Disclaimer : I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters……

Chapter 14: The Other Prophecy

When Draco entered the forum room of 's a few days later, he saw that the room was already crowded and that the din the gathered people were creating was becoming unbearable.

Amazingly, the noise seemed to subside as he proceeded into the room until finally, all that remained was an underlying murmur.

"Take your seat, " Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had been previously talking with Arthur Weasley, told him, indicating the remaining seat to his right, near the head of the long table.

Draco took his seat and looked around him to find that at least three-fourths of the healers from his Department were there.

"As you all already know, we lost the Head of the Magical Maladies Department, Healer Steve Lucinard, in the battle, a few days before. As per the prevailing rules of the institution, taking into account the present situation and considering the inclination of the other Healers of the Department, we, the Ministry of Magic, have decided to appoint Healer Draconis Lucius Malfoy as the succeeding head, in recognition of his munificent service to the organization. Is there any one here who has any objections?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Draco could see Harry struggle for a bit before sighing and settling down.

"Seeing as…………."

"Can I have a word, Minister?"

Every one looked on, puzzled, as Draco rose from his seat.

"I'd like to thank every one here for thinking that I'm eligible for this position, though begrudgingly in some cases" he said looking at Potter out of the corner of his eye, "but I'm sorry to say that I'm not in a position to accept the post now"

"Why not, ?"

"There is a more pressing issue at hand. That is, I'd like to research on the type of enemy we are facing now. I don't think I'll be able to do that if I am to head the Department"

"Why not?" It was Harry's voice that was heard now.

"If we want to have any sort of defense against the……..whatever it was, we need to immediately start studying it and it has to be done meticulously"

"We can always have a separate team for it"

"No. I'd like to do this myself"

"Why are you taking this so personally, Malfoy?"

"I don't think that's relevant here, "

"Since you have declined the post, do you have alternative suggestions?"

"Healer Weasley? She is as experienced as me, if not more and I'm sure she'd have no trouble heading the Department"

The gathering then went in to the process for appointment of Fleur Weasley and it was a few hours before Draco was able to escape from the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why did you refuse the post, Draco? You deserve it after all the work you have done for it"

"I didn't want to be in any position of power, Pansy. Authority and I make a devastating combination. Remember sixth year?"

"How do you propose to go about this research then?"

"With my help" Daphne said as she looked up from the book she had been reading.

"How can you help him?"

"I know all about that thing"

"How? And before I forget, where have you been all these years?"

"Fortunately, both the questions have the same answer. This was three years ago during the war. You remember how our family, the Greengrasses refused to support you-know –who"

"Fat load of good that did" Astoria commented from her place by the mantle where she was gazing into the family portrait which Daphne had stuck there with a permanent sticking charm, against Astoria's wishes.

The picture still brought back sorrowful memories, but the intensity was not as much as before and Astoria was able to maintain her composure.

"Any way, Marcus Flint never supported him either"

"Really?"

"He had had bigger plans, as I learnt later, unfortunately, after I'd gotten engaged to him"

"What!"

"On the day of the battle, he came to the Manor and told Dad that there was another evil that was rising and that Voldemort would appear like a clown before it. As expected, Dad didn't believe him. A duel broke out between the two. Dad never came to the trials, Tori. Neither did Mum. They were dead long before the battle even began"

"No way! But……… But I saw them when I came back from school!"

"The people you saw were Flint and his accomplice. They cast a Dark mark at the top to make it appear that they, Flint and his accomplice, had been killed by our parents, who the Ministry already suspected of being Death Eaters. What they didn't predict was that Potter would triumph and that all Death Eaters would be sentenced to death. While we were carted off to Azkaban, they tried to escape and in the end, they killed each other and also the wizard accompanying us, trying"

"There would have been some news of it in the papers!"

"The Ministry didn't want to appear incapable in the public eye then. They hushed up the incident as well as my disappearance"

"You could have come back! I'd have protected you with my life!"

"What would you do? Hide me in the attic? Even so, you were unaffected from the war. I wanted you to have a life free of the remains of it. Me being here would have meant that you'd never have been able to rest peacefully for fear of discovery"

"There is no fear now?"

"Now that the prophesized evil has risen, I can give my story to the ministry with the hope that they'll believe me"

"If they don't?"

"I've been in hiding for three years. I can go back any time I want"

"You can't. We aren't letting you disappear again, Daph. We'll protect you"

"Thanks, Draco, but there are more serious things to be discussed. During my travels, I once went to Peru. There I met an old man. I didn't know what to make of him, at first. He appeared old, yes, but he spoke of ages so far back that I began to doubt that he had gone mad. I was intrigued and didn't have any thing better to do any way so I stayed with him for two whole years. One day, he suddenly went limp and in a haunting tone, he told me some thing about good and evil; light and darkness and I was sure that he had gone nuts. A few seconds later, he came to, and asked me what he had said. I vaguely recounted his words and he immediately became agitated. He told me the earlier prophesies he had made and explained that my return here was crucial"

"What does this have to do with our current situation?"

