39

Word is…

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There was silence at the dining table. Daphne and Sirius were looking at Harry who was looking down in nervousness. Matt and Anna had expressionless looks on their faces. As for Sirius the man clearly looked shocked. "You know?" he said.

Harry slowly looked up in realization before turning towards his godfather as did Daphne. "You knew about the prophecy?" he asked Sirius. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Before Sirius could reply Matt spoke. "So you-know-who only knows the first half of it?" he said looking at Harry who nodded. The boy was surprised, not to mention confused, as he was expecting an angry response from Daphne's father since being a subject of the prophecy Harry was a direct target of Voldemort and that meant everyone he was close to were in danger too. "And that makes him think that you are prophesized to defeat him," Matt continued. Harry nodded. "But the complete prophecy doesn't specify who is supposed to defeat who, right? It just says that only one of you will end up winning at the end."

"Right," Harry said as he, just like everyone else at the table, wondered what Matt was thinking.

"Then it's better if Voldemort hears the whole prophecy." Everyone looked at the man as if he had grown another head. "Let me explain," he said. "Right now, you-know-who thinks that Harry is supposed to defeat him because he only knows the first half of the prophecy. This is why he wants to kill Harry to prove the prophecy wrong. Needless to say he will also target people who are close to Harry in an attempt to make him surrender. However, if you-know-who knows the full prophecy then he will know that it doesn't say who is supposed to win at the end and that will cause him to not come after Harry so aggressively, seeing that there is a chance that he will win against you," he said looking at Harry. "You-know-who will probably ease down a little and that can be a huge help for us all."

"How?" Sirius asked.

"Killing Harry will no longer be his priority," Daphne said understanding what her father meant. "That will hopefully give us some time to figure out how to either defeat Voldemort or get as far away from him as possible." Her parents and Sirius looked at her in surprise and awe when Daphne said Voldemort's name. Harry one the other hand, smiled proudly.

"If you think about it that way then I guess it might work," Sirius said. "But I don't think Dumbledore would allow for Voldemort to take the prophecy's copy from the ministry that easily." Everyone looked at him. "He has called for an Order meeting that will happen any day now. Remus told me about it."

"Order?" Harry said looking confused. "What order?"

"The Order of the Phoenix?" Ann said questioningly as she looked at Sirius for confirmation who nodded.

"It's a small resistance group that Dumbledore founded when Voldemort came to power last time," Sirius said. "Your parents, Remus, I, the Longbottoms and a handful of others were part of it. While we made a noticeable impact in the war, we didn't last very long. The Order disbanded faster than it had taken time to form. In the end more than half of the members left the Order which was the reason for our downfall."

"And now that Voldemort is back, Dumbledore is reviving the Order once again," Harry said. Sirius nodded. "Great, I want to join."

"Harry?" Daphne said as he looked at her.

Sirius put a hand on his godson's shoulder. "I don't think he will let you," he said. "And it most definitely has to do with the prophecy. Dumbledore wouldn't put you in direct danger."

"How long can he keep doing that?" Harry asked. "My fate is sealed. Does Dumbledore think I can magically defeat Voldemort without training myself? Keeping me behind the lines will only make me an easier target, not to mention it will put people that I care about in danger, too."

No one said anything as they all looked at Harry. A minute later Sirius spoke. "Let's stick with teaching you for the moment," he said. Matt nodded in agreement. "You are showing tremendous growth so that's a good thing."

"But is that enough?" Harry asked.

"No one here wants you to be in danger," Daphne said. "We first need to teach you enough occlumency so you can at least protect your thoughts and memories from Voldemort. As for your fated clash, since Voldemort is keeping quiet for now I'd say that it gives you the opportunity to train your magic as much as you can so when you actually face him, you will at least have a standing chance."

"And I agree with what Matt said about the prophecy," Sirius said, "although I have to see what Remus thinks about it. He's the one with the brains between the both of us. We need every chance that we can get because to be honest, our chances of winning against Voldemort are slim."

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Theodore Nott was in his room. He had a cage full of baby rabbits that he was torturing to entertain himself when his father walked in. The boy looked up from the cage at Nott Sr. before standing up to greet the man.

"Afternoon, father," he said.

Nott Sr. glanced at the cage and saw a few of the rabbits were already dead while others were on the brink of it. He then looked at his son. "Are you still upset because of the Greengrasses?" he asked. Theo pressed his lips and his father could tell that the boy was already enraged by the mention of that family's name.

"I want her to suffer," Theo said in a monotonous tone.

His father looked at him for a moment in silence before nodding. "That entire family will," he said.

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It was a week later when Dumbledore walked into Fudge's office. The minister seemed like he had seen better days as he tiredly looked at the old wizard.

"Now's not a good time, Dumbledore," he said sounding annoyed.

"Is it true, that Black is getting a trial?" Dumbledore asked.

"You tell me," Fudge said. "You did it to get back at me for blocking your floo. To be honest, Dumbledore, that's taking things a little too far."

"I was unaware of it," Dumbledore said. "I only came to know about it when I received a letter from the Wizengamot office about the date set for the trial. Who pushed for it?"

"Houses Greengrass, Bones, Potter, Longbottom and their allies," Fudge said.

Dumbledore thought he had heard it wrong. "Did you say Potter?" he asked.

Fudge looked angry now. "I don't know what that brat is thinking but he's been a pain in my arse since last year now. Do you have any idea how bad it will be for my image if somehow Black is proven innocent?"

