OotP Chapter 34 - The Department of Mysteries
OotP Chapter 34 - The Department of Mysteries
He closed his eyes and put his face down into the horse's silky mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a bloodred sunset.
And so begins the journay that will decide Sirius' fate. The six students mount the thestrals and leave the Hogwarts grounds for the Ministry of Magic. These amazing animals know exactly where to take the teenagers as prompted by Harry and they soar over Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, mountains, gullies and finally over muggle homes and cities. All the while Harry is waging an internal battle as to what exactly Voldie has done to Sirius and whether or not he can still feel Sirius fighting.
The six comrades land and look to Harry for guidence and squashed themselves into the delapitated phone booth. Harry gives Ron instructions on how to dial up the Ministry of Magic and recites all their names declares that they are there to save someone! Half a dozen badges come sliding out of the shoot and Harry reads HARRY POTTER Rescue Mission.
In his dream, Harry had always walked purposefully across this room to the door immediately opposite the entrance and walked on. As Harry is trying to decide which door to take a great rumbling happens and the circular walls are rotating making all the teenagers fearful. Ron is confident in Harry's ability to lead them and asks "where do we go." In his dreams he always seemed to know where to go and now Harry is unsure and decides that they should try a few doors. I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon.
As Harry and gang marched forward to the first door Harry raised his wand and was ready to strike. Although this was not the room Harry had dreamt of, with all the shimmering lights. We discover that they are in the brain room. Hermione and Harry are both a little creeped out and decide it is time to move on. Ron indicates that there are doors all around and Harry is becoming discouraged. They all hurry back into the circular, rotating room and before Harry can close the door and choose another Hermione exclaims Wait! and says "Flagrate!" A fiery X appeared on the door leaving them with a way to determine which room they had been in.
The next room they chose is larger than the last and is dimly lit. There are stone benches all around and it appears to be a type of courtroom with a stone archway that looked ancient to Harry. Harry scrambles down the benches as he thinks he hears someone talking through the archway. Hermione warns Harry to be careful and he proceeds to move slowly towards the dais. The veil covering the archway is swaying slightly and Harry calls out to Sirius. Harry felt strange and as if someone was right there just inside the veil. Hermione is still being persistant and almost hysterical and keeps calling for Harry to leave. "Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry demanded. Luna pipes up and says she can hear it and she too begins to act strangely and moves closer to the dais. Finally, Hermione grabs Harry by the arm and pulls him away which seems to snap him out of his trance when she says Sirius' name.
Once back inside the circular door room the walls spin and Harry approaches a door at random. Harry and Ron seemed excited and that this is the door they are looking for. When Ron joins Harry in attempting to force their way in we see Hermione as she was when she was 12 "Get out of the way!" said Hermione sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, "Alohomora!" They try Sirius' magic knife and it melts and the gang wisely decides to leave that room alone.
This is it! Finally the teenagers are in the correct room, with sparkling lights. Once Harry leads them all through several different rooms he glances around and notices that the others all had their wands out and looked serious. When Harry pushed open the final door they saw towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They start moving towards row ninety-seven per Hermione's prompting. As the six children edge closer to row ninety-seven Harry keeps whispering he should be here. When they reach the end of the row there is no one there and Harry is bewildered and beginning to feel sick, while second guessing where Sirius may be.
Ron interrupts Harry's internal battle to call his attention to one of the glass orbs. "It's---- got your name on," said Ron. As Harry peered closer he read
S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter