A/N: Two chapters left after this one! Leave a review!

POV: Harry

Disclaimer: I own only Navin. (And if you don't remember who that is, it should come back to you soon enough.)

Chapter 35

Percy was the first person to turn around. When he did, it was so fast that I wasn't able to track the movement with my eyes. Faster than I could see, his wand was in his hand. "EXPELLIARMUS!"

And the wand that Lucius Malfoy was holding, pointed towards me, flew out of his hand before the Death Eater could even think of muttering a charm to stop it. Percy caught it without moving his eyes off of Lucius, and held it out along with his own wand, pointing both at the Death Eater. Lucius looked behind me, at his son, with a pleading look in his eye, but there was no response from Draco, who was still holding up Rachel.

A loud cackle resonated from behind Lucius, and a woman dressed completely in black stepped out and lay a filthy hand on his shoulder. Lucius couldn't wipe the look of shock off of his face; I doubted he'd ever been disarmed so quickly and easily. "Lots of potential, that one…" she cackled again, showing rotted black teeth through a mane of wild black hair. Suddenly, I realized who it was standing there in front of me. "And what would your name be, dear?" She said the words with no feeling at all.

Percy didn't answer, only watching her warily. He'd already made a quick move; I doubted he could disarm Bellatrix Lestrange as quickly as he'd disarmed Malfoy. Suddenly, Bellatrix moved nearer to Percy. "I asked you a question!" she shrieked, pointing her wand at Percy, but he blocked the Cruciatus curse sent his way with a quick mutter.

"And I don't intend to answer it."

"Have it your way, then."

"Bella, this isn't the time, we need —"

"I know, Lucius. But I don't think you're in a position to order what is going to happen next, Lucy. If you haven't quite yet noticed, you don't have your wand."

Lucius shut his mouth and stepped back until he was wreathed in shadow. But while Bellatrix had had her attention on Lucius, Percy had taken the advantage and shot another Disarming Charm at her.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Bellatrix screamed, throwing up a Shield Charm faster than I thought she could have. She was a really powerful witch. And suddenly, there were Death Eaters on all sides of us. Somehow, they had cornered us so silently that no one had heard.

One of the masked figures sent a green spell whizzing past Ginny's ear, and it hit the prophecies behind it so they began to speak in three-toned voices. "DO NOT!" Bellatrix yelled. "DO NOT TRY TO KILL THEM, WE CANNOT RISK LOSING THE PROPHECY!"

Suddenly, Annabeth, who had been silently and discreetly pulling her wand from her pocket, twitched it in the direction of the Death Eaters behind her. Two of them fell over and writhed on the floor before laying still.

"Who did that?" Bellatrix shrieked, looking around to see who had sent the curses that incapacitated two men. She could not pinpoint the source of the spells, however, and Annabeth looked around in mock confusion.

A man on my left side fell over, and I yelled with all my might, "NOW!"

Everyone pointed their wands and sent Expelliarmuses flying through the air; four more Death Eaters fell from the extreme force, but the rest were smart enough to put up Shield Charms. Then, Annabeth yelled, "Reducto!" and the shelves of prophecies began to fall over, crashing onto the black-cloaked figures and reciting prophecies. The fog from all of the prophecies was enough to make us disappear, and so all of us ran towards what we believed was the exit. Draco and Percy carried Rachel between the rest of us, as we all fired red spells back towards the Death Eaters.

And suddenly, there was a yell from in front of me. "HARRY!" It was a voice I knew all too well.

"SIRIUS? What are you doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing," said Sirius as he joined us in running towards the exit. "Do you have it?"

I did; it was still clutched in my hand, glowing blue now.

"The Order is here. We heard of the disrupt at the Ministry from far away, since there are eyes everywhere. Never forget that, Harry. Why are you here?"

I couldn't answer, I was running so hard. The taste of blood was pungent in my mouth. Suddenly, we burst through a door into a cold black room. There was an arch on the far side of it, covered by a curtain, but nothing else in the room.

Annabeth, Percy and Draco reached us, and set down Rachel. "Wait, do you hear that?" asked Annabeth suddenly.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Voices. They're coming from that arch, like there's people behind the curtain!" she responded, making her way over to the arch.

"Don't touch it!" The words came from Rachel, who had suddenly woken up, her eyes drained of color, the green fog still seeping out of it. "The dead are in there!"

"Oh, gods Rachel! You had us worried!" Percy exclaimed, hugging her gently. "What happened?" Draco, having rushed over to Rachel, was now supporting almost all her body weight.

"The sn —"

She didn't finish, because just then, all the remaining Death Eaters burst into the room and fired simultaneously at us. We were all very quickly preoccupied, and Draco had to set down Rachel to draw his wand and stand in front of her protectively. Sirius rushed over to help them.

