in the end ~ d. malfoy

Chapter Forty-One

June 2016

The floor of the telephone box shudders and the pavement rises up past its glass windows as Maya anxiously pins the Visitor's badge to her chest, blackness closing over their heads. With a dull grinding noise, they sink down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. A chink of soft golden light hits their feet and, widening, rises up their bodies. Maya straightens up and her fingers crackle, anticipating intruders, but to her surprise, no one's there.

'The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening,' says the woman's voice. The door of the telephone box bursts open; Harry topples out of it, closely followed by Maya and Diana. The only sound in the Atrium is the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat and the house-elf's ears continue to gush into the surrounding pool.

'Come on, ' says Harry quietly and the eight of them sprint off down the hall, Diana in the lead, past the eerily deserted front desk. There's supposed to be someone there, Maya realizes, ominously, as they all clamber into the golden gates around the lift. A security guard. . . . if they're gone, then this certainly isn't going to turn out well.

Harry presses the nearest 'down' button and a lift clatters into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slide apart with a great, echoing clanking and they all dash inside. Harry stabs the number nine button; the grilles close with a bang and the lift begins to descend, jangling and rattling. Maya wonders how no one's noticing that they're here, with all the noise that the lift is making, but she doesn't have time to dwell on it as they grind to a halt, the cool female voice saying, 'Department of Mysteries,' the grilles sliding open.

They step out into a dark corridor, where nothing is moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift. Harry turns towards the plain black door on the right out of instinct. A sense of foreboding sits heavily in Maya's stomach, but she lets it go, pushing her emotions down and swallowing deeply.

It's now or never.

'Let's go,' he whispers, and leads the way down the corridor, Maya right behind him, sparks crackling at her fingertips.

'OK, listen,' says Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. 'Maybe . . . maybe a couple of people should stay here as a — as a lookout, and — '

'And how're we going to let you know something's coming?' asks Diana, bluntly. 'You could be miles away.'

'We're coming with you, Harry,' says Neville.

'Let's get on with it,' says Ron firmly.

Harry sighs, and turns to face the door; it swings open and they marched over the threshold. They're standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here is black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handleless black doors are set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burn blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor makes it look as though there is dark water underfoot.

'Someone shut the door,' Harry mutters. The room goes pitch-black, and Maya can barely make out the people standing around her. The candles burning around her give her surroundings an ominous glow, and Maya starts to feel the hair prickle on the back of her neck.

Just as she looks at the doors around them, wondering which is the right one, there's a great rumbling noise and the candles begin to move sideways. The circular wall is rotating. Diana shrieks and grabs Luna's arm as though frightened the floor might move, too, but it does not.

For a few seconds, the blue flames around them are blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall speeds around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stops and everything becomes stationary once again. Maya exhales, sharply, a terrified laugh escaping her lips.