Chapter 4
-o0oOo0o-
Harry was sitting alone in the balcony of the astronomy tower, trying to get his thoughts in order. There was too much going on in his mind that he couldn't think straight. Too many conflicting thoughts, too many interconnecting issues.
The first thing was the Prophecy. How he or Neville were destined to vanquish the Dark Lord. The next thing was his parents. How they had been killed because of said prophecy. Then there was Snape, who apparently had both told Voldemort about the prophecy and warned Dumbledore about Voldemort's plans. And then, finally, there was Dumbledore. Dumbledore had known the prophecy all the time, and still he had left him rotting with the Dursleys. Dumbledore had known about Snape's betrayal, but still he let the man treat him like dirt. Dumbledore had known about the prophecy, but hadn't offered him any help to actually fulfil it, even after Voldemort had returned. Dumbledore had refused to tell him about it, even when he had asked if he knew why Voldemort was after him. "You are too young to carry such a burden," had been the only thing he had said.
And that, Harry thought, was true. He was too bloody young to to have to carry the burden of saving the world from a madman, especially when said world clearly didn't want him to do so, but instead tried to throw him to jail and snap his wand. A world that sabotaged his education and tortured and discredited him at every turn.
'Fuck this,' Harry thought. 'I will "vanquish" the Dark Lord for you, but you'll bloody well have to bend backwards for me to do so.'
Harry got up from the floor. He needed to find Daphne and contact Sirius. There would be a change of plans. Hell, he needed to tell Neville that Bellatrix wouldn't be on top of his list any more, that there were bigger fish to fry...
- O -
Harry arrived to the Gryffindor common room, where Hermione was sitting by the fire, reading as usual. She noticed Harry coming in.
"Harry!" she greeted him. "Weren't you supposed to have a lesson with professor Snape?"
"Err, yes. But something came up, and Snape needed to go, so we didn't have it. Look, we need to talk. I'll go get Neville, he needs to hear this too. Wait us in the room, yes?"
Hermione looked at Harry with an expression that demanded explanation, but nodded and closed her book. Harry went up to the boy's dormitory.
- O -
A while later the three were sitting in the Room of Requirement, which looked currently like a smaller copy of the Gryffindor common room, with red and gold furniture and a fireplace with a fire burning happily.
"So, what is going on, Harry?" demanded Hermione.
Harry massaged his temples thinking how to go on with this. "This is big, Hermione. I... I understand if you don't want to be around me any more after this, but I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this. And I mean anyone."
Hermione looked at Harry her eyes filled with worry. "Why on earth wouldn't I want to be around you? You are my friend. Oh... you didn't kill professor Snape or Umbridge, did you?"
"No! Nothing like that. Although I don't know what I'll do the next time I see Snape..."
"Oh, okay, I'll promise not to say anything."
Harry looked at Neville, who nodded.
"As you know, I was to have an occlumency lesson with Snape today," he started. "When we were about to begin, some little Slytherin comes in to ask Snape to break up some fight or something, and I was left alone in his office. So, I started looking around and noticed his pensieve."
"Harry!" Hermione interrupted. "Those things are private! You aren't supposed to just go looking into other people's pensieves!"
"Yes I know, but that's not the point. And besides, the whole point of the lessons is that Snape pokes around my personal memories, so it's a fair deal, right?"
Hermione huffed.
"Anyway, I was looking at his pensieve and I found myself in this memory. And this is the bad part. It was a memory about Snape telling Dumbledore how Voldemort was going after my and Neville's parents, or more precisely, after me and Neville. Apparently there is some kind of prophecy, that states that either I or Neville will 'vanquish' Voldemort."
There was a silence. Fire was crackling merrily in the hearth.
"So," Harry said. "Now that you know what's going on, you are free to leave, Hermione. I won't hold it against you."
Harry's words woke Hermione from her shock. "Oh Harry!" she cried and lunged in to hug him, before slapping him hard on the shoulder. "Of course I'm not going anywhere. As I said, you're my friend, and friends help each other!"
