Chapter 10, A Deadly Trap

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 20

Everyone is back here together this morning except for Harry. I’m getting very worried about him – it’s not like him to not be here to look after me. Madame Pomfrey says he was here watching over me last night while I was sleeping, but he left again before I woke up. I need to see him! Neville couldn’t find any sign of him. With his invisibility cloak and his map I know he can easily avoid being found if he doesn’t want to be, but why is he staying away from us?

Oh well – we’re continuing to sort through the experience so I can write it all down.

Once the thestrals landed the six of us found ourselvesin a dilapidated alleyway which Harry recognized from last summer, with overflowing dumpsters and a vandalized telephone box covered with graffiti. After we all dismounted and I removed the disillusionment charms, Harry asked Ron and Susan for advice, which makes sense since they have Ministry employees in their families.

“Do either of you guys know if there is a better way in than this?” he inquired.

“Not that I know of,” Susan answered while Ron shrugged in agreement. “Most employees apparate in or use the floo.” The six of them gingerly approached the phone booth and crammed themselves in, with Ron and Neville blushing at the rather intimate contact with Luna and Susan, while Harry and Hermione didn’t much mind pressing themselves together as tightly as possible. Harry gestured at the receiver and told Hermione to dial 6-2-4-4-2 which activated the recorded message welcoming them to the Ministry. They picked up their badges, which ironically stated that their business at the Ministry was a ‘rescue mission’ and after a few more annoying messages the telephone box deposited them into a completely deserted Atrium.

“This isn’t right,” Susan declared, glancing toward Ron for confirmation.

“No, it’s not,” he agreed, looking around nervously.

“That security desk is supposed to be manned twenty-four hours a day,” she pointed out, gesturing to the desk at the other end of the hall where Harry had gotten his wand weighed last summer.

The silence was eerie, with the only sound the trickling water in the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Hermione, who was already holding Harry’s hand, gripped it more tightly, and Susan moved closer to Neville and took his arm. Ron continued glancing around uneasily, but Luna just gazed unconcernedly at the fountain.

“The floos,” Susan blurted out, and she hurried over to the bank of fireplaces along one side of the wide space. “Amelia Bones!” she shouted as she threw some floo powder into one of the fires. But nothing happened. She turned back toward the group in shock.

“I can’t believe it. Someone’s shut down the floo connections,” Ron concluded with alarm. “That’s Madam Edgecombe’s department, right?” he asked Susan. As soon as he mentioned the name Edgecombe, everyone groaned, remembering Marietta’s betrayal. They all shook their heads, wondering at the ominous connection.

Hermione cleared her throat. “Listen, it’s getting more and more evident that this is a trap, and that this whole thing was a setup to lure Harry here. But knowing that gives us an advantage. Harry and I have come up with a plan.” The two of them quickly explained their idea. After they made their way down to the Department of Mysteries, they would split up. Harry would go in first, seeming to be alone. Ron and Hermione would follow close behind under Harry’s invisibility cloak. (Harry had been impressed that Hermione still had it, even after being surprised by Umbridge in her office.) The other three would hang back, out of sight, and under the disillusionment charm.

Once more they crammed together, this time into the lift, and Harry pressed the button for level nine. Soon the calm female voice announced their destination.

“Do you know exactly where we’re going?” Ron murmured from beside Harry as they walked down the long corridor toward the black door from his dreams.

“Not exactly,” Harry replied. “I only know it’s through that door, and then through another one opposite. Have you ever been down here?” Ron shook his head and the two of them turned to Susan.

“Me either,” she said. “I only know that there’s a lot of secret stuff down here, in several different rooms.”

The full impact of that statement hit them the moment he opened the black door. After pausing for a moment staring through the doorway in surprise, he motioned the rest of them forward and they followed him through. The found themselves in a large, circular room with a dozen identical doors spaced at even intervals around the circumference. As soon as the door they had entered through shut behind them the wall began to rotate with a rumbling noise. They all shuddered, and once more hands were clasped tightly and arms were taken hold of, this time even including Luna, who latched onto Ron with her eyes wide. When the wall stopped spinning they had no idea what door they were facing.

