Under the illumination of the orange street lights, an old telephone booth stands on the street.
Harry had been to the Ministry of Magic when he was accused of violating the "Underage Wizarding Law" and knew that the unremarkable telephone booth was actually the entrance to the Ministry of Magic.
He and his friends squeezed into the telephone booth. Fortunately, they were all little wizards around fifteen years old, and there was no fat person in the team, so they were able to squeeze in.
"Whoever is closest to the phone, dial 62442!" Harry shouted to his friends inside.
62442 is typed out in a nine-square grid, which actually means magic.
Ron bent his arm awkwardly towards the dial and dialed the number.
As the dial quickly turned back to its original position, a woman's cold voice came into the phone booth:
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and what you are here for."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger," Harry spoke quickly, "Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Rolf Scamander, Luna Lovegood..."
"We are here to rescue people, unless you, the Ministry of Magic, rescue him first."
"Thank you," said the cold voice, "Guest, please take the badge and pin it on the front of your clothes."
Seven medallions slid out of the metal chute that was supposed to eject the coins.
Hermione picked them up and handed them to Harry over Ginny's head without a word. Harry glanced at the top one and saw the words:
Harry Potter, rescue mission.
"Guest of the Ministry of Magic, you will need to be checked at the security desk and have your wand registered. The security desk is located at the end of the main hall."
"Got it!" Harry said loudly. "Can we do it now?"
The floor of the phone booth shook suddenly, the sidewalk outside rose up past the window, and darkness closed in on them.
With a dull grinding sound, they gradually descended deeper into the ground.
"Do you think it was too easy for us to come in?" Hermione asked hesitantly in the darkness. "Will the Ministry of Magic let underage wizards like us come in and rescue people so easily?"
"It seems a bit strange." Rolf also frowned. "I remember that the Ministry of Magic used to be very strict in screening guests. Especially since our reason was a bit improper, they didn't ask any more questions."
Rolf had been to the Ministry of Magic many times with his grandfather and father, so he was quite familiar with the place, but this time the inspection situation really made him feel a little weird.
Fudge and Harry's relationship was so strained, how could the people in the Ministry of Magic not pay any attention to this name...
"Maybe it's because it's the middle of the night?" Ron guessed, "They should have been off work by now. My dad has never worked overtime until this time... But they are not in the Order of the Phoenix now, so where could they be?"
They had sneaked back to the Order through Umbridge's fireplace beforehand, but hadn't spotted any adults.
"But even if it's the middle of the night, there should be someone on duty here, right?" Hermione asked, "Why didn't anyone ask about our purpose and just gave us a pass?"
"This is more proof that the Ministry of Magic has been conquered by those Death Eaters!" Harry said impatiently, "It's very likely that something has happened to the staff on duty!"
The others stopped talking.
Thinking of this, a feeling of tension completely enveloped their hearts... Could they, a few students who had not yet graduated, really rescue Sirius from the brutal Death Eaters
A thin golden ray of light shone on their feet, becoming wider and wider, and gradually moving towards their bodies.
Harry grabbed his wand and crouched as low as he could in such a cramped space, peering through the glass to see if anyone was waiting for them in the main hall.
But the main hall seemed empty.
The light in the main hall of the Ministry of Magic was a little darker at night than during the day, and there was no fire in the fireplace mantel embedded in the wall. But when the elevator stopped smoothly, he saw that on the dark blue ceiling, the golden symbol was still twisting irregularly.
"The Ministry hopes you enjoy your evening," said the cold female voice.
The door of the phone booth flew open and Harry stumbled out, followed closely by Neville and Luna.
The only sound to be heard in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain in the centre of the hall, which gushed from the wands of witches and wizards, the arrows of centaurs, the tips of goblins' hats, and the ears of house-elves into a circular pool.
"Come with me," Harry whispered.
Seven people were running at full speed down the hall, and he was at the front, running past the fountain and towards the security desk, where a wizard had sat to weigh Harry's wand, but now there was no one there.
