Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was tired. Many a man often felt that they held the weight of the world upon their shoulders, but the phrase held much more truth in regards to him than it did to almost any other. This was a man upon whom great power had been thrust, despite his wishes. This was the man that thousands looked up to, despite how he looked down upon himself. This was the man who had just been handed potentially world-shaking information in the fight that his society currently found itself it.

As Headmaster of the most prestigious school for Witchcraft and Wizardry in Europe, if not the world, he had to strive to ensure that the highest degree of educational standards be maintained across the many academic fields and years that the school housed. Be it Transfiguration, or even the short class on Flying. Be it for First Year students, or those completing their masteries. Further, he had to do so without allowing any field of study a greater degree of importance than any other. It would be quite unseemly for the Headmaster to show bias in any form. Despite all this, a very core part of his being could not help but think of the field of Divination as, at the very least, 'woolly'. Although he had never studied it as a subject during his years as a student, he had managed to go over a great many of the literature he could find in regards to the field. No matter how much he studied the intricacies of Divination, that core feeling of disbelief and uneasiness he held about the subject never truly went away.

It was because of this that the interview he had just conducted with a young woman for the position of Professor of Divination was always going to be fairly difficult for him to go through. As such, nearing the conclusion of the interview where he had found the woman rather unsatisfactory, no part of him was expecting, or even considering the possibility of, feeling the world explode.

Of course, no such explosion occurred physically – in fact, the most damage done was probably when one of the drunks from the bar below attempted to barge into the room he was holding the interview in – but as far as his senses were concerned, an explosion might as well have occurred.

First came the sharp chill that seemed to envelop him, a cold not dissimilar to the vile aura generated by Dementors. A deep penetrating cold that seemed to hold him by his very bones, making it impossible for him to move. After that came the smell of ozone, overcoming the charms his brother had painstakingly worked in to keep the room smelling of lavender. And then the flash of light, painfully bright, making him shield his eyes as it flickered between various hues within milliseconds. The sound was, maddeningly, worse, with his ears constantly being bombarded with constant crests and troughs of raw, primal, force. And then he heard the voice.

The slow, nervous voice of Sybil Trelawney which he had been listening to five seconds ago had been replaced with something… else. The force behind the voice was raw and urgent, echoing around him as if being shouted back by thousands, if not millions, of other voices carrying the same force. Each syllable spoken seemed to squeeze and release his heart, as if holding him captive until the message had been delivered. And once the message had been completed, everything his senses had felt – the thrashing sounds and the echoing voice, the lights, the smell, everything – vanished.

On the whole, Albus Dumbledore could, with great confidence, state that those scant few seconds were the most terrifying seconds of his life by far. And now he was going to revisit the event, safe, hopefully, in the confines of a pensive.

Reviewing his memory of those few seconds once, twice, and then thrice, first made him doubt is own sanity, and then when acceptance of the events washed over him, made him accept that perhaps Divination was not so 'woolly' after all.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

A prophecy. Had it been anyone else who had heard this prophecy and attempted to inform him, he would have discarded it as trash. However, it was difficult to refute something when he himself was the sole witness to the event. Although what this prophecy meant…

"… you say so, Albus?"

Albus Dumbledore immediately snapped himself out of his contemplation at the query directed at him, looking towards one of the many portraits that lined the wall around him. While he certainly knew that he was quite knowledgeable in many fields of magic, never in even his wildest imagination did he think that he would be handed a genuine prophecy to decipher and deal with. As such, he had turned to a resource that he knew he could trust beyond a shadow of a doubt, one which had helped guide and advise him many times in past years: The Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistresses Holding.

The Hold was a circular wall in a sealed room, deep inside Hogwarts, that held some of the greatest treasures of the institute, and as such, was accessible only to the Headmaster or Headmistress in residence. One of the greatest treasures in this room was a True Portrait of every Headmaster and Headmistress to have served the school, carrying magic strong enough to emulate the person as they truly had been, a magic leagues above the standard Portraits that held but mere echoes of their original selves. These portraits, numbering a total of 45, were a meant to be a source of wisdom and guidance for the respective successors, and as they were bound to both Hogwarts and Albus himself, he felt no qualms in bringing the prophecy before them.

