HARRY:

Falling asleep was nearly impossible despite the lateness of the hour when Ron, Neville, and I made our way back to our dormitory. My mind was running rampant with hatred for Umbridge. A number of images had been seared into my mind.

The ghostly hue of Lucy's face when Tuck had been hurt. The way Professor McGonagall had been launched into the air. The speed with which Hagrid had run off into the night. The river of tears that had coursed down Lucy's arms as she'd cried silently into her hands — one of which was still clearly scarred with I must not tell lies — next to the wounded animal she loved so much.

My fury with Umbridge built and built and built and built, but there was nothing I could do.

Eventually, I managed to fall asleep. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep in since the History of Magic exam only had a written portion and therefore would take place in the afternoon, but I had been planning on studying all morning so I dragged myself out of bed at seven and crawled into the window seat in the common room with the notes I'd borrowed from Lucy spread out around me.

Despite my fatigue, my blood boiled when I got to the section on the Werewolf Code of Conduct of 1637. Lucy had been unfazed by the werewolf question on the DADA exam — "No, it's alright, it's important for people to know" — but I could tell from the way she had torn through the parchment in several places that the Werewolf Code of Conduct upset her deeply.

She slept clear through until lunch, and we spent the entire meal making plans for the remainder of the school year. After one last good luck handshake, we headed into our final O.W.L., both very much looking forward to being done for once and for all — until our N.E.W.T.s, anyway.

The room was hot. I was exhausted. It was a terrible combination.

None of the answers I was writing seemed to be cohesive or comprehensive, let alone intelligent. After trying to write an answer to the same question for more than twenty minutes, I covered my eyes with my hands for just a moment, trying to remember why the warlocks of Liechtenstein had refused to join the International Confederation of Wizards, but before I knew what was happening, the exam around me faded into nothingness and I was once again in the corridor that led to the Department of Mysteries.

I walked through one door, two doors, three doors. Beyond the third door, there was a massive room with shelves of glass spheres that stretched from floor to ceiling. I hurried to row 97 and there found a figure on the ground at the end, a mere heap of dark fabric.

A voice left my mouth that was not my own. "Take it for me. Lift it down, now, I cannot touch it... but you can." When the figure on the ground only slightly moved, a hand that was not my hand that was holding a wand that was not my wand reached out. "Crucio!"

The figure on the ground screamed and writhed until the wand was dropped.

"Lord Voldemort is waiting," I said.

Slowly, the figure on the ground pushed himself off the ground a little ways, his eyes pained but determined.

Sirius.

"You'll have to kill me."

"Undoubtedly I shall in the end, but you will fetch it for me first, Black. You think you have felt pain thus far? Think again. We have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream."

Even as those words left the mouth that was not really my mouth, the vision disappeared with a loud scream.

My own, I realized, as I slipped from my chair and landed hard on the stone floor with my hands pressed to my scar.

Chaos erupted around me, making the pain in my scar even worse. I pushed myself off the ground as I tried to make sense of what I had just witnessed, but before I could fully stand up, Professor Tofty was rushing over to me.

"STAY IN YOUR SEATS AND RETURN TO YOUR EXAMINATIONS!" he boomed, wand tip pressed to his throat. He removed it and said in a much softer voice to me, "Come now, Mr. Potter, I'll take you to the Hospital Wing."

He grabbed me by the elbow and hauled me to my feet with surprising strength. I glanced around wildly as he hurried me out of the Great Hall.

I managed to catch Lucy's eyes. They seemed to pull me in. Her mouth was hanging slightly open, her face slightly pale as she watched us leave.

She knew. She knew I'd seen something horrible.

As soon as I was out of the miserably hot Great Hall, I was able to gather myself a bit. "I'm not going... I don't need the Hospital Wing, I... I don't want... I'm — I'm fine, sir. Really, I just fell asleep, had a nightmare."

He clapped me on the shoulder. "Pressure of examinations! It happens, young man, it happens! Now, a cooling drink of water, and perhaps you will be ready to return to the Great Hall? The examination is nearly over, but you may be able to round off your last answer nicely?"

"Yes. I mean — no. I've done — done as much as I can, I think."

"Very well, very well. I shall go and collect your examination paper, and I suggest that you go and have a nice lie down."

I nodded, head pounding as I did so. "I'll do that. Thank you."

As soon as he returned to the Great Hall, I sprinted to the Hospital Wing and burst through the door.

"Potter, what do you think you're doing?" Madam Pomfrey asked, clearly alarmed.

"I need to see Professor McGonagall, now, it's urgent!"

"She's not here, Potter... she was transferred to St. Mungo's this morning. Four Stunning Spells straight to the chest at her age? It's a wonder they didn't kill her."

I blinked. "She's — gone?"

The bell rang outside the Hospital Wing. The world was moving on. The clock was ticking. I had no one to tell. Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, Dumbledore, everyone was gone.

"I don't wonder you're shocked, Potter. As if one of them could have Stunned Minerva McGonagall face on by daylight! Cowardice, that's what it was, despicable cowardice. If I wasn't worried what would happen to you students without me, I'd resign in protest."

"Right," I said, my panic now rising so rapidly I was losing feeling in my fingers. "I — I'm going to go find Lucy and tell her."

The thought of Lucy propelled me forward, and I sprinted until I found her. Ron and Hermione were just behind her as she rushed over to me.

Hermione spoke first. "Harry! What happened? Are you alright? Are you ill?"

"Where have you been?" Ron asked.

Lucy's eyes drew me in once again, like gravity. "What did you see?"

"C-Come on," I managed, leading the way to an abandoned classroom. I slammed the door behind us once we were all inside. "Voldemort's got Sirius."

Ron and Hermione's jaws dropped, and they spoke at the same time. "What?" "How'd you—"

"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."

"But — where?" Hermione asked. "How?"

"I don't how, but I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls, and they're at the end of row ninety-seven. He's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there. He's torturing him, says — says he'll end by killing him."

Without speaking, Lucy lightly grabbed my arm and led me over to a desk, and I collapsed down into it.

"Deep breath," she said in a gentle voice, a hand on my shoulder as she fixed me with a stern yet caring look. "C'mon."

I tried a couple of times before giving up and hissing in frustration instead. "I can't — I — how are we going to get there?"

"G-Get there?" Ron repeated after a long moment.

"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!" I burst out.

"But — Harry..."

"What? What?"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably. "Harry, how... how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?"

"How do I know? The question is how we're going to get in there!"

"We'll figure something out—" Lucy started to say, but Hermione stepped closer and talked over her.

"But, Harry, think about this, it's five o'clock in the afternoon. The Ministry of Magic must be full of workers. How would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry, they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"

"I don't know, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something! Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been—"

"You've never been there, Harry. You've dreamed about the place, that's all."

I jumped to my feet, shaking Lucy's hand off my shoulder. "They're not normal dreams! How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?"

"He's got a point," Ron said with a sideways glance at Hermione.

Hermione shook her head. "But this is just — just so unlikely! Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"

Ron shrugged. "Sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air. He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages."

"But why, why on earth would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"

I gripped my hair in frustration. "I dunno, there could be loads of reasons! Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt—"

Ron's eyes widened. "You know what, I've just thought of something. Sirius's brother was a Death Eater, wasn't he? Maybe he told Sirius the secret of how to get the weapon!"

"Yeah — and that's why Dumbledore's been so keen to keep Sirius locked up all the time!" I agreed. "That makes sense!"

"Look, I'm sorry, but neither of you are making sense," Hermione protested, "and we've got no proof for any of this, no proof Voldemort and Sirius are even there—"

"Hermione, Harry's seen them!" Ron shouted.

"Okay, well, I've just got to say this."

"What?" I asked.

"You... this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do... sort of... I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people-thing?"

I sucked in a sharp breath and glared at her. "And what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving-people-thing?'"

"Voldemort knows you, Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it's the kind of thing he does, he knows you're the — the sort of person who'd go to Sirius's aid! What if he's just trying to get you into the Department of Myst—"

"Hermione, it doesn't matter if he's done it to get me there or not — they've taken McGonagall to St. Mungo's, there isn't anyone left from the Order at Hogwarts who we can tell, and if we don't go, Sirius is dead!"

"But Harry — what if your dream was — was just that, a dream?"

"You don't get it! I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're real, Hermione — Sirius is trapped — I've seen him — Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand?"

"And I'm going with you," Lucy said, crossing her arms and stepping up next to me. "We stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindors need to stick together."

Warmth flared in my chest.

I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

"That we do," I agreed with a grim smile. It faded instantly, though, as I looked at Hermione, then Ron. "And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my 'saving-people-thing' when it was you I was saving from the dementors, or when it was your sister I was saving from the basilisk—"

"I never said I had a problem!" Ron protested.

Hermione shook her head. "But Harry, you've just said it! Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen this—"

"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN—"

"Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"

"WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST—"

The door opening interrupted me, and Ginny and Luna walked in.

"Er, hi, we recognized Harry's voice," Ginny said. "What are you yelling about?"

"Never you mind," I muttered.

"There's no need to take that tone with me, I was only wondering whether I could help."

"Well, you can't."

"Harry, take a deep breath," Lucy snapped. "You losing it right now isn't going to help Sirius, alright?"

I huffed, but I didn't lash out at anyone else.

"Sirius?" Ginny asked.

Before anyone could answer her, Hermione gasped. "Wait. Wait. Harry, they can help. Listen, Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters—"

"I've told you, I saw—"

"Harry, I'm begging you, please! Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London — if we find out he's not there then I swear I won't try and stop you, I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him—"

"Sirius is being tortured NOW! We haven't got time to waste—"

"But if this is a trick of V-Voldemort's — Harry, we've got to check, we've got to—"

"How? How're we going to check?"

"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him. We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna."

Ginny looked confused, but she nodded immediately. "Yeah, we'll do it."

"When you say 'Sirius,' are you talking about Stubby Boardman?" Luna asked.

"I think so," Lucy replied.

I turned to look at her, hoping she'd understand my question without me having to ask it aloud.

Should we trust Hermione?

Lucy's face contorted as she shrugged. "I don't know, Harry. You saw it. I'll follow your lead, whatever that may be."

"Okay." I drew a shaky breath and released it in a rush. "Okay, Hermione, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now—"

"Right. Right, well..." She began to pace back and forth. "One of us has to go and find Umbridge and — and send her off in the wrong direction, keep her away from her office. They could tell her — I don't know — that Peeves is up to something awful as usual."

Ron nodded. "I'll do it. I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office. Come to think of it, I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I met him on the way."

"Okay. Now, we need to keep students away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off."

"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas," Ginny said.

Lucy snorted, prompting curious stares from everyone other than Ginny. "The twins wanted to do it before they left."

Hermione nodded, more to herself than anyone else. "Okay. Well then, Harry, you and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius—"

"He's not there, Hermione!"

"I mean, you can — can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone, Lee's already proved the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."

I wanted to explode at Hermione, but I realized that her offer to go with me was an attempt to smooth everything of the past couple months over. In spite of everything we'd been through, she had always been there in a pinch. I was still upset with her for what she'd done to Marietta and by extension Lucy, though.

"Alright, thanks," I grit out.

She nodded again, looking relieved. "Right, well, even if we do all of that, I don't think we're going to be able to bank on more than five minutes, not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around."

Lucy stepped forward and tightened her ponytail. "Archie's on our side. I'll go talk to him. If he can do damage control with the Inquisitorial Squad and Umbridge, maybe we can avoid a mess like what happened over Christmas."

"Brilliant, let's go," I said.

"Now?" Hermione asked.

I spluttered. "Of course now! What did you think, we were going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"

"Go get the Invisibility Cloak, Harry," Lucy said, "and we'll all meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor."

I doubted I had never run so fast in my life. Mere minutes later, I rejoined the others right where Lucy had said they'd be, Invisibility Cloak and the knife from Sirius secure in my bag.

I heaved for breath, but we couldn't stop. "Got it. Everyone ready, then?"

"I'll go find Archie." Lucy reached out and squeezed my arm, blue eyes solemn and determined. "Good luck."

With Lucy gone, Hermione seized control again. "So Ron — you go and head Umbridge off. Ginny, Luna, if you can start moving people out of the corridor. Harry and I will get the cloak on and wait until the coast is clear."

The other three went their separate ways as Hermione dragged me off to the side so we could pull the cloak on.

"Are — Are you sure you're okay, Harry? You're still very pale."

"I'm fine," I muttered as we ducked under the cloak. My scar was hurting, but not as much as it had been when Voldemort was torturing Avery, which I hoped meant that Sirius was still alive.

We waited for the crowd to disperse in silence, listening to Ginny's voice above the rest.

"You can't come down here! No, sorry, you're going to have to go round by the swiveling staircase, someone's let off Garroting Gas just along here — it's colorless, but if you want to walk through it, carry on, then we'll have your body as proof for the next idiot who didn't believe us."

Eventually, Hermione sighed. "I think that's as good as we're going to get, Harry — come on, let's do it."

We crept forward, passing Ginny and Luna both on the way.

"Good one, don't forget the signal," Hermione whispered to Ginny.

"What's the signal?" I asked.

"A loud chorus of 'Weasley Is Our King' if they see Umbridge coming."

"Mm." I reached forward and used the knife from Sirius to unlock the door.

As soon as we were inside, Hermione rushed to the window to stand guard while I rushed to the fireplace.

"Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!" I shouted as I tossed Floo powder into the fire and stuck my head into the green flames. Grimmauld Place came into view shortly, but no one was around. "SIRIUS? SIRIUS, ARE YOU THERE?" There was no answer save a small sound, a mouse or something, I thought. "Who's there?"

Kreacher appeared then, looking happy about something despite the bandages covering both hands. "It's the Potter boy's head in the fire. What has he come for, Kreacher wonders?"

"Where's Sirius, Kreacher?"

"Master has gone out, Harry Potter," he chuckled.

"Where's he gone? Where's he gone, Kreacher?" When his only answer was a louder laugh, desperation surged in me. "I'm warning you! What about Lupin? Mad-Eye? Any of them, are any of them here?"

"Nobody here but Kreacher! Kreacher thinks he will have a little chat with his Mistress now, yes, he hasn't had a chance in a long time, Kreacher's Master has been keeping him away from her—"

Kreacher turned and started to walk away, but I refused to let him go that easily. "Where has Sirius gone? Kreacher, has he gone to the Department of Mysteries?"

He paused. "Master does not tell poor Kreacher where he is going."

"But you know! Don't you? You know where he is!"

"Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries! Kreacher and his Mistress are alone again!" he announced with a loud cackle.

I opened my mouth to scream at him, but before I could, someone grabbed me by the air and yanked me from the fire.

It was Umbridge's hideous face I saw next. She looked murderous.

"You think that after two nifflers I was going to let one more foul, scavenging little creature enter my office without my knowledge? I had Stealth Sensoring Spells placed all around my doorway after the last one got in, you foolish boy. Take his wand, hers too."

A hand plunged into my robes and yanked my wand out.

Umbridge shook my head, still clutching my hair. "I want to know why you are in my office."

"I was — trying to get my Firebolt!" I lied.

"Liar. Your Firebolt is under strict guard in the dungeons, as you very well know, Potter. You had your head in my fire. With whom have you been communicating?"

"No one!"

"Liar!" she shrieked, throwing me into her desk. I shot a desperate glance at Hermione, who was being restrained by Millicent Bulstrode as Malfoy hovered nearby, tossing my wand around.

The door opened with a bang, and the room suddenly started to fill. Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville, all gagged, all held in various chokeholds by Slytherins. My heart dropped when the last two people entered.

Archie walked in, half-carrying and half-dragging Lucy's limp form.

No no no no, Lucy, no, not Lucy.

"Got 'em all! That one tried to stop me taking her, so I brought him along too," Cassius Warrington reported, pointing at Neville and then Ginny.

"Sorry, Headmistress, but I'm afraid my Stunning Spell is stronger than I realized," Archie said with an easy grin. "I tried to bring her back around, but she's out cold. I'm sure Potter will be able to provide you with all of the information you need, though."

Rage and terror threatened to overcome me. Lucy had assured me Archie was safe. Lucy, who was now limp in his grip. Lucy, Sirius, who was next?

"I'm sure you're right, Mr. Graye, I trust that you did what you had to do. We all know about her dangerous temper. Well, it looks as though Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?" She grinned malevolently and lowered herself into the chair behind her desk. "So, Potter, you stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes, Mr. Filch having just informed me so. Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone."

"It's none of your business who I talk to!" I burst out.

Umbridge scowled. "Very well. Very well, Mr. Potter. I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco — fetch Professor Snape."

Malfoy tucked my wand into his robes and left the room as a realization settled on me.

Snape was an Order member.

The office fell silent save the sounds of struggle as everyone tried to escape their Slytherin captors. Everyone, that is, except for Luna, who was staring off into the distance, and Lucy, who was still being propped up by Archie, motionless and barely breathing.

I glared at Archie for a long moment before turning back to Umbridge.

Finally, Malfoy returned with Snape.

"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" he asked.

"Ah, Professor Snape! Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please."

"You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter and Diggory. Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient for each."

She turned red, her voice becoming sweeter. "You can make some more, can't you?"

"Certainly. It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month."

"A month? A month? But I need it this evening, Snape! I have just found Potter using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!"

Snape's eyebrows raised slightly as he turned to look at me. "Really? Well, it doesn't surprise me. Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules."

I forced my vision to the surface, begging him to see it too.

He glanced away when Umbridge started yelling again. "I wish to interrogate him! I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!"

"I have already told you that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter — and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did — I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling."

"You are on probation! You are being deliberately unhelpful! I expected better, Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of you! Now get out of my office!"

Snape offered a half-bow and turned to leave.

I needed to say something, anything.

"He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!" I burst out.

Snape froze.

"Padfoot? What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What does he mean, Snape?" Umbridge asked eagerly.

Snape turned, his face a perfect blank. "I have no idea. Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little, if Longbottom suffocates it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork, and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job."

With that, our last hope disappeared from the room.

There was a moment of heavy silence.

Umbridge drew her wand and began pacing. "Very well... very well. I am left with no alternative. This is more than a matter of school discipline, this is an issue of Ministry security. Yes... yes. You are forcing me, Potter. I do not want to, but sometimes circumstances justify the use... I am sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice..." Apparently having reached a decision, she turned to face me. "The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn I saw Lucy jerk, but Archie adjusted his grip at that exact second so I was sure I'd imagined it. Umbridge failed to notice any of this, because Hermione immediately started protesting.

"No! Professor Umbridge — it's illegal — the Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor Umbridge!"

"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him. He never knew I ordered dementors after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same."

I blinked. "It was you? You sent the dementors after me?"

She pressed her wand tip to my forehead. "Somebody had to act. They were all bleating about silencing you somehow — discrediting you — but I was the one who actually did something about it. Only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now..."

"NO! No — Harry — Harry, we'll have to tell her!" Hermione cried.

"NO WAY!" I fired back.

"We'll have to, Harry, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's... what's the point..." With that, she began to sob against Millicent, who tossed her away with a repulsed look on her face.

"Well, well, well! Little Miss Question-All is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!" Umbridge exclaimed gleefully.

"No!" Ron shouted through his gag, as Ginny looked at Hermione with horror. I was horrified too, but I noticed that there were no real tears as she contorted her face into a sob.

"I'm — I'm sorry everyone, but — I can't stand it—"

Lucy jerked again, noticeably that time. I could have sworn I even saw her eyes open. Just as soon as I did, though, Archie hoisted her up higher and tightened his grip, and Lucy's head dropped back down. Umbridge did not seem to observe any of this; she was too busy looking hungrily at Hermione and shoving her into a chair.

"That's right, that's right, girl! Now then... with whom was Potter communicating just now?"

"Well... well, he was trying to speak to Professor Dumbledore..."

Everyone stopped struggling for a moment out of pure shock. Relief flooded my body.

Umbridge blinked. "Dumbledore? You know where Dumbledore is, then?"

"Well... no! We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head—"

"Idiot girl, Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's looking for him!"

"But — but we needed to tell him something important!"

"Yes? What was it you wanted to tell him?"

"We... we wanted to tell him it's r-ready!"

"What's ready? What's ready, girl?"

"The... the weapon."

"Weapon? Weapon? You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"

Hermione doubled down on her crying efforts. "Yes, but he had... had to leave before it was finished and n-n-now we've finished it for him, and we c-c-can't find him to tell... tell him!"

"What kind of weapon is it?"

"We don't r-really understand it. We just... just did what P-Professor Dumbledore told us to do—"

"Lead me to the weapon."

Hermione looked around at the Slytherins. "I'm not showing them."

"It is not for you to set conditions," Umbridge snapped.

"Fine, fine! Let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads and loads of people to come and see! Th-That would serve you right — oh, I'd love it if the whole school knew where it was, and h-how to use it, and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to s-sort you out!"

This gave Umbridge pause. She blinked, then nodded. "Alright, dear, let's make it just you and me... and we'll take Potter too, shall we? Get up, now—"

Malfoy stepped forward. "Professor? Professor Umbridge, I think some of the squad should come with you to look after—"

"I am a fully qualified Ministry official, Malfoy, do you really think I cannot manage two wandless teenagers alone? In any case, it does not sound as though this weapon is something that schoolchildren should see. You will remain here until I return and make sure none of these escape."

"Can we bring Lulu with us?" Hermione asked suddenly. "She understands the weapon better than Harry and I do."

"Sorry, Granger, she's still out." Archie shook Lucy a bit for emphasis. I wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and snatch her from him and do whatever I could to help her, but I couldn't. "Like I said, I couldn't bring her back around. Looks like you're on your own."

Hermione studied Lucy for a long moment, concern and disappointment written all over her face. "That's fine."

"You two—" Umbridge pointed to me and Hermione with her wand. "Lead the way."

I had no idea what Hermione was playing at until we reached the forest.

She had said Lulu on purpose. We were going to find Grawp.

"Is it very far in?" Umbridge asked nervously as we plunged into the trees.

Hermione nodded. "Oh yes. Yes, it's well hidden."

"Er — are you sure this is the right way?" I inquired when Hermione turned off of the path that had led us to Grawp.

"Oh yes."

We continued on deeper into the forest. As we walked — our journey punctuated on occasion by Hermione's loud "Just a bit further in!" announcements — I felt my panic climbing. Sirius was still being tortured, and we were in the Forbidden Forest.

I hurried to catch up to Hermione. "Hermione, keep your voice down. Anything could be listening in here—"

"I want us heard. You'll see."

"Why'd you call her Lulu if we weren't going for Grawp?" I asked in a whisper.

"So everyone would know where we were going," she replied in the same whisper.

"How much further?" Umbridge asked, her voice annoyed and angry.

"Not far now! Just a little bit—"

She was interrupted by an arrow whizzing just past her head and embedding itself in a nearby tree. The pounding of hooves made the world around us shake. When I glanced around, I saw that we were surrounded by dozens of centaurs with their bows drawn.

Hermione was grinning. This had been her plan all along.

"Who are you?" a nearby centaur demanded. When Umbridge's only answer was a terrified whimper, he drew himself up taller. "I asked you who you are, human!"

"I am Dolores Umbridge! Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and Headmistress and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"

"You are from the Ministry of Magic?" he repeated.

"That's right! So be very careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human—"

She was interrupted by a different centaur. "What did you call us?"

"Don't call them that!" Hermione shouted furiously.

Umbridge paid her no mind and leveled her wand at the group. "Law Fifteen B states clearly that 'Any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence, and therefore considered responsible for its actions—'"

"'Near-human intelligence?!' We consider that a great insult, human! Our intelligence, thankfully, far outstrips your own—"

"What are you doing in our forest? Why are you here?" another centaur interrupted.

