𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗟

ACT TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN
the department of mysteries.

A COUPLE PUNCHES, some stunning spells, a nice Impediment jinx, and one fantastic Bat-Bogey Hex to Draco by Ginny, the group had finally managed to escape Umbridge's office with the wands that had been taken. They had spotted Harry, Venus, Hermione and Umbridge walk into the Forbidden Forest — what Hermione was planning, Penelope had no clue — so the group of seven ran in that direction.

They weren't doing so well physically. Ginny had several long scratches running the length of her cheek, Neville had a large purple lump swelling above his right eye, Ron's lip was bleeding even worse, Charlotte's nose was slightly bleeding, Elijah was sporting a black eye, and Penelope was bleeding out of her mouth. She didn't really care, but as they moved through the trees and finally spotted Harry, Venus, and Hermione, they managed to look worse than them. They were covered in blood — okay?

"Well, we can't do anything without wands," Hermione was saying. "Anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?"

"Yeah, we were just wondering that," Ron replied. They finally pushed through the trees, and Ron pushed aside a low-hanging branch and held out Harry's wand. "So, had any ideas?"

"How did you get away?" Harry asked in amazement while taking his wand back.

"Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," Ron explained, giving Venus and Hermione their wands as well. "But Ginny was best, she got Malfoy — Bat-Bogey Hex — it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things. Penelope was brilliant as well — she started the whole fight by punching Parkinson across the face." He then looked down at her in concern. "Hey, I saw her get your mouth. You all right?"

Penelope wiped away some blood from the corner of her mouth with her bruised knuckles. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Anyway, we saw you heading into the forest out of the window and followed. What've you done with Umbridge?"

"She got carried away," Harry answered. "By a herd of Centaurs."

Penelope nodded. "Sick."

"And they left you behind?" Ginny questioned, looking astonished.

"No, they got chased off by Grawp," Harry responded.

"Who's Grawp?" Luna inquired interestedly.

"Hagrid's little brother," Ron told her. "Anyway, never mind that now. Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or—?"

"Yes, and I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him," Harry revealed.

All of them fell silent, looking a little scared. They had finally gotten to the hard part of the plan.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" Luna suggested, her voice less airy than it usually was.

Harry rounded on her irritably. "Okay, first of all, we aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so—"

"I've got a broom!" Ginny insisted.

"Yeah, but you're not coming," Ron told her angrily.

Ginny's jaw set, suddenly holding a striking resemblance to Fred and George — sending a small pang through Penelope's chest. "Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!"

"You're too—" Harry began.

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Sorcerer's Stone, and it's because of me Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogeys attacking him—"

"Yeah, but—"

"We were all in the D.A. together," Neville cut in quietly. "It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that all just a game or something?"

"No — of course it wasn't—" Harry stated impatiently.

"Then we should come too. We want to help."

"That's right," Luna agreed, smiling happily.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because we still don't know how to get there—" Harry continued frustratedly.

"I thought we'd settled that?" Luna interrupted. "We're flying!"

"Look, you might be able to fly without a broomstick but the rest of us can't sprout wings whenever we—" Ron voiced, barely containing his anger, making Penelope roll her eyes.

"There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks."

"I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?" Ron demanded.

"Ron, come on," Penelope scolded. "Lay off of her."

"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly, but they can, and Hagrid says they're very good at finding places their riders are looking for," Luna announced.

Penelope peered through the trees. Standing there were two Thestrals, their white eyes gleaming eerily in the dark. She took a step closer to Ron — ever since finding out what seeing Thestrals meant, they kind of freaked her out a little.

"Yes!" Harry whispered, apparently thinking Thestrals were the best things ever as he patted one of their necks.

"Is it those mad horse things?" Ron asked, staring a little too far to the left from the Thestral Harry was patting. "Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?"

"Yeah."

"How many?"

"Just two."

"Well, we need four," Hermione revealed, looking shaken but determined just the same.

"Five," Penelope corrected, crossing her arms. "You're taking me. I didn't punch people today for nothing."

Ron scoffed. "No, you're st—"

"Do not finish that sentence, Ronald Weasley, or I will punch you harder than Warrington."

"I'm gonna be quiet."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Elijah raised his hand. "Uh, we'll need two more. Lottie and I, that makes seven—"

Ginny scowled. "Eight, Eli."