"Blaise told me you already have one of the prophecies. I was given the other half to translate a week before the battle began"

"What does the other half say?" Blaise asked with curiosity.

"It talks of the savior. It runs along the lines of………

The Dawn of death will await the rising,

Without knowing, without wanting,

When the time is right, the seas will rise and the sky will kneel at her feet,

And the very sight of her will make the darkness tremble,

Many will be the losses, for the wizarding world is doomed to wars,

And the improbable will make itself known

No one will remember a day brighter yet darker, than the day the two meet, and the rainbow's roots are found………

The Dawn of death will await………..

"So, that rune meant darkness" Blaise mused as he ran the prophecy once again in his head.

"So, there is hope for defeating that?" Draco asked.

"Yes. There is a lot of hope, vested in the girl the prophecy speaks of"

"Girl? How do you know it's a girl?"

"The prophesizer I met was the one who made the other half of it. He told me that he keeps seeing this little girl in his visions. He is convinced that she is the answer to this"

"Where do we go looking for her?"

"I'm not sure but the girl must be around two to three years of age now"

"We can't just go around kidnapping random two year old girls. She may not even be a witch!"

"That's why the prophecy says 'when the time is right', silly" Blaise said before turning back to Daphne.

"So we wait?"

"We wait. Meanwhile, I have contacted my mentor and he has agreed to come back here"

"Here?"

"Yes. He agrees that this is a very critical situation and that his presence here may be more informational. He also gave me another prophecy to translate, Blaise"

"About this darkness?"

"No. It's not about the same thing. He just old me that both of us should translate it together. There must be some reason"

"Let's get to it, then"

Just then, there was a floo call and Mercy's head appeared in the fire.

"Theo! Mae's been asking for you. You should have been here an hour ago. She's worried"

"I'll be right there, Mercy. Guys, I gotta go. See ya later!"

And Theo left, leaving only Pansy, Draco and Astoria in the room.

"I'll be leaving then" Pansy said as she left through the door Blaise and Daphne previously had.

"Look Asto……….."

"Save it, Draco. I have enough to deal with without you rubbing it in that………"

"I'm gonna do nothing of the sort, Astoria. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for shouting at you that way. I couldn't apologize before. I had neither the right nor the eligibility to order you that way or give you ultimatums"

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize"

"Okay! I should be leaving now"

"Yeah, sure. I just wanted to ask you some thing before you left"

"Yeah?"

"This research of yours………"

"What about it?" Draco asked and the proverbial eyebrow went up.

"Would you be requiring any help with it?"

"Help? Of course but, why are you………."

"I'd like to lend a hand if you don't mind. Oh, stop smirking, Draco!"

"Alright! Alright! You are always welcome but, what of your job?"

"I could always take the night shift. Mercy has been asking me to exchange for a long time now"

"You won't be able to last more than a week with you still recovering if you work the entire day"

"I want to help defeat those that murdered my parents!"

"They are already dead, Tori. Flint and his friend are rotting in their graves"

"In the Greengrass graveyard! They aren't even entitled to set foot in there!" Astoria screamed.

Crossing the room, Draco came to stand behind Astoria who was still gazing at the portrait and refused to turn around.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, he said, "Mourning and plotting revenge isn't going to bring them back, Astoria. All we can do now is try our best at obliterating this thing and hope that we can have a normal life after"

"Normal! Normal, Malfoy! When has my life ever been normal! Ever since I was born I had to live in fear of my life because the Dark Lord might target us, I go to school and to what? To………never mind that. Then there was your father"

"Lucius is not my father. You'd do well to remember this now that we'll be seeing a lot of each other"

"Hmph! And you the Prince of Slytherin"

"I'll admit I'm not proud of some of the things I did but I made up for them, didn't I? Isn't that worth any thing?" Draco began as a confession and ended as a plea.

Turning around, Astoria was faced with the bottomless pools that were Draco's storming silver-grey eyes. Even in agony, Astoria couldn't help but notice how they stood out from the cold slate grey she had encountered nearly a decade ago. Not able to withstand the intensity of their emotions, she moved away from the portrait and began to walk around the room doing meaningless things like righting the cushion and rearranging the flowers in the vase. When she ran out of things to do, she looked at Draco to find him leaning on the mantle with folded arms, staring at her in expectation.

"It all comes down to this, doesn't it?" she mumbled as she flopped down on the sofa Daphne had been occupying moments before.

It's funny how when one is consumed by thoughts, even the smallest time span seems eons ago.

"Whether I can cope without you to blame. Whether I can accept the fact that you didn't murder my parents. Whether I can admit that I've been wrong and that you have changed. Whether I'll have the guts to apologize for being so horrible to you"

"I didn't do all this for your apology, Astoria. If not today, you'd have realized this some other day"

"What do you expect me to do? You won't let me help, you won't accept an apology either…….."

