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chapter fifty | harry's prophecy

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KAYA FOUND HERSELF in a room as high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty glass orbs. They glimmered in the light issuing from more candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, their flames were burning blue.

She shivered.

Harry edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves.

"What row was it, again?" Diana muttered. Kaya could only assume she was talking about where Harry had seen Sirius.

"Ninety-seven," Hermione whispered.

"Yeah," Harry added, looking up at the end of the closest row. Fifty-three.

"We need to go right, I think," Sadie whispered. "Yeah... that's fifty-four,"

"Keep your wands ready," Harry said, turning back to the rest of the group. Kaya had already had hers drawn.

They crept forward, glancing behind them as they walked on through the long alleys of shelves. The further ends were in near-total darkness, and Kaya's stomach turned at the idea of not knowing where the end of this particular room was. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelves. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.

Kaya listened carefully as they passed the different rows for any sign of movement, anywhere at all... but at the minute, it felt as though they were the only people in the room. There was so sign of Sirius, from what she could hear. Then again, he could be gagged, maybe. Or choked. Or worse...

"Ninety-seven!" Hermione whispered.

Kaya joined everyone else in standing grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. She tilted her head forward slightly in an attempt to spot anything in the darkness — but nobody was there.

"He's right down at the end," said Harry, though not with an entirely convincing tone. "You can't see properly from here,"

Kaya and Jaeden exchanged glances that simply said, 'But is he?'

Still, they let Harry lead them between the towering rows of glass balls, Kaya beginning to feel more and more sick, awaiting the moment where the fifteen year-old would finally realise what she was slowly coming to terms with — that his godfather wasn't here.

She heard him whisper, 'He should be near here'.

Kaya's nerves were starting to spiral.

"Harry?" said Hermione tentatively, but he did not respond.

Kaya turned to her right and caught sight of Sadie's expression — she looked broken-hearted at Harry's desperateness. Like, Kaya felt awful for the boy (and for everyone else — the fuck are they supposed to do now? Especially knowing Death Eaters have been — or still are — here.) but Sadie looked like she could cry if she wasn't so on edge.

The brunette began wracking through her brain about what to do next. After all, she and Jaeden are the oldest here — they should be the most responsible and the most able to look after everyone here. What if there's still Death Eaters here? What if they end up finding Sirius' dead body? Fuck. Kaya didn't know what to do.

She looked back at Jaeden, who knew exactly what she was thinking — and clearly felt the same. That was the thing with Kaya and Jaeden. It was like they could read each other's minds — almost like Fred and George.

Yes, because you two are non-biological twins, Fred's voice rang through her mind.

Fuck, Kaya missed Fred. She missed him so much. There was nothing she wanted more just then than him. He would've known what to do, he would've looked after them all (even though he never acted like he would).

And he would've held her hand. Kaya really could've done with Fred's hand to hold, right now...

They reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. Kaya's stomach (which she thought had already dropped) sank even further.

There was nobody there. All was echoing, dusty silence.

"He might be..." Harry whispered hoarsely, peering down the next alley. "Or maybe..." He hurried to look down the one beyond that.

"Harry?" said Hermione again.

"What?" he snarled.

"I... I don't think Sirius is here."

Maddie swore under her breath.

Harry didn't look at any of them. Instead he ran up the space at the end of the rows, staring down them. He then turned the other way, running back past everyone else who simply stared helplessly.

Except Ron — who had his eye on one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light. He didn't seem to be looking with wonder, either, at the ball. It was the label that had caught his eye.

"What is it, ginge?" Maddie asked, noticing the boy's distraction from the situation. She edged closer to read what Ron was seeing.

"Harry?" Ron called.

"What?"

"Have you seen this?"

Kaya turned to Maddie with a questioning glance, as she and Jaeden were near the back of the group and were much too far to see whatever it was Ron had found.

"What is it?" she asked. "What does it say?"

"It's got Harry's name on it," Maddie replied, a face entirely made up of pure confusion.

