This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter universe, which are trademarked by J.K. Rowling. I do not claim ownership of these characters nor the locations such as Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, etc. that are Rowling's creations. This work also includes Pokémon, which belong to the Pokémon Company, and I again claim no ownership of these characters.
I thank both Rowling and the Pokémon Company for the universes they have created that allows me to do something like this for my own entertainment and, hopefully, the entertainment of the readers.
The sound of someone letting out a long, slow, clap echoed throughout the room.
"Well, well, well." Lucius Malfoy walked into view, appearing from the very direction that they had been led from. Elsewhere the sound of footsteps could be heard across the stone floor, slow and deliberate, and a heavy body slid smoothly across the ground as a Serperior, long and coloured unlike any Harry had ever seen before, slithered to Malfoy's side.
"Well done," Mr Malfoy said with a smile. "I honestly did not expect you to realise your predicament until we'd revealed ourselves. I thought your worry over your poor, incarcerated godfather would blind you to Draco's manipulations."
"Malfoy lies well," Harry retorted. "But I'm not stupid enough to trust him."
"And yet, here you are," Mr Malfoy smirked. "With only a few friends for company. I admit my instructions were for you to be brought here alone, but even with the six of you you are still grossly outnumbered."
He was right. Aside from Lucius Malfoy there were a number of masked Death Eaters lined up behind him and another couple had approached from the other end of the aisle, cutting off their possible escape route.
"And why did you want me here at all?" Harry questioned. Perhaps if he kept them talking an opportunity to escape might show itself. "Why wait in this room when you could have trapped me ages ago. Draco almost got us lost, there must have been a reason you wanted me here."
Lucius Malfoy lost his smile for a brief moment, almost too short a time to notice, before it returned.
"Astute observation, Potter," he said condescendingly. "Perhaps, if I may, I'll explain on a short walk." He gestured down the aisle. "After you."
Harry felt he had no choice but to obey and though it pained him to expose his back to Malfoy no blow came. Instead Malfoy spoke.
"This room," he said grandly. "Is called the Hall of Prophecies. You seemed to have a good grasp of time plants and what they are used for and you are quite right, this room is filled with records."
As Malfoy spoke Harry's eyes flitted over the two Death Eaters leading the group. Two could be overwhelmed and beyond them must be a way out. The only problem was the Death Eaters on the other side but if they could find a way to distract them…
Malfoy was still talking.
"Many people don't believe in prophecy, in the power of prediction. Fortune Telling as a subject taught at Hogwarts is a joke," he said. "But true prophets do exist and the Ministry has long been in the business of recording such predictions. Stop."
The command came so suddenly that Harry almost tripped. The Death Eaters, however, were in lock step.
"For many years now one particular prophecy has captured our lord's attention," Malfoy said, his voice soft now as he walked forward, approaching the shelves to their right. He stopped before one particular time plant, his face lit up by its mysterious blue glow.
"'S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D'," he read with a small scoff. "'Dark Lord and, question mark, Harry Potter'."
Harry was starting to put the pieces together. So this was what the Legion had been protecting for the past year. There hadn't been a Legion member standing guard tonight. Why was that?
"This prophecy has been rather tantalisingly out of reach for such a long time," Lucius Malfoy commented and he reached out with both hands to gently lift the time plant from its holder. "The Ministry security is, to be frank, laughable. Any employee who knew what they were doing could come down here and steal the prophecy, even doing so without notice. But the Legion…" Malfoy trailed off.
"They have been standing guard all year, such an annoyance," Lucius huffed. "Just around Christmas the Dark Lord sent Nagini to scout the defences and Arthur Weasley got in the way. The resulting mess forced us to proceed with more caution, lest our presence be recognised, and so we were forced to reevaluate, and wait. Oh, the wait." Malfoy turned to face them once more, prophecy cradled in his hands.
"So why tonight?" Harry asked. "Nothing's changed."
