Undistinguished (H.P.)

Chapter 31: The Battle

oOo

Her breath stuttered as she lagged behind, the extent of her laziness showing through. She was certain that if Harry didn't still have a firm grip on her hand, she would've been caught by the death eaters chasing them around the department of mysteries. 

The group had split up while on the run not only from the death eaters but from the falling shelves of prophecies after they sent multiple stunning spells in different directions, knocking over a few shelves which caused a domino effect on the whole room. 

Veronica was with Harry as even is she wanted to run in another direction, he had been tugging her along with him since they started running, Neville and Hermione following closely behind them as they headed back through the different rooms they'd come across before. 

Arriving in the Time Chamber, they sealed the door and quickly tried to hide before they were ambushed by a couple of death eaters that Harry recognised from the previous year. Veronica and Harry were underneath a table trying to control their heavy breathing as the door broke open and footsteps appeared in their line of vision. 

Before they could be caught off-guard, Harry managed to stun the larger of the two, and as his body slumped against the ground, the other one turned quickly with his wand raised, their cover blown. 

As he began casting spells, Neville and Hermione had to start dodging them by running around the room. Curses flew in every direction, hitting the walls and clocks surrounding them, probably leaving thousands of galleons of damage. 

The man pointed his wand towards Hermione and shouted "Avad-", Harry jumped out of from under the table, leaving Veronica behind as he charged towards the death eater. He threw his body on him, successfully distracting the death eater by falling into a shelf of watches causing them to smash as they hit the floor. 

Neville hadn't seen Harry coming however and cast a disarming charm in their direction, which knocked both the death eater and Harry back. 

Harry collapsed onto the ground but Hermione stunned the death eater prompting him to crash into a large bell glass jar that was sitting on a table near the edge of the room. Veronica crawled out from under the table avoiding broken glass to witness the mans head, which was stuck in the jar, to shrink slowly, his features getting younger while his hair and beard retreat into his head. 

There on top of his shoulders was a large baby head, who burst into tears, sobbing and screeching. The four students stopped what they were doing and watched with confused expressions at the once terrifying man, now having snot running down his face and flushed red chubby cheeks. 

Veronica noticed his hair was starting to grow back and got the others attention so they could get out of there before the death eater returned to normal, just in case he escaped and tried to attack them again. 

oOo

They stepped into a room off of the side of the Time Chamber, which seemed to be offices filled with desks piled high with paperwork. 

As soon as they walked through the door a spell came shooting in their direction, the others jumped out of the way and Veronica flinched away as it grazed the side of her face painfully.

"WE'VE GOT THEM-" shouted one of the death eaters who ambushed them, but was quickly silenced by Hermione sending a silencing charm in his direction. This angered the man, and he flicked his wand towards her, a purple whip-like charm hitting her in the chest. 

Hermione let out a soft 'oh' before her body floated to the ground, unconscious. 

Veronica crouched by the girl's body, concerned over what silent curse had hit her newfound friend and how harmful it could potentially be, ignoring her throbbing cheek as a result of the stinging spell from earlier.