Diana pushed through to see for herself, just as Harry made it back to the group.

"What?" Harry repeated glumly.

"It's — it's got your name on,"

Harry gazed at the sphere.

"My name?" he said blankly.

He stepped forwards. Not as tall as Ron, he had to tilt his neck to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball.

"What is it?" Ron asked, sounding unnerved. "What's your name doing down here?"

He glanced along at the other labels on that stretch of shelf.

"I'm not here," he said, sounding perplexed. "None of the rest of us are here."

"Harry, I don't think you should touch it," said Hermione sharply, watching as he stretched out his hand.

"Why not?" he said. "It's something to do with me, isn't it?"

"Don't, Harry," said Neville suddenly. Neville's round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense.

Harry then turned to Diana. A Silverstone perspective was always needed, Kaya supposed.

"It's only a sphere," the silver-haired girl spoke, completely contradicting everybody else. Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"You don't know that!"

"If it does anything to Harry we could just smash it," Maddie suggested.

"It's got my name on," Harry repeated — and before anyone else could speak, he closed his fingers around the dusty ball's surface.

Kaya held her breath as he did so, half expecting something to happen. But it didn't.

She joined the others in moving around the boy, eager for a closer look at the orb.

But then Diana immediately became distracted from the ball. Kaya turned to see what it was she was now looking at — however, not before a drawling voice spoke from behind them.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

Ah fuck.

Black shapes were emerging out of thin air all around them, blocking their way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at their hearts. Ginny gave a gasp of horror.

Kaya felt as though she might throw up.

"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.

Kaya's eyes quickly scanned each Death Eater that had appeared, counting them as she did so. Her breath hitched in her throat upon the realisation that they were outnumbered two to one.

"To me," Malfoy said, yet again.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry demanded.

Several of the Death Eaters laughed. A harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to Harry's left said,

"The Dark Lord always knows!"

"Always," echoed Malfoy softly. "Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."

"I want to know where Sirius is!"

"I want to know where Sirius is!" The woman mimicked.

She and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from the group.

"You've got him," said Harry. "He's here. I know he is,"

"The little baby woke up frightened and thought what he dreamed was true!" The woman mocked yet again, this time putting on an awful baby voice.

Ron must've made some type of movement that Kaya missed, because Harry mumbled to him,

"Don't do anything — not yet,"

This caused the woman to let out a harsh, rowdy cackle.

"You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy softly.

Bellatrix. Kaya knew that name...

"He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."

Diana etched forward, standing directly next to Harry with her wand raised, eyeing Malfoy and the woman cautiously.

The woman froze upon seeing the silver-haired girl, and let out a huge, almost excited gasp — like when someone meets their friend's newborn for the first time, or reunites with a family member after so many years and gushes over how much they've grown.

"A Silverstone!" the woman said. "How wonderful! Tell me, is it insanity? Or is it greatness? I, for one, guessed insanity, was I right?"

Kaya knew exactly what the woman was talking about.

Each time a Silverstone is born, wizarding families place their bets, and the rest of the world hold their breath to determine if it shall be insanity or greatness that'll grasp ahold of the new being later in life - and which ancestors of theirs they will soon continue to follow.

The divide between the Silverstone family of those that shared You-Know-Who's beliefs and those that didn't was no secret.

Kaya felt uneasy. She still wasn't entirely sure whether or not to trust Diana Silverstone — especially now that the Death Eaters were outnumbering the rest of them.

"I know Sirius is here," Harry spoke up, drawing the attention back away from Diana and onto him.

More of the Death Eaters laughed, though the woman laughed loudest of all.

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

"Go on, then," said Harry, raising his own wand to chest height.

Everybody else followed. Kaya's hands were sweating, her wand was sliding in her grip, yet she kept it firmly held high. Jaeden's hand was slightly shaking next to hers.

But the Death Eaters did not strike.

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

And then it was Harry that laughed.

