Ternion || Oliver Wood

Chapter 118

Infiltration of the Ministry

Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.

Hermione and I were now downstairs here in the kitchen. We were being served coffee and hot rolls by Kreacher when Harry and Ron finally joined us. Hermione and I were getting the stuff we needed ready, such as the robes, Polyjuice Potion, the Invisibility Cloak, Decoy Detonators and some Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Nougat and Extendable Ears from Fred and George.

We gulped down our breakfast, then set off upstairs, Kreacher bowing us out and promising to have a steak-and-kidney pie ready for us when we returned.

"Bless him," said Ron fondly, "and when you think I used to fantasize about cutting off his head and sticking it on the wall."

I chuckled at what he said.

"Dad said he was a great house elf and friend, didn't believe until now." I chuckled and made our way onto the front step with immense caution for there were still a couple Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square.

Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then Harry and I were next.

After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, we found ourselves in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of our plan was scheduled to take place. It was as yet deserted, except for a couple of large bins; the first Ministry workers did not usually appear here until at least eight o'clock.

"Right then," I said, checking my watch that Mum and Dad gave me. "She ought to be here in about five minutes. When I've stunned her —"

"Agape, we know," said Ron sternly. "And I thought we were supposed to open the door before she got here, Hermione?"

Hermione squealed in realization.

"I nearly forgot! Stand back —"

Hermione said before pointing her wand at the padlocked and heavily graffitied fire door beside us, which burst open with a crash. The dark corridor behind it led, as we knew from our careful scouting trips, into an empty theater. Hermione pulled the door back toward her, to make it look as though it was still closed.

"And now," she said, turning back to face us in the alleyway, "we put on the Cloak again —"

"— and we wait," Ron finished, throwing it over Hermione's head like a blanket over a birdcage and rolling his eyes at me and Harry, I chuckled.

"The four of us won't fit, I'll use a spell I discovered instead." I said and touched my ring and I then turned invisible, it was a complicated spell but I learned enough to complete it by myself.

Little more than a minute later, there was a tiny pop and a little Ministry witch with flyways gray hair Apparated feet from us, blinking a little in the sudden brightness. She barely had time to enjoy the unexpected warmth, however, before my silent Stunning Spell hit her in the chest and she toppled over.

"Nicely done, Agape," said Ron, emerging from behind a bin beside the theater door as Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak. Together we carried the little witch into the dark passageway that led backstage. Hermione plucked a few hairs from the witch's head and added them to a flask of muddy Polyjuice Potion she had taken from the beaded bag. Ron was rummaging through the little witch's handbag.

"She's Mafalda Hopkirk," he said, reading a small card that identified our victim as an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office. "You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens."