Chapter twelve; Just our luck

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Olivia turned her head to look at Ron after he prodded her in the side, "What?" She asked.

"Why are you shaking?" Ron asked curiously.

"Gee, I don't know Ron. It's a total mix of reasons, one of them being the fact you three are about to break into the Ministry posing as actual workers!" She whisper shouted, turning away to check round the corner again.

"No need for you to get your wand in a knot, jezz." He muttered besides her as Olivia watched Hermione discreetly stun Mafalda Hopkirk before catching her and pulling her into where her and Harry were hiding. She turned her head when Ron tapped her shoulder again.

"What?" She scolded.

Ron recoiled quickly, "I was just going to say that you should never go blonde, you really don't suit it."

Olivia scowled at Ron, "You're lucky I'm not stunning you." She looked round the same corner again to see Hermione giving them the signal they had agreed on, "Come on." She ushered, leaving Ron behind the wall and running to them while checking around her for anyone watching. She slipped in when she was sure no one had seen her, Ron following her a few seconds behind.

Lined up on the floor were their targets. Mafalda Hopkirk, a woman Umbridge seemed to keep by her side, despite this she looked to have seen better days. Her face was strict-looking and on her forehead sat crinkles. Even stunned her lips were pressed into a thin line, looking ready to scold anyone in sight.

"Okay Hermione. Mafalda Hopkirk is an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office, Umbridge's literal heaven if you ask me. Yes Harry she is the woman who sent you that Howler in third and fifth year when you used magic outside of school—"

"—can you please stop doing that?" Harry asked, "it's the third time this week."

"You should be thankful that I can do it after not having been able to for weeks, I'm probably the closest thing you've got to retraining actual information today." Olivia said, crossing her arms and looking to Harry.

He grumbled under his breath about her being right but not understanding personal space, "Never mind that." Hermione said, "Carry on Olivia."

"Right." She nodded, "she has indirect contact with Death Eaters— as we know with Yaxley, so on and blah, blah, blah— you work under Travers, a Death Eater who escaped Azkaban two years ago when Bellatrix did, on Level two. Fair warning, he absolutely despises Muggle-borns. Be discriminative about yourself as wrong as it seems. I reckon despite doing what she's doing, she's actually a nice woman."

Hermione nodded, "Because that makes sense."

"She does what she has to in order to survive like every other witch and wizard who doesn't have the bollocks to stand up to him." She replied, looking to Hermione, "moving on—"

Next to Mafalda laid Reg Cattermole, the man Ron would become. He had receding hairline that looked stress-induced, it was of a fair colour but he seemed to have possibly been a ginger at one point in his life. He had large creases on his forehead and either side of his nose. Under his eyes sat bags and he harboured a moustache on his top lip.

"—Ron this is you, Reginald Cattermole or otherwise known as Reg. Your wife, Mary Cattermole, is a Muggle-born and is expected to pay visit to the Ministry any day now. It'd be just our fucking luck if that day was today, eh?"

"It'll be all we need." Ron mumbled.

"Too right, anyways you have three kids. Two daughters, Maisie and Ellie, and a son Alfred although I'm not sure how old they are. I don't think any of them have started Hogwarts yet. You live at 27 Chislehurst Gardens, Great Tolling, Eversham and you're employed in the Magic Maintenance Department .. so, uh," Olivia patted his shoulder a few times, "good luck with that one." 

Lastly she turned to Albert Runcorn and swallowed, "Okay Harry, you've certainly got your work cut out for you with this one." She said and looked back down to him. He was tall and stocky, extremely well built with a black beard and hair.

"Brilliant." Harry grumbled.

"He's known to be exceptionally intimidating to the likes of Cattermole and is a high ranking employee under Thicknesse. He, ultimately, is an investigator of alleged Muggle-borns and has recently uncovered the falsified family tree of Dirk Cresswell. You're also indirectly involved with the Death Eaters. From what I've gathered you're a bit of an arsehole and not many people seem to like you."

"Can we really do this?" Ron asked uncertainty.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders, "At the moment it's the best we've got."

Hermione walked over to the three and took pieces of their hair, putting them into three separate vials filled with Mad-Eyes Polyjuice Potion that they had found. She swirled each one round a couple of times before handing Ron and Harry theirs.

"Right, remember what we said. Don't speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary, just try and act normal. Do what everyone else is doing, if we do that then with a bit of luck we'll get inside. And then—"

"—it gets really tricky." Harry interrupted.

"Correct."

"This is completely mental." Harry said.

"Completely." Hermione agreed.

"The worlds mental." Ron then said.

"Ehh, I don't think it's that bad. We've had worse ideas." Olivia shrugged.

The three looked to her dumbfounded before shaking their own heads, "Come on." Ron said, "We've got a Horcrux to find."

Olivia bent down and picked up the invisibility cloak where she held it over her arm, "I'll be right behind you Harry, don't worry."

The boy who lived nodded, although he looked far from reassured. He looked down to the potion he held in his hand and gave it one final swill, "Bottoms up then."

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Olivia followed behind the three under the invisibility cloak until they had to go their separate ways. She wandered off to a telephone booth that transported into the Ministry and stepped inside discreetly, hoping no one saw a door opening by itself. Once she was in the put the muggle pound into the coin slot and adjusted the cloak around her body as it transported her down into the Ministry.

She stepped out from the fireplace with a shaky breath. The Ministry was brimming overcrowded and it panicked Olivia slightly. How an earth would Harry, Ron and Hermione get through this without having to interact with people? How would she get through this without being walked into or stepped on? It was borderline impossible.

