Black shapes were emerging out of thin air all around us, blocking our way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at their hearts. Ginny gave a gasp of horror.
"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.
My insides plummeted sickeningly. We were trapped and outnumbered two to one.
"To me," said Malfoy yet again.
"Where's Sirius?" Harry said.
Several of the Death Eaters laughed. A harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to my left said triumphantly, "The Dark Lord always knows!"
"Always," echoed Malfoy softly. "Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."
"We want to know where Sirius is!" I shouted.
"We want to know where Sirius is!" mimicked the woman to my left. She and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from me and the others, the light from their wands dazzling my eyes.
"You've got him," said Harry, pushing me behind him. "He's here. I know he is."
"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman in a horrible, mock-baby voice. I slowly raised my wand with my free hand.
"Don't do anything," he muttered to me. "Not yet —"
The woman who had mimicked him let out a raucous scream of laughter.
"You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"
"Oh, you don't know the Potters as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy softly. "They have a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about them. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."
"I know Sirius is here," said Harry. "I know you've got him!"
More of the Death Eaters laughed, though the woman still laughed loudest of all.
"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," I stepped out from behind Harry and raised my wand again. As I did, the six wands of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna rose on either side of me. The knot in my stomach tightened.
But the Death Eaters did not strike.
"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," said Malfoy coolly.
It was my turn to laugh.
"Yeah, right!" I said. "I give you this— prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the female Death Eater shrieked, "Accio Proph —"
"Protego!" I shouted before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of my fingers I managed to cling on to it.
"Oh, she 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.
"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 them watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."
"No!" I shouted, stepping sideways in front of Ginny. I felt the others close in around her, the prophecy held up to my chest.
"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," I 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 me, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.
"So," said Harry from beside me, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?"
"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, Harry Potter."
"Nope, not jesting," I said, my eyes flicking from Death Eater to Death Eater, looking for a weak link, a space through which we could escape. "How come Voldemort wants it?"
Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses.
"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix.
"Yeah," I said, maintaining my tight grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempt to bewitch it from me. This was their weak spot. "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 —"
"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" said Harry recklessly. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle— or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"
"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 us and several of the glass orbs there shattered.
"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"
"He dared— she dares —" shrieked Bellatrix incoherently. "— They stands there — filthy half-blood—"
"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malfoy.
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," I said, playing for time.
"Do not play games with us, Potter," said Malfoy.
"I'm not playing games," I said, half my mind on the conversation, half on my wandering foot. And then I found someone's toes and pressed down upon them. A sharp intake of breath behind me told me they were Hermione's.
"What?" she whispered.
"Dumbledore never told you that the reason you both bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" said Malfoy sneeringly.
"We— what?" I said, and for a moment I quite forgot my plan. "What about our scars?"
"What?" whispered Hermione more urgently behind me.
"Can this be?" said Malfoy, sounding maliciously delighted; some of the Death Eaters were laughing again, and under cover of their laughter, I hissed to Hermione, moving my lips as little as possible, "Smash shelves —"
"Dumbledore never told you?" Malfoy repeated. "Well, this explains why you both didn't come earlier, the Dark Lord wondered why—"
"— when I say go—"
"— 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?" said Harry. "So he wanted us 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 us?"
"About both of you, Potter, about both of you... Haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you both as a baby?"
"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" I said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy, my fingers tightening over the warm glass sphere in my hand. "And he's made us 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, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?"
"So he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" said Harry. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it— and Bode?"
"Very good, Potter, very good..." said Malfoy slowly. "But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell —"
"NOW!" I yelled.
Six different voices behind me bellowed "REDUCTO!" Six curses flew in six different directions and the shelves opposite us exploded as they hit.
"RUN!" Harry yelled, and as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to pour from above, he seized a handful of my and Hermione's robes and dragged us forward. A Death Eater lunged forward through the cloud of dust and Harry elbowed him hard in the masked face. Everyone was yelling, there were cries of pain, thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from their spheres —
We found the way ahead clear and I saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna sprint past us, their arms over their heads. Something heavy struck me on the side of the face but I merely ducked my head and sprinted onward; a hand caught me by the shoulder; I heard Harry shout "Stupefy!" and the hand released me at once.
The door through which we had come was ajar straight ahead, I could see the glittering light of the bell jar, I pelted through it, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in my hand, as I waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind us—
"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.
"Where — where are the others?" gasped Harry. Ron, Luna, and Ginny weren't there.
"They must have gone the wrong way!" I whispered terror in my face.
"Listen!" whispered Neville.
From the door, I could hear 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— Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with the Potters until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary— 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!"
Trying to find a way to escape, I 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, Neville, and I dove under desks. I could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.
Poking his wand out from under the desk, Harry 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 me, who had crawled out from under the desk to get a better aim.
"Avada —"
Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and his aim to go awry. Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair, he cried, "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared back toward the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the Death Eater in front and Harry hot on his heels, Neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck at what he had done.
I yelled at Harry and Neville to get out of the way and just in time as I shouted, "STUPEFY!"
Hastily, we fought off the Death Eaters around the room, shouting hexes and jinxes. Just as we managed to disarm and fight off the few Death Eaters, 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?"
"Maisey!" Hermione screamed.
We had run halfway toward it when I saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room toward us. Veering left I 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!"
Harry, Hermione, Neville, and I wer knocked backward off our feet. Neville was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view, Hermione smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books, Harry was thrown against the wall and groaned in pain; the back of my head slammed into the stone wall next to him, tiny lights burst in front of my eyes, and for a moment I was too dizzy and bewildered to react, but I kept the bottle tightly in my hand.
"WE'VE GOT them!" yelled the Death Eater nearest to me, "IN AN OFFICE OFF —"
"Silencio!" I cried, and the man's voice was extinguished.
