Harry huddled in the corner with the other members of the rebellion, waiting for the fun to start. Nine Death Eaters showed up soon after Harry had taken the prophecy, which was why he was glad that he had waited until the last moment to touch it. He was kind of curious as to what the prophecy said, but this was going to be a lot more interesting.
"Spread out and look for him," the lead Death Eater said. Harry imagined that he was kind of disappointed that Harry wasn't in front of him. Draco shifted nervously beside Harry and Harry nodded to himself, taking it as confirmation that the lead Death Eater was Lucius Malfoy.
The Death Eaters moved out, looking, but not finding Harry and the others. Lucius seemed to be scanning the shelves. Harry snickered quietly as Lucius seemed to take a double take when he spotted what Harry had left in place of the prophecy. "Rubber duck?" Lucius said, sounding bewildered. "They've got the prophecy!" Lucius picked up the rubber duck and the fun started.
Yellow slime fell down from the ceiling thanks to the charm attached to the rubber duck as a trigger. Harry had known that someone would have picked up the rubber duck. Hermione's charm held up to the yellow slime, not letting any of it touch them, but also not revealing an empty spot on the floor for the Death Eaters to spot.
The feathers floated down from the ceiling, making the Death eaters look like chickens. There were more than a couple of snickers from the others.
Lucius growled and then did the most idiotic thing that he could do: the predictable thing. He tried to clean the goo up; unfortunately, that only made the goo turn into a day glow pink and for the feathers to also turn into flowers. That had been a difficult thing to charm, but Harry thought it looked better on the Death Eaters than it would have on Umbridge.
"What in Merlin's name?" one of the Death Eaters called out, trying to flick the slime off of his wand.
"Did you screw the proximity alarm up?" another Death Eater asked Lucius. Harry nodded to himself, glad that he had waited until the last second to pick up the prophecy.
Lucius cast a spell at the Death Eater. "My proximity alarms were cast perfectly. They got the damned prophecy, therefore the alarms went off."
Harry looked down at the prophecy orb, vaguely wondering what exactly it was. He shrugged and put it away in a pocket, deciding to figure out what it was later. He would have left it on the shelf if it hadn't have been a good way to alert the Death Eaters of their arrival as well as a good way to sew some more chaos.
"I'm covered in pink and flowers," a woman said. Neville clenched his hands as he watched the woman try to glide across the floor. It wasn't working out too well for her, but she still tried. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
"How about not," Harry muttered in reply.
"Where are they?" McNair asked. He slid on the slime and bumped into a shelf, activating one of the spells that were set on the shelves. True to form, none of the prophecy orbs moved even a fraction of an inch. Also true to form, McNair could say nothing without sounding as though he were a mouse.
No one seemed to notice until McNair was screeching in panic. Lucius caught on quickly and warned people not to touch the shelves. Of course, several of the Death Eaters couldn't avoid touching the shelves and several animal voices rang out.
The woman Death Eater kept trying to sniff the Rebellion out, but she lost her balance. Unlike the others, she didn't try to catch hold of the shelves and simply slid to the floor. Neville muttered a quick heating charm at the woman, heating up the slime and making it harden around her. The third trick to the slime kicked in and she couldn't move, as the slime got sticky.
Lucius cast a spell at the floor and tried to make a path to the door. Harry snickered as he waited for Lucius to try it out. Lucius obliged him and started to stalk out of the room. The slime stuck to his feet and he jerked to a halt. He froze in place, which was a bad thing to do, as the slime on him started hardening. Soon the next part of the slime would kick in and knock him out.
Harry glanced around the room, looking to make sure that everyone was taken care of in the room. Most people were now stuck to the floor, or had their voices incapacitated in one way or another. The few who tried to leave by one of the doors had buckets over their heads, which would make aiming very hard.
"I think we can leave now," Harry said.
"It seems clear," Hermione replied.
"It's a shame that they all went down that easily, I was hoping to lead them into some of the other traps," Harry said, pouting a little.
"You do know that Death Eaters are deadly and it's better off that they aren't able to chase you?" Draco asked.
"I suppose so," Harry said. He stood up, dispelling Hermione's charm that was hiding them. A quick spell on their shoes took care of any problems having to do with the slime and they set off. Harry waved as they walked past Lucius Malfoy, enjoying the look behind the mask.
Harry opened up the door to the Time Room. He spotted someone standing on the ceiling halfway through the room, so he started running. The pathway through the room was normally very narrow, as the room was filled with desks, but being on the ceiling helped and they were able to run past the two on the ceiling. Harry did a quick flip when he got to the end of the room and he landed on his feet. The charms that Hermione applied to the room made sure that everyone would land perfectly if they had the correct charms to counteract the increased gravity on the ceiling. The Death Eaters wouldn't have a great landing, but the Rebellion did.
