Venus

62- The Ministry Of Magic

The same night as the DA were discovered Dumbledore was forced to leave Hogwarts.

And then during early June Professor McGonagall was shot with several stunners and put in St Mungos whilst she tried to stop Umbridge and several ministry wizards taking down Hagrid (who also escaped).

Hogwarts was now firmly under the control of Umbridge.

But Venus was still happy. She and Neville had started officially dating. It irritated Venus to high hell every time Mali and Ginny shot her 'I told you so' looks, but she wasn't really mad at them.

The fact that Venus Black-Weasley was dating Neville Longbottom seemed to be hot gossip in the school, despite everything else that was happening.

Ginny however had broken up with Michael because he was a 'bad looser' and couldn't stand the fact that Gryffindor had beaten his team, Ravenclaw, for the Quidditch Cup that year.

On one Friday in the middle of June, Venus was searching the castle for her friends. She hadn't seen Ginny and Mali in a while, and Neville had just finished his exams, so they're were supposed to be celebrating, but it seemed that all of them had disappeared.

She was walking down the corridor that contained Umbridge's office, only to be almost trampled by a group of people hurrying out of the room.

"Woa!" Venus stopped Neville as he almost barrelled into her.

"Ve!" Ginny said in relief, "where have you been?"

"Looking for you!" Venus exclaimed, "why were you-"

"There's no time to explain," Ron panted, "we've got to find Harry and Hermione."

Neville took Venus's hand and pulled her with the group. All of them looked a little worse for wear, Neville's nose was bleeding and Ginny had a cut on her cheek.

"What's going on?" Venus demanded.

"Voldemort has Sirius!" Ron blurted out as they made it into the grounds, "Harry saw it in the department of mysteries."

"WHAT?" Venus quickened her pace. The cogs in her brain were whirring twice as fast as they should. She let Neville pull her along, sure that wherever they were going it was to help Sirius. Harry would have it any other way.

They found Harry and Hermione in the Forbidden Forest, and mounted several Thestrals to ride to London.

Riding the Thestrals was terrifying. Neville helped Venus climb on as he could see it, but he couldn't help the strange sensation in her stomach, as it seemed like she was riding nothing at all, but there was definitely something there because she could feel the horse under her.

"This is terrifying!" Mali exclaimed as they soared over clouds. "I hate it!"

"It's just like flying a broom!" Ginny was grinning like a madman and seemed in complete control of her own Thestral.

"Not really," Venus disagreed. She was being forced to cling to her Thestral's neck as it kept trying to buck her off. "I don't think they like werewolves."

Eventually the group landed on a street in London. Harry ushered them into a red telephone box and it acted like a lift to take them into the ministry. They charged through the empty atrium and took some stairs three at a time until they made it to the department of mysteries.

Harry lead them down a long corridor and wrenched a door open. They walked into a large circular room. The walls were lined with identical doors and the only light came from some blue flames in lanterns on the walls.

Harry asked someone to shut the door behind them. Neville did so, not moments after the door was closed the walls began spinning very fast, so all that Venus could make out was a blur of blue flames. Just as quickly as it had started, the walls grounded to a halt.

"What was that about?" Ron asked.

"I think it's to stop us knowing which door we came in." Mali mused.

She was right of course. The doors were all identical, which meant they had no idea how to get out.

"So where do we go now?" Venus asked.

"I don't know." Harry frowned, looking around the room, "in the dream I went from this room, into a room that kind of... glitters. We should try a few doors."

That they did, they went into a room that had some strange brain like things floating around, a room with a large raised dais with an archway in the middle, another room had a scale model of the solar system. Each time they tried a room Hermione marked it with a large fiery cross on the door, so that when the walls moved them knew which doors they had yet to try.

Finally they entered a classroom like room with desks and cabinets. Each cabinet was full with strange devices that whirred and clicked.

"This is it." Harry said in a hushed tone. "Let's go."

Remember to vote, comment and be amazing!
~Em xx