Disclaimer: Don't hex me……I'm just a poor ignorant muggle (sigh)

Author's Note: This story is HBP compliant; however here Dumbledore lives, Snape countered the killing curse with an extremely powerful non-verbal spell, they both being accomplished occlumens…the whole charade was played out perfectly for Voldie and gang. The phoenix Harry sees flying away from Dumbledores' tomb is actually the man himself in his animagus form. There…….now that all this has been explained, lets get on with the story.

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PROPHECY

In the heart of an ancient land

Crowned by mountains great.

The ocean at its feet, seas on either side

Here lies the wizards' fate

In the form of an unknown maiden,

Lives the Dark Lord's end.

Alas! Ignorant to her own destiny

Her great powers lie dormant

Born on the seventh day of the seventh month

Thirteen summers ago, the goddess of Light.

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As the small slowly revolving pearly white figure of Sibyl Trelawney sank and faded into the swirl of white in the antiquated penseive, Albus Dumbledore covered his face with shaking hands.

"When did she make this one Severus?"

Severus Snape, the much hated but now vindicated former potions master muttered in a monotone, "Just before she died from the blood loss Headmaster. I tried to stanch the bleeding but my spells simply rolled off her. They had tortured her past the point of recovery. She made the prophecy with her dying breath."

The surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix looked at the two men with eyes full of grief, anguish and confusion. None of what had happened during the night added up. Everything they had believed in had been negated…and then there were the casualties. They had lost so many loved ones. Molly Weasley was a broken woman, having lost both Fred and Ginny in one fateful night. Her husband sat with his arms around her, but Arthur Weasley had aged 20 years overnight. Hagrid's eyes were swollen and red; Madame Maxime had gone down valiantly fighting the Giants. Grawp still hadn't regained consciousness. Remus Lupin had lost his fiancée; Tonks too was gone, but not before the young auror took out both the Lestranges. Professor Sprout had died saving Hannah Abbot from Avery; her body lay in the Hogwarts infirmary. But Hannah Abbot still died….and so did Seamus Finnegan, Terry Boot, Cho Chang and Padma Patil.

In one dark corner sat two huddled figures; Ronald Weasley was in a state of shock while Hermione Granger was weeping silently, hanging from her limp hand were a broken pair of round wire-rimmed spectacles that had belonged to The Boy who once Lived--- but now did not.

" But then he didn't have to die…why did he die?", her voice shook as she asked the headmaster pleadingly.

" The prophecy in the Department of Mysteries said Harry was the only one who could vanquish Voldemort. How can this be?" this from an anguished Lupin.

" Yes Remus, vanquish, and that he did. Harry Potter fulfilled his destiny. He vanquished Lord Voldemort—made him a mortal again; but Tom Riddle still lives, just as strong and just as evil."

Snape shook his head, " I do not understand sir, Potter was the chosen One!"

" That is what I believed too Severus, but the dear boy was not. He truly had powers that the Dark Lord knew not- the power of love that enabled him to make this ultimate sacrifice. He did what he was born to do, he destroyed all six horcruxes; and Voldemort cannot make any more. But annihilating Tom Riddle was not his destiny. It never was…" the old man's voice shook with emotion.

" We have to find this girl."

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