Umbridge scoffed. "Your forest? I would remind you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic permits you certain areas of land—"

An arrow only barely missed her face, prompting a screech from her and cheers and laughter from the centaurs.

"Whose forest is it now, human?" one of the centaurs taunted.

"Filthy half-breeds! Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!" Umbridge shrieked.

"SHUT UP!" I shouted, but I too was ignored as she pointed her wand at a centaur and conjured ropes to bind him.

That was the moment the centaurs decided to charge. Hermione and I dropped to the forest floor as they descended upon Umbridge. Her wand clattered to the forest floor as they lifted her up and began to carry her off, but as I reached for it, a hoof snapped it in half.

"Now!" a centaur shouted, and we were both hauled to our feet.

The voices swirled around us.

"And these?"

"They are young. We do not attack foals."

"They brought her here, Ronan, and they are not so young. He is nearing manhood, this one."

Hermione struggled against the centaur holding her up. "Please, please, don't attack us, we don't think like her, we aren't Ministry of Magic employees! We only came in here because we hoped you'd drive her off for us—"

"You see, Ronan? They already have the arrogance of their kind! So we were to do your dirty work, were we, human girl? We were to act as your servants, drive away your enemies like obedient hounds?"

"No! Please — I didn't mean that! I just hoped you'd be able to — to help us and—"

"We do not help humans! We are a race apart and proud to be so! We will not permit you to walk from here, boasting that we did your bidding!"

I shook my head. "We're not going to say anything like that! We know you didn't do anything because we wanted you to—"

No one paid me any mind as shouts of the centaurs grew.

"They came here unasked, they must pay the consequences!"

"They can join the woman!"

Hermione was crying for real at that point. "You said you didn't hurt the innocent! We haven't done anything to hurt you, we haven't used wands or threats, we just want to go back to school, please let us go back—"

"We are not all like the traitor Firenze, human girl! Perhaps you thought us pretty talking horses? We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults! We do not recognize your laws, we do not acknowledge your superiority, we are—"

He was interrupted at that moment by a tremendous crash. Hermione and I were dropped as the centaurs backed away from the threat that entered the clearing.

Grawp had arrived.

"Hagger," he said in greeting.

Hermione gripped my arm in terror as we backed away.

"Hagger!" Grawp said again.

"Get away from here, giant! You are not welcome among us!" a centaur shouted.

Impossibly, Lucy burst into the clearing. Her face was flushed, she had a cut on her chin, there was a growing bump on her forehead, but she was there. My entire body seemed to sag with relief, but we weren't out of the woods yet, literally or figuratively.

She darted forward so she was standing in the middle of everyone but facing Grawp. "Hi, Grawp!" she called loudly.

"LULU! WHERE HAGGER?"

"He's not here, I'm sorry!"

He blinked, not seeming to understand.

Ginny rushed into the clearing and ran to Lucy's side. "He's not here! Gone! He will come back, but not yet!"

Grawp blinked a second time, then suddenly reached down to grab Lucy. In doing so, however, his massive hand knocked a centaur over, and that was all it took. Dozens of arrows soared through the air, striking Grawp in the face.

"No!" Lucy cried, whirling around. "No, please, don't hurt him, it was an accident, all of this is a misunderstanding, I—"

Ginny tried to grab Lucy by the arm and drag her away as Grawp's blood began to spray out all over those of us in the clearing, but she was resisting. I rushed forward and seized Lucy's other arm, and the four of us humans retreated into the trees.

I wrenched Lucy free from Ginny and looked her up and down as I held her by the shoulders. "You — you were — are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said. She pulled my wand out of her pocket and passed it to me. "Merlin, how'd you manage to get so lost?"

Before either of us could say anything, we were joined by more people.

Ron, whose lip was bleeding profusely, passed Hermione her wand. "So how are we getting to London?"

"How did you get away?" I asked, looking around at the group. Henry had joined the group, too, and — Archie?

Lucy stepped between me and Archie. "I was fine all along, it was just an act!" she said before I got the chance to open my mouth. "That's how we got away! As soon as you got far enough away, Archie passed me to Malfoy and I pretended to wake up at that exact moment."

"The rest of us figured it out once Lucy was back in the game," Ron said with a crooked grin. "Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx, but Ginny was best, she got Malfoy even after Lucy knocked him out — Bat-Bogey Hex — it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things. Anyway, we understood Hermione's clue about Grawp and followed you here. What've you done with Umbridge?"

"She got carried away by a herd of centaurs," I replied.

Lucy's flushed face grew pale in an instant. "Oh..." She glanced at me, regaining a bit of her composure. "I'll get properly upset about that later. Sirius is more important right now. What did you learn? Does Voldemort have Sirius, Harry?"

"Yes, and I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him."

The heavy silence that followed was broken by Luna.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?"

I bit back a sigh. "Okay, first of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, my broomstick is being guarded by a security troll, so—"

Henry shrugged. "I've got one, and I reckon I'm decent enough to have someone ride with me." I opened my mouth to protest, but Henry held up a hand. "If you lot are going to the Department of Mysteries to fight Voldemort, you might as well have a seventh-year prefect with you. Lucy's already tried to talk me out of it, and you can see how well that went, so don't try it, Potter."

"I've got a broom, too!" Ginny piped up before I could respond to Henry. "I can bring Luna, and Lucy can bring Hermione, and Neville can ride with Henry, and—"

"Sounds great, but you're not coming," Ron interrupted.

She drew herself up to her full height and glowered at him in a very twin-like fashion. "Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!"

I shook my head. "You're too—"

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher's Stone, and it's because of me Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogeys attacking him—"

"Yeah, but—"

Neville, who had been standing a bit behind Henry, stepped forward. "We were all in the D.A. together. It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that all just a game or something?"

"No, of course it wasn't—"

"Then we should come too. We want to help."

"I know I'm not really part of your group," Archie interjected, "but I don't particularly fancy the idea of sticking around here now that the Inquisitorial Squad knows I'm a traitor. Leaving me here is a more certain death sentence than taking me with you. I can fight, I promise, I've had plenty of practice being a Slytherin who's not a blood supremacist."

"Look, Harry," Lucy said suddenly, "I know what you're thinking, but they're right. We'd be stronger together. Besides, we're losing time by arguing here, aren't we?"

I nodded after a long moment. "But we still don't know how we'll get there."

"I thought we'd settled that? We're flying!" Luna said.

"I don't know if any of us would be able to navigate all the way to London, especially in the dark," Lucy replied uncertainly, glancing around at the sunset around us.

Ron snorted. "I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?"

"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly, but they can," Luna said, pointing, "and Hagrid says they're very good at finding places their riders are looking for."

We all turned in the direction she was looking just as two thestrals approached.

Lucy sighed with relief. "Perfect. Luna, you're brilliant!"

"Is it those mad horse things? Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"How many?"

"Two."

"Perfect, one for Harry and one for me," Lucy said, striding over to the animals and gesturing for me to follow her.

"Well, we need three," Hermione muttered.

"Four," everyone else said at the same time.

"There are nine of us, actually," Luna pointed out.

I sighed. "It's your choice. But unless we can find more thestrals you're not going to be able—"

"More will come," Ginny said.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because in case you hadn't noticed, four of us are covered in Grawp's blood and we know Hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat, so that's probably why these two turned up in the first place."

Lucy nodded. "Right, perfect. Harry and I will go, and you and Hermione can stay behind to lure more—"

"You don't have to protect me, Lucy!" Ginny burst out. "You don't either, Harry! Stop acting like you do! I'm coming with you, like it or not!"

"We all are," Henry said. "The rest of us could still follow on brooms."

"There's no need! Look, here come more now!" Luna announced cheerfully. "You four must really smell."

Surely enough, plenty of thestrals for everyone were coming.

I met Lucy's eyes. She looked as reluctant as I felt, but she turned toward our friends and nodded.

"Alright," she said, voice even. "If you want to come, those of us who can see thestrals help you get on one. None of us would blame you for not wanting to come, though. Last chance." When no one moved, she nodded again. "Alright. Luna, Harry, Neville, let's help the others."

Soon, we were airborne, soaring through the dusk with the destination of the Ministry of Magic visitors' entrance in mind.

At one point, Lucy flew up closer to me. We didn't speak for a moment, finding comfort in just the proximity of the other.

"Stay close to me?" I asked, the desperation and desire in my own voice catching me off-guard.

I realized half a second later I'd asked it in a voice only the two of us could hear.

She smiled at me. Even though she was covered in Grawp's blood and a bit of her own because of me, she smiled at me. What followed this smile surprised me even more, in the best way possible. "Where else would I be?"

She had used my own line, one that I always used to try to comfort her, to try to comfort me. And it worked, it worked brilliantly.

I love you.

We touched down shortly after that and crowded into the telephone box.

It was time to go.

"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" I said.

Henry punched the numbers in, and a female voice filled the booth.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Lucy Diggory, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Henry Furls, Archie Graye. We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!" I shouted.

"Thank you. Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

I glanced at mine when Lucy passed it to me.

HARRY POTTER
Rescue Mission

"Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."

"Sounds great!" Lucy grit out. "Now can we get moving, please? It's rather urgent."

The magic lift lurched in response, and we began our descent.

Lucy pressed herself right up behind me, wand drawn. She slipped her right hand into my left and squeezed it reassuringly. My hand trembled as I squeezed back.

We broke apart and started sprinting as soon as the doors opened.

The Ministry was eerily deserted, but we didn't have time to dwell on that. I led the way over to the next set of lifts and punched in the number for the Department of Mysteries. Once we reached there, and the black door from my dreams was in front of me in reality, a cold feeling crept into the pit of my stomach.

"Okay, listen. Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a — as a lookout, and—"

Ginny crossed her arms. "And how're we going to let you know something's coming if you're too far away to hear us?"

"We're coming with you, Harry," Neville said, looking equally determined.

"Let's get on with it," Ron added.

I glanced at Lucy, who was already looking toward me. We nodded at each other and plunged forward into whatever the Department of Mysteries had in store for us.

We stepped into a circular room of doors. The first door we tried wasn't right — none of my dreams had included anything related to brains in jars. The second room wasn't right either, containing just a strange veil that seemed to be whispering to me. Luna and Lucy could hear it too, though, oddly enough. Hermione managed to convince us to leave, and we tried a third door. When that one didn't open, I tried a fourth.

"This is it!" I announced. "This way!"

My surroundings were a blur as I rushed through the now-familiar rooms. Finally, finally, finally, finally, we reached the room of the glass orbs.

"Row ninety-seven," I muttered just loud enough for us to hear. "Keep your wands out. Let's go."

"Harry, I don't know if he's here," Lucy whispered, frozen in place.

Ginny turned to her and blinked. "What?"

"What makes you say that?" Ron asked.

She looked from Ginny to Ron to Hermione to me. The people who knew her secret. She swallowed hard. "I-I don't know. It's just... quiet."

We all understood her meaning right away. If Lucy couldn't hear Sirius or Voldemort in this massive but empty space, maybe they... they weren't...

"He might be gagged," Hermione said firmly, "or unconscious. Let's go."

Lucy didn't look convinced, but we proceeded forward anyway, all the way to 97.

Once we got there, though, Sirius was nowhere to be found.

Excuses tumbled from my lips as I pressed deeper into the darkness, searching. "He's right down here at the end, you can't see properly from there... he should be here, anywhere here, really close... somewhere about here..."

But I had reached the end of the row. Still no Sirius.

"Harry, I..." Hermione said softly after a long moment, "I don't think Sirius is here."

I couldn't accept that. I rushed back down to the other side of the aisle, then back again. No Sirius. No sign of a struggle. I couldn't believe that. I had seen him, I had seen him.

"Harry, have you seen this?" Ron called suddenly.

"What is it?" I whipped my head around, hoping he would be gesturing toward a sign that Sirius or Voldemort or somebody had been there, but he was merely staring at one of the glass spheres on the shelves. I bit back my sigh of disappointment and asked again. "What?"

"It's got your name on it," he said.

"My name?" I repeated as I walked toward him. Surely enough, I could just barely make out the label on the shelf.

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

Ron's voice shook when he spoke again. "What's something with your name on it doing down here? I'm not here, none of the rest of us are here."

I reached out my hand.

"I don't think you should touch it, Harry," Hermione said, an edge to her voice.

"Why not? It's got something to do with me, hasn't it?"

"Don't, Harry," Neville piped up suddenly, voice shaking like Ron's.

I didn't think of Lucy. My first mistake.

"It's got my name on it," I said, closing my fingers around the ball. My second mistake.

Everyone pressed in around me, but before anyone could say a word or the glass sphere could do anything magical or extraordinary, a new voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me. And thank you for keeping our little secret, Lucy, you're so good at that."

There was a flash of magic, and Lucy was suddenly beside me again, appearing to have dropped down from the ceiling. I waited for her snarky retort, angry outburst, but none came. She appeared frozen with terror, her face ghostly pale as she struggled for breath.

"To me, Potter," Lucius Malfoy said as he extended his hand.

I felt my heart drop to my toes as I looked around. We were severely outnumbered.

"To me."

"Where's Sirius?" I asked, fear coursing through me.

"The Dark Lord always knows!" a woman exclaimed with a cackle as the other Death Eaters began to laugh as well.

Malfoy nodded. "Always. Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."

"I want to know where Sirius is!" I shouted.

"'I want to know where Sirius is!'" the woman repeated.

"You've got him, he's here, I know he is," I tried again.

The woman's lower lip protruded in a mock pout. "The wittle baby woke up fwightened and thought what it dweamed was twoo."

Ron tried to step forward, but I stopped him with a soft "No, not yet."

"You hear him? You hear him?" the woman screeched with a laugh. "Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"

The sound of Lucy's panicked wheeze behind me was frightening me nearly as much as the Death Eaters beginning to converge. I needed to know Sirius was there. I needed to know we hadn't come in vain.

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix. He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."

"I know Sirius is here, I know you've got him!"

"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter. Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."

"Go on, then," I said, raising my wand as everyone else did the same.

Or, almost everyone else. Lucy remained frozen in place, still panicking.

There was nothing I could do to help her. To make this all go away.

I wouldn't let them hurt her. Not again. Of that I was certain.

"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," Malfoy said.

I snorted. "Yeah, right. I give you this — prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"

The woman didn't like the sound of that. "Accio Proph—"

"Protego!" I countered, and it remained in my hand.

"Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter! Very well, then—"

Malfoy shook his head. "I told you, NO! If you smash it—"

The Death Eaters just wanted the prophecy, I couldn't have cared less about it. I needed a way out, one that wouldn't result in anyone there suffering for my stupidity. I needed a solution, and soon.

The woman stepped forward and ripped off her hood. It was Bellatrix Lestrange, even crazier in the flesh than she had been in the pictures I'd seen. She grinned, the evil within the expression sending a shiver down my spine.

"You need more persuasion? Very well. Grab the werewolf. Let him watch us — me — torture her. Let's see if she's as resistant as she was the first time."

Raw panic seized me as I shoved Lucy behind me and Ron, Hermione, and Ginny closed in around her.

"NO!" I shouted. "You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," I said, gesturing with the prophecy, "and I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"

I could feel Lucy trembling, one of her hands gripping the back of my robes. I'd always relied on her help in sticky situations, but when she'd been in trouble over summer, I'd been worlds away, oblivious. I was on my own in this particular situation, but that was alright — I was going to find a way to get Lucy and everyone else out of there alive. I just — I just needed time.

"So what kind of prophecy is this?" I asked.

Bellatrix blinked. "What kind of prophecy? You jest, Harry Potter."

"Nope, not jesting. How come Voldemort wants it?"

"You dare speak his name?" she hissed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol—"

"Shut your mouth! You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare—"

I straightened up. "Did you know he's a half-blood too? Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle — or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"

"STUPEF—"

"NO!"

Bellatrix's spell was deflected by Malfoy and smashed into a nearby shelf. When the orbs tumbled to the ground, a couple of smoky images rose and began speaking incoherently.

"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!" Malfoy shouted.

Bellatrix was inconsolable. "He dared — he dares — he stands there — filthy half-blood—"

"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!"

An idea burst into mind. We needed to smash shelves. It was our best chance of getting out, getting away.

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," I said as I searched for someone's foot with my own.

"Do not play games with us, Potter," Malfoy muttered.

"I'm not playing games." I found Lucy's foot and whispered in a voice I knew only she could hear, "Smash shelves when I say go."

Malfoy, oblivious, cocked his head. "Dumbledore never told you that the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?"

That caught me off-guard. "I — what? What about my scar?"

Lucy's hand loosened on my robes. I could feel her reaching for her wand too, whispering the plan to the others. I needed to keep stalling. She needed time to spread the message, and to prepare herself to officially fight at least a couple of her summer captors.

I could give her that time. I could get her out safely.

"Can this be?" Malfoy wondered with a laugh. "Dumbledore never told you? Well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why you didn't come running when he showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording."

"So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?"

"Why? Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."

"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"

"About both of you, Potter, about both of you. Haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"

My fingers tightened around the sphere. I had that answer in my hand?

I couldn't let myself get distracted by that, though. I had people behind me that I cared about and who cared about me. I needed to get everyone out safely. That had to be my priority. I needed to buy more time.

"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me? And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"

Bellatrix answered me this time, with a cackle. "Get it himself? The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?"

"So he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he? Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it — and Bode?"

Malfoy nodded. "Very good, Potter, very good. But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell—"

"NOW!" I shouted.

All nine of us fired Reductor Curses into the shelves around us at one time.

"RUN!" Lucy cried.

The two of us waited for everyone else to run before taking off ourselves. In the chaos that followed, glass shards rained down on us and a couple of Death Eaters attempted to grab us by the robes, but we just kept running.

Eventually, we reached a different room, and Lucy and I worked together to magically seal the door behind us.

She whirled around and immediately gasped. "Ginny, Ron, Luna, Henry, where did they go?"

"They must have gone the wrong way," Archie groaned. "C'mon, we have to go and find—"

"Listen!" Neville hissed.

Lucius Malfoy was barking orders on the other side of the door. "Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy — Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary except for the werewolf, she might still be useful to us — Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right — Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead — Macnair and Avery, through here — Rookwood, over there — Mulciber, come with me!"

"What do we do?" Hermione asked.

"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start. Let's get away from this door," I suggested.

Neville hesitated. "What about Henry and Ginny and—"

"We won't be of any use to them dead," Archie said with a heavy sigh. "Harry's right, let's go."

We started hurrying back toward the circular room of doors, but when we heard the door being blasted open behind us, we had no choice but to dive for cover under nearby desks. I found myself flat next to Hermione, Lucy wedged between Archie and Neville across the way.

For the first time since everything went south, our eyes truly met. Hers were blazing with intensity like I'd never seen. Merlin, they were so beautifully blue. I attempted to chide myself for being so ridiculous when we were in so much danger, but Lucy was hardly a distraction. She was hardly helpless, either, as I'd thought back in the room with the prophecies.

Even covered in Grawp's blood, hiding under a desk from Death Eaters who wanted to kill her, she was beautiful. She was everything to me. Her eyes were blazing, and I was sure mine were too. We were going to do everything possible to get our friends out safely, together, and maybe learn the story of my scar in the meantime.

"They might've run straight through to the hall," one of the Death Eaters said, bringing me back to reality.

"Check under the desks," came another voice.

Lucy sprang into action, both hands slashing through the air. Before any of the rest of us could so much as blink, two desks hurtled through the air and knocked the Death Eaters backwards. One collided with a grandfather clock, and the other staggered into a cabinet full of hourglasses, which all shattered on the floor. Then the cabinet righted itself. Then it collapsed again.

Hermione was the first to find her voice. "Accio wands!" she said, pushing herself up just as the two Death Eater wands flew through the air.

The rest of us scrambled out from under the desks to join the fight.

"Incarcerous!" Lucy rushed over to the Death Eater who lay groaning on top of the mangled grandfather clock, and ropes suddenly pinned his arms to his side and wrapped around his ankles.

"STUPEFY!" Neville shouted as the Death Eater by the cabinet attempted to lunge for Hermione.

The Death Eater's head should have cracked against the bell jar it hit, but instead, it was absorbed by the glass. We all watched, transfixed, as he aged rapidly, becoming nothing more than a skull, then had a baby head again and repeated the cycle.

Lucy tightened the knots on the ropes and walked over to my side. "What the hell..."

"It's time," Hermione said in wonder.

"Speaking of 'What the hell,' since when can you do nonverbal magic, Diggory?" Archie demanded.

She flushed. "I—" Before she could explain anything, a distant shout stopped us all in our tracks. Her red face turned white. "Ron."

I whirled around. "RON? HENRY? GINNY? LUNA?"

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked.

I whirled back around to see that the Death Eater had yanked his baby head free from the jar. I lifted my wand, but Hermione yanked my arm back down.

"You can't hurt a baby!" she protested.

With a flick of Lucy's wand, ropes wrapped around him and he crashed to the floor. She didn't give Hermione a chance to say anything before running in the direction of the shout, back toward the room of doors.

We were halfway there when we saw two more Death Eaters coming in our direction. I snagged Lucy, the frontrunner, by the elbow and yanked her into the first door on our left, which turned out to be a dark office. The others piled in after us, and Hermione pulled the door shut.

"Collo—" she started, but before she could finish the incantation, the Death Eaters had yanked the door open.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" they shouted in unison.

The double spell was so forceful all five of us were thrown back. I hit my head so hard against the stone wall I couldn't see anything but stars for a long moment. Lucy was beside me, already trying to push herself to her feet.

"WE'VE GOT HIM! IN AN OFFICE OFF—"

"Silencio!" Hermione hissed, and the sound cut off.

The second Death Eater shoved forward, wand pointed directly at Lucy and me.

I was on my feet in an instant and brandishing my wand once again. "Petrificus totalus!"

His limbs snapped together and he dropped to the floor.

Hermione stood, glancing at me with an approving nod. "Well done, Ha—"

The first Death Eater didn't need his voice to send a purple spell in her direction.

"LOOK OUT!"

The screamed warning tore from Lucy's throat.

Hermione's face contorted in confusion as she started turning to look at Lucy.

The purple light buried itself in her chest. Hermione's eyes widened, and she made a soft "Oh!" sound before collapsing to the floor.

"NO!" Lucy thrust her hands forward, and the Death Eater that had hurt Hermione was blasted backward with the red light of the most powerful Stunning Spell I'd ever seen her produce. Once he had been launched a sufficient distance away, Lucy scrambled the rest of the way to her feet and was by Hermione's side in an instant, right next to Neville, who had rushed over the second Hermione fell. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she murmured frantically, "please be alive, please be alive."

"What did he do to her?" Neville asked, his voice high with panic.

"I don't — I don't know," Lucy sobbed. She pressed her fingers to Hermione's neck, but before she could say whether Hermione was dead or alive, the two Death Eaters that had once been tied up rushed into the room. One kicked Neville's face and stepped on his wand, snapping it in half, in the same motion, and Lucy barely had time to widen her eyes in horror before he kicked her in the face too.

Forgetting I even had magic, I lunged forward and grabbed his foot, forcing it upward so that he wobbled and landed hard on his backside.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Archie shouted, and the second Death Eater clattered to the floor beside his fallen partner.

I jumped to my feet and pointed my wand at the chest of the Death Eater that had kicked Neville and Lucy and followed suit with a Full Body Bind Curse of my own.

"Are you two alright?" Archie asked, eyes wide with shock and fear and panic and horror. "Is — is Hermione?"

