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Part One / Chapter Thirty-Eight
Black shapeswere 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 and Constance gave gasps of horror.
"To me, Potter, Rosario," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up. "Or should I say Black?"
Venus' insides plummeted sickeningly. They were trapped and outnumbered two to one.
"To me," said Lucius yet again.
"Where's Sirius?" Harry demanded.
Several of the Death Eaters laughed. A harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to Venus' left said triumphantly, "The Dark Lord always knows!"
"Always," echoed Malfoy softly. "Now, give me the prophecies."
"I want to know where Sirius is!"
"I want to know where Sirius is!" mimicked the woman to her left. She and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from Venus and the others, the light from their wands dazzling their eyes.
"You've got him," said Venus, ignoring the rising panic in her chest, the dread she had been fighting since they had first entered the Ministry of Magic.
"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman in a horrible, mock-baby voice. Venus felt Ginny 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!"
"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, though panic was lacing into each word. "I know you've got him!"
More of the Death Eaters laughed, though the woman still 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 Venus, raising her own wand to chest height. As she did so, the seven wands of Harry, Constance, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna rose on either side of her. The knot in Venus' stomach tightened. If Sirius really wasn't here, they were led straight into their graves.
