Previously:
"Let's talk while we walk, shall we?" I grew aware the seconds were ticking by. "I need to leave something in the Minister's office then I need to hurry back. I agreed to oversee a detention tonight."

As we left, I flicked my wand at a quill and left a note on a scrap piece of parchment for the others. I locked the door behind me as well.

"Sorry, guys, Amelia Bones wanted to talk to me about something." I said breathlessly as I ran back into my office. I was relieved to see they listened to my note to wait here.

"About what?" Ron asked from behind my desk.

I grinned briefly then straightened out my face before saying, "Nothing you need to worry about now, I'll tell you later if you really want to know. Right now, we need to figure out wh-"

I was interrupted by the sound of my Floo activating and the five of us watched as camper after camper stumbled to the floor of my small office. It got cramped quickly but despite that, it was quiet as we stared at each other.

Thalia, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Travis, Connor, Grover, Nico, and Clarisse glared defiantly at me from across the room.

"What," I started, barely concealing my anger, "are you lot doing here?"

"We followed you," Leo said happily. "That was an amazing way to travel by the way, how does it work?"

"We thought you would have left by now and you said it would only be open so long so we just came as fast as we dared," Thalia said indifferently, ignoring Leo.

"That does not answer my question," I snapped. "I can tell you have obviously followed us. Why?"

"The Stolls over heard you after exams today talking about a blood bath," Clarisse stated. "We came to make sure y'all don't kill yourselves."

I huffed. "I have it perfectly handled so you can all go back now," I said, moving to my fireplace to make sure it was still connected.

"No offense, but we've had more experience with 'potential blood baths' than you have." Piper crossed her arms. "We're staying."

An urge to keep them here washed over me. I glared and opened my mouth to call her out on it when Hermione spoke up.

"It would be good to have them here, Percy." She glanced over at me nervously. "At the very least, we'll have the numbers."

Her friends nodded in agreement and as much as I wanted to wipe the smug grins off the camper's faces, I knew she was right.

"Fine," I said shortly. "But you will do as I say, understood?"

Thalia made a move to argue but I held up a finger in her direction to silence her. "You don't even know what we're doing here, how can you take charge if you don't know the situation?"

They stayed silent at that.

"You follow my every order." I landed a look at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Luna as I said this and they nodded as well. "Good, now—"

Two more came through and I glared at them as they got to their feet. "Ten points from Gryffindors, Mr Longbottom and Miss Weasley," I said because I was so done. "Now that you're here, you will make sure to follow my every order, am I understood?"

They nodded, faces flushed.

I sniffed. "Good. If you do not, you will all regret it, I promise. And it won't be because of something I did. Follow me."

I led them all down the hall outside my office as quick as I could. If anyone else came through, I didn't want to know.

Eighteen people can fit into the ministry lifts incase anyone was wondering.

The golden doors opened on the floor of the Department of Mysteries with a ding and a lady robot voice announced where we were.

"Harry," I whispered, pulling him up by me. "You know the way from here?"

He nodded and guided us to a plain black door down the hall.

We entered a large circular room with doors regularly spaced along the sides. Candles with blue flames hung between each door, giving the floor a water-like appearance. The doors were handleless and identical in every way.

"Someone shut the door." Harry muttered.

"Wait!" I cried but it was too late. The door was shut and a second later, the room began to spin.

"What was that about?" Ron asked fearfully once it had stopped.

"So we get lost," I said flatly. "For anyone who doesn't work as an Unspeakable, you would get lost the moment the door shut. Keeping you from leaving with the knowledge in here is easier than keeping you out."

"How are we going to get out then?" Neville asked.

I could tell Harry was getting antsy so I replied. "One step at a time, Mr Longbottom."

"Where now, Harry?" Ron prompted.

"I don't—" he started. "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. I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon." He strode across the room, readied his want and pushed the door open.

One look told me this was not the one we were looking for. I ushered them all out. "Nope, nope, nope." I muttered. "That was just wrong."

"What?" Leo asked, him having been unable to see over everyone's heads.

"Brains." I said, almost gagging. "Let's try another one."

Those who had stepped in the room took a big step back. Luna made to close the door but Hermione and I both stopped her.

"Flagrate!" Hermione said and wrote a fiery X on the door. It shut and the room spun again but this time with a red blur making a line around us.

