"Room of Hope?" repeated Harry. Dumbledore nodded.
"Yes. The Room of Hope is the exact opposite of the Room of Doom. It shows the viewer what he wishes the most, therefore making him believe that his wish is possible and that it will occur in that exact same way as shown. Thus that room is also quite dangerous."
"Why?" asked Ron.
"Because it makes the viewer believe he does not have to prepare himself for what he wishes the most. He assumes his most significant wish will just come to him one day and that all he has to do is just wait for it. Many, many people have lost lives, loved ones and/or sanity this way," explained Dumbledore. A pained look was hidden in his eyes and for the first time since first year Harry wondered what his Headmaster desired the most and if he had once lost it.
"Isn't there anything safe in this castle!" bellowed Hermione, taking everybody aback and shaking Harry from his thoughts. Everyone looked at her and Hermione blushed. "Sorry," she mumbled while examining her shoes.
"Well, the dining room is quite safe," began Dumbledore. "Shall we go and have breakfast, then? I daresay a good breakfast is the foundation of a good day," he said happily and then entered the dining room. The five students followed him and Harry wondered if the pained expression in Dumbledore's eyes had just been a figment of his own imagination. Dumbledore seemed quite all right now; surely he wasn't feeling horrible if he was looking so content at the moment? 'Unless he took acting classes somewhere along the way,' thought Harry as he seated himself between Ron and Draco. All kinds of food appeared in front of them and they piled their plates hungrily.
"Again, my mind is very curious to know what it was that you saw in the Room of Hope," said Dumbledore and he looked at them intently.
"We were fighting Death Eaters," began Ron after he had swallowed his food. He went on excitedly. "I sent about three of them flying across the meadow and they were all knocked unconscious and then one of them tried to sneak up on me but I turned around and slammed him into anoth- What?" He asked when Harry cleared his throat for the third time. Harry looked at his friend in the most innocent way he could and said:
"What? Nothing. I was just clearing my throat a bit."
"Oh, okay then," said Ron and he was about to begin his story again when Harry cut in front of him.
"They were fighting Death Eaters with the Order like Ron said and I was battling against Voldemort," he said, ignoring Ron who had winced as always.
"Surely Draco was battling Voldemort with you?" asked Dumbledore, he, too, ignoring Ron's wince. Draco looked up from his food. Why was he supposed to be fighting Voldemort?
"Yes," said Harry, a bit embarrassed he had forgotten Draco. "Yes, Draco fought against Voldemort, too."
"I thought so. I would have been more worried if he hadn't," Dumbledore told them. Draco still looked highly confused but he had completely forgotten to hide it. Dumbledore expected him to battle against Voldemort with Harry? "Harry, you look troubled, is there anything you want to ask?" questioned Dumbledore, seeing Harry's struggling look. Harry looked at his Headmaster and hesitated. There was a question that had been burning inside him for a long time, but he had thought it a bit egocentric to ask. Harry saw Dumbledore watching him and knew he couldn't lie himself out of this one, they'd have noticed something was bothering him by now, so Harry cleared his throat and said:
"Erm… well, there is one question…"
"Yes?" asked Dumbledore as he took another bite of his breakfast.
"Well… I was wondering… the prophecy said that: 'either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives' so that means that I must either kill Voldemort or be killed. But you never said anything about four others helping me to defeat him. You said I was the only one that could," said Harry. His friends were watching him intently. None of them had ever heard the Prophecy. They had all thought it had gone lost when the little glass sphere shattered on those steps in front of the veil and Harry had never told them he had heard.
"True. True," said Dumbledore, nodding. "But you see, Harry, there are many, many prophecy's kept in the Hall of Prophecy and I only knew the one that I had heard Sybil Trelawny make. Naturally, when summer vacation started, I went to the Hall of Prophecy and asked for every prophecy that contained a Hogwarts student. When it was found I demanded to listen to it and Fudge finally gave in, after a long time of contradicting me. This prophecy, made even before yours, contained three others that would be fated, just like you," said Dumbledore and he began rummaging in his pockets. His face lit up and he pulled a small silver cube from his inside pocket. "Engorgio," he said and the small cube grew until it represented a large stone basin, with symbols engraved in the sides, that Harry had seen before. It was Dumbledore's pensieve.
"Erm… Sir?" asked Ron as he watched Dumbledore extract a silver string of substance from his temple.
"Yes?" replied Dumbledore as he put the substance into the swirling liquid/gas substance in the pensieve.
"What's that?" asked Ron.
"This is my pensieve," replied Dumbledore, but Ron still looked as confused as before. "It contains memories of mine that I have put in there. I will show you my memory of when I saw the prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy that contained the three others," he said and then he prodded the silver substance. A figure rose out of it, draped in shawls, her eyes magnified to abnormal large sizes behind her thick glasses. It was Trelawny, but when she spoke her mystic voice was replaced by a harsh one Harry had heard twice before. Once in his third year in her classroom and once last year in Dumbledore's office.
"Three will soon approach, born in different times of the year… one be Muggle-born, one Muggle-born parents and the last be pureblood… though these differences may be distinct all three will have one thing mutual… they will be fated with responsibility to help the one who soon approaches with power to vanquish the Dark Lord… the three soon to come will possess their own gift of force and the power of the four will attract each other, thwarting them to ever separate eternally… when final battle comes near the three will accompany the one with power to vanquish the Dark Lord and there will be a feast not forlorn… the three with powers to help the one who is fated to defeat the Dark Lord will soon be born."
There was an uncomfortable silence after they had heard the Prophecy and they just sat in stillness and watched as the translucent Trelawny went back into the pensieve and Dumbledore shrunk it into the small cube and put it back in his inside pocket. Harry's burning question had been answered, but a lot of new ones had replaced it. He looked at Ron, who looked a bit more up to date but still had a confused look on his face. Harry saw Ron raise his hand and he looked at Dumbledore.
"Yes, Ron?" asked their Headmaster.
"Well, the Prophecy says that one of the three will be Muggle-born, that'll be Hermione, one will have Muggle-born parents, that's Nora, but the third one will be a pureblood," began Ron. Dumbledore nodded and Harry looked at his friend, he didn't understand where this question was going, didn't Ron know that he was the pureblood?
"Yes," said Dumbledore.
"Well, is that pureblood me… or Draco?" asked Ron. Harry felt embarrassed for the second time that breakfast; he had forgotten Draco once again.
"That would be you, Ron," said Dumbledore.
"Then what's Draco doing here?"
"Well, you see, Harry here is not the only one in this room that had Voldemort's powers transferred into him," explained Dumbledore. Harry glanced at Draco and saw that he was, unconsciously, rubbing the spot on his left arm where the Dark Mark would be. But Harry couldn't remember ever seeing a Dark Mark on Draco's arm and he couldn't find a reason why Draco would have one. Hadn't he once said that he didn't want to become a Death Eater and instead wanted to be an Auror?
"How?" asked Hermione
"Well I believe it happened on your birthday, Draco?" asked Dumbledore, watching Draco with a look of concern. Draco nodded. "Ah, then I think I know the story. I believe that Voldemort tried to give you the Dark Mark on your birthday, but because you are on the side of good instead of evil the Dark Mark backfired and again Voldemort's powers were transferred into someone else, though slightly minor than on the day it had happened to Harry. Draco's Dark Mark became white, instead of black, but Voldemort kept his body and was still as strong as he was before. Though this was a good thing for our side, it did not come without another loss. I'm terribly sorry, Draco, about Nymphirah," said Dumbledore solemnly. Draco nodded and played with his food avoiding eye contact with the others.
"So… the Prophecy speaks of three who will be born, that would be me, Nora and Ron, and we have a special gift of force and with that we're supposed to help Harry defeat Voldemort?" asked Hermione
"Correct," replied Dumbledore, smiling at his cleverest student.
"But what does it mean: the power of the four will attract each other, thwarting them to ever separate eternally," questioned Hermione
"It means that your power attracts the power of the others, which is why you four are always inseparable, even though there may have been a few quarrels and disagreements," explained Dumbledore. "Now, Draco," he continued. Draco looked up, wondering what Dumbledore was going to say. "Draco was a slight mistake, but it is most fortunate for our side, for now we have two who have the power to defeat Voldemort instead of one. Of course, you five are still far from being able to fight Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort correctly so I suggest we finish breakfast and head outside to the Quidditch Pitch for some more training." Harry, Ron and Draco's face lit up and they were already standing beside their chairs, waiting eagerly for training to start. How boring could training be if they were on broomsticks, right?
"I see you three are already finished," said Dumbledore, smiling, as he got up himself. Harry, Ron and Draco nodded, eyeing Hermione and Nora, urging them to hurry up and finish their breakfast. Nora sighed, inwardly smiling a little at the boyish behavior of the three. She put down her knife, fork and napkin and then got up, too. It was no use trying to finish breakfast now with them hurrying her up. Hermione admitted defeat, too, and took one last sip of orange juice before getting up, too.
