CHAPTER 37

ORBS

"OK, listen," said Harry, turning to the others. "Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a - as a lookout, and -"

"And how are we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

"We're coming with you, Harry," said Neville.

"Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly. Harry begrudgingly turned to face the door and walked forwards, Lyra and the others followed. It swung open and they marched over the threshold.

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling. Identical, unmarked, black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue.

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered and Neville obeyed. And without the long chink of light from the torchlit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their reflections in the floor.

Lyra stared at the doors, waiting for Harry to tell them which way to go. But before he could choose one there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. Lyra grabbed Ginny and Luna in case the floor began to rotated as well but it didn't For a few seconds, the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully.

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through," said Ginny in a hushed voice.

"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably.

"Well, that doesn't matter now," said Harry forcefully, "we won't need to get out till we've found Sirius -"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently which seemed like a good plan as Lyra feared a noise might set something off.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't - In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room - that's this one - and then I went through another door into a room that kind of... glitters. We should try a few doors,"

"I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon." They followed Harry straight at the door facing them and he pushed it. Lyra kept her wand held up in case something or someone were to jump out. The door swung open.

After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in. A number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.

"What're those things?" whispered Ron.

"Dunno," said Harry.

"Are they fish?" breathed Lyra.

"Aquavirius Maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding -"

"No," said Hermione, she sounded odd. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."

'"Brains?" Lyra fights back a gag as she slowly nears it,

"Yes... I wonder what they're doing with them?"

"Let's get out of here," said Harry.

"This isn't right, we need to try another door."

"There are doors here, too," said Ron, pointing around the walls.

Lyra sighed, her nerves even further on edge than before, how big was this place?

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one," he said. "I think we should go back and try from there."

So they hurried back into the dark, circular room.

"Wait!" said Hermione sharply, as Luna made to close the door of the brain room behind them.

"Flagrate!" She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery X appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue and, when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.

"Good thinking," said Harry. "OK, let's try this one -"

Again, he strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, with the others behind him, Lyra kept her wand pointed. This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre, or a courtroom.

Instead of a chained chair, however, there was a raised stone dais in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.

"Who's there?" said Harry, jumping down onto the bench below, the veil continued to flutter and sway.

"Careful!" whispered Hermione. Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit, Lyra followed close behind, her wand still raised, watching Harry's back. The others followed.

The pointed archway looked much taller from where they now stood and still the veil swayed gently, as though somebody had just passed through it.

"Sirius?" Harry spoke again, but more quietly now that they were nearer. Gripping her wand very tightly, she watched as Harry edged around the dais, but there was nothing there, all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.

"Let's go," called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. "This isn't right, Harry, come on, let's go." She sounded scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam, yet Lyra thought the archway was beautiful in a truly horrifying way.

"Harry, Lyra, let's go, OK?" Said Hermione more forcefully.

"OK," he said, but neither of them moved. Lyra couldn't hear whatever it was that Harry could but still she felt captivated by the veil, almost wanting to go through it.

"What are you saying?" he said, rather loudly and his words echoed all around the stone benches.

"Nobody's talking, Harry!" said Hermione, now moving over to him.

"Someone's whispering behind there," he said, "Is that you, Ron?"

"I'm here, mate," said Ron, appearing around the side of the archway.

"Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry demanded.

"I can hear them too," breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil.

"There are people in there!"

"What do you mean, 'in there'" demanded Hermione, jumping down from the bottom step and sounding much angrier than the occasion warranted, "there isn't anyone 'in there', it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there."

"Mione, you should know better than anyone that just because you can't see or hear something, doesn't mean it isn't there." Lyra murmured mistily, still staring wide eyed at the archway.

"Harry, Lyra, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!" she said in a high-pitched, strained voice.

"Sirius," Harry repeated, and Lyra did too, barely aware of who the name belonged to.

"Let's go," he said, finally pulling away and managing to take Lyra with him.

"That's what I've been trying to - well, come on, then!" said Hermione, and she led the way back around the dais.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron managed to pull the others out of the room and again inscribed a fiery cross on the door when they were out. Once more, the wall spun and became still again. Harry approached another door at random and pushed. It did not move.

"What's wrong?" said Hermione.