"Good thinking Miss Granger," I complimented.

The next room was one Hecate had told me about. It was shaped like an amphitheater and at the center was a raised stone dais that held an archway. A tattered black curtain fluttered slightly in nonexistent wind.

"Who's there?" Before I could stop him, Harry jumped down the stone benches descending around the room until he reached the bottom.

"No one, Harry," I said. "That's the Veil of Death and you are to stay far away from that, do you hear me?"

"How do you know?"? Ron asked. "You don't work here."

"I know someone," I answered curtly, glancing uncertainly at the campers. I looked down and saw Harry hadn't listened to me and was edging closer. "Harry Potter." My tone made everyone (but Luna) jump. He turned to me with wide eyes.

"Do you hear it?" He asked.

I paled. This boy's fate made me want to strangle someone. "Harry, those voices you are hearing are coming from the dead. Only you hear them and I'll tell you why once this is all over but we have a job to do first, ok?"

Harry gave me a look and I knew he'd be holding me to my word. He clambered after the others out of the room and I made sure to snap the door shut tight after Hermione marked the door.

I was honestly getting a little dizzy from all the spinning.

The next door was chosen by me this time seeing as they were going to pick one that I could feel the heat radiating off of it from where I stood.

"This is it!" Harry exclaimed as I took in the dancing diamond-sparkling light. It was coming from a giant crystal bell jar at the other side of the room.

We didn't spend too much time here, all of our nerves were on edge. Harry led everyone to a door off to the side and pushed it open. The room had a tall ceiling and shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glowed a soft blue that added to the cold temperatures of the room.

"You said it was row 97," Hermione whispered, breaking the dead silence.

"Yeah," Harry breathed.

All eyes were drawn to the edge of the closest shelf.

"We need to go right," Hermione whispered, prompting us in the right direction.

The rows passed quickly and my heart was pounding loudly in my ears now. Some of the orbs had labels and some were dark and dull. The whole thing was just weird.

"Here!" I exclaimed excitedly. I glanced around the first few shelves, and not seeing what I was looking for, I took a closer look at the labels. They were in alphabetical order.

"Alright, what's this all about?" Thalia demanded as we ran down the aisle.

"Not yet, Miss Grace." I used her last name on purpose, hoping she'd be too distracted to push it further. Fortunately, I was right. She grumbled darkly as she followed after Harry and me.

"Do you see it?" I called up to the people ahead of me. Harry had gone on ahead while Thalia and I had our exchange. I was closely following Ron and Hermione who were not two steps behind him.

"Here it is, Harry!" Ron said, too loudly. It was on a shelf at the end, almost too tall for Harry to have seen it.

Harry's eyes became fixated on the orb glowing brighter than the others on the shelf that Ron was pointing to.

"Remember the plan, Harry," I said. He nodded before wrapping his fingers around the growing object.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me." As we turned to see the black figures that appeared out of nowhere surrounding us, somehow I knew that the one who spoke was Draco Malfoy's father.

"Thalia and anyone else with a shield, form a circular phalanx," I ordered. My voice must have left no room for questioning because Thalia, Frank, Hazel and Clarisse instantly snapped out shields to form a protective shell around the entire group. Hopefully in the chaos of everything happening tonight, they forget anything suspicious.

The twelve Death Eaters didn't have time to respond before it was formed but once they did, they shot experimental stunners at the shields. Nothing happened. I smirked.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry demanded. Echoing laughs came from the Death Eaters surrounding us.

"The Dark Lord always knows!"

"Always," Malfoy whispered. "Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."

"Prophecy?" Grover despaired. "All this for a prophecy?"

I felt sorry for him but now was not the time for explanations.

"I want to know where Sirius is!" Harry played his part well. His anger and desperation made the Death Eaters laugh again.

"I want to know where Sirius is!" mocked a woman to the left.

"You've got him, I know he's here."

"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo." The woman said in a horrible imitation of a baby voice.

I shifted. I decided I was going for her when the fighting started. Not even a minute in her presence and she was on my nerves.

"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter," Malfoy sneered. "Now give me the prophecy, or we'll start using wands."

"Go on then," Harry challenged, raising his wand above the shield sheltering him.

