‘Oh my God,’ murmured Hermione, at the same time Ron exclaimed, ‘Fucking hell!’
Hermione took a shaky step forward, and the light from her wand flickered to mimic her nervousness. ‘I thought your visions weren’t real, Harry.’
Harry shoved past them, ignoring Ron’s small yelp. The first thing he noticed, surprisingly, was one of Professor Lupin’s threadbare jumpers. It’s cheery purple and green pattern was too bright, too happy, in comparison the gloom of the Department of Mysteries. The second thing he noticed was a hand, adorned with rings, fingers bent and slowly turning blue. Not far away was a wand snapped into halves. After that, Harry noticed the blood. Sirius was on his side, legs crumped to his chest in a foetal position. His face was turned towards the group, but his eyes were shut and his dark hair spilled across the floor like a puddle of ink. It stuck to his face by the blood coating his face.
Beneath the jumper, Harry couldn’t tell if his godfather’s chest was moving or not.
Harry felt as if he was back in the depths of Hogwarts’ lake. Everything around him had become muffled and dark; he couldn’t escape the pressure of his thrumming chest. Almost unconscious of his movements, he knelt and took the broken hand in both of his own.
But then there was movement to his left. A blurred figure was touching him, trying to move him away.
‘No, stop,’ Harry said, voice panicked. ‘Stop, leave me alone.’ He pushed the hand away, shaking, and curled his body further over the prone body.
‘Harry,’ said Ginny, voice firm; finally, Harry broke through the surface. ‘Harry, listen to me. He’s not dead. Let me help.’
It’s Ginny, his brain supplied to him. Ginny had been the person who had crouched down next to Harry, and her freckled hand was a comforting weight on his knee. He wondered distantly if she could feel the worried thrumming of his heart. Ever so carefully, Ginny turned Sirius’ head. Blood had collated around Sirius’ hair-line and below his nostrils. It trailed thick and sluggishly down across his face, neck and into the jumpers woolly collar.
‘I don’t know if we’re going to be able to wake him up,’ she said hesitantly.
Harry twisted around on his knees and looked pleadingly at Hermione. Hermione looked vaguely uncomfortable under the weight of his gaze, wand in one hand and the other worrying nervously against her trousers. ‘I don’t…I’m not sure…’ her voice trailed off, eye darting away to study the shadows apprehensively.
Then Luna spoke in her lilting voice, ‘I can wake him up. I’m quite good at charms, you know.’
Corkscrew earrings swaying, Luna pointed her wand at the prone body and said in a high, clear voice, ‘Rennervate.’
A brilliant jet burst from her wand, swamping the room in a haunting red light. Sirius came spluttering too, rolling forward small groan. Ginny jerked backwards in surprise, a little ‘Holy fuck…’ escaping her. Harry scrambled forwards.
‘Sirius!’ he cried, heart lurching in half concern, half relief.
But Sirius didn’t seem to hear him. His godfather pushed himself up, placing his head in his hands for a moment. Still gripped by Harry’s fingers, his hand shook with fine tremors. Finally, Sirius peered at him and Ginny with a dazed expression, eyes glassy. ‘… Harry. And Ginny,’ he crooked, looking between the two teens.
Grey eyes blinked sluggishly as he rubbed a hand over his nose, smearing blood across his cheeks. It seemed to take a moment for his brain to right itself. His eyes slowly came into focus, eyes trained on Harry. His fingers tightened in Harry’s hold, firm.
‘Harry,’ he whispered again, this time with urgency. ‘What are you doing here?’
Harry stilled, unsure of how to reply. Luna hovering behind Ginny intoned bluntly, ‘We came to rescue you, of course. Harry had a vision of you being tortured by You-Know-Who.’
Sirius’ gaze remained focused on Harry as he took in Luna’s words. He felt the uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty slip into his mind under the considering expression. Then Sirius unsteadily scrambled to his feet, tugging on Harry’s shoulder to pull him up as well.
