"Harry, just hand me that orb," said Lucius softly.
Harry narrowed his eyes. "I don't know."
"Would I lie to you?"
Harry shrugged. "Probably not, I guess."
"Harry!" Ginny hissed.
Harry glanced at her. "What?"
"Reducto!"
"Reducto!"
"REDUCTO!"
The shelves around them splittered and shattered, raining pointy debri down upon them. The six of them scattered in a great swooshing of robes, and all of the Death Eaters attempted to protect Lucius's hair.
"Fools! My mane can protect itself! Get the students!"
They rushed off into the darkness. Lucius straightened his robes out.
Luna skipped lightly across the floor. "It's like hide and seek," she said with her arms flapping randomly at her sides.
"NOTHING HAS EVER BEEN LESS LIKE HIDE AND SEEK!" Ron screamed into her face.
Ginny aimed her wand behind her. "Reducto!" Another shelf exploded.
Harry ran up beside them. "Guys, it was a trap! Sirius isn't here!"
They all swung around a corner as a Death Eater materialized in front of them. He vanished again in a plume of silky black smoke. Neville huffed along, checking the darkness behind them over his shoulder. Hermione, still cringing from the fact that she was there, led them to the door.
They slammed it behind them as the blue candles lit up their faces once again. They looked back and forth between each other. Hermione did some actual magic to seal the door.
"Let's... " Harry panted,"Let's just scatter randomly."
They all charged into different doors.
"Yes! We'll finally get to find out what the heck is in here!" said Harry. He ran past an aquarium full of murky green water and pressed his face against the glass. "Ssssecrecccccy," he hissed.
Ron screamed as a be-tentacled brain lept out of the tank and latched onto his head. Harry turned around and frowned.
"That's it? Brains?" Harry said.
Ron's eyes rolled back in his head.
"That's pretty weak. I suspected like, the secret to the whole universe or something really epic."
Luna appeared behind him, her massive eyes shining out of the dimness. "The Muggles know magic as only an illusion, a way to trick the mind. Behind all of their magic, there is a secret that makes it all suddenly seem very believable. Is that what you seek, Harry? The secret behind our magic, that they have been keeping from us since the beginning?"
"I-I-" Harry stuttered.
A pair of Death Eaters burst into the room, firing off curses. The walls of the tank shattered, the green solution spilled out the sides, and the brains flopped about like fish. Harry grabbed Ron and ran. Luna skipped after them.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted. One Death Eater toppled. His partner dove to his side, cradling his head.
"Don't go now! We both know I won't make it alone!"
His comrade smiled. "Do you... do you remember when he first found us?"
Yanking his hood off, his partner laughed slightly. "Yeah, yeah I do mate."
"We were in that, that tavern, what was it?"
"The Bucket," he answered, fighting back tears.
"That was it, we would always go there and talk about... about how mudbloods suck," he finished with a laugh.
"Yeah," his friend laughed with him, "Those were the days, right?"
"Those were the days..."
Harry burst through another door into a room with similarly dim lighting.
"Man," said Harry, "Another room with dim lighting. Is that the big mystery?"
Ron slumped against the wall of dark wood as the brain pulsed.
"Jeez, Ron," said Harry, closing one eye and biting his tongue as he trained his wand carefully on the brain, "Avada Ke-"
Hermione burst in another door. "Harry no!'
"What?"
Hermione flicked her wand at Ron and the brain bounced off then scrambled away. He blinked and raised his hands in front of his eyes. He eyed them with great skepticism.
Harry gasped. "Guys... look at this," he pointed to a tall wood cabinet. Inside were shelves of Time Turners. He ran and pressed his face against the glass.
"Ssssssecrecccccccy," he hissed.
Neville blasted into the room, red faced and puffing. "They're still after me! They're-"
He smashed full-on into the cabinet. The glass shattered as Harry reared back, looking awestruck.
"NEVILLE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Harry roared, sinking to his knees with a crunch of broken glass.
