The words were hardly out of his mouth when the female Death Eater shrieked,
"Accio Proph" Harry was just ready for her. He shouted
"Protego!" before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of his fingers he managed to cling on to it.
"Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "Very well, then"
"I TOLD YOU, NO!" Lucius Malfoy roared at the woman. "If you smash it !" The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood. Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix Lestrange's face, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow.
"Not looking so hot Bella" Sirius smirks.
"Shut it Black" She snarls back.
"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well take the smallest one," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it." Harry felt the others close in around Ginny. Rory stepped in front of the others as Harry did the same, the prophecy held up to his chest.
"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," he told Bellatrix. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?" She did not move; she merely stared at him, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth. "So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?" Neville's arm was pressed against Rory, and she could feel him shaking.
"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, Harry Potter."
"Nope, not jesting," Harry said as my eyes flicked from Death Eater to Death Eater, looking for a weak link, a space through which they could escape. "How come Voldemort wants it?" Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses.
"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix.
"Yeah," Harry said, "Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol"
"Shut your mouth!" Bellatrix shrieked. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare"
Charlie looks down at Rory's arm which was covered as she smiled at him slightly before linking her hand with his.
"I'm okay Charlie" She whispers.
"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" Rory said looking at her. Hermione gave a little moan.
"Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?" Harry added to what Rory said.
"STUPEF"
"NO!" A jet of red light had shot from the end of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand, but Malfoy had deflected it. His spell caused hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of them and several of the glass orbs there shattered. Two figures, pearly white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak. Their voices vied with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Malfoy and Bellatrix's shouts.
". . . at the Solstice will come a new . . ." said the figure of an old, bearded man.
"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"
"They dared they dare" shrieked Bellatrix incoherently. "They stand there filthy half-blood"
Rory stiffened at those words as Charlie wraps his arms around her tightly.
"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malfoy.
". . . and none will come after . . ." said the figure of a young woman. The two figures that had burst from the shattered spheres had melted into thin air. Nothing remained of them or their erstwhile homes but fragments of glass upon the floor.
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," Harry said, playing for time. Rory noticed him move his foot slowly sideways, feeling around for someone else's.
"Do not play games with us, Potter," Malfoy said.
"I'm not playing games,"
"Dumbledore never told you that the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malfoy said sneeringly.
"I what?" Harry said. "What about my scar?"
"Can this be?" Malfoy said, sounding maliciously delighted; some of the Death Eaters were laughing again, and under cover of their laughter Harry hissed to Hermione, moving his lips as little as possible,
"Smash shelves"
"Dumbledore never told you?" Malfoy repeated. "Well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why"
"when I say go" Rory placed her hand behind her.
"Rory's not using a wand" Regulus says smiling at her.
"you didn't come running when he showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording"
"Did he?" Harry said. "So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?"
"Why?" Malfoy sounded incredulously delighted. "Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."
"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"
"About both of you, Potter, about both of you. Haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"
"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" he said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy, his fingers tightening over the glass sphere in his hand. It was hardly larger than a Snitch and still gritty with dust. "And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"
"Get it himself?" shrieked Bellatrix on a cackle of mad laughter. "The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors?"
"So he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" Rory smirked. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it and Bode?"
"Very good, Potter, very good at least one of you has a brain." Malfoy said slowly. "But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell"
"See James" Marlene smirks at him again.
"NOW!" yelled Harry. Five different voices bellowed "REDUCTO!" Five curses flew in five different directions and the shelves opposite them exploded as they hit whilst Rory made the shelves around the deatheaters fall with a quick wave of her hand. The towering structure swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart, pearly-white figures unfurled into the air and floated there, their voices echoing from who knew what long-dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass and splintered wood now raining down upon the floor "RUN!" Harry yelled, and as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to pour from above, he seized a handful of Hermione's robes and dragged her forward, one arm over his head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them. A Death Eater lunged forward through the cloud of dust. They were all yelling, there were cries of pain, thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from the spheres. Rory followed Harry as he found the way ahead clear and saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna sprint past them, their arms over their heads. They were at the end of row ninety-seven; when Harry turned right and began to sprint in earnest. There were footsteps right behind us and Hermione's voice urging Neville on. The door through which they had come was ajar straight ahead, they pelted through it, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in Harrys hand. They waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind them.
