Chapter 20 – The Ministry
As Tom was on Lyrotth, he flew much higher than the rest of them and so was able to watch over them. Lyrotth only had to beat her wings every few seconds to keep up with the thestrals, who were going flat out. On the journey, Tom went through in his mind all the spells he might need in the fight that he was certain was going to happen. On the ground, he’d been pumped and ready to go. Now that he was waiting, not acting, all his fears started to return to him. Lyrotth’s mental and physical presence helped to calm him down a bit and within 2 and a half hours they arrived. Tom’s journey had been pleasant on Lyrotth, even if a bit long. She flew incredibly smoothly and he’d protected himself from the wind and air temperature with a simple spell he’d looked up after his first flight.
The same could not be said for the rest of them. Unlike Lyrotth, the thestrals had exoskeletons and barley any flesh. As a result, their journey had been very uncomfortable. They all dismounted quickly and Tom surveyed the others who were all stiff and shivering, apart from Hermione who had also protected herself from the cold. Not ideal soldiers but what can I do.
Lyrotth then took off and flew out of sight. Presumably the thestrals did as well but since Tom couldn’t see them, he didn’t really know.
Once Tom and Hermione had warmed the rest of them up with some spells, they headed into the Ministry through a telephone box that was much bigger on the inside than out. The telephone box descended through the floor into a large tunnel similar to that of the London underground, only with green stonework.
The place was deserted meaning their footsteps audibly reverberated off all the walls. Harry, being the only one who had been in the Ministry before, led the way. They went down in the lifts to the basement and then along the corridors to the very end, where the DRM was located.
They all held their breath as they reached the door, then entered. The room inside was perfectly circular and massive, with many doors all around the edge. All of them were in awe of the place but Harry said he knew where to go and so they followed him through one of the doors. It was the wrong one. It contained a tank full of brains. Luna and Neville became freaked out by them and it caused Tom and the others a lot of effort to pull them out of the room. Tom was regretting not arguing more back at school. He thought that the triple threat might cope what with all the practise they’d had but as for the other three, Tom wasn’t so sure and he couldn’t watch over them all.
They tried a few more doors until they found the right one. It was a ginormous room filled with shelves of orbs. “They’re prophecies,” said Tom.
They all jumped as he spoke. The room had been eerily quiet until then. Not knowing much about Sonrus Black, Tom asked, “Why would Sonrus be here?” in a quieter voice.
“I dunno, but he is. I’ve seen him. This way,” Harry said and led on.
Tom wasn’t sure about this. He decided to drop back from the group without telling them. He kept close enough so he could come to their aid but far away enough that he could observe the whole scene. Harry was too focused to reach Sonrus to notice and the others were too focused on him.
Tom saw them reach the location Harry had aimed for and he heard Ginny say, “He’s not here. Where is he?” sounding scared.
Tom scanned the room, which was difficult as it was so dark. Ron then found a prophecy with Harry’s name on it and Harry took hold of it. In an instant, hooded men appeared all around them, circling them. But not Tom. He’d managed to remain hidden. He raised his wand ready to strike, but paused. The death munchers didn’t attack and Tom wanted to see how it played out. He didn’t think he could take them and so was hoping he wouldn’t have to try.
Maloney senior argued with Harry about handing over the prophecy for a minute or two. Tom didn’t understand why the death munchers didn’t just attack them and take it by force.
Whilst observing, Tom had to admit that whilst at school Harry might be big headed, in danger he was level headed and calm. He didn’t give in to the death munchers and he even tried to whisper to the others some plan that Tom couldn’t hear. However, as the others made signals to each other, Tom saw their bewildered and scared faces when they realised he wasn’t with them.
Tom knew the moment of action was drawing nearer and so planned what to do. He crept slowly to a more central point where he could cast his spell more accurately. As Maloney made a swipe for the prophecy, Harry shouted, “Now!” and the others all smashed some shelves and started to run, to Tom’s delight. His plan had depended on getting the death munchers together and on their own.
