our plan Granger," Daphne spat out.
"Hear me out. We don't know where to go once we get in the Ministry right? So that means we may have to wander around for a while. If I look like Harry's mother and you look like your mother someone might recognize us and ask us to go somewhere or do something. Plus if we have to use magic we might get your parents in serious trouble. And Harry doesn't have someone's hair yet. We could waste precious time waiting for someone to show up and by then it may be too late," Hermione explained her reasoning. She had a point.
"So what do you suggest," he asked her. If she thought Hermione had a point Daphne made no attempt to change her distasteful look.
"I found a few glamour charms in one of my books. Most of them look pretty easy but some of the better ones I don't think we could do without a lot of practice. I can change enough of our appearances to make us unrecognizable as long as someone doesn't stare at you for too long. This way at least we all can go in at the same time without waiting, and not risk getting your parents in trouble," Hermione finished explaining her new plan. It seemed like a good enough idea. After all if things went well hopefully they would be in and out of the ministry within a few minutes before anyone had the chance to recognize them.
"I don't know. I do agree with you about it being quicker than waiting for Harry to get a hair but let me see how it looks first before we decide," Daphne responded to Hermione. Never in his life did he imagine he would hear Daphne agreeing with Hermione on something.
"Okay, sure. Harry come here," Hermione ordered him. He made his way over to where Hermione was and she took out a book and began flipping through pages. Of course she brought the book with her, he laughed to himself. After she found the page she had been looking for Hermione took out her wand and slowly began casting spells at his face. The inner duelist in him had to restrain himself having a wand inches from his face.
Following each spell it felt like someone was bending and stretching out his face. She started with his hair and his face and by the time she finished it felt like he had weights over each one of his eyes. From there she moved on to finishing the rest of his face.
"Okay, there. That's about as good as I can do. What do you think Daphne?" Hermione asked.
"Hmmm," was all Daphne said.
"Let me see," he said to Hermione who took out a mirror from her bag. It was quite the shock to look into a mirror and see someone different staring back at you. His eyebrows had doubled in thickness, his eyes were a different color, and he had the thickest jaw and cheeks that he may have ever seen. He certainly did not look like himself.
"This is perfect Hermione," he announced as he continued to examine himself in the mirror.
"I guess it will work," Daphne admitted sounding defeated. She looked physically ill as she agreed with Hermione.
"Okay Daphne, you come here next and I will start on yours," Hermione ordered Daphne. Slowly Daphne made her way closer to Hermione. He noted that throughout Hermione working on Daphne's face that Daphne's grip on her wand seemed to tighten.
"Even with these we will have to move quick and try to keep hidden. No one like this works at the ministry so we can't draw attention to ourselves," he said to two girls.
After a few minutes of wand work Hermione had Daphne looking much different than the ice-queen normally did. Daphne seemed upset that Hermione had turned her normal scowl into a mouth that seemed to always be smiling. He couldn't help but smile and think Hermione must have done that on purpose.
After she finished with Daphne, Hermione took back her mirror and started working on her own appearance. When she was finished the three of them all looked like completely different, and strange looking people. It was time for the wing-it part of the plan now.
"Is everyone ready?" he asked the two girls in front of him. They both nodded in return.
"Let's go ahead and cast silencing spells on ourselves. Better to be safe than sorry," Hermione added, and they all followed her lead.
"Alright let's get going. Remember the employee entrance will take us near the main lobby. Keep an eye out for any signs or anything that might help," he reminded them.
"We know Harry. Let's go!" Daphne ordered. The three of them left the part of the street they had been on and walked a few blocks further towards the entrance. Unlike the rest of the city this part of the city was much less lit and much less populated than the parts he had walked through. The walk to the entrance was a quick one compared to all of their earlier treks and in just a few minutes they arrived at the destination.
"The entrance is a bathroom?" Hermione asked sounding disgusted.
"No Granger, don't be stupid," Daphne spat out again, her voice this time not matching her face. Daphne and he led Hermione over to the alley next to the small building. A few feet inside the alley was a red door. Taking the lead he opened the red door and led them all into the small room.