“Oh great,” Harry moaned. “Now which one?”

Hermione immediately took over. “All right, this is clearly a security measure, but we just need to approach it logically. Everyone spread out and stand by alternating doors. Each person in turn open your door a crack and peek though it. Shut it immediately if there’s danger on the other side, but otherwise leave it ajar. I expect that whoever’s setting the trap won’t spring it until we get to the room with all the rows of shelves.”

“Draw your wands first,” Harry added. “And we’re looking for a room that kind of … glitters.” They all complied and reported in turn.

“Mine’s locked,” Harry announced. It refused to yield to either his or Hermione’s Alohamora spells, and when he tried Sirius’s knife the blade melted. This effect fascinated Ron, but despite his objections they abandoned their attempt to open it and Hermione marked the wall above it with a large flaming X.

Ron’s doorway led to a long rectangular room with some desks and an enormous tank with something floating in it. As he described it Hermione crossed over to look for herself. “They’re brains,” she announced in an awed voice. “I wonder what they’re doing with them?” Harry joined her and looked over her head.

“It doesn’t matter right now. This isn’t it,” he declared, pulling her away. Ron stayed at that door while Harry and Hermione returned to their own, after Hermione marked it with a flaming B.

Neville’s door turned out to be the way they had come from. Hermione instructed him to hold it open while they checked the other rooms and she marked the wall above it with a flaming E.

Luna went next. Behind her door was a large open room that went down in the center like an amphitheater. Stone benches descended to a stone dias at the bottom, and in the middle of that stood an archway. There was a black curtain hanging from the arch and Luna stepped forward, clearly fascinated.

“The Death Chamber,” she announced. “Father’s always said this was here. It’s where they hold their secret executions.” While the others had become accustomed to her fanciful tales and Ministry conspiracy theories they had to admit that this was exactly what this room looked like.

“Auntie’s never mentioned anything about that,” Susan commented doubtfully.

Luna stared at her as if she were daft. “Of course she wouldn’t,” she explained as though to a small child. “Like I said, it’s secret.” Luna then made as if to move into the room but Ron grabbed her arm. She turned to look at him with her blue eyes wide.

“There are voices coming from the Veil,” she whispered. “Can you hear them? The souls of the lost are calling to us.” Ron shook his head forcefully, clearly extremely uneasy with the whole thing. Now Harry moved forward, straining to hear the murmurs coming from the other side. Immediately Hermione latched onto him to keep him from going any farther.

“Sirius?” Harry called out in a soft voice. Then he turned to Hermione. “Do you think he’s inside there?”

Something about this room scared Hermione, more than anything they had seen thus far, and she wanted to get out as soon as possible. “No, I’m sure he’s not,” she insisted. “There’s nothing in there. I’m not sure there even is an ‘in there’, and if there were I don’t think anything could come back out.”

“That’s right,” came Luna’s dreamy voice. “Once you enter there’s no coming back. They’re calling us to join them.”

“Harry please, let’s just get out of here,” Hermione moaned. Harry looked at her more closely, and only now did he notice her distress. This brought him back to his senses and a look of concern crossed his face. “Sirius isn’t in here,” she continued in a strained voice. “We have to keep looking.” He nodded his agreement and they moved back out of the chamber, Susan joining Ron to help pull Luna back. Once they were all in the circular room again, Ron shut the door and Hermione marked it with a flaming D.

Susan’s door led to a very dark room that seemed to be a wizarding equivalent of a planetarium. Stars and planets hung suspended in the air, but there was nothing that looked like anything from Harry’s vision. Hermione marked this one with a P.

As soon as Hermione opened her door Harry knew it was the right one. Besides the fact that it matched his description, it just ‘felt’ right. The glittering light from his vision was caused by light reflecting from the surfaces of hundreds of clocks and timepieces of all shapes and sizes. “This is it!” he shouted, and they all hurried inside, with Hermione pausing only long enough to inscribe a flaming T above the door.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed as she caught up with him while they hurried down the long narrow space between the rows of clocks. “This is a time room. I think they make time-turners here!”

