3rd Person's POV

Firm footsteps make their way closer to Karina. She turns her head and her heart drops as she stares at the very nightmare she had been running away from.

"Well well well if it isn't my favorite niece... well my only niece. I have finally found you thanks to apparently the only capable follower I can count on." Voldemort says as he lightly glares at Malfoy who bows his head down to him.

"Apologies master."

Voldemort hisses then kneels down to Karina who tries not to show how hard her whole body was trembling.

"What a beauty you are. You look just like your mother. From what I have seen, you're as stubborn as her too... we will have to fix that."

"Screw you..." Karina spits out quietly as she glares at Voldemort, "He's going to stop you..."

"Who? Potter? The great Harry Potter?" Voldemort chuckles standing up and moving away from Karina.

"Maybe not today... but one day. You're end is coming."

"Silence." Voldemort hisses as he glares at his niece, "Your mother was a seer as well. But she mentioned nothing of seeing her own death. So sad... unless you want to end up like her I suggest you give up and join us."

Karina shakes her head hastily, "I would happily die before I stand by your side."

Bellatrix gasps and bends down grabbing the girls face tightly in her grasp. Karina glares as Bellatrix holds her face firmly while making a tsk sound.

"You ought to apologize little one. The master doesn't forgive easily. And neither do I."

"You can choke."

Bellatrix glares and points her wand at Karina. Karina stares at her blankly without so much as a flinch. As Bellatrix opens her mouth to say a spell, she freezes hearing her master speak.

"Enough... both of you. Now child you are going to tell us what you know about where Potter is... or we can just visit your little friends back at Hogwarts."

Karina feels her jaw clench as her heart begins to beat quickly. She didn't think this would happen at all. Why out of all times and situations did she not get a sign or some kind of warning about this? She knew what would come soon, but this soon? Maybe she could stall?

"No need master. I just received word that Potter and his friends are here."

Karina internally curses while mentally stabbing Lucius Malfoy in the back. The rat.

Voldemort grins while looking around at everyone, "It is time."

...

"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 be- come 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 every step 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. His mouth was very dry now.

"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.

"Harry?" said Hermione again.

"What?" he snarled.

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

Nobody spoke.

Harry did not want to look at any of them. He felt sick. He did not understand why Sirius was not here. He had to be here. This was where he, Harry, had seen him.

He ran up the space at the end of the rows, staring down them. Empty aisle after empty aisle flickered past. He ran the other way, back past his staring companions. There was no sign of Sirius any- where, nor any hint of a struggle.

"Harry?" Ron called.

"What?"

He 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, but eagerly this time — it had to be a sign that Sirius had been there, a clue — he strode back to where they were all standing, a little way down row ninety-seven, but found nothing except Ron staring at one of the dusty glass spheres on the shelves.

"What?" Harry repeated glumly.

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

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 very dusty 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 to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen years previously, and below that:

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.
Dark Lord
Karina Grey
And
Harry Potter

Harry stared at it.

"What is it?" Ron asked, sounding unnerved. "What's your name doing down here? What's both of your names doing on there?"

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, 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.

Harry looked around at him. Neville's round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense.

"It's got my name on," said Harry.

And feeling slightly reckless, he closed his fingers around the dusty ball's surface. He had expected it to feel cold, but it did not. On the contrary, it felt as though it had been lying in the sun for hours, as though the glow of light within was warming it. Expecting, even hoping, that something dramatic was going to happen, something excit- ing that might make their long and dangerous journey worthwhile after all, he lifted the glass ball down from its shelf and stared at it.

Nothing whatsoever happened.

The others moved in closer around Harry, gazing at the orb as he brushed it free of the clogging dust.

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

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.

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

Harry's insides plummeted sickeningly. They were trapped and outnumbered two to one.

"To me," said Malfoy yet again.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry said.

Several of the Death Eaters laughed.

A harsh female voice from the midst 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 Bellatrix to his left who steps out the darkness with Karina in front of her.

Harry's eyes widen as he takes in a tussled up Karina who had her hands tied behind her back.

"Karina..." He whispers.

Bellatrix and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from Harry and the others, the light from their wands dazzling Harry's eyes.

"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. If they had Karina, surely him and his friends were toast.

"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. Harry felt Ron stir beside him.

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

The woman who had mimicked him let out a raucous scream of laughter.

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

"I hope he does..." Karina spits out.

