Foreshadowing the Past

Chapter 31

Time only seems to matter when it's running out. --Peter Strup

Sunday had been a productive day in the library, and Connor had taken copious notes on the Ministry of Magic and where all of its departments were located. Ivy, Rachel, Quentin and Zack were doing their best to find every book that had ever been written about the Ministry, but it was Rachel who struck gold after a couple of hours of searching. She unearthed a huge book called Modern Wizarding Government in Great Britain that had a foldout map of the Ministry of Magic offices. Most of the map had a lot of detail, but the entire ninth floor was blank, except to show where an elevator let into a corridor, a door that lead into the Department of Mysteries, and a staircase to the left of the door. They had spent the better part of the morning making notes on where all of the Floo connections were, and where security checkpoints were marked.

They broke for lunch and were only interrupted by the arrival of six or seven owls from people that Connor had never heard of. Professor McGonagall had come to scoop them up and take them away with her, saying that she would return anything worth reading. They ate their lunch quickly and hurried back to the library, garnering strange looks from teachers and student alike, who wondered why five second-year students were so keen to spend a day off cooped up in the tall stacks of books.

Getting back to their research, Connor noted that there were only a few Floo connections other than the several fireplaces in the Atrium on the eighth level. Of course there was a connection in the Department of Magical Transportation; that was to be expected. The Minister of Magic had an outgoing Floo connection only. In fact, it seemed that there was one Floo connection on each floor in the office of the Head of each overall Department except for levels nine (the Department of Mysteries) which was only accessible by lift, and ten (a courtroom reserved for trials involving the full court) which was only accessible by stairs. They began their strategy from there, trying to figure out the best way to gain entrance to the Ministry building itself before worrying about how they were going to get into the Department of Mysteries.

When Madam Pince had announced at three o'clock that she was closing the library for the remainder of the day, they had quickly nominated Ivy to check the book out, since Madam Pince favored her over the other students. The old librarian would sometimes take the stance that certain books were too valuable to leave the library, or that they qualified as reference materials, thus should not be allowed to be checked out. They did not want to take any chances, and so sent Ivy, whom she couldn't seem to refuse. They retreated to Gryffindor Tower, but were unable to resume their planning without raising suspicion from their other housemates, so Connor took the book to his trunk and buried it beneath a stack of comic books.

For the next week, all of their free time away from other students was spent in the Library, or out on the grounds with the huge book and Connor's dream journal, planning strategy. They kept the Marauder's Map nearby to avoid being caught, and during the day, and after classes, they timed just how long it would take them to travel from Gryffindor Tower to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and Professor Lupin's office. After classes, they tried the same route via some of the secret passageways on the Marauder's Map to see if it was any faster and how long that particular route took if they were forced to use it. They planned their trip based on Connor's notes and journal entries, and spent a lot of time thinking up back-up plans that could be put into action once they got inside the Ministry, should anything go awry. There were a lot of possible pitfalls, and they wanted to be sure to have all contingencies covered before they found themselves in a situation they couldn't handle.

Sometime at the end of that week, the thought occurred to Connor that there was hardly a way out of all of this without getting caught if, indeed, they did manage to confront and detain Samantha Tillman. They could hardly just tie her up and leave a note for whomever found her, could they? And how were they going to manage to keep her from just porting out of there as soon as she spotted them, making the whole trip useless? With only two weeks to go until April first, Connor was getting increasingly nervous; and found himself letting thoughts of the whole ordeal distract him at odd times.

"Mr. Potter," Snape said icily on Wednesday morning. "As fascinating as I'm sure life inside your head undoubtedly is, your day dreaming will not be tolerated in this classroom. You have five minutes in which to complete your potion, and I will be deducting twenty points from Gryffindor if yours is in any way unsatisfactory."

"Yes sir," Connor answered, flushing guiltily and jerking his mind back to the task at hand. His housemates were looking at him worriedly, not wanting to loose so many points over his blunder, but Connor's mind seemed to have been working on automatic while he'd been thinking about the Department of Mysteries. When five minutes had passed and Snape told them to bottle samples, Connor's potion was the pure sparkling magenta color that it was supposed to be, and he was mercifully spared the point deduction.

"What's with you, Connor?" Zack asked as they left the dungeons and headed toward the Transfiguration classroom. "You've been acting funny all week."

