Chapter 15: Surrounded
Harry opened the door and went in, and everyone followed. Cody took a big breath and plunged in after them. "Someone here needs to shrink so I'm not the shortest one," he grumbled, and there were a few nervous laughs.
They were in a round room with at least a dozen doors all around it, and on the walls between them were torches of blue flame. It reminded Cody strongly of the kind of lighting in the Slytherin common room. Harry asked someone to close the door, and Neville did, but it turned out to be a mistake. The wall began to rotate, disorienting him enough that he got dizzy and fell. "Whoa," he said as Neville helped him up. "That was weird."
"What was all that about?" Ron asked once the walls were again still, and Ginny suggested it was to keep them from knowing which door they had used. A security measure, then. Neville asked how they would get back out.
"It doesn't matter now," said Harry. "We won't need to get out until we've found Sirius."
"But we have to know how to get out after we find Sirius," said Cody.
"Don't go calling for him though," cautioned Hermione.
"Where do we go then?" asked Ron.
"I don't... In the dreams, I went through the door at the end of the corridor into a dark room - that's this one - and then I went through another door into a room that kind of...glitters. We should try a few doors. I'll know the right way when I see it. Come on."
The first door they tried led into a room with some desks and a big aquarium of dark green water. In it were not fish, but big, slimy things.
"What're those things?" Ron asked.
"Dunno," said Harry.
"Are they fish?" asked Ginny.
"No, I don't think so," said Cody. "They're weird if they are."
"Aquavarius maggots!" whispered Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry are breeding -"
But Hermione interrupted, sounding a bit revolted. "No...they're brains."
"Brains?"
"Yes...I wonder what they're doing with them."
"I don't think I wanna know," said Cody, although he actually did want to know. He got right up to the glass and watched a brain float lazily by. "Gross." But interesting.
"Let's get out of here," said Harry. "This isn't right, we need to try another door."
"There are doors here, too," said Ron. And there were; the brain office seemed to have doors leading from it, into the rest of the department, Cody guessed.
"In my dream I went right from that dark room into the second one. I think we should go back and try from there."
"Maybe we should all open a door at the same time," Cody said as they made their way back.
"No," said Hermione. "It's not a good idea to split up. V-Voldemort could be anywhere in here. No one should come across him alone."
Cody paled at the idea. "Er, good idea."
Once they were back in the dark room, Hermione used her wand to draw a red, glowing X on the door, before it was shut. Cody closed his eyes as the walls spun, so he wouldn't get dizzy again and fall.
"Good thinking," said Harry to Hermione. "Okay, let's try this one."
The second one wasn't it, either. It looked a bit like an inside arena, with a stone pedestal in the middle, with a strange sort of stone archway on top of it. It had a veil hanging from it that moved, as if in a breeze, but there was none in the room. "Um, that's creepy," said Cody. "I-I don't think this is a good place."
But Harry moved closer, asking who was there. "Sirius?" It was strange. Harry kept trying to find out who was "in there", as if it were a doorway to another dimension. Hermione, with great effort, got him away from it.
There was another door in the dark room that was locked, and resisted all attempts to open it. It even melted the lock-picking knife that Harry had.
"You know what could be in there?" said Luna, looking at the closed door.
"Something blibbering, no doubt," whispered Hermione, and Neville and Cody both laughed nervously.
But finally, they opened a door, and Harry said, "This is it!"
As everyone piled into the room, Cody looked around to see glittering walls and clocks of every description all over the place. There was a huge jar at one end on closer inspection, he saw had an egg in it, just floating in the middle. But as he watched, the egg hatched, and a hummingbird hatched out of it, and flew to the top. But then as it fell, its feathers fell off, and it looked like it was getting younger...until it was enveloped again in its egg. "Weird." Cody liked this room.
"This is it," Harry whispered, looking at a door at the other end of the room. Cody looked at it and felt his heart began to beat a whole lot faster, and hard enough that he felt it in his wrists and his neck. "It's through here."
Cody followed him through the doorway, and looked around. He shivered a bit in the chilly room, whose ceiling nearly vanished high into the gloom. Candles with blue flames glimmered in the darkness, and numbered shelves stretched high, loaded with glowing orbs. "Neat," said Cody. He frowned, and tightening his grip on his wand. He had a feeling that he would want it soon, and began reciting under his breath the various incantations they had practiced in the D.A.
"You said it was row ninety-seven," said Hermione.
"Yeah," Harry whispered.
"We need to go right, I think," said Hermione. "Yes, that's fifty-four."
"Keep your wands out," said Harry as they began to move.
"Definitely," Cody agreed, looking nervously around. "Boy, it's creepy in here. And does anyone else feel like they're being watched?"
"Thanks a lot," said Neville. "Now I'm even more nervous."
"Sorry."
"Maybe we should call Sirius' name?" Cody whispered.
"Are you mad?" Ron demanded. "And tell You-Know-Who where we are?"
"You think if he's here that he doesn't already know?"
"Yeah, well, if he did we'd be dead."
Cody couldn't argue with that.
