Chapter 17: Divination and Mysteries

Hours passed on that frigid January afternoon in the well stoked apartments of Professor Trelawney. As Harry listened with rapt attention to the stories of various Seers in the professor's family. The most famous was her great great grandmother, Cassandra Trelawney. But Harry was entranced to learn about the professor's own predictions.

"When I interviewed for this very position, I showed my powers of perception to the Headmaster. He was so impressed by my abilities that I was offered the job on the spot and a permanent home here at Hogwarts."

"What did you predict for him?" Harry asked.

"Oh, something or other. So many prophecies you tend to forget them, young man."

"Well, they must be important. Doesn't anyone keep track of them?"

"There may be, dear Potter." Professor Trelawney leaned forward conspiratorially. "There have been whispers amongst the Seer community. Of a hall of prophecy. The ministry has people who listen everywhere. Supposedly, the unspeakables in the department of mysteries record EVERY prophecy. There's things even I don't know dear boy, and the department of Mysteries is one of them."

Broderick Bode, Unspeakable and Kingsley Shacklebolt, Auror. The room was dark and lit only by two small candles floating above their heads and the coals in Bode's pipe alternately lighting up. The room was spacious and allowed echoing repetitions of their conversation to come back to them.

"What can we do Shacklebolt?" The Unspeakable took a long drag, lighting up his lined and angry face.

"Not much. She gave the names. She's a free bird."

"Not like it matters. Six are in Azkaban and the rest have been found dead in their cavern hideout!" Bode was on the verge of shouting now.

"As always, we'll keep a sharp eye on her. If there are any more Death Eaters she's failed to tell us about, she's bound to make contact eventually." Shacklebolt spoke smoothly to try to keep his counterpart calm.

"What gets me is just how much has happened. Malfoy dies. Malfoy's kid dies after nearly killing some fellow students. We wrap up all these death eaters we've been looking for this past decade."

"I'd say that's a good thing Bode."

"Something just doesn't feel right. There's a piece of this puzzle we're missing." They stood silently for a few moments before he continued. "The Dementors will have to be dismissed from Hogwarts now that the Death Eater threat has been contained."

"You'd rather have them near those students? Don't you have a niece there?"

"It's Potter." They both knew what Bode was referring to. The deep dwellers of the ministry and wardens of Azkaban were still working on the remains of the dead Dementors. And something happened near Potter to kill them…

"Dumbledore interviewed the child. We're going to leave that child alone." Shacklebolt turned to leave but stopped at Bode's next words.

"If there's a power out there that can break into Azkaban, it is in the best interest of the nation to find out. By any means necessary."

"Tell me, Mr. Potter." said Trelawney, late that evening. She took the pot of tea and poured before realizing that there was nothing left. "Would you like some, private lessons on divination?"

"Can I?" Harry was surprised, but intrigued. If he was going to understand his newfound Shinigami eye abilities, any lesson he could take to help avert Fred's impending death would help.

"Usually only third years and higher are allowed to take Divination courses. But, I assume the headmaster wouldn't be against taking some time for private tutoring."

"You what?" Marietta and Cho said in unison. They looked at Harry as if he had said he was going to jump off of a building. The rest of the Task Force sat around talking about whatever as they waited for the Gryffindors to arrive.

"What's wrong with Trelawney giving me lessons?"

"She's a complete fake, as well as a drunk!" Marietta was the most excitable amongst the group. "My mother saw her come to the ministry once. She was holding a bottle of sherry and trying to get an audience with the minister. Why Dumbledore keeps her on, no one knows!"

"She didn't seem that way to me." Harry thought back over his conversation with the professor. She had been somewhat belligerent with Madam Pince but otherwise was only somewhat eccentric. "And besides, how else am I going to learn about divination."

"Why do you need to learn about divination Harry?" Asked Cho. "You've already got a full course load."

Harry had only told Ron about the Shinigami Eyes so far, and wasn't sure how to bring up the subject to anyone else, especially Cho.

"It's just, interesting is all."

"Well, shouldn't we be focusing on the stone?" said Cho.

"Exactly as I was just saying." said Lee, strolling in flanked by the twins. "Shall we get this meeting started? It's been a whole month since we came back and we're finally all able to make it."

"Absolutely." Harry was glad to have an excuse to stop talking about divination. Harry stepped up on the desk and spoke to the group arranged in a semi-circle in front of him. In the meetings they've had so far, Harry had gotten more comfortable having everyone focus on him speaking. "Welcome back everyone. I know we've been a bit, well, distant lately."

"Almost broken up more like it." quipped Fred.

"Yes, quite. Well, we all know things kind of tapered off once we settled most of the original tasks after Malfoy died." Harry brought out a scroll of paper, the list Cho had written before their first meeting last november.

