Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Mysteries of the Department
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise (and probably some of the stuff you don't) belongs not to me but to J.K Rowling. I do this not for profit, but for fun.
A.N. Next chapter! Well, thing really advance in this chapter: there's only one more chapter and an epilogue after this - I told you that it would be short! Enjoy!
Chapter 4 - Flight
After fleeing for the Department, I appeared on a dark and rainy cobbled street. Looking around, I realized that I had unconsciously apparated to Godric's Hollow, where I had lived before Voldemort had killed my parents. Having no memories of that time, I had first seen the village when I had visited on my 17th birthday, but even that short visit was enough to convince me that Godric's Hollow was my true home.
I briefly considered apparating back to my London flat, but there was the possibility that the killer knew where I lived, so I decided to spend the night in Godric's Hollow. Walking over to an inn that I had stayed in previously, I stepped inside and approached the barman.
"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Potter!" The barman cried with an unusual cheerfulness for such a Dark night, "Looking for a room?"
"Just for the night of that's OK, Mr. Barley."
"Of course my boy! Room number seven is free, here's the key," he said, chucking a key over the heads of some drunk patrons, " Enjoy your stay!"
Nodding at Mr. Barley, I left the bar and climbed up a set of stairs at the back of the room, taking me up to a shabby corridor. Finding room seven, I let myself in and went over to the bed, collapsing onto it before I could even take off my shoes, falling into blissful unconsciousness.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
The next morning I woke to the sound of an owl tapping on the window of my room. Rolling off of the bed with a groan, I moved to the window and opened it, allowing the owl to swoop inside and drop the Daily Prophet on my bed before promptly leaving. Opening the paper, I almost dropped it when I saw the headline.
Harry Potter Wanted For Murder
Rita Skeeter reporting
Last night, the body of Hermione Granger was found in the Department of Mysteries, brutally murdered. Suspicion instantly fell on Mr. Harry Potter, recently 18, who is known to harbour a certain dislike of Miss. Granger, and was working with her on that night. When Aurors stormed Mr. Potter's London flat, they found it abandoned, and he is now the prime suspect in this case. After a detailed study of the crime scene, traces of Mr. Potter's magic were found, and he is now wanted not only for this horrifying murder, but several other mysterious deaths that have so far confused experts within the Ministry. This reporter managed to get in contact with Auror Cedric Diggory, who has been placed in charge of finding Potter; and when returning from Potter's flat, he said this, "Potter is an extremely dangerous man, and should only be approached by trained Aurors and Hitwizards. The Minister himself is greatly troubled by this case and has given me leave to use any means to bring Potter in." Well, this reporter is certainly...
Having read enough, I dropped the paper, a fierce debate happening in my head. Common sense told me that I should just turn myself in and prove myself innocent, but that last phrase kept repeating itself in my head - "given me leave to use any means to bring Potter in..." Obviously, the Ministry was already convinced of my guilt; to hand myself in would be to sentence myself to Azkaban. No, the only was I would stay free would be to run.
Before I could run anywhere though, I had to pick up a few of my most valuable items from my flat, incase I was never able to return there again. Picturing the inside of my flat, I spun on the spot and apparated there with a light pop.
Thankfully, there were no aurors still around. That was about all the good news there was: the door to the flat had been smashed in, and the rest of the apartment was ransacked. Trying not to look at my ruined collection of books, I walked through the lounge into the bedroom, and knelt by the bed. Grabbing a loose floorboard, I lifted it up and looked into the space below. Just like at the Dursleys, this space contained the most precious objects to me. Hurrying, I picked up the ring that Professor Dumbledore had given to me on my 17th birthday. It was a simple ring: a golden band with a small sapphire set into it, but apparently it had been in the Potter family since the 1500s when it was won in a duel by one of my ancestors. I placed it on my right ring finger, and took the other object out of the floor space: it was my father's invisibility cloak that had been passed onto me in my first year at Hogwarts by Dumbledore.
