6. The Lab

Hermione's eyes were raw. She wasn't sure at what exact point she had fallen asleep, but she guessed she'd probably been out for a few hours. The baby was awake and shifting uncomfortable in her arms. She stood up and stretched her legs. There was a knock at the door.

'Come in,' she said, her voice hoarse and low.

The first thing she was was the firey red hair. Her heart panged at the thought of Ron, and for a split second she thought he might have come for her, but it was Ginny, looking very forloung.

'Hey Mione, dad sent me to check on you...'

'Hey Gin.'

Ginny walked forward and set a bag down on the floor, then sat her slender frame on the edge of the desk. She sat there in silence for a moment.

'Dad said you had a baby with you, I thought he'd finally lost it.' she said, her smile not really reaching her corn blue eyes. Hermione gave a small smile back.

There was another awkward pause.

Ginny swallowed, 'Hermione, I'm so...'

'It's ok. Please.' she cut Ginny off.

Ginny nodded sadly. That sat there together for a moment staring at the brown carpet. Two best friends who would spend hours talking, right now could not find the words.

They both breathed a small sigh of relief when a paper airplane glided gently into the office. Hermione unfolded it and moaned under her breath.

'What is it?' asked Ginny.

'It's from the minister,' Hermione said distastefully, 'saying that 'new information has come to light,' and the meeting is going to be postponed until further notice.'

'Does that mean you can pop home for a bit?' asked Ginny,

'No.' Hemione sighed, 'he wants everyone to stay here. Putting the ministry on lockdown apparently.'

she screwed up the paper and threw it towards the bin as hard as she could, where it bounced off the rim and onto the carpet. Hermione secretly seethed. She needed space. She needed to breathe.

'Will you watch him for a bit?' she asked and Ginny looked up. She smiled again and nodded holding out her hands for him. Hermione handed him over carefully, already feeling empty without him.

'There's some clothes here for you,' said Ginny gesturing to the bag. 'Dad said Kingsley didn't give you much time to sort yourself out.'

'Ha.' laughed Hermione, 'try no fucking time at all.'

It wasn't like Hermione to swear, but Ginny didn't comment. Instead she was making funny faces at the baby who was now giggling a little.

'I'm going to the public showers,' said Hermione picking up the bag, 'there's formala and stuff in the bag if you don't mind feeding and changing him.'

'To be honest Hermione, I'm just glad I've finally got something to do.'

They smiled at eachother.

'I love you Gin, thanks.'

'I love you too Mione.'

Deep in the winding tunnels under the Ministry was The Laboratory. Incognito in its exact location, it could only be accessed through a series of magic wards, designed specifically to keep those without clearance as far away as possible. Rumor among the Ministry employees was that every few years someone went missing down there, a maintenance man or some unsuspecting cleaner, vanishing into thin air after seeing something they shouldn't have. The floor to ceiling was all white marble, cold, clinical looking, making the place unnaturally bright for somewhere so far under the ground. The domed ceilings were almost impossibly high, echoing every little noise around a million times. The whole ambiance made each room feel as though it was almost infinite.

In a room marked LAB 1 chaos was breaking out.

'STRAP HER DOWN, STRAP HER DOWN!' barked a small squat wizard named Perridge Quail.

Draco grabbed a flailing arm and pushed down. The strength was second to none, and it took all of his might not to be flung across the room. Eventually, he, George and two lab assistants heaved the woman's convulsing body into a chair and strapped her down. He looked at her. Her teeth nashed at him. Her eyes putrid and gray and unseeing. Just like the tramp. She shook her head back and forth so violently Draco was sure she would snap her own neck.

'The fucking bitch bit me!' snarled Perridge, his hand grazing over a deep bitemark in his forearm. The plump wizard shuffled through some vials on a work bench, settling on some 'essence of dittany' and pouring a few drops onto the wound. Nothing happened. He looked annoyed, but unsuprised.

'She got me too,' whimpered one of the lab assistants. The guy was young, probably a bit younger than Draco. He was spotty, skinny, and holding his hand tightly trying to staunch quite a bad bleed. Draco could tell the boy was trying not to cry. Poor sod clearly hadn't signed up for this.

'Liam, if your'e going to stand there sniveling and getting blood on my floor go to the first aid room.' Perridge sneered, giving the boy a disappointed look that struck a cord with Draco. He looked away and instead stared at one of the jerking bodies encased in the corner. Something nudged at the corner of his brain. A child hood fear, something primitive. He felt sick. This was bad... this was really fucking bad.

Liam scurried off and Perridge breathed deep, trying to compose himself. 'Tina, would you please get me some bandages please.'

The other young lab assistant nodded, fetched the first aid kit and began to quietly wrap them around Perridge's arm.

'Literally nothing magical works on them!' Perridge shouted exasperated, holding out his arm awkwardly. 'I'm out of my depth here, Kingsley, I deal with MAGICAL sciences, understand?'