"Ninety-seven!" Hermione said, pointing. Cody moved Luna's robe out of his way, and peered down the aisle.
"He's right down at the end," Harry whispered, almost feverishly. "You can't see properly from here." They crept down the aisle, and Harry said, "He should be near here...anywhere near here...really close..."
"Harry?" said Hermione.
"Somewhere about...here." He was at the end of the row, and peered down the rows at that end. "He might be... Or maybe..."
"Harry?" said Hermione.
"What?"
"I-I don't think Sirius is here."
Cody was looking up at the orbs, and approached one, but had the feeling that it would be a very, very bad idea to try and touch one. That didn't stop him from wanting to though.
"Harry," came Ron's voice from a little bit on down the aisle.
"What?"
"Have you seen this?"
"What?" Sounding as curious now as Cody felt, Harry went over to see what Ron was looking at. Realizing that he was now away from the group and feeling suddenly vulnerable, Cody ran to catch up. "What?" Harry repeated.
"It - it's got your name on."
Cody looked up at what Ron was taking about, and saw an orb that had a label on it:
S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.
Dark Lord
And (?) Harry Potter
Got his name on? Cody wondered. That was weird. It made it sound like Harry's name was a shirt or something the little ball had on.
"What is it?" Ron asked. "What's your name doing down here?"
Giggling very nervously, Cody said, "Maybe the same thing that Harry's doing down here."
"I'm not here," said Ron. "None of the rest of us are here..."
"Harry, I don't think you should touch it," said Hermione, her voice alarmed.
"Why not? It's something to do with me, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but what if something horrible happens when you touch it?" asked Cody, now also feeling very apprehensive. They shouldn't be here, there was something very wrong.
"Don't, Harry," said Neville, who apparently felt the same way.
"It's got my name on," Harry said stubbornly. Cody hissed in a breath and winced as Harry touched it, but nothing happened. Cody pulled his robes around him a bit more tightly, and watched.
And then, from right behind them, came a voice that did not belong to any of them.
"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."
Cody gasped, and spun around; he knew that voice, it belonged to Draco's father. An unpleasant chill shocked through his body as he realized that this was a very bad situation.
And then there was a swish, right next to him, and he spun around once more. The group of students was now trapped on both sides by dark shapes in hooded cloaks, and each was carrying a wand, pointed right at them. "That can't be good!" said Cody, backing up until he felt who he thought might be Ron right behind him. He raised his own wand, but didn't do anything just yet.
"To me, Potter," Malfoy repeated, holding out a hand.
Naturally, Harry did not hand whatever it was over. Instead, he asked, "Where's Sirius?"
The Death Eaters laughed, which was quite a chilling sound. "The Dark Lord always knows," said a woman, and Cody looked toward her.
"Always," agreed Malfoy quietly. "Now give me the prophecy, Potter."
"I want to know where Sirius is!"
The woman who had spoken mocked Harry's question in a high-pitched voice that made Cody shudder. He would rather have listened to Professor Umbridge singing opera.
"You've got him," Harry said, a desperate undertone to his voice. "He's here, I know he is."
The woman, who despite Cody's fear was getting completely on his nerves, mocked in a baby-voice, "The little baby woke up fwightened, and fort what it dweamed was twue." Cody scowled at her.
"Don't do anything," whispered Harry to the others. "Not yet." Cody nodded.
The woman laughed like a demented crow. "You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"
"You're not death-proof," Cody growled at her, and she turned to peer at him through her mask.
"Oh you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy. "He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."
"I know Sirius is here! I know you've got him!"
As the other adults began to laugh once more, Malfoy told Harry it was time he learned to tell the difference between life and dreams. "Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."
"Go on, then," said Harry, which would either lead to a rather large battle, or call Malfoy's bluff. The students all raised their wands, and Cody gulped. But no one attacked, yet.
"Hand over the prophecy, and no one need get hurt," said Malfoy.
Harry snorted laughter. "Yeah, right. I give you this...prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"
"Accio Prophecy!" the female Death Eater suddenly cried.
"Protego!" Harry said immediately, what Cody recognized as the Shield Charm that they had learned in the D.A. The globe, which had been about to leave Harry's grasp, returned.
"Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter," said the woman. "Very well, then."
"I told you, no!" Malfoy roared at her. "If you smash it -"
"No, go ahead!" Cody said. "Smashing it sounds like a good idea to me!"
"You keep out of this, you little traitor," Malfoy hissed, and Cody glared.
"I'm not a traitor, Malfoy, you're the one that's fighting against the good guys!" Malfoy growled.
"That one looks familiar," said one of the males. "He looks a great deal like Mallory Gregor, did she have a son?"
At this, Lucius looked speculatively at Cody, who returned his stare with great wariness. "He does," Lucius said wonderingly. "Surely not."
Cody frowned. "Who's Mallory Gregor?" he asked, his curiosity overcoming his fear for the moment.
"Never mind that," said the woman's voice from Harry's other side. She pulled off her hood, revealing the face of the woman who had been in the Daily Prophet, after the Azkaban breakout. Bellatrix Lestrange, the one who had tortured Neville's parents.
