Chapter 38
Beyond the Veil
KIARA
Black shapes were emerging out of thin air all around us, blocking our way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointed directly at our hearts; Keziah gave a gasp of horror.
"To me, Pride-Lander," repeated the drawling voice of Narissa Malty as she held out her hand, palm up.
My insides plummeted sickeningly. We were trapped, and outnumbered two to one.
"To me," said Malty yet again.
"Where're my parents?" I said.
Several of the Love Destroyers laughed; a harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to my left said triumphantly, "The Scarlet Lady always knows!"
"Always," echoed Malty softly. "Now, give me the prophecy, Pride-Lander."
"I want to know where my parents are!"
"I want to know where my parents are!" mimicked the woman to my left.
She and her fellow Love Destroyers had closed in so that they were mere feet away from myself and the others, the light from their wands dazzling my eyes.
"You've got them," I said, ignoring the rising panic in my chest, the dread I had been fighting since we had first entered the one hundred and seventh row. "They're here. I know they are."
"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was two," said the woman in a horrible, mock baby voice. I felt Chrissie stir beside me.
"Don't do anything," I murmured. "Not yet - "
The woman who had mimicked me let out a raucous scream of laughter.
"You hear her? You hear her? Giving instructions to the other children as though she thinks of fighting us!"
"Oh, you don't know Pride-Lander like I do, Karalina," said Malty softly. "She has a great weakness for heroics; the Scarlet Lady understands this about her. Now give me the prophecy, Pride-Lander."
"I know my parents are here," I said, though panic was causing my chest to constrict and I felt as though I could not breathe properly. "I know you've got them!"
More of the Love Destroyers laughed, though the woman laughed loudest of all.
"It's time you learned the difference between reality and dreams, Pride-Lander," said Malty. "Now give me the prophecy, or we'll start using wands."
"Go on, then," I said, raising my own wand to chest height. As I did so, the seven wand of Chris, Sian, Chrissie, Kestrel, Nikita, Keziah and Lincoln rose on either side of me. The knot in my stomach tightened. If my parents were not there, I had led my friends to their deaths for no reason at all ...
But the Love Destroyers did not strike.
"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," said Malty coolly.
It was my turn to laugh.
"Yeah, right!" I said. "I give you this - prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"
The words were hardly out of my mouth when the harsh-sounding female Love Destroyer said, "Accio Proph - "
I was just ready for her: I shouted "Protego!" before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of my fingers I managed to cling on to it.
"Oh, she knows how to play, itty bitty baby Pride-Lander," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "Very well, then - "
"I TOLD YOU, NO!" Narissa Malty roared at the woman. "If you smash it - !"
My mind was racing. The Love Destroyers wanted this dusty spun-glass sphere. I had no interest in it. I just wanted to get them all out of this alive, to make sure none of my friends paid a terrible price for my stupidity ...
The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood. Azkaban had hollowed Katalina Outsider's face, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow. At the sight of her, someone behind me gave a sharp gasp and seemed to hide and cower behind me.
"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well - take the boy standing next to her," she ordered the Love Destroyer beside her. "Let her watch while we torture the little boy. I'll do it."
I felt the others close in around Chris; I stepped sideways so that I was standing right in front of him, the prophecy held up to my chest.
"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," I told Katalina. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will she?"
She did not move; she merely stared at me, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.
"So," I said, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"
I could not think of what to do but to keep talking. Nikita's arm was pressed against mine, and I felt her shaking; I could also feel one of the other's quickened breath on the back of my head. I was hoping they were all thinking hard about ways to get out of this, because my mind was blank.
"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Katalina, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, Kiara Pride-Lander?"
"Nope, not jesting," I said, my eyes flicking from Love Destroyer to Love Destroyer, looking for a weak link, a space through which we could escape. "How come Zira wants it?"
Several of the Love Destroyers let out low hisses.
"You dare speak her name?" whispered Katalina.
"Yeah," I said, maintaining my grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempt to bewitch it from me. "Yeah, I've got no problem with saying Zi - "
"Shut your mouth!" Katalina shrieked. "You dare speak her name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare - "
"Did you know she's a half-blood too?" I said recklessly. Sian gave a little ragged breathy moan in my ear. "Zira? Yeah, her father was a wizard but her mother was a Muggle - or has she been telling you lot she's pure-blood?"
"STUPEF - "
"NO!"
A jet of red light had shot from the end of Katalina Outsider's wand, but Malty had deflected it; her spell caused Outsider's to hit the shelf a foot to the left of me and several of the glass orbs there shattered.
Two figures, pearly-white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak; their voices vied with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Malty and Katalina's shouts.
" ... from the dust shall rise a new era ..." said the figure of an old woman.
"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"
"She dared - she dares - " shrieked Katalina incoherently, "she stands there - filthy half-blood - "
"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malty.
