Harry saw the knees of the Death Eaters bend. Poking his wand out from under the desk, he shouted, "STUPEFY!"
A jet of red light hit the nearest Death Eater; he fell backward into a grandfather clock and knocked it over. The second Death Eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid Harry's spell and now pointed his own wand at Hermione, who had crawled out from under the desk to get a better aim.
"Avada—"
Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and aim to go awry. Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair, he cried, "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared toward the entrance of the Hall of Prophecy, where (Y/n) quite smoothly caught Harry's wand and swooped up the other; Both scrambled to their feet to charge for their wands. (Y/n), however, held the Death Eater's wand as though threatening to break it.
"Get out of the way, Harry!" yelled Neville, clearly determined to repair the damage. Harry flung himself sideways and (Y/n) flew out of the Death Eater's path as Neville took aim again and shouted, "STUPEFY!"
(Y/n) grew grateful to have stepped aside, for the jet of red light flew right over the Death Eater's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of various-shaped hourglasses. The cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying everywhere, then sprang back up onto the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered—
During the time (Y/n) was distracted, the Death Eater reached her and started trying to yank his wand away from her. (Y/n), however, seemed to have panicked and forgotten she had her own wand on her, for she punched the Death Eater right in the face, allowing Hermione to scream "STUPEFY!" without stunning (Y/n) in the process.
The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest; he froze, his arm still raised to grab (Y/n), and he collapsed backward toward the bell jar. Harry expected to her a clunk, for the man to hit solid glass and slide off the jar onto the floor, but instead, his head sank through the surface of the bell jaw as though it was nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.
"Catch," (Y/n) said, tossing Harry his wand before starting to walk back towards the group. She finally broke the Death Eater's wand, opting to keep the wand in case they needed to identify any Death Eaters.
"Thanks," Harry said, "right, let's get out."
"Look out!" said Neville, horrified, staring at the Death Eater's head in the bell jar. All four of them raised their wands again, but none of them struck. They were all gazing, openmouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the man's head.
It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull, his cheeks smooth, his skull round and covered with peachlike fuzz...
A baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Death Eater as he struggled to get up again. But even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again, thick black hair was sprouting from the pate and chin...
"It's time," said Hermione in an awestruck voice. "Time..."
The Death Eater shook his ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before he could pull himself together again, it began to shrink back to babyhood once more...
There was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream. (Y/n)'s head whipped in the direction the scream came from.
"RON?" Harry yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before them. "GINNY? LUNA?"
The Death Eater had pulled his head out of the bell jar. His appearance was uttering bizarre, his tiny baby's head bawling loudly while his thick arms flailed dangerously in all directions, narrowly missing Harry, who ducked. Harry raised his wand but to his amazement, Hermione seized his arm.
"You can't hurt a baby!"
There was no time to argue the point. Harry could hear more footsteps growing louder from the Hall of Prophecy they had just left and knew, too late, that he ought not to have shouted and given away their position.
"Come on!" Harry said again, and leaving the ugly baby-headed Death Eater staggering behind them, they took for the door that stood ajar at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway.
They had made it halfway toward the door when Harry saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room toward them. Veering left, he burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind them.
"Collo—" began Hermione again, but before she could complete the spell, the door had burst open again and the two Death Eaters had come hurtling inside. With a cry of triumph, they both yelled, "Impedimenta!"
Harry, Hermione, Neville, and (Y/n) were all knocked backward off their feet. Neville was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view, Hermione had crashed back into (Y/n) and they were smashed into a bookcase, promptly deluging in a cascade of heavy books; The back of Harry's head slammed into the stone wall behind him, tiny lights burst in front of his eyes, and for a moment he was too dizzy and bewildered to react.
"We've got him!" yelled the Death Eaters nearest Harry. "IN AN OFFICE OFF—"
"Silencio!" cried Hermione, and the man's voice extinguished. He continued to mouth through the hole in his mask, but no sound came out; he was thrust aside by his fellow. Hermione got up and helped (Y/n) to her feet.
"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater rose his wand. His arms and legs snapped together and he fell forward, face down onto the rug at Harry's feet, stiff as a board and unable to move at all.
