A/N: Wow!! I'm so happy you guys are still interested in this! I LOVED
reading all the reviews! Ah! I've missed you guys!!! (
Disclaimer: Still not mine...
****************************************************** Harry woke up early the next morning; he was assured of the fact that it was earlier than normal by the fact that none of his other roommates were yet up and stirring around, even Neville who was always the first one awake. The light inside the dormitory was also a bit darker than normal, and he could tell that it was still in the very wee hours of the morning.
He'd gone straight to bed the night before after leaving his best friends to finish the detention they'd all been assigned to. He was aware of the fact that by leaving the detention early, he'd probably succeeded in either royally pissing off Ron and Hermione or getting himself in a load of trouble if, by chance, a teacher had dropped by to check in on them. Hell, for all he knew, he could have succeeded in doing both. Going to bed early had given him one advantage, though; it had given him time to process all of the information that they'd found out about the so-called prophecy they'd all just found themselves thrown into.
Harry decided that since he definitely was not getting back to sleep anytime soon that he may as well take advantage of his early rising by getting a hot shower for once. He sat up and reached through the curtains surrounding his bed for his glasses, and when he'd placed them on his face and his surroundings came into focus, he pulled back the aforementioned bed- hangings and peered around the dimly lit room. The first thing he noticed was that he had been wrong in his assumption that he was the first Fifth Year Gryffindor boy awake.
Ron was definitely not in his bed.
In fact, the bed next to his was already made neatly. It actually looked as though Ron hadn't slept there at all.
With his curiosity definitely piqued, Harry decided to bypass the warm shower in lieu of a search for his best friend. He got out of bed and crept very quietly across the room so as not to disturb any of his other roommates before he slipped silently through the door and down the hall to the bathroom. If Ron had, by chance, gotten up this early, he was most likely taking a shower of his own, so Harry entered the bathroom only to find three empty shower stalls and three empty toilets. Puzzled, Harry reckoned that the only other place Ron could be would have to be the Common Room. Maybe, by some unlikely chance, he'd gotten up early to study or, more likely, to finish some last minute homework. With this in mind, Harry headed down the stairs that ran adjacent to the boys' side of Gryffindor and led to the Common Room. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, though, he immediately stopped in his tracks.
Ron and Hermione were curled on the couch together, very much asleep in each other's arms.
Harry stared at his best friends silently for a long moment before finally shaking himself of the rather disturbing sight long enough to make up his mind that he needed to observe them from a closer proximity. He quickly made his way across the large room and stopped in front of the sofa where they lay.
To say that they were asleep in each other's arms might have been a bit of exaggeration; Harry saw this upon closer examination. A better description would have been to say that they were asleep and leaning on each other. Well, one of Hermione's arms was draped across Ron's stomach as her face was pressed into his shoulder, but Harry couldn't quite make himself believe that they'd purposely fallen asleep like that- no matter what suspicions he had about the two of them. It was clear that they hadn't meant to doze off. After all, they were still dressed in the same uniforms they'd donned the day before, granted they were a bit crumpled by now.
So, he did the only thing that seemed logical at the moment. He shoved Ron sharply from the left and sent both of them into a jerked awaken state. Hermione actually fell to the side a bit when she'd felt the impact of her makeshift pillow being pushed.
"What the..." Ron looked around, obviously confused by his whereabouts in his newly awaken stupor.
Harry nodded. "Exactly. What the hell?"
Hermione appeared to be having a bit of trouble focusing her eyes because she kept squeezing them shut and then opening them only to blink rapidly and rub at them with the heels of her hands.
Ron was slowly coming out of his confusion and appeared to have finally recognized his best friend. "What time is it?" he asked in a groggy sort of voice.
"Five-thirty," Harry answered briskly.
"In the morning?" Hermione asked through half-opened eyes.
"No," Harry said sarcastically, "at night."
Hermione either missed his sarcasm or chose to ignore it because she didn't comment on it. "We must have fallen asleep down here."
"Do you think?" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Lay off, Harry," Ron answered lazily. Then he shook his head as though being hit abruptly with a valuable piece of information. "What the hell are you doing up anyway?"
Harry sighed before forcibly shoving Hermione over and settling himself in the middle, putting what he figured was a safe distance between the two of them. "Well," he started haughtily, "I woke up for some reason. I know what it was now." He glanced from one of them to the other; Hermione had finally stopped rubbing her eyes. "It was to save the two of you from being the most popular topic of conversation for the next several months."
Ron gave Harry a sharp look. "We just fell asleep while we were talking," he said evenly, and Harry noticed he was making an effort to safely avoid Hermione's eyes at the time.
