A Different Kind of Training, Chapter 1: The Department of Mysteries

Harry Potter could feel the smooth flexing of the thestral's muscles as he rode it, could hear the thump of bat-like wings as his friends swooped up behind him on their own steeds, urgency burning through him at every movement. Voldemort had his godfather, Sirius, and he was being tortured- they had to hurry, or it would be too late!

They were fast approaching the ministry now, and Harry, if anything, was still more agitated- every second they were delayed, every second they deliberated, every second they had to stop and reassess meant that Sirius Black was that much closer to being tortured to death.

Harry and his companions went down, level after level through the curiously silent ministry, until at last they reached the second lowest level, and they stepped out into a black-tiled windowless corridor which, (at least from where they were) looked no different than any of the other corridors. Like the others, it was lit only by torches that cast a cold blue-white glare that made their faces seem bleached and afraid. To the left, a little flight of stairs led still farther down, presumably to level ten, the final level, though Harry was certainly not the slightest bit concerned about what might be in the level below them- his entire body and soul was still fixed on Sirius.

At the end of the corridor they were now traversing was a plain, unadorned door, which they now approached, Harry still in the lead, as if on some subconscious level he was attempting to protect them from the dangers they all knew they would have to face. And they passed through said door, into a great circular chamber washed in cool blue light from dim, flickering phantom candles, their boots clicking on marble like petrified black water. Harry stared around them, taking in the twelve doors without handles that breached the curved walls at regular intervals. But at that moment, the door that they had entered by shut with a sharp snick behind them, and then the walls began to move.

The students stared at each other.

"So what now?" Ron asked in a harsh whisper. "Are we stuck in here?"

Harry answered by trying the closest door, which opened, revealing a room full of rows of desks surrounding a central tank, within which were pulsing aquatic brains in some kind of astringent solution. This not being the room Harry had dreamed about, they quickly exited (although not before Hermione had cast a longing and curious look behind them).

Now back in the entrance chamber, they had scarcely a moment to think before the room began to rotate again, and when at last it stopped, they simply opened a door at random.

The room this revealed looked vaguely like a gladitorial arena of old, with a sunken clearing in the center and rows upon rows of stone benches, as if for spectators. In the very center of that clearing, Harry caught a glimpse of an archway with a curtain hung across it before Ginny pulled him back into the main chamber again, and they waited for the whirling motion to stop.

The next door they attempted to open was too fortified even for Hermione's formidable skill with locking spells, but the door after that opened readily enough, revealing a room with walls covered in clocks and dials and racks of Time-Turners, as well as a hummingbird in a bell-jar which continually hatched, grew to maturity, and died in a never-ending cycle, a room Harry had seen in some of his dreams. Here Hermione spotted a door on the other side of the room, and with no better ideas to choose from (except to go back to the revolving chamber and try another door) they crossed the room and went through it into the Hall of Prophecies, where they picked the first turning point and began to search the hall, expecting every minute to come upon Sirius and his torturers.

But they didn't. They walked down aisles full of shelves loaded with blank, misty globes, some of them labeled, but there was no one anywhere to be seen, and the more secluded parts of the Hall of Prophecies had an eerie silence that suggested a trap. And where they should have found Sirius, near the back wall, there was-

"Look!" Harry's hushed exclamation made the others whirl around. It was a prophecy. And it was about him, seeing as it had his name (and Voldemort's) written on the label. He reached out his hand.

"Harry,"

Harry ignored Hermione's insistent voice. "'Mione, it's got my name on it. It's gonna be fine- it only hurts you if it doesn't have your name, like what happened to Bode."

"Harry," she repeated, "it could be a trap!"

It was. Because at the moment Harry pulled the prophecy off the shelf, twelve Death Eaters melted out of the shadows, and Harry heard Lucius Malfoy's slippery voice demanding the prophecy- after all, the spells only prevent it from being taken from the shelf by someone whom the prophecy was not made to...it would do nothing if Harry just happened to give it over...

