Chapter 16 – The Scene of the Prophecy (Freddie James).

We were well rested, fed, watered, and had made use of the loo tent. Mum had given Captain Davies and the professors over an hour to examine the major heavy spot. She had already convinced herself and Hermione that there was nothing we needed to do there.

"Time to pack and resume our hike. We camp in a smaller park a little over two hours ahead. I've signalled Professor McGonagall that it's time to leave. Our history and the site of the prophecy are the key destination of this Quest. Then it will be onward to check on any prophecy affecting Vanaheimer."

We had an uneventful walk. Professor Celine walked with us. We talked as we walked. That made talking about our problems seem more casual. Even dealing with all of us, Professor Celine had plenty of time with me. I surprised myself with the question I asked her. It just popped into my head, after we had walked and talked for over an hour. "I didn't try to escape. I think, working together, Rose and I might have escaped. We had our wands and there was only one creature with us. Shouldn't I have tried to escape? That's what a fighter is supposed to do."

Rose quickly asserted, "No! You shouldn't have used your wand to fight and escape. I heard Mum tell the other Questers that they must not threaten or point wands at the Barkers. We want to make friends, not turn them into enemies. Even Captain Davies understood that we must give the Barkers first shot at drawing blood, if they really are enemies."

"She's right," Professor Celine told me. "Perhaps returning your wands was a test whether or not you were peaceful and able to trust their promise to safely return you. If so, you passed the test for all of us."

As we entered the little park, I felt a tingle, then a great weight, in my head. I grabbed my head and fell to my knees. By the time my knees reached ground, the weight in my head had become a waking dream. All three of the creatures spoke to me. "You must be at the place of your prophecy. Why do you stop in meaningless ? This is urgent. You are awfully close. Come at once."

I didn't remember closing my eyes, but now had to open them. A lot of worried people, including Mum and Dad were standing around me. Iona had her hand on my shoulder. "I'm fine," I spoke as loudly as I was able. "It was a waking dream from the Barkers. They say we can't stop here. We must come at once to the place of our prophecy."

Mum stared at me, then ordered. "Leave our equipment. Mark this spot in your minds, so we can Apparate back. I think we must march on to the prophecy."

Minister Aunt Hermione agreed. Dad and Auror Barb said they would stay behind and guard the camp. Professor McGonagall said that she and Professor Sturluson would stay behind to assist. When Professor Sturluson objected that his wisdom was needed to explore that site, Professor McGonagall told him "We're old. We'll see it tomorrow. We mustn't slow the others down."

Aagog decided to leave two of her adult spiders to protect the camp. She and the other member of her bodyguard joined us.

Without our packs, we moved a lot faster than we had been. The birds were scouting ahead and reporting back frequently. Mum and Minister Aunt Hermione must have been satisfied with what the birds told them, because they kept us moving forward. Finally, Hermione announced "my raven says that two Barkers are waiting about half a mile ahead on the ribbon. I think a smaller group of us should go ahead to establish contact. Since they are familiar with the students, I propose that just Hermione, Ron, Aagog, Freddie, and Rose go on ahead. The group decided that Catta should accompany us, using her invisibility charm.

"Remember," Mum told us, "Don't threaten or point wands at them. We are going to talk. If they are hostile, whomever is nearest grabs hold of Freddie or Rose and we Apparate right back here. We don't fight. Those who remain behind, keep this area clear for us." She pointed out a twelve-foot-long stretch of ribbon. All of us travellers stood in a spaced-out array within the section Hermione showed us and marked our spots.

I was not at all scared as we walked forward. We followed a turn in the ribbon and there were two of the Barkers. We walked to within eight feet of them. Well, Mum, Minister Hermione, and Aagog were that close. The rest of us were ten feet behind.

"I am Brrrark, the leader of our people. We call ourselves the Brin. The Vanir labelled us Barkers long ago. This is my assistant Brrrack. Brrroom has returned home. She was responsible for the children's care, preventing us from over-tiring or thirsting them and trying to keep them calm. I read the thought that you are determined to allow us first blood. In that case, there will be no blood."