In the center of it all was Bellatrix. She was duelling Percy and Annabeth and Hermione, who all fought their best but could not bring down the witch. I clutched the prophecy harder when I felt cold, clammy hands grabbing at it, and pointed my wand at a masked figure behind me who was trying to get it. He wailed in agony after my Stunning Spell hit him straight in the nose.

There were more people in the room than I thought there had been, and I soon figured out why. Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and the rest of the Order was there, fighting viciously and beating the black figures back.

Sirius had just reached Rachel, and right on time too, as Draco had been engaged in a fight with another Death Eater and she was left unguarded. She fought to get up and finally managed it, though leaning heavily on my godfather. Blood seeped out from tears in her skinny jeans and t-shirt, and her red frizzy hair was even more out of control than usual. As a tear in Rachel's jeans shifted, I caught a glimpse of something on the outside of her left thigh.

Two puncture marks that I knew only too well.

Sirius grabbed Rachel and struggled to place her behind him. "It's alright! I'll keep her safe, don't worry, it's fine!" he yelled out at us from across the room. He was dangerously close to the gray curtain of voices, and just seeing him standing with such a close proximity to it was enough to worry me. Percy made to move over to where Sirius was standing, still fighting gravity and dead weight to get Rachel in a safe place behind him.

And then, there was a sudden flash of light as Bellatrix moved towards Sirius, extending her wand much too fast for him to follow or counter.

"Avada Kedavra!" she shrieked with the venom and pleasure of her master. The green spell whizzed through the air and hit directly where Sirius was standing.

Sirius toppled over. I screamed out to him, yelling with all the terror in my heart because no, Sirius could not be dead. "NO!" I screamed, my throat aching from the sound that erupted from my heart. Sirius was all I had left; no, he could not leave me, he could not leave me here to fight this war alone…

Tears blurred my vision, but I ran over and tripped. And out of my hand fell the prophecy, and it smashed into shards of glass on the floor as the figure of a young woman who looked vaguely familiar rose out of it. But I didn't pay attention to it, still moving towards my godfather, and then I saw that —

Sirius was still moving — and his arm was flying out, wand in his grasp —

But then —

Where had the curse —?

And then I saw, then I realized. Sirius was very much alive, fighting as always, but Rachel was not.

Her body stumbled backwards, keeping a tight grip on Sirius' jacket, and she fell backwards into the curtain of smoke and voices. Sirius fought to pry her vice-like grip on his arm off, and had placed one foot into the veil of smoke when he finally succeeded in throwing her off.

Rachel was nowhere to be found; she'd vanished as soon as she fell behind those curtains, and I knew already in my heart that she wouldn't be coming back. My thought was proved when seconds later, a misty, bright green figure in the form of a young girl slithered out from behind the curtain and dissipated into the air. The spirit of the Oracle of Delphi was lost forever; she'd vanished.

I looked over at Percy and Annabeth to see how they were reacting — if I was horrified, they'd feel much worse — but instead my eyes found Malfoy. He was positively burning with rage at seeing Rachel's death. And right there, when his eyes met mine, I saw that Malfoy had made up his mind right there and then. He had no intention of following in his father's footsteps: not now, not ever.

My eyes changed direction when I heard a sword being drawn, and I looked over at Percy. He held his Celestial Bronze sword in one hand, and his wand and Malfoy's wand in the other. Annabeth was right next to him as they both charged Bellatrix with godly and wizard weapons alike.

Bellatrix was not done yet. She tore back her left sleeve, and with an evil grin, pressed her finger to the black mark burned into the skin there.

Everything was still and silent for a moment. Percy and Annabeth looked like they'd been frozen mid-step, Hermione and Ginny and Ron were backed into a corner by three men, Malfoy and Sirius were picking themselves up, staring uselessly at the curtain of voices; Lupin, Tonks and the Order froze, dumbfounded, and even the Death Eaters looked at Bellatrix with horrified expressions.

And then the great black ceiling above us fell in as a great black shadow crashed into the room.

I stumbled backwards at the loud crash as heavy stones and wood fell everywhere, almost crushing everyone, and squinted into the darkness to see if I could make out what had just crashed through the Ministry's walls.

The creature, whatever it was, was absolutely enormous. It had black, scaly wings and a long slithery black body as thick as the trees in the Forbidden Forest. Its bones were visible through the nearly transparent scales, and at first I thought that a very large thestral had just lost its way and crashed into the Ministry on accident.

But then I saw the glowing orange eyes the size of quaffles, and red tufts of feathers crowning its head and on the tip of its tail and back of its legs, and I realized that I had met this very creature all that long time ago on a walk out onto the foggy Hogwarts grounds.

"NAVIN!" I yelled at the quetzalcoatl, and he turned his head and found me with his enormous orange eyes. But the quetzalcoatl did not rush to me and instead ran over to all the Death Eaters and trampled them with his legs. Their cries of protest were muffled by Navin's feet, and the crunch of bones was a sound heard all over the hall.

