Chapter 55: Friday, November 28, 1980
"The sun stopped shining… And the sadness is so heavy that I can not get away from it."
-Nina LaCour
Hermione looked over Sirius one more time. Garrick had left them to their devices in a separate storage cupboard outside of his office. He gave them the set of brilliant ruby red robes and the badge to pin to the front, labelling Sirius as the French Inspector for the Foreign Embassy of Magical Affairs. Sirius changed into the robes and Hermione pulled an elastic from her wrist, standing on a chair to braid Sirius' hair back into something that would look a little more professional than his wavy black, shoulder length locks. When he turned around she took a few moments to transfigure his nose, chin, and brow to change his features. As Sirius pointed out, the Blacks were a well-known wizarding family, she didn't want to risk someone showing up who would recognize him.
Hermione climbed off the chair and gave a sharp nod, "Don't talk to anyone unless you have to. And only speak in French—hopefully they'll leave us alone if they realize you aren't English speaking."
"Yes, I know the plan, give me some credit. I'm not a complete moron!"
Hermione deadpanned, her lips pressed into a thin line. "That's up for debate."
Sirius laughed and bent down, pressing a swift kiss to her cheek. "Love you too, kitten."
Hermione rolled her eyes, grabbing the invisibility cloak and pulling it over herself. "We need to get to level four, the Spirit Division is in the main wing. Arthur and Garrick both said the Centaur Liaison office is attached in the back of the Spirit Division and-
"Hang on, why would they put the Centaur office with the spirits and not the beasts?" Sirius asked.
"Because the Centaurs never wanted an established office. The office was established after the treaty of 1806, that demanded peace between Centaurs and Wizards. We don't meddle in their affairs, they stay out of ours. Because of that, a liaison between the two is rendered useless, but the Wizengamot decided to force the issue and create the position anyway. It's not a real position, at least not anymore."
"See? Swot."
"Level four." Hermione reminded him, ignoring the comment.
They entered the lift and Hermione gripped the railing tightly this time as the small box shot upward, speeding past the floors and twisting through a few tunnels before coming to a stop and opening up with a loud clanging sound and a soft, disembodied voice that said: "Level Four: Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Subdivisions include Beast Division, Being Division, and Spirit Division. Official creature registry located at front office, 1A."
Hermione tugged at Sirius' sleeve, pulling him onto level four. The office was nearly empty. Down the corridor, sat a young woman at a desk, not much older than Hermione. She wore royal blue robes and her red hair was twisted up on top of her head. She had large square framed glasses perched on the end of her nose that seemed to take up much of her face and she didn't look the least bit interested in them.
Hermione followed Sirius to the woman's desk, holding her breath as she silently pleaded that this thinly veiled disguise would work and that the woman, Matilda- according to the nameplate on her desk, would not have seen the French Inspector before. Sirius waited patiently a few moments, Matilda holding up a finger to indicate she would be with them in a moment. After several minutes, Sirius cleared his throat and Matilda looked up from her stack of parchment.
"I apologize," she said. "I was counting a few things and Merlin, if I lost track one more time, I was going to set the parchment on fire!"
"Bonjour, j'ai besoin d'accéder à tout le département pour les inspections," Sirius said, his face stoic as he spoke in flawless French.
"Oh! Bonjour Monsieur! I was told you would be coming a bit later today…"
"Is this problematic?" Sirius replied in a very thick, feigned French accent.
"Not at all, sir. Not at all. I just need to see your badge!"
Hermione felt her heart skip a beat as Sirius unpinned the badge from the front of his robes and handed it to the witch. She began moving around a few manilla folders on her desk before she found one that had a large red stamp that read EMBASSY across it. When she opened it, Hermione's stomach dropped. It was a profile of each Foreign Inspector, their picture attached. A huge oversight on their part, really. Of course, the Ministry wasn't going to give all access clearance for just anyone, they would need to make sure that the person was who they said they were. Hermione huffed in annoyance as the girl seemed to take her time comparing the name on his badge to the different files.
