The next morning after Hermione and I got everything prepared the boys tiredly march into the kitchen. While Kreacher places coffee cups and hot rolls in front of us.

"Polyjuice Potion..." She says weakly.

"Got it," I say.

"Invisibility Cloak... Decoy Detonators..." She says then looks to me and the others. "You should each take a couple just in case... Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Nougat, Extendable Ears..."

"Yep yep we have it all," I say to her, "we are good." As she nervously nods I turn to my breakfast eating quickly. We thank Kreacher quickly before rushing upstairs to the entrance.

"Bless him," Ron says fondly, "and when you think I used to fantasize about cutting off his head and sticking it on the wall." Ron and Hermione disapparate first while I use the spells to disguise Harry and I. As I watch out for the death eaters around the steps I urge Harry out with me. He pulls the cloak over him as I disapparate without him. I reach the tiny alley I see Ron and Hermione. After a couple seconds Harry goes next.

"Right then," Hermione says, checking her watch. "They ought to be here in about five minutes. When I've Stunned her—"

"Hermione, we know," Ron says sternly. "And I thought we were supposed to open the door before they got here?" Hermione squeals.

"I nearly forgot! Stand back—" She says pulling her wand out and unlocking the door. "And now," she says turning back to face us in the alleyway, "we put on the Cloak again—"

"—and we wait," Ron finishes, throwing it over Hermione's head like a blanket over a birdcage. I pull it over me as the four of us crowd under the blanket. It wasn't like first or third year anymore where the four of us fit with ease. It was us crowding onto the other. I was practically on top of Harry and as was Hermione and Ron. Less than a minute later a tiny pop sounds and two little ministry witches pop out. One was older while the other clearly was fresh from Hogwarts I think she was a hufflepuff. The ladies barely got thirty seconds to enjoy the warmth of the sun before Hermione and I stun them.

"Nicely done," Ron says as I grab the polyjuice potions from my bag and hand them off to Hermione and she pulls strands from each of the witches hair then hands places it into the liquid.

"She's Mafalda Hopkirk," Ron says reading a small card,"You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens." Harry follows suit and moves to the other girl.

"She's Eleanor Goslin," Harry says to me handing me the card. I pocket the card and take Eleanor's polyjuice potion from Hermione. I stir it around a bit before taking a nasty gulp of potion. My features quickly changing to Eleanor's.

"We're running late, Mr. Magical Maintenance will be here any second," Harry says. We close the door and the ministry witches before the boys dive back under the cloak. Seconds later a small ferret looking man joins us.

"Oh, hello, Mafalda. Eleanor," The man says.

"Hello," I say simply.

"Hello!" Hermione says as in a quavery voice. "How are you today?"

"Not so good, actually," replies the little wizard, who looked thoroughly downcast. We start to walk towards the main road.

"I'm sorry to hear you're under the weather," Hermione says, talking firmly over the little wizard as he tries to expound upon his problems; it was essential to stop him from reaching the street. "Here, have a sweet."

"Eh? Oh, no thanks—"

"I insist!" Hermione says aggressively, shaking the bag of pastilles in his face. Looking rather alarmed, the little wizard takes one. The moment it touches his tongue he loses it. Vomiting so hard he didn't even notice Hermione as she yanks the hair from his head.

Oh dear!" she says, as he splattered the alley with sick. "Perhaps you'd better take the day off!"

"No—no!" He chokes and retched, trying to continue on his way despite being unable to walk straight. "I must—today—must go—"

"But that's just silly!" I say sweetly, "You can't go to work in this state—I think you ought to go to St. Mungo's and get them to sort you out!" He collapses still vomiting.

"You simply can't go to work like this!" Hermione cries.

"Dear They'll send you home anyway. Besides, imagine this spreading through the ministry!" I say. He sighs before returning to his sickly state. Using Hermione to pull himself up then he disappears.

"Urgh," Hermione says holding up the skirts of her robe to avoid the puddles of sick. "It would have made much less mess to Stun him too." I wave my wand cleaning the mess up.

