Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

On their first day back after the holiday's Harry, Ron and Hermione had lunch with Hagrid in his cabin.

"I wish tha' Rowling woman had made me a better cook" said Hagrid ruefully.

"So do we" muttered Ron pulling a large feather out of his soup.

"How's Grawp, Hagrid?" asked Hermione quickly changing the subject.

"Grawpy he's alright" said Hagrid "Loads better behaved now. His English is getting better too. I'm goin' teh see him this afternoon. I'd take yeh along, but yeh've got yeh lessons. An' it's snowing.

Ron looked extremely relieved not to be going into the Forbidden Forest. Their first lesson after lunch was Defence Against The Dark Arts. Bill instructed the class to open their books at chapter 14 which was devoted to the Unforgiveable curses. Neville, who had gone very white, put up his hand.

"Yes, Neville" called Bill.

"We've already done these" said Neville in a nervous but determined voice.

The rest of the class joined in confirming that they had learnt about the Unforgivable curses with the fake Moody. Bill held up his hands for quiet.

"You've seen what the curses look like and the incantations to perform them" said Bill "But Dumbledore wants you to spend more time on learning to resist the Imperius Curse because we believe You Know Who might be using it. Now I'm not expecting any of you to be able to throw the curse off..."

"Harry can do it!" interrupted Ron.

"Can you, Harry?" asked Bill

Harry tried to look modest.

"Er yeah"

Harry offered to let Bill put the Imperius curse on him first. He threw it off easily. The rest of the class didn't do as well, although the news that Voldemort might be using it certainly encouraged them to try harder. But Neville looked as if he was putting in more effort than the rest of the class put together. By the end of the lesson he had broken into a sweat even though it was a cold day. Harry was quite pleased when Bill awarded Neville twenty points.

Harry and Ron had the rest of the afternoon off while Hermione went to her Arithmancy class. They had been planning to go down to the Quidditch pitch, but it was snowing heavily.

"Well you can try to find out who the half blood prince is" said Hermione.

"We've tried" said Ron exasperatedly to Hermione's back "How about a game of exploding snap, Harry?"

"Good idea" said Harry

Harry and Ron entered the Gryffindor common room where some third years were gathered around the noticeboard. Harry spotted Dennis Creevey among them.

"What is it, Dennis?" he asked.

"Hogsmeade. Last weekend in January" replied Dennis.

Ron sat down at the nearest table and pulled out a pack of exploding snap cards, but he wasn't concentrating on the game.

"What's up with you, Ron?" asked Harry after about ten minutes.

"Hogsmeade coming up" mumbled Ron.

"So?"

"So? I think Hermione might be expecting me to ask her to go with me" said Ron. "But usually when I go to Hogsmeade she's with me anyway. So I don't know if that counts"

"Don't ask me" said Harry shrugging.

"You know what I'd like to know!" said Ron as the cards exploded "If these books were written by a woman, why couldn't she make us understand girls?"

Ron was still debating with himself whether or not to ask Hermione to go to Hogsmeade with him late that evening.

"Just ask her" said Harry irritably, as the portrait hole opened and Hermione came in.

"Ask me what?" she asked sitting down in an empty chair next to Harry.

Ron went very red and starred at the floor. The last time Harry had seen Ron that embarrassed was when Ron announced his intentions to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Do – I – well..you. Er...I was...er...wondering if...er you...er...wanted to...er go to Hogsmeade with me?" he mumbled.

Hermione's cheeks turned slightly pink.

"Yes I'll go with you, Ron" she said.

"Thanks" mumbled Ron. "Hey Harry, we could go to..."

"Ron" interrupted Hermione "When a boy asks a girl on a date he usually doesn't bring his friends along"

"Oh right" said Ron "Sorry"

But Ron and Hermione both looked slightly guilty about the fact that they had just made plans that did not include Harry.

"Don't worry about me" he said trying to sound casual. "I can hang around with Neville or Seamus"

"How about if you and me go to Hogsmeade, Hermione? And Harry can meet us at lunchtime or something. Would that be OK?" asked Ron.

