"It's not my fault!" Harry protested once again, as they ran through the maze, their hearts pounding. They could hear him--he was stupid enough to keep shoving the nasal spray up his nose.
"I don't blame you!" Kelly repeated for the hundredth time. The sneezing was getting close now.
"It's my fault!" Harry said, knowing it contradicted his last statement entirely.
"No, it's not!" Kelly objected, turning a corner. "There!"
Ron was running funny, sidestepping himself and tripping like he was drunk, still shoving the stupid nasal spray up his nose, and sneezing his lungs out.
"Ron, come here!" Harry shouted, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Ron kept on going.
"I got him," Kelly said, nodding toward Ron. She sprinted ahead and raced after him, Harry just behind her.
Kelly ran in front of Ron and stopped right in front of him so he'd have to ram into her to move. Ron stopped and looked at her.
"Ron, come on," she said, reaching out for him.
Ron grabbed her outstretched hand. "Kelly, will you marry me?"
Kelly closed her eyes and looked like she was using every ounce of patience she possessed. "Of course, Ron. Now, come on."
Ron grinned like a child who just got a new toy. "I wanna get married now."
"Of course, Ron," Kelly repeated as they started walking, searching for her wand in her robes.
"Can I get married in a playground?"
"Of course, Ron," Kelly said again, still searching.
"No, no, in my bedroom!"
"Of course, Ron."
"Can Malfoy be my best friend?"
"Of course, Ron."
"Can Malfoy be my best man?"
"Of course, Ron."
"Can I wear a pretty dress?"
"Of course, Ron."
Harry was about to object to going this far, but Kelly found her wand and pointed it at Ron. She said the counter curse, and Ron got a funny look on his face, before looking normal again.
"Let's go," Kelly said, like nothing had happened.
Ron looked at her. "Can I not wear the dress?"
"Can we not get married?" Kelly asked, looking around the corner for any more signs of danger.
"Oh…" Ron looked thoughtful. "Yeah… yeah, that would work, too…"
"You're going to marry Hermione, remember?" Harry asked, racing forward as Kelly moved on.
Kelly slowly descended the stairs. "Oh, be careful. This is the one where the floor falls under you."
Ron looked at Harry, not sure of what Kelly had just said. Harry cast Kelly an anxious glance and said, "Just be ready to run."
Kelly took a cautious step forward and her foot fell through. She grabbed the railing behind her and pulled herself back up again, however. "This is it. I want you guys to follow me, okay?"
Harry and Ron nodded, looking at each other. Her secret gave her authority over them in a way, because she might know something they didn't. Harry hated it.
"Ready…" Kelly started looking around the room before them. "Set…"
A hideous screech came from above, letting them know they had unwelcome company.
"GO!" Kelly yelled, racing down the rest of the stairs and into the room, Harry and Ron close at her heels.
A bright green spell just missed them as they sped onward, opening the doors into rooms and praying they got there before the collapsing floor. Harry dared a glance back--another half-a-dozen Death Eaters were following them, treading where the floor was rebuilding.
Kelly opened another door, and they saw the stairs ahead. "Come on, come on!" she urged, racing toward them, then sliding the railing. Harry and Ron raced after her, not daring to look back any more.
They stopped at the end of the stairs. They could hear the Death Eaters close behind. Kelly had her eyes shut tight, and Harry and Ron followed suit. The electrical barrier that Harry vaguely remembered was buzzing to their right.
Harry and Kelly lead the way away from the barrier, Ron's confused questions on what had just happened no more than background noise. Kelly reached back into her robes as she ran, searching desperately for her wand. Harry reached in for his, and Ron followed suit, not certain what he would need it for, still asking questions.
Kelly turned a corner and screamed, "REDUCTO!"
Harry turned just in time to see one of Voldemort's S.P.I.E.S.s blow into smithereens. They proceeded onward, hoping the Death Eaters had the reward of running into one of them, too.
They were screaming "reducto" at every turn. Voldemort seemed to have sent every one of the S.P.I.E.S.s he had in his possession to come after them, making their journey to the stairs much more difficult. The Death Eaters had no trouble at all, as Voldemort seemed to have made the S.P.I.E.S.s not go after them, or make the Death Eaters invisible to the hundred or so S.P.I.E.S.s he had racing after Kelly, Harry, and Ron.
"There!" Kelly yelled, nodding toward the stairs ahead. "That should be the ground floor!"
"Finally!" Ron exclaimed, racing after her and Kelly, and ducking a spell thrown by a Death Eater that looked like Rookwood. "I was really starting to admire how you'd gone through so many floors!"
"You'd still better," Harry told him, reaching the bottom of the stairs just behind Kelly.
The trio almost screamed.
Every non-living item had been turned alive. And all of them were blocking the door.
"Not cool!" Ron exclaimed.
"C'mon!" Kelly yelled, racing around the stairs. Harry and Ron were about to object to running away from the way out when the Death Eaters fired a spell that just missed Harry's shoulder. They looked at each other, then ran after her.
Kelly stopped in front of a wall, horrified. She turned around to race away and find whatever she was looking for, but the once-not-now-alive items were closing in around them. They were looking at them heatedly, and the Death Eaters were right behind them, grinning maliciously at the fact that their prey had been cornered. They had no way of escape.
And then Kelly did the greatest bit of magic Harry could have ever hoped for at that point, and it wasn't even magic.