Bellatrix glares and suddenly backhand slaps Karina making the girls head snap to the right. Karina glares as tries to catch herself so she doesn't fall.

"You hush! You're already in enough trouble."

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," Malfoy replies softly taking the attention of Bellatrix off Karina. He peeks at the girl his son had loved and makes sure she is fine before turning with a blank stare to Harry and his friends.

"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 the woman still laughed loudest of all. Karina huffs and looks down at her shoes as she can't even look at Harry.

This was all his fault. Granted she had the same "vision" as well as the second one which she felt deep in her spirit would come true. Also Bellatrix had been the reason Voldemort knew who she was and where. But if Harry wasn't so persistent with doing everything but the most logical, then she wouldn't be in the hands of the enemy.

"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 five wands of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, 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.

"Don't go on. Are you insane, Potter?" Karina glares at Harry as he continues to hold his wand firmly pointed towards Lucius.

Karina couldn't believe he would risk his friends lives. They weren't ready for this. Neither was he.

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

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 Bellatrix 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," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. She grabbed Karina's face and smiled, "You taught him well, so it seems."

Karina glares but doesn't say anything as she yanks her face from Bellatrix's grip.

Bellatrix turns back to Harry and smirks evilly, "Very well then —"

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

Harry's mind was racing. The Death Eaters wanted this dusty spun-glass sphere. He had no interest in it. He just wanted to get them all out of this alive, make sure that none of his friends paid a terrible price for his stupidity.

Bellatrix stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood as she pointed her wand at the side of Karina's head.

"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well. Let him watch while we torture little Grey." Bella's eyes stop on a small red head standing beside Harry just slightly holding his arm, "Ohh or better yet... how about the little girl. I'll do it."

Harry felt the others close in around Ginny. He stepped sideways so that he was right in front of her, the prophecy held up to his chest.

"Then I'll have to smash this if you touch Karina or 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?"

He could not think what to do but to keep talking. Neville's arm was pressed against his, and he could feel him shaking. He could feel one of the other's quickened breath on the back of his head. He was hoping they were all thinking hard about ways to get out of this, because his mind was blank.

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

"Nope, not jesting," said Harry, his 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 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 —"

"N O ! "

Karina flinches as a jet of red light shoots out from the end of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand beside her face. The light beams across her cheek causing blood to seep from her face. Before the beam can hit anyone Lucius deflects it. His spell caused hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of Harry and several of the glass orbs there shattered.

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.

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. They had, however, given Harry an idea. The problem was going to be conveying it to the others.

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

Karina groans, "I knew it was a trap. You idiot."

"He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording..."

"Did he?" said Harry. Behind him he felt rather than heard Hermione 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 you and dear little Karina..."

Karina frowns and looks at the crystal ball in Harry's hand. Why was her name on it? What did she have to do with the prophecy?

As she stares intensely at the ball, an image flashes quickly in her head. Her mouth drops for a moment before she quickly realizes where she was. She plays it off and stands now feeling a sweat come on. This was not good.

"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. "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?"

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

"NOW!" yelled Harry.

Five different voices behind him bellowed "REDUCTO!"

Five curses flew in five different directions and the shelves opposite them exploded as they hit. The towering structure swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart, pearly-white figures unfurled into the air and floated there, their voices echoing from who knew what long-dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass and splintered wood now raining down upon the floor.

"RUN!" Harry yelled, and as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to pour from above, he seized a handful of Hermione's robes and dragged her forward, one arm over his head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them.

A Death Eater lunged forward through the cloud of dust and Harry elbowed him hard in the masked face.

Bellatrix lets go of Karina and holds her hands over her head as crystal balls fall all around them. Karina yelps in pain as glass fragments pierce her arms.

A crystal ball rolls at her feet making her look down in confusion as it was perfectly round without so much as a crack or dent. As she looks down at it, the cloudy look of the ball begins to vanish.

A tall boy standing near a stone wall. The wall suddenly blows and collapses. The bricks from the explosion fly and hit the boy making him fly into the wall of the opposite side. He instantly dies as his head hits the hard stone.

Gasping, Karina stands up straight and looks around forgetting for a moment where she was. Her eyes tear up as she thinks about what she had just seen. But she couldn't think about that right now. She had to survive herself. She quickly runs forward away from the rest of the Death Eaters who were all yelling.

There were cries of pain, thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from their spheres.

