I own nothing. J.K.R Owns everything :(
Chapter 16: Prophecy
"You'll remember I said I'd tell you the Prophecy before I was told?" Harry asked, those who were there nodded. "Well I was going to leave it until just before we got the train but I think I'll just tell you now."
"Is this Prophecy the reason you had to kill Voldemort?" Petunia asked. "Dumbledore never actually told me what the content was but he told me about it existing and explained what it was." she explained.
"Exactly." he nodded.
"Is it bad?" Dudley asked.
Harry nodded and took a deep breath, "Quite bad yes." he sighed, "Well it's this: '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 know's 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...'" he finished with his eyes closed.
There was a shocked silence. James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Alice, Frank, Ron, Hermione and Ginny already knew it so only looked sad and upset. Those who didn't know were trying to come to terms with what they had just been told.
"That's what it said?" Dora asked softly.
"Word for word." Harry confirmed, "I don't think I'll ever forget it to be honest."
"But... What does it mean?" Amber asked confused.
"Basically it means he had to kill Voldemort and only he had the power to do so." James sighed, "At least thats what we interpreted it as."
"Partly right James." Albus nodded gravely, "It could've meant two boys as you know though."
"Who's the other one?" Neville asked.
"That would be you." Frank told him, "We'd escaped Voldemort three times and you're only a few hours older than Harry too. You were born just before 11pm, Harry was born the next day just after 6am."
"The two of you fit the requirement so the six of us had to go into hiding." Alice smiled sadly, "Not that we stayed hidden for long."
"If it could've been either of us how'd you know it was Harry?" Neville asked Albus.
"'The Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal'." Albus quoted.
"And he certainly did that." Harry muttered gesturing his forehead moodily. "Believe me when I say I asked all these questions too."
"How about the 'neither can live while the other survives' part?" Fred questioned.
"Well... That's hard to explain." Harry sighed, "Basically neither of us could truly live while the other did, we were too focused on killing each other. It was always going to be me or him."
"And we're all glad you won." Hermione smiled. "And lived."
"Out of curiosity what was the 'power he knows not'?" Sirius asked.
"Love." Albus smiled, "Riddle couldn't understand love or truly care for anyone except himself. It's a weakness because he refused to acknowledge the power love can give."
"He cared about Nagini." Harry shrugged, "Though that might be something to do with being his familiar and the snake being just as evil as him." he mused. "He also cared about the objects keeping him alive and Nagini was one of them."
"He had more than the one I found?" Regulus asked in shock.
"6 of them." Ron nodded after sharing a look with Harry.
"Ugh." Regulus groaned, "It's a wonder you three survived finding them all."
"We only helped get rid of 4 of them, 1 was destroyed before we knew what they were." Hermione explained, "Another was destroyed by Albus just before we learned about them."
"What exactly is 'them'?" Remus frowned.
"Objects that kept Riddle alive." Harry said shortly, "We wont say exactly what right now, it'll reveal too much and it's still a bit painful for us."
"Objects that kept him... Oh merlin, don't tell me it is what I think it is." Sirius groaned.
"Depends what you think it is." Regulus shrugged, "I already know what they mean."
"Wait." Bill gasped, "You didn't! That's the darkest kind of magic possible!" he looked at his youngest brother, Hermione and Harry in shock.
"We did." Ron nodded, "Why'd you think we couldnt tell the Order?"
"Because you were told not to. Now do you mind explaining what the hell your talking about?" Dora asked irritably.
"You dont want to know." Sirius shuddered, "Bill's right, it's some of the darkest magic in the world."
"I'm sure we can handle it." Molly scowled.
"We cant say." Harry said apologetically, "If you figure it out then we'll admit to it if we know you know." he shrugged.
"How many people actually know?" Regulus asked.
"Um... 7 I think." Hermione shrugged, "It's not common knowledge."
"Like how the prophecy was kept quiet, even now it's not known by anyone outside of this room, except Aberforth." Harry explained.
"Because he wanted to know how you could stand up to him when he was in a bad mood and what you'd been doing. Not even I could do that and I'm his brother." Albus chuckled.
"He wouldn't help us unless we told him." Ron shrugged, "So Harry did and he helped us after a little more persuasion."