"Now what?" Hermione asked.
"Just wait a second," he answered. Just like it did during the times he had visited with his mother after a few moments the room started to lower itself like an elevator. The face that used to be Hermione's made quite the funny expression that normally, if it had been a different situation, he might have laughed at. After a few moments the room came to a stop and the red door opened signalling that they had arrived.
"Here we go," he said quietly. He opened the door and led them out into the Ministry of Magic.
The three of them left the small elevator room and made their way down the entrance tunnel into the made atrium of the ministry. Just as they had hoped for the place did not seem to be crowded and only a few people could be seen walking around. From what he and Daphne knew the Daily Prophet had workers at the ministry around the clock seven days a week and for other workers, like their mothers, it was common to work there late nights.
Once they all made their way into the atrium they paused for a few moments to take in everything around them and search for clues. In the middle of the atrium was the large fountain that had the large ministry flag hanging over head. Most of the normally lit windows that lined the atrium's walls were turned off besides a few ones here and there.
"Guys there is directory over there," Daphne whispered to them and pointed at a wall on the other side of the atrium. Luckily for them the few people that they could see in the atrium with them were on the other side, so for now they were safe enough to make their way over to it. They headed over to the directory that Daphne pointed out doing their best to look like they belonged there. Once at the directory he started scanning through the lists to find anything that could help.
"Do you see anything that mentions floo?" he asked them.
"No," Daphne answered bluntly.
"I don't either. What do we do now?" Hermione asked, her voice sounding a little nervous.
"I don't know," he answered.
"The minister's office," Daphne said after a few moments, sounding like she was thinking hard.
"What about it?" he asked her, confused where she was going with this.
"I read the Daily Prophet everyday. In a copy of it last week there was an article about the minister in there, something about a new research grant or something I forget. Anyways there was a picture in the article of the minister in his office. I remember their being a fireplace in the picture," Daphne explained.
"It would make sense for the Minister of Magic to have a floo network in his office but won't his office be one of the harder ones to get into?" Hermione asked Daphne.
"Probably. But it's better than just wandering around and opening random doors. Plus I guarantee his office's Floo has access to Hogwarts,"Daphne answered.
"Let's find the minister's office then. We don't have time for a better plan anyways," Harry said and started looking over the directory again.
"There!" Hermione announced probably a little too loudly. Looking to where she was pointing he could see that next to her finger there was a room number for the Office of the Minister of Magic.
"Alright let's go. Keep your eyes open," Daphne ordered as she led the way to a nearby staircase. If the directory was to be believed the Minister's office was on the eleventh floor. That meant they had quite a few stairs to climb since they did not want to risk getting stuck in the elevator with someone else. Slowly the three of them made their way up staircase after staircase until they saw the sign for the eleventh floor. For the second time that night he told himself he needed to start working out as he tried to catch his breath from all the stairs.
The door from the stairwell opened into another long hallway with doors to offices on each side. Luckily it seemed that each door had a label of what it housed on it so they would not have to check each one individually. They started slowly and quietly walking down the hall until they came to a spot where the hall split into three different directions.
"Wait here," he ordered Hermione and Daphne. As quietly as he could he walked up to the corner of the last wall before the hallway split. Peeking his head out he looked down the hallway to the left first to see if there was anyone there. The hallway was clear. After checking that one he moved to the wall on the right to check the next hallway.
At the end of the hallway was a large door at the center of the wall. Outside of the large door was a desk that two people in ministry robes were sitting at. From the way they were sitting and the fact they were not doing work but just had wands in their hands he could assumed they were guards. That had to be the minister's office.
After checking one last time he turned and waved back to where Daphne and Hermione were waiting for them to come to him.
"There are two guards sitting outside the door with wands in hand. We need a plan."
"You and Granger take one and I will take the other," Daphne quickly said to his surprise.
"You think you can take a ministry guard on your own?" Hermione asked. Even with a different face on the look Daphne gave Hermione made it clear she was trying to do her best ice-queen glare.