“That’s great, but I don’t think we have time for that right now,” he shot back. As soon as the words were out of his mouth his lips curled into an involuntary smirk, and Hermione groaned at his inadvertent pun. At the end of the room was a large jar filled with a glittering kind of smoke. They paused only briefly as the glittering smoke coalesced into grains of sand that drifted into a pile at the bottom, which Hermione recognized as the same material that was in her time turner. Inside the jar there was also a small bird – an indicator of sorts, Hermione later decided – that continuously cycled from egg to hatchling to maturity and then back to an egg.

Harry pulled everyone away from this fascinating sight and motioned to the next door. “I think the room with the shelves is through here. Everyone remember the plan.” Hermione accordingly disillusioned Susan, Neville, and Luna, then Ron pulled the invisibility cloak over Hermione and himself. When Harry saw that they were all ready he pushed open the door.

Trying to keep looking in all directions at once, he cautiously crept past row after row of shelves, looking for row ninety-seven. He was pretty much persuaded that Hermione was right, and that this was a trap, but just in case it wasn’t he wanted to get the drop on them if possible. He also wasn’t certain if it would just be Voldemort and Sirius, or if there would be Death Eaters here as well. He and Hermione had discussed all these possibilities on the flight here. It was some relief that he had Hermione and Ron and the others backing him up, as he knew he couldn’t take on Voldemort by himself, but he hated the thought that he was endangering them.

As he reached the fateful row his heart dropped. There was no one here. What did that mean? Was it possible that the whole thing was a colossal prank? He couldn’t imagine how he could have misinterpreted the vision. Perhaps they weren’t here yet? He made his way down the length of the row of shelves and then back to the aisle, only now taking the time to notice that the shelves were filled with dusty glass spheres. Then he felt Hermione’s presence behind him.

“Harry,” she whispered into his ear, while remaining under the cloak. “He’s not here.” Harry nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement, still not certain that there wasn’t some kind of trap. “But there’s something else back here you should look at.” Harry made a show of looking around in confusion, just in case someone was watching, then moved back down the row until he felt a slight pressure on his chest from Hermione’s hand stopping him.

“Up there on the fourth shelf,” came Hermione’s whisper again. “It’s got your name on it.” Harry looked up to see a glass sphere similar to all of the others, but with his name inscribed on the surface. He carefully lifted it down and felt a tingle when his fingers made contact. Then he noted the complete inscription.

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

“Very good, Potter,” came a familiar sneering voice behind him. Now give it to me.”

Harry whirled to see LuciusMalfoy standing in the aisle as several more black robed figures shimmered into view behind him, dropping their own disillusionment charms. Startled, Harry nearly dropped the sphere but caught it just in time. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of panic on Malfoy’s face, and clutched onto the sphere more tightly with one hand and his wand with the other. Something about this sphere interested Malfoy, and he realized instinctively that he must not let him have it.

“Accio Prophecy!” A dark haired woman just behind Malfoy had evidently lost her patience.

“Protego!” Harry shouted, having been on guard for something just like that, and her summoning charm impacted harmlessly on his shield.

“No!” Malfoy shouted at the woman, who ripped off her mask and glared at him. Harry immediately recognized Bellatrix Lestrange from the picture in the Daily Prophet. He nervously glanced around as Malfoy berated her for risking damaging the precious prophecy. He was starting to understand what was going on. This must be a prophecy about him and Voldemort. They had lured him here by capturing Sirius to retrieve it. Lucius Malfoy couldn’t get it himself or he would have done so long ago. That must have something to do with the tingle he’d felt as he picked it up. He now had a two-fold mission – rescue Sirius and keep this prophecy out of the hands of the Death Eaters.

“Where’s Sirius?” he demanded, interrupting the squabble among his two opponents. That question only earned him a smirk.

