A/N: Two chapters in the same month; it's a miracle! Enjoy!
Chapter 36: Future Told
James's POV
I can safely say that the last thing I expected to see in the middle of the night was a flash of fire and Fawks the phoenix appearing above my head, letting out a loud cry and circling endlessly over our heads.
"Lily," I nudged her to make sure she was awake. "Go get Harry; I think Dumbledore needs us for something."
She looked up at the phoenix and nodded, leaving the room in a hurry and coming back in with Harry in her arms; he was still asleep and I realized it was only 3am.
"Are you sure we should take him with us?" Lily worried, waving her wand over our pyjamas to transfigure them into jeans and t-shirts.
"I don't think Fawks will let us drop him off at Sirius's," I noted. "Dumbledore must want us quite urgently."
Fawks let out another small cry and then disappeared in a flash of fire. I exchanged a glance with Lily before grabbing a pile of Floo powder and stepping into the fireplace.
I caught Lily as she stumbled on arrival in the Headmasters office. Surprisingly, Frank, Alice and baby Neville were also sat in the room in front of Dumbledore. We quickly took a seat next to them, shooting a confused glance at them that they shrugged at.
I'd thought that this meeting would be something to do with the Horcruxes, but if that was so then the other Marauders would be here, not the Longbottoms. I took Lily's hand as she tightened her hold on Harry; it couldn't be a coincidence that the only people at the meeting had children the same age.
"I apologize for disturbing your night," Dumbledore began gravely. "But I stumbled upon some very important information that I believe concerns all of you. Last night I was interviewing someone for the post of Divination. It wasn't a very promising interview and I was preparing to leave when she began to recite a prophecy. When she'd finished, she couldn't remember saying anything which is often a sign of a true vision."
Dumbledore waved his wand and his Pensieve moved closer to us, with another flick of his wand a figure rose out of the liquid like surface. The figure was a thin pale woman covered in shawls and bangles; she wore a pair of thick glasses that magnified her eyes.
The woman didn't look like a genuine seer, but as she began to speak a shiver of unease ran down my spine and I felt Lily tighten her hold on my hand. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."
There was a moment of silence that was only broken by a choken noise coming from Alice. Unlik Lily, who didn't have much faith for Divination, Alice was superstitious about most prophecies and even refused to read her horescope incase she jinxed herself.
"Are you sure that this is a real prophecy?" Frank asked in a tight voice. He had his arm wrapped around Alice to try calm her down.
"I am positive," Dumbledore declared quietly. "We were luckily not overheard, but if knowledge of this should get to Voldemort, you shall all be in danger…especially the children."
"What can we do?" I asked immediately. "What do you think we should do?"
"I believe it would be best for you all to go into hiding, cast the Fidelius Charm and choose someone that you trust without a doubt to be the Secret-Keeper," Dumbledore said, steepling his hands together and looking over his glasses at us.
"We can't go into hiding," Lily protested before I could. "We have a mission to complete!"
"As do we," Alice sobbed. "But Neville…my baby!"
"We'll give Neville to my mum until we know we're safe," Frank decided, tightening his hold on Alice and Neville. "I'll be the Secret-Keeper."
"Is it possible to use the Fidelius Charm on just one room of a house?" Lily asked curiously.
"It would probably take more effort and concentration than the normal charm," Dumbledore mused. "But it should be possible."
"I'll cast the Fidelius Charm on Harry's room," Lily told us, looking down at her hands. "Sirius can be the Secret-Keeper. That way if anything happens to us he can find and look after Harry." Her voice broke as she was speaking and she leant against me, I felt her tears soaking into the material of my t-shirt.
I knew that all she wanted to do was cast the Fidelius Charm on our home and stay there; safe and hidden. But we had a mission to complete, and it was more important than our lives, no matter how much it would hurt to protect our child while knowing that he could be orphaned.
Dumbledore nodded sadly at our decisions and said nothing else as we got out of our chairs and walked back over to the fireplace. Lily handed Harry over to me before moving over to Alice, Frank took Neville as the girls hugged and cried.
"Look after Neville if anything should happen," Alice sobbed. "Don't let him grow up without a mother figure."
"Of course I will," Lily cried. "I promised I would when I agreed to be his god-mother. Look after Harry?"
"I promise I will," Alice took Harry off of me and gave him a quick cuddle before handing him back as Lily did the same with Neville.
"We'll get through this," Lily wiped her tears away. "And I'll see you once all this is over. Our sons will grow up together and we'll both be there to see it happen."
They hugged one last time before Alice and Frank stepped into the flames and disappeared. We turned back to look at Dumbledore, ready to ask if we could tell the Marauders, but Dumbledore guessed what we were going to say and just told us to tell them.
We flooed straight to Sirius's home, not realizing what time it was. Sirius charged into the room with his wand aloft and Zoe hidden behind him, he opened his mouth to cast a spell before he saw that it was just us.
"Prongs? Hart?" Sirius stepped further into the room and let Zoe come back out from behind him. "What's wrong?"
"Can you get the others here?" I asked tightly, keeping a hold of Lily and Harry.
Noticing Lily's tears and the fact that I was barely controlling my own emotions, Sirius went straight to the Floo and began gathering the rest of our pack. Zoe wnt over to Lily and sat her down on the couch. I followed them numbly and took a seat next to Lily, handing Harry over to her before she could ask.
Once everybody had arrived and sat down, I began explaining what Dumbledore had told us, including our own plans. Everyone wanted us to just go into hiding without worrying about the mission but we stuck to what we'd agreed and eventually got them to drop it.