"It's... locked..." said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it didn't budge.

"This is it, then, isn't it?" said Ron excitedly, him and Lyra joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open.

"Bound to be!"

"Get out of the way!" said Hermione sharply. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, "Alohomora!"

Nothing happened. "Sirius's knife!" said Harry. He pulled it out from inside his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. The others all watched eagerly as he ran it from top to bottom, withdrew it and then flung his shoulder again at the door. It remained as firmly shut as ever. When Harry lifted the knife, the blade had melted.

"Right, we're leaving that room," said Hermione decisively.

"But what if that's the one?" said Ron, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing.

"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream," said Hermione, marking the door with another fiery cross.

"You know what could be in there?" said Luna eagerly, as the wall started to spin yet again.

"Something blibbering, no doubt," said Hermione under her breath and Neville gave a nervous little laugh. Lyra sent her a small glare but didn't say anything.

The wall slid to a halt and Harry pushed the next door open. "This is it!"

Lyra sighed in relief and looked into the room. While her eyes accustomed to the shining lights and bright glare she saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room.

The relentless ticking sent prickles up her spine like the sound of heels on marble floor.

"This way!" Harry said and Lyra followed after him, the others not far behind. He led the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks, reaching a crystal bell jar that stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind.

"Oh, took!" said Ginny, as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar. Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar, it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draught its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg.

"Keep going!" said Harry, annoyed at Ginny's distraction, however she sharply responded.

"You dawdled enough by that old arch!"

"This is it," Harry said again, "it's through here -" Lyra raised her wand again ready to push through the new door. They were in a room, high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty glass orbs.

The room was very cold and Lyra wrapped an arm around herself, still holding out her wand. They slowly edged forward and peered down the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves.

"You said it was row ninety-seven," whispered Hermione.

"Yeah," breathed Harry, looking up at the end of the closest row. Beneath the branch of blue-glowing candles protruding from it glimmered the silver figure fifty-three.

"Well, we need to find it then, right?" Lyra whispered, squinting to the next row.

"Yes... that's fifty-four..." Hermione breathed from behind her.

"Keep your wands ready," Harry said softly. They crept forward, glancing behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the further ends of which were in near-total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelves. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs. The silence was unnerving and made her worry that Sirius was unconscious, or worse.

"Ninety-seven!" whispered Hermione. They stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. There was nobody there.

"He's right down at the end, you can't see properly from here." And he led them between the towering rows of glass balls.

"He should be near here," whispered Harry, and Lyra followed, waiting for the moment she would see Sirius's shaggy hair or his eyes or anything.

"Anywhere here... really close..."

"Harry?" said Hermione tentatively, but he did not want to respond.

"Somewhere about... here..." he said. They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. There was nobody there. All was echoing, dusty silence.

Harry began passing the rows around looking for Sirius and Lyra found herself struggling to breathe again. What if they were too late? What if Kreacher had lied? What if he was dead?

Lyra fought to calm her breathing, she could see the lights of the orbs, feel the cold air from the room, and hear Ron distantly speaking.

"It's - it's got your name on," she heard Ron say and turned towards them

Ron was pointing at one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was very dusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years.

"My name?"

Lyra craned her neck to look at the orb. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen years previously, and below that:

S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.

Dark Lord and (?)Harry Potter

Lyra stared at in and then turned to Harry

"What is it?" Ron asked, sounding unnerved. "What's your name doing down here?"

Lyra stared at the orb. "I... I think it's a prophecy."

"Harry, I don't think you should touch it," said Hermione sharply, as he stretched out his hand.

"Why not? It's something to do with me, isn't it?"

"Don't, Harry," said Neville suddenly.

Lyra turned to look at him. Neville's round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense. Lyra was beginning to feel the same way.

"It's got my name on," said Harry and reached forwards, grabbing it.

Lyra waited for something to happen. An explosion, Harry to pass out, the orb to shatter. But nothing happened as Harry brushed the dust and webs from it.

And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice spoke. "Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

Shit

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.

"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.

"To me," said Malfoy yet again, Lyra's grip tightened on her wand.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry said. Several of the Death Eaters laughed; a harsh female voice on the right 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 another woman to their left. She and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from them, the light from their wands dazzling Lyra's eyes.

