The United

Chapter 15: The Court

It was a clear wet day, the pavements of London shone in the sun, rather they would if only you could see them through the crowd. Albus hated London, the people, the dirt and the noise. Then again Albus wasn't used to crowds, cars and muggles. He stuck close to his dad as the two families made their way to the Ministry.

"They changed the visitors' entrance a few years back," Albus' dad muttered scratching his head.

Mr Malfoy sighed stepping forward, " It's this way Potter," strangely without his usual drawl.

"Right, er, thanks."

Malfoy grunted.

They finally arrived at an out of order muggle phone box, they stepped in Albus and Scorpius glanced uncertainly at each other. A slight humming noise was issuing from a black object at the end of a cord, he was sure he had seen one before, after his dad pressed a few numbers on a number pad a lady's voice boomed around the box as if she were in it with them.

"You have been identified as four wizards, please confirm if this is correct." She said.

"We are," Mr Malfoy growled rolling his eyes.

"Thank you, please state your name and the purpose of your visit."

"Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy for a hearing, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter escorting," said Mr Malfoy.

"Thank you, please insure you wear your badges at all times with in the Ministry of Magic and have a nice day."

Four gold badges popped out of a slot in the box that the cord was attached to. Albus was nearest so he handed them out, Harry sighed and put his on. Albus had a wild stray thought of pushing the buttons to see what would happen, what it would feel like to use a telephone, just as this thought sprang into his mind the box shuddered and the pavement started to rise around them. Albus realised they were sinking.

A stripe of light travelled over their bodies before the box stopped and they were blinded by light, the door opened and they slid out.

"They were talking about having to replace the phone box soon, muggles don't use them and apparently they're not as common as they were. Muggles are noticing it. It doesn't matter how many times the Ministry move it either," Mr Potter said.

"Really," Mr Malfoy said without the slightest hint of interest, "Level five come on," He started to walk in the direction of an impressive fountain.

Albus couldn't stop staring around him, his parent had never taken him to work with them, and the whole architecture of the Ministry was amazing. It was like a long tunnel but amazingly high ceilinged, the floor was dark wood but it was the walls that snared Albus' attention, they were dark blue similar to his Common room at Hogwarts but instead of stars they swam with golden symbols, and the symbols did swim they weaved in and out of each other like the reflection of light on water. Albus couldn't possibly begin to grasp the meaning of the symbols he had never seen anything like it before and curiously his translator was not helping him at all, this both frightened and fascinated him. Curiously breaking up the walls were the dozen or so fireplaces lining it, this had witches and wizards whooshing in and out of them all the time, the queues long and winding from each one that Albus' small group had to edge around their tails. However many parted a way for them as wizards and witches called cheerfully to Mr Potter, one old wizard telling Mr Potter how wonderful it was to see him at work again, at this Mr Malfoy coughed and Mr Potter flustered had to explain that he wasn't working at all. The man looked at Mr Malfoy with slanted eyes as they passed.

Then they came to the fountain, the fountain was a huge golden sculpture of a sword plunging into a writhing snake it looked like a distorted grotesque version of the image of the sword in the stone. Out of the snakes many punctured wounds sprouted the water that fell into the bottom of the basin that the snake was half drowning in; Albus felt a drawn to it for some reason, on the side of the huge basin was the caption, 'Darkness will never again reign.' Albus looked up and noticed the Malfoys had walked on not pausing at this horrendous art piece; his Dad was looking at him all flustered again. They hurried to catch up with the Malfoys; Scorpius gave Albus a curious look. Soon they had gathered around a desk signed Security, Albus had the impression that Mr Malfoy's actions were a bit too practiced even his dad hadn't been that sure on where to go and he was an Auror who had taken dark wizards to trial.