1. Get together the task force!

2. Snoop around Snape and Quirrel.

3. Research protection from memory spells.

4. Research magic stones

5. Tell Dumbledore? Talk about this later

6. Get our friend's un-petrified ASAP.

7. Figure out what's petrifying people

8. Prove Harry's innocence

9. Stop the Death Eaters.

10. Celebrate our Victory!

"Well we know that Snape and Quirrell are definitely going after the Philosopher's stone." It's one of the big things left from our original…" but he was cut off.

"And we've been tracking them all the time." Fred and George piped in, holding up the Marauder's Map. "Nothing to report. They must be the most boring couple in the school, or just be terrible thieves"

"Well there's still something to report about the Death Eaters…."

"And the Death Eaters who escaped the train attack are dead." Emily said, holding up that morning's Daily Prophet." It had come to light that the ministry had found their hideout in the past weeks and were confident that there were no more followers of You-Know-Who out of prison.

"Oh…um, thank you for that Emily" Harry had been hoping to talk about that for awhile. His speech kind of felt like the wind had been sucked out once the group mentioned this. Harry grabbed a quill and scratched out the two offending lines on the parchment. "Um, then I guess the only thing is that I still need your help figuring out why the Dementors died…"

"The Dementors are leaving." said Marietta. "It's going to be announced tomorrow, but I spoke with floo powder to my mum before we came to the meeting."

"I have a suggestion." came a quiet voice. Harry turned around and saw that it was Ron that had spoken.

"Yes, Ron, what have you got?" Harry was quickly realizing this meeting was going to be a purely social endeavor if no one else had a suggestion.

"I think we should steal the philosopher's stone."

"What!" Screamed Hermione, while the twins and Jordan started laughing.

"What are you on about Ronald?" Asked Julius, looking down at him.

"Yeah, Ron, what?" Harry was surprised, but once he caught Ron's eye he realized what he was thinking. Ron had kept his eyes on Fred consistently this past month, ever since Harry had told him about the eyes.

"There's something Harry hasn't told you guys." Ron looked at Harry intently.

"What is it?" Cho looked confused and startled, realizing how intense Harry looked.

"Harry can predict when people are going to die." The room was silent.

"OH!" Suddenly the noise broke the quiet. Hermione bolted to her feet and pointed. "That's why you've been trying to take Divination lessons!"

"Oh!" Joined in Cho and Marietta. Harry felt conflicted. He had broken Ron's trust by allowing Vim to kill those Death Eaters, but Ron was sharing more than they had agreed to.

"So, who's first, oh wise seer?" Fred laughed.

"You, Fred." Harry slumped down, sitting cross legged on the desk. The red date floating above Fred's head felt more sinister than ever. Fred Weasley: 7/1/1994 Fred laughed again until he looked at Harry's face.

"You're not kidding."

"I'm sorry Fred. I'm not."

"How do you know?" asked Emily warily.

"My Aunt and Uncle and Cousin." The lie came naturally to Harry and he felt a pit of remorse for lying to these friends again. "It was before I knew I was a Wizard."

"When… um….did you find out?" George asked, his face somewhat askew.

"Around Christmas. It happened again with Draco Malfoy."

"And when is Freddy supposed to die?" asked Lee, looking a little spooked.

"In about two years." George got up and slowly walked forward to Harry. Before he knew it, he felt the familiar feeling of a fist plowing into his nose. Everyone erupted in a whirl as Harry clutched his clearly broken nose. Some got up to hold George back while Hermione and Emily went to check on him. Harry pulled his hand up to feel the blood cascading down and barely heard George's tirade. He caught words like "when" and "tell us" but his head was ringing and his ears felt full of cotton.

Eventually some ad-hoc third year magic got the blood flow to stop, but Harry was still in immense pain. George was seething on the ground held back by Fred and Lee.

"What the hell is your deal!?" yelled Ron, also kneeling by Harry's side.

"When was he going to tell my brother that he was going to die! And same for you Ron! You knew since Christmas and only spoke up today?"

"Georgie, calm down." Said Fred. George looked up at his twin and then sunk his head and stopped struggling.

"Come on, Harry." said Emily. "Hospital Wing for you."

"No!" Harry said, pulling away from Emily's grasp. "Can't let them get George in trouble."

"But Harry…" Hermione said, her eyes on the brink of tears. Harry wondered how much of a mess he must look like right now.

"George." Harry took a step forward, his head only slightly clearer. He felt like he might fall over again. "I didn't know much about Divination until this week talking to Professor Trelawney. I was hoping to figure out a way to save Fred without worrying everyone. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner."\

The blackness overtook him and he passed out.