Hide and Seek

Chapter 5

Draco was told to stay put in the witness room while a team of Aurors went to collect his extensive list of belongings from the Manor. Meanwhile, Harry took the opportunity to visit Ron before he would have to take Draco to the safe house. Glad to be putting some distance between himself and Draco, Harry stepped onto the lift, slammed the gates shut and pressed the button to Level Eleven. The lift trundled and shook as it descended deeper into the bowels of the ministry, the air growing noticeably cooler with each passing level. By the time the lift reached Level Ten, Harry's breaths were coming out in misty puffs with each exhale. Finally, the lift shuddered to a halt on the lowest level.

"Level Eleven," the familiar cool, female voice rang out. "The Evidence Chamber, including the storage of seized property, stolen property, case evidence, and miscellaneous bits and bobs."

Harry stepped out of the lift into a dimly lit tunnel carved out of black stone and lit by flaming torches on either side of the rugged walls. His footsteps bounced and echoed, making it sound as though several people were marching up and down the passageway, although he was quite alone. Those unfamiliar with the dank, dark tunnel could be forgiven for finding it a little creepy. Harry, however, had been down here enough times that any spooky allure had long since vanished.

Harry stopped in his tracks for a moment and listened. He could hear soft music playing further down the tunnel. After a few minutes of walking down a steep incline, the tunnel grew fractionally warmer and brighter. He rounded a sharp corner and a colossal vault door came into view. Sitting at the foot of the vault door was Ron Weasley.

Ron sat on a spinning chair with his feet up on a small wooden work desk, his face buried in the latest issue of Quidditch Times. The latest Weird Sisters album played from a nearby gramophone which was sat atop a rusted filing cabinet. To the left of the desk, Ron had assembled a small campfire, presumably to keep himself warm.

"Working hard as usual, I see?" Harry teased.

Ron looked over the top of his magazine and grinned. "Alright, mate! What you doin' all the way down here?"

Harry shrugged. "Just came to visit."

Ron closed his magazine and tossed it on top of his desk which was littered with parchment and incomplete paperwork. "Came down here to escape from the madness upstairs?"

"Something like that," Harry slumped into the rickety chair in front of Ron's desk. "How are things down here?"

"Non-stop, balls to the wall action, as always," Ron joked. He was already rifling through his drawers for a deck of Exploding Snap playing cards. "How's things upstairs? You miss me yet?"

Harry laughed. "I don't miss you snoring during stakeouts, no."

Harry was teasing, of course, although in truth, he missed having Ron as his partner a great deal. Neville was a good friend, but he wasn't his best friend. Of course, Harry understood why Ron gave up being an Auror. Hermione had just given birth to their first child—a daughter, Rose—and since then, she had become less keen on Ron continuing to work in such a dangerous profession. Considering how the likes of Mad-Eye Moody ended up, Harry didn't think Hermione's concerns were misplaced.

So, Ron hung up his Auror's coat and took a desk job instead. Or more accurately, he took the only desk job that was available in the Ministry at the time, which happened to be the Quartermaster of the Evidence Chamber. It sounded a lot more interesting than what the position actually entailed. It was Ron's job to safeguard the Evidence Chamber, which primarily involved sitting in front of the big vault door at his desk and telling people that they couldn't enter without permission.

Ron had only planned on being in the position temporarily until something better came along, but he actually enjoyed working in the dark, damp tunnel deep underground. He was left to his own devices for the most part, which left him plenty of time to listen to Quidditch matches on the radio and read comic books. Sometimes, when Harry had some free time on his hands, they would explore the chamber and look for cool stuff. They had to be careful, of course—they didn't want to mess with anything potentially dangerous or cursed. But there was mile upon mile of connecting tunnels inside of the vault, with shelves as tall as skyscrapers holding evidence that dated back centuries, entirely forgotten from living memory, just gathering dust. What was the harm in Ron and Harry playing about with some of it when they were bored?