THE NEXT DOOR
A Mistake in the Ministry of Magic
Chapter One
Two years after completing Hogwarts
Hermione's office door was open. Voices filtered in from the hallway. She sighed. She had a stack of papers on her desk that threatened to spill over onto the floor at any moment. But she tucked her quill behind her ear and leaned back in her chair to stretch and reach for a moment of peace.
She loved her job. Though working at the Ministry of Magic had not been her first choice in occupations, when they offered her the head position of the Department of Magical Research and Logical Applications, she could hardly refuse. Especially after she'd seen her office tucked away on the eighth level with its magicked windows and blooming plants in painted pots. And the pay wasn't bad either. Never mind the `complete access' she'd been given to the Ministry of Magic's library (it was a well-kept secret), and Hermione's private Heaven.
Hermione signed her signature to a few papers and walked them to the door. Ellie, her bubbly and pink cheeked secretary, stood in the hallway flirting with Edward Schotte from the Department of Magical Games and Sports on the seventh level. Edward was a tall gangly man whose eyes were wild and blue, and his brown hair was always in need of haircut. He loped around their office door too often to be mistaken as anything other than proof of his monumental crush on Ms. Ellie Tangleton.
"Oh, Hermione," Ellie said and blushed profusely. "You've met Edward."
"Hello, Ms. Granger," he said with a nod. Hair fell into his eyes.
"Hi, Edward," Hermione returned, "how's Ludo treating you?"
"The same. The same," he answered. "I can't complain." He pushed his brown hair off his forehead with a long fingered hand.
"That's good to know," Hermione said and then turned to Ellie, "did you finish filing those reports from Dr. Kakosovytch's last documented experiment?"
"I did," Ellie said with an enthusiastic nod. "I was just telling Edward here that Dr. Nylan wants me to scoot down to the labs and catch a doxy." Ellie looked up at Edward. "Someone lost twenty last week. We still haven't found all of them." Edward winced.
"If you don't mind, Ellie," Hermione said as she held out the signed papers to the young witch, "I really need these owled over to the labs in Greece. Then, if you could send the same papers in an interoffice memo to Drs. McCain and Rogers. They're waiting for permission to borrow flames from the Fires of Constant Combustion."
"Would you like me to do that before I track down the doxy?" Ellie asked as a floating quill and notepad hovered near her head and took notes of her assigned tasks.
"I have to speak with Dr. Kakosovytch, so I'll check out the suspected doxy problem."
"Thanks," Ellie said in relief. "That last doxy bite really set me back a couple of days."
"Good to see you again, Edward," Hermione said.
As Hermione turned to leave the two flirting Ministry workers, Harry called out her name. She glanced over her shoulder in surprise as Harry rushed up the hallway.
"Harry," she said, "what are you doing here?"
"I had to visit Nigel in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he said with a grin, "and I thought I would stop in to see what you were doing."
"Oh, work as usual."
"Good thing I caught you," he said as they walked down the hallway together, "it appears you're heading out."
"To the labs," she said. "Feel like tagging along? I need to catch up on everyone."
"If you'd come home from work every now and then," Harry said with a playful grin, "I wouldn't have to catch you up on anything."
"Give it a rest," she warned teasingly.
"Ron's keeping a calendar of all the days you've actually slept in your own bed," Harry said.
Hermione pressed her wand to a keypad mounted halfway up the wall. Part of the wall recessed and slid open to reveal the foyer of the laboratories. Once they were through the door, it closed behind them with a soft whoosh.
"Wow," Harry said. "I've never been down here."
"Of course you haven't," Hermione smiled. "It's top secret." She waved to the wizard seated behind the reception desk and he waved in return, but not before eyeing Harry with suspicion.
"Does this mean you'll have to kill me now?" Harry asked.
"That depends on if you're buying me dinner or not."
"You're actually leaving the office?"
"Would you give it a rest?" Hermione said as she rolled her eyes. They approached another keypad and once again, Hermione pressed her wand into the buttons in an obvious pattern. "Besides, I don't spend every night here. Tell Ron he needs to fix his calendar to include the nights I don't spend in my bed or at the office."
Harry frowned. "What do you mean?"
Hermione smirked. The wall recessed and another hidden door opened. "Think about it. I might be sleeping in someone else's bed."
Harry paled and stumbled over a series of words that were garbled. Hermione laughed. He finally gathered his wits and asked, "So, I suppose that means you and Conner are doing well."
