Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 50

Having to know that we were going to be reliving the events from that night only made everything more miserable. Dumbledore was going to want to talk about everything and that only made me sick to my stomach. Any time before this, I would have been happy to have had a conversation with Dumbledore, but this was not a good time. I should have just acted like I was dead back at the hospital wing...

"The events that happened today could have been avoided if I had been more open with both of you," Dumbledore said as he looked from one of us to the other. "I should have told you on the night that you saw Arthur Weasley attacked that something like this could have happened."

Nothing that he had said made sense to me, but for some reason I was not able to find the words to ask him any sort of question. My mind had become blank and numb as I thought through everything once more. Sirius was gone...the prophecy had been smashed...everything felt empty...

"When you two came to me on that night, one of my greatest fears was Voldemort knowing about the connection," he said. "I had a feeling that it happened, but I held on to the small amount of doubt that I had until I had a conversation with Sirius about it."

I felt a twitch in my face when his name was mentioned. Sirius's face flashed through my mind again and something pulled at my heart making me want to scream out in pain, but I held it in just like every other emotion that I had at the moment.

"Your godfather told me he had a conversation with Harry about it during the holidays," Dumbledore continued. "He said that you had felt Voldemort awaken in you that night and all of my fears had been confirmed. I feared that he would begin to use this against you, that was why I arranged for the Occlumency lessons to help you protect yourselves."

"They didn't help," Harry said dryly.

"Unfortunately you're right," he replied gravely. "Though it did help to prove Voldemort's plan. Professor Snape informed me that he was constantly seeing the same memory in both of your heads - the one of the Department of Mysteries. This was...rather alarming to say the least. It is easy to say now that this was all part of a plan to get you two as obsessed with this room as he was so you would want to go in there as much as he did."

"I'm happy that his plan worked out for him," I said quietly with a crack in my voice.

Tears started welling up in my eyes and I wiped them away quickly and tried to let out a cough to cover up my cries. I felt so idiotic - like such a fool. I had fallen into Voldemort's trap perfectly just like he had wanted. It was hard to believe that I was the one that felt trapped in his mind when all this time he had been picking through ours and knew everything about us. This could have been prevented if we had just done what Snape had told us.

"It isn't your fault," he said sympathetically. "Like I said, I should have told you about this as soon as I figured this out. It could have prevented this from happening, but I have foolish. I believed that if I distanced myself from you two that Voldemort wouldn't try to do something like this. As you saw tonight, he was attempting to get me to kill both of you - probably assumed that I would think that killing you would kill him as well as long as you were under his possession."

"So I guess that's why he didn't kill Emily..." Harry murmured.

"Exactly," Dumbledore sighed. "He wanted me to do it, but he soon figured out that I would so he attempted to kill you himself, Emily."

"But he didn't," I said bluntly.

"You're right," he said. "Perhaps he was thinking that he would see of I would do something if he turned the focus to another person - maybe that it would frighten me to the point that I wouldn't have any other choice."

"There's something I don't understand," Harry said sounding both hallow and angry. "We went to Grimmauld Place through the fire before we left for the Ministry and Kreacher told us that Sirius wasn't there."

"That was a lie," Dumbledore said simply. "House-elves can lie to the people that aren't their masters and I'm not entirely sure that he even believed that Sirius was his master. You see, his loyalty hasn't been with Sirius for a while now because he had kicked him out of his house during the holidays and Kreacher took this as an opportunity to visit some of his master's family - Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange."

"So he's been serving them?" I asked angrily. "He sent us to the Ministry on purpose because he was on Voldemort's side the whole time."

"He was only that way because he was mistreated by Sirius," Dumbledore said. "Maybe - "

"Don't blame Sirius for this," Harry snarled.

"I'm not," Dumbledore said calmly. "I'm just trying to explain Kreacher's point of view."

"We don't give a damn about Kreacher's point of view," I said coldly. "He's the reason our godfather is dead, in case you've forgotten."

"How long have you known this?" Harry demanded.

"I was told last night," Dumbledore said. "When Professor Snape got your warning about Sirius he immediately tried to contact the Order and found quickly that he was sitting safety in Grimmauld Place - he would have told you this himself if you had returned from the forest with Professor Umbridge."

"Why didn't he give us some sort of hint that he understood us?" Harry asked. "He acted like he had no idea what we were talking about."

"That's because he was already in a position with Umbridge standing in the room," Dumbledore explained. "He didn't want to make anything obvious. He would have met up with afterwards - "

"He was fired," I said bluntly. "He had nothing to risk. He could have helped us or at least communicated with us."

"Why wasn't he out there fighting with us?" Harry asked angrily. "Or did he not want to have to fight his master?"

"He's not a Death Eater, Harry," I said through gritted teeth.

