"Draco, you are scaring me. What does it say?" Ginny asked.
However, Draco did not respond. He seemed to be in a state of shock. His face was pale and his eyes seemed to be riveted to the parchment in his hand.
"Draco, dear, are you alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked gently when Draco had still not responded after a few moments of silence…an eerie silence that was most unusual for the bustling Weasley house.
After a poignant look from Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley walked over to Draco and put a hand on his shoulder. This contact seemed to pull Draco out of whatever trance he had been absorbed in. He jerked visibly, much like someone who had been roused from a deep sleep. Once his eyes had regained their awareness, he turned to Ginny and handed her the parchment.
Ginny hesitantly took the scroll and looked at Draco in question. He simply nodded to the paper to get her to read it. She dropped her eyes to the parchment and read. She made a slightly audible gasp and quickly raised her eyes to Draco's. There was a visible question in her warm, chocolate eyes.
Draco shrugged and nodded his head in a negative manner.
"Ginny, would one of you two please explain what is going on?" Mr. Weasley inquired.
Ginny turned to her father and simply handed him the parchment. He took it from her, lowered his eyes and read it. When he looked up, he had a very perplexed look on his face. He turned to Mrs. Weasley and handed her the parchment. She, with a great deal of reluctance, took the parchment from her husband and read it.
"Arthur, what can this mean?" she asked with a hint of trepidation in her voice.
"I'm not sure Molly, but I think we should contact Dumbledore immediately." he informed them. Then, he turned to the rest of the family, who up until this point had been uncharacteristically subdued, and told them to head into the kitchen and get lunch started. They all nodded and headed into the kitchen.
Mr. Weasley beckoned Ginny, Draco and Molly closer to the living room's fireplace. Mr. Weasley threw some floo powder into the flue and called for Albus Dumbledore. Within moments, Dumbledore's head was floating in the fireplace.
"Hullo Arthur! How is your family Christmas at the Burrow?" Dumbledore asked.
"Fine. Fine. We have had a wonderful time with the family visiting. The entire family made it, you know? And you?"
"Pleasant as always, I got six new pairs of socks and lots and lots of candy." Dumbledore excitedly informed them. It was amazing how even over the floo network Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling merrily. "However, I think you did not contact me for niceties. What is the issue you need to discuss?"
Arthur lightly cleared his throat and began, "Yes, as usual, you are spot on Dumbledore. After we finished opening our presents this morning, Molly found a hidden gift on our Christmas tree that was addressed to Ginny and Draco. No one seemed to know where it came from, but Molly gave it to them and Draco opened it. It was a parchment. Dumbledore…it appears to be a parchment from…I hope you don't think I am crazy, but it appears to be a parchment from Merlin…or…or…one of his apprentices."
Dumbledore could be seen stroking his great, white beard in a thoughtful manner. "Arthur, I do not think you are crazy. I do have a question for you though. Would the apprentice's name happen to be Reilly?"
"Why yes, yes it is."
"I was afraid you were going to say that. Then, this means it has begun."
"What has begun?" Ginny chimed in.
"An ancient prophecy that Merlin, himself, predicted. I'm afraid that I am going to have to ask Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy to return to Hogwarts, immediately."
"Of course, Professor Dumbledore, we will return as soon as we pack up our things." Draco said, pulling Ginny towards the stairs. Ginny and Draco practically ran up the stairs. Once there, they quickly threw their things in their respective trunks, performed a shrinking spell on them, placed them in the pockets of their pants and headed downstairs.
They quickly said their good byes to the family, well, most of the family. Hermione, Harry and Ron chose to throw a careless wave to them from the kitchen door.
As for Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George, they each gave a smacking kiss to Ginny's cheek and a firm handshake to Draco.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hugged Ginny and Draco good bye after extracting a promise to return if Dumbledore allowed.
They tossed in the floo powder and yelled, "Albus Dumbledore's office!"
They soared through the floo network with great speed. Soon, they were tumbling through the great fireplace into Professor Dumbledore's office. They quickly stood up and dusted all the soot and ash off of them as best they could. Before Draco could raise his wand to do a cleaning spell, Dumbledore was arriving from his private quarters and looking very anxious to begin.
"Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy please have a seat." Dumbledore said as he ushered them in with a wave of his hand.
Ginny and Draco nodded in greeting and took a seat on the old, leather loveseat.
Professor Dumbledore sat behind his large, imposing desk and looked over his glasses at the young couple. His arms were leaning on the desk at the elbow and he had his hands together, touching finger to finger. For the first time in many years, he felt unsure of how things were going to end. Pity that this had to begin now, people were just accepting and enjoying the fact that Voldemort was truly gone this time and now the wizarding world was going to have to deal with this. Dumbledore briefly closed his eyes.
Dumbledore was brought from his pensiveness by a light cough from Ginny. Dumbledore opened his eyes and smiled at her.
"I trust your Christmas was wonderful." Dumbledore began in an effort to be somewhat pleasant despite knowing this conversation was not going to end that way.
"It is always nice to be home during the Holidays, Professor. However, at this time; I would really like to discuss this parchment and what it means." Ginny informed him.
Dumbledore gave a full throttle chuckle at Ginny's bluntness. "Ever the Gryffindor, my dear Mrs. Malfoy."
"You have no idea." Draco quietly tossed back at Dumbledore with a hand beside his mouth to keep Ginny from seeing or hearing.
Dumbledore gave Draco a covert wink to let him know he had heard.
Ginny had apparently heard as well because she smacked Draco on the back of the head in loving exasperation. However, neither Dumbledore nor Draco missed the small smile on her face.
Dumbledore chuckled and began, "Well now, let us get down to business. About eleven hundred years ago the world was in a great darkness. In fact, both the muggle world and the wizarding world were suffering through great misnomers and uneducated ideals. It was an incredibly bleak time. Evil was rampant and no one trusted anyone. To trust may have cost you your life. During that time, many of the people survived only by believing in a prophecy of a young man that would pull a great, magical sword from a stone and with him would reside a great sorcerer to protect that man and all that is good. As we now know, the young man was Arthur and his great sorcerer was Merlin. Merlin, of course, was the son of a lower Princess from a region in Northern Wales. His father was unknown, but many speculated that he was an incubus created by a Druid Priest that thought there needed to be a balance between good and evil in this world. However, all of the evil was flushed out of Merlin; when his mother turned him over to a group of Christian nuns at a local church and they baptized him. I would assume that Professor Binns has taught you in History of Magic about Merlin's life with King Arthur, correct?"
Ginny and Draco both nodded in agreement at his question.
"Good, Good, then I'll save us some time by skipping that and moving on to the pertinent items. What most do not know, including witches and wizards, is that Merlin was infected by a vile spirit just before he died. Most, at the time, thought it to be madness from old age, but it was not. You see, one of Merlin's incubi relatives had returned to him. Somehow, he had convinced him that he was supposed to be evil and that for him not to be was causing a massive imbalance in the world. Once he was convinced, he summoned a demon spirit to consume his soul and right the balance. However, before he was consumed; he predicted that he would die at the hands of the demon. He did, but not before convincing one of his apprentices that he would return and cause chaos and destruction far into the future. That apprentice was Reilly. Once Merlin was dead, Reilly took Merlin's crystal ball and looked into the future by focusing on Merlin's last coherent thought. There it is said he saw what Merlin had seen and believed he had been shown it to protect the future. He wrote it down in an ancient tome. However, remember that these were dark times; so, instead of simply saying what he saw, he put his sights into verse. Wait here for a moment and I will get that tome."
Dumbledore rose from his seat and headed to his private quarters. When he was out of sight, Ginny turned to Draco. She had a frightened look about her. Draco pulled her into his arms and asked her what was wrong.
At first, she refused to answer. After Draco had held her for a few minutes longer, Ginny turned to him and said, "If the prophecy occurs, our love will be destroyed."
Draco looked at Ginny in disbelief. However, before he could respond; Dumbledore returned with a large, old tome.
A/N: I have taken great liberties with the theories of Merlin. I used the concepts from www.britannia.com to start my prophecy and from there I created an entirely knew Merlin concept…so, hold tight!