Chapter 6: The Prophecy and Plans

Lily's POV

I threw the large leather bound volume to the floor with a loud thud.

"We've been here for four hours," James complained from his spot in the chair by the window. Albus remained silent but he stared halfheartedly at the teetering stacks of books on either side of him.

Of course I had told my brothers about the prophecy. With them as nosy as they were, it was easier to just tell them and ask for help than for them to figure out and get miffed at me later on.

Besides I would've given up long ago on the research if they weren't there.

It was the morning after the prophecy had been delivered to me and we were searching through every book in the house for any mention of "The Great Divide" or "the Stone" as the prophecy had said. So far nothing. At all.

"Why can't the wizarding world have Google?!" I groaned, flopping off the chair and landing cross-legged on the floor.

"I don't know but muggles have got it made. They don't have to sift through books older than their grandparents." James muttered, leafing through yet another thick, dusty book.

"We should narrow our search down." That was the first thing Albus had said in the last hour, and admittedly it was a good idea. "Okay so how do we narrow it down?" I asked the room at large. At first there was just pensive silence. Then (surprisingly) James spoke up first. "Well let's focus on one thing at a time. What could the "Great Divide" be?"

"Wizards used to be divided by how pure their blood was." Albus offered. James shook his head, "That's old news. It's not very common anymore, is it?"

"That's true but we don't know how old the prophecy is, it could've been made when Voldemort was at large." Albus countered back.

"The prophecy was written weird don't you think?" I asked vaguely, letting my thoughts wander, trying to subconsciously connect the dots.

James and Albus looked at me like I should be locked up in a padded room. I ignored them and dug the piece of parchment out of my jean pocket and read the first line aloud, "Find the Great Divide, and cross it when the Stone peaks." I looked at the boys expectantly, they looked back, lost.

"Great Divide is capitalized like a proper noun, like a specific thing. It also says 'cross'. We must have to find the actual Great Divide. But how are we supposed to do that?"

"Well let's look at the background information." Albus said quietly. "We're dealing with spirits, aren't we? So to them, what would the Great Divide be?" I thought for a second, "A divide between our world and there's probably." I answered, slightly unsure.

There was another beat of silence in which James and Albus stared at me again. "What?" I finally demanded, exasperated.

"Well you obviously know more about this…..Spirit World….than either of us." James told me, I spread my hands in a so? gesture.

James rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea what the Great Divide would be to them?"

I shook my head. "Angel, the spirit girl, she says she summons me when she needs me. I don't know what's between the worlds." I hesitated for a second. "Do you think it's in the Ministry?"

I expected them to laugh but they didn't. They looked at each other and back to me.

"You know that's a possibility. They would be in charge of monitoring something like that. Is that why you were hanging out by the Ministry." Albus asked me. I nodded, but I wasn't about to give them the whole story. Not yet anyway.

"We can't break into the Ministry." Albus said, being realistic. James and I nodded our agreement. "But we can figure out if there's anything there like the Divide." I said, making sure they weren't backing out.

"How?" James asked. "We can't ask Mum or Dad they'd be really suspicious."

"No, we can't ask them. We need to ask someone we can talk around. Someone we can trick .Someone else who works or knows something about the Ministry. " I smiled, the perfect person in mind.

Seeing my smile Albus looked reluctant to ask the question, "Who?"

I smiled wider, "Uncle Ron."

We were in luck. That night Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Rose, and Hugo all came over for dinner.

I already knew getting the information would be easy. However getting Ron alone, and making sure he didn't say anything to Hermione would be the problem. She would see right through one of our acts.

Our plan was pretty complicated and leaned on a lot of ifs and assumptions but it was the best we could do. We should get the information and come out clean.

Just when we were all seated for dinner, James aimed a well-chosen spell at the large pot on the stove. It exploded with a satisfying bang and a shower of hot stew that coated the room.

We all fled from the kitchen and into the living room. James tried to poorly conceal his wand, and as predicted Mum saw it. "Well since you thought it was necessary to blow dinner up, you can clean it. Without magic."

James pretended to look indignant, "C'mon Mum-" She shot him a dangerous look. He sighed in defeat and left the room. Albus shot me a look and I smiled. "You two can join him." Mum told us, after watching our exchange. We were about to leave the room as well when Ron spoke up, "I'll help 'em." And with that he joined us.

Just as we had planned, we knew Ron would leave the room with us to laugh with James about the exploding pot. Adults were extremely predictable.

I let Ron enter the bathroom to grab a towel. As Ron passed James slipped Ron's wand out of the pocket of his robes. I went into the bathroom after Ron and closed the door behind us, I heard Albus click the lock into place.

Ron brushed passed me to leave the bathroom. But he gave a sound of surprise to find the door locked. "They must've locked us in." I told him, trying to sound angry. "Can we call for help?" Ron asked me. Not at all distressed. I shook my head, "No they would've put the silencing charm on the door. Can I ask you something?" I asked, not wasting a second. "Sure…" My uncle said, completely unsure. "What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen at the Ministry?"

He stared at me for a long moment. "Anything in the Department of Mysteries." I didn't want to press and make him suspicious, but that was too vague. "Yes but anything in particular, anything otherworldly?" He watched me for a long time again.

"There was this one thing, the Veil I think it was called. There were whispering voices behind it, voices of people that weren't there. Pretty otherworldly to me. Why do you ask?"

I shrugged and tried to look innocent. "Just curious."

As an afterthought I reluctantly added, "Can you not mention that question to anyone, they'd think I was foolish, or planning something." He stared at me longer than ever.

"My lips are sealed." He said finally. I audibly sighed in relief.

After Albus let Ron and me out of the bathroom I had no choice but to help the boys clean the kitchen. They talked but I didn't keep up with the conversation at all. One very important thing was on my mind.

If what we needed was in the Department of Mysteries, what choice did we have?

We had to figure out the rest of the prophecy. And then we had to break into the Ministry of Magic…