After that the meeting went a lot smoother. Neville was still shaken by the news, but he seemed to deflect any potential responsibility to Harry, who was after all the Boy-Who-Lived. Hermione suggested that the prophecy was probably what Voldemort wanted from the Department of Mysteries, and Harry agreed. They also argued whether or not the prophecy was already fulfilled when Harry was a baby, but without the full wording they were unable to make any decision.
- O -
Harry's meeting with Daphne went a lot faster. After extracting a promise of silence from her, he told what he had learned, and her answer was simple.
"I kind of figured that you would be there anyway when he would be put down. This only gives me a kind of guarantee that you won't try to hide away, doesn't it? And it's not like you have to face him alone fair and square, although you're right that you should probably try to get the full wording of the prophecy before planning any further."
Harry nodded, happy that Daphne too was still inclined to stay with him, and not run away from the war after hearing about the prophecy. He was starting to like the cold and calculating Slytherin, she was so different from all the others in the school, who saw him only as some kind of hero.
"What about Snape and Dumbledore?" she asked. "They have both known about this prophecy all the time, and haven't told you anything. And everyone knows Snape has some kind of personal vendetta against you."
"I don't know. I truly don't know what I'm going to do when I see Snape next time, and I really don't trust Dumbledore's judgement at the moment. I think that Snape really needs to go before I do something drastic, and I would like to know the full wording of the prophecy before I decide what I truly think of Dumbledore. And I'm not going to simply ask Dumbledore about it, I just don't believe that he would really give me the whole truth about it."
"Right. Lets do it like this: I'll think of something to do with Snape; I know him better and my way probably won't lead you to Azkaban. You focus on the prophecy and Dumbledore."
"Okay, that's probably for the best."
- O -
The next thing Harry did was to contact Sirius. The input from the old Marauder would be invaluable, and he would also be able to extract some information about the layout of the Department of Mysteries from the Order Members that occasionally visited the Headquarters.
"Nice to see you again, kiddo," Sirius greeted when Harry activated the mirrors. "I saw the articles about Umbridge, has the school got any better after that?"
"Well, yeah. We actually managed to force her to 'approve' of our defence group, and we'll have our first open meeting next week. But that's not what I called you for. But I need you to promise to not to tell anyone what I'm going to tell you."
"Huh? You can always trust me. You are not planning anything too dangerous, are you?" Sirius asked with a slightly worrying look.
"Nothing you wouldn't do. And nothing as dangerous as what I've done before."
Sirius barked a laugh before giving his oath as a Marauder to not to tell anyone about whatever mischief Harry was planning.
"I need your help to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic," Harry said.
Sirius whistled. "Now that's something even we didn't think of doing while we were at school. But then again, we didn't have trolls, basilisks or dragons either..."
Harry explained the situation with the prophecy, and how he didn't trust Dumbledore enough to just go ask him. After telling Sirius about Snape's involvement in all this the older man exploded.
"I'm going to kill that bastard! First he causes the deaths of James and Lily, and then he has the gall to strut around like he owns the place!"
"Sirius, NO!" Harry interrupted. "They were my parents, I get the first turn on him. I don't want to lose you too for doing something reckless."
Sirius was slightly calmed by Harry's unsaid promise that he would get what would be left of Snape after Harry was through with him, and the discussion returned to the actual mission in hand: getting the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries.
"You are probably going to need inside help if you're going to go there during the day," Sirius said after a while. "I think I could persuade Nymphie to help, she was a huge fan of the Marauders when she was younger, and I think she has a soft spot for you, too," he teased. "And she doesn't care too much about rules and regulations."
- O -
The next Quidditch match was Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff in two weeks time. Harry and Sirius had agreed that the match would be the perfect cover for sneaking out of the school, as everyone would be so focused on it that they wouldn't notice two Gryffindors missing. Hermione had been strongly opposed to the plan, but had relented when Harry had told her that they would also be getting Neville a new wand from Ollivander's. So, when the Gryffindor house was gathering steam for the upcoming match, Harry and Neville sneaked out under Harry's invisibility cloak and towards Hogsmeade using one of the secret passageways.
Tonks was waiting for them in a small side alley.