"Confundus," she whispered, pointing her wand at Matilda. The smirk pulling the corner of Sirius' mouth up did not go unnoticed by Hermione.
Matilda seemed to stare off into space for a moment, her eyes glazing over before she gave a small shake to her head and looked at the badge in her hand, "I… Yes, of course, I… You're all clear…" she said, a little confused. She picked up her wand from the desk and tapped it to the badge before handing it back to Sirius.
"This will give you access to any division in the department. The department heads are all in a meeting until eleven, after which they'll be available for you to question. But you're free to look around and do what you need to do. Just remember with every new department you visit, you'll have to get access restrictions lifted at the front desk, much like you did with me."
"Merci beaucoup," Sirius said, awarding Matilda with his most dazzling smile before pinning the badge back onto his robes and stepping away from the desk. They turned left and took the corridor, passing a few doors that looked to be storage and a few others that were labeled. Goblin Liaison, House Elf Support, Registration for Beasts, Archives, Beasts Division, Beings Division… Finally, as they rounded a corner, they were met with the door that read Spirits Division on the placard and Hermione sighed in relief.
Garrick had been right. The door was thrumming with magic and even with Sirius' supposed clearance, they weren't able to get through the threshold. Hermione pulled the cloak off from herself and handed it to Sirius.
"Keep watch, would you?"
"Naturally, make the dog keep watch."
"Shut up," Hermione said. "I need to concentrate. Just keep a lookout!"
"Only joking, kitten!" Sirius laughed, "Of course I will, just hurry up. We haven't got all day."
Hermione got to work, using every tip and trick she could think of that Bill had taught her over the years to help her break down a variety of different wards that had been set. On this door, there were a few that were relatively simple—the process of dismantling them took only a few minutes. It was the more complex spells that were causing Hermione's brow to break into a sweat as she gnawed at her bottom lip, trying to break the wards down.
After what felt like at least an hour, Hermione felt the locks give way and she sighed in relief. It had single handedly been the most complicated set of wards she had ever attempted to break through, and she just hoped she had been able to push past them all.
"Sirius, I'm in!" Hermione said, excitement causing her voice to shake a bit. "Let's go."
Sirius whipped around, a large grin on his face, "I knew you could do it, kitten."
Hermione beamed and twisted the handle on the door, holding her breath as she pushed it open. She and Sirius slipped inside and she heard the latch click back into place, signalling the door had been closed behind them. Hermione looked around, confused. It looked like… Well, it looked like a normal office. A few desks surrounded by makeshift cubicle walls, separating them from their neighbors. The smell of ink and parchment and stale coffee assaulted her nose and she felt her face fall flat.
Sirius clearly registered her confused disappointment, "They wouldn't have put that many wards on a door for no reason."
Hermione nodded, "I know but I guess I was just expecting… I don't know, something a little more…"
"Terrifying?"
Hermione nodded, "Yeah."
They took a few steps further into the room and Hermione suddenly understood. As they moved past the first row of desks, a strange feeling encompassed her. As if she was trapped underwater, being pressed from all sides while everything around her was muffled and she felt sick. She had the overwhelming urge to turn away, to run back toward the door she had come in at and leave this place without another word.
"Do you feel that?" Sirius wheezed, "I can't catch my breath!"
"Repello Hominem," Hermione answered, taking a gasping breath. "We need to fight past it. It's meant to make us want to turn away."
They walked further, every step feeling heavier than the one before it, as if her own body was physically trying to keep her from going any further. Finally, she felt release, like breaking the surface of water after being under for too long, and she took a deep, shuddering breath.
The air stopped cold in her lungs as she looked around the area.
It was clear that it had been magically enlarged and then charmed to look like a normal office from the view of the door. The repelling charm served the purpose to keep anyone from walking any further, and if the bit of confusion in her head told her anything, it was that the repelling charm had also been compounded with some sort of confundus.