‘We can’t stay here. Which way was the exit?’
Then they were running, led by Sirius’ hobbling figure in the direction Neville had pointed. Back past the smashed prophecy and the rows upon rows of glowing orbs. Harry caught sight of Ron’s triumphant grin as the glowing door to the lifts appeared in sight.
The world exploded.
Glass from the shelf next to Harry exploded under the force of a blasting spell. He dove, vaguely aware that Ron had done the same thing, pulling Neville down with him. Brilliant light flashed past Harry as he pushed his glasses back onto his face, having slipped down as he ducked. It became evident that the main corridor was remarkably clear. The second thing he noticed were three shadowy figures merging from the racks of orbs on the other side of the room.
‘Ron?’ he hissed. ‘Ron, can you see the others?’
‘… Yes, they’re ‘round the corner.’
Harry inched his head up, pressing down on his forearms as he muscled forward, glass crunching behind him. At the end of the shelf, Ginny and Hermione stood back to back, wands raised. Luna’s shock of pale hair was visible meters away from him. He couldn’t see Sirius anywhere. ‘On three?’ he mouthed to Ron. Harry slowly worked his wand up, taking aim at the shelf next to the emerging Death Eaters. ‘Three! Reducto!’
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Neville and Ron also burst forth with their own spells. Luna had vaulted over the shelf to join them, crying out ‘Immobulus!’ The Death Eater closest to the shelf rocked backwards from the force of the explosion and Luna’s oncoming figure skidded to a halt, before toppling forward with a thud. Now in a circle, Harry pressed himself against Hermione’s back. Neville and Ron were to his left; Luna and Ginny to his right.
‘Where’s Sirius?’ said Ginny, breathless in his ear.
‘I don’t kno-’
‘Protego!’ Hermione’s Shield Charm blocked the incoming curse, but buckled under the second spell which missed her by inches. Black shapes began to emerge out of thin air, pressing them back into an even tighter circle. Their numbers had doubled, Harry noticed, as his insides tightened in horror. Eyes glinted from behind ghoulish masks, and wands were dipped directly at their hearts.
‘Enough, Potter,’ drawled one of the figures, stepping forward and pushing back his hood. Lucius Malfoy smiled sickeningly at him. He held out his hand, palm up.
‘Give it to me. Give it to me and nobody else needs to get hurt.’
‘Give you what?’ said Harry. He felt Neville stir beside him and clamped his hand round Neville’s wrist to stop him from moving.
‘Don’t be stupid, boy.’ Malfoy’s smile dropped.
A harsh voice off to Malfoy’s left cackled, ‘Little baby Potter…’
‘Give me the prophecy, Potter.’
‘I don’t have the prophecy.’ The Death Easters laughed, the women next to Malfoy loudest of all.
‘If you don’t hand it over, we’ll start using curses. And we won’t be so kind this time.’
‘Go on, then,’ dared Harry. Palm sweaty against his own wand, he raised it to Malfoy’s face. As he did so, the five wands of his friends rose in synchrony. The Death Eaters didn’t so much as twitch.
‘Nobody needs to get hurt…’
‘Sure,’ laughed Harry. ‘I give you his – prophecy-thingy? And you let us leave? I one-hundred percent believe you!’
He had hardly finished speaking when the Death Eater on Malfoy’s right cried, ‘Accio proph-’
‘Protego!’ shouted Ginny, leaping forward. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw a small glass sphere slip to the tips of Neville’s fingers.
‘Oh, Potter’s gone and got a girlfriend. Got a girl… friend…’ The woman sang, mad eyes observing them from the slits of her mask. ‘Well then…’
‘No! Don’t attack! We need the prophecy!’ roared Malfoy, poorly concerned panic in his voice.
The Death Eaters wanted the dusty, small sphere in Neville’s hand. He nudged Neville, who raised the orb carefully over his chest.