"Wotcher, Harry! Neville," she said with a smile. "So, you're ready to break a few laws?"
Harry shook his head, amused. He would never understand how Tonks had ended up as an Auror.
"So, the plan is for you to play an Auror," she said, handing Harry a red cloak, a vial of potion and a hair. "While you will be a criminal we have captured." Neville got his own equipment. "That's polyjuice potion," Tonks explained as he noticed Neville's confused look.
"I will apparate you two to London, and then we will enter the Ministry via the Auror entrance. Once we get in an elevator, you get under invisibility cloaks," she explained, showing a cloak she had procured from the Order, "– while I will disillusion myself."
Finally she handed Harry a small knife. "Sirius wanted you to have this," she said. "It's a Black Family heirloom. It should open any lock there is. Sometimes it pays to be from a decidedly dark family, I suppose."
Harry fingered the blade of the knife. It was ordinary looking, but the edge was as sharp as anything he had seen before. If it worked as promised, it would really come handy when trying to break into the Department.
"Alright, drink up your potions and gear up. One hour should be enough to get in there and back out."
Polyjuice tasted as bad as Harry remembered, and the transformation was painful. But nonetheless Harry was soon replaced by a bit taller and broader, light haired wizard. Harry looked at Neville, and he too had changed his appearance. Neville looked every bit the criminal he was supposed to be, and Harry briefly wondered where Tonks had been able to get that hair from. Both Gryffindors quickly changed into their new robes.
"Okay, has either of you apparated before?" Tonks asked. As both boys shook their head, she sighed.
"Right. This will be a bit uncomfortable. I really don't have the power to apparate all of us, so you need to help. So, I need you to concentrate in willing to be in London, release your magic and definitely do not resist the actual apparition. Understood? Good."
Harry concentrated, not really knowing in what. But he truly wished to be in London, so that should be enough. Hopefully. He felt Tonks taking a strong grip of his arm and a very strange squeezing sensation before he opened his eyes, and found himself in a different alley than where he had been a moment ago.
"Did it work?" he asked, feeling nauseous. Why did the magical travel have to be so bloody uncomfortable?
Tonks checked all around herself, before giving a once over for Harry and Neville. "It looks like it. You're not missing anything, right?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"You know, splinching. Losing some part of you, like an arm or leg. It can happen while apparating."
Harry was almost panicking as he checked himself all over. Luckily he didn't seem to miss anything. "Why didn't you tell anything about that before?" he asked, accusingly.
Tonks shrugged. "I thought you knew. And it wouldn't have helped, anyway. You would have been too scared, and there would have been even bigger change for an accident."
Neville was simply looking green at the possibility.
- O -
The actual infiltration went right by the plan. Tonks greeted the few of her co-workers they encountered, while Harry and Neville stayed silent. They didn't meet anyone on the elevator, as the building was mostly empty apart from the Aurors during weekend. There wasn't anyone on the Department of Mysteries either, and Tonks had managed to get the guard duty from the Order, too. The first problem came when they entered the huge hall that stored the prophecies.
"Merlin! There must be like a million of these things!" Tonks exclaimed, when she saw the seemingly endless shelves filled with small orbs. "How are we going to find anything from here?"
Neville was looking closer at the nearest shelf. "Err.. These seem to be categorized by the seer that gave the prophecy"
"Great. And we don't know the name," said Tonks. "Any ideas?"
"I don't know," Harry said. "Who could Dumbledore have been meeting in a bar where Snape was able to overhear the conversation? I mean, Dumbledore is a bit barmy, but I don't really see him seeking advice from fortune tellers."
Neville seemed to think about something. "What about Trelawney? She could have been having a meeting with Dumbledore or something, and Snape might have been there?"
"Well, that's the best idea we have thus far. Is there a catalogue or something somewhere?"
After quite a while of looking around Harry, Neville and Tonks were able to find Trelawney on a shelf between Treebeard and Trillian on aisle ninety-seven.
"Here's something", Neville said. "S.P.T. to H.J.P., Servant and Dark Lord", he read aloud. "Your second name is James, isn't it, Harry?"