"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater raised his wand.
"Well done, Ha —"
But the Death Eater I 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!" I cried.
The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged— his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face— Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry twisted around, his own wand held high as the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry.
Harry screamed in pain, holding his head in pain.
"Stop, please!" I cried.
The Death Eater grinned in satisfaction and let him go, walking over towards me as I was the only one still standing.
"Whaddever you do, Maidey," said Neville 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 the Death Eater looked over his shoulder; I took the chance: "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
"Hermione," Harry ran over to Hermione and shook her. "Hermione, wake up..."
"What's wrong with Hermione?" I scrambled over to them.
"Whad did 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..."
"Guys, 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..."
Harry scooped Hermione up with the help of Neville as we slowly walked over to the door, trying not to grab the attention of the baby head Death Eater.
"Hold up your wand and guard us," Harry instructed.
I nodded and did as I was told. The door of the Time Room swung shut behind us, and the walls began to rotate once more. The room spun as it rotated, from the recent blow on the back of my head; I narrowed my eyes and raised my shaky wand.
"So which way d'you reck —?"
But before we 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 toward them. "Ginny— are you all —?"
"Harry," said Ron, giggling weakly, lurching forward, seizing the front of Harry's robes and gazing at him with unfocused eyes. "There you are... Maiseeeeey... hiiiii..."
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. "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— one of them grabbed Ginny's foot, I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Pluto in his face, but... I don't know about Ron—"
"He's mental, he was tortured," I gasped.
"We've got to get out of here," said Harry firmly. "Luna, Maisey, can you help Ginny?"
Luna and I pulled Ginny up to her feet and follow Harry towards the doors. There was a one-in-twelve chance we would go through the right door, but we proceeded anyways. Harry leaned forward and choose a door, but across the wall, another door bursts open with three Death Eaters speeding 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. We were all over the threshold just in time to slam the door against Bellatrix.
"Colloportus!" shouted Harry, and he heard three bodies slam into the door on the other side.
We were back in the Brain Room. I could hear the footsteps in the hall behind us as more Death Eaters came running to join the first group.
"Luna— Neville— Maisey— help me!"
The four of us tore around the room, sealing the doors as we went: Harry crashed into a table and rolled over the top of it in his haste to reach the next door.
"Colloportus!" I shouted at the doors as I ran.
Luna and Neville were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall, just as Luna went to go lock it, she cried, "Collo — aaaaaaaaargh..."
She flew through the air, just as 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 Potter!" shrieked Bellatrix, and she ran at me. I dodged her and sprinted back up the room.
"Hey!" said Ron, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering drunkenly toward me, giggling. "Hey, Maisey, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Maisey?"
"Ron, get out of the way, get down —"
But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.
"Honest, Maisey, they're brains— look— Accio Brain!"
"Ron don't touch—"
Ron reached up towards the spinal cords of the brains; the moment they made contact with his skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.
"Diffindo!" yelled Harry, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Ron before his eyes, but they would not break. Ron fell over, still thrashing against his bonds.
"STUBEFY!" shouted Neville, 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. Harry, Neville, and I were now the only two left fighting the five Death Eaters, two of whom sent streams of silver light like arrows past them that left craters in the wall behind us. I ran for it as Bellatrix Lestrange sprinted right at me. Holding the prophecy high above my head I sprinted back up the room; all I could think of doing was to draw the Death Eaters away from the others.
"Maisey!" I heard Harry call out for me.
It seemed to have worked. They streaked after me, knocking chairs and tables flying but not daring to bewitch me in case they hurt the prophecy, and I dashed through the only door still open, the one through which the Death Eaters themselves had come. Inwardly praying that Neville and Harry would stay with Ron— find some way of releasing him— I ran a few feet into the new room and felt the floor vanish—
I heard more footsteps, someone grab my arm, but every step I took, the floor vanished. I was falling down every step, with a crash that knocked the breath out of my body, I landed flat on my back while Harry landed on top of me— those were his footsteps. The whole room was ringing with the Death Eaters' laughter. Neville was nowhere to be found as I searched the room.
Harry quickly got to his feet and helped me up; the prophecy miraculously unbroken in my left hand, my wand clutched tightly in my right as backed away as the Death Eaters walked towards us.
"Potter, your race is run," drawled Lucius Malfoy, pulling off his mask. "Now hand me the prophecy like a good girl."
"Let— let my friends go, and I'll give it to you!" I said desperately.
A few of the Death Eaters laughed.
"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 two of you!"
"He's dot alone!" shouted a voice from above them. "He's still god be!"
My heart sank. 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, pinioning his arms to his sides. He struggled and kicked; several of the Death Eaters laughed.
"Longbottom?" repeated Bellatrix, and a truly evil smile lit her gaunt face. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!"
Neville yelled out incoherently, fighting against the Death Eater's grip.
"No, no, no," said Bellatrix. She looked transported, alive with excitement as she glanced at Harry, then me, then back at Neville. "No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents... Unless Little-Miss-Potter wants to give us the prophecy —"
"Don't give it to them!" Harry shouted at me.
Bellatrix raised her wand at Harry and opened her mouth—
"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, MAIDEY!" roared Neville, who seemed beside himself.
Bellatrix turned her attention to Neville, "Crucio!"
"No!" I shouted.
Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.
"That was just a taster!" said Bellatrix, raising her wand so that Neville's screams stopped and he lay sobbing at her feet. She turned and gazed up at me. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your brother die the hard way!"
Bellatrix pointed her wand at Harry, again, giving me a snide smile. I held my hand out and Malfoy jumped to take it.
"Maisey, no!" he jumped forward and moved my arm away.
"Stupid boy!" Malfoy yelled.
Then, high above us, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley.