Ch 11 Trelawney and Neville

Harry finally thought he knew what he was doing, at least until he met Neville on the stairs going from the first floor of Hogwarts. Hermione had met he and Snape and let them through the protective incantations at the front gate. Snape had gone with her to interrogate Malfoy and Harry was headed up the steps to Dumbledore's old office.

He'd been warned by Hermione that getting into the office was very difficult due to Professor McGonagall's charms. He wanted to try because he was finally ready to see the portrait of Dumbledore hanging on the wall. He fingered the slip of paper Hermione had shoved into his fist with a long list of answers the door to Dumbledore's office would ask him.

He'd been running on instinct alone, both at Godric's Hollow and now inside the castle; his one and only home. It felt really good to be inside Hogwarts but also disappointing that he could not expose himself to the students or see his old friends. He wanted Dumbledore's portrait to confirm his suspicions and perhaps to offer some advice.

He was approaching the step where he had caught his leg in the night carrying the Triwizard Tournament egg and skipped over it with a feeling of nostalgia and light- heartedness. Old times, he thought. He was thinking of the memories of times past as almost another lifetime. Compared with his current situation, he felt he had a right to look at the past in that way. He was also aware he was drawn by his heart to go to Gryffindor Tower and seek Ginny out. Somehow as he slipped up the stairs the feeling vanished. He was living a different life now, he told himself. One that could not include her.

"Stop!" the voice was loud.

Harry turned slowly, knowing a wand was pointed at him. When he saw who it was he let out a sigh. "Neville?"

The boy stepped into the light. His wand was out and the hand that held it trembled. "Harry? Harry!"

A second later Harry was enveloped in the boy's arms and squeezed.

"Harry are you back? Thank goodness! It's good to see you!" Neville was shaking him by the shoulders. Harry noticed that he was taller by and inch or so. "I didn't recognize you because of your hair. And...and...you look so different!"

"Shush, Neville," Harry pulled him into the shadows. "We have to be quiet. No, I'm not back. I've come..."

"Because of Malfoy, I know," Neville immediately quieted. "The D.A. is in charge of the castle and security. Course, Professor McGonagall doesn't know that. Harry, I am so glad you're here. You've got to come with me!"

Harry was already disengaging himself and ready to move on and dismiss Neville. The boy pulled him back by the robes.

"Harry, you've got to listen to me," Neville was whispering but so ferociously Harry knew they could be overheard if a student entered the hall.

"Neville, I don't have much time. I've got to go..." again he was interrupted.

"Harry, I know I am the Chosen One," Neville stopped tugging and pulling on his robes.

Harry stopped and turned to look him full in the face. "How...who...never mind Neville. It's too late. It doesn't matter."

"You don't understand, Harry. I know what you're doing for me. I knowVoldemort made a mistake. It should have been me...with the...the scar."

"Who told you?" Harry grunted in shock.

"Dumbledore. His portrait," Neville explained and went on, "He told me the prophecy and how it was more likely Voldemort chose you because you were half-blood like him."

"Neville," Harry dropped his head in exasperation. "It doesn't matter anymore. Voldemort went to my parents house that night to get something they had. He killed them because he couldn't find it; they had hidden it. I got the scar because my mother sacrificed herself so I could live. The prophecy is worthless. It doesn't tell us anything. it doesn't give us any answers."

"It says you have to kill him or he has to kill you," Neville said and Harry could see tears springing to his eyes. "What it really means is that I should be the one to kill him."

Harry shrugged his shoulders and started to turn. "No, Neville it doesn't mean that and it's too late. When he tried to kill me he transferred some of his powers to me, made it so I could read his mind. I now know that I have to be the one. Whether it started out to be you or me; it's now my job. There are things you don't know about, Neville. A lot has happened and I don't have time to explain."

"That may be true, Harry," Neville said it calmly, "and maybe I can't take your place now. But I want to, you know. I really do!"

Harry nodded sympathetically. "I have to go now, Neville," he said it gently. stepping away and trying to disengage.

"No, Harry, you don't understand. I'm trying to tell you I may not be the one who ends up killing Voldemort, but I KNOW HOW to kill him."

Harry stopped dead in his tracks once again.

"It's true. Just come with me to see Professor Trelawney. She can explain it better than I can." Neville nodded somberly and watched his friend's face.

"Neville." The minute Harry heard the name Trelawney he immediately discounted what Neville said. "She drinks too much and she's a fraud."

"Is she, Harry? Is she really?" Neville stepped forward, this time towering slightly over him. "That's what everybody thinks. But I've been taking her class." His voice dropped. "I didn't get many O.W.L.S. so I had to fill my time. I went to her class, me and a few other seventh years. She's stopped drinking, Harry. And, she was right about something; she predicted Dumbledore's death. She also made the Prophecy and what she's told me recently makes sense too. I can prove it. If you'll just come with me." This time Neville was not pleading, but looking at Harry telling Harry with his eyes it was the right thing to do and he was just being stubborn. "If you could find a way to kill Voldemort would it be worth it to you?"

