Revenant

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I claim nothing.

Revenant

Chapter Seven: Ministry

In this exciting chapter: Our heroine visits the Ministry for directions. Malfoy continues to be an ass. Ron continues to swear.

*

Hermione crouched along the side of the dingy building while Ron and Draco swore at the old-fashioned lock and at each other. The two men were shrouded in Harry’s old invisibility cloak, neither quite fitting under it, not with the other. Occasionally an elbow or a knee would appear, and the cursing and scuffling would begin anew.

Harry and Snape crouched in the shadows near her, or at least Harry did; Snape stood half drooping in the shadows, his body unable to make sense of her hurried command to ‘hide.’

Another round of swearing and Harry sighed. “I’m not so sure that this is such a good idea. Are you sure you want him with us?” He asked, nodding to Snape. “He’s not going to be much help.”

Hermione shot Harry a look of disbelief as Ron’s legs suddenly appeared from under the cloak by the doorway, and Draco laughed nastily.

“Right. And they are?”

Harry shrugged. “Ron’s good at this sort of thing. Not sure about having the Ferret or the Git along though.”

Hermione ignored him and frowned back at the doorway where the two invisible men were hissing at the lock and each other. “They said they could do this. We need to hurry; I don’t fancy having to explain to anyone why we’re out here.”

Harry nodded grimly. His was the voice of experience as he spoke. “Aurors really do frown on this sort of thing.”

He grinned at her suddenly, and she could see the gleam of his teeth as they flashed in the shadows, like some feral thing. “We really had some good times, didn’t we?”

Her answering grin felt lopsided to her, as she regarded the man next to her. For so long, ever since entering the wizarding world, his life had been charted out for him, every move and action planned and prepared. Here now, for the first time in many years, he had become free of his destiny and yet he spoke as a man with his life over. She wondered what freedom must feel like to someone who’d always hungered for it from the safety of ‘destiny.’

Hermione’s musings were interrupted by a muffled ‘pop’ that sounded from the doorway, followed by a smirking voice. “Told you. You were doing it wrong.”

“Fuck off Malfoy.” The doorway creaked open, and Hermione’s nails bit into the palm’s of her hands at the noise. “Right-o.” Ron continued, “It’s all clear.”

Hermione and Harry looked carefully up and down the alley before darting across the shadows to disappear into the open doorway. The lurching figure of the Potions Master followed them.

Ron and Harry pulled the door shut, while Hermione muttered a lighting spell. The light blossomed right as Draco exploded with a heartfelt “FUUCK!”

Everyone’s eyes turned at his yelp. Ron’s chuckle was low and malicious as he saw the wounded young man clutching his shin tightly. Near him, a small innocuous bench sat in the centre of the room, bolted to the floor. The rest of the room was small; made smaller by the lockers that had been crammed into the corners and along the walls. Other than the bench, lockers, and a battered old trash bin, the room was empty.

“What was this place? Locker rooms? How’d you find out about it?”

Ron looked over the room and shrugged dismissively. “It’s just an old locker room. Fred and George found it when they were breaking out of-” Ron froze. Draco crouched by the bench, his head tilted and listening very carefully. “It’s just an old locker room.”

Ron quickly moved across the room to where the shabby trashcan sat in the corner. He muttered under his breath and rapped sharply on the metal rim. It rattled with a hollow and tinny clamour under his touch, and then the noise turned to a dull thud. It still looked the same, but Ron turned a bright smile to the others. He patted the side of the bin and asked, “Alright then. Who’s in first?”

Draco looked at Ron, aghast. “In? I’m not getting in that, Weasel.”

“No? Too close for comfort?”

“Oooh, that was almost clever. Been practicing in the mirror have you?”

Harry rolled his eyes and pushed pass where Snape and Hermione stood. He swung his legs over and into the frail rubbish bin and stood there for a moment. He looked sheepishly at Ron, “So… uh… what’s supposed to hap-”

And then he was gone.

