"Department of Mysteries," said the cool female voice, and the golden gates before the lift slid open.
Rane and Wade strode out first, followed by Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Kingsley. Before them was a dark corridor, lit dimly with the reddish sconces, and at the end was a plain black door, absolutely austere and very out of place in the elegant Ministry of Magic. Rane had never liked that door, and had hurried past it whenever her duty gave her cause to descend to the ninth level. There was something eerie about it, something sinister. And the Unspeakables who frequented the floor were worse still, hard-faced and unsmiling, striding about doing whatever it was they did in there in dour silence. Aurors were well-respected, esteemed within the Ministry and without and treated as such; but in this Department, Rane had always felt very small, very insignificant. The Unspeakables were a different animal altogether, and they seemed formidably aware of their essential differences. Here, she had never been an Auror; all her accolades, all her months of training, her prowess, her reverence . . . Those things meant nothing to the Unspeakables in this place. To them she was minor leagues.
"Never much liked it here," Mad-Eye murmured, echoing her sentiments. "Through that door, you lot."
"No security here either," Remus said, low. "Bit odd."
"More than a bit," Wade agreed. "There's some fuckery afoot, make no mistake. I think Rane had it right about that attack back home. They've planned this, whatever it is."
"I wish Dumbledore were here," said Tonks bleakly.
"Probably just as well he isn't with us," Sirius remarked. "He's a wanted man."
"You're a wanted man," Rane reminded him, casting him a wan smile.
"A wanted man with a godson who's in trouble," Sirius agreed, and tipped her a wink.
There was a faint, echoing thud from beyond the door ahead of them, and then the unmistakable sound of a distant shriek. It was a decidedly female voice.
"Did you hear that?" Rane looked around at her companions. "Sounded like a girl, didn't it?"
"Come on, now," said Mad-Eye, striding towards the door. "Harry wouldn't have come alone."
He rapped the wood once with his staff and the door sprung open with a shrill scree. Beyond, a dark room stretched before them, black from ceiling to floor. There were more doors here, twelve of them, all unmarked, circling the room itself. They slowly entered, looking around themselves uneasily.
"Which way?" said Kingsley.
He looked at Wade, but Wade was looking around at the doors, deliberating.
"Wade?"
"Not sure," said Wade, looking over at him.
"You said you'd been here before -!"
"I have, but these doors, they -"
Before he could finish his sentence, there was a deep, rumbling sound that seemed to vibrate the stone beneath their very feet, and the doors before them began to move. After a moment's time they resettled.
"They change," Wade finished. "Protective measure. Discourages trespassing."
Mad-Eye turned to Tonks. "You remember that tracking spell I taught you?"
Tonks nodded, lifting her wand. "Sorry I called it daffy, mate."
She pointed her wand at the center of the room; a golden orb of light sprung from its tip, floated there a moment, and then flew towards the west side of the room. It came to a stop before one of the featureless doors, hovering there.
"That's a neat trick," said Kingsley appreciatively as they moved towards the door the spell had indicated. "What is it?"
"Goes towards the nearest people," said Tonks. "Never thought I'd find use for it, to be honest . . ."
"Haven't steered you wrong yet, have I?" said Mad-Eye gruffly. Tonks rolled her eyes.
"I said I was sorry," she muttered.
Sirius reached for the door handle, but Wade placed a hand on his forearm.
"Hang on."
Sirius shook him off, looking impatient. "Look, while we're standing around, Harry could be -!"
"Listen," said Wade, "I think there may already be Death Eaters in there. Any of you disagree?"
Heads shook.
"Alright, so we agree that we'll go in with wands out," said Wade, lifting his own. "Rane and I will stay in the front. If we run into Unspeakables, or anyone else that works here, it's Stun and Disarm, and we'll worry about wiping their memories later, after the kid's safe."
"But you don't think we will," said Kingsley.
Wade shook his head. "No, I sure don't. If we'd seen a guard downstairs, maybe, but . . . "
"Mad-Eye's right, Harry won't be alone," said Sirius. His knuckles were white against his wand. "If he's here, he'll be with his friends."
"Who?" said Rane, looking at him. "Hermione? Ron?"
Sirius nodded. "And maybe others. Remember the dueling club?"
Rane's stomach sank. Dumbledore's Army. She'd halfheartedly hoped that Harry was here by himself when they'd arrived, but she hadn't taken the DA into account. Now, standing here before the door, she had no doubt at all that if he was indeed here, that he'd come to the Ministry in company.
"Alright, then," said Wade. "On your toes, you lot. We'll cover you."
