Chapter Two: A Mission
But it was only a mere matter of minutes before Draco entered the shop, looking around in disbelief. Harish, who had finished helping a customer, made his way over to the sixteen-year-old.
"Harish!" Draco exclaimed at the sight of him. "This is unbelievable!"
"Follow me, will you?" Harish asked.
Draco nodded and Harish took him to the back of the shop, through the curtained doorway, and then pulled out Sirius's knife and unlocked a door on the right wall of the dark back room. On the way there, he pointed out the same merchandise he had shown Neville and Draco listened with mild interest.
Once they were inside the door and it was closed again, Harish said, "That door is locked and charmed against unlocking spells."
"How do Fred and George get in?" Draco asked him.
"They have special charmed keys," Harish replied.
He tapped his wand on the bottom rung on a spiral staircase that was hanging just above his head. The staircase then clanked into motion and landed on the ground. The two young men stepped onto the bottom stair and Harish tapped the railing twice, causing it to rise back up through an opening in the wooden ceiling. A hallway led out from the staircase on the floor above. Directly to their left was a window that overlooked the alley. Harish led Draco over to the window, conjured two chairs, and invited him to sit down.
"Welcome to the Bachelor Flat," Harish said with a wry smile. "Or, at least, that's what the twins have decided to call it."
"What do you want?" Draco asked.
Harish glanced out the window at the gray, bleak alley below before saying, "I need a way into Hogwarts."
"Why?" Draco asked.
Harish thought for a second on how to phrase his thoughts.
"Multiple reasons," he finally replied. "For one, I would like to keep tabs on my Dark Army."
"So DA is going to continue?"
"Yes," Harish replied. "And another reason is that I have reason to believe that another agent like Jugson may be inside the castle."
"Who?"
"No one to concern yourself with," Harish retorted. "I would simply like to investigate it myself sometime this school year."
"But how am I going to get you into Hogwarts?"
Harish spread his hands wide to indicate he knew as much as Draco did.
"That is up to you," the young man said. "I would simply like you to get me into Hogwarts…let's say, by Christmas."
Draco nodded seriously and Harish stood, gesturing toward the staircase. The Slytherin followed his younger companion onto the steps and tapped the railing once more, waiting for the stairs to hit the ground with a bump. Once Draco had left, Harish made the stairs retract one last time before making his way out into the main portion of the shop.
"Yaxley, Malfoy, Macnair, Rookwood," Voldemort called out. Each of the Death Eaters looked at him attentively. "My loyal spies. Tell me, will we ever be able to take over the Ministry?"
"Yes, my lord," Malfoy answered. "We are all trusted by the Minister."
"But you cannot overthrow the Ministry without a plan," Voldemort added.
"No, my lord," Malfoy responded, bowing his head. "You are right."
"Then I propose a plan for you," Voldemort continued. "We have broken into the Ministry once before, and we will do it one last time. The only difference is this time we will overthrow the government without alerting the people of the Wizarding World."
"How will we do that, my lord?"
Voldemort smirked and launched into his plan.
When the meeting was over, Death Eaters began to Disapparate. Finally, only Voldemort, Harish, and the twins remained. The Dark Lord then called the boys to him.
"Yes, father?" Harish asked.
"Firstly, I wish to instruct you more on magic. I expect you to be at the manor every Saturday for extra tutorage." Harish nodded. "Secondly, how is your mission going?"
"To find Jugson?" This time it was Voldemort's turn to nod. "The twins and I have almost got it figured out. We are going to do a ritual to track him down. The only thing is that the ritual is very complex and has to take place on the Winter Solstice."
"But you will find him?"
"Yes, father."
Voldemort leaned back in his chair.
"Say that you do manage to track Jugson down," his father said. "What will you do then?"
"Torture him until we get results, if we have to," Harish shrugged.
A corner of Voldemort's mouth twitched.
"Very well," he said.