Prophecy Repeated, chapter twenty-eight.

Disclaimer:-

Harry Potter belongs to J., her various publishers and Warner Brothers. This story and any new characters belong to me.

Author's note...

I wasn't happy with some of the previous chapter so I have rewritten some of it, especially around the part from Gail announces that she is pregnant up to when the children's home is attacked. If you are saving this story, you might want to download it again.

RECAP.

Gail and Lucius have returned to Hogwarts. Gail is expecting a baby.

With more muggle students than ever having to stay in Hogwarts over Christmas as their parents had left the country during the growing number of attacks, the place was rapidly gaining the atmosphere of a huge party as the students were obviously trying to put the worsening situation outside far from their minds.

With so many in a frivolous mood, it was inevitable that the newly returned Lucius and Gail should be the target of many pranks.

"You know," said Gail to Lucius one evening, when they were finally alone, "this would really have annoyed me before we went away."

Lucius looked at her trying to wash the doughy mixture of flour and water and something rather smelly and green out of her hair and laughed. "And now."

"I'm just glad to be home."

"Good. Just hurry up in the shower, I'm still standing out here covered in," he paused to sniff his arm, "I don't know what."

"You could always join me."

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

"Lucius. I'm pregnant, not ill. Now come and join me."ยท

So he did.

"Oh. Lucius."

"Yes?"

"I might be glad to be home, but this still needs..."

"Payback," they finished together.

To Lucius and Gail, it seemed that the castle elves were determined to outdo themselves that Christmas. At one point, Gail reminded them that she was eating for two, not five, much to the elves' amusement.

At Harry's insistence, all training had been suspended for two weeks over Christmas. "The time to relax and remember what you are fighting for is just as important," he told Lucius and Gail seriously, either not noticing or ignoring the "told you so" look Gail gave Lucius when he said that.

"When I had to face Voldemort the last time, the only thing which kept me going was thinking of the Weasleys and the fun we had had, and my friends, like Hermione, Neville, Luna. Whatever happened, if Voldemort was gone, they could go on with their lives without fear. And Ginny, of course, to my dying day I'll never forget that kiss."

"Eew," said Gail, to Harry's laughter.

Despite their attempts to relax and enjoy themselves, Lucius and Gail couldn't shake the sorrow at what had happened at the children's home. A fire had destroyed the place and the evidence and they knew the muggle enquiry would never come up with anything. The fire had burned so hot, much to the muggles astonishment, that most of the bodies were burned completely to ash, so the disappearance of Lucius and Gail had gone unnoticed.

The new year came and went and the new term started. The welcome back dinner had started in a rather sombre mood until a small number of the students seemed to be stuck to their chairs, and were having trouble eating. Every time they tried to bring a mouthful of food to their mouths, they found that it splattered over their faces and hair instead.

By the end of the desert course, the other students decided to join in and the stuck students were soon covered in food of every description. Strangely, instead of the bowls with left-overs disappearing as usual, they were being refilled with cream, ice-cream, raspberry and chocolate sauce, and it wasn't long before the hall degenerated into a huge food fight.

Lucius and Gail were puzzled. They'd charmed the utensils their victims were trying to use to eat, but how had all those extra deserts appeared?

"Harry," scolded Ginny.

"What?"

"You know what."

Harry grinned. "Well, it certainly broke the atmosphere, didn't it?" He stood up and his voice suddenly boomed. "ENOUGH! SILENCE!"

Everybody stopped at once. One badly aimed(?) bowlful of cream was still flying through the air and seemed to turn in mid air to land on Harry. The students tried not to laugh. Ginny had no such inhibitions. Harry turned to her and said, "I'll deal with you later."

"Promises, promises," she smirked.

"Now everyone. To the showers. Then you come back here and clean up. The muggle way. The castle elves are not to help you."

There was a collective groan as they went to the showers, leaving the few initial, now unrecognisable, victims still stuck to their chairs.

"I supposed I could leave them there," mused Harry.

"No," said Ginny firmly. "Anyhow, they'll get out of having to clean up, if they're just sitting there." She waved her wand at them and the sticking spell was broken. "Good charm work though," she commented, impressed. "Now are you going to wipe that cream off your face and come and charm me?"

What followed after that would definitely have had Gail saying "Eew."

When they first returned to Hogwarts just before the school broke up for the Christmas holidays, they were too upset to take much notice of the changes, but as the new term started, they couldn't help but notice that, despite an increase in pranking, there was a seriousness which hadn't been there before.

The other obvious, and almost unbelievable change, was the mixture of students on what had previously been the house tables.

When Marcus Brant from Hufflepuff and Lucilia Bones from Ravenclaw caught Lucius and Gail leaving dinner on their second evening, they asked, "How do you like the new Hogwarts?"

