Chapter Fifty Six
"This would be far easier if we could see these things!" Hermione grumbled, clinging on for dear life, her fear of flying not helping the situation.
"Hope that they stay invisible." Harry said quietly.
He found that he could tuck his knees in close to where the Thestral's wings joined its body which made him feel fairly secure.
It wasn't a pleasant ride though, they were travelling for hours, at least four or five and the light was beginning to fade.
It would have very relaxing to watch the landscape changing below them from rocky to rolling hills if it hadn't been so cold and windy as they rushed along. He was very glad to have taken the five minutes to get himself his cloak and socks; which he was currently using as gloves to stop his hands from freezing.
Harry kept telling himself that Sirius had to still be alive. His scar was burning easily as much as it had been the night Mr Weasley was attacked, if not more. Voldemort loved to hurt people and Harry wanted to scream at feeling that enjoyment himself.
Had Bellatrix gone after Danica yet? They still didn't know how she had managed to find Grimmauld Place, let alone how she got in but it didn't matter. Kreacher had told him that Sirius was with Bellatrix, and Kreacher wouldn't have lied to him.
After about five and a half hours Harry felt his stomach jolt as the Thestral dropped suddenly, descending towards the ground.
"We're here." Daphne said, picking herself up from the ground from where she'd been knocked off her Thestral.
Harry waited until they had all landed before looking around, "Where do we leave the Thestrals?"
Luna waved her hand dismissively, "They'll find their way home, I wouldn't worry about them."
"We're not going to need them to get home." Pansy agreed, "Either way this goes."
Harry, reluctantly, nodded and guided those who couldn't see them round the beasts and towards the phone box that marked the entrance to the Ministry.
He wasn't sure how all ten of them managed to fit into a phone box, he assumed it must be enchanted to allow as many people as was needed in at once, why it couldn't of been enchanted to fit them comfortably was another matter.
"Who's nearest to the phone bit?" Harry asked, he was stuck holding the door closed and had no chance to reach it.
"Me." Neville said, "It's a good job Nan has one of these I used to play with. What's the number?"
"M.A.G.I.C." Harry said, "Yeah I know, very original of them."
Neville smirked as he stabbed in the number and managed to hold the phone up somewhere near his ear.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," the cool female voice sounded in the phone box, "Please state you name and business."
"Oh gods." Harry let out in a frustrated huff, "Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Luna Lovegood, William Culpeck, Hermione Granger, Cho Chang, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley. Here to save someone because the Ministry is useless."
"Thank you." the voice replied, "Visitors please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
There was a loud rattle as ten little badges fell into the coin return catch. Neville passed them around and Harry pinned his badge clearly saying 'Harry Potter, Rescue Mission' to his top.
"Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."
"Yes, yes can we get moving please!" Harry snapped, "That wasn't at you guys, that was at her." he said, jabbing his finger at the phone as Pansy gave him a look.
He rubbed his scar until the skin around it was red to try and give himself some relief from the jabbing throbs of pain that cut through his head.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening." the voice said as the lift juddered to a stop.
Harry flung the door open and they spilled out into the brightly lit atrium. The area was completely empty, the only sound coming from the strange statue that was still steadily spilling out water.
"Come on." Harry said, leading them quickly through the open space.
They ignored the desk where they were meant to check their wands, it was empty anyway and Harry thought absently why the Ministry hadn't locked the visitors' door when the place was so empty.
He didn't think about it for long though, there were bigger things to worry about right now. He punched the nearest 'down' button for the lifts and waited the few moments for a golden door to clatter into view.
They all easily fitted in one lift and waited until it halted, all in silence, afraid to say anything.
"Department of Mysteries." the female voice told them.
Harry paused just outside the lift, "Maybe a few of us should wait here, be a look out?"
"And you'll be miles away and how exactly will we hear you?" Ginny pointed out, "Or let you know someone is coming?"
Harry opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.
"I thought you said we were in a rush?" Cho said, "We're coming with you just deal with it."
Harry could of kissed her then, cheesy movie style, no idea if they were about to die, no idea how to save Sirius and wasting valuable time but he was just so grateful that she was here right now.
"Ok," He said, "Let's go, wands out, keep quiet… unless you know for sure they're on our side, shoot to knock them down and keep them down. If you know they're really not on our side… shoot to kill."
