Chapter Twenty Two: No Secrets
Professor Flitwick's classroom was bright with sunshine as the twelve students entered.
"Hello, everyone," Dumbledore turned from the window. The students looked around, a little disconcerted to find Dumbledore there rather than Flitwick, but they all turned towards the seats and each took one.
"Professor Flitwick has been kind enough to allow me this period to discuss your new schedules with you, you will begin your new Charms work tomorrow."
"Professor..." Hermione began.
"In a moment, Miss Granger... in a moment," Dumbledore smiled. He faced them all, and with a wave of his wand, the classroom door swung shut. "It is most important that you each keep this... as much as you can... to yourselves. I do, however, recognize that the other students will begin to ask questions very soon. It has been decided that you will tell anyone who asks that you are part of a group that has been selected by the Ministry to train to enter a muggle university after your graduation here... the fact that your number includes both Heads, and several prefects, will support this. If asked, simply say that you cannot provide any details, because you yourselves do not know them, but that you are studying the more... academic... applications of each of your subjects of study."
Several glances were exchanged. Harry was doubtful. He could name three people immediately who were not going to accept that kind of answer.
"Now, as to the reality that you will be living in for foreseeable future..." Dumbledore smiled. "You all received your revised schedules this morning?"
"Yes," Harry nodded with the others.
"This will be your daily schedule from now on. Also, your classes will be held in the Room of Requirement. The professors will join you there, rather than your going to their classrooms. Your professors..."
"How is this possible, Professor?" Hermione asked. "I mean, Potions in second period? Professor Snape is teaching the sixth years at that time."
"Well, yes... and no," Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at her. "He will be... and yet he will be teaching your group."
Hermione's eyes rounded.
A time turner, Harry thought. "You've supplied the professors with time turners?"
"Time turners?" Colin asked. Blaise Zambini turned bodily in his chair, looking at Harry, his face showing his surprise.
Blaise knows what a time turner is...
"Yes, Harry. Some of your professors will be utilizing time turners to..."
"Is that safe?"
"As safe as it needs to be, yes," Dumbledore nodded.
"But..."
"What is a time turner?" Colin asked, a little more forcefully this time. Everyone silenced and turned to the tall, thin sixth year. He flushed, but continued. "Look, I've agreed to be involved in this... I want to be involved in this... but I can't work with no information... what is a time turner?"
Harry smiled. Who would have expected Colin to be the forthright one?
"A time turner, Mr Creevy," Dumbledore said in his calm, measured voice. "Is a device by which time, in small increments, may be manipulated to replay, allowing an individual to, essentially, be in two places at once."
"Well, that's handy," Ernie laughed. "Why don't you all just hand them out to every student from fifth year on... a few extra hours a night for studying might come in handy."
"They aren't to be trifled with," Hermione said softly.
"Oh?" Ernie turned to her, a smirk on his face. "And you know because...?"
Ernie loved nothing more than to attempt to catch Hermione out talking about something he knew more about than she did. It didn't happen often.
Hermione flushed.
"Miss Granger utilized one throughout her third year to take twice the number of classes as the rest of you," Dumbledore said quietly.
All eyes turned to a surprised Hermione. Except Harry's. His turned to Dumbledore, just as surprised. He'd known about the time turner, of course, given what happened in their third year, but he had thought that Hermione was sworn to secrecy about it.
Dumbledore turned twinkling eyes onto Hermione.
"There are no longer any secrets between you, Miss Granger. There are many things that we will discuss this morning."
"This morning?"
"You're schedule will not take effect until the day after tomorrow," Dumbledore smiled, nodding. "This morning we will discuss... everything."
Harry swallowed as Dumbledore's eyes turned on him.
Everything meant that Dumbledore meant to tell them what he must do... what he was destined for.
Harry wasn't sure that he was ready for "everything" yet. He took a deep breath, and felt a small hand work it's way into his own. He looked to where Ginny was seated beside him. Ginny Weasley knew.
"What do you mean, 'everything'?" Colin asked.
