She was back in the present, panting. She frowned when she saw Forrest holding Olivia against an open window, then images recollected in her head like puzzle pieces, until the puzzle in head was completed.

‘Forrest… please…’ Amelia whispered audibly. ‘Don’t…’

Forrest looked into her eyes, and then he widened them. 

‘How did you see it-’ he gasped, letting go of Olivia, who tumbled on the ground.

Olivia, Isabell and Albert looked at her, then understood what Forrest had meant.

She looked into his secrets… Isabell thought to herself as she looked at Forrest.

‘Forrest…’

Forrest backed away, his wand swishing to all of them continuously. 

‘H-how-how-’ 

Amelia took her wand, disarmed Forrest with a simple disarming spell, made him lean against the wall, breathing heavily.

‘Forrest, it’s a magical talent… how did you know that other… boy?’

Forrest turned away ashamedly.

‘My friendship with Rhian is nothing to be proud of. You’re the other girl he was friends with, aren’t you.’

‘It’s not like your relationship with Edward was something to be proud of either,’ Amelia reasoned. ‘And, yes, but… we don’t talk much because… it doesn’t matter, we just went our separate ways, I guess.’

Amelia looked at her feet.  She then looked at Forrest, at the top left of his forehead. A pink cut that was healed nested on his beige skin. Forrest spotted her looking at it and his fingertips felt the pink gash. He flinched and removed his hand instantly, as though he got stung by touching it.

‘Is Rhian still at Hogwarts?’

‘I don’t know. I told you we went our separate ways, I have no idea what happened to him.’ 

‘Guys… the Slytherins are waking up, we need to escape,’ said Ginny, as Draco’s eyes fluttered open.

‘Oh, no, you won’t!’ Draco yelled as he stood up.

Ginny pointed her wand at Draco’s nose, muttered something, and small, green bats came flying out of it. Draco screamed.

‘NOOO! I don’t want to suffer from something like the ferret!’ he yelled, followed by green bats fluttering and screeching with delight.

‘What’s that spell?’ Olivia asked, impressed.

‘Bat-bogey hex.’ 

‘Draco, I think you looked fine being a ferret,’ Isabell grinned.

‘We don’t have much time guys, we need to escape now,’ said Amelia, looking at the groaning Slytherins on the ground.

‘Stupefy!’ yelled Forrest, pointing his wand at Isabell, who was about to open the door, and missing her by inches.

Isabell swivelled around and ducked just in time to see red sparks fly above her and hit the pink wall, making a loud bang!

Ron stupefied Forrest in turn as Albert opened the door, they all exited, locking the Slytherins inside. 

‘Wait- they have their wands with them, Harry and Hermione’s wands as well-’ 

‘Got them,’ said a dreamy voice.

They all turned around to see a blonde-haired girl wearing a butterbeer cork necklace and radish earrings.

‘Thanks, Luna. This is Luna Lovegood, Amelia, Olivia and Albert,’ said Isabell.

‘Right, thanks… Luna,’ Amelia said.

‘C’mon let’s go help Harry!’

They all began running as though their lives depended on it. But then Olivia stopped, making everyone stop behind her.

‘Where are Harry and Hermione anyways?’

‘Easy, Forbidden Forest,’ Ginny replied simply.

‘How-’

‘I’ll explain later, let’s just go.’

Along the corridor, across the grounds, around the trees, deeper into the forest… they heard familiar voices.

‘Well, we can't do anything without wands, anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?' 

'Yeah, we were just wondering that,’ said Ron.

Two shadows moved together instinctively and peered through the trees.

‘How did you get away?’ asked Harry in amazement, taking his wand from Ron.

‘Just the magic of teamwork,’ replied Isabell, handing Hermione her wand. ‘Ginny saw you out of the window heading into the forest, so we followed.’

‘What've you done with Umbridge?' asked Amelia.

'She got carried away,' said Harry. 'By a herd of centaurs.' 

