Chapter 32
Harry started devising his plan that night.
Mary worked at the Ministry of Magic and she promised to bring him over for a ‘field trip’ during the Christmas holidays. She worked in the Department of International Magical Co-Operation where she tries to get wizards and witches from different countries to work together. Harry’s always thought she fitted the job perfectly since Mary has always been very convincing when she wants to be.
The Department of International Magical Co-Operation was on the fifth floor whereas the Department of Mysteries was on the ninth level. This shouldn’t be difficult, the difficult part would be getting away from Mary, getting into the room unnoticed, finding his prophecy, then leaving all within the time of a bathroom break. But what if Harry actually needs to go to the bathroom? He’d have to make time for that too if worse comes to worse.
Draco still wanted to be involved, but so did the others. Harry and Draco had been talking about it quietly in the library one time when their dorm mates appeared from under Harry’s invisibility cloak and demanded they be invited along. The girls had then overheard the boys at dinner and threatened to shave Harry’s hair off in his sleep if they weren’t involved too.
Mary seemed pleased in her letter when Harry asked if she could babysit seven other teenagers as well. …as long as the rich ones bring their own money for food then it’s all fine. She had said.
The term ended without any more awkward moments between Harry and Draco, thank Morgana. Harry was cautious, not that he had any reason to be, he wasn’t gay or anything, but Draco thought he was and that was somehow worse. Draco didn’t get changed in the bathroom like Harry thought he would, and still walked around without a shirt on when Harry was in the room so it wasn’t like anything changed. The others didn’t seem to think anything was off, instead, the only thing off was Harry’s brain.
Nevertheless, the one big change after Harry and Draco’s fight was that Draco got a girlfriend. Worse of all, it was Daphne Greengrass. If her presence wasn’t already a pain in Harry’s arse, it got worse once she started snogging his best friend. And they snogged everywhere. It was like Draco was trying to prove a point that kissing Harry wouldn’t be as good as kissing a twelve year old girl. Draco didn’t even like Daphne before, he’d roll his eyes whenever she’d sit near them or talk to loudly or even passed them in the corridor.
Pansy was also pretty betrayed about their relationship as well. She had kissed Draco at the start of the year and Daphne was like a sister to her. At least she and Harry would sneer together whenever they rubbed their stupid noses together in the Great Hall, and gossip about them behind their backs.
Daphne and Draco’s relationship also brought forward another couple in the group. Millicent and Crabbe had been blushing around each other since first year and after years of flirting and longing stares, they finally for together. Unfortunately, the group found them out when they walked into the boys dorm after a quidditch game and saw the pair snogging on Crabbe’s bed.
They had all screamed and covered their eyes at the sight but after Millicent buttoned her shirt and Crabbe fixed his messy hair, they congratulated them.
Harry was only grateful Draco didn’t invite Daphne on their espionage because that definitely would’ve been the last straw.
As planned, it was five days before Christmas and Blaise, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Tracy, Pansy and Millicent met Harry and Mary at the Potter Mansion so they could portkey together.
“Are you sure you don’t want another adult with you, Mary?” Harry’s mum asked in concern.
“Dibs not me!” Marlene yelled from the kitchen.
“I didn’t ask you, McKinnon!” Mary shouted back.
“Why do you always have so many adults in your house?” Draco asked Harry.
“They’re my aunts and uncles.” said Harry. “Not legitimately, but they’re my parents friends and they love me so I refer them that way. It’s also because we always have food in the kitchen and Marlene and Dorcas are cheap so they just steal ours.”
“So true, Prongslet.” Dorcas ruffled his hair, she rationally was holding several slices of pear and tangerine.
“We’re also here because Harry’s come back from school and we missed him.” Sirius put in, he came behind Harry and hugged him hard, twisting their bodies side to side.
“I didn’t miss you, Padfoot.” Harry joked.
“I know that’s true because I’m your favourite.”
“That’s Moony.”
“Told you!” Remus yelled from the kitchen.
“I bought you a leather jacket!” Sirius pouted. “I ride you around in my motorbike!”