"She's alive," Lucy choked out, her voice weak with relief. With pain too, from what I realized at once was a horribly broken nose. She grabbed her wand and pointed it at Neville's similarly-broken nose. "This is going to hurt a bit, but it'll heal your nose. Episkey!"

He winced for a second, then relaxed. "Thanks. You can do yours?"

"Yeah." She fixed her own nose in silence before returning her attention to Hermione with a shaky half-sob. "I don't know what they did to you, I'm sorry, I tried to — to warn you but I — I'm so sorry."

My mind was spinning. My terror was making it impossible to breathe.

I tried to find my breath, or at least enough to talk. "We're not far from the exit, we're right next to that circular room. If we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you all can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift. Then you could find someone, raise the alarm."

"And what are you going to do?" Archie asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I've got to go find the others."

"And I'm going with you," Lucy said sharply as she whirled around with fire in her tear-filled eyes. "Neville and Archie can handle Hermione together—"

"I'm going with you two," Archie said.

"I'm going with you too, Harry." Neville shifted so he was in a better position to scoop Hermione off the floor. "I can carry her. You're all better at fighting than me anyway, and I don't have a..." His eyes drifted to his snapped wand. "My gran's going to kill me. That was my dad's old wand."

"You can use Hermione's." Lucy's voice was soft, but I could hear it trembling with barely-suppressed fury. "You'll be able to get a new wand easily enough, one that suits you better." I recalled with a rush that her own wand had been snapped by Death Eaters not too long ago. "Okay, come on, let's go."

Neville hefted Hermione, and we made our way back to the room of doors. I realized with crushing disappointment that Hermione's fiery X markings had faded from the doors. We were just about to take a random guess for a door when one opened and the other four members of our group tumbled through it.

Lucy sighed with relief. "Oh, thank Mer— what happened?"

Ron was incoherent, babbling and dazed, paler than I'd ever seen him, and then he collapsed to his knees.

"What happened?" Lucy asked again, watching in a panic as Ginny sank to the floor clutching her ankle.

"I think Ginny's ankle is broken, I heard something crack," Luna reported.

Lucy rushed over immediately and started examining it as Henry explained the rest of the story, pausing periodically to wipe the trickles of blood from his nose or blink away the blood running into his eyes from the cuts he had on both sides of his forehead. We were right, they'd gone the wrong way and gotten lost and tried to fight a number of Death Eaters. No one knew what spell they had used to attack Ron, but they'd managed to all escape.

Lucy had opened her mouth to use the proper incantation to heal Ginny's ankle when a door burst open and three Death Eaters, including Bellatrix, charged into the room. She instead threw up a massive Shield Charm with her free hand to stop the Stunning Spells that had been hurled our way and lifted Ginny from the ground as if she were weightless and charged through another door, holding it open with her foot so the rest of us could follow. I grabbed Ron, Neville adjusted his grip on Hermione, and we rushed inside.

"I'll hold them off!" Henry declared as he slammed the door shut in our faces.

Lucy nearly dropped Ginny, looking as if she'd been stricken across the face. "HENRY, NO!"

But the lock clicked into place — he'd managed to lock it from the outside.

There was a clamor of spells and spellfire, and there was a loud crunch as the door shook as if something — someone — had collided with it.

"Argh, it's well-locked! Wait! It doesn't matter! There are other ways in — WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!"

I swore loudly when I realized they were right. Everyone who was able started running around the room sealing doors, but it wasn't enough — five Death Eaters stormed through the door Luna was trying to seal and sent her flying backwards. She crashed to the ground, motionless beside Hermione.

"Get Potter!" Bellatrix screeched as she sprinted right at me.

I sprinted in the opposite direction, Lucy hurrying to my side and throwing jinxes and hexes over her shoulder.

A voice stopped us dead in our tracks, however. Ron's voice.

"Hey! Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, isn't that weird, Harry?" He was giggling and staggering toward the tank containing the brains we had seen earlier. "Look, Harry, they're brains!"

Panic flared in my chest. "Ron, get out of the way, don't—"

"Accio brains!"

"NO!" Lucy and I cried out in unison, but it was too late.

Everyone turned to watch as the brains soared through the air toward Ron.

Lucy and I rushed forward to try to stop what was going to happen, but we weren't quick enough.

They tangled around him and slowly began to tighten.

Lucy, Archie, Neville, and I all rushed forward, trying various spells to release the brains, and Ron for his part was attempting to yank them off, but nothing was working.

"IT'LL SUFFOCATE HIM!" Ginny screamed, pushing herself up onto both feet and frantically hobbling over to try to help.

"They're closing in!" Lucy shouted as she pulled herself away from Ron and started firing spells at the Death Eaters converging on us.

I pulled away, too, and we stood back-to-back as we tried to lead the Death Eaters away from the others. It worked — they were focused intently on the prophecy I was still somehow holding, intact, in my hand.

"Run for it," I whispered just when I thought we couldn't take it anymore.

The two of us moved as one. I was hoping she would run the opposite way, save herself, let the Death Eaters come after me and the sphere in my hand. But this was Lucy. She stayed firmly by my side as we sprinted as fast as we possibly could.

Suddenly, we burst into a new room, and just as suddenly, the floor vanished and we were falling down a steep flight of stairs.

When I finally reached the bottom, and Lucy crashed down right next to me, I realized we were in the room with the whispering veil.

"Are you alright?" Lucy asked, her voice little more than a pained grunt.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

We pushed ourselves to our feet, back-to-back once again as the five Death Eaters pushed down around us.

Lucius Malfoy removed his mask as he sauntered toward me. "Potter, your race is run. Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."

"Let the others go and I'll give it to you!" I said fiercely.

"You are not in a position to bargain, Potter. You see, there are ten of us and only two of you... or hasn't Dumbledore ever taught you how to count?"

"They're not alone, they've still got me!" a distant voice shouted.

I could feel Lucy's shoulders sag as Neville rushed down the steps to our aid.

"Neville, no, go back to Ron!" she tried to say, but he paid her no mind.

He was wielding Hermione's wand and firing spells at every Death Eater he saw. "STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!"

Before he could hit one of his targets, though, a Death Eater grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms behind his back.

Lucius Malfoy laughed humorlessly. "It's Longbottom, isn't it? Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause. Your death will not come as a great shock."

"Longbottom? Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!" Bellatrix announced with an evil smile.

Neville struggled harder against his captor, nearly succeeding in breaking free. "I KNOW YOU HAVE!"

"Someone Stun him," a Death Eater suggested.

"No, no, no. No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents." Bellatrix stepped over to him, careful to look at Lucy, then me. "Once we're through with him, we'll see if the werewolf can hold up against my Cruciatus Curse. Unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy...?"

"DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM, HARRY!" Neville shouted.

"Crucio!" was Bellatrix's response.

Neville's screams echoed throughout the room for five whole seconds before she stopped. Lucy's shoulders sagged more, and I could tell she was about to cry.

"That was just a taster!" Bellatrix whipped around so her wand was pointed at Lucy. "CRUCIO!"

I thought my heart would break at the sound of Lucy's screams. She dropped to the ground, screaming so loudly and writhing so forcefully I thought I would die at the sight of it.

Without a second thought, I held out the prophecy, and the screams were replaced by sobs in an instant.

"No, no, Harry, don't," she choked out, but I had no choice. Malfoy was already coming to take it.

Just before he reached me, though, two other doors opened, and five — seven? — Order members poured through. Sirius, Remus, Moody, Tonks, Kingsley, Fred, and George.

Since the Death Eaters were distracted by these new arrivals, I scooped Lucy up off the ground and hurried over to Neville.

"I'm okay," Neville said, already trying to push himself up.

"So am I," Lucy insisted as she shoved me away and dropped onto her feet. "Neville, where's Ron?"

"He was still fighting the brain when I—"

Neville was interrupted by a nearby explosion. The three of us crawled out of the way, but before I could register what was happening, someone had wrapped a strong arm around my neck and was squeezing it so hard I saw stars.

"Give it to me, give me the prophecy!" a voice barked in my ear.

Through the stars, I saw Lucy, eyes blazing, lift her wand with both hands. A jet of water shot from her wand with so much force the Death Eater screamed and dropped me, clutching at one of his eyes.

"Are you alright?" Lucy shouted over the chaos.

"Yeah, thanks to you!" I shouted back.

Neville grabbed us both by the arms and pulled us back as Sirius and the Death Eater he was dueling passed by.

Lucy gasped, and I suddenly realized that Moody was down, his magic eye spinning freely nearby. He had been fighting Dolohov, who was now hurtling our direction. He hit Neville with a Dancing Feet Spell and blasted Lucy backward with a Stunning Spell.

"Now, Potter," he sneered, making the same wand motion that he had used against Hermione.

"Protego!" Thanks to my Shield Charm, it only knocked me sideways rather than causing me to collapse.

He tried to summon the prophecy, but before he got the chance, Sirius appeared seemingly out of nowhere, physically shoved Dolohov away, and began to duel him.

I miraculously still had the prophecy.

I looked around wildly for Lucy, but she was already on her feet and jogging over back toward me. Her eyes widened when she saw what was happening over my shoulder, and I turned just in time to see Dolohov twirling his wand in the now all-too-familiar spell pattern.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" I shouted desperately, and to my relief, it worked. His body clattered to the ground, motionless.

Sirius beamed at me. "Nice one! Now I want you to get—"

We all ducked as more spellfire flashed over our heads. Sirius stopped smiling and locked eyes with Lucy, then me.

"Take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!"

We both wanted to protest, but he was on his feet and chasing Bellatrix, who'd just injured Tonks, before we could get any words out.

Lucy and I made our way over to Neville. We worked together to try to haul him to his feet, but before we could, a spell from Lucius Malfoy knocked us all over again.

Lucius Malfoy dropped to the ground, one knee on my chest and one on Lucy's. "The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!"

"No, get off me!" I tried to throw him off, but his wand tip was pressing uncomfortably against my neck. Lucy was struggling too, but we were both pinned. I turned my head the other way. "Neville, catch it!"

I rolled the prophecy over, and Neville immediately cradled it to his chest. When Malfoy turned his wand to Neville, Lucy and I moved in unison and each hit him with a spell. He was fired backward as if from a cannon.

I blinked and turned to Lucy. "What'd you use?"

"A wandless, nonverbal Stunning Spell," she replied coolly. "Nicely done."

Remus rushed over then. "Help Fred and George round up the others and GO!"

Lucy and I each supported one of Neville's shoulders, trying to dodge his still wildly-kicking legs. We struggled up a couple of stairs, dodging spellfire. One of the stairs had a chunk blown out of it by a spell, so we tried to heave Neville up two at once.

I didn't realize I was standing on the bottom of his robe.

It tore all along my side, and the prophecy ball tumbled out onto the stone. Lucy lunged for it, but before she could, Neville's foot managed to kick her jaw and send the ball flying at the same time. It crashed and shattered into a million tiny pieces a distance away — close enough that we could see a figure rise from the broken glass, but too far for me to hear what it was saying.

Neville looked as if he were going to cry. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"It's alright," Lucy said, absently rubbing her jaw as she stared at the apparition. When it faded into nothingness, her mouth fell open slightly. Her expression was shuttered, unreadable, except for that one tiny tell. What it was telling me, though, I had no idea.

And no time to dwell on the mystery.

"Let's get out of here!" I called.

Her eyes were distant, until they met mine.

For half a second, I saw it. An emotion so raw and wild I didn't even know what it was.

Just like that, it was gone, and she nodded. We adjusted our grips on Neville and were about to try again when his face suddenly lit up.

"Dumbledore!"

Surely enough, Dumbledore had arrived. Relief like a wave crashed through me. We were saved.

The Death Eaters scattered when they saw him, but he cast a spell that acted like an invisible string, pulling every Death Eater toward him.

Except one. Bellatrix was still dueling Sirius by the veil.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he said, laughing loudly, as he dodged her spell, a blast of red light.

He didn't dodge the second one. It hit its mark, his chest. Surprise mingled with the laughter on his face.

Slowly, he fell back against the veil. Slowly, he vanished from view.

Suddenly, I was running toward the stone archway. Bellatrix was laughing victoriously, which was odd considering Sirius was going to come back momentarily.

I had nearly reached the veil when I felt strong arms wrap around me from behind, holding me back. No, pulling me back.

Remus appeared in front of me. "There's nothing you can do, Harry—"

"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"

Someone was pulling me back.

"It's too late, Harry—"

"We can still reach him!"

Someone was pulling me back.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry... nothing, he... he's gone."

"He hasn't gone!"

Someone was pulling me back.

"He can't come back, Harry. He can't come back, because he's d—"

"HE IS NOT DEAD! SIRIUS! SIRIUS!"

Someone was pulling me back.

I felt a flare of annoyance with Sirius for keeping me waiting. But... Sirius never kept me waiting. If he could hear me crying his name, he surely would have come charging right back through the veil to help me. But... he didn't.

Someone was pulling me back.

I finally turned to see who it was.

Lucy. Pulling me back as if her life depended on it.

When we reached the stairs, I stopped struggling. She reluctantly let go and opted for reaching for my hand instead. Though I could tell she was holding as tight as she thought she could without hurting me, I barely felt it.

Neville's legs were still going crazy. "Harry, I'm really sorry. Was that man — was Sirius Black a — a friend of yours?"

I nodded, even the tiny gesture requiring monumental effort.

"Oh, I'm so stupid," Lucy said, her voice hollow. She pointed her wand at Neville's legs. "Finite."

Instantly, his legs stopped their crazed dance. Neville sighed with relief. "Thanks. That was annoying."

Remus knelt in front of us, taking a moment to assess the physical damage we'd each acquired. "Let's — let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?"

"They're all back there. A brain attacked Ron, but I think he's alright, and Hermione was unconscious, but we could feel a pulse, and Ginny broke her ankle and Luna was knocked out and Henry — well, I don't know, but I hope he's alright..."

Suddenly, there was a loud yell. We all turned to watch as Kingsley Shacklebolt dropped to the ground and Bellatrix cheered. She started running before anyone — meaning Dumbledore, really — could react, and she was already halfway up the stairs by the time Dumbledore started moving.

I started to chase her.

"Harry — no!" Remus called after me, but I paid him no mind.

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM — I'LL KILL HER!"

I could hear people shouting behind me, but none of that mattered. Sirius was dead, and his killer was escaping. I was going to do something about it. I was going to avenge him.

I sprinted through the room where the others had all gathered, now joined by Fred and George. I chased her as fast as my legs would allow, dodging every curse she launched over her shoulder, powering through every obstacle she created for me. I was going to catch her. I was going to catch her, and I was going to kill her.

When we reached the Atrium, she stopped running, so I hid in place just to listen.

"Come out, come out, little Harry! What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!" she called.

"I AM!" I shouted.

"Ah, did you love him, little baby Potter?"

I jumped to my feet and pointed my wand directly at her. "CRUCIO!"

Though she fell backward onto the floor, I knew the spell hadn't worked. She got to her feet and fired another spell at me, but I ducked behind the statue again.

"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain — to enjoy it — righteous anger won't hurt me for long — I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson — CRUCIO!" She failed to hit me again, so she kept talking, trying to scare me. I was already scared, but I didn't find that I particularly cared. She had killed Sirius. "Potter, you cannot win against me! I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete—"

"Stupefy!" I shouted.

"Protego!"

My own Stunning Spell, rebounded, narrowly missed me.

"Potter, I am going to give you one chance! Give me the prophecy — roll it out toward me now — and I may spare your life!"

My scar seemed to catch fire. "Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone! And he knows! Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

"LIAR! You've got it, Potter, and you will give it to me — accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

I laughed even though my scar was hurting so badly tears streamed from my eyes and waved my empty hand out at her. "Nothing there! Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that—"

"No! It isn't true, you're lying! Master, I tried, I tried, do not punish me!"

"Don't waste your breath! He can't hear you from here!"

A third voice entered the conversation. "Can't I, Potter?"

His voice.

Suddenly, he was standing in the middle of the hall. I was paralyzed by my fear.

"So you smashed my prophecy? No, Bella, he is not lying, I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind. Months of preparation, months of effort, and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again."

"Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black! Master, you should know—"

"Be quiet, Bella. I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your sniveling apologies?"

"But Master — he is here, he is below!"

Voldemort ignored her as he raised his wand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of movement, but I was still paralyzed. I couldn't move toward it to see who or what it was. I could only look at Voldemort, who was speaking to me again.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter."

Running footsteps, rapidly approaching me.

"You have irked me too often, for too long."

Lucy burst into view and launched herself at me, tackling me.

She will not die for me.

In midair, I twisted so it was my back to Voldemort and not hers.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

I waited for the flash of green light that never reached me. The now-headless golden statue came alive and blocked the spell.

Lucy and I crashed to the ground, all tangled together, breathless but alive, the knowledge that we would die for each other having been put to the test for the first time. I pushed myself up off the ground onto one elbow, my other arm still around her waist. Her arms were still wound around my ribcage. Our faces were so close our noses were nearly touching.

"Stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindor," she muttered.

"Don't give me that," I mumbled in response.

"What? Dumbledore!" Voldemort gasped.

I suddenly remembered everything that had happened, everything that was still happening.

I scrambled to a sitting position, one arm still in front of Lucy. She shoved my arm down and inched forward until we were shoulder-to-shoulder. The statue kept pushing us back until we were against the wall, but we were both too transfixed by the fight to care too much.

We were together. That was all that mattered.

Suddenly, Voldemort disappeared. I rose to my feet and darted out from around the statue.

"Stay where you are, Harry!"

I had never heard Dumbledore sound so afraid. I couldn't imagine why.

Until my scar exploded.

I had never felt such an intense pain in my life. I knew it would kill me. I was one with Voldemort. He was one with me.

My mouth moved at the creature's bidding.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore... if death is nothing, kill—"

"DON'T YOU DARE, HARRY JAMES!" a distant voice shouted.

Warm hands on my face.

The pain vanished, and then the warmth vanished too.

I was me again. Voldemort was gone.

I opened my eyes.

No. He wasn't gone.

Lucy was a twitching heap on the floor, the only sounds escaping her the most heart-wrenching sobs of agony I'd ever heard that were immediately choked off by even more pained cries. It was even worse than the screams I'd heard while she was being tortured.

She will not die for me.

I reached forward and grabbed her hand.

The pain washed over me again.

But I could still feel the warmth in my hand.

The pain vanished. Then it returned.

But I could still feel the warmth in my hand.

There was a frustrated scream, so piercing it hurt like a dagger tearing me down the middle.

Then there was silence. Darkness. But warmth anyway.

I opened my eyes, utterly dazed.

I followed the warmth all the way to my hand, the one still holding Lucy's.

She was deathly pale. She was unnaturally still. She was barely breathing. She was nearly lifeless.

Her hand was still in mine.

I pushed myself to my knees with no shortage of effort and dropped down closer to her as Dumbledore hurried over.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but Lucy, she—"

"Renervate," he muttered as he strode across the room to meet the people now pouring out of the Ministry fireplaces.

Lucy started to stir ever so slightly, eyelids twitching as she began to regain consciousness.

I felt as if I would die at the sight of her looking so small and so weak. Still covered in Grawp's blood, and a fair amount of her own. Terrifyingly pale under that, a couple of bruises beginning to blossom across her exposed skin.

After what felt like an eternity, her eyes opened, and I'd never been happier to see that beautiful shade of blue.

"What happened? Are you alright?" she asked, her voice so soft and small I would have missed it if I hadn't seen her lips move.

I wanted to laugh. Of course Lucy would ask that after — after nearly dying. Instead, tears caught in my throat and began pushing their way to my eyes.

A moment later, her eyes widened a bit, as if she remembered. She pushed herself up, groaning almost inaudibly as she did so. When she looked at me again, she had tears in her eyes as well.

A lock of her hair had tumbled loose from her ponytail at one point throughout the night. I couldn't remember when. Just the same, I reached out toward her and tucked it behind her ear.

Suddenly, she grabbed my hand.

That was the warmth. She was the warmth.

We eventually pushed ourselves to our feet, leaning heavily against each other.

I'd had Voldemort in my head before. My scar had hurt before, it had hurt badly before. It had never hurt quite that badly, but I'd been dealing with Voldemort for quite a bit of time at that point.

Lucy had never experienced something like Voldemort before. I could tell she was trying to be strong, I could tell that her werewolf resilience was helping her a bit, but she still trembled against me and seemed on the verge of collapse.

In all fairness, though, so was I.

We became aware of Dumbledore again. He was speaking very loudly.

"Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men — and win again! But a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong men for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"

Fudge blinked a couple of times. "I — don't — well — very well — Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see... Dumbledore, you — you will need to tell me exactly — the Fountain of Magical Brethren — what happened?"

"We can discuss that one I have sent Harry and Lucy back to Hogwarts."

"Harry... Potter? Lucy Diggory?" He turned to face us, noticing us for the first time. "Here? Why — what's this all about?"

"I shall explain everything when Harry and Lucy are back at school," Dumbledore repeated. Then he pointed his wand at the head of the statue that had been blown off. "Portus."

Fudge was aghast. "Now see here, Dumbledore! You haven't got authorization for that Portkey! You can't do things like that right in front of the Minister of Magic, you — you —"

Dumbledore didn't answer as he approached us with the Portkey. "I can only make one at a time. Harry, you go first."

The last thing I wanted to do was leave Lucy, but I didn't necessarily want to argue with him in front of the Minister of Magic, either. Lucy shifted away so she was standing entirely on her own, and I looked at her one more time. Though the danger had passed for the time being, there was fear in her eyes.

I couldn't bring myself to smile, but I tried to comfort her with just my eyes. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

She nodded, then looked over my shoulder at Dumbledore. I turned to look at him too.

He appraised Fudge with a cool, calculating expression. "You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts. You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the headmaster will find me." When Fudge made no comprehensible reply, Dumbledore turned back to me. "Take the Portkey, Harry. I'll send Lucy back too as soon as you leave. I will see you in half an hour."

I placed my hand on the head of the statue, and the Ministry disappeared, replaced soon enough by Dumbledore's office.

I waited for Lucy, expecting her to appear at any moment right beside me, but the minutes of silence dragged on and she didn't appear. I paced around the room, the little bit of sound beginning to wake a couple of the portraits who asked if my presence meant that Dumbledore was returning. I answered their questions with a nod and began trying to escape the office. The doorknob refused to give way.

I needed to know where Lucy was, I needed to be with her, I needed to try to make sense of everything that had happened, I needed to stop thinking about Sirius and about how it was all my fault that he died and about how I was beyond stupid for ever falling for Voldemort's trick and about the black hole forming in my chest where Sirius should have been.

Hermione was right. I had to be the hero. Except this time I didn't save anyone. Sirius was dead because of me, everyone was in the Hospital Wing because of me, I had risked it all to save no one.

I didn't want to be Harry Potter anymore. I wanted to be someone, anyone else.

I tugged harder on the doorknob. I felt trapped, in the office and in my own skin. I needed out, I needed out, I needed out, I needed out.

The fireplace glowed green and Dumbledore stepped into his office.

The green gave me more pause than Dumbledore's actual arrival.

Lucy and I had talked about green once, and she'd listed off things that were green. Evil things, like the Killing Curse and Obliviate and the Dark Mark. Good things, like grass poking through snow and her favorite flavor of Bertie Bott's and my eyes.

My mother's eyes, I'd corrected her.

"No, Harry James. Your eyes."

I didn't know how she'd been able to look me in the eyes after everything. After I'd failed to save her brother, after I'd failed to save Sirius. After I'd failed to save her, time and time and time and time again. The shame of it all burned in the pit of my stomach.