"I think there are ten of us, actually," Luna said calmly as she counted everyone there.

"Don't be stupid, we can't all go!" Harry shouted. "Look, you three—" he pointed at Neville, Ginny, and Luna "—you're not involved in this, you're not—" They burst into more protests, but Harry apparently was done with arguing. "Okay, fine, it's your choice. But unless we can find more Thestrals you're not going to be able—"

"Oh, more of them will come," Ginny told him confidently, staring in the total wrong direction of where the Thestrals were.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because in case you hadn't noticed, you, Venus, and Hermione are both covered in blood, and we know Hagrid lures Thestrals with raw meat, so that's probably why these two turned up in the first place . . ."

Penelope looked over. Sure enough, the closest Thestral to Harry was licking his sleeve that was damp with blood.

"Okay, then," Harry stated. "Ron and I will take these two and go ahead, and Hermione can stay here with you seven and she'll attract more Thestrals—"

"I'm not staying behind!" Hermione insisted furiously.

Luna them smiled. "There's no need. Look, here come more now . . . you two must really smell . . ."

It was true. No fewer than eight or nine Thestrals were coming through the trees now, their great leathery wings folded tight to their bodies with their eyes gleaming through the darkness. It was evident Harry was frustrated that he had no excuse now.

"All right, pick one and get on, then," Harry decided.

Penelope let out a deep breath before slowly approaching one of the creatures. Just like Neville, Luna, and Harry had done, she wound her hand tightly into the mane of the nearest Thestral. She lifted her leg and mounted the horse's silken back. It didn't object, surprisingly. Once she was settled, she looked back to her boyfriend. He — along with Venus, Charlotte, Elijah, Hermione, and Ginny — were staring openmouthed at all of them. It must've been strange to just see people floating in midair.

"What?" Harry demanded.

"How're we supposed to get on?" Ron questioned faintly. "When we can't see the things?"

"Oh it's easy," Luna replied, sliding off of her Thestral and marching over to their group. "Come here . . ."

She brought them over to the other Thestrals standing around. One by one, she helped all of them onto the horses' backs. They all looked very nervous as Luna wound their hands into the manes and told them to grip tightly before getting onto her own steed.

"This is mad," Ron admitted, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horse's neck. "Mad . . . if I could just see it—"

"You'd better hope it stays invisible," Harry responded darkly. Penelope nodded in agreement. Seeing Thestrals was just another painful reminder of what her mother had actually done. "We all ready, then?" All of them nodded. "Okay . . ." He looked down at his Thestral. "Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then. Er . . . if you know . . . where to go . . ."

The Thestrals did nothing at all. Then, suddenly, with a sweeping movement that nearly knocked Penelope off, the wings on her Thestral extended. The horse crouched slowly and then shot into the sky so fast and steep that Penelope had to wrap her entire body around her Thestral to avoid sliding off. They burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into the bloodred sunset.

Moving at a speed this high was something Penelope was not used to. They went over the grounds of Hogwarts in the blink of an eye and then passed over Hogsmeade. Mountains and gullies were scattered below them. There were small collections of lights as they went over more villages, and there was even a single car racing down a winding road.

"This is bizarre!" Ron yelled.

Penelope didn't dare turn around. She would've liked to respond to him, but her main concern right now was not falling off her Thestral.

Twilight then fell. The sky turned from red to a light, dusky purple that was littered with tiny silver stars. Soon it was only the lights of some Muggle towns that gave them any clue how high they were up or how fast they were going — which was very fast, by the way. They continued to fly through the darkness, Penelope's face getting stiff from the cold and her legs numb from trying to hold on. She wondered how much longer this would be.

Her question was answered by orange lights growing larger and rounder on all sides. The tops of buildings, headlights from cars, and pale yellow squares were now visible. It suddenly occurred to her that they were now hurtling towards the pavement. Penelope held on tighter and closed her eyes to brace herself for impact, but the Thestral landed on the ground lightly. She slid off, her legs feeling a little wobbly. Around her was an overflowing dumpster and a vandalized telephone box.

Ron landed and toppled immediately off of his Thestral onto the pavement. "Never again." He struggled to his feet and went to walk away from it, but since he was unable to see it, he collided with it and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again . . . that was the worst—"

"You're okay," Penelope told him, reaching out and taking his hand for comfort — for him or for her, she wasn't sure. "Come on."

