"How did you get away?" asked Harry in amazement, taking hiswand from Ron.

"Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," said Ron airily. "But Ginny was best, she got Pug-face — Bat Bogey Hex — it was superb, her whole face was covered in the great flapping things."

"I broke a chair. Blaise and Theo helped, Blaise gave me chocolate. Dray needs to make up his fucking mind." Nova began as she handed Hermione her wand. "What have you done with the bitch?"

"She got carried away," said Harry. "By a herd of centaurs." 

"And they left you behind?" asked Ginny, looking astonished. 

"No, they got chased off by Grawp," said Harry.

 "Who's Grawp?" Luna asked interestedly. 

"Hagrid's little brother," said Ron promptly. 

"Anyway, never mind that now. Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or — ?" 

"Yes," said Harry, as his scar gave another painful prickle, "and I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him." 

They all fell silent, looking rather scared. The problem facing them seemed unconquerable. 

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" said Luna in the closest thing to a matter-of-fact voice Nova had ever heard her use. 

"Okay," said Harry irritably, rounding on her, "first of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded bya security troll, so —" 

"I've got a broom!" said Ginny. 

"Yeah, but you're not coming," said Ron angrily. 

"Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!" said Ginny, her jaw set so that her resemblance to Fred and George was suddenly striking. 

"You're too —" Harry began. 

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Sorcerer's Stone," she said fiercely, "and it's because ofme Parkinson's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogeys attacking her —" 

"Yeah, but —" 

"We were all in the D.A. together," said Neville quietly. "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 —" said Harry impatiently. 

"Then we should come too," said Neville simply. "We want to help." 

"That's right," said Luna, smiling happily. 

Harry's eyes met Ron's. He knew that Ron was thinking exactlywhat he was: If he could have chosen any members of the D.A. in addition to himself, Ron, and Hermione to join him in the attempt to rescue Sirius, he would not have picked Ginny, Neville, or Luna. 

"Alright. You three are coming," Harry agreed but turned to Nova. "You aren't."

"R.I.P Harold," Marlene whispered. 

"Come again," Nova asked, challenging Harry. 

"You aren't coming."

"Like hell I'm not!"

"Oh no. Mum and Dad are fighting," Ron joked. 

"Ronald, shut up!" Hermione hissed.

"You could die!" Harry yelled.

"What the bloody hell does that have to do with anything?" 

"I can't lose you!" 

Nova froze. Her heart started to beat faster. It was like time stopped. 

In a perfect fairytale world, Nova would run into Harry's arms and snog him. 

But . . .

Nova is Nova. Despite the sentiment, Nova was still pissed. And when Nova's pissed, all hell breaks lose.

"I can't lose you either!" Nova shouted. "And this suicide mission your going on would be just that without me on it! Not to mention my Da is there! And I can't risk losing either of you! So I'm going! And If you're concerned about me dying, I will gladly remind you I have been training under Mad-Eye Moody all summer! I fought Voldemort last summer! I slew the basilisk! I tamed a bloody dragon! I made a 'scary and evil' Giant Squid into a friend! I have been through a lot more than you can even think! I. Am. Going."

In heaven, Alex gave a low whistle. 

"Yeah, I say she goes."

"Me too," Regulus agreed. 

"I say none of them go because it's a trap," Lily huffed as she crossed her arms. 

Nova glared stubbornly at her boyfriend. Harry's gaze was similar. 

"Just snog already! Jeez! The sexual tension is too much for my lesbian eyes!" Ginny shouted. 

"Same-wait what?" Ron asked as he turned to his sister. 

"Opp-" Ginny looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Surprise Shawty!"

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," said Harry frustratedly, "because we still don't know how to get there —" 

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

"Look," said Ron, barely containing his anger, "you might be able to fly without a broomstick but the rest of us can't sprout wings whenever we —" 

"There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks," said Luna serenely. 

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

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

Harry whirled around. Standing between two trees, their white eyes gleaming eerily, were two thestrals, watching the whispered conversation as though they understood every word. 

"Yes!" Nova whispered, moving toward them. They tossed their reptilian heads, throwing back long black manes, and Nova stretched out her hand eagerly and patted the nearest one's shining neck. 

"Is it those mad horse things?" said Ron uncertainly, staring at a point slightly to the left of the thestral Nova was patting. "Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?" 

"Yeah," said Harry. 

"How many?" 

"Just two." 

"Well, we need three," said Hermione, who was still looking a little shaken, but determined just the same. 

"Four, Hermione," said Ginny, scowling.

 "I think there are seven of us, actually," said Luna calmly, counting. 

"Don't be stupid, we can't all go!" said Harry angrily. 

