"Get back to the door!" Harry bellowed.
No one had to be told twice. Together, they twisted in and out of crumbling shelves, narrowly dodging falling orbs and moving as fast as their legs could carry them.
Katie caught sight of the door up ahead. Relief flooded her. Harry reached the door first and wrenched it open, only to scream as he passed through it. Hermione screamed too, and Katie didn't find out why until she herself ran through the door.
The circular room that had once resided behind the black door was gone, instead replaced by a gaping hole with a drop of tens of feet. Apparently, everyone had went through the door, because multiple different yells of terror were reverberating around the walls. Surely they weren't going to fall to their death?
They did not.
Just before it seemed like they were going to hit the cold, stone floor and be struck dead, they stopped, mid-air, lingered for a moment, then fell the final few inches to the floor. Niall helped Chris to his feet, who in turn pulled Katie up. She gazed around with mingled wonder and fear in her swirling grey eyes.
"Department of Mysteries?" Ron said breathlessly. "Got that bit right, didn't they?"
This room was almost as large as the last, dimly lit and circular, and the centre, where they were, was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. Stone benches ran all around the walls, creating steps of sorts, so the room resembled that of a courtroom or an amphitheatre. In the very centre of the sloping pit was a raised stone dais, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Katie was amazed it was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with what appeared to be a black veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.
While Katie certainly found this archway interesting, her feelings were nothing compared to Harry's, who became completely transfixed by the arch as soon as he laid eyes on it. He stepped towards the veiled archway, eyeing it with such fascination and awe that you would a great pile of gold.
"The voices..." Harry said. "Can you tell what they're saying?"
Katie suddenly felt very uneasy. She wasn't sure about everyone else, but she definitely could not hear any voices. Judging by the apprehensive looks that the others were throwing around, they couldn't hear anything either.
"There aren't any voices, Harry," Hermione said, sounding scared, much more scared than Katie had ever seen her. "Let's get out of here."
Luna, however, walked up to Harry's eyes and gazed up at the stone archway with the same amount of wonder in her wide, dreamy eyes. "I hear them too."
"Harry, it's just an empty archway," Hermione whimpered. "Please, Harry!"
There was a great swooshing noise from above, as though capes were rippling in the darkness. Averting her eyes upwards, Katie couldn't see the ceiling — it was obscured by darkness. Harry raised his wand.
"Get behind me!" he ordered and, panic arising inside of them, they all obeyed and pointed their wands upwards also.
There was a distant clashing and then, without warning, black smoke enveloped them all and shrouded Katie's vision. She flailed her wand mindlessly and was about to cast a spell when she thought better; she couldn't see any of her friends and might accidentally hit one of them.
Katie let out a scream that was abruptly cut off when a strong forearm wrapped around her throat. She could feel herself being roughly lifted from the ground by her neck and dragged aside. Of course, she struggled against whoever was holding her, but to no avail. They were too strong.
When the whirl of smoke dissolved and everybody's muffled yells fell away, Katie was free to take in what had just happened. The Death Eaters had plunged down on them and each taken hold of one of them, and were now keeping them captive along the edges of the room, encircling the stone archway. Katie could see Chris on the other side of the room. He was being held by Maria. Leo was standing close to them, still staring mindlessly into nothingness, though Katie was sure she saw his eyes flick askew momentarily.
Harry was the only person left standing. He hopelessly spun around, pointing his wand at each Death Eater in turn, unsure of who to strike first. There was a deep, ringing chuckle and Lucius Malfoy emerged from the shadows. Harry whipped around to face him, concealing the prophecy from the man's reach but pointing his wand right at him.
"Did you actually believe, or where you truly naive enough to think that you stood a chance against us." he hissed, finishing with a fond nod towards a smirking Bellatrix, who was holding Neville's head back by the scruff of his hair and pointing her wand at his revealed throat.
"I'll make this simple for you, Potter," Lucius stated, holding his hand out to Harry, palm up. "Give me the prophecy now... or watch your friends die."