Hermione, Venus, and Ginny touched down around him. Both slid off their mounts more gracefully than Ron had, although they were relieved that they were back on the firm ground. Charlotte had stumbled off, grumbling in annoyance, before walking over to Elijah and helping him down. Neville was shaking as he jumped down, but Luna merely dismounted smoothly.

"Where do we go from here, then?" Luna questioned to Harry politely.

"Over here," Harry instructed. He patted his Thestral quickly before leading them over to the battered telephone box and opened the door. "Come on!"

Penelope marched into the box, Ron right behind her since their hands were still interlocked. Ginny was after them, forcing Ron to press up against Penelope in the corner. Somehow, Harry, Venus, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Charlotte, and Elijah all squashed in after them. It was a very tightly packed telephone box, and Penelope was feeling very uncomfortable at the moment.

"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" Harry ordered.

Ron reached out and did as he was told, his arm bent at a very bizarre angle to reach the dial. It whirled black into place for a moment.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," a cool female voice sounded from inside the box. "Please state your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Venus Black, Charlotte Thomas, Elijah Rogers, Penelope Lestrange, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood . . ." Harry listed off very quickly. "We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Thank you. Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes." Ten badges slid out of the metal chute. Hermione scooped them up and handed them to Harry from over Ginny's head. "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 shouted. "Now can we move?"

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and they were suddenly descending, the pavement rising up past the glass windows. Blackness closed over their heads, and with a very dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. There was a small ray of golden light at their feet which then widened and rose up to the top of the telephone box. Penelope was kind of able to see out of the glass — nobody was at the Atrium, and the Ministry of Mgic looked completely dead. The lights were dimmed and there were no fires burning under the mantelpieces into the walls, but golden symbols continued to twist in the dark blue ceiling.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening," the woman's voice told them.

At once, the door of the telephone box burst open. All of them toppled out of it, and Penelope held onto Ron's hand tight as they all stood up. The only sound in the Atrium was a steady rush of water from the golden fountain. Jets of water flowed into the surrounding pool from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the Centaur's arrow, the tip of the Goblin's hat, and the House-Elf's ears.

"Come on," Harry said quietly.

The group of ten sprinted off down the hall. Harry led them past the fountain and a security desk — which was empty, and that didn't seem like a good sign. They passed through the golden gates to the lifts, where Harry pressed the nearest down button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately. The golden grilles slid apart and all ten of them cramped inside again. Not as tight as the telephone box, it was still uncomfortable. Harry pressed the button that would lead them to the ninth floor. The grilles closed with a loud bang, and the lift descended while jangling and rattling. Finally, the lift halted.

"Department of Mysteries," the female voice announced again.

They all stepped out into the corridor once the grilles slid open. Penelope's grip on Ron's hand tightened as she looked around the corridor. It was dark — in fact, the only movement were from the nearest torches, which flickered from the rush of air that the lift had created. At the very end of the corridor was a plain black door. Penelope kept a straight face — like she normally did — but it sent shivers down her spine.

"Let's go," Harry whispered. They went off down the hall towards the door and stopped within six feet of the door. "Maybe . . . 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?" Ginny inquired, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

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

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

Harry looked like he still didn't want all of them to go with him, but Penelope sent him an eyebrow raise — he really had no choice. He let out a small sigh and turned to the door. Once they all approached it, it swung open automatically. Harry marched in with Venus, their hands tightly intertwined as well. Penelope swallowed her nervousness and walked inside with Ron.

The room they were in was large and circular. It was completely black — the floor and ceiling included. Identical, unmarked, and handle-less black doors were spread out along the black walls. They were separated by branches of candles with blue flames, which reflected on the shining marble floor and made it look like they were standing on top of dark water.

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered.

Mistake on his part. Once Neville shut the door, the room got even darker without the rays of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them. All they were able to see were the blue flames and their ghostly reflections in the floor below. A rumbling noise then echoed through the room as Harry was staring at all of the doors. The candles began to move sideways, and that told Penelope that the room was rotating. Absentmindedly, Penelope moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be doing the same so that their shoulders were touching. Finally, the rumbling stopped, and everything was stationary once more.

"What was that about?" Ron asked quietly and fearfully.

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

She was right. Penelope now had no clue which door they had come through. Well, wasn't that just fucking fantastic.