“And Remus gives me chocolate during exam week.” Harry shrugged.
“Moony is Professor Lupin, right?” Tracey whispered.
“I think so.” Blaise replied.
Mary clapped her hands loudly to get everyones attention. “Okay gang, we stay together at all costs and don’t under any circumstances, leave the fifth floor. Okay?”
“Okay.” The teenagers all replied.
“If any of you get lost or get yourselves caught sneaking around by Aurors, I am not responsible, okay? I actually have some work to do but I promise to take you out for lunch, as long as you pay for it yourselves, I’m not that rich.”
“This will definitely go to plan, MacDonald.” Sirius teased, sounding very sarcastic.
“Oh I know it will.” Mary fought. “These kids are Slytherins, not Gryffindors, I doubt any of them will try to build a forte out of paper.”
“You think that’s the worse a Gryffindor would do?” Harry’s dad snorted. “Oh please, Mary, it’s like you don’t even know us.”
“We’ve done some horrors in our time.” Peter agreed.
“Our mischief is still to be managed.” Harry’s dad sighed.
“I think the worse we could do in the Ministry of Magic would be to clog the lift with-“
“Shut it, Peter, don’t give them ideas.” Mary hushed the mousy man.
“Okay children, the ministry has kindly leant me a portkey-“ she held out an old sage green book with yellowing pages- “that should go off in a minute.”
“My father could’ve taken me without ruining my skin.” Draco scowled, eyeing the musty book distastefully.
“Then leave.” scorned Pansy. They had had a fight like this at the start of the year and it seemed their mutual friendship had only lasted a month before the fight started up again.
“You only have to hold it, Draco.” Harry told him softly.
“Exactly.” He retched.
“Hold on tight and don’t let go till we’re there!” said Mary. Everyone held onto the book and Harry felt like he got stuck in a tornado. He was flung around but not once did he let go. He saw his friends looking as uncomfortable as was and they were all screaming except for Mary who seemed to regret her life choices.
They landed in a pile on the floor whereas Mary landed gracefully on her feet.
She was always so perfect.
“Up you get, we have places to be children.”
“Ugh,” Tracey groaned, “remind me to never do that again.”
“Now my hair’s ruined.” Pansy whined. She had had colourful clips in her hair and they had all fallen out.
“Oh deary, let me help you.” Mary tutted, and with the wave of her wand, she fixed Pansy’s hair back to normal.
“Woah, which spell did you use to do that?” Pansy gawked, looking at her reflection in the shiny floorboards.
“A witch never reveals her secrets.” Mary grinned. “Now come along before you make me late for work.”
Instead of leading them to the lifts Harry could see so clearly, she went to a desk where a fat security man was sitting with a bunch of weights around him.
“Wands.” He demanded gruffly.
They all got out their wands and placed them on the desk. The man put each wand on a weight and hummed impatiently as he waited for the numbers to appear. Seeming satisfied, he gave their wands back to them then disappeared out of thin air.
“How odd.” Tracey commented.
“Just protocol, now come on.” Mary demanded.
She led them through the golden gates to the lifts. She pressed the nearest button and a lift immediately clattered into sight, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they all went inside. Mary pressed the number five button and the lift began to descend, very loudly at that. Harry saw the number nine button flashing temptingly at him. He shook out his shoulders, pushed his glasses higher up his face and remembered the task ahead.
After a while a cool female voice said, “The Department of International Magical Co-Operation,” and the grilles slid open again.
Mary took them down a dark hallway to a large grey door that opened when Mary stood in front of it. Inside it was full of witches and wizards at office desks, running around with stacks of files in their arms or talking with coworkers. When Mary came through, heads turned to wave, smile and wish her good morning, they barely took notice of the hoard of children behind her.
Mary sat at an empty desk with a plaque with MISS MACDONALD typed on it in gold font. She swivelled on her chair for a few moments before looking back at her guests.
“You all wanted to be here, go do what you want to do.” She shooed them away.
“I though you said we couldn’t explore the ministry?” Goyle asked.