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger, even with the fear rushing through his veins. He taunted the Death Eaters to buy time, mocking their leader and his lineage- "Did you know he's a half-blood too?... Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a muggle — or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"

It certainly got the point across, Harry thought grimly as Bellatrix, shrieking in outrage at the sacrilege against her "Lord" flung a stunning spell at them (Harry could only assume she'd either been given direct orders not to kill them or she was hoping she could capture and torture them- you couldn't be sure with that witch). As it turned out, Lucius, surprisingly, deflected the shot into the Q-S section of the recorded prophecies, and two globes exploded on impact, releasing garbled snatches of prophecies that would never reach their intended recipients. Harry started, surprised by the blast, but as the Death Eaters began once again demanding that he hand over the prophecy, he was already thinking of ways to turn that effect to his -their- advantage. He barely even registered the taunts Lucius, in turn, was leveling at him- of course he knew that the prophecy held all the answers; he wasn't thick, after all, but as long as he had it, Voldemort didn't, and Voldie obviously wanted the answers as much as he did. Hell, if it came to that, it would make a nice bargaining chip...

Harry shot a glance at the others. "On three," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, and before the others could even respond, he'd cast a reducto into the nearby shelves of prophecy balls, swiftly followed by the others, and, as in slow motion, the shelves began to explode, glass arching over them in a wave before raining all over them and their antagonists, thousands of forgotten voices and long lost words muted and lost forever, dying away in a babble of magic.

"- and her greatest threat shall be her greatest friend-"

"...beware of furnishing the viper with its own fangs-"

"- betrayed-"

"- the true source of strength-"

But they could not stay to listen to the prophecies now, for the distraction would only work so long, and now, recognizing that Sirius was likely not even there, they fled down the glass-littered aisles. As they went, a Death Eater- Harry thought it was Nott- grabbed Harry's arm, but Hermione hexed him off, flinging him back into the shelves, which promptly collapsed on top of him, and they kept running, scattering as they ran. Harry, and his companions bolted back into the time chamber, pursued by Rabastan Lestrange and a large, clumsy man bearing a rather strong resemblance to Vincent Crabbe, locking the door behind them hurriedly, assuming that all of them together could overpower the two adult Death Eaters. It was only once the door was locked that Harry realized that Luna, Ron and Ginny were not with them.

Behind them, through the door, they could hear Lucius's sonorus-amplified voice ringing out: "We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary..."

In the time chamber, the three Hogwarts students hid just as the blundering Death Eaters forced their way through towards where they were, worrying feverishly about their separated companions. The Death Eaters immediately began to search for the errant students, but before they had gotten very far they were down, Crabbe Sr. to a stunning spell in the head and Rabastan to a stupify after a furious scuffle when he tried to use a killing curse on Hermione. Rabastan, however, would never become fully conscious again, as the impact of the stunning spell knocked him back into a bell jar like the one which held the hummingbird, and his head changed to that of a baby's, incongruous on his thick neck, swelling to maturity and then shrinking again before he could break the glass. Harry shuddered and ran on.

Leaving the time chamber and the baby-headed Death Eater behind, they ran into a little office off to the side, where they were ambushed by Antonin Dolohov and Jugson, who leaped out of the shadows at once, blasting impediment jinxes at them.

Hermione was the only one with presence of mind enough to cast a silencing charm at them to prevent him from giving the alarm, but Dolohov was the only one struck...and he was proficient enough at wordless magic to strike her with a whip of purple flame, conjured from the top of his wand, which rendered her immediately insensible before Harry, who had been busy stunning Jugson could even turn around. As Harry whirled to face him, he broke Neville's wand and struck him in the nose, trying to wordlessly communicate his rage to Harry. At that moment, however, the hideous baby-headed Lestrange brother, who'd somehow gotten his head out of the time-loop jar, wobbled in the doorway, flailing, and Harry used welcome distraction to paralyze Dolohov while Neville reluctantly took Hermione's wand (and her) following Harry in search of their friends.

They found them in the brain room, and in a seriously bad way; Ginny was limping, her freckles standing out on her shocked white features, while an evidently inebriated Ron was swaying and giggling, victim of some curse or other. Behind him, Luna burst in the doorway, coughing, radish earrings askew and silvery-blond hair in a dirty mess, smudges of grey dust all over her. They started for the door leading back to the entrance chamber, Neville still carrying Hermione while trying to staunch the blood trickling down his face as Luna dragged a swaying and stumbling Ron along and Harry led, wand raised.