"Harold, we are all going. And that's final." Nova said strongly. "You will either agree or you're going to be tied up in the Shrieking Shack."

"There still aren't enough-" Hermione began. 

"Oh, more of them will come," said Ginny confidently, who like Ron was squinting in quite the wrong direction, apparently under the impression that she was looking at the horses. 

"What makes you think that?" 

"Because in case you hadn't noticed, you and Hermione are both covered in blood," she said coolly, "and we know Hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat, so that's probably why these two turned up in thefirst place. . . ." 

"Look, Harry, you're a real snack," Nova said with a flirtatious wink. 

"And you're a whole meal-"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Hermione pleaded. "Any more of your flirting and I might need to cleanse my ears."

"Oh look!" Nova exclaimed. "There are more!"

Harry turned. No fewer than six or seven thestrals were pickingtheir way through the trees now, their great leathery wings foldedtight to their bodies, their eyes gleaming through the darkness. He had no excuse now. . . .

 "All right," he said angrily, "pick one and get on, then."

Watching their friends try to climb onto and ride the thestrals was perhaps the best part of Nova's day. 

***

"Is it just me, or do all Potter men have similar taste in women?" Alex asked Regulus. It didn't make sense to anyone seeing as Lily has red hair, Euphemia has brown, and Nova has caramel hair. All women looked different. So what was Alex going on about?

This question drew the attention of everyone in the room. 

"What do you mean?" Fleamont asked. 

"Well, you're all attracted to women that can totally kick your arse!" Alex stated as if it were obvious leading the room into intense laughter. 

"Oi!" Fleamont objected. 

"Dad, we can't really deny it . . ." James said. "I know my Lilyflower can kick my arse over the Great Wall of China. And mum, she's bloody scary."

"Harry Potter, Nova Lupin-Black, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger," Harry said veryquickly, "Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood . . .We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Those bone heads can't do shit," Nova scoffed. 

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

Half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared. Hermione scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head; he glanced at the top most one. 

HARRY POTTER

rescue mission

Nova took her coin and pocketed it into her leather jacket.

"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." 

"Listen, lady," Nova said irritably. "I don't have the time nor the patience so hurry the fuck up."

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement roseup past the glass windows of the telephone box. The scavenging thestrals were sliding out of sight, blackness closed over their heads, and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.

A small sheet of golden light bathed their feet as the telephone box slowly moved down. The seven teenagers were cramped in the telephone box. Nova watched as Harry crouched down with his wand at the ready. 

"It's completely empty," Harry whispered to the group. 

This was both good and bad. It was good because they can sneak in without being caught. It was bad because they wouldn't have any help. 

When the telephone box stopped moving, Nova heard the lady's voice wishing them a good day, but Nova didn't pay her any mind. Her mind had one goal, safe Padre Numero Dos. 

"Come on," said Harry quietly and the six of them sprinted off down the hall. Harry was in the lead while Nova brought up the end, making sure they weren't ambushed from behind. 

Nova wondered where the security was. There was always a security guard on sight. It wasn't until now that she thought that the Order should be here. It wasn't until now did she realise that the only way for Sirius to be captured was while he was on guard duty. 

But Sirius wasn't allowed to be on guard duty. He was on house arrest. 

And should he have been caught while he was out and about, the Order should be here soon or should already be here. 

It was Nova's suggestion to have the guard shift times fluctuate slightly, but that didn't explain how Voldemort of all people could stroll into the Prophecy Room. Ministry officials should've know it was him, or one of the Order should've known. 

"Okay, listen," said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. "Maybe . . . maybe a couple of people should stay here as a —as a lookout, and —" 

"And how're we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away." 

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

"Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly

"Harry," Nova called to him causing him to stop outside the door of the Department of Mysteries. "Something isn't right . . ."

"Of course not! Sirius is being held by Voldemort!" Harry exclaimed in a hushed tone. 

Hermione seemed to be drawing a similar conclusion as Nova. 

"No, Har, listen to me," Nova began. "I know you've noticed the lack of security. I'm sure it struck you as odd."

Harry and the others paused. 

"What are you saying?" Ron asked. 

"I'm saying the Order shift should've started ten minutes ago," Nova stated. "It isn't possible for Voldemort to have my Da in the place the Order is supposed to be guarding."

"Maybe one of them was imperioed," Neville suggested. 

"It's a possibility," Hermione said skeptically. 

"It is. That's why I told Dumbledore to have two on duty," Nova stated. "I'm just saying to proceed with caution, alright? Something doesn't feel right but I won't take the chance my Da is here. I won't take the chance he is being held by the slimy snake. Just, please, be careful"

"Is it just me," Alex began to whisper to Euphemia. "Or is she like a scary kind of brilliant?"