Hermione started but the two men turned to each other and continued to insult each other. She then turned to the professor. “Please sir, get in the bin next. I will follow you.”

He moved awkwardly, and the two remaining men broke off their bickering to watch him clamber inelegantly into the bin. He stood for a moment, before he too vanished. There was a contemplative moment as the three of them eyed the empty space where the Potions Master had stood, before Draco spread his arms in a wide gesture of false courtesy and told Ron nastily, “Ladies first.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, and stepped into the bin. The last thing she heard before the ground opened beneath her was Ron’s articulate reply: “Fuck you Malfoy.”


A squeezing darkness pushed at Hermione, and she felt herself tossed from side to invisible side as the chute dropped her lower and lower. Finally she was dropped out into an open space where she hung suspended in the air for a moment, revelling in the weightlessness of it, before crashing down onto the rising form of the Potions Master.

He collapsed again, and she scrambled off of him, mumbling apologies as she hastily moved to pull him out of the landing area. At her prompting, he shuffled aside right as Draco landed heavily onto the floor. Tlondlonde man sat up and rubbed his head, where he had rapped it against the cool tile flooring of the room. He opened his mouth snidely and was silenced by thirteen stone of Weasley crashing down upon him.

At their pained groans, Harry turned away from the corridor he had been peering into, and Hermione saw that the faint light in the room radiated from his wand, which he held protectively at his side, damping the light down and giving rise to many shadows.

“Gerroff!” Draco’s voice slurred as he pushed at the man above him. Ron jumped up and straightened his clothes, his face flushed. Harry hissed over his shoulder at the men to be quiet, and the two men sulkily sorted themselves out. Hermione glanced around herself, and was pleased to see that the strange locker room had lead them to the old broom closet just outside of Mr. Weasley’s office.

“The hallway is empty,” Harry whispered, moving fully into the room, and looking curiously at Malfoy’s swelling jaw line. “But there’s a light down the way, and I think I heard someone down there.”

Ron peeked out the doorway, and scrutinized the hallway for a long moment. “Yeah. Some of those Aurors keep long hours. We’ll need to be very quiet.” Here he gave Malfoy a hard glance. “We don’t want to get caught by them again.”

“Again?” Hermione asked, trepidation in her voice.

“Surprisingly, they just don’t like having unexpected visitors after hours. It’s a thing with them I guess.” Harry grinned wryly.

Malfoy’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he reconsidered the grinning man he stood next to. Snidely he said, “You know, if you two had become Aurors like everyone expected you to, this would be much easier.”

Harry laughed quietly. “What, and give up all the cloak and dagger?”

“Right then. Shall we?” Ron asked irritably, wrapping the Invisibility Cloak back around his shoulders.

Harry nodded and held the door open as Ron slipped from the small dusty room and drifted across the la}nway. Harry nervously kept a look-out down the hallway, tensing every time at the sound of a person shifting in their chair.

A soft click from across the hall alerted them to Ron’s ability to open even the most heavily locked doorway. The invisible figure pushed at the door, and Harry, his eyes glued to the bend at the end of the corridor, frantically motioned Draco to dart across the way. Hermione followed and Snape, sensing the urgency in her whispered command, followed with a quick lurch. Harry paused before rushing after them, letting the door to the broom closet shut with a soft sound.

The inside of the office was a mess, with stacks of paper and strange half-dissected gizmos scattered around. The filing cabinets were open, and disgorged layers upon layers of paper that flowed out to form untidy heaps on the floors where they mingled with the torn and crumpled remains of various Muggle inventions.

“Oh no!” Hermione gasped. “Someone must have gotten here before us!”

Hermione’s ears caught up with what she’d said, and she grimaced and shrugged apologetically at Ron as he paused to give her a incredulous look.

“Er… Da’ and Old Man Perkins aren’t the… tidiest… of fellows. The paperwork’ll probably be over here, in the filing cabinets.” Ron gestured at a series of antique cabinets, all of which had worn brass handles dangling by loose screws. None of the drawers were fully shut, and paper had been stuffed into the cabinets anyway they would fit, the majority left to hang, waving, in the circulated office air of the room.