"I'm nervous, I guess," he answered, not needed to explain where his anxiety stemmed from. "There's a lot that could go wrong, and we're bound to be caught, aren't we?"

"Not necessarily," Zack said, obviously not having thought their situation all the way through.

"No," Connor said seriously, stopping and stepping out of the flow of moving students. Zack, Ivy and Quentin followed him into a small alcove to hear what Connor had to say. "I mean, once we catch Samantha Tillman, if we catch her, we're going to be caught no matter what we do. There's no way to avoid it. I mean, we can't just tie her up and leave her there for someone to find," he explained, voicing his fear.

Comprehension dawned on Zack and Quentin's faces, but Ivy looked thoughtful and asked, "Why can't we?"

"Because she'd be able to tell whoever found her that we were there," Quentin answered at once.

"Not to mention that if we just left her there, there would be a chance that she could get away before anyone found her," Zack added.

"We're doomed," Connor groaned. "That's why I think that you guys should stay behind."

"Look," Zack said, sounding worried. "There has to be some way around this; we just have to think of it."

Connor looked doubtful, but the others seemed determined to find a way. They went to Transfiguration, but none of them had their minds on the lesson. When lunchtime rolled around, they met up with Rachel and told her about Conner's realization that they wouldn't make it out of the Department of Mysteries without being discovered.

"Actually, I've been thinking about that," Rachel said, surprising them. They all looked around furtively to make sure that no one was sitting too close to them. "There are a few possible scenarios to the way it could all happen, but at least one of us will probably have to be caught."

"Only one of us?" Connor asked, interested.

"If we can get in and stun her or whatever and keep her from getting away without being caught, then only one of us would have to stay once we were sure she was secure. The rest of us could sneak out through the Floo," Rachel said.

Connor's heart sank. "There's a couple of problems with that idea," he said heavily. "For one, I don't think any of us know how to stun anyone yet. For another thing, even if you all got out before you got caught, Mrs. Tillman would still be able to tell the Ministry workers that there was more than one person there. It wouldn't take a seer to guess who they were if I get caught."

"They can't do anything without proof, and she wouldn't be able to prove we were there," Rachel said calmly. "So all we need to do is learn a few extra spells."

"Er, Rachel?" Connor said. "You may be a genius and all, but stunning spells are fifth year level. How are we going to learn how to do it in just a couple of weeks?"

"From a book, of course!" she answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I'll find what we need and then we can meet out on the grounds after classes to practice."

"I think I have a headache," Connor sighed. He couldn't escape the urgent feeling that they were running out of time.

True to her word, Rachel had somehow obtained a copy of Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 by the end of the school day, and was waiting for the others by the ancient beech tree near the lake. Rachel particularly liked this spot on the grounds, because this was where her father had proposed to her mother. She was sitting in the shade of the large tree with her cloak wrapped closely around her, reading about stunning spells. They seemed fairly basic, and she wondered if she would be able to do it on the first try. As Connor and the others approached, Rachel decided that there was no time like the present, and whipped put her wand and cried, "Stupefy!"

Connor was a bit shocked to see Rachel pull out her wand and point it at him, and went with instinct as the red light that shot from her wand sped toward him. He ducked. The red light passed over his head, and a moment later, he felt a heavy weight fall on him from behind while Ivy gasped.

"Rachel!" he heard Quentin shout in accusatory tone.

Connor had been forced to his hands and knees when the weight hit him, and he was surprised when he straightened and saw Zack roll off of him and onto the soft grass, unmoving.

"Zack!" he said in surprise, shaking his shoulder to try to revive him. "Rachel, what did you do?"

"Stunned him," she said, sounding pleased. "I was aiming for you, though. Nice reflexes, by the way."

"Stunned him!" Connor all but shouted.

"Shhhh!" Rachel hushed him and looked around to make sure that no one had heard him. "Yes, stunned him. I didn't think I'd be able to do it on the first try."

"Can you wake him?" Ivy asked, looking pale.

"I think so," Rachel said with a slight frown, consulting the book for a moment. "Enervate!"

Zack's eyes fluttered open and he groaned while the others sighed in relief. "What happened?" he asked, bewildered.

"Rachel got you with a stunner," Quentin supplied.