Sirius agreed to be the Secret-Keeper so we went straight to Godric's Hollow and set the charm up. Dumbledore was right; it took more effort than we'd thought to do. Lily was the one who cast the charm since she was the best one at Charms. Sirius had to tell us where the room was so that we could access the room whenever we needed to and then we told the other Marauders as well, just in case.
"If Voldemort ever finds out that I'm the Secret-Keeper," Sirius began, we were back at his house; gathered in the living room. "He'll come after me. That doesn't worry me, but if he find the Horcrux then we're all doomed."
"Where else can we hide it though?" Peter asked.
"It would be just as unsafe is any of our homes," Remus pointed out thoughtfully. "We've been lucky no one's discovered it here yet."
Severus looked to be in deep thought as he added his opinion. "What about hiding it at Hogwarts?"
"Where in Hogwarts?" Zoe wondered.
"We could put it in the room we used for Animagi training," Severus explained. "If we asked for a place to hide something I'm sure it would give us a suitable room."
"It's safer than just putting them in the Shreiking Shack," Remus nodded. "I think it's a good idea."
"As long as we can find it again," Peter said dryly.
Sirius snorted. "Thanks for that positive thought, Pete."
"Sorry," Peter blushed. "I just thought it should be pointed out."
"It's fine," Lily reassured him. "It was actually good thinking, but we're going to have to take that risk."
"But we should probably do it tomorrow," I interrupted, glancing at the clock. "Otherwise none of us will have gotten any sleep."
We all agreed to stay the night at Sirius's, and went to bed immediately so that we'd get at least a couple of hours sleep before we had visit Hogwarts again. Zoe volunteered to stay behind and look after Harry which was a relief for Lily and I because we didn't want him anywhere near the Horcrux.
Dumbledore let us use his office to get to the school. We didn't tell him where we were going because he thought it would be best if he didn't know where any of the Horcruxes were hidden. We told him that we needed access to the school for our mission and that was all he needed to know.
As we walked up to the room I relived memories of our years at Hogwarts. I was half expecting to see McGonagall or Filch and his cat around the corner but the corridors were empty because of the summer holidays.
"We need a place to hide something," Lily repeated as she paced in front of the wall where the door to the RoR would appear.
After passing in front of the wall three times, a big door appeaed on the wall as if it had always been there. We entered the room and gasped in amazement; the room was full of stuff that people had hidden over the years. There was old broken furniture, books, dusty glass jars and even a few weirdly shaped skeletons.
"We need to choose somewhere that we'll remember," Severus stated, looking around in wonder.
"There's an empty box here," Peter called out. We wandered over and saw that he was holding the lid of a box up. The box was made out of dark wood and looked like a Muggle bedding box.
"Perfect," I grinned. "We just need something to put on top of it so that we don't mix it with the other boxes in here."
Sirius let out a small cheer and walked over to us carrying a rusty sword. Before we could ask what he was planning, Sirius lifted the sword and stabbed it into the lid of the box so that when the lid was closed the box looked like a strange version of the sword in the stone.
"Well done," Lily murmured in surprise.
Remus came forward and placed the small box that held the locket into the bedding box. Peter closed the lid and smiled at the sight of the sword sticking out of the box.
"At least we have somewhere to hide them now," I muttered. "Anyone fancy a look around?"
Lily and Severus rolled their eyes as Sirius let out a shout and ran deeper into the room. Laughing, Remus, Peter and I ran after him. I heard Severus mutter something to Lily that made her giggle before they followed us at a slower pace.
Severus and Remus began looking through all the books that they could find while Sirius and Peter examined the various weapons. Lily linked hands with me as we walked around the piles of junk. She'd occasionally stop to look at pieces of jewelry but didn't pick anything up.
"Hey Lily!" Sirius called us over. "Do you want a tiara?"
Curious, we went over to him and saw him gesturing at a tiara that had a blue sapphire shaped like an oval in the middle of it. Something about it tickled the back of my mind; as if I should know more about it, but I didn't know what.
"That's not a tiara," Remus said using his lecture voice. "It's a diadem."
"Diadem?" Lily repeated in a strange voice. "Like the 'lost diadem of Ravenclaw'?"
We all blinked at her and then turned to stare at the diadem in wonder. "It can't be," Peter said. "We can't have found another Horcrux that easily."
I stepped closer to it and leaned down to see the diadem in more detail. "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," I read. "This is definatly Ravenclaw's diadem."
"How will we know if it's a Horcrux?" Sirius asked. "We can't just destroy it if it's not a Horcrux; it's one of Hogwarts only heirlooms."
"There's a spell that reveals whether an object is dark or not," Severus suggested. After checking to make sure we all agreed, he cast the spell on the diadem and then covered his ears as it began wailing. Dark smoke floated from the sapphire for a few seconds before everything went silent.
"I'm going to guess that means it's a Horcrux," Sirius rubbed his ears and scowled at the innocent looking object.
We placed the diadem into the bedding box with the locket and then left the Room of Hidden Things, heading back to Dumbledore's office. Without hesitation, we told Dumbledore that we'd found another Horcrux in the shape of Ravenclaws diadem and that we'd hidden it with the locket.
"I believe I might be close to finding another one," Dumbledore informed us. "But I need to do a bit more research before I can be sure."
After agreeing to keep him informed, we flooed back to Sirius's house. Lily and I collected Harry off of Zoe and then went back to Godric's Hollow. It had been an eventful night and day and we both needed some more rest.
A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. Please review! :)