Arthur Weasley was pacing in front of the fireplace. Molly had just finished bringing the chairs to the sitting room. She was also worried and was constantly looking for things out of place to fix.
About an hour ago they have received a message, brought by Fawkes, calling for a meeting of the Order.
Arthur stopped and sighed.
It couldn't be anything good. It has been a decade since the last time Dumbledore gathered them. He still remembered the occasion. It was the day he learned about the death of the Potters. The damned bird was never good news.
Did something happen to his children? Probably not. If that had happened, Dumbledore wouldn't have the face to ask him to host the meeting at his own house. It still couldn't be anything good.
After some time, the members started to arrive via floo. The first one to appear was Moody, and he was quite...moody. Shacklebolt arrived soon afterward. Snape came soon as well, and Lupin after him.
It was so strange to see all these people in the same place without Dumbledore here. They didn't seem to have anything in common.
After some more minutes, Dumbledore arrived. He seemed shaken, Minerva came just after him, and she was ghostly white.
He stared at the people gathered and proclaimed. "I have grave news."
Everyone took their seats. Dumbledore stood standing. When he noticed he had everyone's attention, he said "Trelawney is dead." he said.
Moody glared at him. "Elaborate."
Dumbledore sagged, took a handkerchief from his pocket, and started wiping his sweat. "She made a new prophecy."
Moody stood up in a flash. "Fuck you and your prophecies dumbledore!" he shouted. "How many people are going to die because of them? Weren't the potters enough?"
"This is serious, Moody. This prophecy changes everything." Dumbledore answered.
Moody growled. "Who was it?"
Dumbledore blinked. "What do you mean?"
He scowled. "Who killed your pet seer? Was it the death eaters? They have been keeping their heads down since Voldemort's supposed death."
Dumbledore sighed. "No one did it, Moody. She simply died after giving the prophecy, I don't know why. I have never seen anything like that."
Moody rolled her eyes. "Prophecies don't kill, dumbledore. Out with it, who did it?"
It wasn't Dumbledore who answered. "She just...died," Minerva said, grasping a cup of water. Her knuckles were white. "I have never heard her sound so terrified."
Shacklebolt chose that time to intervene. He narrowed his eyes "What were the contents, dumbledore."
Dumbledore wiped his face again with the handkerchief, took a breath and recited.
"The Demon Emperor is here. He who reshapes worlds. He is the darkness that consumes darkness, the evil that swallows evil. Lelouch vi Britannia is here, and I fear for us all"
For the next seconds, no one said a word.
"What the fuck!" Moody shouted. There was a smidge of fear in his voice. "What the fuck was that?"
"I have already inspected the student's book in Hogwarts. I have also looked into the files of the Wizengamot. There was never a "Vi Britannia" family in England, from what I could gather." Dumbledore said.
"Do you think we are dealing with another Dark Lord, Dumbledore?" Arthur asked, His heart was beating anxiously in his chest.
Snape scowled. "Obviously."
"Demon Emperor..." Lupin whispered. "The prophecy does not call him dark lord, like the one made for harry, it calls him Demon Emperor, specifically. Does this title have a meaning we don't know?
"It also calls him darkness that consumes darkness." Dumbledore sighed. "I think it is pretty clear we are dealing with another dark lord. A very powerful one"
Moody scowled pensively. His eyes lost in some distant memory "You are not talking about another Voldemort. You are talking about another Grindelwald."
Dumbledore nodded. "I fear so my friends" he sighed. "And this isn't the first prophecy I've heard about this man."
Moody was almost glaring a hole in dumbledore. "What do you mean?" he growled.
"There were...others." He answered reluctantly. "They started popping up all around the world soon after Harry's birth." he wiped his face once more. It was a cold evening, but most people inside the house were sweating, including Arthur.
"There was one about a Zero man, who died, but lived. One about a black order that brings light. One of them talked about a red queen that was a black knight. There was even one of them that spoke of the knights of the round sitting on a square room." he continued. "contradiction seems to be a common theme in every prophecy made about this man."
"And of all of them," he continued. "The most worrying one was the one a received some day ago, from the seersinger," he said "A world remade, a requiem played. A prophecy broken, a command spoken. Of long dead blood, a king reborn."
Shacklebolt soon caught on to what he was implying. "A prophecy broken...You think the prophecy about the potter boy has been retracted."
Dumbledore nodded cautiously.
"Fuck." Arthur didn't even notice it was him that said that.