"Oh, but it has," Lucius denied. "For tonight in the Ministry resides Sirius Black, far from our gathering down here. And with just a few off the cuff remarks it was easy to persuade the Minister to move Black's execution forward. To tomorrow, to be exact." Harry's fists clenched.
"So you distracted them," Harry concluded.
"With remarkable ease," Malfoy confirmed. "They are in the Ministry, most likely, with all hands on deck. But while they rescue Black, we'll capture you."
At least Sirius will be safe then, Harry thought and it gave him hope. If the Legion could rescue Sirius then Harry could focus on getting his friends out of here.
Harry moved to speak, trying to stretch out the confrontation and give himself more time to think. Instead he was distracted as one of the masked Death Eaters behind Malfoy shifted, losing their stiff posture with an exhalation of breath.
"I'm bored." Annoyance flashed across Lucius Malfoy's face.
"Be patient, Bella," he replied, his voice tight. "Just do as you were instructed." The woman, Bella, did not heed his warnings and instead moved closer, the other Death Eaters parting as she approached. At her feet a Banette shifted into being.
"I am doing as instructed, Lucius," she told him haughtily. "Capture Potter, collect the prophecy, and return both to the Dark Lord." She came to a stop beside Lucius, looking completely at ease, and removed her mask.
Neville gasped. Harry almost did himself. Bellatrix LeStrange turned to them and smiled.
"Recognise me, sweetie," she crooned. "Many people do. I have one of those faces, I think."
"You…" Neville spat, stepping forward angrily and only stopping as Hermione grabbed hold of his arm.
Bellatrix laughed, a manic sound, and so did her Banette, the laughter chilling Harry to the bone as it echoed around the cavernous room.
"Now you really know me, don't you," Bellatrix said. "That's real hate in your eyes. Got some family connection? A McKinnon, maybe? Or a Bones?"
"A Longbottom," Neville said proudly. "Neville Longbottom." Bellatrix screeched with laughter.
"Longbottom?! Now that's really something," she cackled. "Such fun we had with them, me and Rab and Dolly and wee little Barty. Never did get around to the boy, did we Banette?" Banette chittered in response. "I know how disappointed that made you."
Harry was beginning to panic. With Lucius Malfoy Harry knew where he stood and what to expect. But Bellatrix LeStrange was a different matter altogether. Harry could already tell that she was much more dangerous.
"So, what now?" Harry asked defiantly, deliberately addressing Mr Malfoy. "You've got the time plant but you're not getting me without a fight." Malfoy looked uncertain, clearly remembering Harry's battle with Voldemort in the graveyard a year ago.
Bellatrix had no such concerns. She laughed.
"'So what now?'" She mimicked in a babylike voice before cackling once more. "Now we take you to the Dark Lord, Potter."
"I'll come quietly," Harry said, again addressing Malfoy. "So long as you let my friends go free."
"Not a chance, Potter," Bellatrix cackled derisively.
"Nonsense, the Dark Lord only wants Potter," Malfoy argued. He seemed ready to accept the deal.
"Maybe our lord does not want them but I know people who will," Bellatrix trilled, her eyes gleaming. "You know Greyback likes them young. And a blonde, redhead and brunette? The full set." Her eyes alighted on Hermione. "What do you say, princess? Fancy a life lying on your back?" Harry stepped in front of Hermione protectively, putting himself between her and Bellatrix, and he caught Neville moving closer as well. Behind him he could hear Ron pull Ginny and Luna close.
Bellatrix cackled.
"Quiet, Bella, we are not here to cater to Fenrir's sick fetishes," Malfoy snapped angrily. "We're here on the Dark Lord's orders to get Potter."
"We'll get Potter, Lucy, but why settle for less. I'd quite like the Longbottom boy, put a collar around his neck."
"Bella, no!"
The rest of the Death Eaters looked incredibly uncomfortable, shifting on their feet as their attention swivelled from Malfoy to LeStrange and back again as the argument grew more and more heated.
