A/N: I know I must be bombarding you now, but as I am away from computer decided to post a double here and then the third part of Journal so that you wouldn't have to wait too long. If you are confused somehow in this, please let me know, as I am now attempting to tie up loose ends. On the bright side, at least you get to know what Percy wants exactly, when it comes to Hermione. Kudos to all of you with me still so far.
One more thing, please excuse my use of Legilimency in this chapter, I am clearly insane.
*mutters* I know I saw them slip something in that cake. *sigh*
Disclaimer: More excerpts from a book I have no recollection of writing abound, ergo, not mine.
*****
"Step into my parlour…"
One flight down into the Ministry of Magic, around the former office of the Minister of Magic himself, and Harry began plans to ditch Martin, and Hermione- though he didn't trust Martin alone with her at all- and make his way down to the Department of Mysteries. But he didn't know how to initiate their split. Martin was sticking to him like webbing on trapped fly, Hermione was not even looking his way, not anymore that is, and the others seemed incapable of arranging the split themselves.
Well, he had to give them some credit. Tonks and a few Aurors, who had met them within, had managed to extricate themselves as they were in charge of security. Lupin and Moody were his "bodyguards" and therefore allowed to wander off at intervals as though to ensure the way was clear for him to pass. Charlie, Bill and Ginny, as relatives of the late Weasleys, were occasionally shown things they had undoubtedly already seen, but also "allowed" to touch, a bonus. So they were not entirely useless, they were doing the best that they could under the circumstances.
If he wanted to be honest, the real hold-ups were him and Hermione. Because of their celebrity, and maybe also Hermione's attractiveness, they received Martin's undivided attention. He mostly ignored everyone else in favour of showing them around the vacant offices, which was apparently currently under repairs and described the various famous people who had once dined within.
And that was another thing, he was taking too long. As interesting as they were- to Hermione that was- no one really cared to know which Minister of Magic had the honour of meeting the queen. He was actually describing the menus too, and that included the cooking. It was almost as if he were stalling them.
And then as he thought this Hermione said, "Mr Kidderminster…"
"Martin, please, my name is Martin, Miss Granger," said Martin pleasantly.
Harry wanted to stamp the smile off his face.
"Right, Martin," Hermione said, smiling as well, "I am assured you were informed that we did not only come here to see the Minister's office… if I recall correctly, we were to go through the entire building… I dare say it's been an hour and we haven't left this floor."
Martin flashed a grin worthy of Lockhart and apologised in what he must have thought a very humble voice, which to Harry was mildly conceited, "I'm sorry, you're quite right, I forgot myself there a moment… agreeable company after all. How about we head to the lifts now?"
"They still work?" asked Bill.
"Well, they were damaged but they were one of the first things repaired, had to make sure that every department was alright. Now, shall we?" Martin replied.
At once everyone agreed, and began shuffling down a rather exquisite, antiquely decorated hall, complete with portraits and intricate, sparkling, crystal chandeliers, towards the gilt grilles of the lifts.
Walking down the hall though, Harry couldn't help but notice the faces of the literal hundreds of former Ministers of Magic peering down at them. No damage had come to their portraits, but they apparently had been left to the mercy of the engineers reconstructing the building.
Percy had wanted to join them once, how had he strayed so far from that path?
As they got into the lifts, everyone looked over the buttons, and each of them wished to press number nine, the one that would take them directly to their destination, but they couldn't. Martin was in charge of this tour, and as long as he was, it would remain a tour. Thankfully, Hermione saved them.
"I believe that you know we had once visited the Department of Mysteries… would it be alright if we went there first and then worked our way up?" she asked, trying slightly to suppress a sudden anxiety in her voice.
Martin looked slightly troubled at this request. Harry suspected that he had never intended on getting them further than the Minister's office in the first place. But then Hermione turned on the charm.
With a seductiveness he had never dreamed her capable of, Hermione smiled sweetly at Martin, took hold of his hand, guided it to the buttons and pressed his finger to the last button. She released his hand, but then drew her hand up to her hair and pulled it all over one shoulder, twisted it in her fingers and then let it all bounce over her back again. She ran her hands through it again, and smiled, "Sorry, it was getting in my way."
Martin reddened slightly, the others all had wide-eyed gazes and Hermione continued, "I haven't been there so long, and my first time was so horrible, I was hoping this time would be much better."
For the fact that his mind had completely descended to the gutter, Harry could not help but be incensed by the double meaning of that sentence. He showed remarkable restraint though, as the lift slowly began to descend and tried not to make too much of a show of putting himself between Martin and Hermione.