Dumbledore returned Fawkes to his place in the office and turned to face me. "Well, Harry, you will be pleased to hear that none of your fellow students are going to suffer lasting damage from the night's events."

This was good, of course, but they should never have been damaged in the first place, it was all my fault.

"Madam Pomfrey is patching everybody up now. Nymphadora Tonks may need to spend a little time in St. Mungo's, but it seems that she will make a full recovery."

I nodded in response, unable to formulate words.

"I know how you are feeling, Harry."

"No, you don't."

The portrait of Phineas Nigellus clucked his tongue. "You see, Dumbledore? Never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own—"

"That's enough, Phineas," Dumbledore interrupted.

I turned and marched over to the window with a view of the Quidditch Pitch, remembering the time Sirius had disguised himself as Padfoot and come to see me.

Dumbledore continued. "There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry. On the contrary, the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength."

"My greatest strength, is it? You haven't got a clue — you don't know—"

"What don't I know?"

I whirled around. "I don't want to talk about how I feel, alright?"

"Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human—"

I exploded. "THEN I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN!" I reached for one of Dumbledore's many magical instruments and smashed it, then another, then another. "I DON'T CARE! I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE—"

His voice was still maddeningly calm. "You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."

"I DON'T!"

"Oh yes, you do. You have now lost your mother, your father, and the closest thing to a parent you have ever known. Of course you care."

"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL! YOU — STANDING THERE — YOU..."

My fury escalated past the point of words. I wanted to run as fast as I could as far as I could.

I rushed to the door and tugged at the knob again.

"Let me out."

"No."

I turned to face him, hand still on the doorknob. "Let me out."

"No."

"If you don't — if you keep me in here — if you don't let me—"

"By all means, continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."

He went to sit at his desk, still looking at me.

"Let me out," I demanded a third time.

"Not until I've had my say."

I spluttered incredulously. "Do you — do you think I want to — do you think I give a — I don't care what you've got to say! I don't want to hear anything you've got to say!"

"You will. Because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it."

"What are you talking—"

"It is my fault that Sirius died. Or I should say almost entirely my fault — I will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever, and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should never have believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you to the Department of Mysteries, and you would never have been tricked into going there tonight. And Sirius would not have had to come after you. That blame lies with me, and with me alone." A long moment passed. "Please sit down."

As I crossed the room, Phineas Nigellus asked if Sirius was really dead. When Dumbledore answered in the affirmative, he stalked out of his portrait, probably to go to Grimmauld Place to see for himself if it was true.

Once I took a seat, Dumbledore officially began.

"Harry, I owe you an explanation. An explanation of an old man's mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young, and I seem to have forgotten lately. I guessed, fifteen years ago, when I saw the scar upon your forehead, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort."

"You've told me this before, Professor."

"Yes. Yes, but you see — it is necessary to start with your scar. For it became apparent, shortly after you rejoined the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scar was giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you, or else feeling powerful emotion."

"I know."

"And this ability of yours — to detect Voldemort's presence, even when he is disguised, and to know what he is feeling when his emotions are roused — has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and his full powers. More recently, I became concerned that Voldemort might realize that this connection between you exists. Sure enough, there came a time when you entered so far into his mind and thoughts that he sensed your presence. I am speaking, of course, of the night when you witnessed the attack on Mr. Weasley."

"Yeah, Snape told me."

"Professor Snape, Harry. But did you not wonder why it was not I who explained this to you? Why I did not teach you Occlumency? Why I had not so much as looked at you for months?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I wondered."

"You see, I believed it could not be long before Voldemort attempted to force his way into your mind, to manipulate and misdirect your thoughts, and I was not eager to give him more incentives to do so. I was sure that if he realized that our relationship was — or had ever been — closer than that of headmaster and pupil, he would seize his chance to use you as a means to spy on me. I feared the uses to which he would put you, the possibility that he might try and possess you. Harry, I believe I was right to think that Voldemort would have made use of you in such a way. On those rare occasions when we had close contact, I thought I saw a shadow of him stir behind your eyes. I was trying, in distancing myself from you, to protect you. An old man's mistake. Voldemort's aim in possessing you, as he demonstrated tonight, would not have been my destruction. It would have been yours. He hoped, when he possessed you briefly a short while ago, that I would sacrifice you in the hope of killing him."

"But then Lucy..."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "I was not anticipating that she would do as she did. I attempted to caution her away from you, but she paid me no heed before doing what she thought was best in trying to bring you back to the forefront. It worked, in a sense, because of Voldemort's immense confusion as to what was going on."

"I don't think either of us knew what was happening, either," I said. "When she touched me, the pain vanished, and I think he passed into her, then when I grabbed her hand he went back and forth a couple of times before giving up."

He continued nodding. "I have never before seen magic quite like that." He sighed, deeply, thoughtfully. "I will need to talk to her about it as well, but that can wait for another day." He sighed again. "Sirius told me that you felt Voldemort awake inside you the very night that you had the vision of Arthur Weasley's attack. I knew at once that my worst fears were correct: Voldemort from that point had realized he could use you. In an attempt to arm you against Voldemort's assaults on your mind, I arranged Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape. He discovered that you had been dreaming about the door to the Department of Mysteries for months. Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body, and as he dwelled on the door, so did you, though you did not know what it meant. And then you saw Rookwood, who worked in the Department of Mysteries before his arrest, telling Voldemort what we had known all along — that the prophecies held in the Ministry of Magic are heavily protected. Only the people to whom they refer can lift them from the shelves without suffering madness. In this case, either Voldemort himself would have to enter the Ministry of Magic and risk revealing himself at last — or else you would have to take it for him. It became a matter of even greater urgency that you should master Occlumency."

I groaned aloud. "But I didn't. I didn't practice, I didn't bother, I could've stopped myself having those dreams, Hermione kept telling me to do it, if I had he'd never have been able to show me where to go, and — Sirius wouldn't — Sirius wouldn't — I tried to check he'd really taken Sirius, I went to Umbridge's office, I spoke to Kreacher in the fire, and he said Sirius wasn't there, he said he'd gone!"

"Kreacher lied. You are not his master, he could lie to you without even needing to punish himself. Kreacher intended you to go to the Ministry of Magic."

"He — he sent me on purpose?"

"Oh yes. Kreacher, I am afraid, has been serving more than one master for months."

"How? He hasn't been out of Grimmauld Place for years."

"Kreacher seized his opportunity shortly before Christmas when Sirius, apparently, shouted at him to 'get out.' He took Sirius at his word and interpreted this as an order to leave the house. He went to the only Black family member for whom he had any respect left, Black's cousin Narcissa, sister of Bellatrix and wife of Lucius Malfoy."

"How do you know all this?"

"Kreacher told me last night. You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place. When, however, you did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort's. He alerted certain Order members at once." Dumbledore sighed. "Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin, and Fred and George Weasley were at headquarters when he made contact. All agreed to go to your aid at once. Professor Snape requested that Sirius remain behind, as he needed somebody to remain at headquarters to tell me what had happened, for I was due there at any moment. In the meantime he, Professor Snape, intended to search the forest for you. But Sirius did not wish to remain behind while the others went to search for you. He delegated to Kreacher the task of telling me what had happened. And so it was that when I arrived in Grimmauld Place shortly after they had all left for the Ministry, it was the elf who told me — laughing fit to burst — where Sirius had gone."

I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut. "He was laughing?"

"Oh yes. You see, Kreacher was not able to betray us totally. He is not Secret-Keeper for the Order, he could not give the Malfoys our whereabouts or tell them any of the Order's confidential plans that he had been forbidden to reveal. He was bound by the enchantments of his kind, which is to say that he could not disobey a direct order from his master, Sirius. But he gave Narcissa information of the sort that is very valuable to Voldemort, yet must have seemed much too trivial for Sirius to think of banning him from repeating it."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that the person Sirius cared most about in the world was you. Like the fact that you were coming to regard Sirius as a mixture of father and brother. Voldemort knew already, of course, that Sirius was in the Order, that you knew where he was — but Kreacher's information made him realize that the one person whom you would go to any lengths to rescue was Sirius Black."

"So... when I asked Kreacher if Sirius was there last night..."

"The Malfoys — undoubtedly on Voldemort's instructions — had told him he must find a way of keeping Sirius out of the way once you had seen the vision of Sirius being tortured. Then, if you decided to check whether Sirius was at home or not, Kreacher would be able to pretend he was not. Kreacher injured Buckbeak the hippogriff yesterday, and at the moment when you made your appearance in the fire, Sirius was upstairs trying to tend to him."

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't breathe. "And Kreacher told you all this... and laughed?"

"He did not wish to tell me, but I am a sufficiently accomplished Legilimens myself to know when I am being lied to and I — persuaded him — to tell me the full story, before I left for the Department of Mysteries."

"And... and Hermione kept telling us to be nice to him..."

"She was quite right, Harry. I warned Sirius when we adopted twelve Grimmauld Place as our headquarters that Kreacher must be treated with kindness and respect. I also told him that Kreacher could be dangerous to us. I do not think that Sirius took me very seriously, or that he ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a humans—"

"Don't you blame — don't you — talk — about Sirius like — Kreacher's a lying — foul — he deserved—"

"Kreacher is what he has been made by wizards, Harry. Yes, he is to be pitied. His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby's. He was forced to do Sirius's bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him. And whatever Kreacher's faults, it must be admitted that Sirius did nothing to make Kreacher's lot easier—"

I jumped to my feet. "Don't talk about Sirius like that! What about Snape? You're not talking about him, are you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual—"

"Harry, you know that Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge, but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the forest. It was he too who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell of Sirius's whereabouts."

"Lucy and I didn't drink it anyway, she could tell something was off about it," I spat. "Snape — Snape goaded Sirius about staying in the house — he made out Sirius was a coward—"

"Sirius was much too old and clever to have allowed such feeble taunts to hurt him."

"Snape stopped giving me Occlumency lessons! He threw me out of his office!"

"I am aware of it. I have already said that it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though I was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence—"

"Snape made it worse, my scar always hurt worse after lessons with him. How do you know he wasn't trying to soften me up for Voldemort, make it easier for him to get inside my—"

"I trust Severus Snape. But I forgot — another old man's mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong."

"But that's okay, is it? It's okay for Snape to hate my dad, but it's not okay for Sirius to hate Kreacher?"

"Sirius did not hate Kreacher. He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward."

"SO SIRIUS DESERVED WHAT HE GOT, DID HE?"

"I did not say that, nor will you ever hear me say it. Sirius was not a cruel man, he was kind to house-elves in general. He had no love for Kreacher, because Kreacher was a living reminder of the home Sirius had hated."

I walked away, too upset to speak for a moment. I noticed that the sun had fully risen. "Yeah, he did hate it! You made him stay shut up in that house and he hated it, that's why he wanted to get out last night—"

"I was trying to keep Sirius alive."

I whirled around to face him again. "People don't like being locked up! You did it to me all last summer—"

At this, Dumbledore rested his face in his hands. I resented him for showing weakness when I wanted to be furious at him. After a long moment, he looked up at me.

"It is time for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything. I ask only a little patience. You will have your chance to rage at me — to do whatever you like — when I have finished. I will not stop you."

I dropped down heavily into the chair again.

"Five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, Harry, safe and whole, as I had planned and intended. Well — not quite whole. You had suffered. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle's doorstep. I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years. You might ask — and with good reason — why it had to be so. Why could some wizarding family not have taken you in? Many would have done so more than gladly, would have been honored and delighted to raise you as a son. My answer is that my priority was to keep you alive. You were in more danger than perhaps anyone but myself realized. Voldemort had been vanquished hours before, but his supporters — and many of them are almost as terrible as he — were still at large, angry, desperate, and violent. And I had to make my decision too with regard to the years ahead. Did I believe that Voldemort was gone forever? No. I knew not whether it would be ten, twenty, or fifty years before he returned, but I was sure he would do so, and I was sure too, knowing him as I have done, that he would not rest until he killed you. I knew that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is perhaps more extensive than any wizard alive. I knew that even my most complex and powerful protective spells and charms were unlikely to be invincible if he ever returned to full power. But I knew too where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated — to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative."

"She doesn't love me. She doesn't give a damn—"

"But she took you. She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you."

"I still don't—"

"While you can still call home the place where your mother's blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, there he cannot hurt you. Your aunt knows this. I explained what I had done in the letter I left, with you, on her doorstep. She knows that allowing you houseroom may well have kept you alive for the past fifteen years."

"Wait. Wait a moment. Over summer, after the dementor attack. You sent that Howler. You told her to remember — it was your voice —"

"I thought that she might need reminding of the pact she had sealed by taking you. I suspected the dementor attack might have awoken her to the dangers of having you as a surrogate son."

"It did. Well — my uncle more than her. He wanted to chuck me out, but after the Howler came she — she said I had to stay. But what's this got to do with...?" Sirius?

"Five years ago, then, you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well-nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well. And then... well, you will remember the events of your first year at Hogwarts quite as clearly as I do. You rose magnificently to the challenge that faced you, and sooner — much sooner — than I had anticipated, you found yourself face-to-face with Voldemort. You survived again. You did more. You delayed his return to full power and strength. You fought a man's fight. I was... prouder of you than I can say. Yet there was a flaw in this wonderful plan of mine. An obvious flaw that I knew, even then, might be the undoing of it all. And yet, knowing how important it was that my plan should succeed, I told myself that I would not permit this flaw to ruin it. I alone could prevent this, so I alone must be strong. And here was my first test, as you lay in the Hospital Wing, weak from your struggle with Voldemort."

"I don't understand what you're saying," I admitted.

"Don't you remember asking me, as you lay in the Hospital Wing, why Voldemort had tried to kill you when you were a baby?"

I nodded slowly.

"Ought I to have told you then?"

I had no answer.

"You do not see the flaw in the plan yet? No... perhaps not. Well, as you know, I decided not to answer you. Eleven, I told myself, was much too young to know. I had never intended to tell you when you were eleven. The knowledge would be too much at such a young age. I should have recognized the danger signs then. I should have asked myself why I did not feel more disturbed that you had already asked me the question to which I knew, one day, I must give a terrible answer. I should have recognized that I was too happy to think that I did not have to do it on that particular day. You were too young, much too young, and so we entered your second year at Hogwarts. And once again you met challenges even grown wizards have never faced. Once again you acquitted yourself beyond my wildest dreams. You did not ask me again, however, why Voldemort had left that mark upon you. We discussed your scar, oh yes. We came very, very close to the subject. Why did I not tell you everything? Well, it seemed to me that twelve was, after all, hardly better than eleven to receive such information. I allowed you to leave my presence, bloodstained, exhausted but exhilarated, and if I felt a twinge of unease that I ought, perhaps, have told you then, it was swiftly silenced. You were still so young, you see, and I could not find it in me to spoil that night of triumph. Do you see, Harry? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan now? I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid."

I blinked. "I don't—"

"I cared about you too much. I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act. Is there a defense? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have — and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined — not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would have such a person on my hands. We entered your third year. I watched from afar as you struggled to repel dementors, as you found Sirius, learned what he was and rescued him. Was I to tell you then, at the moment when you had triumphantly snatched your godfather from the jaws of the Ministry? But now, at the age of thirteen, my excuses were running out. Young you might be, but you had proved you were exceptional. My conscience was uneasy, Harry. I knew the time must come soon. But you came out of the maze last year, having watched Cedric Diggory die, having escaped death so narrowly yourself, and I did not tell you, though I knew, now Voldemort had returned, I must do it soon. And now, tonight, I know you have long been ready for the knowledge I have kept from you for so long, because you have proved that I should have placed the burden upon you before this. My only defense is this: I have watched you struggling under more burdens than any student who has ever passed through this school, and I could not bring myself to add another — the greatest one of all."

I waited for him to speak again, but when he didn't, I tried to prompt him. "I — I still don't understand."

"Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew the prophecy had been made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost, that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired. And so, since his return to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you."

"The prophecy's smashed. Lucy and I were pulling Neville up those benches in the — the room where the archway was, and I ripped his robes and it fell," I said with a shrug.

"The thing that smashed was merely the record of the prophecy kept by the Department of Mysteries. But the prophecy was made to somebody, and that person has the means of recalling it perfectly."

"Who heard it?"

"I did, on a cold wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog's Head Inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher, though it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all. The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer, and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post. I turned to leave, but then..."

He drew out the Pensieve and brought it close. When he submerged the tip of his wand in the silvery contents, a younger-looking Professor Trelawney rose from it.

I hardly dared to breathe as she talked.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Not even when I was in a silencing charm bubble with Lucy had I heard such silence as I heard in the moments after the prophecy was through.

"Professor Dumbledore? It... did that mean..." I swallowed hard and tried again. "What did that mean?"

"It meant that the person who has the only chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to parents who had already defied him three times."

I felt lightheaded, like I was falling backward though I was still in my chair. "It means — me?"

"The odd thing is, Harry, that it might not have meant you at all. Sybill's prophecy could have applied to two wizard boys, both born at the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in the Order of the Phoenix, both sets of parents having narrowly escaped Voldemort three times. One, of course, was you. The other was Neville Longbottom."

"But then... but then, why was it my name on the prophecy and not Neville's?"

"The official record was relabeled after Voldemort's attack on you as a child. It seemed plain to the keeper of the Hall of Prophecy that Voldemort could only have tried to kill you because he knew you to be the one to whom Sibyll was referring."

"Then — it might not be me?"

"I... am afraid that there is no doubt that it is you."

"But you said — Neville was born at the end of July too — and his mum and dad—"

"You are forgetting the next part of the prophecy, the final identifying feature of the boy who could vanquish Voldemort. Voldemort himself would 'mark him as his equal.' And so he did, Harry. He chose you, not Neville. He gave you the scar that has proved both blessing and curse."

"But he might have chosen wrong! He might have marked the wrong person!"

"He chose the boy he thought most likely to be a danger to him, and notice this, Harry. He chose, not the pureblood (which, according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing), but the half-blood, like himself. He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you, and in marking you with that scar, he did not kill you, as he intended, but gave you powers, and a future, which have fitted you to escape him not once, but four times so far — something that neither your parents, nor Neville's parents, ever achieved."

"I — I don't know if that's an achievement, sir," I said, my voice sounding every bit as broken as I felt. "I — why did he do it, then? Why did he try and kill me as a baby? He should have waited to see whether Neville or I looked more dangerous when we were older and tried to kill whoever it was then—"

"That might, indeed, have been the more practical course, except that Voldemort's information about the prophecy was incomplete. The Hog's Head Inn, which Sibyll chose for its cheapness, has long attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks. As you and your friends found out to your cost, and I to mine that night, it is a place where it is never safe to assume you are not being overheard. Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sibyll Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing. My — our — one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building."

"So he only heard...?"

"He heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you — again marking you as his equal. So Voldemort never knew that there might be danger in attacking you, that it might be wise to wait or to learn more. He did not know that you would have 'power the Dark Lord knows not'—"

"But I don't! I haven't any powers he hasn't got, I couldn't fight the way he did tonight, I can't possess people or — or kill them."

"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests, amplified by Lucy's actions. That power saved her as well. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."

I had already lost Sirius. Thinking of how close I had come to losing Lucy too was nearly unbearable. I didn't want to think about it. I changed the subject.

"The end of the prophecy... it was something about 'neither can live...'"

"While the other survives," he finished.

"So... so does that mean that... that one of us has got to kill the other one... in the end?"

"Yes."

Another long silence filled the office.

Dumbledore looked at the door for a moment, then turned back to me. "I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry. You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess... that I rather thought... you had enough responsibility to be going on with." A single tear escaped his eye. "You may now rage at me as you see fit."

But I found I'd been rather overcome by a plethora of other emotions. I struggled to find my voice, but when I did, I asked, "Will you let me out now?"

He nodded. I rose from my chair on shaking legs and crossed the room.

Lucy was on the other side of the door. Her eyes were puffy and red, as if she'd been crying, but her voice was eerily calm when she spoke. "People are starting to wake up. Let's take a walk."

"Did you hear everything?" I asked in a hollow voice.

"Everything," she confirmed with a nod. "Now come on. You're not going to be alone right now."

I followed her through the castle, onto the grounds, all the way down to the lake. Once we reached its shores, Lucy bent down and picked up a rock so large she needed both hands to do so. She launched it into the water with every ounce of strength she had left, crying out in frustration as it soared through the air.

When it hit the water with a resounding splash, she wrapped her arms around me, holding me as if her life depended on it for the second time that day.

"I heard everything, and I'm so sorry, Harry," she said.

The hole in my chest caved in on itself, and suddenly I was breaking down. Lucy held me as I cried into her shoulder, never once flinching at the magnitude of my emotions. I had no words to put to what I was feeling, but she understood me perfectly anyway. Though I was taller than her, when my glasses clattered to the rocky ground beneath us, I found that my face fit perfectly into the crook of her neck.

I didn't stop crying until I was sure I had no water left in my body to spare. Even then, it was several long minutes of silence before I could bring myself to let Lucy go. I couldn't even recall when I had thrown my arms around her, but I realized I was holding her so tightly it must have been difficult for her to breathe.

For what it was worth, though, she was holding me just as tight.

"Do you want to go back up to the castle?" Lucy asked softly when I finally released her and reached down for my glasses.

I shook my head, my breathing still hitched and shaky in the aftermath of the hurricane that had ripped through me.

"That's alright," she said, taking my hand. She led us into the shade of a nearby tree, one that would be hidden from view if anyone happened to pass by. A soft patch of grass appeared in place of the rocks as we approached, and I glanced at her with wonder. She didn't meet my gaze, but she must have felt it because she offered a shrug. "I thought it would be more comfortable. D'you agree?"

I managed a nod as we lowered ourselves flat on our backs onto the grass. The distance between us seemed far too expansive even though we were side-by-side, and she seemed to feel the same way.

Lucy slowly removed the glasses from my face and laid them on the ground nearby. "You look exhausted. Rest."

"Only if you do too," I choked out, my voice wobbling.

She nodded. "I will. C'mere." Her arms snaked around my neck, and she pulled me into her chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist, so tired of everything. She was my only comfort. I wasn't going to let anything happen to her, not the way Sirius...

I held her tighter. Lucy's heartbeat was a little unsteady beneath me, but it was there. She was there. She was alive.

And I was going to fight with everything I had to keep her that way, until my own dying breath.

The longer we rested there in the silence, the more steady our heartbeats both became. In spite of everything, we were alive. More importantly, we were together.

I wasn't sure if I was asleep or awake or somewhere in between when Lucy's heart suddenly started racing. I jerked upward and scrambled for my glasses so I could better see her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She blinked a couple of times, her breath coming in short gasps. "I — I was — I was possessed by my brother's murderer."

Merlin, I didn't even know my heart could break further than it already had, but it did.

I didn't know I had more tears to shed, either, but they shot up to my eyes instantly.

No. She had it all wrong. Voldemort hadn't killed Cedric, not directly. Peter Pettigrew, the man I'd saved, had killed her brother.

I could opt not to tell her. I had been the one to save Pettigrew's life, after all. Surely she would hate me for realizing that, surely she would never want to see me again. I could tell her the truth, and I could watch her leave. Surely once she knew the truth about Cedric, she would fall apart all over again. Surely once she knew the truth about me, she would run to America to be with her real family and never look back. Surely once she knew, everything would change.

I could be selfish and opt not to tell her, I could continue to let her think it was all Voldemort's doing, I could protect my own image in her eyes that had always looked at me with so much love, I could let her keep believing the lie because the truth was so much worse than she could possibly imagine.

