Muahahaha!
Arthur Weasley considered himself a reasonable and patient man. He had seven children after all, all of whom he loved dearly, (no matter how loud, rambunctious, mischievous or loyal to those neglecting to recognize the war being fought they may be). So... he would have to apologize to Perkins later for his abrupt lack of patience and yet still reasonably furious reaction to the news he'd read as soon as he came into the office. He'd nearly ripped the Prophet to shreds after reading the story. How the half-ghost had been removed from Hogwarts grounds and brought in to finally undergo a thorough examination to determine if it was indeed a new magical creature or if was just misidentified.
And suddenly, Lucius Malfoy's absence at the Minister's side that morning made a lot more sense, and had dread pooling into Arthur's stomach. He felt sick and disgusted at the actions taken against his son's new friend, Danny Fenton. He remembered the boy from the chaotic visit to the hospital over Christmas. He'd been kind enough to answer some questions about his life as a muggle and then ask about Arthur's welfare when he'd been sure he hid a wince behind a smile. A remarkable young man who'd found friendship in Ron and Harry and Hermione.
Arthur shook his head and gave a small, unseen smile of pride at how incredible his son was. How extraordinary was Ron, to find his equal place amongst the most extraordinary people?
Arthur shook his head and returned to his current mission. He could admit to being decidedly reckless at the moment, seeing as how he was clutching his wand in his pocket, riding the rickety metal elevator deeper into the Ministry to a Department that he'd no business going to. The elevator chimed and informed him that he'd reached level four, The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
But... He couldn't imagine Ron and his friends just sitting back and allowing Danny to remain captured, so Arthur wasn't going to just sit back and wait for them to get into trouble. He was going to find a way to help Danny now, no matter what, and in whatever way he could.
He wasn't planning on an outright rescue mission; it would be foolish to think he could pull that off so soon after Danny had been captured. He just wanted to find out where Danny was being kept and maybe assure the poor boy that he wasn't alone and that help was coming. Sooner than Dumbledore would want he was sure, for when Molly and Sirius found out about this... for all that they loved to disagree on nearly everything, they were both fiercely protective of their children.
So no, this wasn't a rescue mission yet, it was a recon mission. Arthur slowly heads towards the main offices near the center of the enormous Department, ignoring the occasional rumbling roars and screeches of the creatures being held within specialized rooms. The less dangerous creatures were held in cells near the entrance for easy transportation, and he highly doubted Danny would be held within any of them.
He couldn't really say where they would hold Danny for sure though, since the boy didn't fall solely into one of the three divisions within the Ministry Department. Arthur didn't think they would put Danny into the Beast Division, but he wouldn't rule out the possibility, given the circumstances. But, it was far more likely that Danny was being held in either the Being Division or the Spirit Division. For now though, Arthur would play it safe and snoop around the main office to find out where Danny was for sure.
He'd always been friendly with most of the Department Heads, being a Department Head himself, and while Gethsamine Prickle hadn't been inducted into the Order of the Phoenix due to concerns for the safety of her wife and children, Arthur knew her to be a no-nonsense woman and she wouldn't stand for anything she thought was wrong.
But... he also knew her protective streak only went so far for magical creatures. She was far more interested in keeping what was considered dangerous either neutralized or contained rather than risk the safety of wizards or muggles. And an unknown like Danny... well he didn't have much hope for convincing her to let the boy go at any rate, but he hoped he could appeal to her protective nature once he told her that Danny was a child trying to find his way in a world that was out to get him wherever he went.
Determined and ready, Arthur rounded the last corner before the main offices, and strode up to the large door leading to the Department's main offices. As he reached for the handle however, he stopped.
Frozen in place, Arthur finally registered how deathly silent his surroundings were now that he'd made it past the less dangerous creature holding cells.
Which made it all to easy to hear the rustling of movement just around the corner. Arthur gripped his wand tightly and raised it as he walked forward towards the sound. He tried to keep his breathing even, heart pounding and eyes wide, he forced himself not to think of the last time he's been alone in utter silence within the Ministry.