Just as the invisibility cloak was removed, I heard the sound of footsteps down the hall. Quickly putting on the cloak and trying to stand very still I peaked out of the bedroom and into the living room, through which the front door could be seen. The footsteps reached the doorway and an auror entered the flat, looking wary. I must have triggered a trip ward. Making sure that I was completely covered by the invisibility cloak, I began to sneak towards the door. At the same time the Auror cautiously stepped into the flat, making the path to the door clear. I continued to creep towards the door but the Auror had stopped in the middle of the room and was now looking around as if he could sense me. Freezing where I stood, I waited for the auror to move on so that I could make my escape, but the suspicion that he was not alone only seemed to grow and eventually the auror took out his wand and muttered a spell.
The wand in his hand spun around to point directly at me and knowing that my cover was broken I made a run for it, just missing a spell from the auror. I rushed out of the flat and down a stairwell, more jumping down the stairs than running. I could hear the Auror catching up on me as I crashed out of the front door of the building, just as three more Aurors cracked into existence in front of me.
One of the aurors was wearing a strange set of goggles, like a set of Muggle swimming goggles, and he pointed at me after looking around, apparently able to see through invisibility cloaks.
I took off down the empty London street, aurors following me and occasionally shooting a spell at me, only to miss as I dodged at the last moment. Still, they were not Aurors for nothing, and even as I increased my pace they continued to gain on me.
What I needed, I thought, was a place with lots of people; a place where I could get lost in a crowd. Knowing the perfect place, just as I turned the corner of the street I apparated away, reappearing in a large stone tunnel, like a train tunnel, light filtering in from both ends.
Knowing that the Aurors would be able to follow my apparition, I took some steps that led into the side of the tunnel and then up a spiral staircase. As I neared the top, the sound of cheering began to meet my ears, and eventually I walked out into the sunlight, the reason for the cheering now evident.
I was in a small stadium, packed with magical people, and in the air in front of me a fast game of Quidditch was being played. Thinking that I was safe, I took off my cloak and mingled in with the crowd, trying to keep my face hidden.
Just as I thought I had lost them, the four Aurors appeared on the pitch below me, shocking the crowd into silence. A chaser even fell off of his broom. One of the Aurors seemed to cast some kind of spell and they all turned to face me, beginning to run in my direction. I had been discovered; thinking fast I took my wand and thought, "accio broom!" pointing my wand at the broom of the chaser who had fallen. It came flying towards me and I jumped onto it, launching high up into the sky.
I took a moment to revel in the feeling of flight again before pushing the broom away from the stadium at top speed. A glance behind me told me that the Aurors had had the same idea, but in the air I strangely didn't feel threatened; I was confident in my flying ability.
The Quidditch pitch was now far behind me and I was flying low to the ground, weaving in between trees and bushes. It all proved too much for one of the Aurors, who crashed into one of the trees, putting himself out of action.
The three remaining Aurors were now within spell distance and I had to climb up high in the air to avoid their first volley of spells. Coming back down behind the Aurors I took out my wand and fired off three stunning spells, two of them surprisingly finding their marks before the last Auror dodged, putting him back behind me.
Beginning to become desperate for ideas before the last Auror called for back up, I remembered the Magical Distillation Device, still in my pocket. Conscious of the Auror behind me still firing off spells, I flew up high to avoid obstacles and took out the MDD, a simple circular silver clip with a runic pattern around the edge. I clipped it onto the broom just in front of the tail, and for a moment I thought that I had broken the broom as it gave a violent lurch, but then the broom shot off at more than double its previous speed, leaving the last Auror trailing behind. I was free.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
Drip...drip...drip...
I had no idea how long I had been in this place, hiding from both Aurors and mysterious killers. After escaping the last auror I had found this little hut, far out at sea, and decided that it was as good a place as any to hide. It was the very same hut that I had been in when I had first received my Hogwarts letter.