" ... a hard life lies ahead ..." said the figure of a wise, bald old man.
The two figures that had burst from the shattered spheres had melted into thin air. Nothing remained of them or their erstwhile homes but the fragments of glass upon the floor. They had, however, given me an idea. The problem was going to be conveying it to the others.
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," I said, playing for time. I moved my foot sideways, feeling around for someone else's.
"Do not play games with us, Pride-Lander," said Malty.
"I'm not playing games," I said, half my mind on the conversation, half on my wandering foot. And then I found someone's toes and pressed down upon them. A sharp intake of breath behind me told me they were Sian's.
"What?" she whispered.
"Crighton never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malty sneered.
"I - what?" I said. And for a moment I quite forgot my plan. "What about my scar?"
"What?" whispered Sian more urgently behind me.
"Can this be?" said Malty, sounding maliciously delighted; some of the Love Destroyers laughed again, and under cover of their laughter, I hissed to Sian, moving my lips as little as possible, "Smash shelves - "
"Crighton never told you?" Malty repeated. "Well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, Pride-Lander, the Scarlet Lady wondered why - "
" - when I say now - "
" - you didn't come running when she showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams. She thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording ..."
"Did she?" I said. Behind me I felt rather than heard Sian passing the message to the others and I sought to keep talking, to distract the Love Destroyers. "So she wanted me to come and get it, did she? Why?"
"Why?" Malty sounded incredulously delighted. "Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Pride-Lander, are those about whom it was made, as the Scarlet Lady discovered when she attempted to use others to steal it for her."
"And why did she want to steal a prophecy about me?"
"About both of you, Pride-Lander, about both of you ... haven't you ever wondered why the Scarlet Lady tried to kill you as a baby?"
I stared through the slitted eye-holes through which Malty's grey eyes were gleaming. I then asked myself, was this prophecy the reason Zira tried to kill my parents, the reason I carried my flame-shaped scar? Was the answer to all of this clutched in my hand?
"Someone made a prophecy about Zira and me?" I said quietly, gazing at Narissa Malty, my fingers tightening over the warm glass sphere in my hand. It was hardly larger than a Snitch and still gritty with dust. "And she's made me come and get it for her? Why couldn't she come and get it herself?"
"Get it herself?" shrieked Katalina, over a cackle of mad laughter. "The Scarlet Lady, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring her return? The Scarlet Lady, reveal herself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin's dearest friends?"
"So, she's got you dong her dirty work for her, has she?" I said. "Like she tried to get Simone to steal it - and Bass?"
"Very good, Pride-Lander, very good ..." said Malty slowly. "But the Scarlet Lady knows you are not unintell - "
"NOW!" I yelled.
Seven different voices behind me bellowed, "REDUCTO!" Seven curses flew in seven different directions and the shelves opposite us exploded as they hit; the towering structure swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart; pearly-white figures unfurled into the air and floated there, their voices echoing from who knew what long-dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass and splintered wood that was raining down upon the floor -
"RUN!" I yelled, as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to fall from above. I seized a handful of Chris' robes and dragged him forwards, holding one arm over my head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon us. A Love Destroyer lunged forwards through the cloud of dust and I elbowed her hard in the masked face; we were all yelling, there were cries of pain, and thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon ourselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from their spheres -
I found the way ahead clear and saw Chrissie, Kestrel, Lincoln and Keziah sprint past me, their arms over their heads; something heavy struck me on the side of my face but I merely ducked my head and sprinted onwards; a hand caught me by the shoulder; I heard Chris shout out, "Stupefy!" The hand released me at once -
We were at the end of row one hundred and seven; I turned right and began to sprint in earnest; I heard footsteps right behind me and Sian's voice urging Nikita on; straight ahead, the door through which we had come was ajar; I saw the glittering light of the bell jar; I pelted through the doorway, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in my hand, and waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before I slammed the door behind me -
"Colloportus!" gasped Sian, and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.
"Where - where are the others?" I gasped.
I had thought Chrissie, Kestrel, Lincoln and Keziah were ahead of us, that they would be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.
"They must have gone the wrong way!" whispered Sian, terror in her face.
"Listen!" whispered Chris.
Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door we had just sealed; I put my ear close to the door to listen and heard Narissa Malty roar, "Leave Nechi, leave her, I say - her injuries will be nothing to the Scarlet Lady compared to losing that prophecy. Jackson, come back here, we need to organise! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Pride-Lander until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary - Katalina, Nuka, you take the left; Crate, Roberta, go right - Jackson, Dali, the door straight ahead - Magro and Aakster, through here - Roscoe, over there - Murgia, come with me!"
"What do we do!" Chris asked me, looking at me desperately.
"Well, we don't stand around waiting for them to find us for a start," I said. "Let's get away from this door."