Mary shrugged. “There are monitors on every floor, if you do do something wrong then you’re someone else’s problem and not mine. Harry, you’re in charge.”
“Right on, Mary.” Harry smirked and they high-fived.
“Don’t do anything your dad wouldn’t and come back at 4:30pm, if you don’t come back at that time, I will leave without your sorry arses.”
“Oh Merlin.” Draco groaned.
“Well kid, you can stay here with me if you want but I promise I won’t be any fun.” Mary pointed, already opening a file from her cabinet.
“Come on Draco, and thank you Mary, we promise not to embarrass you!” Harry called out, already dragging his friends out of the department.
She didn’t reply and Harry felt strangely calm about this whole endeavour. Nothing had ever been this easy for him and now he was in the lift with his friends going to the Department of Mysteries without anyone yet to stop them.
The cool female voice echoed the lift again, saying, “The Department of Mysteries.”
The grilles slid open again, they stepped into a corridor where nothing was moving except the nearest torches, flickering from the air from the lift. It was much darker than Mary’s corridor and at the very end of it, was a black door.
“Okay, listen,” said Harry, stopping about six feet from the door. “Maybe a couple of people could stay out here as lookout, Mary did say they monitored the corridors and-“
“That would never work, how would we tell you if anyone was here?” asked Blaise, with crossed arms. “You could be miles away behind that door.”
“Get that saviour complex out of your arse, Potter, we’re coming with you.” Draco scorned at him. Everyone nodded in agreement and took out their wands.
Harry felt very comfortable to go behind that door alone so he agreed and took out his wand. He turned to face the door and walked forward. As what happened to Mary the door swung open, Harry led the group through the door and into the room.
“This was easier than I imagined.” Goyle commented, Harry thought the same thing.
They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in there was black including the floor and ceiling — identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot.
“Merlin, and I thought my manor was dark.” Blaise chuckled.
“It’s definitely darker than mine.” replied Draco.
Bunches of shimmering blue flames were flickering from the walls, their ghostly reflections on the floor below. In front of them were around a dozen doors, all identical and Harry tried to figure out which one would lead them to the Hall of Prophecy - the name he researched where the prophecies were - when there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall began to rotate.
Draco grabbed Harry’s arm and Harry heard Pansy scream as if they were frightened the floor would move as well, luckily it didn’t and as quickly as it started, the rumbling stopped and everything became still once more.
“What in the-“ Crabbe started.
“It was to stop us knowing which door we came in from.” Draco said in a frustrated huff.
Harry realised at once that he was right: the door through which they needed to proceed could be any of the dozen surrounding them and they had no idea which one it was.
“This is all fine and dandy then.” cried Millicent, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. “Why did I agree to follow Harry bloody Potter into the freaking Ministry of Magic?”
“I don’t know Millicent but if you don’t shut up, I’ll push you through one of those doors.” Harry threatened, knowing full well her boyfriend could remove his head from his shoulders.
“Should we try opening the doors till we find the right one?” Blaise suggested.
“Excellent, Blaise.” Harry praised. This wasn’t a riddle whereby they could only go through one door.
They each opened a different door and inside Harry’s room, was the equivalent of a galaxy. It was amazing. Planets and stars were all around it, all in a variety of different colours. It was mesmerising and Harry wanted to lie on the floor and stare up at the never ending orbs inside that room. He even saw the Milky Way, only a little swirl in the room of millions of other galaxies. Were they really that insignificant? That small and incomparable to the other things surrounding them?
Maybe once Harry graduates from Hogwarts he could get a career in astrology. That would be amazing, so cool. When he was younger he did want to be a scientist…and space is a science so he’s just following his dreams as Riddle said all those weeks ago. Wasn’t Harry and his friends here because of Riddle? Goodness, what did Riddle say again-
“Harry.” Draco snapped into his eardrum.
“I was- I was concentrating to see if that was the room.” Harry defended himself.
“Good for you,” Draco rolled his eyes, “but look who’s here.”
