“Blasted piece of- uraggggg!” Bill and Fred pulled with all their might on the large concrete pillar that was pinning their father’s leg down. Panting and wheezing after several minutes, sweat pouring down their dirty faces, they finally managed to free his leg, and Mr. Weasley struggled out from under the collapsed roof.
“Oh… oh my. Thank you boys.”
Fred leaned on an upturned desk for support as he nodded. “You were lucky dad. Luckier than that fellow.” He nodded his head toward a dead body ten feet away, crushed by a large stone that had fallen from the ceiling.
Mr. Weasley nodded. “Yes… very lucky. Your mother must be having fits right now not knowing.”
Bill shook his head. “Charlie went to send an owl while you were unconscious. It said we were all fine so she wouldn’t worry.”
“Thank you Bill,” he said, rubbing his swollen leg.
Lights flickered on and off as Bill and Fred lifted Mr. Weasley to his feet and supported him towards the stairs, which were missing steps here and there. “That would have been a lot easier if we could have used magic… don’t know why Voldie had to make things harder on us by placing a magic mess up on the building.”
“I don’t know if that’s what it’s called,” Bill said, “but it seems as good a name as anything.” They had learned quickly that any spell they tried to cast in the area turned into an unexpected and unwanted spell. Bill’s hovering charm had turned into a water charm that he couldn’t get to stop for five minutes, and Fred’s healing spell covered his father’s arm in bat bogeys.
“Awful nice of him to set those… fanged whats-its on us too,” Fred said as he and Bill lifted their father up over a missing step. “We never learned about those in Care of Magical Creatures.”
“They looked like a mix between a small lion and a rotwhiler,” Mr. Weasley said. “It’s a good thing their bites don’t seem to be poisonous or else Charlie would have been a goner.”
Bill nodded, remembering the beast lunging down the stairs at his brother and clamping down on his arm.
They made the next higher landing and found the same chaos and destruction as below. A man who worked for the department of Games and Sports named Liam was trying to get his wand to stop shooting out water.
“Hovering charm?” Bill asked. He nodded and Bill moved to help him stop the flow of water.
“Don’t suppose you’ve seen my son Percy have you?” Mr. Weasley asked as Bill took Liam’s wand and uttered the counter to a Lumos charm to get it to stop spewing water.
Liam shook his head. “No, sorry Arthur. But the Minister is missing and Percy was always with him… don’t worry. I’m sure he’s fine. Probably on another floor. If you’re looking for healers they’re up in the atrium. Mungo’s sent a squad of em’ to get the injured prep for transport.”
Mr. Weasley nodded as his sons lifted him to his feet again. “Thanks Liam. Glad you’re not injured.”
They moved off and up the next flight of stairs.
“Watch out! Coming through!” Fred and Bill lowered their father to the ground quickly as a wizard ran towards them and then jumped over them, his wand on fire as he tossed it back and forth and headed towards one of the many fountains placed throughout the building.
“Bad luck,” Fred said. “Wonder what charm he tried to use to get it to do that.”
“Maybe a water charm?” Bill said, wondering if there was any order to the chaos in using their magic here. “Brilliant of Voldemort to put this charm on the building. Best way to break the Ministry of Magic was to break all the magic I guess.”
Finally they found the healers and lowered Mr. Weasley to an empty stretcher laid out on the ground. A frazzled looking healer hurried over to them and Mr. Weasley said, “I think it’s just broken is all, nothing magical.” Looking relieved the healer motioned to two burly looking wizards who came over and lifted the stretcher.
“They’ll take you outside and one of them will apparate you to St. Mungos. All magic seems to be working fine off the premises.”
“I’m going to stay here dad,” Fred told him, looking around and thinking they could use the help. Mr. Weasley nodded and motioned for Bill to do the same. “Find Percy if you can. Charlie should be around somewhere too. I’ll be back when they’re done with me at Mungos. Send another letter to your mother as well, and don’t forget to send something off to Ginny and Ron.” He shouted this last bit as they carried him onto the lift that would take him up to the surface and the lift doors closed.
