"I think I love Cho."

"Took you long enough," I rolled my eyes, downing the rest of my butterbeer.

"Is that ridiculous? I think it is," Cedric plowed on as if I never spoke. He slid his drink back and forth between his hands, intent on the tabletop of our current roost in the Three Broomsticks. "It is so strange that it's her."

"Is it?" I frowned. He got like this all the time. Lost in his own ridiculous thoughts.

"Of course it is, Harpie."

"Harper," I snapped. "I know Cho is a bit more ethnic than your previous conquests-"

"Absolutely nothing about that sentence should ever have been uttered, Mel." His tone was scolding, but his lips curled up into a smile and his eyes flickered with mirth as he cast me what he hoped was a reproachful look.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I know Cho isn't your usual type, but I hardly see what is so daft about you falling in love with her. Please, enlighten the clueless Ravenclaw, oh wise and powerful Hufflepuff."

"Do me a favor first." I nodded. "Grab your arse, and pull your head out of it." I gestured crudely, and then quickly scanned for the stray teacher that may have seen it. Coast clear, I turned back to my companion, who found great glee in my fear. Once he calmed down, he admitted, "I always thought it would be you. I think everyone expected it to be you."

I grinned, thinking back on the dirty looks sent my way in the halls by girls twice as pretty as me. "Everyone knows you're mad about me, Ceddy."

"My heart sings a thousand songs a day, all meant for you," he agreed dryly, finally deciding to drink some of the butterbeer he'd been playing with for so long. "Did you see their faces at the ball when I showed up with Cho and you with George?"

"Thought some of their eyeballs were gonna fall right out," I laughed.

"We've shocked them all, even the professors," he chuckled. "They like to act as if they ignore us, but they are so aware of everything we do." He shook his head at the thought of teachers keeping up on teenage gossip. "On paper, this shouldn't work. It should be you and me, Cedric Diggory and Melbecka Harper, madly in love and ruling the school."

"Don't be stupid, Ceddy. We do rule the school. But, if you ever fall in love with me, I'll beat the brains right out of you."

"Noted," he nodded, taking another drink. "Harpie?"

"I'll destroy you."

He grinned. "I am so glad that we never do what people expect of us."

Something shattered on the ground between my head and my hand. Shards of silvery glass flew through the air upon impact, one slicing me right above the eye.

"HARPER!" I yelped, flinching back into consciousness.

The stars speak of the girl with two names, born as the moon dies in the month when the chill begins…

Hundreds of bodiless voices seemed to emanate from the shattered glass spread across the floor all around me. The orb that just fell, probably after teetering for so long on the edge of its shelf, seemed to speak the loudest, but I tried to push the away the urge to place the deep male voice as I felt around for my wand. Where…where…where was it?

She will Know death when it comes. She will recognize its face, understand its purpose, and accept its reasons.

I rolled into a sitting position suddenly, and my head throbbed in protest. My hand flew to the fresh wound, but it found more than the one cut. There were more, at least three that I could feel with my fingers. I wracked my brain for a spell, any spell, that would heal them, but I couldn't. I was blocked. My head felt fuzzy and heavy, still thick with the cloud of unconsciousness.

None have come before with this Knowledge, and none shall come after. She will be the only one to ever Know the secrets kept from mortals.

"My name is Harper," I mumbled, gently probing the cuts to see how deep they were.

And she will face death as bravely as she faces life.

Deciding I would live, I attempted to push myself to my feet. My head throbbed again, ordering me back down, but I fought through it as the orb that woke me finished. I grabbed a shelf to steady myself, finishing my climb to my feet.

But, when my own words hit me, I lost my balance and sank back to the ground in an unceremonious heap. Shards of glass sliced into my palms, and I screamed out in pain.

Harper. Melbecka Harper. Not Gamp. No one knew me by that name. The only people that ever did were dead or would never tell. Never.

Unless my mother told them.

Who? Who did she tell? Who put my name on that orb?

I sat there pondering this, watching blood begin to pool around the jagged shard of glass sticking out of my left palm.

"Shit!" I swore suddenly as everything finally came crashing into realization at once.

There were four things I needed to take care of. Urgently.

First of all, and most immediately, I ripped the glass out of my hand and cursed profusely at it. The healing spell did finally come back to me, but I had no time. My hand would be fine. As my mother used to say, I would die a thousand other ways before this got me.

