Courage

-78-

Book: Courage
Chapter 78
Word Count: 6663

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. 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 Layla'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 woman to Layla's left.

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

"Have you got him?" said Layla, her eyes widening as she tried to ignore the rising panic in his chest. Was Harry right all along? Had Sirius really been tortured? "Was he here? Answer me!"

"Ah, Little Miss Werewolf. Ask Potter. The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman in a horrible, mock baby voice. Layla felt Ron stir beside her.

"Don't do anything," Harry 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!"

"Who you calling children?" snapped Layla, glaring at the woman angrily. Her words went ignored.

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy 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," said Harry. "I know you've got him!"

More of the Death Eaters laughed, though the woman laughed loudest of all.

"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 six wands of Ron, Layla, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna rose on either side of him.

But the Death Eaters did not strike.

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

"Yeah, right!" Harry 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 the female Death Eater shrieked: "Accio proph—"

Harry shouted "Protego" before she had finished her spell.

"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—!"

The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, 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.