We ran as quietly as we could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, towards the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. We were almost there when I heard something large and heavy collide with the door Sian had charmed shut.
"Stand aside!" said a rough voice. "Alohomora!"
As the door flew open, Chris, Sian, Nikita and I dived under the desks. We saw the bottom of the two Love Destroyers' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.
"They might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.
"Check under the desks," said another.
I saw the knees of the Love Destroyers bend; poking my wand out from under the desk, I shouted, "STUPEFY!"
A jet of red light hit the nearest Love Destroyer; she fell backwards into a grandfather clock and knocked it over; the second Love Destroyer, however, had leapt aside to avoid my spell and was pointing her own wand at Chris and Sian, who were both crawling out from under the desk to get a better aim.
"Avada - "
I launched myself across the floor and grabbed the Love Destroyer around the knees, causing her to topple and her aim to go awry. Nikita overturned a desk in her anxiety to help; and pointing her wand wildly at the scuffle myself and the Love Destroyer were in, she cried:
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Both mine and the Love Destroyer's wands flew out of our hands and soared back towards the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; we both scrambled back to our feet and charged after them, the Love Destroyer in front with me hot on her heels, and Nikita bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck by what she had done.
"Get out of the way, Kiara!" yelled Nikita, clearly determined to repair the damage.
I flung myself sideways as Nikita took aim again and shouted:
"STUPEFY!"
The jet of red light flew over the Love Destroyer's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped pocket-watches; the cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying everywhere, sprang back up to the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered -
The Love Destroyer had snatched up her wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. I ducked down behind another desk as the woman turned; her mask had slipped so that she couldn't see. She ripped it off with her free hand and shouted: "STUP - "
"STUPEFY!" shouted Chris, he and Sian having just caught up with us. The jet of red light hit the Love Destroyer in the middle of her chest: she froze, her arm still raised, her wand fell to the floor with a clatter and she collapsed backwards towards the bell jar. I expected to hear a clunk, for the woman to hit solid glass and slide off the jar on to the floor, but instead, her head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it were nothing but a soap bubble and she came to rest, sprawled on her back on the table, with her head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.
"Accio wand!" cried Sian. My wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to me.
"Thanks," I said. "Right, let's get out of - "
"Look out!" said Nikita, horrified. She was staring at the Love Destroyer's head in the bell jar.
The four of us raised our wands again, but none of us struck: we were all gazing, open-mouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the woman's head.
It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair retracting into her skull; her cheeks becoming smooth, her skull round and covered with a peachlike fuzz ...
A baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Love Destroyer as she struggled to get up again; but even as we watched, our mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again; thick black hair was sprouting from the plate ...
"It's time," said Sian in an awestruck voice. "Time ..."
The Love Destroyer shook her ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before she could pull herself together, it began to shrink back to babyhood once more ...
There was a shout from nearby, then a crash and a scream.
"CHRISSIE?" I yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before us. "KESTREL? LINCOLN? KEZIAH?"
"Kiara!" Sian screamed.
The Love Destroyer had pulled her head out of the bell jar. Her appearance was utterly bizarre, her tiny baby's head bawling lously while her thick arms flailed dangerously in all directions, and I ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding her arms. I raised my wand but to my amazement Sian seized my arm.
"You can't hurt a baby!"
There was no time to argue the point; I heard more footsteps growing loudly from the Hall of Prophecy and I knew, too late, that I ought not to have shouted and given away our position.
"Come on!" I said, and leaving the ugly baby-headed Love Destroyer staggering behind us we took off for the door that stood open at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway.
We had run halfway towards it when I saw through the open door two more Love Destroyers running across the black room towards us; veering left, I burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind us.
"Collo - " began Sian, but before she could complete the spell the door had burst open and the two Love Destroyers had come hurtling inside.
With a cry of triumph, both yelled:
"IMPEDIMENTA!"
Chris, Sian, Nikita and I were all knocked backwards off our feet; Nikita was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view; Sian smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books; the backs of mine and Chris' heads were slammed into the stone wall behind us; I didn't know about Chris, but tiny lights burst in front of my eyes and for a moment I was too dizzy to react.
"WE'VE GOT HER!" yelled the Love Destroyer nearest me. "IN AN OFFICE OFF - "
"Silencio!" cried Sian and the woman's voice was extinguished. She continued to mouth through the hole in her mask, but no sound came out. She was thrust aside by her fellow Love Destroyer.
"Petrificus Totalus!" I shouted, as the second Love Destroyer raised her wand. Her arms and legs snapped together and she fell forwards, face down on to the rug at my feet, stiff as a board and unable to move.
"Well done, Ki - "
But the Love Destroyer Sian had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with her wand; a streak of what looked like purple flame passed right across Sian's chest. She gave a tiny "Oh!" as though of surprise and crumpled on to the floor, where she lay motionless.
