the wrong choice // d.l.m.

fifty four

hermione plucked pieces of hair from the four unconscious people that laid before her, two woman and two males.

"right, remember what we said." she began as she handed everyone small cups, "don't speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary. just try and act normal. do what everybody else is doing. if we do that, then with a bit of luck, we'll get inside."

"this is completely mad." y/n said as she stared at the older people in front of her.

"completely." ron agreed.

y/n placed her hair in her polyjuice potion, quickly transforming into a woman with brunette hair and brown eyes. she changed into the woman's clothes, buttoning up the white blouse and zipping up the maroon pencil skirt.

after everyone else had changed, the four stepped out into the street slowly. they made their way towards the bathrooms and exchanged worried glances before splitting off into pairs to go inside their designated restroom.

"what do we do?" y/n whispered as she stood behind rows of other woman.

"we have to flush ourselves down." hermione said and y/n grimaced.

"you have got to be kidding me. there's no way i'm flushing myself into a toilet."

"you must. i'll see you when we get down there."

y/n sighed as the stall door in front of her opened. she walked in slowly, gagging quietly to herself. she stepped into the toilet and pulled the handle, spinning around until she arrived in the ministry.

the girl walked with the others, trying to seem as normal as possible. she approached her friends who were stood in front of a large fountain.

"i've got to tell you, i'm starting to freak out a bit." ron said as he leaned in close.

"how long did you say this batch of polyjuice potion would last, hermione?" harry asked and y/n widened her eyes, she hadn't even thought about that.

"i didn't." hermione said as she looked between the other three.

the four walked down the halls and made their way into an elevator before they were stopped by yaxley, "cattermole! it's still raining inside my office. that's two days now."

"have you tried an umbrella?" ron asked and y/n gave him a look of disbelief.

"you do realize i'm going downstairs, don't you, cattermole?" the blonde man asked.

"downstairs?"

"to interrogate your wife. now, if my wife's blood status were in doubt, and the head of the department of magical law enforcement needed a job doing, i think i might just make that a priority. you have one hour."

the man walked away and the elevator doors finally shut. the elevator began to move and they all held onto ropes to keep their balance.

"oh my god. what am i gonna do? my wife's all alone downstairs." ron said as his voice was laced with worry.

"you don't have a wife, idiot!" y/n said through a chuckle.

"oh, right. but, how do i stop it raining?"

"try finite incantatem." hermione said.

the elevator stopped at the second level and ron got off. the elevator then went down and stopped at level one and harry spoke up, "i say if we don't find umbridge within the hour we go find ron and come back another day. deal?"

"yes." the two girls said in unison.

as the elevator door opened y/n looked over and laughed, in front of them stood the woman dressed in pink.

"ah, mafalda. travers sent you, did he?" dolores asked, "good. we'll go straight down."

umbridge walked into elevator, "albert, evelyn? aren't you two getting out?"

y/n gave harry a glance and they stepped out cautiously, turning back around to watch hermione as she now stood alone in the elevator with umbridge.

the two walked together through the halls, not knowing what to do. they soon found themselves in a large opening where many workers sat. they walked further into the room before seeing a door with the name "dolores umbridge."

"well, that was easier than i thought it would be." y/n said, "but how do we get in without everyone seeing?"

harry let his eyes roam amongst everyone before dropping something to the ground. green smoke soon filled the air and harry grabbed y/n's hand, dragging her quickly into the office.

"accio locket." harry said quietly as he held up his wand.

y/n began to search around the room, opening different drawers and cupboards. she looked up and shook her head, she couldn't find anything.

the girl opened the door to leave and harry followed suit. he shut the door behind them and the sound made all eyes turn towards them.

"runcorn? rosewater?" a man asked and the two didn't say anything, they just turned and walked awkwardly away. they got into another elevator and were soon greeted by ron.

"morning." ron said, not noticing that the two were his friends.

"ron, it's us." harry said.

"blimey, forgot what you guys looked like. where's hermione?"

"she's gone down to the courtrooms with umbridge." y/n explained.

the three made their way down towards where the interrogation would be taking place. the walls looked exactly like the ones that y/n had seen before and they brought back terrible memories. they finally approached the courtroom and harry realized that the locket sat on umbridge's chest.

y/n and harry walked around the room on opposite sides as ron stood next to his 'wife'. harry grabbed his wand and stared up angrily at umbridge.

"what on earth are you doing, albert?" the woman asked.

"you're lying, dolores." harry spat, "you musn't tell lies and you must respect your superiors. stupefy!"

y/n and the other three began to quickly shoot out spells at the other ministry workers, sending many to the ground. hermione grabbed the locket from around umbridge's neck and they all made a run for it, being chased by dementors.

they ran into an elevator and harry stood in the front, putting his arms out protectively, "expecto patronum!"

they arrived at the main floor and y/n tucked some hair behind her ear before they stepped out. she was more than happy to be back to her original self.

"it's harry potter!" a man yelled and the group quickly ran through all of the people as guards began to chase them.

yaxley shot out a spell, closing the gates to the fireplaces. they ran into one before it closed and were teleported away, landing on the ground that was covered in leaves.

y/n stood up as she began to catch her breath and walked quickly over to both hermione and ron. ron's arm was covered in wounds and he cried out in pain.

"oh my god, what happened?" y/n asked as she ran a shaking hand through the boys red hair.

"ron, he got, he got splinched." hermione said through tears as she used droplets of dittany on his wounds.

y/n continued to soothe the injured boy and hermione stood up and began to use spells to form a protective dorm over everyone.

"what are you doing?" harry asked.

"protective enchantments. i don't fancy another visit like the one we had in shaftesbury avenue, do you? you can get going on the tent."

"tent? where am i supposed to find a tent?"

"the bag, harry." y/n said.