Two Death Eaters stared at the Rebellion, taking in their disguise. "What are you?" one of the Death Eaters asked.
"Don't you mean who are you?" Harry asked.
"Who are you?" the Death Eater repeated.
"Don't you mean what are you?" Ron asked.
"I asked you that in the first place," the Death Eater snapped.
"So why won't you try again?" Hermione asked.
"Because I already asked it," the Death Eater said, sounding stubborn.
"We did say that you should ask again," Neville said, getting into the banter.
"I'm not going to ask again, so who, what are you?" the Death Eater asked.
"You asked again," Luna pointed out. "You said that you wouldn't."
"Answer me," the Death Eater growled out, glaring at them through his mask.
"We're the Vodmetot," Draco answered, giving Harry an idea.
"What in Merlin's name is the Vodmetot?" the Death Eater asked, not connecting the name at all to his Master's name.
"The Vodletots are creatures bred for the protection of the Department of Mysteries," Harry said. He figured that if they expected him to be a strange creature created by the Department of Mysteries, then they wouldn't think that he was Harry Potter. It could be safer that way; despite what Draco might think, he really didn't have a suicide wish.
"Wait, I thought you were the Vodmetots," the Death Eater said, still not connecting the name to his Master.
"We are the Voldemrots," Ron said, picking up Harry's line of thought.
"Your name changed again," the Death Eater said.
"The Vodlemrots wish you well on your journey through the Department of Mysteries," Hermione said.
"The Voldmeorts created the defense just for you," Neville continued the game.
"Your companions are right past there," Luna said, pointing at the Time Room. "We Voldetators already made friends with them."
"We Vodlemorts were very friendly," Draco said, an unholy smile spreading across his face.
"But now we the Voldemorts must go," Harry said. He wondered if the Death Eater would finally connect the name. "Good luck."
Harry led the way into the next room, darting off to the side of the room. It was a very odd room, filled with planets and brief periods of nothingness, so they ended up deciding not to prank the room at all. The room was disorienting enough and sometimes just the thought of a prank was a pretty good one itself.
Through the door they could hear the death eater cursing up a storm. The death eater in the time room was too far away for them to be able to really make out what he was saying, but they could hear the Death Eater in the other room's reply.
"I didn't think about it," the Death Eater in the hallway said. He waited a moment, listening to the other. "That they were created by the Department of Mysteries? Who knows? Why don't you go and free the others while I go and track them down." The other Death Eater replied. "Potter isn't that strange," the Death Eater protested.
Harry and the others broke into snickers, glad that none of the Death Eaters seemed to realize the truth.
"Do we have to go after them?" the other, huge Death Eater in the hallway asked. He sounded reluctant as he added. "They were freaky."
"Don't be scared of them," the other Death Eater said, causing the Rebellion to snicker once more. "They're only magically created creatures made by the people in the Department of Mysteries. They can't hurt us."
"Maybe there's a reason why people don't work here unless they're insane," the large Death Eater said.
"Let's go," the other Death Eater said instead of replying. The Rebellion quieted down as he stepped inside the planet room. He had to duck a planet that moved over the Rebellion's heads. He then started walking deeper into the room.
Harry and the others watched the two Death Eaters for a brief moment of time before they slipped out of the room. "That'll keep them busy for a while. Shall we go wait at our other trap?"
"Let me set up this quick one for when they come out again," Ron said. He attached a bag to the top of the doorway and hit it with a quick burst of magic from his wand. "It's another one of Fred and George's experimental products. Supposed to be Flower Flour, flour that creates flowers to grow out of the cake, but it keeps coming out wrong."
"How so?" Hermione asked.
"The flowers grow out of anything that the flower touches, particularly noses," Ron said. "And there's also the fact that they keep getting biting flowers, which is why they gave it to me."
"Good thinking," Harry said. He nodded towards the Death Room. "Shall we?"
"That room gives me the creeps," Ron muttered, but he followed Harry into the room anyway.
Harry and the others took the time to check on all of the spells put on the floor before the other Death Eaters got done with the Planet room. They turned their attention back to the doorway as they could hear the Death Eater from the hallway cursing some more. "I don't think that's possible," Harry remarked.
"Not if you use magic," Draco countered.
"Ew," Harry said with a shudder.
They hid behind Hermione's glamour shield once more as the two Death Eaters entered the room. The Snap powder that they had coated the floor cracked with each step that they took. It was yet another one of the twin's experiments, which meant that the thin layer of dust had a special property.
The Death Eaters gingerly walked across the floor; they were clearly waiting for something to happen. Of course, something was happening; they just couldn't see it just yet. The Death Eaters were shrinking: de-aging, to be exact. Something had gone wrong in the formula and each footstep took off another year from them.