After arriving I had warded the place so that I was untraceable by magical means; unfortunately with this I lost my last contact with what was happening in the outside world. Of course, every so often when the hunger became too much I would venture into the small fishing village nearby, but I was always careful not to be seen.
Eventually I grew tired of my solitude. Deciding that I was willing to risk the aurors for a bit of news, one day I lowered the wards, just for a morning, so that I could receive the Daily Prophet. Expecting the front page to be an article about the elusive "boy-who-killed", I was pleasantly surprised.
Where No Wizard has Gone Before
This morning, the Ministry of Magic made an astonishing announcement. Next week, at an unknown location, the first Wziards in the history of the world are going to venture into the space beyond out planet. Speaking to the Minister about security at the event, he said...
Putting the article down, a plan began to form in my mind...I couldn't hide forever, that was for certain; but if I left this hut, I would undoubtedly be found. The only way that I could be free would be to leave the country, but I could never pass Wizarding customs while I was still wanted. Unless, of course, I left in a spaceship.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
A week later I could be found crouching in a huge muddy field, empty but for a large warded stone wall that stretched around in a circle for miles. Inside that wall was the launch site of the spaceship, the Jackson 1, and I needed to get in before it took off in just over an hour.
Considering my options, I waved my wand at the wall, thinking "Ventus", and the wall began to glow, a sign of the wards that protected it. As I watched the glow formed itself into hundreds of runes crawling over the rock face, imbuing it with strength and protection. If I were to get across, those runes would need to be disabled. Of course, I could simply have tried to overpower them, but I had no way of knowing if that would set off alarms and break my cover, so I had to go about breaking into the site in a more subtle way.
Settling myself down close to the wall I pictured an archway on the face of the rock, large enough to walk through. Every time a rune passed through this imaginary space I would cast its opposite rune, nullifying it. After almost half an hour of this the archway-shaped hole in the wards was clear. Standing up, I then took my wand and traced the shape of the archway on the rock, muttering the same spell over and over.
"Semitere Monstrum... Semitere Monstrum... Semitere Monstrum..."
As I drew my wand over the rock, a glowing golden line trailed after it; once I had traced the whole archway and the line was connected in a full circle the golden line seeped into the rock and disappeared. Smiling at my handiwork, and keeping my wand cautiously in my hand, I proceeded to walk through the invisible archway to the other side of the wall, much like the portal at Platform 9 3/4.
I looked around the several square miles of the launch site, and was rather disappointed. It was very similar to the field the other side of the wall - muddy with a few trees dotted about; but in the center of the site was a small copse of trees. The spaceship had to be in those trees, there was nowhere else it could be in the desolate field.
Trudging through the mud towards the trees I cast a disillusionment charm on myself so as not to be seen and entered the small thicket of trees. In a clearing at the center of these trees I came across the spaceship. Except it didn't really look like a spaceship. It wasn't even vaguely rocket-shaped. No, what the wizards had built, there in the clearing, was a rather comfortable looking cottage, covered in Ivy, sitting on a bedrock of diamond.
Snorting at the idiocy of some wizards, I walked to the front door of the cottage, checked that my charm was still working, and entered. It may have looked like a cottage on the outside, but on the inside the cottage-ship looked as if the design had been taken from some bad Muggle T.V. show. I found myself standing in a metallic corridor, various runes floating along the walls. Of course, the whole effect was rather ruined by the odd curtained window along the length of the long corridor, but I supposed that the wizards who built it didn't really understand Muggle technology that well.