In curly handwriting, there was a label which had been attached:
S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.
Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter
‘Impossible!’ cried one of the other Death Eaters.
Another murmured: ‘I thought only the Potter boy could take it-!’
Harry’s mind was racing. He didn’t remember when Neville had picked up the prophecy, but it didn’t matter. The urge to tell Neville to drop the orb, to smash it, was on the tip of his tongue. The Death Eaters evidently wanted – no needed – the prophecy for something. But he had no interest in it...
Harry dragged his eyes away from Neville. ‘You haven’t told me why you need me to steal some dusty, old prophecy for your boss. If he’s so great, why couldn’t he come and yet it himself?’
A voice from the dark: ‘The gull of this boy. Half-blood scum!’
Malfoy’s eyes were slits. ‘Quit playing games, Potter-’
‘Do you need more encouragement?’ asked the women, ignoring Malfoy. ‘Very well – let’s take the girlfriend. Let Potter watch as the little girl screams and cries. Just like his whelp of a godfather.’
Harry pushed Ginny back behind him as the others closed around her in tandem.
Harry continued: ‘If you want to attack us, Neville will smash it. I don’t think Voldemort will be pleased if you return without it.’
‘You dare say his name!’ whispered Bellatrix.
‘Yeah,’ said Harry, ‘I’ve got no issue saying Volde-’
‘You dare besmirch the Dark Lord’s name with your fifthly, half-blood mother’s tongue! You dare-’
Then Harry noticed the shadowy figure throw himself forward, directly behind Malfoy and the women to his side.
‘Reducto!’ cried Sirius, stepping into the light, a stolen wand in hand. Neither Death Eater had been expecting the hit and toppled to the ground. The women’s hood feel backward; Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix Lestrange’s statuesque figure in the same way Sirius’ had. Her face had a gaunt quality, but her eyes had a fanatical glow as she scrambled back to her feet. Sirius had already spun his attention to the other Death Eaters, letting forth spell after spell, taking down two other figures.
‘Imperio!’ shrieked Bellatrix.
But Harry had been ready for the spell, and bellowed ‘Reducto!’ in response.
‘No! Stop!’ cried Malfoy from his pathetic heap on the the floor. ‘Remember that we need the prophecy!’
Harry's spell hit an orb next to her face and Bellatrix let out a small yelp as it shattered. Five other voices joined in an orchestra of shouting, ringing out, ‘Reducto!’ and ‘Stupefy!’ Curses flew across the room and the shelves opposite them exploded as they were hit. The towering structure before them swayed dangerously as hundreds of orbs started to fall from the sky in a hail of glass and splintered wood.
‘Run!’ bellowed Sirius. ‘Head for the door!’ He pushed Harry away from a haunting fragment of a Seer crying: ‘… And on the last night of the Solstice… there will sit the girl… And she will watch as the City of Seven Hills are destroyed…’
Ron, Luna and Ginny broke away from the group, leaping over the unconscious cloaked figures. Together, arms were raised as shards of glass shattered around them. From the corner of his eye, he heard Sirius exclaim, ‘Incendio!’ and two Death Eaters were blasted into the sky by a fearsome burst of flames. Harry was sprinting in earnest, six other footsteps in tandem with his own.
He felt a hand on his robes and was tugged forward. ‘Harry, come on!’
‘But – Sirius!’
‘He’s fine, Harry! He’s an adult,’ shouted Neville. Neville was right; through the flashes of light and darting of bodies, Sirius was holding his own against three hooded figures, giving them time to bolt towards the door.
‘But - I can’t just leave-’
‘He’ll follow us. Harry, please. Come on!’ Neville hauled on his robes again. Harry forced himself away from Sirius, trying to ignore the panic in his chest. Neville was still clutching the orb to his chest as they legged it through the expansive dark room.
