Can Prophets Live Forever?
Thoughts of Ron during the final battles.

Then do not say old People may
be e'er too old for Death;
For it, if lent a Moment,
'twill snatch away their Breath.

Then O young Man, don't say you can
yourself from Death deliver;
Your Fathers finely now are dead;
Can Prophets live for ever?

- Jeremiah Newland, 1755

Bloody hell. I've never been this terrified.

The Death Eaters, with their trolls and werewolves and all, are only part of our problem. We might end up fighting two armies.

Why? Because we're fighting in the open. If we're careless, the Muggles are going to see us, and know about the magic world! They won't think about kid wizards and cute little witches; this isn't a Hallowe'en dress-up to them. They're dying! To them, all witches and wizards must be evil. If word gets out, they won't just turn on You-Know-Who; they'll come after all of us!

Do we think we're so superior to Muggles that they can't fight back? A Muggle sharpshooter, safely hidden, could cut down wizards by the dozen -- and it won't matter if the wizards are Death Eaters, or Ministry, or us. Hogwarts might be invisible, but if the Muggles know where it is, they can make it really disappear, with one good bombing.

We always thought our world was apart, but it's not; we live in their world! We can run for our lives, but we're surrounded, and outnumbered.

Harry has to go on. I've known that since I met him. He has to beat the Dark, and end the magic war. It won't be easy, and some of us are going to die. Harry will get through this, I just know.

Not everybody will make it — almost all of us, but not all. Bloody hell, we're going to lose some good friends. The best.

I suppose I always had divination, but it just came out when we really needed it, for figuring where DEs were hiding, and planning battles and such. I wish it was this good in those first few years at Hogwarts, yeah. That would have been good for spotting Filch, and knowing what Aragog was going to do, and how to get through the Triwizard stunts; it would have saved Harry and me a lot of grief.

Now, the future's almost plain to see. Oh, it's not crystal clear, but I get hunches, very good hunches. If we do something like a battle, I can see whether it looks good or bad after that.

And most times, I can see who comes through the battle alive...

The scariest thing is when I try to foresee someone's future and see nothing there. When it's happened before, there was a good chance it was a death warrant, and I couldn't bring myself to tell them.

Now, there's one person whose future only goes so far, and I've looked and looked, and I haven't got a speck of an idea what's going to happen beyond a few days from now.

Til now, I'd cry, and brace myself until it happened to them, and then keep going, but this time —

— it's me. Why don't I have a future?


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