"SIAN!"
I stood there, shocked that someone had taken Sian down, as Chris fell to his knees beside her and Nikita crawled rapidly towards Sian from under the desk, her wand held up in front of her. The Love Destroyer kicked out hard at Nikita's head as she emerged - her foot broke Nikita's wand in two and connected with her face. Nikita gave a howl of pain and she recoiled, clutching her own mouth and nose. I twisted around, my own wand held high, and saw that the Love Destroyer had ripped off her own mask and was pointing her wand directly at me; I immediately recognised the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Squabbler: Antonia Dali, the witch who had murdered the Pratts.
Dali grinned. With her free hand, she pointed from the prophecy still clutched in my hand, to herself, then at Sian. Though she could no longer speak, her meaning could not have been clearer. Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her ...
"Like you won't kill us anyway, the moment I hand it over!" I said.
A whine of panic inside my head was preventing me from thinking properly: I looked down at Sian, who was still unconscious, and I saw that Chris had a hand on her shoulder. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead ...
"Whaddever you do, Kiara," said Nikita fiercely from under the desk, lowering her hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down her mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to her!"
"Kiara," said Chris quietly from beside Sian's body. I looked at him properly and saw that he was looking at me, fiercely determined. "Nikita's right, don't give in!"
Then there was a crash outside the door and Dali looked over her shoulder - the baby-headed Love Destroyer had appeared in the doorway, her head bawling, her great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around her. Before I had the chance to do anything, Chris yelled:
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
The spell hit Dali before she could block it and she toppled forwards across her comrade, both of them rigid as board and unable to move an inch.
"Sian," I said at once, moving to kneel down next to her, shaking her as the baby-headed Love Destroyer blundered out of sight again. "Sian, wake up ..."
"Whaddid she do to her?" said Nikita, crawling out from under the desk to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from her rapidly swelling nose.
"I dunno ..."
Chris groped for Sian's wrist.
"I've found a pulse."
Such a powerful wave of relief swept through me that for a moment I felt light-headed.
"She's alive?"
Chris looked at me, smiling with relief. "Yeah, I'm sure of it."
There was a pause in which I listened hard for the sound of more footsteps, but all I heard were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby-headed Love Destroyer in the next room.
"Chris, Nikita, we're not far from the exit," I whispered, "we're right next to that circular room ... if we can just get you across it, Nikita, and find the right door before any Love Destroyers come ... Chris, I'll bet you can get Sian up the corridor into the lift ... then you two could find someone ... raise the alarm ..."
"And what are you going to do?" said Chris, frowning at me, as Nikita mopped her bleeding nose with her sleeve.
"I've got to find the others," I said.
Chris and Nikita looked at each other and smiled simultaneously. Then Nikita said firmly, "We're going do find dem wid you."
"But Sian - "
"We'll take her with us," said Chris. "I'll carry her, don't worry - "
Chris then lifted Sian's upper body with one arm, put his other arm under her legs and stood up carrying her.
"Wait," I said, snatching up Sian's wand from the floor and shoving it into Nikita's hand, "you'd better take this."
Nikita kicked aside the broken fragments of her own wand as she, Chris and I walked slowly towards the door.
"My granddad's going do kill be," said Nikita thickly, blood spattering from her nose as she spoke, "dat was my bub's old wand."
I struck my head out of the door and looked around cautiously. The baby-headed Love Destroyer screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused while the glass-fronted cabinet that I now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter and repair itself on the wall behind us.
"She's never going to notice us," I whispered. "C'mon ... keep close behind me ..."
We crept out of the office and back towards the door into the black hallway, which seemed to be completely deserted. We walked a few steps forwards, Chris keeping up easily, despite Sian's weight; the door of the Time Room swung shut behind us and the walls began to rotate once more. the recent blow on the back of my head seemed to have unsettled me; I narrowed my eyes, swaying slightly, until the walls stopped moving again. With a sinking heart, I saw that Sian's fiery crosses had faded from the doors.
"So which way d'you reck - ?"
But before we could make a decision as to which way to try, a door to our right sprang open and four people fell out of it.
"Chrissie!" I croaked, dashing towards them. "Kestrel - are you all - ?"
"Kiara," said Chrissie, giggling weakly, lurching forwards, seizing the front of my robes and gazing at me with unfocused eyes, "there you are ... ha ha ha ... you look funny, Kiara ... you're all messed up ..."
Chrissie's face was very white and something dark was trickling from the corner of her mouth. Next moment her knees had given way, but she still clutched the front of my robes, so that I was pulled into a kind of bow.
"Kestrel?" I said fearfully. "What happened?"
But Kestrel shook her head and slid down the wall into a sitting position, panting and holding her ankle.
