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The next morning Harry awoke earlier than Orion, who still slept soundly on the rug next to Harry's bed; he must have left Harry's bed sometime in the night. Harry hadn't bothered to change into his nightwear, he had only thrown his shoes and his robe off and had slept in his clothes. Silently, so as not to wake the dog, Harry padded over to the bathroom and after washing dressed himself for a new day. When he stepped outside Orion was up and yawning. The dog looked at Harry, then over to the door. Harry understood that the dog urged him to go out. He didn't feel hungry at all he was so nervous. Today he wanted to go to the Department of Mysteries, although he had little idea what that was; and taking Orion with him would provide a walk for the black mutt, Harry deemed. He guessed he could ask in the ministry if he could listen to the prophecy and if nothing helped, he could use his title as Boy-Who-Lived and that would probably get him anywhere he wanted. The only problem he was facing, was the fact that he didn't know where the Ministry of Magic was. He'd ask Tom he decided and went downstairs, Orion following him.

"Good morning, Tom," he greeted. "Do you know how I get to the ministry?"

Tom looked at him questioningly, but then told him where the visitor's entrance was. Some streets down in Whitehall and the entrance was a telephone booth. Harry thanked him and left through the door leading to the Muggle part of London. He walked some streets down and suddenly felt completely lost. He had no idea if he had to go right or left now… he had only been in London for shopping in Diagon Alley and had never thought he'd need to go to the banking square.

"Where do I go now?" he said more to himself than to anyone else.

Orion yapped and went a bit ahead. When Harry didn't follow, the dog turned around and looked at him. Orion definitely said 'follow me.' And so Harry did. They walked past some buildings that Tom had described and down several alleys Harry would never ever remember, the dog was probably using shortcuts. Until they stopped before a telephone booth Harry identified as the entrance. He ruffled the mutt's fur and thanked him, then went over to the booth. Not much later he found himself in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic, magical badge with name and purpose latched onto his robe and everything.

The watchwizard stopped Harry and proceeded to register Harry's wand, not noticing who was standing in front of him the wizard was that bored. Only after the procedure he saw Harry clearly and wanted to stop him and probably talk to him, but Harry politely smiled and left the wizard. He had had the time to read where he had to go to off an information board left to the watchwizard's station. He now knew where he should ask if he wanted to see the prophecy. He went to a wizard dressed in navy blue, who sat alone at a desk in a corner of the atrium. On the wizard's robe was a silver sign of infinity, which floated above the "M" of the ministry. If one looked at it more closely, you could have seen the infinity sign be a cluster of different magical things, such as unicorn horns, herbs, even a cauldron; everything was so small you almost needed to know what to look for.

"Good morning," Harry greeted the man, who was quite absent. Immediately the man's head turned to face Harry.

The man's face was under his hood and Harry could only see his prominent chin. The guy had a heavy build and while he was sitting he was taller than Harry was standing. To be on this man's wrong side would not be enjoyable.

"What can I do for you, Mr Potter?" he had read the name badge and the reason Harry visited. He didn't seem to be fazed at all by the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry almost took a liking to this department of the ministry.

"I'd like to see if a prophecy was made about me around a thousand years ago. I read in a paper of my ancestors that as an heir to the Potter line I could maybe see it. It was given to the ministry in the seventeenth century."

The unspeakable nodded. "Yes, I know which prophecy you mean. One that was a family heirloom and now stands in our department. Please, follow me."

He stood up and left for the lifts, Harry had trouble keeping up with the tall man: he had legs at least twice as long as Harry's. They reached the bronze bars and when a lift stopped the man stepped in, Harry in tow. They got a few strange looks from ministry officials, who recognized Harry and now were quite surprised to see him in the company of an unspeakable. Immediately they were whispering, but Harry ignored them as well as he could.

The voice finally called out their destination, level nine, and the man left without looking if Harry followed. They went down a dark, windowless corridor. The man in front of Harry became almost invisible in his blue robes combined with how the torches on the walls were burning eerily blue. The corridor went along and along, never turning and there were no doors neither to the left nor to the right, except for right at the beginning, when a staircase had led to level ten. Finally the man stopped and Harry was just aware enough to not bump into him. He couldn't see past the unspeakable, but then the man turned to the side. Harry saw a plain black door with black handles and no inscription anywhere. He waited.

"This is the entrance to where you want to go, Mr Potter. Do not tell anyone whatever you may see inside," the wizard told him and left just as the door opened.

There stood another unspeakable, this one's robes were a lighter blue, but had also pulled his hood over his head. The person gestured for Harry to follow and they stepped through the door. Harry found himself in a circular room full of doors. The man went straight for one and opened it, he looked at Harry and the boy followed him through. Then they were in a hall with racks and racks full with glowing white orbs of different sizes. Harry neither saw the far end nor the roof of the place. The man walked to the left and Harry followed, still impressed by where he was and what he was seeing. This was something of the size of a cathedral, he thought while he was following the unspeakable. They had been walking for quite the time and Harry slowly wanted to ask if it was far yet, he could easily imagine to walk around here for weeks, when the man abruptly stopped.