Harry found the way ahead clear and saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna sprint past him, their arms over their heads. He looks behind him to see Karina trying to untangle her hands while the death eaters had been trapped in a hail of glass. He quickly runs over to her and pulls her arm making her jump and yank away.

"It's me! Come on! Hurry!"

Karina sighs in relief before allowing him to pull her arm. Something heavy struck him on the side of the face but he merely ducked his head and sprinted onward. As Karina hurries past him, a hand catches him by the shoulder; he heard Hermione shout "Stupefy!" and the hand released him at once.

They were at the end of row ninety-seven; Harry turned right and began to sprint in earnest. He could hear footsteps right behind him and Hermione's voice urging Neville on.

The door through which they had come was ajar straight ahead, Harry could see the glittering light of the bell jar, he pelted through it, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in his hand, waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind them.

"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.

"Where — where are the others?" gasped Harry.

He had thought that Ron, Luna, and Ginny had been ahead of them, that they would be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.

"They must have gone the wrong way!" whispered Hermione, terror in her face.

"Listen!" whispered Neville.

Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed. Harry put his ear close to the door to listen and heard Lucius Malfoy roar: "Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy. No one harm Grey! If she has so much more than a scratch, it will be your head — 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 — 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 Harry, trembling from head to foot.

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

They ran, quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, toward the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when Harry heard something large and heavy collide with the door Hermione had charmed shut.

"Stand aside!" said a rough voice. "Alohomora!"

As the door flew open, Harry, Karina, Hermione, and Neville dived under desks. They could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.

"They might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.

"Check under the desks," said another.

Harry saw the knees of the Death Eaters bend. Poking his wand out from under the desk he shouted, "STUPEFY !"

A jet of red light hit the nearest Death Eater; he fell backward into a grandfather clock and knocked it over. The second Death Eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid Harry's spell and now pointed his own wand at Hermione, who had crawled out from under the desk to get a better aim.

"Avada —"

Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and his aim to go awry. Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair he cried, "EXPELLIARMUS !"

Both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared back toward the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the Death Eater in front and Harry hot on his heels, Neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck at what he had done.

"Get out of the way, Harry!" yelled Neville, clearly determined to repair the damage.

Harry flung himself sideways as Neville took aim again and shouted, "STUPEFY !"

The jet of red light flew right over the Death Eater's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped hourglasses. The cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying every- where, then sprang back up onto the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered.

The Death Eater had snatched up his wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. Harry ducked down behind another desk as the man turned — his mask had slipped so that he could not see, he ripped it off with his free hand and shouted, "STUP —"

"STUPEFY!" screamed Hermione, who had just caught up with them while helping Karina who still didn't have use of her hands.

The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest; he froze, his arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter and he collapsed backward toward the bell jar. Harry expected to hear a clunk, for the man to hit solid glass and slide off the jar onto the floor, but instead, his head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it was nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back on the table, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.

"Accio Wand !" cried Hermione.

Harry's wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to him.

"Thanks," he said, "right, let's get out of—"

"Look out!" said Neville, horrified, staring at the Death Eater's head in the bell jar.

All three of them raised their wands again, but none of them struck. Karina stares in disgust as the others were all gazing, openmouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the man's head.

It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull, his cheeks smooth, his skull round and covered with a peachlike fuzz.

A baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Death Eater as he struggled to get up again. But even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again, thick black hair was sprouting from the pate and chin.

"It's time," said Hermione in an awestruck voice. "Time..."

The Death Eater shook his ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before he could pull himself together again, it began to shrink back to babyhood once more.

There was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream.

"RON?" Harry yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before them. "GINNY? LUNA?"

"Harry!" Hermione screamed.

The Death Eater had pulled his head out of the bell jar. His appearance was utterly bizarre, his tiny baby's head bawling loudly while his thick arms flailed dangerously in all directions, narrowly missing Harry, who ducked. Harry raised his wand but to his amazement Hermione seized his arm.

"You can't hurt a baby!"

"What in the world are you talking about Granger?! Can we run now?!"

There was no time to argue the point. Harry could hear more footsteps growing louder from the Hall of Prophecy they had just left and knew, too late, that he ought not to have shouted and given away their position.

"Come on!" he said again pulling Karina along as Hermione and Neville follow behind, leaving the ugly baby-headed Death Eater staggering behind them.

They took off for the door that stood ajar at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway. They had run halfway toward it when Harry saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room toward them. Veering left he burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind them.