‘Tarantallegra’, cried a voice from behind them. The spell wacked into Neville’s heel and he crashed to the floor, legs starting in some crazed tap-dance. Sirius hurtled forward, slashing his wand upward to create glinting shield over them.
‘Come on,’ said Ron desperately, hauling at Neville’s robes, ‘Just push with your legs-’
Ron gave another stupendous heave and Neville’s robes tore along the seam. The small spun ball dropped from Neville’s outstretched hand and, before either of them could catch it, one of Neville’s jerking legs kicked it. It flew some ten feet before smashing into the floor next to them. Six pairs of eyes stared, appalled, as a pearly-white figure with magnified eyes rose in the air.
Harry recognised the Death Eater’s twisted face from the Daily Prophet. Taking the chance that Dolohov’s attention was still on Neville, Harry bellowed, ‘Petrificus totalus!’ The spell hit Dolohov in the shoulder, who looked faintly shocked and toppled over into the nearby benches.
‘Neville! Neville, are you okay?’
‘I’m sorry,’ cried Neville, face anguished. ‘I’m so sorry-’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ron groaned, face sweaty. ‘Come on. Just try and stand-’
'Sorry, sorry,' Neville's legs jerked again.
Luna appeared beside them. ‘Here’, she said softly, and pointing her wand at Neville’s legs she murmured, ‘Finite incantatem. Can you get up now, Neville?’
Sirius’ shield shattered under the force of an Unforgiveable and Malfoy strode forward from the darkness. His eyes tracked across their huddled figures to where the figure had stopped speaking. She hung in mid-air for seconds, before dissolving into nothingness.
If anything, Malfoy’s face became paler. ‘No! What have you done?!’ he whispered, eyes wide. ‘Do you know what you’ve done-’
Sirius’ wand came up once more, hooking Malfoy on some invisible line and flinging him back into the darkness. They continued. Once more, Harry found himself surrounded by streaks of blue light from the whirling candelabra.
‘Show me the exit,’ said Hermione breathless.
The seven of them crashed into the grills of the lift. The golden gate shut with a loud crash and the lift ascended slowly, chains rattling. The same cold voice Harry had heard in the telephone booth on the day of his Disciplinary Hearing rang out: ‘Level Eight, the Atrium.’ Harry stepped out of the lift and into the long hall. He stood numbly but the Fountain of Magical Brethren as Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Ginny panted in exhaustion. Sirius looked wain under the yellow lights, blood still coating his face and robes. Yet his wand was still raised defensively.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, Harry caught sight of a sudden movement from the other side of the fountain. It was Bellatrix. She was almost at the red telephone lift. She glanced over her shoulder, and there was none of the twisted humour which had graced her face downstairs.
Hermione’s voice tremored from behind him: ‘Harry?’
An uncontrollable, unfamiliar rage started to simmer heavily in his chest. He wanted to hex her.
Do it, whispered a cold voice inside his head. You know you want to.
She threatened Ginny, thought Harry.
She failed me, the cold voice added.
And she hurt Sirius.
Harry flung himself forward without any understanding of why, and bellowed, ‘Crucio!’ Bellatrix screamed.
The spell knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek as he had expected her too. She was already climbing to her feet as Ron cried, ‘Harry – what the fuck!', as tried to leap forward. He was dragged back by a combination of Hermione and Ginny as he continued to shout, 'What are you doing, you idiot?!’
Bellatrix once again levelled her wand at his heart, a spell spinning in his direction before he could blink. Harry jumped out of the way, dodging behind a gold statue. Her next spell hit the wizard’s handsome head, which exploded into thousands of pieces and fluttered to the floor like deadly confetti.
'Harry, stop!' cried is friends once more, but the voices of his friends seemed so far away.
She deserves it, edged the voice.
Harry was edging around the fountain when she yelled: ‘Never used an Unforgivable before, Potter? You need to mean them. You need to really want to cause pain – and to enjoy it. That righteous anger you’re holding onto won’t hurt for long. I’ll show you how it’s done, Potter? Maybe I’ll use your girlfriend as a lesson…’
The voice reared its ugly head once more. She’s right, you know. And you do want to hurt her. Remember, she tried to kill your friends.
