Chapter Ten- Recovery

A.N. Guys this is literally the longest fic I've ever written and I'm really proud of myself :3 Although I'd still be on the second chapter if it wasn't for your support what with the reviews and favourites and subscribes and everything, so thanks!

The owl flew happily through the air, delightedly observing the land below. Yes, Mr Beaky was a very happy owl indeed. Being a British ministry owl, it wasn't very often that she (or as her humans wrongly assumed, he) got to fly out of the country. Why, she hadn't seen such beautiful mountains in years. Finally Mr Beaky located the very house she had been looking for and she promptly dropped off the innocent looking letter, blissfully unaware of how it was going to ensure that Hermione Granger was going to have a very, very bad day indeed.

"Hermione, there's a letter for you here. Looks like it's from the ministry." Harry called out as he grabbed the letter in one hand and tried to juggle two plates of scrambled egg and bacon in the other.

"Thanks, could you just lay it on the table please?" Hermione replied, not bothering to look up from the baby food that she was trying to feed Teddy as he squirmed away from the sloppy mixture.

"Actually, babe, it looks urgent." Harry said as he looked at the envelope that was now shaking viciously and steaming purple puffs of smoke.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked as she turned around, ignoring Teddy as he bobbed up and down in his seat happily and watched, amazed as the smoke then shot up into the air and exploded with a loud bang. Working in the department of mysteries, Hermione knew very well what type of letter this was, having sent them out many times. However, this was the first time that she herself had received one.

Somewhat hesitantly, she reached for the envelope and slowly broke the wax seal, causing both the firework display to end and a small disappointed pout form on Teddy's face.

"What does it say?" Harry asked as Hermione's face disappeared behind the grand sheet of parchment.

"It says I've been summoned to the Department Of Mysteries." Hermione replied, her expanding eyes peeking out from over the top of the letter.

"Hello Hermione." A serene voice called out suddenly and Hermione almost jumped out of the cold seat in shock.

"Luna? What are you doing here? "

"I work here, Hermione." Luna replied, looking directly at Hermione. Somehow this disturbed her. After all those years of getting used to Luna's unusual habits, Hermione found it quite disconcerting when Luna focused intensely on one topic for more than a short while.

"Really? Well, that's great. So do I, actually. I'm surprised I haven't seen you around here. Although I guess the department of mysteries does like to keep everything on a need-to-know basis. I'm here for a meeting with the head seer. I was summone-"

"I know why you're here. I'm the one who summoned you. And before you ask, yes I'm the head seer. Now please follow me." Taken aback at Luna's professional attitude Hermione decided to pull herself together and obediently followed her friend into a narrow corridor which was lined with rows upon rows of identical maroon doors.

The mysterious tour was cut to an abrupt end when Luna suddenly stopped and faced one of the doors. Meanwhile, Hermione's mind was bursting with curiosity - it was all she could do to not attack Luna with a pile of bubbling questions. Why had the head seer (sorry, Luna!) wanted to talk to her? Why had Hermione received a top priority class letter? What was going on? And how on earth did Luna know which door was the one that was needed? They were all the exact same!

"Hermione, please be silent and calm yourself." Luna said calmly whilst waving her hand in an odd pattern in front of the door and only now did Hermione realise that none of the doors even had any handles.

"I am being quiet!" Hermione exclaimed, slightly outraged. She knew as a fact that she had been making no noise because she had been extra careful as to not disrupt Luna from the serious looking ritual she had been performing.

"I speak not of your words but of your thoughts. There are too many whizzing around that head of yours and we have neither enough time nor space for them in here." Luna replied mysteriously as she peered into Hermione's doe eyes. This response almost made her smile, it was typical Luna behaviour and it somewhat helped dim the intimidating atmosphere that embraced her as soon as she entered the corridor.

"In where?"

"In here." Luna replied and used her glove-covered hand to push open the door that stood tall, way above Luna's petite frame. Hermione resisted the urge to gasp in awe at the room that was presented before her. The room was small, overwhelmingly so, but she was sure that this was only because of the extensive cuboid-shaped line of glass that decorated nearly every inch of the walls. However, it wasn't these tanks that amazed Hermione so; it was what was in them. Swimming freely inside was hundreds of thousands of tiny fish. They had a pair of large eyes that now stared suspiciously at her, a plum coloured body that complemented the Ministry of Magic theme almost perfectly with a set of glittering gold, silver, black and blue scales that hung proudly on them like medals and a sparkling disco ball like object that hung between their eyes on a strange looking rod that sprouted out from its forehead, it shone brightly and Hermione found it hard to look away. With a small grin Hermione thought of what Teddy's reaction to these creatures would be, he loved absolutely anything that was different and had bright colours, Harry always said that he was a lot like Tonks in that way. The most interesting thing of all was that sitting right where the fish's brain should have been was a glistening object that Hermione knew all too well. Unable to control herself, she slowly walked towards the nearest tank and gently lowered her hand into it and watched as the fish almost swarmed together in the anticipation of greeting her limb.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Luna said from behind her in a voice that suggested that Hermione's actions would surely result in unpleasant consequences that Luna was not willing to deal with.

