Harry pressed the "down" button closest to his hand, and the elevator appeared almost immediately. The golden bars slid to the sides with a deafening, reverberating clanging sound, and then rushed in with the others.
He jabbed the number nine button, and the bars slammed shut.
The lift made a jarring, clattering noise that Harry had not noticed when he had come with Mr. Weasley earlier in the day.
He was sure that the noise would have attracted the attention of every security guard in the building, but it did not.
When the lift stopped, only the cold female voice said, 'Department of Mysteries.'
The bars parted, and they stepped out into the corridor. Nothing stirred there except for the flickering of the nearest torches in the draft of the lift.
Harry turned to the plain black door.
He had seen it only in his dreams for months, and now he was here at last.
'Let's go, 'he whispered.
He said in a low voice as he led everyone down the corridor. Luna followed behind him with her mouth slightly open as she looked around.
'Now, listen up, 'said Harry, stopping not six feet from the black door.' Perhaps we should leave a few people here — lookouts, and — '
"But if something happens, how can we inform you?"
Asked Ginny, raising her eyebrows. 'You might be a long way off?'
'We're all with you, Harry, 'said Neville.
'Let's go on, 'said Ron, firmly.
Harry still did not want to take them all with him, but there seemed to be no choice.
He turned to the black door, approached it, and, as in the dream, it swung open.
Then he stepped over the threshold, and the others followed.
They were standing in a large, round room.
Everything here, including the ceiling and floor, was black.
Identical black doors, unmarked and without knobs, separated one another, some of which were set in the surrounding black walls. Candles with blue flames dotted the walls, and their cold, flickering, feeble light was reflected on the polished marble floor, making it seem as if there were a pool of black water on the floor.
'Somebody shut the door, 'muttered Harry.
When Neville did as he was told, he really regretted giving this order.
Without the narrow beam of light pouring in from the corridor behind them, the place was darker, so that for a time all they could see was the flickering blue flames of the candles on the walls, and their terrible reflections on the floor.
All the time in Harry's dreams he had walked unhesitatingly through the room, came to the door opposite the entrance, and then walked on.
But now there were twelve doors around them.
As he stared at the ones in front of him, trying to decide which one to enter, there was a great rumbling sound, and the candles began to move sideways. The round wall began to rotate.
Hermione grabbed Harry's arm as if she feared the floor might move, but it did not.
A few seconds later, Zhou Si's blue flames followed the rapid rotation of the wall and blurred into similar halos. Then, just as abruptly as it had started, the rumbling stopped, and everything returned to normal.
Harry could see nothing but flashes of blue light in his eyes.
'What's that for? '
Asked Ron in a worried whisper.
'I suppose it's to confuse us about which door we're coming in from, 'replied Ginny in a low voice.
Harry saw at once that she was right: it was harder for him to tell where the exit was than it was for him to find a black ant on a dark floor.
Of the twelve surrounding doors, any one of them could be the one they needed to pass through.
'How are we going to get out? 'asked Neville uneasily.
'That's not important now, 'said Harry excitedly, blinking the blue lines out of his eyes and clutching his wand tighter.' We don't have to go out before we find Sirius - '
'Don't say his name out loud! '
Said Hermione quickly.
But Harry knew intuitively that he should be as quiet as possible, even without her warning.
'Where are we going, Harry? '
'I don't- '
Harry began to speak, and then swallowed back his words.
'In those dreams I went down a lift, into a door at the end of a corridor, into a dark room - that's the question - and then through a door into a room that was rather sparkling. We ought to try some of the doors, 'said Harry hurriedly.
'When I see the room, I'll know which way to go... '
He walked straight to the door that faced him, and the others followed closely behind.
He put his left hand on the cold, shiny door, raised his wand, ready to rush through as soon as it opened, and pushed.
The door swung open easily.
The chandelier hung low on a golden chain from the white ceiling. After the darkness of the first room, the square room was very bright, though without the dim, flickering light of Harry's dreams.
It was almost empty, except for a table, and, in the middle of the room, a huge glass tank full of a dark green liquid, big enough for them to swim in; white things were drifting slowly to and fro in it.
'What are they? 'whispered Ron.
'I don't know. '
'Are they fish? 'asked Ginny softly.
'Acarinae! '
Said Luna excitedly. 'Papa says the Ministry keeps them -'
'No, 'said Hermione.
Hermione's tone was a little strange. She walked to the front and looked into the container. "This is a brain."
'Brains? '
'Yes? Why do they keep them? '
Harry came up beside her and stood in front of the tank.
There was no mistaking it; he was too close to be mistaken.
They flickered in and out of the depths of the green liquid, glowing eerily like sticky broccoli.
'Let's get out of here, 'said Luna.
'Not this one, 'said Harry.' Let's try the other door. '
'There are a lot of doors here, 'said Ron, pointing to the walls.
'In my dream I went through the black room into the second one, 'he said.' I think we should go back and try again from there. '
They hurried back into the dark, round room, and the horrible images of the brains swam before his eyes, instead of the blue candlelight.
'Wait! ' Cried Hermione, just as Luna was about to close the door behind her. 'The mark is here!'
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
