When Demigods Mix with Magic

30. The Department of Weird Stuff

{-} Percy {-}

  "How could I have been such an idiot?!" Percy exclaimed when they arrived at the corridor leading to the Department of Mysteries.

  They had just entered the Ministry, luckily the two groups (the taxi group and the Thestral group) arrived at the same time. The demigods from the Thestral group had explained everything to Luna, Ginny and Neville about the gods. Annabeth, Jason and Piper told the rest of the students about the voices they heard in that mysterious passageway.

  Everything in the corridor was deadly still, only the nearest torches were flickering their bright blue flames. In the end of the corridor sat a plain black door. Percy could recognise this room from anywhere, with it's black tiled wall and the familiar creepy feeling he got from it.

  "This is the corridor where we found Will, Frank, Magnus and Alex," Jason realised, his eyes widening. He was barely able to scrape enough voice for the words.

  "But that makes no sense," Hermione blurted, her brow furrowing in concentration, the wheels turning in her head. "It would've taken you days to arrive there by foot, and to get back to Hogwarts."

  "Maybe Hecate came up with something to make the journey shorter?" Hazel suggested. "She can make all sorts of things with her magic. You can never underestimate her."

  "So if you eight were in this corridor, that means there were people in the Department of Mysteries earlier because of those voices you heard," Harry said, his voice raw. "It was Voldemort and the Death Eaters."

  Everyone kept quiet at that, Harry's theory confirmed that they weren't alone in the Ministry. A Death Eater might pop out any moment. Also, it confirms that Voldemort and his crew were there for a reason: to torture Harry's godfather.

  "Shouldn't we be going in the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius?" Neville asked, finally breaking the silence. He gulped once to try and hide how frightened he actually was, eyeing the black door nervously.

  "Neville is right," Ginny said with a grim expression. "If we spend lots of time chatting, the higher the possibility is that Sirius would be dead."

  "Okay, listen," said Harry, turning to all of them. "Maybe...maybe a couple of people should stay here as a- as a lookout and-"

  "We have to go," Jason pointed out, not leaving Harry a choice. "We have to close the Doors. 'No' is not an option."

  "And how are we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, raising an eyebrow. "You could be miles away."

  "We're coming with you Harry," Neville insisted.

  "Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly.

  Harry seemed to realise that he couldn't do anything to convince them about staying here, so they went to the door, with him in the lead. The door swung open without anyone touching it, which really creeped Percy out. Harry marched forward without hesitation, leading them over the threshold.

  They were standing in a large circular room. Everything was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handless black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, looking too much like Greek fire; their cool, shimmering light were reflected in the shining marble floor.

  "Is it only me or is the wall rotating?" Leo asked after some time of examining the strange room.

  Leo wasn't wrong. The blue flames around them were blurred as the wall sped around. Then, quite suddenly, the moving stopped and everything became normal again.