“It’s time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter,” Malfoy sneered, and Bellatrix taunted him in an annoying baby voice about believing in scary dreams. Following this, Malfoy adopted the standard strategy of bad guys everywhere and launched into a long-winded explanation about his master’s clever plan. Harry’s mood darkened as he realized he had been duped, but he forced himself to focus on how to get his friends and the prophecy safely out of this trap. His only advantage was that the Death Eaters still thought he was alone.

While the arrogant pureblood continued to rant Harry felt Hermione’s hand on his right arm and heard her whispered voice. “What should we do?” Moving his left hand over to where she was holding his arm, he traced letters onto the back of her hand. S…M…A…S…H…S…H…E…L…V…E…S He paused a moment while he felt her move away, and waited for her to tell Ron.

“Now! Reducto!” he shouted in quick succession and the shelf before him exploded with shards of glass soaring in every direction. Immediately dozens of ghost-like figures emerged from the fragments and began speaking in a cacaphony of ethereal voices. At the same time from behind him came two more of the reductor curses, followed by two more explosions as the shelves on either side disintegrated. “Protego!” he called out again to shield them from the flying debris, and was fortunate that his shield also blocked two stunning spells that shot toward him from the Death Eaters.

“Stupefy!” Three stunning spells suddenly crashed into the black robed figures from behind, felling a trio of them, followed by three more as the confused Death Eaters turned to confront this unexpected threat. Two more stunning spells flashed over his shoulder as Ron and Hermione added their fire to the assault.

“Run!” Harry shouted. While nearly all of the Death Eaters were down, some had dodged or shielded themselves, and he didn’t want his friends exposed any more than necessary. He turned and followed Ron and Hermione the other way down the row, firing two more stunners over his shoulder as he ran. Behind him the remainder of the shelves on either side crashed together, courtesy of Ron and Hermine’sreductor curses, blocking their pursuers.

But when they had reached the end of the row and it looked as though they were going to escape, they heard a scream from behind them, and knew that either Susan or Luna had been hit. “Ron, Hermione!” Harry gasped. “You guys go find the others.”

“No way,” Ron protested.

“Look, they’re after this prophecy. I’ll draw the Death Eaters away – you stay under the cloak and free the rest of them. There’ll probably only be one or two guards on them at most. Then go for help. I’ll hide in these rooms until you get back.”

Ron paused, then hurried off. “I’m staying with you,” Hermione insisted firmly. “Don’t even try to talk me out of it.” While reluctant, Harry saw that there was no point in attempting to persuade her otherwise, or time for that matter. Accordingly, he gave in and taking her hand he crouched low and began to move toward the exit. Occasionally they heard Death Eaters calling to each other as they searched up and down the rows. The pair quickly realized that all of their stunned opponents had been revived and hastily agreed that they needed to do more than just stun them the next time.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Harry shouted, holding the prophecy aloft, when they reached the door. A half dozen of the enemy whirled in his direction, but he and Hermione were through the door and had it shut before their curses reached them.

For the next half hour we dodged in and out of the different rooms, trying to stay one step ahead of the Death Eaters. Harry and I worked well together, covering each other whenever we encountered them. Between us we must have stunned or petrified at least half of them, and after that first time we stopped to snap their wands whenever we could. Eventually Neville joined us and reported that Ron had freed them, but they’d been caught again before they could get away. Ron and Luna had both been hit, but he thought that Susan had managed to escape.

Unfortunately we were surprised by two of them while Neville was telling us this, and the first hit him with a hex that slammed him into a desk, breaking his nose. Harry sent that one crashing into a shelf full of timepieces while I silenced the other in the middle of an incantation. Unfortunately, I turned my attention to Neville to see if he was all right, only to have him gesture frantically behind me. I turned around just as the Death Eater (who Neville later told me was Dolohov) was making a slashing motion with his wand, and a purple flame came out and caught me in the chest. The next thing I knew I was here in the Hospital Wing. But Neville told us what happened next, and I’ll remember his words for as long as I live.