This gave Harry just the opportunity he needed. As he'd stepped in front of Hermione earlier he had also dropped one hand behind his back, more on instinct than a planned manoeuvre. Now, as the Death Eaters became distracted, he gently reached out behind him.
Hermione let out a little breath of air as Harry's hand brushed up against her waist but with the heated argument between Lucius and Bellatrix it went unnoticed. Slowly and silently Harry allowed his hand to drift along her belt, feeling each Pokéball as he passed and stopping on the one third from the right. He pulled it free.
"Enough, Bella!" Malfoy shouted, snapping Harry's attention back to the argument before him. "We do this my way. Potter, we need proof of your willingness to comply. Hand over your Pokémon."
"Yes, hand over your Pokémon and then your friends too," Bellatrix cackled.
"You promise you'll allow my friends to leave?" Harry asked Malfoy.
"Yes," Malfoy promised.
"Unharmed?"
"You'll be lucky," Bellatrix cackled. That was all Harry needed to hear to make up his mind. Lucius may have been telling the truth when he'd promised to leave the others be, but Bellatrix would do no such thing.
"Well then," Harry said, swallowing thickly. Lucius and Bellatrix watched him expectantly. "Espurr, now!"
From Hermione's arms, hidden behind Harry's back, Espurr let out a most horrendous cry and as one each and every Death Eater clutched their head in their hands.
"Go!" Harry shouted, gesturing down the aisle away from Malfoy and Bellatrix. Ron, face scrunched against the noise, shoved the two Death Eaters behind him into the shelves, the two men crumpling to the floor.
As Ron started to lead the way out of there Harry glanced back. The time plant containing Harry's prophecy had fallen to the ground as Malfoy tried to fend off Espurr's attack. Quickly, Harry stepped forward to pick it up.
And Banette appeared before him.
"Psybeam!"
Espurr's attack struck Banette and caused it to recoil in shock. Harry, not daring to chance his luck, made a break for it.
"Espurr, return," Hermione said as she ran, returning the largely inexperienced Pokémon to safety. As she did so the terrible noise Espurr was emitting stopped.
"After them!" Malfoy shouted and a few moments later the sound of their own running footsteps were joined by many more. Up ahead Harry could see the end of the aisle and, to his delight, a doorway, towards which Ron was quickly approaching.
"Vine Whip!"
Harry stumbled as something struck him with a glancing blow and beside him Neville fell as he was rapped hard on the ankles.
"Again!"
Harry threw himself to the ground, this time prepared for the attack, and Serperior's thick vine swung overhead, missing him by inches and instead crashing into the shelves beside him. The whole aisle seemed to sway, the shelves to Harry's left as one swinging outwards and in, and Harry knew they were in trouble.
"Run!" He shouted, hoisting Neville to his feet and pushing him forward as the shelves started to splinter and crack. "Look out!"
They weren't fast enough. Still fifty or so feet from the end of the aisle the shelves started to collapse around them. Harry tried to keep running, brushing off the falling time plants whilst keeping his own safely in his grasp, but he was brought short by a cry of pain.
"Harry!" Neville was trying to draw his attention, kneeling down by a stack of fallen shelves. "It's Hermione! She's stuck!"
Harry rushed forward, falling to his knees as he reached them. Immediately he could see Hermione, trapped beneath the shelves, but she looked alright.
"Hermione, can you move?" Harry asked as he and Neville started shifting through the debris.
"My leg," Hermione told him, pointing. Her left leg was trapped at an awkward angle, partly twisted beneath her, and Harry immediately moved to free it.
"Harry!" Ron's head appeared over the mass of rubble that littered their path, his face pale and panicked. Looking the other way Harry could see the Death Eaters approaching, Serperior slithering at the front.
"Go!" Harry shouted to Ron. "Get out of here and get the Legion!" Pale faced but focused, Ron gave a firm nod.