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

Too right, Kaya thought, however Harry's stance against the Death Eaters made her feel even more uneasy.

There was a fight coming. She knew it. Shit.

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the female Death Eater shrieked: "Accio proph—"

But Harry was just ready for her. He shouted 'Protego' before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of his fingers he managed to cling on to it.

"Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "Very well, then—"

'I TOLD YOU, NO!' Lucius Malfoy roared at the woman. 'If you smash it—!"

"Smash it?" Maddie Jordan raised an eyebrow, her eyes flicking back to the glass ball.

The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Diana spoke with no emotion, recognising her immediately.

Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix's face, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow.

"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well — take the smallest one," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."

The others closed in around Ginny. Harry stepped sideways so he was right in front of her, the prophecy held up to his chest. Jess grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her behind her.

"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," Harry told Bellatrix. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"

She did not move. She merely stared at him, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.

Kaya sensed Harry was struggling to figure out how to keep talking.

"So," she said quickly. All of the Death Eaters' heads snapped towards her, having ignored her entirely before. She suddenly felt much more terrified. "What kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"

"What kind of prophecy?" Bellatrix answered, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, girl,"

"Nope, not jesting," Harry spoke, before Kaya could reply. "How come Voldemort wants it?"

Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses.

"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix.

"Boo-hoo," Kaya heard Diana mutter.

"Yeah," said Harry, maintaining his tight grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempt to bewitch it from him. "Yeah, I've got no problem with saying Vol—"

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

"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" said Harry recklessly.

Yeah that's it, Harry. Make them more angry. Good job.

"Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle — or has he been telling you lot he's pure-blood?"

"STUPEF—"

"NO!"

A jet of red light had shot from the end of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand, but Malfoy had deflected it. His spell caused hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of the group and several of the glass orbs there shattered.

Two figures, pearly-white, almost like ghosts but as fluid as smoke unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak. Their voices merged with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Malfoy and Bellatrix's shouts.

"...at the solstice will come a new..." said the figure of an old, bearded man.

"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"

"Harry, smash the fucking prophecy!" Maddie hissed.

"What so they can attack us?" Jake retorted through a hushed whisper.

"He dared — he dares—" shrieked Bellatrix incoherently, "he stands there—filthy half-blood—"

"WAIT UN'I'LL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malfoy.

"...and none will come after..." said the figure of a young woman.

The two figures that had burst from the shattered spheres had melted into thin air. Nothing remained of them or their erstwhile homes but fragments of glass upon the floor.

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," Harry said.

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

"I'm not playing games," said Harry.

Kaya was starting so wonder whether or not Harry had a plan, at all. And if not — how were they going to get out? Shit, she needed to think of something... anything...

"Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malfoy sneered.

"I — what?' said Harry. "What about my scar?"

"Can this be?" said Malfoy, sounding maliciously delighted — some of the Death Eaters were laughing again.

Kaya swore she saw Harry mumble something to Hermione.

"Dumbledore never told you?" Malfoy repeated. "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..."

"Did he?" Harry replied.

Hermione turned around and whispered something to Jake — who whispered something to Ron, who whispered something to Chad — who turned to Kaya and Jaeden as subtly as he could, and moved his lips as little as possible when saying,

"Smash shelves when Harry says 'now',"

And suddenly Kaya was clinging onto every single word Harry was saying — she wasn't sure if he was going to blatantly shout 'now!' or if he was going to simply try and disguise it in his conversation with Malfoy. She had to pay close attention.

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

"Why?" Malfoy sounded incredulously delighted. "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?"

Harry didn't speak, for a second — he seemed to be processing what was being said.

"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" he said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy. "And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"

"Get it himself?" shrieked Bellatrix, over a cackle of mad laughter. "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?" said Harry. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it — and Bode?"

"Who the fuck are Sturgis and Bode?" Kaya heard Maddie whisper behind her, before she got shushed by Ron.

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

And then Harry yelled the signal they had all been waiting for.

"NOW!"