"I think her ankle's broken, I heard something crack," whispered Keziah, who had a cut just above her left eye and was stood next to Lincoln, who was bent over Kestrel and who alone seemed to be unhurt. "Four of them chased us into a room full of planets; it was a very cold place, some of the time we were just floating in the dark - "
"Kiara, we saw Uranus up close!" said Chrissie, still giggling feebly. "Get it, Kiara? We saw Uranus - ha ha ha - "
A bubble of blood grew out the corner of Chrissie's mouth and burst.
" - anyway, one of them grabbed Kestrel's foot; I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Jupiter in her face, but ..."
Keziah gestured hopelessly at Kestrel, who was breathing in a very shallow way, her eyes still closed.
"And what about Chrissie?" I said fearfully, as Chrissie continued to giggle, still hanging off the front of my robes.
"I don't know what they hit her with," said Lincoln sadly, "but she's gone a bit funny, I could hardly get her along at all."
"Kiara," said Chrissie, pulling my ear down to her mouth and still giggling weakly, "you know who that boy is, Kiara? He's Loony ... Loony Lovedream ... ha ha ha ..."
"We've got to get out of here," I said firmly. "Lincoln, can you help Kestrel?"
"Yes," said Lincoln, sticking his wand behind his ear for safekeeping, then putting an arm around Kestrel's wrist and pulling her up.
"It's only my ankle, Linc, I can do it myself!" said Kestrel impatiently, but next moment she had collapsed sideways and grabbed Lincoln for support. I pulled Chrissie's arm over my shoulder just as, so many months ago, I had pulled Carol's. I looked around: we had a one in twelve chance of getting the exit right first time -
I heaved Chrissie towards a door; we were within a few feet of it when another door across the hall burst open and three Love Destroyers sped in, led by Katalina Outsider.
"There they are!" she shrieked.
Stunning Spells shot across the room: I smashed my way through the door ahead, flung Chrissie unceremoniously from me and ducked back to help Lincoln with Kestrel: we were all over just in time to slam the door against Katalina.
"Colloportus!" I shouted, and I heard three bodies slam into the door on the other side.
"It doesn't matter!" said a man's voice. "There are other ways in - WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE IN HERE!"
I span around; we were back in the Brain Room and, sure enough, there were doors all around the walls. I could hear footsteps in the hall behind us as more Love Destroyers came running to join the first.
"Lincoln - Nikita - Keziah - Chris - help me!"
The five of us tore around the room, sealing the doors as we went; I crashed into a table and rolled over the top of it in my haste to reach the next door:
"Colloportus!"
There were footsteps running along behind the doors; every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one, so it creaked and shuddered; Lincoln, Nikita, Keziah and Chris were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall - then, as I reached the very top of the room, I heard Lincoln cry:
"Collo - aaaaaaaaargh ..."
I turned to see him flying through the air; five Love Destroyer surged into the room through the door he had not reached in time; Lincoln hit a desk, slid over its surface and onto the floor on the other side where he lay sprawled, as still as Sian.
"Get Pride-Lander!" shrieked Katalina, and she ran at me; I dodged her and sprinted back up the room; I was safe as long as they might hit the prophecy -
"Hey!" said Chrissie, who had staggered to her feet and was tottering drunkenly towards me, giggling. "Hey, Kiara, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Kiara?"
"Chrissie, get out of the way, get down - "
But Chrissie had already pointed her wand at the tank.
"Honest, Kiara, they're brains - look - Accio brain!"
The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Chris, Kestrel, Nikita, Keziah, myself and each of the Love Destroyers turned in spite of ourselves to watch the top of the tank as a brain burst from the green liquid like a leaping fish: for a moment it seemed suspended in mid-air, then it soared towards Chrissie, spinning as it came, and what looked like ribbons of moving images flew from it, unravelling like rolls of film -
"Ha ha ha, Kiara, look at it - " said Chrissie, watching it dislodge its gaudy innards, "Kiara, come and touch it; bet it's weird - "
"CHRISSIE, NO!"
I did not know what would happen if Chrissie touched the tentacles of thought that were flying behind the brain, but I was sure that it would not be anything good. I darted forwards but Chrissie had already caught the brain in her outstretched hands.
The moment they made contact with her skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Chrissie's arms like ropes.
"Kiara, look what's happen - No - no - I don't like it - no, stop - stop - "
But the thin ribbons were spinning around Chrissie's chest; she tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight to her like an octopus' body.
"Diffindo!" I yelled, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Chrissie before my eyes, but they would not break. Chrissie fell over, still thrashing against her bonds.
"Kiara, it'll suffocate her!" screamed Kestrel, immobilised by her broken ankle on the floor - then a jet of red light flew from one of the Love Destroyer's wands and hit her squarely in the face. She keeled over sideways and lay there unconscious.
