Chapter 19:

"Well, I'm off," Malfoy quickly said, after a brief pause.

"Where are you going?" Leah asked.

"Library."

"Why?"

"Didn't you listen to your mother, Leah?" he mocked. He said in a more serious tone, "to find the prophesy."

"I'm coming with you."

Half an hour later, the two of them sat at a desk in the infinitely booked room with a selected pile of books. After they had selected the right row in which held books suited to the category, they had to go down each long shelf and pick out the books which, with some chance, had what they were looking for. Numerous attempts to find the prophesy failed, and in the end, Leah had to bite the bullet and go up and ask the residential vulture, also known as the librarian, Madam Pince. She urged Malfoy to come with her, who looked at her with reluctance. Madam Pince looked up from a group of first years she was badgering as Leah walked up to her. "What?" she said irritably to Leah.

"Er, um… I…"

"Yes, hurry up!"

"Um, I was wondering where the books on famous prophesies were," Leah said, being very careful not to run her words together in fright of the woman in front of her.

"Why?" she asked, her searching eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"History assignment," Leah said quickly.

Madam Pince sighed and rolled her eyes with exasperation, "Fine, fine. Follow me." She stalked off down the isles and Leah followed her, quite put out by the snags of comments she spat at the various students sitting at desks or searching for books. After what seemed like an age, going through isle after isle, they came to stop in front of a shelf with a dozen or so identical books lined up. "Here it is; the Magical History Encyclopaedia. Look up 'prophesy' and you'll find it," she said in a bored tone, like a tour guide that had been doing the tours in the same town for two decades, where the shops hardly changed in all of her time working there. Though, she supposed that working in a library like this did seem like a town that hardly changed its face in twenty years… all those books that stay where they are and are never taken out or put back exactly where they were before. Malfoy came over from the isle behind her, clearly hiding from the vulture that guarded one of the dustiest and the most useless books in the world. Leah accusedly glared at him and said in a cool tone, "I thought you wouldn't be such a chicken in front of a librarian."

"Yeah, a librarian that's more a vulture than a human." Leah raised her eyebrow. "Anyway, I have a bit of a reputation for causing havoc around here; it's an excellent place to slip a dungbomb or two…" he reminisced.

Leah shot a disgusted look at him and took out the book marked 'Pe – Qu'. She started flipping through the pages and found a large section marked down for prophesies. "Look," she said to Malfoy as she found a small quote in the middle of the page.

He came over and started reading over her shoulder. "This is it," he said and grabbed it out of her hand. He went over to the closest desk and started reading it carefully and thoroughly. She came over to sit next to him as he got a spare piece of paper and a quill. He scribbled the, poem, it seemed, as Leah got a chance to read though it.

Seen so clearly, one is unsure,

For the future is foggier the more,

Prophesies afore were so simple, so pure,

But this I see now, one is unsure.

One of three, three of one,

In ten children will become,

Two of two, one of one,

And an era would have begun.

Two children of children,

Meet across the cauldron,

And tie knots in mine broken,

Ah, the broken ties broaden,

But in ten children will become,

Two of two and one of one,

Where an era hath begun.

Jupitus Malfoy, c. 1850

……………………………………………………………

"One of three, three of one…" the prophesy echoed in Leah's mind. And it had been for the last 48 hours or more; during classes, before falling asleep, she even wrote it down on her parchment when she was writing her essay for Ancient Runes, which stuffed up the whole three feet of writing she had already done. It seemed like every time she sat down or had a spare moment to think, the lines from the prophesy would pop into her head, and she would go over and over the whole thing. By now, she could recite the whole quote, although this wouldn't be surprising if you thought about it every damned minute of the day.

But often, she would find herself, not going through the lines, but thinking about what the lines had meant. Those numbers… and what he had written about an era. What did they all mean? Surly the mention of 'three' meant the families, but when the 'one's came in, it made it a whole lot harder, and more complex.

But today wasn't the right time to think about prophesies and their hidden meanings.

But Leah didn't know this, and she sat at her desk that evening, trying to get her head around the thought of the prophesy (once again) so she could finish her essay that she still hadn't finished (even after several attempts which all failed with repeatedly writing lines from the prophesy).

Pansy, who had been sitting across the room from her, closely watching her while also doing her homework, now got up and crossed the room. The room had steadily gotten deserted and it now was only, Leah, Pansy and a handful of late-nighters.

Leah felt the presence of someone behind her and turned around from where she sat – Pansy. She tried to be as polite as possible, when it came to being around someone that you would instantly squish, if they had been a bug. Privately, Leah reflected upon herself that indeed, Pansy's face, at times, wasn't far off from one of a particularly nasty bug. But she quickly shoved the thought aside and brought in her 'nicer side' into play. "Hi, Pansy," she said playing sweet-innocent.

"Hi," she said, but her voice didn't reflect the same sort of pleasure. "I was wondering how long you were staying here."

"The whole year," Leah said, and simultaneously thought of the agonising times ahead of her with Pansy.

