Department of Mysteries... the name is quite fitting, isn't it?

Malfoy was snickering as he toyed with Harry's wand, casually leaning against the window. His air of superior smugness was etched across his expression, basking in glory as if his prisoners had no chance of escape: poor deluded, naive Slytherin. And the others, did they really think they'd just sit around waiting for Umbridge?

"I hope something in the forest devours that damn Potter and his Mudblood friend," Malfoy muttered with a chuckle, tossing Harry's wand in the air and catching it with his left hand. Ron stirred in Warrington's firm grip.

"I say it'll be your Headmistress who'll end up badly," Ginny retorted sharply.

All the Slytherins turned to look at her with disdain, and with a meaningful glance at his sister, Ron seized the moment, landing a punch on Warrington's face. With teary eyes, Warrington let him go and fell to the ground with a bloody and painful nose. Crabbe instinctively loosened his grip on Neville's neck, seemingly concerned about what was happening.

"Stupefy!" exclaimed Neville, who had retrieved his wand, and Warrington was sent flying away from Ron, landing dazed next to the door.

"What the...?"

Malfoy was visibly terrified. He approached his motionless companion and quickly locked the door to prevent their escape, undecided about what to do next: whether to run for help or stay put. Millicent Bulstrode awkwardly approached Neville, twisting his arms in a firm grip, and he began to struggle against her strength and weight; then Millicent accidentally elbowed him in the right eye, turning it purple.

Ginny wriggled free from the large girl holding her for the umpteenth time, but the Slytherin was always much stronger than her, who was slender and short. The Slytherin grabbed Ginny by a shoulder, giving her a harsh shake, and they began a desperate struggle: the large girl scratched Ginny's face multiple times while the latter launched punches and kicks everywhere.

"Stupefy!" shouted Ron, and the large girl landed on Umbridge's desk with a loud thump.

"Thanks a lot, dear brother!"

A second later, Crabbe lunged at Ron, causing his lip to bleed more than ever; Luna tried to free herself from the Slytherin who had slammed her against portraits of kittens, which meowed insistently; Neville's wand was far from him as he scuffled with Millicent Bulstrode, and suddenly, Draco violently grabbed Ginny by the hair, throwing her to the ground with force.

Ginny felt a terrible burning sensation on her head as the boy pinned her to the carpet with his legs.

"Oho! Were you trying to distract the others to go help your dear Potter in the forest?" taunted Draco, gleefully and mockingly.

"YOU! You... ugly mon... monster!"

The battle raged around her, and no one could help her: they were all held by a Slytherin too busy to pay her any attention.

"But you like Potter, don't you?" Draco sneered, his usual smirk now permanently on his sharp face. "You adore his bright green, pickled frog eyes," he laughed raucously, and Ginny felt anger burning, "and you love his shiny, raven-black hair. Right, Weasley?" he burst into laughter again, pressing his legs onto the girl's stomach.

"YOU'RE RIDICULOUS!" she screamed, wriggling free.

"You were the ridiculous one... with that equally ridiculous poem!" Draco continued, mocking her and her composure. "Oh, but the great Harry Potter and blah blah blah has always ignored you because you were a foolish child! You mean nothing to him and yet you persist in helping him?"

That was definitely the last straw.

Ginny abruptly rose and struck the boy hard on the head, causing him immense pain even in his lower parts. Amidst the general astonishment, she shook Draco Malfoy off and quickly grabbed her wand to cast a spectacular Bat-Bogey Hex: the boy soon found himself fighting and flailing against small, monstrous fluttering creatures, while screaming like a little girl.

"GET THEM OFF... GET THEM OFF ME!" he shrieked, hopping back and forth.

The other Slytherins froze to watch their companion, and the rest acted promptly: Ron noisily stunned Crabbe while Luna disarmed the large Slytherin, and Ron stunned her too without ceremony; Neville pulled out a decent impediment jinx and extended a hand to Ginny to help her up from the floor.