"STUBEFY!" shouted Nikita, wheeling around and waving Sian's wand at the oncoming Love Destroyers. "STUBEFY! STUBEFY!"
But nothing happened.
One of the Love Destroyers shot their own Stunning Spell at Nikita, which missed her - but got Keziah instead, who was flung backwards and slumped to a heap on the floor. Chris, Nikita and I were now the only three left fighting the five Love Destroyers, two of whom sent streams of silver light like arrows which missed but left craters in the wall behind us. I ran for it as Katalina Outsider raced right at me; holding the prophecy high above my head, I sprinted back up the room; all I could think of doing at that moment was to draw the Love Destroyers away from the others.
It seemed to have worked; they streaked after me, knocking chairs and tables flying but not daring to bewitch me in case they hurt the prophecy, and I crashed through the only door still open, the one through which the Love Destroyers themselves had come; inwardly praying that Nikita and Chris would stay with Chrissie and would find some way of releasing her. I ran a few feet into the new room and felt the floor vanish -
I fell down steep stone step after steep stone step, bouncing on every tier until at last, with a crash that knocked all the breath out of my body, I landed flat on my back in the sunken pit where the stone archway stood on its dais. The whole room rang with the Love Destroyers' laughter: I looked up and saw the five who had been in the Brain Room descending towards me, while as many more emerged through other doorways and began leaping from bench to bench towards me. I got to my feet though my legs were trembling so badly they barely supported me: the prophecy was still miraculously unbroken in my left hand, with my wand clutched tightly in my right. I backed away, looking around, trying to keep all the Love Destroyers within my sight. The back of my legs hit something solid: I had reached the dais where the archway stood. I climbed backwards on to it.
The Love Destroyers all halted, gazing at me. Some were panting as hard as I was. One was bleeding badly; Dali, freed of the Body-Bind Curse, was leering, her wand pointed straight at my face.
"Pride-Lander, your race is run," drawled Narissa Malty, pulling off her mask, "now hand over the prophecy like a good girl."
"Let - let the others go, and I'll give it to you!" I said desperately.
A few of the Love Destroyers laughed.
"You are not in a position to bargain, Pride-Lander," said Narissa Malty, her pale face flushed with pleasure. "You see, there are ten of us and only one of you ... or hasn't Crighton ever taught you how to count?"
"She's not alone!" shouted a voice above us. "She's still got us!"
My heart rose and sank at the same time: Chris came tearing down the stone steps, his wand clutched firmly in his hand with Nikita right behind him, who was scrambling down the stone benches towards us, Sian's wand held fast in her trembling hand.
"Nikita - no - go back to Chrissie - "
"STUPEFY!" Chris yelled over me, pointing his wand at each Love Destroyer in turn. "STUPEFY! STUPE - "
Two of the Love Destroyers were thrown backwards t the force of Chris' spells, but before he could finish his third spell, he and Nikita were seized from behind by two of the largest Love Destroyers, pinioning their arms to their sides. They sneered and kicked; several of the Love Destroyers laughed.
"I do not know who you are, boy," Narissa Malty said to Chris, "but you ... are the Bore girl, aren't you?" she said sneeringly to Nikita. "Well, your grandfather is used to losing family members to our cause ... your death will not come as a great shock."
"Bore?" repeated Katalina, and a truly evil smile lit her gaunt face. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, girl."
"I DOE YOU HAB!" roared Nikita, and she fought so hard against her captor's encircling grip that the Love Destroyer shouted, "Somebody Stun her!"
"No, no, no," said Katalina. She looked transported, her face lit alive with excitement as she glanced at me, then back at Nikita. "No, let's see how long Bore lasts before she cracks like her parents ... unless Pride-Lander wants to give us the prophecy."
"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!" roared Nikita, who seemed beside herself, kicking and writhing as Katalina drew nearer to her and her captor, her wand raised. "DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, KIARA!"
Katalina raised her wand. "Crucio!"
Nikita screamed, her legs drawn to her chest so that the Love Destroyer holding her was momentarily holding her off the ground. The Love Destroyer dropped her and she fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.
"That was just a taster!" said Katalina, raising her wand so that Nikita's screams stopped and she lay sobbing at her feet. Katalina turned and gazed up at me. "Now, Pride-Lander, either give us the prophecy, or watch your friends die the hard way!"
"No, Kiara!" shouted Chris frantically. "Don't do it!"
"I'm sorry, Chris, I have no choice," I said hopelessly, and I spoke truthfully; between saving the prophecy and saving my friends, it was a no-brainer, really. The prophecy was hot with the heat of my clutching hand as I held it out. Malty jumped forwards to take it.
Then, high above us, two more doors burst open and thirteen people sprinted into the room: my parents, Grandmother Sarabi, Kopa, Pumbaa, Meers, Kara, Grumpy, Todd, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione.