He knew allying himself with the Order and fighting against You-Know-Who's forces would be dangerous; but he couldn't help but be incredibly aware of how his robes brushed against the scars he'd gotten that night. The fear and confusion as fangs pierce his skin and sank into flesh and the pain and the dizziness followed by hollow blackness that he was sure he wouldn't wake up from.
Arthur shook off the memories and gathered his courage. Edging around the corner at the end of the hall, his heart quite literally skipped a beat at what he found. As if his own memories had summoned her, You-Know-Who's snake was slowly but purposefully coming nearer.
Arthur could barely breath, and as if she could sense his fear, the snake abruptly stopped and turned her head towards him. He didn't think, only stumbled back in surprise. He dashed away, running flat out to get away; since he knew first hand just how dangerous the gargantuan snake was. He had no chance of getting past her unscathed.
He flew towards the elevators, not daring to look back, for he could sense the massive snake chasing after him, the eyes of a predator upon its prey.
Colliding with the elevator wall, Arthur wrenched the metal doors closed, panting and shivering as the spitting hiss of an angry snake got slowly quieter as he rode the elevator upwards.
He sent a sorrowful mental apology to Danny, for Arthur knew that if You-Know-Who's snake was here, then You-Know-Who was likely within the Ministry as well. No doubt to use the boy's ability to nullify magic to get the Merlin damned prophesy.
And if Arthur was right in where Lucius had slipped off to earlier that morning, and why one of the largest and most active Ministry Departments had been so deathly silent... Danny had already been taken. Arthur had to get word to Dumbledore and gather the Order.
As soon as the elevator shuddered to a stop, Arthur forced the doors open, heedless of the shouts of surprise and anger as he pushed through other Ministry employees towards the Auror office. Kingsley would be there, as well as aurors who were sympathetic to their cause and several other Order members.
They needed to act now; to save Danny from whatever else You-Know-Who had planned, to keep their children safe, and to put an end to this once and for all.
The time of sitting and gathering intelligence was over.
Their silent war within the shadows had officially come to an end.
.
.
Heart hammering his ribcage, Danny struggled to free himself from the hands grabbing him, dragging him, hurting him. He tried to buck off the unfriendly hands holding him tight and bit back hisses against the shocks coursing through the collar around his neck as he moved.
They'd attacked his friends! He'd felt the concussive force of magic collide on where he knew they were standing. He could still hear shouts and screams beneath the shattering of glass, the creaking crack of wood splintering and felt the tremors beneath him as he was dragged away from the fight.
The hands on him were gripping tight enough to bruise, but he needed to get away! He struggled and fought, growling with the effort and shuddering against the magical shocks.
He needed to go back! Had to do something! Couldn't leave them!
All at once one pair of hands releases him following a brief wave of powerful magic, and the other pair was then ripped off him, making him stumble and fall. He cracked his head on the unforgiving ground as he dropped.
Before he could make any attempt to get away, hands were on him again, lifting him up and rushing him onwards. His breath came in choppy gasps through the muzzle as he tried to stop them from moving him further, his head was pounding and his mind spiraling in a panic and he couldn't hear anything over the rush in his ears and he knew nothing but the hands holding him before he was thrown forwards.
His stomach dropped as he went into a free-fall that he couldn't fly and save himself from. He landed hard; knees, hip and shoulder aching from taking the brunt of the fall. He felt the thuds of others landing on the ground nearby, and a sliver of clarity cut through the shock of the fall and the panic clouding his head and he tried to get up fast enough to get away, to escape and regroup while he wasn't being held down or dragged who knows where.
He didn't get far. Voices surrounding him, hands touching him, metal shocking him, unable to move, unable to see. He jerked and flinched away from the contact, heard muffled voices through the static deafening him and then... then it all stopped. By some miracle he was left alone long enough to just lie still and breath.
In and out. In and out. Wheezing slightly through the muzzle, Danny was still very aware of the people nearby who'd fallen after him wherever he was now. He could hear their voices, talking softly to one another.
After a few moments, the voices around him finally began to filter through and register in his mind.