As soon as they got there, however, they realized that the relocation was seriously a bad idea, considering the remainder of the contingent of Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange, were waiting for them. Back they ran into the brain room, and the three uninjured members of the party sought to secure the doors , but Bellatrix cast a blasting curse, and the door fell inwards with a sickening crunch as the Death Eaters burst in. Luna was soon down, lying in a boneless heap beneath one of the desks, while the intoxicated Ron, having momentarily escaped from Harry's firm hold, managed to summon some of the aggressive brains out of their tank of bluish fluid. The...things promptly began trying to strangle him, and Harry tried desperately to cut the tentacles without cutting Ron, who was still laughing uproariously even as he was suffocating. As Harry frantically cast about for help, he saw Ginny struck in the face by a stunner out of the corner of his eye.

Harry could do nothing for her, nothing except to draw the rest of the Death Eaters away from her. Leaving Ginny and a now-unencumbered Ron unconscious, he bolted out into the heart of the death chamber, pursued by their opponents. By the strange curtailed archway Harry was surrounded, and Lucius again demanded the prophecy.

Harry, however, threatened to break it, and probably would have if not at that moment Neville, still bleeding from the nose, ran in to help. Bellatrix cackled demoniacally from next to Harry.

"What, does the ickle boy want to go the way of his parents?" she giggled.

Neville began to tremble, flushing in rage, but Bellatrix only raised her wand. "Hand over the prophecy, Potter, or I'll torture him..."

"D-don't listen to her!" Neville protested, before starting to scream as Bellatrix briefly cast the crucitus. Harry's fingers slipped convulsively around the cool glass of the prophecy globe.

"That was only the beginning," said Bellatrix, as she let up on the gasping and struggling boy. "Hand it over if you don't want your little friend to end up like his parents."

Harry hesitantly raised the hand with the prophecy globe in it over Neville's objections...and that was when a door on the opposite side of the chamber flew open, and Sirius, Tonks, Remus, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody spilled out into the Death chamber, wands out and curses on their lips.

Tonks immediately blasted Lucius with a stunning spell, and Harry and Neville fled- well, Neville did; Harry was following close behind him when he was grabbed and pinioned by Walden Mcnair. Harry shuddered- he could feel the cool pressure of the man's wand against his neck, and smell his sultry breath. But then Neville rammed Hermione's wand- near useless for him- through the eyehole of the man's Death Eater mask, and he screamed like an animal caught in a trap and released his hold. Harry, now aware of the identity of his erstwhile attacked furiously flung a stunner at him and turned to follow Neville again, only to be attacked by Dolohov, who had just incapacitated Mad-Eye Moody. Dolohov now followed this up by casting a tarantallegra on Neville, who had turned back to help, and left him jerking about uncontrollably while he attempted to cast the same fire-whip spell he had cast on Hermione on Harry. A quick shield charm defeated the worst of it, and before Dolohov could cast anything else, Sirius body-slammed him and began to fling curses.

Harry promptly used that distraction to hit Dolohov with a body-bind (wishing it was something worse after what the man had just done to Hermione) and then ran again, trying to get back to where they had left the others, while behind him Kingsley was dueling Rookwood and Lestrange while the last remaining Mauraders took on Bellatrix and Goyle respectively, now that Bellatrix had blasted Tonks out for the count.

Lucius Malfoy stopped the two Hogwarts students as they tried to leave to collect their wounded, but this time Harry passed Neville the prophecy ("Break it if you have to; you can't let them get a hold of you!") and blasted Lucius with a good strong impediment jinx. As the aristocratic Death Eater was staggering to his feet, Remus Lupin ran between them and ordered the students to round up the rest of their group and leave. As they ran for the exit, obeying him, the prophecy fell...and shattered.

Harry was petrified, despite the fact that he would have broken the prophecy globe himself if it were to fall into the Death Eaters' hands. So were the Death Eaters who'd seen, however, which might have proved an advantage, but as it was, there was already an advantage, because just then Albus Dumbledore himself burst through the same door that the order members had gained ingress by, wand held high and blazing, aura visible around him.