He reached deep inside himself, into his very core, to muster up all the strength and determination he could as he shouted “Rocker diffindo maxima!”
The ground all around the death munchers started to vibrate and then huge cracks started to appear. Most of the death munchers managed to escape before the ground completely caved in but a few were too slow and were swallowed up.
The energy that seemed to drain from Tom almost caused him to collapse. He staggered, holding himself up on a nearby shelf. But as he straightened up, he saw a few death munchers run towards him. His cover had been blown. The others were out of sight and he didn’t have the strength to duel them all.
Luckily his adrenaline had kicked into overdrive at the use of the exceptional magic and he started to sprint away from them, dodging spells along the way. He ran through the first door he saw and barred it immediately. He knew it wouldn’t hold forever but it gave him a few seconds to gather his strength.
Whilst the death munchers tried to break down the door, he looked around at the room he was in. It was much smaller than all the other rooms they’d been in. The floor and ceiling were both transparent. It contained a single, circular pillar that went through the floor and the ceiling. The pillar was made of what looked like pure gold but it seemed to radiate cold as the room was freezing.
Tom didn’t dare go near it. Instead, he searched around for an exit but before he located one, the 3 death munchers got through the door. They all ran towards him, wands raised. Tom parried a few spells from all three of them. They stopped attacking when they realised he wasn’t going to be beaten so easily. “Who are you?” demanded one of them.
“You’re worst nightmare,” Tom shouted back at them and immediately regretted it. It had sounded stupid rather than intimidating.
“Ooh, do you hear that lads. We better be careful.”
The three of them sniggered then the tallest of the three said, “Kid, we don’t know who you are and we don’t care. All we want is that prophecy. If you help us get it, the dark Lord will reward you with powers you never knew existed.”
Tom thought it over. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted by the offer but his morals kicked in over his temptation and he shouted, “Fat chance,” and stunned the tall one. The other two then re-started the fight. Two on one was something Tom had never done before but luckily, one of them had picked up an injury in the previous room and was struggling to stand. Tom took full advantage of that. He sent the uninjured death muncher into a wall and then, out of interest more than anything else, picked up the injured one with ‘wingardium leviosa’ and flew him into the golden pillar.
The effects were immediate. The man, with his back to the pillar, was completely stuck to it as if he’d been frozen on. Then his skin started to turn white and very dry and his whole body started to shrink. The man’s hair started to fall out as he shrunk down. His body stayed in proportion, there was just less of it. Once he’d shrunk down to about 3ft, half his height, the pillar let him go and, at the same time, a door appeared on the wall nearest Tom. He didn’t need time to think. He ran straight through it and closed the door before the death munchers came round.
He found himself back in first room, with all the doors. It was deserted so Tom took a few seconds to reflect on what he’d just seen. It scared him more than the prospect of Moldywart but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Out of the door that led to the rest of the
Ministry came Albus Dumby, Sonrus Black, Black Eye Rudy, Kingston, Arthur Weaselby and a few others he didn’t recognise. Dumby spotted Tom first and reached him quickly. “What’s happened? Where’s Harry?” he asked quickly.
Tom took a quick look at the bunch of wizards, most of whom had bewildered faces at the sight of seeing Tom on his own. “There are loads of death munchers here. I’ve taken care of a few of them but in the commotion, I lost the group.”
“The group? Who else is here?”
“The triple threat,” he started to say but saw Dumby’s look of confusion. “Oh sorry. Harry, Ron and Hermione but also Neville, Ginny and Luna.”
Dumby groaned and so did Arthur. “Not Ginny as well,” he moaned.
“I tried to stop them Albus, but they wouldn’t listen.”
Dumby, as calm as ever, said, “It’s not your fault Tom. I should have told you the full story, but never mind that now. We need to find the others.” He turned around. “Kingston, Conks, Black Eye, loop round the perimeter anti-clockwise. The rest of you, loop clockwise. We’ll find them eventually.’ The adults parted without a word.