Malty turned and raised her wand, but Todd had already sent a Stunning Spell right at her. I did not wait to see whether it had made contact, but dived off the dais out of the way. The Love Destroyers were completely distracted by the appearance of the members of the Order, who were raining spells down upon them as they jumped from step to step towards the sunken floor. Through the darting bodies, the flashes of light, I saw Chris, who had been dropped by his captor when they saw the Order, was helping Nikita, who was struggling to walk. I dodged another jet of red light and ran, bent-backed, straight to Nikita.
"Are you OK?" I yelled, as another spell soared inches over our heads.
"Yes," said Nikita, leaning on Chris, who looked pale but determined to fight.
"And Chrissie?"
"We think so," said Chris. "She was still fighting the brain when we left - "
The stone floor beneath us exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Chris' foot had been only seconds before; the three of us scrambled away from the spot, then a thick arm came out of nowhere, seized me around the neck and pulled me upright so that my toes were barely touching the floor.
"Give it to me," growled a voice in my ear, "give me the prophecy - "
The woman was pressing so tightly on my windpipe that I could not breathe. Through watering eyes I saw my parents duelling with a Love Destroyer some ten feet away; Kara and Grandmother Sarabi were fighting a Love Destroyer each; Todd, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Katalina with help from Kopa, Harry and Hermione; Katalina was dodging the spells just as easily as if they were tennis balls being shot out of a tennis ball machine that was turned up to the maximum limit - yet nobody seemed to realised I was dying. I turned my wand backwards towards the woman's side, but had no breath to utter an incantation, and the woman's free hand was groping towards the hand in which I was grasping the prophecy -
"AARGH!"
Chris had come lunging out of nowhere; and though he could have uttered a spell, he decided to take the "hero route", and flung himself at the woman, knocking her to the ground. The woman relinquished her hold on me at once as Chris tackled her to the ground. I whirled around to face her, and as Chris got up I gasped:
"STUPEFY!"
The Love Destroyer keeled over backwards and her mask slipped off: it was Magro, Noelani's would-be killer.
"Thanks!" I said gratefully to Chris, grasping his hand as he pulled me up, before we went to Nikita and pulled her aside as my parents and their Love Destroyer lurched passed, duelling so fiercely that their wands were blurs; then my feet made contact with something round and hard and I slipped. For a moment I thought I had dropped the prophecy, but then I saw one of Grumpy's magical eyes spinning away across the floor.
Its owner was lying on her side, bleeding from the head, and her attacker bore down upon Chris, Nikita and I: Dali, her long, pale face twisted with glee.
"Tarantallegra!" she shouted, her wand pointed at Nikita, whose legs went immediately into a kind of frenzied tap-dance, unbalancing her and causing her to fall to the floor again. "Now, Pride-Lander - "
She made the same slashing movement with her wand that she had used on Sian just as I yelled, "Protego!"
I felt something streak across my face like a blunt knife; the force of it knocked me sideways and I fell over Nikita's jerking legs, but the Shield Charm had stopped the worse of the spell.
Dali raised her wand again, "Accio proph - "
"Don't you dare hurt my daughter!" screamed my mother, who had appeared out of nowhere and flung a spell at Dali, who went flying backwards. The prophecy had flown to the tips of my fingers but I had managed to cling on to it. Dali wasn't down for long, though; she and my mother were duelling, their wands flashing like swords, sparks flying from their wand-tips -
Dali drew back her wand to make the same slashing movement she had used on myself and Sian. Springing up, I yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" Once again, Dali's arms and legs snapped together and she keeled over backwards, landing with a crash on her back.
"Nice one!" Mum shouted, as I felt a hand on the back of my head, forcing it down, as a pair of Stunning Spells flew towards us. Looking up, I saw it was the angry face of my father who had forced my head down, but his eyes softened as he looked at me.
"Daddy, I'm sorry - I - I didn't," I started, not knowing what to say to apologise for the danger I had put everyone in, but I was caught by surprise when my father held me to him; a few seconds later, I felt another pair of arms around me, softer and more feminine, and I knew that they were my mother's.
"It's all right, sweetheart," said my father, as he and my mother let go of me, but he still had his hands on my shoulders. "You're safe, and that's all that matters to us." He cupped my cheek as my mother smiled at me and nodded, brushing my hair back.
"Now, listen to me," my father said, his tone becoming as serious as his expression, "all your mother and I want you to do right now is to get out of - "
The three of us ducked; a jet of green light had narrowly missed my mother. Across the room I saw Todd fall from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat and Katalina, triumphant, running back towards the fray.