Kingsley Shacklebolt had been surveying the scene in silence. His deep black eyes unmoving from the young woman still battling in the chair. In the corner, a row of plastic cells held another five or six of them. All rabid, throwing themselves violently against the walls. The clear panels were now blood splattered from the sheer force. They were literally tearing their bodies apart trying to get out. The only stillness in the room came from a single marble slab where the tramp Draco had bought in lay, still motionless, still dripping blood onto the white floor. Kingsley turned to Draco,

"Throries?' he asked.

Draco ran his hand through his hair and shook his head.

'Every theory I had went out the bloody window when that dead fuck got back up. This suprpases any of the dark magic I am familar with.' he scratched the stubble at his chin, 'At a guess, I suppose some lethal strain of influenza merged with the infe-"

'Inferius curse.' Perridge finnished, nodded feverishly, 'First thing I thought of, it stinks of necromancy. But look...'

Perridge raised his wand and pointed it at the corpse. A waving cascade of flames left the tip, its waves reaching and wrapping around her, englufing her. Draco steeped back at the sudden heat, shielding his eyes from the light. After a moment Perridge lowered his wand and the flames retreated.

The woman sat in the chair untouched. Still squirming, still thrashing and completly unburnt. Fire was the only way to fight inferi, and it done nothing.

"No - fucking - magic" Perridge spat. His nostrils enlarging in annoyance.

'You must be able to do magic on them after you've...erm... disarmed them.' said Fred, still looking green, trying his best not to look at the tramp on the slab.

'Weasley is right, ' said Draco, 'we levitated him in here.'

Draco walked over to the woman in the chair and waved his wand. The tendril of the levitation spell came out, almost caressed her writhing face before disappearing with no effect. George shrugged at him and Draco almost rolled his eyes.

'So far twenty five percent of the corpses we were studying on have... woken up.' began Perridge, 'and there seems to be zero correlation for which ones. There is nothing connecting them, no age range, gender, ethnicity... the only attributing factor is that..'

'that they were all dead.' finished Draco.

There was silence again as they continued to stare at the woman. The chair toppled over from her thrashing but no one went to pick it up. They just stared at her, squirming on the floor, the hollow noise moaning from her throat echoing around them again and again.

'At this rate minister, if they continue to wake up in the same time frame..' Perridge paused to wipe sweat away from his eyebrow, 'we can expect all of them to be awake by the morning.' Perridge sat down, his arm finally bandaged. He shooed Tina away without a thank you. Draco heard Geroge whisper something along the lines of 'ungrateful git' under his breath. Perridge's face was getting red, and sweat was beading from his forehead. Draco watched him carefully. Something was wrong, he could feel it. Draco had always prized himself on his ability to sense danger, and there were several red lights flashing in his bran right now.

'How many corpses do we have Perrigde?' Kingsley asked, finally looking away from the woman.

'About 50 at least,' said Perridge, undoing a few buttons from his shirt. Draco could see the sweat starting to come through under his arms and down his chest. 'And the thing is I haven't got any more labs for them, I've barricaded the rooms for now but I don't now if they'll hold once they all wake up. They can walk through the wards, nothing magical is doing anything for them...' Perridge abruptly stood up and paced towards a sink and started to run cold water on his hands, then his face. His hands were shaking.

Draco walked over to him.

'Perridge?' Draco put out a hand to the mans back. It was fire.

'DON'T YOU TOUCH ME YOU DEATH EATER SCUM.' Perridge spun around to Draco and bared his teeth grumbling a low and profound snarl at him.

'Merlin! What's wrong with you?' Draco bawked, and then paused - ' Did you just fucking growl at me?!'

Draco took a few steps back as the squat man squared up to him. He started to grind his teeth together at Draco, mumbling words that didn't make any sense. Perridge lunged at him and Draco instinctively punched the man square in the nose. Perridge fell back swearing. His nose was broken, that was for sure. Draco couldn't help but smirk to himself.

Azkaban had its perks- fighting was one of them.

Perridge scrambled to his feet, his whole body trembling.

'God Malfoy, what did you do that for?' George said coming closer.

Draco continued to stare at Perridge.

'Something isn't right...' Draco whispered, his head cocking slightly to the side as he tried to identify exactly what it was. Increased anger, sweating, incoherent and confused. Draco would say the man was gravely ill, had he not been completely fine ten minutes ago. What could work that quickly?

Tina went forward and put a gentle hand on Perridge, trying to steady him.

'Mr Quail, why don't you sit down?' she mused, but quicker then she could have expected Perridge grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. His face was inches from her's as he spat; 'Don't you touch me you filthy slut!'

Draco and George stepped forward but Perridge, quicker then they could have anticipated, violently twisted and put Tina in a headlock. His eyes were feral and burned with a rage Draco had only ever seen once. These eyes were crazy, lost... no longer human.

'Stay back!' Perridge hissed. His arms got tighter around Tina's neck, and Draco felt sick to hear her crying. So many crying women today...

'PERRIDGE QUAIL.' Boomed Kinglsey, stepping forward, but not quite within reaching distance.