"-alright? Have to get that collar off-"
"-ndfold too, after he-"
"-door hold? How long do we-"
Danny gasped in recognition, and sat up so fast his head spun and his aching muscles flinched at another shock from the collar. He tried speak, but only managed a desperate sort of whine that he could feel embarrassed about later since he forgot about the muzzle clamping his jaw shut.
His friends, (his friends!), seemed to understand him though, since he then felt gentle hands on the edges of the blindfold, and he blinked quickly as his vision was finally returned to him.
Luna was right beside him, tapping her wand on the muzzle to remove it, Hermione on the other side of him doing the same thing to the collar still around his neck. He looked up while they worked and found Ginny and Ron standing beside Neville, Harry and Draco crouched in front of him. They were all covered in bruises and cuts, most still leaking blood. Their clothes were ripped and torn, their hair disheveled and windswept, all of their hands holding their wands tight, Harry clutching a small glass sphere that swirled and whispered.
But... they were all here in front of him, grinning with relief in their eyes as Hermione and Luna managed to release him from the metal trapping his limbs.
"You guys..." He croaked, as the muzzle fell to the ground with a clang. He forced himself to his feet and met the waiting arms of all his friends. Harry and Draco gently helped him steady himself and they settled into a hug that was quickly joined by Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna. They all stood there for a moment, and Danny could only sigh. His core settled and he breathed, marveling at how lucky he was to have friends like these.
But they were all harshly reminded of their situation, as they all jumped at the sound of a thunderous crash above them. Looking up quickly, Danny saw a sheer drop after a stone shelf at the base of a dark paneled door high up on the wall. The door was still intact, but there was another tremendous crash as the wood shuddered and sparked with yellow magic against the obvious force being used to try and open it up. The pounding stopped after a moment, and they were once again left in uneasy silence.
"Hermione, what would we do without you?" Neville broke the silence with a shaky laugh.
"You magicked the door closed?" Danny asked, shaking himself and focusing on their situation, ignoring the pounding in his head and a sudden sense of wrong.
"Oh yeah, those death eater bast-"
"Ginny!"
"-were right on our tails, and Hermione sealed the door shut after Malfoy slammed it in their faces! It was great!"
"But falling down here and then climbing the stairs to seal the rest of the doors wasn't as great." Harry said gesturing at the rest of the room, eyes lingering on something in the center that Danny had yet to turn and see.
Danny turned to look at what Harry at gestured towards, taking in the room he and his friends now found themselves in. But his breath caught and he tensed in horror.
How had he not noticed them before?
He briefly registered the large stone benches surrounding the circular room, all rising like stadium seats to dark wooden doors circling the round room near the high ceiling. All the doors had the same dangerous drops to the unforgiving stone ground below after a short stone threshold.
But that isn't what was drawing his attention now. There were so many of them. Hundreds, if not thousands of them, surrounding them on all sides.
He finally managed a harsh gasp as he stepped closer to his friends.
"Danny?" Hermione asked quickly, all his friends tense and ready except for Luna who was gazing silently at the center of the room. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"You don't see them?" Danny managed through his horror.
"See what?" Draco hissed.
Danny didn't really know how to answer. They were little more than shadows given form. They were all standing on the stone benches surrounding them, existing so close to one another that many seemed to be overlapping. They were all so unnaturally still that every time he dared to blink he thought their forms rippled and yet didn't move at all. He could tell that they were all human forms, but they didn't have any distinguishing features except for one.
He could tell they were all magical. Their arms all raised with slim shards of shadow, echoes of what used to be their wands, all pointed down into the center of the room.
Danny's mind was reeling, still pounding from the hit it took and the overwhelming sense of w̷͔̑r̸̮͝o̶͒ͅn̶̘̐g̷̜̃ṇ̴͑ě̴̼s̷̙̓s̵̹̆ this place was bombarding him with. He couldn't believe it took him so long to notice it.
He finally tore his eyes from the shadowy figures surrounding them, and focused on what was sitting on a plinth in the middle of the room.
