Chapter Fifty Eight
Harry slumped against the wall and tried to breath through the pain.
"We need something to keep this door shut!" William said, leaning up against it.
"Any locking spell won't be powerful enough to stop them." Hermione said, panicked.
"Move out the way." Luna asked, she moved a desk in front of the door and pointed her wand at it, "Incendio!"
A large jet of flames leapt from her wand and set the desk alight, creating a solid barrier between them and the Death Eaters, who were already hammering on the door.
"Bleeding or burn?" Daphne asked, walking over to Harry and trying to get him to let her look at his arm.
"Burn." Harry said, the pain stabbing through him.
"You'll be OK then." Daphne smiled, rather forcedly, "We need to move."
The others nodded in agreement.
"We didn't mark the door to get out." Cho pointed out.
"Just… follow me." Harry said, throwing open the door back to the room of nothing but doors.
He didn't think much about his choice, just threw open the next unmarked door and hurried everyone in.
It wasn't the way out, it was the strange room with the tank of brains but they could hear footsteps just outside; they were trapped.
"The doors keep spinning!" a loud male voice shouted just outside the door.
"Well done, genius." Bellatrix hissed, "Open them all at once!"
Pansy was testing her ankle, it seemed to be holding her weight now and she pointed her wand towards the door, as did the others.
"When they come in, slam the door shut behind them, it'll make the doors spin again." Harry whispered, "William, you pull in the Death Eater who opens the door, Cho, you help. Everyone curse them as soon as you can get a clear shot. I'll close the door."
They nodded and moved into position. Harry could feel his heart beating in his throat as they waited for the room outside to stop spinning and the Death Eaters to find them.
The one Harry recognised as Macnair opened the door.
He ginned horribly, "They're in here!"
William reached for him, pulling him through the door and chucking him to the floor, where he was hit with several stunning spells. Cho grabbed the next one, pulling him in where he was also stunned.
Harry slammed the door shut and took several deep breaths, "That one has got to be Goyle." He said breathlessly, "it looks exactly like him."
"Well, two more down." Pansy said with a forced smile.
"Do we go through the doors at the back here or wait or try and find the exit?" Daphne asked.
Before anyone could answer the door was flung open and several jets of red light flew at them. They ducked out the way, crashing behind the desks and the tank to try and get some sort of cover.
Neville had landed hard of the tank to avoid the stunning spell the Bellatrix had thrown his way. The tank cracked open, spilling the foul green liquid and the brains onto the floor.
The brains wiggled slightly before sending out long tentacles to the nearest person, grabbing hold of their heads.
Neville struggled as the brain tried to reach his face. Harry rushed over, as did the others, trying to pull it away from him while cursing the others that were trying to grab hold.
"What the fuck?!" William gasped, pulling a brain off Pansy and stunning it.
Harry and Hermione were both pulling at the brain that had latched hold of Neville, they were insanely strong.
Harry looked around and grabbed a shard of glass, cutting the tentacles away. The brain let out a high pitched scream and fell away from Neville.
"Neville!" Hermione said, shaking his slightly, "Are you OK?"
Neville grinned and laughed slightly waving his hand in front of his face. Harry ran a hand through his hair, the was the last thing they needed.
He looked around, it was strange they hadn't been attacked while they were so distracted, only the Death Eaters were also clearly distracted, battling other brains that were trying to get hold of them. Two of the Death Eaters were already laying on the ground, barely even twitching as the others tried to price off the brains.
"Let's go!" he said, pulling Neville along with him, who thankful didn't put up much residence.
"Stop them!" Bellatrix screamed, holding a brain at arms length and sending a spell shooting towards them.
"No!" Daphne shouted, pulling Hermione through the door at the last second.
Hermione's stomach had a nasty purple line across it, that flared for a second before fading.
"I… I…" Hermione's face went blank as she crumbled to the floor.
Harry went over and tried to see what was wrong, there was no mark on the surface but Hermione was clearly not doing well and couldn't seem to wake.
"I've got her." William said, lifting her up, "Pick a door!"
Harry nodded and grabbed Neville's hand, dragging him towards the nearest unmarked door. He didn't look where he was going and fell down a steep hill, slamming into a raised platform in the middle of the room.
Harry hit his head and winced, white lights fluttering before his eyes as he struggled to catch his breath. Neville was still grinning like and idiot and trying to catch dust specks in the small beams of light coming from something on the platform.
"How is she?" Harry asked, walking over to where William was placing Hermione down in a small dip.
"Not good." William said worriedly, "She's still out cold."
"We need to get her help soon." Cho said, picking at her finger nails, not taking her eyes from the door.
"I know." Harry nodded, "Believe me I know. I just don't know how to find the right stupid door!"
Harry spun round, his wand raised as he heard a noise. There was no one there though, just a strange arch way on the platform, filled with a whispering, shimmering veil.
"What is that…" Harry asked, stepping towards it.
"There's nothing there." Pansy said, breathing deeply, "Look, let's just get out of here and move on. There's not even any other doors out of this place."
Harry nodded but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the arch. It wasn't beautiful, or particularly horrible but he felt a need within him to reach it, to see what was on the other side.
"I see it." Cho said, also walking towards the arch.
"Me too." Luna nodded, "I… I don't understand. Can't you hear it?"
She looked around at the others who shook their heads.
