Chapter 9 : The Unforeseen Prophecy

The next morning dawned very bright and breezy. The Great Hall was full of the smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone stuffing themselves to the brim before facing their first lesson of the day. One particular pair at the Gryffindor table though, was having the most peculiar day in their entire life. They stared as if their eyes were playing a trick on them, occasionally exchanging a look with each other.

"I don't get it." Draco began, rubbing his eyes for the umpteenth times.

"Neither do I." said Hermione, brows closely knitted together.

"I'm willing to blame the Nargles at this rate." Neville muttered quietly into his bowl of cereal.

"One question." They whirled in surprise as Blaise appeared out of nowhere and seated himself next to Neville. Tracey quietly took a seat next to Neville's other side, gaining a nervous glance from the lad. "What in Merlin's big, saggy pants is a Nargles?"

"Why are you even here, Zabini?"

Blaise waved his fork around and tsked. "Is that how you greet your fiancé, Ginevra?" He shot a look of disapproval as he shoved a forkful of sausages into his mouth before resuming, "Where is your manner, woman?" Ironically, the bits of food flew as he pointed the fork accusingly towards the redhead.

"I can greet you with my wand if you want." Ginny snarled.

Blaise gave a dramatic gasp and turned to the others. "Did you heard that? This witch is vicious!"

"She's your woman, mate." Draco rolled his eyes. "Deal with it."

Blaise shrugged instead of answering, stealing the piece of toast in Hermione's plate. They rolled their eyes before shifting their attentions away, focusing on their previous interest again. Unfortunately, Blaise's annoying voice emerged yet again, doing a side comment at everything while shoving foods into his mouth endlessly.

"Does Weasley even know Daphne hates that?" He said while grabbing more toast. "And how did that another Weasley even get Chang out of their chamber?"

Ginny promptly threw the oh-so-conveniently placed spoon in front of her in his direction and scowled. "Do you ever even shut up?"

"That's pure steel!" Blaise shrieked as he dived out of sight.

"That's the point." Ginny replied sarcastically.

"So, did we missed something?" Draco asked, ignoring Blaise's dying whale noise in the background. He raised a questioning brow at Pansy, weirded out by her sudden choice of sitting arrangement. It caught all of them off-guard when she arrived with Ron minutes ago, casually taking her seat at the Gryffindor table next to an equally indifferent Ron.

"What?" Pansy asked, taking a swig of her pumpkin juice.

"You two, that's what." Draco retorted while tossing a napkin at her. "You disappeared on me last night and you just walked in here with Weasel this morning like it was a perfectly normal thing to do."

"And you're sitting at the Gryffindor table." Hermione added, avoiding looking into Ron's eyes. She was still very much conscious of his reaction to their break-up last night even if he remained plainly oblivious now.

Pansy shrugged. "I'm not the only one in case you haven't notice." She inclined her head towards the Weasleys twins and their respective partner, whose demonstrating a good example of Ministry-approved behavior for the Marriage Law. "So, define normal."

"Okay, you know what?" Hermione turned to look at Neville. "Nargles is fine."

"Morning." Harry greeted as he arrived with Astoria linked to his arm and Hermione could only widened her eyes in stunned disbelief.

"Come off it, Hermione." Fred said, leering at her. "We're just being a good citizen."

"On the brighter side, we don't have to worry about another detention." Draco suggested warily as he eyed his surrounding. Being surrounded by a bunch of lovey-dovey couples was undoubtedly going to be a tad bit overhelming for him since it reminded him of the expectation to get married soon. To Hermione Granger, the know-it-all Muggle-born no less. He knew he was the one who suggested the idea of being civil with each other to Hermione and he did acknowledged the idea of marrying her at some point, but to actually fall for her or start acting like a real couple was simply taking it too far to him. At least, for now.

"Oh, I'm not going to promise anything there." George chuckled, winking at a smirking Daphne.

They laughed at the revolted look on Hermione's face as she theatrically pretended to chuck her spoon at the happy couple. They were interrupted when the owls flooded in, dropping letters to the oblivious seventh years. Several loud, angry huffs suddenly filled the air when they recognized the official-looking envelope.

"Crap." Blaise muttered, looking serious for once as he took the letter in front of him. "You might want to see this, Weasley. It's adressed to both of us."

Ginny rolled her eyes, but dutifully leaned closer to him. "Mrs. Zabini?" She stuck out her tongue in disgust, cringing at the sound. "Oh Merlin, they better not trying to come up with more mental rubbish."

