Eleanor ran with the rest of the Order members as they charged into a gigantic room. It almost looked like a coliseum. The room wasn't covered in the same black tiles as the rest of the Ministry seemed to be. No, this room was made out of black stone, as if it were a cave.

Eleanor wouldn't be surprised if it were, they were very far underground at this point. Despite the dark walls, the place was lit up. It wasn't much light, it was dull but it was bright enough for Eleanor to see the room, wall to wall. She could see near the back of the room, to the far left, a door. To where the door led, Eleanor didn't know.

She seemed to be far above everyone else and Eleanor realised that she had to descend some large stone steps to get to where everyone else was, which was why the place reminded her of a coliseum. That and the endless rows of seats that she could see. Eleanor watched as some of the Order members wasted no time in dashing down the steps, wands ablazing.

Eleanor was in a kind of daze. This didn't seem real to her. She realised she could hear whispers and her eyes were dragged, seemingly involuntary, to an archway that was stood innocently in the middle of the cavernous room. Eleanor realised this was where the light was coming from. The archway seemed to admit a dull faint light, and it seemed to stretch the entirety of the room. The archway seemed to call Eleanor in, the whispers became sharper, and suddenly her mind stilled. Everything else became background noise.

A thin grey sheet appeared to be covering the archway and it was billowing in an invisible breeze. It was quite beautiful, Eleanor thought, if only she could understand the voices. They seemed to be calling to her, she wasn't scared though, it was like they were singing to her.

Eleanor began to descend down the stairs, the need to reach the archway suddenly very urgent. A hand touched her shoulder and suddenly the spell was broken.

It was like she had been trapped in a soundproof box and suddenly it was broken. The noise around her was deafening, and it hit her hard, making her stumble back.

Eleanor watched as the Death Eaters took note of the Order. They looked panicked, and let go of their hostages, quick to defend themselves. Eleanor breathed out as she saw Neville, Luna, Ginny, Hermione and Ron. A weight seemed to lift off her shoulders.

The hand pressed down more urgently on her shoulder. Eleanor didn't turn around to see who it was, she knew who it was immediately. "You're not stopping me, Remus."

Eleanor heard Remus sigh behind her, but still she watched the scene happening far below her. It was pandemonium now. She watched as the Order members fought each Death Eater, locked in combat, their arms almost invisible with how quick their wands were moving. The room was suddenly filled with multi-coloured flashes of light.

Eleanor watched as Ginny ran to help Hermione up, together the two raised their wands to protect themselves from an approaching Death Eater. The three began to fight. Eleanor saw Luna locked in combat with a Death Eater not far from Hermione and Ginny. Luna seemed to be protecting Ron, who seemed completely out of it. That worried Eleanor but at least he was alive.

She saw Fred and George duelling, and not far from them, Arthur and Molly, battling fiercely.

But her eyes searched the battle for the two people she wanted most of all to see. Her panic doubled every second she couldn't find them.

"Let me get Josh," Remus tried. "If you wait here, I'll bring him to you."

Eleanor snorted. "Not a chance-"

And then Eleanor saw them. Harry was clutching on to Josh, protecting him. Her heart soared. They were standing by the weird archway, and Eleanor could see the Death Eaters trying to close in on them, but the Order were succeeding on keeping them back.

Apparently Harry still had the Prophecy. Without another thought, Eleanor ran. She took the steps two at a time, stumbling mutiple times on her way down. She didn't care, her mind was locked on one thing and that was to get to Josh and Harry.

She ducked under a streak of red light, not sure if it was from her side or not, but knowing either way it wasn't a kind spell. And then she reached them.

Harry hadn't seen her yet but upon hearing her thundering footsteps, he turned around. Eleanor caught his startled expression before she flung her arms around him. "Harry!"

She felt her heart lift immediately, but she let go of Harry in almost a second. She knelt down and grabbed Josh in a fierce hug.

"I'm so sorry Josh!" she cried. "I never meant for this to happen."

Josh seemed overjoyed to see her. "I thought I wouldn't see you again, Ellie!"

Josh pulled back slightly and looked at Eleanor's troubled face. "I'll be okay," Josh promised. "Harry kept me safe."

Eleanor looked up again at Harry at this news and was about to thank him senseless when she caught sight of his angry expression.

No, not angry. Livid.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded. "It's not safe."