"I apologise, dear Gwgri, I lost myself in my own thoughts there. Could you please repeat yourself?"

"I asked," Began the portrait, "whether it is possible that this prophecy is not meant for this time? It could simply point to any unnamed Dark Lord in the future. Why are you so certain that it refers to your current adversary?"

Albus barely had time to formulate a response when another portrait intervened.

"While plausible, it is highly unlikely, Gwgri." The attention of 44 portraits and the one wizard in attendance shifted to the portrait of Hildegard of Bingen, Headmistress from 1179 until her untimely death in 1213. "A True Prophecy holds many signs, not the least of which is the primal nature of the magic involved in invoking such a prophecy. Albus's description of the events leave me with no doubt that this must be a True Prophecy. And one of the essential facts about a True Prophecy is their definitive nature. They are only given to those who will drive the Prophecy to completion, and their effect is immediate. There can be no doubt – this Prophecy shall be executed within Albus's lifetime, or soon enough after his death that events leading up to it can still be effected by him in some vein or form. As such, we can be assured that unless another Dark Lord can rise within Albus's lifetime, the current holder of that title must be the subject of the Prophecy."

"Apologies, Hildegard, but I am quite unarmed with any knowledge regarding prophecies, or these True Prophecies that you mention. As I see it, this prophecy announces the coming of someone who shall defeat the Dark Lord, agreed?"

A nod was the only response offered as the Portrait of Armando Dippet questioned Hildegard.

"That's all well and good. My question is – what does Albus have anything to do with it?"

There was a slight pause as the Portraits saw Hildegard gather her thoughts before she replied.

"It is in the nature of True Prophecies. A prophecy in and of itself is simply a vague notion of events that may or may not occur in the future. While these prophecies do come true occasionally, they can also be completely and utterly nonsense. There is no guarantee that anything mentioned will even come close to reality. These are prophecies that can be divined by your average witch or wizard, using the various arts at their disposal. A True Prophecy is something completely different, because it simply cannot ever be performed willingly by a person. What truly causes this phenomenon to occur has, to my knowledge, never been discovered. But there are certain factors that are known to us: a True Prophecy can only be delivered through a Seer, it will always come to fruition, and it will always be driven by the person it was delivered to rather than any it speaks of. Whether Albus wishes to or not, it will always be him that effects the path that the Prophecy will take. And from my understanding of it, his role is most crucial."

"I believe you say this because of the open ended nature of the Prophecy? That the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches – not necessarily the one who will want to vanquish the Dark Lord." Albus's question was one that had jumped to him immediately after his first time revisiting the Prophecy in the pensive. The possibility of another Lord with the power and ideals of Tom worried him the most about this Prophecy, and he hoped that one of his predecessors would be able to adequately assuage that fear.

"Unfortunately yes. There is no doubt that the Prophecy speaks of the coming of another Lord, with sufficient power to back him, and yet there must undoubtedly be room for that power to be used in a manner in tune with the goals of the current Dark Lord. You would, in effect, have two Dark Lords as your adversaries."

There was an undeniable aura of fear that grabbed him at the thought. There was only one occurrence across history of two Dark Lords working together The Lost Decade, a period of ten years ranging from 1679 to 1689 which to this day remain shrouded in doubts and confusion. Whatever had occurred during this period had been due to two Dark Lords forming an alliance, and their actions eventually led to the signing and ratification of the International Statue of Secrecy. Any knowledge of that period had completely and utterly vanished. Whatever atrocities had been committed, they had been enough for the knowledge of that period to be bound within the minds of those who knew it, until all of them had passed on, with no way to let those who did not know what happened in those dark times.

"What must I do?"

"There are some clear certainties that we have. A wizard shall be arrive who would have been born at the end of July would also possess the power needed to vanquish the Dark Lord. There is also the possibility that this wizard will actually be born on this July, in which case he will grow into his power eventually. It is the Dark Lord himself who shall acknowledge him as his equal, but he will have powers of which the Dark Lord is ignorant, whether due to sheer ignorance or overconfidence. This much, I believe, we all can agree is clear enough to not cause concern."

"Agreed. The areas of concern are where the Prophecy states that he will born to those who have defied the Dark Lord thrice, and the line referencing the inability for either to live while the other survives.. Does the former mean individual parents, or is this a reference to the Family in which he will be born?"

Albus nodded his head as the words sunk in, "I believe that both categories shall hold a small number of people – enough for us to consider them all valid candidates. But how can we define the defiance that the Prophecy speaks of? Is it defiance in the form of opposing the Dark Lord, or defiance in the form of not following his orders and commands?"

"Well, these certainly must be substantial acts of defiance – three instances where the Dark Lord has been well and truly rebuffed."

"… I believe I can think of only one individual couple who have defied him such a manner together a total of three times." Albus looked sadly to the Portrait of Marcellus Adrian Longbottom, as he spoke. "Frank and Alice Longbottom have personally engaged the Dark Lord in battle three times in attempts to stop him achieving his goals. Theirs is the only such act of defiance that stands out to me."

"Ah, but what about those that defied him in much more implicit ways, Albus? Those families whose favour he coveted but was rebuffed?"

"You must broaden your search Albus," spoke out the Portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black. "Know that the Blacks are a viable family for this Prophecy."

On perhaps any other occasion, Albus would have been suitably surprised to learn of the Blacks defying Tom, but the last few hours had sought to sap any emotion other than worry from him.

"How so, Phineas?"

"The Dark Lord approached Charis Black a few years ago to personally recruit him for his cause. Charis replied by spitting in his face and warning his wife and his family away while he stood against the Dark Lord and held him at bay. He did enough to let them escape. You should know this Albus. After all, Alastor was the last one to see his uncle before he sacrificed himself. Next we have Orion who was asked to cede his position as Head of the Blacks directly to Bellatrix in lieu of Cygnus who was heir apparent…"

"Pardon me," interrupted Albus, "but Cygnus 'was' heir apparent?"

"Precisely. Orion accepted the Dark Lords request, and agreed to do so, after which he quietly re-instated Sirius into the family, effectively naming him heir, before he too was murdered by the Dark Lord."

"… You're missing a third, Phineas."

"Regulus was felled by the Dark Lord's hand, in an act which was assuredly defiance."

"Oh? This is not what I have heard, Phineas. What brought this about?"

"I am afraid that while I know of an act of defiance from Regulus, in the course of which he died, I do not know whatsoever he did to deserve death."

Albus pondered for a minute before nodding in acceptance that such a set of circumstances would be enough to be considered as defying the Dark Lord thrice, however… "Alas, I do not believe that there shall be any children to carry the name of Black by the end of this July, so the point is moot."

"Ah, but there will be a child born in the Black Family, as a Third Degree. The child of Narcissa."

As difficult as it might be for Albus to imagine a Malfoy turning away from the Dark Lord, he recognized the wisdom in what Phineas was attempting to say – he would need to perform copious amounts of research to ensure that he identified any families who met the current criteria. With a new task, Albus bid his predecessors farewell and went out to find any information on which families might fall under the defined category.

It took over three days before Albus was satisfied with the results of his search. Black, Bones, Longbottom, Potter, and Prewett all matched his count for having defied the Dark Lord three distinct times, as well as having a child being born within the Four Degrees – which would be considered being born to that Family. The only child being born in the Prewett Family was to Molly Weasley, with the child just barely qualifying as a distant member of the Prewett Family. However, Molly was expecting her child somewhere around the first week of March, and as such could be safely removed from consideration. Proserpina Bones was expecting her child at the end of August, and so would still be a consideration, but was comparatively unlikely.

The last three posed the greatest likelihood. Alice Longbottom and Lily Potter were both expecting their children by the end of July, whereas Narcissa Malfoy was expecting hers in the middle of July. Successfully narrowing down the subject of a Prophecy to three potential children were not bad, as far as Albus was concerned. His choice was further narrowed when, due to complications with her pregnancy, Narcissa had to deliver her child almost a full month early. Thankfully, the child seemed to be recovering nicely and was expected to grow normally despite his early birth, and now Albus had only two children who could match the Prophecy.

It was on the 31st of July that Albus received his answer. Neville Longbottom was born on the 30th of July and he could already sense the powerful wizard the boy had the potential to be, not unlike either of his talented parents. Harry Potter was born on the 31st of July, but simply holding young Harry allowed Albus to sense a deep warmth in his arms that served almost as a stark opposite to the icy grip he experienced when receiving the Prophecy, and if he paid close attention, he could smell a miniscule amount of ozone around the boy. Had it been anyone other than Albus, they would have considered both babies to be equally gifted in magic, but there was no doubt for Albus that Harry had something… more. The only other potential child the Prophecy to allude to was quite safely removed from contention when the Bones Family celebrated the birth of a baby girl on the 3rd of August.

A year went by in comparative peace for the two couples, as they retreated to care for their new children. Albus made it a point to greet them once every month, and check up on the boys, one of whom was to one day bear the burden on the Prophecy. It greatly heartened him to see the two families, both of whom showered their children in love and affection, making him believe that his fears of the child growing to like another Tom Riddle were likely never going to see fruition. The war with Tom was slowly reaching a stalemate of sorts – the Auror force and his own Order had managed to put a stop to all his attacks in the past few months, and the Wizengamot had also reached the point where no new legislature, for either side, could be pushed forward. The outspoken proponents of the Dark Lord could no longer appear in public due to being wanted for questioning by the Ministry, and the many hidden supporters could not do more without exposing themselves. On the other hand, Tom had managed a stranglehold on the entire society, and had shown how he could force their world to react to his whims – such as when he simply cast a permanent charm over Diagon to show that horrid mark of his. It took a week for the Ministry to dispel it, and during that week none dared to venture out into the main economic centre for Magical Britain. Both sides had suffered many losses – and yet neither was close to victory. Albus feared that a status-quo of sorts had been established, one which could potentially last many, many years.

This last fear was resolved fairly quickly, when he was approached by one Severus Snape, asking for assistance to help him save the woman who he loved from the wrath of the Dark Lord. Albus's feelings for Severus were those of contempt at the time, as when he had been revisiting his experience with Sybil's interview, he had discovered that what he had thought was a drunk patron getting lost was actually Severus trying to listen in. One of his recent students had gotten caught thanks to Aberforth's alarm systems. Albus had been so preoccupied at that moment that the repercussions of this intruder overhearing some, thankfully not all, of the Prophecy came about far too late for him to do anything about it. Severus had, after hearing the start of Prophecy, gone straight to his Lord, in the hopes that delivering such news would benefit him in some vein or form. And then the Dark Lord had eventually decided to treat the Prophecy as something that could potentially be true, and as such had decided to simply seek out any child the Prophecy could apply to and kill them.

For their own safety, Albus pushed the Longbottom and Potter Families to retreat completely behind whatever wards they chose, and to stay on guard at all times. He offered both of the Families his full support in whatever defences they wished to mount, yet sadly both refused, and cut themselves off from society. While a great part of him dearly wished that he could have both Families within his sights at all times so that he could protect them when Tom would attack, for there was no doubt that Tom would eventually get to both of them, one way or another.

Late during the evening of the 31st of October, the entire Magical Society of the United Kingdom, as well as many of those sensitive to magic in the continent, felt a powerful wave of magic blow across them, and they felt themselves tense. Those who more academically inclined immediately recognized that somehow, someone had managed to invoke a Primal form of magic, and what they felt was the blowback of something unnatural occurring. On its own, this event would have been forgotten by all but a scant few, but it also occurred during a scuffle that some Aurors were having against a contingent of Death Eaters near Newcastle. It was during this battle that the Death Eaters all suddenly froze, and unleashed howls of both mourning and fear, as they felt their vows and oaths to their Lord fizzle out. Their momentary distraction allowed the Aurors to apprehend them all, and the immediately gleaned from them what the Death Eaters feared had occurred: somehow, the Dark Lord was dead.

Combined with the wave of magic, this information on its own was almost enough to convince the Ministry, but they were still sceptical, until one brave Auror decided to test the theory by attempting to say the name the Dark Lord had fashioned for himself. The name of a living Dark Lord holds power – power enough that any who occur it inadvertently open a magical channel between themselves and the Dark Lord. It is this channel that many Dark Lords, including the most recent, abused by attacking whosoever spoke the name in a painful, and often fatal, manner. It was because of this that none spoke the name of a Dark Lord while they were still alive.

Standing in the middle of a bustling Atrium, Alastor Moody stood rigidly and held the attention of every person as he firmly spoke the dreaded name.

"I believe that the Dark Lord Voldemort has been killed."

A simple sentence, one that would undoubtedly cause the Dark Lord to lash out and attack the brave man… and yet there was nothing. Every passing second brought with it a sense of elation and relief, and as over a minute passed in dead silence, none dared to speak as they eyed Auror Alastor Moody, still standing rigid and proud, and most importantly, safe and alive.

It was to this setting that Albus Dumbledore arrived at the ministry and proclaimed with a heavy heart that, as far as he could investigate at the moment, the Dark Lord had attacked the Potter Family and while he had successfully managed to kill James and Lily, he had also met his own downfall, and was, apparently, dead.

Pandemonium broke out as many wept tears of joy and embraced one another, welcoming the end of such a dark time, while others hid away their pain and sense of loss at the demise of their Lord. Some questioned Albus about what had happened to the last son of the Potter Family, and they were informed that the child was quite alive and well, safe within Hogwarts. All questioned how Dumbledore could be so certain, to which he quietly removed from his person a wand. This was a wand that many recognized, and those that did not could understand the implication soon enough.

In an emergency Wizengamot session, the wand was examined, and it was revealed that the Dark Lord had used three Killing Curses in his fight against the Potter Family. What truly confused the assembled members was that it was clear, upon examination by several Unspeakables, that the first two of these curses had, in fact, succeeded in their purposes. Given that the Dark Lord was, in fact, dead, and both of the people he had attacked were also dead before he was, it seemed as if there was a large piece of the puzzle remaining unseen, until someone pointed out that there was another being in the house the Potters resided in. Many were highly sceptical about the idea of an infant somehow not only surviving the killing curse, but also managing to somehow kill the Dark Lord, but the press had their story, and the news spread across the country. The Dark Lord attacked the Potters. He managed to kill James and Lily Potter. He attempted to kill Harry Potter, and it was then that the Dark Lord died, but Harry Potter lived, apparently surviving the killing curse.

Albus Dumbledore sat in the infirmary at Hogwarts Castle, next to a cot which held the slumbering form of young Harry Potter, contemplating on the course of action he should take. He had already seen the reaction many in the Ministry had had to the idea of Harry surviving the Killing Curse. The boy would be heralded a hero – famous before he was even able to feed himself or speak in complete sentences. The boy had to go to his closest family left, which was itself a difficult problem as there was no other Potter left. In the last two centuries, the Potter Family had slowly dwindled down to just a small infant. Perhaps Sirius, as the boy's Godfather, would be willing to marry and settle down, as he could not take guardianship of an infant while remaining a bachelor. Or maybe the boy could go to his mother's relatives, and live there hidden from his fame and fortune.