Harry, upon seeing this, took it upon himself to look at the female beside him. He gave her a suspicious look and then turned the same look to the redhead on his other side. Both of them returned looks of contempt. "Well, be that as it may," he said airily, "no one else would have believed it. Just think if Parvati or Lavender had come down here." He looked pointedly at Hermione. "Or Dean or Seamus." He paused dramatically. "Or, God forbid, Ginny or the twins." He settled the same pointed look on Ron.
There was a moment in which Harry enjoyed a satisfied silence. Until Hermione finally rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, shut up Harry."
Harry was shocked at Hermione's sudden impertinence, as she usually never spoke in such a manner. Especially to him. He distinctly heard Ron snicker behind him as he gaped at the brown-headed girl beside him. He couldn't quite believe that she had the nerve to tell him to shut up.
"Excuse me," he said indignantly. "But I believe I just saved your ass from major embarrassment."
Hermione rolled her eyes for a second time. "Well, we wouldn't have even been down here last night if it hadn't been for you, so this is mostly your fault."
Harry was confused and momentarily glanced at Ron who simply looked back at him blankly.
Hermione finished without waiting for him to request an explanation. "We were down here talking about the prophecy, and if you hadn't run out of the library, we could have discussed it while we were finishing up." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked irritably at him.
Harry felt a twinge of guilt at having left his friends to do all of the work themselves, but it still didn't excuse Hermione's very rude sudden behavior. Of course, he and Ron had grown quite used to her sudden mood swings- especially over the last couple of years. It was something they didn't like to think about, obviously. "Well, sorry," Harry said quickly, avoiding her eye.
Ron was still silent, and Hermione obviously chose that moment to forgive him completely because she smiled at him and shook her head. "Oh, it's okay."
Harry raised a curious eyebrow at her but smartly decided not to say anything. He chanced a glance at Ron who raised his own eyebrows in a silent agreement that Hermione was definitely acting a little strangely.
"We did decide something, though," Hermione continued as though she hadn't just two seconds before told Harry to shut up. "We really need to tell someone about that book."
Harry looked again at Ron who kind of half-shrugged. He looked back at Hermione and said, "Who do think will believe us?"
Hermione looked around uneasily and then finally voiced her opinion. "We need to tell Dumbledore."
"No," Harry said flatly. "He'll make too much out of it and start fussing over us even more than he already is."
"Well, what about Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked quickly, as if she'd expected Harry to shoot down the idea of Dumbledore.
But the idea of McGonagall was even more laughable than the one of the Headmaster. "Are you crazy, Hermione?" Harry asked honestly. "McGonagall will have a fit, and she'll probably banish us to the Gryffindor Common Room for the rest of our lives. She won't let us play Quidditch; she probably won't even let us go to the bathroom by ourselves!"
"We could talk to Snape!" Ron piped up in what was an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.
Harry snorted, and Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's not even funny," she said indignantly.
Harry sighed. "We need to talk to Sirius." Ron and Hermione both nodded solemnly in agreement. "But I don't even know where he is."
Suddenly, though, Ron perked up. "Well, we may not know where Sirius is, but we know where Professor Lupin is!"
Harry could have slapped himself for not thinking of Lupin himself. Of course he was the obvious choice! "Ron, you're a genius!"
Hermione snorted. Ron glared at her.
Harry ignored them and continued. "Let's all get dressed and then stop by his office before breakfast."
Ron and Hermione nodded. Hermione stood up and attempted to straighten out her skirt. "I'm going to go get a shower," she announced.
Ron grinned at her, obviously teasing, and said, "Thank God."
Harry snickered, and he half-expected Hermione to, too, but to his surprise she glared dangerously at the pair of them. "Oh, you can both shove off."
With that, Hermione whipped around and started toward the staircase that would take her to her dormitory, angry at both of the idiotic boys she called best friends for being stupid prats.. However, just as she'd almost gotten out of hearing distance of her friends, she distinctly heard Ron's voice mutter the words, "Someone has PMS..." and Harry's snicker of agreement.
This was just too much.
Whipping back around, she stared at the two of them with a look she knew would frighten anyone. "PMS?" she queried, forcing her voice to stay even.
She saw the look of surprise on both of their faces at the fact that she had heard them. Ron glanced at Harry, and they both sort of unconsciously backed away from Hermione. Ron tried to stutter an explanation, as it was quite clear that he was in deep trouble. "Well... er... I... uh..."
Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head rapidly to shut him up. Then, in a voice louder than the previous one, she started her tirade. "I do not have PMS, thank you! Boys think that everything in the world can be blamed on PMS!" With that, she threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "Girls don't have PMS 365 days a year for your information. And if you really want to know, I just got off my period three days ago; therefore, my next one is not due to start until November 11th, and PMS should start about a week before that." She smiled a bit sardonically at the look of horror on both boys' faces. "So, if the two of you want to make a calendar or something to keep up, then be my guest!" With a final glare, she turned on her heel and marched to her dormitory with her head held high.