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

"Well, that doesn't matter now," Harry replied forcefully, cluthcing both his wand and Venus' hand tighter than ever. "We won't need to get out till we've found Sirius—"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione insisted urgently.

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

"I don't—" Harry began before swallowing nervously. "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."

All of them marched at the door they were facing. Harry set his left hand on it and pushed. It swung open easily. This room had lamps hanging low on golden chains from the ceiling. It was much brighter than the circular room, but there was nothing glittering about this room. There was nothing inside besides a few empty desks and an enormous glass tank of deep green water in the very middle of the room. It had a couple of pearly white objects floating around lazily in the liquid.

Ron squeezed Penelope's hand. "What're those things?"

"Dunno," Harry responded.

"Are they fish?" Ginny asked.

"Aquavirius Maggots!" Luna exclaimed excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding—"

"No," Hermione cut in. She sounded very odd, making Penelope knit her eyebrows in concern as Hermione moved forwards to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."

"You're shitting me," Penelope voiced. "Brains? What kind of fucking place are we in right now?"

"Yes, and I'm not sure . . . I wonder what they're doing with them?"

Venus then admitted that she'd rather not find out. Penelope wholeheartedly agreed.

"Let's get out of here," Harry urged. "This isn't right, we need to try another door—"

"There are doors here too," Ron pointed out as he gestured to the many other doors around them.

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one. I think we should go back and try from there."

They hurried back into the dark, circular room. Luna went to go close the door, but Hermione was quick to stop her.

"Wait!" Hermione insisted. She pulled out her wand and drew a shape in the air. "Flagrate!"

A fiery X appeared on the door. Once the door clicked shut behind them, the rumbling sound was heard again. The wall revolved very fast, and when it became still again, the fiery cross still burned on the door they had already tried.

"Good thinking," Harry approved. "Okay, let's try this one—"

He strode directly towards the door facing him. Once he pushed it open, they found themselves in a large room that was dimly lit and rectangular. In the center of it was a sort of stone pit about twenty feet below them. The group of ten all stood on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches that ran all around the room. It descended in steep steps like an amphitheater that led to a stone archway on a dais. The archway looked very ancient and cracked, and it had an old tattered black curtain or veil hanging from it that was fluttering very slightly despite the stillness of the cold surrounding air.

"Who's there?" Harry demanded, letting go of Venus and jumping down on the bench below, where the veil continued to flutter and sway.

"Careful!" Hermione whispered.

Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the pit. Penelope shared a concerned glance with Ron before descending down the benches as well. Harry's footsteps echoed loudly as he approached the dais slowly.

He edged around the dais. "Sirius?"

"Let's go," Hermione called from halfway up the stone steps. "This isn't right, Harry, come on, let's go . . ."

She sounded scared. Penelope finally reached the bottom, keeping close to Ron as she watched Harry stare up at the veil in interest. Venus then approached his side, telling him forcefully that she had to go, obviously worried about what Harry was doing.

"Okay," Harry agreed to her, not moving at all. "What are you saying?"

Charlotte frowned. "Harry, are you, like, going crazy? There's nobody talking. Maybe I should get you that therapist."

"Someone's whispering behind there," Harry insisted, continuing to frown at the veil. "Is that you, Ron?"

"I'm here, mate," Ron admitted, him and Penelope walking up to him.

"Can't anyone else hear it?"

"I can hear them too," Luna breathed out, joining all of them around the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. "There are people in there!"

"What do you mean, in there?" Hermione demanded, jumping down from the bottom step and sounding much angrier than she had before. "There isn't any in there, it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there — Harry, stop it, come away—" She grabbed Harry's arm and pulled, but he resisted. "Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!"

"Sirius," Harry repeated, still staring at the veil like he was in a trance. "Yeah . . ." Something then apparently clicked in his brain, because he took several steps back from the dais and looked down at Venus, the fog in his eyes clearing. "Let's go."

"That's what I've been trying to — well, come on, then!" Hermione replied, leading the way back around the dais.

Ginny, Neville, and Elijah were still staring at the veil too, apparently entranced. Hermione took Ginny's arm, Charlotte took Elijah's, and Ron took Neville's with the one he wasn't holding in Penelope's and marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and climbed all the way back to the door.