‘Crucio!’ she screamed. Before the spell could hit, Harry was shoved down by the force of another body slamming into him. The jet of red hit the wizard’s golden heel, which crumbled.
Sirius was already wobbling to his feet, dark hair whipping back as he shouted, ‘Alarte Ascendare!’
Bellatrix flew ten feet in the air before landing with a loud smack. She whimpered, like an hurt dog and her wand clattered away to Ginny’s feet, who swung down to snatch it up. Hands were on his face, gentle yet firmly forcing his gaze to look into a set of piercing grey eyes. ‘Harry?’ whispered Sirius. Sirius’ blackened fingers pressed themselves into his face and concern had wired itself into the lines of his forehead. ‘Harry, can you hear me?’
At the same time, Bellatrix rolled into a seated position, tugging up the sleeve of her dress. ‘Potter,’ she shouted shakily. ‘Give me the prophecy. Or… Or I will call him.’
Harry tore his gaze away from the worried face of his godfather. He shoved Sirius out of the way with a strength that wasn’t truly his. ‘Call him then,’ he mocked. Suddenly his scar was on fire. A surge of fury rose within him again. ‘It’s gone. It was smashed!’ Harry threw his head back, choking on his own laughter. ‘And Voldemort knows it’s gone! I bet he’s not going to be very happy with you?’
Her face cracked into an expression of pure terror. ‘What?’ she went to stand but, from his left, Sirius raised his wand once more. She grimaced and said pleadingly, ‘What do you mean?! It can’t be broken-’
His scar seared once more, and his eyes began to stream.
‘You’re a liar, Potter. Y-you’ve got it and you will give it to me!’
Harry laughed again, but the pain in his head was building up so badly that he thought his skull might burst like the golden wizard. Someone’s hands landed on his shoulders. ‘Harry, concentrate on me. Listen to my voice.’ Sirius, his brain told him. ‘Harry-’
But whatever Sirius had been about to say next was drowned out by Bellatrix crying from the floor: ‘The boy is lying! Please, do not punish me-’
‘Shut up! He can’t hear you.’
‘Can’t I?’ asked the voice which had been in his head. But now it came from beyond his cranium. Thin and tall, with his terrible snakelike face and gaunt, scarlet slit eyes, Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the Atrium. Harry found himself behind pushed behind Sirius.
‘You smashed my prophecy?’ whispered Voldemort, staring at Harry as if his godfather’s body did not exist between them. ‘No, the Longbottom boy did. Interesting. No, Bella, he’s not lying. From within his worthless mind… I see the truth. And my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter and his little friends foil me again…’
‘Master, I am sorry-’ she sobbed.
‘Quiet,’ he said dangerously. ‘I shall deal with you later. Do you think I entered the Ministry of Magic for the second time to hear your weeping?’
‘But-’
Voldemort paid her no further attention.
‘I have nothing more to say to you, Potter. You have been a thorn in my side for too long. Avada Kedavra!’ Harry opened his mouth, but his mind was blank as his wand pointed uselessly at the floor. Sirius yanked him down and the curse sailed harmlessly over their heads, hitting one of the glided fireplaces behind them. Harry pushed against the hand which had firmly planted itself on the side of his face. ‘Sirius-’
‘Stay behind me,’ his godfather commanded as he waved his wand, saying ‘Protago Duo!’ Harry felt momentarily blinded blue light, and by the time his eyes had stopped watering, Sirius had moved away from the shield around Harry.
Voldemort, finally forced to acknowledge Sirius' presence, did not laugh. ‘Black.’
‘Voldemort,’ Harry’s godfather replied. ‘You've got uglier.’
‘Move aside, Black! Move aside now!'
‘I don't think so.’