"Collo —" began Hermione, but before she could complete the spell the door had burst open again and the two Death Eaters had come hurtling inside. With a cry of triumph, both yelled, "IMPEDIMENTA!"

Harry, Hermione, Karina, and Neville were all knocked backward off their feet. Neville was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view, Hermione smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books; the back of Harry's head slammed into the stone wall behind him, tiny lights burst in front of his eyes, and for a moment he was too dizzy and bewildered to react. Karina flies into a glass case and yells out in pain as a large shard cuts deep into her side.

"WE'VE GOT HIM!" yelled the Death Eater nearest Harry, "IN AN OFFICE OFF —"

"Silencio!" Karina cried out as the man's voice was now extinguished. She smirks as she sits up groaning, "At least I can still do that wandless."

The Death Eater continued to mouth through the hole in his mask, but no sound came out; he was thrust aside by his fellow.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater raised his wand. His arms and legs snapped together and he fell forward, facedown onto the rug at Harry's feet, stiff as a board and unable to move at all.

"Well done, Ha —"

But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand from which flew a streak of what looked like purple flame. It passed right across Hermione's chest; she gave a tiny "oh!" as though of surprise and then crumpled onto the floor where she lay motionless.

"HERMIONE!"

Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly toward her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged — his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face — Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose.

"No!" Karina shouts as she stands and goes to limp over to the boy who was getting beat, but she is held by another Death Eater who pulls her over towards the door.

"Let go!"

Harry twisted around, his own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts. Dolohov grins yanking Karina by her arm making her cry out in pain as blood seeps through her shirt. With his free hand, he points from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione.

Though he could no longer speak his meaning could not have been clearer: Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her.

"Like you won't kill us all the moment I hand it over anyway!" said Harry.

A whine of panic inside his head was preventing him thinking properly. He had one hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet did not dare look at her properly. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead.

"Whaddever you do, Harry," said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to him!"

Then there was a crash outside the door, and Dolohov looked over his shoulder — the baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him.

Harry makes eye contact with Karina and seizes his chance, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

Karina shoulders Dolohov making the spell hit him before he could block it. He topples forward across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.

"Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up..."

"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk again to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.

"I dunno."

Neville groped for Hermione's wrist.
"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is..."

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Harry that for a moment he felt light-headed.

"She's alive?"

"Yeah, I dink so. . . ."

Karina sighs as she falls on her knees beside the boys, "He just stunned her. She's okay."

There was a pause in which Harry listened hard for the sounds of more footsteps, but all he could hear were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby Death Eater in the next room.

"Guys, we're not far from the exit," Harry whispered. "We're right next to that circular room. Neville if we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift... Then you could find someone. Raise the alarm..."

"And whad are you going do do?" said Neville, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.

"I've got to find the others," said Harry.

"Well, I'b going do find dem wid you," said Neville firmly.

"But Hermione —"

"We'll dake her wid us," said Neville firmly. "I'll carry her — you're
bedder at fighding dem dan I ab —"

He stood up and seized one of Hermione's arms, glared at Harry, who hesitated, then grabbed the other and helped hoist Hermione's limp form over Neville's shoulders.

Karina raises an eyebrow at Neville and shrugs, "How brave of you, Neville. Guess you're not a total loser after all."

Neville frowns as Karina smiles sheepishly.

"Sorry."

"Here let me take that off." Harry says as he reaches for the rope tied around Karina's hands.

Karina yells out wait making Harry freeze.

"What?"

Karina frowns, "It's charmed. The Dark Lord put a spell on it. If you try to undo the spell it will stun you."

Harry frowns and bites his lip, "I guess we should continue on then."

Karina nods.

"Wait," said Harry, snatching up Hermione's wand from the floor and shoving it into Nevilles hand, "you'd better take this..."

Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand as they walked slowly toward the door.

"My gran's going do kill be," said Neville thickly, blood spattering from his nose as he spoke, "dat was by dad's old wand..."

Harry stuck his head out of the door and looked around cautiously. The baby-headed Death Eater was screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused, while the glass cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself on the wall behind them.

"He's never going to notice us," he whispered. "C'mon... keep close behind me..."

As they move, they notice glass on the ground. They try to move past but freeze as a loud crunk under their feet. The baby head pauses for a moment making Karina curse inwardly. She peeks to look at Harry then has an idea.

"Harry I have an idea... quickly do the spell."

Harry frowns in confusion, "Won't I get stunned?"