"I never said………"

Holding her hand up, Astoria said, in a resigned tone, "I'm exhausted, Draco. I have neither the will nor the inclination for these word games. I've had enough games in my life, Draco. Deadly games. The games of an insane old wizard. Games that shattered my family. I've seen enough shades of grey. The war never affected me the way it did you, I'll admit but my family meant a lot to me. I wasn't unlike any other pureblood girl back then. Family came first. Losing them all of a sudden meant that I had no one. Of course Pansy was always there but, she had Blaise to fall back on and I had only my hatred and remorse. I hated wizards and magic, which I believed, took my family away from me. Pansy'd have told you that I'd left the Wizarding World for a year after graduation. Then I realized that leaving behind magic meant leaving behind my family, the memories, a part of me was still clinging on to the feeble wish to go back. That's when the Muggle Section was built and I came here. And now, that very place is being attacked. May be my return here was wrong. May be I should have stayed back. May be……"

"There are too many may be's that can never be answered, Astoria. I have my fair share of them. If I hadn't helped kill Dumbledore, If I had joined the other side………One too many of them. The past is gone. Done with but, the present and the future are with us. Waiting for us to make some thing of them. Don't you think that's reason enough to wish for living? And normalcy?"

Astoria, who had been staring at Draco in amazement the entire time, now spoke with the same incredulity in her voice, "What happened to you, Draco? You've changed!"

Ignoring Draco's jab of 'glad you took notice at last', she went on, "I mean, you're not the same Draco from Hogwarts! You don't have that Pureblood mania any more; you treat every one like humans, hell! You even understand and care about what others feel! But,………."

"I haven't managed to convince the one that matters, have I? You still don't trust me"

"I've trusted people in the past, Draco. Blindly. None of them kept their promise. You've hurt me a lot of times too, you know. I realize now that you never meant to but still,……"

"You're wary of me," Draco muttered and it was filled more with hurt and pain than accusal and anger.

"I just want to know why, Draco"

"Why what?"

"Why did you change? The Draco I was told of, the one I have met scores of times wouldn't care about evil or good as long as he was unaffected leave alone giving up a job and a position of power for it. I know what pureblood children are taught. Self-preservation is the primary goal. What changed that, Draco?"

You. Seeing you made me realize that there was more to life than just looking after yourselves. Meeting you made me change but telling you this isn't going to change any thing.

"I'm sorry, Astoria. This isn't the time for elaborating on the reasons for my change. They are my own secrets to guard"

"Why do you turn so…..defensive when some one even mentions the topic?"

"Drop it, Astoria. What do you plan on doing?"

"I'm helping. Revenge or no revenge"

"I'm not letting you strain yourself. You need rest. Your immunity system is down to zero and the battle a few days before hasn't strengthened you. If you keep this up, you'll go back to the way you were after Mae's birthday party"

"I'm not backing out just because you don't think it right. You might have done me some good, Malfoy, but you don't rule me. My will is my own and so are my decisions. I'm helping and that's that"

"Let's make a deal"

"What about?"

"We'll go by what you say for a week, okay? If you're able to keep up, and remember you can't just act fine in front of me, I'll know. Then, I'll agree to your offer. Otherwise……"

"Otherwise?"

"You choose"

"Between the two?"

"Yeah. And if push comes to shove, I'll make you go back to the Muggle section"

"Deal"

"I'll see you on Monday then. At eight. My flat. Bring Daphne too. She needs to tell us the basics"

"Sure"

"Leaving already, Draco?" Daphne asked as she entered the room. She appeared exhausted and tired, but oddly happy.

"Yeah! I need to go prepare the flat for work now that I won't be having my own room"

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it" Astoria said as she rushed to open the door.

"Hello, " George Weasley's merry voice was heard before he entered the room.

"What brings you here, Weasley" Draco's voice was an odd mixture of restraint and welcome.

"Oh, that! The Order wants to meet all of you. Actually,……….dang it, they just want to protect Daphne here. They want to know the facts before the ministry. So that they can give you a way to escape the sentence" George finished, turning to Daphne and winked.

A faint pink appeared on her cheek as she replied with, "That's generous of them but I cannot come without my friends"

"That's why all of you, meaning you, your sister, Malfoy, the Zabinis and Theodore Nott are formally invited to the Order of the Phoenix's weekly meeting. Bring along Mae too, if you don't mind. She's a bundle of joy"

"Okay! I'll relay it to every one else. How do we get there?"

"Be ready here by 5pm on Saturday. I'll come get you. See you, Daphne"

"Yeah!"

"Do we have to go?" Astoria asked as soon as he had left.

"Let's give them a chance, Astoria. They might actually have some thing worthwhile for us"

"Hmm………."

A/n: Hey every body!!!!!!!!!I'm back!!!!!!!!!!Now, I know I haven't been updating for a week but I hope the length of this chap makes up for it!!!!!!

So, do you like Draco's decision? Do you think he was right in refusing the head position? What will be that other prophecy? What will the return of the seer mean? Who is that 'little girl'? Will Draco and Astoria put aside their differences? And most importantly, what will happen at the meeting?

You've gotta wait for the next chap for that!!!!!!

Any suggestions? Queries?

Tell me through a review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!