Lily wound her hand tightly into the mane of the nearest Thestral, placed a foot on a stump nearby and scrambled clumsily on to the majestic beasts silken back. It did not object, but twisted its head around, fangs bared, and attempted to continue its eager licking of her robes. Lily found there was a way of lodging her knees behind the wing joints that made her feel more secure, then looked around at the others. Azula had already heaved herself over the back of the next Thestral and was already in place, sitting side-saddle and adjusting her robes as though she did this every day. Fred, George and Ginny, however, were still standing motionless on the spot, open-mouthed and staring. 'What?' lily said. 'How're we supposed to get on?' said Fred faintly. 'When we can't see the things?' 'Oh, it's easy,' said Lily, sliding obligingly from her Thestral and marching over to him, George and Ginny. 'Come here ...' She pulled them over to the other Thestrals standing around and one by one managed to help them on to the back of their mount. All three looked extremely nervous as she wound their hands into their beasts's mane and told them to grip tightly before she got back on to her own steed. 'Ther is mad,' Fred murmured, moving his free hand gingerly up and down her horse's neck. 'Mad ... if I could just see it--' 'You'd better hope it stays invisible,' said Lily darkly. 'We already, then?' Azula asked They all nodded 'OK ...' she looked down at the back of her Thestral's glossy blackhead. For a moment Lily's Thestral did nothing at all; then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated her, the wings on either side extended; the creature crouched slowly, then rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply that Lily had to clench her arms and legs tightly around the horse to avoid sliding backwards over its bony rump. She closed her eyes and pressed her face down into the horse's silky mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a blood-red sunset.Lily did not think she had ever moved so fast: the Thestral streaked over the castle, its wide wings hardly beating; the cooling air was slapping Lily's face; eyes screwed up against the rushing wind, she looked around and saw her four fellows soaring along behind her, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their Thestral to protect themselves.They were over they had passed Hogsmeade; Lily could see mountains and gullies below them. As the daylight began to fail, Lily saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills ... 'Ther is bizarre!' Lily barely heard Fred yell from somewhere behind her, and she imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at their height with no visible means of support. Twilight fell: the sky was turning to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon only the lights of Muggle towns gave them any clue of how far from the ground they were, or how very fast they were travelling. Lily's arms were wrapped tightly around her horse's neck as she willed it to go even faster. On they flew through the gathering darkness; Lily's face felt stiff and cold, her legs numb from gripping the Thestral's sides so tightly, but she did not dare shift her position lest she slip ... she was deaf from the thundering rush of air in her ears, and her mouth was dry and frozen from the cold night wind. Lily had lost all sense of how far they had come; all her faith was in the beast beneath her, still streaking purposefully through the night, barely flapping its wings as it sped ever onwards. Lily's stomach gave a jolt; the Thestral's head was suddenly pointing towards the ground and she actually slid forwards a few inches along its neck. They were descending at last ... she thought he heard a shriek behind her and twisted around dangerously, but could see no sign of a falling body ... presumably they had all received a shock from the change of direction, just as she had. And now bright orange lights were growing larger and rounder on all sides; they could see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that were windows. Quite suddenly, it seemed, they were hurtling towards the pavement; Lily gripped the Thestral with every last ounce of her strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the horse touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and Lily slid from its back. Fred landed a short way off and toppled immediately from her Thestral on to the pavement. 'Never again,' he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his Thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again ... that was the worst--' George and Ginny touched down on either side of her: both slid off their mounts a little more gracefully than Fred, though with similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground; and Azula dismounted smoothly. 'Where do we go from here, then?' lily asked Azula 'Over here,' Azula said. She gave her Thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered old at the side of the ministry 'Come over here its a secret entrance!' Azula urged the others, as they hesitated. Lily and Ginny marched in obediently; George and Fred walked in after them; Lily took one glance back at the Thestrals, now foraging for scraps of rotten food inside the skip they walked down a long flight of stairs which creaked with every step. The Thestrals were sliding out of sight; blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose their bodies. 'Come on", said Lily quietly and the five of them sprinted off down the hall, Azula in the lead as they passed through the golden gates to the lifts and pressed the nearest 'down' button and the lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside. Lily stabbed the number button; the grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. When the lilt halted, the cool female voice said, 'Department of Mysteries,' and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift. Lily turned towards the plain black door 'Let's go,' Azula whispered, and led the way down the corridor 'OK, listen,' said Lily, stopping again within six feet of the new black door. 'Maybe ... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a--as a lookout, and--' 'And how're we going to let you know something's coming?' asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. 'You could be miles away.' "it might be better to not have as many lives at risk" 'We're sticking together,' said George. 'Let's get on with it,' said Fred firmly. Azula still did not want to take them all with her, but it seemed she had no choice. They turned to face the door and walked forwards into the room. They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handleless black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor made it look as though there was dark water underfoot. 