CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:

DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES

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      Nova had enough sense to grip her thestral's mane even tighter when she saw the pavement drawing closer and closer. Her companions didn't think to do the same. She saw Ron topple off his thestral, landing a couple of feet away from her. Hermione and Ginny were more graceful about getting off their creatures, Neville looked like one touch would send him flying to the ground, and Luna slid off her thestral with the skill of a seasoned professional.

      "Never again," Ron muttered darkly. "Never, ever again... that was the worst."

      "Where do we go from here, then?" Luna asked politely. Nova immediately moved closer to Ron, accepting the hand he offered. He sent her a grateful look, like he was thanking her for keeping him sane. Though he wasn't off the hook for trying to get her to stay behind, she knew this wasn't the time to dwell on it. Sirius Black was obviously important to Harry, and that meant Sirius Black was important to her. For the time being anyway.

      "Over here," Harry said, patting his thestral on the head before he rushed towards a beat-up looking telephone box. Nova was mildly surprised she knew what the red box was, but figured she'd visited the Ministry of Magic enough times to have a general knowledge of what shape the entrance took form of. "Come on!" Harry hissed, encouraging them to go faster.

      Somehow, the seven of them all managed to squeeze themselves inside. Ron huffed in annoyance when Hermione's elbow dug into his ribcage, Ginny sent Nova a look when Nova's hair whipped Ginny in the face.

      "Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" Harry demanded. Nova saw Ron's arm reach at an awkward angle to try and reach the buttons.

      "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

      "Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Nova Nott, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood... we're here to save someone unless your Ministry can do it first!" Harry said irately, his tone harsh and coming out hurried.

      "Thank you," the same robotic female voice said. "Visistors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

      Nova accepted the badge Hermione handed her. Nova Nott, Rescue Mission was written across the front of it in big bold letters. She stuck it inside the pocket of her pants, not daring to put it on unless she saw with her own eyes that no one her father knew was going to be inside. She knew it was highly unlikely, but maybe if she kept her head down, no one would know it was her.

      "Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk,which is located at the far end of the Atrium."

      "Fine!" Harry snapped. "Now can we move?!"

      Nova felt the telephone box start to move, lower and lower into the pavement. They were shrouded in darkness as they started to descent into the Ministry of Magic. They each did their best to bend and start running the second they say a sliver of light shining in from the Ministry's main floor. "The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening," the robotic voice said before the door opened and the group went flying. They toppled and tumbled out of the telephone box and landed in a heap on the ground. Nova briefly grinned down at Ron, who she had landed on top of before swinging off him and holding her hand out to help him from up off the floor.

      "Come on," Harry whispered as they took off down the hall. Nova saw the familiar lifts and reached for the button to open the doors. The seven of them piled once more into the lift - which was significantly more roomy than the telephone booth - and Nova watched as Harry pressed a button. The same female voice alerted them that they were going towards the Department of Mysteries before the grilles to the elevator slid open again. The group made their way down a long hallway lit with torches and came upon a large solid black door. By the way Harry was glancing at it, he seemed to recognize the sight. 

      "Let's go," he said quietly. They all moved along the corridor. "Okay, listen. Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a... as a lookout, and -"

      "And how're we going to let you know that something's coming?" Ginny questioned stubbornly. Nova nodded her head to accentuate Ginny's point. "You could be miles away."

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

      "Sorry," Nova added, crossing her arms and not looking sorry at all. Ron glanced at her for the briefest of moments before sighing.

      "Let's get on with it," he said to his best friend, who let out a small noise of disappointment before he turned towards the door. Nova watched as it swung open when he neared it and followed the Boy Who Lived into the dark circular room. Everything Nova could see was black. The floor, the ceiling, the black walls. The room looked as cold and cruel and calculating as the Nott manor. She shivered in what she would later realize was fear. 

      "Someone shut the door," Harry whispered.

      Neville reached forward to do as Harry said and Nova immediately missed the small sliver of light the open door had provided. Without the door open, the only thing she could see was the blue flickering torches and the dull reflection of her own body in the black floor underneath her feet, casting it off as if it were her shadow. Nova glanced towards Harry in question when suddenly there was a rumbling noise that filled the room, and Nova realized the circular room was moving. The torches shifted sideways with the walls, casting small slivers of light across her friends' faces. Ron reached out behind him, searching for Nova's hand and giving out a little sigh of relief when she slotted his fingers through his. The rumbling noise suddenly stopped and the walls were still once more.

      "What was that about?" Ron asked in a choked whisper.

      "I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in from," Ginny replied, trying to sound calm. Nova decided not to point out the little hitch in her speech when she was halfway through the statement.

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

      "Well, that doesn't matter now," Harry answered, trying to sound confident. "We won't need to get out till we've found Sirius -"

      "Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione added in a frightened voice. As if Hermione were speaking to Nova alone, Nova pressed her lips together. If she were being honest with herself, she was afraid to even breathe in the quiet space. Do it for Ron, she thought to herself. Be brave for him. Be brave for Theo. For Blaise. For anyone you've ever let into your heart.

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

      "I don't..." Harry had to swallow to keep his voice calm. "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 quickly. "I'll know the way when I see it. C'mon."