Harry thought there should be security here, and believed that the absence of anyone guarding the door was a bad sign.
His foreboding grew stronger as they walked through the Ministry's golden doors and toward the elevators.
He pressed the nearest "down" button and the elevator clicked into place almost immediately, the golden bars sliding down the middle with a deafening, echoing clang.
They rushed in and took the elevator to the ninth underground floor of the Ministry of Magic.
"Department of Mysteries."
The cold woman's voice said as the lift came to a stop.
The gate opened, and they stepped out into a corridor which was eerily silent except for the flickering of the nearest torches in the draught of air stirred up by the lift.
Harry's eyes turned to the plain black door in the corridor - in his vague connection with Voldemort, he could see that it was this door that Sirius had been tortured behind, and now they were finally here.
"Let's go," he whispered, leading everyone forward along the corridor.
The other little wizards were staring at the front nervously, only Luna, who always had a strange way of thinking, was looking around curiously.
"Okay, listen up," Harry said to the others, pausing less than six feet from the Black Door. "Maybe we should leave a few guys here... lookout, and -"
He actually wanted to rush in alone, because this operation was very dangerous, and the other people had nothing to do with Sirius, so there was no need for them to step into danger for him.
"But if anything happens, how can we notify you?" Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows. "You may be far away from us."
"We'll all go with you, Harry," Neville said firmly.
"Well, let's keep going." Ron also said.
Rolf smiled and nodded at him.
Harry was still a little hesitant and reluctant to take all of them with him, but it seemed he had no choice...
He turned and walked towards the black door, which opened automatically.
…
"Get ready, Lucius, they're coming in."
Dracula spoke to a bronze mirror, behind which was the nervous face of Lucius Malfoy.
Harry and the other seven young wizards entered the black door of the Department of Mysteries, but they didn't notice that among the six halls here, one of the doors was quietly opened a crack - that was the Hall of Death.
Dracula had been standing next to the huge stone archway, feeling the faint breath of death behind the curtain, while observing the actions and progress of Harry and others through the crack in the door.
After contacting Lucius, he took out another two-way mirror.
"Albus, are all the members of your Order of the Phoenix here?" Dracula asked the mirror.
"Everything is ready," Dumbledore said from behind the mirror. "Once you have lifted the anti-Apparition spell over there, all available members of the Order of the Phoenix will Apparate directly to the Department of Mysteries."
"Okay, remember to ask your people to spare Lucius Malfoy's life. I promised him." Dracula added.
"No problem, I'll give the order," said Dumbledore.
In fact, Hermione and Rolf were completely right to be suspicious of the unusual behavior of the wizarding world.
The Ministry of Magic should have had some employees on duty late at night, but there were many Death Eaters who had close ties with the Ministry of Magic. Lucius and Yaxley easily found excuses to lure away the members of the duty room.
After no manual review, Harry and others' application for entry was directly approved by Yaxley, allowing them to enter easily.
The hallucinations Harry had seen were also false -
Voldemort learned that Sirius was one of the most important people to Harry, both a father and a friend, so he used the connection between the two to invade Harry's brain and make him see the hallucination of Sirius being tortured.
As Lucius told Dracula, Voldemort's goal was to obtain a prophecy that contained the fate of both Harry and Voldemort.
However, what Voldemort did not expect was that Lucius had already leaked this matter to Dracula early on.
So Dracula contacted Dumbledore again, and the two quickly came up with a plan to take this opportunity to get rid of Voldemort.
"Are you confident?" Dracula asked, looking to the side.
Young Riddle was standing there, looking a little nervous.
"I don't have much confidence. After all, that is my main soul that has completely recovered its strength." He said gloomily, "And I only have three soul fragments here, not even half of the seven pieces..."
"After today, there will definitely be more than half of them." Dracula chuckled and said, "We will suppress him. You only need to be responsible for finding the Horcrux on Voldemort."