There was a long moment of silence in which both boys were quite sickened. Finally, they looked at each other with identical expressions of disgust. Ron actually shuddered as he said, "That was just a little too much information."
Harry nodded in unwavering agreement. "But maybe we should make a calendar..."
Ron looked dazed and shrugged. "If she doesn't have PMS, then I wonder what's up her ass."
Harry shrugged, too, bewildered, and said, "Is there such a thing as Post- Menstrual Syndrome?"
Ron snickered a bit and then got a very confused look on his face. "Why the hell are we discussing Hermione's menstrual cycle in the first place?"
Harry paused for a moment, pondering the question himself. Then he rolled his eyes and hit Ron across the forearm. "You started it!"
Ron still looked a little confused as he nodded absently. "Oh, yeah..." Then he shook himself out of his daze and looked at Harry. "But I didn't want to know all that!"
"Me either," Harry said very honestly.
There was another moment of silence, and both boys found themselves thinking the conversation over in their heads despite the sickening feeling they got when thinking of Hermione and her "own special time of the month."
Finally, Ron shook himself again. "Well, we better shower then, huh?" He said this airily and bit strangely.
Harry, who felt exactly the same way Ron sounded, nodded absently and said, "Yeah..."
*********************************************************
It took Professor Lupin several moments to answer his door after the three friends knocked. In fact, they'd almost given up on his being there and were about to turn around and head back to Gryffindor. Just as they were turning around, though, the door opened, and Remus Lupin looked out to survey the knockers.
"Well, what brings the three of you by?" he asked good-naturedly, as he grinned at them.
"We need to talk to you," Harry answered with an uneasy glance at Ron and Hermione.
"Well, come in," the professor held the door open for the three students who entered silently and all seated themselves on a single sofa that sat in the corner of the rather small office. Professor Lupin shut the door behind them and turned back to his pupils. "Would you like some tea?"
Ron nodded and answered for all of them. "Please."
Harry hadn't really come to the Defense Against the Dark Arts' teacher's office for a cup of tea, but he didn't say anything as Lupin conjured up a kettle of hot tea and poured them each a cupful. He politely thanked the teacher when he was given his own cup and took a few sips to avoid appearing rude.
"Professor Lupin, we were in the library last night serving detention, and we found something rather disturbing." Well, Hermione certainly didn't waste any time at getting to the point, did she?
Lupin raised a thin eyebrow at the young woman curiously. "What did you find, Miss Granger?"
Hermione set her teacup down on a small side table and addressed the professor eye to eye. "We found some information on the Dark Wizard Manicalt who lived five-hundred years ago. Have you ever heard of him?"
Lupin nodded, his eyes keen with curiosity. "Yes, I've studied him."
"Well, then surely you know that he was defeated by three Hogwarts students."
Lupin looked at Hermione silently for a moment before turning his head to take in the sight of Ron and Harry to her left. Finally, he turned back to Hermione and answered her. "Yes, I'm familiar with the story."
Hermione sighed. "Well, apparently there is an ancient prophecy that another Dark Wizard would rise five-hundred years later and rival three more students." She hesitated for a moment and cast a side-glance at the two boys beside her. "Three students who sound an awful lot like us."
There was another silence in which Harry was sure Professor Lupin was trying to process the information and come up with a logical explanation for the prophecy. However, all he got as a response from the teacher was, "Yes, I am aware of that as well."
"What?!" Harry suddenly looked up in shock at the man across from him. "You know about this prophecy?!"
Lupin sighed and sat down in a leather chair. "Of course I know about it." He said this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "All of your professors know about it. Why do you think Hermione wasn't chosen as a Prefect?"
Hermione's eyes widened just a bit. "But Professor McGonagall said it was because I was in danger. Not because I was supposed to be saving the world!"
"Welcome to the club," came a quiet, almost bitter whisper from Harry.
"Well, that's because you're not supposed to be saving the world," Lupin said, either not hearing Harry or choosing not to comment. "Not exactly anyway."
"What do you mean 'not exactly?'" Ron had joined the conversation after being silent for awhile. "What are we supposed to be doing?"
Yet another silence followed this question. Finally, Lupin regarded them all with somewhat sympathetic eyes. "I can't tell you."
"What?!" Harry couldn't quite believe he was hearing correctly. "You can't tell us?! That's insane!"
"I can't tell you," Lupin continued with an almost irritated glance at Harry, "because I don't know. No one knows."