It was at this very moment that Katie realised just how wrong she had been when she rounded on Draco and said, "Like father like son, right?" As she stared at Lucius, whose words were spewed with venom and hatred, whose face was riddled with wickedness, whose soul was cold, she realised that Draco could not have been any less like his father if he tried. Yes, Draco could be a prat, and yes he sometimes had a knack for bullying, but Katie knew, deep down that he was a good person. Had he not been raised by Lucius Malfoy, Draco would not have been a bully, he would not have been so obsessed with the idea of blood purity, and maybe he would've been there with them in the Department of Mysteries fighting off Lord Voldemort's followers.
Harry cast a despondent glance at each and every one of his friends, who were trying and failing, to free themselves from the Death Eaters that were holding them. Katie had never before seen Harry look so conflicted, and although she wanted nothing more than for her friends to leave the Ministry alive, she hoped with all her being that Harry would not give up the prophecy.
She hoped that he wouldn't, because Katie knew exactly why Voldemort wanted that prophecy — it contained the knowledge he needed to kill Harry. That small, dusty ball was the key to killing Harry Potter, and maybe Harry wasn't aware of it himself, but he was special. Whatever saved him the night that his parents died had marked him as the Chosen One.
"Don't give it to him, Harry!" Neville cried, only to be harshly shushed by Bellatrix, who pressed her wand even harder against his throat.
Harry glanced between Lucius Malfoy's leering face and the prophecy he was holding, and slowly, hesitantly, he started raising his hand, outstretching the prophecy to the Death Eater.
A door flew open and five more people came sprinting into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley and Moody. At once, the Death Eaters that were holding Katie and the others captive released them and Katie fell to the floor. She quickly crawled out of the way as the Order rained spells down upon the Death Eaters, who were in a mad scramble to defend themselves.
"Chris!" Katie yelled, jumping to her feet and dashing towards her brothers. "Chris! Leo! Are you OK?"
Leo was still in a state of complete inertia, meaning that he was still under the influence of the Imperius Curse. However, every few seconds, a muscle in his face would twitch or his eyes would move around.
"Reducto!" a Death Eater screeched. The curse flew over Katie's head and a great hole was blasted in the wall behind them.
"Stupefy!" Katie retaliated. The Stunner hit the Death Eater in the face and he collapsed. Katie wheeled around to say something to Chris but found that he was now some feet away aiding Niall in dueling Dolohov. Katie grabbed the sides of Leo's face and looked into his eyes, shaking him gently.
"Leo? Leo, can you hear me?" she said, sounding desperate. After all this time, she had her brother back, but he didn't even recognise her. "I need you to wake up. It's me, it's Katie. Wake up, Leo, please."
Katie had been so distracted that she didn't notice Macnair, another Death Eater, marching towards her until he cast a curse and Sirius leapt in front of her.
"Protego!" Sirius cried, followed by, "Stupefy!"
He hastily spun around to face Katie. His eyes momentarily flickered towards Leo.
"Imperius Curse?"
Katie nodded. "Yeah — Sirius, listen, my mum, she's—"
"I know," Sirius growled, a look of utter betrayal on his face. "I was just dueling her," he shook his head dismally. "I never would have thought... she didn't seem like the type..."
A masked Death Eater was surging towards them. Panic exploding inside of her, Katie raised her wand, pointed it over Sirius' shoulder and cast the first spell that came to her mind.
"Reducto!"
The floor was blasted apart and the Death Eater was thrown some ten feet into the air and twenty feet back. The stone from the floor erupted, leaving a gigantic, gaping hole, as the rubble flew in all directions. Katie stared at it with her mouth agape while Sirius smirked proudly.
"I told you, you're more powerful than you think." he said, grinning, before leaping up onto the dais to duel with a maniacally laughing Bellatrix Lestrange.
Katie wasn't sure who had dropped it, but the prophecy tumbled down the stone benches and smashed by Katie's feet. As she stared at the place where it had broken, appalled by what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by anyone but Katie, and Harry and Neville, who were standing nearby and staring at the fragments of the prophecy in horror. Katie could see the mouth of the spectral figure moving, but in all the crashes and yells surrounding them, she heard only one sentence from the prophecy...
"...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives..."