Only then did the enormous creature make his way over to me. "Master Harry, you must get out of here. The dark wizard is on his way here right now, I can sense it within my blood. You and your friends can climb on my back and I'll get all of you out of here as soon as possible."

I looked over at the arch covered by the veil one last time, feeling regret and guilt washing over me.

"Alright. I'll tell the others. How many can you carry?" I responded in Parseltongue, causing everyone to give me strange stares.

"Six, maybe seven, but I doubt any more than that."

"Guys! This here is Navin. It's a long story, but in short he's going to get us out before Voldemort gets here. Everyone get on as quickly as possible!" I looked over at Sirius and Lupin. "Can you Apparate out? He can't carry everyone." The two of them nodded quickly before rushing over to help Ginny and Hermione get onto Navin's back. Everyone except Percy looked at the quetzalcoatl warily and cringed when they touched his back.

Percy was the last one to clamber on, but just as he did, a loud BANG resonated through the chamber, and a white face with red eyes and no nose emerged from the darkness, cloaked in all black.

I heard his voice traveling to me as Navin took off suddenly, almost knocking me off my position on his shoulders. "HARRY. HARRY. Come to me, give it to me. That is all I require, Harry."

"LIAR!" I yelled into the wind, for we were already out of the room and now were hovering in place next to the great building. But my yell was drowned out by another one, a scream of pure terror.

"PERCY!" Annabeth yelled, looking down at the room we'd just left where Percy had been knocked to the floor. He hadn't made it onto the quetzalcoatl's back. Unfortunately, Annabeth's yell drew the attention of Voldemort. The Dark wizard looked down at Percy, who was still struggling, as he got unsteadily to his feet.

Voldemort cocked his head, looking at the demigod. He didn't say a word before raising his wand, face only showing amusement. I knew what was going to happen right before it did, and my scream of warning didn't make it to Percy's ears on time.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort yelled with pleasure. The green light filled the air one more time, and beyond all of my hope, the spell hit its target.

Percy toppled over and fell to the ground, still. Unmoving.

Annabeth's scream was so terrible, I thought I might die just from hearing the sound of it. I was so horrified that Percy, PERCY JACKSON, the undefeatable, incredible demigod… was gone. Dead, just like Rachel. Tears fell down my face so fast that I didn't know how to stop them. Annabeth was still screaming.

I couldn't see anything until Ginny gasped in horror, and then I forced the tears to leave my eyes so that I could see.

Percy stirred. And moved. And rose to his feet, very, very slowly. Alive. Undamaged.

My eyes moved to Voldemort. I doubted he'd ever been so bewildered in his entire life, not even when I survived his Killing Curse. The Dark Lord raised his arm again, ready to strike. I knew Percy would not survive the curse again. It was not possible.

But just as the Dark Lord opened his mouth, a bright light appeared and a CRACK hit our ears. And there stood Dumbledore, wand brandished, wearing his usual cloak and a neutral expression.

"Come now, Tom. Do you really wish to keep fighting? Do you really wish to fight me?"

"I would not mind killing you, old man. It would simply be another obstacle moved out of the way," Voldemort snarled.

Dumbledore cast a spell, but Voldemort waved his wand and blocked it. And so began a duel. Voldemort seemed to know that it would be a waste of his time and energy to immediately send an Unforgivable at Dumbledore, and so they simply enchanted daggers of ice and serpents of fire to fly at each other.

Navin landed. He knew we didn't want to leave Percy, and he was already tired from hovering so long in the same place. None of us got off his back, though, fearing what it would mean for our safety. None but Annabeth, who sprinted over to Percy and helped him to get on Navin's back and cried and hugged him until she could no more.

Suddenly, there was a new presence in the room. It was indeed the Minister of Magic, who stopped short upon seeing Dumbledore duelling with the very person he'd denied existed for the past year.

"The Dark Lord — he's back! He's back!"

Voldemort Disapparated as swiftly as possible, but the damage was done. Fudge had seen him, as well as quite a group of other Ministry workers with him.

Dumbledore, looking exhausted, walked over to me. "I would think it wise that you should tell this little friend of yours to fly you back to Hogwarts. And I expect that none of you should tell anyone of what happened tonight." Then he turned to Percy. "Mr. Jackson, I recommend that you visit Madam Pomfrey. But keep it secret. You know what I mean when I say it. There is a great chance that Lord Voldemort has already figured it out, and will want to know how exactly you managed it. Understood?"

Percy nodded stiffly, looking drained and jumpy.

"Off you go, now. I have a few words to speak with the Minister of Magic." He hobbled off to where Fudge was standing, mouth gaping like a fish.

I leaned down to Navin's feathery ear and whispered to him in Parseltongue, and he flapped off once more to take us back home.

A/N: I'm sorry?

(To all the hate I'm surely to receive, I'd like to tell you that I would rather it was Rachel than Sirius.)