Hermione grimaced in concentration as she navigated her way through the mounds of papers and through the broken remnants of Muggle society. An old rotary telephone, with spools of thread unwinding from its guts almost tripped her, but Harry steadied her with a quick hand.

Draco hesitated by the door, distaste etched on every regal line of his face. Finally, attempting to stand in a spot less contaminated by the Muggle world and it’s paraphernalia, he opted to stand beside the broken lava lamp that oozed discontentedly in the corner, it’s red bubbles forming twisted faces and grotesque bodies. As he neared, they pulled faces and struck obscene poses as they floated to the top of the lamp to pool into obscurity. Draco looked at it closely for a moment before a lewd gesture caused him to recoil and dfasdfastly refuse to look at the lamp again. He pulled his cloak tighter about him with a contemptuous sniff.

Ron saw the motion, and snarled at the blonde man, “Well, at least you have the sense to stay out of the way when you’re not helping.”

“Wouldn’t dream of getting in your way Weasley.” Draco disdainfully sniffed again. “Do try to hurry, will you?”

Harry looked helplessly at Hermione as Ron made to approach the idling Malfoy. Hermione quickly whispered to Ron, “Why couldn’t we have just asked your dad for the file? He would have helped us, I’m sure of it…”

Distracted, Ron turned back to the piles of papers at hand and shook his head. “The less he knows, the better. Besides, they’re watching him like a hawk. They figure they can get hold of Harry through him, so the less contact, the better...”

Draco watched Harry as he prowled through the filing cabinet, dexterously flipping through the files and pausing only rarely. “’Get hold of Harry?’ You’re a wanted man Potter?”

Hermione smiled sadly at Draco, and Ron laughed bitterly. “You must be out of the loop Malfoy. Now that Potter’s done he heroic thing, they think it’s time he retires. And they don’t much care how.”

Draco chuckled quietly to himself. “Too many worshipers Potter? The ‘New Order’ starting to feel threatened by a ‘mere slip’ of a boy?”

Harry’s eyes were inscrutable when he looked upthe the man who was grinning at him from the shadows of the office, his body highlighted with the red glow of the lava lamp. “You could say something like that I suppose. I’m not quite ‘wanted,’ so much as ‘watched carefully.’”

“How exciting.” Draco murmured.

Hermione found herself holding her breath as Harry continued to watch Draco, with that strange enigmatic mask upon his face. Even Ron was frozen, watching the quiet exchange between the two men. After a moment, Draco broke the eye contact, and Harry turned back to riffling through the files, his hands steady and efficient.

Hermione and Ron both let out breaths before turning back to their own piles of paperwork. The three of them continued their frantic search, their sounds quiet and muffled. Draco watched the three of them for a long while, before his attention fell onto the dark shadows of the room where Snape lurked quietly.

It was hard to see him, only the paleness of his face catching and reflecting any light, so empty and devoid of emotion. Draco raised an eyebrow as the man’s dark gaze lifted away from the bushy haired woman and settled upon him. The eyes that regarded him were inky pools of ambivalence, no longer glowing warm with the passions of his beloved godfather. Draco’s teeth clenched and ground together as the dark gaze shifted back towards the searching form of Hermione. Harry’s whispered voice broke the silence.

“I… I think I have it.” Harry held the paperwork close to his eyes as he absentmindedly pushed his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose. He skimmed the paperwork while Ron and Hermione moved closer to read over his shoulder. “It says here… that it’s in a place outside of Clovewall, and that there’s been some reports of ‘strange lights and moaning sounds’ coming from the graveyard. That’s what first alerted the Aurors to something going on there; I guess some Muggles went in and were filming some sort of ‘Haunted’ show or something before the Muggle Relations went in and put a stop to that...