"They are ministry guards Granger not aurors. Anyone with a wand can be a ministry guard so, yes I do. When you and Potter finish yours you can help me with mine if I still need it," Daphne spat.
"Okay well… Unless you have a better idea Hermione?" he said, looking at his best friend to see if she did. After a few seconds she shook her head. "Okay then it's our plan. Let's try to keep this as quiet and contained as possible. If we go blowing offices up we are sure to get caught." Both the girls nodded in agreement.
"Wait a sec I want to hear what they are saying," Hermione said as she put her ear closer to the corner. Sure enough he had not noticed that the two guards were talking. He followed Hermione's lead and put his ear closer to the corner.
"So do you think the old bastard will actually show up tomorrow?" one of the guards asked the other.
"Why wouldn't he? What's so special about tomorrow?" the other guard asked.
"You didn't hear yet?" the first guard asked.
"Hear what?"
"The old bastard got a chunk bit out of him at the school today and went straight to St. Mungos along with Malfoy and some other of his close advisors. He's okay far as I know but got won't be sitting down for a while until his arse grows back haha!
From what I heard some bloke came riding in from the forbidden forest on the back of a huge spider with a thousand spiders beside him. The guy on shift here before you said that his friend who was at the castle swore it looked like a dementor riding on the spider." The first guard told the story.
"Why would a dementor ride on the back of a spider when it can fly? And why did the spiders attack the school?" the second guard asked.
"I dunno it's just what I heard. From what the bloke said they just came out of nowhere and started swarming the school. They didn't hurt anyone outside the minister and his advisors, scared the shit out of them all though. I can't imagine seeing that. I would have bloody shit my pants if I saw a thousand spiders charging at me. Thank bloody baron I drew the night shift tonight." the first guard continued.
"Did the catch whoever was on the spider?" the second guard was asking another question.
"Nah whatever it was it got away. Plus everyone there aurors and ministry workers alike apparated out of there as quick as they could. The bloke told me he heard the aurors were putting together a team to raid the castle though soon and clear out the spiders." the first guard answered.
He turned from where he had been looking to make eye contact with Daphne and Hermione.
"Hermione do you think?" he started to ask her looking hopeful. From the water in her eyes he judged she had the same thought.
"Marik!" was all Hermione as able to get out, a few tears streamed down her face.
"How do you know it was Marik? The guard said they didn't catch him," Daphne was asking beside him.
"He said the person on the spider looked like a Dementor. Marik in his cloak would look like a dementor. It makes sense," he explained to Daphne.
"Why would he be riding on a giant spider… And why would he attack aurors and ministry officials?" Daphne asked him.
"I don't know. Maybe it was the only way. From the sounds of it though it sounds like he was trying to get back in the castle though. My bet is he found out someone was missing and was trying to be the hero looking for them. Knowing Marik he would do something dramatic like that. Plus attacking ministry employees isn't so different from what we are doing right now," he answered Daphne and couldn't help the smile that came to his face. The guard's story sounded just like the extreme dramatic event that Marik would be at the center of.
"Regardless of if it was him or not we need to keep moving. Are you guys ready?" Daphne asked the two of them. They both nodded again.
"Let's go!" he announced as the three of them turned the corner.
"Stupefy!" The three of them cast the spell in unison as they rounded the corner. As soon as they started one of the guards was on his feet ready with a shield. The other one apparently was not paying as much attention and Hermione's two spells collided with him and sent him flying off his chair into the wall behind him, unconscious.
I guess Daphne was right when she said anyone can be a ministry guard. He thought to himself after seeing the success of their wing-it-plan on the first guard. His thought went away quick though as the second guard was firing a spell back at them quick.
"Expelliarmus, incarcerous!" The ministry guard fired the two spells off. The guards expelliarmus spell was large enough in the hallway that if it hit them it would surely disarm all three of them. On the other hand the ropes the guard conjured seemed to only be going after Daphne who was now charging the guard.
"Protego!" He cast the shield spell over Daphne as she ran. It would protect her from the expelliarmus at least. Hopefully she had a plan for the ropes. Next to him Hermione didn't stop casting spells as she took Daphne's lead and started charging.
