Hi,
It has come to my attention that the reviews I've gotten for both this story and Ageless Diversity-(check it out while you're at it)- have diminished, like, I got three reviews for AD after the last update and what- four reviews for this one, which is- for lack of a better word -disappointing.
BUT- I got my final report two days ago, which totally made up for it XDXDXDXD I got 53 points out of 56 XDXDXD The joy of when I saw it... In case you're wondering I'm doing the MYP program...
So yeah, going on, this following chapter-
DISCLAIMER-
is like 5% mine and the other 95% J. K. Rowling's, and here's why- bcs it's about their 'quest' in the Ministry of Magic and what happens. Obviously I have tried to change it a bit, but there is only so much I could do without changing the whole thing. Oh and yeah, this chapter is over 8,000 words, so see if you like that XDXD
Enjoy please...
.
Previously:
"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," Malfoy said coolly.
"Yeah right," Leo said, cutting Harry off. "Look, mask-face, I've encountered enough baddies in my life to know that there is no such thing as, 'gimme dis and I let you go'."
The words were hardly out if his mouth when the female death eater shrieked: "Accio Proph–"
But Harry hadn't been distracted by Leo and he was ready fro her. In return he shouted, "Protego!" before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of his fingers he managed to cling on to it.
Jason had to give it to Harry, his reflexes had been badass. He himself had been so distracted because of Leo's sarcastic comment that he would have probably missed the spell, or dropped the sphere as he protected himself.
"Oh, he knows hot play, little bitty baby Potter," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "Very well, then–"
.
"I told you, no!" Lucius Malfoy roared at the woman. "If you smash it–!"
Harry's mind was racing. The Death Eaters wanted this dusty spun-glass sphere.
He had no interest in it. He just wanted to get them all out of this alive, to make sure none of his friends, and the three demigods, paid a terrible price for his stupidity...
The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled down her hood.
"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well–take the girl," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."
Harry felt his companions close in around Hermione; he stepped sideways, so that he was right in front of her, the prophecy held tightly up to his chest.
"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," Jason told Bellatrix, not caring that this was about Harry, he knew it when someone was nervous and he had to show that they were willing to fight if things led to it. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"
She did not move; she merely stared at him, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.
"So," Jason said, standing staring and hanging his arm down to his side.
But before Jason could continue his talking Harry spoke up. "What kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"
"What kind of prophecy?" Bellatrix repeated, the girl fading from her face. "You jest, Harry Potter."
"Nope, not jesting," Harry said, his eyes flickering from Death Eater to Death Eater, looking for a weak link, a space through which they could escape. "How come Voldemort wants it?"
Several of the Death Eaters let out a low hiss.
"You dare speak his name?" Bellatrix whispered.
"Yeah," Harry said, maintaining his tight grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempt to bewitch it from him. "Yeah, I've got no problem with saying Vol–"
"Shut your mouth!" Bellatrix shrieked. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips–"
"Jee, woman, calm down," Leo said nonchalantly. "If you've got such problems with us calling him his name then we can also just call him no-nose-face, or Voldy, I especially like that one."
"You dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare–"
"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" Harry said recklessly. Hermione gave a little moan in his ear. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle–or has he been telling you lot he's pure blood?"
"Stupef–"
"No–"
A jet of red lightning had shot from the end of Bellatrix Lestarnge's wand, but Malfoy had deflected it; his spell cursed hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of Harry and several of the glass orbs shattered.
Two figures, pearly-white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves front he fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak; their coined vied with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Malfoy and Bellatrix's shouts.
"...at the solstice will come a new..." said the figure of an old, bearded man.
"Do not attack we need the prophecy!"
"He dared– he dares–" Bellatrix shrieked incoherently. "He stands there– filthy half-blood."
"I have never seen so much chaos over a prophecy," Leo commented.
Frank nodded along. "I agree. Not even Octavian would make this much of a fuss."
"Then you don't know him, he'd make more," Jason said.
"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" Bawled Malfoy.
"...and nodded will come after..." said the figure if a young woman.
The two figures that had burst from the shattered speeded had melted into thin air. Nothing reminded of them or their erstwhile homes but fragments of glass upon the floor. They had, however, given Harry an idea. The problem was conveying it to the others.
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," he said, playing for time.
"Do not play games with us, Potter," Malfoy said.
"I'm not playing games," Harry said, half his mind on the conversation, half on his wondering foot. And then he found someone's toes and pressed down upon them. A sharp intake of breath behind him told him they were Hermione's.
"What?" she whispered.
"Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malfoy sneered.
"I– what?" Harry said, and for a moment he forgot his plan. "What about my scar?"
"What?" Hermione whispered more urgently behind him.