The room was large and dimly lit, it felt cold and dank, despite it being relatively warm in the office front that laid before it. There were no desks or flimsy, grey cubicle partitions here, instead there were what looked like large cages with iron bars. The insides of which held nothing but a single wooden chair and a strange dome at the top that looked as if it held a light.
"What the fuck is this?" Sirius asked, looking around. "It looks like a prison."
Hermione nodded, the uneasiness creeping further into her chest. "I'm not sure, but I have an idea."
"Share with the class, kitten."
"I think… I think they're putting muggleborns in these cages to hold them through the duration of the transformation. Curse them and wait for them to turn," she whispered.
Hermione and Sirius both startled at the same time, a loud moan coming from somewhere in the far right corner of the room. It sounded miserable and as if it were in terrible agony. Sirius looked at Hermione, their eyes meeting with a shared "did you hear that?" look on their faces. A moment later, the strangled cry came from the same corner and Sirius jerked his head in that direction, silently lighting the tip of his wand to have a soft glow and began walking toward the sound. Hermione followed behind him, her eyes scanning the area for anything useful that she should commit to memory, whether for her own personal gain or for the Order.
When they reached the source of the sound, Sirius stopped so abruptly, Hermione walked right into him.
"Sirius-
"Doc?!" Sirius said to the man whimpering in pain. "Doc is that… is that you?"
The man in the chair was a thin man with dark skin and large eyes. He had a black goatee and long deadlocks that were nearly to his elbows. There were dark rings under his eyes, his face was completely sunken in, the skin pulled tight over the bones, causing his cheekbones to look unnaturally protruding. His head was lolled to the side, his body shuddering every so often, causing him to moan in pain again.
"Doc! Shit! Wake up! Have you been here this whole time?! Fuck!" Sirius turned to look at Hermione, "He's one of ours. We have to get him out of here!"
"I don't know if we can. If he's been cursed-
"Caradoc Dearborn," Sirius began. "He went missing at the beginning of last year, last February, before you came. His family… Hermione, he has a six year old daughter! We can't let him stay here, they deserve to know he's alive."
"He's been missing over a year?" Hermione asked.
Sirius nodded, "Yeah. Moody stopped sending us to look for him after a few months. People were getting hurt, we were getting ambushed… We assumed he was dead."
Hermione sighed, a sad look on her face as she looked over the man. He was strapped to the chair, thick, leather straps that had no beginning or end. They wrapped around his middle, his wrists, and ankles, holding him in place as he cried out again. Hermione pointed her wand at him and muttered the spell to check his vitals, when the runes and numbers appeared in gold above him, Hermione shook her head.
"He's as good as," she whispered.
Sirius looked at the golden signs in interest, "Why? What do they mean?"
"None of them are great," she explained. "His heart rate is elevated, his blood pressure as well. But that's not what matters… This one," she pointed to the rune that held the level of his magic. "This is the important one for us. As long as that one holds strong, there's a chance we can survive, no matter what else is wrong with us. It's his magical core, and it's below ten percent."
"What does that mean? Why does it-
"If his core depletes completely, in a normal situation, he would die. Maybe not right away, but he would lose all of his magic completely, and eventually, he would shut down. Our bodies need the magic to keep us moving, we're built for it. Magic is just as important for our vital functions as blood, air, and water."
"But since this isn't a normal situation…?"
Hermione inhaled slowly, "I'm guessing he was cursed, and they're holding him here until he turns. Once his magic is completely expended, the transformation will take place. At least, that's come to be my understanding."
Sirius stared at the man he called Doc, horrified, as his brows pulled together and his mouth set in a deep frown. "There's nothing we can do?"
Hermione shook her head, "Not as far as I know. The entire reason I came here was to find answers, to maybe collect the cure. You don't know anymore about it than I do, and what I know isn't much as it is. I'm sorry, Sirius, but I don't know what we can do for him."