"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.
"Where where are the others?" gasped Harry. Ron, Luna, and Ginny had been ahead of them, but there was nobody there.
"They must have gone the wrong way!" whispered Hermione, terror in her face.
"Listen!" whispered Neville. Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed. Harry put his ear close to the door to listen and heard Lucius Malfoy roar:
"Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy and the girl. Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary except for Aurora Potter she is to remain unharmed. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead Macnair and Avery, through here Rookwood, over there Mulciber, come with me!"
"At least we know one of them isn't going to get hurt" Alice says looking at the screen.
"What do we do?" Hermione asked Harry, trembling from head to foot.
"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start," Harry said. "Let's get away from this door" They ran, quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, toward the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when we heard something large and heavy collide with the door Hermione had charmed shut.
"Stand aside!" said a rough voice. "Alohomora!" As the door flew open, they all dived under desks. Rory could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly. "They might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.
"Check under the desks," said another. 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" Rory threw the deatheater back before he could finish what he was saying. Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair he cried,
"EXPELLIARMUS !" The Death Eater's wand flew out of his hand and soared back toward the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; "Get out of the way, Harry!" yelled Neville, clearly determined. Harry flung himself sideways as Neville took aim again and shouted, "STUPEFY !" The jet of red light flew right over the Death Eater's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously 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 The Death Eater had snatched up his wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. Harry ducked down behind another desk as the man turned his mask had slipped so that he could not see, he ripped it off with his free hand and shouted,
"STUP —" "STUPEFY !" screamed Hermione. The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest; he froze, his arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter and he collapsed backward toward the bell jar. His head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it was nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back on the table, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind. "Accio Wand!" cried Hermione.
"right, let's get out of" Harry said
"Look out!" Neville said, horrified, staring at the Death Eater's head in the bell jar. All three of them raised their wands again as Rory raised her hands, but none of them struck. They were all gazing, open mouthed, 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 a 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," Hermione said 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.
"RON?" Harry yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before them. "GINNY? LUNA?"
"Why would you shout" Snape snarls at Harry.
"I agree with the grease bat" Rory said.
"Harry!" Hermione screamed. The Death Eater had pulled his head out of the bell jar. His appearance was utterly 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. More footsteps could be heard growing louder from the Hall of Prophecy we had just left
"Come on!" Harry said, and leaving the ugly baby-headed Death Eater staggering behind them, they took off for the door that stood ajar at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway. They had run halfway toward it 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, 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, both yelled,
"IMPEDIMENTA!" They were all knocked backward off their feet. "WE'VE GOT THEM!" yelled the Death Eater nearest Harry, "IN AN OFFICE OFF"
"Silencio!" Hermione cried, and the man's voice was extinguished. He continued to mouth through the hole in his mask, but no sound came out; he was thrust aside by his fellow.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry shouted, as the second Death Eater raised 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 purple flame. It passed right across Hermione's chest; she gave a tiny "oh!" as though of surprise and then crumpled onto the floor where she lay motionless.
"HERMIONE!" Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly toward her 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. Rory raised her hands throwing both death eaters against the wall, holding them there, unable to move, their wands laying on the floor. One of the Death Eaters had ripped off his mask and was pointing directly at Harry, it was Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts. Dolohov grinned, he managed to point from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione, fighting with all his strength against me. 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!" Harry said.
"Look at Rory using her powers" Sirius smirks at her.
"Whaddever you do, Harry," Neville said fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to him!" Then there was a crash outside the door, and Dolohov 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 his chance:
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" The spell hit Dolohov allowing Rory to release him as he toppled forward across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch. "Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up."
"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk again to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.
