A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Twenty One

"So is something supposed to happen?"

Marlene was annoyed that Sirius still found the entire situation humorous. If only he knew, he definitely wouldn't be laughing. "Because I know so much about enchanted cabinets," she hissed.

They were both crammed into the limited space that was definitely not meant for more than one adult person. The flutter in her stomach indicated that she didn't mind, even if her head disagreed and screamed at her to remove herself from where she was pressed up against him. But of course, she couldn't because there was physically no room.

"It's awfully confined in here." His voice was smooth like velvet. He seemed to silently understand what she was thinking. "Sort of reminds me of the things kids do at Hogwarts after hours."

She could sense rather than see him grinning indecently at the insinuation.

"Maybe we should try it out," he whispered into her ear. She was thankful that it was much too dark for him to see her face because she was pretty certain that her expression gave away to the fact that she wholeheartedly agreed.

"Snogging in a closet is hardly something to joke about right now," she forced out instead. But she made a mental note to revisit the conversation when they were in a less compromising situation.

"Who said I was joking?"

"We're here on Order business," she warned him and that seemed to do the trick. His body shifted and she realized that he was reaching for the door. "Wait –"

"It's doing us no good sitting inside this giant box."

The wooden panel groaned upon opening but the light from Cassandra's living room did not shine inwards to greet them. The room was now dark, only illuminated by a faint glow of the blue hued moonlight peering in through the window.

Sirius climbed out first more quietly than she thought could be possible for a man his size. His hand reached to grab hers and she clasped her fingers around his as he drew her outwards. But she did not step foot into Cassandra's living room, and her disappointment vanished entirely. She realized that it was not the bluish glow of the moon lighting the room, rather from a single torch on the wall, omitting a blue-white light.

Sirius walked around, surveying the black-tiled walls of the room they were enclosed within. Marlene was quick to notice that the room appeared to be missing something critical; there were no windows or doors. Sirius pulled her from her thoughts when he asked, "Where do you think we are?"

There was no rational way to explain why she knew the answer to his question, but somehow she did. "The Department of Mysteries," she breathed and Sirius's eyes widened.

"Seriously?" He scanned the room again, though there were no signs indicating that Marlene was correct.

"There must be a door of some sort in here," she said. She placed her palm against the wall and started feeling for one, but she could feel no trace of a crevice within the smooth panels indicating that one might exist.

Sirius was doing the same on the opposite side of the circular room. "Over here!" he called suddenly. A sharp clicking noise sliced through the air and Sirius pushed his weight into the wall. A section of the panel pushed open and the same bluish-white light radiated in the adjoining room.

"Have your wand ready," he instructed her. Marlene ignored the flare of irritation at his command, knowing that he meant well by it. Her wand held steady in her left hand, poised and ready should she need to use it.

They were in a circular chamber with dark marbled floors quite strikingly similar to the walls from the room from which they had come. The floor that stretched across the room was polished smooth and gleamed strangely, giving it an eerie effect. It almost looked like they were staring across a dark, motionless body of water under a midnight sky. Eleven other doors spread equally around the walls, each door framed by candles. Though the flames burned hot, no wax appeared to melt from their sticks.

As the door closed behind them and they stepped into the room, something strange began to occur. The doors around them began to move; rotating clockwise, then counter clockwise, rotating around and shifting once more in a blur of speed, spinning madly. It looked like the room was a giant roulette wheel and they were betting all on black.

"It looks like the moving staircases," Sirius joked. His arm had relaxed and his wand trained to the floor. He was admiring the handiwork of the room as it reconfigured itself and when the doors stopped moving he smiled. "Well this should be fun."

She shot him a sideways glare. "I'm not sure 'fun' is a word I would use to describe this."

"It might help if I knew what we were looking for," he stated as moved across the room. His steps made no sound as they paced the marble.

Marlene hesitated. She wasn't entirely certain how to describe that to him. It was obvious that she was not going to be able to hide much from him at this point and she sighed with defeat. "I'll know when we find it. I'll explain it to you then."

He appeared to contemplate her and then he shrugged, turning his attention to one of the giant black doors instead. "Alright. So shall we just pick one then?" He probed. She looked to him with uncertainty and he grinned, making the decision for her. He pointed to the door closest to his right. "This one looks good."

"It looks like all the other ones," she laughed.

"Do you have a better idea in mind then?" he challenged, eyes teasing her with excitement.

"That door it is."

Sirius put his hand against the rectangular shape where the door handle should have been and he pushed. It opened smoothly and quietly, a hallway of darkness greeted them. "Lumos," he commanded, and then guided them through the entrance with his wand outstretched in front of them, lighting the way.