The Master of Death

Chapter47: Croaker

Sirius' request in addition to Voldemort's letter put Harry under quite the pressure.

He knew first hand that the machinery of the government was about as easy to get going like a rock, yet just as unstoppable once it got rolling.
Currently, the Ministry would be about as unnavigable as a maze. Partly attributable to the fact that certain departments were badly networked, partly because corruption streaked it like colourful strings a woven tapestry.
In an uncertain future, Kingsley had tried to remedy both of those issues, his effort in either only partly met with success.

Something Harry planned to unscrupulously take advantage of.

If there had ever been a department that was being cut off from the rest, it was the Department of Mysteries.

Due to its highly classified nature, it was being granted a great deal of independence and was the only one not having to answer to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Harry's break-in during his original fifth year alongside some members of the DA could be considered a security breach of the highest order. Once he'd begun to work as an Auror, he'd become aware of how many obstacles exactly Voldemort had cleared out of the way to make this intrusion even possible.

Even the changing management had little to no impact on the Unspeakables' operations. Something that had chipped away at more than one Ministers' pride.
But the one time there had actually been an attempt to shut the branch down, it had been met with nothing but laughter by the department's workers, who simply had continued to show up as if nothing was amiss.
Since then, the department had reluctantly been allowed to exist in its own imaginary bubble - consulted in certain cases - but otherwise being left to its own devices.
Thus, Harry was quite certain that if he would be allowed to view his prophecy, it would take weeks for the news of his appointment to reach the higher authorities.

And should - for whatever reason - option A not suffice, he could still always steal it, although Harry would rather not have to navigate the various security measures down there.

Because intent was a very fickle thing. And while his fifteen-year-old self might have been able to break in rather unharmed to go about his rescue mission, his current thieving self would most likely not be that blessed.

Harry spent the better part of an hour drawing up his letter to the current head of the Department of Mysteries.

In his time as an Auror, he hadn't had even once interacted with an Unspeakable. Their departments hadn't been on wildly different floors and usually, the people working down in the 'cellar' had been viewed as a rather odd bunch. Unfortunately, because of this, Harry had no idea what to expect exactly, nor did he know who might be responsible for granting his request.

Despite the lack of personal address, Harry allowed himself not to worry too much about it reaching its intended recipient. Owls tended to find people in mysterious ways and he didn't doubt that this time it would be the same.

Overall, it had been the longest he needed for a letter in quite a while and the irony that he found it easier to communicate with Voldemort than a government official wasn't lost on Harry.

Although, in his defence, it took a while to convey the pressing nature of the matter, while simultaneously being vague enough to not reveal too much to all-seeing eyes.

Harry sent the letter barely three hours after having received Voldemort's reply because thanks to the bastard he had to work within quite the tight time frame.
Yet, all in all, he was quite confident in procuring the prophecy to gain the Dark Lord's favour.