All in the Family

Chapter 102: The Ministry of Magic

Extra chapter this week! I'm going to start trying to make this a regular thing for the time being too, I'm so excited to get to certain chapters in this particular book!

To Stitches: Thank you so much for your continued support as this goes on! Indeed they will continue to get better from this point on in the story, and boy am I looking forward to that too!

HPHPHPHP

Lily was fortunate enough to land on a chair, but it wasn't neat. The chair rocked back as she landed in it, she lost even that small bit of leisure as she fell even farther forward and her foot got stuck in the armrest, and the rest of her messily fell to the floor with her foot still stuck. Lily tried to extract herself, but the chair wouldn't budge to give her room to get out from under the desk, something blocking it was the only explanation for why it wouldn't roll farther. So she craned her head around to see that Lupin was wedged between the chair and the wall, someone's shoe was dangling over the side of the desk, and pieces of parchment were fluttering everywhere. And that's just what she could see.

"Everyone alright?" she called, her voice oddly strangled-sounding because of her awkward position.

"Yep!" Potter replied with chipper. "You, Evans?"

Lily groaned and let her head fall against the back of the inside of the desk as the others all replied they were okay.

"Where are we?" Alice asked, squirming uncomfortably as she was literally wedged between the two desks, but unable to move forward with Regulus directly in front of her smushed against the wall, or Potter jammed against the door.

"A very, very tiny office," the older Black pointed out dryly, sitting the most comfortably on what must be Arthur's desk judging by the photo of his family adorning it.

"At least it's better than Harry's or Aragog's cupboard," Pettigrew groaned, sitting on the other desk like it was a saddle and not looking happy for it, but as unable to readjust as anyone else with another on either side of him. "Where's the book?"

There was some shifting and shuffling, but not much, before Frank's voice rang out from the opposite side of Arthur's desk, it must have fallen to the floor, it was a miracle he'd even been able to stretch enough to reach it. "I've got it." He cleared his throat for a moment before beginning, "The Ministry of Magic."

"Who wants to bet the door won't open?" Lupin grumbled, he'd been squashed before now, but the chair felt like a new insult digging into his stomach. No matter which way he moved, he couldn't budge an inch though with Regulus just as stuck, leaving Lily in her current predicament. "Who has an office this small, anyway? For two?" If even just James could get out they could all find a way to move an inch...

"Erm... Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, of course," the younger Black mumbled in near-exasperation. He must be somewhere that he can see something. Lily was slightly surprised not to hear a note of smug condescending in his voice at the mention of Muggles; instead, he sounded rather shocked and bewildered.

Harry's morning routine was uninterrupted until Black let out a snort at Tonks's exhaustion. "I stayed up for almost a whole week once, one night is nothing!"

"You'll do anything for a bad grade," Frank marveled, then read on quickly before more comments could be made.

Harry was given various pieces of good advice from the adults in his life, and Molly tried to mother him, despite his unvoiced wishes. Lily did not need anyone to tell her that Potter was likely ruffling up his hair again with an eternally smug look on his face as Molly tried to do the opposite to Harry.

Rather quickly, Mr. Weasley took Harry off to the Ministry with his endless fascination for Muggles and their things.

"Wait," Lily yelped, "this isn't his office, is it?" She felt slightly stupid for not realizing this earlier.

A moment of silence, and then Alice murmured, "oh, that poor man," and Sirius Black muttered, "so what nutter works with him?"

Lily would have thrown him a nasty look for that, but he seemed to guess at this anyway and quickly rectified, "not that that's a bad thing, but you do have to be kind of unusual to want to work with him."

"What're you implying about yourself, Padfoot?" Lupin demanded.

"Was just wondering that myself," Black's brother mumbled.

Harry was escorted inside the ministry by Mr. Weasley, who seemed to know everybody's names. Everything was going normally enough, until they entered the lifts-

Black gasped in horror, and Lupin, at least, from what Lily could see, slammed his head into the wall as the dramatic Black continued, "what nightmare is this future! They have laws about Sirius Breeding?!"

Lily gave a little snort of laughter, realizing too late the place was too small to go unnoticed when Potter yelped in true fright, "don't encourage him!"

The younger Black grumbled, "I've always said my greatest contribution to wizarding society would be a selective version of Silencio, so you can hear everything else he says but not that. Oh wait, what am I thinking, I should just silence all of him!"

Pettigrew snickered from the desk above her.

"I should be offended, but you just made a joke, so I'll pass," Sirius sighed. "The things you people do to me."

Frank finally snapped, "can you all let me read? I want to get out of here, you know!" His tone left Lily in less doubt than before that the rest of them are as cramped as she is.

So they all fell silent as Harry's experience of going up the Ministry lift was detailed. At one point, Frank paused just long enough to mutter about owls being used for only indoor flying, and if by 'used to' Mr. Weasley meant recently or not, and whether that was a thing in their own timeline, but kept going loudly before anyone could pick up on what he'd said.

Harry traveled through the Ministry, gawking at all the magical sights, which only Lily could appreciate, being the only Muggle-born in the group. It was noteworthy at one point Lupin shrank so far against the wall with a miserable look on his face the chair almost could have moved, and it took her repeating the level that Frank passed over so casually to remind herself why the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical creatures would cause a reaction in anyone. Lupin wasn't just anyone anymore though, but technically, well, a beast. The moment passed so quickly though, if she hadn't been watching him from her janky position, she never would have seen such a thing, and it did not feel her place at all to even bring it up. What was there to say?

The others were interested as well, of course, but more so when Kingsley Shacklebolt showed up again, acting as if he'd barely spoken to Mr. Weasley in his life.

Sirius again stalled the proceedings by loudly exclaiming over Kingsley's Sirius-plastered cubicle.

"Padfoot, he's hunting you!" Potter groaned in exasperation.

"Eh, he's only faking it, remember?" Sirius retorted, and fell into a smug silence that Lily could sense even from under the desk as the conversation continued to be stuck on Sirius with only whispered asides about the Order.

Then, Mr. Weasley led Harry to his office, which was slightly smaller than the broom cupboard, and Lily finally had her answer about the size of the space. "I can't believe they put him in here!" she exclaimed indignantly. "I can see Percy's point about his position in the Ministry, this is an absurd amount of disrespect to the man just because he works with Muggles!" She took a moment to wonder if it's Perkins's desk she was stuck under, and if so, then if Harry had been here, his feet would have been in her face. She grimaced.

Mr. Weasley babbled on about his work and regurgitating toilets, until his partner showed up with news about the trial.

Lupin tried to sit up from between the chair and the wall, and despite failing, his scowl was at nothing in here with a foul temper. "I can't believe them! They changed it on purpose!"

Mr. Weasley seems equally angry as he hurries Harry back to the lift and mutters about it the whole time. Finally, they arrive at the courtroom, and, of all things, Mr. Weasley sends Harry in alone.

Frank barely has the presence of mind to warn them of the end of the chapter before they are whisked away.