"Really guys, there's nothing there." Daphne snapped, looking worriedly between them and the door she was sure was going to fly open at any moment.
Harry nodded, but he wasn't really listening, "You can hear that?" he asked towards Cho and Luna.
They both nodded.
"Kinda like whispers, far away." Cho said, reaching out for the veil.
Something in Harry's brain woke up as he smacked her hand down, "Don't we don't know what it is."
"What what is?" William asked.
"There's magic around this." Harry said quickly, "It's… calling, for me, Cho and Luna."
"Which means it's probably has something to do with seeing death, because you guys are the ones who can see the Thestrals." William suggested.
"Wait, so that… that might actually be the veil?" Pansy asked, hobbling towards it, "As in the one that separates this world and the next?"
Harry nodded and took a fearful step back; what the fuck had the Ministry been doing down here?
"So touching it not a good idea." Cho said, forcing herself to walk away, even knowing that touching it would result in nothing good there was a need burning inside her. Luna and Harry could feel it as well, it was in their heads, calling to them.
"We need to get out of here." Draco said, holding Neville down, who had decided it was a good time to dance.
"There is no way out of here." Ginny said, trying not to cry, "Only the way we came in and it can't be long until we really don't want to go that way."
Harry pulled the prophecy out of his pocket, some how it had managed to stay unbroken through everything.
He was wondering what the chances were, if he threw the prophecy against a wall the Death Eaters would be distracted enough to let them slip passed while also not being able to catch the prophecy and hand it over to Voldemort when the door flew open, knocked clean off it's hinges and the room went black.
Harry dived to the floor, coughing from the dense smoke that had filled the room quicker than he could of reacted, he could hear noises and spells going off around him but had no idea who was there or what was happening. There was a horrific snapping sound and a loud scream from Pansy somewhere behind him.
The light from the tip of his wand offered no help until the smoke slowly started to clear. It floated slowly upwards; Harry could see people's shoes, grouped in pairs of two; one Death Eater and one of his friends.
Harry used the few seconds he had while the smoke cleared to take several deep breaths and tried not to scream in panic before standing up.
"End of the line, Potter." Bellatrix said, almost softly.
Everyone of his friends was being held tightly by a Death Eater. Hermione was slumped on the floor, Rodolphus's foot pinning her unmoving form down. Neville was slumped in the corner, rocking back and forth while letting out busts of hugely inappropriate laughter, Rabastan shaking him by the collar every time he made a noise.
Pansy was sitting on the floor, gripping at her swollen and clearly broken leg. That must have been what the horrific crack had been.
Harry looked around and tried to take a deep breath, "Let them go." he had tried to sound strong but it came out as more of a beg than a demand.
"We will." Bellatrix said, taking a step towards him, "Nothing more has to happen to you or your friends, just hand it over."
"Don't!" Pansy gasped as Dolohov gave her broken leg a sharp kick.
"Stop!" Harry screamed, feeling sick at Pansy's pained face, she looked as though she was about to pass out.
"It's only going to get worse." Bellatrix said, shaking her head, "Rookwood, hold the pretty one forward." she instructed.
Cho let out a muffled cry as a large, greying wizard with his hand clamped firmly over her mouth pulled her forward better into Harry's view.
"Uncover her mouth, I want Potter to hear this." Bellatrix smiled.
"NO!" NO!" Harry yelled as Bellatrix raised her wand, "Expelliarmus!"
Bellatrix effortlessly blocked the disarming charm and sent it flying back at Harry, his wand crashing to the ground. It wasn't far away, Harry thought he could get it in a couple of seconds…
"I will kill her." Bellatrix threatened, "If you take one step towards that wand, she will be dead before you can turn around."
Harry knew she wasn't joking; there was a crazy look in her eye, her hand twitching on her wand, desperate to fire a spell at someone, to hurt someone.
Harry raised his hands in a joking surrender, "Not moving."
"Give it to me." Bellatrix snapped.
Harry shook his head, looking towards Cho apologetically, "I… I can't…"
"Crucio!" Bellatrix hissed.
Cho bent over in pain, a scream ripping through her chest as every inch of her felt like she was on fire, the pain was too much as she let out a strangled cry. She couldn't even fall to the ground and away from the spell for a second as Rookwood held her firmly in the spells direct path.
"Stop! Stop please." Harry said falling to the ground and letting the tears building up in him spill onto the ground.
Bellatrix pulled her wand away, "We have a while Potter, and you have eight conscious friends we can play with, we might even be able to wake up the mudblood, and that's before we get to you."
Harry didn't know what to do; he could hold out if it was him who was being hurt, that would have been so much easier but it wasn't, it was his friends and he was just as helpless now as he had been watching Daphne write out hundreds of lines with Umbridge's stupid quill.
"No…" Draco said, giving his Death Eater a sharp kick to the shins and getting a rough shake and a smack to the cheek in return.
Harry looked down at the orb in his hands, they weren't getting out of this, he knew that now.
"I could hand this over and you would kill me, kill us all." Harry said, glaring at Bellatrix.
"Maybe." She smirked, "But surely it would be better to go quickly…"
Harry smiled, tears rolling down his face, "Yep. I'm really sorry guys, I should never of come here."
"Hurry up with the dramatics, Potter, and hand it over." Bellatrix snapped.
Harry looked at her, staring at her directly in the eyes and smashed the prophecy onto the ground screaming as loudly as he could.