"Neville," Harry said next, aware of the Death Eaters approaching rapidly. "I need you to slow them down. Buy us some time." Neville nodded.
"Pupitar, use Sandstorm!"
Even as Harry turned his back, focusing his attentions on freeing Hermione, he could still feel the power behind Pupitar's attack. Throughout the cavernous room shelves creaked and swayed under the storm, many of them collapsing with large bangs as Harry, at last, pulled Hermione free.
"Pupitar!" Neville's cry alerted Harry just in time to see Pupitar get blown back in a storm of leaves. Serperior was closing in.
"Talonflame, Fire Blast!" Harry shouted, ordering the attack even before Serperior became visible through the steadily dying sandstorm.
"Lets go!" He helped Hermione up, supporting her weight as she struggled to stand on her injured leg, with Neville hurrying after them, Pupitar returned safely to his Pokéball.
The room had quickly turned into a war zone. In the area immediately surrounding them there was barely a shelf left untouched, time plants scattered across the ground and many more buried under layers of rubble that in many places came up to knee height or above, while in some places whole aisles had collapsed.
"Harry!" Harry looked up at Hermione's cry, his focus pulled away from watching their footing as they struggled along, and he felt his stomach tighten. They were closer to the door now, some distance between themselves and Serperior, but in their distraction the Death Eaters had flanked them and now they bared down on all sides.
Most specifically the door that Ron, Ginny and Luna had disappeared through was cut off.
"Talonflame!" Harry shouted. His second Pokémon had fought off Serperior's advances, a wall of fire now raging behind them, separating them from the Death Eaters that followed, flames licking eagerly at the fallen wood. "We need to find another way out!" Talonflame nodded and swooped away.
"Come on," Harry said, helping Hermione move, the girl starting to take her own weight again. They moved off to the left, down a crooked path through the fallen debris that led them away from the Death Eaters ahead and the pursuers behind.
"Talon!" Talonflame reappeared after only a few moments, drawing their attention and gesturing for them to follow.
"This way," Harry instructed, pressing on down their chosen path towards where Talonflame hovered.
"Eelektross, Thunderbolt!" Lucius Malfoy's voice cut above the chaos.
From out of nowhere, or so it seemed, a bolt of sparking electricity shot out of the ground and engulfed Talonflame where he flew.
"No! Talonflame!" Harry shouted, speeding up to try and reach his Pokémon. From the corner of his eye he saw Eelektross sliding out of the rubble. "Talonflame, return!" As Talonflame disappeared Eelektross turned its attention to Harry.
"Flygon, stop Eelektross!" Hermione instructed, limping after Harry and sending out the ground and dragon type just in time to take a Thunderbolt in their stead, the electricity washing harmlessly over his rough skinned body.
Taking advantage of the situation Flygon charged forwards, throwing himself bodily at Eelektross and physically wrestling it to the ground as Harry, Hermione and Neville continued their escape.
Harry could see the door ahead of them, sure that it must have been the exit Talonflame had been trying to show them to, and felt a glimmer of hope as the three of them scrabbled closer.
"Scolipede, stop them!" That glimmer died as Lucius Malfoy's next Pokémon appeared in their path.
Scolipede towered high above them, looming dangerously over the smashed shelves and scattered time plants, the dancing flames making the shadow it cast even larger.
"Rollout!" Following the exact same path Harry and the others needed to escape Scolipede came charging forwards. It tucked itself into a ball, picking up speed, and as it flew towards them splinters exploded outwards in its wake as Scolipede decimated everything in its path.
"Scizor, go!" The steel and bug type appeared as a surprise to Harry, having barely had time to comprehend how they were going to escape the seemingly inevitable attack coming their way, and Scizor braced himself before them.
The collision between the two Pokémon was ferocious and Scizor immediately found himself being pushed back by the sheer force of Scolipede's attack. He dug in his heels, digging deep within himself and straining every muscle in his body and, with an enormous effort, he lifted Scolipede off the ground and flung it to the side.
