The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|88| Department of Mysteries

Running through the entrance of the Ministry of Magic, the seven of us rushed through the Atrium of the Ministry and past the large golden fountain.

"Come on," said Harry quietly and the six of us sprinted off down the hall behind him, toward the desk where the deserted security desk.

I felt sure that there ought to be a security person there, sure that their absence was an ominous sign, and my feeling of foreboding increased as we passed through the golden gates to the lifts. Harry pressed the nearest down button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking, and we dashed inside. Harry stabbed the number nine button, the grilles closed with a bang, and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. When the lift halted, the cool female voice said, "Department of Mysteries," and the grilles slid open again, we stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.

"Harry, where do we go now?" I whispered.

He pointed over to a plain black door and we all followed him to it.

"Okay, listen," said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. "M-maybe a couple of people should stay here as a— as a lookout, and—"

"And how're we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

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

"Harry, c'mon," I sighed. "We have to go now."

Walking into the room, we stood in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling — identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot.

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered.

Without the long chink of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things we could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and our ghostly reflections in the floor below.

"I- I feel like I've been here before," I breathed.

"Like a vision?" Harry said.

"I don't —"

Before I could finish my sentence, there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. For a few seconds the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around and then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again. My eyes had blue streaks burned into them; it was all I could see.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully.

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in from," said Ginny in a hushed voice.

"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably.

"I– well, that doesn't matter at the moment," I said, rubbing my eyes trying to erase the blue lines.

"We won't need to get out till we've found Sirius—"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently, cutting Harry off.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't —" Harry began. "In the dreams, I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room— that's this one— and then I went through another door into a room that kind of... glitters. We should try a few doors," he said hastily. "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."