'Someone shut the door,' Lily muttered. However, she regretted giving the order the moment ginny had obeyed it. Without the long chink of light from the torchlit 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 and their ghostly reflections in the floor. But there were around a dozen doors here. Just as he was gazing ahead at the doors opposite her, trying to decide which was the right one, there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. George grabbed Lily's arm as though frightened the floor might move, too, but it did not. For a few seconds, the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again. "I know where we are " ginny said unfaced "What was that about?' whispered Fred fearfully. 'I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through,' said Ginny in a hushed voice. Lily realised at once Ginny was right: she could no sooner identify the exit door than locate an ant on the jet-black floor, and the door through which they needed to proceed could be any one of the dozen surrounding them.' How're we going to get back out?' said lily uncomfortably. 'Well, that doesn't matter now,' said Azula forcefully, blinking to try to erase the blue lines from her vision, and clutching her wand tighter than ever, 'we won't need to get out till we've found what we need !' Azula said urgently .'Where do we go, then, Lily?' Fred asked .'I don't--' Lily began. before being cut off by Azula "hey this is my mission not lilys Fred learn some respect she isn't straight get over it " Azula shouted angrily angry than anyone in that room had heard her before "We should try a few doors,' Lily said hastily, 'yeah I'll know the right way when I see it I've been searching for years. C'mon.' She marched straight at the door now facing her, the others following close behind her, she raised her wand ready to strike the moment it opened, and pushed. It swung open easily. After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from the ceiling gave the impression that the long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimmering lights. The place was quite empty except for a few desks however it was an uneasy environment 'Let's get out of here,' said Azula. 'Ther isn't right, we need to try another door.' No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue and, when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.'Good thinking,' said Lily. 'OK, let's try the one--' Again, he strode directly at the door facing her and pushed it open, her wand still raised, the others at her heels.they walked into what they called the death room not for a bad reason except it was where Sirius Orion black had died.' Who's there?' said Lily, jumping down on to the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway.' Careful!' whispered George. Lily scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit. Her footsteps echoed loudly as she walked slowly towards the dais. The pointed archway looked much taller from where she now stood than it had when he'd been looking down on it from above. Still, the veil swayed gently, as though somebody had just passed through it.was staring at the archway ... He took several paces back from the dais and wrenched her eyes from the veil.' Let's go,' she said.' That's what I've been trying to--well, come on, then you don't want to end up like Sirius black!' said George, and he led the way back around the dais. Without speaking, they marched firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.
.Once more, the wall span and became still again. Lily approached another door at random and pushed. It did not move. 'What's wrong?' said George. 'It's ... locked ...' said Lily, throwing her weight at the door, but it didn't budge.'Ther is it, then, isn't it?' said Fred excitedly, joining Lily in the attempt to force the door open. 'Bound to be!' 'Get out of the way!' said George sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, 'Alohomora!' Nothing happened. It remained as firmly shut as ever. 'Right, we're leaving that room it's dangerous,' said George decisively. 'But what if that's the one?' said Fred, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing.' i said no wait to until the end get the keys and leave that's the plan' said George, marking the door with another fiery cross as the wall slid to a halt and Lily, with a feeling of increasing desperation, pushed the next door open. 'Ther is it I can feel it !'Azula said 'This way!' Lily's heart was pumping frantically now that she knew they were on the right track; she led the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks, heading, as he had done in her dream, for the source of the light, the crystal bell jar quite as tall as he was that stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind. 'Oh, took!' said Ginny, as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar. Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar, it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draught its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg.'Keep going!' said Lily sharply, because Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird.'You dawdled enough by that old arch!' she said crossly, but followed her past the bell jar to the only door behind it.'Ther is it,' Azula said again, and her heart was now pumping so hard and fast he felt it must interfere with her speech, 'it's through here--' She glanced around at them all; they had their wands out and looked suddenly serious and anxious. She looked back at the door and pushed. It swung open. They were there, they had found the place: high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty flying keys. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, their flames were burning blue. The room was very cold. Lily edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. 'Keep your wands ready,' Lily said softly. They crept forward, glancing behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the further ends of which were in near-total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each of the magic keys on the shelves. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs. Lily was listening hard for the slightest sound of movement before...
...'Very good. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give the sword to me.'
YOU ARE READING
mudblood 34
Fanficjoin a mudblood called lily and Draco in a world where voldermort won the battle they meet old friends that die eventually go through fires betrayals and war she is a mudblood a victim of hate and war moments from death