Dumby then turned back to Tom. “Go back to the entrance hall.” Tom’s face was of disgust, being told to leave the fighting. “You must go. We will find them and send them to you. You must take care of them once they’re there and then get them out of here as soon as possible. Also, if any more death munchers turn up, they’ll appear there, so we need you to make sure no reinforcements get to us.”
The last point filled Tom with excitement and he agreed. He left Dumby and made his way back to the foyer.
He reached the foyer and perched by the fountain that lay in the centre of the archway. The place felt eerie when empty. The slightest noise Tom made echoed around the room. He was too far away from the action to hear anything so he waited in silence, on edge. 10, maybe 15 minutes passed without anything happening. Tom started to worry for everyone. He was confident Albus and the other adults could sort out the death munchers but what if they didn’t reach Hermione and the rest of them quick enough.
After another few minutes, a couple of the fire places burst into life. Tom quickly ducked behind the statue for cover. He peered around the edge to see 5 death munchers hurrying towards the lifts, which meant towards him. He figured that another of his element spells might come in handy. It had worked before, what had he got to lose.
He jumped out from his cover to face them. Before they had time to react, Tom shouted “aqua infinite.” The water from the fountain collected together and surged as a torrent at the death munchers. They were swept away, down to the end of the hall. Tom had been trying to encase them in water in an attempt to drown them but he hadn’t focused on his intentions strongly enough to achieve the desired outcome. Furthermore, the spell once again sapped him of his strength and he keeled over, panting. As he lay there, he could hear the death munchers getting to their feet. “After him,” one of them shouted.
Tom didn’t see how he could get out of this one. He could hear their footsteps hurrying towards him but he couldn’t bring himself to move.
All of a sudden, jets of light came flying from the lifts. Tom moved his head to see Neville, Ginny and Hermione come running onto the scene. Their rally filled Tom with hope and he got to his feet and joined in the fighting. The four of them against the 5 death munchers was an even fight. Spells were sent back and forth without any side gaining an advantage. Tom was trying only to defend as he still felt weak.
One of the death munchers, a short, stubby one, was firing killing curses in every direction. A couple came so close to Luna that her hair singed. In retaliation, Neville managed to freeze one of them, causing the other death munchers to sneer and redouble their efforts.
Tom could anticipate them losing if nothing changed. Even with one death muncher out, it was still 4 against 4. As Tom temporarily blinded his death muncher, he chanced a glance at the others. For the first time he noticed the injuries they had acquired. Neville had a bloody face and Luna had a gash in her leg and seemed to be hobbling. Hermione on the other hand, looked unscathed. But then she turned to face him and he saw her lip had swollen to three times its natural size and she had a black eye. In the short time Hermione looked away from her dueller, she was struck in the stomach and sent flying into the fountain, which she hit with a crash and slid down to the ground where she lay unconscious.
In that moment Tom felt all his fury build up inside him. He shouted at Neville and Luna, “Move!” They had never heard him so emotional before. They ran over to Hermione’s body immediately. Tom then rounded on the death munchers who were cackling at him. “You shouldn’t have done that!” he roared at them.
They leered at him. “What are you going to do about it?” they shouted.
The sight of seeing Hermione fly across the room had injected him with another burst of adrenaline. It restored to him the energy that he’d lost and much more besides it. Non-verbally, he cast a spell on them that caused them to be blinded by sunlight with no source, just as he had on one of them before.
Their moment of blindness and confusion was all Tom needed. He ran back to the fountain, leaving the death munchers under the arch. Then shouted, “Avalancha!”
The ceiling above the death munchers collapsed, burying them in a pile of rocks. The dust cloud caused by it meant they were hidden from view for about 20 seconds. Tom hurriedly checked on Hermione whilst noticing Neville’s and Luna’ faces. They were staring at him, opened mouthed in shock at what Tom had just done. He ignored them, saw that Hermione was breathing and tried to wake her up but, not knowing any spell to do it, he failed.
Without a word to any of them, he spun around to look at the pile of rubble. The dust had cleared enough for him to see that all 5 of the death munchers had been crushed by it.
