Percy’s POV

We were now in some kind of room that was kind of … sparkling. When my eyes had adjusted to it, I noticed that clocks all of types hung between bookcases or standing on desks. Large clocks, small clocks, grandfather clocks, carriage clocks … You name it, they had it. Busy, relentless ticking filled the room as I stood there, staring around with wide eyes. The source of the dancing, diamond-bright lights seemed to be coming from a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room.

“This way!”

I snapped out of my daze as Harry shouted, leading the way down a narrow space between the lines of desks.

“Oh, look!” Ginny exclaimed, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar as we approached closer towards it.

There was a tiny, jewel-bright egg drifting along the sparkling current inside. As it rose in the jar, it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged. However, as it was carried to the very top of the jar ad fell on the draught, its feathers became bedraggled and damp again. By the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed in an egg once again.

“Keep going!” Harry snapped irritably as Ginny slowed down.

“You dawdled enough by the old arch!” she huffed crossly but sped up.

“This is it,” Harry repeated, sounding breathless. “It’s through here –“

Everybody drew out their wands warily. Copying them, we pulled out our weapons. Harry, after glancing anxiously back at us, pushed open the door.

The ceilings rose magnificently, as high as a church and towering shelves stretched out endlessly, filled with small, dusty glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light radiating from candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves. The flames burned blue yet the room was freezing.

Harry edged forward silently and cautiously, peering down one of the shadowy aisles.

“You said it was row ninety-seven,” Hermione whispered.

“Yeah,” Harry breathed, looking up to squint at the silver figure fifty-three glimmering beneath the branch of blue-glowing candles.

“We need to go right, I think,” Hermione murmured, looking at the next row. “Yes … that’s fifty-four …”

“Keep your wands and weapons ready,” Harry said softly.

Creeping forward silently, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It was extremely nerve-wrecking, sneaking around like this and trying not to attract any attention from possible Death Eaters, not to mention Voldemort. The further ends of the shelves were in total darkness. Yellowing labels were stuck under each glass orbs on the shelves, some of them having a weird, liquid glow whereas others were as dull and dark within.

We were now passing row eighty-four … eighty-five … I was craning my ears for the slightest sound.

“Ninety-seven!” Hermione whispered.

All of us stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down at the alley. There seemed to be nobody there.

“He’s right down at the end,” Harry said, a touch of uncertainty in his tone. “You can’t see properly from here.

As we neared somewhere towards the end of the alley, my heart gave a leap. There was a dark shape on the ground, unmoving. Harry broke into a run but as we neared it, I started to frown. It seemed a little too … small to be Sirius. Slowing into a walk, I held my breath as Harry crouched down, gently turning the figure onto its back.

“Thalia!” Annabeth gasped hollowly next to me, kneeling down.

“Thalia?” Tyson whispered anxiously.

I gazed down at her, feeling something stab at my heart. Her hair was a mess, her body was trembling lightly and her face was contorted into an expression of fear. However, her eyes were closed and she seemed to be unconscious as she breathed steadily.

Annabeth took over Harry’s place, laying Thalia’s head gently on her lap as Harry rose to his feet. His jaw was clenched as he strode forward, staring down at the alleys. “He should be here,” he whispered. “Anywhere here … really close …”

“Harry?” Hermione asked tentatively from the ground, where she was helping Annabeth feed some ambrosia and nectar into Thalia’s mouth.

“Somewhere about … here …”  Harry muttered, reaching the end, hesitating before peering down the next alley. “He might be …” He hurried down the one beyond that. “Or maybe …”

“Harry?” Hermione spoke up again.

“What?” Harry snarled back at her.

“I … I don’t think Sirius is here.”

Nobody spoke as all of us stared at Harry, with the exception of Annabeth who was still tending to Thalia and Ron, who seemed to be gazing up at the orbs on the shelves. His back was trembling and he didn’t seem to want to look at any of us. Instead, he ran up to the space at the end of the rows, staring down them, vanishing from view as he searched aisle after aisle.

“Harry,” Ron called out, an odd look on his face.

“What?”

“Have you seen this?”

“What?” Harry’s voice had changed, sounding eager, his footsteps growing louder. His expression fell again when he appeared and saw that Ron was staring at the orbs instead. “What?” he repeated, sounding glum.

“It’s – it’s got your name on,” Ron replied.

A frown appeared on Harry’s face. He strode forward, looking up at the orb that Ron was pointing to. “My name?” he asked blankly.

All of us watched them as Harry inspected the yellow label under the orb. His brows were furrowed as he read.

“What is it?” Ron asked, sounding unnerved as he glanced along at the other labels. “What’s your name doing down here? I’m not here. None of the rest of us are here.”

“Harry, I don’t think you should touch it,” Hermione spoke up, her voice sharp.

Harry, whose hand was stretched out towards the orb, looked back at her. “Why not? It’s something to do with me, isn’t it?”

“Don’t, Harry,” Neville said suddenly. His face was shining slightly with sweat and he looked as though he couldn’t take any more suspense.

“It’s got my name on,” Harry said.

As his fingers closed around the orb, a loud coughing sound started up behind him. Harry whirled around, the orb still in his grasp. Thalia was conscious now, struggling as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. Her gaze was focused on Harry, eyes hard with determination yet there was some fear in them as well.

“Harry …” she said weakly. “The orb … don’t …”

And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice spoke.

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

Black shapes were emerging out of thin air around us, blocking all ways out. Cold eyes glinted through slits in hood, a dozen lit wand-tips were pointing directly at our hearts. Ginny let out a sharp gasp. Tyson, startled, stumbled backwards and all of us immediately drew closer to the middle, standing protectively over Thalia, whose face looked resigned as she struggled to her feet with Annabeth’s assistance.