"It's not just you, Al," Regulus whispered. 

Harry turned to face the door and walked forward. Just as it had in his dream, it swung open and he marched forward, leading the others over the threshold. 

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in herewas black including the floor and ceiling — identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot. 

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered. 

"No-" Nova began but it was too late, Neville closed the door. 

Without the long chink of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections in the floor below. 

"Have your wands concealed and ready," Nova whispered to the group as her black converses were silent against the floor. "Have it in your hand, but don't go shooting spark and anything."

For a few seconds the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around and then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again. Nova's eyes had blue streaks burned into them; it was all he could see. 

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully. 

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in from," said Ginny in a hushed voice.

Ginny was right. Not long after, no one could tell where they had come from. 

"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably. 

"Well, that doesn't matter now," said Harry forcefully, blinking to try and erase the blue lines from his vision, and clutching his wand tighter than ever. "We won't need to get out till we've found Sirius —" 

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked. 

"I don't —" Harry began. He swallowed. "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," he said hastily. "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."

"I know where we need to go," Nova breathed. "Harry, did you by any chance see Da in a room full of white glowing orbs?"

"Yeah. How did you know?" Harry asked. 

"I have a gut feeling," Nova murmmered. "Let's just hope this isn't what I think it is."

"And what is it?" Ginny asked. "Nox, what do you think is happening?"

"Nothing you need to worry about right now," She whispered. "I'm not exactly sure where it is, but I'll know once we see it."

Nova's gut feeling was right. They were walking into a trap. 

"So what?" Ron asked. "Guess a door?"

Harry didn't wait for an answer. He marched towards the first door. 

After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimmering lights such as Nova knew there should be. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep-green water, big enough for all of them to swim in, which contained a number of pearly white objects that were drifting around lazily in the liquid. 

"What're those things?" whispered Ron. 

"Dunno," said Harry. 

"Are they fish?" breathed Ginny.

"Aquavirius maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding —" 

"No," said Hermione. She sounded odd. She moved forward tolook through the side of the tank. "They're brains." 

"Brains?" 

"Yes . . . I wonder what they're doing with them?"

"As Luna said, they're breeding them," Nova hissed. 

Nova pulled Hermione and Harry away from the tanks by the back of their shirts. 

"Don't. Go. Near. Them." she hissed. "Let's keep moving."

"There are doors here too," said Ron, pointing around the walls. 

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one," Harry said. "I think we should go back and try from there." 

So they hurried back into the dark, circular room; the ghostly shapes of the brains were now swimming before Harry's eyes instead of the blue candle flames. 

"Wait!" said Hermione sharply, as Luna made to close the door ofthe brain room behind them. "Flagrate!"  

She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery X appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue, and when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.

"Hermione, if I ever doubt your brilliance again," Nova began as she glowed with pride. "Slap me."

Again Harry strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised, the others at his heels. 

This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the center of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet below them. They were standing on the top most tier of what seemed tobe stone benches running all around the room and descending in steepsteps like an amphitheater, upon the dais stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked, and crumbling that Nova was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched. 

"Who's there?" said Harry, jumping down onto the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway.

"Careful!" whispered Hermione. 

Nova began to move towards it. 

"Sirius?" Harry spoke again, as he stood beside Nova. 

Nova began to reach her hand out, almost as if reaching to grab someone. To grab the person she felt lingering behind it. 

"No! Get away from there!" Regulus yelled. 

"Let's go," called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. "This isn't right, Harry, Nova, come on, let's go. . . ." 

She sounded scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam, yet Nova thought the archway had a kind of beauty about it, old though it was. The gently rippling veil intrigued her; she felt a very strong inclination to climb up on the dais and walk through it. 

"Harry, Nova, let's go, okay?" said Hermione more forcefully. 

"Okay," Harry said, but he did not move. He had just heard something. There were faint whispering, murmuring noises coming fromthe other side of the veil. 

"What are you saying?" he said very loudly, so that the words echoed all around the surrounding stone benches. 

Nova, who had enhanced hearing with her animagus abilities, could hear the voices of her dead family. 

"Get away from it!" She heard her Uncle Reg's voice. 

"Uncle Reg . . ." Nova breathed out as tears began to pull in her eyes.

"Noxxy, go! It's not safe!" the unmistakeable voice of Uncle Prongs said. 

Nova took a step forward. She was drawn to it. She couldn't help it. 

"Nova, it's a trap!" Lily yelled. 

In heaven, they knew Nova could hear them, but she wasn't registering what they were saying. It was like their words went through on ear and out the other. 