Ron blinked some more, coming to. His eyes widened as he saw the broken Time Turners. He lept to his feet, grabbed Neville by the collar and slammed him in to the wall. Their faces were practically touching.
"Neville," said Ron, breathing hard, "I knew from that first year, when you tried to stop us from going to the Sorcerer's Stone, that you were going to be a huge disaster. And see that?" he removed one hand and pointed to the cabinet with it's glass teeth, "I was right."
He walked away.
"I-I, what did I do?" Neville sputtered.
Harry raked his hands through the glass.
Ron turned grimly towards Hermione. "Well, there goes your only chance at redeeming yourself for not using one while you had the chance."
She shrugged. "Well, at least this way, people won't say at the end 'why didn't they just use a Time Turner to go back and kill Voldemort'."
"Yeah," said Ron," They'll just say 'why the heck didn't Hermione do that when she had the chance back in fourth year'."
Hermione sighed and brushed past him. She crouched down next to Harry.
"Hey, Harry?" she said softly. His face was too the ground, clutching shards of glass in his hands.
"We're going to get out of here," she continued, "Without using time travel, okay?"
Slowly, he twisted his face around and looked at her over his shoulder like a ferocious cornered animal.
Her eyes widened upon seeing his. She laughed nervously. "I mean, Time Turners weren't even mentioned in our fourth year, and they're just coming back up now, right?"
"What if I told you," said Harry, "That me and Ron spent all the time not dedicated to saving you from mermaids our fourth year applying for a Time Turner so that we could stop Voldemort?"
She looked behind her. Ron nodded.
"Every time... rejected," said Harry.
"I... I had no idea that you two seriously attempted to-"
"OF COURSE WE SERIOUSLY ATTEMPTED TO GET A TIME TURNER, HERMIONE," Harry roared, "WHO WOULDN'T IT'S THE OPPORTUNITY TO FREAKING TRAVEL THROUGH TIME THAT'S THE MOST AMAZING THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF!"
The sounds of harsh voices and stomping boots came from outside the door. Hermione pulled Harry up. He shoved her off, and he and Ron exited the room.
She glanced at the shattered cabinet, then headed after them.
"Where are Ginny and Lu-" Neville was cut off by the swinging shut of the door.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stepped into a amphitheater like room, with stone steps leading down to a circular stone stage. On the stage was a very mysterious arch with an even more mysterious curtain hanging in front of it.
Smoke pillars swirled into place around them, then pulling away to reveal the Death Eaters. Ron and Hermione vanished from Harry's side.
He whipped out his wand and spun around. The Death Eaters stood in a ring around the top of the steps, each holding a captive.
"Don't give them the prophecy, Harry!" said Hermione shrilly.
Lucius rolled his eyes. "Yes, thanks Hermione, I think we all needed that."
Harry held the misty orb up to the tip of his wand. "If you touch any of them, I'll destroy it."
"Well," said Lucius, shrugging, "If you destroy it, I'll kill all of your friends."
There was a pause that made both parties uncomfortable.
"Where does that leave us, exactly, then?" said Ginny. The Death Eater holding her nodded.
Harry tapped the orb with his wand. "Yes, where does this leave us, Malfoy?"
"Oh, we don't know each other well enough to be on first name basis now, Potter?" Lucius said defensively.
Bellatrix cackled.
"But, really," said Ginny, "Where do we go from here?"
Lucius leaned on his pimp cane. "Well, if he breaks the Prophecy I'll kill you, if I kill you..." he trailed off into muttering.
"Is there any way we can get the Prophecy from him before he'd be able to smash it?" asked a Death Eater.
Lucius shook his head. "And there's no way he can beat us all. How do these things usually turn out?"
"The intervention of a third element," said Sirius with a grin.
Lucius gasped. "The only person with better hair than me!"
Sirius tossed his head back, laughing, as his curly black locks bounced magnificently.