      The first door was no success. When Harry opened the door, it was absent of the glittering he had seen in his dream. Instead, there was a large tank in the middle of the room filled with water and a bunch of white objects floating around in the liquid. A few desks were littered around the room, but Nova saw none of the glittering Harry had been speaking of. "What're those things?" Ron whispered to Nova, but with the silence that encapsulated the room, everyone heard his question. She squeezed his hand.

      "Dunno," she replied quietly.

      "Are they fish?" Ginny asked.

      "Aquavirius maggots!" Luna exclaimed happily, seemingly not alarmed by the mysterious room. "Dad said the Ministry was breeding -"

      "No," Hermione said, her voice sounding disgusted. She moved forward to peer into the side of the tank. "They're brains."

      "Brains?" Nova asked incredulously.

      "Yes... I wonder what they're doing with them?" Hermione wondered aloud.

      "I don't want to know," Ron whispered to Nova. She nodded her head in agreement. Whatever the Ministry of Magic wanted with brains, she had no clue, but she wasn't about to stick around to find out. "There are doors here too," Ron said, pointing around. 

      "In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one, so I think we should go back and try from there." That was perfectly fine with Nova. She didn't want to be in the room with the brains longer than necessary. They filtered out and back into the circular black room. Luna went to close the door behind her but paused when Hermione yelled at her to wait.

      "Flagrate!" Hermione casted the spell, a big and fiery red 'X' appearing above the door. Sure enough, when Luna closed the door after Hermione was done, the room spun once more. Now, they could see what door they'd already tried.

      "Good thinking," Harry praised. "Okay, let's try this one -"

      He strode at another door, the group following behind him. Nova thought it looked like the room the Wizengamot trials were held in, with seats lowering in staircases to the center of the room. However, at the bottom of the room where a chained chair would be in a trial, there was a cracked and crumbling archway. "Who's there?" Harry called when the veil made a swishing noise, as if someone was moving behind it.

      "Careful!" Hermione hissed.

      Harry marched towards it, standing in front of it. "Sirius?" he asked softly. But Nova found it hard to hear over the whispering of voices that suddenly seemed to erupt from the veil. She barely heard Hermione telling them that they should go, leave the room because it wasn't what Harry was looking for, but now Nova was intrigued too. "What are you saying?" Harry suddenly asked the group of people he had come with.

      "Nobody's talking, Harry!" Hermione said.

      Nova didn't like this. She didn't like that she could hear the whispered voices but only Harry could along with her. "Is that you, Ron?" she asked softly. Ron shook his head from beside her. "Can anyone else hear it besides Harry and me?" her voice trembled just slightly.

      "I can hear them too," Luna said, joining Harry to gaze at the archway. "There are people in there!"

      "What do you mean, 'in there'?" Hermione asked, grabbing Luna's arm and wrenching her away from the veil. "There isn't anybody 'in there,' it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there - Harry, stop it, come away -" She pulled on Harry's arm, but he resisted her grip. "Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!"

      "Nova," someone suddenly said, so plainly and clearly that Harry and Luna twisted around to look at Nova, who shuddered where she was standing. The voice sounded familiar, like she had heard it in a previous life and her memories of it had been muddled. "Nova," it said again.

      "Hermione, someone's saying my name," Nova said in a shaky voice. "Someone is in there and they know who I am!"

      "Sirius!" Hermione snapped, not liking that Nova was hearing mystical whisperings from the archway anymore than she liked Harry and Luna hearing them. "We're here for Sirius!"

      Harry took several steps back from the archway, and Nova noticed that Ginny and Neville were staring at the veil as well. Hermione grabbed Ginny's arm and Ron grabbed Neville with his free hand - for his other was still gripping Nova's with a vice-like strength - and pulled the two of them back into the dark circular room. Hermione repeated the spell she had used to make the fiery red cross appear over the door, marking that they had checked this one as well. The room changed again, Nova still feeling the chill of the archway. Harry moved at a door, then blanched.

      "What's wrong?"

      "It's... locked..." Harry said, trying to burst the door open with the weight of his shoulder. 

      "This is it, then, isn't it?" Ron asked, moving to join Harry in jamming his shoulder against the door to try and break it down. "Bound to be!"

      "Get out of the way!" Hermione shoulder. She pointed her wand at the door, ignoring that it had no lock, and muttered, "Alohomora!" Nothing happened. Hermione looked angry, like magic had never failed her before. 

      "Sirius's knife!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, pulling it from the inside of his pocket. He wiggled it between the space of the door and the wall and tried to budge it open with his shoulder again, but the door remained stationary. 

      "Right, we're leaving that room," Hermione mentioned.

      "But what if it's the one?" Ron asked.

      "It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream," Hermione muttered as she drew another fiery cross over the door. 

      "You know what could be in there?" Luna asked eagerly.

      "Something blibbering, no doubt," Hermione said under her breath. Nova briefly sent Hermione a warning look, to which Hermione looked chagrined. Harry tried another door as soon as the room started spinning, and Nova could see form her place next to Ron the glittering light of the room that was so sparkly, it had to be the room Harry had seen in his dream. He confirmed it less than a second later, making his way inside as Nova followed behind Ron.