'And they left you behind?' said Olivia, bewildered.

'No, they got chased off by Grawp,' said Harry. 

'Who's Grawp?’ Luna asked interestedly. 

'Hagrid's little brother,' said Albert promptly. 'Anyway, never mind that now. Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or-?' 

'Yes,' said Harry quickly. ‘That’s why we need to go now. But I can’t see any way we can get there.’

‘Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?’ said Luna, in a matter-of-fact voice.

‘Ok,' said Harry irritably, rounding on her. 'First of all, "we" aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so-’

‘I’ve got a broom!’ Amelia said angrily.

‘Look, I know I said you can come, but none of you have got anything to do with Sirius and I’m not letting any of you risk your lives for nothing!’

‘Of course we do! He’s your godfather, isn’t he? He’s in the order, isn’t he? So we all have some sort of connection to him!’ Amelia said fiercely. ‘And even if we didn’t, I would still come since every human life is worth saving!’

‘I’ve got a broom too!’ said Ginny in a confident voice.

‘But you’re not coming!’ snapped Ron furiously.

‘Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius just as much as you do!’ Ginny shot back, her jaw set, so that her resemblance to Fred and George was suddenly striking. 

'We were all in the DA together,' said Olivia quietly. 'It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real.’

‘Or was that all just a game or something?' said Neville.

'No, of course it wasn't-' said Harry impatiently. 

‘Then we should come too,' said Neville simply. 'We want to help.' 'That's right,' said Luna in her dreamy voice, smiling happily.

Harry looked around at all of them, he stopped at Ron, who nodded.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter who comes anyways, because we’ve got no way of going there.’

‘I thought we settled that! We’re flying!’ said Ginny.

‘Flying on what!’ Harry said annoyedly, clearly unhappy that they were wasting time. 

‘Thestrals…’ Albert said thoughtfully. ‘There’s loads of them here, and Hagrid said they’re very good at finding the place their rider wants to go to.’

Amelia jerked her head around and looked at the place Albert was pointing. 

‘Yes!’ Harry whisper-shouted. ‘Albert, you’re a genius.’

‘Is those mad horse things?’ Ron asked. ‘The ones you can't see unless you’ve seen someone-’

‘Yes, them!’ Amelia snapped. 

‘Alright, alright, keep your head on.’

‘How many are there?’ Hermione asked.

‘Two…’ 

‘We’ll need one more,’ said Hermione, who looked shaken, yet determined.

‘I think we’ll need seven more,’ Isabell scowled. ‘There are eight of us, from what I could count.

‘Don’t be stupid, we can’t all go!’ said Harry angrily. ‘Look, you (he pointed at the trio, Albert, Neville, Luna and Ginny), aren’t getting involved in this!’

They burst into angry protests.

‘Harry, you have to let them come with us!’ Hermione begged.

‘Fine, it’s their choice, but unless more of these Thestrals come, only Ron, Hermione and I are going!’

‘Three are here,’ Albert said, pointing somewhere.

Amelia saw the Thestral he was pointing at approach the other two.

‘We need one more,’ she said, breaking the small silence. 

‘Four,’ Albert said, another Thestral emerging from the rustling leaves. 

‘Alright- just pick one and get on it already!’

Amelia wound her hand tightly into the mane of the nearest Thestral, placed a foot on a stump nearby and scrambled onto the Thestral's silken back. It did not object, but twisted its head around, fangs bared, and attempted to continue its eager licking of his robes. Harry, Luna, Neville and Albert did the same, but the rest were standing motionlessly on the spot, open-mouthed. 

‘How are we supposed to get on?’ Isabell demanded. ‘If we can’t see them?’

‘Luna, you help Ginny, I’ll help Ron, Amelia you help Isabell and Hermione, and Albert can help Olivia.’

Albert slowly walked towards Olivia and helped her mount her Thestral. She tried not to look at him as she safely mounted the thestral. 