Second, I scrambled to my feet, wincing as my injured palms clenched the shelves to keep balance. Where was it? Where was that orb? I needed that orb with my name on it. I needed desperately to know what it said about me, if it gave any indication as to who made it or how they found out.

"STUPEFY!"

My head whipped around, towards the voices. Scratch number two, on to number three. Find everyone else.

No, no, that was number four. Number three was to remember. Remember how I got those other cuts, why all the orbs were broken, why I was alone. Remember what happened.

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my palms against my eyes to get it as dark as possible. It was more conducive to remembering, and sure enough, in the darkness, I remembered the figure coming around the corner. The red flash of a spell, crumpling silently to the ground. The killing curse was loud, so whoever it was had been on a stealth mission.

I opened my eyes again, and immediately regretted pushing my palms against them. I could feel the sticky wetness of blood as I blinked, and I assumed I looked like an ancient tribal sacrifice. Excellent.

Judging by the ruins around me, the mission had failed. Why would they be going for stealth?

Harry? It's got your name on it.

Yes, I remembered Ron's voice in the darkness. One of these orby things had Harry's name on it. I spun around suddenly, my head immediately cursing me for it, and scrambled for my orb.

But it wasn't there.

"No," I croaked, the air too dry and dusty for my voice to function properly. "No, n-n-no." It did not break. It did not. Desperately, I reached for the next orb in case mine had just rolled over a slot, but a shock jolted through my arm as soon as I came in contact with the glass. I could not pick it up.

And all the pieces clicked together. Of course I couldn't pick it up. It wasn't mine. And the Death Eaters, because of course they were the ones to attack me, were going for the stealth approach because Harry had to pick up his orb before they could make their presences known.

So…what the hell made these orbs so important?

"RUN!"

"Shit," I swore. The voices sounded distant, too far away for danger to be anywhere near me, but I had to find out what was going on. I had to, essentially, charge right into the thick of it. I summoned my wand, which had been buried by shattered glass, and stumbled towards the fray. I got there in just enough time to watch Ron, Ginny, and Luna take off in one direction, closely followed by three Death Eaters, while Harry, Neville, and Hermione ducked through a door. Excellent. So, so excellent.

My allegiance was clear, as was my choice. Even if I wanted to follow Harry, which I didn't (frankly, I was beginning to think this boy was a bit of a twat), I could not get through that door once I heard Hermione seal it. But I did not want to follow them. I wanted to protect Ron and Ginny, so I crept around the Death Eaters attempting to get to Harry. Silently, I cast my shadow spell. I felt the cuts on my forehead throb painfully as I cast the spell, and a tear of blood trickled down my face from the pressure exerted from the wordless spell. I made a note to avoid wordless magic as I crept just behind them, slipping through the darkness unnoticed.

Until my foot shattered a piece of glass on the floor.

All words stopped, and dangerous faces flicked in my direction. I winced and prayed that they were as stupid as the Golden Trio had been earlier, that maybe they would not see through my shadow spell in the darkness.

Three bolts of light, all green, shot in my direction, and I screamed and hit the deck to duck all of them. More glass embedded into my palm, but I had no time to even dig the shards out as I scrambled to my feet and took off in the same direction as the Weasleys and Luna.

"You," a man ordered. "After her!"

Damn and double damn. I swore under my breath and sent three rictusempras over my shoulder. Unfortunately, my casting was too hurried for any of my tickling charms to hit their mark. I swore again and sped up, yanking a piece of glass out of my palm and tossing it over my shoulder.

Then, I quite literally ran into a problem. The hallway ended, and I ran straight into the middle of a stand-off. Ron had his wand pointed at a Death Eater whose wand was pointed at Ginny whose wand was pointed at another Death Eater whose wand was pointed at Ron.

Only the Weasleys…

"Rictusempra!" I snapped, hitting the Death Eater threatening Ginny. My presence startled all of them, and three sets of wide eyes turned towards me as my target doubled over with laughter. I immediately thought of a counterspell as the Death Eater threatening Ron raised his wand. But, he didn't send a spell my way. He sent it at his original target, and a bolt of blue light hit Ron right in the chest.

"Ron!" Ginny shrieked as the tell-tale beating of footsteps came up behind me. Instinctively, I returned to my old stand-by and hit the deck, pressing my body against the ground. Glass pressed farther into my palms, and I cried out in pain as I felt my hands flatten against the ground; those shards were all the way in. There was no chance of pulling them out now.

Green light shot through the air above me, and Ginny shrieked again as the spell meant for me hit the Death Eater who had just cursed her brother. He crumpled to the ground, and I immediately rolled onto my back and sent another Rictusempra at the murderer before he had a chance to correct his mistake.