"That sounds good to me" said Hermione.

Harry's lessons were becoming harder than ever. He had to keep reminding himself that he needed to do well to get the marks he needed to become an Auror.

"That's assuming I live long enough to take my N.E.W.T's" he thought.

He considered asking someone whether or not he would live past the end of his seventh year. But he couldn't think of anyone who would be able to give him a definite answer. As Harry walked along the Fat Lady's corridor in a day dream, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown passed him wearing expressions that suggested they had just come from visiting Professor Trelawney's tower room.

"Yeah I'll ask Trelawney if I'm going to die" thought Harry sarcastically "She won't waste any time telling me I'll snuff it"

Then he thought of Hermione. She seemed to know a lot of things that he didn't. She even knew things that weren't in the books. Then he thought that even she probably didn't know that. No there was only one person who could tell him if he was going to live or die. Harry entered the common room and went straight up to his dormitory. Then checking to make sure Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus weren't there, he pulled a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink and a quill out of his bag and wrote.

Dear J.K Rowling,

I was wondering if you could tell me if I will live long enough to take my N.E.W.T's and become an Auror.

Yours sincerely

Harry Potter.

Then he went to the owlery and gave the letter to Hedwig. He didn't tell Ron or Hermione what he had done. But when he went to bed that night the prophecy weighed heavily on his mind.

The next day Harry noticed that Ron and Neville kept sneaking glances at him during breakfast.

"What?" he asked.

Ron looked up and down the Gryffindor table.

"Let's find an empty classroom" he whispered picking up his bag and marching out of the Great Hall. Harry, Hermione and Neville followed.

"Ron, what's going on?" asked Hermione when they had found an empty classroom.

"I heard Harry talking in his sleep last night" said Ron in a low but excited voice. "He was saying something about someone having the power to get rid of You Know Who. D'you think he was making a prophecy?"

Hermione's eyes lit up. Harry considered letting them think this for a moment. Then he realised he had to tell his friends the truth.

"I wasn't" he said in a hollow voice.

"Are you sure, mate?" asked Ron.

"I'm sure" said Harry "That prophecy, it was the one from the Department of Mysteries. You know, with my name on it"

"But it smashed" said Hermione "We never found out what it said"

"I heard it" said Harry "in Dumbledore's office. He heard it when he was interviewing Trelawney for a job"

"You mean she made that prophecy?" asked Ron.

"Yeah" said Harry.

"Maybe Trelawney's not such an old fraud after all, Hermione" said Ron.

Hermione ignored him.

"Harry, what- what did the prophecy say?" she asked tentatively.

Harry took a deep breath.

"Ron, could you go and get Ginny and Luna?"

"Why?" asked Ron.

"Well they were with us when we found it" said Harry "I think they should know what was in it too."

Ron raised his eyebrows slightly, but he went to fetch Ginny and Luna.

"Go on then, Harry" he said when he came back. "What was that prophecy about?"

"It well it was made before I was born" said Harry. "And it said that the person with the power to conquer Voldemort for good would be born at the end of July..."

"Are you sure it's you, Harry?" asked Hermione "Think about it. There must be a whole bunch of people who were born at that time"

"My birthday's at the end of July" said Neville.

"There's more" said Harry. "It said that whoever it was would be born to parents who had escaped Voldemort three times"

"Your parents" whispered Hermione.

"Yes" said Harry "and yours, Neville. The prophecy could have been about either one of us. They only found out it was me when Voldemort tried to..."

"Kill you?" said Ron.

Harry nodded.

"But how can they be sure it's you, Harry?" asked Ginny.

"The next part of the prophecy said that Voldemort would er mark me as his equal" said Harry pointing to his scar. "But I'd have power that he knows not, but I'm not really sure what that is, and..." Harry broke off not sure of whether or not he was ready to tell anyone about the final part of the Prophecy.

"What?" asked Ron and Hermione.

Harry took another deep breath.

"One of us has to kill the other one"