Harry could feel a headache coming on, and he wasn't at all sure how to make sense of anything he was hearing. He glanced at his two best friends and saw that they appeared to be just as confused as he was by the explanation being offered to them.
"It's something that you have to figure out on your own," he continued. "No one can tell you how it's going to unfold- only that this is your destiny."
"You sound like Trelawney," Ron said dismissively. "This is just a bit too much."
Hermione spoke after a moment of processing the information. "You said that all the professors know about this. How long have you known?"
"Well, we've known about Harry since he was a baby," he answered with a quick glance at the dark-haired boy. "And we knew that there would be two more, but we just didn't know who until the two of you started school. It became completely clear after the Philosopher's Stone incident."
Harry let out a sound of disbelief. "You mean to tell me that you've all known about this damn prophecy or whatever the hell it is for five years, and no one has bothered to tell us?!" He was more angry than anything by this point.
Lupin started to say something, but Ron cut him off with a sarcastic remark. "Oh, no, Harry. You should feel exceptionally loved. They've known about you for fourteen years."
The teacher shot a sharp look at the redhead and then turned back to Harry. "We couldn't tell you. It was something you had to find out on your own."
"Just like we're supposed to find out what it all means on our own, huh?" Harry asked incredulously. "This is fantastic." The bitterness was completely evident in his tone.
With a sigh, Lupin struggled to keep himself calm. "Look. No one picked you for this; no one woke up one day and decided that Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were going to be responsible for conquering the Dark Lord. It just happened because it's what you were put here to do. You can't choose your own destiny."
"Obviously," Hermione said with a slight roll of the eyes.
"We're all here to help you in any way that we can," Lupin continued. "But when it comes down to it, the three of you are the ones who have to figure it all out."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked finally. "Just hang around and do nothing until Voldemort comes to capture us?"
Ron and Hermione both looked visibly shaken by this image, but they both refrained from speaking long enough to allow their teacher to offer up some sort of explanation.
"No, there are other things you can do. You still have that book that Sirius sent you for your birthday, don't you?"
Harry glanced at Hermione who had taken over the book quite soon after he'd received it. She nodded.
"Well," Lupin continued, "I suggest that you start studying it. There are many things in there that will be helpful to you."
"Like the wandless thing," Ron finished. "We already know about that. What else can we do?"
"You could start," Lupin said a little irritably, "by actually paying attention in class." He was directing his comment to Ron and Harry. "You could probably pick up on a lot of useful things in your everyday lectures- things that could prove most beneficial to you."
"Hermione pays attention," Ron said indignantly. "We can just ask her if we need something like that."
"Did it ever occur to you, Ron," Lupin asked smoothly, "that if and when something does happen, the three of you will be separated?"
Ron scowled.
"And right now," he said, not allowing anyone else to comment, "I think you should visit Professor Dumbledore."
"We're not going to see Dumbledore," Harry said adamantly. "He'll just get all worried and make too much out of it."
"Make too much out of it?" It appeared as though Lupin couldn't quite be sure if he'd heard correctly. "Harry, do you realize how serious this is?"
"I realize that no one is going to help us, so we might as well stick to ourselves," Harry said promptly. Ron and Hermione both nodded their agreement.
Lupin sighed. "The childish pouting will do you no good."
"It's not childish pouting!" Everyone looked at Hermione after her sudden outburst. She had jumped to her feet and was staring at their teacher daringly. "Do you have any idea how unfair this is?! Of course you don't!" She threw her hands into the air as she answered her own question. "No one came up to you when you were fifteen and said, 'Oh, by the way, Remus. We want you to save the world. Oh, and bring a few friends along for the ride.' Now did they?"
If Professor Lupin was shocked by the sudden outrage of the school's top student, he didn't show it. He simply stared back at the young witch and spoke in a calm voice. "No, they didn't. But do you know what did happen?" He glanced briefly at her and then to the two boys and finally back to her. "Someone came up to me a few years ago and told me that one of my best childhood friends was trying to kill the son of one of my other best friends. And then, come to find out, it was yet another best friend who was actually to blame. Now, talk about a lot to take in in a short period of time."
"What does that have to do with us?" Harry asked and then shook his head and said, "Besides the obvious?"
"It proves that sometimes things happen that you can't believe. Things happen that you would never dream would even take place. Things happen that you have no control over, but you still have to deal with them." He looked at all three teenagers. "That's what it has to do with you."
There was a moment of silence in which all three students thought about what he'd just said. Finally, Hermione retook her seat on the sofa and looked up at the teacher expectantly.
Lupin was very calm as he finished his explanation. "And I know it's unfair. But trust me when I say this, it wouldn't be your destiny if you couldn't handle it. You're the chosen ones for a reason."