In a distance, Nova heard her friend talking. She was six inches away from the veil when Ron dragged her away. 

"What d'you reckon that arch was?" Harry asked Hermione as they regained the dark circular room. 

Nova who was still shaken opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out. 

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous," Hermione saidfirmly, again inscribing a fiery cross upon the door. 

Once more the wall spun and became still again. Harry approached a door at random and pushed. It did not move. 

"What's wrong?" asked Neville. 

"It's . . . locked . . ." said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it did not budge. 

"This is it, then, isn't it?" said Ron excitedly, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open. "Bound to be!" 

"Get out of the way!" said Nova sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, "Alohomora!" 

Nothing happened. 

"Sirius's knife!" said Harry, and he pulled it out from inside his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall.

 The others all watched eagerly as he ran it from top to bottom, withdrew it, and then flung his shoulder again at the door. It remained as firmly shut as ever. What was more, when Harry looked down at the knife, he saw that the blade had melted. 

"Right, we're leaving that room," said Hermione decisively. 

"But what if that's the one?" said Ron, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing. 

"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream,"said Hermione, marking the door with another fiery cross as Harry replaced the now-useless handle of Sirius's knife in his pocket. 

"You know what could be in there?" said Luna eagerly, as the wall started to spin yet again.

"Something blibbering, no doubt," said Hermione under her breath, and Neville gave a nervous little laugh. 

The wall slid back to a halt and Harry, with a feeling of increasing desperation, pushed the next door open. 

"This is it!" 

"No!" Lily pleaded. "Don't go in! It's a trap!"

Harry knew it at once by the beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. As his eyes became more accustomed to the brilliant glare he saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps. The source of the dancing, diamond-bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room. 

"This way!" Harry called urgently. 

Nova's adrenaline was course through her brain like fire. She was attentive and alert. She was ready for something to go wrong. 

She knew something was going to go wrong. 

It always does. 

"Oh look " said Ginny, as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar. 

Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell onthe draft, its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg. 

"Keep going!" said Harry sharply, because Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird. 

"You dawdled enough by that old arch!" she said crossly, but followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it. 

"This is it," Harry said again, and his heart was now pumping so hard and fast he felt it must interfere with his speech. "It's through here —" 

"Wand out. Now." Nova ordered in a whisper. "Be alert. Don't let your guard down."

Harry anxiously pushed the door open. 

They were there, they had found the place: high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully 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. The room was very cold. Nova edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. She could not hear anything nor see the slightest sign of movement. 

"You said it was row ninety-seven," whispered Hermione

Nova froze. 

Row 97.

Why did that sound familiar to her? 

"Yeah," breathed Harry, looking up at the end of the closest row. 

Nova followed his example and looked up to see the number 53. 

"We need to go right, I think," whispered Hermione, squinting to the next row. "Yes . . . that's fifty-four. . . ." 

"Keep your wands out," Harry said softly. 

They crept forward, staring behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the farther ends of which were in near-total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelf. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.

Nova knew the moment they neared row number 88 why Row 97 was important. 

It was the row Harry's Prophecy was on. 

"Ninety-seven!" whispered Hermione. 

They stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. There was nobody there. 

"He's right down at the end," said Harry, whose mouth had become slightly dry. "You can't see properly from here. . . ." 

And he led them forward, between the towering rows of glass balls, some of which glowed softly as they passed. . . . 

"He should be near here," whispered Harry, convinced that everystep was going to bring the ragged form of Sirius into view upon the darkened floor. "Anywhere here . . . really close . . ." 

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

Nova felt like her heart was being stomped on by an angry Buckbeak. 

"Somewhere about . . . here . . ." he said. 

They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. There was nobody there at all. All was echoing dusty silence. 

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

Nova knew the moment her Da wasn't anywhere in sight they walked into a trap. 

"Shit!" Nova hissed. 

"Harry . . ." Hermione whispered. 

"What?" Harry wheeled around. 

"Har, calm down," Nova said as she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. She successfully caused his anger to fade despite freaking out on the inside herself. "H-he isn't here."

Nobody spoke. Harry did not want to look at any of them. 

Nova felt sick.

Harry began to run around frantically looking for Sirius. 

"Harry?" Ron called. 

"What?" 

Harry did not want to hear what Ron had to say, did not want to hear Ron tell him he had been stupid, or suggest that they ought to go back to Hogwarts. But the heat was rising in his face and he felt as though he would like to skulk down here in the darkness for a long while before facing the brightness of the Atrium above and the others' accusing stares. . . . 

"Have you seen this?" said Ron. 

"What?" said Harry glumly.  

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

Nova froze. 

