And One
The living room of Grandma's house was serine and still. For several minutes after Adam and Emily's arrival the mood changed with each second that passed. First shock, then devastation on through every possible emotional hurt that could be acted upon or verbalized. Now, as everyone gathered around Emily's body there was total silence save the quiet sobs.
Emily Darr lay on her back on the dark hardwood floor in the living room. Sara had pulled the hood of Emily's robes over her face as Emily's eyes were still open. Adam sat at her head, resting it in his lap while he gently stroked her hair through the hood. Matt, who'd just lost his mentor, kneeled forward at her feet sobbing and covering the sides of his face with his hands. His Muggle brother and sister Andy and Kelly knelt with him, rubbing his back and comforting him as best they could.
Derrick stood behind his twin, unable to speak, struggling to breathe. Emily meant just as much to him as she did to his brother. She'd taught him more about magic and fighting than he could remember at this moment, and he struggled to understand how his family could possibly move forward from this point. Time seemed to stand still in his mind as if he still couldn't believe what was happening around him.
With tears streaking his pink cheeks, Ray-Ray knelt beside Emily and held her hand. Everyone in the room could tell that Ray had no inkling how to process such strong emotional loss. He sobbed and sniffled staring down at Emily's lifeless body. Alison knelt next to her brother but was bent over at the waist crying into Emily's chest. Ray rubbed his sister's back, trying his best to ease her sadness.
Sara was on Emily's other side, and being the closest triplet to the Auror laid down on the floor next to her. Sara's loss was by far the most vocal as she cried and cried into her dear friends shoulder. Adam held her head as best as he could. Tears fell from his face directly onto his lost love.
She'd died protecting his family; she'd died without him being able to protect her. Adam knew beyond anything, beyond the revenge he was sure to deliver, beyond the pain of his broken heart; he knew he'd never forgive himself for letting her fall.
Relative's tried to ask what had happened, but no one had the complete story yet. Sara couldn't form words, but Ray-Ray explained most of what he remembered outside their dorm. Alison too couldn't form complete sentences without breaking down so Ray filled in her part too.
Matt and Derrick added what they could get out of their mouths, but there were still many holes in the events of the afternoon at Salem's. It was agreed the attack had been premeditated, and very well planned. What no one could understand was why someone wanted to hurt children. Multiple births were rare, and triplets were just as uncommon. Aside from being overall good children, with their own talents, none of the Bumble kids was extraordinary by any stretch of the imagination.
"Derrick," Adam choked just above a whisper, looking up at his student. He cleared the sadness from his throat a few times trying to find more words. "We need to contact the Department of Magic. They'll need our statements, and they'll need to get Em—"
"Right," Derrick answered, cutting Adam off to spare him from having to say it. "Gimmie a minute to get in touch." Derrick wiped off his face and moved out of the living room towards the front door of Grandma's house. Quickly he stepped out into the cold for what everyone assumed was a need to compose himself before contacting the authorities.
Ten minutes passed with everyone still huddled around Emily's body. The Muggle family members in the room were very sad. Most of them adored Emily, but they were also very sad for Adam and his crew, it was obvious that they were all very close and hurting a great deal.
Derrick came back inside and reported that he made contact with the D-O-M, and that someone would be arriving shortly. Sara and Alison got up without saying a word and moved over to one of the couches and sat down. Both girls grabbed throw pillows, pulled them in close and then doubled over crying again. Ray-Ray sat down between his sisters and put an arm around each.
Adam stayed with Emily but everyone else moved to chairs in the kitchen or couches in the living room. Matt and Derrick stood in the middle of the living room with arms crossed still locked inside the grief in their heads.
On one end of the living room was a small electric fireplace that used to keep Grandpa, when he was alive, toasty warm while everyone sweated profusely. It hadn't been used since he had died a few years earlier so everyone in the room was quite surprised to hear a loud clicking sound suddenly emanate from behind the fireplace's glass doors.
Matt and Derrick looked puzzled at the small fireplace, that only a child could fit into. Just as Matt stepped forward to investigate the brick chimney and fireplace began to transform growing taller and wider. After a second or two it had grown into a full sized hearth that any adult could walk right in to. The glass doors were gone as were all the electric components. Several wooden logs now sat in its center, and no one magical in the room was particularly surprised when the cold logs erupted in green flames.