Eleanor rolled her eyes, suddenly feeling angry herself. "Well I wouldn't have guessed that, thanks for telling me! Apparently I'm too stupid to tell what danger is anymore."

Harry glared. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Isn't it?" Eleanor said angrily. "You're allowed to run off and be the hero, but I can't? Is it because I'm a Muggle, Potter? Is it because you think you're so much better than me?"

Harry's eyes were blazing. Eleanor was startled to see that when he was angry, his emerald eyes turned a dark menacing green. It was mesmerising.

Harry took a harsh step towards her, grabbing her roughly by the arms. Eleanor felt a flicker of unease, not fear, she knew Harry would never do her any harm, but maybe she had pressed a nerve.

Harry stared at her for a moment, his eyes glaring intently at her, and then he kissed her. The kiss was rough. His lips slammed against hers and he held her in such a tight embrace, Eleanor couldn't move. She didn't want to move. Harry had never kissed her like this before, it was full of urgency, it made her head spin. Her body buzzed with pleasure.

And then it was over. Harry still held her tight, but pulled back from the kiss. "Don't be stupid, I don't think anything like that, I just love you and I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I know, but I couldn't hang back not knowing if any of you were safe or not. I needed to see you all with my own eyes."

"Ugh," Josh moaned. "Are you two finished?"

Despite everything, Eleanor smiled as she watched Josh peek through his fingers at them. "Sorry kiddo, we're finished now."

Just then Harry tensed besides Eleanor, a second later, in the blink of an eye, she was being dragged suddenly downwards as she heard Harry yell out.

She felt momentarily disoriented, the yells and flashes of lights from everyone's wands suddenly seemed louder and brighter. She blinked slowly and realised that Harry had pulled herself and Josh down, out of the way of an incoming spell.

She could hear sharp struggling breaths coming from somewhere near by, but she looked around quickly and everyone still seemed to be in the middle of battle. Eleanor pulled herself up, her body was already aching, she glanced to the side of her and saw Josh sprawled on the floor.

Eleanor froze as she noticed Josh looking terrified. She followed his gaze and gasped. In the midst of Harry pulling Eleanor and Josh to safety, a large man had seized him, his thick arm pressing against Harry's windpipe.

The struggled breathing that Eleanor had heard was coming from Harry, and Eleanor watched in horror as Harry's face slowly began to go red.

"Give it to me," growled the man in Harry's ear. "Give me the Prophecy."

The man was pressing so tightly against Harry's neck that he could not breathe. Through watering eyes he saw Sirius duelling a Death Eater some ten feet away, Kingsley was fighting two at once; Tonks still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix. - nobody seemed to realise that Harry was dying.

Apart from two people. Harry looked towards Eleanor and Josh, even now Eleanor looked stunning, even with her faced washed from colour with panic. Harry was glad that these were the last two people he might ever see. He tried to convey with his eyes for them to run, for them not to interfere, he didn't want to risk their lives.

But Harry also wasn't ready to die yet, he would try and get out of this himself. He turned his wand backwards towards the man's side, his hand shaking because of the lack of oxygen in his body. Although Harry had his wand aimed, he had no breath to utter an incantation, and the man's free hand was groping towards the hand in which Harry was grasping the Prophecy -

And that's when it happened. Harry heard a scream as two people ran at him. It was blur of motion and confusion. Somehow, the Death Eater had been shoved off him, and Harry wasted no time in spinning around and gasping out "Stupefy!"

Harry breathed in the glorious, beautiful oxygen into his lungs as he turned back around to see who his saviours were.

"Thanks," Harry said to Neville and Eleanor. It seemed both of them had ran at the Death Eater at the same time, knocking him over.

Josh came to join them, as Harry pulled them aside just as Sirius and a Death Eater lurched past, duelling so fiercely that their wands were a blur, then Harry's foot made contact with something round and hard and he slipped. For a moment he thought he had dropped the Prophecy, but then he saw Moody's magical eye spinning away across the floor.

It's owner was lying on his side, bleeding from the head, and his attacker was now bearing down upon Harry, Neville, Josh and Eleanor: Dolohov, his long pale face twisted with glee.