"What d'you reckon that arch was?" Harry questioned to Venus, and she merely responded that she didn't want to know, but all she did know was that it was very dangerous.

Hermione then inscribed another fiery cross upon the door. The wall spun around once more and then became still. Harry chose a random door and pushed, but it didn't budge.

"What's wrong?" Hermione inquired.

"It's . . . locked . . ." Harry revealed, throwing all his body weight on the door, but it didn't budge.

"This is it, then, isn't it?" Ron asked, letting go of Penelope for the time being to help Harry try and open the door. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling very alone. "Bound to be!"

"Get out of the way!" Hermione ordered sharply, pointing her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door. "Alohomora!"

Nothing happened.

"Sirius' knife!" Harry then announced.

He pulled out a whole fucking knife from his robes. Harry slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. Penelope tilted her head as she watched him run it from the top to the bottom. He withdrew it and then flung his shoulder at the door. It remained shut, but now the blade on Sirius' knife had melted.

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

"But what if that's the one?" Ron argued, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing.

"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream," Hermione countered, marking the door with another fiery cross.

"You know what could be in there?" Luna questioned as the wall started to spin again.

"Something blibbering, no doubt," Hermione muttered under her breath, and Penelope glared at her.

Harry pushed the next door open once the wall slid back to a halt. "This is it!"

Just like he had described earlier, the room was indeed glittering. There were multiple different clocks hanging in spaces between bookcases or standing on desks covering the length of the room. The room was filled with a relentless ticking noise, and the source of the dancing, diamond-bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room. Penelope didn't have a very good feeling about this at all. She held out her hand, and Ron immediately laced their fingers together again.

"This way!"

Harry led them forwards down the narrow space between the lines of desk towards the source of the light. The crystal bell jar was taller than Penelope, and was sitting on a desk. It appeared to be full of a billowing and glittering wind.

"Oh look!" Ginny exclaimed as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar.

Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny egg decorated with bright jewels. It rose in the jar and cracked open, a hummingbird emerging. It was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draft, its feathers became bedraggled and damp again. By the time it went down to the bottom of the jar, it was enclosed once more in its egg. Penelope twirled her wand in her fingers nervously. This jar . . . it was just making her unsettled.

"Keep going!" Harry encouraged sharply, noticing that Ginny wanted to stay and watch the hummingbird.

"You dawdled enough by that old arch!" Ginny protested crossly, but nevertheless, she followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it.

"This is it. It's through here—"

Harry glanced back at them. Penelope tried to swallow her nerves and clenched both her wand and Ron's hand a little tighter. If Sirius was actually here, that meant Voldemort was here . . . well, shit. Harry then looked back at the door. It swung open.

The place was as high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves that were covered in small, dusty orbs made of glass. They glimmered dully in the light coming from more candle brackets that were set at intervals along the shelves. Just like back in the circular room, their flames burned blue. The room was very cold. Penelope shivered slightly as Harry edged them forwards. He peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. There was no movement, no sounds, no nothing.

"You said it was row ninety-seven," Hermione whispered.

"Yeah," Harry breathed out.

At the end of the closest row, a silver figure glimmering the numbers fifty-three was beneath the branch of blue-flamed candles.

"We need to go right, I think," Hermione declared, squinting up at the next row. "Yes . . . that's fifty-four . . ."

"Keep your wands out," Harry instructed.

Penelope wanted to respond with something like no shit, but she decided that now really wasn't the time. She crept forwards with the rest of her group, occasionally looking behind her as they moved down the long alley of shelves. The farther ends of the room were in near total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelf. Some of them had a weird liquid glow to them while others were dull and dark. They passed row eighty-four, then eighty-five . . .

"Ninety-seven!" Hermione announced.

All of them stood grouped at the end of the row. Penelope peered down, and her heart momentarily stopped upon noticing nobody there.

"He's right down at the end," Harry stated, but it sounded an awful lot like he was trying to convince himself that. "You can't see properly from here . . ." He led them forwards between the towering rows of glass balls, some of which glowed softly as they passed. "He should be near here. Anywhere here . . . really close . . ."

Penelope knew better. Sirius wasn't here — that meant somebody wanted Harry to come, and she had a very bad feeling as to who.

"Harry?" Hermione began tentatively.

"Somewhere about . . . here . . ." Harry continued.

