“Miss Chang, I want you to sort these files of underage use of magic from the last five years and then put them in the designated filing cabinets,” Mafalda Hopkirk said.
She tipped a four foot tall stack of manila folders onto Cho Chang’s desk. Cho stared at the mountain of papers before looking up at her superior. She had just finished filing out five, FIVE, separate incident reports of the misuse of magic. They were not special incidents. They were mostly reports of transfigured teacups and illegally performed hovering charms. When she was sure Madam Hopkirk was out of hearing range, Cho let out a huge sigh and reluctantly began to sort the files.
“I have been working in boring as hell desk job for the last six months, and all I’ve been doing was sorting out…files,” Cho muttered under her breath. “When will something exciting happen to me?”
“But remember, dearie, a million wizards would kill to be in the Ministry,” a tiny voice crooned inside her head.
“Yes, but its not as glamorous as it looks,” Cho thought. She started to set the files aside and organizing them by date. “You don’t really see anyone famous or go on any missions. You just sit at a desk all day, doing paperwork and nothing else. Where is the excitement in that?"
Then, right at the moment she said “Where is the excitement in that?", a piece of parchment folded into a paper plane flew onto the mountain of paperwork. Making sure that Madam Hopkirk was still in her office; Cho took the paper plane and unfolded it.
Do you want to fulfill your destiny? Meet me and the others at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries at 2:00 this afternoon.
Jenna
Cho’s watch read 1:45 PM.
Madam Hopkirk, I have to make several errands today. I won’t be back for several hours. Cho wrote down on a sheet of paper and left it on her boss's door.
She slipped out of the department and into the lift. Five minutes later, the doors opened to the Department of Mysteries. She walked down the stone corridors with a faint inkling of what she was going to do in the Department of Mysteries. At the end of the corridor, she spotted a small group of people, one girl and two boys. The girl had a shock of strawberry blonde hair sticking out of her head. Her name was Jenna Barker, and she worked for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. The others were Charlie Lee and Paul Rousseau, other Ministry workers that Cho had befriended since starting her work six months before.
“You know the procedure, right?” Paul asked his friends.
‘We draw straws,” Charlie croaked through his thick Irish accent. He produced a bundle of straws out of thin air. “Bastard with the shortest straw goes first.”
Jenna reached forward and took a straw, followed by Cho, Paul, and Charlie.
“Poor Cho, you get the shortest straw,” crooned Jenna.
Cho gulped, but composed herself. She didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of her friends.
“You remember what you have to do, right?” asked Charlie.
“Yes, I go into the Department of Mysteries and get something from the bowels of it to prove that I was in there,” Cho said, trying her best to hide her reluctance. It was a game she and the others had started to play months before to relieve the boredom of working at the Ministry. “Then Paul will go into a different room because he has the next shortest straw, as does you, and then Jenna.”
“So, go on then,” Charlie said.
Cho began to walk down the corridor and didn’t look back. It was getting darker in that tunnel with each step she took. The air was so cold she could feel her teeth chattering. She started to regret leaving her brand new trench coat behind at her desk. Finally, after twenty minutes of walking, she could see a single plain black door at the end of the tunnel. Cho started to break into a run and was close to falling several times on her high heels. She just had to get to that door. Only, when she got to the end of the tunnel, she found out there were three doors.
“Screw it, I’ll just take the middle door,” Cho muttered as her hands gripped the handle and jerked the door open. She walked in and fell onto her butt.
“Ow,” she grumbled. She tried to get up, but she fell down again. The room was spinning around her as if she was on a carousel that was going at a super fast speed. The room was a blur of bright, neon colours. Her brain was spinning inside her skull. She wanted to get off of this bad carnival ride and back into the corridor.
Trying her best not to throw up, Cho crawled out of the spinning room and into the hallway. When she safely inside, she fell onto her back and began to breathe heavily on the floor.
When she recovered enough, she got back on her feet and walked to the door on the right hand side. Her head was spinning. It was hard to move. It was as if some one had cast a jelly-legs curse on her. Despite that, Cho was able to latch onto the handle of the door on the right hand side.
“Here goes nothing,” she said as she opened the door and crawled inside.
Through the Looking Glass by stareyed_in_LA
Chapter Notes: I really want to thank Mugglemathdork (aka Ritta) and Bertiebott12 for getting me through this Gaunlet fic. You guys are the best!