"You were awesome, Gin!" exclaimed Ron, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "All of us, we were all great!" he added excitedly, stepping over the Slytherins and a terrified Draco to head for the door and leave the office followed by the three.

Neville sighed. "It was tough, really tough. But we made it!"

"I've never been part of anything like this before!" said Luna, evidently serene.

"We were really great, but what now?" asked Ginny curiously, turning to her brother, who was already starting to walk through the corridors, probably headed for the Forbidden Forest. The other three struggled to keep up with his pace, but they were ready for action. "So, are we going to the forest to help those two now?" she added, trembling with excitement.

"Yes, Ron... what are we going to do?" asked Neville, his chubby face sweaty and his eye swollen.

"We have to help the others and then we're off to London!"

"Must we? Are we going?" Ron repeated, perplexed, stopping so abruptly that the others bumped into him.

"What's this London story?" asked a confused Neville.

"We'll explain on the way, but now... now we need to move!" Ginny intervened immediately, starting to run after Ron, who had begun to run down the stairs to reach the forest. "I don't care if you and the other two decided you have to fight alone, now you need us!"

"Ginny, you're not going anywhere!" Ron stubbornly objected, throwing open the oak door. "You need to be safe, and you two as well!"

"You couldn't have freed yourself from the Slytherins alone, Ronald," Luna countered.

"What kind of game are you playing?" added an outraged Neville.

"You... you don't understand..."

"We're Dumbledore's Army!" Neville insisted, annoyed, joining Ron and shaking his arm. Ginny couldn't blame her friend's frustration: he had nothing to do with all this but had intervened to help her and the others, getting involved right away. And was this what he deserved for contributing to the imprisonment of the Slytherins in Dolores Umbridge's office?

"Neville, you don't..."

"Let us help you!"

Ron didn't respond, turning to his sister instead. "You're not coming with us," he said firmly.

"Why not!" she retorted, puffing, as stubborn as her brother.

"You can't act like this: we helped you," Luna said, raising her eyebrows.

Luna was right, Neville was right... they were all in the right: they couldn't let the three do it all alone again, they were talking about Voldemort, and if they had needed help to deal with the Slytherins... they needed to be more united than ever at the Ministry.

"Guys... just stay here, that's it!" Ron pleaded desperately, hands in his hair.

Ginny huffed impatiently. "We're coming with you, like it or not!"

And that was final.

Finding Harry and Hermione in the heart of the Forbidden Forest wasn't a walk in the park, but Ginny knew well how to bide her time: she briefly explained to Neville about Sirius and what was happening, and in the end, the boy was scared but obviously didn't back down because he wanted to join the action as much as she did. There was a lot of confusion when Ginny, Neville, and Luna insisted on going with the trio to London, and in the end, the three were so exasperated that they gave in after very little.

The flight to the Ministry of Magic on Thestrals was a nightmare: Ginny couldn't see them, and traveling on something that was totally invisible was no fun at all. In the end, the girl was really glad to be back on solid ground.

Entering the Department of Mysteries, they began trying a couple of eerie doors until...

"It's this one!" said Harry anxiously, pushing the door next to the one they had just come out of. The five teenagers followed him, wands raised: there was only one light source in that narrow corridor, coming from a glass bell filled with glittering wind.

"Look!" exclaimed Ginny curiously, pointing to the center of the bell.

A small, luminous egg floated up, hatching at its peak to release a hummingbird that moved downward and transformed back into an egg. Ginny was pleasantly enchanted, almost in trance, unable to take her eyes off the vision: but why keep a glass bell, an arch, and all those interesting things they had seen in a Ministry of Magic?

"Move!" Harry ordered sharply, and Ginny felt singled out.

"You wasted all the time you wanted with that stupid arch!" she retorted irritatedly, but obediently followed him into another room.