Hermione noticed though, and whispered in a voice so low that despite the relative silence only he heard it, "What are you doing?"
He ignored her. He was too busy trying to remove images of Ron and Hermione any way like that from his mind. He knew how Ron had been with Lavender, they had not gotten anywhere near that, but with Hermione, no matter what she told him, they had lived together for two years…
Before he could finish that thought though, a familiar cool witch's voice said softly, "The Department of Mysteries."
As the door opened Harry brusquely stepped out past Martin, muttered an apology and tried to ignore the feel of Hermione's eyes on his back.
He had no right to act like a jealous boyfriend, but he didn't care.
She said she loved him, just because he had not come up with a reply yet didn't mean that she had a right to act like that with other men in front of him no matter how much it helped.
The darkened hallway of the department though, was of much more concern. Just as before, dimly lit by torches, it led straight down to a black door which would lead to a small room of more doors that revolved. Each door led to a different room, he still didn't know their official names, but there was the Brain Room, the Time Room, the Death Chamber, the Hall of Prophecies, and one neither he nor Hermione could open, just to name a few. Harry remembered Hermione marking those doors in Fifth Year and vaguely wondered if they would have to do the same now.
Just as they came to the door at the end of the hall though, Martin said, "I'm not sure that we should go in… I mean, if it was bad the last time, since the building collapsed overhead, it has to be much worse."
In that same temptress' manner, Hermione gave a distinctly girlish laugh and said even more so, "Don't be silly, we haven't seen one bit of damage in here… don't tell me that you're afraid?"
Martin immediately assumed a fully masculine posture, voice slightly deepened, to the amusement of Ginny, "Absolutely not! I just didn't want you to be frightened."
Harry though, had had too much of it already to be amused, saying churlishly, "She's seen much worse than what's in there in the war, saw Voldemort (Martin flinched) more than once, and much too close for comfort."
Hermione glared at him, the third look so far- not that he was counting- and then spoke, "Is there a problem Mr Potter?"
Everyone, including Martin, turned to look at Harry. Decidedly disgruntled, he said, "No, I'm fine, should there be Miss Granger?"
Hermione scowled, and Harry couldn't help himself. Though he was never good at Occlumency, and therefore probably was horrible at Legilimency, and wasn't even sure messages could really be conveyed like this, he thought towards her: I'm sorry, am I interrupting you and your boyfriend?
He triumphed in the fact, for five minutes at least, that he must have done it when he saw her eyes widen and her face take on an angry hint of red. But again, it was only five minutes before Hermione somehow shot back: Get out of my head Potter, and stay out! If you want to play petty games of childish jealousy while my sister is alone with Percy do it on your own time. At least he's talking to me; you're stumbling around like a baboon!
Harry had to send back: I don't remember a class where baboons stumble about, and you're the one playing childish games! Acting like a Black Widow with "Mr Martin Kidderminster" here to accomplish gods knows what. Isn't this a bad time to be picking up men?
A Black Widow! Harry, jealousy is not a good thing, have we forgotten Fourth Year? And while we're on the subject I guess you're going to start up with me "fraternising with the enemy" or acting like a "scarlet woman" soon too huh? And how dare you accuse me of looking for a date while my sister's in trouble? I've been practising my wand-work Harry, keep it up and I'll give you a demonstration! Hermione thought to him.
Harry didn't know why this was continuing to upset him, but not wanting her to have the last word… um, thought, he sent: I am not jealous! Just tone it down; we don't have time to rescue you when Martin here starts to get touchy!
Hermione's sudden and very audible growl of frustration then may have confused the others but Harry walked on into the room of revolving doors with a smile on his face.
The smile quickly vanished though, when Martin intertwined his fingers with Hermione's and announced, "As I'm sure some of you remember, these doors lead to rooms where the most enigmatic of life's mysteries are studied. From Death to Time, name it and they study it. It was mostly unaffected by the building collapse, and even before that, by your "incursion" three years ago, so it's still in use… er… d-do you wish to go into one of them?"
The silence of the others meant that Harry was the decision maker tonight, he nodded, and Martin said, "Okay, pick one."
Harry looked around at the doors and hoped that he wouldn't pick that one. If he had to see that veil again, if he had to hear those voices… he wouldn't be able to stand it.
Eventually though, he pointed to the one furthest to their right, saying, "Let's try that one."
Martin nodded, took out his wand and tapped the lock, and said clearly, "Alohomora!"
The door swung open, but before they could enter someone shouted, "STUPEFY!" and Martin fell backwards, nearly taking Hermione with him.
She let him go swiftly enough though and dove away from the doorway just as a second shout and the red light of the stunning spell shot through after them.