It was strange, rushing down that black corridor, he could have been easily convinced that he was just in another of his strange dreams, but the ground felt slightly more solid than in his dreams, and the door was a slightly different shade of black.
Harry stopped.
"What? What is it?" Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head, "The door is lighter than in my dream…"
"So?" Ginny asked, "I mean… is it a different door you think?"
"No, no." Harry said, "It was definitely this door, it's just… if Voldemort had ever been here, like he was meant to of, to give me these dreams…"
"He might never of been here." Draco said, putting Harry's thoughts into words.
"Does that change anything?" Daphne asked, "That's the bottom of this. Can you take the risk it's not just a different lighting issue?"
Harry shook his head, "No. No I can't. I need to find him, he is with Bellatrix and that is far stronger evidence than a slightly different coloured door."
"Well then." William said, gesturing towards the door.
Harry reached out and pushed it open, walking into the room filled with doors.
"Which one is it Harry?" Pansy asked, "They all look the same."
Harry wasn't sure, "In my dreams it's always the one in front, directly across."
Daphne reached behind them and closed the door, leaving them standing in the darkness, eerily highlighted only by the pale blue torches on the walls.
They took a couple of steps forward and froze as the walls began to turn.
"Please tell me this happened in your dream." Hermione said, covering her eyes as the blue lights were the only thing she could see, spinning so fast they looked like a constant line cutting the room in half.
"Nope!" Harry replied.
Once the room had stopped spinning they looked worriedly around them.
"How are we going to get out?" Ginny asked, looked at all the identical looking doors.
"Doesn't matter right now." Draco said, "We need to focus on finding Sirius and staying alive, everything else can wait."
They walked quickly over, half running to the door, hoping that it wouldn't start to move again. Harry reached out and opened the door.
The door opened easily and after the darkness of the room of doors it seemed like this room was very bright, filled with several desks and a large tank filled with strange green liquid.
"There's something in there…" Draco said pointing to the tank, "Fish?"
"Aquavirius Maggots!" Luna said with excitement, "Dad did say that the Ministry were breeding them…"
"No…" Pansy said, looking towards Hermione who was also looking very disturbed.
"They're brains…" Hermione whispered.
"Brains?" Harry gasped.
Pansy nodded, "Yes… I wonder what they are doing with them."
Harry wondered slowly over to the tank where Pansy, Daphne and Hermione were already looking worriedly at the slowly bobbing tank.
"I want to know where they got them from." William said, feeling rather uncomfortable.
"Lets just get out of here." Harry said, shivering as someone walked over his grave.
"There are more doors over here." Cho pointed out.
Harry's heart fell, how big was this place? If Sirius wasn't exactly where the dream had said, he was never going to be able to find him.
"It's not this room, I'm sure." Harry lied, feeling very unsure about everything right now.
They left and paused just outside the door, Daphne dug in her pocket and pulled out a lipstick and drew a bright green cross on the door.
"Where did you get that!" Pansy asked, wrinkling her nose.
"More importantly why did you bring it with you?" Draco added.
"I got it in a joke Christmas cracker last year and Astoria dared me to wear it on our boxing day walk, which was the last time I wore these trousers." Daphne said, taking a deep breath, "Oh my gods, Astoria… I never even told her I was coming. I never said goodbye."
They pulled her into a hug.
"It's not goodbye." Harry said, "We can make it through this."
"Yeah." Neville agreed, "I never ran into Thomas either."
"We'll just have to make it home then." Hermione said firmly.
They took a step closer to the middle of the room and it spun round once more. The green x was still on the door, Harry had been worried that they would be magically protected so they would have no record of which doors they'd been in.
"Any ideas?" Harry asked.
Cho pointed to one to the side and they all worked over and watched as Harry reached out and tried to push it open.
"It's locked." He said, banging on the wood and rattling the handle.
"Alohomora." Ginny said, she tried the handle again, "Still locked."
"Then it can't be that one." Luna shrugged, "You-Know-Who would want Harry to get to him I'm sure, as we all think this is a trap right?"
Harry smiled at Luna, she was funny; she'd be a really scary villain if she wanted to be. They moved to the next door over and Hermione pulled the door open.
