instead of fear, excitement and energy coursed through elara. there was no reason for it. every cell in her body urged her to begin fighting. ginny gave a gasp of horror.

"to me," repeated the drawling voice of lucius malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.

elara smiled. they were trapped and outnumbered two to one. it was time to fight or die. they would finally get to see what a bunch of kids are made of.

"to me," said uncle lucius yet again.

"where's sirius?" harry said.

several of the death eaters laughed. a harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to elara's left said triumphantly, "the dark lord always knows!"

"always," echoed malfoy softly. "now, give me the prophecies, my darling niece."

"you motherfucker," said elara, wanting nothing more than to aim her wand at uncle lucius and mutter the cruciates curse.

"i want to know where sirius is!" demanded harry.

"i want to know where sirius is!" mimicked the woman to elara's left. she and her fellow death eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from elara, harry, and the others, the light from their wands dazzling elara's eyes.

"you've got him," said harry bravely. "he's here. i know he is."

"the little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," said the woman in a horrible, mock-baby voice. elara felt ron stir beside her.

"don't do anything," muttered harry. "not yet —"

the woman who had mimicked harry 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 uncle lucius softly. "he has a great weakness for heroics; the dark lord understands this about him. now give me the prophecy."

it felt like the air was sucked out of elara's lungs. that was her biological mother right next to her.

"i know sirius is here," said harry worriedly. "i know you've got him!"

more of the death eaters laughed, though bellatrix still laughed loudest of all.

"it's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, potter," said uncle lucius. "now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."

"go on, then," said elara, raising her own wand to chest height. "be a little bitch and use spells against a bunch of kids. see how that works out for you. you see, uncle lucius, we have something you want."

"elara?" said bellatrix, as if she were in shock.

elara ignored her. as she did so, the six wands of harry, ron, hermione, neville, ginny, and luna rose on either side of her. the energy in elara spiked. finally, something to do.

but the death eaters did not strike.

"hand over the prophecies and no one need get hurt," said uncle lucius coolly.

elara laughed coldly.

"you know i've never been one to half-ass shenanigans," said elara, smiling humorlessly. "you'll get this over my dead body."

the words were hardly out of her mouth when bellatrix shrieked, "accio proph —"

elara was just ready for her. she shouted "protego!" before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of her fingers she managed to cling on to it.

"oh, she knows how to play, my little bitty disappointment of a daughter," she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "very well, then —"

"I TOLD YOU, NO!" lucius malfoy roared at bellatrix. "if you smash it — !"

the death eaters wanted this dusty spun-glass sphere. elara had no interest in it, but she was going to play the death eaters like a fiddler with his fiddle. bellatrix 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.

"wow, auntie, you look so young. azkaban has treated you well," said elara sarcastically. bellatrix didn't pick up the slight.

"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 my little daughter and the boy watch while we torture the little girl. i'll do it."

elara felt the others close in around ginny. she and harry stepped sideways so that they were right in front of her, the prophecy held up to their chests.

"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 them, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.

"so," said elara, "what kind of prophecies are we talking about anyway?"

elara was enjoying this.

"what kind of prophecies?" repeated bellatrix, the grin fading from her face. "you jest."

"nope, not 'jesting'," said elara, her eyes flicking 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," said elara amusedly, maintaining her tight grip on the glass ball, expecting another attempt to bewitch it from her. "yeah, i've got no problem saying vol —"

"shut your mouth, young lady!" bellatrix shrieked. "you dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your unworthy tongue, you dare —"

"did you know he's a half-blood too?" said harry recklessly. elara wanted to kiss him. "voldemort? yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a muggle — or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"

"STUPEF —"

"NO! "

a jet of red light had shot from the end of bellatrix lestrange's wand, but uncle lucius had deflected it. his spell caused hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of elara 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 uncle lucius's 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!"

"he dared — he dares —" shrieked bellatrix incoherently. "— he stands there — filthy half-blood —"

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

". . . 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 us what's so special about these prophecies we're supposed to be handing over," said harry, most likely playing for time.

"do not play games with us, potter," said uncle lucius.

"i'm not playing games," said harry. his foot came down own elara's and she inhaled sharply.

"what?" she whispered.

"dumbledore never told you that the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the department of mysteries? the reason that you, elara, can see into the past, present, and future?" said uncle lucius sneeringly.

"i — what?" said harry. "what about my scar?"

"yeah, and what about my sight?"

"can this be?" said uncle lucius, sounding maliciously delighted; some of the death eaters were laughing again, and under cover of their laughter, harry hissed to elara, moving his lips as little as possible, "smash shelves —"

"dumbledore never told you?" uncle lucius repeated. "well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, the dark lord wondered why —"

"— when i say go —"

"— you didn't come running when he showed you two the place where it was hidden in your dreams. he thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording. . . ."

"did he?" said harry. elara passed his message to the others and he sought to keep talking, to distract the death eaters. "so he wanted me and lara to come and get it, did he? why?"

"why?" uncle lucius sounded incredulously delighted. "because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the department of mysteries, potter, are those about whom it was made, as the dark lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."

"and why did he want to steal a prophecy about me and lara?"

"about the three of you, potter, about the three of you . . . haven't you ever wondered why the dark lord tried to kill you as a baby?"