Albus sighed, "He's been like that since he was 14, always needing a valid reason before he did something." he cocked his head to the side as though listening to something, "If you'll excuse me. It seems someone's calling on me." he smiled leaving the portrait.
"So you found out about the prophesy when you were 15?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, the night Sirius died." Harry nodded.
"That's part of the reason why you were so depressed isn't it?" Arthur asked.
"No, the prophecy was big but I didn't start worrying about it until about a month or two after I'd heard it." he explained, "Truthfully I was expecting something like that." he shrugged. "Voldemort was determined to kill me, I found out. All the prophecy did was confirm what I could've guessed and told me a few other things, 'power he knows not' and 'neither can live while the other survives' are two of the things I learned about."
"We'd noticed you never got worked up about it." Ron nodded, "It was like you didnt really know what it meant at times. Like it was just something Professor Binns said."
"I accepted it." he shrugged, keeping his face blank and his voice neutral, "I knew there was a chance I would die but I also believed I could kill Voldemort too, after some time that is."
"Not buying it. You worried about it at one point." Ginny told him, Teddy was cuddled up to her stomach now, looking around while holding his stuffed wolf tightly. "You may have accepted it but you still worried."
"When I was first told, yes, just a little." he admitted, "I was 15 and just told I had to kill the darkest wizard on the planet before he killed me, naturally I worried a little about how I could possibly do it. I'd thought about it a lot while I was at Privet Drive and realised it didn't matter how old I was or that I thought I couldn't at that time, it was still going to happen eventually and I couldn't change that."
"Because of Voldemort's ignorance." Lily sighed, "He didn't even know all of the prophesy and he still came after us."
"We cant change that either." Alice told her, "What we can do is be glad that old Voldy is gone and we've been avenged and helped by our son's." she smiled at Neville proudly.
Neville smiled back, "We'd help any of you any time at all." he said.
"And be glad to do it." Harry added, "Us helping you helps us too, you know."
"Good." James nodded, "Although you may be in trouble if you give us any more mini-heart attacks." he frowned.
"We cant help it." Ron protested, "It's not our fault we end up in dangerous or terrifying situations."
"He has a point." Harry mused, "As you know, I don't look for trouble, it finds me."
"Same goes for the rest of us." Hermione added, "Even when we're separated one of us always get's in trouble."
"It started at random times, maybe once or twice every year and it just started getting more and more often as the war got worse." Ginny sighed.
"Blame Voldemort for that one." Neville suggested, "It really is his fault after all."
"And he's dead so it's totally safe to blame him." Dora grinned, "And easier."
"Or blame the loyal Death Eater's." Regulus smirked, "They are probably a big part of the trouble you got into anyway."
"Valid points." Harry smirked, "I think we'll do that. You all reacted better than I thought you would to the prophesy." he commented.
"We knew it was probably something like that." Bill shrugged.
"Yeah mate, there had to be a reason for Voldemort trying to off you himself." Fred nodded.
"It couldn't have just been coincidence he attacked you and your parents all those years ago." George reasoned.
"If anything Voldemort had a high awareness for self preservation." Draco added, "He wouldn't attempt to kill you after what happened the first time if he didnt have a reason."
"Well he was stupid to try it again." Harry chuckled, "Hence I'm here alive and he's a pile of non-existent ashes."
"He should've learned you cant mess with a Potter when he went after my parents." James commented, "From what I heard he was weakened quite a bit. When he went after my parents at Potter manor, he'd had to use a lot of power to get the wards down and they were quite powerful." he sighed, "The only reason they lost is because they were outnumbered."
"Yeah, there was at least 20 Death Eaters and Voldemort himself there." Regulus nodded, "I would've warned you if I'd known about that attack before it happened."
"Oh really? I'm sorry Reg, but I find that a little hard to beleive." Sirius told him.
"We may not have been on the best terms but I was grateful they took care of you Siri, they treated you like their own son, better than we were ever treated by our parents." he explained.
"And ours." Cissy said and Andy nodded, "The whole lot of them didn't care about anything other than trying to make sure we ended up as the 'perfect purebloods'." she made a face.
"You have a point." Sirius nodded, "I'm glad I left."
"Same here." Andy smiled, "I fear we would've gave in to the madness if we'd stayed."
"Bad thing, very bad." Regulus muttered, "Been there, done that, regret it, never going there again."
"All the best people are a little bit mad." Harry smiled widely, "Not always in a bad way." he added nodding to the portrait where Albus had been.
"Yes, and according to the majority of magical Britain, us three are more than a little mad." Hermione snorted.
"Couldn't be anything to do with breaking into Gringotts and riding a dragon to get out again could it?" Bill inquired smirking.
"Probably." Ron shrugged, "Seem's almost normal for us."
"Nah, normal's getting passed the whole Ministry without getting caught or noticed until about an hour after entering." Harry grinned, "We did that too." he added to the confused looks.
"You broke into the Ministry?" Dora asked.
"Um... Yes?" Hermione tried, "We had to get something and the Ministry wasnt very co-operative with us at that time so we broke in. We'll explain later." she added.
"It is an incredibly long story." Harry agreed, "And involves you lot having to understand more than we want to give away at the moment."
"About that, is there a reason you don't want to give much away?" Remus asked.
The Golden Trio exchanged looks.
"We've done a lot, some of it's still quite painful for us to re-live." Harry said finally, "If we told you there's a chance you'd go into shock or not beleive us. Even if some of you know some of it there's still a chance you wouldn't understand and we want all of you to understand exactly what we've been through."
"Not all of it's bad but there's still a few memories that give us nightmares." Hermione admitted, "Even stuff from years ago comes back to haunt us sometimes."
"It is a little hard to re-live everything, but we can handle it." Ron smiled, "Or at least we'll try to without ending up in here." he gestured the Hospital Wing in general.
"Or St Mungo's." Harry put in, "Poppy is great but even somethings are beyond her."
"Like some type's of mind magic." Andy nodded, "Which is why I'll be helping her with you three, and Ginny too, from now on."
"What?" Percy asked confused.
"Oops, forgot to mention it." Ginny mumbled, "I've got PTSD now."
All of them looked shocked, the Golden Trio having not heard her when she was told.
"How?" Harry asked.
"Developed it." she shrugged, "Right Andy?"
"Pretty much. It seem's to have been developing for a while so it was only a matter of time before it showed itself." she sighed, "The odd thing is you never showed any of the normal signs."
"What are the normal signs?" Fred asked curiously.
"Usually a person who has it or is getting it snaps at people and is generally over stressed or anxious about something." Draco told him, "I'm working on the cure but I don't know what else to try, I have the feeling I'm missing something..." he muttered before his eyes went wide, he whispered something to Astoria, "I'll be back in a bit." he got up and ran out the Hospital Wing.
"Where's he going? I've never seen him like that before." Cissy asked Astoria.
"To ask Severus about something." she replied smiling, "If I'm not mistaken he's just figured something out to do with the potion."
"He has been waiting for a breakthrough." Neville mused.
They all broke into separate conversations and 20 minutes later Draco returned smiling widely.
"I've got it figured out. I was missing two ingredients, Moonshine and Firewhiskey."
"Alcohol in potions?" Charlie asked curiously.
"Just a little, the Firewhiskey helps the mind relax and Moonshine, mixed with other ingredients, removes thing's that shouldn't be in the body. In the case of PTSD, once the potion is completed, it should hopefully remove the unstable emotional reactions which are what causes a relapse - generally with the magical version the condition stays for the lifetime of the affected person and tiny little things can set it off as can neglect of potions, which has obviously happened with those three." he explained, gesturing the Golden Trio.
"You know, the Muggle version is much easier to get rid of." Andy mused, "It's just with the magical version the magic of the affected person keeps a hold of the PTSD and lodges it in the mind permanently, with Muggle's it can be treated and cured but those medicines don't work on magical's." she stated, "It's trickier to remove the magical version of PTSD, but we have more effective treatments for the symptoms than Muggle's do." she muttered.
"Kind of a mixed thing then?" Amber inquired, "Muggle's can get rid of it completely but magical's can treat the symptoms better?"