“I’ll take care of the letters,” Bill said, and hurried off to find an owl he could borrow, unsure of where there might be one.
Fred moved to the side as two men carried an injured witch in from the stairwell and lay her on a stretcher. She wasn’t moving but she was breathing. Quietly Fred hoped she would be ok as he moved off towards the lower levels of the Ministry again to see if there was anything he could do. He felt out of place there and wished George was there with him. Things always seemed to be better when his twin was around.
* * *
Draco, Ginny, and Harry sat alone on the marble steps leading out of the Great Hall and up to the rest of the castle. It was late afternoon now and most other students were in their houses, some mourning the losses of their family, others waiting for any word from the rest of the wizarding world about what was happening.
“I feel trapped in here,” Ginny said quietly. Draco tightened his grip on her and she didn’t protest. Somehow being in his arms made everything seem all right.
“I know what you mean,” Harry said. He felt like he could be doing some good if he was allowed to go somewhere and help do something. “They should give us something to do… defense class or something.”
“It’s Sunday,” Draco reminded him.
“I know, but our time would be better spent learning Defense or putting up more barriers on the school… I don’t like sitting and doing nothing when the rest of the world is falling apart.”
From a window somewhere in the Great Hall an owl swooped in then and landed next to Ginny. She untied a piece of burnt parchment eagerly and read the scrawled handwriting eagerly, letting out a sigh of relief.
“What’s it say?” Harry asked.
“It’s from Bill. It says: Dad’s ok. The Healers took him to Mungos to fix a broken leg. Fred, Charlie, and myself also ok, no injuries. Ministry building in ruins, lots of injured people, some dead, some missing. We’re looking for Percy. Magic no longer works in the building. Charms turn into hexes, hexes into charms. Stay at school. –Bill.”
“Percy will turn up,” Harry told her. “Don’t worry about him.”
“He’s the Minister’s aide and he’s gone missing.”
“He’s probably hiding under a desk somewhere.” Harry, Draco, and Ginny turned to see Ron at the top of the stairs. They hadn’t been aware that he was there listening to them.
Ginny stood to hand Ron the note from Bill, but he waved her away, looking at Draco, then her, and then looking disgusted. “Keep it,” he said, and then moved off, shaking his head.
Draco stood suddenly, feeling angry that Ron had treated Ginny like that, but Harry reached up and grabbed Draco’s sleeve to get him to take a seat again. “Forget it Draco,” he told him. “He’s upset because of his family. Leave him alone.”
Draco gave one last glare to Ron’s back, and then sat back down, Ginny lowering herself to the marble steps with him.
As promised in the special edition of the Daily Prophet, more information about the attack on the Ministry was released in the evening edition of the Daily Prophet. Rain washed the windows, and the hall was silent at dinner as students read the five-page article concerning the matter, and the next two pages about other attacks that same day since the attack on the Ministry. A long list of names on the last page listed the injured parties, and the dead, as well as the missing. Percy’s name was on the list of missing people, while not fantastic, was still better than being on the list of the dead. Many of the younger students sat crying, and some of the staff had moved out amongst the house tables to help comfort their charges.
“Mr. Greenwald worked in the same department as my dad,” Ginny said, finding his name on the list of dead. “And we had Mrs. Rosky over to dinner last year. Her daughter Amy graduated Hogwarts two years ago.”
Draco too found people he knew on the list of dead people. “Henry Montgomery… he was an auror… he called on us a few times when father was out but mother wouldn’t let him in. Mason Haller worked for the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He was a dark supporter… I’m surprised he’s dead. Gertrude Kensington worked in the Ludicrous Patents office… she was friends with my mum.”
Harry shook his head. He didn’t see any names of people he knew, but then again he didn’t know that many magical people outside of Hogwarts. “There’s a lot of people on that list.”