"Yeah," Ron says, emerging from under the cloak holding the wizard's bag, "but I still think a whole pile of unconscious bodies would have drawn more attention. Keen on his job, though, isn't he? Chuck us the hair and the potion, then." Within two minutes, Ron turns before us. Now as a small and ferrety as the sick wizard, and wearing the navy blue robes that had been folded in his bag.

"Weird he wasn't wearing them today, wasn't it, seeing how much he wanted to go? Anyway, I'm Reg Cattermole, according to the label in the back."

"Y/n wait with Harry while we get his," She orders. I nod and wait back with the boy. Looking around at the mess of the alley weakly. Soon they return with another bottle and hand it off to Harry.

"We don't know who he is," Hermione says, passing Harry the bottle, "but he's gone home with a dreadful nosebleed! Here, he's pretty tall, you'll need bigger robes..." she uses her wand to fix the robes he had on. Making his clothes now unnecessarily baggy before he chugs the bottle. The result is a well-muscled tall man.

"Blimey, that's scary," Ron says looking up at Harry.

"Take one of Mafalda's tokens," Hermione tells Harry, "and let's go, it's nearly nine." We step out of the alleyway together. Once there we were split by the signs reading Ladies and Gentlemen.

"See you in a moment, then," Hermione says nervously. I wave before pulling her along with me to the Ladies. Once inside we file into lines I pull my coin out. Fiddling with it nervously as chat fills the room. Once I reach the stall I watch another lady bedside me slides hers into one. I follow and then move inside as the door opens. I was faced with a toilet and a weird looking string to flush.

"Disgusting," I whisper as I step into the toilet. I yank on the string flushing myself. I close my eyes and as I reopen them I'm met with the black bricks. I was in. As I step away another girl accidentally hits me from behind.

"Oh sorry Eleanor love," The lady says as she looks at me. "Still not used to that huh?"

"Not really," I sigh scanning the room for the others. "I need to head off."

"Of course," She says. I nod and walk off to look around. I notice a lady beckoning me over. It takes me a second but I realize that it was Hermione and the others.

"There you are," Harry says.

"Yeah I'm here," I say to them as I push aside the weird long brown hair away from my face.

"It's horrible, isn't it?" Hermione says looking at Harry, who was staring up at the statue. "Have you seen what they're sitting on?" I look over to realize that the statue was a witch and wizard was sitting on mounds of muggles. Hundreds of naked worn ugly bodies. It was disgusting.

"Muggles," whispers Hermione. "In their rightful place. Come on, let's get going." I nod following them as we head towards the elevators. As we step in one of the lines before a man's voice calls out.

"Cattermole!" We look around to see one of the Death Eaters from the astronomy tower marching towards us. He was scowling as he reaches us. The other workers around us went silent.

"Morning, Yaxley!" Someone in the crowd calls. Yaxley ignores them.

"I requested somebody from Magical Maintenance to sort out my office, Cattermole. It's still raining in there," Yaxley says. Ron looks around hoping for someone else to answer.

"Raining... in your office? That's—that's not good, is it?" Ron says with a nervous laugh. Yaxley's eyes widened.

"You think it's funny, Cattermole, do you?" Yaxley says.

"No," Ron says, "no, of course—"

"You realize that I am on my way downstairs to interrogate your wife, Cattermole? In fact, I'm quite surprised you're not down there holding her hand while she waits. Already given her up as a bad job, have you? Probably wise. Be sure and marry a pureblood next time." Hermione lets out a little squeak of horror as I quickly cough to cover it. Yaxley looks over at us curiously.

"I—I—" stammers Ron.

"But if my wife were accused of being a Mudblood," Yaxley says, "—not that any woman I married would ever be mistaken for such filth—and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I would make it my priority to do that job, Cattermole. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Ron says.

"Then attend to it, Cattermole, and if my office is not completely dry within an hour, your wife's Blood Status will be in even graver doubt than it is now." As Yaxley stops talking the lift door opens and we huddle inside all alone. As if we were toxic and would harm anyone who would enter along with us. As the doors shut and we start to move Ron looks to us nervously.

"What am I going to do?" Ron asks at once, "If I don't turn up, my wife—I mean, Cattermole's wife—"

"We'll come with you, we should stick together—" Harry begins, but Ron shakes his head feverishly.