"I am Hermione Granger, the leader of our people. This is Ginny, the Mother and leader of our Quest. I am Muse. Aagog is the Queen of the Acromantula spiders. We are happy to be able to speak in person. It apparently is more difficult for you to dream-communicate with adults."

"It is. We tried. We failed. Repeatedly. Now we shall talk. You may bring the rest of your group, including the invisible Elf, forward and introduce them. Then we will travel to the site of the prophecy."

Mum introduced the others, telling Catta "You're busted."

Catta became visible and declared herself, "Catta, member of the Quest team and daughter of the Elf King, who is the Messenger Elf of the Light Guardian."

We were asked to stand close together. Without touching any of us, the Brin Apparated us to the prophecy. The Brin pointed to the exact spot, where the prophecy was recorded. Mum asked that everyone stand about twenty feet away and not touch anything, while she, Hermione and Aagog examine the area. They would try to determine how long ago the changed prophecy was entered on the active ribbon of history, who made the change, and why.

"We know you must decide for yourselves and practice your seid. I don't want to influence your conclusion, ifconclusion if you think our view would shape your conclusion. Do you wish to know what we decided?" Brrrark waited for an answer.

Mum said, "Yes," just as quickly as Hermione said, "No." Aagog's thought said she didn't care. Hermione asked her to please break the tie.

"Please tell us your thoughts," Aagog thought to Brrrark and all the rest of us, "Please tell us, we have the mental strength to dispute your interpretation if we disagree."

"We aren't always here, so we can only report when a change occurs. This prophecy wasn't here fifteen years ago. It was here seven years ago. Your version of the prophecy wasn't here either of those times. We first saw it five years ago. Your version of the prophecy was created by a Veneran. They are easy to identify, both by the style of their knots and by their smell. Their weaving material is also a little different than any of the Aesir magical yarn. They must make their own. You can make your own yarn. We've seen the spiders spin their own magical silk in some of your changes."

Mum and Hermione both thanked Brrrark. I was told, by Mum, that this is to be the official spelling of the name. The rrr is trilled and the whole word sounds a bit like the bark of a large dog. I don't have a dog, few magical children do, but I've seen them on the streets of British villages Mum has taken us to. She does this in the summer, when she is bored.

Minister Aunt Hermione held a magnifying glass at the moving picture of the prophecy. "It is exactly as the Brinn reported," she declared. "Now, after Aagog gets a good sniff of the knots in this location, I want to see the version created by the Venerans."

We knew that Mum didn't want us to get close, until she had explored, so we watched from afar. Brrrark told us "Aagog should be able to smell the Veneran, from where she is standing. You should send your little spiders in so they can learn the smell and whatever else your parents use to examine the changes."

Being very incredibly careful not to touch any of the weavings, I edged close enough to Mum to ask if it was alright to send our spiders in for a look and smell. She approved. When I gave a thumbs up, Aalog, Aabut, Aaround, Aah, and Aachoo scurried forward. I knew that they would explain what they had learned, once we were back at the park. But... the Brin had taught me some things about recognising seid edits, so as we stood well back from Mum and her team, and as we carefully avoided touching any of the walls or weaving of this portion of the active ribbon, Rose and I scouted on our own. I regretted that we sent all of our young spiders to Mum, but Brrrark stayed by our side, indicating that he wouldn't get us in trouble by touching anything.

We moved toward the beginning of the branch in which Mum was examining our 'old' prophecy, also known as the wrong prophecy. Where this path had been created from the main path of history, we found the main path to have been almost woven shut. Correction: it had been woven shut. As I got as close as I could, without touching or breathing upon the weave, it was obvious that the main path had been completely woven shut. Somebody had cut away a good portion of the weaving, which closed that path. That left the newer path with the phony prophecy, as what Brrrark had described as a go-around - a path which bypassed and changed only a small portion of the intended history. Rose agreed with my interpretation, expressing regret that, "If we had one of our spiders, she could tell us who wove the main path closed and who reopened it, by slashing that weave."

"Don't need spider," Brrrark asserted. "I cut the weave. Veneran do the bad weaving."

I was sure that our spiders would confirm all of this.