The flames burst in bright green engulfing the entire hearth as someone appeared standing on the grate. Matt and Derrick's wands were drawn immediately and Sara and Ray stood up from the couch. A man appeared, looking just a few years older than the twins and stepped out into the living room.
Matt and Derrick's wands quickly honed in on the intruder. "Talk quick stranger," Derrick threatened, as another explosion of green flames consumed the fireplace and someone else arrived.
"Peace to you, sir!" The man surrendered, raising his arms. "I'm James Howard; I work for the Ministry of Magic in the United Kingdom, and this is my great-gran." He pointed to the elderly witch who had appeared in the grate just after his arrival. "Your Department of Magic has sent us here to brief you; I assure you we come in peace!" Mister Howard's posture appeared genuine but the twins and anyone else standing in the living room weren't sure what to make of him. He spoke in a thick English accent but composed himself with confidence and aristocracy.
"What do you want?" Matt rudely barked at the intruders, refusing to lower his wand.
The old witch standing in the grate looked to have had enough of standing in a fireplace; she picked up her walking stick and smacked her great-grandson in the back of the leg. He moved out of the way, allowing her to step out into the living room.
"Good gracious, you're manners boy." She exclaimed while stepping into the room and brushing the ash from the fireplace off of her robes. "So, sorry" the elderly witch said, addressing everyone at once. Her English accent was softer than that of her great-grandson, and her tone was warmer. "That boy, his head's filled with floo powder just like his fathers." She continued to brush ash from her robes while staring down her nose through her soot stained spectacles at her great-grandson. Looking disheveled and embarrassed, Mister Howard found a quiet seat in a large red leather chair in a corner of the room.
"Where were we," the witch asked, finally giving up on the ash on her robes. "Ah yes," she continued with a smile, "Mister Pearson, Mister's Emberson, Mister Bumble and of course, Ladies Bumble, it's a great pleasure to finally meet you." The witch offered a very sincere smile and nod to each witch and wizard as she spoke their name. "I've watched you six for a very long time, I'm quite excited to finally be here."
"Okay, enough!" Adam yelled. He scooted back from Emily's body, gently resting her head on the floor and stood up. "Who the hell are you, and what the shit are you doing in my grandmother's home." Adam's posture was quite aggressive as he stepped over Emily's body to confront the witch.
James Howard stood up quickly from the red leather chair and he too raised his voice. "How dare you speak to her with such disrespect?!" He barked, moving to confront Derrick, "Don't you know who—"
"Enough!" The witch halted both men with a smile and the gentle raise of a hand. "They're upset James, and we've just interrupted. Sit down, boy, please." James obeyed her command and sat back down in the same chair.
All of Derrick's relatives were now standing in the middle of the room in a sort of circle. They looked on guard, concerned, and more than anything else, confused. The witch surveyed each one of them, walking around the inside of the circle and stopping at each twin, and each triplet. She bowed to Sara and Alison, nodded to Derrick and Matt, and even took a moment to gently pat Ray's face. A pat slightly harder than Ray would have liked.
"Seriously, Lady, who are you?" Matt asked, sounding annoyed, his gaze at the witch was filled with spite and anger.
"I'm old, little Auror," she smiled at him, clearly not threatened. "But I'm not completely scatterbrained just yet. I work for the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. You may call me Headmistress, Minister or 'gran,' the choice is yours really. I've already apologized for our intrusion, so how about you wipe that "pissing-fire" look off your face before you find out why I make my great-grandson carry my handbag. Be a dear, won't you?"
The witch walked over to the red leather chair where her great-grandson sat looking up at her. In one switch movement, that everyone in the living would not have expected from a witch of her age, she reach out, grabbed a fistful of her great-grandson's robes and threw him from the chair to the hard wood floor. She added a thump from her walking stick to his backside for extra measure and took a seat where he once sat. The witch took a moment to straighten her robes, before looking up at the room and smiling at everyone. James Howard, embarrassed again, got to his feet and found another chair next to his great-gran without saying a word.
"Seriously," Matt asked again. "Who are you people?"
"Wait a second," Derrick interrupted. "I know you. Headmistress? Of Hogwart's. You spoke at Salem's our first year." Derrick turned to Matt who didn't appear to remember.