"Tarantallegra!" He shouted, his wand pointing at Neville, whose legs went immediately into a kind of frenzied tap dance, unbalancing him and causing him to fall on the floor again. "Now, Potter-"

Eleanor stood immobilised, just after they had gotten away from danger, it had caught quickly up to them again. She reached her arm out and dragged Josh behind her, shielding him with her own body.

Once again, Eleanor was reminded of the kind of danger Harry was caught in. The war was real and the danger of it was currently surrounding them. Eleanor didn't see an escape out of it.

Eleanor watched as the Death Eater made a kind of complex slashing motion with his wand, Harry was quick though, and raised his wand within seconds. "Protego!" He shouted and Eleanor knew enough about magic to know that this was a shielding charm.

Eleanor saw Harry flinch still, and knew that the Death Eater must have cast a very powerful spell for Harry to still feel it slightly even with his protection.

The Death Eater raised his wand again. "Accio, Proph-"

Sirius had hurtled out of nowhere and rammed the Death Eater with his shoulder and sent him flying out of the way. Now Sirius and Dolohov were duelling, their wands flashing like swords, sparks flying from their wand tips.

Everyone watched as the Death Eater tried to use the same wand movement as he had on Harry. Harry raised his wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Eleanor watched with a sigh of relief as the Death Eaters legs and arms sprang together, as stiff as a board and fell forward on his face, unable to move.

"Nice one!" Sirius said, forcing Harry's head down as a pair of stunning spells zoomed overhead. "Now I want you all to get-"

They all ducked again; a jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius. Eleanor sucked in a breath, even she knew what that spell meant.

"Harry, take the prophecy, grab everyone and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to run after Bellatrx who had just sent a spell towards Tonks, making her tumble to the floor in a pathetic pile. It was as if Tonks were a marionette doll and Bellatrix had cut the stings. Eleanor noticed with enormous relief that she could still see Tonk's chest moving faintly.

Another green jet shot past them as Harry grabbed Eleanor and Josh's hands, together, the three of them ran towards Neville who was still struggling on the floor.

"Can't you do anything?" Eleanor asked desperately.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know the counter-curse."

"Can you stand?" Harry bellowed in Neville's ear as Neville's legs twitched and moved uncontrollably. "Put your arm around my neck-"

To make things easier for Harry, Eleanor leaned down and lifted Josh into her arms, even though he was a bit too old for it. Josh wrapped his arms around his sister, content and feeling slightly safer with her arms wrapped around him.

Eleanor huffed, Josh was a skinny boy but he was still rather heavy. Harry lifted Neville up and Neville wrapped one arm around Harry's shoulder and the other around Eleanor's, so he was in the middle of them. Harry and Eleanor had to practically drag Neville along with his uncontrollable legs.

And then out of nowhere, they were all thrown backwards; somebody had ran into them. Eleanor let go of Neville and wrapped both her arms around Josh to protect him as she braced for impact. She could see Harry was already trying to scramble up off the floor, but Neville was a sad sight indeed. He looked like an on overturned beetle with his legs jerking in every direction.

Eleanor felt her breath hitch as she felt something cold and thin press sharply against her neck. A wand.

"The Prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" snarled Lucius Malfoy. Harry froze, watching Eleanor with terrified eyes.

Eleanor tried to move as subtly as possible. She reached slowly down towards her left sock and grabbed the small knife she had hidden in there for emergencies.

Then when she had a firm grasp of the handle, she plunged it down towards Lucius' leg. She knew without a doubt that most people in the room wouldn't hesitate to kill any of them, but Eleanor didn't want to stoop that low, nor have that weighing on her conscience for the rest of her life.

Besides, it brought her time which was all she needed. Lucius cried out and Eleanor heaved herself and Josh out of his grasp while he was occupied with the pain.

"Neville, catch!" Harry shouted and threw the prophecy, Neville spun himself around on his back and caught the small glass ball, scooping it close to his chest.

Lucius moved his wand to point it at Neville, his face twisted with anger and pain, but Harry also was ready with his wand raised. "Impedimenta!"

Malfoy was blasted off his back. As Harry scrambled up again, he looked around and saw Malfoy smash into the dais on which Sirius and Bellatrix were now duelling. Malfoy aimed his wand again at Harry, but before he could draw a breath to strike, Lupin jumped in between them.

"Harry, round the others and GO!"

Harry seized Neville by the shoulder of his robes and lifted him bodily on to the first tier of stone steps, Eleanor and Josh followed very closely behind. Neville's legs twitched and jerked and would not support his weight, Harry heaved again with all the strength he possessed and they climbed another step-

A spell hit the stone bench near them and they all ducked to avoid being hit with broken pieces of stone. Eleanor lifted Josh back into her arms, ignoring her protesting body, and lifted Neville's other arm around her shoulders and helped Harry lift him up the stairs.

"Come on!" Harry said desperately to Neville. "Just try and push with your legs-"

Eleanor and Harry heaved Neville up another step, Harry having a stong grip on his robes. And then without realising, Neville's robes tore all along the seam - the small spun-glass ball dropped from his pocket and, before any of them could catch it, one of Neville's floundering feet kicked it; it flew some ten feet away to their right and smashed on the steps beneath them.

All of then stared in horror at what had happened, staring at the place it had smashed, appalled as a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them. Harry could see its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding them, not one word of the prophecy could he hear. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.

"Harry, I'b sorry!" cried Neville, his face anguished as his legs continued to flounder. "I'b so sorry, Harry, I didn'd bean do-"

"It doesn't matter!" Harry shouted. "Just try and stand, let's get out of-"

"Dubbledore!" said Neville, his sweaty face suddenly transported, staring over Harry's shoulder.

"What?"

But Eleanor understood. She turned around and there he was, just as she had remembered him looking from her chocolate frog card. Although he was old and frail, in this moment he exuded power. Eleanor could feel it even now, when she was so far from him.

"DUBBLEDORE!"

Harry finally turned to look where Neville and Eleanor were staring. Directly above them, framed in the doorway from the brain room, stood Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. Harry felt a kind of electric charge surge through every particle of his body - they were saved.

Dumbledore had already sped past Neville, Harry, Eleanor and Josh, who had no more thoughts of leaving, when the nearest Death Eaters realised Dumbledore was upon them they yelled to others. One of the Death Eaters ran for it, scrambling like a monkey up the stone steps opposite. Dumbledore's spell pulled him back as easily and effortlessly as though he had hooked him with an invisible line-

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

Eleanor felt every single part of her body fill with foreboding. Her hands began to shake and her mind began to scream.

She saw the look on Bellatrix's face and watched Sirius' relaxed grin and knew instantly what would happen. She would not let it happen.

It happened in a kind of slow motion. Her body began to move before her brain caught up with it. In her mind she saw every single moment she had shared with Sirius, every memory the two of them had shared while trapped at Number 12.

She remembered the laughs, she remembered the tantrums, she remembered her first time meeting him, his grin not unlike the one he wore now as he turned to Eleanor and introduced himself as the mass murder.

She remembered his kindness, his sweetness to her as he ran into her room every night after another nightmare, she never told Harry about. She remembered how he would hug her, how he would reassure her. She remembered how he would play chess with Josh, or Exploding Snap when Josh was being difficult. He had endless patience for them both.

She remembered everything.

She felt the tears in her eyes and she practically threw Josh into Harry's arms and began to run.

Eleanor wanted to scream out but her voice wouldn't make a sound. She could feel the lump in her throat as her body seemed to buzz in anticipation.

She wasn't going to make it. She was too slow. It felt like the rest of the world was still going on, but she was trapped in slow motion; in limbo.

She wasn't going to make it.

She reached the bottom of the stone steps, stumbling mutiple times but she picked herself back up.

She heard shouts behind her; Josh and Harry. But they would thank her for this, maybe not now but someday they would.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Sirius yelled, his voice echoing around the room. It would be the last thing he ever said.

"NO!" Eleanor screamed, tears leaking from her eyes. She watched as Bellatrix raised her wand.

Eleanor reached her fingers out, she was so close now, she almost touched Sirius. He had turned to her now and was looking at her in shock.

Red light shot out of Bellatrix's wand, it was going to hit Sirius squarely in the chest. She wouldn't make it.

Eleanor pushed herself forward, practically leaping in the air.

She wouldn't make it.

She felt her body collide with his just as she turned and saw red light zoom towards her.

Eleanor heard so many shouts around her, so many cries, but she smiled slightly. She had made it.

She had made it.

And then it hit her. She felt herself being forced off her feet and for a moment she was flying.

And then she felt it; pain.

She screamed.

And then there was nothing. Compared to the pain, she welcomed it.

It was bliss.

It was oblivion.