But what did I have left to lose at that point?

Lucy deserved the truth.

I pushed myself to my feet, my own heart racing at that point. "If—" The word stuck in my throat. I coughed and tried again. "I know you're good at the whole Pensieve deal. If I — do you think — could you pull a memory from my head, if I thought really hard about it?"

"I, er, I could try," she said with a look of utter confusion on her face. "W-Why?"

"Voldemort didn't — didn't kill Cedric. I could show you what really happened, if — if you want that."

She didn't speak, but I could see her answer in her face. I extended a hand to heave her up, which she accepted. We proceeded silently to the Room of Requirement.

When we pushed open the door, the Pensieve was waiting.

Lucy turned to me once we had reached the edge of the basin. "Just... focus really hard on the memory, okay? I think I can manage it."

I closed my eyes and conjured two memories at once. The first was of that moment in the Shrieking Shack when I saved the life of the man who murdered her brother. The second was of that fateful night in the graveyard. A few seconds later, a rather strange sensation occurred in my head, and when I opened my eyes, the Pensieve was shimmering silver.

Lucy stared at its contents, leaning somewhat heavily against the stone.

"D'you want to go with me?" she asked.

"D'you want me to go with you?"

She considered this for a long moment. "I think I should see this for myself. Y-You'll stay here?"

"Where else would I be?" I replied.

Lucy held her breath as she dipped her head beneath the surface. I sank to the ground, rested my head back against the stone, and waited.

After what simultaneously felt like mere seconds and an eternity, Lucy staggered back from the Pensieve, her eyes wild as tears streamed down her face. I realized with a jolt that I was crying, too.

"I'm so sorry," I said through my sobs. "It's been eating me alive for months now, knowing it's all my fault, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell you—"

She lowered herself to the ground next to me, shaking her head as she pulled her knees to her chest. "No, no, no, no, no, not your fault, not at all, you couldn't have known — it's not your fault, I don't blame you."

"You should."

"I don't." She buried her face in her hands and choked out a sob. "At least he didn't have time to process what was happening, and — and it didn't hurt him. And he — or, well, some version of him — got to come back and help you and..."

"I'm sorry I've done such a terrible job of keeping my promise," I said, "I've done my best, I'll do better—"

Lucy turned to me, horrorstruck. "Harry, no, it's alright, shh." She turned and held my face in her hands. "I don't blame you. I will never blame you. You're my best friend. We protect each other. We stick together. You're my best friend. I don't blame you and I never will."

But she was covered in blood. Some Grawp's, some her own. She was pale and bruised and shaking and crying all because of me. I pulled my sleeve over my hand and gently brushed it across Lucy's cheek to try to scrub a bit of the blood away. Before she could react beyond just widening her eyes in surprise, the door opened.

Dumbledore entered, hands folded in front of him. His expression was profoundly sad, yet knowing. How he knew what had happened or where to find us, I had no idea, but he did and he had.

He sighed softly. "You once again find yourselves with a shared experience only you can truly comprehend. After this year, it's now crucial that the two of you continue to support each other in areas others cannot understand." He looked around the room and nodded once. "Stay here for a time. I'll see to it you're not bothered."

"Can someone come let us know when — when our friends are awake?" Lucy asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "Of course. Until then, rest. You've both had an extraordinarily long night."

With that, he left and we were alone.

Lucy turned her gaze upward. The room responded to her silent call.

The Pensieve disappeared, replaced by a regular basin of water. Nearby, a bed appeared, big enough for the both of us to comfortably share.

We didn't speak as we rose to our feet. Lucy rolled her sleeves up and started splashing water on her face. I removed my glasses and followed suit, not stopping until all of the blood and grime had been scrubbed away. When I put my glasses on and studied Lucy's now-clean face, I could better see just how pale she was and how many bruises were forming. She held my gaze, looking at me as if I didn't look much better than she did.

"It'll get better," she whispered. "I promise. As far as I know, it never goes away, but it does get better."

I didn't deserve her words of comfort, but I accepted them with a nod anyway.

A minute later, we had both crawled into opposite sides of the bed and collapsed against the pillows.

A minute after that, we had both fallen asleep.

~

Something happened for the first time, in
The darkest little paradise
Shakin', pacin', I just need you

For you, I would cross the line
I would waste my timeI would lose my mind
They say she's gone too far this time

Don't blame me, love made me crazy
If it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right

"Don't Blame Me"
Taylor Swift

~

LUCY:

I fell asleep on the floor beside Tuck. Even just crawling up into my own bed would have made him seem too far away. I couldn't risk anything else happening to him because I was too far away. I was shaken awake by Parvati late the next morning, saying I would do better on the History of Magic exam if I had at least a little bit of lunch. I agreed and hurried down to the Great Hall just as the room started to fill.

Harry's face brightened when he saw me. "Hey, Lu. How are you feeling?"

"Still half-asleep," I admitted, neglecting to mention the crick in my neck from sleeping on the floor all night or the resulting headache. "I think after the exam, I'm going to sleep until summer."

"You can't do that!" Ginny protested. "After the exam, you get to help me with the pranks again!"

I nodded. "Right, right. I'll sleep during the day and terrorize Umbridge all night."

"What about the rest of us? What will we do without you?" Harry asked with an exaggerated pout.

"We should have a chess tournament, for old time's sake," Ron suggested.

Hermione huffed. "You just want to be the best at something again, since Merlin knows you'll need all the help you can get on this O.W.L."

"You're just bitter you still can't beat me," he replied with a good-natured grin.

"I'm not!" she protested, a little too passionately to be believed.

Harry laughed, patting Hermione on the back. "Don't worry, not even McGonagall can beat him, we know this. Don't let it get you down. I, for one, would love to borrow someone's broom and fly again."

"We could try to steal your broom back one night," I said. "I reckon we could figure something out, we've got a couple of weeks left."

"Good luck with that one," Hermione sniped.

I, of course, ignored her and turned to Ginny and immediately began plotting a way to steal Harry's broom without getting him or anyone else in trouble for it. I posited the idea of stealing it every night after dinner and returning it every morning. An end-of-term nocturnal Quidditch league sounded like an incredibly fun way to spend the rest of the year.

Eventually, lunch ended and the exam began. When my quill hit the parchment, my fatigue fell away as my adrenaline kicked in. One more O.W.L., and then I was free. For a little while, anyway — N.E.W.T.s were only two short years away.

I was on the final question of the exam when a piercing scream split the silent room.

My heart jumped into my throat. Harry.

I whirled to face him as everyone around me jumped and looked for the source of the sound. He'd fallen from his chair onto the floor and was trying to push himself up, which was proving to be difficult since one hand was still clutching his scar.

The glaring sunlight in the room made the sheen of sweat on his pale face stand out even more than it otherwise would have. He'd had another nightmare. From the look on his face, the worst nightmare yet.

One of the examiners was rushing toward him. I paid him no mind, keeping my gaze on Harry as he was tugged to his feet and half-led, half-dragged toward the door.

Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me...

His green eyes, wide with terror, finally locked onto mine. Only for a second though. The next, he disappeared from view, and we were told to resume.

I finished my answer with a shaking hand. Everything within me longed to chase Harry, but I couldn't do that without making us both look suspicious. I did my best to go over my answers, but my mind was on Harry.

The second my paper was collected at the end of the exam, I jumped to my feet and sprinted from the room. I was distantly aware of Ron and Hermione shouting for me to slow down, but no, if they wanted to go with me, they needed to keep up. When they realized this, they started running faster.

Finally, we spotted him, looking as if his world was falling down around him. I sprinted over, Ron and Hermione on my heels.

"Harry! What happened? Are you alright? Are you ill?" Hermione burst out.

Well, that's the wrong question.

I opened my mouth, but Ron beat me to it. "Where have you been?"

So is that.

"What did you see?" I asked urgently.

"C-Come on." Once we had followed him into an empty classroom, he closed the door and whirled on us. "Voldemort's got Sirius."

I suddenly understood why Harry looked the way he did. I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut, and the room around me lurched. The edges of my vision burned green. He'd killed Cedric. Mum. Dad.

I blinked hard. Be steady for Harry. Your family may be dead, but Sirius isn't. We can fix this.

Harry's voice brought me back to reality. "I don't how, but I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls, and they're at the end of row ninety-seven. He's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there. He's torturing him, says — says he'll end by killing him."

He still looked as if he were about to faint, so I gently led him to a desk and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Deep breath. C'mon."

"I can't — I — how are we going to get there?" he asked desperately.

Ron blinked. "G-Get there?"

"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!"

"But — Harry..."

"What? What?"

"Harry, how... how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?" Hermione asked.

Harry huffed. "How do I know? The question is how we're going to get in there!"

"We'll figure something out," I said, but Hermione cut me off.

"But, Harry, think about this, it's five o'clock in the afternoon. The Ministry of Magic must be full of workers. How would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry, they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"

Harry huffed again, louder.

"I don't know, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something! Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been—"

"You've never been there, Harry. You've dreamed about the place, that's all."

"They're not normal dreams!" Harry snapped, on his feet so suddenly my hand fell away. "How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?"

I fixed Ron with a look.

Ron looked at Hermione. "He's got a point."

Hermione looked at Harry. "But this is just — just so unlikely! Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"

"Sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air," Ron said with a shrug. "He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages."

"But why, why on earth would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"

"I dunno," Harry said, "there could be loads of reasons! Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt—"

Ron's eyes widened. "You know what, I've just thought of something. Sirius's brother was a Death Eater, wasn't he? Maybe he told Sirius the secret of how to get the weapon!"

Harry nodded. "Yeah — and that's why Dumbledore's been so keen to keep Sirius locked up all the time! That makes sense!"

"Look, I'm sorry, but neither of you are making sense, and we've got no proof for any of this!" Hermione interrupted. "No proof Voldemort and Sirius are even there—"

"Hermione, Harry's seen them!" Ron shouted.

She held up her hands in mock surrender. "Okay, well, I've just got to say this."

I shot her a withering look. I didn't know what she was about to say, but I knew it wouldn't be good.

Harry seemed to curious to care, though. He looked at her warily. "What?"

"You... this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do... sort of... I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people-thing?"

I opened my mouth to defend him, but he beat me to it, glaring at her so intensely it was amazing she didn't cower.

"And what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving-people-thing?'"

"Voldemort knows you, Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it's the kind of thing he does, he knows you're the — the sort of person who'd go to Sirius's aid! What if he's just trying to get you into the Department of Myst—"

"Hermione, it doesn't matter if he's done it to get me there or not — they've taken McGonagall to St. Mungo's, there isn't anyone left from the Order at Hogwarts who we can tell, and if we don't go, Sirius is dead!"

I blinked. Professor McGonagall was in St. Mungo's?

Hermione either didn't think much of that announcement or opted to ignore it. "But Harry — what if your dream was — was just that, a dream?"

"You don't get it! I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're real, Hermione — Sirius is trapped — I've seen him — Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand?"

I stepped closer to him, crossing my arms over my chest determinedly. "And I'm going with you. We stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindors need to stick together."

He glanced over at me with a relieved, tender expression, offering a small smile to me before looking back at the others. "That we do. And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my 'saving-people-thing' when it was you I was saving from the dementors, or when it was your sister I was saving from the basilisk—"

"I never said I had a problem!" Ron interjected.

"But, Harry," Hermione plowed on, "you've just said it! Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen this—"

"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN—"

"Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"

"WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST—"

Ginny and Luna entering the room cut him off.

"Er, hi, we recognized Harry's voice." Ginny shot me a glance. Worry. She must have seen the despair in my eyes, because she turned to Harry almost immediately. "What are you yelling about?"

He looked away. "Never you mind."

"There's no need to take that tone with me, I was only wondering whether I could help."

"Well, you can't."

I rolled my eyes. "Harry, take a deep breath. You losing it right now isn't going to help Sirius, alright?"

He huffed and fell silent.

Ginny turned to me with wide eyes. "Sirius?"

I scrambled for an explanation, but before I could come up with one, Hermione gasped.

"Wait. Wait. Harry, they can help. Listen, Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters—"

"I've told you, I saw—"

"Harry, I'm begging you, please! Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London — if we find out he's not there then I swear I won't try and stop you, I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him—"

"Sirius is being tortured NOW! We haven't got time to waste—"

"But if this is a trick of V-Voldemort's — Harry, we've got to check, we've got to—"

"How? How're we going to check?"

"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him. We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna."

"Yeah, we'll do it," Ginny said without hesitation.

Luna cocked her head. "When you say 'Sirius,' are you talking about Stubby Boardman?"

"I think so," I answered. I shot Ginny an appreciative look, but there was doubt gnawing at the back of my mind.

Should we trust Hermione?

When I looked at Harry, I saw the same question in his eyes.

"I don't know, Harry," I said with a despairing shrug. "You saw it. I'll follow your lead, whatever that may be."

"Okay." When he sighed, his breath trembled, but his voice was clear. "Okay, Hermione, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now—"

She looked a bit taken aback, but I watched as she clicked from Anxious Hermione to Anxious Hermione with a Plan. "Right. Right, well... one of us has to go and find Umbridge and — and send her off in the wrong direction, keep her away from her office. They could tell her — I don't know — that Peeves is up to something awful as usual."

Ron nodded. "I'll do it. I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office. Come to think of it, I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I met him on the way."

"Okay. Now, we need to keep students away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off."

"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas," Ginny said.

I snorted. Brilliant. "The twins wanted to do it before they left," I explained.

Hermione nodded. "Okay. Well then, Harry, you and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius—"

"He's not there, Hermione!"

"I mean, you can — can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone, Lee's already proved the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."

After a long moment, Harry muttered, "Alright, thanks."

"Right, well, even if we do all of that, I don't think we're going to be able to bank on more than five minutes, not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around."

"Archie's on our side. I'll go talk to him," I said with a quick tightening of my ponytail. "If he can do damage control with the Inquisitorial Squad and Umbridge, maybe we can avoid a mess like what happened over Christmas."

Harry nodded. "Brilliant, let's go."

"Now?" Hermione squeaked.

"Of course now! What did you think, we were going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"

"Go get the Invisibility Cloak, Harry, and we'll all meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor," I said.

He tore off, and the rest of us headed off in the direction of the designated meeting point.

"So what exactly is going on?" Ginny asked; I could tell she was trying to mask her concern, but I knew her well enough at that point to know she was terrified.

I lowered my voice so only she would be able to hear me. "Harry had a vision during the O.W.L. of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries."

"So now we're going to see if Sirius is home before we launch a rescue mission?"

"Something like that," I replied, the magnitude of the situation beginning to settle on my shoulders. Twenty-four hours earlier, my biggest problem had been the last two O.W.L.s. They were over, finally over, yet I found myself feeling the furthest thing from relieved. "Merlin."

"Agreed."

Luna glanced at me, her face lighting up. "Oh! I just remembered!" She reached into her robes and pulled out what looked like a wooden Christmas ornament hanging from a golden string. "This is for Tuck. It's a piece of wiggentree bark I found on my walk this morning near the forest. It doesn't have any known healing properties, but wiggentrees do offer protection against Dark creatures to those who are touching the trunks. I thought perhaps the bark would have similar effects, but even if it doesn't, it's a rather lovely shape."

"Thank you, Luna," I said, taken aback as I accepted the small charm from her hand. I slipped it into my pocket. "I'll be sure to give it to him later."

"How is he today?"

"He's healing." Even as I said the words, I felt a tug in my chest. I needed to make sure he'd be alright if — when — we left for the Department of Mysteries. "I'm sure he'll be alright soon. It was just frightening."

"I can imagine," she said with a sympathetic nod. "You seem to have a lot of experience with healing, if you managed it on your own since Madam Pomfrey was helping Professor McGonagall."

"My brother wanted to be a healer, so I learned quite a bit from him," I said, feeling another tug in my chest. I couldn't afford to let myself follow that path, the dark one that only led to the deepest parts of my pain.

Harry screeched to a halt in front of us, and the charm in my pocket was instantly forgotten.

"Got it. Everyone ready, then?" he panted.

"I'll go find Archie," I said, squeezing his arm as reassuringly as I could manage. "Good luck."

With that, I hurried away in search of my first — and only, really, given how oddly Cam had been acting around me — Slytherin friend. Before I found Archie, though, I stumbled across Lavender and Parvati.

"We finished, we're free!" Lavender squealed, throwing her arms around my neck.

I nodded as I tried to morph my face into a convincing smile. "Yeah, we are."

"Where are you headed?" Parvati asked. "I would have expected you to be on the Quidditch Pitch celebrating by now."

"That'll have to wait until after I talk to Archie," I said. "Listen, I, er, I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go, so if it goes poorly, would you mind taking care of Tuck for me?"

They both furrowed their brows at me. If I hadn't been so preoccupied, I would have found the identical nature of the gesture to be funny.

"How poorly do you think this will go? Do you want us to come with you?" Parvati asked.

I shook my head. "No, no, it's okay, I should do this myself. I just want to try to talk sense into him. Merlin knows if it'll accomplish anything, but... but he's my friend."

"Okay." Lavender pulled me into a quick hug. "Don't worry, if anything happens to you, Tuck is in good hands."

"Thank you," I said, a significant weight lifted from my shoulders.

"Of course. See you at dinner?"

Not likely. I smiled. "Of course."

They continued on their way, and I continued on mine. Tuck would be okay. I needed to find Archie so we would be too, once we made sure Sirius was... it was a whole mess.

I found him on the next floor down, looking utterly bored as he wandered the halls.

"Oi, Graye, I need a word!" I called.

He whirled around, his face a perfect mask of disgust. "You, a confirmed leader of Dumbledore's Army, dares to request 'a word' with an esteemed member of Headmistress Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad? Repulsive. You must be desperate."

I erected a quick silencing charm and rushed toward him as his feigned disgust gave way to genuine concern.

"You look terrible," Archie commented. "What's wrong?"

"I — not terribly sure yet," I replied, "but Harry and Hermione are breaking into Umbridge's office as we speak and Harry and I might be leaving the school later."

He blinked. "I appreciate your honesty."

I resisted the urge to laugh. "No point beating around the bush. I was wondering if you would mind attempting to smooth matters over with the Inquisitorial Squad should something go poorly. I don't particularly fancy the idea of another situation like what happened at Christmas."

"Right. Yeah, I can do that. You just worry about what you need to—"

He was cut off by the sound of chaos erupting upstairs.

"If something happened to Harry and the others, I need to go," I said, fear climbing in me once again.

"If something happened to Harry and the others, you'll need all the help you can get," Archie replied.

We listened intently for a couple of seconds to the other Inquisitorial Squad members above us, shouting orders to each other, horrible phrases like "I got her!" and "Grab him!" louder than the rest.

I swore. "They're in trouble. Our plan's ruined. Umbridge is going to find out."

"You look as if you're going to faint," he said. He blinked. "Wait... fainting..."

"What?"

"What exactly was your plan?"

"Ron was supposed to distract Umbridge, Ginny and Luna were supposed to keep everyone out of the hallway, and I was supposed to talk to you to make sure—"

"Yeah, I know. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, of course I—"

"Run. I'll pretend to Stun you, pretend you were part of the plan—"

"I am part of the plan—"

"—and bring you in unconscious. You'll be there to help if necessary but you'll have an excuse to remain silent too. Umbridge can't pit you and Harry against each other that way, you know that's what she always tries to do."

I bit my lip and nodded. "Alright."

"Do you trust me?" he asked again.

"Yeah. Let's go."

I sprinted away from him, and I was halfway up the stairs when I felt a rush of magic narrowly miss me. Knowing this was my cue, though, I dropped like a rock and waited for Archie.

"Merlin, that was way more convincing than it needed to be," he muttered. "Did you actually hurt yourself?"

"I'm fine," I muttered back as he hauled me up and started to drag me. I neglected to mention the fact that I'd hit my head a bit hard against the stone, but I had a headache anyway from the crick in my neck so I figured it could have been worse.

"Graye! Well, there you are!" one of the other Slytherins called. "Who'd you get?"

"Diggory," Archie grunted. "She's out cold, though. I've got a good Stunner. Are we taking everyone to Headmistress Umbridge's office?"

"You bet. Don't bother gagging her, you did enough of a number on her. C'mon."

I could tell from Ginny's muffled scream that she was gagged, and that she had seen me. I wanted to somehow show her that I was alright, but I couldn't risk that. I let my head droop against my chest as the drag to Umbridge's office continued.

As we approached, I heard Umbridge screech something that sounded a lot like "Liar!" followed by a crash. Someone opened the door half a second later, though, so I didn't have time to process what was said.

I recognized the first voice. Cassius Warrington. "Got 'em all! That one tried to stop me taking her, so I brought him along too." Once upon a time, we'd played Quidditch together. We'd won together. Merlin. Time changed people. Circumstance changed people.

I heard Harry's sharp inhale when I crossed the threshold with Archie. He adjusted his grip on me and nudged the door shut with his foot. "Sorry, Headmistress, but I'm afraid my Stunning Spell is stronger than I realized. I tried to bring her back around, but she's out cold. I'm sure Potter will be able to provide you with all of the information you need, though."

Umbridge, thankfully, replied as expected. "I'm sure you're right, Mr. Graye, I trust that you did what you had to do. We all know about her dangerous temper. Well, it looks as though Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it? So, Potter, you stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes, Mr. Filch having just informed me so. Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone."

I started plotting an escape plan as the voices swirled around me. It was easier to think with my eyes closed. I, unfortunately, was rather familiar with Umbridge's office at that point.

Harry. "It's none of your business who I talk to!"

Umbridge. "Very well. Very well, Mr. Potter. I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco — fetch Professor Snape."

I heard shuffling and footsteps as Malfoy disappeared, then the only sounds in the room were the attempts of my friends to slip away. Their attempts were all futile, though, and the door opened again a couple minutes later.

Snape. "You wanted to see me, Headmistress?"

Umbridge. "Ah, Professor Snape! Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please."

Snape. "You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter and Diggory. Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient for each."

Umbridge. "You can make some more, can't you?"

Snape. "Certainly. It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month."

Umbridge. "A month? A month? But I need it this evening, Snape! I have just found Potter using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!"

Snape. "Really? Well, it doesn't surprise me. Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules."

Umbridge. "I wish to interrogate him! I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!"

Snape. "I have already told you that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter — and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did — I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling."

Umbridge. "You are on probation! You are being deliberately unhelpful! I expected better, Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of you! Now get out of my office!"

Harry. "He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

Umbridge. "Padfoot? What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What does he mean, Snape?"

Snape. "I have no idea. Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little, if Longbottom suffocates it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork, and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job."

His footsteps crossed the room to the door then faded to nothingness. I understood what Harry had tried to do — Snape was an Order member. But Snape was still Snape, so he left us there to face whatever fate awaited us.

We needed to escape. I just didn't know how. Not yet.

Umbridge began to pace as she talked. "Very well... very well. I am left with no alternative. This is more than a matter of school discipline, this is an issue of Ministry security. Yes... yes. You are forcing me, Potter. I do not want to, but sometimes circumstances justify the use... I am sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice. The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue."

I jerked upward involuntarily. Archie, quick and perceptive as ever, masked this by lifting his arms too, as if he'd just been trying to adjust his grip. It must have worked, because nobody seemed to notice.

I couldn't just go charging into the situation. I had to wait for the right moment. The second the start of the spell left her mouth, I'd throw myself in front of Harry, but I had to wait.

Hermione. "No! Professor Umbridge — it's illegal — the Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor Umbridge!"

Umbridge. "What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him. He never knew I ordered dementors after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same."

Harry. "It was you? You sent the dementors after me?"