"That's the point!" She whisper yells as she moves away from the two boys, "When I say three..."

Harry gulps as he reaches for his wand from Neville. He points it at the rope on her hands as his hand shakes lightly.

"One..."

The baby freezes once more as he begins to turn back into a man.

"Two..."

Karina turns to the side and holds her hands up as high as she can behind her as she measures the distance between her, Harry, and the baby Death Eater.

"Three!"

Harry shouts, "Reverte."

Karina watches the gold beam shoot from his wand then hit the rope around her wrists. She quickly falls to the ground and yells 'Duck!' to Harry and Neville who both do the same. The beam bounces off the rope and flies back towards Harry. It shoots over his head as he ducks and hits a mirror on the wall. The three watch as the beam flies across the room hits the Death Eater who stands cursing at his luck. The beam hits him making him fly back into the wall frozen.

Karina sighs in relief as she stands up and unwraps the rope form her hands. She rubs her raw wrists and smiles softly, "It worked."

Harry takes in a deep breath before standing up and helping Neville hold Hermione, "Grab his wand."

Karina nods and runs over to the stunned Death Eater. She quickly yanks the wand from his frozen fingers and follows behind the two.

Together the three creep out m the office and back toward the door into the black hallway, which now seemed completely deserted. They walked a few steps forward, Neville tottering slightly due to Hermione's weight. The door of the Time Room swung shut behind them, and the walls began to rotate once more. The recent blow on the back of Harry's head seemed to have unsteadied him; he narrowed his eyes, swaying slightly, until the walls stopped moving again. With a sinking heart Harry saw that Hermione's fiery crosses had faded from the doors.

"So which way d'you reck — ?"

But before they could make a decision as to which way to try, a door to their right on the ceiling sprang open and three people fell out of it. Right before they hit the ground, they froze them lightly plopped down.

"Ron!" croaked Harry, dashing toward them. "Ginny — are you all — ?"

"Ginny?" Harry said fearfully. "What happened?"

But Ginny shook her head and slid down the wall into a sitting position, panting and holding her ankle.

"I think her ankle's broken, I heard something crack," whispered Luna, who was bending over her and who alone seemed to be unhurt.

"Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets, it was a very odd place, some of the time we were just floating in the dark. One of them grabbed Ginny's foot, I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Pluto in his face..."

Luna gestured hopelessly at Ginny, who was breathing in a very shallow way, her eyes still closed.

Hermione makes a moaning sound as she slowly holds her chest and finds her strength to stand.

"Ouch... where are we?"

"I don't know... We've got to get out of here," said Harry firmly. "Luna, can you help Ginny?"

"Yes," said Luna, sticking her wand behind her ear for safekeeping, putting an arm around Ginny's waist and pulling her up.

"It's only my ankle, I can do it myself!" said Ginny impatiently, but next moment she had collapsed sideways and grabbed Luna for support.

Harry looked around, they were in a room sunken pit where the stone archway stood on its dais.

"Department of Mysteries. They got that bit right, didn't they?" Ron mutters as he dusts himself off.

Harry slowly walks towards the stone archway, "The voices. Can you tell what they're saying?"

"There aren't any voices, Harry. Let's get out of here." Hermione mutters as she looks around frightened at the dark pit they were in.

"I hear them too." Luna gazed around in awe.

Karina huffs walking backwards with her wand gripped tightly in the hand, "So do I..."

"Harry, it's just an empty archway. Please, Harry."

Hearing whooshes from above, Harry looks up and sees dark clouds forming towards the ceiling above them.

"Get behind me." Harry orders.

Everyone quickly hurries behind Harry. Karina stands beside him and glances up. She squints at the clouds then frowns as she catches a face in the shadows.

"Everyone get down!"

Multiple black clouds blast past them pushing them around. The group fights against figures that grab at them as they are attacked once more. Harry and Karina suck as the others are yanked away one by one.

Karina curses standing up quickly. She looks around seeing each of the group held by a Death Eater.

Lucius chuckles darkly as he walks up the stone, "Did you actually believe... or were you truly naive enough to think... that children stood a chance against us?"

Karina stands in front of Harry as she points the wand straight out in Lucius' face, "Don't come a step closer."

Lucius tsk and shakes his head, "Dear Karina... you will soon see that you can no longer play both sides. The choice has already been made."

Karina shrugs not moving, "Until then..."

