Shadow Claw: The Life Story - The Fourth Chapter

Ch. 32 - Department Of Mysteries

"Shadow, can't you fly?" Neville asked me reluctantly.

I grimaced, "Umbridge cut off my wings."

Ginny gasped, "She didn't!"

I nodded, "She did." I showed my two stubs of wings and pressed myself closer to Shade, who licked my cheek soothingly. "As much as you two have misbehaved, Hawthorne and I have business in the clan to attend to." He murmured. I sighed, "Alright then. Love you." I said softly, before watching him bound away after the Darkened League with Hawthorne.

"I can fly. Shadow can sit on me." Nova offered. I shifted and stroked her ears, thanking her.

Luna smiled mysteriously at the Thestrals that had appeared over a small hill by the thick roots of an old tree. "Thestrals. Look, there are more." She said eerily. Ron squinted, "What? I can't see them." He grumbled. Harry hopped on one, looking frustrated. "Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London... er, if you know... where to go..." He said. The Thestral paused before launching into the skies, followed by its brethren.

I noticed a small ferret in Luna's sidebag, and a little muzzle of a black dog poking out the bag that Ginny had around her shoulders. However, I said nothing on the matter.

*

"Who have you seen die, Shadow?" Nova asked once we were all up in the air, gliding through the clouds gracefully. I sighed, "Nobody, actually."

"How can you see the Thestrals then?" She questioned curiously. I shrugged, "I'll bet it's because I;m a Shadow Claw. Our omen is of death, and the Lights of life. We were born to the darkness, and I suppose that's why I can see them. Why's that? Who did you see die?" I asked her gently. She hesitated, but before she could reply, the Thestrals took a sharp turn and Nova had to drastically change her direction.

I almost slipped off, but I clutched her neck fur tightly. She growled, "Don't pull any of my fur out." She quipped. I laughed lightly, but there was no humour in my voice. "You'll have to worry about more important things soon."

*

Through the visitors' entrance... through the elevators... through hallways... through crowds...

It was noisy, and that was enough to perturb me. I did not like the Ministry, and I had a loitering hunch that it, too, did not like me, in turn. We all had badges, stating 'Rescue Mission' and I was still watching the bags for any movement of the small animals I knew were being stowed away. In the last elevator, swinging down mechanically to the Department of Mysteries, the ferret jumped out and formed into Jenny.

"You're a sneaky minx, Jenny, you know that?" I growled. She huffed, "You have no idea." James was next, but he chose to stay as his dog. I grimaced at the scent, "Wet dog." I almost gagged, "You need a bath." I said to him, but he stuck his muzzle in the air and looked petulant as ever.

The corridor we stepped into was dark and eerie, and nothing move,d except for a flickering torches caused by the air of the lift.

There was a single black door, and it held some sort of mysterious power. I shifted and padded forward with Nova slowly, scenting the place. "Clear." We said in unison, and they surged forwards towards the door. Harry muttered something, but the conversation did not last long, and as we all opened the door and walked through the threshold, we found a circular room. The last person shut the door, and we realized there was many other handleless, ebony black doors surrounding the walls.

There was a great rumble all at once, and the circular wall rotated.

"We can't find our way out now." Ginny mumbled. I scoffed, scenting the place, before I realized each door smelt the same. No clue as to we were ever there. I swore quietly, glancing towards Nova.

Harry tried the first door he set eyes on, and it swung open easily. "Shit, are those fish?" Nova hissed, walking up to the desks and massive white-green tank at the very end. My eyes widened, and Luna said it was some weird breeding creature, but I shook my head, "No... n-no, they're brains..." A few gasps arose, "What are they doing with them?" Hermione pondered quietly.

"Not this one." Harry said, despite the many other black doors in that room. How big was it? Damn.

We headed back to the circular one, and Hermione set a red-gold cross across the door. The wall rotated again, but stayed on the door. "Good thinking." Harry said to her, and then strode over to the next door in his sights, opening it with his wand raised. Nova and I flanked them all, peering around anxiously.

The room was much larger, and like an amphitheater, with stone benches running all around it, encasing it. The middle had a raised, grey dais with some sort of stone-henge archway. There was a veil of misty souls swaying between it, and Harry muttered something akin to, "Sirius..." He was looking at it too, and so were Nova and Luna, and Neville, and even Ginny. James and Jenny were staring at it like robotic mechanics. I pulled them away from it gently.

"Nobody's talking, Harry! Let's go!" Hermione said, sounding utterly frightened. I growled softly, "I can hear it... see it, too." There was a small nod of understanding from Nova too. "I can." She said.

Hermione took a hold of everybody and yanked them back. I tore my eyes from the archway and padded backward, turning and travelling back to the circular room once more.

Hermione inscribed a fiery cross across that door too, and said to Harry how she thought it was dangerous. "Souls..." I whispered, glancing at dog-James who barked at me, his tail down. Jenny stood beside Harry, but then stepped forward after the next rotation and threw herself at one door. It didn't budge.

"It's locked." Harry said. Ron jumped up excitedly, "Then that's the one, right?"

Hermione snapped at him to get out the way and called out, "Alohomora!" Still, nothing.

There was more talk, but I snarled fiercely. "Shut it." I snipped at them all. Silence befell us all. The rotation occurred one, last time, and Harry opened another door. "This is it!" He cried. There were shelves and shelves of glittering, shimmering, neon blue, diamond, sparkling lights. I knew instantly they were orbs, containing memories, prophecies, last words and all the like. Recorded forever.

We rushed forward to the door, while I admired the clocks that were dotted in and out of the beautiful orbs and hanging between them all. There was a glass bell jar with an egg, that burst open, and as the bird that emerged flew up, it became old and bedraggled, falling back down and forming an egg once more. "What a cruel life." I muttered in distaste. James snorted beside me in agreement.

There was a door behind that strange, unusual bell jar. It was the only door, and from behind the small gathering of friends, I could hear Harry's heart beating frantically. "This is it..."

He glanced around at all the anxious, serious faces, and then pushed at the door. It swung open.