mirrorball

chapter twenty one

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony. 

"That was just a taster!" said Bellatrix, raising her wand so that Neville's screams stopped and he lay sobbing at her feet. She turned and gazed up at Harry. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!" 

Harry pushed his hand forward, the prophecy waiting to be taken. Malfoy jumped forward to take it. Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley. Malfoy turned and raised his wand, but Tonks had already sent a stunning spell right at him. Clara did not wait to see whether it had made contact, but dived off the dais out of the way. The Death Eaters were completely distracted by the appearance of the members of the Order, who were now raining spells down upon them as they jumped from step to step toward the sunken floor. Through the darting bodies, the flashes of light, Clara could see Neville crawling along. She dodged another jet of red light and flung herself flat on the ground to reach Neville. Harry quickly joined them and put his hand on Neville's back.

"Are you okay?" he yelled, as another spell soared inches over their heads.

 "Yes," said Neville, trying to pull himself up. 

"And Ron?" 

"I dink he's all right — he was still fighding the brain when I left —" The stone floor between them exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Neville's hand had been seconds before. The three scrambled away from the spot, then a thick arm came out of nowhere, seized Harry around the neck and pulled him upright, so that his toes were barely touching the floor. 

"Give it to me," growled a voice, "give me the prophecy —" 

"AARGH!" Neville had come lunging out of nowhere: Unable to articulate a spell, he had jabbed Hermione's wand hard into the eyehole of the Death Eater's mask. The man relinquished Harry at once with a howl of pain and Harry whirled around to face him and gasped, "STUPEFY!" 

The Death Eater keeled over backward and his mask slipped off.

 "Thanks!" Harry said to Neville, pulling him aside as Sirius and his Death Eater lurched past, dueling so fiercely that their wands were blurs. Clara pulled her wand out, finally ready to fight. A Death Eater quickly made his way towards the group.

"Tarantallegra!" he shouted, his wand pointing at Neville, whose legs went immediately into a kind of frenzied tap dance, unbalancing him and causing him to fall to the floor again. "Now, Potter —" The man started to move his wand and Clara jumped in front of Harry.

"Protego!"

Harry and Clara were knocked over by the force of the spell, but Clara hoped that her spell had protected them from the worst.

"Accio Proph —" Sirius hurtled out of nowhere, rammed Dolohov with his shoulder, and sent him flying out of the way. The prophecy had again flown to the tips of Harry's fingers but he had managed to cling to it. Now Sirius and Dolohov were dueling, their wands flashing like swords, sparks flying from their wand tips —Dolohov drew back his wand to make the same slashing movement he had used on Harry. Springing up, Harry yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" 

Once again, Dolohov's arms and legs snapped together and he keeled over backward, landing with a crash on his back. 

"Nice one!" shouted Sirius, forcing Harry's head down as a pair of stunning spells flew toward them. "Now I want you to get out of —" They ducked again. A jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius; across the room Clara saw Tonks fall from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat, and Bellatrix, triumphant, running back toward the fray.