Harry was looking at it, remembering the night of his third year when he had been alone with Trelawney. He hadn't even considered that it might have been an actual prophecy, and hadn't thought about it since. "No, that's another one," Harry said, with a silent voice. "It was during our third year, before we were attacked by the Dementors".
Both Neville and Tonks were looking at Harry, but Harry had already noticed something else on a lower self. There was a small sphere, similar to the other one, containing swirling blue mist. But it was the label attached to it that had captured Harry's attention. Or, more precisely, the addition that had been made to the label with red ink.
S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.
Dark Lord
and (?) Harry Potter
"It's me," Harry said. "It's me the prophecy is about. Not Neville."
Both Tonks and Neville turned to look where Harry was pointing. Tonks was the first to gather her wits.
"Alright. Harry, you take the thing, I'll go find something we can replace it with. Lets not hang around any longer than necessary."
- O -
Their exit from the ministry went as well as their entry. The building was still quiet, and they didn't see anyone on their way out. Tonks had found a cupboard full of blank spheres and had replaced the original with one, so there shouldn't be any sign that anything was amiss in the department, unless Voldemort himself decided to go in to try and retrieve the thing. The Polyjuice had worn off soon after they had entered the alley behind the Ministry.
"I think it would be best if you took the thing to Gringotts and hid it in your vault. We are not going to listen it here, and I don't know if you would want anyone else to even know about the contents. You should probably listen it at least once all by yourself to see what it says before you tell anyone else," Tonks advised Harry. "I'll wait you two at the Leaky Cauldron, so Harry can go to the bank and Neville can go and buy himself a new wand."
Harry and Neville nodded, and they started walking towards Diagon Alley.
- O -
The bank was as imposing as Harry remembered from his last visit during the summer before his third year, when he had been staying at the Alley.
Harry walked to a open counter where a goblin was measuring galleons using scales.
"Err... Hello?" he said. The goblin looked at him with an annoyed look, but didn't say anything.
"I... I wanted to visit my vault," Harry said, producing his key from his pocket. "And then I wanted to know what else I had here in Gringotts."
The goblin took the key and looked at it closely. Then he looked back at Harry, this time glancing at his forehead looking for the scar. "Ironclaw!" the goblin barked, and another goblin came from the entrance to the caves, and the goblin explained something to the another goblin in gobbledygook. The goblin then turned back to Harry.
"Ironclaw will take you to your vault. I'll prepare a statement of your assets while you're below," he said, and turned back to his coin-counting.
- O -
A silent and speedy cart ride later Harry was in his vault. He placed the prophecy on a shelf that ran all along the walls of the walls of the vault. A quick glance to the door later (Ironclaw was waiting outside, sitting in the cart and looking at the ceiling) Harry turned to the sphere, trying to figure how it worked. Not noticing any markings or anything else on it, Harry shrugged, drew his wand and tapped the sphere with it.
Instantly a image of younger looking Trelawney appeared over the sphere. With an ethereal voice Harry remembered from earlier she intoned:
"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…"
Harry was confused. It didn't make any sense. The mark was clear, that would be his scar, but how did it make him Voldemort's equal? Well, he would have to consult Hermione and Daphne. Harry listened the prophecy a few more times to make sure he remembered everything, filled his money bag with galleons (had the pile grown bigger since last time?), and left the vault.
- O -
When they were back on the surface, Harry was led into an office, where a third goblin waited for him.
"Greetings, Mr. Potter. My name is Axeheart, and I have been the Potter family account manager for the last thirty years. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Harry shook the goblins hand. "So, you'll be able to tell me what I own?" he asked.
"Yes, indeed," the goblin said, taking a ledger from his table. "Here's a summary of everything you have in Gringotts."
Harry took the ledger and browsed through it. Daphne had been right, he was loaded!
"As you can see, the Potter holdings are quite extensive," Axeheart said. "In addition to the personal cash vault you inherited from your parents, you have an investment account, a family heirloom vault, and another storage vault that was opened in your name by the Ministry of Magic in November 1981. I would assume it contains whatever was salvaged from your parents' house before it was turned to a historical monument."
The goblin paused for a minute to give Harry time to study the ledger by himself.
