Black shapes were emerging out of thin air all around them, blocking their way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at their hearts.
"It's a trap!" Danny's companions stared at him, "C'mon, haven't you watched Star...of course you haven't"
"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.
"Where's Sirius?" Harry said.
Several of the Death Eaters laughed; a harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to Harry's left said triumphantly, "The Dark Lord always knows!"
"Always,"echoed Malfoy softly.
"Except proper ways to hide his soul, but that's not important," Phantom said, grinning.
"HOW DARE YOU..." the woman, Bellatrix, shouted. Danny lifted his hand with pocketclock and pressed the button. He came right to her and punched her into gut. Hard. Then Danny returned on his place, pressing the button again. The woman dropped on the ground, gasping for air.
"And now you have witnessed what my family is so famous for," Phantom grinned.
"Enough, give me the prophecy, Potter"
"I know Sirius is here," said Harry, though panic was causing his chest to constrict and he felt as though he could not breathe properly, "I know you've got him!"
More of the Death Eaters laughed.
"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter," said Malfoy, "Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands"
"Go on, then," said Harry, raising his own wand to chest height. As he did so, the five wands of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna rose on either side of him. Danny was still leaning on his cane. The knot in Harry's stomach tightened. If Sirius really was not here, he had led his friends to their deaths for no reason at all.
But the Death Eaters did not strike.
"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," said Malfoy coolly.
"Yeah, right!" Danny said, "He gives you this...prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you? Rule number one, folks, never trust bad guys. Plus you are still walking because I want to," Death Eaters didn't laugh, they were present in Gaunts' shack.
"So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"
He could not think what to do but to keep talking. Neville's arm was pressed against his, and he could feel him shaking; he could feel one of the others' quickened breath on the back of his head. He was hoping they were all thinking hard about ways to get out of this, because his mind was blank.
"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, who finally got up, the grin fading from her face, "You jest, Harry Potter"
"Nope, not jesting," said Harry, his eyes flicking 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.
"Yep," Danny said, popping 'p', "Voldie, Voldie, Voldem..."
"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..." Danny laughed.
"Didn't Baldie tell you that his daddy was muggle?"
"STUPEF..."
Danny yet again repeated the trick to shut Bellatrix up.
"It's about time you run away screaming," Phantom grinned and took off an eyepatch, revealing his glowing eye. He lifted his hand and then made a swift motion. 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, as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to fall from above. He seized a handful of Hermione's robes and dragged her forwards, holding one arm over his head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them. A Death Eater lunged forwards through the cloud of dust and Harry elbowed him hard in the masked face; they were all yelling, there were cries of pain, and thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from their spheres.
Danny was following close by, fighting Death Eaters on his way, which wasn't a lot, looks like they were afraid to go against him. So he teleported from one spot to the other, attacking unsuspecting enemies. They were at the end of row ninety-seven; Harry turned right and began to sprint in earnest; he could hear footsteps right behind him and Hermione's voice urging Neville on; straight ahead, the door through which they had come was ajar; Harry could see the glittering light of the bell jar; he pelted through the doorway, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in his hand, and 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 are the others?" Asked Danny, extremely worried.
"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; Danny easily heard Lucius Malfoy roar, "Leave Nott, leave him, I say... his injuries will be nothing to the Dark Lord compared to losing that prophecy. Jugson, come back here, we need to organise! 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...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!"
"What do we do?" Hermione asked, trembling from head to foot.
"You hide, I kick their butts, trust me," Danny said.
They ran as quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, towards the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when Harry 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, Harry, Hermione and Neville dived under desks. They 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 one of the Death Eaters.
"You think so?" Danny asked, appearing behind and knocking them both out. He went to the others.
"Alright, 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. You could find someone and raise the alarm ..."
"And what are you going do do?" said Neville, frowning at Danny.
"We've got to find the others," said Harry.
"Well, I'll go with you,"said Neville firmly.
"But...nevermind"
"My gran's going do kill be," said Neville thickly.
They crept out of the office and back towards the door into the black hallway, which now seemed completely deserted. They walked a few steps forwards, the door of the Time Room swung shut behind them and the walls began to rotate once more.
"So which way d'you reck..."
But before they could make a decision as to which way to try, a door to their right sprang open and three people fell out of it.
"Ron!" croaked Harry, dashing towards them, "Ginny, are you all..."
"Harry," said Ron, giggling weakly, lurching forwards, 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.
"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, "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..."
"Space?! Why didn't I go there?" Danny shouted.
"Danny, we saw Uranus up close!" said Ron, still giggling feebly, "Get it, Danny? We saw Uranus, ha ha"
A bubble of blood grew at the corner of Ron's mouth and burst.
"Being babbling idiot is my feature, Ron, so snap out of it already!"