Umbridge. "Somebody had to act. They were all bleating about silencing you somehow — discrediting you — but I was the one who actually did something about it. Only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now..."

Hermione. "NO! No — Harry — Harry, we'll have to tell her!"

Harry. "NO WAY!"

Hermione. "We'll have to, Harry, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's... what's the point..."

Umbridge. "Well, well, well! Little Miss Question-All is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!"

I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to cast a nonverbal, wandless silencing charm without anyone noticing. Hermione couldn't tell the truth, she couldn't.

She couldn't.

She wouldn't.

Hermione wasn't my favorite person at that moment, far from it, but I knew her well. She wouldn't.

I would know for certain if I could just see her face. I needed to see her face.

Hermione was sobbing. "I'm — I'm sorry everyone, but — I can't stand it—"

I looked up for half a second. She wasn't sobbing. She was pretending to sob.

Archie adjusted his grip again and I dropped my head. I had seen what I needed to see.

She wasn't going to tell Umbridge anything.

Umbridge. "That's right, that's right, girl! Now then... with whom was Potter communicating just now?"

Hermione. "Well... well, he was trying to speak to Professor Dumbledore..."

Umbridge. "Dumbledore? You know where Dumbledore is, then?"

Hermione. "Well... no! We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head—"

Umbridge. "Idiot girl, Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's looking for him!"

Hermione. "But — but we needed to tell him something important!"

Umbridge. "Yes? What was it you wanted to tell him?"

Hermione. "We... we wanted to tell him it's r-ready!"

Umbridge. "What's ready? What's ready, girl?"

Hermione. "The... the weapon."

Umbridge. "Weapon? Weapon? You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"

Hermione. "Yes, but he had... had to leave before it was finished and n-n-now we've finished it for him, and we c-c-can't find him to tell... tell him!"

Umbridge. "What kind of weapon is it?"

Hermione. "We don't r-really understand it. We just... just did what P-Professor Dumbledore told us to do—"

Umbridge. "Lead me to the weapon."

Hermione. "I'm not showing them."

Umbridge. "It is not for you to set conditions."

Hermione. "Fine, fine! Let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads and loads of people to come and see! Th-That would serve you right — oh, I'd love it if the whole school knew where it was, and h-how to use it, and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to s-sort you out!"

Umbridge. "Alright, dear, let's make it just you and me... and we'll take Potter too, shall we? Get up, now—"

Malfoy. "Professor? Professor Umbridge, I think some of the squad should come with you to look after—"

Umbridge. "I am a fully qualified Ministry official, Malfoy, do you really think I cannot manage two wandless teenagers alone? In any case, it does not sound as though this weapon is something that schoolchildren should see. You will remain here until I return and make sure none of these escape."

Hermione. "Can we bring Lulu with us? She understands the weapon better than Harry and I do."

Only one person is allowed to call me that.

They're going to see Grawp.

Archie shook me as gently as he could while still making my unconsciousness believable. "Sorry, Granger, she's still out. Like I said, I couldn't bring her back around. Looks like you're on your own."

Hermione, after a long pause. "That's fine."

Umbridge. "You two. Lead the way."

With that, Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge left the room.

"What now?" one of the beefy Slytherin buffoons asked.

"Reckon we just wait here until they come back," Archie replied. He adjusted his grip on me once again. "So how'd everyone feel about those O.W.L.s?"

"Load of rubbish, if you ask me," Malfoy replied.

Warrington chuckled. "What, scared of losing to the Mudblood Granger again, Malfoy?"

"Shut up!" he snapped. "I just think the exams should focus on more practical information and less theory. Theory is only taught so Mudbloods can understand it, anyone born with real magic knows it innately. The only information worth testing is about, say, the signs of a werewolf."

Oh, bloody hell, here we go. He's testing me. He doesn't believe I'm actually unconscious.

I kept my face perfectly still. I gave no outward indication of my anger.

"More practical examinations would be great," Archie agreed. "I reckon I'd get an O on my DADA O.W.L. after this Stunning Spell." He lifted me again for emphasis, then grunted. "Merlin, I didn't think she'd be so heavy. I don't think I killed her. Perhaps I don't know my own strength."

"You're not strong enough to kill anyone yet, Graye. Shame, though. Merlin only knows what Hogwarts would be without dear, sweet Lucy Diggory, Quidditch 'superstar' and the last hope for the Diggory name." He said this last bit with so much derisive sarcasm I know Harry would have slapped him across the face had he been around to hear it.

That comment earned a round of harsh laughter from the Slytherins and soft groans from my friends. I lightly stepped on Archie's foot. This charade had gone on long enough.

He was on the same page already, though; my signal was unnecessary. He dragged me across the room. "Alright, here, you take a turn, my arms are burning."

"Weakling," Malfoy muttered as Archie started to pass me off.

That one word was all I needed to locate exactly where his mouth was. The second Archie set my arms free, I punched Malfoy in the jaw. When he reeled back, I noticed Harry's wand was sticking out of Malfoy's robe pocket, so I snatched it from him and sent an arc of fire into the air that startled the Slytherins into releasing their captives.

Archie and I worked together to duel Warrington, the only seventh-year and the best fighter, into a corner. He managed to cut my chin and bust Archie's lip, but I finished him off with a Body-Bind Jinx after about a minute. By the time we'd achieved that, everyone had ripped their gags off and successfully subdued the others.

Ginny hit the unconscious Malfoy with a Bat-Bogey Hex and whirled to face me, her cheek all scratched but otherwise unharmed. "You're okay?"

"I'm okay," I assured her. "Did someone grab Hermione's wand?"

Ron, whose lip was bleeding, nodded and lifted it. "They're going for Grawp. She wouldn't have called you Lulu otherwise."

I nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. C'mon."

I was only expecting Ron and Ginny to go with me, maybe Luna too, but not only did Archie and Neville follow us automatically, Henry was running toward Umbridge's office with his wand drawn.

"What the hell happened in there?" he asked, voice high with panic. "Why is everyone bleeding?"

"Long story, the others can fill you in, I have to go," I replied as I sprinted past.

He fell into step with me, though. "Lucy, that's not an answer! What's going on?"

"Long story!" I said again.

"Where are you going, start with that."

"Right now? The forest. After that? London."

"London. London? Why?"

"Rescue mission," Ginny piped up. "You want in? We're all going."

"What — no!" I protested. "Harry and I are going, just the two of us, we are not all going!"

Ron laughed humorlessly from behind me. "You think we're just going to let you and Harry go break into the Department of Mysteries all on your own? Nice try, Lucy, but no, I at the very least am coming with you."

"I — we — no!" I shouted.

"Department of Mysteries?" Henry and Neville repeated in unison.

I bit back a groan. Right. Neville doesn't know either.

"Like I said, rescue mission," Ginny said. "First things first, though, we need to get down to the forest to find Harry and Hermione."

Henry nodded. "I saw them leaving with Umbridge, I was about to head into her office to see what was going on when all of a sudden—"

"We started blowing it up," Archie finished with a laugh. "Yeah, Lucy, I'm coming too. I'm not going to be able to show my face in the Slytherin common room again after that little performance."

"I'm sorry," I groaned. "I didn't mean for—"

"Sorry? Bloody hell, no, don't be, this is a relief! Finally getting to put all of those Dumbledore's Army skills into action feels great!"

"You don't have to put those skills into action," I said, "you should all just turn around and go back to your common rooms while you still can, Merlin only knows what's waiting for us outside this castle."

"Only one way to find out," Henry replied grimly as we burst out of the doors onto the grass.

Neville's voice reached me from behind. "Admit it, Lucy, we're all coming with you."

"I fail to see why there was ever a question in your mind, really," Luna said.

I had no good responses to any of that, so I merely put on a burst of speed as we hurtled toward the forest and gestured for Ginny to join me at the front of the pack.

"Feels odd being in here on two legs," Ginny commented as soon as we reached the tree line.

I snorted. "Tell me about it. You've got your bearings, though?"

"Yeah, of course. You've got yours?"

"Grawp's this way," I announced loud enough for everyone to hear as I leaped over a particularly high branch and sprinted along the trail Ginny and I had been carving for the past several months. "That's where Harry and Hermione went, I'm sure of it. Be quiet, though, we don't want to alert anything else to our presence if possible."

Ginny and I led everyone through the forest, still running as fast as we could, but just before we reached Grawp, we heard a roar. The ground beneath us trembled rhythmically.

Grawp was on the move. Harry and Hermione must have gotten lost.

"What is that?" Archie asked in a squeak. I'd never heard him sound like that.

"Who," Ginny corrected him. "Hagrid's little brother."

"I'd object to the use of the word 'little,'" Ron retorted. "Lucy, which way is he going?"

I strained my senses to try to make sense of the chaos. I heard distant shouts, yells, but Grawp above it all.

"This way!" I called to the others, tearing off in the direction of Grawp. I lowered my voice for Ginny. "We need to get there first."

She nodded, and all of our Quidditch training started to pay off as we slowly distanced ourselves from the group, sprinting as fast as our legs would carry us over the uneven — but not unfamiliar — terrain. Like Quidditch, we shouted warnings at each other — "Watch out for that one big hole!" — "Massive tree roots on your right!" — "Remember that it's really muddy in this part of the forest!" — "Low-hanging branches on your left!" — and pushed each other faster, faster, faster, faster.

For all of our teamwork, I was still the fastest member on the team. I burst into the clearing first, paying little mind to the other creatures around me.

"Hi, Grawp!" I called with all of the air left in my lungs.

He appraised me with despairing eyes. "LULU! WHERE HAGGER?"

"He's not here, I'm sorry!" I shouted.

Ginny rushed to my side. "He's not here! Gone! He will come back, but not yet!"

Grawp reached a massive hand in my direction, presumably to grab me as he often did, but he made the mistake of knocking a centaur down along the way.

I hadn't realized that all of the centaurs had their bows drawn. Arrows whizzed through the air and hit Grawp directly in the face.

Horror filled me as Grawp's blood rained to the ground, and desperate shouts escaped me before I knew what I was doing. "No! No, please, don't hurt him, it was an accident, all of this is a misunderstanding, I—"

Ginny grabbed me by an arm and started trying to drag me off, but I didn't budge until Harry grabbed my other arm and joined the effort. Once we were out of the clearing, Harry pulled me free and grabbed me by the shoulders, his hands trembling as he did so.

Even though we were both covered in Grawp's blood at that point, I could see that he was terribly pale beneath that, and his eyes were wide. Disbelieving. Terrified. "You — you were — are you alright?"

I nodded emphatically and handed him his wand. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Merlin, how'd you manage to get so lost?"

Before he could answer, the others jogged up.

"So how are we getting to London?" Ron asked as he passed Hermione her wand.

"How did you get away?" Harry asked, surveying the group. When his eyes landed on Archie, they darkened, so I jumped in front of him.

"I was fine all along, it was just an act! That's how we got away! As soon as you got far enough away, Archie passed me to Malfoy and I pretended to wake up at that exact moment."

Ron nodded. "The rest of us figured it out once Lucy was back in the game. Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx, but Ginny was best, she got Malfoy even after Lucy knocked him out — Bat-Bogey Hex — it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things. Anyway, we saw you heading into the forest out of the window and followed. What've you done with Umbridge?"

"She got carried away by a herd of centaurs," Harry answered in a tone that suggested he had no idea what that meant.

"Oh..." I, on the other hand, knew exactly what that meant. I couldn't let it bother me, though, Sirius was still in trouble. "I'll get properly upset about that later. Sirius is more important right now. What did you learn? Does Voldemort have Sirius, Harry?"

"Yes, and I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him."

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" Luna asked after a long moment of silence.

"Okay, first of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that," Harry said, "and second of all, my broomstick is being guarded by a security troll, so—"

Henry shrugged. "I've got one, and I reckon I'm decent enough to have someone ride with me. If you lot are going to the Department of Mysteries to fight Voldemort, you might as well have a seventh-year prefect with you. Lucy's already tried to talk me out of it, and you can see how well that went, so don't try it, Potter."

"I've got a broom, too!" Ginny said. "I can bring Luna, and Lucy can bring Hermione, and Neville can ride with Henry, and—"

"Sounds great, but you're not coming," Ron interrupted.

I could have sworn I saw Fred in her eyes as she glared at her brother. "Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!"

"You're too—" Harry started, but Ginny rounded on him.

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher's Stone, and it's because of me Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogeys attacking him—"

"Yeah, but—"

Neville stepped out from behind Harry. "We were all in the D.A. together. It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that all just a game or something?" Neville asked.

"No, of course it wasn't—"

"Then we should come too. We want to help."

Archie cleared his throat. "I know I'm not really part of your group, but I don't particularly fancy the idea of sticking around here now that the Inquisitorial Squad knows I'm a traitor. Leaving me here is a more certain death sentence than taking me with you. I can fight, I promise, I've had plenty of practice being a Slytherin who's not a blood supremacist."

"Look, Harry, I know what you're thinking, but they're right. We'd be stronger together," I said. "Besides, we're losing time by arguing here, aren't we?"

Harry nodded. "But we still don't know how we'll get there."

"I thought we'd settled that? We're flying!" Luna said.

I noticed for the first time that the sun was setting around us. "I don't know if any of us would be able to navigate all the way to London, especially in the dark."

Ron snorted. "I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?"

"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly, but they can," Luna said, pointing, "and Hagrid says they're very good at finding places their riders are looking for."

I followed her finger and spotted the two thestrals. "Perfect. Luna, you're brilliant!"

"Is it those mad horse things? Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"How many?"

"Two."

"Perfect, one for Harry and one for me," I said as I started walking over to the thestrals.

"Well, we need three," Hermione muttered.

"Four," nearly everyone else said at the same time.

"There are nine of us, actually," Luna said.

Harry sighed. "It's your choice. But unless we can find more thestrals you're not going to be able—"

"More will come," Ginny said.

"What makes you think that?" Harry asked.

"Because in case you hadn't noticed, four of us are covered in Grawp's blood and we know Hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat, so that's probably why these two turned up in the first place."

"Right, perfect," I said with a nod. "Harry and I will go, and you and Hermione can stay behind to lure more—"

Ginny whirled on me. "You don't have to protect me, Lucy! You don't either, Harry! Stop acting like you do! I'm coming with you, like it or not!"

"We all are. The rest of us could still follow on brooms," Henry suggested.

Luna smiled as she looked over my shoulder. "There's no need! Look, here come more now! You four must really smell."

I followed her gaze again and saw she was right. Concern swelled in the pit of my stomach. Ginny's words were a blow, but she was right. We were equals. I had protested when she wanted to protect me on the full moons, she had protested when I tried to argue that I was protecting her. We had agreed. We were equals, capable of making our own decisions.

I just didn't expect it to be tested in such an extreme way so soon.

I looked to Harry. I had given the Hermione decision to him. He was giving this decision to me.

I steeled myself with a deep breath and turned to the others. "Alright. If you want to come, those of us who can see thestrals help you get on one. None of us would blame you for not wanting to come, though. Last chance." No one moved. I nodded again. "Alright. Luna, Harry, Neville, let's help the others."

Once we were in the air, I felt a bit better. I managed to massage out the crick in my neck, since I had nothing better to do, and my headache lifted. The Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge, all of the hell of the past year couldn't touch me in that moment. We were flying to London to save Sirius. That was all that mattered.

When London was in sight, I guided my thestral up to Harry's. We didn't speak for a moment, but we didn't need to. Just being close was enough. More than enough.

"Stay close to me?" he asked, his voice tender and soft. Only for me.

I smiled. "Where else would I be?"

Even in the darkness, I could see the pleasantly surprised gleam in his eyes as he smiled back.

I love you.

The moment ended soon after that, when we began our descent. Once we were all safely on the ground, we crowded into the telephone booth.

"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" Harry called.

As soon as Henry did so, a female voice said, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

Harry answered. "Harry Potter, Lucy Diggory, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Henry Furls, Archie Graye. We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Thank you. Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

I reached for these and distributed to each member of the group before attaching the badge to my own robes.

LUCY DIGGORY
Rescue Mission

"Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."

My exasperation with the time-consuming routine was about to boil over. "Sounds great! Now can we get moving, please? It's rather urgent."

When we started descending, I inched closer to Harry and slipped my right hand into his left. I offered the most comforting squeeze I could — his hand was clammy and shaky, but he squeezed back.

The second the doors open, we dropped our hands and started sprinting, our friends just behind us, and we didn't stop until we reached the Department of Mysteries.

Harry hesitated then. "Okay, listen. Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a — as a lookout, and—"

Ginny crossed her arms. "And how're we going to let you know something's coming if you're too far away to hear us?"

"We're coming with you, Harry," Neville said, looking equally determined.

Ron nodded. "Let's get on with it."

Harry met my eyes then, and we exchanged a nod before taking our first official steps into the Department of Mysteries.

We found ourselves in a circular room containing many doors — over a dozen, it seemed. Each was indistinguishable from the others, especially in the dark. As soon as we closed the door behind us, the circular wall began to rotate with so much speed the blue candle flames became a blurred blue stripe.

"What was that about?" Ron asked once the spinning stopped.

Ginny sighed. "I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in from."

There was a long pause as we all realized the truth of what she said.

"How're we going to get back out?" Neville asked.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that doesn't matter now. We won't need to get out till we've found Sirius—"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said. Unnecessarily, I thought.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Archie asked, rather cheerful despite our plight.

"I don't — in the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room — that's this one — and then I went through another door into a room that kind of... glitters. We should try a few doors, I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."

The first room we tried had nothing except a couple of desks and a massive glass tank in the center of the room containing brains.

"Let's get out of here," Lucy said as soon as we made that realization.

I nodded. "This isn't right, we need to try another door—"

"There are doors in here too," Henry pointed out.

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one, so I think we should go back and try from there."

"Okay, sounds good," Lucy said.

We returned to the dark circular room, Hermione marking the door with a flaming X on our way out.

The next room we entered was like an amphitheater with a veil hanging from an archway in the center. The room was completely still, but the veil was rippling as if something had just disturbed it.

Harry jumped down a bench. "Who's there?"

I jumped down right next to him, and the two of us hurried down to the bottom as if something was pulling us there. I could have sworn there was something — no, someone — on the other side of the veil. But when Harry and I circled it, nobody was there. Just the same, there was a sort of whispering that persisted, but even with my ears, I couldn't understand it.

Hermione was calling us from the stone steps, trying to get us to leave, but Harry and I crept closer and closer to the veil.

He glanced at me. "Do you know what they're saying?"

"No," I whispered. "I can't make it out."

"Well, if you can't..." he said with a frown. He turned toward the archway. "What are you saying?"

"Nobody's talking, Harry!" Hermione shouted.

"Someone's whispering behind there. Is that you, Ron?"

Ron shook his head as he came around the back. "I'm right here, mate."

"Can't anyone else hear it beside Lucy and me?" Harry asked.

"I can hear them too. There are people in there!" Luna said, sounding rather awestruck.

Hermione huffed. "What do you mean, 'in there'? There isn't any 'in there,' it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there—"

I took another step closer without really intending to do so. It was difficult to describe exactly how I felt. It was the same type of surreal feeling that greeted me in the middle of the night when I was the only one in the world who was awake. I felt that on the other side was exactly the marvelous realization I had always searched for in the darkness, the solitude, the cold. The twilight, the dawn, everything in between, all of that pointed to that same understanding I had always yearned to hold, just once, in my hands. Pinpointing exactly what that epiphany was would be impossible until I had experienced it for myself. I always imagined it happening by myself too. It was there, I knew it was, on the other side of the veil, rippling ever so slightly in the archway despite the heavy stillness of the room.

Someone gently taking me by the elbow brought me back to reality.

I turned to see it was Ron. Behind him, I could see that Hermione had grabbed Harry.

Ron's face softened when our eyes met, from confusion and concern to plain surprise.

I blinked, realizing for the first time that I was a bit lightheaded. "What is it?"

"I just — you — I've just never seen you look like that."

"Like what?" I repeated, more of my sense returning to me.

"Like — like — I'll tell you later. We've got to find Sirius."

"Sirius? Sirius!" I tugged my arm free and rushed over to grab Harry. "C'mon, we need to go find Sirius!"

"That's what I've been trying to — well, come on, then!" Hermione said indignantly from behind us as we rushed from the room.

"What d'you reckon that arch was?" Harry asked as Hermione placed another flaming X on the door and closed it behind us.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous," she replied.

Ron looked at me out of the corner of his eye, now contemplative. "I'm not so sure. Regardless, let's try another room."

The third room (that we could access, anyway — Harry's knife from Sirius melted in the frame of the next door we tried) was the right one. We charged through a brightly-lit room full of various time-related objects into a dark, dusty room filled to the rim with shelves upon shelves of glass spheres.

Harry nodded. "Row ninety-seven. Keep your wands out. Let's go."

"Harry," I whispered, "I don't know if he's here."

"What?" Ginny asked, turning to me.

Ron turned to me, too. "What makes you say that?"

"I-I don't know. It's just... quiet," I said.

The four people who knew my secret exchanged apprehensive looks among themselves.

"He might be gagged or unconscious. Let's go," Hermione said.

Despite my doubts, I joined the group as we hurried down to row ninety-seven. As we got closer, I felt increasingly like someone was watching us.

Maybe Hermione was right after all, maybe Sirius is unconscious or has otherwise been silenced and Voldemort's waiting for us to—

We reached row ninety-seven. No Sirius. Harry ran up and down the aisle a couple of times, but Sirius wasn't there.

But someone was still watching us. Of that I was certain.

I opened my mouth to say something, to warn the others, but as soon as I did so, something tightened around my throat and I found myself shot into the air. Nobody saw it happen. I was propelled upward with so much speed someone could have blinked and missed it.

Once I was so high off the ground I was nearly touching the ceiling, I started to make sense of what had happened. I followed the magic all the way down to a Death Eater — no, a whole group of Death Eaters, crouching in the shadows. Watching. Waiting.

I couldn't tell if the restraint around my throat was physical or magical, but I couldn't speak and couldn't breathe. As if pulled along by an invisible rope, I floated through the air until I was hovering over where all of my friends had gathered in row ninety-seven. They were all gathered around one of the spheres, and Harry was reaching for it.

"I don't think you should touch it, Harry," Hermione said.

He kept reaching. "Why not? It's got something to do with me, hasn't it?"

"Don't, Harry," Neville said, shaking his head.

"It's got my name on it."

With that, Harry grabbed the sphere. I started plummeting to the ground as the voice of Lucius Malfoy filled the vacant room.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me. And thank you for keeping our little secret, Lucy, you're so good at that."

I managed to land on my feet, but that was all that I could manage to do. I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening, I couldn't think of a way out of this situation, I couldn't do anything to save the day.

How many people behind the Death Eaters masks had been in the cave beside Lucius Malfoy?

How many people had been in Azkaban instead and were just itching to take a shot at breaking me?

I tried to focus on breathing. I would be completely useless if I couldn't even do that much. But I was frozen in place by my terror. It was summer again, and I was in the caves, and Lucius Malfoy was talking, and I knew they would hit me with the Cruciatus Curse soon, and I was all alone.

No. I wasn't alone. Everyone around me was raising their wands. I wanted to reach for mine, but I was still paralyzed. My wand was broken, they had broken my wand and laid the pieces in front of me to show me how powerless I was. It was dark like the caves and cold like the caves and I felt so alone despite being surrounded by friends with their wands pointed at the Death Eaters, at least a few of which had been there in the caves with me.

Why had they raised their wands? I forced myself to focus.

Malfoy. "Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt."