Rane raised her sword, the blade flashing dully in the low light. Sirius reached out and swung the door open.
The door swung open onto a broad stone room, something like an amphitheater. At its heart was a dais where a strange arch stood, a rippling black veil fluttering beneath it. But the arch and its weird shroud didn't interest Rane; what interested her was the cataclysm happening before them.
It was a flashing madness of spells and noise. Rane spotted Harry right away; he was standing at the center near the pulpit, his wand extended, the light flashing off his glasses. And Mad-Eye had been right; he hadn't come alone; indeed, he'd brought a squadron of his peers. Ron Weasley was also in evidence, lying on the stone with what appeared to be a large gray brain clinging to his chest; Hermione Granger wasn't far behind, either. She was standing over a pale, blond girl that Rane had never seen, shooting spells with abandon. There were others, too - Ginny Weasley, her shock of red hair flying about her face, and a boy that Rane recognized immediately as the son of Frank Longbottom, a friend of her father's in her childhood (Harry had mentioned him before, his name was Neville, Rane thought). He was firing at his assailants alongside Ginny, his face bloodied to hell and gone, spitting sprays of blood with each breath as it ran from his crushed nose into his mouth.
They weren't alone, either; there were Death Eaters. At least a dozen by Rane's count. Wade had been right, after all. Sirius was already racing towards Harry, his wand gripped in one hand, long hair flying behind him, dodging spells.
"Keep them between us," Wade was saying to her, his voice lost in the din.
"REMUS, ON YOUR LEFT!" Rane shouted, and Remus ducked just in time to avoid a bright red spell. It flew over his head, ruffling his hair, directly towards Rane; she caught it with her blade and sent it careening into the opposite direction, where it struck the stone-flagged wall with a sound like breaking glass, leaving a long black streak.
"GET TO THE KIDS!" Mad-Eye bellowed, and with surprising nimbleness he was running towards where the unconscious girl lay, Hermione straddling her and deflecting spells, her face harried.
WHEN the Death Eaters realized they were being set upon by the Order of the Phoenix, their attempts redoubled, resulting in almost directionless pandemonium. Narrative broke down in Rane's mind; as she began to settle into the cool, instinct-driven mindset that accompanied battle for her, it became a series of images without pattern or design:
- Mad-Eye, diving behind a stone structure -
- Remus, shouting at Tonks to get out of the way -
- Tonks, shooting Stunning spells from behind the stone arch -
- Neville, screaming as a Cruciatus Curse hit him -
- Hermione and Harry yelling as Neville collapsed -
"The kids, get to the kids!" Wade was shouting at her. He was running alongside her, his sword flashing, spells flying hither and yon. Across from her, behind the dais, Rane could see Kingsley dueling a masked Death Eater, his wand flying wildly.
"Hermione!" Rane shouted. Hermione turned to Rane, her eyes wild.
"Rane!" she shouted. "Rane, they want the Prophecy! Harry's got it!"
Rane spun, looking for him, and found him again in the fray, being strong-armed by a Death Eater. And yes, there was something gripped tightly in one of his hands, throwing off a strange, ethereal glow.
"Incendio!" she shouted, and the Death Eater relinquished his grip on Harry at once, his sleeve erupting in flames. And now Rane saw Sirius appear at Harry's side, shoving his head down as more spells flew over them.
"Listen, you guys need to get out of here," said Rane, gripping Hermione's arm. "Get the rest of them, and go through that door we came in, we'll meet you -"
"GIVE ME THE PROPHECY, POTTER!" a furious voice roared, and suddenly Rane felt the wind knocked out of her as someone ran into her full tilt. She fell onto the stone hard, all the air whooshing out of her, and felt her sword clatter out of her hand, where it landed glittering some ways away from the fray. Nearby, she could hear Hermione shouting her name.
Rane struggled to get up, but then there was a hand at her throat, squeezing, and she was staring up into the unmasked face of Rodolphus Lestrange, his pallid face warped in a sneer. With his other hand he held his wand, its tip pointed at Rane's face.
"Little Elf girl doesn't know how to fight without her sword," he hissed at her.
"Sure - she - does!" Rane gasped, and suddenly Lestrange's face contorted with pain. He rolled off of her, howling in agony. The silvery hilt of her kukri protruded from his shoulder up to its crossguard.
Rane leapt to her feet at once, shoving Lestrange out of the way, and with a quick, brutal motion she yanked the dagger back, spraying blood in a sheen and ignoring Lestrange's shriek of pain. The first face her eyes fell upon was that of Bellatrix Lestrange, who had her wand aimed at Rane, her face twisted with rage.