Hermione huffed. "On the contrary, he's a self-righteous pig."
"That good, eh?"
"Don't get me started on him," Hermione said in disgust. "If I had known he was merely trying to get a job with the Ministry, I wouldn't have wasted an entire month on him."
"He was dating you for a job?" Harry asked incredulously.
Hermione knocked on a closed, windowless door. "Sad, isn't it?"
Harry glared at her. "You want Ron and me to hurt him? He wouldn't have to know it was us."
Hermione laughed just as a voice behind the door spoke a muffled `come in'. She turned the knob and poked her head inside the laboratory.
"Dr. Kakosovytch?" Hermione called.
"He's in the back lab," another wizard answered.
"Mind if we go through here?" she asked. The wizard shook his head and Hermione grabbed Harry's arm. "Don't touch anything."
"Why?" he whispered to match her quiet tone.
"Because some of these experiments are dangerous," she said. "Really dangerous."
"Why are dangerous experiments allowed?" Harry asked as Hermione lead him through the busy laboratory. Wizards and witches bustled around, and the myriad of noises was enough to distract anyone from the most focused concentration.
"Betterment of the society, I suppose," she answered. "There's always that chance one of these experiments could turn out to do a lot of good for a lot of people."
"Why are we looking for Dr. Kaposopitch?" Harry asked.
Hermione spotted the wizard she was searching for in the back corner. "Dr. Kakosovytch," Hermione corrected. "He hasn't filled out his paperwork in three weeks," she said as she leaned close to Harry. "And some of the other scientists are complaining about his work. They say they think he might be dabbling."
"Dabbling?"
"In the Dark Arts," Hermione whispered. Then, she smiled and waved at Dr. Kakosovytch."
"Ms. Granger," he said, his English thickly accented, "what is the honor?"
"Business, I'm afraid," she said cordially. "Dr. Kakosovytch, this is Harry Potter."
The doctor held out his hand and Harry shook it. The man had a grip like a grizzly bear. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter." His dark eyes were devoid of warmth though his voice sounded friendly and welcoming.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Dr. Kakosovytch," Hermione continued, "but we need your last few weeks' paperwork. Do you think we could walk to your office and retrieve it?"
The doctor frowned, and his bushy black brows knitted together. "I do not have time," he said, and then he softened his expression, "but I will do it for you. Come with me," he said, and he motioned them around his lab table and through another door.
The three of them walked down a long hallway. They turned down so many alternating corridors, that Harry felt as lost as he did when riding the tunnel cars in Gringotts. Finally they stopped inside a room that was shaped like a perfect square. Four doors lined each wall, and Hermione frowned.
"What is this?" she asked curiously.
"An experiment," Dr. Kakosovytch said easily. He walked toward the wall directly in front of them, and opened the second door from the right. "I will be right back. Wait here." Before he disappeared through the doorway he added, "Don't go anywhere."
Hermione laughed uneasily. "Of course not."
He closed the door and Harry turned to her. "Batty old wizard, isn't he?"
But Hermione wasn't concentrating on him. "What do you think all these doors are for?" she wondered aloud.
"It reminds me of the revolving room in the Department of Mysteries," Harry said quietly. "Do you remember that?"
"Of course," she said. Then she shrugged, and they waited. And waited. Until finally, Hermione began to lose her patience. "Where is he?"
"Dunno."
"Do you think we should go get him?"
"He said to wait here."
"He isn't our boss, Harry," Hermione said in snippy tone, "we can do as we please."
"So, go get him," Harry said dismissively.
Hermione walked toward the door she thought Dr. Kakosovytch had entered, but Harry reached out and grabbed her arm. "That's not the one he opened."
"Yes, it is."
Harry shook his head. "No, it isn't."
"I know this was the door."
"I'm not so sure," Harry said with hesitation. "I wouldn't open it."
"It's only a door," Hermione answered. "What's the big deal?"
Harry stepped up beside Hermione as she opened the door. The room on the opposite side of the opened door was dark, and she glanced up at Harry. "Maybe you were right." She stepped forward with Harry beside her and called out, "Dr. Kakos-"
But she never finished. The breath rushed out of her lungs, and her blood chilled straight to the marrow. Her body felt crushed beneath the weight of a hundred thousand men. Hermione wanted to scream but her brain could not properly access her voice, and she and Harry fell forward through space and time.aHarr
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