"I did indeed," she answered flashing the young man a smile. "You've got a fine memory. Once I learned that the triplets were born, I arranged for a little visit."
"Headmistress of Hogwart's?" Derrick asked.
"Twice, yes. Formerly of course."
"And Minister?" Derrick continued.
"Of Magic, yes. Twice, also formerly."
"You've had a busy life," Adam commented, pulling a wooden chair from the kitchen so he could sit near Emily while still addressing the woman in the red chair.
"Eight years as Minister, then retired." James interrupted. "Twelve years as Headmistress, then retired again. Came out of retirement after the assignation of Minister Keyrin, held the post for fifteen years, and retired again. Finally, Headmistress again for twenty-eight years, before retiring."
"Now I dabble with the Department of Mysteries, part time of course." The way she giggled and squirmed at her own resume made Adam and Derrick think that this old woman had complete lost her marbles.
"Very well," Adam spoke up, determined to hear her out. "What do we owe the pleasure, Minister."
"The attack of your family today, I feel, has been a long time coming. Some of us in the Department of Mysteries have postulated that a string of ancient texts may have been written about you and your family, predicting events thousands of years before any of you were born. They don't mention names, of course, that'd be entirely too easy, but there are clues that some logical minds can unlock, and those clues perhaps show a pattern. They speak of the millennium, just a few days from now...or it could be another turn of the century, no one knows really."
"Come again?" Adam spoke for the entire room, utterly confused by every one of the witch's words.
"You all went to Salem's yes?" She asked of twins, triplets and Adam. Each nodded. "All sorted into the same house at school?"
"They're called dormitory's not houses in the United States," Sara added as the only one not confused about the differences between Hogwart's and Salem's. "But yes, we're all in Garner-Affleck."
The witch snorted through her nose, trying, and failing, to not sound rude. "I get that they had six children who were all magical, and yes, I get that they supported the American Magical Community, but naming a school dormitory after two actor's, really. And bad actors to boot, they were just a few years older than me, when I was your age. Worst Batman ever! Really."
"You were saying about the millennium?" Adam asked.
"I guess my real question, is what do you all know about prophecies?" the witch added. When no one responded, she continued. "Prophecies are obviously predictions of the future, some come to pass, and others do not. A vast majority of the resources of the Department of Mysteries is dedicated to capturing, identifying, researching and learning about prophecies. Many a wizard has gone quite mad following a literal interpretation of a prophecy, while others lives have been utterly ruined by ignoring them. Some come true, some do not, but all are studied. The Ministry of Magic has studied prophecies for thousands of years."
"Okay, you lost me." Ray spoke up, as his mother and father had moved into the circle, quite curious to find out what the witch was talking about.
"Well," she continued with a smile from the comfort of the red leather chair. "That's why I'm here. I believe one of our most ancient prophecies is coming to pass, that it pertains your family, and although officially I'm here to confirm or refute certain theories, I'll admit I just kind of want to witness it if it does come true." The witch spoke in a manner far younger than her age, almost giddy and excited to share this news.
"Why the interest?" asked Derrick, his curiosity peaked.
"Oh, I've been involved with prophecies for the better part of my life," she answered. "I find them fascinating, even if I think the subject of Divination is a fools-errand. I've been involved in a few; some of them were quite a big deal. My very best friend had his entire life shaped by a prophecy to a degree, and my late husband and I spent the better part of our life together studying prophecies as a sort of hobby. It's really quite intriguing."
"So there's a prophecy about one of us?" Adam asked.
"If it's about you, it's about your entire family. Well," she smiled at him. "The magical family in this room, anyway."
"And you said it's an old prophecy?" asked Derrick.
"Hmm, yes. Over two thousand years old give or take. Record keeping that long ago is spotty at best."
"What's it say?" squeaked Alison, unsure if she should speak.
"Excellent question Miss Bumble," the witch beamed at her. "I have it here somewhere, James?" James was already digging to his satchel and produced a piece of parchment that didn't look nearly old enough as the witch suggested. Upon noticing their faces, she smiled. "Oh, this isn't the original, it's stored in the Department of Mysteries in a crystal sphere. Normally, you can't read a prophecy unless you are the one about whom it is written. However, in this case, the identity is unknown so anyone can access it. It's funny too, because this may be the first ever account about magical numbers. We never know where some of the things we believe come from; magical numbers, Beatle the Bard, and so on. Much of it is from ancient prophecies that we just sort of accept over time. No one knows why."
"Okay, I'm lost again." Added Ray, looking confused.
"Don't worry, you'll understand in a minute. Now bear in mind, this is over two thousand years old. Things during that time were obviously different and we have to use terms from that time, to define their meaning in our time. Therein lays the mystery. Does a river mean a river, or perhaps a hose pipe described by someone born a thousand years before it was invented. You get the idea."
The witch cleared her throat and looked down at the parchment. "This is so exciting," she smiled to her great-grandson.
From a line without magic, it will no longer be denied.
Life finds a way to survive.
From none, comes one,
he leads a strong path.
Time brings two more,
Three become greater than two, greater than one.
Not father's to sons,
their family is their bond.
All play their part,
in the evil undone.
The hope of this family, the hope of us all,
after three comes one more,
ensuring that evil does fall.
Every season grows them stronger than the millennium before,
what comes after three is one,
with the power of four.
To send evils queen back to eternal slumber,
One and two and three and one.
Seven,
The most powerfully magical number.
When the older with finished reading the prophecy she looked up to see all eyes of the room on her. The Muggle's in the room rightfully had no idea what she was talking about, and even the magical folk looked puzzled. She sat quietly waiting for her words to sink in.
"Come again?" Matt asked, looking at his twin brother. "Yeah, I think I need to hear that again."
"Me too," said Sara. In fact all of Sara's relatives were nodding.
The woman read the prophecy aloud three more times, each time drawing different verbal reactions from different people at different parts.
"What're your questions," she asked them.
Adam stepped forward looking puzzled and rubbing the stubble of his beard. "Minister, you've studied this prophecy in great detail. Why don't you tell us what you think it means."
"You don't want to have a go?" she smiled and was not surprised to see everyone shaking their heads in disapproval. "Well it's all just theory really, but I'm pretty sure we can prove some aspects of it if we put our minds together.
"The first line was what intrigued me when I first read it," she continued. "'From a line without magic, it will no longer be denied.' Two thousand years ago almost everyone was obsessed with blood lines, so to speak of a muggleborn was almost unheard of as most muggleborn wizards were burned at the stake. So, this tells me magic will spring forth in a bloodline previously without magic.
"I think 'from none comes one' refers to Adam, the first wizard in your family. 'Three become greater than two, greater than one' it seems pretty logical that its referring to the twin and triplet wizards and witches that followed in your blood line. Muggleborns are generally all or nothing, it's incredibly rare that more than one Muggleborn comes out of a given family, and to my knowledge it's never happened in the same generation."
"Same generation?" Derrick asked, confused by their age difference.
"You are all from the same generation in your family. Not years, but generation. All of your parents are siblings, correct? You are all first cousins, even if your age different is significant?"
Adam nodded for the group; everyone hanging on the witch's every word.
"Prophecies are simply predictions, they can be right or they can be wrong. My friend I mentioned, the prophecy about him could have been about several people. The same thing with you lot, we've been watching the worldwide magical community for years, trying to find the right set of circumstances in Muggleborn magical families, and it never panned out. Even the offspring of Muggleborn's is a miss because of the line "Not father's to sons…" which implies the people of which the prophecy is speaking are not direct descendants of one another."
"One and two and three and one, make seven." Adam said aloud.
"That's basically it." She smiled.
"Wait a sec," Sara piped up. "One being Adam, which is kinda creepy since his name is Adam and I'm pretty sure somewhere that name means "first."
"There's the scholar I've heard about, go on!" the witch encouraged Sara to keep thinking it through.
"Two is obviously, Matt and Derrick, but no offense; they're not twice what Adam is, are they?"
"Definitely not," laughed Matt.
"Really? Didn't you dispatch Jon Alvitre and two other attackers yesterday without any assistance." Said Adam.
The boys lowered their heads, embarrassed and nodded.
"Adam, do you think at your age you could've done that?" she asked him.
"Definitely, not." Adam answered her.
"Okay," Sara continued. "So that's debatable, anyway, the 'three' that's the three of us. Are you telling me we're stronger then the boys?"
"Alison dropped at pretty bitchin' patronus, commanded it, sent it two-thousand miles away and communicated through it." Adam interjected, understanding the witches point.
