Premature Exit
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I go, however, own two bottles of black hair dye :P
A/N: My spellcheck isn't working! I'm so sorry, I hope this is all right, it's all my own spelling so…I'll try and write the next chapter in a separate document and see if the spellchecker will work again. Thank you all my reviewers for that last chapter: Shadow of the black abyss, Eric2, Moonfyre (no review is ever too long :P), Lady Arwen of Rivendell, MachiavellianOrange (Great questions, I don't have enough time to answer any right now but I promise I will do in the next chapter xD) and Smeg1.
Chapter 6
Harry took a seat opposite his father and beside his mother, he wondered if sitting this close was a good idea. He knew now that he often reacted badly to any kind of news or information he didn't really want to hear. He had watched the scene when it had just been him and Sirius over and over and he always came to the conclusion that he had gone mad. But he still had not got round to apologising for it.
"Is there something you want to ask, Harry?" Lily asked, her green eyes looking directly at Harry so that Harry was forced to look away. They already knew. They both already knew, and so did Sirius, now. The only way forward would be for Harry to ask, he gulped as he realised he was only seconds from getting a very real and honest answer.
He could not bring himself to say the word Mum, so made his way past this obstacle by not mentioning it and hoping she'd understand.
"Yeah, um," Harry struggled to find the words that hours ago had so quickly rushed through his head, that had been then, and this was now, and he was going to find out. "Before the death eaters came and before the order rescued us, I found this golden thing, it had my name and the dark lord's on it. The death eaters told me it was a prophecy, and said a little bit about it," Harry felt he had just managed a very bad explanation, "and I was…er…wondering if you knew anything, I mean, Dumbledore never told me anything so I imagine it probably wasn't important." He finished lamely and then looked up for replies.
He got strange looks from both his parents and a completely oblivious look from Sirius. He had though Sirius would know by now, but if he didn't…
"Harry," said James in an odd voice, "are you saying Dumbledore never told you…anything?"
Lily tilted her head and observed Harry as he nodded. He wasn't quite sure what to answer, was something huge to be revealed? Had Dumbledore really held something major from him? His parents looked as though they hadn't expected to have to tell Harry everything, James seemed rather burdened.
"I never thought that Dumbledore wouldn't tell you as soon as you started Hogwarts since we weren't there," James said, still with the same odd expression. He looked over at Lily who shot him a look back. Harry's feeling of curiosity about everything intensified. "The reason…the reason Voldemort came after you, and us, was due to a prophecy whilst Lily was still pregnant."
Harry waited for him to continue, he'd heard this from Sirius. James cleared his throat and continued.
"A woman, I think she was applying for the divination job-" Harry thought of Trelawney and smirked, "prophesized about a boy…Dumbledore told us, it was so long ago, can you remember it, Lils?"
Lily nodded, she'd been biting her lip through what seemed like most of the talk. She shook her long red hair back in an attempt to stay cool.
"He said that a wizard boy, born around the time you were due, born to parents who had defied the dark lord three times would have the power to destroy Voldemort." She paused and started again, "At this point, Albus mentioned that someone, a death eater I'd presume, had been listening and was thrown out at this point. This woman continued to say that the boy would have power the dark lord knows not and that he would mark the boy as an equal. I remember it clearly," Lily said, she seemed like she'd had an awful amount of time to think about what she was going to say. Harry felt bad about it, she looked like she might be close to tears. Harry turned away, he wouldn't know what to say in a situation like that.
He focused instead on what he had heard. The prophecy had been about him, and said that it was he who would be able to defeat Voldemort. But how could that be? Harry was beginning to doubt if he'd ever manage to get out of this plane he was starting to subconciously rather like. He thought about his mothers words, what was she implying by everything? That he had been born to destroy Voldemort and by falling through here he had failed, that the whole wizarding world was doomed because he had wanted to follow his Godfather?
"Harry, there's more. D'you want me to continue, Lily?" James asked, Harry looked up expecting to see his mother with tears streaking down her face. She wasn't crying, instead she looked oddly calm, as though she could control all her emotions. Harry thought bitterly that he needed to learn to do that. Lily nodded, she was gazing at Harry with a look that seemed to be wondering why any of this had ever happened.
James fiddled with his glasses for a moment, then:
"Albus told us that either Voldemort or the boy would die at the hand of the other, and that neither could live whilst the other survived," he said. Harry didn't know how to react, he stayed silent, trying to make sense out of everything. "Still, Voldemort only heard the first half of the prophecy, he didn't realise that by killing you anything could happen to him. But he was wrong."