He gasped sharply again and threw himself away from the unassuming stone archway he saw there. His back hit the wall beneath the door they'd fallen through, but his eyes never left the archway set atop a plinth the center of the room. There were shafts of light coming from nowhere lighting the structure as a frayed veil gently swayed in a non-existent breeze.
His core was heavy in his chest and his instincts were screaming at him to g̶e̸t̶ ̴a̴w̷a̶y̷!̶ ̴D̷o̷n̶'̴t̴ ̷g̶o̶ ̷n̶e̴a̶r̴!̴ ̸W̷r̵o̵n̶g̶,̶ W̵̩͌r̷̳̋ó̵̙n̶̨̊g̷̗̉!̶͖͆ ̵̻̋ W̴̱͑͆Ŕ̷̠̟̈́̀O̶̡̥̔̓N̷̝͗̕͠G̶̝͑͝͠!̵̗̽̚ ̵̻̈́
"DANNY!" Luna's shout shocked him so badly that he jumped into the air and stayed there. He looked down and found his friends looking at him in confusion and fear, their shoulders tense and wands held tight. Luna though, stepped forward and dragged Danny down by his foot until he was eye level with her.
"Don't lose yourself. Come back to us." She told him firmly, eyes never leaving his. He stared at her for a moment, before her words sunk in and he let out a shaky breath he hadn't noticed he'd been holding.
"Thank you." He whispered, Luna nodded and kept her uncharacteristically solemn expression as the others came forward.
"Danny?" Harry asked, concerned and tense, "What was that? What can you see?"
Danny huffed a shaky sigh, but with a clearer head, looked up at his friends and tried to explain.
"I see hundreds of people standing on the benches." the others gasped in surprise and whipped around to look around the room.
"They're... I don't really know what they are now but I can tell they used to be people..." He quickly drew their attention back onto himself as he continued. "But now they aren't ghosts, they aren't even shades... they're just shadows."
Danny paused as his friends looked warily up at the benches, and he took a moment to look at the horrific structure in the center of the room.
"And the shadows that used to be people, they made that." Danny pointed to the stone archway.
"But what is it? Why'd you react to it like it was..."
"It's a corrupted dimensional portal." Danny cut off Hermione's question with an edge in his voice as his surprise and horror melted into rage at what had been created here.
"A portal? You mean- a portal to the dimension ghosts come from? The Infinite Realms?" Harry asked, a hint of confusion and hope.
"No." Danny could only just barely keep himself from spitting the answer, his eyes flaring as he turned to look at the archway. "It's a bastardized attempt to open and harvest the Realms' energy. But the people who opened it-" He looked to the hundreds of shadowy figures surrounding them, "They tried to rip open the barrier using magic. But it didn't work... it went w̷͔̑r̸̮͝o̶͒ͅn̶̘̐g̷̜̃.
His friends flinched at his voice but he continued on. "It feels like it's infected and festering and eating away at itself. Horrible magic mixing and warring with dimensional energy. That portal doesn't lead to the Infinite Realms, and if all that's left of the people who tried to open it are less than shadows... we don't want to find out where that portal leads."
Danny thought back to Wulf's warning, 'They have tried to force their way into the Realms before, and they may try to use you to try again.'
Is this what Wulf had been talking about? Had the Realms been affected by this corrupted breach? If Voldemort hadn't invaded and kidnapped him from his kidnappers, would the Ministry have tried to use him to reach the Realms? Would he have become another faceless shadow amongst the hundreds standing silent and still around the archway?
How many had tried, unable to see the unsuccessful attempts made by their predecessors? How many times had magic been used to keep this festering wound open in the fabric of space-time?
Danny was breathing heavily, forcing down his revulsion at the energy he felt coming from the horrible mockery of an attempted portal disguised as an unassuming archway. He closed his eyes and willed himself to calm down, this wasn't the time to worry about any of this. He needed to get his friends out of here and then he could deal with the veil portal still fluttering.