“There’s going to be more too. I don’t understand why the paper said to stay inside your house… once the Dark Lord is out of large targets he’s just going to start in on smaller ones. I think he’s pretty pissed off after his failed attack on us last year. Anyone’s a target now.”
Not feeling hungry any more they rose from the table and left the Great Hall. Several students were milling about and it seemed as good as place as any for them to stop and kill time for a little while. They talked to some other students for a few minutes before all of the chatter quieted at a knock on the massive oak front doors.
Several of the first and second years scurried back into the Great Hall for protection fearing it to be Voldemort or his followers on the other side. Harry and Draco looked at each other, wondering who it might be and what to do as there was another knock. Finally, at the third knock Harry stepped forward to open the doors, but was stopped by Dumbledore sweeping into the Entrance Hall with Professors McGonagall and Snape in tow.
Harry stepped back and Dumbledore opened the massive door to reveal a man, a woman, and three small children standing there, soaked to the bone.
Surprised, Dumbledore looked to McGonagall and then back to the family.
“Please sir,” the man said. “Will you take us in? I have to protect my family. There’s no telling how long before You-Know-Who starts attacking random wizard houses. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to my wife or children.”
Dumbledore’s gaze took in the family again, as did the other students and staff gathered there in the hall. “Garrison, you need not plead your case. The castle is open to you and your family provided you are willing to live by its rules.”
The man nodded eagerly and hurried his family inside. Dumbledore closed the door with a wave of his wand and was giving instructions to McGonagall to put the family up in a large guest room when there was another knock. As McGonagall lead the family away to a guest room on the first floor, the Headmaster opened the massive doors again and found not one but two families standing there, soaked and scared, but hopeful looking.
Before they could begin to plead their case, he motioned for them to come inside out of the rain, and said, “Provided you are willing to live by the castle’s rules, you are welcome to seek refuge here.”
They nodded, and a scrawny looking man shook Dumbledore’s hand vigorously. “Just give me a job to do Headmaster, any job. We’ll earn our keep. My wife can prepare the best meals and my kids, well, they’ll do any job they’re told.” Harry looked at the two young children as the man said this. They were twins about the age of nine, and they looked scared and confused to have been whisked away from their own homes and been brought here.
“There may come a time when we will need your services Asher,” Dumbledore said, “but for now you should get settled in and rest.” More professors had emerged from the Great Hall now, and began leading the two families away down the same corridor McGonagall had disappeared down. Dumbledore didn’t bother closing the door because through the darkness he could see several lanterns bobbing closer to them. Harry watched in awe as the Headmaster admitted three more families, Cedric Diggory’s parents, one of Ginny’s fifth cousins, and Madam Malkin from the robe shop on Diagonalley.
“Safest place on earth this,” Madam Malkin told Dumbledore as she hurried inside out of the rain. “I expect every witch and wizard in the isles knows that and is on their way here.”
Dumbledore nodded. “And so long as we have the room, they will find the refuge they seek.
Before Harry, Draco, and Ginny could see who else was coming to the castle McGonagall shooed them away and told them to go back to their common rooms along with the rest of the students there because they were only getting in the way.
“Maybe he’ll be so busy he’ll forget about Occlumency lessons,” Draco said hopefully, nodding his head toward Snape who was helping an elderly couple in through the doors.
“Good luck with that,” Harry said. “I’ve never known him to forget anything.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right. Good night.” Harry gave him a wave and waited for Ginny as she leaned in to Draco to give him a quick kiss, surprising several of the other Gryffindors and other students around them, before they made their way up through the castle to Gryffindor tower.
Harry, Ginny, and most of the rest of the house watched from the tower windows well into the night as lanterns bobbed through the darkness up the muddy dirt drive towards the castle. “Has this every happened before?” Harry asked no one in particular around him.