Deciding that it was time that I hid myself, I walked down the unnecessarily winding corridor, trying to keep my footsteps quiet and passing several wooden doors on either side of me. Choosing one at random I entered and found myself in some kind of storeroom, filled with crates and boxes. I knew that if someone were to enter to room then I would stick out like a sore thumb, so I conjured a crate similar to the ones already in the room and climbed into it, closing the lid over me. It turned out that I had only just got into the cottage in time, for as soon as the lid of the crate plunged me into darkness, I felt the ship begin to shake and rumble. We were taking off, and I was about to make the greatest escape in history.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
Some time later, I was strongly wishing that I had conjured a larger space for my hiding place. We had been flying smoothly for several hours at least, which meant that the cottage was probably in orbit around the Earth. Deciding that I couldn't take any more of the cramped crate and trusting in my disillusionment charm, I climbed up out of my crate, and gasped as I saw what was before me.
For some reason, the designers of the cottage had put a window in the store room, and as I looked out I could see what no other wizard had ever seen before - our planet, spread out beneath me. Feeling daring, I thought that I should take this time when the pilots would be busy to explore the craft. After all, I knew from my time in the space department that there would only be three Unspeakables aboard the cottage; it was unlikely that I would bump into anyone.
Creeping carefully out of the store room, I entered the corridor and walked down its length, ignoring the doors leading off to the sides; I didn't want to get lost and the best way to do that was to explore the main corridor first. My progress was slow, especially as I had to walk slowly to stop my feet clanging against the metal of the floor, but eventually I reached the end of the corridor. It ended in a single door like all of the others; presumably this was the control room. I was about to turn back when I thought I heard voices approaching me from the way I had came.
My heart stopped: I was trapped, trapped between capture by the people approaching and the door, behind which there were undoubtedly more Unspeakables. Having no choice, I quickly opened the door and entered the room beyond, closing the door softly behind me. Wondering why I had not been challenged by anyone in the room, I turned around and looked about. It was indeed the control room, filled with flashing lights and levers, and there, sitting in a set of three chairs facing way from me were three Unspeakables, as I had feared. Maybe they hadn't seen me.
My fear turned to horror though, as I took a closer look and realised why the Unspeakables hadn't noticed my entry. It seemed to me like they were sitting in a very awkward position in their seats, and there was a hauntingly familiar looking red liquid gathering on the floor in puddles. They were dead.
A.N. Next chapter! Well, thing really advance in this chapter: there's only one more chapter and an epilogue after this - I told you that it would be short! Enjoy!
Chapter 4 - Flight
After fleeing for the Department, I appeared on a dark and rainy cobbled street. Looking around, I realized that I had unconsciously apparated to Godric's Hollow, where I had lived before Voldemort had killed my parents. Having no memories of that time, I had first seen the village when I had visited on my 17th birthday, but even that short visit was enough to convince me that Godric's Hollow was my true home.
I briefly considered apparating back to my London flat, but there was the possibility that the killer knew where I lived, so I decided to spend the night in Godric's Hollow. Walking over to an inn that I had stayed in previously, I stepped inside and approached the barman.
"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Potter!" The barman cried with an unusual cheerfulness for such a Dark night, "Looking for a room?"
"Just for the night of that's OK, Mr. Barley."
"Of course my boy! Room number seven is free, here's the key," he said, chucking a key over the heads of some drunk patrons, " Enjoy your stay!"
Nodding at Mr. Barley, I left the bar and climbed up a set of stairs at the back of the room, taking me up to a shabby corridor. Finding room seven, I let myself in and went over to the bed, collapsing onto it before I could even take off my shoes, falling into blissful unconsciousness.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
The next morning I woke to the sound of an owl tapping on the window of my room. Rolling off of the bed with a groan, I moved to the window and opened it, allowing the owl to swoop inside and drop the Daily Prophet on my bed before promptly leaving. Opening the paper, I almost dropped it when I saw the headline.