"Harry!" whispered Charlie, "What's going on?"
"I don't know!" Harry whispered back, "I-I think it was a trap!"
"Set by who?" asked Ginny.
But it was Hermione who would answer, "Percy."
And before they could stop her she pushed past them and ran through the door calling, "Emmeline! EMMELINE! Where are you Emmeline?"
An immediate reply, in a child's frightened voice, "Hermione!"
Harry and the others rushed in behind them, Martin lying forgotten in the doorway, and then froze in horror at the sight before them.
"No…"
"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled, "SIRIUS!"
Hermione was frantically scrambling down the stone benches to the dais in the centre of the room where Emmeline still sat, dressed in robes of brilliant red, at the foot of it, and behind her the dreaded veiled archway of Sirius' demise.
It was the Death Chamber.
Percy had to die, and it had to be a slow, painful death. The voices behind that veil, he could hear them calling to him. To put Emmeline before that… that thing… knowing that those voices could call to you… that was lowest evil. And he and the others could only just stand there looking down at it completely stunned.
Recovering first though, Harry shouted, "Stop Hermione! Don't go down there!"
She plainly ignored him, and in no time at all was down to the dais and gathering up a now silently crying Emmeline in her arms saying all the while, "Oh Emmeline! Thank you… oh Emmeline! I was so scared for you!"
The fact that someone had stunned Martin from within this room though, was not lost on Harry and the others. Harry began to jump down the stone benches with them, calling, "Hermione, come back now! You've got Emmeline so let's leave, now!"
"Hermione come back up here!"
"Hermione come back with Emmeline!"
But Hermione seemed not to hear them; she was tightly holding onto Emmeline and trying to reassure the child that everything was alright and that they would be leaving soon.
And then it happened.
The stunning spell's red light shot across the room from a darkened corner and immediately took down Charlie. Harry saw him fall from the peripheral of his vision and immediately bellowed, "HERMIONE GET UP HERE WITH HER, GET UP HERE WITH HER NOW!"
She was already halfway there though while the others began to shoot off their own stunners in the direction of the first shot. Harry helped Hermione up a bench past him, someone cast "Mobilicorpus" onto Charlie and they began to back carefully out of the room. And then there was another stunner from another corner and they all turned and caught the barest of glimpses of him.
Black robes, wild red hair and a sickly smile and he was gone again.
Harry said quickly, "We have to get out of here; he's going to come after us. We have to find the Order… and where is Moody and Lupin?"
"They're going back up with Charlie and Hermione," Ginny told him.
"Good then, let's go!" he hastily replied and turned, with Ginny and Bill behind and up and out of the room.
Once out of the door, Ginny cast, "Colloportus!" onto it and they ran to the one which had brought them in there… just as the doors of the room began to revolve.
Remembering last time, Harry commanded, "Stop!"
Nothing happened.
The doors continued to revolve though before finally stopping on their own… and a door opened before them.
"What the…?" began Ginny, just before a stunner went flying through the door and took her directly in the chest.
Harry and Bill jumped out of the path of the open door, but the doors shut again and the rooms began to revolve as before.
Bill took the time to look over his fallen sister and demanded, "Which one is the door that leads out of here?"
"I-I don't know, the last time when I told it to stop it did… he's doing somehow… jumping from room to room…" Harry replied.
"Can you Disapparate from here?" Bill asked, looking around as the doors swirled dizzyingly.
"No," Harry shook his head, "we have to wait until the right door opens."
And then the doors stopped spinning again, one opened, a stunner shot through, missed its targets, and Bill and Harry sent in two of their own.
The door shut immediately, Harry turned to Ginny and cast, "Ennervate!"
Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned, then Bill tried to help her sit up.
The doors stopped spinning and another opened, but this time nothing went flying out at them. It remained open, as a matter of fact, long enough for Harry to recognise the room as the one where they studied Time. The room where Hermione's Stunner had knocked a Death Eater into a jar of Time and his head shrunk to baby size. The room from which they had run into a small office where….
His heart seized.
"Well done Ha- oh!"
The door slammed shut, the others began to spin and Harry said, somewhat solemnly, "We should mark them."
"What?" asked Bill, "Mark them, how?"
"Hermione did it in Fifth Year… I don't know the spell… but we should mark them…"
When the door stopped next, again no Stunner was sent out first. It just remained there opened as if awaiting their entry, and again Harry recognised it. Filled with tanks of some strange preserving liquids and long, slimy, tentacle-bearing globules that once graced someone's head, it was the Brain Room.
"They're brains."
"Brains?"
"Yes… I wonder what they're doing with them?"