"...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.
"And what about Ron?" said Harry fearfully, as Ron continued to giggle, still hanging off the front of Harry's robes.
"I don't know what they hit him with," said Luna sadly, "but he's gone a bit funny, I could hardly get him along at all"
"Harry," said Ron, pulling Harry's ear down to his mouth and still giggling weakly, "you know who this girl is, Harry? She's Loony ... Loony Lovegood ... ha ha ha ..."
"Are you sure they didn't just take him to the pub?" Danny asked.
"We've got to get out of here," said Harry firmly, "Luna, can you help Ginny?"
"Yes," said Luna, sticking her wand behind her ear for safekeeping, then putting an arm around Ginny's waist and pulling her up.
"It's only my ankle, I can do it myself!" said Ginny impatiently, but next moment she had collapsed sideways and grabbed Luna for support. Harry pulled Ron's arm over his shoulder just as, so many months ago, he had pulled Dudley's. He looked around: they had a one in twelve chance of getting the exit right first time.
He heaved Ron towards a door; they were within a few feet of it when another door across the hall burst open and three Death Eaters sped in, led by Malfoy.
"Give. Me. The prophecy, Potter!" He said. Danny took the ball from Harry, using telekinesis.
"Now let me get this straight," he said, holding the prophecy, "one step and I break it," they stopped, causing him to grin, "wow, what a deja vu. Open the door anyone," Danny told his friends.
Neville did as was told and everyone stepped inside, Phantom being the last one. But the second he turned his back...
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
He was sent flying on a plenty big distance.
"DANNY!" everyone shouted, immediately they were grabbed by laughing Death Eaters.
"Well, well, looks like someone was overconfident," Malfoy said, picking up the ball.
Suddenly, loud groan was heard. Everybody turned to the source of the voice. Danny was getting up on his feet, to their undescirable shock.
"Yeah, you are right, shouldn't have turned back to the rats," he said chuckling and straightening his back with crack.
"HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD?!" Lucius exclaimed. Danny laughed maniacally.
"That's the point, Malfoy," he threw the cane away, "you can't kill the dead"
Immediately pearly white ring appeared, moving up and down, changing his appearance. Both Death Eaters and his friends jumped in fright, except Luna. Danny now was wearing black and white attire, his eyes were blazing with green and red light, his hair became white fire, with green flaming crown on his head.
"Now let's see how you fair against the King of Hell"
He faded from sight with a Cheshire grin on his face. Death Eaters started to look around rapidly, trying to hear him approaching and shaking slightly from an eerie laugh, filling the air.
Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, 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 Danny, to give proper first response and counterattack, diving out of the line of fire. Harry could see Neville crawling along. He dodged another jet of red light and flung himself flat on the ground to reach Neville.
"Are you OK?" he yelled, as another spell soared inches over their heads.
"Yes," said Neville, trying to pull himself up, "What's with Danny?" He asked.
"I'm half-ghost, bud," Danny said, appearing out of nowhere, "I heard footsteps out there, so I needed to distract them"
"How did you know that were they?" Asked Harry, ducking under other spell.
"Moody's wooden leg gives special sound, now, if you don't mind I'm gonna have fun"
Danny teleported right in front of the Death Eater, smiling innocently.
"Going somewhere?" He lifted him with one hand and threw the wizard some stairs down, grimacing, "that must hurt"
"Stupefy!" Danny quickly raised an ectoshield to protect himself from red blast.
The stone floor under him exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Danny had been only seconds before. He, however, can fly, so Phantom landed on his legs easily. He noticed how Luna was dueling some Death Eater. Danny blasted him with an ectoblast.
"You alright?" Phantom shouted.
"Yes!" She responded. Danny nodded and became invisible again.
"DUBBLEDORE!" He heard Neville shout.
Danny turned to look where Neville was staring. 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, who had no more thoughts of leaving. Dumbledore was already at the foot of the steps when the Death Eaters nearest realised he was there and yelled to the others. 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 pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Danny 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.
The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.
The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.
Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his guardian's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.
Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing, Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second ...
But Sirius did not reappear.
"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled, "SIRIUS!"
He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out ...
But as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.
"There's nothing you can do, Harry"
"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
"it's too late, Harry"
"We can still reach him," Harry struggled hard and viciously, but Lupin would not let go ...
"There's nothing you can do, Harry ... nothing ... he's gone"
"DRAMA QUEENS!" Danny shouted and entered the gateway, his cape following behind.
It was quiet for some time, they all were waiting for something to happen. Then, Phantom walked out of white mist, holding shaking Sirius.
"Where...in the bloody hell...was I?" He asked gasping and falling on the floor.
"Congratulations, Mr. Black. You are the first human who ever stepped in the Infinite Realms"
A.N. Yay, Sirius lives!