"Can this be?" Malfoy said. Some of the Death Eaters were laughing again and undercover of their laughter, Harry hissed to Hermione, moving his lips as little as possible. "Smash shelves–"
"Dumbledore never told you?" Malfoy repeated. "Well this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why–"
"–when I say now–"
"–you didn't come running when he showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording..."
"Did he?" Harry said. Behind him he felt rather than heard, Hermione passing his message to the others and he sought to keep talking, to distract the Death Eaters.
"So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?"
"Why?" Malfoy sounded incredulously delighted. "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."
"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"
"About both of you, Potter, about both of you...haven't you ever owned red why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"
Was this prophecy the reason Harry's parents had died, the reason he carried his lightning bolt scar? Was the answer to all of this clutched in his hand?
"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" he said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy, his fingers tightening over the warm glass sphere in his hand. "And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"
"Get it himself?" Bellatrix shrieked, over a cackle of mad laughter. "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?"
"So, he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" Harry said. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it– and Bode?"
"Very good, Potter, very good..." Malfoy said slowly. "But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell–"
"Now!" Harry yelled.
Two different voices behind him bellowed, "Reducto!" And with that, two curses flew in two different directions. Arrows were sent flying in yet another direction as what looked to be grenades in other two. The shelves opposite them exploded as they hit; the towering structure swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart, pearly-white figures unfurled into he air and floated there, their voices aching from who knew what long dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass splintered wood now raining the floor.
"Run!" Harry yelled, as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass speeded began to fall from above
They ran all the way through the lane between ninety-seven and ninety-six, and once the were on the other side, they sprinted towards the door through which they had come from. They pelted through the doorway and as everyone behind him hurtled over the threshold he slammed the door behind them.
"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.
Harry looked around and his heart dropped. "Where–where are the others?" he gasped.
He had though Ron, Jason and Frank were ahead of them, that they'd be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.
"They must have gone the wrong way!" Hermione whispered, terror in her face.
"Listen!" Leo said.
They listened as Lucius Malfoy barked orders to the other Death Eaters, through the sealed door.
"What do we do?" Hermione asked Harry, trembling from head to toe.
She had fought a hole battle, against mythological creatures and she had been somewhat fine. But the prospect of having locked someone inside with a pack of Death Eaters...especially the thought of losing Ron...
"Well," Leo said. "We don't stand here waiting for them to find us, that's a start. Let's get away from this door."
They ran as quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and nun hatching, towards the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when something large and heavy collided with the door Hermione had charmed shut.
"Stand aside!" a rough voice said. "Alohamora!"
As the door flew open, Harry, Hermione and Leo dived under the desks. They could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer and their feet moving rapidly.
"They might've run straight through to the hall," the rough voice said.
"Check under the desks," another said.
Harry saw the knees of the Death Eaters bend; poking his wand out from under the desk, he shouted, "Stupefy!"
One of the Death Eaters had fallen after being hit from the spell, and he had luckily hit his head hard enough to cause him to blackout, but the other had managed to avoid it and pointing his own wand at Hermione.
"Avada–"
Before the Death Eater could finish his spell a flaming hot hammer collided with his head, sending him toppling down to the floor like a sack of dead meat.
"Thank you," Hermione said.
"Right," Leo said. "Let's get out of here–"
There was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream.
"Ron?" Harry yelled, Turing quickly from the fallen Death Eaters. "Jason? Frank?"
"Harry!" Hermione yelled.
Harry turned to her in time to hear footsteps growing louder from the Hall of Prophecy and knew, too late, that he ought not to have shouted and given away their position.
"It happens," Leo tried to say before being cut off by Harry.
"Come on!" he said, and leaving the unconscious death eaters behind, they took off for the door that stood open at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway.
They had run halfway towards it when Harry saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room towards them; veering left, they burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind them.
"Collo–" began Hermione, but before she could complete the spell the door had burst open and the two Death Eaters had come hurtling inside.
With a cry of triumph, both yelled, "Impedimenta!"
Harry, Hermione and Leo were all knocked backwards off their feet; Hermione smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books; the back of both Harry's and Leo's head slammed into the stone wall behind them, tiny lights burst in their eyes.
"We've got him!" one of the Death Eaters yelled. "In an office off–"
"Silencio!" Hermione cried, and the death eater effectively shut up.
He was thrust aside by his fellow death eater.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry shouted, as the second Death Eater raised his wand.
And as the death eater was petrified Leo slowly got backs up from the ground and clapped his hands slowly. "Well done, Harry. Now can we please go home–"
But the Death Eater Hermione had struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand and a streak of purple fanned passed right across Hermione's chest. She gave a tiny, 'Oh!' as though of surprise and crumpled down on the floor, where she lay motionless.