"He's back now, though, isn't he? I couldn't do anything about it," Harry said quietly. He felt strangely empty, it was a feeling he had not felt for such a long time.
"He was always going to come back," Sirius said from next to James. Harry had hardly acknowledged his existance in the last few moments.
"The Longbottoms were there too, weren't they? When Dumbledore told us…" Lily said to James who nodded in reply.
"What about Neville?" asked Harry immediately.
"The prophecy wasn't neccesarily about you," James began, "it could have been about Neville Longbottom. I think he was born the day before you -right?" he asked Lily who impatiently nodded, "we knew Frank and Alice from the Order, they had also escaped Voldemort three times."
Harry wasn't sure what to think about this. He had seen Frank and Alice Longbottom at St Mungos, they had become insane after Death Eaters had used the cruciatus curse on them repeatedly. Even in the wizarding world, there was no cure for that one. Harry knew Neville didn't like to talk about any of this. So what would have happened if-?
"We never really thought it would be you," James croaked, he cleared his throat and started again, "Frank and Alice and their son were purebloods, after all…"
Harry didn't know whether or not to nod along meaninglessly. So Sirius had guessed rightly, there was a prophecy, and it was about Harry. It could have been about Neville, but that didn't matter, because it had been about Harry. He was prophesized to either kill or be killed - there was no other option. But he was here now, so could the prophecy even be fulfilled?
He didn't want to think about it, so instead he thought about the significance of Neville. What if Voldemort had got it wrong and it was Neville who was destined to destroy him? That was plausible, wasn't it? What if Harry was not the chosen one after all? It had to be worth asking about.
"What if…what if Voldemort got it wrong? What if it was supposed to be Neville?" Harry asked. A wave of pain washed across James' face, for a moment it looked like he could not find words, and then he spoke.
"By coming after us, Voldemort defined that part of the prophecy," he said. Everything was still.
"I don't understand," Harry said finally. But he didn't really want to understand. He didn't want to blot out that dot of hope that he might not be the one the prophecy was referring to at all. But what kind of hope was that anyway? Hope that it would be his friend who had to face all of this? What kind of a person was he to wish this on somebody else? After all that Neville had been through… Harry was beginning to feel a bit mad at himself.
"When Voldemort came after us, it became clear that the prophecy could only be about you."
Harry looked at the floor. He felt somewhat unpleasant inside, as though all the curiosity inside of him had been sucked out and he was still feeling the after effects. Harry put a hand to his forehead and rubbed it.
"Are you okay, Harry?" asked Lily, looking concerned, "do you have a headache? Do you want to lie down?"
Harry looked at her. Here it was, a ready made excuse not to communicate with any of them. He nodded slowly and got up and left. Everything had been going so amazingly well, he had been rather enjoying his time here, but now he knew. Now he knew why his parents had been killed in the first place, and why he'd been attacked as well. Harry walked slowly up the stairs and reached the second floor. He liked this place, there were so many stairs so he could concentrate on climbing up, he didn't have to think about anything else…he counted the stairs as he went up. Finally, they ceased and Harry opened a white door, he walked into the room and closed it behind him. He did all this very slowly, if he could keep his mind busy then he would not have to think.
He tidied his room but it had been hardly messy to begin with, he straightened out his bed covers and placed his wand on the bedside table. But what was going to come was inevitable, when he could not occupy his mind any further he flopped down on top of his bed and lay very, very still.
So this was what his life was about, was always going to be about, and nothing else he ever did was going to matter. In the long run, he was either going to die at Voldemort's hand or destroy Voldemort and be forced to live the rest of his life as a reluctant hero. Now Harry knew he could not help but wish he didn't, and that he could go back to living so blissfully unaware. But he couldn't.
At least now he knew the truth, and he could take some level of satisfaction from that. Harry lay on his bed and knew the next few hours of his life would be the hardest and longest yet.
I'm so sorry with the delay on this chapter. I planned to have it up yesterday but it wasn't even started then and now my story is a day behind schedule (this is a bad thing, incase you're wondering why, because I might not get to finish it if the whole thing isn't written by next Saturday.) I am trying to juggle this fanfiction with school, an obsessive amount of homework, packing for holidays, shopping for holidays and putting up with my lovely but rather tiring cousin who came over to stay today. I don't know if I can update tomorrow because I have rehearsals for this musical that I am in at the local city theatre, but I'll try and have another chapter up by Tuesday at the latest. Thank you everybody for your reviews, you really make my day :P