"As you are currently under-age, you can't do withdrawals from either the family vault of the family investment account, but the cash vault and the storage vault are under your name, and you can do whatever you like with them. A sum of 200 galleons per month is added to the cash vault as an allowance from the family account as per the Potter family charter, and it will go up to 500 per month when you reach the age of majority. The current account balance is approximately 52 000 galleons, while the market value of the investments is currently about 15 million galleons."
Harry looked wide eyed at the figure under the bottom line. He had little idea how much it really was worth, but when you considered that the thousand galleon triwizard prize had been enough for many students to enter themselves in a potentially lethal competition, he knew he wouldn't ever have to worry about money.
"That's quite a lot," croaked Harry finally.
"Yes, it is," agreed Axeheart. "The Potters are one of the few wizarding families that have investments in the muggle world, and definitely the wealthiest of those. Most of the purebloods think muggles are beneath them and have their money either as cash or valuables in a vault or own land or property in the wizarding world. The wizarding economy has been more or less stagnant for the last few hundred years, while the muggle global market has multiplied exponentially. And, in fact, the current market value of your investments is still influenced by the recession a few years ago. We expect to have over ten percent yearly growth rates for your investments in the coming years. Our analysts and diviners have identified the information technology sector as an extremely promising one."
"Right," was all Harry was able to say. "My friends are probably already waiting for me, but I would really like to see the storage vault you told me about. Can I go there now?"
"Of course. May I presume that you don't have key to that vault?"
"Ah... yes."
"No matter. Creating a new key will cost you 10 galleons. It will be ready when you come back up."
"Alright."
- O -
Another ride with Ironclaw later Harry was in a vault that was completely filled with furniture and boxes full of clothes, tableware, books and other stuff. Harry's eyes watered when he found a box that contained framed photos of his family. His parents were smiling, sitting in a beach somewhere during sunset, and his mother was definitely pregnant.
"Mother, father," Harry whispered, tracing his finger over the glass.
A sound of someone clearing his throat startled Harry from his tears. He whipped his wand out and turned to see the room. There were no one there.
"So someone finally decided to come get me out of here?" a voice said. "Thirteen years in a dark vault is a long time, you know."
"Who are you?" Harry asked, still keeping his wand at the ready.
"Who am I? My name is Charlus Potter. Now show your face, I don't like talking to the cloth that covers me."
Harry approached the cloth covered thing that was leaning against wall. He removed the cloth, and saw a painting of a stately older man with familiar looking, messy black hair. Otherwise the painting's facial features were rounder than Harry's or James'.
"Ah, you must be young Harry!" the painting said. "Excuse my former rudeness, but the last people I saw weren't very friendly. And over thirteen years alone one has time to think what to say when they finally decide to come back."
The painting looked at Harry closely.
"I remember you were quite the lively lad when I last saw you. But where have you been all these years? And why have I been locked up in this vault with no company?"
"Err... I didn't even know you existed before today."
"What? The last Potter not knowing about his grandfather? I would have thought Sirius or Frank would have taught you better than that."
"I'm sorry, but Sirius was sent to Azkaban immediately after my parents were killed, and Frank, you mean Longbottom, right?" Harry asked, and Charlus nodded. "Frank and Alice were tortured into insanity."
Charlus seemed to think over this information.
"What do you mean by Sirius being in Azkaban? He was a law enforcement officer, for Morgana's sake."
"Well, he was thought to have betrayed my parents, and killing Pettigrew and twelve muggles. He escaped, and now he is hiding in his family house."
"Huh. You really must get me out of here. I'm completely out of touch. How can I help you if I don't know what is going on?"
"I don't really know where I could take you," Harry said apologetically. "I'm currently at school, and my relatives wouldn't really appreciate your presence. And they wouldn't know anything about the magical world, anyway."
"What about the Daily Prophet? They would probably love to have me hanging around in their office, I was quite the influential figure there in the sixties and seventies, you know."
"The Prophet? They hate me. They have been printing all kinds of nonsense about me whole year."