"That's mental, we haven't got much time. You three find Umbridge, I'll go and sort out Yaxley's office—but how do I stop it raining?"

"Try Finite Incantatem," Hermione says at once, "that should stop the rain if it's a hex or curse; if it doesn't, something's gone wrong with an Atmospheric Charm, which will be more difficult to fix, so as an interim measure try Impervius to protect his belongings—"

"Say it again, slowly—" Ron says, searching his pockets desperately for a quill

"Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Bureau." The doors open and he sighs.

"Morning, Albert," a bushily whiskered man says, smiling at Harry. He glances over at us. Hermione now whispering frantic instructions to Ron. The wizard leans toward Harry, leering, and mutters, "Dirk Cresswell, eh? From Goblin Liaison? Nice one, Albert. I'm pretty confident I'll get his job now!" He winks and Harry smiles.

"Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services," the disembodied witch's voice says. As the other wizards and Ron file out Hermione, Harry, and I exchange a look.

"Actually, I think I'd better go after him, I don't think he knows what he's doing and if he gets caught the whole thing—"

"Level one, Minister of Magic and Support Staff." As the doors open my eyes go wide as I see the toad-like woman among three other wizards. Umbridge was right here.

"Ah, Mafalda, Eleanor!" said Umbridge, looking at Hermione. "Travers sent you two, did he?"

"Y-yes," Hermione squeaks. I nod nervously.

"Good, you'll do perfectly well," Umbridge speaks to the wizard in black and gold. "That's that problem solved, Minister, if Mafalda and Eleanor can be spared for record-keeping we shall be able to start straight away." She looks at her clipboard. "Ten people today and one of them the wife of a Ministry employee! Tut, tut... even here, in the heart of the Ministry!" She steps into the lift beside Hermione, as did the two wizards who had been listening to Umbridge's conversation with the Minister. "We'll go straight down, Mafalda, you'll find everything you need in the courtroom. Good morning, Albert, aren't you getting out?"

"Yes, of course," Harry says in Runcorn's deep voice. I step forward with him Umbridge looks at me curiously.

"Eleanor what are you doing?" Umbridge asks. I look around then step back.

"Sorry I wasn't paying attention," I say to her carefully. I settle back and Harry leaves us. As we move Umbridge looks to me. I smile politely. She nods. Soon the doors open again and she leads all of us out and to the courtrooms. She leads Hermione and I to a table to sit down in front of the crowd with a quill and ink.

"You two will document the interviews," He says. I nod. I turn to Hermione and walk before turning to the parchment. We'd have to play along until we got an opening.

******

"No, no, I'm half-blood, I'm half-blood, I tell you! My father was a wizard, he was, look him up, Arkie Alderton, he's a well-known broomstick designer, look him up, I tell you—get your hands off me, get your hands off—" The man yells as they pull him away.

"This is your final warning," Umbridge's soft voice says, magically magnified so that it sounded clearly over the man's desperate screams. "If you struggle, you will be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss." The man's screams subside, but dry sobs echo through the corridor.

"Take him away," Umbridge says. Two dementors appear in the doorway of the courtroom, their rotting, scabbed hands clutching the upper arms of a wizard who appeared to be fainting. They glide away down the corridor with him, and the darkness they trail behind them swallow him from sight.

"Next—Mary Cattermole," calls Umbridge. A small woman stands up; she was trembling from head to foot. Her dark hair was smoothed back into a bun and she wore long, plain robes. Her face completely bloodless. Harry, under the polyjuice potion still, walks in behind her.

"Sit down," Umbridge says in her soft, silky voice. "You are Mary Elizabeth Cattermole?" Mary nods. "Married to Reginald Cattermole of the Magical Maintenance Department?" Mrs. Cattermole bursts into tears. She reminded me of Molly and I wanted no more than to comfort her.

"I don't know where he is, he was supposed to meet me here!" She sobs as I scribble the words being exchanged.

"Mother to Maisie, Ellie, and Alfred Cattermole?" Umbridge says as Mrs. Cattermole sobs harder than ever.