"You've got him," said Harry and Lyra felt her panic rising again, pushing back at it as hard as she could. Instead focusing on the Death Eaters that were surrounding her and her friends.

"He's here. I know he is."

"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman on the left in a horrible, mock baby voice.

"Don't do anything," Harry muttered when Lyra began to lift her wand and Ron did the same on Harry's other side. "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!"

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix. He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."

Lyra froze at the name, Bellatrix. And if she was here, it meant Cassiopeia couldn't be too far either. She felt Neville shake slightly from behind her.

"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. Lyra raised hers right away, the others following.

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

"Yeah, right!" he said, and tapped at Lyra wrist, she gave a small tap back. "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 -"

But Lyra was ready for it, Harry's warning on her hand had been enough, she shouted "Protego" before Bellatrix had finished her spell.

"Oh, they know how to play, little bitty baby Potter and -" she said, waiting for an answer on who the spell caster was. Lyra knew that giving her name away would risk a lot more if Cassiopeia was in the ranks. But Lyra was never one to back down from a challenge and lifted her chin to look at the woman through the slits in her hood,

"Lyra Knight." She said, her voice much calmer than what she was feeling and a hush fell through the Death Eaters. Bellatrix turned towards their right, looking at the first woman to have spoken.

"Lyra... Knight... Very well, then -"

"I TOLD YOU, NO!" Lucius Malfoy roared at the woman when she raised her wand again. "If you smash it -!"

Lyra looked around as the Death Eaters began to argue, no longer did she care about the prophecy, or her mother, or anything else. Sirius was not here and they needed to find a way out, now.

The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood. Bellatrix Lestrange's face, was hollowed, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow. Lyra feared what her mother would look like if she pulled back her own hood.

"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well - take the smallest one," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it." 

Lyra pushed herself in front of Ginny, blocking her from the advancing hooded wizards as the others surrounded her in a protective circle.

"Over my dead body." She said, her chin still pointed high but Harry pushed Lyra back, standing in front of them all.

"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?"

"So," said Harry when she stayed silent, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"

Lyra knew he was only talking to stall the Death Eaters so they could escape. But she couldn't think of any way out of this that didn't end with a fight, and part of her really wanted it to end in one.

"Shut your mouth!" Lyra heard Bellatrix shrieked while focusing on the walls of the room, looking for anything. "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 a half-blood too?" said Harry recklessly. "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 Lestrange's wand, but Malfoy had deflected it; his spell caused hers to hit the shelf less than a foot to the left of Lyra and several of the glass orbs there shattered.

"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"

"He dared - he dares-" shrieked Bellatrix incoherently, "he stands there - filthy half-blood -"

"WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!" bawled Malfoy.

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," he said, still desperate for time and Lyra felt his shoe press again her own.

She turned slightly to look at him, tapping back with her food to let her know she was listening, no longer paying attention to what he was saying to distract the Death Eaters.

"Smash shelves." He muttered softly when the Death Eaters began laughing and Lyra nodded slightly before whispering the same to Ginny, hoping she would continue the message.

And then she waited, waited for any signal that let her know when to burst the shelf of orbs in her view.

"NOW"

"REDUCTO!" she yelled along with four others as she shot the spell at the nearest shelf.

"RUN" She heard Harry shout through the crashing and shattering of glass and wood.

And without paying much attention to the people around her she broke into a sprint, pulling Ginny with her. They ran past the Death Eaters and the falling shelves, dodging curses and glass. Distantly, she could hear screaming, and the seers voices from the orbs.

She tried finding the door, Ginny was now running at her pace, but with so much debris it was impossible to see.

"Stupefy!" She was knocked back and crashed hard on the splintered wood, the bruise on her back from the fight with the Slytherins was sure to amplify after that.

She stared up at the woman who cursed her and saw as she pulled her hood off. The woman had crazed eyes, that shone bluer with the light of the exploding orbs, her hair was a mess, knotted to form a ring around her head, like a dark halo. Her face was pale and her cheekbones sharp. Her eyes were painted with kohl that had been spread around her under eyes, giving her skin a much more sickly, white complexion

Lyra stood, wand raised as she stared the woman down. "Hello, mother."