Prophecies
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Harry Potter universe, except this plot :)
Chapter 2:
Harry sat at his desk, trying to read ten books as fast as possible. Two years has past and it happened again. Al made another prophecy. Like the other this one was just as confusing.
Harry pulled out the paper where he wrote down what Al had said.
"Sucked from their vessels they scream out in agony and pain. Lost souls fueled by hate makes the darkness grow. The more darkness, the stronger she grows."
Harry had no idea what it meant. Souls being sucked from vessels made him think of dementors. Dementors were no longer guarding Azkaban Prison. They were too dangerous and unloyal. There was no telling if they'd trade sides again if a new dark lord showed up promising them free reign and fresh souls. So all of the dementors were rounded up and sent to their own island to live. it was like they were imprisoned themselves. There was no way to track them though, not really. No one know how many dementors there are. How was Harry supposed to know if one of them escaped. Besides as far as anyone could tell dementors are unisex. So who is this girl? Could it be the same girl that was mentioned in the first prophecy? This new breed?
Harry was confused. He wanted answers. He knew his wife wouldn't like it if she knew he was digging around. He was supposed to be working less and spending more time with the family. The time of month long stakeouts and missing dinner because of a late report were over. Harry checked his watch, it was barely noon. He supposed he could always pay the island a visit. He'd have to come up with an excuse for a reason why, go there, spend about an hour looking around, write up a report and he could still make it home at a reasonable time.
With that in mind Harry began packing up the books on his desk. He'd read them later.
*Prophecies*
"It's no fair" Lily complained. "I wanna big girl broom."
Lily waved her toy broomstick over her head. It was the same one she had received for her first birthday. Unlike her brothers she didn't get a 'big' kids broom.
"Lily, you can barely walk ten feet without crashing into something" Ginny replied.
"I wanna big girl broom!" Lily said swinging the broom so hard it slipped out of her hand and crashed into the wall, shattering into pieces.
Ginny rolled her eyes. Pulling her daughter into her arms she said "Just because you break this broom doesn't mean I'm going to buy you a new one. You have to take good care of you things if you want people to keep buying you gifts. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Good. Now go get the sweeping broom so I can clean up this mess and then we'll look at the latest issue of Which Broomstick to see what's the latest big girl broom there is."
"Yea!"
*Prophecies*
"Al!"
Al woke up to the sound of his sister calling out for him. Grumpily he out of his bed and walked two doors down to his sister Lily's room.
"Hey Lily" Al stood hesitatingly in the doorway rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"Come in here" LIly demanded.
Al didn't move. He vaguely remembered his mum telling him not to go into Lily's room. But Al knew that if he wen't back to his room now Lily would just call him until he came back.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he entered the room. He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment he saw Lily's face. Not only was it green but it was also covered in red spots, angry red spots.
"What's wrong?" Lily screeched. "Tomorrow is Lily Day and instead of having the princess sleepover part, I'm stuck in bed all green and itchy."
"You have dragon pox" Al said, as if that would help.
"I don't want dragon pox" Lily complained. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. She wiped at it with a mitten covered hand. Harry had to spell the mitts to her hand so she would stop scratching herself.
"Nobody wants dragon pox silly" James said as he entered the room carrying a tray of biscuits and lemonade.
"Thank you Jamies" Lily gushed as she tried to sit up.
"No problem Lilykins" James said setting the tray over her knees.
Lily took a sip of the lemonade tentatively.
Once he saw that she wouldn't choke on the drink James began to leave the room.
"Wait!" Lily called. "You and Albie have to have a tea party with me."
"You're supposed to be sleeping off your fever" Al said.
"I don't want to sleep. I'm going to miss Lily Day." Then the waterworks really started.
The boys couldn't stand to see their little sister cry. James started pouring the lemonade into little tea cups while Al went and got two chairs.
"Don't cry Lily, please" Al begged.
"We're having the tea party, see."
Lily sniffled. "You'll have a tea party with me?"
"Of course" the boys replied in unison.
Lily smiled, and then she sneezed. sparks flew out of her nose nearly setting her blanket on fire. The boys leaped into action to make sure she didn't catch fire.
Down the hall the Potters lay in bed, neither one of them felt like getting up.
"It's your turn" Ginny mumbled as an alarm beeped.
"Harry Groaned. "Didn't I do it last time?" He asked.
"Who cares?" Ginny muttered. "If you recall, you were away on a mission when James got the Pox. So just be happy I'm not making you take care of Lily by herself."
Lily was on the bed with a tiara on her head and one of George's fake wands in her hand. James was holding a glass of lemonade with a straw out of it so Lily could take a drink without lifting her hand. And Al had Ginny's giant paper fan (from when the world cup was hosted in Japan) and was fanning Lily.
"Daddy! Did you come to be a part of Lily Day too?" Lily said with a smile.