"Why the changes?"

Ignoring the question, Lucilia asked Lucius, "What are you going to do after the baby is born?"

"By that time Gail will be almost seventeen. We're going to wait till her seventeenth birthday, then go away again."

"Why?"

"You know why. It's not safe for any of you with us here. Did you hear what happened at the orphanage?"

"Yes. But they couldn't defend themselves. We can. We will."

"I can't let that happen." Lucius began to walk away, but Marcus grabbed him by the arm.

"This isn't just your fight. This is our future too. Look around you. Every house working and training together. Do you have any idea what that took? Do you think we've put aside centuries of rivalry and sometimes hatred to sit here and do nothing? Get it into your head. You are not alone in this."

"I can't..."

"Can't what? Lead us? I doubt that."

"I'd be responsible..."

"That's crap and you know it. Fighting alone, if you too are killed, we've lost. What future then for us, or for your baby, or any other babies still to be born?" snapped Lucilia.

Lucius felt Gail squeeze his hand. "You're right. But only we can face my father."

"Don't worry," replied Marcus. "You're welcome to him. But I'm sure there'll be a few deatheaters left for us."

With Gail unable to train, Lucius found himself more and more training with Lucilia and Marcus, so much so that Harry wondered aloud whether these two were the other two from the four in the prophecy.

"I'm not sure," Hermione had replied. "We still don't know exactly what it means."

Lucius had overheard that conversation and went to Marcus and Lucilia in his next training session. "I don't want you too training with me all the time."

"Why?"

"If you two are the other two in the prophecy..." He left the rest unsaid.

Marcus and Lucilia clearly hadn't thought of that and it took them a few moments to think.

Finally Lucilia replied, "If we are the other two, then stopping training with us won't change that. If we're not, you need us anyway."

"I don't know whether it means us or not," replied Marcus frankly. "But we could die fighting deatheaters anyway. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to die. But if I have to, I'd rather die for something that's worth fighting for. You have no right to try to take that from us."

Lucius answered with a stunning spell aimed at both of them, which they narrowly blocked. There followed one of the most intense training sessions ever. Despite the fact that Lucius was growing in speed and skill rapidly, and it took Marcus and Lucilia together to be make it anything like a real training session, he found it harder and harder to beat them as they were also advancing in their duelling skills. The session ended with Lucius "tied" by invisible ropes to one of the posts in the room. They correctly took his nod of surrender as acceptance. Lucius left for a shower, leaving an exhausted Lucilia and Marcus still standing in the room.

Gail, who had been watching the whole time, said simply, "Thank you."

"Huh?"

"For what you are doing for him. For what I can't do right now."

Lucilia smiled. "I'd say, you're welcome, but this isn't only for him, it's for all of us, including this little one," she gently tapped Gail on the tummy.

Gail's baby was due in late May, and as May began she frequently complained that she felt more like a beached whale than a witch.

Her condition, of course, had not gone unnoticed outside of Hogwarts. Within hours of their return to Hogwarts, the Minister had been informed.

"I want to know the moment she goes into labour."

"Why?"

"There's no better time to attack. Their two best duellers will be vulnerable. The mudblood won't be able to fight, and the traitor will be distracted."

"What about Potter?"

"He's old now. But I still want him out of there. Organise an attack on his family again, don't waste too many on it, just enough to draw him away. Then we attack Hogwarts. My spies are ready? They can make wards strong enough?"

"Yes. The moment Potter's away, they can go into action."

"Good, and only the headmaster of Hogwarts could break those wards."

"The target?"

"The brat. If you can kill the mudblood as well, so much the better. But I want the brat dead. If I know Lucius, it'll break him, make him careless. And if you kill the brat in front of its mother, even if you don't get the mudblood herself, she'll be useless. Then I get him."

The deatheaters' reign of terror became even worse as May rolled on. The Minister's wife, Frederica Snidler, having long ago given up any pretence of defending the people against attacks, now led most of them.

She was notoriously cruel, reminding Ginny of Belatrix. Like Belatrix, she liked to play with her victims before killing them. Her tortures, which even the Minister found distasteful, were more feared that the Minister himself. A side-effect of this was that most deatheaters feared her and didn't like fighting alongside her. Ron, who had figured that out from studying reports from survivors, decided that this was a major Achilles heel in the Minister's battle plans.

"It's beginning," Florence said. "I'll get her to the hospital wing."

"I'm coming with her," said Lucius.

Florence smiled. They'd talked about this. It wasn't normal for wizards to be present at the births of their children, but when she'd learned that she was pregnant, Gail had read everything she could on pregnancy and childbirth. The childrens' home had had a few books on the subject as pregnancies weren't exactly unheard of. Gail had found out that in the muggle world, most father's assisted at the birth, at least helping to comfort their wives. She let slip to Lucius that she thought that was wonderful and he'd decided there and then that he would be with her.