They all jumped sharply and were shocked back into the present when there was a tremendous crash from one of the doors on the other side of the circular room, followed by more thunderous noise outside of several other doors, each shaking and sparking with magic.
The last of Danny's anger chilled and snapped into horrible dread.
"Alright, stay away from the archway; but we need to get out of here. Now!" Harry quickly asserted over the noise, clutching the glass sphere that Danny still needed to ask about to his chest.
With his friends' wands held ready they all moved forward. Danny tugged on his protesting core and transformed, then flew alongside them as they skirted the edge of the central plinth and began to scramble up the stone steps to a door that wasn't under magical attack.
Just as Hermione stepped forward to unblock the door and allow them through, Danny felt the shuddering increase in magic just beyond the dark wood. He shouted in alarm and moved on instinct just as the door in front of them exploded in their faces.
.
.
They'd been doing so well.
Against all odds, Harry had led his friends into what he knew was a trap, and yet they still managed to evade Voldemort, make it into the Department of Mysteries, find Danny, free Danny and then try to make their escape.
There had been a few hiccups, of course.
Walking out of the green fire of the Floo network to be met with the sight of bodies strewn about a Ministry office, and then hearing panicked footsteps and the horrible hissing of an angry snake outside the large office doors had been a snag and a grim reminder of what they were all getting themselves into.
Draco had solved the problem by taking them through a secret passageway that his father had shown him that traversed the entire Ministry, and had been used to spy and sabotage the Ministry during Voldemort's last war on the Wizarding world. The revelation had answered Harry's question of how Voldemort himself had made it into the Ministry and traveled through it unimpeded and without causing any suspicion.
Their next few problems were directly caused by the utter insanity of the Department of Mysteries and whatever the Ministry secretly got up to within it's depths. Vats of green with floating brains, cabinets full of time tuners and a hummingbird that hatched and grew old and then regressed back into it's egg over and over again.
The room with the archway and the veil.
They'd eventually made it into the fabled Hall of Prophesy, or so Hermione called it. Harry had felt his heart rate spike in anticipation as a wave of... something washed over him while walking down the too-high shelves laden with glass spheres of all different sizes. And then... Ron had found the one with his name on it.
It was such a small thing, only a smidge bigger than a golden snitch. But as soon as Harry had picked up the dusty glass, everything fell into place. Why Voldemort wanted the Prophesy so bad, why the Order had been so keen to keep Voldemort from getting it, his connection to it all, the horcrux in his head.
He'd barely been given a minute to process what his new suspicions meant before they'd been surrounded. Death eaters, most in masks with wands pointed at their heads or hearts, but one that had his face uncovered, identity clear to see. Draco had stiffened and flinched minutely at the sight of his father, but Harry had seen the resolve harden his friends' grey eyes and in that moment, Lucius Malfoy lost whatever chance he had of having Draco as a son.
Lucius coldly ignored Draco and attempted to barter Danny's life for the stupid prophesy, confirming Harry's suspicions that the little dusty glass ball in his hand had caused him an untold number of problems.
He'd given Lucius a vehement 'No' of course, which is when things quickly began deteriorating. Bellatrix was there, taunting them, threatening them, and then... they'd brought Danny forward and revealed his horrible treatment.
Chained and muzzled, bleeding on his knees; their momentary shock at the horrific treatment had been the catalyst for a viscous magical firefight that they'd only just managed to overcome thanks to their strengthened magic and practice in the DA.
Harry could only thank whatever small amount of luck he'd been given that year, when they all made it to relative safety in the veiled archway room once more. They'd freed Danny, and given themselves a moment to regroup, which was then quickly cut short by Danny's disturbing revelation of what the archway was.
Harry'd felt the waves of anger rolling off of their ghostly friend, and they'd all shuddered at the staticky echo of Danny's voice as he explained what he could see and feel. It made Harry shudder at the thought that he'd been somewhat entranced with the archway when they'd first found it while searching for Danny; old and unassuming, the veil hanging from it gently fluttering, enticing him to come closer. Luna and Neville had looked just as disturbed at the new information.
