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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
Chapter 13: Rescuer
As the trio dashed through the dark halls, they heard noises coming from a nearby room.
Once inside, they were welcomed with a gruesome sight.
"Eww. Are those brains?" said Ginny with disgust.
The room was filled with glass jars containing all sorts of organs, including brains, hearts, livers, and other unpleasant stuff. Two jars that had some very oversized brains had broken and were lying on the ground.
"What were they doing in this place?" said Hermione with a mixture of disgust and curiosity.
"There!" Harry pointed to a distant corner of the room where Ron, Luna, and two older witches were facing Lucius Malfoy and someone else wearing full Death Eater garb.
As they approached, Harry recognized the two women. One was Tonks, and the other was Hestia Jones. They were at his godfather's house last summer.
It was a good thing that he had mastered Occlumency, giving him full access to his memories; otherwise, there was zero chance for him to remember something like that.
Tonks was exchanging spells with Lucius and doing quite well, while Hestia was struggling while fighting the other one.
Hermione and Ginny already had their wands out and pointed them at Lucius.
Harry decided to help Hestia first. He held his borrowed wand firmly in his hand and began casting a spell.
The Death Eater was so distracted fighting Hestia that all it took was a simple tripping jinx to make him fall.
Hestia didn't waste the chance to disarm and stun him. She then turned to face Harry.
"Potter? What are you—… never mind, thank you for the help." She offered him a tired smile.
They both glanced behind them just in time to see Lucius being tied up with ropes and stunned.
"We're done here," said Tonks with a playful smile.
They all then turned their attention toward Ron and Luna, who were now walking to them.
Ron seemed to have injured his leg, and Luna was helping him walk.
"I knew you were going to be fine," said Luna, looking directly at Harry.
"Why are you dressed like them? And what's with the ridiculous hat?" asked Ron.
"You are the only ridiculous one here," the hat responded.
Ron's eyes opened widely. "Did that hat just t—"
"Let's leave the explanations for later." Harry interrupted Ron. "And it's a very long story. We need to go help Neville now. Last I saw him, he was facing Bellatrix alone," said Harry.
"I'm sure the others must have found him already," said Hestia.
"The others?" Ginny wondered. "How did you even find us?"
"Who else came here?" asked Hermione.
"Kingsley, Moody, and Sirius," answered Tonks.
"Stay with them. I'll look for Neville," said Harry. He had run through this same scenario many times before and knew exactly what he had to do.
Before anyone could stop him, he was already at the door.
"Wait! We're supposed to protect you! … Dammit!" Tonks yelled.
"It should be fine, Tonks. Sirius and the others will take care of him," Hestia commented.
"I'm not sure he needs protection. He took care of Dolohov with one spell, and then he healed me and Hermione," added Ginny.
"What? Harry doesn't know how to do that! I'm his best friend, I would know," Ron scoffed at the weird comment from his sister.
"I don't think that's the same Harry that you knew," Luna muttered in a soft voice, while her eyes appeared to have become glazed over, as if she was seeing something that the others had missed.
<><><><><><><><><>
On a different part of the Department of Mysteries, the battles continued.
"Stay close to me, boy." Moody stood in front of Neville while fending off two Death Eaters.
"Yes sir!" said Neville. He then made a worried expression while looking toward the hall at the end of the corridor.
"Is he going to be okay? Bellatrix is very dangerous," added Neville. He was worried about Sirius, who took on Bella by himself and led her away from him.
"Of course! I trained him myself when he was an Auror recruit," Moody exclaimed with confidence while deflecting spells.
<><><><><><><>
"Tsk!" Sirius barely avoided a curse and passed by a stone arch, entering a much larger chamber.
"Come now, cousin. You don't look too happy to see me again," said Bella in a mocking way while she gave him chase.
"I'm not. You should have rotted in Azkaban where you belong!" yelled Sirius.
They exchanged spells inside a big hall. The room was empty except for one giant archway in the middle, known as The Veil.
Sirius was too focused on his duel to notice that he was getting very close to the mysterious arch.
Bella, however, did notice and smiled. "Depulso!" She used a pushing charm, hoping to get him close enough.
A wave of magic hit Sirius, pushing him backwards.
Only then did Sirius realize what was happening, but it was too late to move.
His body stopped once he was a few inches from the door, and he could feel his soul leaving his body.
'I thought dying would be more painful,' was the only thing Sirius could think of.
A hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Sirius' ghostly hand like it was solid, then pushed him back into his own body.
The sudden impact sent Sirius away from The Veil, and he fell to the ground with a loud thud.
The ghostly door didn't seem to affect Harry as he stood close by… there was a thin layer of light surrounding him.
"How troublesome…," he muttered. Using that kind of protection with a borrowed wand had not been easy. "I almost don't make it in time."
"Potter? Where did you come from?" said Bella, genuinely surprised. The last time she saw him was in the Room of Time, where he suddenly disappeared.
Harry walked away from The Veil and checked Sirius to make sure he was alright. "He's just unconscious."
He then faced Bella. "That wasn't nice, Bellatrix. You almost killed my Godfather." His tone was extremely cold.
Bella looked surprised.
"He's not dead? Never mind that! I don't care how you managed to disappear before or why you're wearing that ridiculous hat. Give me the prophecy and I may let you live."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "The prophecy? … ah, that's right. I forgot about that thing. I believe it was in my room back at Hogwarts, but then the castle got destroyed, so…"
"What are you rambling about?! I saw you take it from the shelf not even fifteen minutes ago," said Bella, losing her patience.
Harry chuckled, finding the comment very funny in a twisted way. "Fifteen minutes… right. For you, maybe."
He held his wand firmly and pointed it at Bella.
"Why don't we have another duel?"
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