"Not really a third year skillset, Sara." Said Derrick.
"Or seventh year, for that matter." Matt added with a laugh. "If I can get my patronus to talk it's like a bad Kung Fu movie, mouth moving with weird syllables coming out at random times."
"It's true, his patronus needs sub-titles, for real." Added Derrick.
"You three may not be there yet, but it seems like someone thinks you will be one day." The witch reached out to her great-grandson, James, and handed him back the parchment. "The prophecy says you will all be instrumental in ending some evil witch in the future."
"Is that why the man on the cliff wanted to spill my blood?" Sara asked softly. Her mother was already horrified enough without hearing about some masked man trying to cut her daughter.
"Yes, and no." the old witch sighed. Her tone softened. "Sara, I'm sorry we interrupted your thought while you were trying to understand the prophecy. Would you like to continue?"
"I was done, I think."
"No, you had more, there's more to it. Think." She continued to push Sara's mind, enjoying tremendously watching a young and eager mind blossom before her eyes.
Sara shook her head.
"It's okay, we're all guessing here, there's no wrong answer."
"Okay," Sara surrendered with a very soft voice. "Something doesn't add up."
"What's that?"
"No, I mean it literally. It doesn't add up, one and two and three are six, not seven."
"She's a quick one." The witched smiled. "You're correct, one plus two plus three is six. To go back to your question if that was why the man on the cliff wanted to spill your blood. This is a point of great disagreement with this particular prophecy. Some people believe as I do that the line 'Not father's to sons' means that you all will not be descendants of each other, which you are not. Others believe a more literal interpretation to the word 'sons.' They believe the key lies in the witches in your family. 'Not fathers to sons' means to them 'Fathers to daughters' so they're concerned about yours and your sisters offspring. Which is completely ridiculous, but still, it's a theory. So, yes, he was trying to spill your blood because he believes your offspring are the key to this prophecy being fulfilled. If he's right, and prevents you from having children…well, you get the idea. I'm certain his belief is incorrect, but that doesn't help because he still believes it."
Matt rolled his eyes at Derrick who had brought two chairs in from the kitchen. He and his twin took a seat near the witch, urging her to continue.
"So who's the other one, then." Piped up Alison. "One, and two and three and one make seven.' If it's not Sara's or my future child, then who is it? Is one of our other cousins magical and not know it?"
"Now that's a very interesting question, and the source of great headache to me. This is the lone hole in my theory of 'Not fathers to sons' because I'm basically applying a line from the prophecy to translate one part and completely ignoring it when translating another. This is the only flaw in what I think, but to my opposition it's glaring, and it also proves their theory correct."
Matt laughed at the witch, what she said made almost no sense at all.
"No, I know I'm right, but the evidence I use to support my theory proves theirs. It's infuriating." The old woman seemed quite animate and passionate about this prophecy, even if her logic appeared flawed. "One is Adam, clearly. Two are the twins, and three are the triplets. One," she pointed to Adam with a single boney finger. "and Two," her slender hand moved towards the twins with two fingers extended. "and Three," she pointed at the couch where the triplets sat. "and One." She pointed to Emily's body lying on the floor. Someone in the room gasped.
"Oh, man," said Derrick. "In the excitement I totally forgot about Cherry. Oh, I'm so sorry..." he gave Adam a pleading look which Adam promptly waved off.
Everyone turned and looked at Emily, obviously Derrick wasn't the only one who'd forgotten about her.
"No offense Lady, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but Emily's deceased," said Matt.
"Really?" the witch gasped, placing her hand on her chest. This woman was too bright to not notice a body lying on the floor; Adam thought perhaps she was being sarcastic. "How do you know?"
"Because I saw her fall," barked Matt in return with the sound of hostility and annoyance in his voice.
"As did I," Adam said, crossing his arms.
"And I," added Derrick.
"And from which Medical School did you graduate?" she smiled too playfully.
"Huh?" Matt was confused.
"It was Avada Kedavra, lady." Adam raised his voice. "I was there, I saw it, I heard the command, I watched her fall. I've read enough to know the Killing Curse is an unforgiveable curse in the UK, so don't act like you've never heard of it. Do you think you're funny? You're great-grandson looks like a solid fighter. Keep the cheek up and we're all gonna find out real quick just how solid."
