Harry opened his eyes and look around the room. Rebekah and Alex were sitting on Ron's bed, across from his own; Alex had a camera in her hand and Rebekah was giving her a look that was sort of half-exasperated, half-amused.
When they spotted looking at him, they both grinned and Alex snapped a photo of him.
"Ron's gonna love this one," she said, giving him a knowing look.
"What?"
Rebekah pointed somewhere over his shoulder and he turned. The minute he did, he jumped. Ginny was lying on the bed next to him, still wearing her costume from the night before. Harry was too, but he still thought it was a little weird. This wasn't very odd, because Ginny had been sitting next to him, the night before, playing a game of wizard chess after the ball, but he knew that some people would think it was something other than it was.
"We didn't!"
"We know," said Rebekah, glaring at Alex. "Put that bloody thing away."
"I'm going to bewitch it to make it mooove," said Alex in a sing-song voice.
Harry jumped out of bed to grab the camera, but Alex disapparated with a crack. This woke up Neville, who still had a mask attached to his face.
Ron came strolling through the door; his robes were gone. He was much disheveled and his vest was torn at the shoulder. He looked around at the mess and started to laugh.
"What the hell happened in here?" he said, looking at all the people thrown all over the room. "What's—GINNY!"
Harry looked at Ron quickly and wondered where his wand was.
"What are you doing in Harry's bed!" he shouted, and she woke up slightly.
"Why is your vest torn, Ron?" asked Harry. "Things get a little shaky last night?"
Ron glared at him.
"Mom would kill you if she knew stuff like that was still going on," said Ginny, falling back onto Harry's pillow groggily. She started to snore slightly.
"Nothing happened, Weasels," said Rebekah. Ron glared at her too. "I was here the whole night. Granted…I was asleep the whole time, so I might've missed something…"
She glanced at Harry.
"But I doubt it."
Hermione, apparently, showed up around the same time as Ron. A lot of kids were still downstairs in the common room, asleep on chairs and by the fireplace.
"Surely McGonagall would know stuff like this would happen if they threw a ball," said Ron. "Why do they even bother? It just creates more trouble."
"Because they know that stuff like this would happen anyway, Ronald," said Hermione, throwing him a knowing look.
They blushed and giggled. The rest of the people in the room became very queasy.
Ginny woke up and went into her own Common Room. Rebekah did the same, and Luna departed a little while later. Ron, Hermione, and Harry all went to the breakfast they were sure they'd missed, but apparently a lot of students were waking up late. They sat down at their table and Alex walked by; she winked at Harry.
Professor Trelawney walked into the Great Hall looking sick and tired; she was swaying slightly as she walked. She sat down at the front of the room and choked down a cup of coffee.
"She looks happy," said Hermione.
Ron and Harry decided they wanted to go out to the Quidditch pitch for some practice, so they gathered their brooms and gear and headed in that direction. Hermione and Ginny walked after them and talked about the dance, which everyone had apparently enjoyed immensely.
Rebekah and Alex apparated out of nowhere and joined them in the pitch. A little while later, Katie Bell came out for a go and so did Romilda Vane, who looked as if she'd put on an awful lot of makeup for a simple Quidditch practice.
When they heard that everyone was practicing, the beaters ran out onto the field and joined them. Allison, a quiet blonde, was very good, but the louder one had some work to do.
For a moment, Harry didn't even realize how strange it was for Professor Trelawney to be standing on the field far below. When he finally registered her crazy appearance and startled expression, he went to the ground and walked toward her.
"Professor?" asked Harry. "Professor Trelawney?"
"Yes, dear? Do you need something?" she looked dazed and was holding some cooking sherry.
Following his lead, several of the players had also landed nearby. Hermione and Ginny were running onto the field giving the teacher wary looks.
"What are you doing on the field—"
Suddenly, Professor Trelawney went funny again.
"THE TRANSFORMATION HAS ALREADY BEGUN," she screeched. Her hand latched onto his shoulder, burning his skin; he cried out in pain. "THE CHILD BORN IN SEVEN MONTHS TIME TO THE FRIEND UNLOVED BY HER PEERS...SHE WILL BE GIFTED WITH UNRIVALED UNDERSTANDING AND MAY BE THE SOLE CARRIER TO BRING INTO THIS EARTH THE HEIR WHO SPARRED THE GREY WIZARD...HE WILL SUCCEED IN THE BODY OF THE SERVANT WHO HAS RISKED HER LIFE TO THWART HIM AND MINGLED IN THE DARKNESS OF HIS DORMANCY…AND SHE WILL EITHER DIE IN DESPAIR OR LIE IN BLAIM FOREVER FOR THE FALL OF THE MARKED BOY, THE ONE CALLED CHOSEN…HE WILL FOREVER BE MARKED, BE FOREVER TAINTED BY HER…THE FUTURE WILL BE DECIDED AT THE MERCIFUL HANDS OF HIS FRIE— "
Trelawney hiccupped and was knocked out of it.