"Kiara, take the prophecy, grab Nikita and Chris and run!" my father yelled, he, my mother and Pumbaa all dashing to meet Katalina. I did not see what happened next: Kara swayed across my field of vision, battling with the pockmarked and no longer masked Roscoe; another jet of green light flew over my head as I launched myself towards Chris and Nikita -
"Can you stand?" I bellowed in Nikita's ear, as Nikita's legs jerked and twitched uncontrollably. "Put your arms around mine and Chris' necks - "
Nikita did so - Chris and I heaved - Nikita's legs were still flying in every direction, they would not support her, and then, out of nowhere, a woman lunged at us: the three of us fell backwards, Nikita's legs waving wildly like an overturned beetle's, Chris was struggling to get up, and I had my left arm held up in the air, trying to save the small glass ball from being smashed.
"The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Pride-Lander!" snarled Narissa Malty's voice in my ear, and I felt the top of Malty's wand pressing hard between my ribs.
"No - get - off - me ... Nikita - catch it!"
I flung the prophecy across the floor; Nikita span herself around on her back and scooped the ball to her chest. Malty pointed her wand instead to Nikita, but Chris pointed his own wand at her and yelled, "Impedimenta!"
Malty was blasted off her back. As I scrambled up again I looked around and saw Malty smash into the dais on which my parents, Pumbaa and Katalina were now duelling. Malty aimed her wand at Chris, Nikita and I again, but before she could draw breath to strike, Meers had jumped between us.
"Kiara, round up the others and GO!"
I seized Nikita by the shoulder of her robes and, once Chris had gotten up and had regained his bearings, he seized Nikita's other shoulder, and together we lifted her bodily on to the first tier of the stone steps; Nikita's legs twitched and jerked and would not support her weight; Chris and I heaved again with all the strength we possessed and we climbed another step -
A spell hit the stone bench at my heel; it crumbled away and I fell back to the stone step below. Chris and Nikita sank to the ground, her legs still jerking and thrashing, and she thrust the prophecy into her pocket.
"Come on!" I said desperately, hauling at Nikita's robes. "Just try and push with your legs - "
Just as Chris was reaching for my hand, I gave another stupendous heave and Nikita's robes tore all along the left seam - the small spin-glass ball dropped from her pocket and, before either one of us could catch it, one of Nikita's floundering feet kicked it: it flew some ten feet to our right and smashed on the step beneath us. As the three of us stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by anyone but us. I saw its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding us, I did not hear one word of the prophecy. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.
"Kiara, I'b sorry!" cried Nikita, her face anguished as her legs continued to flounder. "I'b so sorry, Kiara, I didn'd bean do - "
"It doesn't matter!" I shouted. "Just try and stand, let's get out of - "
"Ma!" said Chris, his face shining with relief, staring over mine and Nikita's shoulders.
"What?"
"MA!"
Nikita and I turned at the same time to look where Chris was staring. Directly above us, framed in the doorway from the Brain Room, stood Susan Crighton, her wand aloft, her face white and furious. I remember feeling a kind of electric charge surge through every particle of my body - we were saved.
Crighton sped down the steps past Chris, Nikita and I, and after I saw Crighton, all thought of leaving left. Crighton was already at the foot of the steps when the Love Destroyers nearest realised she was there and yelled to the others. One of the Love Destroyers ran for it, scrabbling like a monkey up the stone steps opposite. Crighton's spell pulled her back as easily and effortlessly as though she had hooked her with an invisible line -
Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. I saw Pumbaa (who was duelling Katalina alone, seeing as my parents had been shocked by Crighton's arrival) duck Katalina's jet of red light: he was laughing at her.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.
The second jet of light hit him squarely in the chest.
The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.
I released Nikita, though I was unaware of doing so. I jumped down the stone steps again, pulling out my wand, as Crighton and my parents, too, turned towards the dais.
It seemed to take Pumbaa an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.
I saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on Pumbaa's large, double chinned face as he fell through the ancient archway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.
I heard Katalina Outsider's scream of triumph from a long way off, as though I were standing at the end of a very long tunnel, I was just so full of shock. Pumbaa dead? No ... it couldn't be ...
Then a piercing scream brought me back to the present.
"NO!" my mother screamed, running towards the dais, with tears streaming down her face. "NO! PUMBAA, NO!"
Before she reached the dais, my father had caught up with her and grabbed her from behind; my mother struggled and writhed frantically, trying to escape from his strong arms, but my father would not let go.
"There's nothing you can do, Nala - "
"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
" - it's too late, Nala."
"We can still reach him - " my mother still struggled hard and viciously, and still my father would not let go of her ...
"There's nothing you can do, Nala ... nothing ... he's gone."
AN: So, who of you saw Pumbaa dying, eh? Yeah, I thought I would leave that as a bit of a surprise for you. You see, I originally thought that Nala was going to die, but I have to keep around because it's important to the story. Yes, I know that Pumbaa's death is an easy option, particularly as we haven't known him for very long, but I have to keep both Simba and Nala alive. You'll see the importance for this decision in future books.