"I dunno" Neville groped for Hermione's wrist.
"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is"
"She's alive?" Harry said
"Yeah, I dink so" There was a pause.
"Neville, Rory, we're not 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"
"Like Rory's going to leave you" Remus says smiling slightly at his goddaughter.
"And whad are you going do do?" Neville said, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.
"I've got to find the others," said Harry.
"I'm not leaving you Harry" Rory said looking at him.
"Well, I'b going do find dem wid you," Neville said firmly.
"But Hermione" Harry tried to argue
"We'll dake her wid us," Neville said firmly. "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 Nevilles hand, "you'd better take this" Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand as they walked slowly toward the door.
"My gran's going do kill be," Neville said thickly, blood spattering from his nose as he spoke, "dat was by dad's old wand"
"That's probably why you struggle so much Neville" Frank tells his son.
Harry stuck his head out of the door and looked around cautiously. The baby-headed Death Eater was screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused, while the glass cabinet that had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself on the wall behind them.
"He's never going to notice us," he whispered. "C'mon keep close behind me" Rory walked behind him looking around with her hands slightly raised. 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. Hermione's fiery crosses had faded from the doors. "So which way d'you reck?" But before they could make a decision as to which way to try, a door to our right sprang open and three people fell out of it. "Ron!" croaked Harry, dashing toward them. "Ginny are you all?"
"Harry," Ron said, giggling weakly, lurching forward, seizing the front of Harry's robes and gazing at him with unfocused eyes. "There you are. Ha ha ha. You look funny, Harry. You're all messed up" Ron's face was very white and something dark was trickling from the corner of his mouth. Next moment his knees had given way, but he still clutched the front of Harry's robes, so that Harry was pulled into a kind of bow.
"Ginny?" Harry said fearfully. "What happened?" But Ginny shook her head and slid down the wall into a sitting position, panting and holding her ankle.
"I think her ankle's broken, I heard something crack," whispered Luna, who was bending over her and who alone seemed to be unhurt as Rory walked over to Ginny. "Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets, it was a very odd place, some of the time we were just floating in the dark"
"Harry, we saw Uranus up close!" Ron said, still giggling feebly. "Get it, Harry? We saw Uranus ha ha ha" A bubble of blood grew at the corner of Ron's mouth and burst.
"Anyway, one of them grabbed Ginny's foot, I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Pluto in his face, but" Luna gestured hopelessly at Ginny, who was breathing in a very shallow way, her eyes still closed. Rory ignored the rest of Harry's questions as she concentrated on Ginny.
"You doing okay Gin"
"Fine Rory just hurts a bit" Rory grabbed her wand from her pocket and pointed it to her leg
"Ferula." Bandages spun up ankle, strapping it tightly to a splint. "How's that feel" She stood up with Rory's help.
"Better thank you Rory" Rory smiled at her as Luna stood beside her to help as Rory placed her wand back in her pocket. Harry pulled Ron's arm over his shoulder. They had a one-in-twelve chance of getting the exit right the first time. Harry heaved Ron toward a door; they were within a few feet of it when another door across the hall burst open and three Death Eaters sped into the hall, led by Bellatrix Lestrange.
"There they are!" she shrieked. Stunning Spells shot across the room: Harry smashed his way through the door ahead, flung Ron unceremoniously from him, and ducked back to help Neville in with Hermione as Rory raised her hand holding the deatheaters back until everyone was through. They were all over the threshold just in time to slam the door against Bellatrix. "Colloportus!" Harry shouted, and we heard three bodies slam into the door on the other side.
"It doesn't matter!" said a man's voice. "There are other ways in. WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!" Harry spun around. We were back in the Brain Room and, sure enough, there were doors all around the walls. They could hear footsteps in the hall behind them as more Death Eaters came running to join the first. "Luna — Neville — help me!" The three of them tore around the room, sealing the doors as they went: Harry crashed into a table and rolled over the top of it in his haste to reach the next door. "Colloportus!" There were footsteps running along behind the doors; every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one, so it creaked and shuddered. Luna and Neville were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall then, as Harry reached the very top of the room, Luna cried,
"Collo — aaaaaaaaargh." She went flying through the air. Five Death Eaters were surging into the room through the door she had not reached in time; Luna hit a desk, slid over its surface and onto the floor on the other side where she lay sprawled, as still as Hermione.