With their path clear Harry, Hermione and Neville wasted no time. They ran. Off to the side Scolipede was quick to recover and try to stop them but Scizor was on it in a flash to engage the other bug type in battle, Flygon still wrestling with Eelektross far behind them to give them an opening.
"Almost there," Harry panted encouragingly. They were covering ground quickly, Scolipede having inadvertently cleared a straight path through the debris, and though he was still on guard it did not appear that any new threats were arising, though Flygon and Scizor still had their hands full dealing with the old ones.
"Fall back!" Hermione shouted. Flygon, having managed to pin Eelektross to the ground, gave the electric type one last blow before obeying the call, Scizor similarly holding off Scolipede long enough to return to Neville's side.
They had reached the door now, mere feet away from some modicum of safety. But no sooner had they started to celebrate this victory did they hear the sound of running footsteps echoing loudly throughout the room.
"I see Death Eaters!" Neville shouted, panicked as the masked men rounded the corner of one of the last surviving aisles to their right.
"We've got them on this side, too," Hermione told them, watching as more Death Eaters appeared to the left.
"We have to create a distraction," Harry said quickly. "We can't just let them follow us."
"Leave it to me." Hermione pulled out a Pokéball. "Flygon, use Sandstorm! Mismagius, Ominous Wind!"
It felt as though they were standing in the epicentre of an explosion. On the one side Death Eaters cowered under the destruction of Flygon's Sandstorm, wood and errant flames being picked up and flung towards them. On the other side they cowered beneath the overwhelming pressure of Mismagius's Ominous Wind.
"Go!" Hermione shouted over the furore, pushing Harry and Neville through the door, Neville calling back his Scizor as he went. Standing in the doorway, last to leave, Hermione turned to Mismagius. They shared a long, serious look.
"Flygon, return!" Hermione called, the ground and dragon type disappearing from view and with him the Sandstorm fell away.
The Death Eaters that had been battered by the attack barely had time to let out a sigh of relief and look up as they were freed from its spell. Then Mismagius let go.
The fierce gale of Ominous Wind ripped through the room, demolishing the last of the shelves still standing and reducing the wood to little more than dust. And as Hermione hurried after Harry and Neville the power of the attack slammed the door shut behind her, knocking her into the room beyond.
"Mismagius will buy us some time," she said breathlessly, straightening up. "But it won't be much. We need to get out of here."
The room they had entered was much smaller than the Hall of Prophecies and was much closer in appearance to the room with the clocks, only this room was completely empty. The only thing of note was a simple wooden door sitting at the other end of the room and the three of them quickly hurried towards it.
A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Thanks to those of you who answered the question of the day of the last chapter. It seems you, like me, like both a villainous Draco and good guy Draco provided the story is well written. I suppose you can say that about any character and I have seen pretty much every character portrayed as a good guy and a bad guy in various fan-fictions I've read. The one exception is Umbridge. Has anyone read a story where she's good? I suppose that can be a sort of mini question of the day.
For the real question of the day, see below.
QOTD: If you were a Death Eater which do you think you'd be most like?
There aren't really that many Death Eaters we know lots about so I suppose this is really limited to Lucius, Bellatrix, Barty Crouch Jr, Karkaroff, Wormtail, Greyback, and I suppose the Carrows. Snape and Draco don't count.
For me I'd say Lucius. He's always appeared much more sane than any of the others and while clearly evil he is mostly self serving. His real goals aren't so much in causing pain and suffering but in advancing his own position. He has a family that he loves and who love him in return and after the first fall of Voldemort he is one of very few Death Eaters to have a fully functioning life. In fact, he probably does better with Voldemort gone than when he is alive.
So what do you think? I promise not to judge if you identify with Bellatrix. Let me know in the reviews which of the Death Eaters you think matches you best.