"because he's a cowardly little bitch who relies on magic to kill a goddamn baby?" wondered elara aloud. many of the death eaters recoiled.

elara stared into the slitted eyeholes through which uncle lucius's gray eyes were gleaming. she wasn't going to back down. maybe she would have three years ago, but she was different.

"someone made a prophecy about voldemort, lara, and me?" said harry quietly. "and he's made us come and get it for him? why couldn't he come and get it himself?"

"get it himself?" shrieked bellatrix on a cackle of mad laughter. "the dark lord, walk into the ministry of magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? the dark lord, reveal himself to the aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?"

"so he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" said elara incredulously. "like he tried to get sturgis to steal it — and bode?"

"very good, elara, very good . . ." said uncle lucius slowly. "but the dark lord knows you are not unintell —"

"NOW!" yelled harry.

seven different voices bellowed "REDUCTO!" seven curses flew in five different directions and the shelves opposite them exploded as they hit. the towering structure swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart, pearly-white figures unfurled into the air and floated there, their voices echoing from who knew what long-dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass and splintered wood now raining down upon the floor —

"RUN!" elara yelled, and as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to pour from above, she seized a handful of harry's robes and dragged him forward, one arm over her head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them. a death eater lunged forward through the cloud of dust and elara elbowed him hard in the masked face. they were all yelling, there were cries of pain, thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the seers unleashed from their spheres —

elara found the way ahead clear and saw ron, ginny, and luna sprint past her, their arms over their heads. something heavy struck her on the side of the face but she merely ducked her head and sprinted onward; a hand caught her by the shoulder, and before having any time to think, elara spun around and kneed whoever it was in the groin. the hand released her.

"kiss my ass!" said elara geefully, weaving between shelves.

they were at the end of row ninety-seven; elara turned right and began to sprint in earnest. she could hear footsteps right behind her and hermione's voice urging neville on. the door through which they had come was ajar straight ahead, elara could see the glittering light of the bell jar, she pelted through it, her prophecy still clutched tight and safe in her hand, waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind them —

"colloportus!" gasped hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.

"where — where are the others?" gasped harry.

elara had thought that ron, luna, and ginny had been ahead of them, that they would be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.

"they must have gone the wrong way!" whispered elara, terror finally setting in.

"listen!" whispered neville.

footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed. elara put her ear close to the door to listen and heard lucius malfoy roar: "leave nott, leave him, i say, the dark lord will not care for nott's injuries as much as losing that prophecy — jugson, come back here, we need to organize! we'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with potter and lestrange until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary — bellatrix, rodolphus, you take the left, crabbe, rabastan, go right — jugson, dolohov, the door straight ahead — macnair and avery, through here — rookwood, over there — mulciber, come with me!"

"oh god," said elara in a sickened manner. "my dad's here too?"

"what do we do?" hermione asked elara and harry, trembling from head to foot.

"well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start," said harry. "let's get away from this door. . . ."

they ran, quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, toward the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. they were almost there when elara heard something large and heavy collide with the door hermione had charmed shut.

"stand aside!" said a rough voice. "alohomora!"

as the door flew open, elara, harry, hermione, and neville dived under desks. they could see the bottom of the two death eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.

"they might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.

"lara, don't — " whispered harry.

"too late."

rather recklessly, elara rolled out from under the desks just as another death eater said, "check under the desks," and in doing so, raised her wand and yelled, "STUPEFY!"

a jet of red light hit the nearest death eater; he fell backward into a grandfather clock and knocked it over. the second death eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid elara's spell and now pointed his own wand at hermione, who had crawled out from under the desk to get a better aim.

"avada —"

elara launched herself across the floor and tackled the death eater to the ground, causing his aim to go awry. neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair he cried, "EXPELLIARMUS !"

both elara's and the death eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared back toward the entrance to the hall of prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the death eater in front and elara hot on his heels, neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck at what he had done.

"get out of the way, lara!" yelled neville, clearly determined to repair the damage.

elara flung herself sideways as neville took aim again and shouted, "STUPEFY !"

the jet of red light flew right over the death eater's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped hourglasses. the cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying everywhere, then sprang back up onto the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered —

the death eater had snatched up his wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. elara ducked down behind another desk as the man turned — his mask had slipped so that he could not see, he ripped it off with his free hand and shouted, "STUP —"

"STUPEFY!" yelled harry and hermione, who had just caught up with them. the jets of red light hit the death eater in the middle of his chest; he froze, his arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter and he collapsed backward toward the bell jar. elara expected to hear a clunk, for the man to hit solid glass and slide off the jar onto the floor, but instead, his head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it was nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back on the table, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.

"accio wand !" cried hermione. elara's wand flew from a dark corner into hermione's hand and she threw it to elara.

"i love you," she said, "right, let's get out of —"

"look out!" said neville, horrified, staring at the death eater's head in the bell jar.

all four of them raised their wands again, but none of them struck. they were all gazing, openmouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the man's head.

it was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull, his cheeks smooth, his skull round and covered with a peachlike fuzz. . . .

a baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the death eater as he struggled to get up again. but even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again, thick black hair was sprouting from the pate and chin. . . .

"it's time," said hermione in an awestruck voice. "time . . ."

the death eater shook his ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before he could pull himself together again, it began to shrink back to babyhood once more. . . .

there was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream.

"RON?" Harry yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before them. "GINNY? LUNA?"

"harry!" hermione screamed.