"Get the Potters!" shrieked Bellatrix, and she ran at Harry. He dodged her and sprinted back up the room; he was safe as long as they thought they might hit the prophecy. Rory held up her hands trying to hold them all back as Bellatrix smirked at her.
"I forgot how powerful you are Rory" George said smiling at her.
"Hey!" said Ron, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering drunkenly toward Harry, giggling. "Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Harry?"
"Ron, get out of the way, get down —" But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.
"Honest, Harry, they're brains look. Accio Brain!" The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Rory, Harry, Ginny, and Neville and each of the Death Eaters turned in spite of themselves to watch the top of the tank as a brain burst from the green liquid like a leaping fish. For a moment it seemed suspended in midair, then it soared toward Ron, spinning as it came, and what looked like ribbons of moving images flew from it, unraveling like rolls of film "Ha ha ha, Harry, look at it" said Ron, watching it disgorge its gaudy innards. "Harry, come and touch it, bet it's weird"
"RON, NO!" He darted forward but Ron had already caught the brain in his outstretched hands. The moment they made contact with his skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.
"Harry, look what's happen no no, I don't like it no, stop stop" But the thin ribbons were spinning around Ron's chest now. He tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight against him like an octopus's body.
"Diffindo!" Harry yelled trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Ron, but they would not break. Ron fell over, still thrashing against his bonds.
"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" screamed Ginny, immobilized by her broken ankle on the floor then a jet of red light flew from one of the Death Eater's wands and hit her squarely in the face. She keeled over sideways and lay there unconscious.
"STUBEFY !" Neville shouted, wheeling around and waving Hermione's wand at the oncoming Death Eaters. "STUBEFY, STUBEFY !" But nothing happened one of the Death Eaters shot their own Stunning Spell at Neville, it missed him by inches. Rory managed to throw 3 of the death eaters back knocking 1 unconscious. Harry and Neville were now the only two left fighting the remaining Death Eaters, two of whom sent streams of silver light like arrows past them that left craters in the wall behind them. Harry ran for it as Bellatrix Lestrange sprinted right at him. Holding the prophecy high above his head he sprinted back up the room. Someone grabbed Rory from behind, unable to move as they dragged her after Harry.
"Potter, your race is run," drawled Lucius Malfoy, pulling off his mask. "Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."
"Let let the others go, and I'll give it to you!" said Harry desperately. A few of the Death Eaters laughed including the one that was holding Rory.
"You are not in a position to bargain, Potter," said Lucius Malfoy, his pale face flushed with pleasure. "You see, there are ten of us and only one of you or hasn't Dumbledore ever taught you how to count?" Rory tried fighting against the person holding her but their grip just tightened.
"I'm not liking where this is going" Lily mumbles watching the screen closely.
"He's dot alone!" shouted a voice from above them. "He's still god be!" Neville was scrambling down the stone benches toward them, Hermione's wand held fast in his trembling hand.
"Neville no go back to Ron"
"STUBEFY !" Neville shouted again, pointing his wand at each Death Eater in turn, "STUBEFY ! STUBE" One of the largest Death Eaters seized Neville from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled and kicked; several of the Death Eaters laughed.
"It's Longbottom, isn't it?" sneered Lucius Malfoy. "Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause. Your death will not come as a great shock."
"Longbottom?" repeated Bellatrix, and a truly evil smile lit her gaunt face. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy."
"I DOE YOU HAB!" roared Neville, and he fought so hard against his captor's encircling grip that the Death Eater shouted,
"Someone Stun him!"