"Mobiliarbus!" He heard Daphne cast the spell right as the guards expelliarmus spell collided with the shield he had cast on her. Her spell resulted in the ropes changing their path from towards her back towards the guard who had cast them.
"Protego!" The guard threw up another shield and blocked the oncoming ropes.
"Stupefy, immobulus!" The still charging Hermione sent out a spell chain. Next to her Daphne had her wand moving with more spells.
"Confundus, petrificus totalus!" Daphne sent two more spells flying at the guard along with Hermione's two spells.
He had to give some credit to the poor guard. So far he had put up a good fight and he even managed to throw up two quick shields to block both of Hermione's spells. However he did not fair as lucky against Daphne's spells. First he was hit with the confundus spell which immediately resulted in the guard's face changing to a confused look. The look quickly changed though as the guard was hit with Daphne's body locking spell. The guard fell to the floor with a thud as his legs gave out. The three of them walked over to where the guard lay.
"Stupefy!" Hermione standing next to the still conscious guard pinned to the ground cast the stunner at point blank range knocking him out. He felt bad for the poor guy. He knew first hand how strong a Hermione stunner was, he could imagine how bad a point blank one would feel when the guard woke up.
Daphne opened the door leading into the minister's office. Sure enough on the right side of the office was a large fire place.
"Thank god." he heard Hermione say in a sigh of relief next to him.
"Everyone look around quick for some floo powder, it was stupid of us to forget to bring some," Daphne announced to them. She was right. If they couldn't find any in the minister's office then there entire plan was for naught. He cursed himself for not thinking of something so simple.
The three of them started searching through every cabinet and drawer that they could find in the room.
"Found it!" He shouted as he opened up a drawer to find a large supply of floo powder.
"Okay, let's go. Hurry!" Daphne said as she made her way towards the fireplace.
"Wait guys. Harry come here. Look at this." Even with a different face on he knew Hermione's voice well enough to know that she had found something that bothered her.
"What is it Hermione?" He asked as he made his way over to her.
"Here look at this." She handed him a document that had been in one of the Minister's drawers.
Department of Mysteries
Project: Lex Sanguinis
By order of the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge
Confidential to all Ministry personnel without level A clearance
The Department of Mysteries will employ six candidates that the minister has chosen for this project to conduct further research on finalizing the Lex Sanguinis Ritual. After being provided the necessary collection of runes needed for the Ritual by means of donation from, Insert Name , Phase 2 tests can soon begin. Phase 2 tests will begin using the demomagus potion on muggleborn witches and wizards. After success has been confirmed the project will then move to small controlled tests of the Lex Sanguinis Ritual on muggleborn witches and wizards before moving forward to large scale use. The following names are the only Ministry personal given clearance to be provided information on this project.
Insert Name Insert Name Insert Name
Insert Name Insert Name Insert Name
xCornelius Fudge,
Minister Of Magic
"What is the Lex Sanguinis ritual, and the demomagus potion?" he asked confused. He was not sure what most of the document meant.
"I can't say for sure what either is but I took a little bit of Latin in grade school before Hogwarts and that's what made this catch my eye. Lex means law and Sanguinis means blood, so together this means blood law," Hermione explained. She still sounded bothered.
"Great Hermione we are happy you know Latin now can we get going," Daphne started saying.
"Hold on one sec Daphne. What does it mean Hermione. I don't understand," he asked her.
"I don't know but it says they are going to test it only on muggleborns. The fact that they are testing something on muggleborns alone stands out as something odd. Plus the choice of words…" Hermione sounded like she was thinking.
"Make a copy of it and we can look over it later then Hermione. Daphne is right we need to get going," he told Hermione. She quickly pulled out a piece of parchment from her bag and used a copy spell to place the writings on the document to her sheet. Then they all went and grabbed a handful of the floo powder and prepared themselves.
"Okay, I will go first. Follow me as soon as I go," he told the others as he stepped into the fireplace.
"Hogwarts!" he shouted and felt his body immediately start to twist and turn.
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