"Honest, Harry, they're brains- look- Accio Brain!"
And then he remembered the spell.
As the door slammed shut before them, and Ginny scowled, "Oh this is wasting time!" he aimed at it and called, "Flagrate!"
At once a large burning cross appeared on it. Bill smiled, "Thank you Hermione."
Just then the room stopped spinning and when the door opened this time, it revealed the hallway that would take them to the lifts. They were shocked. It seemed that whoever was playing with them had just realised that they were going to be caught out and decided to let them go.
"Sod that!" declared Harry and all three scampered from the room of doors to the lifts.
"Incarcerous!" someone suddenly shouted and Ginny stumbled and fell, completely bound to the floor near the door from which they had just emerged.
Without looking, Harry aimed and shouted, "STUPEFY!"
The lack of sound following this told him that he missed. He looked around for Bill and found him also sending off a stunner in the direction of Harry's first shot. Harry though, began to search around for another place for Percy to have hidden himself. He was moving fast, and soundlessly, if they wanted to stop him they would have to look sharp.
Just then he saw a red flash of movement beside the grilles of the lift and shouted, "REDUCTO!"
It did nothing other than slightly rip apart the interlaced pattern of the grilles, and instead there was the sound of a "pop" somewhere within the lift and Harry knew that Percy was leaving them.
There was no way in hell Harry was letting him get away now.
Bill turned to his sister; cast "Diffindo!" on her binds and helped her to her feet. Harry barely waited until she had steadied herself to say, "We have to get up there! He's going after them. I don't know if the Aurors can keep him off but he's going up there after them!"
The two Weasleys had to give him chase to the lifts.
The moment the doors closed behind them, Harry pressed the number one button. They had to go up to the Minister's office; the Order would be waiting for them up there. Hermione and Emmeline were reunited and they would be alright as long as they were with the Order, all they had to do then was get out of the building.
But then the lift stopped suddenly and they were unceremoniously thrown out. Ginny and Bill recognised it at once, this was Level Two, this was the floor of their father's office.
To all else, this was the scene of his and Percy's deaths, and the primary area of destruction, though it certainly looked as the Department of Mysteries before, mostly unharmed. More than that, and to their horror, in it stood Lupin, Charlie, Moody, Martin and Emmeline, alone.
Harry didn't hesitate to ask, "Where's Hermione?"
Not entirely waiting for an answer though, he got off the floor and crossed to Emmeline, lifting her into his arms. She trembled slightly, her little body cold, and then lazily wrapped her arms round his neck. He lightly kissed her forehead, she was safe.
Lupin answered his question.
"The lift… when we got here, it threw us all out. Before we had time to react though, he just appeared and snatched Hermione… and vanished."
Harry's heart seized again and this time he felt his blood run icily down his spine. He slowly put down Emmeline and asked, "You mean he has her…?"
"We couldn't stop him, we were just thrown out, and she was the one closest the door and he just…" Lupin said.
"HE TOOK HER?" roared Harry.
Martin suddenly spoke up, "We shouldn't have gone down there; I told you… it's not safe… whatever you were planning all along, this is a serious breach of Ministry security…"
His speech abruptly ended though, when suddenly he was blasted away from them and towards the farthest wall. He never hit it, for there appeared a net before him and he was caught like a fly in a spider web, wide-eyed in terror.
It was Ginny's doing.
His wandless display interrupted, Harry knelt down beside Emmeline and said, "I'll get her back, we won't let him keep her. You know that right… you know I won't let him hurt her…?"
Emmeline though, was staring at him with frightened eyes, and curiously, they had a slightly glazed appearance. She seemed to be under the effects of something, but he wasn't sure of what.
He was about to ask this too, when just then a group of Aurors, led by Tonks, immediately spread out into the room round them. One demanded, "What's going on here?"
"Hermione's gone… he took her… we have to get her back now!" Harry told them hurriedly, took one look at Emmeline, and then turned to go to the lifts.
"Harry…" began Lupin.
"The longer we wait… he killed Ron to get to her… if we keep waiting… she could be… she could be dead before we get there…!" Harry continued, as if he hadn't heard him.
"Harry…" said Ginny now, walking to him and pulling his hand.
Somewhere behind him, he became vaguely aware of Emmeline crying.
"He has her, I can't let him keep her… you don't understand… she can't defend herself! We have to find her! Now, we have to find her right now!" Harry insisted, his voice rising to a yell.
"Harry… we don't even know where to begin…" Ginny reasoned.
"Ask the child!" said Moody gruffly and as if to show them what he meant he walked on to where Harry had left Emmeline, grasped her shoulder and shook, demanding, "Where'd he keep you, where is he going with your sister?"