Cody glanced quickly at Neville, who stared at the woman with an expression of the utmost hatred, an expression that looked completely alien on Neville.
"You need more persuasion?" said Bellatrix Lestrange. "Very well." She turned to the Death Eater beside her and pointed at Cody. "Take the smallest one. Let Potter watch as we torture the little boy. I'll do it."
Cody's face paled and he backed away, raising his wand. "You better not!" he cried, his voice a good deal higher than normal.
Hermione and Ginny stepped in front of him, and he saw Neville step to Cody's side, so that he was shielded from the assorted Death Eaters. Cody felt a sudden surge of gratitude to have those kinds of friends, and sought out Neville's hand to give it a squeeze. That, if anything, would be what saved them. That kind of friendship, that kind of love, was not something the Death Eaters could ever understand.
Cody peered around Ginny's robes to see Harry step in front of Lestrange. "You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," said Harry. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"
The woman licked her lips as she stared at Harry, and Cody was not sure if she was amused, or mad. Angry, rather; Cody already knew she was mad.
"So," continued Harry in a voice that Cody thought was quite casual, considering the circumstances. As Harry talked, Cody looked around. There were about a dozen of them from what he could see, all covered with hoods, except for Bellatrix. So, not all of them had come; there were more than just twelve Death Eaters, surely. As he watched, one or two others removed their hoods as well, and Cody recognized the Slytherin that he had met in his second year, and then again earlier this year in Hogsmeade. The one who had told Cody not to say Voldemort's name. The red-haired Death Eater smiled, and Cody swallowed hard. Harry continued. "So what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"
"What kind of prophecy?" Lestrange repeated, looking astonished. "You jest, Harry Potter."
"Nope. Not jesting. How come Voldemort wants it?"
Cody jumped in startlement as several Death Eaters hissed angrily at the mention of his name, the creepy Slytherin boy included.
"You dare speak his name?" whispered Lestrange.
"Yeah, names can't hurt people," said Cody, actually managing to manufacture a smirk for the Slytherin boy as he said it. The boy narrowed his eyes and hissed quietly at him, his hand tightening on his wand. Seeing this, Cody raised his own, just in case.
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol -"
"Shut your mouth!" Lestrange shrieked, making Cody wince. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips! You dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare -"
Neville's hand tightened on Cody's, and Cody returned the gesture and moved a little closer. The woman really was insane, and that somehow made her scarier than she would be were she not. Harry wasn't a half-blood, anyway! His mother had been Muggle born, but she herself was a witch!
"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" said Harry. Cody winced. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle. Or has he been telling you he's pureblood?"
The Death Eaters were not entirely pleased with this statement.
Losing her temper, Lestrange flung a Stunning Spell at Harry, but Malfoy deflected it so that it hit the shelf above them all. Two orbs smashed, releasing little ghostly figures of people, who rose from the orbs and began speaking. But between Malfoy and Lestrange's yelling, and the fact that two figures were speaking at once, it was impossible to tell what they were saying.
Lestrange was shrieking, sputtering, how Harry dared speak Voldemort's name, and Lucius was snarling that they needed the prophecy... Finally, Lestrange calmed enough that she was not trying to zap Harry with her wand.
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," said Harry. Cody caught a glimpse of him whispering to Hermione, but could catch the words.
"Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malfoy sneered.
"I...what?" said Harry. "What about my scar?"
"Can this be?" Malfoy said, beginning to laugh in amazement. Some of the other Death Eaters laughed as well. "Dumbledore never told you? Well this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why you didn't come running when he showed the place where it was hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording."
Guess Voldemort doesn't know everything, Cody thought.
"Did he?" said Harry. "So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?"
Cody looked up as Ginny turned toward him and whispered urgently, "Smash shelves on Harry's word - pass it on." He saw Hermione telling Ron, and then Ron telling Luna. He tugged Neville's robes, and when he leaned down, Cody whispered, "Smash shelves, when Harry says."
"Okay," Neville whispered back.
Malfoy still sounded highly amused. "Why? Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."
"Bode," Cody whispered, remembering Harry telling him about seeing Bode at St. Mungo's. And remembered at the Quidditch World Cup, that Mr. Weasley had said he worked here, in the Department of Mysteries.
"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"
"About both of you, Potter...about both of you. Haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"
"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" Again, the hisses from the Death Eaters, and an angry growl from Bellatrix Lestrange. "And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"
"Get it himself?" Lestrange shrieked with sudden, insane amusement. "The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?"
Not knowing Sirius' relationship to her, Cody wondered who she meant by that.
"So he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" said Harry. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it, and Bode?"
"Very good Potter, very good," said Lucius. "But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintelligen-"
"NOW!" Harry cried.
Cody's nerves, on end to begin with, sizzled with adrenaline as he raised his wand to the shelves, and along with the other students cried, "REDUCTO!" And all of a sudden, shelves began smashing everywhere. Dozens and dozens of prophecy orbs smashed, little representations of the Seers who made them rising from the broken glass and all talking at once. Taken by surprise, the Death Eaters paused (some flinched or ducked) just long enough to give the seven students a way out.
