Chapter Four
A/N: I'm finally back. I hope this chapter doesn't suck. Although I'm not really a fan of Good Charlotte anymore, the song still works well with the fic. I'm trying to make up for all the time I've been gone. I'm also thinking of writing a new fic, a happier one, while also trying to figure out how I should continue "When Spells Go Bad." Oy. Somebody help me? An e-mail, perhaps? Also: I tried to separate Hermione's POV later in this chapter, but the format here won't let me. Please don't be confused.
Recap of the last chapter: Upon finding out where Arthur Weasley is and that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is hunting for him, Ron, George, Fred, Harry, and Hermione set out for Ireland to solve a mystery.
The five appeared with a pop in the Ministry of Magic Main Office, Dublin. A wizened old witch sitting behind a desk jumped as they appeared, then pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose and said, apparently taking no notice of their battle gear, "Looking for Albus Dumbledore, are ye, me dears? He's in the other room." She pointed vaguely to a blank wall.
"Er, other room?" asked Ron weakly. All he saw was a wall, completely void of anything.
"Oh." The old woman took out a vial from a drawer. Pinching a small bit of aqua-colored powder between her fingers, then placing it in the palm of her left hand, she whispered "Reveal," and blew the powder at the wall.
At first it looked like the powder would simply slip from between the woman's fingers, but it drifted lazily towards the wall. Upon impact- not with the wall, however, it seemed it had been Imperturbed- the air in front of the wall quivered and the image of the wall actually shook just like a dog would shake itself to rid its fur of water. The image shimmered and turned into an ornate oak doorway, and the man standing on the threshold did not look surprised to see the group before him.
"Ah. We were beginning to wonder when you would arrive," nodded the old, bespectacled man. His robes glittered as he beckoned them through the door to a large round table, where others were seated, and drew chairs for them.
"Sit," he commanded, blue eyes twinkling majestically, and took his place at the head of the table, flicking his long beard behind his shoulder. The other people sitting around the table, most of them Aurors, most in the Order of the Phoenix.
Ron, Harry, George, Fred, and Hermione sat in a row at one side of the table, laying their weapons down obediently, but all still looked extremely anxious and worried. George had developed a twitch, and Harry and Ron were twiddling their thumbs desperately. Fred was staring at the floor, and only Hermione still had the aura of sense about her. She pulled a large book out of her rucksack and placed it in front of the man at the head of the table.
The man's eyes, his orbs of violent blue, seemed to twinkle brighter. "Magius," he said. "My ancestor."
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore. I was able to use the spell you taught me to rid it of traps, but I haven't had time to take a look at it," the bushy-haired girl replied.
"The famed spellbook of Magius?" a witch with bright green hair said incredulously. Nymphadora Tonks stood up from her chair, knocking it over in the process. "I thought it was gone forever. This could be the way! It really could!"
"Miss Granger, I need to give this book back to you. You need to read through parts of it quickly, while we still have time. Please look at the sections in the far back while I speak to the others," said Dumbledore. "Although you're young, we all agree you're extremely clever. You will be able to decipher this."
The rest of the adults nodded in agreement. A deep voice spoke up from the end of the table, saying, "Albus, get on with the instructions for the rest of us, please. We need to head to the Grey as soon as we can." Kingsley Shacklebolt nodded at Harry, who'd jolted upon hearing 'the Grey'.
He leaned over to whisper to Ron, George, and Fred, "I remember reading somewhere about the Grey and what's there. It's a great, mysterious, deep fog, and inside, at the heart, is said to be the most recent headquarters of the Death Eaters, but no one has been able to get in to investigate."
Dumbledore cleared his throat, and Harry quieted his whispering to look up at the wise man. "There is much to consider."
Dumbledore's voice softened to a low drone as Hermione was pulled into the book of the greatest war wizard who ever lived. Her eyes flew over spells, powerful spells, spells so old that they preceded the Unforgivables. Preceded the making of the Philosophers' Stone, if just by a little. The pages were yellowed and cracking despite the magic that kept it together, the magic that practically electrified the book in Hermione's hands. There was magic in the book itself. In the pages. It practically sang with the power. This was true magic. Nature magic. The magic of the ancients. Hermione read on.
"Voldemort is expecting us to come after him soon. He knows he is getting close to the information Arthur Weasley carries, and he will not stop until he finds him, extracts the information, and disposes of him and his family," said Dumbledore flatly. "After he does this, he'll use the information to rid the world of what doesn't suit him."
Practically everyone seated at the table gave an involuntary shudder. Ron bit his lip in anguish. "But Professor, what is it that my dad has that You-Kn- that Voldemort-"he hardened himself further as he said the name- "wants? And why are we waiting around here? We need to do something! Now!!!"
Fred and George leaned forward, eyes wide open; Harry pricked up his ears. A lanky Auror at the end of the table stopped his writing to listen.
Dumbledore sighed, and seemed to grow older for a moment. This passed quickly and he said, "Voldemort needs to gather his strength. He's attempting to corrupt as many people as possible and put them under the Imperius Curse. This will ensure a large army for him against what he believes I will cook up. But this takes time, and I think we will be able to catch him only slightly off guard, with perhaps only three-quarters of his Death Eaters. The rest will be off doing his bidding. If we go into the Grey soon, armed with the knowledge we have and what we know might happen, we might triumph."
Fred said impatiently, "But what does Voldemort need? And why does Dad have it?"
"Your father accidentally stumbled upon something when he was studying Muggles. We found a note he left in a spot that only Order members can find if they are given the key. I had the key, and I found what he had several days ago," said Mad-Eye Moody as his magical eye spun madly. "Arthur found a weapon that could be magically manipulated to seek and completely annihilate anything. Nothing can be protected from it. It's a weapon of evil so great that Voldemort had never even heard of it, never read of it, nothing. It doesn't even have a name. I don't even know much about it. But Arthur does, and that's why he's on the run."
Ron started in confusion, shaking his shaggy red hair out of his eyes and turning to Hermione quickly, who was buried in the spellbook, then turning his face back to Dumbledore. "A weapon? And Dad has it, or rather, information on it?"
"Yes, Mr. Weasley. And Voldemort is determined to get this information," Dumbledore said.
Defeating the Cold, Hermione read. The pages tingled under her fingers. She read further.
A great evil is prophesied to rise after the fall of many heroes. Not just any evil, but one determined to destroy the earth and all on it. This evil can be defeated, but only by the half-blood who has already been marked by the sign of the god Skyfire.
Hermione stopped short in her reading. Skyfire. Fire from the sky- lightning. A lightning mark... Harry. Well, of course. She already knew Voldemort would be defeated by Harry. But how Magius knew this so many years before...
This marked one must use the combined power of three with his companions. The power of the sky, the marked one himself; the power of fire, the one crowned the color of a burning autumn; and the power of water, the stoic calm sea of knowledge. These three combined together with a pure love so strong and a trust and loyalty unwavering, will defeat the evil. Should they stand linked like the unbreakable chain they are, together believing that the evil can be defeated, it shall be so.
Hermione was utterly shocked to the core of her being. She sat in her chair, ignoring what was going on around her. This prophecy was made so long ago. But she thought she knew what it meant. And she knew what she had to do. The war was about to begin, and she was jumping in headfirst.
If these three shall think as one, the final war shall then be won. So mote it be.
Hermione closed the crumbling tome with a bang.
A/N: Was that all right for coming back? Can I improve this somehow? Please review.