“Hermione!” Harry screamed. He fell to his knees beside her, temporarily forgetting about the Death Eater. But as Neville crawled toward them the Death Eater turned his attention to him, and raised his wand again. This caught Harry’s notice and he twisted around, and faster than anyone could believe flicked his wand and shouted, “Stupefy! Incarcerous!” The Death Eater fell, immobilized and bound and Neville grabbed his wand and snapped it while Harry whirled back to Hermione, pulling her limp body to himself and cradling her head in his arms.

“Hermione! No, no you can’t be dead! Please don’t be dead. Oh God no. It’s all my fault if she dies! Don’t leave me Hermione. I can’t go on without you. Please, Hermione! I LOVE YOU!”

The Hospital Wing went completely silent when Neville said this, and all eyes turned to me. My jaw dropped open as I stared at Neville, but he just nodded and I turned to look at the others. Beside me Ron was white, with a look of shock on his face. Susan was crying, and Ginny had tears in her eyes. She forced a small smile at me and she looked happy but also a little disappointed. She reached out and gave my arm a little squeeze. Luna’s eyes were wide and she had a somewhat startled expression, but then again Luna always looks like that.

I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I’d hoped it was true, but – I guess I didn’t dare to believe it. But if it was true then why wasn’t he here with me? Then it hit me.
 

“Oh no!” Hermione burst out in dismay, causing the others to look at her strangely. This was not a normal reaction of a girl to hearing that her boyfriend was in love with her. “No, no, no!” She looked up to see four dumbfounded expressions. “What’s the thing Harry does better than anyone else?”

“I don’t know, there’s quite a few things he’s better at than anyone else,” Ron said blankly. “Quidditch, dueling …”

“He feels guilty and blames himself when bad things happen,” Hermione interrupted. “What did Neville just tell us he said?” The confused looks of the others persisted, thinking that what Neville had just said was that Harry loved her. “He said it was all his fault,” she explained. “He’s probably avoiding me because he thinks it’s his fault that I almost died and he can’t bear to face me. That’s why he’s only here when I’m asleep. He’s desperate to know that I’m going to be all right, but he’s feeling so guilty that he leaves before I wake up.”

The rest of the students could find no flaws in that argument, and acknowledged that Hermione knew Harry better than they did, so they accepted her analysis. Hermione continued to fret and Susan moved closer and wrapped her arm around the distraught young witch.

“Don’t worry, Hermione, we’ll sort it all out. We’ll all keep looking for him and we’ll bring him up here eventually.” The others all nodded their agreement.

Hermione nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. “OK, let’s go on. What happened after that?”

Neville took up the story again, and told us how he checked me for a pulse and finally got Harry to stop freaking out. Then the two of them carried me into the planetarium where Ron and Luna were hiding. Luna had a broken ankle and Ron was bleeding something furious. Luna had tried a healing spell but it didn’t help, so she had ripped up her robes to tie around the wound. Harry wanted Neville to carry me out, but Neville convinced him that they’d be better hiding here. So Harry covered the three of us with the cloak as best as he could, then he went back out with Neville stubbornly tagging along. Unfortunately, his broken nose made it hard to enunciate spells correctly.

They ended up in the Death Chamber with about half of the Death Eaters, (Harry and I had taken out the rest) dodging behind the stone benches and firing back as well as they could. But they were trapped and it was only a matter of time before they were caught. Neville was hit (with Cruciatus!) and fell, breaking his wand and then Harry ran toward the veil holding the prophecy over his head. Neville thinks, and I agree, that he was attempting to draw their fire away from Neville. This did work, as they all turned their attention to him, but it seems to me that it put the prophecy more at risk.

He almost made it, managing to dodge their spells, but just before he dove behind the stone dias at the center of the room one of them caught Harry with an Impediment jinx and he fell, and the prophecy sphere smashed onto the floor. Just like with the others that were smashed, a white figure appeared and started to say something, but Malfoy was screaming at the Death Eater who had tripped up Harry so no one could tell what she was saying. Harry rolled away and was about to make a final stand when the Order finally showed up.