…
"Here it is!"
After trying several doors in succession, Harry finally found the right one.
It was as tall as a church, filled with tall shelves filled with countless small gray glass balls, and nothing else.
More candlesticks were embedded in the shelves at regular intervals, and dim light shone from them, with the small glass balls glowing faintly in the light.
Harry walked slowly forward and glanced down a dark corridor between two rows of shelves. He could hear no sound and could not feel any movement, not even the slightest.
"You said Sirius was in row 97 here," Hermione whispered beside him.
"Yes," Harry whispered back.
He raised his head and looked at the nearest row of crystal balls. The candle next to it was emitting a blue flame, and under the bracket was flashing a silver number, "53".
"I think we should go to the right." Hermione whispered, glancing at the row next to her. "Oh, this is 54..."
"Everyone get your wands ready," Harry instructed in a low voice.
They crept along the long aisle between the shelves, glancing back from time to time. The distance was almost pitch black.
There were small yellowed labels on the shelves beneath each glass ball. Some of the balls emitted a mysterious, flowing light, while others were vague and dark, like extinguished light bulbs.
They passed row 84, row 85... Harry was trying to listen for the slightest sound, but there was nothing. Maybe Sirius' mouth was gagged, or maybe he was unconscious...
Or perhaps it could be the thought that he feared the most, that he might be dead... Thinking of this, Harry felt as if he was falling into an icy cave.
"97!" Hermione said suddenly.
They gathered at one end of row 97, staring intently at the empty corridor next to the racks.
"Sirius should be right over there," said Harry, his mouth going dry. "It's impossible to see clearly from here."
He led everyone through two rows of tall glass balls, some of which glowed faintly as they passed...
"He should be around here," Harry said in a low voice. He was convinced that with every step forward, Sirius' ragged figure would appear on the dark floor. "Somewhere here... Really close..."
"Harry?" Hermione tried calling him.
Harry didn't want to answer; his mouth was dry.
"Somewhere... here..." he said.
They had reached the other end of the row of shelves, exposed to more dim candlelight.
There was no one here either, only echoes and dusty silence.
"Harry," Hermione said slowly, even louder, "I think... Sirius isn't here."
No one said anything.
Harry couldn't figure it out, he clearly saw Sirius, that was exactly Voldemort's perspective... He didn't understand why Sirius wasn't there, and he couldn't believe that there was something wrong with the picture he saw.
He ran quickly past the rows of shelves in one direction and looked along them.
Yet there was no sign of Sirius anywhere, and no signs of a fight.
"Harry?" Ron called.
"What?" Harry said dejectedly.
He thought Ron would tell him he was stupid, or suggest that they should go back to Hogwarts, or scold him for taking the risk of bringing a group of friends to the Ministry of Magic in the middle of the night...
However, Ron was talking about something else: "Did you see this?"
"What?" Harry asked.
He strode over to Ron and saw him staring at a dirty glass globe on a shelf.
"What are you looking at?" he asked gloomily.
"It's... it's got your name on it," Ginny said in surprise.
Harry moved closer and Ginny pointed to a small glass ball, it was dirty, as if it hadn't been touched in years, but the faint light inside made it shiny.
"My name?" Harry asked blankly.
He walked forward to look at the yellowed label underneath the glass ball on the shelf.
The label had a date in fine handwriting, followed by a string of letters:
SPT to APWBD．
(Sybill Patrick Trelawney to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore)
"What's this?" Ron asked. "Why is your name on it?"
"This is a prophecy ball." Rolf frowned and said, "If Harry's name is written on it, then it is very likely a prophecy about Harry."
"Prophecy?" Harry was curious. "What will these prophecies say?"
He raised his hand, grasped the dirty little ball, and removed it.
At the same time, a lazy voice suddenly sounded in the darkness not far away:
"Very well, Potter, now turn around slowly and give it to me."
…
…