Harry Potter Wanted For Murder
Rita Skeeter reporting
Last night, the body of Hermione Granger was found in the Department of Mysteries, brutally murdered. Suspicion instantly fell on Mr. Harry Potter, recently 18, who is known to harbour a certain dislike of Miss. Granger, and was working with her on that night. When Aurors stormed Mr. Potter's London flat, they found it abandoned, and he is now the prime suspect in this case. After a detailed study of the crime scene, traces of Mr. Potter's magic were found, and he is now wanted not only for this horrifying murder, but several other mysterious deaths that have so far confused experts within the Ministry. This reporter managed to get in contact with Auror Cedric Diggory, who has been placed in charge of finding Potter; and when returning from Potter's flat, he said this, "Potter is an extremely dangerous man, and should only be approached by trained Aurors and Hitwizards. The Minister himself is greatly troubled by this case and has given me leave to use any means to bring Potter in." Well, this reporter is certainly...
Having read enough, I dropped the paper, a fierce debate happening in my head. Common sense told me that I should just turn myself in and prove myself innocent, but that last phrase kept repeating itself in my head - "given me leave to use any means to bring Potter in..." Obviously, the Ministry was already convinced of my guilt; to hand myself in would be to sentence myself to Azkaban. No, the only was I would stay free would be to run.
Before I could run anywhere though, I had to pick up a few of my most valuable items from my flat, incase I was never able to return there again. Picturing the inside of my flat, I spun on the spot and apparated there with a light pop.
Thankfully, there were no aurors still around. That was about all the good news there was: the door to the flat had been smashed in, and the rest of the apartment was ransacked. Trying not to look at my ruined collection of books, I walked through the lounge into the bedroom, and knelt by the bed. Grabbing a loose floorboard, I lifted it up and looked into the space below. Just like at the Dursleys, this space contained the most precious objects to me. Hurrying, I picked up the ring that Professor Dumbledore had given to me on my 17th birthday. It was a simple ring: a golden band with a small sapphire set into it, but apparently it had been in the Potter family since the 1500s when it was won in a duel by one of my ancestors. I placed it on my right ring finger, and took the other object out of the floor space: it was my father's invisibility cloak that had been passed onto me in my first year at Hogwarts by Dumbledore.
Just as the invisibility cloak was removed, I heard the sound of footsteps down the hall. Quickly putting on the cloak and trying to stand very still I peaked out of the bedroom and into the living room, through which the front door could be seen. The footsteps reached the doorway and an auror entered the flat, looking wary. I must have triggered a trip ward. Making sure that I was completely covered by the invisibility cloak, I began to sneak towards the door. At the same time the Auror cautiously stepped into the flat, making the path to the door clear. I continued to creep towards the door but the Auror had stopped in the middle of the room and was now looking around as if he could sense me. Freezing where I stood, I waited for the auror to move on so that I could make my escape, but the suspicion that he was not alone only seemed to grow and eventually the auror took out his wand and muttered a spell.
The wand in his hand spun around to point directly at me and knowing that my cover was broken I made a run for it, just missing a spell from the auror. I rushed out of the flat and down a stairwell, more jumping down the stairs than running. I could hear the Auror catching up on me as I crashed out of the front door of the building, just as three more Aurors cracked into existence in front of me.
One of the aurors was wearing a strange set of goggles, like a set of Muggle swimming goggles, and he pointed at me after looking around, apparently able to see through invisibility cloaks.
I took off down the empty London street, aurors following me and occasionally shooting a spell at me, only to miss as I dodged at the last moment. Still, they were not Aurors for nothing, and even as I increased my pace they continued to gain on me.
What I needed, I thought, was a place with lots of people; a place where I could get lost in a crowd. Knowing the perfect place, just as I turned the corner of the street I apparated away, reappearing in a large stone tunnel, like a train tunnel, light filtering in from both ends.
Knowing that the Aurors would be able to follow my apparition, I took some steps that led into the side of the tunnel and then up a spiral staircase. As I neared the top, the sound of cheering began to meet my ears, and eventually I walked out into the sunlight, the reason for the cheering now evident.
I was in a small stadium, packed with magical people, and in the air in front of me a fast game of Quidditch was being played. Thinking that I was safe, I took off my cloak and mingled in with the crowd, trying to keep my face hidden.
