Happier with you- Charlie Weasley

OOTP 25

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the female Death Eater shrieked,

"Accio Proph" Harry was just ready for her. He shouted

"Protego!" before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of his fingers he managed to cling on to it.

"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.

"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." Harry felt the others close in around Ginny. Rory stepped in front of the others pushing Ginny behind her as Harry did the same, the prophecy held up to his chest.

"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?" She did not move; she merely stared at him, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth. "So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?" Neville's arm was pressed against Rory and she could feel him shaking.

"What kind of prophecy?" repeated Bellatrix, the grin fading from her face. "You jest, Harry Potter."

"Nope, not jesting," Harry said as Rory's eyes flicked from Death Eater to Death Eater, looking for a weak link, a space through which they could escape. "How come Voldemort wants it?" Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses.

"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix.

"Yeah," Harry said, "Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol"

"Shut your mouth!" Bellatrix shrieked. "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?" Rory said looking at her with a smirk. Hermione gave a little moan.

"Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?" Harry added to what Rory had said.

"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 a foot to the left of them and several of the glass orbs there shattered. Two figures, pearly white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak. Their voices vied with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Malfoy and Bellatrix's shouts.

". . . at the Solstice will come a new . . ." said the figure of an old, bearded man.

"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!"

"They dared they dare" shrieked Bellatrix incoherently. "They stand there filthy half-blood"

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

". . . and none will come after . . ." said the figure of a young woman. The two figures that had burst from the shattered spheres had melted into thin air. Nothing remained of them or their erstwhile homes but fragments of glass upon the floor.

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," Harry said, playing for time. Rory noticed him move his foot slowly sideways, feeling around for someone else's.