There was one single orb on this black shelf. It was an older shelf than the others they had passed, it was made of dark wood, while the others were made of metal. Over the orb was a golden tag and into it was carved a year and two words: 1672, family heirloom.

The unspeakable turned to him and Harry thought to see something shimmering slither away from his face. Then the man talked: "The orb can only be touched without risk by heirs of the line it was given to. Only the concerning one can lift it off the shelf."

The man's voice gave Harry goose bumps and suddenly he wasn't entirely sure if the person was male or female. Tentatively Harry reached out to the glowing orb, discarding all other thoughts. He closed his hand around it and suddenly there was a feeling of dread washing over him, as if someone was scanning his mind, forcing every thought out of every last corner of his mind. Piercing green eyes, darkness, fear, a green light, blood, and wings. The images flashed behind his eyes just slow enough to know what it was.

He fought the urge to just shatter the orb and swallowed. If he now could take it off the shelf, he was the one the prophecy was made of. He wasn't sure if he wanted this, but now, holding the orb in his hand, he also wasn't sure if he wanted the prophecy to not be about him. He drew a breath and focused on the orb. Slowly he tried to lift it, feeling the weight of the orb pull his arm down, courtesy of the gravitation. It made a soft plop when it left the shelf, almost as if it had been sticking to it. Unbelievingly Harry held the white orb; the mist within was not moving any different to before. It was shockingly unspectacular.

"Follow me," the unspeakable said curtly. The shimmering things then came back to his face.

The man guided Harry to a door Harry didn't see and would have walked past if the unspeakable hadn't pointed it out. The door opened and Harry went inside, the unspeakable didn't follow. The room was small, only one torch was enough to illuminate it. The walls were black, but reflected the white light in a strange bluish grey. There was only a table in the middle of the room and a single, simple wooden chair in front of it. Harry was at a loss. What should he do now? Sit down and destroy the orb? Highly unlikely.

He sat down anyways and examined the glass globe. It was glowing from within and strangely warm, a bit warmer than Harry's hand. Whenever a white swirl touched the boundary that was glass the spot got a bit cooler, as if winter wind would blow. The orb itself was perfectly circular, so perfectly round that it appeared otherworldly. Now, as he was inspecting it, Harry thought it might not be made of glass, but something almost liquid similar to what his invisibility cloak was made of. It was indeed a very strange thing.

"So, what do I do with you?" Harry asked it. He might as well try to get it to give him instructions for all he knew.

The funny thing was, the orb reacted. In its midst the white swirls coiled up and formed a snakehead. It swung back and forth, always almost touching both opposite sides of the orb, it was like a pendulum. Watching the snakehead move was hypnotizing. Harry looked at it, eyebrows raised.

"Tell me your secrets, seeing-orb," Harry said to it in Parseltongue. Logical, it might be in that language and he was letting it know that he understood.

The feeling of something in his hands was gradually becoming less and less. It felt as if the orb would disappear, but looking at it, it didn't change at all. Harry was distressed by now and frantically searching his mind for any possibility to stop whatever was happening. Then the weight completely disappeared, but Harry still held the orb. It was strange, seeing yourself hold something but not feeling it. The white mist rose out, floating through its container unhindered. The figure of a woman started to form. Even in its whiteness the figure had amazingly expressive eyes and had Harry not known the woman dead, he would have believed her to speak to him directly through some kind of magical link.

"The king of the foulest he shall be, but he shall not be a foul one himself, but rather have a heart purer than freshly fallen snow. He will fear those he commands more than anyone, because he can see what others do not see, feel what others do not feel. No memories of his royalty he will have and he will have forgotten how to wield his power. But the power to command the foul he will learn unknowingly from a child that has been cursed. The one he trusts may not be the right one, but changes bring differences and even the oldest can change their ways, but not always do. And he will find one he can trust unconditionally in a form he had not awaited. And heirs to great houses he will have as allies and one heir as an enemy. The first vow is always the disguised one and made from feelings running deeper than the soul itself. If the king has not learnt to wield his power when the last vow is spoken by the cursed child, he will lose something he wants not lose. A time of darkness, deeper and more fearful… and the darkest king with the purest heart, born when a flower has been potted twice."

The mist sunk back into the orb. Harry again felt the weight of the sphere, but paid it no mind. He sat there, contemplating. What exactly did he know now more than before? Actually he couldn't tell and that confused him. He had thought that a prophecy would be understandable and tell him some things. But no, this one was talking about "dark kings" and "cursed children" and flowers potted twice. Strangely enough Harry could repeat the prophecy in his mind almost word by word, even though it had been made in Parseltongue, maybe he could remember it so clearly because it was the language of the snakes. His thoughts became more and more unintelligible until Harry could absolutely not concentrate anymore. He needed to get out of here.

