Fighting (Part 1)

"So he sent you to do his dirty work for him, did he?"

Harry said, "Just like he wanted Sturgis to steal this prophecy orb—and Bode?"

"Exactly right, Potter, exactly right."

Lucius Malfoy said slowly,

"But the Dark Lord knows you aren't stupid enough to—"

"Start!" Harry shouted.

Five different voices behind him yelled, "Shattering Curse!"

Five spells shot off in five different directions at once. The shelves ahead were hit and exploded; the towering racks swayed, and hundreds of glass spheres shattered.

Pearly-white figures appeared, floating in the air, their voices echoing amid the shattered glass and splintered wood raining down like a storm, things no one had ever seen before—

"Run!"

Harry shouted. The shelves were on the verge of collapse, and more glass spheres began falling from above.

He grabbed Hermione's robes and dragged her forward, shielding his head with his other arm as large pieces of broken shelving and tiny shards of glass crashed and clattered down around them.

A Death Eater lunged through the dust cloud toward them. Harry drove his elbow hard into the man's masked face.

Cries of pain, the explosive roar of collapsing shelves, and the fragmented voices of the seers released from the glass spheres blended together in a strange cacophony—

Harry saw that the way ahead was clear. He also saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna racing past him, their arms all shielding their heads.

Something struck him hard across the face from the side, but he only ducked his head and kept charging forward.

A hand seized his shoulder, and then Hermione shouted, "Stupefy!"

The hand released him at once—they had reached the far end of Row Ninety-Seven.

Harry turned right and began running at full speed.

He could hear footsteps behind them and Hermione urging Neville onward.

Straight ahead,