Despite comments from some wizards about it being unmanly, and who wanted to be in there with all that mess anyway? Lucius had stuck by his decision. The fact that most of the girls, apart from a few who couldn't bear the idea of any man seeing them like that, thought it was romantic, made Florence suspect that Lucius was setting a new trend in the wizarding world.

Within an hour of Gail's admission to the Hospital wing, the deatheaters attacked Beauxbatons. Without hesitation, Harry and Ginny flooed away, despite Ron's warnings that it might be a trap for them.

Once he had heard that Harry and Ginny were deeply involved in the fighting in France, the Minister apparated with his deatheaters to Hogsmead. Much to his growing irritation, it took almost two hours to amass everyone together for the final assault on Hogwarts, but finally they were ready.

As the deatheaters approached Hogwarts, wards fell in place preventing students leaving their own towers (or dungeons in the case of Slytherin), and most of the staff too found themselves unable to leave their rooms. The floos were blocked too, so no word could get out. Apart from a few stray students, quickly killed, the deatheaters walked into Hogwarts without even a battle.

"The Minister sneered. "And they say I am not as strong as Voldemort. I've done what Voldemort could never do. Hogwarts is mine for the taking. Frederica, you go first. Kill the mudblood before she can give birth or both if it's already been born. And Frederica..."

"Yes, my dear?"

"Don't waste time playing with her or the brat if it's born. I don't want to take any chances. I want them dead."

Frederica grimaced, but nodded.

The only fireplace the Minister's student helpers had been unable to block, as they'd been unable to access the room it was in, was the floo in the headmaster's office. While Frederica headed for the hospital wing, the Minister began breaking through the wards protecting that office, ensuring that Harry could not come back that way, nor bring in reinforcements that way.

Two members of staff were not locked in their room. The attack on the Potters and Weasleys in France had brought back hard memories for Ron and he had slipped away before the attack to the memorial to talk to Fred, as he still did from time to time. Hermione had seen him go, and quietly followed him, knowing that he needed to be alone at that moment, but that he needed her too.

So it was that, from a short distance away, they had both seen the takeover of Hogwarts. "Oh, Merlin. Gail!" cried Hermione.

"Come on," Ron yelled. "We have to stop them."

They ran into the castle and straight into deatheaters. Totally outnumbered, they stood and fought, until Ron told Hermione. "You have to get away."

"I'm not leaving you."

"They must have locked the students in somehow. Breaks the wards. Let them out. I can't do that, Hermione."

But Hermione, rather than heading for the student towers, first went to the staff quarters. The student wards were good, but no match for Hermione's spell-work, and Luna and Neville and the other teachers were soon released.

Ron had decoyed some of the deatheaters outside as they ran to finish him off. Suddenly they found themselves caught between Ron, with year of experience as a senior auror, and Luna, Neville and the other staff.

After releasing the students, Hermione tried again to get through to the hospital wing, but without success. Marcus asked her to send every owl to parents and to Harry to get help, while the prefects made a concentrated attempt to reach the hospital.

Their timing was unlucky. At that moment the Minister, having destroyed the entire fireplace in the headmaster's office, was making his way to the hospital wing. This time it was the students caught in the crossfire, and in less than five minutes, every one of the prefects was dead.

Frederica wasn't having it so easy, however. Gail had given birth amazingly quickly for a first birth, and though her movements were slow and limited, her spell work was not. Lucius and Gail held Frederica at bay easily.

Then the Minister burst into the fray. The four of them were paired off, Lucius against his father, Gail against Frederica. All four knew without a doubt this was to the finish.

At first it seemed that the Minister and Frederica would win easily, but whereas Lucius and Gail, from the years of training together, instinctively warned each other if they saw a vulnerability in the other's position, the Minister and his wife did not.

After what seemed like forever, Lucius could sense that his father was tiring. The spells he was casting weren't quite as accurate as they had been before and the few that struck his own shield made less of an impact. Despite his own misgivings, he was actually getting the better of his father.

Totally absorbed with his battle with his father, Lucius didn't see that Gail, finding a strength that she hadn't known she had, had finally defeated Frederica Snidler, taking her out of the battle for good with a devastating cutting curse. Nor did he see Gail turn towards him, raise her wand and cry out "Stupefy".

He just felt her stunner spell hit him from behind, and then he collapsed and knew nothing more.

Seeing Gail attack and stun Lucius left the Minister almost as stunned as his son for a moment, then his face contorted into a ghastly grin and he turned his wand on Gail.

Author's note...

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