"Good," said Ron and he looked at Dumbledore eagerly.
"Let us go, then," said their Headmaster and they walked out of the dining room and into the Entrance Hall. Dumbledore opened the front doors and walked outside, the five students following him. Harry stepped outside with Ron and Draco and looked up to check the weather. It was a bit unnecessary because he didn't really need anymore proof that there was a very strong wind when he was nearly blown off his feet. The sun was nowhere to be seen since dark thunderous clouds threatening to rain any second, hid it.
"Ah, the weather couldn't have been perfect," said Dumbledore as he led them to the Quidditch Pitch. Harry looked at his Headmaster in disbelief, a bit concerned that he had not heard a single note of sarcasm. A roll of thunder could be heard high above them and Harry could see Nora and Hermione walking unsteadily a little in front of him due to the wind. They entered the warm changing room and Dumbledore gave them their brooms. All four, Harry, Nora, Ron and Draco, had Firebolts and they looked at Hermione, wondering if she would get a broom, too, since she had never flown in her life and avoided the Quidditch Pitch at al times unless there was a match. This was probably why she started protesting when Dumbledore handed her a Firebolt, too.
"I-I'm sorry, sir, but I don't fly. I-I don't know how to," she stammered, but Dumbledore just smiled and gave her the broom.
"That's quite all right. We'll teach you," and with that he grabbed his own Firebolt and led them out onto the Quidditch Pitch. Harry thanked Merlin that it wasn't raining. A few green leaves flew by, ripped off of their trees by the strong wind. "Now, for this training we will start out with a few warm up laps. Then the Quaffle will be passed around to warm up our reflexes a little and the main part of training: dodging the Bludgers that will be sent after you," said Dumbledore loudly, trying to make himself heard over the rumbling overhead and the whistling of the wind. Hermione gulped, clasping her broomstick so tightly her knuckles were white.
"Don't worry, Hermione. We'll help you," said Nora, comforting her friend. "It's really not hard at all." Hermione smiled at her.
"Thanks."
"Mount your brooms!" said Dumbledore. Everyone got on his or her broomstick with ease, except for Hermione, who was having a bit of trouble. Nora jumped off her Firebolt and helped Hermione get on her broomstick before mounting hers again. A high-pitched whistle sounded and they all kicked off, zooming straight into the air, the cold hard wind rushing through their hair and stinging their faces a little. Nora looked down to find Hermione still on the ground. Shaking her head slightly she zoomed downwards again, coming to Hermione's aid.
"Hermione, you're supposed to kick off in order to fly," she explained.
"Oh, right," said Hermione, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Erm… how do you do that?" Nora chuckled and showed her helpless friend how to kick off. She watched as Hermione was finally airborne but accidentally did a backwards loop and Nora had to rush forward to calm Hermione down, while the poor girl clung to her broomstick with all her might.
"Hermione, calm down. It's real easy to control your broomstick. It's not hard at all," said Nora, trying hard not to laugh. Harry, Ron and Draco were already zooming around the Pitch, racing each other. They were nothing but blurs of color. "All you have to do is steer very slightly. You don't have to pull just to go upwards, or push to go downwards. You just lean in one direction the slightest bit and you're already flying off that way," explained Nora. She then continued teaching Hermione, while the guys kept racing and showing off all the spectacular dives they knew, and within the hour Hermione could fly all by herself. Nora watched proudly and then decided to join the guys and warm up a little bit, too.
"Oi, Nora!" shouted Ron as he stopped in midair beside her. "Care to join us?" He asked. She nodded and flew off to the far end of the Quidditch Pitch where Harry and Draco were waiting for them.
"On three we go to the other side of the Pitch and whoever gets there first wins, ok?" said Harry. Nora, Ron and Draco nodded. "Right. One… two… THREE!" He shouted and then they were off. Hermione, who was still getting used to her broom, watched them in aw as four blurs sped towards the other side. A whistle blew and the five of them sped towards the middle where Dumbledore waited in mid air for them holding a wooden crate that contained the Quidditch balls.
"Now, you'll pass the Quaffle to each other as fast as you can and train your reflexes a bit," said Dumbledore as he passed the Quaffle to Draco, who caught it immediately. "Draco, you may start. I will watch." Draco passed the Quaffle to Harry, who caught it swiftly and passed it to Ron, who passed it to Hermione who almost dropped it. Hermione then passed it to Nora who passed to Ron who passed to Harry and so on and so on. The Quaffle was passed around the group for about half an hour and only a few times was it dropped… by Hermione. Dumbledore circled around them all the while, watching their reflexes and skills. After half an hour he blew his whistle and the five stopped and turned to look at him, constantly hovering in midair on their brooms. Nora held the Quaffle under her arm as she watched Dumbledore.