************************************************************
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Disclaimer: Still not mine...
****************************************************** Harry woke up early the next morning; he was assured of the fact that it was earlier than normal by the fact that none of his other roommates were yet up and stirring around, even Neville who was always the first one awake. The light inside the dormitory was also a bit darker than normal, and he could tell that it was still in the very wee hours of the morning.
He'd gone straight to bed the night before after leaving his best friends to finish the detention they'd all been assigned to. He was aware of the fact that by leaving the detention early, he'd probably succeeded in either royally pissing off Ron and Hermione or getting himself in a load of trouble if, by chance, a teacher had dropped by to check in on them. Hell, for all he knew, he could have succeeded in doing both. Going to bed early had given him one advantage, though; it had given him time to process all of the information that they'd found out about the so-called prophecy they'd all just found themselves thrown into.
Harry decided that since he definitely was not getting back to sleep anytime soon that he may as well take advantage of his early rising by getting a hot shower for once. He sat up and reached through the curtains surrounding his bed for his glasses, and when he'd placed them on his face and his surroundings came into focus, he pulled back the aforementioned bed- hangings and peered around the dimly lit room. The first thing he noticed was that he had been wrong in his assumption that he was the first Fifth Year Gryffindor boy awake.
Ron was definitely not in his bed.
In fact, the bed next to his was already made neatly. It actually looked as though Ron hadn't slept there at all.
With his curiosity definitely piqued, Harry decided to bypass the warm shower in lieu of a search for his best friend. He got out of bed and crept very quietly across the room so as not to disturb any of his other roommates before he slipped silently through the door and down the hall to the bathroom. If Ron had, by chance, gotten up this early, he was most likely taking a shower of his own, so Harry entered the bathroom only to find three empty shower stalls and three empty toilets. Puzzled, Harry reckoned that the only other place Ron could be would have to be the Common Room. Maybe, by some unlikely chance, he'd gotten up early to study or, more likely, to finish some last minute homework. With this in mind, Harry headed down the stairs that ran adjacent to the boys' side of Gryffindor and led to the Common Room. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, though, he immediately stopped in his tracks.
Ron and Hermione were curled on the couch together, very much asleep in each other's arms.
Harry stared at his best friends silently for a long moment before finally shaking himself of the rather disturbing sight long enough to make up his mind that he needed to observe them from a closer proximity. He quickly made his way across the large room and stopped in front of the sofa where they lay.
To say that they were asleep in each other's arms might have been a bit of exaggeration; Harry saw this upon closer examination. A better description would have been to say that they were asleep and leaning on each other. Well, one of Hermione's arms was draped across Ron's stomach as her face was pressed into his shoulder, but Harry couldn't quite make himself believe that they'd purposely fallen asleep like that- no matter what suspicions he had about the two of them. It was clear that they hadn't meant to doze off. After all, they were still dressed in the same uniforms they'd donned the day before, granted they were a bit crumpled by now.
So, he did the only thing that seemed logical at the moment. He shoved Ron sharply from the left and sent both of them into a jerked awaken state. Hermione actually fell to the side a bit when she'd felt the impact of her makeshift pillow being pushed.
"What the..." Ron looked around, obviously confused by his whereabouts in his newly awaken stupor.
Harry nodded. "Exactly. What the hell?"
Hermione appeared to be having a bit of trouble focusing her eyes because she kept squeezing them shut and then opening them only to blink rapidly and rub at them with the heels of her hands.
Ron was slowly coming out of his confusion and appeared to have finally recognized his best friend. "What time is it?" he asked in a groggy sort of voice.
"Five-thirty," Harry answered briskly.
"In the morning?" Hermione asked through half-opened eyes.
"No," Harry said sarcastically, "at night."
Hermione either missed his sarcasm or chose to ignore it because she didn't comment on it. "We must have fallen asleep down here."
"Do you think?" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Lay off, Harry," Ron answered lazily. Then he shook his head as though being hit abruptly with a valuable piece of information. "What the hell are you doing up anyway?"
Harry sighed before forcibly shoving Hermione over and settling himself in the middle, putting what he figured was a safe distance between the two of them. "Well," he started haughtily, "I woke up for some reason. I know what it was now." He glanced from one of them to the other; Hermione had finally stopped rubbing her eyes. "It was to save the two of you from being the most popular topic of conversation for the next several months."
Ron gave Harry a sharp look. "We just fell asleep while we were talking," he said evenly, and Harry noticed he was making an effort to safely avoid Hermione's eyes at the time.