"Why?" She asked after deciding to trust Luna's judgement and remove her hand from the tank.

"They have been trained to attack even the slightest movement they feel threatened by. In a way, they're quite like the kariena plumpling spods found in Egypt. Of course, the spods give up easily. Our Rip-woofs, however, do not." After hearing Luna's speech Hermione looked carefully at the fish and noticed the set of bulky teeth that seemed to be spilling out of the 'Rip-woofs' mouth.

"Rip-woofs, is that what they are called? I assume they were specifically created to protect these prophecies from any outsiders."

"Correct. The ministry was desperate to avoid another situation like the one we caused. Did you know, we actually managed to destroy almost half of the entire Department of Mysteries?" Here both women shared a secret smile as they remembered the conundrum they had caused but their expressions darkened simultaneously when they remembered the consequences of their actions and how greatly it grew to effect their lives.

"So, why did you call me down here?"

"Since there's no need to beat around the bush here, so I'm going to put it simply. There's a prophecy about you and Harry. The reason why I called you and you only here because we feel that Harry has been through too much with his first prophecy and the fates want to give him a break of sorts, or atleast that's what they said."

This time Hermione didn't bother to contain her shock; she staggered backwards and plopped herself into a seat that she hadn't realised was there, her eyes widened as she did the only thing that Hermione Granger could do right. She thought. And prayed. Hermione prayed to merlin, to Jesus and to whichever sadist it was that was sitting up there and supposedly watching over her. She prayed that this prophecy wouldn't end like the last one and that everyone she cared for would stay safe.

"What does it say?"

"I'm not sure. You're one of the only ones who can tell me that." Luna said as she walked over to the back of the room, towards a large book that had millions of little bookmarks that seemed to be spewing out of it. She fiddled with her blue tinted leather gloves for a bit before freeing her hands of their stuffy fur lining. She then shut her eyes tightly and placed her hands over the decorated cover of the book and in a clear voice she said Hermione's name. Hermione watched curiously as the pages of the book turned themselves over and over until they joined into a noisy swarm of pages that tried to fly free of the strong bindings of the book until the show suddenly stopped and the book spat out a small slip of parchment and promptly shut itself again with a loud slam. Whilst Luna stared intently at the paper Hermione tried to peek at what her friend was focusing so hardly on but she could see no writing what so ever.

"You won't be able to see anything." Luna informed her bemusedly.

"Oh… Why?" Hermione asked, flustered at being caught mid-way through her detective mission.

"Only a seer can read and locate this slip of paper and only the person involved in the prophecy can hear it. I created this process especially so that even if a seer is 'bad' so to speak then they only have the power to track the prophecy or at most, look at it from afar. And if the person in the prophecy is being manipulated to the advantage of others then they will have to spend an eternity sorting through these tanks. I've tried everything I can to prevent another situation like ours occurring."

"Right, so where is this prophecy of mine?" Hermione said, eager to get her hands on the fateful fish.

"We're looking for fish number one-hundred-and-twenty-seven (also known as Sinifried). It says here that he's in tank number twenty-five. That would be this one here. Just put your hand straight in; they know you're not a threat because I've already called out your name. Sinifried should just swim right into your hands."

Timidly Hermione complied to Luna's instructions and walked towards the tank that her guide was pointing at. Slowly she lowered her arm into the tank until her hand was completely submerged in the warm water. Almost instantly the mingling crowd of fish split until there was one of them swimming excitedly in the middle of the tank and all the rest were squished to the other side. Sinifried bounded up to Hermione's hand and looked at it carefully for a second before settling himself into her limp grip. She couldn't help but compare his actions to a small and rather peculiar puppy.

"Won't he die if I take him out?" Hermione asked Luna who was standing next to her, looking proudly at her creation like a mother would to a child on his graduation day.

"Do you think I haven't thought about that, Hermione? Of coarse he would, and so would the prophecy. It would be lost forever. You have to remove it from the fish underwater and then place it on the bottom of the tank, preferably in that little hole there and then lower your head into it."

Once again, Hermione did as she was told and she cautiously separated the prophecy from its protector, careful to not harm him in the process. She then freed the creature and watched as it quickly swam back to it friends on the other side of the tank. Hermione then found the little opening in the bottom of the tank that Luna was talking about and placed the surprisingly squashy prophecy into it and stared at it as it sat snugly in its place. Discontentedly she lowered her head into the water and shut her eyes forcefully.

Gradually Hermione's surroundings began to melt away until she was left in the pit of what looked like an endless abyss that only a bright ray of light dared to explore.

"The spawn of the one and the only

The child of the sacrifice and of the chief

Will unite in soulful matrimony

And end the ever consuming grief"

A.N. Sorry for the really long wait for this chapter guys. My laptop broke then I had writers block. Anyway, it's here now so yey :D So, question time:

What do you think about the prophecy and who else do you think is involved in it?

Where do you think Rip-woofs name came from?

What do you think is going to happen next?

I really want to know what you guys think about this so please review