Harry stretched in the chair and heard his spine crack. He got up and went out of the room. Still standing in front of it was the unspeakable, who then gestured for Harry to follow. They went back to where the prophecy had been kept for the last three hundred years. The shimmering things on the wizard's face moved again.

"You can leave it here, or take it with you," the unspeakable said and the glow returned.

Not needing to decide now Harry put the orb back into the small slot it had been in before. Harry thought to hear the soft plop when it locked in place. The only difference was the now unmoving mist within the orb and its almost invisible luminescence. It seemed to be almost swallowed up by the dark rack it was now standing on. Harry felt the need to say good bye to it.

"You aren't allowed to talk about anything that you hear inside here, right?" he asked the unspeakable, but instead of answering, the blue-clad wizard simply nodded.

"I don't know if I will ever listen to you again, but stay here. Thank you for choosing me," Harry told the orb, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he was thanking it, and saw from the corner of his eye the unspeakable twitch. Parseltongue made even those people uncomfortable.

"This was all I wanted to do here. Please, can you show me the way out?" Harry said. Again the unspeakable nodded and turned to lead the way out.

Harry had the feeling they were walking a different way back than what they had used to get there. He then understood the reason, after all this was, from what he had heard of the murmurs in the lift, the most secret part of the ministry and not even Fudge had total control over it. When they were in the circular room he wondered where to the doors leaded. He was on the verge of just opening one randomly when they stopped in the middle of the room. Behind them the door leading to the Cathedral of Prophecies closed and suddenly all the doors turned round and round. How Harry would find back he didn't know yet, but was quite sure that even the unspeakables weren't allowed to keep him. Confirming his guess one of the doors opened and Harry could have sworn this was the one he had just come out, but instead he saw the other unspeakable, the one who had brought him here. Wordlessly the other one disappeared through another door and left Harry with the navy blue unspeakable.

"Please follow me, I will lead you back up. Remember that you are not allowed to talk about what you saw in here, but you are allowed to talk about the prophecy; although many choose not to," the man said.

Harry followed him back through the long corridor to the lifts and as they went up more people came into the small space and Harry suddenly believed to feel some people being afraid, of what he could not tell, but there was fear around him. He shrugged it off, maybe that was an after-effect of being in the Department of Mysteries. They stopped at the atrium and all the wizards and witches spilled out from the lift. The unspeakable nodded his farewell to Harry and left to his place.

After searching a bit Harry found the way out nearest to the visitor's entrance. He stumbled ungracefully out into the open and was pleasantly surprised to see a very familiar face. Opposite of where he had just come out stood none other than the real Neville Longbottom. Behind him was, as it seemed, his grandma, Lady Augusta Longbottom. Both looked surprised at him.

"Hey, Neville, Mrs Longbottom," Harry greeted.

It was actually Mrs Longbottom, who recovered from the first shock. "Hello, Mr Potter, pleased to meet you."

Harry felt uncomfortable to be addressed as 'Mr Potter' by one of his friend's relatives. He smiled at Mrs Longbottom and told her to call him Harry. She reciprocated his smile and gave the required answer for someone in her position, the repetition of her first greeting, only changing the addressing to 'Harry'.

"What are you doing in London?" Neville asked Harry then.

"I'm staying here for the rest of the holidays, at the Leaky Cauldron. Hey! You could some time come to Diagon Alley with me, I haven't got any company!" Harry told him. He saw Neville's mood brighten up and didn't wait long for the positive answer.

"I'm sorry to interrupt here, but we'll need to go, Neville. You can surely owl us, right Harry?" Lady Longbottom said. Harry told her he would surely and bid them a good day. He realised now that Neville had also worn an heir ring on his left pointer. Harry was sure that Neville was being introduced to future responsibilities of a pureblood lord. He didn't envy him at all, his grandmother had seemed rather stern.

Looking around Harry decided to go back to Diagon Alley, but he changed his mind when he saw Orion bouncing to him. The dog seemed very pleased with itself and was radiating happiness. Harry ruffled the dog's fur for quite a time and several Muggles, who passed by, gave them amused glances. Having a dog surely made happier.

"Should we go and walk around for a bit, Orion?" Harry asked. He let himself be led by the big black dog and enjoyed the August noon. It wasn't too hot, but not cold yet. It was surprisingly nice.

They walked through half the city and Orion showed Harry some places where wizards met outside Diagon Alley. Harry was amazed at how normal some of these wizards looked, most were even wearing matching Muggle clothes and from the looks of it even talking to Muggles. Somehow Harry and Orion ended up in front of a café called "Le Griffon d'Or", a very Muggle place, but concluding from the name a spot where wizards also met. Harry went inside and, as it wasn't forbidden, Orion followed him.

