"Ow, Ron, that's my stomach," Hermione chided with a grunt after they all squished together in the tiny phone booth—whatever a phone booth was.
"Someone who can reach the phone dial six-two-four-four-two," Harry ordered loudly with a waver in his voice.
Draco realised that he had had it wrong when he was riding the wind on the thestral; Harry really was panicking like the world was about to collapse in on itself, he had just been so shrouded with determination and hope that now they were actually at the Department of Mysteries, the helplessness was beginning to leak out of his words where it hadn't before.
He noticed it in the darkness in his normally bright eyes, how he kept shifting in the booth as if his whole body was filled with a buzz that he couldn't shake, no matter how much he moved, and the way his lips tightened together the more that time seemed to drag on.
"Neville," he suddenly barked. "You're closest. Dial it."
"Um," he fumbled, trying to twist his arm up and around the head of an unshaken Luna. "What was the number again?"
"Six. Two. Four. Four. Two." Harry said slowly—Draco wasn't sure if it was out of patience or anger, for the tone of his voice was so warbled that he barely even understood the words.
Neville dialled it awkwardly into the oddly-shaped contraption, and a woman's voice came out of the thing. "You have reached the Ministry of magic. Please state your name and business."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and," there, Harry glanced at him from behind Ron. "Draco Malfoy. And we're here to save someone, since the Ministry isn't doing bloody anything!"
"Thank you," said the cool female voice. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes." Half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared, Hermione scooping them up and handing them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head. Draco glanced at the topmost one in the pile.
Harry Potter:
Rescue Mission
He would have snorted if the circumstances weren't so dire.
"Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium. Enjoy your visit at the Ministry of Magic."
"Ya, ya, whatever. Now can we move?" Harry demanded tightly.
The box shuddered suddenly, and Draco grabbed the hand closest to his on instinct—by the rough and sweaty feeling on it, he worried that it might have been Ron's, but he wasn't about to say anything and neither did he. The phone booth drifted down into the earth, and Draco saw it open up under his feet into what appeared to be the Ministry.
It was telling to their adventure that this wasn't the weirdest thing to happen to him today. In fact, it probably only made the top five, when he considered the flight on an invisible creature.
They found out that Harry was right as the box drifted down; the Ministry was empty and desolate, so quiet that they're breaths were the only sound, echoing across the open expanse of the large, underground building.
Then, the phone booth practically spat them out, and the group that had all squished inside the tiny space tumbled out like a bunch of chess pieces being pushed over. Draco groaned as he landed awkwardly on his side in the middle of the small pile of people.
"Okay, let's go find Sirius," Harry said again, and he sounded more like a broken record as each second passed on in a strange sort of anticipated oblivion.
YOU ARE READING
Please Be There If I Remember
Fanfiction"Mr. Malfoy, where are you going? You just woke up from a great fall after all, I'm sure your friends can come here, instead of you going to them." Who was Malfoy? Oh right, it was probably him. A little bit late, he realised that he should have tol...