Ginny broke in at this point and said she’d managed to talk her mum into going to Grimmauld Place to see what was going on. It took a while, but she was finally able to convince them that Harry’d had another vision of an attack at the Ministry and that they should go check it out. Moody, Tonks, Shacklebolt, and Lupin all went, and somehow Sirius managed to talk them into letting him go as well.

While they split up and began dueling Harry crawled back up to Neville and they tried to help wherever they could, with Harry managing to stun Lucius Malfoy. Apparently Bellatrix Lestrange is an incredible duelist, though, because she knocked out both Tonks and Shacklebolt, who are Aurors. Then she started dueling Sirius, and they began taunting each other. As cousins who had a falling out over her support of Voldemort there was evidently a lot of bad blood between them. Remus shouted at Sirius to quit fooling around.

Then Dumbledore arrived and Neville said that Harry relaxed, assuming that he would take care of everything. After we saw him take out four opponents with one spell in his office last month, I can understand why. But while he quickly captured all the others, he didn’t get Bellatrix before she hit Sirius with a killing curse!

When I heard that I couldn’t stop crying. My poor Harry! Why did this have to happen to him? But even then Bellatrix managed to escape and run out of the room. Harry tore away from Remus and ran after her. Why didn’t Dumbledore stop her? For that matter, why didn’t he stop Harry? No one knows what happened next because none of us have seen Harry since. Neville says Dumbledore tied up the rest of the Death Eaters and then went after Harry.

Eventually Susan came back with her aunt and some Aurors and Neville took them to where the rest of us were hiding. Susan had made it out and found a floo connection in another wizarding building nearby. Madame Bones wanted to take me and Ron to St. Mungo’s but Dumbledore showed up and insisted that we would be fine at Hogwarts. Evidently she wasn’t at all happy about that. Susan says she wants to interview us later about what happened.

Right now I’m most worried about Harry. I’m sure he needs me – he’s probably feeling so much guilt it must be almost unbearable. Ginny, Neville, and Susan are going to go look for him again. I need to get some more rest. My chest is still throbbing from my injury, but the heartache deeper down inside is almost as bad.

-oooOOOooo-

Hermione could see that her daughter was about to burst with questions, so she stopped and nodded to her to go ahead.

“So Ginny wasn’t even there?” Hermione smiled and shook her head. “Why did the book say she was then?” the young girl asked in an offended tone.

“You have to remember, she was trying to make Ginny’s role in the story seem larger than it really was, since she intended for her and Harry to be together at the end and she needed to make her somehow ‘worthy’ of him.” Rose scowled at the very notion that another girl could be more worthy than her mother, and Hermione laughed and gave her a hug.

“And you just said that Sirius was killed with a killing curse?” Rose asked next. “Then what was all of that about the veil?”

“Well, I think that was to keep her readers off balance,” Hermione answered. “By having him fall through the veil there was some doubt about whether he was really dead, and she prolonged the uncertainty. There was also some other misdirection there as well. Ron was injured by a nasty curse, not because he was attacked by brains. I mean honestly, how are brains going to attack anyone?” She shook her head in annoyance. “It’s even possible that she intended that to foreshadow a relationship between Ron and me, since I was the ‘brainy’ one. Some readers even thought that being attacked by brains was going to make Ron smarter, and therefore more compatible with me. And that locked room in the Department of Mysteries that supposedly contained a force more powerful than death was another red herring.”

Hermione leaned back and shrugged. “I have to admit that she certainly kept everyone’s attention. In the two years between the fifth and sixth book the interest in the series exploded. You wouldn’t believe how much discussion and debate went on about what would happen. Quite a bit of it about me, actually, and whether I would end up with Harry or Ron,” she admitted with a blush. Rose just grinned at her mother’s momentary discomfort.

“But there’s still the prophecy,” Rose pointed out. “You haven’t said anything about that yet.”

Hermione’s expression darkened. “Ah yes, the prophecy.” Her tone of voice was one that was used when speaking about something deeply despised. “Shall we see how that all ended up?”

Rose nodded eagerly and mother and daughter snuggled together to finish up the year five journal.

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-