Harry. "Yeah, right. I give you this — prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"

A woman, an unfamiliar voice, not Rose, someone else. "Accio proph—"

Harry. "Protego!"

The woman. "Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter! Very well, then—"

Malfoy. "I told you, NO! If you smash it—"

The woman stepped forward and grinned at Harry.

I realized all at once who she was. Bellatrix Lestrange.

"You need more persuasion? Very well." Her evil eyes met mine as her grin widened. "Grab the werewolf. Let him watch us — me — torture her. Let's see if she's as resistant as she was the first time."

Harry forced me back behind him, and the three other people who knew my secret stepped up around me. Ginny on my right. Hermione on my left. Ron behind me.

In that moment, I was no longer paralyzed. I reached out and grabbed the back of Harry's robes, just for something steady. My world was in freefall.

Henry, Archie, Neville, Luna, suddenly they all knew.

I needed to catch my breath. I would be useless if I couldn't breathe.

I doubted such a simple task had ever been more difficult for me, but I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to focus. I needed to get myself under control. Harry needed me. I needed to come up with a plan to get us all out of there.

Suddenly, Harry placed a bit of pressure on my foot. My eyes snapped open.

His voice, so soft no one else would have been able to hear it. "Smash shelves when I say go."

Harry had a plan. I just needed to help execute it.

With the hand not holding Harry's robes, I reached for my wand.

I made eye contact with Ginny. "Smash shelves when Harry says go," I whispered.

She nodded and leaned forward to tell Hermione. I looked past Ginny and locked eyes with Neville, who, to my surprise, didn't look afraid of me. Though shame was still burning in the pit of my stomach, I whispered the same thing to him, and to Luna, and to Archie. I heard Ron whispering the plan to Henry. I couldn't bring myself to look at Henry.

I closed my eyes and waited for Harry's cue. We were going to fight. We were going to escape.

We. We. I wasn't alone. I was never alone.

"NOW!"

Harry's shout finally broke my paralysis.

"STUPEFY!" I shouted as red lights burst from nine wands at once. When the shelves began to rock back and forth precariously, I looked around at the others. "RUN!"

Once everyone else was running, Harry and I followed suit. Even though a couple of Death Eaters grabbed at our robes, we just kept running. As soon as we reached a different room, the two of us worked together to charm the door shut.

I turned around to make sure everyone was okay, only to realize not everyone was there.

"Ginny, Ron, Luna, Henry, where did they go?" I gasped.

"They must have gone the wrong way," Archie groaned. "C'mon, we have to go and find—"

Neville lifted a finger. "Listen!"

Lucius Malfoy, on the other side of the door, was giving orders. "Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy — Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary except for the werewolf, she might still be useful to us — Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right — Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead — Macnair and Avery, through here — Rookwood, over there — Mulciber, come with me!"

No one would ever want to be my friend again if the Death Eaters trying to kill us deemed me "useful." But I didn't have time to dwell on that. I had to focus on getting everyone out alive first. I was a werewolf, yes, I was a monster, yes, but I was powerful. I had to protect everyone. Or, well, at least the people around me.

"What do we do?" Hermione asked.

"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start," Harry said. "Let's get away from this door."

"What about Henry," Neville said, "and Ginny and—"

Archie sighed. "We won't be of any use to them dead. Harry's right, let's go."

We had only gotten a short distance away when the door behind us was blown open. Harry and Hermione dove to one side, and Archie, Neville, and I dove to the other. We all hid under desks and waited.

I locked eyes with Harry for the first time since I'd been quite literally snatched up and away. Danger was pressing down upon us from every angle, but he was still right there looking at me as if I was the only other person on the planet. Merlin, his eyes were so strikingly green. I wanted to let myself get lost in the emerald, the way I had so many times over the past few years, but even as the thought occurred to me, I realized that protecting the light in those eyes was my top priority. We could get through anything as long as we were together.

Of course, everything surrounding those eyes was covered in Grawp's blood, and his own blood was dripping from a couple of places glass shards had nicked him, but he was still so wonderfully vibrant. His eyes were blazing, and I was sure mine were too. We were going to get our friends out safely. We were going to be okay. We were going to figure it out together. We were going to be okay. We were going to be okay.

The Death Eaters crept closer. I tucked my wand away.

"They might've run straight through to the hall."

I had to be the protector.

"Check under the desks."

I would be the protector.

I jumped to my feet. Magic erupted from my hands, and two desks shot through the air directly into the Death Eaters.

I was breathless for a moment. I'd never used my magic like that. Whenever I did something wandless or nonverbal or both, it was trivial little bits of magic. Sparks, turning objects different colors, popping the lids off of butterbeer bottles. I'd never used it to attack anyone.

A bit shaken, I drew my wand as I rushed over to the Death Eater that had crashed into the grandfather clock. "Incarcerous!"

I tugged the ropes as tight as possible around him while Neville hit the other one with a Stunning Spell.

"What the hell..." I wondered aloud as I walked to Harry's side. The Death Eater's head was trapped in a glass container of some sort, and I watched with morbid fascination as his head turned from a baby to a child to an adolescent to a man to an old man to a skull and back again.

"It's time," Hermione said.

Archie stepped into my field of vision with an eyebrow cocked. "Speaking of 'What the hell,' since when can you do nonverbal magic, Diggory?"

I felt my face heat. "I—" I was interrupted by a shout from some distance away. I recognized it instantly. "Ron."

"RON? HENRY? GINNY? LUNA?" Harry called as he spun around.

Hermione gasped when the Death Eater tugged his head free from the jar. "Harry!" He lifted his wand, but she lowered his arm forcefully. "You can't hurt a baby!"

But I recognized his voice from the caves, so I had no such qualms hurting him, baby or otherwise. With a nonverbal spell and a flick of my wand, he was soon tied up like his partner and on his way to the floor. With that problem solved, I dashed off in the direction of the shout.

I saw the Death Eaters approaching us and planned to attack. Before I got the chance, though, Harry grabbed my elbow and yanked me back into a dark office. The others followed, and Hermione slammed the door.

"Collo—"

Before she could finish her Locking Spell, the door opened, and before I could throw up a Shield Charm, they both hurled Impediment Jinxes into the room.

Harry and I got the brunt of the spell, flying back against the wall. I tried to push myself to my feet, but I had knocked over various boxes in my flight across the office, and the ground beneath me was slick and uneven due to the piles of parchment that had spilled everywhere.

"WE'VE GOT HIM! IN AN OFFICE OFF—"

"Silencio!" Hermione hissed, effectively shutting him up.

With his partner silenced, the other Death Eater marched to the back of the office with his wand leveled at Harry and me.

Harry jumped to his feet. "Petrificus totalus!"

The spell hit its mark, so I focused my attention on the other Death Eater.

Hermione was saying something to Harry. I didn't hear it. The other Death Eater was pointing his wand at Hermione. A purple spell was heading her way.

"LOOK OUT!" I screamed, the sound barely human because of how much terror was in my tone.

She turned to look at me instead of trying to get out of the way.

I realized my horrible mistake as the world moved in slow motion.

I hadn't spoken to her since April. She had no reason to believe I was speaking to her now. I could see the confusion in her eyes that turned to surprise when the spell embedded itself in her sternum.

"NO!" The cry tore from my throat, and my hands moved at the same time. My Stunning Spell launched him Merlin-knows-where as I desperately wrestled my way across the room to her side, choking on sobs. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, please be alive, please be alive."

"What did he do to her?" Neville asked, joining me by her side.

"I don't — I don't know." I frantically pressed my fingers to Hermione's neck as I searched for a pulse, but before I could find one, the Death Eaters that I had once tied up returned.

One kicked Neville in the face and broke his wand in the same motion. I didn't have time to react before his foot connected with my nose.

Through the tears in my eyes, I watched as Harry's hand shot forward and forced him off balance by grabbing his foot. He crashed to the ground, and the angry fire in Harry's eyes made me even more breathless than I was because of the shock and pain of getting my nose shattered.

I tried Hermione's neck again while Harry and Archie fired off Body-Bind Jinxes at the new arrivals. I sagged with relief. She was alive.

When Archie spoke, I could tell that the gravity of the situation was catching up with him. "Are you two alright? Is — is Hermione?"

"She's alive," I answered as I reached for my wand and pointed it at Neville's nose. "This is going to hurt a bit, but it'll heal your nose. Episkey!"

He winced when the spell hit, but his nose was healed. "Thanks. You can do yours?"

"Yeah." My nose cracked back into place, and I returned my attention to Hermione. "I don't know what they did to you, I'm sorry, I tried to — to warn you but I — I'm so sorry."

I bowed my head low, too distraught to even cry properly. We weren't out of the woods yet, though.

"We're not far from the exit, we're right next to that circular room," Harry said. "If we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you all can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift. Then you could find someone, raise the alarm."

"And what are you going to do?" Archie asked.

"I've got to go find the others."

I whipped my head around to face him. "And I'm going with you. Neville and Archie can handle Hermione together—"

"I'm going with you two," Archie interrupted.

"I'm going with you too, Harry. I can carry her. You're all better at fighting than me anyway, and I don't have a..." His eyes drifted to his snapped wand. "My gran's going to kill me. That was my dad's old wand."

I felt a sharp pinch in my chest. I knew the utter demoralization of having your wand snapped. "You can use Hermione's. You'll be able to get a new wand easily enough, one that suits you better." I sighed shakily. "Okay, come on, let's go."

We made our way back to the circular room of doors, darker than how we'd left it because Hermione's fiery X markings had faded. We were about to try a door when one opened the the rest of our group tumbled through.

A relieved sigh escaped me. "Oh, thank Mer— what happened?"

Ron, pale and incoherent, dropped to his knees, and Ginny sank to the floor clutching her ankle.

"What happened?" I repeated.

"I think Ginny's ankle is broken, I heard something crack," Luna said.

I swore under my breath and darted over to her.

"You're okay," she panted. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"You will be soon," I said, carefully examining her injured ankle. It definitely looked broken, I just needed to figure out how to get her sock off without hurting her more.

"They want you," she continued, her breath still coming in pants.

I nodded. "I know. They want Harry, too."

"No, we — we heard the Death Eaters talking about you and — and we didn't know where you were or if you were safe and Lucy, I was so scared, I can't lose you!"

"Everything will be okay," I assured her. I had wriggled her shoe off and started on her sock. "We're together now. We're going to get out of here."

"They want to capture you," Ginny choked out. "They — they said they — wanted to see how much longer you — you could hold off the Cruciatus Curse before you — you broke."

I peeled her sock off and started attempting to set the bone so it would heal properly. I tried to keep my tone light — it was frightening and a bit unnerving to hear her so terrified. It was Ginny, after all. "They haven't broken me yet. We're going to get out of here just fine. Have a little faith, will you?"

She chuckled a bit, the sound devoid of humor but better than the outright sobs. "It's easier to have faith when we're not in the Ministry of Magic surrounded by evil wizards trying to kill us."

"That's fair. Alright, I'm going to do what I can now. You ready?"

Ginny nodded, screwing her eyes shut. I had just opened my mouth to utter the incantation when a door banged open to reveal three Death Eaters, Bellatrix one of the three.

"PROTEGO!" I shouted instead, my free hand arcing through the air. All of their Stunning Spells bounced uselessly off of my shield, but there was no time to celebrate.

I scooped Ginny up bridal style without a second thought and rushed into the nearest room and kept the door propped open with my foot for the others to follow. Everyone did except for one person.

"I'll hold them off!" Henry said. The next second, he wrenched the door free of my foot and slammed it.

"HENRY, NO!" I screamed as the lock clicked into place.

I could hear him putting up a fight — a good one — but he was outnumbered. When the door shook from an impact accompanied by several loud cracks, I knew he'd been defeated.

As much as Harry and I teased each other about being stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindors, there was something beautiful and heartbreaking about the brave loyalty of a Hufflepuff.

I didn't have time to make sure he was okay, though. The Death Eaters were still trying to get in.

"Argh, it's locked! Wait! It doesn't matter! There are other ways in — WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!"

I rested Ginny on the floor nearby, figuring she'd be safest by the locked door they had given up on trying to enter, and sprinted around the room locking every door I could. They reached a door just before Luna was able to lock it and Stunned her backward. She landed right next to Hermione, still.

I didn't have time to make sure she was okay, either. Bellatrix was there.

"Get Potter!" she screeched, racing in his direction.

I got there first, throwing spells around as I went.

Everyone in the room stopped to stare when Ron spoke, though.

"Hey! Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, isn't that weird, Harry? Look, Harry, they're brains!"

Ron was stumbling toward the brains in the tank, reaching out, still delirious.

Harry stiffened. "Ron, get out of the way, don't—"

"Accio brains!" Ron shouted.

Harry and I moved as one, screaming "NO!" as we tried to stop him. We were too late. They soared through the air and wrapped around him.

Archie and Neville joined the rush toward Ron, but none of the spells we tried could get him free.

Ginny pushed herself to her feet and began coming our direction as fast as she could, panicking. "IT'LL SUFFOCATE HIM!"

She wasn't the only one headed our way, though.

"They're closing in!" I announced. I pulled myself away from the group and tried to create distance.

Ginny said they wanted me. If they wanted me, they would have me. They would have to take me fighting. I hurled spell after spell at the Death Eaters, Harry at my back. For all of my — our — power, though, we were still outnumbered. We were still losing.

"Run for it," Harry whispered.

We sprinted as fast as we could toward the door farthest away from the others and ended up tumbling down a steep flight of stone steps. When we reached the bottom and the stars cleared, I realized we were in the room with the veil.

"Are you alright?" I managed to ask.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

We pushed ourselves up and resumed our back-to-back fighting position as the Death Eaters closed in.

Lucius Malfoy removed his mask as he approached Harry. "Potter, your race is run. Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."

"Let the others go and I'll give it to you!" Harry said.

"You are not in a position to bargain, Potter. You see, there are ten of us and only two of you... or hasn't Dumbledore ever taught you how to count?"

Neville's voice was the one that answered him. "They're not alone, they've still got me!"

"Neville, no, go back to Ron!" I shouted, but he kept coming toward us, hurling Stunning Spells with Hermione's wand as he went.

One Death Eater managed to restrain him with his hands behind his back, though, so his brave rampage screeched to a halt.

Lucius Malfoy laughed, entirely without humor. "It's Longbottom, isn't it? Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause. Your death will not come as a great shock."

"Longbottom? Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!" Bellatrix declared with a wicked grin.

Neville almost broke free from his captor he was struggling so hard. "I KNOW YOU HAVE!"

"Someone Stun him!"

"No, no, no. No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents." Bellatrix crossed the room to him. Then, her evil eyes settled on me. Then they travelled to Harry. "Once we're through with him, we'll see if the werewolf can hold up against my Cruciatus Curse. Unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy...?"

"DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM, HARRY!" Neville protested.

Bellatrix's grin widened. "Crucio!"

Neville's horrible screams hurt me like a physical pain. I wanted to do something, anything to stop it, but I didn't know what to do.

I didn't hear what she said when she stopped torturing him five seconds later.

But I did hear her use the curse a second time. This time, it was on me.

Impossibly, the pain was worse than it had been when I had been tortured over summer. The Cruciatus Curse of the caves hurt like the pain of a dozen of my transformations happening at once. Bellatrix Lestrange's Cruciatus Curse, on the other hand, hurt like a lifetime of transformations all at once.

The pain lifted. Though there were tears streaming from my eyes, I could see the watery outline of Harry extending the hand holding the prophecy.

"No, no, Harry, don't." My voice was little more than a pathetic sob, but I meant it. It had only been a couple of seconds of pain. I was a werewolf. I could have handled more. Surely he knew that.

Suddenly, more doors opened. Something about whoever entered sent the Death Eaters into a tizzy.

Harry's arms lifted me from the ground, and he rushed out of the way over to where Neville was.

"I'm okay," Neville said.

I pushed Harry away and landed on my feet. "So am I," I lied. "Neville, where's Ron?"

"He was still fighting the brain when I—"

An explosion interrupted him. We tried to crawl out of the way, but a Death Eater grabbed Harry by the neck.

"Give it to me, give me the prophecy!" he demanded.

I lifted my wand with both hands and focused all of my energy on aiming a single jet of boiling water into the Death Eater's eye through the hole in his mask. My magic hit its mark, and Harry dropped to the ground.

"Are you alright?" I yelled.

"Yeah, thanks to you!"

Neville seized our arms and tugged us out of the way as Sirius passed by, viciously dueling another Death Eater.

I realized with a horrified gasp that Alastor Moody had fallen and his magical eye had been knocked from his head. His opponent was racing toward us, Dolohov I thought, but before I could so much as think about throwing up any kind of protection spell, he Stunned me backward.

My head hit the stone steps hard, but I clung to consciousness. After a couple of seconds, I was able to rise, and I made my way back to Harry as quickly as I could. I realized with horror that Dolohov was dueling Sirius, and Harry successfully used a Body-Bind Jinx on Dolohov before he was able to hurt Sirius with the same spell he'd used on Hermione.

Sirius grinned. "Nice one! Now I want you to get—"

His smile faded when spellfire whizzed past us.

He looked at me. His meaning was clear though he didn't speak. I'm glad you're here with Harry. Now get out.

He looked at Harry, and he did speak aloud. "Take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!"

Sirius darted in the direction of Bellatrix, who'd just injured Tonks, before we could get any words out, so we headed in Neville's direction. The poor bloke had been affected by what looked to be a Dancing Feet Spell, and I didn't know the counterjinx. Harry and I tried to help him up, but a spell from Lucius Malfoy leveled us all again.

"The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" Malfoy demanded, one knee on my chest and one on Harry's.

We were both struggling, but it was pointless. When Harry rolled the prophecy to Neville, though, we were both able to get a good spell off at Malfoy.

Harry looked madly impressed with me when I met his eyes. "What'd you use?"

"A wandless, nonverbal Stunning Spell." It was the most damaging wandless, nonverbal magic I had ever done. I thought it was fair, though. He'd been my primary tormentor in the caves. A little Stunning Spell was nothing. "Nicely done."

"Help Fred and George round up the others and GO!" Remus shouted as he rushed past us.

Harry and I managed to haul Neville to his feet and started climbing the stairs. Suddenly, there was the sound of ripping fabric, and I watched in horror as the prophecy fell from Neville's torn robe pocket. I reached for it, but I missed it. One of Neville's legs knocked it away.

Neville sounded like guilt was eating him alive. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"It's alright," I interrupted, watching the broken glass intently as a figure rose from the fragments and began speaking at a volume I knew only I would be able to hear.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives..."

I felt as if I'd been drenched from head to toe by freezing cold water. The prophecy was vague, but every bit of it pointed to Harry. His name had been on it. I realized in that moment that "Neither can live while the other survives" would become words that would haunt me forever.

"Let's get out of here!" Harry called, seeming to notice how distracted I was.

When I turned to him, I saw the Harry of the prophecy. Doomed. Marked. Set apart. Legendary. I was terrified. But he was Harry, my Harry. He was right there, perfectly alive.

We would be okay. We were together.

I nodded, and we continued our struggle up the stairs.

Neville's face suddenly lit up. "Dumbledore!"

He was right. Dumbledore, somehow, was there.

He cast a spell that managed to snag every Death Eater except one.

Bellatrix was still dueling Sirius by the veil.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he said, laughing loudly, as he dodged her spell, a blast of red light.

He didn't dodge the second one. It hit its mark, his chest. Surprise mingled with the laughter on his face.

Slowly, he fell back against the veil. Slowly, he vanished from view.

Harry dropped his half of Neville and started sprinting toward the veil. I set the rest of Neville down gently and sprinted after him.

I almost didn't make it in time. He was almost there when I caught him.

I wrapped my arms around his chest and pulled him back with all of my might. His heart hammered against his ribcage, as if everything within him wanted to go through the veil after Sirius.

Remus jumped in front of Harry.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry—"

"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"

"It's too late, Harry—"

"We can still reach him!"

"There's nothing you can do, Harry... nothing, he... he's gone."

"He hasn't gone!"

"He can't come back, Harry. He can't come back, because he's d—"

"HE IS NOT DEAD! SIRIUS! SIRIUS!"

My throat burned with tears at the earnestness in his voice. He didn't believe Sirius was gone, really gone.

I didn't either. All I knew was that I couldn't lose Harry too.

The farther back I pulled him, the less he resisted. The more the reality of the situation set in.

When we reached the steps, he went limp in my arms. I let him go after a moment of hesitation and immediately grabbed his hand. I didn't want to hold him so tightly it hurt, but I didn't particularly want to let him go either.

We collapsed down against the stairs, Harry on my right and Neville on my left.

"Harry, I'm really sorry. Was that man — was Sirius Black a — a friend of yours?" Neville asked despite the fact his legs were still doing their erratic dance.

Harry managed a nod.

I watched Neville's legs for a second before realizing I did know how to help him. "Oh, I'm so stupid. Finite."

"Thanks," he said with a relieved sigh when his legs stilled. "That was annoying."

Remus knelt in front of us, taking a moment to assess the physical damage we'd each acquired. "Let's — let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?"

"They're all back there. A brain attacked Ron, but I think he's alright, and Hermione was unconscious, but we could feel a pulse, and Ginny broke her ankle and Luna was knocked out and Henry — well, I don't know, but I hope he's alright..."

I watched over his shoulder with horror as Bellatrix knocked Kingsley Shacklebolt down. She was smart, though, and immediately started running before Dumbledore could catch her.

She was halfway up the stairs when Harry yanked his hand free from mine and sprinted after her.

Remus was already pale; his face was nearly completely white when he realized what was happening. "Harry — no!"

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM — I'LL KILL HER!" Harry shouted as he ran.

He wasn't slowing down. He wasn't stopping. He wasn't turning around.

I leapt to my feet and tore off after him.

When I reached the room with the brain, I found that the twins had gathered everyone near the door. Harry slipped through the small cluster, but when I tried to follow, George grabbed one of my arms, and Henry, looking worse for wear but miraculously alive, grabbed my other arm.

"Whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?" George demanded.

I tried to wrench myself free, but both boys were Quidditch players. It was useless, I couldn't force my way out. I had to convince them to let me go, which I knew would be nearly impossible, but I was running out of time. If Harry got to Bellatrix before I got to Harry, she would kill him.

"Let me go, please, please let me go," I begged.

"Cub, you're covered in blood—"

"It's not mine!" I cried. "Georgie, I'm okay, let me go!"

"You'd be running into a death trap, Lucy," Henry said.

His attempt to be reasonable bounced uselessly off of me. "HARRY ALREADY HAS! I'M GOING WITH HIM!"

George was nearly hysterical, fighting harder and harder to maintain his grip on my arm. "I won't just let you go after him!"

"I LOST CEDRIC ALMOST EXACTLY A YEAR AGO!" I wrenched my arm free from Henry. "NOW SIRIUS IS GONE, AND HARRY WOULD HAVE GONE THROUGH THE VEIL AFTER HIM IF I HADN'T STOPPED HIM IN TIME!" I wrenched my arm free from George. "AND I REFUSE TO LOSE HARRY TOO!" I shouted as I sprinted into the room with the doors and slammed that one behind me. The room spun. "WHICH WAY DID HARRY GO?"

The room answered my question by throwing a door open. I charged into that room just as I watched a lift containing Harry begin its descent. He didn't see me.

I rushed forward and called my own lift, but it was slow, so slow, too slow, unbearably slow.

For the first time in hours, it was silent. I was alone, completely alone. The dark thoughts threatened to overwhelm me.