“Yes,” Hermione said. “Its in chapter four of Hogwarts a History. When Grindewald was attacking every wizard home he came to, people flocked to Hogwarts. There are special rooms on the first floor of the castle that were made to expand to take in refugees. Each guest room down there expands into thirty or so rooms big enough to hold two families.”
“How many expandable guest rooms are down there?”
Hermione shook her head. “As many as need to be. They can just keep adding them on.”
“I wonder how come the aurors let all these people past the front gates,” Ginny said. “I wonder if they’ll let any death eaters through.”
“If they do the truth and evil lines at the castle entrance will get them. Besides that, I think Dumbledore was prepared for this. I think he told them to let people in if they needed refuge.”
They turned their attention back to the dark grounds out the windows. Harry had lost count hours before of the lanterns he had seen in the darkness.
In the morning Harry was surprised to find the Great hall relatively empty seeing how many people came to the castle the night before. As usual, the four house tables and staff table were filled with staff and students only.
“Where are all the refugees?” he asked. Ron was not at breakfast, so Hermione had moved down the table to sit with them this morning.
“Dumbledore doubled the food supplies and sent half to the refugee quarters. There are separate kitchens there and some of the house elves were sent to prepare food for all of the people.”
“I saw a few people in the halls this morning,” Draco said. He had been up early, unable to sleep with the dread of Occlumency lessons hanging over him, and had seen a few children and a couple of parents in the Entrance Hall.
“I heard McGonagall telling Madam Hooch that Filch will be getting extra help. About forty people offered their services to help keep the castle clean with all the extra people. And I think Madam Malkin is offering to repair all the students and staffs robes for free while she stays here as payment.”
“Gee, what will they do with us when we get detention if there are no toilets to clean?” Draco asked, giving Ginny a meaningful look saying that it might be easier and less risky to sneak around now.
“Well don’t think about going and breaking rules just because half of Wizarding Britain is staying in the castle now…” Hermione told him sternly.
“Why not?”
“Think of all the moms running around trying to keep their kids out of trouble,” Harry pointed out. “I don’t think they’d have any problem telling on us since Dumbledore’s letting them stay here for free.”
“They’re all on the first floor though, right? That leaves all the upper floors open for mischief making.”
Hermione clucked her tongue at him and said, “Is that all you think about? Making trouble? Don’t you do any studying at all? NEWTS are only seven months away you know.”
“Only?” Harry laughed. “Well, maybe they’ll cancel them this year because of all the trouble at the Ministry.”
“You think?” Hermione asked worriedly. Harry knew she had been studying for them since the end of their OWLS.
There wasn’t much new information about the Ministry attacks in the morning edition of the Daily Prophet delivered to them at breakfast, but the special edition dropped in their laps at lunch held devastating news.
Harry heard Hermione gasp from all the way down the table when she opened up Ron’s copy and read the Headline. Draco dropped his copy on the table and turned it for Harry to see, a dark look on his face. “Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge Dead,” was the Headline in bold stamped across the front page. There was no picture, but instead a two-page article concerning the details.
Reading the article quickly, Harry shook his head. “Everybody will really panic now,” he said solemnly.
Draco nodded. “That’s what He wants. He wants them to panic. If they panic, then they will welcome any form of order that presents itself, even if that form of order is him.”
Frowning, Harry said, “Do you really think they’ll except him as their new Minister of Magic?”
“No, but they’ll accept someone he puts up there. He’s got his hands in a lot of pockets… who knows who he controls anymore?”
Ginny bit her lip next to Draco and said, “Well, there are certain people we can be sure of, aren’t there? I mean, if they put Harry up for Minister or something…” although she was trying to lighten the mood a little with a joke, her tone was dark, and it didn’t have the effect she wanted.
“We’re doomed,” Draco said putting on a face of mock horror.
“I’m not that bad,” Harry said. “I just don’t think Voldie likes me enough to nominate me for the position.”
Dearly Departed