Harry, upon seeing this, took it upon himself to look at the female beside him. He gave her a suspicious look and then turned the same look to the redhead on his other side. Both of them returned looks of contempt. "Well, be that as it may," he said airily, "no one else would have believed it. Just think if Parvati or Lavender had come down here." He looked pointedly at Hermione. "Or Dean or Seamus." He paused dramatically. "Or, God forbid, Ginny or the twins." He settled the same pointed look on Ron.
There was a moment in which Harry enjoyed a satisfied silence. Until Hermione finally rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, shut up Harry."
Harry was shocked at Hermione's sudden impertinence, as she usually never spoke in such a manner. Especially to him. He distinctly heard Ron snicker behind him as he gaped at the brown-headed girl beside him. He couldn't quite believe that she had the nerve to tell him to shut up.
"Excuse me," he said indignantly. "But I believe I just saved your ass from major embarrassment."
Hermione rolled her eyes for a second time. "Well, we wouldn't have even been down here last night if it hadn't been for you, so this is mostly your fault."
Harry was confused and momentarily glanced at Ron who simply looked back at him blankly.
Hermione finished without waiting for him to request an explanation. "We were down here talking about the prophecy, and if you hadn't run out of the library, we could have discussed it while we were finishing up." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked irritably at him.
Harry felt a twinge of guilt at having left his friends to do all of the work themselves, but it still didn't excuse Hermione's very rude sudden behavior. Of course, he and Ron had grown quite used to her sudden mood swings- especially over the last couple of years. It was something they didn't like to think about, obviously. "Well, sorry," Harry said quickly, avoiding her eye.
Ron was still silent, and Hermione obviously chose that moment to forgive him completely because she smiled at him and shook her head. "Oh, it's okay."
Harry raised a curious eyebrow at her but smartly decided not to say anything. He chanced a glance at Ron who raised his own eyebrows in a silent agreement that Hermione was definitely acting a little strangely.
"We did decide something, though," Hermione continued as though she hadn't just two seconds before told Harry to shut up. "We really need to tell someone about that book."
Harry looked again at Ron who kind of half-shrugged. He looked back at Hermione and said, "Who do think will believe us?"
Hermione looked around uneasily and then finally voiced her opinion. "We need to tell Dumbledore."
"No," Harry said flatly. "He'll make too much out of it and start fussing over us even more than he already is."
"Well, what about Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked quickly, as if she'd expected Harry to shoot down the idea of Dumbledore.
But the idea of McGonagall was even more laughable than the one of the Headmaster. "Are you crazy, Hermione?" Harry asked honestly. "McGonagall will have a fit, and she'll probably banish us to the Gryffindor Common Room for the rest of our lives. She won't let us play Quidditch; she probably won't even let us go to the bathroom by ourselves!"
"We could talk to Snape!" Ron piped up in what was an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.
Harry snorted, and Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's not even funny," she said indignantly.
Harry sighed. "We need to talk to Sirius." Ron and Hermione both nodded solemnly in agreement. "But I don't even know where he is."
Suddenly, though, Ron perked up. "Well, we may not know where Sirius is, but we know where Professor Lupin is!"
Harry could have slapped himself for not thinking of Lupin himself. Of course he was the obvious choice! "Ron, you're a genius!"
Hermione snorted. Ron glared at her.
Harry ignored them and continued. "Let's all get dressed and then stop by his office before breakfast."
Ron and Hermione nodded. Hermione stood up and attempted to straighten out her skirt. "I'm going to go get a shower," she announced.
Ron grinned at her, obviously teasing, and said, "Thank God."
Harry snickered, and he half-expected Hermione to, too, but to his surprise she glared dangerously at the pair of them. "Oh, you can both shove off."
With that, Hermione whipped around and started toward the staircase that would take her to her dormitory, angry at both of the idiotic boys she called best friends for being stupid prats.. However, just as she'd almost gotten out of hearing distance of her friends, she distinctly heard Ron's voice mutter the words, "Someone has PMS..." and Harry's snicker of agreement.
This was just too much.
Whipping back around, she stared at the two of them with a look she knew would frighten anyone. "PMS?" she queried, forcing her voice to stay even.
She saw the look of surprise on both of their faces at the fact that she had heard them. Ron glanced at Harry, and they both sort of unconsciously backed away from Hermione. Ron tried to stutter an explanation, as it was quite clear that he was in deep trouble. "Well... er... I... uh..."
Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head rapidly to shut him up. Then, in a voice louder than the previous one, she started her tirade. "I do not have PMS, thank you! Boys think that everything in the world can be blamed on PMS!" With that, she threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "Girls don't have PMS 365 days a year for your information. And if you really want to know, I just got off my period three days ago; therefore, my next one is not due to start until November 11th, and PMS should start about a week before that." She smiled a bit sardonically at the look of horror on both boys' faces. "So, if the two of you want to make a calendar or something to keep up, then be my guest!" With a final glare, she turned on her heel and marched to her dormitory with her head held high.