"I was aiming for Connor, but he was too quick," Rachel admitted. "Plus I didn't think it would work the first time. We should all practice it, and whoever's getting stunned will have the others close by to catch them. It's really not too hard, though it can be dangerous if you get hit with more than one at a time. That's probably why it's a fifth year skill."

She went over the wand movement and incantation with them, and they all practiced it without wands before trying out on each other. Luckily the area they had chosen by the lake was not easily visible from the school, and the ground was nice and soft after a month of frequent rain. Their aim was so poor that, more often than not, the person being stunned stood braced for impact, and the stunner ended up accidentally hitting one of the people waiting to catch the intended 'victim'. Ivy in particular was having trouble hexing her friends, and so the spell only knocked them to the ground, but didn't knock them out. They all returned to the castle an hour and a half later for dinner with grass stains on the their robes, and bruises all over their bodies.

"If we keep this up," Connor groaned as he sagged into a seat at the dinner table. "We'll hit everyone but Mrs. Tillman."

"We definitely need to practice our aim," Quentin agreed, rubbing his sore elbow.

"Not only that," Rachel said, "But we also need to learn other spells. We can't just go in there stunning anyone we run into. We should work on the full body bind, the leg-locker curse, a silencing charm...." She went on naming several other spells while the others look at her in disbelief.

"Rachel!" Zack complained. "Some of those spells are O.W.L. level. We only have a couple of weeks, you know."

"But what if we run into a situation where we nee to know..." Rachel argued, reminding Connor forcefully of his Aunt Hermione.

"Look," Connor said. "I'm already worried that you guys shouldn't even be coming with me in the first place. If we're going to go this, we have to keep it as simple as possible. Rachel, you need to pick out three or four spells that you think will be the most helpful, and that we can learn fast. We'll have to find time to work on them whenever we can."

They all nodded and ate their dinner in various degrees of trepidation and thought. Connor was trying to think of a way that they might escape from all of this without getting into serious trouble, while the others were thinking of ways to make sure that Connor did not try to leave them behind.

"Rachel," Connor said after several minutes of silence. "Where would I look to find out what could happen to us if we get caught inside the Ministry of Magic, in a highly restricted department, in the middle of the night?"

Ivy dropped her fork suddenly and looked surprised. Quentin and Zack both stopped chewing for a moment, and Rachel looked from left to right to make sure that no one had heard his question. "I'll look into it," she promised quietly.

Connor nodded seriously and said, "I want us all to know what the worst is that could happen to us before you all decide to do this. Besides that fact they our parents may very well kill us, we're talking about breaking Wizarding law. Zack is Muggle-born. What if he gets caught and his parents decide not to let him come back to school next year? What if we're all expelled?"

Zack swallowed hard. His parents were very strict in matters of appropriate behavior and obeying the rules; it was a very real possibility that they might react in just that way. There really wasn't any chance at all that he could keep something of that magnitude from his parents, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn't want to have to leave the magical world so soon after discovering it. He looked at Connor solemnly, and Connor looked back, seemingly reading his mind.

"I won't hold it against any of you if you decide not to come," Connor said.

"But you'll still go?" Quentin asked Connor, though they all already knew the answer to that question.

Connor nodded.

"Then I'm going too," Rachel said firmly. "We're family, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let you do this alone."

"Let's get all the facts before anyone decides for sure," Connor said, though he was touched by the sentiment.

"You know," Quentin said thoughtfully. "They really shouldn't be able to expel us. We'd be in trouble with Magical Law Enforcement, of course, but the most the school could get us for would be breaking curfew, leaving school grounds without permission, and maybe something for using the Floo. It's not like we're going to hurt anyone, and if we're right about Mrs. Tillman, the good we do might just outweigh the bad, and we could get off with whatever it is our parents could do to us."

Connor shuddered at the thought of what his parents could do to him. It would probably make Vanessa Malfoy's punishment seem like summer camp! And that still didn't take away the worry over whether Mr. and Mrs. Ellis would withdraw their support of Zack attending Hogwarts.

They finished their dinner, and Rachel immediately headed for the library. Connor, Ivy Quentin and Zack all went back to Gryffindor Tower to work on the homework that they had been assigned that day. Connor was worried about the trip to the Ministry on April first, and his concentration on his homework was minimal as he chewed on the end of his quill and tried to puzzle out how to get his friends out of the Department of Mysteries. He figured that if he could just get them out of the restricted area before anyone discovered them, then they would be in less trouble than he would; he wasn't going to let anyone else be the one to be caught when the time came.