Perridge turned towards him and stopped like a deer in headlights. His whole body began to shake.

'Let the girl go Perridge...' Kingsley's voice was again velvet smooth. Calm. Soothing. He stared at Perridge with his dark eyes, not blinking. Draco stood on his tiptoes ready to pounce.

He tried to not look at Tina but kept catching her in his vision. She was pretty, even when she was crying. Delicate looking, petit and soft. He vaguely wondered how such a small bird had found herself in a place like this. She would have been better suited somewhere sweeter, literally - he could see her working at the icecream shop in Diagon alley. Serving each scoop with a small but genuine smile. She made eye-contact with him. Her watery hazel eyes spoke to him. Please, save me. He gulped. He had seen that look before. A life time ago, under a black chandelier. Brown curly hair and a bloody marble floor. He forced his eyes away and back to the mad man clasping her.

'The bite...' Perridge whispered, black ooze beginning to drip through his teeth and down onto his lab coat and into Tina's hair. He turned to look at her as she screamed in agonizing realization. Draco ran forward towards her, but he was too late.

'I'm sorry,' croaked Perridge, before thrusting forward and sinking his black teeth into Tina's neck. She couldn't scream anymore, instead a blood spattered gurgle escaped her writhing mouth. Her eyes rolled back into her head and Perridge pulled back, dropping her twitching body onto the floor. Perridge turned towards the three men, still frozen to the spot, Tina's windpipe hanging out of his mouth. Draco slowly began to back away. His mind went into over drive. The girl - unviable. Perridge - too dangerous to take down. Exit - behind and to the left. Now. Leave Now.

'Get the door Weasley,' he said, not taking his eyes off of Perridge who was starting towards them.

'Tina?' George replied, though he was already backing away too.

'She's gone.' Said Draco, and Kingsley nodded,

'Yes George - the door.'

George turned around and fumbled at the handle, he swung it open and the three men dove out just as Perridge sprinted towards them. The three men stood in silence looking at the door. Draco waved his wand over the door and the wood became transparent. Perridge was throwing his body against the door over and over again. On the blood soaked floor Tina began to rise, her body discombobulated, her joints jagged as she slipped on the blood. After a few moments she too was slaming herself into the door, the flesh at her neck flapping in her efforts.

Another one I didn't save...

George was trying to place wards on the door but Draco stopped him.

'Save your breath Weasley, they wont do anything '

Draco walked up the hall and counted at least 6 other doors being bashed in from the inside, but there was no sign of wear on the doors. They'd last a while at least. Still though, the the Ministry was already compromised.

'Fuck,' he said under his breath. Draco thought of the spotty boy that had snivelled off , his hand bitten, just like Perridge. He shared a knowingly look with Kingsley.

'The boy,' Kinglsey whispered

George's mouth dropped. He immediately spun around in a circle, scanning every corner of the corridor.

'You think he's become.. like them?' George paused, focusing his vision into the distance for a second. He stared and then breathed out. Draco tried his best to remain calm. He was beginning to think he might have been better off in the prison cell.

'Well I don't want to find out. We need to evacuate.' Draco said, looking at the Minister he waited for instruction. Draco stared at Kingsley's face as it finally broke. The unreadable mask melted away, and the mans dark eyes seemed to gleam with a terror that made Draco clench his fist.

We're all fucked.

'But where will everyone go?' George sputtered, 'There must be hundreds of people here.'

Kingsley was silent, 'Wherever they can go...'

Draco and George stared at him waiting for him to elaborate, but there was nothing else.

'We need to get to get upstairs so we can apparate out of the lobby, it's the closest exit.. I need to get dad..." he paused his face went white, "Ginny is in here... and Mione, they don't know! They've got a baby in there!".

Meanwhile Draco had his own problem. Being on leave from prison wasn't quite the get out of jail free card he'd hoped. There were several clauses and conditions of his release. While he was allowed a very emotional reunion with his wand it didn't come without restriction. The main problem now being no apparation. Someone would have to take him along, and he was betting there probably wasn't a long line of people willing to take a tag along death eater.

Think Draco, think.

"I'll come with you to get them Weasley. I'll come with you to help you get your father and your sister out."

George looked unconvinced.

"Malfoys don't do anything ?"

Malfoy scoffed. The ginger wasn't a complete idiot.

"Because then you take me with you. I can't apparate out alone. I have no where to go." He said a matter of fact. Draco hated to sound pitiful, but survival out did pride.

George looked at him in silence for a second. He nodded his head.

"Okay fine, but if they start chewing on you, know I'm leaving you behind ferret."

Draco nodded.

"Same to you, Weasle"

"What about you Minister?" Asked George.

"I'll do what I can." He said solemnly, again without any further insight.

"Now go."

Kingsley raised a shaking hand and pointed his wand to the ceiling. A red glow descended across every wall, ceiling and floor. A siren boomed from an unplaceable direction, mixing in the air with sudden distant screaming.