Our whole group hefted their wands—or weapons. I held my wand, unsure about taking out Riptide now as I had originally planned before the campers decided to tag along.

Nobody moved.

"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt." Malfoy said.

Now Harry laughed. "Yeah, right! I give you this—prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"

"Action Proph—" the woman I'm convinced is Bellatrix started but Harry and I were ready. We both yelled, "Protego!"

"Oh, he knows how to play, little bratty baby Potter," she said, her eyes twinkling behind her hood. "Very well then—"

"I TOLD YOU NO!" Lucius roared. "If you smash it—!"

"They're out numbered." I said quietly. "They'll need more than whatever they have now to convince you to just hand it over." I was talking to Harry almost theatrically.

"Like what, Percy?" Harry asked innocently.

I shrugged. "I dunno, maybe if they gave you Sirius? Otherwise, smashing it seems almost tempting, doesn't it? After all, you don't even know what it is."

He hummed. "You're right. Too bad. Voldemort probably wants it terribly badly if he's willing to send most of his followers into the Ministry in full Death Eater garb."

Several Death Eaters hissed. "You dare speak his name?" Whispered Bellatrix.

"Yeah," Harry said confidently. "Yeah, I've got no problem saying, Vol—"

"Shut your mouth!" Bella shrieked.

"He's as bad as Percy." Grover whimpered.

I couldn't help a grin at that, looking at the mentioned 15 year old in pride.

"Mr. Weasley, I'm disappointed, I thought better of you than for you to associate with filthy half-bloods," a familiar voice giggled.

My face turned stony and my eyes zeroed in on the source of the voice that caused chills to crawl down my spine. "Umbridge." I returned as tonelessly as I could. I did not want to encourage any conversation with this lady. "Funny that you're hanging with Voldemort then."

"You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's and blood traitor's tongues, you dare—"

"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" Harry interrupted, almost gleefully. I heard Hermione and Grover groan. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a muggle—or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"

"STUPIFY!"

"NO!"'

But it was too late. The red light from Bellatrix had bounced harmlessly off Thalia's shield but that didn't stop the fighting that ensued. Spells were being shot at the shelves, making them fall with ear shattering crashes.

"NO! WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" Malfoy's cries were in vain.

Brightly colored lights flew in every direction. Harry and his friends ran toward the exit like I'd told him to do once the fighting started. I glanced around. Good, he grabbed the three that weren't there for our planning and the demigods had caught on to Harry's plan and were following them. Without further ado, I went after Umbridge. It seems I'd changed my mind about who I was going after.

"Get back here, child abuser!" I shouted, running after her. "When I'm done with you, you're gonna wish Tartarus was where you went instead of Azkaban!"

"Mr. Weasley, do use an inside voice." She said patronizingly. "Besides, I thought we'd shared the same ideals."

"Like Hades we do!" I growled, offended she'd thought that at all. Without really knowing what spell I was using, I waved my wand in her direction. Hecate had said that magic was really about intent and I was hoping that what ever the magic interpreted my intentions as, it was lethal. "With how fake you were, I'm surprised you didn't see through my act!"

All through our conversation, she was blocking spells, not even attempting to fire any back at me other than a few harmless and weakly cast ones. We were slowly making our way back through the rooms. I do not know when we made it to the room with the Veil of Death but everyone else was there. It was here that I noticed Pettigrew for the first time.

Umbridge joined Bellatrix, back to back. Some Death Eaters were fighting two campers at once. They put up a good fight but I think they were thrown off by Nico's soul sucking sword. That thing could kill horcruxes.

Ginny was limping. Ron was giggling. Neither of those things looked particularly good. The campers looked beat but still going strong. Harry and Neville were holding up Hermione, protecting her between them.

"Mr. Weasley, I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement." Umbridge was saying. "You don't really care about the children at that school, do you? They are menaces, really."

That's it.

It's definitely not the worst thing she's said but I am done with her. She's trying to tip me over the edge and she's going to regret it.

I stopped firing.

"Dolores Umbridge." I growled. It was low but it echoed and caused fighting to stop around us. I dug into my pocket to pull out a familiar pen. "I swear by Lady Magic and the river Styx, you will die tonight."

I twisted my ring and uncapped Riptide with one hand. I heard gasps as a trident appeared in one hand and a three foot bronze sword in the other.