It was a room utterly different from the others, as vast as an immense cathedral and full of shelves packed with small, dusty, shimmering spheres. Ginny shivered again: it was very cold, and the place was quite unsettling. Glass spheres in a Ministry... what could they possibly be for?

"Keep your wands ready!" Harry said, raising his, and moving into the darkness. All the teens complied and found themselves quickly moving between the various shelves, wands pointed. "It should be near here... somewhere here..." the boy added in a worried whisper.

"I-I don't think Sirius is here," Hermione said softly.

"Harry, have you seen this? It's got your name!" murmured Ron, approaching a small sphere.

Her brother's tone was anxious and frightened, and Ginny approached him to see where Harry's name was written, as curious as the others to see if their names were written somewhere too. The boy picked up a small glass sphere, with a date and:

S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D

Dark Lord

and (?) Harry Potter

Ginny looked at the sphere perplexed and worried: what did all this mean? And why was only Harry's name written there? It must have had the other's names written somewhere too, but none of the five found anything or a glass sphere with their names on it. Harry ignored Hermione's protests about the sphere being dangerous and took it.

"Very well, Potter... now turn around slowly and give it to me"

A drawling voice echoed behind the hogwarts students, and suddenly dark shapes emerged from nowhere and surrounded them, blocking every escape route. Twelve wands were pointed at them, and Ginny let out a moan of horror as she turned toward Lucius Malfoy, his hand stretched forward as if the boy would really hand over the small glass sphere.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry asked firmly, as the others arranged themselves in a circle to face the Death Eaters. Ginny found herself turned to the left side, next to Neville, with Harry's shoulder nervously pressed against her back.

"The Dark Lord always knows everything!" exclaimed a jubilant voice.

"I want to know where Sirius is," Harry said arrogantly.

"I want to know where Sirius is!" mocked a woman, parodying a little childish voice. "The little one has woken up and discovered that the dream was real," she added, chirping, and Ginny felt Neville shaking violently beside her.

"Potter, it's time you learn the difference between dreams and reality. Give me the prophecy, and no one will hurt you," Lucius said.

Harry laughed coldly. "Sure, I'll just hand over this... prophecy... right? And you'll let us go home as if nothing happened?"

"Accio prophe..." the woman began.

"PROTEGO!"

The five kids moved behind Harry, who had cast a Shield Charm before she could finish the phrase. The woman laughed and stepped forward, pushing back her hood: Bellatrix Lestrange, with her white face hollowed out from years in Azkaban and her beauty faded, advanced toward them with an excited, almost threatening and manic air.

"Do you need to be convinced?" she asked mockingly. "Very well, take the smallest one... let them watch while we torture her, I'll handle it!"

Ginny quickly looked around, blinking rapidly as a couple of Death Eaters advanced toward them. Were they going to take the smallest one? But who was the smallest? Just as a Death Eater was about to grab her arm, Ginny pointed her trembling wand at him, with the five teens beginning to close ranks around her while Harry stood protectively in front of her, the sphere clutched to his chest so they couldn't take it and torture her in front of everyone.

Harry's free hand grabbed her wrist, and for the first time there, Ginny felt protected.

"Oh, he knows how to play!" Bellatrix Lestrange scoffed.

"What prophecy is it about? Why does Voldemort care so much?" the boy attacked.

"You dare pronounce his name?" the woman shrieked, her eyes bulging and mad.

"DO NOT ATTACK," Lucius advanced, spreading his arms. "Potter, prophecies can only be retrieved by those they are made for... and that's lucky for you. Have you never wondered about the connection between you and the Dark Lord, hmm? And why he couldn't kill you when you were just a baby? Don't you want to know the secret of your scar?"

Could that tiny glass sphere really provide answers to all those questions? Ginny wanted to scream at Harry that it was a trick, just a dirty trick... just like the vision of Sirius had been: the Death Eaters just wanted to lure him to the Ministry to kill him.

"Guys..." Hermione whispered imperceptibly, "when he says now we smash the shelves, okay?"