Pansy too, felt the weight of despair drop on her chest. "Really? For that long?"

"Yup."

"But won't you get homesick? Don't you want to go back to Durmstrang?" she asked, trying to get her to agree on the same side of the subject.

"No more homesick than anyone else here. And I'm starting to like this place… maybe I'll stay for my final year too." Pansy's chest started to feel desperately heavy, heavy enough to convince her that she had some sort of breathing problem. But Leah changed her mind, "No, maybe not." Is she trying to get something across? Leah thought.

Pansy stretched her mouth in to a smile, with a little difficulty. "So you're definitely leaving at the end of this year?" Pansy asked. Yup, thought Leah, she's definitely trying to get something across.

"Um, I'm not sure yet."

"Can you give me an estimate?"

"No," Leah's temper started to boil.

"Not even narrowing it down to years?"

"Look, if you've got something to tell me, why don't you tell it to my face?" Leah said impatiently, her temper getting the better of her.

'Fine," Pansy said her temper equally as hot. "I want you out of my life and the lives of others. And I've seen the way you look at Draco. Acting all lovey-dovey when he's around… he's mine! If you even dare to even lay a finger on him, I'll personally make your life a living nightmare and I sware, you'll feel so sorry you were even born! And one of these days, when you don't even exist on the face of this planet, Draco'll thank me and be grateful that I had gotten rid of you!"

Wow, this person sure has a lot of anger in her… thought Leah. She gave a harsh laugh and said to her with pity, "When are you going to realise that Draco doesn't even like you? He's being trying to get away from you for ages…"

"Don't you even say is name! You're not worthy enough to say it, let alone tell me what he thinks. You're just telling me this because you want him for yourself – he's mine!"

"You sound like you're his bloody mother! You don't own him and if you don't believe me, then ask him yourself!"

Pansy blared at her, red-faced and trying desperately to find an insult. But once the right length of time in which you could throw an insult had long passed, she had no choice but to act upon her instincts. She threw up her hand and pooled all the energy into her suspended arm. She swung it, aiming for Leah's face, but Leah had contemplated this and grabbed at Pansy's arm, her palm only inches away from her own face.

Pansy glared at her and growled, "Don't be a wimp and fight me like a man."

"But I'm not a man – unlike yourself," Leah said calmly and let go of Pansy's arm as she tried to twist free from her grasp. Pansy looked back at her, her eyes narrowed, as she made her way back to her dormitory. Leah gave a sigh and turned back to the essay that she was trying to finish. But it was not use, since Pansy had interrupted her, the thought of was she was going to write had totally escaped her mind and the desire to write had also vanished.

..........................................................................

"She said what?" Elise sat with Leah on one of the couches facing the fire later that night.

"She said 'one of these days when you won't even exist on the face of this planet'. She practically said that I was going to die," Leah said thinking through the quote.

"God, you've done it now, Leah." She nodded quietly. "But don't worry; I'll look out for you," Elise said reassuringly, patting her head. Elise sighed; she knew what Pansy was like. And hearing a quote like that from her definitely didn't indicate that Leah had landed herself in Pansy's 'good books'. She also knew that knowing Pansy and her determination to do what she thought was right, that Leah could have well been signed off with an official note that she was going to suffer. But the best she could do for her was look out for any signs that Pansy was going to plan some evil scheme… and try and stop it. Elise looked back into Leah's eyes – only seeing something else from what she expected.

Leah looked up into Elise's eyes, but only momentarily before she started seeing pictures of her past, flashing past her like a film. Her fifth birthday, her uncle sucking his ivory pipe, Chris as a child climbing a tree, Pansy's temper-ugly face spitting out silent insults, Malfoy's face getting closer…closer…

"Oh my god," Elise said in a whisper.

"Wow," said Leah who looked at Elise with disbelief. "I didn't know you were a Legilimens."

"Neither did I."

"Should we tell someone?" Leah inquired.

Elise turned quickly and said urgently, "No! No-one must know. I don't want anyone to know…"

"But it's a great gift, and not a common one," Leah looked at her in awe. She couldn't believe what she was hearing – she must be crazy, thought Leah.

"I know, but I'd rather that no-one knew. Please, promise me that you won't tell anyone."

"Of course."

Elise looked relieved and a smile started to form on her face. "I didn't know that Malfoy kissed you."

Leah could instantly feel her face redden and she stammered, "Um, well actually he didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"I was in the Hospital Wing and Malfoy was the one who took me up there. So while we waited for Madam Pomfrey, it leant towards me. But the Madam Pomfrey chose the right time to come in and he never got to kiss me."

"Oh well, don't worry. I'm sure they'll be lots more opportunities," Elise said brightly and clapped Leah on her back. Leah reddened and started playing with her thumb nail.

A/N: R&R! I'm SO sorry for taking so long! I just had my 'depressed' period where I basically gave up on the whole story. Anyway, Sona, you're one of my most faithful reviewers ever and I just wanted to say thanks because you really brightened my day! I will try and update, but I would really like some support to keep me going! No reviews = no stories. So R&R please!!!