Don't let them touch it.  Nova chanted in her mind. Don't let them touch the glowing orb.

Harry moved a little closer. Ron was pointing at one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was verydusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years. 

"My name?" said Harry blankly. 

He stepped forward. Not as tall as Ron, he had to crane his neck toread the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dustyglass ball. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen yearspreviously, and below that: 

S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D. 

Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter

"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 a shelf. "I'm not here," he said, sounding perplexed. "None of the rest of usare here. . . ."

 "Harry, I don't think you should touch it," said Neville said hesitantly.

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

Harry reached out to grab it but Nova grabbed his wrist. 

"Don't touch it." Nova hissed. 

"It's got my name on it."

"Harry," Nova said urgently. 

But it was too late. Something made him more reckless. Something compelled him to ignore Nova's wisdom, something he always valued. 

Harry grabbed the orb. 

And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice said, "Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me." 

Instantly the group of teenagers stood back to back in a circle. 

All around them Death Eaters began to appear, pointing their wands at the hearts of the D.A. members.

Nova recognised the wand that was pointed at her. Shed be stupid to forget it. 

It was the wand of Mr. Morgenstern. 

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

"Where's Sirius?" Harry said. 

Several of the Death Eaters laughed. A harsh female voice from themidst of the shadowy figures to Harry's left said triumphantly, "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!" mimicked the woman to his left. 

Nova and Neville both tensed. 

"You've got him," said Harry, ignoring the rising panic in his chest,the dread he had been fighting since they had first entered the ninety-seventh row. "He's here. I know he is."

"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman in a horrible, mock-baby voice.

"Don't do anything," Harry muttered. "Not yet —" 

"You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!" Bellatrix teased. "I would've thought better of a Black, Nova. Even if you have tainted blood."

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy softly. "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," said Harry, though panic was causing his chest to constrict and he felt as though he could not breathe properly. "I know you've got him!" 

More of the Death Eaters laughed, though Bellatrix still 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. As he did so, the six wands of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Nova, and Luna rose on either side of him. The knot in Harry's stomach tightened. If Sirius really was not here, he had led his friends to their deaths for no reason at all. . . .But the Death Eaters did not strike. 

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

It was Harry's turn to laugh. 

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

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a female DeathEater shrieked, "Accio Proph —" 

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," Bellatrix 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 — !" 

"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." 

Nova and the others surrounded Ginny. There was no way in hell Ginny was going to become the next Alice Longbottom. 

"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," he 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. 

"So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?" 

"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, Harry Potter." 

"Nope, not jesting," said Harry. Nova's eyes flicking from Death Eater to Death Eater, looking for a weak link, a space through which they could escape. "How come Voldemort wants it?" 

Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses. 

"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix. 

"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 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 said recklessly. "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!"

To almost everyone's shock, it was Malfoy who stopped Bellatrix.

Two figures, pearly white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak. Their voices vied 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!" 

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

"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malfoy. 

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

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," Harry said, playing for time. He moved his foot slowly sideways, feeling around for someone else's. 

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

"I'm not playing games," said Harry, half his mind on the conversation, half on his wandering foot. And then he found someone's toes and pressed down upon them. A sharp intake of breath behind him told him they were Hermione's. 

"What?" she whispered. 

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

"I — what?" said Harry, and for a moment he quite forgot his plan. "What about my scar?" 

"What?" whispered Hermione more urgently behind him. 

"Can this be?" said Malfoy, sounding maliciously delighted; some of the Death Eaters were laughing again, and under cover of their laughter, Harry hissed to Nova, moving his lips as little as possible, "Smash shelves —" 

"Dumbledore never told you?" Malfoy repeated. "Well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why —" 

"— when I say go —" 

"— 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?" said Harry. 

Behind him he felt rather than heard Nova passing his message to the others and he sought to keep talking, to distract the Death Eaters. 

"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 stared into the slitted eyeholes through which Malfoy's gray eyes were gleaming. Was this prophecy the reason Harry's parents had died, the reason he carried his lightning-bolt scar? Was the answer to all of this clutched in his hand?

"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" he said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy, his fingers tightening over the warm glass sphere in his hand. It was hardly larger than a Snitch and still gritty with dust. "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 on a cackle of mad laughter.

Nova thought of a way to get her friends to safety. She was sure Harry had a plan, but she didn't know his plan. All she knew was he is buying time and plans on smashing shelves. In Nova's opinion, there needed to be more.

And Nova did. . .have a plan that is. It was mad, but it was something. 

"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?" Harry spoke."Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it — and Bode?"

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

Nova stepped forward. All of the Death Eater's wands were trained on her. 

Time to fuck shit up, Nova thought to herself.