Harry stumbled out of the fireplace and dragged soot along the office floor. He had ended up in what seemed to be an abandoned work office. Papers and books were scattered all across the desk. He looked around wildly and lunged for the door.
He had never been in this department before. It was very dull. The wall paper that aligned the halls was a grayish-white colour that almost looked sodden. Harry ran down in one of the two halls, hoping that he was moving closer to the Atrium.
Dead ends seem to appear out of no where. Harry grew frustrated as he could have sworn he had already been down one of the halls. He stopped to catch his breath and looked around the hall. Why was nobody here? Surely someone would be lurking around.
Happily chatting voices could be heard coming down the hall. Harry looked up at their shadows and dodged into the haven of a near by office room. The voices disappeared around the corner. Harry went in the opposite direction from which the people had come and to his relief found the elevator.
“Please state your floor destination.” said a soft female voice as he entered the elevator. Harry stood for a moment without saying anything. What floor was the Atrium?
“The Atrium,” Harry told it, desperately hoping it would know where to go.
“Please state your floor destination.” the voice repeated.
Harry grew frustrated at how calm the voice was. Faintly he remembered the floor number from the time he had come here with Mr. Weasley, and suddenly blurted out “Eight,” shaking slightly. The elevator started to descend. Harry jumped out as soon as the door began to open.
Indeed he had ended up on the atrium, but nobody was to be found. Many small balloons were floating about the ceiling, and confetti was scattered across the ground. The inauguration was over, and Dumbledore was gone.
Harry felt a panicked feeling build in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know where Dumbledore was, and was lost in the Ministry of Magic. He climbed back into the golden doors of the elevator and stood silently.
“Please state your floor destination.” said the female voice. Harry grew, if possible, even more nervous. He was wasting time, and he didn’t even know what floor the office he came out of was on.
Maybe I should just tell someone who works at the Ministry, Harry thought, but what should I tell them, that he couldn’t find his friend and thought she was taken by Death Eaters? I don’t even know where she is…. He did know where she was! The Death Eaters wanted Hermione to lure Harry into the veil. Harry knew Occlumency. What if I just try to walk in there, grab Hermione, and just throw her and myself out of the veil? No, it was a stupid idea. Hermione told him how dangerous it was…. But Hermione wasn’t herself. If Harry was correct, she thought herself to be in league with Voldemort.
“Level nine!” Harry told the voice, which was immediately followed by the shaking floor. Slowly they rose into the air, Harry trying to convince himself that what he was about to do was justified. Sirius will be there… said a voice from the back of his mind. All other thoughts stopped. He was determined to go into the veil. He didn’t know how he was going to get Hermione and Sirius out. All he knew was that somehow he would.
The doors slid open to reveal a dark corridor lit by a small amount of flickering torches. Harry ran down it and threw open the black door that he had seen all of last year. Immediately the wall in the circular room began to move, taking every door and blue flamed candles with it. Harry wished that he had marked the door he had come in so he could find his way back out.
The doors stopped moving, and Harry stepped forward to open one. He hadn’t seen this room before, but recognized it for what it was. The room seemed endlessly tall and was pitch black with the exception of the large orbs circling around one enormous, dazzling sphere in the center. The circling orbs were planets, all about three times larger than Harry, and were revolving around what Harry decided could only be the sun. He stared at it with aw. This must have been where Ron had become so senseless. It had an odd feeling about it, as though it would suck him into nothingness if he stepped into it….
Harry shook himself out of his daze and shut the door behind him. “Flagrate!" he hissed and marked the room so as not to open it mistakenly again. The fiery red X burned into the black enterer of the door.
Harry opened another door, which led to a tall, white, circular room. At the very top was a thick twine that reached just above the floor. Harry watched as the pendulum swung back and forth. Very deep purple sand was seeping from the end of the bob, making a thin line across the white floor as it went. Seconds after the sand hit the floor, it sunk into the floor and disappeared, only to reappear on the surrounding wall in an odd writting that Harry could not read.
Another X was marked on the door. Harry went around and picked another door to open. This was the one he was searching for. The amphitheater like surroundings were made out of a sleek, black stone. Harry skidded down the benches and onto the dais, looking up and the grand veil which was fluttering slightly, despite the lack of wind.
Three voices were talking busily to each other, two of which Harry recognized. “Shhhh!” one of the voices hissed. “I think he’s here!” The other two voices died, followed by a loud crack.
Harry held his breath and pulled back the fabric hanging from the archway. It felt like whisps of steam, almost as if it wasn't there at all. Just before he entered, Harry cleared his mind to the point where he almost forgot why he was there. He smoothly stepped into the veil, straining to keep his mind as the foggy figures of Hermione and Sirius came into view.
The area behind the veil was like a mirror of the dais he was just on. An odd sort of wind was floating about, but not actually touching Harry. He didn’t like it, for it seemed to try to break into his mind. He felt as though it would wipe out all his memories and replace them with something else….
Sirius was determinedly facing the opposite direction, but Hermione looked strait into his eyes. She had a horrible smirk on her face that was not her own. Harry concentrated with his entire mind on Occlumency, but the faintness voice in the back of his head was asking him, how would he get Hermione and Sirius to come out with him? He had his doubts for Sirius, which saddened him, but didn’t even see his face.
Hermione looked oddly at Harry, as though trying to see something nobody else would. Harry did the only thing he could think of to do. Slowly he shifted his thoughts over to convincing Hermione to go back, just as he had done with the serpent to make it attempt to bite Lucius Malfoy. Hermione looked fearful, and turned away to climb to the top of the stone amphitheater next to Sirius.
Harry only wished that they would look into his eyes. He knew that he could help them if they would. He slowly lifted his foot, still concentrating on Occlumency, and began to climb up the benches of the amphitheater.
With each step Harry felt as though he might just want to give in. The surrounding wind got uncomfortably close to his skin. Maybe it would be so bad to give in to it. He looked back up to Sirius and Hermione and shook the thought off.
A soft crack came from outside the veil, but Harry dared not to take note of it. A truly evil voice range from behind him, “POTTER!” it barked.
Harry gave a startled jolt. He lost concentration. The surrounding wind flooded into his body at once. Seeping into his very skin, Harry felt as though he understood something he should have learned when he learned that he was a wizard. A snake like voice shrieked in the background of his very mind. “There is only power, and those to weak to seek it!”