"No, no, no," said Bellatrix. She looked transported, alive with excitement as she glanced at Harry, then back at Neville. "No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents. Unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy"
"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!" roared Neville, who seemed beside himself, kicking and writhing as Bellatrix drew nearer to him and his captor, her wand raised. "DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, HARRY!" Bellatrix raised her wand.
"Crucio!" Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground.
"No" Alice said with tears in her eyes.
"Leave him alone" Rory shouted as the Death Eater holding her tightened their grip even more. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.
"That was just a taster!" Bellatrix said raising her wand so that Neville's screams stopped and he lay sobbing at her feet. She turned and gazed up at Harry. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way and then we move on to your sister over there. We may not be able to kill her but we sure can hurt her!" Harry looked between Rory and Neville. Rory shook her head at him as he held it out. Malfoy jumped forward to take it. Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Remus, Sirius, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley. Malfoy turned and raised his wand, but Tonks had already sent a Stunning Spell right at him. Harry did not wait to see whether it had made contact, but dived off the dais out of the way. The Death Eaters were completely distracted by the appearance of the members of the Order, who were now raining spells down upon them as they jumped from step to step toward the sunken floor. The death eater holding Rory still refused to let go no matter how much she tried to fight against him. Harry managed to get to Neville who was crawling along. The stone floor between them exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Neville's hand had been seconds before. They both scrambled away from the spot, just as thick arm came out of nowhere, seized Harry around the neck and pulled him upright, so that his toes were barely touching the floor.
"Give it to me," growled a voice in his ear, "give me the prophecy" The man was pressing so tightly on Harry's windpipe that he could not breathe.
"Get off of him" Rory shouted.
"Shut it" the Death Eater holding her growled in her ear. She tried to burn him put failed when he shoved his knee in her back making her fall to her knees as he continued to hold her. Sirius was dueling with a Death Eater some ten feet away. Kingsley was fighting two at once; Tonks, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix. Harry was grasping the prophecy
"AARGH!" Neville had come lunging out of nowhere: Unable to articulate a spell, he had jabbed Hermione's wand hard into the eyehole of the Death Eater's mask. The man relinquished Harry at once with a howl of pain and Harry whirled around to face him and gasped,
"STUPEFY !" The Death Eater keeled over backward and his mask slipped off. It was Macnair, Buckbeak's would-be killer, one of his eyes now swollen and bloodshot.
"Thanks!" Harry said to Neville, pulling him aside as Sirius and his Death Eater lurched past, dueling so fiercely that their wands were blurs. Harry looked at Rory as she shook her head at him willing him not to do anything stupid. The Death Eater that was holding her turned out to be Dolohov as he aimed his wand at Neville.
"Tarantallegra!" he shouted, his wand pointing at Neville, whose legs went immediately into a kind of frenzied tap dance, unbalancing him and causing him to fall to the floor again. "Now, Potter" He made the same slashing movement with his wand that he had used on Hermione just as Harry yelled,
"Protego!" Harry felt something streak across his face like a blunt knife but the force of it knocked him sideways, and he fell over Neville's jerking legs, but the Shield Charm had stopped the worst of the spell. Dolohov raised his wand again. "Accio Proph" Sirius hurtled out of nowhere, ramming Dolohov with his shoulder, and sent him flying out of the way making him release Rory as Remus ran to her.
"Wolf are you okay" he pulled her to him searching for any sigh of injury.
"I love how he worries about her so much"
"I'm fine" he nodded before turning back to fight. Sirius and Dolohov were dueling, their wands flashing like swords, sparks flying from their wand tips. Dolohov drew back his wand to make the same slashing movement he had used on Harry and Hermione. Rory quickly threw him into the far wall knocking him unconcious as Sirius turned to her and smiled.
