Chapter 13: Defining the Prophecy
Everybody stared at Ginny and Harry, momentarily shocked.
"I think the best thing to do is just leave them here to rest," Charlie said. "Let's go to the kitchen and try to decipher the prophecy."
When they had all taken a seat at the table, Bill asked, "Ron, could you write down the prophecy so we could examine it?" He handed Ron some parchment and a quill from a desk near the table. Ron finished and pushed it into the center of the table. It read:
The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished- they shall not escape again. Forceful winds will make sure everything is done right. The rightful fighters and workers shall be rewarded beyond their dreams. The balance will be restored; evil will be gone from the world.
"Well, let's get cracking," Hermione said cheerfully, this was her forte. "Okay, well, 'The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished'-"
"That can only be good, right?" Fred asked.
"No, actually," Charlie informed them. "The Dark Lord can refer to Voldemort, or whoever took over for Voldemort, but it can also refer to Harry because he was called the 'Dark Lord' by the Death Eaters. I think that the one that cursed them must have been the real new Dark Lord. So maybe we should figure out whom that is before we continue. Ron, Hermione?"
"Well," Ron said. "Snape, Malfoy, Lestrange, and Crabbe were the only ones in the room with Harry. So it has to be one of them. I recon it can't be Crabbe; he's too stupid. I don't think it's Lestrange either… the Dark Lord didn't seem to like her very much. That leaves Malfoy and Snape."
"I think it must be Snape," Hermione said. "Malfoy is too young, they'd want an expert. Snape, Lestrange, and a few others are the only seniors left. So… it's probably Snape."
"Okay, let's say that for now," Bill said.
"So, so far we know that either they will be punished, or us. But there's a glitch. I think it's them because it says 'the followers' and we don't follow Harry, he's not our leader," Ron pointed out. "Harry, Hermione, and I know from experience that prophecies are either totally wrong or deadly accurate."
"I agree," George said. "Because it says after that 'they will not escape again' and we never escaped. The Death Eaters have many times."
"Wrong," Hermione said. "Ron and I just escaped didn't we? Oh my gosh! I just thought of something. It says 'the followers' of the 'Dark Lord'. Ron and I fit in with both of those things because we followed Harry when we were destroying Horcruxes, he was our leader."
"Greeee-at," Ron said, sarcastically. "So either the Death Eaters or Hermione and I are going to be 'punished' and will 'not escape again'. Joy."
"The next line is 'Forceful winds will make sure everything is done right.' Bloody hell. No idea what that means," Fred informed them, half sniggering.
Charlie gave him a dirty look, " 'winds' can mean many different things. It can mean weather, spirits, souls, and force, energy… a lot of things. The way it sounds is that some souls or spirits are going to watch and 'make sure everything is done right'. It also says 'forceful'. So, well, a 'forceful wind' for us could be Dumbledore. A 'forceful wind' for them could be Voldemort. So if that is the case- which I bet it is- then depending on who is stronger, Dumbledore or Voldemort, either Ron and Hermione or the Death Eaters will meet the fate of the first line."
This gave the people around the table quite a lot to think about.
"Why do you think that that's right?" Fred asked.
"Because the most 'forceful' of our winds is Dumbledore and the most 'forceful' of their winds is Voldemort. And," Charlie shrugged. "It just makes sense. What's the next line?"
" 'The rightful fighters and workers shall be rewarded beyond their dreams. The balance will be restored; evil will be gone from the world.' That sounds like the Death Eaters will be destroyed. I mean, we are the 'rightful workers' and they are the 'evil'. So that settles it right?" George asked nervously.
"No," Hermione answered. "This prophecy was made by a Death Eater, so we don't know if it's their 'evil' and 'rightful workers', or our 'evil' and 'rightful workers'."
"So our definition of the prophecy is: either Hermione and I or the Death Eaters will snuff it and the other side will live happily ever after depending on if either Dumbledore or Voldemort is stronger? Leave it to Snape to prophesize something like that," Ron summarized brutally.