The witch smiled sincerely after wiping the sarcastic look off her face. "I'm merely curious if anyone actually checked the poor girl's body to confirm what you're saying."
Adam leapt forward pulling a wooden chair out of his way. He knelt down by Emily's shoulder and pulled the hood off of her face. Nothing had changed in her expression; she still stared off into nothingness. Adam looked up to the old woman.
"A simple medical diagnostic spell should confirm." The woman added, now looking down at her fingernails.
Adam pulled out his wand, held it flat in his hand and muttered a spell just below a whisper. His wand spun around in his hand, pointing at Emily's head then spinning and pointing towards her feet.
"Oh, Jesus," Adam gasped through choked tears, forcing back a smile. "She's here, is she stunned?" He looked pleadingly to the former Minister.
"A simple 'Innervate' should do it," the woman smiled at him.
Adam snapped his wand and Emily gasped for a deep breath, coughing. The entire room erupted in shock as Emily came to a moment of hysterical fear trying to understand what had happened. Adam comforted her and held her down calming her with his voice, telling her she was free of danger. Every relative of Adam's couldn't believe what they had just seen. Some had mouths agape, others with tears in their eyes. Matt and Derrick were hugging each other, while the triplets had all leapt onto the floor to be near Emily.
It took several minutes for the room to calm down; finally after getting their due hugs, sharing a quick cry together, and getting Emily into a wooden chair did the room become quiet.
"Grandma," Emily said slightly louder than a normal conversation voice. "Cherry, needs a drink." She held her arm extended with her hand holding an imaginary cup.
"So does Grandma," said Grandma Martha as she shuffled into the kitchen to make herself and Emily two very strong drinks.
Grandma returned quickly and handed a full glass to Emily. She took two big sips before moving the cold glass to a bruise on her cheek. Adam sat next to her holding her hand.
"Okay," Derrick began. "Not to be a turd, but what the hell."
"In the entire history of magic," the witch stood up. "Only one wizard has ever survived a direct hit from a Killing Curse. Just one, and he did it twice, that is until today. I knew this man before he died, in a sick sort of way he was very proud of that record. You all are lucky he's not alive to see he'd have to share, I'm sure he'd be quite grumpy about it."
"You're not making any sense," said Adam.
"I've told you, one, and two, and three and one." She repeated, pointing to each person. "Seven."
"But Em's not family," said Ray, looking ashamed as if he said something insulting to her, but Emily smiled back at him.
"Not her," said the witch. "Her baby!"
For a room with fifteen confused people in it, the silence was deafening. Each relative, Muggle or magical rapidly searched each other's faces for confirmation.
"What?" whispered Adam. He turned to look at Emily who wore the same shocked look on her face as everyone else in the room.
"Don't look at me." Emily said quickly to Adam.
"What'd the diagnostic spell tell you, Adam?" He pulled out his wand a repeated the spell quickly and held his wand over Emily's waist.
"Holy shit!" he gasped.
"Holy shit, what? Holy shit?" Emily pleaded, before quickly gaining her composure and putting her hands on her stomach. She shifted in her seat and wrapped her arms around Adam playfully. "Does this mean you'll rub my feet now, Daddy?"
"Oh my god!" Adam stood up running his hands through his hair looking panicked.
The rest of the room began to react to the news that Emily was indeed pregnant. Ladies squealed and men hollered. Adam's sister Janis began asking Nicholas if he wanted to have a baby cousin to play with. People began hugging each other and cheering for Adam and Emily; everyone except for Sara.
"Minister?" she asked softly, but the room seemed to anticipate they'd gotten off easy. An explanation was due. "Minister, how'd Cherry survive a Killing Curse? Why aren't she and her baby both killed?"
The old witch smiled and walked over to Sara who was back sitting on the couch again, looking confused. The witch bent down to look Sara in the eyes. The child looked sad, and held her head down.
"You're a bright one, you know that?" the witch encouraged her. "You see so much more than everyone else, your knowledge is your weapon. It makes you strong."
"Not strong enough to cast a patronus like Ali," Sara conceded.
"Not yet, no. So you're sister's strong, that doesn't mean you're without strengths."
"But the prophecy said we're stronger than Adam, Matt and Derrick, but I think it's wrong."