Voldemort's red eyes flared annoyance. ‘Avada Kedavra!’ A flash of green light burst out of Voldemort's wand, but Sirius had been ready for it. He stepped aside and the curse streaked past him. It slamming into the a wall behind Harry.
‘Expulso!’ Sirius yelled, and the spell bounced off the floor where Voldemort had been standing only seconds ago. ‘Confringo!’
Voldemort send of another quick procession of spells, all of which Sirius dodged. Then a yellow spell hit Sirius mid-turn. Harry saw his grey eyes widen in shock as he wailed against the shield, trapping him in safety as Sirius’ body dropped to the floor like a marionette whose strings had just been severed. The spell was relentless and Harry could do nothing but watch as the hooded monster stepped over Sirius’ figure in a haunting replica of his examination of Cedric’s body.
‘Weak,’ Voldemort noted, pressing the toe of his shoe into Sirius’ thin face. ‘Just like your worthless, blood-traitor brother. Crucio!’ Like in Harry’s vision, Voldemort’s curse made Sirius’ upper body tremble; his arms and legs jerking and spasming like a flaying animal. It seemed like hours but Harry new it had only been minutes before Voldemort dragged his wand away, ending the curse.
‘Defiance is futile, Sirius Black,’ Voldemort bent lower, his eyes flashing quickly over to Harry. ‘Take down that shield.’
Despite the obvious pain he was in, Sirius grinned with bloodied teeth. ‘Or what?’ he gasped.
Voldemort sneered. ‘Avada Kedav-’
The headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Sirius and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect his unarmed godfather.
‘What-?’ cried Voldemort, glancing around. And then he breathed, ‘Dumbledore!’
Harry looked up from the prone figure of Sirius, his heart pounding. Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden grills of the lift. Voldemort raised his wand and another jet of green light streaked at Dumbledore, who disappeared in whirl of his emerald green robes. Seconds later, he reappeared behind Voldemort. The remnants of the fountain sprang to life as another of the statues sprinted across the room – a grand faced witch ran who ran at a sobbing Bellatrix.
‘It was foolish to take Black, Tom. And foolish of you to return to the Ministry,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘The Aurors are on their way-’
‘By which time you will be dead!’ shouted Voldemort.
He send another Killing Curse at Dumbledore. Dumbledore flicked his own wand; the force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, although still shielded by Sirius' spell, felt his hair stand on end.
‘You do not seek to kill me, old man?’ called Voldemort.
Voldemort’s eyes flickered over to Harry and it seemed, by pure strength of mind, the shield that had been protecting him burst into a thousand pieces dropping to the ground like black dust. His scar burst open and he felt like he was dead. He was dead. The pain was beyond all imagining. And he was gone from the hall. Flung into darkness. He felt the coils of a snake with red eyes wrap themselves so tightly around his body that Harry did not know if he was breathing, or where his body ended and the snake’s began...
‘Kill me now…’ Harry found himself rasping, feeling half dead already. ‘… Kill the boy…’
Let it stop, thought Harry. Let me die... I'll see my parents.
But then his mind flashed to Sirius’ concerned expression, pressing his fingers into Harry’s face as if to drag away Voldemort’s voice. Of Ginny, bravely jumping in front of him. Ron and Hermione – the family he had chosen. And Neville and Luna, who had followed him on his fool’s errand and helped him save his godfather. And then there were the Weasley’s, who had welcomed him into their home. Also, Professor Lupin with his warm presence and his garish jumpers...
Harry’s heart bled and snake’s coils loosened. The pain was gone instantly, as if it had never been there in the first place. As he opened his eyes, Harry found that his glasses were gone. His attention was drawn to a glinting shape out of the corner of his eye and he scrambled towards his glasses. Slipping them on, he found his gaze inches away from Dumbledore's crooked nose.
‘Are you alright, Harry?’
‘Yes,’ Harry said shakily, attempting to sit up properly. ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’