Which is why, when they'd hurried towards a door that seemed to be safe to try to escape through, and it exploded towards them in an instant, Harry wasn't as surprised as he likely should have been at their luck running out.
He heard a clipped shout from Danny, purple magic blasting the door apart. He shut his eyes and recoiled on instinct, but knew already that it was too late. Waiting for the imminent searing pain and injury, Harry was instead engulfed in a cool green energy.
He was thrown backwards, tumbling and disoriented, sounds too loud to process and vision blurred, he couldn't tell which way was up or down. He kept a tight hold on his wand and the prophesy, hoping with everything he had that his friends would be okay.
Harry's breath was knocked out of him when he landed hard on cool stone. He lay there a moment, eyes shut tight and panting to catch his breath, his wand and prophesy tucked close to his chest.
"Harry?" Ron's voice had his eyes snapping open in an instant, and panic shot through him as he realized his glasses had been thrown off and lost in the confusion. Everything was blurry and tinted an odd green.
"Here Harry, quick!" Hermione's panicked and shaky voice matched her shaking hands as she pushed glasses into his palm. Whether they were his own, conjured, or simply an extra pair she had brought with, Harry couldn't have cared less at the moment.
He slammed the glasses onto his face and quickly made it to his feet, his vision clearing to see Hermione and Ron in front of him, Neville, Ginny, Luna and Draco behind him, and all of their eyes trained on Danny.
Danny was standing stiff, with his arms raised and holding up a shimmering deathly green shield that surrounded them on all sides. White gloved hands shaking, reminding Harry that Danny had not been treated kindly and wouldn't be at full power.
The domed shield protecting them dissipated with a soft hiss through Danny's gritted teeth, but they were all beside him in an instant, wands raised and expression hard. Harry quickly assed their situation and was instantly on edge, finding that they'd ended up on the dais in the center of the room... right beside the stone archway and swaying veil. His stomach swooped with dread as he then realized that they were surrounded.
Several doors around the room had been blown apart and there now stood at least a hundred masked and ready death eaters positioned on the stone benches.
"It's futile to fight against us." The cold drawl drew their attention to Lucius. The man looked furious, robes disheveled and not as 'put together' as he usually was. "Hand over the prophesy, Potter. The Dark Lord may then take mercy on your friends and let them leave with their lives."
Bellatrix stood beside Lucius, a bruise already blooming on her forehead, her eyes trained on Neville with her teeth bared in a snarl.
After a moment of utter silence following the demand, Harry gathered his courage and set his stance.
"You wouldn't let us go." He said, voice sounding too loud in the deathly quiet room. "I'm not naïve, Lucius; Voldemort wants the prophesy to learn how to get rid of me. He wants Danny to learn how to cheat death more than he's tried already. He wants to destroy the world so he can claim to have saved it."
The death eaters surrounding them sputter and hiss and tighten their grips on their wands at his words. Bellatrix shrieks with indignant wrath and Lucius only just barely keeps her from leaping towards them.
Danny rose into the air, clenching fists wreathed in pulsing green energy. Ron and Hermione are beside him, in ready stances with wands raised; Ginny, Neville, Luna and Draco shift closer and ready themselves. All of them facing the enemy with their backs towards the veil.
The tension builds and is about to snap when a quiet hiss of a voice snakes through the chaos, quieting the death eaters instantly.
"Harry Potter." Harry gasps and looks towards the horribly familiar voice, Draco flinching violently at the same time. Lord Voldemort himself materializes from a shadowed doorway, red eyes gleaming with contempt and pale spidery hand holding his wand loosely at his side. Nagini's giant body slowly circled Voldemort's feet as he stood on a topmost stone bench, directly in front of Harry and his friends. He can sense when his other friends get their first look of the most dangerous wizard of their lifetime, all of them freezing in immediate fear of the wizard they'd only ever heard in horror stories.
They quickly snap out of it when a deeper cold surrounds them, and at first Harry is reminded of a Dementor's biting chill. However, he recognizes the cold settling around him like a blanket of snow, the sound of soft static in his ears. Harry sees Danny's energy reflect deadly green on the stone under their feet and in the eyes of the enemies standing before them. It was a comforting reminder that whatever Voldemort may be... their friend was much scarier.