Sirius cleared his throat, "Right. Well, we need to report this back. Make sure someone informs his wife and daughter that he had at least been found and that we're working on getting him back."
"I'm sorry, Sirius."
"I know," he whispered. "We're running out of time, we need to find the Centaur Office."
Hermione was shocked at the ease in which Sirius pulled away from Caradoc, how quickly he accepted the answer of 'i don't know' and decided to move on. On one hand, it terrified her to think that he was becoming so desensitized to losing people, that he just accepted it as what had happened. On the other hand, it was much easier to work with Sirius when he wasn't letting his emotions best him, and right now, he was right. They were running out of time and needed to find the Centaur office. Hermione had a feeling that Arthur's speculation about the Dementors being held inside of it was correct, but she needed to see for herself.
They moved away from Caradoc, Sirius giving him one last, meaningful glance before moving past the iron box the man was held in and moving toward the back of the room. When they were finally met with the far side wall, Hermione and Sirius began searching for a door of some sort to lead into the adjoining office. As she got to the other side of the office space, a wall lined with large shelves that sagged under the weight of books and files, did she find what she was looking for.
Cold set into her bones, almost instantly causing her teeth to chatter. Fear and sadness seeped into her chest, consuming all positive thoughts or any signs of comfort or happiness that had been there. Her hand connected with the handle on a door that was next to the large book shelf and she shuddered, the overwhelming feeling of dread pulsing through her.
"This is it," Hermione said. "They're in here."
"You're sure?" Sirius said, his voice bordered on a miserable melancholy.
"That feeling you're having right now, like you'll never be happy again another day in your life? That's the Dementors. You can still produce a patronus—have you been practicing?"
"Yeah," Sirius said.
"Good. We'll need it."
Hermione took a deep breath, stealing her emotions and squaring her shoulders before she twisted the handle. She was genuinely surprised to see that it had given way, but she supposed that perhaps the lengths at which they had warded the main office would have put anyone else off, had they no real reason to continue on or to search the area for something more. The door creaked slightly and she gave a sharp nod to Sirius before stepping into the room.
The instant feeling of terror bled into her as the frigid air in the room permeated her robes and stole the breath from her lungs. Hermione felt every hair on her arms and the back of her neck stand at attention, while her teeth began to chatter. Her eyes finally adjusted to the pitch black of the room, shadow figures hanging in the corners and hovering above them. Sirius casted another Lumos and they both gasped.
Dozens of Dementors filled the room. Hermione swallowed, her jaw clenching in an attempt to stop the chattering of her teeth. They looked to be asleep, or perhaps magically immobilized in some way, she wasn't sure. She noticed shackles around their wrists, connected to the ground where small, glass domes lined the floor. The same domes that were in the top of the cages in the other room of the department. The breath of the Dementors was slow and rumbling, wheezing almost while their scabbed hands fell to their sides, the cloaks covering their faces.
"Can you tell who they are?" Sirius asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he took another step closer to one of the creatures.
"No," Hermione said. "They wear the hoods and I'm not sure what lies beneath them."
"Let's find out," Sirius said.
He stepped to his right and reached out a hand slowly, tentatively, and pushed the hood back of the Dementors cloak. He moved his wand to shine the soft light toward it and stumbled backward, falling on this backside as he gasped in surprise. The Dementor's face was no longer human, it's greyish skin pulled so tight it looked as if it would split. It's jaw hung at an off putting angle, it's mouth open and blackened, dark veins spidering around scabbed and blistered lips. It's eyes were nothing more than dark sockets, unseeing and empty.
"What the fuck?!" He gasped, "This isn't… That's not a fucking human!"
Hermione felt fear seize her chest, her heart thumping wildly behind her sternum as she stared at the face, or lack thereof. She couldn't look away, it was like something out of a horror film and it was making her stomach roll and twist uncomfortably. Slowly, she moved toward it, her eyes narrowed slightly, her brows pulled together as she considered the creature before her.
It's breath came in hollow, rasps, like a rush of wind past her ears. It's chest moved with great effort as it took in breath, the rattling sound of dozens of creatures' slow breathing filling her ears. She moved closer to it, lifting a tentative hand, fingers stretched out to trace the decaying and blistered flesh.
Hermione's mind was racing, she needed to look closer, to touch it, to feel it. This was what she would be reduced to? Brightest witch of her age, and she would be reduced to a grotesque display of Dark Magic, doomed to roam the earth consuming the happiness and lifeblood of others in desperation to feel human once more? Less than a year until she would be held captive, her body transforming into the terrifying reaper of souls that hovered before her.
"What are you…" Somewhere behind her, she could hear Sirius' voice. "Hermione, NO!"
Her fingers made contact with the icy skin and she immediately realized her mistake. She had let this strange pull get the better of her, this fascination to see what she would become fuel her decision to ignore the screeching warnings in her brain and instead, press on and put them directly in harm's way.
The second her fingers made contact, it was as if the Dementor had finally been made aware there were humans in the room and it seemed to wake. It's body lurched forward, the clattering of chains against the shackles on it's bony wrists seemed to echo around the room. One by one the Dementors moved, a low rumbling sound growing louder as the creatures seemed to moan and growl, every one of them trying to fight against it's chains to swarm Hermione and Sirius.
Hermione quickly took a step back, her heart racing and she flourished her wand, trying to locate a memory that would fill her with the warmth and happiness she required to cast the charm. But her mind felt weak and dark, and as she spoke the words the only thing she could see was Remus' corpse on a stone floor, the look on his face when he told her Sirius had been killed, the scream that had echoed the grounds from McGonagall when Voldemort announced that Harry was dead… Starving half to death, the feeling of never being full and her stomach hollow as she and Harry cried together, knowing their chances were slim. The high pitched cackle of Bellatrix Lestrange as she carved into her arm. Every person she couldn't save, empty eyes and last breaths, staring up at her.
Not even a wisp came from the tip of her wand as panic began to consume her, she felt weak, and dizzy, and stupid! So very stupid.
"Hermione!" Sirius called.
She fought her mind, trying desperately to banish the numbness that was consuming her. She closed her eyes and focused… A tight hug with Harry and Ron as they made it out alive, building model planes with her father, her mother reading to her in the rocking chair, Remus. The way his eyes lit up when he looked at her, oscillating between green and gold. The way his lips felt on hers, the low growl that bubbled past his lips as they made love, his hands on hers, warm and all encompassing. Safety, comfort, calm, his voice in her ear humming and whispering 'I love you'.
"Expecto Patronum!" Hermione tried again, sure that it would be enough.
This time, she produced no more than a few wisps. Her heart sank, never had she been affected this greatly. She had cast this spell probably hundreds of times and not once since she learned how to do it, had she not been able to cast it.
"Fuck," Sirius said. "I don't know if I can-
"Lumos," Hermione said, trying to light the tip of her wand in an attempt to look for a way out. Her wand stayed unlit and Sirius looked at her, his eyes wide with surprise and question. "I- I can't! Sirius you have to!"
Sirius nodded fiercely as the jangle of chains grew deafening. The rush of rasping breaths as the Dementors grew agitated rushing around them, the cold seeping into their every movement, making them slow and confused.
"Expecto Patronum!" Sirius cried, his wand pointed high in the air. A large dog burst from the end running the aisles before stopping near them. It sniffed at the ground a bit and moved toward the glass dome on the floor. It stepped onto it and was absorbed by the glass. "What the hell?"
Moments later, every dome lit up the same silvery colour and the Dementors seemed to rear back, moving back into their docile positions.
.
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a/n: Next chapter will be up on Thursday, as usual! Let me know how you felt about this chapter?
xo