Amelia pulled Isabell and Hermione over to the other Thestrals standing around and one by one managed to help them on to the back of their mount. Luna helped Ginny and Harry as quickly as possible helped Ron.

'This is mad,' Isabell murmured, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horse's neck. 'Mad ... if I could just see it-’

'You'd better hope it stays invisible,' said Amelia darkly. 

'We all ready, then?' said Harry.

They all nodded and live pairs of knees tightened beneath their robes. Harry looked at his Thestral then bit his lip.

‘Uh, Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then,' he said uncertainly. 'Er... if you…uhm… know... where to go...'

For a moment, the Thestrals did nothing at all, then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated them, the wings on either side extended; the horse crouched slowly, then rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply that everyone had to clench their arms and legs tightly around the horse to avoid sliding backwards over its bony rump. The Thestrals streaked over Hogwarts' castle, its wide wings barely beating. The cool air slapped everyone’s faces, their eyes screwed up against the rushing wind.

They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade. The trio could see mountains and gullies below them. As the daylight began to fail, they 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.

'This is bizarre!’  Isabell said from somewhere behind them, and Amelia imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support. Twilight fell as 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. As they flew through the gathering darkness, the trio’s faces felt stiff and cold, their legs numb from gripping the Thestral's sides so tightly, but they did not dare shift their positions, not wanting to slip. They were deaf from the thundering rush of air in their ears, and their mouths were dry and frozen from the cold night wind. It seemed like Harry had lost all sense of how far they had come, because by looking at him, it was clear that all his faith was in the beast beneath him, still streaking purposefully through the night, barely flapping its wings as it sped ever onwards. They were descending at last... the girls thought they heard a shriek behind them and twisted around dangerously, but could see no sign of a falling body... presumably everyone had all received a shock from the change of direction. 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; the trio gripped their Thestrals with every last ounce of their strengths, braced for a sudden impact, but the horses touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and the first one to land, Amelia, slid from its back, looking around at the street where the overflowing skip still stood a short way from the vandalised telephone box, both drained of colour in the flat orange glare of the streetlights. Olivia landed a short way off and toppled immediately from her Thestral on to the pavement. 

'Never again,' she said, struggling to her feet. 

She 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-' 

Hermione and Ginny dismounted their Thestrals down on either side of her, though with similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground. Albert landed quite smoothly, along with Harry and Isabell. Ron jumped from his Thestral as though never wanting to ride it again. Neville jumped down, too, shaking, and Luna dismounted smoothly.

'Where do we go from here, then?’ she asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip. 'Over here,' he said. 

He led them quickly to a battered telephone box and opened the door. 

'Come on!’ Harry urged them as they hesitated. 

Ron and Ginny marched in obediently, Hermione, Neville and Luna squashed themselves in after them, and the trio and Albert quickly hurried after them. Harry took one glance back at the Thestrals, now foraging for scraps of rotten food inside the skip, then forced himself into the box after Isabell.

'Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!’ commanded Harry.

Ron did it, his arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial, as it whirred back into place, the cool female voice sounded inside the box.

'Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and your business.' 

'Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger,' Harry said very quickly. 'Ginny Weasley, Isabell Bluesky, Amelia Clearwater, Olivia Dragonheart, Albert Foxglove, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood! We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!' 'Thank you,' said the cool female voice. 'Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes.' 

Two less than a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Olivia scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head. Olivia took hers and looked at it, it said:

Olivia Dragonheart, rescue mission.

She laughed slightly as everyone pinned their badges to their robes. 

'Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium.'

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past its glass windows. The scavenging Thestrals were sliding out of sight, and blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose up their bodies. Everyone bent their knees and held their wands as ready as they could as they peered through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them in the Atrium, but, it seemed, to be completely empty. There were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but as the lift slid smoothly to a halt they saw that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling. 

'The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening,' said the woman's voice. 