She pushed her legs over to where she could've sworn she saw the three stood together and almost face-palmed then and there. They were receiving odd stares from people passing by, most likely having something to do with who appeared to be Mafalda stood next to Reg and Albert stood with them in general. She pushed to reach them quicker.

"How long did you say this batch of Polyjuice Potion would last Hermione?" She heard Harry ask.

"I didn't." Hermione had replied as Olivia, under the cloak, reached them.

"Anytime today you guys, you know the longer you stand there together the more suspicious you look, but who cares about that?" She whispered sarcastically, "Elevators, now."

She trailed behind them as they walked for one of the many elevators transporting witches and wizards all over the Ministry and made sure to step in first where she hid behind Harry's person. The doors were just about to shut when the unmistakable Scottish accent belonging to Yaxley called out to Ron, "Cattermole. It's still raining inside my office, that's two days now."

Ron visibly gulped, "Have you tried an umbrella?"

"You do realise I'm going downstairs don't you Cattermole?"

"Downstairs?"

"To interrogate your wife." Yaxley said and Olivia swore under her breath. She couldn't believe their fucking luck, "Now If my wife's blood-status were in doubt and the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing .. I think I might just make that a priority, you have one hour." He warned, stepping out of the way of the elevator and letting it close.

They stood tense as the elevator took them to wherever until Olivia could be heard sighing, "Why, today of all days?" She grumbled.

Ron finally came round from whatever state of panic he was in, "Oh my god, what am I going to do? My wife is all alone downstairs?"

An invisible force smacked Ron upside the head and he cried out in pain. Harry and Hermione turned to him about to say something when they realised who it came from, "Knock it off you twit, you don't have a wife." Olivia said from underneath the invisibility cloak still.

"Oh right," Ron said, "and behave will you?"

Olivia snorted, "Stop acting like a pansy and I will."

"Level two." The automatic voice called when the elevator came to a stop on one of the many floors.

Olivia shivered, "That voice brings back horrid memories." She mumbled under her breath.

Harry, having heard her, nodded his head in agreement.

"How do I stop it raining?" Ron asked.

"Try Finite Incantatem." Hermione advised, "This is you Ron."

Ron didn't make a move, even after her words, and Harry took the initiative to forcefully push Ron out of the elevator.

"Finite Incantatem, okay." He said slowly, "and if it doesn't work?"

"Tell Yaxley to shove it up his arse and sort it out himself." Olivia remarked as the elevator closed and they left Ron to his own devices.

"I suppose that'd be kind of hard you know, considering you snapped his wand in half." Hermione snapped.

Olivia laughed from underneath the protection of the cloak, she didn't have the best view granted, but she could still see nonetheless and her view was terribly amusing. Seeing Hermione pulling her own angry face but in Mafalda's body was something that would have her laughing for a long while, "Oh," she said after calming down, "You should see your face."

"Alright," Harry intervened, "I say, if we don't locate Umbridge within the hour we find Ron and come back another day. Deal?"

"I think your mad for wanting to try this again but deal." Olivia said.

"Yes." Hermione whispered, as the elevator doors opened on the next floor. Olivia shoved Harry forwards slightly, the boy having almost crushed her when the elevator had moved away only minutes ago.

She froze when she heard who a voice she wasn't up for hearing, "Oh Mafalda, Trevor sent you did he? Good we'll go straight down."

Only then did she see too much pink for her eyes to handle and couldn't decide between crying or shouting. On that stressful day they had decided to sneak into the Ministry Ron's persons wife was taken down for questioning and Dolores Umbridge was stood less than an arms length away from her.

Someone certainly wanted to see them fail that day.

The air was unbearably thick with extensive amounts of tension radiating from Hermione, Harry and Olivia. They dared say a thing to the pink bastard with a teddy version of a stuffed cat wrapped around her neck like a fashionable scarf. They didn't dare move and Olivia didn't dare breathe. It continued that way until seemingly unaffected by the palpable tension, Umbridge spoke up, "Albert, aren't you going to get out?"

At this Olivia cursed. They had been so shocked about finding and running into Dolores Umbridge that she and Harry had completely forgotten to get out. She pushed faintly on Harry's back while making sure to keep herself under the cloak. She had to get out also and she didn't quite fancy being stuck with Hermione and Umbridge in an elevator to wherever they were going.

Harry got the message and plodded out of the elevator like he had just shit himself without uttering as much as a word. When he was out and Olivia was stood next to him they both turned to watch as the safety gate of the elevator folded closed and Hermione's panic stricken face disappear slowly from their view.

Knowing he would hear her Olivia sighed out of stress, "Some fucker wants us dead today Harry, I'm telling you."

She watched as Harry in Albert's body slowly turned to look at her, his eyes still wide, if not wider than before as they contemplated how horribly wrong their plan had gone in less than sixty seconds.

Olivia decided to ignore the tickling at the base of her spine. She had had that feeling one too many times lately and nothing had come of it. So why now would it return? Her abilities where all over the place and she didn't trust them fully to know something would happen.

After all, what were the chances she was just being pessimistic?

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Hi, hey, hello.

I underestimated how long it had been since I posted. I'm too busy nursing a cold, (Yes in September, I know) making sure I'm up to date with college before I go back next week and trying to find a job.

But on another note, I think we all know she's not just being pessimistic.

I'm biting off a whole lot more than I can chew at the minute. I'm writing four separate chapters, all at four separate parts in the film and trying to keep on top of it all. So fun!

The next chapter will be a lot longer than this one though, so hopefully that makes up for something.