Inside was a large office space. Two rows of desks ran up the length of the room, once more there were more doors at the end leading to goodness knows where.
Each desk had several piles of paper on, the writing and pictures on the changing several times a minute.
"These make no sense." Hermione said shaking her head.
"I think they're conversations? People reporting things maybe?" Draco suggested.
Luna had made it to the other end of the room and opened one of the doors; a high pitch scream filling the room.
Harry clamped his hands over his ears as Luna quickly slammed the door shut.
"Sorry." Luna shrugged, looking sheepish.
"Let's move on." Harry said, angry at himself that his curiosity had allowed him to waste time looking around the rooms, they needed to streamline this.
Another two green crosses went on the office door and the one that was locked tight before the room span once more. Harry gritted his teeth, he was getting frustrated at how much easier this had seemed in his dreams, no spinning room and the door always right in front of him.
"No more going into the rooms." Harry instructed, "We've got to speed this up. Everyone go to a free door and open them together."
They spread out, only a couple of doors weren't covered between the ones they had already checked and the ten of them spread out.
Harry threw open his door, "Don't close the doors if it's not the right one. We're looking for one with desks, and shimmery light."
"It's this one." Ginny said, "I think."
Harry propped his cloak in the door so it couldn't swing shut and went to look at Ginny's door, he nodded and allowed himself a small smile.
"Yep." He sighed, "Daphne, can I get your lipstick?"
She nodded and threw it over to him. Harry marked the door with a large tick and stepped back, removing his cloak from the door again and letting the door swing shut as everyone else did.
The room spun violently, and for longer than before, almost as though it was making up for more than one door being opened at once. When it finally stop, Harry made a bee line for the door with a slightly smudged tick and threw it open.
The others followed close behind, Harry moved quickly to the other end of the room and turned to face the others,
"Last chance, last chance not to come into what will almost certainly turn into a nasty fight." Harry said.
"Oh for goodness sake Harry! We're coming." Neville said firmly, the others around him nodding in agreement.
"Ok." Harry smiled, he felt so very lucky to have so many amazing friends, "Wands out, don't say anything unless it's worth risking your life on."
With a trembling hand he reached out and cracked open the door. It was cooler than he'd thought it had been in the dream but this was, without a doubt, the right place. The shelves towered over them, making them all feel very small and trapped; the only light coming from the softly glowing orbs, there was at least enough of them to be able to see fairly well.
Harry turned to the group and help up nine and then seven fingers before pointing to the row number nearest to them to let them know which row he was heading for.
They all nodded their understanding and, keeping their wands raised, they moved forwards. Harry counted off the rows in his head, feeling as though he had never truly appreciated how large a number a hundred was.
He kept listening, but the sound of the quiet footsteps just behind him was the only thing he could hear. Sirius could be gagged, or unconscious he told himself; but he knew deep down that something wasn't right.
They reached row ninety seven and paused, there was no one there.
Harry pointed to the other end of the row.
"Harry there's no one there." Hermione whispered.
"Sirius was at the other end of the row in the dream." Harry choked out, his mouth feeling very dry, "We might not be able to see him."
Hermione nodded and Harry lead the way slowly down the row; but Sirius was no where to be seen.
"Kreacher said Sirius was with Bellatrix." Harry said.
"We always knew this might be a trap." William said, "I'm just glad that Sirius hasn't been here for hours."
Harry nodded, that was something. There was a small part for his brain that told him Sirius might be dead, they dumped him somewhere and they're now on their way to Danica.
"Then Kreacher will protect her." Cho said, knowing what he must be thinking, "You said he was looking after her right?"
Harry nodded, he knew no one was getting through Kreacher to hurt Danica. House elf magic might be mostly used to clean and do laundry but it could be very nasty when it needed to be.
"So what now?" Ginny asked, looking around her, she couldn't shake the same feeling they all had; that they were being watched.
"I… I think we should get out of here." Harry said, resignedly, "This place goes on forever, we can't search it all. If my dream was wrong about the location but I think it was more likely, Sirius was never here."
"Harry…" William said, his voice tight.
"Come on, let's go." Harry said, walking slowly back down the row, "William? Are you coming?"
William looked towards Harry, pale faced, "Harry… this one… it has your name on it."