Everyone sprinted into the hall, led by Harry, who seemed to know the way. Albert, from an order by Harry, pressed the nearest “down” button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden doors slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside. Ginny, again ordered by Harry, stabbed the number nine button. The doors closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. The lift halted, and the same cool female voice from the telephone booth said, 'Department of Mysteries.’

They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift. Harry led the way along the corridor, as though they were running into a black void.

‘Ok, listen,' said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door he was facing. 'Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a-as a-a lookout, and-' 

'And how're we going to let you know something's coming?’ asked Amelia, her eyebrows raised. 'You could be miles away.' 

'We're coming with you, Harry,' Albert and Neville both said in unison. 

'Let's get on with it,' said Olivia firmly.

Harry sighed; it was clear he knew that there was no point in arguing with them. He turned to face the door and swung it open. 

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 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,' Harry muttered. 

It was obvious he regretted giving this order the moment Hermione 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 pale reflections on the floor.

‘Lumos maxima,’ Ginny whispered, and the tip of her wand emitted strong sparks of light. 

Albert yelled in surprise: surrounding them was a spinning wall, with the blurry images of doors twisting along with the black wall. The wall kept circulating them, until it came to a sudden halt that left them all dizzy. 

‘What was that?’ said Isabell, her wand held tightly in her hand.

‘Probably to confuse us and stop us knowing which door we came in from,’ Olivia whispered. 

‘There should be some Unspeakables…’ Ron said.

‘It’s night time, Ron,’ Hermione snapped. 

‘Sorry to interrupt this very important mission, but what’s an Unspeakable?’ Albert said, frowning. 

‘Guys!’ Harry whisper-shouted. ‘We haven’t got any time for this!’

‘How are we going to get back out?’ Neville asked uncomfortably.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter now,’ said Harry impatiently. ‘We won’t have to worry about that until we save Sirius.’

‘Don’t go calling for him though!’

‘I won’t, don’t want any ministry employees to find us in here, let alone Voldemort.’

‘Where do we go then, Harry?’ asked Amelia, her wand circling around in case there was any sign of unnecessary sounds.

‘I don’t know… In my dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lift and it led to a dark room, which is this one… then I went through another door that kind of… glitters. We should try a few doors and see which one is the one I saw in my dream.’

He marched straight at the door now facing him, the others following close behind him, set his left hand against its cool, shining surface, raised his 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 this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimmering lights. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in, a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it. 

'What're those things?’ whispered Albert. 

'Are they fish?’ breathed Ginny. 

'Aquavirius Maggots!’ said Luna excitedly. 'Dad said the Ministry was breeding-' 

'No,' said Amelia, sounding odd.

 She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. 

'They're brains.' 

'Brains?' 

'Yes...  I wonder what they're doing with them?' 

Everyone joined her at the tank. Sure enough, there could be no mistake now they saw them at close quarters. Glimmering eerily, they drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green liquid, looking something like slimy cauliflowers. 

'Let's get out of here,' said Harry. 'This isn't right, we need to try another door.' 

'There are doors here, too,' said Isabell, pointing around the walls. 

'In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one,' Harry said. 'I think we should go back and try from there.' 

They hurried back into the dark, circular room. 

'Wait!’ said Olivia sharply, as Luna was about to close the door of the brain room behind them. 'Flagrate!' 

She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery “X” appeared on the 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, Olivia,' said Harry. 'Ok, let's try this one-' 

He strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised, the others at his heels. This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre, or a large courtroom. There was a raised stone platform in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched. 

'Who's there?’ said Harry, jumping down onto the bench below. 

There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway. 

'Careful!’ whispered Hermione. 

Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit. His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked slowly towards the platform. 

'Sirius?’ Harry spoke again, but more quietly now that he was nearer.

‘Wait…’ said Amelia, following Harry. ‘I-I can hear them too…’

She had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping her wand very tightly, she edged around the raised platform, but there was nobody there, all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.

'Let's go,' called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. 'This isn't right, Harry, Amelia, come on, let's go.'