"They're frightened, they think I might not come home—"

"Spare us," Yaxley says harshly. "The brats of Mudbloods do not stir our sympathies." I look down at the words and sigh. Wishing I could help.

"I'm behind you," Harry's voice whispers. I jump harshly reaching for my wand before I realize it's him.

"You almost gave me a heart attack," I say to him under my breath. He places a hand on my shoulder.

"A wand was taken from you upon your arrival at the Ministry today, Mrs. Cattermole," Umbridge says. "Eight-and-three-quarter inches, cherry, unicorn-hair core. Do you recognize that description?" Mrs. Cattermole nods, mopping her eyes on her sleeve.

"Could you please tell us from which witch or wizard you took that wand?"

"T-took?" sobs Mrs. Cattermole. "I didn't t-take it from anybody. I b-bought it when I was eleven years old. It—it—it—chose me."

"The locket is on her neck," I say quietly as Umbridge laughs loudly. They look and Hermione lets out a squeak.

"No," Umbridge says, "no, I don't think so, Mrs. Cattermole. Wands only choose witches or wizards. You are not a witch. I have your responses to the questionnaire that was sent to you here—Mafalda, pass them to me." Umbridge holds out a small hand. Hermione's hands shake with shock. She fumbles in a pile of documents on the table. I pull it from the bottom and shove it towards you.

"That's—that's pretty, Dolores," she says pointing at the pendant gleaming in the ruffled folds of Umbridge's blouse.

"What?" Umbridge says glancing down. "Oh yes—an old family heirloom, The S stands for Selwyn... I am related to the Selwyns... Indeed, there are few pure-blood families to whom I am not related... A pity," she continues in a louder voice, flicking through Mrs. Cattermole's questionnaire, "that the same cannot be said for you. 'Parents' professions: greengrocers.'" Yaxley laughs jeeringly. Below, the fluffy silver cat patrols up and down, and the dementors stood waiting in the corners.

"Stupefy!" Harry yells. I jump up as the spell hits Umbridge and she falls down. Yaxley looks around in panic and Harry calls out again. "Stupefy!" Yaxley slides to the ground on the floor. I pull my wand out and move towards Harry.

"Harry!" Hermione yells.

"Hermione, if you think I was going to sit here and let her pretend—"

"Harry, Mrs. Cattermole!" Hermione alerts. I look over to see the dementors heading towards the woman. She lets out a scream of terror.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry yells and the stag soars towards them. I break away from them and run towards Umbridge. 

"Get the Horcrux," Harry yells.

"On it!" I yell as I pull the necklace from her neck.

"Hermione, how do I get rid of these chains?" Harry asks as Hermione runs towards me.

"Wait, I'm trying something up here—" she says, "we need to duplicate the necklace."

"Fine Fine," I say quickly as I start to duplicate it.

"What are you two doing! We're surrounded by dementors!"

"I know that Harry, but if she wakes up and the locket's gone—I need to duplicate-" Hermione starts as I take the new fake necklace and place it on her neck.

"There!" I say harshly.

"There... That should fool her..." Hermione says then we both rush to join Harry.  "Let's see... Relashio!"

"I don't understand," Mrs. Cattermole whispers anxiously.

"You're going to leave here with us," Harry says, pulling her to her feet. "Go home, grab your children, and get out, get out of the country if you've got to. Disguise yourselves and run. You've seen how it is, you won't get anything like a fair hearing here."

"We want to help you," I say softly to her.

"Harry," Hermione says, "how are we going to get out of here with all those dementors outside the door?"

"Patronuses," Harry says pointing his wand at his own: The stag slows, still gleaming brightly, toward the door. "As many as we can muster; So you two do yours." I take a deep breath as my mind wanders to my happy memories.

"Expecto patronum," I say causing the silver stallion to appear.

"Expec—Expecto patronum," Hermione says. Nothing happened.

"It's the only spell she ever has trouble with," Harry tells a completely bemused Mrs. Cattermole. "Bit unfortunate, really... Come on, Hermione..."

"Expecto patronum!" Hermione exclaims.
A silver otter bursts from the end of Hermione's wand and swims gracefully through the air to join the stag and stallion.