“And then…” he continued, flipped the page over, “it’s marked up as a… a... um… false alert. ‘Muggles and their over active imaginations’ or some such. This file is marked to be disregarded.” He looked up at his friends. “This has to be it.”

“I think you’re right!” Hermione and Ron clustered tighter around him, Hermione reaching past him to flip the file to another page and reread a passage. Draco listened to their excited conversation while quietly watching Snape. The dark man was poised at Hermione’s elbow, his unfathomable gaze once again locked onto Draco’s. Something in that gaze was so foreign to Malfoy, he felt an unwanted shiver of misgiving tingle down his spine as he stared into the empty depths of Snape’s eyes.

“I think you’re right Harry. Here now,” Ron said, tapping the thin parchment with his wand, “we can get there from Annebury. Or up through Daven’s Cross, that’d be quicker.”

“No.” Draco whispered harshly, Ron’s words shaking the dark premonitions from his thoughts. “We can’t go through Daven’s Cross. We’d be too exposed.”

The Golden Trio looked at Draco. The blonde man’s face was outlined in the red reflection from the lava lamp, giving his angelic features a hint of brimstone. Harry asked quietly, “How do you mean?”

“There’s… people… in and around Daven’s Cross that are very observant. They’d notice anyone with an ounce of ‘talent’ walking through that place. Especially you three, you’re not exactly ‘low profile.’”

“I think we can avoid the Ministry’s watchdogs.” Ron grinned. “I mean, look at where we are now-”

“I’m not talking about the Ministry.” Draco hissed.

“Shit.” Ron said breathlessly, staring at Draco. “You’re still one of them, aren’t you?”

Draco looked away, unconcerned and unruffled. “This is hardly the time to discuss politics Weasley. Besides, if that is the place we want, do you really think the Ministry is going to leave it unguarded? Do you really think that there’ll be a ‘back door’ such as the one that led here? Neither Daven’s Cross nor Clovewall is going to be safe.”

“Shit.” Ron repeated.

Harry stood next to Hermione, the files forgotten in his hands. What was going through his mind, she could only guess at, but that green spark danced in his eyes, that hateful and aggressive spark, and it was dangerous. “Harry,” she whispered, her hand hesitantly touching his tensed shoulder. “Harry, we need to get out of here. We can discuss this later.”

He ignored her, his full awareness centred on the blonde man before him. Draco was looking at the three of them, seemingly nonchalant, but Hermione could see the faint lines of tension etched around his eyes, and a wariness in his stance that was unusual for the languid man. “Harry,” she tried again. “We have what we need, and now we need to get out of here.”

Harry nodded finally, and swept the files back into the disarray of the cabinet before turning on his heel and striding out of the office. Ron swore again, and turned to follow, attempting to muffle his footsteps as well as he could and still catch up to his friend.

“What was that about?” Hermione asked, turning a wide-eyed gaze to Draco, as he wiped his face with a shaky hand.

Draco shook his head, and quietly moved to follow the two other men. Hermione watched him go, and turned her searching gaze onto the Potions Master. She shrugged to herself, and politely motioned for him to follow her as she also left the room.

*

[a/n:
-Well, the break-in was unintentionally reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. Sorry about that.

-The line: “You know, if you two had become Aurors like everyone expected you to, this would be much easier.” Totally thieved from LittleBird. Thanks lady!

-Goals made:
1. Harry must help with the break in.
2. The break in must go unnoticed for at least a few months yet. –Thus the messy office.

-Oh! And there are more HollowMan fics out there:

A Winter’s Fairy Tale by Run Wild at http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1705547 ,

You Made Me Forget My Dreams by White Orchids at
, http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1830041&time=1082591921 ,

and Invictus by Doomspark at http://www.lordandladysnape.net/viewstory.php?sid=3728.

So don’t forget to go and check those out if you haven’t already. Again, I’ve not read them for fear of indulging in plagiarism (which is a funny concept -you know- as a fanfic writer,) but I will as soon as I finish this one. *sigh* which may take me a while eh?]