Catalyst

Chapter 46: Beginning of the End

Dumbledore motionlessly stared at the cooling corpse. Thenabar had just...killed himself. There had been hesitation, no regret, not even a hint of fear. This just wasn't human. It wasn't behavior he would expect out of any intelligent being, to throw away it's own life as if it meant nothing. He had talked with it, spent time with it, and now it was gone. Unless...

'All you've cost me is a couple hours.'

It claimed the day it killed Severus was the same day it had been born. Abathur couldn't have known he would have needed a proxy, how could he? That meant he had made the creature, nurtured it and grown it in hours. Its mind had been connected to others, Dumbledore could assume that much from the brief glimpse of it he had managed. In fact, there had barely been any distinction at all between them. It had been just as connected to beings on another world as he had been to his own flesh and blood. If his mind was so loosely connected to his body, then who was to say it couldn't be moved to another?

Thenabar wasn't dead. He would be up and about, wreaking havoc in a matter of hours. Dear Merlin, were all of them like this? Were they all immortal, able to cast off their flesh and grow it anew, rid of any scars or pestilence it accumulated? The concept was terrifyingly plausible.

"Albus, there's been an-" Minerva visibly recoiled at the sight of the alien corpse, hand still stuck in it's own chest. Her eyes locked onto its face, then back to his own. "What happened? What is this...thing?"

"Later, Minerva," Dumbledore said, moving to the doorway, blocking her view. "What happened?"

"The Ministry, Albus, it's under attack! You-Know-Who is there! He's trying to get into the Department of Mysteries!"

(Transition)

"Insanity inc., here to deliver the Minister's prescription," Luna said to the voice in the phone booth, to the nervous snickers of those around her. It was a pleasant thing to hear, like bubbles in her stomach. Well, bubbles that weren't caused by the various gases trapped in the acid. She didn't usually feel those. Granted, she usually didn't sneak into the Ministry under the cover of night with a bunch of humans all crammed into a single phone booth either. There was something remarkably exciting about it, a tingling rush washing over her. She wanted to keep it going as long as possible.

The elevator doors opened, revealing an empty hall dominated by a ridiculous stone statue. Without a word, the group began moving through the hall towards the row of elevators along one of the back walls. The thrilling sensation Luna had come to associate with humans working together had stretched taut, giving the impression it could snap at any moment. Luna wasn't sure what would happen if it did.

They piled into the elevator, pushing each other to the edges. The doors closed, trapping them inside. The metal frame pulled back into the wall, then began to descend, momentarily cutting off all light. After a number of minutes, the doors opened once more, revealing the sterile walls of the DMLE. There was a suspicious lack of personnel present, almost a total absence. This was what happened when you had to sleep for 8 hours a day. It was almost trivial to march through the department, straight to the holding cells. The doors barely even tried to resist exploding. Perhaps it was simple negligence. Then again, perhaps it was the two masked Death Eaters behind the demolished door, closing in on the comatose form of Harry, curled in a corner of his cell. Despite herself, Luna felt a tug of emotion at the sight, barely identifiable before it was quashed.

"Harry!" Ron shouted, pulling out his wand, and motioning for the rest of the students to follow him. The stretched feeling was temporarily replaced with excitement, a call to arms. Luna reached for her own weapon, followed by the other humans.

Almost immediately, the walls of the department began to glow with the light of spellfire. Luna was with Ginny, facing off against a much taller masked human. One moment, their wands lay still in their hands. The next, they whipped around like maddened branches, flinging spells. Luna decided to go with Defodio; Abathur was still curious about its properties.