"Well done, Ha—" But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand from which flew a streak of what looked like a purple flame. It passed right across Hermione's chest; she gave a tiny "oh!" as though of surprise and then (Y/n) was just barely able to catch her before dropping to the floor, preventing too hard of a fall for Hermione.
"HERMIONE!" Harry fell to his knees beside the girls as Neville crawled rapidly toward them from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged— his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face— Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry twisted around, his own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts.
Dolohov grinned. With his free hand, he pointed from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione. Though he could no longer speak his meaning could not have been clearer: Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her...
"Like you won't kill us all the moment I hand it over anyway!" said Harry.
"Whaddever you do, Harry," said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down the mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to him!"
There was a crash from outside the door, and Dolohox looked over his shoulder— the baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him.
Harry seized the chance: "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
The spell hit Dolohov before he could block it, and he toppled forward across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.
"Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking the girl in question as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up... (Y/n)..." He looked helplessly up at her.
"She's alive," (Y/n) assured. "I don't know what she was struck with so there isn't anything I can do." Harry listened for more footsteps whilst (Y/n) listened for signs of where Ginny, Ron, and Luna were. She silently cast Episkey on Neville, snapping his nose back into place. Despite this, Neville's nose continued bleeding.
"Neville, we're not too far from the exit," Harry whispered. "We're right next to that circular room... If we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift... Then you could find someone... Raise the alarm..."
"And whad are you going to do?" said Neville, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.
"We're going to find the others," said Harry, motioning to himself and (Y/n).
"Well, I'b going do find dem wid you," said Neville firmly.
"But Hermione—"
"We'll dake her wid us," said Neville. "I'll carry her— you're bedder at fighding dem dan I ab—" He stood up and seized one of Hermione's arms, glared at Harry, who hesitated, then grabbed the other and helped hoist Hermione's limp form over Neville's shoulders.
"Wait," said Harry, snatching up Hermione's wand from the floor and shoving it into Neville's hand, "you better take this..." Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand as they walked slowly to the door.
"My gran's going to kill be," said Neville thickly, blood spattering from his nose as he spoke, "dat was my dad's old wand..."
"I'm sure it'll be fine..." (Y/n) murmured. "Besides, now you've got the chance to get a wand that will be yours and not your dad's... It's crazy how strong of a loyalty basic wands hold, don't you think?"
"No offence, (Y/n), but I don't really care much for wand lore," Harry said. Neville half-grimaced.
"Right, sorry," (Y/n) said, nodding understandingly. Harry grew to feel instantly guilty.
"Sorry," Harry whispered.
"No worries," (Y/n) said dismissively. "I just ramble when I'm nervous."
"Right... Lead the way, (Y/n)," Harry whispered. Despite saying this, he stayed glued right to her side in case they were to be attacked.
(Y/n) and Harry stuck their heads out of the door and looked around cautiously. While (Y/n) was far more confident with her movement, knowing that the only way they would run into someone would be if they Apparate in front of them, Harry was looking each and every way. The baby-headed Death Eater was screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused. At the same time, the glass cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself on the wall behind them.
"C'mon... keep close behind me..." Harry whispered back to Neville. Due to (Y/n)'s hair coming loose from the clip that held it, she fixed her hair as they walked, making sure to really secure the clip.
"I should've broken their wands," (Y/n) whispered, frowning. Harry side-eyed her.
"Maybe... Too late now, though."
They crept out of the office and back toward the door into the black hallway, which now seemed completely deserted. They walked a few steps forward, Neville tottering slightly due to Hermione's weight. The door of the Time Room swung shut behind them, and the walls began to rotate once more. (Y/n) twirled around with it, keeping her eyes trained on a specific door. She was quite quick to stop, for her head pounded from trying to keep up. Frowning, she reached up and touched her right shoulder, where she had taken the hit to the bookshelf the hardest. She was sure the heavy books that fell on her and Hermione would leave bruises. The recent blow to the back of Harry's head seemed to have unsteadied him. To their dismay, Hermione's fiery crosses had faded from the doors.