Archie couldn't possibly go back to the Slytherin common room again after what he'd done — what I'd asked him to do. Henry had come with us and nearly gotten himself killed trying to protect us. Hermione was hurt, somehow, maybe worse than any of us knew. And Ron, Merlin only knew what had happened to him or if he'd be okay again.

Everyone who had come with us had learned my secret. Henry, Archie, Neville, Luna.

And Sirius... Sirius was gone. We'd come all that way to save Sirius, and he was the only person who wouldn't live to see the sunrise.

Assuming — optimistically — that I would stop Harry in time. Assuming — optimistically — that my life wouldn't be forfeit in the process.

Finally, finally, finally, finally, the lift arrived.

Finally, finally, finally, finally, I began my descent.

Finally, finally, finally, finally, I was there.

"What? What do you mean?" Bellatrix screeched, sounding rather horrified.

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps!" Harry shouted, laughing. "What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

"LIAR! You've got it, Potter, and you will give it to me — accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

Harry kept laughing. I inched forward in the shadows until I could see his face. His eyes were screwed shut, tears streaming down his cheeks, his face incredibly pale. His scar was hurting.

That was never good.

"Nothing there! Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that—"

"No! It isn't true, you're lying! Master, I tried, I tried, do not punish me!"

"Don't waste your breath! He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?" a voice asked, cool and calm.

I froze. Voldemort had materialized in the middle of the hall.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't wrap my head around it. My brother's murderer, a stone's throw away from me, looking like he very much wanted to murder my best friend too.

Harry rose and walked around the edge of the statue. I wasn't sure if he even realized he was doing it.

I crept closer. This was no time to be trapped in the past or terrified of the future. Only that moment mattered.

We were together, though Harry didn't know that. We were together, so we would be okay.

"So you smashed my prophecy? No, Bella, he is not lying, I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind. Months of preparation, months of effort, and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again," Voldemort said in that same voice that sent a chill down my spine.

"Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black! Master, you should know—"

"Be quiet, Bella. I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your sniveling apologies?"

"But Master — he is here, he is below!"

Suddenly, Voldemort raised his wand.

Terror like I had never known before seized me.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter."

I started sprinting as if my life depended on it. Which was ironic, considering what I was about to do.

"You have irked me too often, for too long."

I wrapped my arms around Harry, my legs too. Covering every part of him I could. Doing everything possible to make sure that the inevitable spell hit me and not him.

But, somehow, impossibly, I aimed myself wrong. We twisted in midair, so it was wrong, it was all wrong, Harry's back was to Voldemort instead of mine.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The green light never reached us. The statue behind us came to life and landed in front of us, absorbing the spell.

Harry and I crashed to the ground, all tangled together, breathless but alive, the knowledge that we would die for each other having been put to the test for the first time. He pushed himself up off the ground onto one elbow, his other arm still around my waist. My arms were still wound around his ribcage. Our faces were so close our noses were nearly touching.

"Stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindor," I muttered.

"Don't give me that," he mumbled in response.

"What? Dumbledore!" Voldemort gasped.

Just like that, the moment was over and the next was beginning.

He sat up, one arm still in front of me, but I shoved it down and made it so that we were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder as we watched the incredible fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore. The statue kept pushing us back until we were against the wall, but we didn't care much.

We were together. That was all that mattered.

Suddenly, Voldemort disappeared. Harry, for a reason I couldn't fathom, pushed himself to his feet and started walking forward.

"Stay where you are, Harry!" Dumbledore shouted, sounding more afraid than I knew was possible for him.

I didn't understand until Harry collapsed with a gasp that sounded like a death rattle.

I rushed to him the same time as Dumbledore, raw panic propelling me forward, and knelt in front of Harry.

Harry's eyes were not his own. His voice was not his own.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore..." he said. "If death is nothing, kill—"

"DON'T YOU DARE, HARRY JAMES!" I screamed, cupping his face in my hands.

The Cruciatus Curse of the caves hurt like the pain of a dozen of my transformations happening at once. Bellatrix Lestrange's Cruciatus Curse hurt like a lifetime of transformations all at once.

The pain of grabbing Harry's face in that moment hurt like a million of Bellatrix Lestrange's Cruciatus Curses being inflicted upon my entire body at once.

It was pain beyond reckoning, beyond comprehension.

I couldn't scream, couldn't cry, couldn't even beg for death.

Everything around me was dark, cold, silent, hopeless.

Then something — someone — grabbed my hand.

The pain vanished. Then it returned.

But I could still feel the warmth in my hand.

The pain vanished. Then it returned.

But I could still feel the warmth in my hand.

There was a frustrated scream, so piercing it hurt like a dagger tearing me down the middle.

Then there was silence. Darkness. But warmth anyway.

Then the warmth disappeared.

The darkness lasted several long seconds. I felt as if I'd been torn to shreds by the pain, everything within me ripped up, ripped out, ripped apart, ripped away from me.

"Renervate," a voice said, sounding like it was far away and underwater at the same time.

Distantly, I knew that was a bad word. A word that meant something bad was going to happen.

I pulled myself together piece by piece by piece by piece, straining toward the surface of the darkness.

Finally, I was aware of myself again and forced my eyes open.

Harry was leaning over me, frighteningly pale, covered in blood, his eyes sad and scared and searching, all for a reason I couldn't remember.

"What happened?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

He made a small noise of disbelief deep in his throat, his eyes a bit glassy.

Suddenly, everything rushed back to me.

I pushed myself up, which required monumental effort. My throat tightened, and we just looked at each other through tear-filled eyes for a long moment.

He reached forward slowly and tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear. His hand grazed my cheek, and that was it.

I grabbed his hand.

That was the warmth. He was the warmth.

We pushed ourselves to our feet, and I couldn't help but lean a bit against Harry. I tried not to do it, knowing he'd gone through the exact same ordeal I had, but my legs were trembling and I didn't trust them to hold my weight.

I was only vaguely aware of Dumbledore and Fudge arguing. All that mattered was Harry, the only warmth, the only comfort in the world at the moment.

I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything else until Dumbledore approached us.

"I can only make one at a time. Harry, you go first."

I realized he must have been talking about a Portkey, because he was holding a rather strange object in his hands.

I shifted away from Harry reluctantly and tried to find my balance without him to lean on. I didn't enjoy it in the slightest.

He turned back, clearly trying to reassure me. I must look really pathetic. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

I managed a nod and looked to Dumbledore for confirmation, but he was looking at Fudge.

He appraised him with a cool, calculating expression. "You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts. You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the headmaster will find me." When Fudge made no comprehensible reply, Dumbledore turned to Harry. "Take the Portkey, Harry. I'll send Lucy back too as soon as you leave. I will see you in half an hour."

Harry complied and vanished.

"As for you, Lucy," Dumbledore said, reaching for another chunk of statue to turn into a Portkey, "you can head to my office once you've told the complete story of tonight to the people waiting for you in Professor McGonagall's office."

I nodded. "O-Okay."

I shut my eyes tightly, still resenting Portkeys, and held tight as the world around me dissolved into an array of colors and began spinning. When I was finally released, I landed so hard on the ground I nearly collapsed altogether. I sagged against the wall, though, and once I could open my eyes, I realized that I was just outside of Professor McGonagall's office. I tossed the metal aside and pushed on the door.

It opened immediately to reveal George and Henry, who both appeared to be on the verge of nervous breakdowns.

"Lucy," George breathed. He pulled me into the office and slammed the door, then swept me up into a tight hug and rocked me back and forth a couple of times. "You absolute madwoman. You are bloody insane."

"You love me, though," I said with a weak laugh.

Something about this startled him, because he pulled away and studied me with a critical eye. He blinked after a long second. "Yes, of course we do, I — of course. Merlin, why would Dumbledore send you here? You need the Hospital Wing."

I shook my head. "I'm supposed to tell you two the story. I'm alright."

"Well, I know most of it, Lucy," Henry said. "I can tell Professor Lupin what I know when he gets here, and you can fill in the gaps. I — well, obviously there's a lot I don't know, but if a play-by-play is what they want, I can share everything between you leaving Umbridge's office and when we all got separated."

"O-Okay, thank you. Yeah, I — I don't remember much of what happened actually in the prophecy room. I was a bit... out of it."

His eyes were solemn as he nodded. "I can imagine. Where did they, er, take you? That one Death Eater said..."

"Take you?" George asked, voice high with panic.

Before I could answer, the door banged open, and I reckon I launched myself nearly as high as I was when I was invisibly strung up from the ceiling.

Remus grabbed me by the shoulders. "Is Harry alive?"

"He is, he is," I assured him, "he's in Dumbledore's office."

I expected him to sag with relief, but he merely nodded before grabbing my chin with one of his hands and turning my face side to side. "What did they do to you? What happened?"

"I-I'm alright."

"Lucy Diggory, that's a lie and you know it," George said, his voice gentle but firm. "Dumbledore sent you here to tell us the story, so the sooner you tell us, the sooner you can go to the Hospital Wing."

"I need to go to Dumbledore's office once I..."

My voice trailed off as the reality of everything started to set in. I dropped my head, no longer able to meet anyone's eyes.

"D'you think the other Order members would be able to make sense of a memory?" I asked.

"What d'you mean, Cub?"

I reached for my wand. "If I can just extract the memory of the night, would that be good enough for whatever the Order needs to know?"

"Of course," Remus said. "You know how to do that safely?"

"Yeah. Cedric gave me a book on it." I looked up at him. "I can run up to my dormitory and get a vial."

He shook his head. "No need for that. I'm sure Min- Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind if I just..." Remus flicked his wand, and something on her desk was transfigured into a small glass vial. "I'm heading back to headquarters as soon as we're done here, so I'm sure this will do the trick."

"Alright." I closed my eyes and brought all of the memories of the night to the surface and concentrated. But it was too horrible, and I staggered backward, eyes flying open. George rushed over to catch me, but I waved him off. "I'm alright, I'm alright. I think it's just too long of a memory," I lied. "I-I guess I'll just start at the beginning."

I sighed shakily. The story of the night stumbled from my lips in disjointed, confused fragments.

"Harry had a vision during our last O.W.L. of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the same room he's been seeing in dreams since January."

"He used the fireplace in Umbridge's office to try to see if Sirius was actually there or not, but Kreacher said he wasn't."

"Once we escaped Umbridge's office, we found Harry and Hermione in the forest with centaurs and Grawp — this is his blood on me, more or less."

"We rode thestrals all the way to the Ministry of Magic and eventually found the right room in the Department of Mysteries, but Sirius wasn't there."

"I realized someone else was there, but before I could say anything, I was kinda hanging up by the ceiling and couldn't say anything."

"We got away by smashing shelves, but we got separated. That's when Hermione got hurt."

Henry took his turn explaining his half of the group all the way up until he broke his ribs against the door, then I continued.

"The brain attacked Ron, but Harry and I realized our only chance of helping him was to draw the Death Eaters away, which is how we ended up in the room with the veil, and... you know the rest up until a point."

"Harry was talking to Bellatrix when I arrived, and Voldemort appeared shortly after that, then Dumbledore."

"Then Voldemort disappeared into thin air. And then..."

My voice trailed off, and I couldn't help but shudder.

"I think I'm going to try the memory again, for the rest of the story, I — I don't quite know what to make of what happened after Voldemort disappeared."

Remus nodded and offered the vial to me. I closed my eyes and concentrated, focusing past the terror and the horror. Reliving the memory was horrible, but speaking it aloud would be even worse. Finally, it gave way, and I was able to deposit it in the glass without issue.

"I think that's about it," I said in a small voice.

"Alright," Remus said with a nod. "I'll take this back to headquarters and relay the story you just told me. I'm sure between what you and Henry said and what Harry tells Dumbledore, we can have a better idea of the night." To my surprise, he pulled me into a quick, stiff hug. "I'm glad you're alright. I ought to go."

And with that, he practically fled the office.

I looked back down at the ground, but George stepped forward and tipped my chin up. "Hey. You're okay. C'mon, I'll take you to the Hospital Wing."

"No, it's alright," I said, pulling away from his hand and taking four hasty steps backward. "I need to go to Dumbledore's office, he wanted me there when he talks to Harry. I-I really need to go make sure Harry's okay, I hope he hasn't been alone all this time, I — I should go."

"Lucy..." George sighed. "Alright, I guess you shouldn't change plans on Dumbledore. See you in a couple weeks, alright?"

Merlin, he sounds worried.

I glanced up at him and nodded, finding a small smile to offer him. "Sounds like a plan. Are you picking me up straight from the station?"

"Oh yeah, of course, the party starts the second you step off the train," he replied. He grinned, and though it was clearly a little bit forced, it meant a lot that he was trying. He opened his arms. "C'mon, I told Fred I'd hug you once for him too in case he didn't see you."

I complied, practically flying across the room into his arms and burying my face against him. He almost felt like Cedric. Not quite. Never quite. But almost.

I glanced at Henry one last time before I left. "I-I'm guessing you want to talk to me about...?"

"That would be nice," he said with a nod. "Tomorrow? I think I'm going to need to catch up on a bit of sleep today."

"You, my friend, will do that in the Hospital Wing," George interjected.

Henry shot me a playful exasperated look. "You shatter a couple of ribs, get a couple of scratches, then all of a sudden everyone's all worried? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Tell me about it," I replied with a crooked grin. "Sleep well, Henry. Bye, Georgie."

With that, I hurried from the office all the way up to Dumbledore's office.

I knocked on the door, but no one came.

I tried again. Then again. Then a fourth time.

Nothing. Silence. I thought maybe Dumbledore had erected a silencing charm or something, had forgotten I was coming.

Then he arrived and I realized that wasn't the case. I hammered on the door, tugged on the doorknob, kicked it, attempted every spell I knew to unlock the door, even tried to blast my way through it when I heard Harry start shouting.

"THEN I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN! I DON'T CARE! I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE—"

I collapsed against the door, sobbing. "I'm here, Harry," I cried, "I'm here and I can't help you, I'm sorry, I'm trying."

I remained there with my back to the door for the entirety of their conversation in a torrent of tears. I didn't understand why I couldn't get through the door, why I couldn't be there with Harry, why I could hear every word they said yet they seemed unable to hear me. My head was spinning, the world was darkening, the tears refused to stop flowing, and I felt so small and powerless on the other side of the door.

Finally, though, it was over.

"Will you let me out now?" Harry asked, his voice sounding utterly broken.

Then his footsteps approached. I jumped to my feet, composed myself in the five seconds it took Harry to reach the door, and waited.

There were no adjectives to describe the way Harry looked when he opened the door. My heart shattered at the sight of him, but I knew I had to hold it together for his sake. He'd been steady for me when I needed his stability. I would be steady for him when he needed mine, false though mine was.

"People are starting to wake up," I said gently. "Let's take a walk."

"Did you hear everything?"

I nodded. "Everything. Now come on. You're not going to be alone right now."

I led him down to the lake. I had tried to make sense of so much of my sorrow on its shores, so I hoped he might be able to make sense of his there too. By the time we reached the shores, though, my frustration had mounted past the point of bearing in silence.

I lifted the heaviest rock I could find and hurled it into the water, a frustrated cry escaping me as I did so.

It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not bloody fair.

I hugged Harry tighter than I'd ever hugged anyone. "I heard everything, and I'm so sorry, Harry."

The dam broke. Suddenly he was clinging to me as if his life depended on it, sobbing into my shoulder as his glasses tumbled to the ground.

I love you, I love you, I love you, I bloody love you.

While he cried, I replayed the conversation I'd just overheard. Little fragments flitted through my mind as I held my uncontrollably-crying best friend in my arms, but my biggest takeaway was that reality was heavier than we could have ever imagined. It felt as if we had crossed the veil along with Sirius, and the world on the other side was charging at us like a wave we knew we couldn't outrun. In that moment, though, we were together and we were weathering the storm.

Even when his tears dried, he just held me, still trembling violently. I held as steady as I could. He deserved that.

A while later, he let go and reached for his glasses.

"Do you want to go back up to the castle?" I inquired.

He shook his head.

"That's alright." I gently took his hand and led him into the trees a bit, where no one would be able to see us. As we approached the site, I willed a bit of magic into the earth, and the rocks gave way to soft grass. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't look at him as I shrugged. "I thought it would be more comfortable. D'you agree?"

He nodded as we rested side-by-side on the grass. Though our hands were still touching, the distance between us felt too wide. I wanted him close to me, and I could tell he felt the same way.

I reached over and removed his glasses.

"You look exhausted," I said. "Rest."

His voice shook when he spoke. "Only if you do too."

I nodded. "I will. C'mere." I pulled him into my chest, and his arms wrapped around my midsection.

We remained like that, resting together in the silence, for a long time. My mind kept repeating the events of the horrible night even though the sunny morning around us was plenty cheerful. Wondering what I could have done differently. Wondering if I could have saved everyone somehow.

He dropped off to sleep eventually, much to my relief. He needed it. I twirled his messy hair between my fingers a bit as I finally let myself cry for Sirius.

We had just tried to help. That same rescue mission had cost Sirius his life.

Suddenly, I recalled with the shock of a thunderclap what had happened with Voldemort.

Harry suddenly lunged for his glasses and shoved the frames on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I — I was — I was possessed by my brother's murderer," I choked out.

For a reason I couldn't quite understand, Harry's eyes welled up. He rose to his feet, not meeting my eyes.

"If—" He coughed. "I know you're good at the whole Pensieve deal. If I — do you think — could you pull a memory from my head, if I thought really hard about it?"

I blinked. "I, er, I could try. W-Why?"

"Voldemort didn't — didn't kill Cedric. I could show you what really happened, if — if you want that."

I didn't answer. I didn't know what to say. I didn't have to say a word, though. Harry extended a hand that I accepted.

We silently made our way to the Room of Requirement, where a Pensieve was already waiting. My heart hammered in my chest. What was he going to show me? What did I need to know?

I swallowed my emotion and turned to Harry. "Just... focus really hard on the memory, okay? I think I can manage it."

He shut his eyes, and I reluctantly pressed a wand tip to his temple. The memory flowed out easily, as if it wanted to be seen by me, and floated down into the Pensieve.

I stared at the contents. "D'you want to go with me?"

"D'you want me to go with you?"

I hesitated before answering. "I think I should see this for myself. Y-You'll stay here?"

"Where else would I be?"

I sucked in a deep breath and plunged my head into the Pensieve before I could second-guess myself.

Oddly, I wasn't in the graveyard. I was in the Shrieking Shack. I thought perhaps Harry had made a mistake, because the memory was hazy and fuzzy and not altogether there, but I trusted that if he had been thinking of this memory, it would be important.

Scabbers, Ron's rat, took the form of a man. Peter Pettigrew, I realized. The conversation swirled around me fairly incomprehensively, but words like "spy" and "traitor" stood out among the rest. Suddenly, the memory grew sharper as Harry threw himself between Peter Pettigrew and the angry wands of Remus and Sirius.

"NO! You can't kill him, you can't."

Sirius sighed almost silently. "Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents. This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know. We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the dementors. He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

I cringed as Peter Pettigrew grabbed Harry around the knees. "Harry! You — thank you — it's more than I deserve — thank you —"

Harry jumped away. "Get off me. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because — I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers just for you."

The memory shifted, and I was suddenly in the graveyard with Harry and Cedric.

Harry was writhing around on the ground, hands clutched over his scar as horrible choking sounds escaped him.

Cedric was studying him with concern, about to crouch down to ask what was wrong.

Voldemort's voice cut through the night. "Kill the spare!"

"Avada kedavra!"

Peter Pettigrew was there again. I watched with horror as the green light shot from his wand, not Voldemort's, and struck Cedric in the chest.

I crumpled to the ground sobbing, unable to watch another minute of what I knew was going to happen. I remembered well everything that had happened after Cedric had died. I crawled to the farthest edge of the memory and waited, waited for him to come back through the priori incantatem. One day I would revisit the memory with Harry. One day I would be strong enough to watch it all, to feel it all, but I was tired, I was so tired.

But I knew the truth. It was Peter Pettigrew.

Cedric did return.

"Hold on, Harry," his voice said.

I lifted my head and walked over to the site of the duel. Harry was straining, straining as hard as he could, fighting to keep the connection strong.

I gazed around at the other victims of Voldemort, picking Lily and James out of the group, trying not to think about the fact that my parents had joined the crowd as well. But mainly I watched Cedric. He was looking at Harry so earnestly. I was certain in that moment that the shadow of Cedric was really Cedric, not like a portrait. It was him, as much of him as was possible without his physical body.

"Harry... take my body back, will you?" he asked. "Take my body back to my parents, and Lucy? And... and take care of Lucy for me? Please?"

Harry nodded, face contorting with emotion and pain. "I will. I promise."

I'd had enough. I jumped out of the memory, yanked my head out of the Pensieve, staggered backward, found Harry.

He was crying too, his tears carving new paths through his blood-stained cheeks. "I'm so sorry. It's been eating me alive for months now, knowing it's all my fault, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell you—"

"No, no, no, no, no," I said as I rushed to his side and pulled my knees to my chest, "not your fault, not at all, you couldn't have known — it's not your fault, I don't blame you."

"You should."

"I don't." I buried my face in my hands and choked out a sob. "At least he didn't have time to process what was happening, and — and it didn't hurt him. And he — or, well, some version of him — got to come back and help you and..."

"I'm sorry I've done such a terrible job of keeping my promise, I've done my best, I'll do better—"

I lifted my head from my hands. "Harry, no, it's alright, shh." I turned and held his face in my hands. "I don't blame you. I will never blame you. You're my best friend. We protect each other. We stick together. You're my best friend. I don't blame you and I never will."

I was about to say something else, but Harry did something altogether unusual but not at all unwelcome. He tugged his sleeve over his hand, reached forward, and gently brushed his sleeve against my cheek.

Before I could say anything, the door opened to reveal Dumbledore, oddly. He sighed softly. "You once again find yourselves with a shared experience only you can truly comprehend. After this year, it's now crucial that the two of you continue to support each other in areas others cannot understand." He looked around the room and nodded once. "Stay here for a time. I'll see to it you're not bothered."

"Can someone come let us know when — when our friends are awake?" I asked.

He nodded. "Of course. Until then, rest. You've both had an extraordinarily long night."

And then, just like that, he left.

I looked up to the ceiling, and the Room of Requirement rushed to meet our needs.

The Pensieve became a water basin. A bed large enough for the both of us appeared.

We scrubbed our faces in silence, as if cleaning away the blood and grime could cleanse us of the horrors we'd experienced. It didn't, not at all, but feeling physically clean helped despite the unsettling dark pit that was beginning to form in the darkest corner of my soul.

With Harry's face clean, I could better see everything that had been hiding under Grawp's blood.

Ironic, really, that the real horrors lay beneath the blood.

He was bruised and cut up and still frighteningly pale. His eyes were haunted, almost hollow, but he was looking at me like I didn't look much better.

I wanted to offer what comfort I could, though, having just been reminded of the catastrophic loss I'd experienced nearly a year ago.

"It'll get better. I promise," I whispered. "As far as I know, it never goes away, but it does get better."

He nodded, not meeting my eyes. I would need to hold him close in the coming days, weeks, months, years. But I was ready for it.

A minute later, we had both crawled into opposite sides of the bed and collapsed against the pillows.

A minute after that, we had both fallen asleep.

~

A/N: I DID IT! OH MY GOSH, I DID IT! You've just read more than 45,000 words, so I'll keep this short, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I hope it was worth the wait. Thank you for being patient with me, for still being here. I'll see you soon with Chapter 184, where I'll tackle Henry and George's POVs for this same series of events! I CAN'T WAIT TO READ YOUR COMMENTS! THANK YOU FOR BEING AMAZING!