"Hermione!"
Harry fell to his knees beside her as Leo rapidly walked over, his flaming hammer in his hand. Harry turned around, his wand held high, and from the corner of his eyes he saw a red warm ball hurtling towards the Death Eater. In the moment that the Death Eater used to avoid it, Harry used it to yell, "Petrificus Totalus!"
The second Death Eater fell over the first as rigidly as the other one had.
"Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking her by the shoulders. "Hermione, wake up..."
"What did he do to her?" Leo asked as he crouched down next to the two wizards.
"I don't know..."
Leo gripped Hermione's wrist and placed his thumb at the base of her hand. "I can feel a pulse, Harry, I'm sure that's a pulse.
Such a powerful wave of relief swept through harry for a moment he felt light-headed.
"She's alive?"
"Yes, positive..." there was a moment of silence before Leo spoke again. "Never doubt Mr. McShizzle."
And with that he bent down and grabbed one of Hermione's arms and pulled her up until he was standing. It wasn't two seconds before he stared to collapse. "I think I need help with this," he told Harry.
"Are you sure you want to come with me?" Harry asked as he grabbed Hermione's other arm. "It's–"
"Dangerous?" Leo guessed. "Man, I was born for dangerous. And in case you haven't noticed, I can literally burst into fire. I have a super badass girlfriend, a crazy ass metal dragon, and oh yes, I lived with Annabeth Chase for the good amount of eight months, two of which were on the same ship. A ship. Like yeah sure, it was my ship, but still, that girl is scary–"
"Okay, I get it," Harry cut him off, knowing demigods had ADHD and this was only one of the effects. "Lets just go."
They walked to the door and Harry peeked his head out of the door and looked around cautiously.
"C'mon," he said to Leo.
Thy foreground out of the office and back towards the door into the back hallway, which now seems completely deserted. They ventured back into the circular rotating room and before they knew it it had started to rotate again and once it stopped, they saw that Hermione's fiery crosses had faded from the doors.
"So which way do you think–"
But before Leo could even finish saying his sentence, a door to their right sprang open and three people fell out of it.
"Ron!" croaked Harry, dashing towards them, leaving Leo to hold Hermione's weight all alone, causing the young Latino to stumble forwards before crashing face first into the floor.
"Harry," Ron said, giggling weakly, lurching forwards, seizing the first of Harry's robes and gazing at him with unfocused eyes, "there you are...ha ha ha...you look funny, Harry...you're all messed up..."
"What happened?" Harry asked fearfully as he asked Jason.
"Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets–"
"Harry, we saw Uranus up close!" Ron said, still giggling feebly. "Get it, Harry? We saw Uranus –ha ha ha–"
"Anyway," Jason said. "I don't know what they hit him with, I'm not a wizard."
Harry looked at the other demigod, Frank, but the big guy only shrugged. "I'm the same as him."
-.-
Frank held Hermione on his back, whilst Jason heaved Ron towards a door; they were writhing a few feet of it when another door across the hall burst open and three Death Eaters sped in, led by Bellatrix Lestrange.
"There they are!" she shrieked. Stunning spells shot across the room: Harry smashed his way though the door ahead, held it opened for the others of get in over the threshold just in time to slam the door against Bellatrix.
"Colloportus!" Harry shouted and he heard three bodies slam into the door in the other side.
"It doesn't matter!" said a man's voice. "There are other ways in– we've got them, there here!"
And sure enough, as Harry span around, he saw that there were doors all around the walls.
"Someone help me," he said as eh started locking all of the doors.
Leo was the first and only one to react, going from door to door, locking them by simply squeezing the doorknob. Perks of being the son of Hephaestus.
Then just as Harry reached the very top of the room, he heard Leo cry out as he the door he was about to tend to was blown off its hinges and five Death Eaters surged though the room through the door he had not reached in time.
"Get Potter!" Bellatrix shrieked, and she ran at him, but he dodged and sprinted back up the room, he knew he was safe for as long as the thought they might hit the Prophecy."
"Hey!" Ron said, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering towards him like a drunk, giggling. "Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Harry?"
"Ron get out of the way, get down–"
But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.
"Honest, Harry, they're brains –look– Accio brain!"
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at the brain dispatch from the tank and fly towards Ron.
"Ha ha ha, Harry, look at it–" Ron said, watching it disgorge its gaudy innards, Harry come and touch it; bet it's weird–"
"Ron, No!"
The moment Ron caught the Brian in his hands, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.
"Harry, look what's happening– No-no-I don't like it-no-stop-"
But he thin tentacles were spinning around Ron's chest now; he tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight against him like an octopus's body.
"Diffindo!" Harry yelled, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves around Ron before his eyes, but they would not break.