"What? You own a third of the Prophet. At least you should own. It was the basis of our political power with Malfoy and Longbottom. Malfoy owned another third, that was how we were able to dance around those pesky majority rules," Charlus smirked, remembering the times of his glory.
"Excuse me? I own part of the Daily Prophet? And Malfoy owns another? What about Longbottoms? Do they own their share, too?"
"Nah, the Longbottoms were never about money. They were the popular part of our coalition, with Malfoy and I providing the money and heavy lifting. Being a Most Ancient house didn't hurt them, either. The rest of the Prophet was owned by whoever. Sixty percent was more than enough to control it completely, after all."
Harry thought over it all. It actually made sense for Malfoy to own a major part of the Prophet, and it would certainly explain why they were being such arses. And how Lucius had been able to buy favours from Fudge: if no one was controlling the Potter share, the elder Malfoy had almost complete control over the paper alone.
"I could perhaps have Tonks take you to Sirius, he would probably like to have someone to talk to, he isn't too fond of his house, you know."
"Yeah, he was like that already when he was younger. Always visiting our place. Being an Azkaban escapee doesn't probably help either. How was he able to do that, by the way? No one escapes from Azkaban."
"That's something you should talk with Sirius. But I really need to get going. My friends, Longbottom, by the way, are waiting for me, and Dumbledore is bound to notice us missing at some point. We aren't exactly authorized to be in London."
"Hah! Sneaking out of the castle to go to London? That's the way to do it, boy! Your father would have done it too, you know. But all right, you should probably shrink me, but be careful with it, will you?"
Harry shrank the painting, and wrapped it in a piece of cloth he ripped from the cover, and left the vault.
- O -
Harry found Tonks and Neville sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, drinking butterbeer. Neville was gushing about his new wand – cherry and unicorn hair, thirteen inches – and Tonks was simply amused at his enthusiasm. All nervousness about the prophecy seemed to have faded from Neville's mind after seeing confirmation that it wasn't about him. Harry gave Tonks the painting and told her to take it to Sirius, and they flooed out of London and back to Hogsmeade. Sun had already started to set when Harry and Neville finally emerged from the secret passageway in the school and headed to the Gryffindor tower.
- O -
Harry and Neville arrived to the Gryffindor common room in the middle of a celebration. They were immediately attacked by an enthusiastic Ron. "Hey mate, where have you been? Did you see my awesome save around the halfway of the game? I saw the Hufflepuff chasers coming, and immediately recognized their attack pattern. I moved up left as if I was falling to the textbook hawkshead only to drop off my broom holding on only with one hand and kicked the quaffle out! The look on their face was priceless!"
"Yeah, that was really great," Harry said distractedly. He had completely forgotten the game when visiting the Department of Mysteries and Gringotts.
"And Ginny truly is a great seeker, too. No offence, mate, but with a little bit better broom she will give you run for your money."
"Yes, sure."
Harry simply wanted to go up to the dorm and think through the prophecy and what he had learned at the bank. There was a lot to do, and he didn't feel like celebrating just yet. Ron of course noticed the lack of enthusiasm in his former best friend.
"So that's what it's like," he said coldly. "When the Great Harry Potter isn't in the team any more, he isn't interested in the game. I truly thought you were different, you know, but apparently all you care is yourself and your fame and glory. And to think that I was your friend for over four years!"
Harry shook his head.
"Look, Ron, you have acted like a prat since Christmas. I don't feel like celebrating right now, and I just want to be alone and think. It's got nothing to do with 'fame' or 'glory'. Or quidditch. Please let it be, I don't want to fight with you."
'I've got enough enemies to fight through even without you,' he added in his mind.
Ron huffed and turned back to join the crowd that hadn't noticed the confrontation between the two former best friends. Harry noticed Hermione on one corner, trying to simultaneously read and participate in the party. They made eye contact and Harry noticed the worrying look on her face. He would have to talk to her soon, she deserved to know what was going on. He should probably try to get all four of them in same place so they could do some brainstorming and get to know each other better. Or mainly introduce Daphne to the others. The game was about to get more serious and branch outside the castle walls, and he needed all the help he could get.
Together they would be stronger than separated.
-o0oOo0o-
