The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|90| the Veil

Before Malfoy could curse me, Tonks had already thrown a Stunning Spell at him. Grabbing my hand, Harry dove off the dais and out of the way. Through the darting bodies, the flashes of light, I could see Neville crawling along. Dogging another jet of red light, I flung Harry and myself flat on the group and crawled to Neville.

"Are you okay?" Harry 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 under us exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Neville's hand had been seconds before. We 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 in his ear, "give me the prophecy —"

With all my might, I took my fists and slammed them against the arm, trying to get him the let Harry go. The man screamed in pain. 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 and pulling it out hard. The man relinquished Harry at once with a howl of pain and Harry whirled around to face him and gasped, "STUPEFY!"

"Thanks!" Harry said to Neville and me.

Quickly looking around, I saw Sirius and his Death Eater lurched past, dueling so fiercely that their wands were blurs. Then my foot made contact with something round and hard and I slipped— for a moment I thought I had dropped the prophecy, then saw Moody's magic eye spinning away across the floor.

Its owner was lying on his side, bleeding from the head, and his attacker was now bearing down upon Harry, Neville, and I: A man's long pale face twisted with glee.

"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. "Impedimenta!" Harry froze in his spot and fell next to Neville. "Now, Potter—"

He made the same slashing movement with his wand that he had used on Hermione just as I yelled, "Protego!"

I felt something streak across my face like a blunt knife but the force of it knocked me sideways, and I fell over Neville's jerking legs and Harry's still body, but the Shield Charm had stopped the worst of the spell. Dolohov raised his wand again. "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 my fingers but I 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 me and Hermione. Springing out of the full-body bind, 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, James!" shouted Sirius, forcing Harry's head down as a pair of Stunning Spells flew toward us. "Now I want you to get out of —"

They both ducked again. A jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius; across the room I 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. I quickly scrambled up and stood next to Harry, ready to fight.

"No— Maisey, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to meet Bellatrix. I did not see what happened next: Kingsley swayed across my field of vision, battling with the pockmarked Rookwood, now mask-less; another jet of green light flew over my head as I launched myself over Harry, knocking him over, toward Neville—