"Now that you have warmed up a bit I will start hitting Bludgers towards you. The Bludgers will replace actual curses and spells. Your task is to dodge these Bludgers in any way possible; it doesn't matter how you avoid them as long as you don't get hit. All right, begin flying," said Dumbledore. Nora gave him the Quaffle she had been holding and then flew off behind the others. She heard the high whistling of a Bludger… or was it the wind? Whatever the case was, she didn't bother to check but gave a hard tug on her broomstick and she rolled a couple of times in midair to the left. Hermione watched her friend in aw as she dodged the Bludger spectacularly. She then saw Harry doing a backward flip as he, too, got out of the way of the Bludger Dumbledore had sent after him. Hermione looked to the left and saw a Bludger hurtling towards her. She gave a shriek and then did the Sloth Grip Roll without meaning to.
Ron, who had stopped to look why Hermione had shrieked, would've gotten a Bludger right in the nose if he hadn't let go of his broom with his hands and leaned backwards so that his back touched his Firebolt, while his face was screwed up in pain. After the Bludger whizzed over him, missing him by a few inches, Ron sat back upright again, grimacing and rubbing his back which was aching thanks to the excruciating, yet amazing, move he had made. Draco seemed to be more sensible; he was intently watching every Bludger sent towards him and moving just a few inches to the left or right instead of making any radical moves. And unfortunately, during the first part of training, the five students kept being blown off course by the vigorous wind, making it harder to calculate every dodge they were to make.
Hermione, though still not quite as good as the others, seemed to be improving quickly and had soon stopped shrieking every time a Bludger approached her. Gradually more and more balls were shot at the five students and after a while they weren't able to rest after just having dodged one but were forced to spectacularly avoid another one heading right towards them. Even Draco, who had been the only one able to avoid Bludgers in simple ways, wasn't able to stick to his simple plan in moving out of the way and was forced to make very extravagant moves causing him to get slightly dizzy from all of the rolls and twists he was making. Harry felt, while doing yet another impressive back flip, that this training against Voldemort and his Death Eaters might've looked more like training for the circus to an outsider.
See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you
Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you
The wind had finally died down during the last part of training and the dark overcast clouds had long since moved away when Dumbledore's shrill whistle could be heard for the third time that day. The five students gathered around him, all sweating, their clothes sticking to their bodies, and all out of breath.
With or without youWith or without you
Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you
"You did well, all of you, and I'm proud to say that you're improvement is very great," began Dumbledore. He looked at his watch, which consisted of the sun, all of the planets and a few knobs and dials. Harry had no idea how one could ever get the time from that, but obviously Dumbledore was one immensely clever man, which Harry already knew, because, after one quick glance at his watch, he said: "It is two o'clock now, and I daresay you all want a break, so do whatever you feel like for the rest of the day." All five students cheered and then they raced each other towards the ground. They entered the changing room, put away their Firebolts and then stood there, looking around. After five minutes of silence in which the students tried to figure out what to do, Harry, Ron and Draco picked up their Firebolts again and sprinted back into the Quidditch Pitch. Both Nora and Hermione rolled their eyes.
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
"Spring in the forest?" Asked Hermione.
"Come again?" asked Nora, looking at her friend.
"I said: spring in the forest. Should we go there? Have a little swim? The weather's cleared up now, so it'll be a nice refreshment," explained Hermione.
"Oooh. Yeah, all right," said Nora and the two walked out of the changing room and made their way to the forest. Though Nora's mind had been free of the anger that had filled her the last few days for a couple of hours while she was in the air, it slowly returned to her and she didn't like it. Trying to take her mind off of it she asked: "So, how do you like flying?"
My hands are tiedMy body bruised, she's got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose
"It's quite all right. I never thought it could be so fun, actually," said Hermione, smiling.
"I knew you'd like it once you tried it, but back in Hogwarts I wouldn't have been able to get you on a broom even if I gave you a thousand Galleons," said Nora as they entered the forest, weaving through the trees.
"Yes, well, this was for training so I had no choice," replied Hermione and she stopped still for a second.
"What?" asked Nora as she, too, stood still, again letting her mind become clouded by anger.