"You were just saying - " Harry started.

"He helped us," I said quickly. "He sent the Order to help us."

"You're right Emily," Dumbledore said. "Snape has earned my trust and I truly believe that he deserves yours. He did everything could do to help last night, and I hope your realize that."

"Then why is Sirius dead?" Harry asked.

"Because Voldemort set everything up perfectly," Dumbledore said. "He made ties with Kreacher and found that Sirius was the only person that both of you would risk your lives for. He made sure that Sirius was going to be out of view and ordered Kreacher to lie to you both to make sure that you would come to the Department of Mysteries. He's bound to have planned this for a long time - that's obvious when you think about the amount of times that you two have been dreaming about that room."

It should have made sense before this, but admitting that Voldemort had made fools out of us wasn't exactly something that I was happy to do. This all made me feel like I was some sort of puppet. We had been manipulated so easily and I was so ashamed of myself. It had always been me that had fought for everyone to trust Snape, but in the end I hadn't even trusted him enough to relay a message. If only I had then this could have all been avoided, but it was far too late for that.

"I think that it's about time that I told you something that you should have known a long time ago," Dumbledore said without meeting our eyes. "I think that we may as well start at the beginning - it always astonishes me that neither of you asked why I set you to live with your Muggle relatives."

"Because no one else wanted us - " Harry scoffed.

"That is not true at all," Dumbledore said with a twitch of a smile. "You would be surprised at the people who would have been thrilled to take you, but I do have my reasoning for leaving you two with your aunt and uncle and it has to do with the one thing that Voldemort has always feared win both of you."

"It has to do with our mother's protection, doesn't it?" Harry asked.

"But what does that have to do with the Dursleys?" I asked irritably. "None of them love us - the exact opposite actually."

"But your mother's blood runs through your aunt," Dumbledore said. "And she was willing to take you in - "

"Willing?" I scoffed so loudly that it irritated the scar that ran down my face. "Is that a joke?"

"She may have been angry in doing so, but she did take you in nonetheless," Dumbledore said. "And by doing that, she provided the protection that you needed from Voldemort."

Never before had I thought of something like that. Aunt Petunia may have treated us horribly for being the offspring of her sister, but she had done her duty in protecting us from the wizarding world. Part of me wondered what it would be like if the circumstances had been different and we had been brought up as pampered little brats that thought too highly of themselves. I cringed at the thought of being anything like Dudley in this world.

"When you both arrived at Hogwarts, I wanted to tell you all everything from the start," Dumbledore continued. "But something held me back. Every single year I became more tempted to explain it all, but I kept telling myself that you two were far too young for this sort of knowledge, even after everything you had been through together. I fear that I can no longer make that excuse - I have withheld this information far too long..."

"Does it have to do with the prophecy?" Harry asked in a hallow voice.

"Yes it does," he said. "And I fear now more than ever that if I would have told you all about it before then this would have never happened. All I can ask is for you both to forgive me..."

"It doesn't matter anyway," I said sounding defeated. "The prophecy was smashed in the Department of Mysteries - we won't know it's contents anyway."

"That was only the record of the prophecy," Dumbledore said. "It was I that heard it in person and was able to put it on record."

"But who made the prophecy?" I asked.

"Have you ever wondered what my reasoning was for appointing Professor Trelawney the position as Divination teacher?" he asked. "It is common knowledge - even to me - that many people here seem to think of this poor woman as more of a joke than anything else, but it's quite the opposite. Most of the time, she may not be the greatest Seer, but she has told one or two prophecies in her day - one of them was the prophecy that was placed in the Department of Mysteries."

"Professor Trelawney?" I asked in disbelief.

"Indeed," Dumbledore nodded.

Without saying what he was doing, Dumbleodre stood up tfrom his desk and walked over towards a cabinet that sat nearby. From it, he pulled out the very familiar looking Pensieve and brought it over to his desk. He pointed his wand to his head and pulled out a silver strand of vapor that was placed into the strange looking liquid. He tapped his wand on the Pensieve and out of it came Professor Trelawney looking misty eyed and lost.

"Those who have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord are approaching..." she said in a voice that hardly seemed like it belonged to her. "Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord shall mark them as his equals...but they shall have power the Dark Lord knows not...and one shall die at the hand of the other for all of them cannot live while the another survives...only one of them with that power will have a stronger will to bring an end to the terror...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

All three of us remained silent as the phantom of Professor Trelawney disappeared back into the Pensieve. So that was it...that was what Voldemort was so desperate to have. What didn't make sense was his reasoning for going after us in the first place - had he known about the prophecy?

"How did he know it was us?" I asked. "Why did he come after us specifically if he had never heard this before?"

"That's just it - he did hear it," Dumbledore said. "But only part of it. I'm certain that he was only aware that there was someone coming to destroy him that would be born at the end of July."