"FILTHY HALF-BREED!" she screamed, and then there was a bright green bolt of light flying towards Rane. She knew a moment of true fear, the first of that night; her sword still lay beyond the mangled Rodolphus Lestrange, far from her reach, and she didn't have enough time to draw her wand on it, not a chance in hell -
Suddenly, a massive, shimmering golden shield of light manifested before her, and Bellatrix's spell dissolved into nothing as it struck. Bellatrix gave a scream of fury, looking over Rane's shoulder, and darted away towards the dais. Bewildered, Rane turned her head.
"Dubbledore!" a voice said nearby, sounding reverent.
"What?" That was Ginny, sounding bewildered.
"DUBBLEDORE!" it was Neville, and he was pointing madly, his crushed nose still gushing. Above them, standing near the door with his wand extended towards Rane, was Albus Dumbledore. Rane knew a moment of transported relief. Order members or no, the Death Eaters wouldn't dare take him on, never in life.
He was rushing down toward the fray in an instant, and Rane saw with a fierce jolt of satisfaction that the Death Eaters that had seen him were indeed giving up arms, shouting in fear. One of them - she thought it was Malfoy - went scrabbling up the stairway opposite the doorway Albus had come through, falling over himself, but Albus lifted his want almost lazily and the Death Eaters nearest him flew back towards him as if with an invisible rope, their wands clattering from their hands.
And now there was only one pair who hadn't noticed Albus yet; Bellatrix had been caught in flight by Sirius, who was dueling her near the strange stone arch. Sirius was dodging her spells, laughing, his hair flying about his face.
"You can do better than that!" he shouted at her mockingly.
"AVADRA KEDAVRA!" Bellatrix shouted, and the jet of light hit Sirius squarely in the chest.
RANE'S dagger fell to the ground with a clang, though she was not aware of it. She saw Sirius's face, the smile still falling away from it, fading into something akin to fear and surprise. His wand arm slackened as he fell backwards, through the strange veil. It fluttered as if in a high wind, and then he was gone.
Bellatrix was shrieking, and so was Harry. Rane was walking towards the archway slowly, as if in a daze, her wand falling from her free hand, her brow furrowed. She had to reach him, to pull him back through the archway, though she didn't see him . . . He was on the other side, had to be . . .
There were hands now on her arm, and she shook them off, still making for the archway. Nearby, Rane could hear Harry screaming Sirius's name.
"No, no, no," said her father at her side, renewing his grip on her. One of his arms stole out, wrapped itself around her chest, and she struggled against it.
"Let me go," she said, jerking away. But Wade would not. "Let me go, I have to go get him -"
"Baby, no," said Wade, holding her fast. He had dropped his sword too, and it lay next to him on the floor now, forgotten. "No. He's not there."
Harry, close, shouting HE IS NOT DEAD.
"Dad," said Rane, her voice breaking as she struggled to get away from him. He didn't understand, Sirius was right there, he had just fallen through -
"He's gone, baby, he's gone," Wade said, and Rane heard the emotion thickening his voice. It terrified her. "We have to go, Rane, the Ministry, they -"
Rane shook him off, finally breaking free of him, turning to him. Her face was transported with anger, her mouth turned down in a moue of dismay.
"I'M NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT HIM!" she shouted. Wade stared at her, his eyes bright in the gloom. She turned from him, looking towards the dais. Kingsley was there now, taking up the duel with Bellatrix; the remaining Death Eaters were bound in the center of the room, struggling feebly against Dumbledore's spell. Tonks lay unconscious near the stairway, Mad-Eye knelt over her. "SIRIUS!"
And now Kingsley was being blasted away from the dais, and Bellatrix was fleeing away towards the stairs, deflecting the spells aimed at her.
It was Harry's voice near her that did it, sounding not just angry but wrought with rage, with pain.
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM!"
The strength seemed to run out of Rane's legs. She fell to her knees, her hair hanging in her face, staring at the dais. Someone was screaming; after a moment she realized it was her.
"Rane!" Wade shouted at her, his voice strangely muffled, and Rane was distantly aware that the shadows around her were growing longer, the dimness around them was diminishing. Her skin felt cold, so cold, and now there was light pouring out of her pores. "RANE, NO!"
She was rising now into the air, and the group of Death Eaters were staring up at her in silent terror now. The sensation within her was swelling, turning into something self-sustaining and beyond her.
"ALBUS!" Remus was shouting. "DO SOMETHING!"
And then there was a brilliant flash of indigo light, and Rane knew no more.