Silver Hourglass

Roles to Play Chapter 50

The seven of them sprinted down the large hall of the Ministry, Harry in the lead. They past a grand fountain. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in it. Tallest of them was a noble-looking wizard, surrounded by a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard, jets of water flying out of the wands and various parts of the creatures. Harry only spare that fountain a look, slowing down slightly before remembering why they were there. They ran past an empty security desk and through the golden gates of the lifts. He pressed the nearest down button and the lift clattered as it descended. The seven of them stood anxiously as the lift went down, Harry staring at the numbers as a cool female voice said "Department of Mysteries." And the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.

Harry turned toward the plain black door. After months and months of dreaming about it, he was here at last. ...

"Let's go," he whispered and he led the way down the corridor. Draco right behind him, wand out and looking around.

Harry still did not want to take them all with him, but he knew he had no choice in the matter. He walked forward, and just like a dream, it swung open and he marched forward, leading the others over the threshold. They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling—identical, unmarked, handle-less door were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles with blue flames.

"Someone close the door," Harry muttered, but regretted it as soon as Neville obeyed. Without the long chink of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls. Harry's hand immediately grasped out for Draco. Needing to hold him for some sort of support as a great rumbling noise began and the candles began to move sideways. The wall was rotating.

For a few seconds the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around and then, quite as sudden as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.

"What was that about?" Ron whispered fearfully.

"It was to stop us from knowing which door we came in," Draco said. "Father told me about it when I was young. He had business in here years ago, and it was only because of an Unspeakable that he didn't become lost."

"Unspeakable?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded and said "The workers who work in the Department of Mysteries."

"So? Which way are we supposed to go?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know," Draco whispered a bit shortly. "Only the Unspeakables know which door goes where."

"Then we will try each one until we find Sirius," Harry said. He went to the door immediately in front of him and raised his wand. He pushed and the door swung open easily.

The room was larger than the room they left, dimly lit and rectangular, and the center of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet below them. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheater. In the center there was a raised stone dais and upon the dais stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked, and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.