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
"Just listening for the water pool," replied Hermione as she began walking again. She walked around a large bush behind which the small lake of clear water was concealed. Nora followed her and was a bit surprised of the beauty of it, having forgotten what it looked like since the last time they had went. Hermione sat on the sand and put her bare feet in the water. Nora sat down beside her, copying her. The water felt refreshingly cool against their feet and they lay down and closed their eyes, lying in the warm sun in comfortable silence, until:
"Why are you so mad at him?" asked Hermione as she turned her head towards Nora.
"Mad at who?" questioned Nora, while staring fixedly at the light blue sky above her, knowing perfectly well who Hermione was talking about. Hermione seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
"You know who I'm talking about," she replied. Nora sat up and sighed, gazing at the waterfall.
With or without youWith or without you
I can't live
With or without you
"I'm not mad at him," she replied after a while. "I'm mad at myself."
With or without youWith or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you
Hermione sat up, leaning on her elbows, and looked at Nora.
"You're mad at yourself? Why?" she asked, feeling utterly confused. Nora sighed again, her eyes stinging greatly as they always did when trying to stop the tears from flowing. She swallowed, took a few moments to regain her posture and then continued:
"Because… because I let him go," she replied softly, frowning in pure frustration. "Because my stubborn head had to act the exact opposite of what my heart wanted. Because… because I broke his heart as well as mine." Hermione looked out over the water, too. The two sat in silence for a while, watching the water ripple as the waterfall entered it, breaking the smooth surface.
"Don't blame yourself," said Hermione after another few minutes of silence in which only the gushing of water could be heard. "Neither of you are to blame."
"I just don't understand why he wouldn't let me battle with Harry! I told him I would even if he forbade me and then he'd lose me as well! Why did he have to be so stubborn?" exclaimed Nora. She heaved a sigh and then calmed down somewhat. "I just don't understand."
"I do," replied Hermione. She was concentrating hard on keeping her eyes away from Nora who was now staring at her in pure disbelief. "He was scared."
"Of what?" snapped Nora, furious that she was only being told now.
"That you'd go and do something careless and foolish," answered Hermione lightly in a casual tone mixed with fright.
"Where in heaven's name did he get that idea?" questioned Nora perplexed; she had almost never done anything reckless; having always thought things over before she acted.
"His nightmare."
"He had a nightmare?" asked Nora. Hermione nodded, finally looking her in the eyes.
"How do you know? … Did you talk to him?" Hermione shook her head. "Then how?"
"Whenever someone touches the Amulet of Era's," began Hermione slowly, her hand automatically reaching to the Amulet, checking to see if it was still there. "When someone touches it, their feelings, thoughts, etc. are 'transferred' into me. Which is how I know that he has this nightmare almost every night in which Harry gets killed by Voldemort and then, when Voldemort is planning on killing you next, you start teasing him, mocking him about not being pureblood as he wishes all wizards and witches to be. Draco's scared you'll get yourself killed." Hermione knew it was a rather… silly dream, and that things would never happen that way, yet still she was in awe of it. The two sat in silence again, the sun shining brightly above them.
"He hates me," stated Nora bluntly while splashing her feet in the cool water. "He'll never have me back. I ruined everything."
"You should worry more about acting like your old self again. Harry and Ron have been dead worried about you," said Hermione seriously and, when Nora looked at her a bit strangely, she added: "The Amulet. It transfers thoughts and feelings, remember?" Nora nodded in understanding.
"I bet I acted like a total bitch," she said softly, her head down in embarrassment. Hermione put an arm around her.
"That's 'witch', dear, not 'bitch', 'witch,'" she replied. Nora smiled as she remembered the time she had once said that exact same sentence in the Great Hall. It all seemed like a such a long time ago and she wondered how she would've reacted if someone had told her then that around fifty people, including Dean, would be killed, that they would all be sent all over the world, that she would end up dating and breaking up with Draco and that she was an important part in the defeat of Voldemort. She tried not to think of it all, and instead quickly got up, grabbed Hermione's hand and ran into the cool water, dragging Hermione with her, not bothering to change into swim suits first.
"AAAAAH!" squealed Hermione as the water engulfed her. She came back up again and saw Nora laughing. "Glad, to see you're back to normal. Now let's see how you like this," she added and then pushed Nora underneath the surface. They played in the cool water, underneath the warm sun, both girls laughing as if they hadn't laughed for an incredibly long time.
A/N: That's enough isn't it? I think so and I really hope you like it! The song I put in is: U2 – With or Without You
SkinsThunderbomb – I hope I cleared Nora's actions up a bit. Thank you for reading and reviewing. Me appreciates it. )