We looked closer at the weaving used to close the path. The magical yarn was a bright violet. Not at all the colour of the Aesir's or Vanir's magical yarn. The yarn itself was a tight twist of three strands. It seemed more primitive than the yarns we saw elsewhere. It likely was quicker to produce. Its brightness made it appear very new. I knew this was a guess, at best an extrapolation based upon the behaviour of the more familiar yarns Mum and Minister Aunt Hermione had explained to us. We were sorely tempted to pour some water from our flasks onto this very bright yarn, to see if dye ran off it. I knew Mum would be beyond angry if I did that, so I didn't. It was the obvious next step.

Mum and her inspection team confirmed our guesses. This was a major seid edit done by Venerans only a few years ago.

Rose was in a sceptical mood, or just showing off: "Or that's what somebody wants us to believe. This is very primitive yarn and work, which would be quite easy to imitate. We wanted to pour water on these knots but knew to wait for you. May I do that now?"

"Yes, please do. We assumed we understood the situation well enough not to do that... dye IS running off! You were right to be sceptical." Her mum gave Rose a pat atop her head. Rose's smile widened and she looked a couple of inches taller.

Ginny cut off the piece of yarn, which Rose had just washed. She swished it around in a glass of water, then poured out that water and re-swished in fresh. The yarn was now the more familiar off-blue colour, although there was no sign of fade. Mum's inspection team seemed confused. Mum suggested that we all pull back and allow the others to inspect. She would Apparate some of us back to the camp to replace those who now guarded the camp. They also deserved their chance to see what we had seen. All students were among those returned to the camp. I wondered if we were sent back to separate us from the Brrrin. Brrrark told me that's how it should be pronounced and how it should be spelled in our language.

Back at camp, I couldn't miss that there were more fighters in the camp than back on the active ribbon, although both Minister Hermione and the Acromantula Queen were on the active ribbon. I was sure that Aagog, like Mum, considered herself a superior fighter to any member of her bodyguard. I commented to Rose and Iona, "It seems like that last reveal determined the others to quickly get us away from the Brrrin. They are beginning to distrust them."

Rose agreed with me. Iona changed the topic, "I feel emotionally chilled, let's go back to my tent and snuggle."

This surprised me, but I certainly didn't refuse. We headed for the tent, asking Rose to guard it for us. "You owe me!" we were told, as she assumed her post. We dove into Iona's bed and pulled the blanket up to our chins, as we snogged, far more desperately than I expected. There were times as a captive, when I feared I would never see or touch Iona again. Professor Celine had helped put our minds in a better spot. Now we were ready for a more personal reunion.

"I would feel warmer if we took our clothes off," Iona suggested.

"So would I."

Clothes flew out from under the blanket to the grass beside the bed. I did feel warmer. My skin against Iona's felt wonderful. This is what I needed. I would have missed my family and friends if I had to live the rest of my life with the Brrrin. I would have missed Iona more. I was still getting to know her. I needed to find out what she and I would become together.

"Be careful! Your mind isn't in the right place, yet. You'll be caught. Then what?" Lily had somehow gotten past Rose.

"Goodbye Lily," was the best I could do.

"Yes, goodbye Lily." I jumped to a sitting position, shocked to recognisze that voice as Dad."

"Don't blame Rose, Lily can be very difficult to stop. Don't worry, I trust both of you. Don't do anything stupid. Goodbye."

Dad was gone. I didn't know quite what to do, so I lay back down and cuddled Iona some more.

"Would it really be so stupid," Iona asked me a few minutes later. "I worried so much about you, but I really expected to see you again. I kept up with the potion."

"Yes, it probably would be stupid for now. You know that Dad's now guarding the tent. What will he say to Mum? I'm enjoying this, but it's extremely fast."

"I worry about what Teddy and Erin said about first-year crushes. I don't want to be just a first-year crush."

"We're definitely more than that. And we're now second years."

Iona smiled when I said that.

We strolled out of the tent twenty minutes later, holding hands and with a look of happy innocence on our faces. A hint of contented smirk.

I knew I should say something but couldn't think what. "Thanks for guarding the tent, Dad." That's what I said.

"Anytime, son." Dad also should have taken some time to decide what to say.

Iona knew exactly what to say: "Please don't say anything to Aunt McGonagall. We didn't do anything even slightly stupid."