The café was held in neutral colours, against what Harry had expected coming from the name. It was a very homely place, there seemed to be some things from the magical world and others from the Muggle world. A waitress then saw Harry standing around and probably looking like a fish and guided him to a free table.

"Welcome to the golden griffin, what would you like?" she asked nicely and smiled.

Harry looked at the card and decided it was time for lunch. "I'd like to have the baked potatoes with the roast beef and peas and," here Harry was quite surprised. "A goblet of pumpkin juice if that is possible. Oh, and is it possible to have something for Orion here? I haven't fed him today…"

The waitress smiled politely as she said it would be okay to feed his dog, they had pets in here all the time and were used to them. She then left and Orion softly whined next to Harry. Concerned he turned to look at the dog, only to see it look at him extremely thankful and something that Harry unconsciously identified as regret, but as it was a dog he understood it as something sad. He absolutely didn't get Orion.

"It's okay, Orion, really. You are at the moment my only companion and you are too thin," Harry said trying to sound stern. He petted the dog's head.

When the waitress arrived she had on her tablet Harry's pumpkin juice and was balancing in her other hand a water bowl for Orion. She put the bowl on the ground without spilling anything and then placed Harry's goblet on his table. Somehow Harry respected this woman, seriously, the water bowl was filled to the brim and she was wearing heels. After some minutes she returned with the food. Orion got a mixed dish of what looked like pieces of meat cut off the bone and vegetables and rice.

Again they ate in relative silence, only once a little girl asked if she could pet Orion, what Harry allowed after seeing the dog's expression. He had listened to some snippets of conversations around him and arrived at the conclusion that this was a place where Muggle parents of magical children could talk to magical parents and vice versa. It was a really peaceful place. He wondered why he had never heard of a place like this.

The waitress came to take their plates and Harry stopped her.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that there are Muggles and wizards here. I was wondering how you could keep those Muggles from entering this place who don't know about magic," he asked her.

She smiled and answered: "There are some charms that make ordinary Muggles, those without knowledge of this world, change their decision to enter this shop. Usually parents of Muggleborn witches and wizards have some kind of residuary magic clinging to them from their children. That tiny bit of magic is enough to be able to enter." Harry nodded his understanding and let the waitress do her job.

When she came back Harry paid with wizarding money, here one could pay with both kinds of money, and left the café. The relaxed atmosphere from there clung to Harry and he saw the world just a little bit brighter and more hopeful. It was as if there was no need to be concerned. He thanked Orion for showing him this place and promised himself to bring his friends here one time, the Muggle world after all wasn't that different.

"And he will find one he can trust unconditionally in a form he had not awaited," suddenly rang in Harry's mind. He was surprised at how his thoughts seemed to have a will of themselves, but then remembered the eyes of that woman and something soft flutter around him. Maybe this was old magic that wanted him to do something. He mulled over the wording and as suddenly as he had heard the sentence he found out that 'a form he had not awaited' could be everything. He guessed the prophecy meant Orion. He stopped and the dog looked at him. It struck Harry again how much intelligence he saw in the dog's grey eyes.

"Orion," he saw the dog shudder. Harry had sounded serious. "We're going back and then I'll tell you something and you'll tell me something in return, understood?"

Orion had no other choice but to nod and follow Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, although Harry noticed that Orion was dawdling. This would prove to be interesting, although Harry didn't know how very right he was with that assumption.

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the chapter :) it was awful to write, I changed it at least seven times and now am almost satisfied (hah, okay, I like it) and hope it's okay as it is :) Well, as I let you hanging again, next chapter is going to be longer and more explanatory... with a bit of action :D

A/N: I'd like to hear your assumptions of what the prophecy said! Just to know if it was too obvious, or horrible... it was hard to write :D

Review answers:

Kairan1979, christinaemerald, ladywatertiger, Yana5: Glad you all liked it! :D

amoghtalwar: Well, divination, I haven't fully decided yet. It was a waste of time, absolutely... I'm giving arguments against it. Probaby he'll change. :D Haha, I'm an idiot, aren't I? Yeah, pairing... well, at least I'm sure it won't be a "we come together and are soul-mates" thing. When, you'll see. About Dumbledore and McGonagall, and other characters: Well, wait and see! :D No problem, I still liked the very fact you reviewed! And it's always nice to hear what your readers think :D

redstickbonbon: Glad you liked it! Sirius and Harry bonding fics are also my favourites :) Your question: I honestly didn't think about such a thing... I am clueless when it comes to such things, but I would say they are copies (though I never mentioned it in any chapters), since the originals would be, as you pointed out, irreplacable.

Penny is wise: Glad you liked it! Yep, absolutely perfect moment. As you may correctly guess, that's next chapter!