Easy Mistake ; Harry Potter

O N E H U N D R E D A N D F O R T Y F I V E | The Place Where It's Hidden

Harry was ready for Bellatrix, he shouted; "Protego!" before she had finished her Summoning spell. Harry felt as though the world was going in slow motion, he felt the glass sphere slip to the end of his fingers but he managed to keep his grip on it, the years of Quidditch practice and fast reflexes paying off.

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

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

Harry's mind was racing. The Death Eaters wanted this dusty glass sphere. He had no interest in it. He just wanted to get everyone out here alive, to make sure his friends didn't pay the price for his stupidity.

The woman stepped forward, away from her followers, and pulled off her hood. Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix Lestrange's face, making it gaunt and skull like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow.

"You need more persuasion?" She said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well - take the smallest one." She ordered the Death Eaters.

Harry's heart froze in his chest. They weren't about to get Josh were they?

"Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."

Harry quickly realised Bellatrix was talking about Ginny. He felt the others closing in around Ginny to protect her. He stepped sideways so he was standing in front of her. "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?"

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 others quickened breaths 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 with saying Vol-"

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

"Did you know he's half-blood too?" said Harry recklessly. Hermione gave a little moan in his ear. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle - or has he been telling you lot he's pure-blood?"

"STUPEF-"

"NO!"

A jet of red light had shot from the end of Bellatrix's wand, but Malfoy had dejected 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.