But they ignored her, still gazing at the dark archway. 

‘Harry, Amelia, let's go, ok?’ said Hermione more forcefully. 

'Ok…' Amelia said, but she did not move. 

She had just heard something. There were faint whispering, murmuring noises coming from the other side of the veil. 

'What are you saying?‘ she said very loudly, so that her words echoed all around the stone benches. 

Harry looked at Amelia.

‘You can hear the whispering?’ he breathed.

She nodded slowly.

'Nobody's talking, Harry!’ said Hermione, now moving over to them. 'Someone's whispering behind there,' he said, moving out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil.

'I can hear them too,' breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. 'There are people in there!' 'What do you mean, "in there"?’ demanded Olivia suddenly, as though her patience was pushed to its limit, and sounding much angrier than the occasion warranted. ‘There isn't any "in there", it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there. Amelia, Harry, Hermione’s right. Stop it, come away-' 

She grabbed Amelia’s arm and pulled, but Amelia resisted. 

'Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!’ Hermione said in a high-pitched, strained voice. 

'Sirius,' Harry repeated absentmindedly, still gazing, mesmerised, at the continuously swaying and lighty fluttering veil. 'Yeah...'

Amelia thought she heard the faint murmuring of her dead mother’s voice. 

Amelia… come, my love… join me in the afterlife… 

Amelia’s eyes shifted up to the ripples of the veil, the mystical murmurs and faint whispers echoing in her mind. She could make out a few phrases and words that frequently rebounded in her head. 

…Amelia has grown up so much…

…She failed the Clearwater family. By siding with the Good side. The Clearwaters, mostly William Clearwater, are very well known to be one of the most successful Evil Sacred 28’s…

Amelia remembered her dead grandmother, Charlotte Francis, who would visit her and give her the typical butter cookies, yet also welcomed many grouses and complaints about her.

‘Victoria, dear, what have you fed this child? She’s terribly skinny, I can see through her skin! Eat, my child, eat these cookies!’ Granny Charlotte would say. 

She heard her mother’s whisper again from within the veil.

You will never join him…

Amelia smeared away thick tears and stopped looking at the veil, seeing Harry still gazing at it, intrigued. She lightly nudged him.

‘Sirius,’ was the one word she whispered to him. 

Harry’s green eyes locked up with her and he nodded as they exited the room, once again in the circular room with the wall, which started to fluctuate. Olivia managed just in time to mark the door where the veil lay with a fiery “X” using the same spell she had performed previously. The wall stopped twisting and turning, the orange-gold and white-blue colliding with each other even after the wall stopped. Their eyes refocused. There were ten unmarked doors, with two branded with an incandescent “X” that shivered with the white-blue fires perched on the walls. 

‘Ginny and I will try this one,’ Luna said dreamily, slowly pointing her finger at one door. 

Harry merely grunted as Luna and Ginny dashed towards it, their hairs dancing behind them simultaneously. 

‘Remember to mark the door,’ Olivia whispered audibly. 

She saw Ginny shoot her a fierce thumbs-up. She used her wand and marked the door that they had entered. It shut behind them. 

‘Maybe we should split up,’ Isabell offered. ‘Like Ginny and Luna. We shouldn’t all try one door at a time. And better stick with someone, we don’t know what lies behind these doors…’ 

Harry considered Isabell’s suggestion. 

‘Amelia with Isabell. Albert with Olivia. Ron with me. Hermione with Neville. Alright, each one of you choose a room and mark the door as soon as you reach it.’

Amelia and Isabell’s jaws set as they walked together towards one door, bestowing a fiery “X” on it as they pushed it open with a slight creak. Olivia and Albert looked at each other, worried, and started to walk towards the door next to the one Ginny and Luna went to, streaking the handless door as they entered it cautiously. Neville scurried after Hermione, and Harry and Ron ran towards one of the seven unmarked doors, brandishing it and making it join the marked doors as they dashed inside it like the wind.