"C'mon," Harry says. We start to move behind the patronuses. The dementors move away as the silver animals move towards them. As we reach the other muggleborns being held for questioning they shriek slightly in fear.  "It's been decided that you should all go home and go into hiding with your families," Harry tells the waiting Muggle-borns, who were dazzled by the light of the Patronuses and still cowering slightly. "Go abroad if you can. Just get well away from the Ministry. That's the—er—new official position. Now, if you'll just follow the Patronuses, you'll be able to leave from the Atrium."

"Come on," I say leading people ahead of us. As we get to the lift I look at Harry slightly worried. How would we casually get twenty people out of here?

"Reg!" screams Mrs. Cattermole as she throws herself into Ron's arms. "Runcorn let me out, he attacked Umbridge and Yaxley, and he's told all of us to leave the country, I think we'd better do it, Reg, I really do, let's hurry home and fetch the children and—why are you so wet?"

"Water," mutters Ron, disengaging himself.

"Ro- Reg how's it upstairs?" I ask him quickly.

"They know there are intruders inside the Ministry, something about a hole in Umbridge's office door, I reckon we've got five minutes if that—" Hermione's Patronus vanishes with a pop as she turned a horror-struck face to Harry.

"Harry, if we're trapped here—!"

"We won't be if we move fast," Harry says, He addresses the silent group behind them, who were all gawping at him. "Who's got wands?"

About half of them raise their hands.

"Okay, all of you who haven't got wands need to attach yourself to somebody who has. We'll need to be fast before they stop us. Come on," Harry orders.

"Here," I say to a random witch as I join up with her. We all crowd into the lift.

"Level eight," the witch's cool voice says, "Atrium."

"We need a plan or something," I say to him as we reach the zooming hall.

"Harry!" Hermione squeaks. "What are we going to—?"

"We have to st-" I say before he cuts me off.

"STOP!" Harry thunders, and the powerful voice of Runcorn echoes through the Atrium. The wizards sealing the fireplaces froze. "Follow me," he whispers to the group of terrified Muggle-borns. We move altogether.

"What's up, Albert?" A man says.

"This lot need to leave before you seal the exits," Harry says with all the authority he could muster. The group of wizards in front of him looked at one another.

"We've been told to seal all exits and not let anyone—"

"Are you contradicting me?" Harry blusters. "Would you like me to have your family tree examined like I had Dirk Cresswell's?"

"Sorry!" gasps the balding wizard, backing away. "I didn't mean nothing, Albert, but I thought... I thought they were in for questioning and..."

"Their blood is pure," Harry says, and his deep voice echoes impressively through the hall. "Purer than many of yours, I daresay. Off you go," he booms to the Muggle-borns, who scurry forward into the fireplaces and begin to vanish in pairs. The Ministry wizards hung back, some looking confused, others scared and resentful. Then the voice of another loud male echoes around.

"Mary!" Mrs. Cattermole looks over her shoulder. The real Reg Cattermole, no longer vomiting but pale and wan, had just come running out of a lift.

"R-Reg?" Mrs. Cattermole looks from her real husband to Ron.

"Fuck," Ron says under his breath. The balding wizard gasps, his head turning ludicrously from one Reg Cattermole to the other.

"Fuck me fuck us fuck," I say as I look to the others. How could we get out of this?

"Hey—what's going on? What is this?"

"Seal the exit! SEAL IT!" Yaxley's loud voice booms as he runs towards us. Harry punches the balding wizard. 

"What the hell Harry?" I ask harshly he shushes me.

"I have a plan," He whispers then turn towards to Yaxley and raises his voice. "He's been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!" 

The balding wizard's colleagues uproar. Harry gestures for me to help the muggle-borns escape in the cover. I pull a couple people in and hop into the fire place. Seconds later we resurface in the bathroom stalls and I push them out. 

"Go go now!" I scream at them causing them to scatter. While I move behind them. I jump back to the sinks waiting for the others. Seconds later Ron bursts through the stall with Mrs. Cattermole. "Ron where is Harry and Hermione?"

"Better be moving now," He says, "Yaxley's caught on."

"Of course," I huff, "are you okay Mrs. Cattermole?"

"Who is she Reg? Whats going on? Reg love," She whimpers.