He’d not intended to cause such a big avalanche. This time his magic had gone far beyond what he had intended. He saw one arm poking out from the pile, limp and lifeless. He assumed that meant they were all dead but ran over to check nevertheless. Once he had made sure no one was moving, he returned to the others with a heavy heart. Panting, he said, “They’re taken care of.”
“You killed them!” said Ginny, shocked.
“Yes,” he said mournfully. “I didn’t mean to, I just meant to knock them out but I displaced more rocks than I intended and, you saw what happened.”
Neville cheered him up by saying, “Thank you Tom. It was either us or them.”
This kick started Tom’s brain back into gear. “What happened down there? Did Dumby find you?”
“Dumby’s here!” Neville said in surprise.
“So he didn’t find you. What happened then?”
Ginny then answered. “Well we escaped when the floor caved in around those death munchers in the prophecy room. I suppose that was you as well?”
“Yes, but that’s not important. What happened next?” Tom demanded impatiently.
“We made our way through a few more strange rooms, picking up minor injuries along the way and we found Black Eye, Conks and Kingston. Luna got badly hurt so Conks stayed behind to heal her. The rest of us kept going, leading the death munchers away and we ended up in a really tall room with some kind of archway in the centre. Death munchers everywhere. The fighting intensified. Kingston told us kids to get back to the foyer immediately so we left but it was only at the lifts that we realised Harry and Ron weren’t with us.”
Seeing Ginny’s terrified look, Tom tried to calm her down but he struggled. She was too on edge at the possibility of Ron and Harry dying. He abandoned trying to calm her down and instead started issuing orders. “Dumby’s instructed me to look after you lot. You three need to get out of here now. There’s some fire powder by the fireplaces over there. Use it and go to the Hag’s leg. Dumbridge has the Hogwash fireplaces barred but the Hag’s leg is safe. Stay there until instructed otherwise.” Tom had planned this whilst he was waiting, alone in the foyer.
Ginny and Neville bo
th started to argue immediately and Tom understood how they felt but he had his orders and he was going to see them carried out. He spoke over them, “It’s too dangerous for you here and someone needs to get Hermione to safety. Once I get hold of Ron, Harry and Luna, I’m sending them back too.” Neville opened his mouth to argue but Tom raised his voice even more and said, “If you won’t go willingly, I’ll force you.”
They both stared at him for a few seconds. Then, realising he wasn’t joking, agreed and left for the Hag’s leg, carrying Hermione with them.
Not a minute passed before Ron and Luna came out of the lifts, accompanied by Arthur. “Are you alright?” Tom asked urgently.
“I can’t find Ginny!” said Arthur in panic.
“It’s ok, I’ve seen her. She’s safe now, away from the Ministry.”
Arthur let out a huge gasp. “Thank you Tom. Thank you so much… What are you doing up here anyway?”
“I’m taking care of anyone who tries to come in or go out,” he said, and pointed to the pile of rubble where the 5 death munchers lay.
“Merlin’s beard!” exclaimed Arthur.
Tom’s attention then turned to Ron and Luna, “I need to get you out of here before it’s too late. Use the fire powder by the fireplaces and go to the Hag’s leg. There you will find Neville, Ginny and Hermione.”
Like the others, Ron and Luna immediately started to argue but Arthur was on hand to help out this time. “You’re going Ron and that’s final!” It seemed Ron didn’t dare ignore his father and went willingly, with Luna following. Once they’d gone, Arthur said, “I’ve got to get back to the fight but thank you so much.”
“Thank you for getting them here. We’ve all got to do our part and I won’t get in the way of you doing yours. Go now.”
Arthur left, leaving Tom alone again. His body was still full of adrenaline and he couldn’t sit still. In his time alone, he noticed that a big hole had appeared in the ceiling where the roof had caved in, that lead to the night sky. What with everything going on, he hadn’t noticed it before. As he drew his attention away from the hole in the ceiling, he saw one of the fireplaces ignite and out of it came the thing Tom had been fearing the most. Moldywart.