PRINCESS ➳ harry potter , draco malfoy (OLD VERSION)

81 || The Veil

"Get back to the door!" Harry bellowed.

No one had to be told twice. Together, they twisted in and out of crumbling shelves, narrowly dodging falling orbs and moving as fast as their legs could carry them.

Katie caught sight of the door up ahead. Relief flooded her. Harry reached the door first and wrenched it open, only to scream as he passed through it. Hermione screamed too, and Katie didn't find out why until she herself ran through the door.

The circular room that had once resided behind the black door was gone, instead replaced by a gaping hole with a drop of tens of feet. Apparently, everyone had went through the door, because multiple different yells of terror were reverberating around the walls. Surely they weren't going to fall to their death?

They did not.

Just before it seemed like they were going to hit the cold, stone floor and be struck dead, they stopped, mid-air, lingered for a moment, then fell the final few inches to the floor. Niall helped Chris to his feet, who in turn pulled Katie up. She gazed around with mingled wonder and fear in her swirling grey eyes.

"Department of Mysteries?" Ron said breathlessly. "Got that bit right, didn't they?"

This room was almost as large as the last, dimly lit and circular, and the centre, where they were, was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. Stone benches ran all around the walls, creating steps of sorts, so the room resembled that of a courtroom or an amphitheatre. In the very centre of the sloping pit was a raised stone dais, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Katie was amazed it was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with what appeared to be a black veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.

While Katie certainly found this archway interesting, her feelings were nothing compared to Harry's, who became completely transfixed by the arch as soon as he laid eyes on it. He stepped towards the veiled archway, eyeing it with such fascination and awe that you would a great pile of gold.

"The voices..." Harry said. "Can you tell what they're saying?"

Katie suddenly felt very uneasy. She wasn't sure about everyone else, but she definitely could not hear any voices. Judging by the apprehensive looks that the others were throwing around, they couldn't hear anything either.

"There aren't any voices, Harry," Hermione said, sounding scared, much more scared than Katie had ever seen her. "Let's get out of here."

Luna, however, walked up to Harry's eyes and gazed up at the stone archway with the same amount of wonder in her wide, dreamy eyes. "I hear them too."

"Harry, it's just an empty archway," Hermione whimpered. "Please, Harry!"

There was a great swooshing noise from above, as though capes were rippling in the darkness. Averting her eyes upwards, Katie couldn't see the ceiling — it was obscured by darkness. Harry raised his wand.

"Get behind me!" he ordered and, panic arising inside of them, they all obeyed and pointed their wands upwards also.

There was a distant clashing and then, without warning, black smoke enveloped them all and shrouded Katie's vision. She flailed her wand mindlessly and was about to cast a spell when she thought better; she couldn't see any of her friends and might accidentally hit one of them.

Katie let out a scream that was abruptly cut off when a strong forearm wrapped around her throat. She could feel herself being roughly lifted from the ground by her neck and dragged aside. Of course, she struggled against whoever was holding her, but to no avail. They were too strong.