"Yes," they whispered back, raising their wands as if decided to act.

"All the answers are right there, in your hand. You just have to give it to me and I..."

Harry looked greedily at the sphere, the Death Eaters got distracted, and he shouted: "NOW!"

"REDUCTO!" the kids shouted in unison.

The shelves exploded with a deafening noise, and the glass spheres fell to the ground, shattering. Ginny grabbed Luna and her brother and quickly dragged them with her, running wildly toward the exit with her wand raised and ready to fight. The three covered their heads with their arms as they sped past Harry, Hermione, and Neville, trying not to lose sight of them. Ginny felt something moving dangerously at her side and realized a Death Eater was following them... and was following them in flight.

"Stupefy!" exclaimed Ron, and the masked-faced Death Eater flew away from them, landing on his back on the destroyed shelves.

The three continued to run as four more Death Eaters chased them, running.

"Stop," Luna said, looking around, and the two halted, noticing something was off.

"W-where are the others?" stammered Ron. Ginny turned back for a moment before starting to run to shake off the Death Eaters. She was more than convinced the other three were behind them, but when she looked up at a row of shelves, she read: one hundred and twenty, they had gone the wrong way.

"We went the wrong way!" exclaimed Ginny, terrified, continuing that frantic race into the unknown. She was breathless and exhausted like the other two, her legs beginning to hurt as they passed rows one hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty-one... and who knows how long they had run and how much longer they would run to shake off those Death Eaters.

"You won't escape us, you won't escape us!" chanted a Death Eater, and the others laughed, casting curses that grazed the kids.

"We need to hide," whispered Ron, terrified.

"Yes... in here, move!" Ginny urged decisively, flinging open the first door in front of them.

The girl didn't have time to look around and let the other two in when, with a powerful tug at the navel like a Portkey, she was catapulted up to float mid-air: the room was dark, filled with stars and planets. Ron screamed and struggled with all his might; Luna was worried and moved fluidly as she floated, trying to find a way out, and Ginny couldn't speak, flailing frantically in the air as if movement and weight could do something to pull them down from that kind of virtual space. She had a sensation of emptiness in her stomach, and fear enveloped her, plus nothing could be seen in there, and who knows how many meters in the air they were twirling: they could have crashed to the cold floor at any moment.

Would the Death Eaters reach them? Were Harry, Hermione, and Neville okay, or were they injured?

"We have to get out of here!" whispered Ron angrily, as his body moved toward Uranus.

"I HADN'T NOTICED!" exclaimed Ginny desperately, her voice becoming increasingly sharp: she didn't mean to scream, but fear often played very bad tricks.

She moved quickly downward toward Pluto, but suddenly there was a slamming of doors, and the Death Eaters too were suspended mid-air.

"Impedimenta!" shouted Luna, and the Death Eater fell to float lower, stunned.

"What kind of disgusting place is this?" exclaimed a Death Eater, disoriented, near Ron.

"What do you care about the place, you ugly fool? Grab those brats!" barked another Death Eater.

Ginny moved quickly downward, cast a spell at the man who had spoken first, and spotted the door, slightly ajar.

"Luna! Ron! The door is right... argh, let me go!"

"GINNY!"

Ron's scream echoed horribly in the dark, empty room: the Death Eater had reached her and now held her firmly by the ankle. The air was so heavy that Ginny struggled immensely to wriggle free, and the Death Eater was far from being gentle with her. Rather, it seemed he was about to kill her, and Ron began to struggle fiercely.

"STUPEFY!"

Ron's Stunning Spell missed by a hair, and the masked-faced man looked at him, launching a golden light spell that bounced off Venus and hit him squarely in the chest: Ron found himself floating like the first Death Eater, helpless; Luna held her breath.

"RON! NOOOOOO!" screamed Ginny, frightened, still trying to free herself from the Death Eater holding her firm.

"Reducto!" shouted Luna, and Pluto exploded in the face of the Death Eater holding her friend.