Draco nodded, "That's why I've been working on a way to either remove the unstable emotional reactions or remove it completely. I'll start the potion tonight and it should be done by tomorrow morning after it's 10 hour brewing time, ready for testing on tomorrow afternoon and ready to be tried tomorrow night."
"Excelent." Ginny grinned.
"It'll be excellent if he doesn't blow up the cauldron again." Cissy mused.
"I didnt mean to do that. I was interrupted - rather loudly - and spilled more powdered fire crab claw into the potion than I was supposed to." Draco huffed.
"Powdered fire crab claw? I've never heard of a potion that has that in it." Lily frowned.
"It was in the making of a potion I was trying to create." Draco shrugged, "The one that returned Sirius's memories that were taken by the Dementors. It balanced two ingredients that were dangerous alone and allowed me to achieve my goal."
"Cool." Sirius grinned.
"How did you get so good at potions?" Frank asked curiously.
"When your Godfather was the youngest potions master in Britain it's hard not to be." Draco shrugged, "I've been brewing potions since I was 5 when Uncle Sev started teaching me the basics and when I started Hogwarts I used to brew potions through the summer too. He made sure I didn't show off though, I knew most of the first and second year potions by the time I was 10 but Uncle Sev told me to make some small mistakes so I wouldn't be showing off."
"Why'd he do that?" James frowned.
"No idea. Probably so I didn't get over-confidant and blow up the school or something, it's different in a class too. You have to be conscious of other people so I made mistakes due to distractions and the likes anyway."
"You've always been easy to distract." Cissy smirked, "When you were a toddler and trying to get into places you shouldn't all your Father or I had to do was give you something shiny or colourful and you'd sit for hours playing with it."
"That explains the bunch of shiny stones I found under my bed." he grinned, as the others laughed, "I'd wondered where they came from."
"Harry was hard to distract, consider yourself lucky." Lily told Cissy.
"Actually it was only you and Prongs that found it hard to distract him." Sirius pointed out, "Remus and I had no problem getting him away from somewhere he wasn't supposed to be."
"They're right Lils." James grumbled, he looked at Harry, "You always ignored us if those two were there."
Harry frowned, "What did I do if Pettigrew was there?" he asked curiously.
"Mainly watched him or ignored him. If he went to pick you up you'd squirm until one of us took you or he put you down again." Remus frowned, "We didn't know why but you never ever liked him, even when you were just a few days old and just out of hospital, you just screamed if he was holding you."
"Pity I didn't make him deaf." Harry smirked.
"Exactly what I was thinking." Sirius said cheerfully, he looked at the Weasley children and Neville, "You lot wouldn't go near Pettigrew either, no matter that you saw us so rarely you obviously dont remember seeing us." he shrugged.
"One example of why we should've listened to Bill and Charlie." Arthur muttered, "They came to us one night when he and Remus dropped Harry off with us since we used to watch all the kids of Order members, we weren't full members at that time, and told us he seemed off."
"We didn't know what to make of it." Molly added, "So we just left it."
"I remember that." Bill nodded, "You said he was upset because you'd all been told about someone's death... Can't remember much more before or after that." he shrugged.
"I can't remember it at all." Charlie added.
"You were only 7, Bill was only 9." Arthur told him, "And a lot has happened since then and we did keep you away from the gist of what was going on with the war anyway."
"I only remember snippets." Bill nodded, "Not a lot but a few bits."
"You two spent most of your time keeping an eye on the twins for us." Molly chuckled, "And Ron when he was born."
"We figured it would be good practice for when you started your own families." Arthur grinned.
"I'll agree with that." Charlie smirked, "5 younger siblings and not much chance of forgetting how to take care of them as babies."
"Quite annoying." Ginny huffed.
"Yeah you got to know all of our baby stories -"
"- and we didn't get to know yours unless Mum or Dad told us."
"Same with Perce." Ron added, "It was always when you three were at Hogwarts though."
"Brilliant." Percy grumbled.
Molly checked her watch, "It's getting late, we should head home and to bed." she said.
Everyone nodded and said their goodbye's to the four bed ridden teens with promises to be back the next morning. Minerva, however, stayed until the others were gone.