Frank was the first one to break the ice, he hurried next to the wizard and crouched down next to him. He grabbed a chunk of the tentacles with one hand as his other hand transformed into one of a grizzly bear. The son of Mars was about to tear at it when a jet of red light flew from one of the Death Eater's wands and hit him squarely in the chest. He was sent stumbling back before another jet of red light flew at him again, but this time the son of Jupiter moved as fast his own lighting and deflected it with the flat side of his sword. But too late, another two came consecutively after the other and hit their marks. Both demigods were sent flying towards the far end, and when their bodies collided with the wall, Harry felt the sickening crunch of bones breaking.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled at the Death Eaters.
One of the Death Eaters shot their own Stunning Spell at the remaining demigod; but the son of Hephaestus had been ready for it and he dodged it. Harry and Leo were the only two left fighting the five Death Eaters, two of whom sent off streams of silver lots which missed but left craters in the wall behind them.
Harry ran for it as Bellatrix Lestrange raced right at him: holding the prophecy high above his head, he sprinted back up the room; all he could think of doing was to draw the Death Eaters away from the others.
As Harry ran into a new room he felt the floor vanish and then he was falling down step stone step after step stone step, bouncing on every tier until at last, with a crash that knocked all the breath out of his body, he landed flat on his back in the sunken pit where the stone archway stood on its dais.
Death Eater after Death Eater was descending towards him, laughing, leaping from bench to bench. Harry got to his feet, though his legs were trembling so badly they barely supported him. He was amazed that the prophecy had miraculously been unbroken after all the mishaps and that it was still in his left hand, his wand clutched tightly in his right hand.
He walked back until his legs hit something solid, the archway behind him, he started to climb backwards on it. The Death Eaters all halting, gazing at him. Some were even panting as hard as he was.
"Potter, your race is run," drawled Lucius Malfoy, pulling off his mask, "now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."
"Let–let the others go, and I'll give it to you!" Harry said desperately. Because yes, he was desperate. If Jason Grace, the son of Jupiter and the son of Mars had been knocked unconscious then he didn't know wether he himself could do much better.
A few of the Death Eaters laughed.
"You are in no position to bargain, Potter," Lucius said, his face flushing with pleasure. "You see, there are ten of us and only one of you...or hasn't Dumbledore ever thought you to count?"
There was a whistle form above them. "Em. Excuse me!" the voice which Harry recognised seemed deeply offended. "Like, I get it I'm tiny and scrawny and whatnot, but to say I'm not even here really does offend me."
Harry's heart seemed to sink and leap at the same time: Leo was making his way down the stone benches, and Harry saw that the demigod had gone full out, having set his whole body on fire. And the only thing Harry could think about was, 'how are his clothes not burning?'
"Leo–no–go back to the others–"
He held a finger up before with the other one he brought out something from his tool belt and threw it at the closest Death Eater. As soon as the little device hit the ground near the enemy it exploded in with a spark and in that moment Leo cut the distance to Harry, standing to his back.
"It's a demigod, isn't it?" Lucius Malfoy sneered as they regained their senses. "I heard about you from the Dark Lord. Isn't it dangerous, playing with Fire? I hear your mother died in a fire."
Harry saw the demigod beside him flinch and look serious, not at all like the Leo, Harry had come to know in the short hours he had known him. But as soon as it happened it was gone, replaced with a smirk.
"Yeah, she did," he agreed. "But last I remember, I blew the monster responsible to bits until the sky was gold. So it's all good."
Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and seven more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moddy, Tonks, Kingsley, Percy and Annabeth.
Malfoy turned, and raised his wand, but Tonk had already sent a Stunning Spell right at him. Harry didn't have the chance to see wether it made contact or not, a blonde head obscured his view.
"Are you guys, ok?" Annabeth asked as she pulled them to the side, her back shielding them from the sight of the battle.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Where are the others?"
"In another room," Leo said and then he cracked a grin. "Jason hit his head again, that was funny. He's unconscious by the way."
"You're such an idiot–"
"And so is Frank, oh and Ron is probably suffocating by now, and Hermione is totally out of it–" he was stopped mid-sentence by a fist colliding with his nose.
"Ouch, what was that for?" he complained.
"Multiple things," she replied. "Now, try not to get killed and get out of here–"
The stone floor between the, exploded as a speed hit it, leaving a crater right where Leo's hand had been. The three of them were sent flying away.
"Holy Zeus–"
A thick arm came out of nowhere, seized Harry around the neck and pulled him upright, so that his toes were barely touching the floor.
"Give it to me," a voice growled in his ear. "Give ms the prophecy–"
Something hit the woman that was holding him and she released her grip form Harry's neck, and as Harry regained his senses he saw she had fallen to the ground unconscious, Percy Jackson standing there instead, looking beside him towards Annabeth.
"Really, Wise Girl?" he asked. "I thought you had this covered."
Annabeth who was still regaining her sensing after the floor had cracked and send them flying against the wall glared up at him.
"Thanks," Harry said to Percy as Annabeth and Leo left and started to fight the other Death Eaters.
Percy nodded at him. "Watch your back," he recommended before he too seemed to be turning back and engaging into another fight, wand against sword.
And as Harry was about to engage too, he was stopped by one of the Death Eaters, Dolohov, pointing his wand at him. "Now, Potter–"
He made the same slashing movement with his wand that he had used on Hermione just as Harry yelled, "Protego!"
Harry felt something streak across his face like a blunt knife: the force knocking him sideways and he fell over, but the shield charm and stopped the worst of the spell.
Dolohov raised his wand again. "Accio Prophecy–"
Percy had hurtled out of nowhere, and rammed into Dolohov with his shoulder and had sent him flying out of the way. He looked at Harry for a moment. "I thought I told you to watch your back?"
But Harry didn't have a time to respond as the son of Poseidon had reached Dolohov and was then fighting him, wand and sword against wand, sparks flying until Dolohov drew back his wand to make the same slashing movement he had on Harry and Hermione.
Immediately, Harry sprung up and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
And once again, Dolohov's arms and legs snapped together and he keeled over backward, landing with a crash on his back.
"Nice one!" Sirius shouted, suddenly appearing at his side and forcing his head down as a pair of Stunning Spells flew towards them. "Now I want you to get out of–"
They both ducked again; a jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius.
"Harry, take the prophecy, grab your friends and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to meet Bellatrix, Harry did not see what happened next.
"The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" Lucius Malfoy snarled in his ear and Harry felt the tip of Malfoy's wand pressing hard between his ribs.
"No–get–off–me...Percy–" the demigod in question was fast to react and turn around. "–catch it!"
Harry threw the prophecy across the air, and Percy leaped into the air with the agility of a cheetah and caught the ball, scooping it in and holding it close to his chest. Malfoy pointed the wand instead at Percy, but Harry jabbed his own wand back over his shoulder and yelled, "Impedimenta!"
Malfoy was blasted off his back. As Malfoy smashed into the dais on which Sirius and Bellatrix were duelling, he aimed his wand at Harry again, but before he could strike, Lupin had jumped between them.
"Harry, round up the others and go!"
Harry nodded this time, and his started to run towards the steps that led up. But a spell hit her stone bench at Harry's heel and it crumbled away and he fell back to the step below. Before he knew it someone was there, helping him up, and as Harry looked he saw that it was Leo.
There was sickening crash from behind them followed by a yell of, "Percy!"
Both teens turned around out of both curiosity and worry, to see the son of Poseidon having flown away from what seemed to be one side to the room to the other before colliding with the wall and sliding down, both his sword and his wand and his sword having clattered out of his hands, the prophecy rolling out of his pocket.
He saw the feet of a death eater going towards it and he used all of his remaining energy to crawl towards it, grabbing his sword in the process. Two feet, one feet and–
Crunch. "Ah," he moaned softly.
He had managed to break the prophecy with the hilt of his sword, but the boot of a death eater had stomped on his wrist and succeeded into fracturing it.
"Avada–"
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Harry yelled from where he was standing.
The death Eater was sent flying back wards and away from the son of Poseidon. Harry saw Annabeth hurry towards him and he knew that he was going to be okay with her by his side. So he started to make his way back up when the demigod beside him grinned and pointed.
"Dumbledore," he sighed in relief.
"What?" Harry's nerves were fried, he wasn't sure he had heard.
"Dumbledore!"
Harry turned to look where Leo was staring. Directly above them, framed in the doorway from the Brian Room stood Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. The only comprehensible thought going through Harry's head was– we're saved."
Dumbledore sped down the steps past Leo and Harry, who had no more thoughts of leaving. Dumbledore was already at the foot of the steps when the Death Eaters nearest realised he was there and yelled to the others.
One pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red lightning: 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 on the chest.
The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.
Harry was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dais.
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward though the ragged veil hanging from the arch.
Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappear behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place. He heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing– Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear for the other side any second...
But Sirius did not reappear.
"Sirius!" Harry yelled. "Sirius!"
He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius mig be just behind the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out...
But as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.
"There's nothing you can do, Harry–"
"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
"– it's too late, Harry."
"We can still reach him–" Harry struggled and and viciously, but Lupin would not let go...
"There's nothing you can do, Harry...nothing...he's gone."
"He isn't gone!" Harry yelled.
He did not believe it; he would not believe it; still he fought Lupin with every bit of strength he had. Lupin did not understand; people hid behind that curtain; Harry had heard them whispering the first time he had entered the room. Sirius was hiding, simply lurking out of sight.
"Sirius!" he bellowed. "Sirius!"
"He can't come back, Harry," Lupin said, his voice breaking as he struggled to contain Harry. "He can't come back, because he's d–"
"HE-IS-NOT-DEAD!" Harry roared. "Sirius!"
There was movement going on around them, pointless bustling, the flashes of more spells. To Harry it was meaningless noise, the deflected curses flying past them did not matter, nothing mattered except that Lupin should stop pretending that Sirius –who was standing feet from the, behind that old curtain– was not going to emerge at any moment, shaking back his dark and eager to re-enter the battle.
Lupin dragged Harry away from the dais. Harry, still staring at the archway, was angry at Sirius now for keeping him waiting. But some part of him realised, even as he fought to break free from Lupin, the Sirius had never kept him waiting before... Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry, to help him... if Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back... that he really was...
Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilised by invisible ropes; Mad Eye Moody had crawled across the room to where Tony's lay, and was attempting to revive her; behind the dais there were still flashes of light, grunts and cries –Kingsley had run forward to continue Sirius's duel with Bellatrix.
"Harry?" Leo had walked back down the stone benches to the place where Harry stood. Harry was no longer struggling against Lupin, who maintained a precautionary grip on his arm.
The son of Hephaestus had come to the conclusion that the man that had just gone through the veil was Sirius Black. Leo had learned next to nothing about the man, yet when Percy had explained who he was the son of fire had gotten the idea that he was a trickster, the one to lift up the mood in sad and dark times, kind of like himself. And from what he had gathered, he was Harry's godfather... and Harry was an orphan, much like himself –if you didn't count the godly father.
He'd volunteered to go for a few simple reasons, one was that he had seemed to relate to the short description Percy had given about the man, and two, after knowing that Percy would be forced to stay away from it because of his girlfriend –cough cough– he had one more reason to go, for Percy in a way.
And now, even he understood what that veil was, what those voices were... what had happened to Sirius Black. He didn't need to imagine what was happening to Harry, he knew it himself, he had felt the very same thing when his mother died in the fire he thought he had caused, when his parents turned his back on him and he was forced to jump from foster home to foster home until he finally found Camp Half-Blood –and Calypso.
"Harry...I'm really sorry about...about your godfather...it gets better," he said.
Harry nodded numbly, his eyes still set on the archway that had taken his godfather.
Lupin' face was pale. "Let's– let's find the others. Where are they all?" He turned away from the archway as he spoke. It seemed as though every word was causing him pain.
"They're all back here," Leo said as he pointed up the stairs. "A brain or something attacked Ron, although I'm pretty sire he's alright – and the girl wing the fluffy hair –Hermione is it?– she's unconscious, but I could feel a pulse–"
There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. Kingsley hit the ground telling in pain: Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it; she was halfway up the steps now.
"Harry–no!" Lupin cried out, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin's slackened grip.
"She killed Sirius!" Harry bellowed. "She killed him, I'll kill her!"
And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches; people were shouting at him but he did not care. The hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped in and out of sight ahead and they were back in the room where the brains were swimming.
She aimed a curse over her shoulder. The tank rose into the air and tipped. Slipping and sliding, he ran on towards the door; he leaped over Jason, who was groaning on the floor, past Frank, who said, "Harry–what–?", past Ron, who giggled feebly, and Hermione, who was still unconscious. He wrenched the door into the circular black hall and saw Bellatrix disappearing through a door on the other side of the room; beyond her was the corridor leading back to the lifts.
He ran, but she had slammed the door behind her and the walls were already rotating. Once more, he was surrounded by streaks of blue light from the whirling candelabra.
"Where's the exit?" he shouted desperately, as the wall rumbled to a half again. "Where's the way out?"
The room seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. The door right behind him flew open and the corridor towards the lifts stretched ahead of him, torch-lit and empty. He ran...
He could hear a lift clattering ahead; he sprinted up the passageway, swung around the corner and sleazed his fist on to the button to call the a second lift. It jangles and banged lower and lower; the grilled slid open and Harry dashed inside, now hammering the button marked Atrium. The doors slid shut and he was rising...
He forced his way out of the lift before the grilles were fully open and looked around. Bellatrix was almost at the telephone lift at the other end of the hall, but she looked back as he towards her and aimed another spell at him. He dodged behind the fountain of magic brethren: the Spell zoomed past him and hit the wroughtgold gates at the other end of the Atrium so that they ran like bells. There were no more footsteps. She had stopped running. He crouched behind the statues, listening.