At the same time the planet burst with a loud noise in the face of the Death Eater now also floating motionless mid-air, Ginny felt a fierce, beastly pain in her ankle and realized Luna's spell had hit her too.

She moaned but noticed there was something else to worry about: the room had started moving worryingly.

"What's happening?" yelled the girl to Luna, noting with joy that all the Death Eaters had been knocked out.

But the answer came quickly: with the explosion of Pluto, they all crashed to the floor with a thud, stopping their floating. The Death Eaters hit their heads hard and didn't get up, while Ron was caught by Luna before hitting the ground with his head.

"Oh, thank you... my god... Ron, how are you? Ow!"

"Ginny, sorry... I'm so sorry about your ankle, really!" said Luna, mortified, helping her up. "He was about to kill you, and I really didn't want to hurt you, I thought the spell wouldn't hit you, but it did... I'm sorry!"

"Luna, it's okay. We had to get rid of him, don't worry... okay?"

Ginny closed her eyes for a moment, blinded by the pain in her ankle.

"Let's get out of here," Luna said quickly, dragging Ron behind her as Ginny limped behind them and fell to the ground outside the room, quickly closing the door behind them with her too painful ankle.

"Ron!" she shook her brother but got no response. "Luna, he's not... he's not..."

"It wasn't a green flash of light," said Luna, very pale, crouching next to Ron.

Ron lay motionless on the ground, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth. Ginny, with eyes shiny with tears of despair, collapsed on his chest and placed her ear in the highest place the girl could reach every time Ron had hugged her: thum thum thum... his heart was beating. She looked up at Luna, less worried than before.

"It's beating, he's okay! How do we wake him up?"

Luna pointed her wand at his chest and murmured, "Rennervate!"

Ron immediately opened his eyes, and the two girls sighed with relief. "Ginny? Loony? Aha! Darn, nice to see you! Give me a hug, sis!" chuckled the boy, throwing his arms around his sister's neck.

"Was it a Confundus Charm, that Death Eater's spell?" Ginny worried, shaking off her brother.

"You two are hilarious, all disheveled... w-where are we?"

"What?"

"Aha! I just saw Uranus!"

"What?"

"Aha! Uranus, the planet... aha! It was all blue, beautiful, Ginny! Loony, you're all disheveled!"

"WHAT?" Ginny yelled, her eyes darting from Ron to Luna. "Department of Mysteries... they really got the name right, huh?"

"RON! GINNY! Are you all...?"

But Ginny had tumbled into the room, ignoring Harry's voice, and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, panting and holding her ankle: the pain was too hallucinating. Luna briefly explained to Harry what had happened, while Ron struggled to stay still and, above all, to stay quiet so as not to spout nonsense. The teens decided to leave (Luna helped Ginny walk), but just as they were about to open the door and catapult themselves to the entrance, three Death Eaters led by Bellatrix Lestrange burst in, a mad flash through her eyes.

"THERE THEY ARE!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Luna, Neville! Help me!" cried Harry desperately, and the two kids ran breathlessly towards him to help him with Hermione, who seemed unconscious. Ginny was annoyingly powerless and crawled towards Ron, trying to calm him down and take him away.

"Ron, let's get out of this place!"

"I don't want to, no... it's full of brains here, look sis!"

"STOP!"

"Accio brain!" too late: Ron had summoned the brain. "Look here... no... I don't like it... no, stop... enough!"

The tentacles were wrapping around Ron's chest, entwining as if it were a strange lethal creature, and Ginny watched the scene terrified, her hands trembling uncontrollably as she tried to help her brother who was writhing.

"Diffindo!" shouted Harry, but the tentacles did not let go and Ron fell to the ground, struggling from their fury.

"He'll suffocate!" Ginny screamed anxiously, but suddenly there was a hiss, and she realized that some Death Eater was casting something at them... at her: the jet of light hit her squarely in the face and the only thing the girl saw before sinking into oblivion was that deadly flash of red light.