There was a long moment of silence in which both boys were quite sickened. Finally, they looked at each other with identical expressions of disgust. Ron actually shuddered as he said, "That was just a little too much information."
Harry nodded in unwavering agreement. "But maybe we should make a calendar..."
Ron looked dazed and shrugged. "If she doesn't have PMS, then I wonder what's up her ass."
Harry shrugged, too, bewildered, and said, "Is there such a thing as Post- Menstrual Syndrome?"
Ron snickered a bit and then got a very confused look on his face. "Why the hell are we discussing Hermione's menstrual cycle in the first place?"
Harry paused for a moment, pondering the question himself. Then he rolled his eyes and hit Ron across the forearm. "You started it!"
Ron still looked a little confused as he nodded absently. "Oh, yeah..." Then he shook himself out of his daze and looked at Harry. "But I didn't want to know all that!"
"Me either," Harry said very honestly.
There was another moment of silence, and both boys found themselves thinking the conversation over in their heads despite the sickening feeling they got when thinking of Hermione and her "own special time of the month."
Finally, Ron shook himself again. "Well, we better shower then, huh?" He said this airily and bit strangely.
Harry, who felt exactly the same way Ron sounded, nodded absently and said, "Yeah..."
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It took Professor Lupin several moments to answer his door after the three friends knocked. In fact, they'd almost given up on his being there and were about to turn around and head back to Gryffindor. Just as they were turning around, though, the door opened, and Remus Lupin looked out to survey the knockers.
"Well, what brings the three of you by?" he asked good-naturedly, as he grinned at them.
"We need to talk to you," Harry answered with an uneasy glance at Ron and Hermione.
"Well, come in," the professor held the door open for the three students who entered silently and all seated themselves on a single sofa that sat in the corner of the rather small office. Professor Lupin shut the door behind them and turned back to his pupils. "Would you like some tea?"
Ron nodded and answered for all of them. "Please."
Harry hadn't really come to the Defense Against the Dark Arts' teacher's office for a cup of tea, but he didn't say anything as Lupin conjured up a kettle of hot tea and poured them each a cupful. He politely thanked the teacher when he was given his own cup and took a few sips to avoid appearing rude.
"Professor Lupin, we were in the library last night serving detention, and we found something rather disturbing." Well, Hermione certainly didn't waste any time at getting to the point, did she?
Lupin raised a thin eyebrow at the young woman curiously. "What did you find, Miss Granger?"
Hermione set her teacup down on a small side table and addressed the professor eye to eye. "We found some information on the Dark Wizard Manicalt who lived five-hundred years ago. Have you ever heard of him?"
Lupin nodded, his eyes keen with curiosity. "Yes, I've studied him."
"Well, then surely you know that he was defeated by three Hogwarts students."
Lupin looked at Hermione silently for a moment before turning his head to take in the sight of Ron and Harry to her left. Finally, he turned back to Hermione and answered her. "Yes, I'm familiar with the story."
Hermione sighed. "Well, apparently there is an ancient prophecy that another Dark Wizard would rise five-hundred years later and rival three more students." She hesitated for a moment and cast a side-glance at the two boys beside her. "Three students who sound an awful lot like us."
There was another silence in which Harry was sure Professor Lupin was trying to process the information and come up with a logical explanation for the prophecy. However, all he got as a response from the teacher was, "Yes, I am aware of that as well."
"What?!" Harry suddenly looked up in shock at the man across from him. "You know about this prophecy?!"
Lupin sighed and sat down in a leather chair. "Of course I know about it." He said this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "All of your professors know about it. Why do you think Hermione wasn't chosen as a Prefect?"
Hermione's eyes widened just a bit. "But Professor McGonagall said it was because I was in danger. Not because I was supposed to be saving the world!"
"Welcome to the club," came a quiet, almost bitter whisper from Harry.
"Well, that's because you're not supposed to be saving the world," Lupin said, either not hearing Harry or choosing not to comment. "Not exactly anyway."
"What do you mean 'not exactly?'" Ron had joined the conversation after being silent for awhile. "What are we supposed to be doing?"
Yet another silence followed this question. Finally, Lupin regarded them all with somewhat sympathetic eyes. "I can't tell you."
"What?!" Harry couldn't quite believe he was hearing correctly. "You can't tell us?! That's insane!"
"I can't tell you," Lupin continued with an almost irritated glance at Harry, "because I don't know. No one knows."