"Come out, come out, little Harry!" she called in her mock baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"
"I am!" Harry shouted, and the words seemed to be echoed around the room.
"Aaaah...did you love him, little baby Potter?"
Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before; he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, "Crucio!"
Bellatrix screamed: the Spell had knocked her off her feet but she was already back on her feet, breathless and no longer laughing, but back on her feet. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again.
Her counter spell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away.
"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. "You need to mean them, Potter! You to really want to cause pain –to enjoy it– righteous anger won't hurt me for long– I'll show you how it's done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson–"
Harry was edging around the fountain on the other side when she screamed, "Crucio!" and he was forced to duck under down again as the centaur's arm, holding its bow, span off and landed with a crash on the floor a short distance form the golden wizard's head.
"Potter, you cannot win against me!" she cried.
He could hear her moving to the right, trying to get a clear shot.
"I was and a, the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I learned the Dark Arts from him, and o know spells such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete–"
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled.
She reacted so fast he barely had time to duck. "Protego!"
The jet of red light, his own Stunning Spell, bounced back at him. Harry scrambled back behind the fountain and one of the goblin's ears went flying across the room.
"Potter, I'm giving you one chance!" she shouted. "Give me the prophecy –roll it out towards me now– and I may spare your life!"
"Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry roared and, as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead.
"And he knows!" Harry added, with a mad to match Bellatrix's own. "Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"
"What? What do you mean?" she cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.
"The prophecy smashed when Percy was put out of fight-mode! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"
His scar seared and burned...the pain of it was making his eyes water...
"Liar! That wretched son of he sea god would never make such a mistake!" she shrieked, but the terror could be heard behind her anger now. "You've got it, Potter, and you will give it to me! Accio prophecy!"
Harry laughed again because he knew it would incense her, the pain building in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst. He waved his empty hand from behind the one‐eared goblin and withdrew it quickly as she sent another jet of green light flying at him.
"Nothing there, is there!" he shouted. "Nothing to summon! Percy smashed it, and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that!"
"No!" she screamed. "It isn't true, you're lying! Master, I tried, I tried– do not push me–"
"Don't waste your breath!" Harry yelled, his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "He can't hear you from here!"
"Can't I, potter?" a high, cold voice said.
Harry opened his eyes. Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit pupilled eyes staring... Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move. He was no Percy Jackson, and he was actually...
"So, you smashed my prophecy?" Voldemort said softly, staring at Harry, with those pitiless red eyes. "No Bella, he is not lying... I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind... months of preparation, months of effort... and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again... I even brought in the demigods to distract you! That damned Jackson should have helped! I–"
"Master, I am sorry I knew not, I was fighting Animagus Black!" Bellatrix sobbed, flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he laced slowly. "Master you should know–"
"Be quiet, Bella," he said dangerously. "I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your snivelling apologies?"
"But master –he is here– he is below–"
"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," he said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist; his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.
But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry.
"What–?" Voldemort cried, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"
Harry had no time to look at behind him at his headmaster, instead, strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him behind some desks. When the spots in Harry's vision cleared and his senses returned to him, he focused on the sea green eyes looking back at him. How he was being held with one hand whilst the other lay limply in front of him, twisted and swelling at the wrist.
"Are you okay?" Percy asked him.
Harry didn't respond, he couldn't, he was in shock.
"Okay," Percy said. "Clearly you're not."
The son of Poseidon peaked up from over the desk in time to see Dumbledore advance on Voldemort, a golden centaur cantering around them both.
"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," Dumbledore said. "The Aurors are on their way–"
"By which time I shall be gone, and you will be dead!" Voldemort spat before he sent yet another killing curse at Dumbledore but it missed, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which burst into flame.
Percy crouched back down near Harry. "Tiring day, isn't it?" he asked casually, but like he had expected, Harry did not respond.
Then an oddly chilling sound broke out and Percy was too curious not to peek through again.
"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" Voldemort called, and Percy noticed the thin shield around him. "Above such such brutality, are you?"
"We both know there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk towards Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit."
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Voldemort snarled.
"You are quiet wrong," Dumbledore said, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as thought they were discussing the matter over drinks. "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death had always been your greatest weakness–"
As another jet of green light was sent towards Dumbledore Percy found hardy trying to crawl out of the desk's safety, but Percy was quick to grab him with his good hand and pushing him back down, flinching as he had to use his broken hand to help himself out.
Harry kept on hearing the commotion and he couldn't help it, he looked at Percy apologetically. "I'm sorry," he muttered before landing a solid punch at his injured wrist and at the same time kicking forward and hitting his groin, the demigod howled in pain as his face contorted into clear pain.
Harry had felt sort of bad, knowing it was a dirt move, but he wanted to...
"Look out!" he yelled.