"Is Ron okay?" I gasped, watching my opponent double over with glee.

"He…I…there's…"

"Ginny!" I snapped. I rolled back onto my stomach to face them and scrambled to my knees. "Is he all right?"

"I don't know!" she snapped right back. "He's…funny."

"Well, something's obviously wrong, then. Ron's never funny," I mumbled, and Ron seemed to find this jab hilarious.

"That's not what I mean, Mel," she glowered at me."

"I know, I know," I rolled my eyes and scooted over to them on my knees, which were very sore from beating against the ground so many times in so few minutes. "Ron, how do you feel?" Blood, thick and a shade too dark, trickled slowly from his mouth, and I wiped it away with the sleeve of my robe.

"You…you made them laugh. Tha's funny," Ron grinned and pointed to the Death Eaters. "But he's not laughing." I followed his finger to the unfortunate recipient of the Avada Kedavra.

"No, Ron, he's not laughing," I muttered darkly. "C'mon, we have to move. Can you walk?"

"Yeeeeah," he grinned. "Can you? Your hands…" he stopped to laugh at the glass in my palms. "You got beat up."

"Merlin," I grumbled. "Where's…wait, where's Luna?"

"Dunno. Ahead of us, I think," Ginny muttered, helping me lift Ron to his feet. Ron was unsteady, swaying back and forth, but he shrugged off our help. "She was followed."

I swore again, which Ron found uproarious. I wanted to leave him behind, out of harm's way, but I had the strong feeling he would wander into trouble anyway. "Let's find her," I grunted.

Ron was surprisingly good on his feet. Not that he was good on them, but he nearly made it out of the room before Ginny had to catch him. She kept an arm around him for support as we continued on. Thankfully, unlike the rest of this place, there was only one path, so Luna was not hard to find.

"There," I pointed as bright lights, obviously from spells, illuminated our path. I rushed ahead to help, secretly hoping that Luna and I could deal with this before Ginny and Ron caught up.

No such luck. Ginny dropped Ron into an unceremonious heap on the floor, which he thought was great fun, and ran so quickly that she even passed me to get into the room first. I watched in horror as Luna sent a spell that the Death Eater dove to dodge, and he grabbed Ginny's ankle. She let out a shriek and Luna sent out a panicked Reducto at them. The explosion successfully sent the Death Eater flying, but a loud crack emanated through the room as Ginny landed, and she yelped and grabbed her ankle. Luna used our distraction to hex her opponent once more and immediately rushed to Ginny's side, so I turned back and picked up Ron. Once he was on his feet, he forced me away and walked on his own until he got to Ginny, and seeing his sister in distress sent him into instant tears.

"Is she all right?"

"I think it's broken," Luna muttered. "Can you fix it?"

"I don't know how to fix bones," I shook my head. "I'm not good with healing spells." That was always Angie's department. I really could have used her right about now. I really could have used George, too. He was good with this stuff, fighting and healing and protecting. I was clearly rubbish at it. "I don't know what's wrong with Ron," I added as Ginny ordered him to stop crying, which worked only because he thought she looked, "hilarious when she was cross,".

"We need to find Harry," Luna decided, and I agreed. Ron got up on his own this time, as did Ginny. Luna and I moved to help her walk, but she turned her wand on us.

"Stay away," she ordered. "I'm fine."

"Your ankle is broken," I pointed out.

"You still have a dart wound in your arm," she countered.

"Touché." Plus side, if erklings were poisonous, I would absolutely be dead by already. I felt it was not the time to bring that up.

Ginny grabbed hold of her brother, Luna took up the rear in case anyone else came after us, so I lead us onward. Thankfully, we ran into no more trouble until I shoved open the door revealing Harry, Hermione, and Neville in the circular room with all the doors. Hermione's markings were gone, I noticed with a sinking heart, so finding our way out was going to be painstaking. Ron found immediate humor in how beat-up Harry looked, and Ginny had to abandon her brother as his knees gave out. Her ankle could not handle the stress, so she let him fall and slid down against the wall to sit herself.

"Ginny? What happened?" Harry asked, slightly panicked. Ginny did not answer, though, just grabbed her ankle and pressed her forehead against her other knee, sucking in deep breaths to steady herself. She should not have walked on it, the mother in me insisted, but I kept my mouth shut as Luna explained what happened.

"We need to get out of here," Harry insisted.