"Sirius is innocent but he must not get his freedom," Dumbledore said. "As far as your image goes, I really don't give two hoots about it. Maybe it's better if people know that Cornelius Fudge can be wrong sometimes. Besides, it will be a relief if they see who you really are because with Voldemort's return…"

"ENOUGH!" Fudge's scream filled the office as he glared daggers at Dumbledore. "Enough with your lies! Get out."

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "You can't stop what's coming, Cornelius," he said. "There's still time when you accept that I am telling the truth and start preparing for the upcoming danger."

"I don't need to stop it," Fudge said, "because you-know-who is dead. He is never going to come back."

Dumbledore sighed. He knew that trying to talk sense into the man would not work. Besides, neither Fudge nor Voldemort were his biggest problems right now. It was the fact that Sirius was getting a trial and Dumbledore could do nothing about it. Another thing that had shocked him was the mention of house Potter among those who had pushed for this trial. This meant that Harry also had something to do with it.

He was now certain that the boy was living with the Greengrasses and the annoying part about it was that Dumbledore will never be welcomed there. That family, like most pureblood families, hated him. It seemed that he wasn't going to see Harry anytime soon so the only option left with Dumbledore was to see the boy either during Sirius' trial or when the new term of Hogwarts began.

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Arthur Weasely walked out of the floo and into his house. The place seemed devoid of chaos which wasn't surprising considering the new developments that surrounded the twins. The man glanced outside the window and saw the barn lights were on indicating that Fred and George were pulling another all-nighter, working on their many prank products which were all meant for the joke shop that they both planned to open after they graduated from Hogwarts.

Arthur smiled. He was happy that two of his most chaotic sons were finally focused on something and while it was something that Molly wasn't in favor of Arthur knew that he couldn't control every aspect of his kids. It made him think of his two youngest ones – Ron and Ginny. They were clearly in full control of Molly and Arthur didn't know how he felt about it. While he knew that for Ron there was no viable future because of how lazy and careless that boy was, but for Ginny, whom Arthur loved more than anyone in this world, it hurt him to see her follow her mother's every word without questioning it.

He heard faint clutter coming from the kitchen and peeked in to see the magical gloves doing the dishes. That meant that Molly was probably in their room so he went there to find her on the bed, already busy with knitting the next set of Christmas presents for the family.

She stopped and looked at Arthur. "Evening, honey," she said. "How was your day?"

Arthur smiled tiredly as he put his side-bag on the dresser before removing his robe. "Like other days," he said sitting on the bed and sighing. "I heard an ongoing rumor at the ministry today," he said a minute later.

"What rumor?" Molly asked suddenly sounding interested.

Arthur knew how much his wife loved gossip. However, he wasn't sure that she was gonna like the underlying factors to this rumor. He wondered if he should tell her but the boat had already sailed. The look on Molly's face told him that she won't have it until he had told her what this rumor was. So he took in a long breath and sighed.

"Apparently Sirius is getting a trial," he said. "Word is that a date has been finalized for the trial and the Wizengamot will sit to see if he was wrongfully incarcerated over a decade ago – as is claimed by the families who pushed for this trial."

Molly blinked. "Well, that is good news, isn't it?" she said. However, Arthur was worried of what she was going to ask next. "Which families pushed for the trial?" the words left her mouth. "Arthur?" she pressed when he didn't say anything.

"Houses Longbottom, Bones, Greengrass…and Potter," he said giving in.

Molly sat there in silence as she processed what her husband had just said. She didn't miss the last two names which was the cause of her shock.

"It is indeed surprising why the Greengrass house is doing what it is doing," he said. "It could be because they are now allies of house Longbottom."

"That is not my concern," Molly said. "You mentioned Potter. Does that mean Harry took control of his family?"

Arthur nodded slowly. "There wouldn't be any other way for his family name to be involved into all of this."

"Doesn't that mean he had to have his emancipation done?" she asked. He could hear the panic in Molly's voice now and that is what Arthur was worried about. He had tried telling her about it a long time ago but she hadn't listened. "Why…Why would he do it? He's way too young to take responsibility for something like that!"

"I had told you before that this was going to happen one day," he said putting a hand on her knee. "He's not going to be little forever…or clueless. There's still time, Molly. Stop with this plan that you have for Harry while he is still oblivious about it."

"How did he even know how to do to get his emancipation?" Molly asked completely ignoring Arthur's words. "Does Dumbledore know about it? He has to, right? Why didn't he stop him? Harry listens to him."

Arthur said nothing. He was, instead, angry at his wife for being so ignorant and stubborn. So he slowly got up and left the room as Molly kept calling him. He didn't know what to do with her. He stopped by the stairs and looked up. Arthur wondered what Ron was doing. Ever since his youngest son had come home he did nothing but stay in his room. Perhaps because the twins were using him as a guinea pig for their prank products but it was also because Molly hadn't been happy with Ron because of him and Harry no longer being friends.

Arthur knew that it was his son's fault for what happened between him and Harry but Molly was punishing Ron too much for it. She would scream at him every day, asking him to write apology letters to Harry. Arthur could see how it was affecting his son and he was worried.

He wondered if he should check on what Ron was doing but then he wondered what he would say to him. It wasn't like Ron would understand him. The boy wasn't gifted with an understanding mind which is why Arthur worried more about Ron than anyone else in the family. He knew that his youngest son would need someone by his side throughout his life, someone who could help him in every step of the way because Ron was like that – a boy who needed assist. Luckily he was still friends with Hermione. That girl was very bright and intelligent and someone who clearly wanted what was good for Ron but Arthur wondered how long she could stick by his son's side if Ron didn't get rid of some of his negative traits.

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