Beside Katie, someone screamed, and she snapped her head around to find that Leo had broken free of the Imperius Curse as Maria had said he often did. Of course he was confused and terror was surging through him, but Katie grabbed his hands and forced him to face her.
"Leo! Leo! Hey, hey, it's OK! Look at me."
Leo's wide, petrified eyes were frantically darting in all directions and he was shaking uncontrollably, but he seemed to recognise Katie's voice because he sharply fixed his scared gaze on her. His electric blue eyes appeared to soften and Katie could almost feel the relief flooding through him.
"Katie..." he whispered uncertainly, as though he was unsure if she was really there or just a figment of his imagination. A wide smile split across Katie's face and she burst into tears.
"Yes, Leo, it's me. I'm here!"
She pulled Leo into a hug so tight that she was surprised he didn't complain, but he wrapped his arms around her just as fervently and she heard him let out a choked sob in her ear. The chaos and destruction around them seemed to dissolve as they held each other, and for a few, peaceful moments, Katie felt happy. She had her brother back.
The next series of events occurred in a horrific haze.
In a gust of swirling black smoke, Maria Blair materialised only feet from her two children. Her face was twisted into a smile so evil that she could very well have been possessed by the devil himself. Her desolate grey eyes glittered malevolently and she steadily raised her wand.
"Perhaps this will awaken the darkness inside of you." she growled maliciously.
Katie's heart beat so hard that it obstructed her breathing. She couldn't think of anything to do. Leo clung to her like his life depended on it and stared at his mother with the utmost fear in his eyes.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was a burst of green light and Katie saw her whole life flash before her eyes. It was as though time had stopped.
Grinning wickedly, Maria vanished. Leo fell limp in Katie's arms, and by the force of gravity, they were both pulled to the floor. Trembling all over, Katie held Leo's flaccid form close to her as tears formed in her eyes, obscuring her vision and making everything blurred.
"Leo..." she croaked, rocking him gently. "Leo, please wake up."
But Leo only stared unblinkingly at the ceiling, his mouth open in a silent scream, his arms hanging loosely by his side. Katie felt empty, like she would never be cheerful again; it was the same sort of sensation that occurred within a person when a Dementor was near. A waterfall of tears streamed heavily down her face as she hugged her little brother close, repeatedly mumbling his name as if it would revive him.
"Remus!" she screamed, desperate for someone to help. Leo couldn't be gone, he just couldn't be. Lupin didn't hear her — he and Tonks were preoccupied, dueling with a pair of Death Eaters.
"Sirius!"
But Sirius, too, had not heard her. In fact, no one seemed to notice that Leo Blair had just died in his sister's arms.
Across the extensive room, Katie saw her mother standing very still, her looming figure grinning wickedly across at the sister and the brother. An uncontrollable upswing of rage exploded inside Katie. She lay Leo gently on the cold, stone floor before bringing herself to her feet. Taking out her wand, she ran towards her mother. Pure fury was controlling the girl's every move. She aimed straight at Maria's chest, who was still smiling, almost inviting Katie to hurt her, like she wanted it.
"Avada—!"
Someone roughly grabbed Katie's arm and swung it back before she could finish the incantation. She tried with all the strength she could muster to rip herself free of the grasp, but they only held her tighter. Whipping around, her eyes burning with anger, Katie saw that it was Ron who had stopped her from performing the Killing Curse and was holding her back.
"Let me go!" Katie roared, hitting Ron with her free arm. "Let me go, Ron! She — she killed—!"
"I know, I know!" Ron said quickly. Katie noticed now that he also looked quite teary. "But this is what she wants, Katie. She wants you to kill, she wants you to be like her. Think about what your doing!"
Katie felt as though she had been slapped across the face. Her stomach done a somersault as she realised what she had just tried to do. She tried to kill someone. She stared down at her shaking hands as though she had never seen them before.
"I..."
"I know," Ron said gently. "It's OK."
Katie was crying again as everything that had happened in the last three minutes fully registered with her.
She had just gotten her brother back and now he was gone.
"Nice one, James!" Sirius yelled from the dais.
