Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 74 ⚡️

"RUN!"

The shelves all around them swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to pour from above, and Vega seized a handful of Harry's robes, dragging him forward, one arm over her own head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them. Harry was, thankfully, pulling Hermione along with them.

A Death Eater lunged forward through the cloud of dust and Vega instinctually used a flick of her wand directly at his masked face, blasting him back into the dust. They 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 –

Vega found the way ahead clear and saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna sprint past her, their arms over their heads. Something heavy struck her on the side of the face but she merely ducked her head and sprinted onward; a hand caught Harry by the shoulder; Vega heard Hermione shout "Stupefy!" and the hand released him at once.

They were at the end of row ninety-seven; Vega turned right, pulling Harry along and began to sprint in earnest. She could hear footsteps right behind her as they raced down the aisle and Hermione's voice urging Neville on.

"Everyone, keep up!" Vega shouted. "We're almost there!"

Ahead of them, the door through which they had come was still ajar, Vega could see the glittering light of the bell jar, she pelted through it, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in her 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?" Harry gasped.

That prompted Vega to whip around and look all over the room – she 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. Vega felt her skin crawl in horror.

"Don't tell me they went the wrong way!" Vega breathed, starting to lose her cool.

"Listen!" Neville whispered. "Vega!"

Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed. Vega walked over to the door and put her ear close to the door to listen what the Death Eaters were going on about and heard Lucius Malfoy roar loudly:

"Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy – Jugson, come back here, we need to organise! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Vega and 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 Vega and Harry, trembling from head to foot, and found Vega's expression harden as she realised that both her parents and uncle were clearly here – and she just couldn't believe the nerve of them.

"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start," Harry told them when Vega didn't say anything. "Let's get away from this door..."

The four of them ran, quite as quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and un-hatching, toward the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when Vega 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, Vega, Harry, Hermione, and Neville dived under desks. They could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.