The Battle for the Prophecy The Battle for the Prophecy

Orrery Room

Ginny followed suit.  Luna, hearing exclamations of surprise come from them, stepped just inside the doorway and looked.

Ron and Ginny were floating through the air, slowly spinning head over heels, and paddling their arms and legs as if trying to swim.  They were about five feet off the floor and rising.  About twenty feet5 away was a large, brightly-lit yellow sphere, and around it were floating several smaller spheres, all slowly moving clockwise.  Strangely, despite the bright central light, the room was very dark.  Luna felt her own feet leaving the floor and quickly grabbed the edge of the door with her free hand.  Stowing her wand safely behind her ear, she added her other hand to her grip, and tried to figure out what to do next.

She heard Ron grunt in pain and, parallel to the floor herself now, looked “down” to see what had happened.  He was rebounding from the far wall.  Ginny, who had managed to get a precarious grip on one of the spheres, asked him worriedly, “Are you OK?”

“Fantastic,“ he growled sarcastically, now turning slowly and just as helplessly in another direction entirely.  “I’m walking on air!”

“Planets!” exclaimed Luna, ignoring Ron’s sarcasm.

“What?” said Ron in reply.

“They’re planets,“ said Ginny, with a note of dawning comprehension, jerking her head toward two passing a short distance from Ron.  “That’s the sun in the center,” she added.

From the open door, they 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 until we’ve got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary…6

In a low, nervous voice, Ginny said, “We’ve got to get that door closed!”

“And locked,” murmured Luna, as if to herself.  Suddenly, she pulled her knees up to her chest.  By carefully extending her legs, she was able to make contact with the wall behind the door.  Very gently, she pushed off, and the door started to close.  Outside, very close, she heard a startled male voice exclaim, “Look!  That door!” followed by hurried footsteps and a shouted, “They’re in here!”

⁵ Six meters.

⁶ Pg. 788.

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