Instinctively, Katie swiveled her head, as did Ron, and they saw Harry and Sirius dueling Lucius Malfoy by the stone archway. Just as it had appeared that Sirius had defeated Lucius and the battle had come to an end, Bellatrix materialised on a stone bench nearby.
For the second time that night, Katie felt time slow down.
A beam of red light issued from the end of Bellatrix's wand and hit Sirius in the chest. Katie saw the look of mingled surprise and fear on Sirius Black's face as his body curved in a graceful arc and he sank backwards through the veil.
Harry screamed.
In the shock of the moment, all duels were halted, and Harry's screams reverberated through the now silent room, screams so full of agony that Katie was sure she felt her soul leave her body as the sound rang through her ears. Harry made to dive towards the archway to retrieve Sirius from it, but Lupin grabbed him around the chest and held him back.
Smiling proudly, Bellatrix slipped away into the shadows, and Harry, fueled only by anger as Katie had been moments before, freed himself from Lupin's hold and tore after her into the unknown regions of the Department of Mysteries.
There were a couple more flashing lights as the last few spells were cast, and an empty but deafening silence fell. Katie looked around. All the remaining Death Eaters had been stunned. The Order and the Hogwarts students stood very still, their chests heaving as they breathed heavily and stared in disbelief at the archway. Still, no one seemed to notice that Leo was dead until Christian's eyes fell on his motionless form.
"L-Leo?" he stammered out. "Leo! Leo!"
A rush of footsteps echoed through the still room and Chris was at Leo's side in a matter of seconds. He let out a weak cry when he lay eyes on his lifeless brother and sunk to his knees beside him. Niall rushed to Chris and done his best to comfort him, but he did not do much good, for they had come to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius, only to lose Sirius, and Katie and Chris lost their only remaining family as well.
Katie felt someone gently take her hand and turned around to see that it was Hermione. Her eyes were red-rimmed and full of tears and, having no words that might make Katie feel in any way better, she shook her head sadly and pulled her into a hug.
As Katie cried on Hermione's shoulder, Remus, who was very white in the face said, "Let's get out of here, shall we?" His voice was croaky, like every word he spoke was causing him pain.
***
Never in her entire life had Katerina Blair felt so broken, so lost. At Christmas, she had received a sliver of hope that Leo might still be alive, and when she found him again, and he broke free of his Imperius Curse, for a brief moment Katie was led to believe that everything was going to be just fine.
But as she sat upright in her bed in the hospital wing while her friends slept soundly around her, the events of the night before flashed through her mind.
Sirius was dead.
Leo was dead.
Her mother was a Death Eater.
She, Katie, had tried to perform the Killing Curse, and would have done so without hesitation had Ron not been there to stop her.
The sun was rising on the horizon; there was a rim of dazzling orange visible over the mountains that surrounded Hogwarts. Katie felt as though she had been watching the sun's progress for years upon end as it rose slowly but gracefully into the cool, blue sky.
She wanted to sleep. Her aching muscles were screaming for mercy, begging her to lay back and rest, but every time she closed her eyes, the memory of her mother shouting "Avada Kedavra!" replayed inside her head.
As the blue sky faded to a dusty gold, Katie found that she could sit and watch no longer. When Madam Pomfrey bustled into her office Katie took her chance — springing up from her bed, she dashed for the door, closing it carefully behind her so not to alert Madam Pomfrey that she had left.
"Katie?"
The Slytherin let out a small gasp and jumped around, but the sliver of fear she felt subsided when she saw that it was merely Harry who had called her name. His expression was blank and Katie knew that he was feeling the exact same as she was: empty.
Katie had never been so relieved to see Harry. She didn't know much information about what had happened after he chased Bellatrix away from the dais, only that Dumbledore and Voldemort had both appeared in the Atrium and dueled, but she had no knowledge pf what had become of Harry or even if he had survived until she saw him standing before her then and there.
Harry took a deep, shaky breath before speaking. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry—"
"Don't." Katie said quickly, shaking her head.
"If I hadn't have been stupid enough to think my dream was real then Leo might still be alive!"