The infant stirred and mumbled incoherently, drawing Albus's attention back to him. Decisions as to where the boy would find his home could wait for now, as far as Albus was concerned. What was most important was to check over the boy in every way he could imagine to make absolutely certain that he would have no reason life-long ramifications from his encounter with Tom, and then to contemplate on whether the Prophecy had already come true, or if there truly was another Dark Lord who would rise in a few years.

It was two days later that Albus decided to temporarily move Harry to the house of Petunia Dursley nee Evans, having done all he could to verify that the boy would not have any severe ramifications from his interaction with Tom. Sadly, despite his many attempts, he could not remove the jagged scar that marred the boy's forehead, but as he could also not detect any curse or Dark Magic residue in it, he felt that it would not inconvenience the lad in the future. As such, he departed, bright and early on the 2nd of November, for the house of Harry's Aunt, his precious cargo held safely in his arms.

And thus, he made the first decision which would eventually lead to either the prosperity, or the downfall of Magical Society. The True Prophecy activated with the mark Voldemort left on he who had the power to vanquish him, and the only one who knew of it did not realize that things were just getting started.

Disclaimer and Author's Note:

Despite my deepest desires and hopes, I do not own Harry Potter, or really anything to do with Harry Potter, other than these nifty books some woman wrote.

J. gave the world a Framework. She plotted out key events and features, and she genuinely encourages her fans to write their own versions and host them as fanfiction, unlike many other stuffy authors.

This story serves as not only an outlet for my inner Harry Potter nerdiness, but also as a tribute to the wonderful story she wrote. I'll just be doing my best to take her main concepts, and molding them into something greater. Whereas J.K. focused on developing characters, I'll be giving more focus on developing the world around them into something much more than what there was in Canon. The image we get of Wizarding Society is rather disheartening, and I like to imagine that the potential in having an entire society co-existing and yet hidden from us poor muggles was not wasted, and so... this.

What this story is, is basically a collection of what I believe to be core essentials from J.K.'s Harry Potter, used in my version of Harry Potter. At times, the plot will remain exactly as it was with J.K., but I'll be adding my own little twist to it, like the prologue above has things done almost exactly as they were in canon, I just fluffed it out. So there will be points in common, and there will be points that diverge.

Also, I'm a computer nerd too, at times, and so I dedicate all naming conventions in this story to the world of Programming.

Lastly, an appendix:

True Prophecy vs prophecy:

I think I got the portrait to explain it well enough, but this is one of those diverging concepts. I'd be happy to answer any queries regarding this in a PM.

Portraits:

The portraits in canon are taught to behave like their original selves (an article on pottermore mentions this), but are capable of so much that they've been taken to be viewed in fanon as potential spies or teachers or what have you. A portrait is like a recording of a person, you can interact with it, but there's a limit to what it can do or say. A True Portrait is more of an imprint of the person themselves, left behind due to highly complex and non-commercial magic.

Dark Lord:

Let's give the fear of the name a reason. Any active dark lord is The Dark Lord. When they die or are neutralized, like Grindelwald, the become the Dark Lord Grindelwald. I'm also moving the association of being a Dark Lord to a global level. There can only be one Dark Lord in the world at a time. If anyone else wants the position, they'll have to get rid of the one that's already there.

Families:

The Sacred 28 are known to us, and then we have established old families as well. I will using these in a manner similar to how VraieEsprit's Meifu series uses Clans (If anyone is familiar with this serries, they'll be nodding their heads. Those who don't know it and are curious, do give it a try!).
The main Family will be the family of the Head of the house. This includes the Head, their spouse, their children, grandchildren, etc. This is the First Degree.
The Head's siblings and their families are Second Degree.

The further one gets from the family of the Head, the lower their degree gets, and the Fourth Degree is the lowest, beyond which one is no longer considered to be part of the Family.

It shouldn't get too confusing I hope, and it will be explained in story at a later time, probably chapter 3 or 4.