The Siren's Call (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

111. Back to London

In the midst of all the arguing over who would or would not go, Harry cried, "We can't all go. There's ten of us here!"

"We can fly," Luna said, pointing at a creature behind Harry.

"Blimey," Imani said. "So that's a thestral."

"You can see them too?" Harry said.

"Of course she can, Harry," Dioleh snapped irritably. "Everyone here aside from Ginny, Hermione, Blaise, and Ron can. We just need eight more."

"We're not all going!" Harry protested.

"Harry, we're going against Voldemort," Dioleh retorted. "What the hell do you think you can do against him and his followers that we can't?" When Harry failed to answer, she snapped, "That's what I thought. All ten of us are going."

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Dioleh could not help the feeling of déjà vu as they flew over London and landed before the Visitor's Entrance. Blaise got off first and went inside. "Only a half at once," he suggested. Harry nodded. In the first load, Blaise, Andre, Imani, Dioleh, and Hermione went while the others waited. Blaise got them through quickly and soon they piled out and the phone box went back up. After a few moments, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna joined them.

"Well this is eerie," Dioleh muttered.

"What?" Hermione replied.

"Let's put it this way," Blaise said, scanning the room. "Last time we were here, there was more security than this and that was at one in the morning."

"You've broken in before?" Ginny said in surprise.

"Dioleh, Imani, Draco, and I were with him," Andre said. Ginny frowned.

"Why?"

"Not important," Dioleh replied quickly. "Let's go." They quickly set off through the Ministry of Magic to get to the lifts. Dioleh quickly got inside and the others followed. Dioleh winced at how loud the lifts were as they rattled down several floors.

"Department of Mysteries," the cool, ominous voice of the elevator lady said. Dioleh swallowed but stepped out without hesitation. As they approached the door, Andre stared rather fixedly at the spot right before the doorway with a rather haunted expression.

In a low voice, Blaise said, "Now, when we get into this next room you all need to listen to me. Do not shut the door."

"Why?" Ron asked as Harry opened the door. They all entered and Neville, who had been farther back examining something, ran in, shutting the door behind him out of habit.

"Andre!" Blaise cried. But as Neville had run in, he had knocked into the siren. Andre desperately looked up, trying to figure out which door it had been.

"So that's why we don't shut the door," Ron said.

Ignoring him, Blaise turned a hopeful eye to Andre. "Did you see it?"

"No," he admitted. "Sorry, Blaise." Blaise groaned.

"Now we have to search through every door," he grumbled. "Ugh." Looking over at Harry, he asked, "Which door are we looking for again?"

"Something in the room kind of glitters," Harry explained. "There should be another room inside of that one fill of these weird glass orbs."

"You're looking for the time room," Blaise said. "It's three left from the entrance door."

"How do you know that?" Ginny asked.

"Not the time," Hermione said. "Let's just pick a door and go through."

"Ignore locked doors," Blaise said. "It's not one of those." Harry went across the room and opened one of the doors. Inside, they saw a large room that was relatively empty aside from a tank. Dioleh almost flinched back until she noticed that inside there were no sirens. Instead, there were fist-sized coils of what looked like brains. "Yeah, we don't want to be in here," Blaise said quickly. "Come on."

"Wait, don't shut the door," Harry said. "Zabini, do you know how far this one is from the entrance door?"

"No," he admitted. "This must be one of the rooms that was redone between when my step-father told me about it and now. I have no idea which room that is." With a flick of his wand, Blaise marked the door with a flaming X.

"Okay," Harry said. "Close the door." The moment it closed, the room began circling again. Once it had stopped, Blaise quickly felt around for the two locked doors and marked both of them with another X. The next door Harry picked, however, opened to a dimly-lit room that was rectangular in size and had a deep pit in the middle of the room which led to a raised archway.

"Nope," Blaise said quickly. "Guys, we need to get out of here."

"Why?" Harry asked, his gaze fixed on the arch as if he was being lured to it.

"Because of this," Blaise snapped. "Now, come on." Irritably, he pulled Harry, Dioleh, and Andre out of the room as the other followed. Quickly adding another X, he shut the door. The room spun again and Harry picked the next door.

The moment he pushed it open, he cried, "This is it!" The room was long and narrow with two rows of desks on either side. On every surface there were clocks that cast golden, glittering light everywhere in the room. They quickly entered the room and Andre shut the door behind them. Dioleh anxiously beat her fingers against her thigh as Ginny drew closer to the huge bell jar. In the very centre of it, a small bird floated but as it went higher, the bird grew older until it was fully grown. As it floated back to the bottom, it grew younger and younger until it was but an egg again.

Blaise pushed to the front of the room with Andre following behind as he explained, "This door should be it. Nobody try and touch anything."

"Why?" Dioleh asked.

In a quiet voice, he explained, "This is the Hall of Prophecy. If anyone tries to retrieve a prophecy that is not about themselves, it will curse them." Dioleh frowned, thinking over his words as he opened the door.

"Come on, Ginny," Harry said irritably. She quickly followed behind as they filed into the room. It was huge with high ceilings that were at least two stories high. From the floor to the ceiling, there was row upon row of the small, glass orbs Blaise had named as prophecies. "Row number ninety-seven. Come on," Harry said quickly, moving to the front again.