"Everything, Mr Creevy... and I will warn you all now... there are no secrets within this room this morning, but the secrets you are about to learn are not for sharing outside of this group. Indeed, they are not for sharing with this group outside of these four walls and this morning. We will speak of it once... you will be told what you need to know, and then, it will be left. Is that understood?"
Various curious nods were given.
"Anyone..." Dumbledore cast stormy eyes around the room, meeting with the eyes of each person there. "Anyone who does not wish to share these secrets... and the responsibility of their protection... is free to leave now."
No one moved.
"If anyone... anyone... should give away... anything... I assure you, my vengeance will be swift."
"Vengeance?" Terry Boot asked.
"Vengeance, Mr Boot," Dumbledore turned his eyes on the Ravenclaw, who visibly wilted under his gaze. "Anyone who does not protect the secrets about to be shared with his or her life shall be on the receiving end of my fury. And I assure you... that is not a place that you should wish to be."
There was silence in the room.
Dumbledore glanced around, then nodded. "Twelve. Twelve of you... very good."
Harry and Ron exchanged glances. Ron's look said exactly what he was thinking... the old codger's lost it at last.
Harry shook his head, smiled, then turned back to Dumbledore.
"As I said last night..." Dumbledore continued solemnly. "In the Room of Requirement... you are the ones who Mr Potter told me he would want to stand with... what no one asked... perhaps none of you thought to... was why Harry should need to tell me who he would want to stand with."
Eight pairs of eyes turned to look at Harry. Hermione, Ron and Ginny already knew where the old wizard was going with this, and Harry stared down at the desktop where his hands were clutching Ginny's small fist, almost desperately.
"Potter?" Harry heard Blaise Zambini. "We all know that Voldemort wants him... we all know what's happened... is that what this is all about? Protecting Potter?"
"No, Mr Zambini," Dumbledore said. "It's not about protecting Harry. It's about fighting beside him... as he faces Voldemort in the final battle."
Eight pairs of eyes swiftly moved back to Harry from where they had come to rest, with shock, on Dumbledore.
"Harry?" Susan Bones began. "Harry is..."
"Mr Potter is destined to be the downfall of Voldemort. A prophecy was made the year of his birth... it is the reason why his family was targetted... it is the reason why he is The Boy Who Lived... it is the reason for your being here today, in this group."
"Harry?" Colin stared at him. Harry looked up at the younger boy, his green eyes showing his feelings more clearly than any words could tell them. "I don't think I understand... you're prophesized to be... what? Voldemort's bane?"
Harry snorted humorlessly. "I suppose you could say that. Tell them, Professor."
Professor Dumbledore's eyebrows rose.
"Tell them. I trust everyone in here. It's no secret with the others... tell them."
And Dumbledore did. He spoke aloud the prophecy while Harry stared into Ginny's eyes, watched as they filled with tears as she listened, but never left his.
"I can't do it alone," Harry said softly as Dumbledore finished.
"You aren't going to," she replied.
"Damn straight you're not," Ron muttered.
Seamus turned, looking at Harry, his eyes showing the war that was going on inside.
"I'm sorry, Harry."
"Sorry?" Harry looked at the Irish boy.
"I'm sorry... for not believing you... for thinking..."
"That's in the past, Seamus," Harry dismissed it. "You're here now... Dean was supposed to be, as well."
Seamus swallowed. "I understand now, what you meant about taking more than fourteen."
"I rather thought you would."
"Shall we, then?" Seamus said, a hint of his old smile showing at the corner of his mouth. "That's why we're here," Harry agreed. "I want them all. I'm supposed to take out Voldemort... and I suppose that... well, if I get to him, the others will probably fall... or maybe not. They didn't last time, but he wasn't dead, either. But to get to him... I can't go through them all alone."
There was silence for a moment, then Blaise Zambini, whose eyes hadn't left Harry the entire time, turned to Dumbledore. "Where do we start?"