“To me, Potter,” a Death Eater repeated, his hand held out, palm up.

“It was a trap,” Thalia whispered miserably from behind us.

“Lucius Malfoy,” Ron hissed furiously under his breath.

I sucked in a breath. Lucius Malfoy? Draco’s dad?

“To me,” Malfoy said yet again.

“Where’s Sirius,” Harry shot back.

Several Death Eaters laughed and a harsh, female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures said triumphantly, “The Dark Lord always knows!”

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

“I want to know where Sirius is!”

“I want to know where Sirius is!” A woman mimicked.

The Death Eaters had closed in now, mere feet away from us.

“You’ve got him,” Harry insisted, sounding slightly panicked now. “He’s here. I know he is!”

“The little baby woke up fwightened ad fort what it dweamed was twoo,” the woman said in a horrible, mock baby voice.

“Don’t do anything,” Harry muttered suddenly, to someone next to him who must have made a move. “Not yet –“

The woman let out a racious scream of laughter.

“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,” Malfoy said 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,” Harry said, sounding breathless now, as though he could not breathe properly. “I know you’ve got him!”

The Death Eaters laughed again, though the woman, Bellatrix, laughed loudest of all.

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

“Go on, then,” Harry challenged, raising his own wand, as did the others. Following his lead, the rest of us lifted up our weapons. I had stowed Riptide away when we found Thalia a while back and now removed the cap again, revealing the Celestial Bronze blade. I took savage pleasure in the now narrowed eyes of the Death Eater in front of me.

Yet the Death Eaters did not strike.

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

This time, Harry laughed.

“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 as the female Death Eater seemed to lose control and shrieked: “Accio proph –“

“Protego!” Harry yelled out before she could finish her spell.

“Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter,” she said. “Very well, then –“

“I TOLD YOU, NO!” Lucius Malfoy roared at the woman. “If you smash it –“

The woman stepped forward, pulling away her hood revealing a gaunt and skull-like face, alive with a feverish, fanatical glow.

“You need more persuasion?” Her chest rose and fell rapidly. “Very well – take the smallest one,” she ordered one of the Death Eaters. “Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I’ll do it.”

As the Death Eaters closed in, Harry stepped sideways in front of Ginny, the prophecy held up to his chest.

“You’ll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us,” he said coldly. “I don’t think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?”

Bellatrix did not move, merely staring at him.

“So,” Harry said.” What kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?”

I frowned; he seemed to be stalling for time and from behind me, I could hear Thalia’s breath coming steadier as she recovered, her strength seemingly coming back.

“What kind of prophecy?” Bellatrix repeated, her grin fading. “You jest, Harry Potter.”

“Nope, not jesting,” Harry said. My eyes flickered between each of the Death Eaters as he continued to speak, trying to find a weak point. “How come Voldemort wants it?”

“You dare speak his name?” Bellatrix whispered as hisses started up.

“Yeah,” Harry replied. “Yeah, I’ve got no problem with saying Vol –“

“Shut your mouth!” Bellatrix shrieked, making all of us jump. “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?” Harry interrupted. I winced a little at his recklessness as Hermione let out a little moan. “Voldermort? 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 shot out from Bellatrix’s wand but Malfoy deflected it, his spell causing hers to hit several glass orbs on a shelf a foot to the left of Harry.

Two figures, pearly-white as ghosts, rose from the fragments of broken glass from the floor and began to speak, their voice barely louder than Malfoy’s and Bellatrix’s so that only fragments could be heard.

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

“DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!”

“He dared – he dares –“ Bellatrix shrieked incoherently. “He stands there – filthy half-blood –“

“WAIT UNTIL WE’VE GOT THE PROPHECY!” Malfoy bawled.

“ … and none will come after …” a figure of a young woman said.

The figures that had appeared melted into thin air. Nothing remained but shards of glass on the floor.

“You haven’t told me what’s so special about this prophecy I’m supposed to be handing over,” Harry said. I heard a slight shifting sound as though as he was moving.

“Do not play games with us, Potter,” Malfoy said.

“I’m not playing games,” Harry replied. There was a sharp intake of breath from somewhere behind me.

“What?” I heard Hermione whispered.

“Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?”

“I – what? What about my scar?”

“What?” Hermione said more urgently.

“Can this be?” Malfoy sounded delighted and many Death Eaters were laughing again. I heard Harry hissing something to Hermione but couldn’t make out anything he was saying.

“Dumbledore never told you?” Malfoy continued. “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 in hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiously would make you want to hear the exact wording …”

Suddenly, Annabeth whispered into my ear. “Smash shelves when Harry says now – pass the message.”

Nodding slightly, I murmured quietly to the person next to me, which was Grover. My grip tightened on Riptide.

“Did he?” Harry asked, playing for time. “So he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?”

“Why?” Malfoy sounded even more delighted now. “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 from him.”

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

“About both of you, Potter, both of you … haven’t you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?”

There was a short silence before Harry spoke up again, his voice quiet. “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?”

“Get it himself?” Bellatrix shrieked, 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?” Harry said. “Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it – and Bode?”

“Very good, Potter, very good …” Malfoy said slowly. “But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell –“

“NOW” Harry yelled.

Five different voices yelled out, “REDUCTO!”

Five curses flew in five different directions.

Chaos reigned.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I'm sorry guys. I'm feeling stressed and I'm in a bit of a depressed mood so I hope this will keep you guys going for a while. It's more of a filler chapter, the action will begin in the next chapter :)

I love you guys <3