Just as I thought I had lost them, the four Aurors appeared on the pitch below me, shocking the crowd into silence. A chaser even fell off of his broom. One of the Aurors seemed to cast some kind of spell and they all turned to face me, beginning to run in my direction. I had been discovered; thinking fast I took my wand and thought, "accio broom!" pointing my wand at the broom of the chaser who had fallen. It came flying towards me and I jumped onto it, launching high up into the sky.
I took a moment to revel in the feeling of flight again before pushing the broom away from the stadium at top speed. A glance behind me told me that the Aurors had had the same idea, but in the air I strangely didn't feel threatened; I was confident in my flying ability.
The Quidditch pitch was now far behind me and I was flying low to the ground, weaving in between trees and bushes. It all proved too much for one of the Aurors, who crashed into one of the trees, putting himself out of action.
The three remaining Aurors were now within spell distance and I had to climb up high in the air to avoid their first volley of spells. Coming back down behind the Aurors I took out my wand and fired off three stunning spells, two of them surprisingly finding their marks before the last Auror dodged, putting him back behind me.
Beginning to become desperate for ideas before the last Auror called for back up, I remembered the Magical Distillation Device, still in my pocket. Conscious of the Auror behind me still firing off spells, I flew up high to avoid obstacles and took out the MDD, a simple circular silver clip with a runic pattern around the edge. I clipped it onto the broom just in front of the tail, and for a moment I thought that I had broken the broom as it gave a violent lurch, but then the broom shot off at more than double its previous speed, leaving the last Auror trailing behind. I was free.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
Drip...drip...drip...
I had no idea how long I had been in this place, hiding from both Aurors and mysterious killers. After escaping the last auror I had found this little hut, far out at sea, and decided that it was as good a place as any to hide. It was the very same hut that I had been in when I had first received my Hogwarts letter.
After arriving I had warded the place so that I was untraceable by magical means; unfortunately with this I lost my last contact with what was happening in the outside world. Of course, every so often when the hunger became too much I would venture into the small fishing village nearby, but I was always careful not to be seen.
Eventually I grew tired of my solitude. Deciding that I was willing to risk the aurors for a bit of news, one day I lowered the wards, just for a morning, so that I could receive the Daily Prophet. Expecting the front page to be an article about the elusive "boy-who-killed", I was pleasantly surprised.
Where No Wizard has Gone Before
This morning, the Ministry of Magic made an astonishing announcement. Next week, at an unknown location, the first Wziards in the history of the world are going to venture into the space beyond out planet. Speaking to the Minister about security at the event, he said...
Putting the article down, a plan began to form in my mind...I couldn't hide forever, that was for certain; but if I left this hut, I would undoubtedly be found. The only way that I could be free would be to leave the country, but I could never pass Wizarding customs while I was still wanted. Unless, of course, I left in a spaceship.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
A week later I could be found crouching in a huge muddy field, empty but for a large warded stone wall that stretched around in a circle for miles. Inside that wall was the launch site of the spaceship, the Jackson 1, and I needed to get in before it took off in just over an hour.
Considering my options, I waved my wand at the wall, thinking "Ventus", and the wall began to glow, a sign of the wards that protected it. As I watched the glow formed itself into hundreds of runes crawling over the rock face, imbuing it with strength and protection. If I were to get across, those runes would need to be disabled. Of course, I could simply have tried to overpower them, but I had no way of knowing if that would set off alarms and break my cover, so I had to go about breaking into the site in a more subtle way.
Settling myself down close to the wall I pictured an archway on the face of the rock, large enough to walk through. Every time a rune passed through this imaginary space I would cast its opposite rune, nullifying it. After almost half an hour of this the archway-shaped hole in the wards was clear. Standing up, I then took my wand and traced the shape of the archway on the rock, muttering the same spell over and over.
"Semitere Monstrum... Semitere Monstrum... Semitere Monstrum..."