"No, Harry, listen to me," Katie took a step towards him as if that would establish a dominance of sorts. "My mum killed Leo, all right? Bellatrix killed Sirius. Voldemort killed them. None of this is your fault."
"But — I... I just feel like everyone is gone. My mum, my dad, Sirius, I don't have anyone." Harry said, his voice barely rising above the volume of a whisper, and he focused his bloodshot eyes on the stone floor beneath him.
A tiny smile forced its way onto Katie's face. "You still have me," she said softly, and in an instant Harry's eyes snapped up to meet hers. "I'm not going anywhere."
They stepped into a hug, and while it wasn't a very tight hug because both of them were physically exhausted and emotionally drained, they appreciated it all the same. Harry buried his head in the crook of Katie's neck and she could tell that he was trying very hard to hold back a waterfall of tears.
"I'm sorry for hurting you." Harry mumbled.
Although he couldn't see it, Katie shook her head. "It's fine, Harry. We're way past that now."
Harry unraveled his arms from around her, sniffled, and took one step back. His mouth was slightly open, giving him the appearance of someone who wanted to say something but couldn't find it within themselves to will the words to roll of their tongue.
"Katie, I..." he began uncertainly, almost hesitantly. Katie took notice of how he refused to maintain eye contact — his eyes kept flicking between her face and the floor. "What I wanted to say last night was—"
Katie gave him a small nod to encourage him. "Yeah?"
While Harry's entire face had faded snow white, his cheeks were glowing pink. There was a soft patter of footsteps from somewhere in the distance. They both turned their head to find Draco walking towards them.
"You — you know what?" Harry said finally. "It doesn't matter anyway. I'll... see you later."
Before Katie had the chance to protest, Harry pushed open the door of the hospital wing and slipped inside. Now that he was directly beside her, Katie could see the expression of worry that was painted on Draco's face.
"Where did you go yesterday?" he asked. "You sort of just disappeared after History of Magic. We were all really worried about you."
Katie took one, deep, shaky breath. She wasn't sure why, but something about seeing Draco was making all of her grief resurface and building tears were once more fogging her vision.
"Your dad tried to kill me." she croaked. A harsh lump in her throat obstructed her speech.
Stunned, Draco staggered backwards, and his already pale face seemed to whiten even further as he stared, wide-eyed, at the girl in front of her and tried to comprehend what she had just said.
"What?"
Katie's tears were beginning to fall. "And — and Leo... Leo is dead! And Sirius — oh my Merlin, Sirius is dead too... Your dad is a Death Eater, my mum is a Death Eater, she killed Leo, she killed my dad. He wasn't even my real dad! Your father tried to kill us and... and it's just so much so fast."
Draco was backing up into the wall, his face growing more horrified as every sentence slipped past Katie's lips. She was crying very hard now, almost as hard as she had done when the Killing Curse struck Leo the night before.
"Katie, I—"
"And I know you had nothing to do with it, Draco," Katie continued quickly, because she knew if she didn't get all of her feelings out now while they were raw and overwhelming, she would bottle them up and they would eat away at her, "but you just... I can't — I need to be alone. I — I know it was your dad and not you, and I'm not blaming you for anything, I just—"
Words failing her, her emotions becoming too strong, she turned and made to sprint down the hall but Draco seized her hand and held her back.
"Leo is dead?" he whispered. Utmost sympathy was swimming behind his still silver eyes. Katie nodded, and as she done so, she let out a choked sob and clapped her hand over her mouth.
"Just promise me that you're not involved in any of this Death Eater stuff, Draco." Katie said.
Looking shocked, Draco blinked at her. "I — Katie, what?"
Her heart sunk to the pit of her stomach.
"You are, aren't you?" she cried, turning away from him. He pulled her back again.
"No, no!" he said hastily. "I'm not, I'm not!"
Katie wiped her eyes with the hem of her sleeve. Draco was still gripping her hand and she could see that his eyes were alive with terror, making it impossible to read him and uncover if he was telling the truth or not.
She sniffled. "Promise?"
Though it may have only been for a split second, Draco seemed to have hesitated.
"Promise."