"What's going on?" she asked vaguely. "Is it time for the game?"
They stared at her.
"Things are so much more interesting here than they are in Texas," said Rebekah in a whisper to Alex. She nodded.
Hermione and Ginny, on the other hand, were looking at each other with stunned expressions on their faces.
"Wait a minute, did she say 'mother unloved by her peers'? What does that mean!" Hermione insisted frantically. "RON! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" he shouted back, looking just as terrified.
"I can't remember the rest!" Hermione was saying as she started to shake. "I don't remember what she said—HEY! COME BACK!"
"Don't, Hermione, she won't be able to remember anything," said Harry. "She couldn't remember what she'd said after the prophesy about Pettigrew, and she's not going to remember now."
"She said 'forever be at the mercy of his friends', right?" asked Ginny. "What does that mean? Do you think there was more to the prophesy, or is that all—"
"GINNY, SHE'S TALKING ABOUT ONE OF US!" screeched Hermione. "She said 'risked her life to thwart him', didn't she? That could be either one of us! And what does she mean, 'mingled in the darkness of his'—"
"I don't know, Hermione!" shouted Harry. He was thinking over the prophesy in his mind just as quickly. Something about 'downfall of the chosen one', or 'forever tainted', or something…
"Let's go to McGonagall," said Ron. "She'll know what to do. We'll tell her what happened."
"NO!" screamed Ginny. "It'll just freak her out—"
"COME ON, GINNY! WE HAVE TO!" screamed Hermione.
Harry and Hermione grabbed Rebekah's arm and she disapparated them to the building. Alex did the same with Ginny and Ron, who appeared a second later in front of McGonagall's office. Harry knocked on the door apprehensively.
"Yes—oh, hello Potter," she said, eyeing the group. "Is there something wrong?"
"Professor Trelawney just had a prediction," squeaked Hermione. "A real one! About us!" She motioned between her and Ginny. "And Harry!"
"Miss Granger, you know as well as I—"
"No," said Harry. "It was real. She's done it before, even Dumbledore said so."
McGonagall gave him a cold, calculating look.
"Come in," she said finally, and they hurried through the door. "What happened?"
"Well, she went sort-of weird," said Ron. "She had this blurry look in her eyes like she couldn't see anything, but she was looking right at Harry just a second before. Then she went all stiff and grabbed his arm, and he started to shout, and she started to spout out all this nonsense about a mother, and something's downfall, and dieing in despair—"
"Yeah," said Hermione. "She said that the friend of the Chosen One will be the mother who carries the heir who fought 'the grey wizard'—"
"And that she'd either have to die or live in blame for the rest of her life for the fall of the Chosen One," finished Ginny softly.
McGonagall looked in-between the four students quietly.
"Stay here," she barked. "I'm going to find the headmaster."
McGonagall returned in a flash with Professor Snape, who looked less than excited to be there.
"Tell him what you told me, Miss Weasley," commanded McGonagall.
They repeated the story the best they could, but Harry was a little afraid that they were starting to forget parts of it.
"The heir who fought the grey wizard?" Snape asked McGonagall, and she nodded fervently.
"Ginny!" said Alex suddenly from the back of the room. "You're the one who said there was no father, right? Well, maybe it's not Hermione, you—"
"No!" shouted Ginny frantically. "I was lying, I…I didn't want people to judge, I didn't know—"
"Well who was it then," said Ron, considerably annoyed.
She gulped in a breath of air.
"Oliver Wood," she said suddenly.
No one said anything for a moment, but they all shot her doubtful looks.
"Oliver Wood," repeated Harry, thinking quietly to himself that she must be lying.
"After Dumbledore's funeral," she said quickly. "He was at the Leaky Cauldron too—"
"Oliver Wood," Ron said, looking slightly bewildered. "But you don't know—"
"We met there!" she spat at him, her cheeks red. "Don't tell me who I do and do not know!"
"Well, that settles it," said McGonagall. "Severus, I think it's about time we called Remus and Moody…and we better get a hold of Arthur, quickly."
Snape nodded his head curtly.
"Of course," he said, giving the students ugly looks, and without another word, swept from the room.
"Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Ron," she said, looking tired. "You best go back to Gryffindor Tower. Don't go wandering around or anything—no, Mr. Weasley, you can't go to the Quidditch pitch—because I'll probably be sending for you within the hour. I'm sending for the Order and I'm going to have your parents here as soon as the Knight Bus can get them here."
"Professor—"
"I'm sorry, Harry," she said, interrupting him. "I can't tell you anything until I've heard the whole prophesy and I'm not going to base any theories on the scattered memories of four teenagers. Go to your Common Room or the Great Hall, but do not wander off."
Without another word, she shoved them out of the office and stomped noisily down the hallway.
"She thinks there's something, then," said Hermione, looking petrified. "She thinks it means something, doesn't she?"
Hermione looked at Harry, but he, if possible, knew less than she.