But even as he shouted, another jet of green light flew at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake struck. Fawkes –where the hell had he come from?– swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide and swallowed the jet of green light whole: he burst into flames and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless.
At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one long, fluid movement ‐the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; and the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort.
For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass, then he was gone and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.
"Master!" Bellatrix screamed.
As Harry made to run out from the desk he had been hiding behind, both Dumbledore and Percy –how he managed he did not know– bellowed at the same time –Percy more like moaned out– "Stay where you are, Harry!"
For the first time Harry had heard, Dumbledore sounded frightened. Then his scad burst open and he knew he was as good as dead because it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance.
He was gone from the hall, he seemed to be locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creatureʹs began: they were fused together, bound by pain, and there seemed to be no escape.
And when the creature within him spoke, it used his mount, so that in all his agony, he also felt his jaw move, "Kill me now, Dumbledore... If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy..."
Let the pain stop, Harry thought in pain... let him kill us...end it, Dumbledore...death is nothing compare to this...And I'll see Sirius again...
As Harry's heart filled with emotions, with love for his late godfather, the creature's coils loosened, like the glue had melted off, the pain was gone, he was lying face down on the floor, his glasses lost somewhere, shivering like he was lying on ice, not wood...
There were voices echoing in the hall, too many voices, the weren't meant to be so many... he opened his eyes, he saw his glasses lying near a very shaken Percy Jackson, who sat there, with his legs tightly closed and holding his injured arm as he tried to not to throw up.
He put on his glasses and raised his head a little to find Dumbledore's face inches from his own.
"Are you all right, Harry?"
"Yes," Harry replied, shaking so violently he could not hold his head up properly. "Yeah, I'm– where's Voldemort, where– who are all these– what's–"
The Atrium was filled with people and as Dumbledore pulled him to his feet, Harry saw the tiny gold statues of the house-elf and the goblin, leading to a stunned-looking Cornelius Fudge forward.
"He was there!" shouted a man, pointing at a pile of rubble on the other side of the room. "I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Dis-apparated!"
"I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!" Fudge gibbered out, he was wearing pyjamas under his cloak and gasping like he had just run miles. "Merlin's beard –here –here! –in the Ministry of Magic! –great heavens above –it doesn't seem possible –my word –how can this be–?"
"If you proceed downstairs into the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius," Dumbledore said, making Fudge jump. "You will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Dis-apparation Jinx and waiting your decision as to what to do with them."
"Dumbledore!" Fudge gasped beside himself with amazement. "You-here-I-I–" he looked around wildly. "Seize him!"
"Cornelius I am sure that just a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong man for twelve months, and it is time –you listened to sense!"
"I - don't - well–" blustered Fudge looked around, and when nobody told him what to do he said, "Very well– Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see... Dumbledore, you–you will need to tell me exactly –the Fountain of Magical Brethren– what happened?" he added in a whimper. "And what is a boy with a sword doing here?"
Percy grinned at him, although his eyes told a different story and as he tried to move, his grin turned into a grimace. "Hi there," he managed before he gave up. "I'm just gonna sit down here, oh and if you see a blonde teen like me, send her up please," he ended with a shaky breath.
Fudge looked from the son of Poseidon to Dumbledore. "You have a lot to–"
"We can discuss that after I have sent Harry back to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, interrupting him.
"Harry– Harry Potter?"
"He– here?" Fudge said, giggling at Harry. "Why– what's this all about?"
"I shall explain everything," Dumbledore repeated, "when Harry is back at school."
He walked to the broken wizard's head laying on the floor and pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Portus."
"Now see here, Dumbledore!" Fudge said, as Dumbledore picked up the head and walked to Harry p carrying it. "You haven't got authorisation for that Portkey! You can't do things like that in front of the Minister for Magic, you– you–" His voice faltered as Dumbledore looked at him over his half-moon spectacles.
"You will give the official order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you..." he looked at his watch. "...half an hour of time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the headmaster will find me."
"I– you–!"
Dumbledore turned his back on him. "Take this portkey, Harry. Perseus?"
Percy flinched. "Yeah, um, could you like, come here...please?" When Dumbledore didn't he flinched and slowly got to his feet, the colour draining from his face even further as he took a tentative step forward, then another. At seeing the odd looks everyone was giving him he grinned at them softly. "Cut me some slack people, he kicked me in the groin!"
There was a collective flinch from the male population amongst the wizards and then Percy has placed his hand on the portkey-head as had Harry.
"I shall see you in half an hour," Dumbledore said quietly. "Perseus, you'll be going starlight to the infirmary, am I understood? One...two...three..."
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A/N lol im so tired pls just review and follow this story or smth.
Hope you enjoyed and all that crap...
Hunter