But Emmeline just stood there crying; her eyes still slightly glazed and said nothing. Harry at once snatched her from Moody's grasp.
"She's scared!" he snapped at him, and then remembering, "B-but I think something else is wrong with her too, look at her eyes!"
He had lifted her into his arms again and held her face to the light. Sure enough, and despite the tears, they could see that she was under the effects of something, that something was controlling her.
"Do you think it's the Imperius?" asked Lupin, coming over swiftly to look at Emmeline.
"If it is she's fighting it, she's crying. She can't throw it off completely but she's fighting it." Moody replied and then commanded, "Give her to me!"
Reluctantly, and especially in light of how Moody had grasped her just moments before, Harry released her to him.
He set her down on a table, tapped her with his wand and said, "Finite Incantatem!"
Almost at once the glazed look fell out of her eyes and Emmeline began to cry in earnest now. With the tears came the hands to her eyes, the open, bawling mouth where crossed strands of gossamer saliva, and a terrible wailing only a child could make. Harry went to her at the table and took her back into his arms.
She was a crying girl, but this was different, she was a crying girl child. There was still that feeling of being useless, but somehow he felt he could at least handle this better than with someone older. At least this type of girl might be a little more open about her feelings.
He shushed her as best he could and then asked, "Emmy… Emmy, do you know where he took you before? Can you tell us where he took you before?"
She shook her head, "I didn't see… I was sleepy all the time… I don't know…"
Lupin took over, "Did you hear anything… smell, anything at all that might help us find him?"
Emmeline shook her head at first, then stopped and nodded.
"Okay, what did you hear Emmy? Tell us everything you heard, even if you think it's nothing. He's wanted your sister for a very long time, and now that he has her, we have to find her as fast as possible!" Lupin coaxed anxiously.
She turned in Harry's arms and looked around at them, and then said, "I heard a lot of things; I think there was a rusty gate."
*****
When that old, odd feeling of being pulled somewhere round her navel stopped, Hermione dropped free of her captor unto the cool grass of a strange new place. And she could barely believe it.
Wasn't it just moments before that she was going through a boring tour of the Ministry of Magic, arguing with Harry and then finally holding her sister, after two whole days, in the Death Chamber? When exactly did that change to being bodily thrown from an elevator unto the floor of Level Two of the Ministry of Magic, then dragged upwards from the group and out of sight altogether? And how exactly did Percy even come to know where they were in the first place?
At this last thought she opened her eyes, which she had shut just before she impacted with the floor in the Ministry, and beheld, for the first time since that night, the now emaciated visage of the late Percy Ignatius Weasley.
"You could help me…"
"You're not my brother anymore…"
"… or would you rather that she helps me… you never listened before… good advice…"
"You can't… I won't let you… Harry's coming back soon… he'll kill you too…"
"… don't understand… you, she can help… stop this…"
"… you're not Percy anymore…"
She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Thoughts of escape which normally would have been running rampant through her mind refused to materialise. She couldn't even bring herself to properly breathe.
After all this time, after all she had done to escape him, all through her denials, and the fighting song of earlier tonight: "He can have me if he wants me, but I can't let him have you." He had finally caught her, she was his.
For his part, Percy gave no outward signs that he was preparing to celebrate this little victory. He merely shrugged his robes on properly, discarded the portkey- her belt which he ripped off as soon as he snatched her- and began to look around him. Strangely paralysed, she was forced to watch as he took in the night air, cooler than London, and their surroundings, slightly blurred by a mist, before turning to her and giving a distinctly sickly smile that made his apparently dying body even more of an eyesore.
She spoke first.
"You can't keep me here, whatever you want, you won't get it! Harry's coming, and he'll kill you like he did with Voldemort!"
Percy shrugged, "So is it then. But it would be better if you did it… well, not necessarily for you, but for me."
They had landed somewhere grassy and surrounded by trees, a thicket most likely, and there was something eerily familiar about that stone beneath her left foot. It was much too smooth for something natural… But she was focusing on the fact that despite her poor visual in the place, she could still make out his surprisingly resigned expression.
She asked, "W-what do you mean?"
"Well haven't you figured it out yet Miss Granger? Why I haven't killed you all this time? Why I didn't kill your little sister? Why I keep coming back to you?" he asked.
She shook her head, and unexpectedly felt a twinge of annoyance that this was all a puzzle she hadn't figured out yet.
Percy smiled at her and replied, "Don't trouble yourself about it; I wasn't as clear as I should have been. The thing is, Miss Granger, I want you to help me die."
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