Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter fifty-eight

"Here we go," I whisper as everyone walks out of the small holding building, our Ministry of Magic disguises applied with help from Hermione's brew of Polyjuice Potion. After a very careful and thorough scan of the Daily Prophet, we were able to pick out four individual members of the Ministry and assigned one to each of us.

Harry is disguised as Albert Runcorn, Ron as Reginald Cattermole, Hermione as Mafalda Hopkirk and Amelia Bones for myself. It took precise planning to stun them all and then hide them, but luckily we were able to pull it off and we're now continuing with our plan to find the real locket.

"We need to separate here," Hermione states when we reach the entrance to a male bathroom and after she points to the side, I see the female one nearby, "so we'll meet you inside." So me and Hermione disperse from the boys and head into the female toilets, where various witches are lining up in front of the toilet stalls. I get in one before Hermione and after quickly flushing myself down, I walk out into the Ministry of Magic, which is swarmed to the brim with witches and wizards.

I walk through the crowds towards the centre - the occasional greeting from a staff member that I swiftly answer - and I see the leather trench coat of Albert Runcorn. As I reach Harry, I see what he's looking at.

Statues being crushed underneath a large, marble column. Muggle statues...

"Are those...?" Harry gasps, his voice trailing off with horrified shock, so I simply nod. I turn to see Hermione and Ron walk up to us, both with horrified looks on their faces. "I've got to tell you, I'm starting to freak out a little bit," Ron mumbles, nervousness clear in his tone.

"How long did you say this batch of Polyjuice would last, Hermione?" Harry asks in a hushed voice, to which Hermione just shakes her head and says, "I didn't."

"We can do this," I whisper, "we just need to be calm and careful." Everyone nods and we head towards the several lifts in the building, aiming to all get on one together, which we somehow do. The door starts to shut, but it's pushed back by a man with braided blonde hair and a stern look blazing in his eyes.

"Cattermole," he snaps, staring directly at Ron, "it's still raining inside my office, that's two days now." Ron gulps and tries to make a light-heartened joke, w hich clearly doesn't land. "You do realise I'm going downstairs, don't you, Cattermole? To interrogate your wife." The man continues and then I finally put a name to this guy. Corban Yaxley, a Dark Wizard and a Death Eater, so I subtly give Ron a sharp poke to tell him to shut his mouth.

"Now, if my wife's blood status were in doubt and the head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I think I might just make that a priority. You have one hour."

Yaxley walks off as the doors slam shut, the lift swiftly moves backwards and shoots backwards. As we travel up, Ron starts mumbling about his wife being interrogated downstairs all alone and if the situation wasn't as serious, I probably would have laughed aloud.

"Ron," Harry sighs, "you don't have a wife."

We reach Level Two and as Ron steps out, he asks how he's supposed to make the office stop raining. "Uh, try Finite Incantatem, that could work," I offer, getting a small nod from Hermione in response. "Finite Incantatem, right, and if that doesn't work?" Ron asks with worry but by the time he's turned around, the life has begun to move back, so all we can do is give him a smile before we go back down again.

"I'd say if we don't locate Umbridge within the hour," Harry starts as he turns to look at both me and Hermione, "we find Ron and come back another day, deal?" We both say yes and when we turn around, we see the door slide open to reveal... Umbridge herself. I hear Harry's breath hitch slightly and a near silent gasp leave Hermione's lips.

"Ah, Mafalda!" She exclaims, a chipper smile on her toad-like face, "Travis sent you, did he? Good! We'll go straight down." She then walks into the lift and as I walk out, her sickly stench of ridiculously strong perfume reaches my nostrils and I try my hardest not to gag. Harry then steps out after Umbridge reminds him, clearly the shock of her not recognising us hadn't completely settled in. We watch as Hermione travels down with Umbridge, a terrified look on her face, before we start to walk through the hallway.

We don't try to talk to one another as Ministry staff occasionally travel past us and it would be a waste to blow our cover right now, so we silently make our way through the hall into a large, open room. In this room, there are numerous desks with witches and wizards moving pamphlets into small, organised boxes. I don't care to try and see what they say, knowing it'll be something nasty, and as I turn around, I see a door with several engravings on it.

I nudge Harry as I recite the engravings under my breath, just quiet enough so that only he can hear. "Delores Umbridge. Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission." And in the middle of the door is Mad-Eye's glass eye, moving and looking around.

I see Harry drop Dungbombs and I watch them scatter underneath people's desks, so I cautiously crack open the door and slink inside, Harry immediately follows as loud explosions can be heard from outside.

I instantly go for Umbridge's desk as Harry tries "Accio locket!" Nothing happens, so I pull open a drawer to find an 'Undesirable No. 1' poster with Harry's picture, plus several small files of paperwork. I open the first one and almost drop it when I see Arthur's picture clipped on top.

"Harry," I whisper with shock, my eyes wide as I place Arthur's file down to reveal Mad-Eye's, but his picture has a large 'X' drawn over it. As does the next one, a picture of Dumbledore. I hear Harry draw in a sob when his eyes catch the picture, so I give his hand a squeeze before putting everything away where it was and we go to leave the room.

The locket is nowhere to be found, which means that Umbridge must have it on her.