Harry wondered how she tricked Al and James into being her slaves for the day. He smiled to himself, his daughter, the master manipulator.
"No, it's time to put this ointment on" Harry said. Lily started to pout and Harry noticed that Al was scratching his arm. Harry scratched his head in thought and then he almost cursed.
"Al take off your shirt"
"Why dad?" Al asked.
"Just do it"
Al lifted off his shirt to show purple boils starting to cover his body. Oh, that was just great. Harry had forgotten that James was the only one who had dragon pox before. Ginny had sent Al to Molly and Arthur's place when James had the pox. This weekend was going to be a rough one.
"James why don't you go to your room and pack your bags for the weekend" Harry said.
"Awesome, whose house am I going to?" James said.
Harry had to think. Lily got the pox from Rose who got it from Roxy who got it from Molly and Lucy and they seemed to have gotten if from their next door neighbor.
"Your Uncle Bill's" Harry said.
"Aw, can't I go to Uncle George's"
"Roxy has the pox too. I don't want you bothering Angelina while she's trying to take care of Roxy. If you want you can send an owl to Fred asking if he wants to go with you."
"Okay" James said and he left.
"Al, can you start running a bath? You're going to have to take an oatmeal bath like Lily did yesterday" Harry said.
Al groaned.
It took Harry five minutes to put ointment on Lily. She wouldn't stop complaining. Only promises of taking her to see unicorns was able to calm her down to a whimper.
Then Harry had to start the oatmeal bath for Al. Al wasn't too happy with getting into a giant tub of oatmeal and he too wouldn't stop scratching. Harry found another pair of mittens to hex to Al's hands.
"That took you ten minutes" Ginny said when Harry came back into the room.
Harry crawled into the bed and threw the covers over himself.
"I had to send James away, and Al got in contact with Lily and now he has the pox too" Harry said.
"I told you last night we should've sent them away" Ginny said.
"I thought Al already had the pox"
"I sent him away when James got it because he was just over twelve months. It's way too young to get it."
"How was I supposed to know? I never got dragon pox."
"Well you better hope you don't get it, because I'm kicking you out of bed if you start growing purple boils, turning green, and shedding skin."
Harry groaned again, "I just want to sleep"
"I'm waking you up in twenty minutes to go put ointment on Al" Ginny grumbled.
"I'm sorry" Harry said and he snuggled up close to his wife. "I'm sorry I didn't owl you to let you know I'd be home late. And I'm sorry I said you put on a little weight at Ron and Hermione's dinner party last night. I'm so sorry I wasn't here when James got the pox. I can't do this on my own. Lily is a handful, you know that. She is just like you."
"As far as apologies go, that one was pretty pathetic. Those last eight words didn't help and thanks for reminding me you think I'm fat" Ginny said.
"I don't think you're fat" Harry groaned. He decided to go for a different approach and started to kiss Ginny's neck.
Ginny rolled over and out of Harry's reach. "I'm going to sleep. Don't forget to wake up in nineteen minutes."
Harry sighed and gave up. It wasn't until Harry closed his eyes that he remembered he didn't even floo call Bill and let him know James was coming over before he just sent him over there. Bill and Fleur could have plans. Harry sighed again, it looked like he wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon.
Twenty minutes later Al laid in bed, itchy, covered in boils and in itching ointment that didn't seem to be working.
"Dad, do me a favor" Al whispered hoarsely.
"Anything" Harry said thinking Al was going to make him go downstairs and make food. Lily had already demanded that Harry bring her four hash browns, poached eggs, and lots 'n lots of toast.
"Next time Lily wants me to—"
Al's words were suddenly cut off. He gasped, and Harry started to panic.
Al's eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body started to twitch.
Harry cursed. "GINNY!"
"The dark lord's last servant shall perish at the hands of his creation"
Al gasped again just as Ginny entered the room.
"What happened?" Ginny asked.
"He had another prophecy. This time he predicted death" Harry said.
"Oh" Ginny gasped.
"I know" Harry said.
Ginny summoned a washcloth and washed it with her wand. Then she placed it over Al's head.
"Crap, I was really hoping the last one was a fluke" Ginny said.
Harry shook his head; he knew it was going to happen.
Al blinked his eyes.
"Mum? Dad?" Al said weakly.
"Yeah, baby we're here"
"I'm not a baby" Al said, glad James wasn't around. James had been taken to calling Al a baby a lot lately even though Lily is the youngest.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked.
"Thirsty. My throat hurts" Al said.
"I'll make breakfast and send up some lemonade" Harry said. He gave his wife a pointed look and he left the room.
Ginny was worried. It was bad enough that Al looked just like Harry and would be forced his whole life to try and live up to his father's standards. It would be even worse if people knew he is a seer. They would either clamor to him trying to get him to tell their fortunes or they'd turn him away as a freak.
