chapter 2

Evidently it was too much to ask, as no one had bothered to get in contact with him to offer up any such information and, without Hedwig, Harry had been unable to send a letter containing his questions.

It was just as well that, before his third year at Hogwarts, Harry had discovered the convenient, if stomach-churning service provided by the Knight Bus (as they had sure as hell never mentioned it at school!) Several hours before his hearing at the Ministry, Harry had left the home of his relatives and flagged down the Knight Bus. There had been a few people already on board before he got on, but he was assured that he would arrive at the Ministry of Magic in plenty of time.

With another lurch the Knight Bus came to a stop, this time to pick up someone, and then it sped off again.

After having a word with first the new passenger, and then with Ernie Prang, the driver of the bus, Stan the conductor made his way along the aisle between the rows of seats to Harry.

"A'right 'Arry?" he asked "We just got an passenger on board 'oo needs to get to da Leaky Cauldron 'sumfink fast, so we is gonna change our course an' drop her off an' den you."

Harry nodded in acceptance "That's fine."

To be honest, although he was dreading the upcoming hearing, he could hardly wait to get off the Knight Bus. Had he eaten anything more than a single slice of dry, slightly stale bread for his breakfast that morning, then he was reasonably certain that violent jostling of the Knight Bus would have caused him to throw it up by now.

The bus made the drop off outside the Leaky Cauldron and then sped off once more. Then, all of a sudden they were stopped again with Stan loudly announcing "Ministry o' Magic, Visitor's Entrance."

Harry got to his feet and got off the bus. He was surprised to find himself facing, not some kind of grandiose door that marked the entry point to the Ministry of Magic building like he had expected, but rather a red telephone box.

Harry turned back towards the Knight Bus and saw that Stan was watching him.

"What-" he began, but Stan interrupted him.

"Jus' get in an' dial "magic."" Stan said before the doors to the bus slammed shut and the bus raced off.

Confused, but not knowing what else to do, Harry stepped into the phone box and picked up the receiver. He held it to his ear and heard nothing but silence. There was no dial tone. However, given how this was supposedly the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic, Harry suspected that the lack of a dial tone was to deter Muggles.

Harry checked the keypad and saw that, as expected, each number also had three letters beneath it. In order to spell magic, Harry pressed six, two, four, four and two in that order. Then a nasal female voice came through the receiver.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Er…" said Harry, "Harry Potter, here to attend a disciplinary hearing…"

"Thank you," said the voice "Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes."

There was a click and a rattle, and Harry noticed something slide out of the chute where returned coins usually appeared. He picked it up and saw that it was a squared shaped, silver badge with the words Harry Potter, Disciplinary Hearing engraved on it. Harry pinned it to the front of his school robes (the only robes he owned besides the dress robes that he had worn to the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, and they were too dressy for the hearing.)

The female voice spoke again "Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration. This can be done at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the atrium."

Then the floor of the telephone box gave a slight shudder and began sinking into the ground. It took about a minute, though it seemed a lot longer to Harry, for the telephone box to come to a stop. The door swung open as the female voice said "The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day."

Harry stepped out of the telephone box and found himself standing at one end of a very long and splendid hall, the walls of which were tiled with black marble. The floor consisted of a dark wood that was highly polished.

Along the walls stood a line of fireplaces, and every few moments one or more of these would roar into life with green flames and a wizard or witch would step out into the atrium. Floo powder, though efficient, was not Harry's preferred choice of magical travel.

Half way along the hall there was a large golden fountain that gave Harry pause for thought. It featured a wizard, a witch, a Centaur, a Goblin and a House Elf, the last three of which were looking up at the witch and wizard with adoration on their faces. Only the expression on the House Elf seemed right. The Centaurs of Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest would likely be greatly insulted by their depiction, and it was just as well Goblins didn't do business with wizards and witches outside of the bank, Gringotts. Harry was willing to bet all the money he had that if a Goblin ever caught sight of that statue, the Ministry would be dealing with a full-blown Goblin rebellion within the hour.

At the other end of the hall, Harry came to a desk with a plaque on top that read Security. Harry approached it and cleared his throat to get the attention of the guard, who had his nose buried in that morning's edition of The Daily Prophet.

The guard looked up and asked "What?" in a gruff voice.

"Er… I just came down the visitor's entrance." Harry replied "The phone said to contact the security desk."

The guard gave a resigned nod (resigned because he would have to do some actual work today) and set his newspaper down on the desk.

"Come round this side," said the guard. Harry did so and found himself subjected to the strange experience of having an object rather like a television aerial waved about in front of and around him. Obviously satisfied, the guard set the strange device down on the desk, and held out his hand to Harry, demanding "Wand?"

Harry handed over his wand and watched as the guard examined it. After confirming the make of wand and the length of time it had been used for, the guard gave Harry his wand back before picking up his copy of The Daily Prophet again.

Evidently that was the end of the security check. Harry, however, wasn't done with the man.

"Excuse me," he said, trying to sound as polite as possible "but how do I get to the… um…" he suddenly realised that he didn't have a clue where he was meant to be going. He tried asking another way "I'm here for a hearing for underage magic use. Do you know where I'm meant to go?"

The guard didn't look up, but did give a reply "Go over to the golden gates and get into a lift. Get out on the second level, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Ask someone there."

"Thanks." replied Harry, though he wasn't really sure exactly how helpful the man had been. On the plus side though, the man hadn't recognised him. The last thing Harry wanted at the moment was to be pointed out in the middle of this crowd. If they all stopped to gawk at him, or more specifically his scar, as wizards and witches not used to the sight of him usually did, he'd likely never get to the hearing.