"I just wanted to tell you about something." she told them at their curious looks, "I've discussed it with the other teachers and I'll talk with the other returning teens soon." she added.
"What is it?" Harry inquired.
"We were thinking about how your status's will effect the younger students and how that could mean trouble all around."
"Status's?" Ron asked.
"Your fame and the fact you are Lycan's." she clarified, "People still don't know how to react to it and we're worried the younger students might be scared if they don't understand."
Hermione frowned, "That's true but there's not a lot we can do about that is there?"
"Not a lot." she agreed, "But we'll figure something out later. Now as for your fame, we have a solution that should keep you all happy." she smiled.
"We're listening." Ginny leaned forwards, interested in what was going to be said.
"We, the staff that is, have decided it might be best if you four, and the other teens, go into a dorm seperate from your houses. Only if you agree that is." she added, "Draco is quite unpopular amoung his housemates, as is Astoria, her sister and Blaise Zabini."
"Being the only Slytherin's who stayed to fight, that would tend to happen." Harry nodded.
"So we were going to put them in a separate dorm away from their house for their safety." she explained, "With you all being so famous and popular we fear you might not get a moment to yourselves." she sighed.
"Not ideal for N.E.W.T year." Ginny mused.
"Exactly." Minerva nodded, "I just want to know your opinions on the matter before anything is decided, we're not forcing you into it."
The four teens thought for a moment.
"Where would the new dorm be?" Harry asked.
"That is one thing we'd need to figure out." she admitted, "The Head dorms are only two rooms and they'll be getting used anyway and so will the 7th year dorms of all houses."
"Who are the Head's going to be this year?" Hermione asked.
"I'm still waiting on people confirming whether they're coming back this year or not. It would've been two of you but student teacher is a step up and will keep you busy enough, especially with your own studies." she smiled.
"Fair enough." Ron shrugged, "I take it we'd be sharing with the others returning to school?"
"The one's with fame which is basically all of last years 6th years." she nodded, "Neville, Luna, Astoria, Daphne, Blaise, Regulus is returning too so he'll be staying where Draco does, and you four obviously." she smiled.
"It sound's like it's for the best." Ginny shrugged, "It would give us somewhere to escape to as well."
"It'll be good to have a place to hide even if it'll be odd not going to Gryffindor tower." Hermione agreed, "Boys?"
"I'm with you." Ron shrugged, "It'll be weird but we can always get used to it."
"Four votes for it." Harry smiled, "I definitely agree."
Minerva smiled, "Good to know, I'll work on finding a place for all of you. I know of a few but I don't know their conditions." she shrugged, "I'll check tonight or tomorrow morning and I'll tell the elves to bring your breakfast's up. Goodnight." she smiled.
"Goodnight." they all said as she left.
Poppy came out to check them all, "Your all still satble anyway." she said when she'd done, "Harry since you're here do you want to try another type of potion to see if it'll help you sleep better?"
"I suppose." he shrugged.
"How often have your nightmares been?" she asked.
"Every few nights." he told her, "There's been less since the returnee's returned." he added.
"The last one?"
"Um..." Harry looked up, avoiding eye contact with the other three teens, "Last night."
"I thought it was a few night's ago?" Ron inquired, "I never heard you last night."
Harry mumbled something under his breath.
"Harry!" Ginny groaned, Ron and Hermione looked just as confused as Poppy, "He silenced himself." she growled.
"Just because I have nightmares it doesn't mean the rest of the house has to lose sleep or worry." Harry defended himself.
"Ginny, 'Mione don't get mad at him." Ron sighed as the two witches looked about to explode, "I've done it a few times, I know you two have too, just let it drop."
The two reluctantly nodded.
Poppy walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a vial with a pure yellow liquid in it and a big spoon.
"How about the rest of you? Has Dreamless Sleep been working?"
"A little. Sometimes it will others it wont." Hermione shrugged.
"It's not worked as many times as it has though, it fails more often." Ginny explained, "Ron?"
"Same for me." he nodded.
"Right, all of you take a full spoonful. This is powerful stuff so no more than that and it'll make you sleepy instantly, don't fight it." she warned, she summoned three more spoons and one by one the teens took the potion in turns. Within seconds they were all fast asleep.