Unspeakables. They were Unspeakables. This didn't stop Astoria's co-worker, Simon, from looking extra-talkative when Astoria showed up to work one Monday morning in mid-October. She had barely entered the staffroom when Simon quickly closed the door behind her. He was foreign, he moved to Britain from America years back. He said he liked the system better in Britain. Astoria hated his accent, and didn't really understand how the Ministry would allow a foreigner to be so high up in the Ministry. What if he were to be a traitor? Send America the Ministry's secrets? She supposed the Ministry didn't think that way. She knew if she were to voice any such opinions, the foreign relations people would no doubt chastise her.

To be honest, Astoria's biggest issue with Simon was his chattiness. He was a very upbeat individual and never seemed to get the hint when someone didn't want to speak with him. She had a feeling somewhere inside he knew when someone didn't like him, but he didn't care. He wasn't particularly bad on the eyes, with his chiselled, typical American jaw and his boyish, messy brown hair, but his personality… it certainly left something to be desired. His arrogance astounded Astoria sometimes, but everyone seemed to love him. Admittedly, some days she didn't mind him, but she would never let him know that. Especially because everyone else loved him.

"What is it, Simon?" she asked with an exasperated tone. She hung her autumn jacket onto the hanger and looked down at her newly purchased flat shoes. Definitely more sensible, she thought to herself.

He bit his lip excitedly, and Astoria swore he was almost shaking. "We have a new prophecy!"

"Fascinating, Simon, it happens every day. It just means more paperwork," she responded, dully.

"No, no, this one's good," he insisted.

"You think they're all good."

"This one's about that Malfoy guy, though," Simon said, obviously disappointed that he couldn't drag out the suspense further.

Astoria tried not to care. In fact, she hadn't even seen him since he had spent the night at her flat. She sat down at the table and resigned herself to the fact that she might be just a little bit interested. It was always interesting to get a prophecy about someone you knew, even if it were boring – which, most of the time, it was. It was one of the secrets of the trade that most of the prophecies that came in were in fact really, really vanilla. Astoria had three about different people having a slight stumble while walking down the street, one about some bloke getting a persistent nosebleed, and two about pregnancies. The Hall of Prophecies was absolutely filled with prophecies, and an interesting one only really came once a blue moon. The problem with those ones was that it was against policy to actually tell the person about the prophecy. It was the Ministry's duty to try to sort it out, if they could. Sometimes, though, they couldn't really figure them out. Some Seers were rather cryptic.

"Did you do the paperwork already?" she asked. She knew she wouldn't be allowed to hear it herself. Regulations stated only one Unspeakable may listen to a Prophecy, unless for some reason it needed to be translated or it was a public issue.

"Of course!" he exclaimed. He picked up a file that he had left on the window sill. She raised her eyebrows at his placement, and the fact that he left it lying around, but didn't say a word. She just took the folder and opened it.

A moving photograph of Draco Malfoy greeted her. She sometimes wondered where the Ministry acquired photos of all the people who had prophecies about them, but for Draco there wasn't a surprise. Despite the fact that the problems with his family mostly had stemmed from his father, Draco himself had been under a watch up until a few months back. The Ministry claimed they had wanted to be cautious. Astoria tried to not acknowledge the coincidence that Potter and Weasley had entered the Department when the watch had been started on Draco.

Astoria skipped past the usual yet petty details. She wanted to know the premise of the prophecy.

"Prophecy states that the youngest Malfoy will meet an unduly end by next year's end, most likely by someone the subject is aware of."

She re-read the description.

"Simon, I've written longer descriptions of prophecies that were about someone having their ham over-cooked on Christmas," Astoria said.

"It didn't state much, honestly. It went along the lines of, 'The youngest of Malfoy blood will come to an unduly end by those most unexpected.' I mean, if it weren't for the fact that it was someone that we know about, I would have thought it was the lamest prophecy ever," he responded, casually, as if he weren't discussing the potential demise of someone he knew.

"Who gave the Prophecy?" she asked, although she looked it up in the file before Simon could give her a chance. "Clara Grayson? Who is she, now? I've never heard the name."

"She's young. School-aged, I believe," Simon answered. "Her first prophecy that the family is aware of."

"Where's the orb?"

"Already put in the Hall."

Astoria stood up. "I'll file this for you."

Instead of going where she was supposed to file the document, she instead went into the Hall of Prophecies, her head buzzing. She moved along the shelves until she reached where she knew his name would be. It hadn't taken Astoria long to become familiar with how to get around easily. She found it within moments. The prophecy wouldn't speak again until the person who it was about touched it, this she was aware of. Simon would have only heard it because he would have been in this Clara person's presence recording it when it happened. A lot of Seers either had the ability of being able to predict when a prophecy was going to happen or knew how to save it for the Ministry to collect later. The Ministry had to be able to listen to it before they would classify it as real. They didn't have time for fake prophecies made up to scare someone.

Well, really, it didn't matter because the Ministry refused to tell the subject that they had a prophecy about them. They didn't want people panicking. They used to, apparently. However, people ended up killing themselves over a prophecy that wasn't guaranteed to happen. Some prophecies just never came true, or they weren't as dire as they were interpreted. The Ministry apparently had told one woman she was going to die by her husband's hand only for her to kill her husband. At the time, she had said he had come after her and she killed him in self-defense. She remarried only for her second husband to murder her. They had discovered a journal which had her admitting to killing her first husband out of fear of her life because of the prophecy – the prophecy had come true just from her knowing about it. After that tragic incident, they decided it was best not to let people know, especially when it regarded their deaths. Sometimes if the prophecies were rather direct, the Ministry would do their best to try to push the person in the right direction. A prophecy once told of a man getting colon cancer, so the Ministry had sent a leaflet in his regular mail reminding men of the check-up. It had saved his life, and he didn't need to know about it.

Astoria stared at the plaque with Draco and the Seer's name already engraved on it, and watched the smoke swirl in its orb. His prophecy was so… vague. Astoria honestly didn't know much about Seeing, and therefore didn't know if vague prophecies were the result of an inexperienced Seer, or if the age of the Seer was irrelevant. She read over the description over and over. There was nothing there that she could even imply to Draco without giving away that she read a prophecy about him. She supposed the best thing she could do – and she hated herself for thinking it – was hope that another, more descriptive prophecy came in.