The silence that extended was broken by Minerva. "One of them calls him king, another calls him emperor. Maybe they are about two different people."
Snape rolled his eyes and snorted. "Prophecies..." He scowled. "Anything they say can be twisted in a way or another. The spirit is the same, anyway. It is about a ruler. Someone who possesses great power and authority."
"We need to stop this man before he has a chance to rise into power, Dumbledore," Shacklebolt said coldly. Arthur couldn't help but agree. Magical Britain wouldn't survive another dark lord.
"And how do you propose we find him?" Snape said. "There is no Vi Britannia family in great Britain."
Arthur frowned "Maybe it is an inactive bloodline? Some squib line that finally had magical scions after centuries without wizards"
Snape barked "One so old it isn't even remembered? impossible"
"Vi Britannia." Lupin mused. "His name is clearly a reference to the British islands."
Minerva interjected. "Britannia..." she said. "It means 'Land of the Britons'. The Britons were the ancient celts who first set foot in the British islands... It is also a name for the personification of the British islands, a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a Corinthian helmet."
Dumbledore muttered. "Indeed. Strange. Maybe it is just a coincidence?"
The silence stretched until Moody answered. "Or maybe it isn't."
Dumbledore turned to him, sharply. "What do you mean."
Arthur was hearing the sound of Moody clenching his teeth. "It is quite obvious, isn't it?"
Moody scowled. "Of long-dead blood, a king reborn. Of Britannia."
Dumbledore suddenly went still. His face rapidly paling.
"No..." he shook his head. For the first time in his life, Arthur had seen dumbledore truly terrified. It was then that Arthur understood what Moody was implying
"It makes sense, doesn't it," Moody said, in controlled calm.
"That is impossible," Arthur said, in denial. "The line of the old Kings of the Bretons died with Arthur in The Battle of Camlann."
"Merlin helps us all..." Dumbledore said. He was trembling. Arthur had never seen him trembling.
"We are not dealing with another Grindwald," Moody gritted his teeth. "We are dealing with another Mordred."
...
"Mordred was a dark lord?" Lelouch asked in shock.
He had been questioning sir Cadogan for most of the evening now. He was a well of information. Somehow, the chat started to stray to old legends from the past."
"Not a mere dark lord, Milord." He answered, in sadness. "He was the Dark Lord, The term didn't even exist before Mordred spread his darkness over Great Britain," he said. His eyes were lost in the past
"The bastard made dementors out of unicorns. He twisted the hearts of the noblest of knights. What happened with Lancelot..." He gulped. "Everything he touched turned into a twisted ruin of itself. He turned Avalon into a place of nightmares and horrors no man can unsee." he cleared a tear that fell from his eye. "Sorry, my lord. It is hard to remember those things."
Lelouch nodded empathically. He needed to know more though.
"It wasn't Arthur who stopped Mordred." Cadogan continued. "For all his skill and wisdom, Arthur wasn't a wizard, he was just a muggle. It was Merlin who slayed Mordred. That is the feat that immortalized him: the slaying of the first and most terrible dark lord. It is the reason he is hailed as the greatest wizard of all time. It is the reason wizards that do great things for the light are given the "Order of Merlin, first class" award" he scowled in displeasure. "Instead of the "Knight of the round table." or the "Excalibur" award.
That...certainly answered some questions Lelouch had about the wizarding culture. It was strange Merlin would be acclaimed almost like a god while King Arthur was so easily forgotten. People swore in his name, for god's sake.
And it brought about a dozen more questions. In Lelouch's world, Arthur Pendragon survived after the battle of Caemlann long enough to have an heir. The bloodline of Alwin I survived through the Britannian Royal Family in the centuries after it.
There was a reason Lelouch was hailed as the 99th emperor of Britannia, after all. There were 98 emperors before him. It was even mentioned in Britannia's Anthem:
"Our emperor stands astride this world. He'll vanquish every foe."
"His bloodline immortal and pure. All hail Britannia."
In Lelouch's world, the bloodline of Alwin had ruled for hundreds of years, even after the conquest of the British islands. In this world, it has been dead for millennia. What did it mean for Lelouch? Probably nothing. He was a Black now and had no ties of any kind with the ancient kings of Britannia.
Right?
AN: I just can't keep from mentioning Arthurian legends, considering it is one of the main tying points between HP e CG. There's a lot of things that just fit.
AN2: Britannia's Anthem is awesome. Check it on YTB