"Nice one!" Sirius shouted as he forced Harry's head down as a pair of Stunning Spells flew toward them, Rory ran over to them. "Now I want you to get out of" They ducked again. A jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius, across the room Tonks fell from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat, and Bellatrix, triumphant, running back toward the fray. "Rory, Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to meet Bellatrix. Another jet of green light flew over Harry's head as he launched himself toward Neville
"Can you stand?" he bellowed in Neville's ear, as Neville's legs jerked and twitched uncontrollably. "Put your arm round my neck" Neville did so Harry heaved Neville's legs were still flying in every direction, they would not support him and then, out of nowhere, a man lunged at them. Both fell backward, Neville's legs waving wildly like an overturned beetle's, Harry with his left arm held up in the air to try and save the small glass ball from being smashed.
"The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" snarled Lucius Malfoy's voice in his ear, the tip of Malfoy's wand pressing hard between his ribs.
"No get off me. Neville catch it!" Harry flung the prophecy across the floor, Neville spun himself around on his back and scooped the ball to his chest. Malfoy pointed the wand instead at Neville but Rory managed to send him flying away from them. As Harry scrambled up again he looked around just as Malfoy smashed into the dais on which Sirius and Bellatrix were now dueling. Malfoy aimed his wand at Harry and Neville again, but before he could draw breath to strike, Remus had jumped between them.
"Harry, round up the others and GO!" Harry seized Neville by the shoulder of his robes and lifted him bodily onto the first tier of stone steps. Neville's legs twitched and jerked and would not support his weight. Harry heaved again with all the strength he possessed and they climbed another step A spell hit the stone bench at Harry's heel. It crumbled away and he fell back to the step below: Neville sank to the ground, his legs still jerking and thrashing, and thrust the prophecy into his pocket.
"Come on!" said Harry desperately, hauling at Neville's robes. "Just try and push with your legs"
"Harry hurry" Rory turned to him as he gave another stupendous heave and Neville's robes tore all along the left seam the small spun-glass ball dropped from his pocket and before either of them could catch it, one of Neville's floundering feet kicked it. It flew some ten feet to their right and smashed on the step beneath them. As they all stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them. Its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding them, not one word of the prophecy could be heard. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.
"Harry, I'b sorry!" cried Neville, his face anguished as his legs continued to flounder, "I'b so sorry, Harry, I didn'd bean do"
"It doesn't matter!" Harry shouted. "Just try and stand, let's get out of"
"Rory's going to do something stupid in a minute" Hermione informs everyone.
"It wasn't stupid" Charlie glares at her.
"Stupid enough to nearly kill herself though"
"Yeah because that's exactly what I was aiming for wasn't it, no it wasn't" Rory snaps back.
"Dubbledore!" Neville said, his sweaty face suddenly transported, staring over Harry's shoulder.
"What?" Rory looked where Neville was looking. Directly above them, framed in the doorway from the Brain Room, stood Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. Dumbledore sped down the steps past Neville and Harry, Dumbledore was already at the foot of the steps when the Death Eaters nearest realized he was there. There were yells; one of the Death Eaters ran for it, scrabbling like a monkey up the stone steps opposite. Dumbledore's spell pulled him back as easily and effortlessly as though he had hooked him with an invisible line. Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. As Rory ran towards him ignoring Remus's shouts to stop.
"No" She screamed as she created a shield to stop Bellatrix's spell from hitting Sirius. She enclosed it within the shield but it was still aiming for Sirius. "Pads move" She shouted as he looked at her, her energy slowly fading as she struggled to hold the curse.
"You can see it killing you" James whispers looking between his best friend and daughter.
"Let go little wolf" he whispered smiling at her.
"No I can't Pads it'll kill you"
"I'm ready to die little wolf but I'm not ready for you to die trying to protect me" Rory could see the tears in his eyes as he looked between her and Harry "let go Rory"
"No I won't do it" She continued to hold the shield as everything started to go blurry.
"Let go. I won't let you die for me Rory. I love you baby girl always remember that. You too Harry" Rory feels someone push her making her lose focus as she collapses. The curse hitting Sirius in the chest as everything goes black.
"You nearly killed yourself trying to save me" Sirius looks at her.
"I tried" Rory says looking down as Charlie wraps his arms around her pulling her against his chest.