"Stop stop," He groans as he tries to push her away as the stall swings open again. I sigh a breath of relief as I see Harry and Hermione. 

"Finally," I say softly, "we need to get going."

"Reg, I don't understand—"

"Let go, I'm not your husband, you've got to go home!"  There was a noise in the cubicle behind them. Harry looks around as Yaxley moves from the cubicle. 

"LET'S GO!" Harry yells. I grab Ron's arm then reach towards Harry and Hermione. All of us apparating at once. Darkness engulfs us and I could feel the others slipping away. I brace my self to land as I see the door to Grimmauld Place. But with a loud scream, I realize that wasn't an option. Quickly I take over for Hermione rerouting us to safety. It goes dark again as I take us to the old dark place. As we land on the hard floor I move around quickly. 

"Where are we?" Hermione asks. I look around nervously.

"Cultven manor," I say to her, "no one should find us here. It's been abandoned since I moved in with the Weasley's." I keep looking for the boys but Hermione's loud scream moves my attention back to her. I see her leaning over a shaking Ron. "Shit." His arm was splinched badly. Blood spilling from the wound onto the dark carpet.  He was pale so much so that the only color on him was his red hair.  "Wu-what are we gonna do?" She mumbles before looking around in panic. I place my hand on his wound. I close my eyes and transfer the pain over to my self to help Hermione as she works. 

"What's happened to him?" Harry asks as he joins us.

"Splinched," Hermione says, her fingers already busy at Ron's sleeve, where the blood was wettest and darkest. My face twists as the throbbing deafening pain fills me. I let out a loud groan of pain as Harry places his hand on my shoulder. 

"Whats wrong?" He asks. I take shallow breaths as I keep my hold in Ron.

"She's transferring the pain from herself to Ron," Hermione says for me, "it keeps him from suffering more than he has to."

"Hurry Hermione," I say as I clench my teeth. She nods and looks to Harry.

"Harry, quickly, in my bag, there's a small bottle labeled 'Essence of Dittany'—"

"Bag—right—" He says. The pain grows stronger.

"Ah! Hurry!" I whimper through watery eyes.

"Quickly!" Hermione yells.

"Accio Dittany!" He calls as Ron stirs. I move more of the pain onto me. His weak breaths getting weaker as he continues to bleed. 

"He's fainted," Hermione says, "Unstopper it for me, Harry, my hands are shaking." 

"Hurry!" I demand them. Hermione nods and drops some of the potion onto the wound. The pain slowly disappears and I collapse onto Harry. The wound now looked several days old; new skin stretched over what had just been open flesh.

"Wow," Harry says.

"It's all I feel safe doing," Hermione says shakily. "There are spells that would put him completely right, but I daren't try in case I do them wrong and cause more damage... He's lost so much blood already..."

"How did he get hurt? I mean"—Harry says shaking his head, "why are we here? where are we? I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place?"

"Harry, I don't think we're going to be able to go back there."

"What d'you—?"

"As we Disapparated, Yaxley caught hold of me and I couldn't get rid of him, he was too strong, and he was still holding on when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, and then—well, I think he must have seen the door, and thought we were stopping there, so he slackened his grip," Hermione says, "that's when Y/n moved in and took us here."

"But then, where's he? Hang on... You don't mean he's at Grimmauld Place? He can't get in there?"

"Harry, I think he can. I—I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I'd already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm's protection. Since Dumbledore died, we're Secret-Keepers, so I've given him the secret, haven't I?"

"We can't go back now," I sigh, "now if he's gotten through he can bring other in. Its no longer an option."

"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Hermione whimpers.

"Don't be stupid, it wasn't your fault! If anything, it was mine..." Harry says as he pulls out an eyeball. It has to be Moody's. "Umbridge had stuck it to her office door, to spy on people. I couldn't leave it there... but that's how they knew there were intruders." Before anyone could respond Ron sits up slightly.

"How d'you feel?" Hermione whispers.

"Lousy," croaks Ron, wincing as he felt his injured arm. "Where are we?"

"I'd like to know too," Harry says. I look around at the worn entrance. 

"Welcome to Cultven Manor."