Harry could feel a headache coming on, and he wasn't at all sure how to make sense of anything he was hearing. He glanced at his two best friends and saw that they appeared to be just as confused as he was by the explanation being offered to them.
"It's something that you have to figure out on your own," he continued. "No one can tell you how it's going to unfold- only that this is your destiny."
"You sound like Trelawney," Ron said dismissively. "This is just a bit too much."
Hermione spoke after a moment of processing the information. "You said that all the professors know about this. How long have you known?"
"Well, we've known about Harry since he was a baby," he answered with a quick glance at the dark-haired boy. "And we knew that there would be two more, but we just didn't know who until the two of you started school. It became completely clear after the Philosopher's Stone incident."
Harry let out a sound of disbelief. "You mean to tell me that you've all known about this damn prophecy or whatever the hell it is for five years, and no one has bothered to tell us?!" He was more angry than anything by this point.
Lupin started to say something, but Ron cut him off with a sarcastic remark. "Oh, no, Harry. You should feel exceptionally loved. They've known about you for fourteen years."
The teacher shot a sharp look at the redhead and then turned back to Harry. "We couldn't tell you. It was something you had to find out on your own."
"Just like we're supposed to find out what it all means on our own, huh?" Harry asked incredulously. "This is fantastic." The bitterness was completely evident in his tone.
With a sigh, Lupin struggled to keep himself calm. "Look. No one picked you for this; no one woke up one day and decided that Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were going to be responsible for conquering the Dark Lord. It just happened because it's what you were put here to do. You can't choose your own destiny."
"Obviously," Hermione said with a slight roll of the eyes.
"We're all here to help you in any way that we can," Lupin continued. "But when it comes down to it, the three of you are the ones who have to figure it all out."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked finally. "Just hang around and do nothing until Voldemort comes to capture us?"
Ron and Hermione both looked visibly shaken by this image, but they both refrained from speaking long enough to allow their teacher to offer up some sort of explanation.
"No, there are other things you can do. You still have that book that Sirius sent you for your birthday, don't you?"
Harry glanced at Hermione who had taken over the book quite soon after he'd received it. She nodded.
"Well," Lupin continued, "I suggest that you start studying it. There are many things in there that will be helpful to you."
"Like the wandless thing," Ron finished. "We already know about that. What else can we do?"
"You could start," Lupin said a little irritably, "by actually paying attention in class." He was directing his comment to Ron and Harry. "You could probably pick up on a lot of useful things in your everyday lectures- things that could prove most beneficial to you."
"Hermione pays attention," Ron said indignantly. "We can just ask her if we need something like that."
"Did it ever occur to you, Ron," Lupin asked smoothly, "that if and when something does happen, the three of you will be separated?"
Ron scowled.
"And right now," he said, not allowing anyone else to comment, "I think you should visit Professor Dumbledore."
"We're not going to see Dumbledore," Harry said adamantly. "He'll just get all worried and make too much out of it."
"Make too much out of it?" It appeared as though Lupin couldn't quite be sure if he'd heard correctly. "Harry, do you realize how serious this is?"
"I realize that no one is going to help us, so we might as well stick to ourselves," Harry said promptly. Ron and Hermione both nodded their agreement.
Lupin sighed. "The childish pouting will do you no good."
"It's not childish pouting!" Everyone looked at Hermione after her sudden outburst. She had jumped to her feet and was staring at their teacher daringly. "Do you have any idea how unfair this is?! Of course you don't!" She threw her hands into the air as she answered her own question. "No one came up to you when you were fifteen and said, 'Oh, by the way, Remus. We want you to save the world. Oh, and bring a few friends along for the ride.' Now did they?"
If Professor Lupin was shocked by the sudden outrage of the school's top student, he didn't show it. He simply stared back at the young witch and spoke in a calm voice. "No, they didn't. But do you know what did happen?" He glanced briefly at her and then to the two boys and finally back to her. "Someone came up to me a few years ago and told me that one of my best childhood friends was trying to kill the son of one of my other best friends. And then, come to find out, it was yet another best friend who was actually to blame. Now, talk about a lot to take in in a short period of time."
"What does that have to do with us?" Harry asked and then shook his head and said, "Besides the obvious?"
"It proves that sometimes things happen that you can't believe. Things happen that you would never dream would even take place. Things happen that you have no control over, but you still have to deal with them." He looked at all three teenagers. "That's what it has to do with you."
There was a moment of silence in which all three students thought about what he'd just said. Finally, Hermione retook her seat on the sofa and looked up at the teacher expectantly.
Lupin was very calm as he finished his explanation. "And I know it's unfair. But trust me when I say this, it wouldn't be your destiny if you couldn't handle it. You're the chosen ones for a reason."
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