"There is something else that's confusing me," I said. "At the beginning of the prophecy it implied that more than one person would have the power to destroy him, but at the end it only mentioned one."

"You're right," Dumbledore said. "That's something that has been puzzling me for ages."

"So what it's saying is that either Voldemort will die or Emily and I will," Harry said.

"I am afraid so," he said.

"But it only said one of us," I said. "The one with the stronger will - what does that mean, we hate him equally."

"Perhaps it means that one of you will have more of a need to do it yourself," Dumbledore suggested. "Only time can tell."

This frightened me. If this prophecy went as planned, then we had a strong chance of dying at the hand of Voldemort. What I understood from the message was that both of us had the power to kill Voldemort ourselves, but in the end only one of us would be the one to destroy him or we would end up dead.

"Why would he choose us?" I murmured. "We don't have any special powers - are you even sure that the prophecy was talking about us?"

"Well, the funny thing is that it might night have meant either of you," Dumbledore said. "There was one other child born at the end of July that had parents who defied Voldemort three times."

"Who?" Harry and I asked at once.

"Neville Longbottom," he said.

"Neville?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"But that's only one person," I said. "The prophecy said that there would be more than one."

"It said that there were others that were capable, but only one that would finish him in the end," he said. "And you two are forgetting the most important part - he made you two his equals on the night that he killed your parents."

"But what if it was really Neville - " Harry started.

"It can't be Harry," I murmured. "Voldemort chose us...it's final..."

It was all hitting me like a weight - this was really happening. Learning all of this information on top of just losing our godfather made me feel like I was going to collapse on the ground from the pressure of it all. We were going to have to face Voldemort in the end with a high risk of being killed. There may be two of us, but we were no match for someone that had killed so many people in his time - we were just another two people standing in his way of taking over.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Well, for starters both of you need to get some rest," Dumbledore said. "You've been through a lot tonight and I'm pretty sure Madam Pomfrey is going to come scratching at the door if I don't return both of you soon."

"What about you?" Harry asked. "Are you staying?"

"I believe so," Dumbledore smirked as he stood up from his desk. "The Minister realized that it was his mistake after all when he saw Voldemort himself - though I couldn't help but feel that it took a lot of pride from him to admit to his mistake."

"He saw Voldemort?" I asked in surprise.

"He did," Dumbledore said. "I suppose that you were no longer conscious when he arrived, but he seemed to be rather baffled by his presence."

Harry stood up and held out his hand to help me stand up. I grabbed into him while Dumbledore balanced me from my other side. I grimaced from the short amount of time that I had pressure on my leg, but soon enough we were inching our way out of the room.

"I do ask that you both try to sleep when we get to the hospital wing," Dumbledore said. "I'll have your visitors leave you alone - I'm sure they'll understand."

"Good luck with that," I muttered.

It took us a while, but we finally managed to get back to the hospital wing where I found George, Fred, Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Moody, and Neville all waiting. Luna, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all lying in beds looking like they were fast asleep.

George nearly jumped out of his shoes when he saw me and immediately raced over to me. Dumbledore held up his hand and I smiled weakly as Harry and Dumbledore lowered me down onto a bed that was sitting next to Hermione's.

"Are they all okay?" Harry asked.

"They're fine thanks to Madam Pomfrey," Neville said. "I don't think that they'll be waking up for a long time with the stuff she gave them."

Harry stepped over and sat on the bed on the other side of me and looked at the floor with a pained expression. We could try to hide it as much as we wanted, but it was hard to not feel the pain of everything we had lost today. I looked around at all of the people around us and was trying to make myself happy that we still had them to support us with everything we do, but all I could find myself thinking was that there was one person missing.

"Oh - you're back!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed when she saw us lying in the beds as she came out of her office.

She rushed over towards a cabinet filled with all different sorts of potions and picked up the familiar vial of Dreamless Sleep - something that I was looking forward to. As she walked over towards Harry and me, George took his spot next to me and held onto my hand and gave me a weak smile. I tried to return the favor, but I couldn't bring myself to even fake happiness at this point.

As Madam Pomfrey gave some of the potion to Harry, I looked up at Snape who was standing in the front of the crowd that surrounded my brother and me. For the first time in a while, I found myself able to read his expression. He looked frightened and saddened as he looked from my brother to me. It wasn't something I was used to seeing and I felt a tug at my heart knowing that I was probably the cause of this.

"Here you go," Madam Pomfrey said as she handed over the vial to me. "Drink up - your wounds will heal faster while you sleep."

"Thank you," I said in almost a whisper.

I took a large gulp from the vial and then looked down at the hand that was holding George's as he squeezed it. I looked around at everyone one last time before I drifted off into the nothingness that could only temporarily mask my pain.

...

When I woke up hours later the sun was setting for the day. I found that most of the people that had been in the room were now lying asleep in their own hospital beds or had already left the room. George was still loosely holding onto my hand with his head lying on my bed and was completely out of it. Tonks was the only one that seemed to be awake in the room other than myself and she gave me a weak smile as she met my eyes.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

I shrugged gently and started to moved my leg around. It was still sore from where it had broken, but it seemed to have healed enough for me to not scream out in pain whenever the bone moved.

"It's a shame about that scar," Tonks said as she moved a strand of hair from my face and sat down on my bed next to me. "Remus told me that he had given you a scar about two years ago that had nearly just cleared itself up."

"I nearly forgot about that one..." I murmured. "I guess I just got so used to seeing it."

"Well, he certainly hasn't let it slip his mind," Tonks sighed. "He never lets anything like that fade away."

"I wish he would," I said. "I don't blame him for it - it wasn't his fault."

She nodded and then I turned my attention over to Harry who seemed to be peacefully asleep. The lines of pain on his face seemed to have gone away enough for me to see the small scratches that had been left on his face from the Department of Mysteries. Part of me wondered what had gotten them there, but most of all I was upset that Harry had gotten hurt in the first place.

"You two were brilliant yesterday," Tonks said. "Not many your age could be as brave as you."

"I don't know if I'd call it bravery," I muttered.

"Stop blaming yourself for this," Tonks said seriously. "You're acting like Remus - never able to forgive himself, that one..."

"How are the others?" I asked quickly wanting to change the subject.

"They're...getting through it," Tonks sighed. "It's really hard to say with them because they don't really want to talk about it. Moody's doing his best to cheer everyone up - he's seen death the most, so it's easier for him to cope with it. Dumbledore hasn't said much on the subject because he's been to busy dealing with the Ministry and helping get everything back in order. The only person I'm really surprised with is Snape."

"Snape?" I asked. "Why?"

"He doesn't seem to be his usual self," she said. "You know - dark and emotionless. Something seems to be bothering him...I don't know, maybe I'm imagining it..."

Something was bothering him, but I knew that it didn't have to do with Sirius. Maybe it had something to do with what Dumbledore had said to us or maybe it was that Voldemort's return was now public. A small part of me wondered if it had to do with him not participating in the fight at the Ministry - could that be bothering him?

"He was the one that made the call to the Order, wasn't he?" I asked her after a moment.

"He was," she nodded. "It's a good thing that he did too - I knew that there was something wrong and I was about to contact him myself."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"The necklace," she said as she tugged on an exact replica of the one that I had on me that was sitting around her neck. "It was burning like mad all night - driving me crazy to be honest. It didn't bother me much at first because the thing had been acting rather strange all year with randomly going off and whatnot. I contacted Snape nearly every time, but he said that it must have been a wild thought or just a change of emotion that had set it off."

I grabbed onto the diamond necklace that was around my neck and looked at it. It wasn't the same as it had been when I had seen it for the first time. For some reason, it seemed to have a red tint to it that didn't look like it was going to go away. Tonks was the same color, but I didn't understand completely what this meant.

"It's been this way since last night," she said. "It had been going off and on for a while, but now it seems to be stuck like this."

"Since last night?" I asked.

"Well, it was more like this morning I suppose," she said. "Right about the time you went to talk to Dumbledore actually."

I nodded, but mind was taken back to the time when Hermione told me about the necklace when I first got it. The diamond turned different colors based on the well-being of one of the people wearing it, in this case it would be me. She had told me that when the diamond becomes red it meant that one of us was in terrible danger. My heart sank when I thought of when Tonks had said it turned like this - when Dumbledore was telling us that we were going to have to fight Voldemort in the end and that there was a possibility that we could die. Did this mean that we were destined to die?

Just then Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office and noticed that I was awake. She practically shooed Tonks away and reached for the vial of Dreamless Sleep.

"She needs her rest or she won't get better - how many times must I say this?" she said irritably. "You'll have plenty of time to talk once she's healthy."

She then thrusted the potion into my hands where I took it out of fear that she might hit me in the head if I didn't. I took a gulp of it and set it back on the table next to me and looked back up at my godmother.

"Sleep well," she said.

I was about to say something, but I found myself at a loss for words as the darkness overtook me once more and I found myself floating effortlessly throughout a dark abyss.

...

Thanks for reading - I hope you liked it! I plan to have the next and FINAL chapter up either late Saturday or early Sunday before I leave home. After that, I'll be gone for about a week - once I'm back I'll start the next story in the series. Thanks again for reading and just tell me if I have any grammatical mistakes that need to be corrected in a review!

Follow me:
ShannenWrites (Twitter)
GryffindorGirl347 (Tumblr)

Tell me what you think!