As I drew my wand over the rock, a glowing golden line trailed after it; once I had traced the whole archway and the line was connected in a full circle the golden line seeped into the rock and disappeared. Smiling at my handiwork, and keeping my wand cautiously in my hand, I proceeded to walk through the invisible archway to the other side of the wall, much like the portal at Platform 9 3/4.
I looked around the several square miles of the launch site, and was rather disappointed. It was very similar to the field the other side of the wall - muddy with a few trees dotted about; but in the center of the site was a small copse of trees. The spaceship had to be in those trees, there was nowhere else it could be in the desolate field.
Trudging through the mud towards the trees I cast a disillusionment charm on myself so as not to be seen and entered the small thicket of trees. In a clearing at the center of these trees I came across the spaceship. Except it didn't really look like a spaceship. It wasn't even vaguely rocket-shaped. No, what the wizards had built, there in the clearing, was a rather comfortable looking cottage, covered in Ivy, sitting on a bedrock of diamond.
Snorting at the idiocy of some wizards, I walked to the front door of the cottage, checked that my charm was still working, and entered. It may have looked like a cottage on the outside, but on the inside the cottage-ship looked as if the design had been taken from some bad Muggle T.V. show. I found myself standing in a metallic corridor, various runes floating along the walls. Of course, the whole effect was rather ruined by the odd curtained window along the length of the long corridor, but I supposed that the wizards who built it didn't really understand Muggle technology that well.
Deciding that it was time that I hid myself, I walked down the unnecessarily winding corridor, trying to keep my footsteps quiet and passing several wooden doors on either side of me. Choosing one at random I entered and found myself in some kind of storeroom, filled with crates and boxes. I knew that if someone were to enter to room then I would stick out like a sore thumb, so I conjured a crate similar to the ones already in the room and climbed into it, closing the lid over me. It turned out that I had only just got into the cottage in time, for as soon as the lid of the crate plunged me into darkness, I felt the ship begin to shake and rumble. We were taking off, and I was about to make the greatest escape in history.
----------------------------------------*****-----------------------------------------
Some time later, I was strongly wishing that I had conjured a larger space for my hiding place. We had been flying smoothly for several hours at least, which meant that the cottage was probably in orbit around the Earth. Deciding that I couldn't take any more of the cramped crate and trusting in my disillusionment charm, I climbed up out of my crate, and gasped as I saw what was before me.
For some reason, the designers of the cottage had put a window in the store room, and as I looked out I could see what no other wizard had ever seen before - our planet, spread out beneath me. Feeling daring, I thought that I should take this time when the pilots would be busy to explore the craft. After all, I knew from my time in the space department that there would only be three Unspeakables aboard the cottage; it was unlikely that I would bump into anyone.
Creeping carefully out of the store room, I entered the corridor and walked down its length, ignoring the doors leading off to the sides; I didn't want to get lost and the best way to do that was to explore the main corridor first. My progress was slow, especially as I had to walk slowly to stop my feet clanging against the metal of the floor, but eventually I reached the end of the corridor. It ended in a single door like all of the others; presumably this was the control room. I was about to turn back when I thought I heard voices approaching me from the way I had came.
My heart stopped: I was trapped, trapped between capture by the people approaching and the door, behind which there were undoubtedly more Unspeakables. Having no choice, I quickly opened the door and entered the room beyond, closing the door softly behind me. Wondering why I had not been challenged by anyone in the room, I turned around and looked about. It was indeed the control room, filled with flashing lights and levers, and there, sitting in a set of three chairs facing way from me were three Unspeakables, as I had feared. Maybe they hadn't seen me.
My fear turned to horror though, as I took a closer look and realised why the Unspeakables hadn't noticed my entry. It seemed to me like they were sitting in a very awkward position in their seats, and there was a hauntingly familiar looking red liquid gathering on the floor in puddles. They were dead.
Sign up to rate and review this story