Chapter Thirteen

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This was it. Voldemort had finally made his move on the Order of the Phoenix, by targeting Harry Potter, and taking the one person that the young man truly loved. His godfather, Sirius Black. Having been friends with him for a little while, and knowing that he was a truly good person, Merida had decided that she would go along with the man and his friends, in order to rescue the former Marauder from the clutches of the Dark Lord, and to leave the playing field level once again.

Of course, given the overprotective nature of the woman, the redhead had not told her mother about this plan, as she would only worry about her and try to prevent her from leaving the school. 'I can understand why my mum cares so much, and why she wouldn't want me to go.' the young woman thought, nodding her head a little, as if, had someone been present in the room with her, she would have conceded the point to them. 'But Harry needs all the help he can get, and I can't risk her trying to stop me.'

It had been extremely difficult to sneak out of the quarters she shared with her mother without being noticed by the woman herself, who sat in the office of her classroom, marking a large pile of essays, only a few feet from the door, which, to make the girl's life even more difficult, was wide open. Merida could only be thankful that her mother's desk faced her classroom, and not her living quarters. Otherwise, there would not have been a chance of her managing to evade detection.

However, once she was ought of the door, the redhead made no more attempt to remain quiet, and chose instead to increase her speed, her shoes sounding loudly against the flagstones as she sprinted down one of the ancient corridors, desperate to reach her friends before a time when they might leave without her.

Luckily, she was just about fast enough, and tracked down the group of six in the midst of the forest, where they appeared to be preparing themselves for a journey, although there was no sign of transport in sight. Soon, though, Luna explained the situation to them, professing that they were about to ride on the back of beasts called Thestrals, which could only be seen if the person had witnessed a death. Initially, the young woman had been a little sceptical of this, as the Ravenclaw had not always been reliable, especially with reference to whether or not certain creatures were fictional, but when Harry had confirmed her theory, saying that he, as well, could see them, she had accepted it, and had merely gritted her teeth to brace herself for riding a creature that was invisible to her eyes.

By the time they arrived at the Ministry, it was clear that Potter was beginning to work himself into a frenzy, and that this was having an impact on the dynamic of the group, as Ron and Hermione were also beginning to panic along with their best friend. Even Luna, a girl that had never once, to the redhead's knowledge, been flustered had begun to worry. Unnervingly, and though some tried to deny it in their minds, none of them could shake the feeling that they were walking straight into a trap.

The journey down to the Department of Mysteries seemed to take a great deal longer than it did, and there were points where the silence was frighteningly loud, and the darkness of the area was even more pronounced, the sparse lights reflected eerily off the tiles of the walls as the group unconsciously huddled a little closer to one another, as cold air that was caused by the residual energy of the Dementors that had only just left the courtrooms swept up towards them, emphasising Merida's shivers and giving her an excuse to say that the tremors were not derived from fear of the task to come.

The Hall of Prophecies, their destination, was just as quiet and cold and dark as the rest of the area had been, only with the addition of the pale ethereal glow that came from the rows of crystals balls that were stacked on shelves that reached around fifteen or twenty layers high, close to the ceiling on even such a capacious room as this. Each of them was labelled with a vague scrawl, though the young woman could not recognise a single word in the sparse light.

Eventually, the group reached the line of prophecies that Harry had been speaking of, and Neville commented that one seemed to shine brighter than the others, illuminating the slanting words that described it.

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D
Dark Lord
and (?) Harry Potter

"What does it mean, Harry?" came the questioning voice of Hermione, but Merida did not hear her. She was concentrating on the figure that was approaching them through the darkness, robed in cloth so dark that it melded perfectly to the lack of light, leaving them only identifiable by the glowing light reflected off of the mask that covered their face. For a moment, the Scottish woman considered turning to tell her friends about the figure, but she did not need to, as Ginny had already spotted the approaching figure, and had alerted the others to their visitor.

The seven of them had unconsciously reverted into a formation, standing their ground against the man, judging by his stature closer up, that could potentially be an attacker, and seemed more likely to be so with every step he took. However, the air turned even colder as he let out a low dangerous laugh, and she could almost see the harsh smirk that was certain to accompany the action.

"You know, you really ought to learn to tell the difference." the man began to say, his voice a sneer that seemed all too familiar, now that she had heard it for the first time. Unfortunately, she could not quite pinpoint from where she knew the tone, and listened even more intently as he continued to speak, taunting them further with each syllable that passed his lips. "Between dreams…"

Two words had followed the beginning of the new sentence, but Merida had not heard them, nor had she wanted to. All she could comprehend was that the man had removed his mask, revealing to them at last his pale, pointed face and the platinum blonde locks of hair that framed it, and she now understood exactly what the vague familiarity had been.

She was fighting against Draco's father.

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