"You wish." Blaise scoffed as he ripped it open, already catching a glimpse of the content.

"..you are require to choose your wedding date in a month from now and it is highly advise for you to discuss with your respective partner before deciding-" Neville looked up in disbelief after reading it out loud, his round face frozen momentarily.

Fred cringed indignantly. "Blimey, it feels like a bloody assignment now."

"A barmy one if you ask me." Pansy grumbled, boring a hole through the letter. Sure, things had slightly improved between her and the redhead male, but nobody in their right mind would be happy with a rushed and forced union.

Meanwhile, Hermione only sighed after she saw the letter and she barely glanced at it when she handed it over to Draco. Instead, her eyes were fixed upon a stunned Harry. He had the Daily Prophet in his hand and he was staring hard at the main page, no sign of intending to read further. Hermione promptly nudged him and raised a questioning brow.

"Anything interesting for today?"

"More like worrisome." Harry muttered at last. He wordlessly revealed the cause of his concern, immediately earning a loud yelp from Hermione. She snatched the newspaper from him and began reading in a rush. Her yelp attracted the attention of the others and they instantly looked questioningly at both of them. "There had been a mass breakout from Azkaban last night."

"What?" Ron spat furiously.

Harry shrugged, gesturing towards the Daily Prophet in Hermione's hold.

"Something is awfully wrong." Hermione concluded as she slammed the newspaper against the table. The rest scrambled to reach out for the abandoned newspaper, gathering around to read for themselves. Once they finished, a look of horror slowly registered on their face.

"But - how - impossible!" Nevilled stumbled with his words, glancing back and forth between the newspaper and the Golden Trio. The people in the white and black photographs at the front page were mostly jeering, as if silently mocking them in victory.

"Carrow siblings, Rookwood, Dolohov, Yaxley.." Draco recited thoughtfully.

"Death Eaters." Blaise confirmed.

Daphne furrowed her brows. "Do you reckon-"

"Likely possible, isn't it?" Pansy said with a scowl.

The Gryffindors watched in confusion, observing their conversation with a million speculations in the back of their mind. George eventually cleared his throat, attempting to attract their attention.

"Perhaps, would you be so kind as to explain to us?" George's eyes were directed towards Daphne in particular. "Please, pumpkin?"

"Pumpkin?" Fred repeated quietly, making a face at Cho.

Daphne opened her mouth to answer, but she was unfortunately cut off by Seamus Finnigan. The latter was gesturing at them to head out of the Great Hall, joining the other students.

"Time for class, you lot."

~~X~~

Everybody was restless during the whole period of the Charms lesson for the day. George won't stopped bothering Daphne as they walked to the class, but she refused to say anything in the presence of other students. The rest of the Gryffindors also attempted to ask their partner, only to receive a reprimanding glare in response. When the class finally ended, the bliss of it almost knocked them off their feets as they scrambled out of there.

"Oh, come on." Ginny scowled when they were gathered around in Hermione's chamber. "You never keep your trap shut so I wonder why did you even bother today, Zabini?"

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Shut it, Ginevra." Literally, the witch had drained every inch of his body. He never knew the redhead had quite a persistence trait in her until he was bombarded with questions by her during the whole class just now.

"Stop calling me Ginevra, you prat."

"Better listen to her if you don't want to lose an ear like me, mate." George interjected from Ginny's left side. He stuck his tongue out as Ginny pointed her wand at him. "She's a bloody menace." He added before hurriedly switching place with Daphne so he was as far as possible from Ginny and shielded by Daphne.

"I swear one of this day, I'm going to Sectumsempra your only ear, George." Ginny huffed loudly, stuffing her wand into her pocket.

"If you're done with your ritual bickering, can we get to where we left off earlier today?" Hermione interrupted, directing her eyes towards the Slytherins.

Draco cleared his throat first, momentarily alternating his eyes between Pansy and Blaise. He finally stood up when he received nods from them, running a hand through his hair before looking at them.

"As you may already know, the Malfoy Manor had been used as the base of operations for the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters during the Second Wizarding War." Draco began hesitantly. "Before the final battle broke out, something happened in the manor and we were coincidentally there to witness it."

The rest of the Slytherins nodded in agreement while the Golden Trio furrowed their brows. Harry especially, tried to recall everything that he had seen through Voldemort's mind.