"Hey Connor!"

Connor flinched at the sound of his name. Lately, anyone hailing him from across the room someone wanted something from, or wanted to tease him. He relaxed when he looked up to see Aiden walking over.

"Hullo, Aiden."

"Hey," Aiden said to the group in general. "My dad just sent a stack of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes new catalogs. Thought you might want one for whatever it is you're planning for April Fool's day."

"What do you mean?" Connor asked as casually as he could, while his stomach tied itself in a knot.

"Well," Aiden said. "I've seen you guys all huddled together all over the castle, so I kind of decided to try to find out what you were up to. I, er, used an extendable ear, but the only thing I caught was April first."

Connor could not help but release a huge sigh of relief that Aiden didn't know what they were up to. Aiden grinned widely at this reaction, and said eagerly, "So you guys are planning an April Fool's joke? Can I help?"

"Er," Connor said. "We don't know if we'll be able to pull it off..."

"What is it?" Aiden asked, lowering his voice and waggling his eyebrows.

"Sorry," Quentin said. "Top secret."

"Oh come on!" Aiden pleaded.

"Sorry," Ivy repeated.

"Look," Connor said in what he hoped was a conspiratorial tone. "We might need some help a bit later; a distraction or something. We can't tell you what it is yet, though."

"A distraction, huh?" Aiden said excitedly. "Just let me know when, and how big!"

The others just nodded and watched tensely as he walked away whistling.

"We're going to have to be more careful to look out for those extendable ears when we're off planning," Zack said. "If anyone figures it out, we're sunk."

"And now I'm going to have to think up an April Fool's day joke to pull that's big enough to need a distraction from Aiden, so that he's not watching us all of that day, waiting for us to make any kind of move." Connor groaned at the thought of one more thing to worry about.

"I've got it covered," Ivy said suddenly, causing the boys to all look up at her.

"You have a stunt to pull that's big enough to need a distraction?" Quinten asked, smiling in spite of himself.

"Yep."

"Are you going to tell us what it is?" Zack asked.

The boys listened for a few moments, then grinned at her plan. Connor picked up the catalog that Aiden had left behind and began to idly thumb through the pages, homework forgotten. It wasn't until his eyes fell on an advertisement for a new WWW product that the wheels in his head began turning.

"How much money to you guys have?" he asked suddenly.

"I don't know," Zack said. "A few galleons in change, I guess."

"Same here," Quentin answered while Ivy nodded that she, too, had a few galleons.

"Me too," Connor confirmed. "Now look at this!"

He held up the catalog and showed him what had peaked his interest.

"Chameleon Cloaks," Zack read aloud. "Can't afford an Invisibility cloak? Is your Disillusionment charm a disgrace? Try a Chameleon Cloak for your temporary invisibility needs! Made of a sturdy linen parchment, these cloaks are designed to be used up to a dozen times. Works by blending in to the surrounding area, rendering the wearer seemingly invisible! A bargain at the introductory price of only three galleons!"

"What do you think? They could come in handy," Connor said.

"I think it couldn't hurt," Ivy said. "If they work, like a disillusionment charm, then we wouldn't be invisible, but if we were just sitting still under them, they could hide us in a sticky situation."

The others nodded, and Connor pulled an order form from the back of that catalog. "I'll send it to Uncle George since he knows about the map; he'll think we're just planning a big prank when we order five cloaks."

Rachel came in just then, clutching a bulging schoolbag, which she dropped with a loud thump on the table next to Quentin. "I found a couple of books that should tell us what we want to know about Wizarding law, but I didn't want to sit and read them in the library. Vanessa Malfoy was doing a detention in there, and she kept staring at me, so I checked them out and brought them back here. I'll try to look through them tonight and see if there's anything about underage law breakers."

Connor nodded, and told her about the Chameleon cloaks, explaining his thoughts about how these might help out with the first part of their plan. When he spotted a piece of flesh colored string lying on the floor, seemingly slithering across the run by their table, Connor said, "Nice try, Aiden," and stepped on the end of the extendable ear before allowing the other boy to withdraw it.

"We're going to have to be careful around that one," Rachel said sagely.