Dumbledore smiled. "You start in the Room of Requirement. Tomorrow. Today, I want you each to spend some time in the library, revising. Tomorrow there will be a set of tests..."
There were groans from around the room.
"... to determine where exactly you are in terms of your academics. The professors will be teaching you together, regardless of your year. Excepting, of course, the fact that you have been divided into three groups for a short period each afternoon."
"Yeah, Muggle Studies... what's up with that?" Seamus asked, his brow furrowed. "No disrespect intended, Professor, but I grew up knowing..."
"Precisely, Mr Finnegan," Dumbledore agreed.
Curious looks to Dumbledore.
"You have been placed in that group not because of your lack of knowledge... but because of your experience. You will serve as that group's mentor."
"Mentor? Me?" Seamus laughed.
"You are best suited to it, Mr Finnegan. Just as Mr Boot is best suited to mentor the History of Magic group."
"Yes, but what about Harry and the others?" Susan Bones asked. "They don't have a separate class."
Dumbledore turned his blue eyes on the group of four sitting together. Harry noticed an infinitesimal raising of a brow. He was questioning their decision to not tell the others about their own separate class.
"Really?"
Harry flushed.
"No secrets within this group, remember?"
"No secrets, sir... I just didn't know what the notation meant. It's no class we've ever taken before. I rather thought it stood for a free period."
"No such luck, Mr Potter," Dumbledore smiled. "You, and Mr and Miss Weasley, and Miss Granger, of course, will be spending that period with me, on various pursuits. Not the least of which will be remedial Divination."
Harry flushed again, and Ron groaned. There were snickers from the others, and Ginny straightened in her chair, almost indignant. Hermione looked horrified.
"Remedial...?"
"Remedial, Miss Granger... amongst other things. Your rather... vocal... objections to the art of Divination aside, it is something you must learn..." Dumbledore glanced between Harry and Ron. "I rather expect that you have more to learn on the subject than you have so far... fire-breathing pelicans aside, of course."
Ron flushed to the roots of his hair, exchanged a smirking look with Harry, then stared down at his desktop. The progressively more outlandish modes of their own demise that had riddled their Divination homework in years past had culminated in Ron's last... which Harry had found he couldn't hope to better... in the form of being hunted down and roasted alive by fire-breathing pelicans on a beach in Spain.
Trelawney had gushed suitably over the prediction of Harry's death... but Harry and Ron had given up the game after this... both finding themselves stumped when trying to top it.
"So, Hermione, how does it feel to be taking remedial with us losers?" Ron grinned at her as they entered the library an hour later. Dumbledore had gone over their schedules with them, and they had been freed to do revision work in the library or in their Houses for the remainder of the day. Dumbledore had impressed upon them how important it was that they report to the Room of Requirement prior to eight the next morning.
Hermione threw a rather nasty look at Ron before stalking off towards the bookshelves. Harry shook his head at his friend, and followed as Ginny led him towards a private corner in the back where, hopefully, they could go undisturbed while they worked.
They had just settled down when Blaise and Susan approached.
"Can we...?"
"Of course..." Harry waved at the chairs. "We're in this together, right?"
"Revising in January just feels wrong," Susan said softly. "Harry...?"
"What?"
"Does it...?"
"Susan!" Ginny hissed warningly.
"I wasn't going to..." Susan looked horrified. "I was just going to ask if... Harry, does your scar hurt?"
"Sometimes... when... well, you know."
Dumbledore had told them everything... including Voldemort's connection with him, and the nightmares.
"Is that why you sometimes didn't come to meals and...?"
"Yes."
Susan nodded, flushing. "I'm sorry, Harry."
"Sorry?"
"We all rather thought... well, until last year, of course... we all rather thought you were a bit arrogant, and just didn't want to be around... you know."
Harry felt his cheeks warm. "I'm fully aware of that, Susan."
She glanced away, embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it... it's over with," he muttered, turning back to his books. Ginny's hand on his knee under the table squeezed, but he didn't look at her. Right now, he didn't feel much like looking at anyone.