Harry was scared it was an Auror when, in the middle of the room, stood Luna Lovegood. She was a Ravenclaw a years below the Slytherins but she sometimes goes into the older classes. Her mangled blonde hair stood out in the black room, much like Draco’s, and she was wearing a long shabby purple cardigan with a straw foraging bag across her chest.
She was honestly the least likely person Harry excepted to be here.
“Loony? What are you doing here?” Pansy asked.
“I’m here for my da actually.” She answered dreamily.
“In the Department of Mysteries?” asked Blaise slowly.
“Yes.” She nodded. “He wanted me to get him a time turner so he could see into the future. Quite silly, in my opinion, when we’ll all be experiencing the future soon enough.”
“Did you find it?” questioned Harry.
“Not entirely, I did find the Hall of Prophecies though.” She smiled. “I believe that will be helpful to you, Harry Potter?”
“Very much so.” Harry sighed thankfully.
“I came through this door here.” Luna opened a dark door to show the beautiful, diamond sparkling light on the other side.
“Thank you so much, Luna, I hope you find your time turner.” Harry thanked.
“I don’t. Can I come with you, Harry?” She pleaded.
“You’re only twelve and this mission is very dangerous.” Harry frowned not wanting to offend her.
“Twelve is seen as a righteous age in many cultures. I have accomplished much since my birthday and my da said I can now help him write for the Quibbler.”
“Right.” Harry cleared his throat. “Maybe next time, yeah?”
Luna shrugged. Harry expected her to walk the other way but she went through the door to the Hall of Prophecies instead.
“Oh great.” Harry groaned to himself but he followed.
Harry’s eyes became adjusted to the bright lights and he saw clocks on every surface, large and small, grandfather and nautical. As if thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps filled the room, ticking constantly between bookcases and on desks ranging the length of the room. An enormous crystal bell jar loomed at the far end of the room and provided the diamond-bright light.
“Morgana, above.” Tracey breathed.
“Maybe I could give my da a watch from here.” Luna thought aloud, running a long finger along the golden border of a pocket watch.
“Whatever you want, Luna.” Harry told her.
“I think we need to go down more.” Pansy frowned.
“Definitely.” Harry agreed. “There isn’t a prophesy in sight.”
Running past the jar that provided the ecstatic light, one door was on the opposite wall and it looked dark and serious compared to the rest of the room. Harry was grateful Luna was still pondering over a watch for her father so he didn’t have to babysit and he opened the door.
It was a very high room with nothing but enormous rows and rows of towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully from only the light of low torches set along the shelves. Like those in the circular room, the flames were blue. It seemed to make the room colder.
Harry edged forward with his wand still raised. A few of his friends lit Lumos so they could see better and they looked around the room in awe.
“How do we possibly know which prophecy is yours?” Draco asked.
“That is an excellent question.” Harry gulped.
”Ninety-seven.”
“Did anyone hear that?” Harry hushed, turning around for the voice he heard.
“No?” Tracey whispered, looking very concerned.
“A- a voice, I heard- I definitely heard it.” Harry stammered.
“Is it a basilisk again?” Draco shivered.
“I very much doubt that.” answered Blaise.
“The voice said row ninety-seven. I think my prophecy is there.”
“These rows are massive, it could take days for us to find yours.” Pansy whispered.
“We should not talking at get into it then.” Goyle suggested, already walking down row 78.
Row ninety-seven wasn’t hard to find but Pansy was right, the shelves were as big as all the others and each shelf was full of those little orbs. Harry huffed in deflation and thought about just lying on the floor till the ground took him.
“Accio Harry Potter’s prophecy!” Draco charmed. Nothing happened.
“I love this for us.” Pansy spat out sarcastically.
They walked slowly along the shelf, reading every name they could see on the shelves they could reach.
“Gizelle Potsdam and the Krugerrand, how interesting.” Harry thought aloud to himself.
“Harry!” Goyle called from the front. “I found it! I found the one with your name on it!”
“What?” Harry gasped.
“How is that even possible?” snorted Blaise.