      "This way!" Harry shouted, running towards the narrow hallway. Nova could see a crystal bell jar, beautiful and glittering, in the distance. They followed Harry, Nova not liking the feeling deep in her chest that something was horribly, terribly wrong. The feeling washed over her like a wave in the ocean, filling her with dread. 

      "Harry, something's not right," she said, but he wasn't listening, so determined to reach where Sirius was that Nova had no choice but to follow, or risk getting left behind. They reached another door that Harry pushed open with ease, and suddenly they were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of crystal balls. Nova saw beautiful blue and green hues swirling around inside them. If she didn't feel so cold and dreadful looking at them, she might have thought they were absolutely beautiful.

      "You said it was row ninety-seven," Hermione told Harry as a reminder.

      "Yeah," he said. They were standing at the center of the row that had FIFTY-THREE underneath a blue candle protruding from the shelf.

      "We need to go right, I think," Hermione mentioned, nodding when she confirmed it. "Yes, that's fifty-four..."

      "Keep your wands out," Harry advised, but Nova didn't need his advice. She was already gripping her wand in the hand that wasn't holding Ron's as they crept along the rows, Nova's eyes trained on the numbers of the rows. As they grew closer and closer, Nova felt like she was getting all the air sucked out of her body, like a Dementor was kissing her and sucking out the happiness of her life. There wasn't much, but now it truly felt as if she were all alone. She let out a small noise of discomfort, which for once, wasn't soothed by Ron squeezing her hand in reassurance. 

      "Ninety-seven!" Hermione whispered.

      "He's right down at the end," Harry told the group when Nova peered down the row. It was like a gradient had enveloped the hall, slowly fading to black. "You can't see properly from here..."

      They slowly crept along the row of crystal balls, Nova's hands shaking the closer they got to the end of the row. "He should be near here," Harry whispered. "Anywhere here... really close..." But Nova could see nothing. And it was then that she knew what the dread she felt in her stomach was.

      Sirius Black wasn't here. Which meant that someone else was.

      "Harry?" Hermione asked.

      "Somewhere about... here..."

      Nova could barely hear the words Harry was saying. It felt like someone had shoved her entire body underneath freezing cold water. She understood what had happened, but her mouth couldn't form to get the words out. Ron gently released her hand and gave her a worried look when he noticed how pale her face had become. "Nova, you alright?"

      "Sirius isn't here," she whispered.

      But no one seemed to get it. They didn't know what this meant. "Sirius isn't here," she tried again. Surely Hermione would pick up on it? But Hermione just looked confused and slightly frightened. Nova knew that if Hermione fully grasped the situation, she would be in a full-blown panic. "Sirius isn't here," she whispered in a tiny voice that even Ron could barely hear.

      "Harry, have you seen this?" Ginny asked breathlessly as she stared at something on the row.

      "What?" Harry asked eagerly, hoping that it was Sirius suddenly appearing from the shadows. But Nova could see what Ginny was looking at. It was one of the glittering crystal balls, swirling blue and green inside. "What?" Harry repeated.

      "It's... it's got your name on it," Ron said, peering up at the crystal ball.

      "My name?" Harry moved closer to it. Nova saw the writing beneath it and tried to make out what it meant.

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.

Dark Lord

and (?) Harry Potter

      "What is it?" Ron asked uneasily. "What's your name doing down here?"

      "Sirius isn't here," Nova repeated, sounding and feeling like a broken record.

      "I'm not here," Ron mentioned, ignoring Nova's cryptic statement. "None of the rest of us are here..."

      "Harry, I don't think you should touch it," Hermione said sharply when Harry reached his hand out.

      "Why not? It's something to do with me, isn't it?"

      "Sirius isn't here," Nova repeated.

      "Don't, Harry," Neville warned, looking as nervous as Nova felt. He was sweating profusely, as if the crystal ball was a source of pure torture. 

      "It's got my name on it," Harry repeated.

      And then he closed his hand around the dusty crystal ball. 

      Nothing happened.

      "Sirius isn't here, Harry!" Nova suddenly shouted. Didn't he know what this meant? Didn't any of them know what it meant?

      "Can you stop saying that? I know Sirius isn't here!" Harry shouted, ignoring the way Ron's arm curled protectively around Nova's shoulders.

      "Then can you use your brain and realize what that means?" she screeched, face red with anger and heart cold with dread. "They knew. They knew you were close to Sirius. They planted it in your head so you'd come here. They tricked us, Harry, they tricked all of us. Sirius isn't here!" Nova shouted. "But I can feel them here!"

      "Who?" Hermione said, shuddering.

      But Nova said nothing. Slowly, she turned on her feet at a pace so shockingly slow that Harry and the others blinked at her sudden change in demeanor. Then, with a voice ice cold, she spoke. "Father."

      "Very good, Konstantinova." The voice that spoke wasn't her father, but rather Lucius Malfoy. "Now, why don't you tell your little friend Potter to give that to me?"

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OH SHIT WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN?????? (jk I already know. and amanda. amanda always knows.)