Ginny let out a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Al asked.
"Why'd you go into Lily's room when you knew she had Dragon Pox?" Ginny asked.
"Lily called out to me. If I didn't come she would've kept calling until I showed up" Al said.
Ginny smiled. She remembered when she was younger and she used to make her brothers do whatever she wanted when she was sick. Bill, Charlie and Percy were all nice about it. Fred and George caught on to it the second time she did it and started pranking her. Ron would freak out and be more of a nuisance than a help. She smiled at the old memories.
"What happened? Does my throat hurt because of the dragon pox? I have a headache too."
Ginny didn't know what to say. Harry wanted to tell Al about the prophecies. He might not remember making them but he deserved a right to know. Ginny was just worried though. She knew she shouldn't be but she couldn't help it.
"When your father comes back we'll tell you all about it" Ginny said rubbing Al's head.
Al waited patiently, trying not to scratch.
A short while later his father came back with breakfast and lemonade. Ginny pulled him to the side and said "It's time."
Harry nodded in understanding. After taking a plate to Lily and making sure she was still comfortable the two sat down with Albus.
"Remember Christmas a couple of years ago when you had to go to the hospital?" Ginny asked.
Al thought back. Two years ago seemed like forever.
"I had a snowball fight with James?" he asked.
"You did." Ginny said. "Well that day something… happened."
"Nothing bad" Harry added quickly.
"Of course nothing bad." Ginny couldn't help but to brush strands of his hair over and over again.
"Well you got sick last time because you used a certain type of magic that your body wasn't ready for" Harry tried to explain.
"I used magic?"
"Yep."
"What kind of magic?"
"Um...divination? I think?"
"How come I don't remember using it?"
"Well, that's because you're a seer. It means you see certain things that no one else can see. But you're too young to fully understand. Your body can't handle the magic it takes so you get a fever. It sucks that this time it happened when you have dragon pox."
"So it's going to happen again?"
"Probably" Harry said.
The sound of the doorbell ringing filled the house.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked.
"I'm fine" Al replied.
"If you're sure?"
At the door was Audrey Weasley. She was a healer that mostly worked as a midwife. She delivered Bill and Fleur's daughter Victorie and that's how she met Percy.
"Hey, I heard that a lot of the little ones have the pox so I've been using my contacts to get vials of the cure for free."
Harry smiled, "You're a lifesaver" he said and he hugged her enthusiastically.
Audrey laughed.
"Both Lily and Al have it and I'm afraid Harry's been up all last night and this morning taking care of them" Ginny explained.
"That's so sweet. When the twins got the pox, Percy claimed to be working late on something important" Audrey rolled her eyes.
Ginny smiled. Yeah, she already knew that Harry was one of a kind.
*Prophecies*
Ginny was heading down to the kitchen, about to take Lily's birthday cake out of the oven, when a head popped into the fire.
"Hey Kingsley, are you looking for Harry?" Ginny asked.
The minister nodded so he wouldn't get any ash in his mouth.
"HARRY! THE MINISTER'S HEAD IS IN THE FIRE!"
Harry came down the stairs.
"Hi Kingsley. Are you going to come by later for cake?" Harry asked.
"Red velvet?"
"That's Lily's favorite."
"I'll be there. I'm sorry to bother you today. I know it's little LIly;'s birthday but as the Head Auror you're kind of needed here."
"Okay, I'll put on my robes and head over in a sec. Is this going to take a while?"
"You know I can't say."
Of course Harry knew. Aurors could talk less about what they were working on that what Unspeakables were.
Kingsley's head popped out of the fire.
"You have to go to work" Ginny complained.
"I know. Hopefully it won't be long."
"Last time Kingsley floo-called with an emergency I didn't see you for three weeks."
"That was over a year ago. Head auror now, remember. Emergency has a whole new meaning now. My emergency could be that I forgot to turn in documents that's needed to prosceute someone, I'll fill them out in five minutes and be back before you know it."
"You better" Ginny pouted. Harry gave her a peck on the lips.
Harry dashed upstairs and changed into his work clothes. He gave Lily a kiss and promised to come back with a present.
Kingsley filled in Harry in the lifts.
"Theodore Nott has been found."
"The death eater's son?"
"Yeah. He disappeared after the war. No one was sure if he was a death eater or not."
"What's so big about his reappearance?" Harry asked.
The lifts stopped and a couple of people got on. Kingsley had to wait until they were alone again to continue talking. "His body was found in a run down shack. There were all kinds of dark objects in the house, as well as a lot of blood, and I think there may have been dementor involvement."
The words stopped Harry dead. Dementor involvement. He silently cursed in his head as he realized he wouldn't be home in ten minutes like he hoped.
*Prophecies*
Harry entered the small shack, wand at ready, with three co-workers at his side. The place was filthy. There was this black inky substance everywhere. Papers in latin and other foreign languages lay splattered all over the place. Nott laid in the center of the room with a look of complete shock on his face.
Auror Hillis went to check the only bedroom while Auror Janine was snapping pictures of everything. That left Harry and Auror Murphy to check over the body.
"The killing curse?" Murphy asked. He was a new recruit and always looking to impress.
"It would appear. There's no sign of force entry, and from the look of shock on his face I'd say he knew the person who killed him."
Murphy snapped on gloves and began to touch the body.
"It's cold. He's been dead for a while." Murphy lifted his sleeve. "Dark Mark. He was a death eater."
The dark lord's last servant shall perish at the hands of his creation.
The words floated back to Harry. He wondered just what had Nott created.
"Janine, I want a copy of all of Nott's salvable notes. I want to know what exactly he was doing here and what is all this black ink."
"Yes sir."
"Potter, In here" Hillis called.
Harry went into the bedroom. Hillis was standing in front of the closet door. Harry peered inside and had a hard time concealing the anger at what he saw. There was a pale little girl huddled in a corner. She was bone thin with dratty black hair that flowed all the way to her ankles. She was only wearing rags and her skin was so light you could see her veins.
Harry wondered when was the last time she saw daylight. It reminded him of sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs at his aunt and uncles.
Harry whispered to Hillis, "Send an owl to WOO, we need to get her out of here. Send them to the ministry, I don't want them on the crime scene. I'm taking the girl. As the senior officer here, you'll be left in charge so I'm trusting you to handle it."
WOO is the Wizarding Orphanage Organization. After the war there were so many children left without families. Harry knew from experience that muggle orphanages didn't always work out. Maybe if there was a wizarding orphanage a long time ago Tom Riddle would have been able to make friends and wouldn't have become the evil, nearly soulless man he turned out to be. Harry, Hermione, and Hannah Abbott got the program together after the war with the help of Percy Weasley and Minister Shaklebot.
Now it's a nicely run organization and kids are being adopted and put into homes where they won't feel isolated or alone.
"She may have seen something" Hillis added.
"I am well aware of that! You have your orders."
"Yes, sir."
Hillis left the room. Harry bent down to the little girl's eye level.
"Hello" he said lightly. The girl looked up at him. "My name is Harry Potter. What's your name?"
The girl just looked at him and didn't reply.
"Do you understand English?" still nothing.
"Are you hungry?" The girl just looked at him with big eyes. "My kids are always hungry. I have two boys and a little girl like you. They get that from the Weasley side of the family, I guess. Do you know any other little kids? Have any friends? I bet my daughter would love to have you as a friend. Today is her birthday. There's going to be a cake and ice cream. It sucks that she has chicken pox. You might not want to come over. You don't want to be green and covered in boiils. But at least I left her with her dolls to keep her company. Do you have any dolls?"
The little girl moved, pulling a ratty old from behind her.
"That's a cool doll. What's her name?"
"Dolly" she said almost too softly to hear.
"That's a pretty name for a pretty doll. Would Dolly like to come out here. I promise that it's safe."
Harry held up his hands. The girl eyed him skeptically then slowly began to inch out of the closet. He carried her out of the closet and into the main room. He tried to shield her eyes from the lifeless body on the floor.
"Susan Bones is willing to meet you at the Orphanage. They're a bit understaffed today" Hillis said.
"Okay. thanks. Janine, Murphy, Hillis is in charge. I want to read your reports on everything you think happened here at the end of the day."
*Prophecies*
"He had the dark mark" Harry said.
"That doesn't mean…"
"He was the last one. Just like Al predicted" Harry continued as if he hadn't heard his wife.
"You're going to keep talking about this until I give you my opinion, aren't you?" Ginny said.
"Pretty much, yep."
Ginny rolled her eyes.
"I remember when you didn't used to talk about your job with me."
"I thought you wanted to know what was so important I had to walk out on my daughter's forth birthday."
"Did Susan take in the little girl?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. She was so skinny. Seeing her huddled in that closet it reminded me so much of living with the Dursleys."
Ginny hugged her husband. She knew it took a long time for him to come to grips with what happened to him while he was a child. He knew he was abused and mistreated even if they didn't actually spank him. Starving him and forcing him to be their cook, maid, servant was just as bad. It left so many mental scars that Harry was afraid he wouldn't be a good father. He wasn't sure how a good father was supposed to act and he didn't want to turn out like Vernon Dursley. When James was born Harry was extra protective. Staying in his room all throughout the night, being the first one to make a bottle. That's half the reason why James is so spoiled now.
"You got her out of that place, and at such a young age. She's going to be fine" Ginny whispered kissing his forehead.
"I hope so."