"What's wrong with Hermione?" I asked. It was clear that Neville's nose was broken, but Hermione lay as still as death. Harry shook his head.

"Don't know. This was all a trap, Mel; we need to get out of here."

"Yeah, I gathered-" I began, but the door behind us burst open, and three Death Eaters appeared led by Bellatrix Lestrange. Spells started flying, so I grabbed Ron, Luna and Neville grabbed Hermione, and Harry burst through a door that we all followed behind. He shoved it shut behind it and sealed it with a quick colloportus spell.

"WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!" a man yelled from the other side of the door, and he was right. We were trapped. There were other ways in; the sealing spell was only a roadblock. We were by no means safe in this room with the floating brains.

"Ron, don't touch," I snapped as Ron reached for the tank of floating, tentacle-y brains. Someone threw their bodyweight against a door, and Harry quickly sealed it. This was repeated by everyone with all the doors leading into this room, Luna and Ginny and Neville and Harry all bewitching doors as a body rammed against it to gain entrance. I would have helped, should have helped, but Ron was insistent on getting a brain (which would have been funny in certain situations).

Luna let out a cry, and we all turned to see her door break through. She flew across the room, sent backwards by a spell she could not block in time, and a surge of Death Eaters burst in. My fellow Ravenclaw hit a desk and landed on the floor to lay as still as Hermione, on the shallow rise and fall of her chest indicating life.

We needed to move, and Harry, Neville and I were now responsible for fighting off five opponents and carrying three people. Harry took off running as Bellatrix came at him, which bought Neville enough time to send a curse at someone else. He missed, but it was certainly a good effort. I sent a hex, too, but the move cost me.

"Ron, Ron!" I shrieked as Ron summoned one of the brains. The whole room, every battler in it, froze to watch the brain fly at him. At the last moment, I sent a spell towards it, but I missed, and Ron caught the brain with the same boyish grin I saw on his older brothers' faces when they got hold of a dungbomb. "Ron, put it down!"

But, I was too late. Tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron, shooting out of the brain like vines. Ron protested and tried to shake it off, but nothing stopped it. Harry and I both tried to cut the tentacles with spells, but neither of our attempts worked.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" Ginny shrieked from her position on the floor. Her words snapped someone back to attention, and a Death Eater sent a stunning charm straight at her, slumping her over into unconsciousness.

That pissed me off. I was here to protect them, and Ron was about to suffocate from a brain while his sister was hit in the face by a stunner. Really? I think not. "Obliviate!" I snapped, sending a memory-erasing spell at a Death Eater. Finally, I hit a target, and I watched the recollection fade from his eyes. Memory charms were tricky; it took control to erase the memories you wanted to erase. I had anger, and a lot of it, combined with absolutely no specific target. Whoever I hit probably had a lot of damage done. Good. They deserved it.

Harry clutched the prophecy and took off running again, drawing every Death Eater after him. I swore and grabbed Neville's robes before he could follow. "Neville. Neville!" I snapped as the boy tried to struggle against me. "Stay with Ron stay with Ron!" He struggled again, so I let him go, and he stumbled a few steps away to glare at me. "Your nose is broken; you can't fight. I need you here. Not out there. Here."

"I ca'd hewp hib," Neville shook his head, my words ringing true in his mind.

"You can," I insisted. I took him by the shoulders to hopefully show that I believed in him. "The spell is interficia. Can you say that?"

"Iderficia."

Merlin. "Okay, point your wand…" I frowned at the wood in his hand. "Point Hermione's wand at the tentacles, flick down to the right" I demonstrated with mine, "and say interficia." I demonstrated the whole thing, and the tentacle actually snapped. "Try really hard to say every letter. Really hard."

"Id…Ide…Iddddnnnn….Interficia!"

"Good, great, perfect! Keep doing that. Keep slicing them from his chest; if they get too tight there, his lungs will constrict. And, obviously, keep them from his throat. I will be back for you, all right? I will."

I hoped.

Neville nodded and cast the spell again, more confidently this time, so I took off after Harry.

Whew! This ended up longer than I intended, and I actually cut it off sooner than I planned because of how long it was getting! I wanted the whole Dept. of Mysteries battle in one chapter, but that would have just been massive. So, since my spring break is coming up, I can hopefully post again very soon. I do have a lot of work (because professors just see 'break' as 'more time to get homework done'!), but I will update as soon as I can! Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing. You're all beautiful, I say, beautiful!

Next Chapter: Phoenix Tears