"I know about the link between you and the Dark Lord, Potter." Draco said once he saw the look on Harry's face.

"What?"

"My father told me how they lured you to the Department of Mysteries." Draco explained, looking down as he fiddled with his fingers. "But, I don't think you were able to see this particular event. I was told you were specifically linked when the Dark Lord is having a strong burst of emotion and this is not exactly one of it. The Dark Lord didn't even thought much of it at the time."

"He's an arrogant bastard, that's why." Daphne remarked, scowling in distaste.

Pansy laughed. "He is indeed and thank Merlin for that."

"Hold on a second." Ron interrupted, raising his hand. "What exactly happened?"

Astoria scoffed for the first time. "One of the Death Eaters came to see him one day about a new prophecy that he heard regarding the Dark Lord. He dismissed it as insignificant because of his arrogance. Not that I have anything to complain about that." She shrugged, displaying a Slytherin-worthy smirk.

"Unfortunately, the Death Eaters were much more cautious than the Dark Lord." Tracey resumed, letting out a soft sigh. "They complied when he instructed them to dismiss it, but they remained alarmed and kept track of the prophecy."

"Probably too scared of making the same mistake twice." Blaise commented.

"And I say, they have the right idea when they did that. It had been proved now that the prophecy was not a mere hoax."

"From what I was able to gather, they did acquired the name of the Seer for safety." Pansy added.

A prolonged silence engulfed the whole room as everyone-excluding the Slytherins-took their time to wrap their mind around what they just heard.

"What is in the..prophecy?" Ginny finally choke out.

The Slytherins exchanged looks with each other.

"The Dark Lord shall rise to power again when his loyal servant seeks the way through the Life and Death." Draco muttered quietly, closing his eyes. He exhaled feebly when he opened his eyes as if reminiscing it was causing him a great deal of pain.

Neville squeaked involuntarily in the background.

"We only heard a part of it."

"The informant was dismissed before he got far."

"It's enough for us to get the rough idea of the prophecy though and I can bet on everything that the Death Eaters did too." Astoria told. "So, if we are not mistaken, that's what they seek for. The mass breakout is not a sheer coincidence. They are going to find the Seer and hear the rest of the prophecy so they can fulfill it."

"Voldemort didn't believed it because he was certain that he was undefeated with the Elder Wand." Harry said slowly. His mind was beginning to see the connections. A nod from Draco confirmed his thought.

Hermione sniggered. "So Voldemort."

"Underestimating everything." Ron said, nodding in agreement. "He seriously lacks the element of surprise."

The Slytherins chuckled in agreement, and suddenly it was ridiculous how they had spent the last seven years trying to torment each other. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins made quite a bloody wicked team when they are together. It quickly escalated into a laugh as they looked at each other and knew the same thought was currently occuring to everyone.

"I thought this year is going to be a very normal and quiet life." Harry murmured under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear. He leaned back against the couch and rested his arm around Astoria's shoulder. "Obviously not." said him again, a giant leer on his face.

"I think we already establish that when that blasted Marriage Law was announced." Fred glanced at Cho with a knowing grin. Cho just laughed in response while punching his arm lightly.

Neville nervously wiped his sweating forehead. "We have to stop them."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Draco sneered.

"Do you reckon we will be telling you all of this if that's not our intention as well?" said Blaise derisively. "We would have taken care of it by ourselves if we can, but we really need more people to stop them if they decide to barge in here."

"Here?" Harry and Hermione said in unison. "What do you mean here?" Harry inquired, looking slightly alarmed. He straightened up at once, body went rigid as he awaited Blaise's answer.

Blaise hesitated, weighing his option. "Err..the Seer. She's here after all so we imagine that Hogwarts must be the first target."

"Is it Professor Trelawney?" Harry said without thinking. He was instantly reminded of her prediction about Peter Pettigrew's escape and wondered if she had succeed on making another real prediction this time. That would make it three then, and Harry was sure Dumbledore would be slightly relieved that she wasn't a complete fraud after all.

But, Blaise quickly shook his head in response.

"No, that old witch's antenna is seriously crossed and knotted." Pansy grimaced as if mortified with how he even ended up with that conclusion. "It's the Patil twin in your house."

Thud. Thud.

Nobody paid much attention to Ron and Neville as they unceremoniously dropped to the floor. The silence in the room was absolute. None of them made any sound as they stared with mouth hanging open at the Slytherins, a look of horror painting their expression. They did not see this coming.