The group was a little down row ninety-seven and Goyle was pointing at a dusty old orb that looked to not have been touched in many years. It was at Goyle’s head height, who was much taller than Harry, so Harry strained his neck in order to see the slightly yellow label beneath the orb. In spidery writing was written a date from thirteen years ago, and below that:
S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.
Dark Lord
and (?) Harry Potter
"It’s that bastard Dumbledore.” Draco spat from where he was standing behind Harry, reading it too.
“What?” Harry dumbfounded.
“A. P. W. B. D. It stands for Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. My father made me learn it once he got his stationed position in the ministry.”
“So Dumbledore knew my prophecy the whole time and didn’t tell me?” Harry frowned. “It’s surely more my business than his.”
“Obviously it is. But the number one rule of politics is to always be one step ahead of your competition.” said Blaise.
“I’m not in politics.” shouted Harry.
“You’re Harry Potter, love, you’re always in politics if you want to or not.” Pansy said.
“But here it says S. P. T. to Dumbledore, so someone told Dumbledore my prophecy. Who did it?”
“Probably a seer.” Tracey shrugged. “They’re responsible for every prophecy in here. They see a vision for someone and put it in an orb to be put here.”
“I’m going to take it home. My dad has a pensieve so-“
“Don’t touch it.” gasped Tracey.
“Why not?” Harry snapped.
“Something bad could happen.”
“Been there, done that, got a freaking scar.” Harry picked up the orb, he expected it to be cold, but instead, it was hot like it had been sitting in the sun for hours. It was light blue that let off a dim glow and lightly thrummed in his palm.
“Woah, Harry.” Crabbe chuckled.
It was all rather anticlimactic.
No one appeared out of nowhere to take the prophecy away and put Harry in jail, the prophecy didn’t explode in his hands nor did he experience some sort of epiphany. The prophecy looked kind of like a perfectly round ice cream and now Harry was hungry was some of Fortescue’s finest.
“Let’s get going before Mary leaves us behind.” He joked.
Getting out of the Department of Mysteries was much easier than getting in. The circular room that had confused them all before had charmed its way back to normal and while the group was leaving the clock room, Luna was nowhere to be found. Harry only hoped she had left on her own and wasn’t abducted or lost in the piles of ticking clocks.
He put the prophecy orb safely in the jacket pocket his mum had charmed with an Undetectable Extension Charm that allows Harry to store as many things in them as he wanted with room for more. The group got back to Mary who hadn’t even noticed they left and she decided to let them have an ice cream break after Harry’s continuous begging.
“Didn't do anything illegal, I hope?” Mary joked with an edge of seriousness.
“Nothing we’ll get caught for.” Harry answered smartly.
“Glad to hear it.”
They each paid for their own ice cream, Harry ordered himself a triple serving of chocolate in a sprinkle cone and a chocolate waffle stick and greedily chomped it down.
“I sometimes wonder if you’re secretly Remus’s son, Harry.” Mary chuckled, shaking her head fondly as Harry got chocolate on the outskirts of his mouth.
“Nah, I look too much like my parents to be mistaken for anyone elses.”
“I look exactly like my parents as well.” Draco added. “ One old man almost had a heart attack when he saw me ‘cause he thought I was my father.”
“That happens to me all the time too.” Goyle laughed, bumping fists with Draco.
“Me too, old man.” Mary muttered under breath.
Mary decided to treat herself and chose to leave work early so everyone could go home. She didn’t understand why everyone was suddenly so tired but Harry knew she wasn’t complaining. The friends took the floo network to their own houses, but before, the Slytherins had a massive group hug and promised they’d catch up again at the Potter Christmas Eve party.
Harry himself almost hit his head on the mantle piece over the fire when they floo’d into his living room. Everyone was still there and Sirius had transformed into a dog so he could sit on Remus’s lap, lie his head on Remus’s shoulder and have the man stroke the fur on his back.
“Welcome back, kiddo, how was the ministry?” His dad asked.
Harry shrugged. “Pretty boring.”