"How appropriate that you meet your end within the Room of Death." Voldemort says softly, almost smugly, as he moves forward, down the stone steps towards the dais and the archway. Piercing red eyes roved hungrily over Danny hovering behind Harry and before sliding to Harry and finding the glass sphere that he still held close to his chest. "Now, give me the-"
"No." Harry abruptly cuts off Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord, You-Know-Who himself, and the dead silence of pure shock that follows is almost enough to make Harry laugh.
"No. I won't give you the prophesy." Harry continues and holds the small glass orb up and watches Voldemort's red eyes focus onto it, taking a reflexive step forward. "You want answers to why you couldn't kill me, you want to know what's prophesized about our future, to know how to come out on top. You want to know your fate. Well... too bad."
Voldemort's eyes widen and he freezes in place, the room itself seems to hiss as the death eaters gasp as one.
"I've had it. I'm done with prophesies and predicted futures." Harry's voice pounds the stone walls, and there's a flash of movement in the corner of his eye, but he's much too focused on holding Voldemort's gaze to pay it any attention. "If I've learned anything at all, it's that I want my fate to my own! No more blaming destiny for the consequences of your own choices, Tom Riddle! You can't destroy your future and call it fate! And now, you'll never get the chance!"
And with that final word ringing through the room, Harry smashes the prophesy at his feet. All at once, Voldemort screams in outrage, magic bursting from his wand, Harry raises his own wand but Danny is suddenly in front of him and creates a small shield that absorbs the blasts. Doors fly open and death eaters turn with cries of anger and confusion as hoards of Ministry aurors led by Kingsley, Tonks and Mr. Weasley flood down the stone steps.
Through the sudden chaos and confusion, the wispy form of a woman with too-large glasses forms above the shattered remains of the prophesy. Lips move soundlessly, a prophesy made and no one to hear it. The mist fades and Harry feels nothing but his heart in his throat as Voldemort screams.
Danny drops his shield, and Harry and the others move. They try to get away from the archway, to make it to one of the open doors, get out of the line of fire; but a furious shriek is followed by Bellatrix lunging at Neville. As Ginny and Luna help Neville fight the madwoman off, Ron joins Mr. Weasley in keeping Lucius from getting a clear shot at Draco. Hermione is soon joined by Tonks and together they take on the mass of masked death eaters blocking the nearest exit.
A furious shout draws Harry's attention away from blasting the mask off of a death eater aiming at Luna's exposed back, and he looks up just in time to see Voldemort cast the Killing Curse right at Danny. Harry's heart stops for an instant, before Danny retaliates with his own blast of fiery green, and the shots collide creating emerald bursts of cascading energy that made both friend and foe turn from their fight to gawk at in shock.
The Killing curse can't be stopped, blocked or countered by any magical means. It was irrefutably known throughout the wizarding world that if you wanted to live, you dodged the deadly green curse.
For a split second, a single heartbeat, the entire room was still and silent. All eyes were on Danny, flying unconcerned as the last sparks of green fizzled out around him, expression set in a thunderous expression, glaring down at Voldemort.
The stillness shattered once more as a great melodious cry echoed into the room and Harry turned just in time to see a flash of brilliant fire following instantly by the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Dumbledore had arrived, followed closely by the Order, calling out and ready for the battle. There was ripple of fear and desperate hope sent throughout the room, as the fight began again in earnest.
Harry saw Fawkes diving towards Nagini with golden talons extended, Lupin and Bill Weasley firing powerful spells into the melee and downing death eaters left and right, Moody taking down anyone who dared get too close with brutal efficiency, Mrs. Weasley fighting her way towards Ginny and Ron with wand slicing though the air like a sword, Sirius plowing through the chaos with a sharp grin and even sharper spells that brought his targets down screaming.