They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. Nobody was there whatsoever. All there was was an echoing, dusty silence.

"He might be . . ." Harry peered down the alley next door. "Or maybe . . ." He hurried to look down the one beyond that.

Venus — who looked frightened — then repeated his name. When he asked her what was wrong, she finally was the one to tell him that Sirius wasn't here. Harry seemed like he didn't want to believe it — he then began to run up the space at the end of the rows, trying to find Sirius desperately. Penelope glanced around for a moment before her eyes caught on a singular orb. She did a double take — there was just absolutely no way that it said that.

"The fuck . . . ?" Penelope whispered to herself, letting go of Ron for a moment and moving closer to the shelf. Sure enough, her eyes were not deceiving her. "Um, Harry . . ."

"What?" Harry demanded, sounding as if he did not want to hear what she had to say.

"I think you need to come here." She glanced over to see him a little ways down. "Like, right now."

Harry came up to her, obviously eager thinking that she had found something out about Sirius. "What?" He became glum once he saw her just staring at one of the glass balls. "What?"

She pointed to one of the small glass spheres above them that glowed with a dull inner light and was very dusty. "This might be a little unsettling, but your name's on this one."

"My name?"

In spidery writing on one of the yellowing labels affixed to the shelf right beneath the sphere, was — indeed — Harry's name.

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.
Dark Lord
and (?) Harry Potter

"What is it?" Ron questioned, sounding unnerved. "What's your name doing down here?" He glanced at the other labels on the shelf. "I'm not here. None of the rest of us are here . . ."

"I don't think we would be, Ron," Penelope responded, clenching her wand tightly as she glanced around the room for any signs of what was about to come. "This is much bigger than that . . . guys, we have to get out of here."

"P—"

"Right now," Penelope encouraged. She then noticed Harry stretching his hand towards the glass ball. "It's a trap, we've got to go — leave the sphere, Harry, don't fucking touch it—"

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

"Don't, Harry," Neville agreed, looking extremely nervous.

Elijah nodded. "Penelope's right. This . . . this feels like something bigger than we should be dealing with. Maybe the Thestrals are still outside—"

"It's got my name on," Harry interrupted.

He then — oh, fucking get this — closed his fingers around the glass sphere. Harry lowered the glass ball from its shelf and stared down at it. Penelope swore her heart stopped as she watched him brush off the clogging dust.

"Very good, Potter," a very familiar, drawling voice said from right behind them. "Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

Penelope's eyes widened and she whirled around only to be met with the figure of none other than Lucius Malfoy. Around him, black swirls of smoke appeared out of thin air. They blocked any exit, their eyes glinting through the slits in their hoods and their lit wand tips pointing directly at their hearts.

Well, Penelope thought to herself. Isn't this fucking fantastic. I tried to tell him.

She heard Ginny give a gasp of horror from somewhere in their group. However, Penelope figured that if she could shut down Draco, then she could definitely shut down Lucius. Her eyes narrowed and she took a step forwards to be in front of Harry, ignoring the protests her friends made behind her and Ron trying to grab onto her hand again.

"Hello, Uncle," Penelope greeted. "You know, it's really great to see you here, but we're kind of on a rescue mission, so if you could take your Death Eater pals and get the fuck out of here, that would be greatly appreciated."

Lucius' top lip curled. "I would hold your tongue if I were you, Penelope."

"Penelope?" a very harsh, high-pitched voice repeated.

It came from the left side of the group. Penelope glanced over, her eyebrows knitting in confusion as she watched one of the Death Eaters take a step forwards. Her face was covered by the shadow of her hood but Penelope could see a strand of hair peeking out. It was black and curly — just like Penelope's. Penelope's eyes widened. If that hair was just like hers, then that meant . . .

The woman pulled off her hood. Who she revealed herself to be made Penelope's heart completely stop and it suddenly became very hard to breathe. A glowing, fanatical look was written across the woman's face as she stared at Penelope, and the woman who had — even all the way from Azkaban — made Penelope's life a living hell moved closer to her with a deep hunger swirling in her eyes.

"Little Penelope . . ." Bellatrix Lestrange voiced softly. "Look at you . . . come here, dear. Come to mummy."

☆ 彡

. . . uh oh

SHIT'S ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN

also dumbledore slander is ALWAYS welcome on my account <3