The Death Eater holding Luna grips her neck tighter making Luna cry out in pain. Karina glances over at Luna and clenches her fist around the wand.

"Do that again and your brain will be smeared all over these walls."

"It's okay, Karina." Luna squeaks out making the Slytherin girl frown.

Harry slowly reaches towards Karina and lightly pushes the wand down. He couldn't help but feel like they had lost. All of his friends were taken. There he stood in the middle of the group watching as his enemies held each person who was important to him.

Lucius smiles as he sees this.

"I'll make this simple for you, Potter. Give me the prophecy now... or watch your friends die.

"Don't give it to him, Harry." Neville yells

Bellatrix shushes him as she slaps his neck with her wand while holding his head back.

Harry sighs looking down at the crystal ball. He steps forward in front of Karina and holds the crystal out.

Lucius takes the ball and feels his heart elate. He takes in a deep breath as he holds it up looking into it.

Karina glares at the man then frowns confused as she sees a light behind him. She hears a whoosh and feels wind as a figure makes their way into the room from thin air.

Karina smiles seeing the person walk past her.

Lucius feeling the breeze, turns around and frowns as the person steps up to him.

"Get away from my godson."

Sirius then punches Lucius in the face. The crystal ball flies into the air as Lucius tumbles down the hill. He reaches his hand out to catch the ball but isn't close enough and watches as it shatters in-front of his hands.

Light white beams and smoke clouds form all around as the members of the Order of Phoenix show up. The Death Eaters let go of the group of kids and disappear in black smoke as they attack the order.

Karina points the wand in her hand at a black cloud and shouts, "Expulso!"

Blue light shoots from the wand and the Death Eater is hit with fireworks making them fly into the wall and explode into dust.

Karina looks at the til of the wand and raises an eyebrow, "Wow."

Sirius pulls Harry behind the stone and shields him as he looks around at the kids running from the battle, "Now, listen to me. Take the others and get out of here."

"What? No, I'm staying with you."

"You've done beautifully. Now, let me take it from here."

A spark hits above Sirius' head. He turns to see Lucius walking towards him pulling out his wand, "Black."

Lucius and another Death Eater stand beside each other letting out spells as Sirius and Harry stand on the other side of the archway and protect themselves.

"Confringo!"

A beam shoots from behind Harry hitting the Death Eater making him fly off.

Harry peeks behind him to see Karina. He gives her a grateful nod. She nods back and looks around as she thinks back to her vision. If she didn't leave soon the worst would happen, and it would be her fault.

Hurrying down the hill, Karina hears Bellatrix laughing nearby.

"Shit!" Karina says as she looks around in the sky for the witch.

"Looking for me, sweetheart?"

Karina quickly says a spell to make herself vanish but Bellatrix grabs her and causes Karina to bring her along. The two pop up back near Sirius and Harry who had just sent Lucius off the hill.

"Nice one, James."

Harry looks at Sirius in awe. Sirius turns to look at Harry and frowns as he sees a dark cloud behind him. He pulls the boy forward and watches as Karina and Bellatrix appear.

"Confringo!" Karina quickly says pointing the wand at Bella who disappears once more through the air.

Sirius takes a step towards a battered Karina as he sees her black eye and bruised head, "You alright?"

"Don't come closer! You have to go! Now!" Karina yells at him as she looks around for Bellatrix once more.

Sirius frowns in confusion, "Its alrigh-"

"No! You can't be here!" Karina steps forward then gasps as she looks ahead and sees Bellatrix holding up her wand.

Karina quickly stands infront of Sirius as she hears the words, "Avada."

But before Bellatrix can even get out the second word, Karina feels herself moved. She frowns as if everything was happening in slow motion.

She glances to her right and sees Sirius take a firm stance in her place as he winks at her.

A green light swarms around him as it shoots from Bellatrix's wand.

"Kedavra!"

Karina watches in shock as Sirius takes a step back stunned by the spell. Harry stares in horror at the entire scene.

"No! You weren't supposed to do that! Why would you do that?!" Karina cries as she watches Sirius smile softly before he floats away through the stone arch.

Harry yells out 'No' as he steps forward is grabbed Remus.

Just as Karina turns her head to Harry, she feels herself swiped up from the rock. The wand is snatched from her hand and that last thing she saw was Harry screaming for his godfather.