But... they were still drastically outnumbered. Voldemort's forces had been growing steadily throughout the year, (even if one didn't count the freed Azkaban inmates), and it showed. Harry was having a hard time trying to move towards the open exits, the fierce duels and even fiercer magic in motion all around him felt like a physical pressure, pressing in on him from all sides and setting his senses alight with adrenaline.
He helped where he could, defending and attacking whenever he saw an opportunity, but he'd been fighting back fear and panic for a good long while with barely any reprieve. His aim started to slip as his arm began to shake with strain. He wouldn't be able to keep up with the adults for much longer. By the looks of his friends, they were fading quickly too.
They needed to get out of here.
A massive magical force nearly knocked him over, and he stumbled against the dais before grabbing onto the nearby Hermione and Draco, bringing them to the ground to protect them from the shockwave. Craning his head up, he spots Dumbledore and Voldemort locked in a devastating magical duel, the power they wielded against each other cracking the very ground they walked upon, all the nearby duelers scattering and giving the two powerful wizards a wide berth.
"Bloody hell!"
A loud thump beside Harry made him gasp as Ron, as well as Neville, Luna and Ginny, all found cover with them beside the dais. All of them looked as drained as Harry felt, and with a quick look upwards, he found Danny still furiously blasting death eaters with bursts of toxic green, every inch the ghostly hero that Harry had only heard about through stories of Danny's past until now. But as he watched, Danny dropped a few inches in the air, narrowly avoiding a screaming crack of electricity that the death eaters knew to be Danny's weakness.
They really needed to get out of there.
"Danny!" Harry shouted over the din, Danny's head snapping over to their position crouched down near the edge of the stone archway, the veil still fluttering gently, completely unaffected by the chaos throughout the room.
Danny plummeted suddenly, landing just behind them and sending out a wave of ice centering around the small crater he left in the ground, freezing all the death eaters surrounding them in place, leaving them easy for Kingsley's aurors or members of the Order to disarm or incapacitate. Danny turns to them; hair wild, shoulders tense, hands shaking, sickly green bruises around his neck and the bridge of his nose and cheeks from where the enchanted metal had been clamped around his neck and face.
Danny looked as bad as Harry felt, and with a quick nod towards the nearest door, Danny and the others instantly understood.
This wasn't their fight anymore. Danny was free and now they needed to escape. Crouched low, with wands still raised and ready, they made their way slowly up the stone benches, erecting shield charms to protect themselves and stunning or punching any enemies who got too close. Hermione lead them up, while Danny flew close to Harry at the back, making sure everyone made it through the battle safely.
By some miracle, or perhaps a smidge of good fortune finally gracing them, they all made it to the threshold of an open door. Just before heading through after the others, Harry pauses, Danny pausing beside him as well. In a last moment of desperate protectiveness or perhaps foolishness, Harry turns to look back on the battle.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley taking on Lucius Malfoy, Lupin battling fiercely with McNair, Dumbledore and Voldemort shattering the ground they fought on as their magic rips through the air, and finally Sirius.
Sirius was on the dais near the archway, and as Harry watched, his godfather brought Bellatrix down with the bright red flash of a stunning spell and a triumphant shout that could be heard even through the chaos.
And then time seemed to slow, as everything happened in less than a second.
It was a simple knockback jinx, cast from an unknown wand from the depths of the fight, directed towards Sirius for the simple act of shouting in victory in the heat of battle. Drawing attention to himself.
The spell hits true, and Harry could do nothing as Sirius' smile freezes in surprise, and he's blasted back towards the veil, still innocently rippling with a non-existent breeze.
But Harry wasn't the only one who'd seen.
In the time it took Harry to take a single breath, Danny moved. Between one instant and the next, Danny had made it to the dais, to Sirius. Just as Sirius' head was about to touch the fluttering veil, Danny was behind him and pushing him away.
But the momentum of pushing Sirius forward, also pushed Danny back.
Sirius stumbled forward, and Harry stood up above and watched as Danny was swallowed by the veil, disappearing through the archway.
The battle continued, but the veil... fell still.
.
.
Hah! Suffer!
Hope everyone had a good Dannypocalypse this year!