Chapter One:

Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. He saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her.

'Come on, you can do better than that!' he yelled, his voice echoing in the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

Harry released Neville, though he was quite unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dias.

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curves in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.

Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his god-father's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.

He heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing.

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There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dias. Harry saw Kingsley hit the ground yelling in pain: Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it; she was halfway up the steps by now –

'Harry – no!' cried Lupin, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin's slackened grip.

'SHE KILLED SIRIUS!' bellowed Harry. 'SHE KILLED HIM – I'LL KILL HER!'

And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches, people was shouting behind him but he did not care. The hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead and they were back in the roo, wher the brains were swimming ...

She aimed a curse over her shoulder. The tank rose into the air and tipped. Harry was deluged in the foul-smelling potion within: the brains slipped and slid over him and began spinning their long coloured tentacles, but he shouted, 'Wingardium Leviosa!' and they flew off him up into the air. Slipping and sliding, he ran on toward the door; he leapt over Luna, who was groaning on the floor, past Ginny, who said, 'Harry – what –?', past Ron, who giggled feebly, and Hermione, who was still unconscious. He wrenched open the door into the circular black hall and saw Bellatrix disappearing through a door onto the other side of the room; beyond her was the corridor leading back to the lifts.

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He forced his way out of the lift before the grilles were fully open and looked around. Bellatrix was almost at the telephone lift at the other end of the hall, but she looked back as he sprinted towards her and aimed another spell at him. He dodged behind the Fountain of Magical Brethren: the spell zoomed past him and hit the wrought-gold gates at the other end of the Atrium so that they rang like bells. There were no more footsteps. She had stopped running. He crouched behind the statues, listening.

'Come out, come out, little Harry!' she called in her mock baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. 'What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!'

'I am!' shouted Harry, and a score of ghostly Harrys seemed to chorus I am! I am! I am! around the room.

'Aaaaaah ... did you love him, little baby Potter?'

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before; he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, 'Crucio!'

Bellatrix screamed; the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again. Her counter-spell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.

'Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?' she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. 'You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – the righteous anger won't hurt me for long – I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson –'

Harry was edging around the fountain on the other side when she screamed, 'Crucio!' and he was forced to duck down again as the centaur's arm, holding its bow, span off and landed with a crash on the floor a short distance from the golden wizard's head.

'Potter you cannot win against me!' she cried.

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'I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete –'

'Stupify!' yelled Harry. He had edged right around to where the goblin stood beaming up at the now headless wizard and taken aim at her back as she peered around the fountain. She reacted so fast he barely had time to duck.

'Protego!'

The jet of red light, his own stunning spell, bounced back at him. Harry scrambled back behind the fountain and one of the goblin's ears went flying across the room.

'Potter, I'm going to give you once chance!' shouted Bellatrix. 'Give me the prophecy – roll it out towards me now – and I may spare your life!'

'Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!' Harry roared and, as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead; his scare was on fire again, and he felt a surge of fury that was quite unconnected with his own rage. 'And he knows!' said Harry, with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix's own. 'Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not happy with you, is he?"

'What? What do you mean?' she cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.

'The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?'

His scar seared and burned ... the pain of it was making his eyes stream ...

'LIAR!' she shrieked, but he could hear the terror behind the anger now. 'YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME! Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PHROPHECY!'

Harry laughed again because he knew it would incense her, the pain building in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst. He waved an empty hand from behind the one-eared goblin and withdrew it quickly as she sent another jet of green light flying at him.

'Nothing there!' he shouted. 'Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that!'

'No!' she screamed. 'It isn't true, you're lying! MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED – DO NOT PUNISH ME –'

'Don't waste your breath!' yelled Harry, his eyes screwed up against the pain of his scar, now more terrible than ever. 'He can't hear you from here!'

'Can't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice.

Harry opened his eyes.

Tall, thin and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupilled eyes staring ... Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move.

'So, you smashed my prophecy?' said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes, 'No, Bella, he is not lying ... I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind ... months of preparation, months of effort ... and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again ...'

'Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black!' sobbed Bellatrix, flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. 'Master, you should know –'

'Be quiet, Bella,' said Voldemort dangerously. 'I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think that I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your snivelling apologies?'

'But Master – he is here – he is below –'

Voldemort paid no attention

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The other statues sprang to life. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pining her to the floor.

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For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass –

Then he was gone and the water fell with a crash back into the pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

'MASTER!' screamed Bellatrix.

Sure it was over, sure Voldemort had decided to flee, Harry made to run out from behind his statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed: 'Stay where you are, Harry!'

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened. Harry could not see why: the hall was quite empty but for themselves, the sobbing Bellatrix still trapped under the witch statue, and the baby phoenix Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor –

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'He was there!' shouted a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail, who was pointing at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall, where Bellatrix had lain trapped only moments before. 'I saw him, Mr Fudge, I swear it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!'

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(Pages 710-720 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling.)