"Because as a child you couldn't beat grown wizards?" she asked the girl, and Sara nodded. "I wouldn't expect that you could. Like I said your knowledge is your power, your understanding. That friend I told you about was a great leader and a great fighter. He had a hot head, overburdened himself, and I could slam spells into his shield charms that would send him flying, but he was a better fighter, I never won a duel against him. My late husband; genius tactician. I've forgotten more than he ever knew about magic, but he could see things in battle I'd need to have drawn out for me on parchment. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but what's clear is that you and your family are very important."
"Yeah," said Matt curiously. "What's this great evil its talking about. Do we even know?"
"Not a clue, but when it gets here it's clear you all will have a great deal to do with its defeat. However, today's attack showed that some people are paying attention already."
The witch answered a few more questions, but began making subtle hints that she wanted to leave. Adam, Emily, Derrick and Matt made arrangements after the holidays to meet and begin educating themselves on this prophecy. The witch indicated there were more predictions and research but none as in depth as the prophecy she shared.
As the witch's great-grandson disappeared into the fire, the witch turned to see Emily, Sara and Adam seeing her off. She smiled at each one of them, before turning to look down at Sara. She leaned forward on her walking stick to lower herself to the child's eye level.
"You still have a question, Miss Bumble?" Sara nodded with a soft smile on her face. "Very well, ask away, I'm not getting any younger."
"Minister, how did Cherry survive the Killing Curse?"
The witch smiled a bright toothy smile. "I tell ya what, I'll answer your question, if you answer mine. Sound fair?"
Sara smiled brightly while nodding.
"Very well, you seem quite bright, catching on more than most. I ask this 'yes' or 'no' question just to see if you're as bright as you appear to be. Do you know who I am?"
Sara nodded immediately, "Yes!"
"Don't say it," the witch cackled. "Lord, don't say it; let me get out of here with some dignity. You continue with your studies dear one, and remember what I said about knowledge. I'm sure we'll meet again." She turned and began to walk towards the grate when Sara stopped her by pulling on her cloak. The witch turned, "Oh, yes, right." Leaning forward she whispered a sentence into the child's ear. Once finished she stood up, looked down at Sara and smiled. With one side step she was inside the grate, engulfed in green flames and then gone.
Everyone looked to Sara, "What did she say?" came impassioned pleas for information. "What did she tell you?"
Sara smiled, "She told me I was right."
"About?" Asked Matt.
"How Cherry survived."
"How'd she know what you thought?" asked Derrick.
"She read my mind with Legilimens." Sara said casually and as a matter of fact.
"So," begged Emily, playfully smacking Sara on the leg. "How'd I survive?"
Sara smiled again, "The prophecy said your baby has the power of four. Imagine how strong the baby is if it protected its mother from a Killing Curse while in the womb."
Emily put both hands on her stomach and looked down while Adam joined her with one of his hands. She smiled a teary smile as Adam kissed her lips and hugged her with his free arm. As the shock of the afternoons events wore off the mood of the room became decidedly more excited for Emily's pregnancy.
Once Adam was finally comfortable not being in physical contact with Emily after nearly losing her, he motioned for Sara to come over to where he and Emily sat. She walked up and stood in front of them.
"You made quite an impression on that witch; I told you you're studies are what make you special. Now do you believe me?"
Sara nodded.
"Any idea what you two hit it off so well?" Emily asked, still holding her stomach.
"I think we have a lot in common, and it seems that she does too." She answered.
"So are you gonna tell us who she is?" asked Adam.
Sara smiled and allowed her mind to daydream at what the future might hold. Sometime in the future a great evil was going to rise and she and her family were going to have to do something about it. She thought quickly that she didn't nearly know as much as she would like on the eve of a war. A fire ignited inside the girl's chest and she promised herself, she'd be ready, not matter how many books she's have to read.
As Sara snapped back into the present time from her day dream she saw Adam and Cherry looking directly at her, waiting for an answer.
"Oh, the witch," Sara laughed. "She's Hermione Weasley, the last surviving member of the Golden Trio, who helped end a wizard named—"
"Voldemort," Emily interrupted. "I heard about him, but that was like a hundred years ago, wasn't it." Adam shrugged.
"She was just a little older than me at the time."
"Wow, she has had a busy life." Adam added. "Jeez, that's one cool witch."
"Yeah, she is." Sara sighed, looking determined. "She also the greatest Muggleborn in the history of magic."