Various other fumes were released by the powder on the floor, which was probably why the Death Eater said exclaimed that he wanted a pink pony after realizing that something was happening to them.
"Really? I always wanted to be a monster," the not so large Death Eater said. He apparently caught a whiff of a different potion as he added, "I think the flowers coming out of your nose are very pretty."
"They aren't pretty and your face looks like a monster was sick on it," the Death Eater snapped, just like the twelve year old kid he was.
"Take that back," the not so big Death Eater cried out.
"Or what?" the twelve year old asked.
"Or I'll tell my mommy," the other Death Eater, who looked like he was thirteen years old said.
"Oh, I'm scared," the twelve year old said, shaking his arms in front of him. "I'm not, but I doubt that you can tell that."
"You big meanie," the thirteen year old said. He swung and punched the twelve year old out.
The twelve year old fell to the ground and the thirteen year old burst out crying. He sat down on the floor next to his fellow Death Eater and continuing crying. Hermione seemed to take pity on him and hit him with a sleeping spell.
"Well, that was pathetic," Draco said as he stared down at the thirteen year old in disgust.
"I don't think I can look at your housemates in the same way," Neville said. The Death Eaters masks had fallen off as they de-aged and they could clearly tell that the large Death Eater had been either Crabbe or Goyle and Harry was reasonably sure that the twelve year old was Nott's father.
"You're telling me," Ron said, shaking his head.
"Well, that seems to be all of them," Harry said, since they hadn't seen any other masked creeps walking around.
"Except for the two that walked into the prophecy room, but they'll probably be stuck by that point," Hermione said, confident in all of the spells put upon the rooms.
"We should go check," Luna said, nudging Crabbe or Goyle with her toe.
"And then wait until the Order gets here?" Harry asked. He wondered if it might be better to simply disappear and let the Order wonder what on earth had happened in the Department of Mysteries. But then, he didn't want any of the Death Eaters to get loose and leave before they could be caught.
"I was surprised that they weren't here yet," Hermione said. "I would have expected them to be here already."
"I suppose they must have something else to do," Ron said with a shrug. "They'll be here eventually.
"Should we really stay here until they get here?" Neville asked, looking uncertain.
"There you are," Lucius Malfoy said as he stalked into the room. Bits of the dried pink goo fell off of him as he walked, but he ignored both that and all of the noise that he made as he crossed the room.
"Oh, poo, the poo must have worn off," Luna said, sounding disappointed. She had helped Harry create the strange goo and it had meant to last for quite a while. Obviously it needed some more work before it was ready for pranking use.
"Well, at least it worked on most of them," Ron said, noticing that there were only five Death Eaters out of the eleven that there would have been in the prophecy room.
"Or the spells on the shelves might still be in effect," Hermione said, reminding them that those Death Eaters would be useless for a while yet.
"You're Potter and friends, right?" Lucius said stepping forward with a crunchy step.
"We are the Voldmerots," Harry said. Lucius probably knew that he was Harry Potter because of the prophecy being replaced with a duck, but that didn't mean that Harry couldn't try to confuse him.
"The Vodlmerots are creatures created for the defense of the Department of Mysteries," Ron took over the explanation.
"We the Volemeorts take care of this place," Neville said.
"Against creatures such as you," Hermione said.
"Really, there are better uses of your time than playing with the Voldmerots," Luna said, sounding vaguely serious.
"And it can't be good for business," Draco said, scowling at his father.
"What did you do to Nott and Goyle?" the Death Eater that they had passed on their way through the time room asked.
"Goyle knocked Nott out," Harry said, now knowing for certain who the Death Eater kids on the floor were. "Nott said that Goyle's face looked like a monster sicked it up."
"The meanie," Crabbe said. The potion on the floor had affected him as well, and he now looked to be the same age as Goyle was.
"The Meanie?" Lucius repeated turning around to stare at Crabbe. "What in Merlin's name did you do?"
"Who says we did anything?" Harry asked. "It could just be that your fellow Grim Reaper Cannibal likes to de-age every once in a while."
"I try to do so every Saturday," Luna said.
"Of course, the others should have watched where they stepped," Hermione said. "That was us and they should turn back from being cardboard eventually."
"And what about me?" Lucius asked after seeing that he was relatively unaffected. "What are you planning on doing to me?"
"Say cheese," Harry said as he blew the same sleeping powder that he had used on Umbridge in Lucius' face.
Lucius chuckled, not knowing what Harry had just done. "Dust is your secret weapon?"
"Just wait until you feel the kick," Harry said. "You should feel it just about now."
Lucius' eyes closed and he keeled over, snoring as soon as he hit the floor.
"Pleasant dreams," Ron said, knowing exactly what Harry had done to Lucius.
A clatter came from one of the other rooms and the Rebellion left the room to go find what it was. They left behind a quiet room; all of the Death Eaters were defeated.