Harry cries out as he stares at the empty space where his godfather had just been. He snaps his head to the side and sees Karina's unconscious body floating out the room as Bellatrix follows behind it. She laughs and winks at Harry before disappearing through the tiled hall. Harry growls in anger and rips Remus' arms off him. Hurrying quickly behind Bellatrix, Harry runs and tries to

"I killed Sirius Black." Bellatrix giggles as she skips through the large cavernous atrium, "You coming to get me?"

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before. He bellowed "Crucio!"
Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain. She was breathless, no longer laughing but not screaming or crying. Just shocked.

"You've got to mean it, Harry..." Harry groans lowly and twists his neck trying to rid Voldemorts voice from his mind. "She killed him. She deserves it. You know the spell, Harry.

Bella begins to laughs as she sees her masters figure form behind Harry.

"Do it!" Voldemort says.

Harry begins to shake as he feels the hairs on his neck stand up.

"Do it!" Voldemort repeats.

Harry quickly turns around but just as he does Voldemort knocks the wand from his grasp. Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and
gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes staring... Lord Voldemort stood in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move.

"So you smashed my prophecy?" said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes. "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!" sobbed Bellatrix, flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. "Master, you should know —"

"Be quiet, Bella," said Voldemort dangerously. "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 paid no attention.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," he said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist. His mind was blank.

But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth, and landed on the floor with a crash between Harry and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms, protecting Harry.

"What — ?" said Voldemort, staring around.

And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"

Harry looked behind him, his heart pounding. Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates.m

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," said Dumbledore calmly. "The Aurors are on their way —"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you dead!" spat Voldemort.

Voldemort raised his wand and sent another jet of green light at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak; next second he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand toward the remnants of the fountain; the other statues sprang to life too. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her. She quickly leaped into the fireplace and mumbled a spell as she vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled toward the fireplaces set along the wall, and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside the pool. The headless statue thrust Harry backward, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.

He sent another Killing Curse at Dumbledore but missed, instead hitting the security guards desk, which burst into flame.

Dumbledore flicked his own wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his stone guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed, and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gonglike note reverberated from it, an oddly chilling sound.

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk toward Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit —"

"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" snarled Voldemort.

"You are quite wrong," said Dumbledore, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matter over drinks.

Harry felt scared to see him walking along, undefended, shieldless. He wanted to cry out a warning, but his headless guard kept shunting him backward toward the wall, blocking his every attempt to get out from behind it.

"Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness —"

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all.

For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.

The snake reared from the floor, ready to strike. There was a burst of flame in midair above Dumbledore.

"Look out!" Harry yelled.

Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement — the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass.

For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass.

Then he was gone, and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

Harry looked around at the empty atrium with tears running down his face as he thought back to his Godfather.

Yet he still had a lingering question in the back of his mind.

Where was Karina?

...

Gasping awake, Karina quickly sits up and looks around in fright. She sees she's in a black room with a fireplace. She groans holding her bloody side. She had forgotten she had a large piece of glass in her, all the adrenaline gave her a rush. Now she felt weak. Moving her hand away she looks down at her bloody fingers and sighs.

Biting her lip, she then reaches her jean pockets looking for her wand but it was no where to be found.

"Looking for this, dear child?"

Freezing, Karina feels an icy sharp chill run down her spine. She peeks over her shoulder and sees the black robe of Voldemort as he sits in a chair behind her with her ivory wand in his grasp.

"It is quite beautiful..."

Karina says nothing as she gulps lightly and starts to slowly crawl backwards towards the door by the fireplace.

"The sister wand of your mothers... I wonder how powerful it is."

Before Karina can even think of a sarcastic response she feels her body hit with a bone cracking, skull crushing, blood rushing spell.

"Crucio."

I'm sorry to end it like that 😭

What did we think?!

Very much so a super lengthy action packed chapter!! Hope y'all enjoyed!!

Sirius' death was literally so sad. But honestly I don't know if it was just me but I wish it could have been longer. The moment last like two seconds then Harry ran after Bella. Like dang let me process the death first.

Fav moment so far?

What do you think is gonna happen to Karina?

Is Harry going to remember to tell someone that he saw Bellatrix take Karina.

Is anyone else going to notice her gone? (Minus the Slytherins)

Am I going to stop putting Luna instead of Karina? 😂😂 I noticed in a few earlier chapters that I am accidentally calling Karina Luna... who is not Luna love good but actually Luna Tate from my other story (Teen Wolf Fanfic) check it out btw 😌😏

Future predictions?

Any special requests...