When Ginny opened her eyes and regained consciousness, she was lying on a cold floor, and the bizarre image of Harry chasing Bellatrix Lestrange was the first thing the girl saw: was she dreaming? But it didn't seem so. With still blurry vision, she looked around cautiously: Luna was moaning on the floor; Hermione was beside them, still unconscious due to the powerful curse from the Death Eater, and Ron, who had fortunately gotten rid of that brain, was lying on the ground giggling quietly as if he was dazed.

"Luna... w-what's happening?" asked the girl, sitting up with her ankle still hurting.

"I have no idea, I just woke up and..." she moaned, "and I can't... ouch! It hurts everywhere," she added.

"Luna, listen... don't worry, we're leaving now."

But before Ginny could take a single step towards her friend who was not well, the door opened, and Albus Dumbledore himself entered: they were saved. He rushed towards them and crouched beside the injured, speaking to those who were awake. He didn't seem angry, his expression was one of utmost concern.

"Are you all alright?" he asked kindly.

"Yes, professor... Headmaster, what's happening?" Ginny asked quickly, approaching the man.

"Ginny, Miss Lovegood... have you by any chance seen Harry somewhere?" asked the Headmaster instead, who had more urgent matters to attend to than explaining the events to two miraculously alive and clearly bewildered teenagers.

"He was chasing Bellatrix Lestrange, he just went through that door!" exclaimed Ginny, pointing to the last door on the left, and Dumbledore with a brief nod hurried to reach his favorite student through that door. "What...?" she added, addressing Luna who was beginning to calm down.

Their silence didn't last long: the door to the right swung open, and Remus Lupin and Neville appeared.

"REMUS! NEVILLE!"

Neville crouched next to Ginny, and she did something she had never done before: she hugged him tightly and clung to him. The boy seemed quite flattered by this gesture, and his face quickly turned crimson.

"Are you alright? Thank heavens! But what happened?"

"Are you four alright?" asked Remus, checking on Hermione and Ron's condition.

"Yes, just injured and..." the girl broke off the hug. "Remus, what's happening?"

"I thought you were... that you..." stuttered Neville worriedly.

"We're fine, Neville," Luna responded with a small moan.

"You'll get the full explanation from Neville once you're at Hogwarts in the Infirmary," replied Remus quickly, approaching Luna. "Yes, you need to go straight to Madam Pomfrey immediately: it was an unprecedented thing, catapulting here to London. You shouldn't have even thought about it, the Order of the Phoenix intervened before anything could happen to you, and we blocked the Death Eaters in the room as soon as Dumbledore arrived, so they can't Disapparate."

"But..." objected Ginny embarrassed.

"Ginny, your mother is extremely worried!" countered Remus, waving his wand over a piece of cloth. "Do as I say, understand? If everyone does as I say tonight, no one else will die and Madam Pomfrey will take care of you and Tonks, who was injured by Bellatrix."

"No one else will die?" repeated Ginny, her fear growing in her heart.

Remus looked at her, then turned back to the cloth evasively.

"R-Remus... who... who died?"

"Go to Hogwarts, go on!"

The man compelled the kids with a flick of his wand to touch the cloth, and in no time the floor of the Ministry of Magic's office vanished beneath their feet. Ginny felt that familiar tug at the navel, a whirl of light swirled in her eyes, and the girl ended up sprawled on the floor of Hogwarts' Infirmary while Luna's hair ended up directly in her face and mouth.

Translators note

Welp this chapter got eventful

OG Author's note

Certainly, this chapter is much more eventful compared to the previous ones, and I hope you enjoy it more, or at least as much as the others. The moment everyone has been waiting for is now upon us: obviously, I'm talking about the chapters from the sixth book, which I can't wait to write. I hope you enjoy the various battles; I've put a lot of effort into formulating this chapter.

Hugs!

Next up: A new era is about to begin.