Harry studied his friend's face. Neville had grown a lot in many ways. The face was no longer pudgy and simple. Neville had proven himself to be a good friend. He had gone to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry; he had fought along side him. Harry had been told he had even improved on his spell work. People had been making fun of him since they had started Hogwarts. Harry understood what that felt like.

He nodded in agreement.

Neville's face brightened and he looked up and down the hall conspiratorially and walked in front of him. They moved quickly without being seen and climbed the tower to the Divination teacher's lofty aerie.

The room was as Harry remembered it, although the fire was not lit and it wasn't as warm. Neville went before him and slipped under a tapestry of woven silver-threaded unicorns and indigo blue skies. Trelawney and Neville's muffled voices drifted to him as he sat at one of the tables, chin on his hand and waited.

Harry felt the strangeness of sitting in the room he had once been in as a student. He remembered, with a sense of gloom, how the woman had persistently predicted his imminent demise. He thought he would listen to what they had to say and then excuse himself. Hermione, Ron and Snape would be waiting or him. He was anxious to get away and go to Dumbledore's office and the night was slipping away. Time was now precious and he was chiding himself for this detour.

Professor Trelawney was led into the room by Neville who now looked like a full grown man beside her. She saw Harry and grabbed at Neville's arm dramatically screeching, "He has returned!"

"Professor Trelawney," Neville said and gently removed her hand.

She looked up at him and then dipped her head for a moment. "All right." The voice was down-to-earth and did not have the quality of her usual out-of-this-world breathlessness.

He led her to the table and they sat. With a wave of his hand, Harry lit the globe of light in front of them. It was reflected in her bottle-top glasses and her eyes took on the surreal look of a goldfish staring at him through it's bowl.

"Go on," Neville urged.

She withdrew a stack of cards from her apron pocket and laid them on the table. She quickly shuffled them and began to lay them on the table in a pattern. Harry watched. He was familiar with her movements because he had practiced reading the cards himself. At the time, they held little interest to him and he hadn't done well in that particular exercise. However, he remembered the night he had met her in the hallway on his way to see Dumbledore and even in her drunken state she had been talking about seeing Dumbledore's death in them. It was enough to keep Harry silent and watching.

"I've done this a thousand times since his death," Professor Trelawney began. Her attitude was unnaturally steady and serious. "I knew I wasn't wrong the first time. People never believe me, but I do have visions and intuitions. Dumbledore...Dumbledore should have listened..." The aching moan escaped her lips and her hands shook for a moment.

"Professor," Neville's calming voice seemed to steady her again.

She glanced at him and then stole a look at Harry. She continued with the cards. "Here we have the Magician." She turned the first one over. It was the figure of a wise man, not unlike the appearance of the deceased Dumbledore. "The magician is a skillful and powerful magus. He raises his wand to heaven, calls on all his powers and casts a spell that falls to earth as a great web of possibilities." She glanced at Harry who had raised an eyebrow as if saying, 'that doesn't make sense'.

She sighed deeply and splayed her long-nailed hand over the card. The baubles and necklaces that hung from her neck clanged against the table as she leaned in. "He creates the future, all the directions that a person's life can take. He shows a person all the directions his life can take. It is a set of tools. That person can make anything of his life, do anything because he clearly sees all the paths set before him and can choose which one he wishes to take."

Harry studied the card.

"Dumbledore did that for you," she said and leaned in to look into his face. "He helped you understand your path is not a narrow one; there are possibilities, other avenues; not just one. The card also tells us you will be given a vision, a mental image of what it is you want to achieve. A plan per se."

Harry nodded.

She turned the next card over. "This card is the card of Justice. It means the person it refers to- you- must do everything in their power to brings things back into balance. That does not mean punishing the other person whether that person is good or bad, right or wrong. It is about adjustment, a balance which is to be achieved. The end result may not turn out to be pleasant. The message is to do what is necessary no matter how hard or disagreeable it will be for you in order to regain this equilibrium."

Harry looked up to see Neville was leaning over and fidgeting with excitement.

"We are in a period of great imbalance, as you would probably agree," she said it quickly and moved on to the next card. Her hand lay over it and stopped without turning it over, while the large eyes watched him. He was aware that if he showed hesitation or disbelief she would disappear from the room like a wisp of smoke. He folded his hands and waited.

The card was revealed. The face showed a large wheel. He understood the meaning of the card. "It means a sudden change, a stroke of good luck is coming my way," he said.

Neville squealed with excitement, and then threw his hands over his mouth and watched with shining, bright eyes.

Trelawney nodded and went to the next card. "This card...is a powerful card ...and one the reader often fears to see." She turned the card over slowly. It was the Tower. She was talking very softly, "The Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. When one gets this card, they can expect to be shaken up, to be blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes such a thing, to see a truth that one refuses to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed and held without dispute. What's most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built."

"What does that mean?"

"Something will happen that will surprise and shock you. Something you believe to be true, but isn't. If you hesitate to accept the new information as the truth, it will be the cause of your destruction." She said it without flinching or drama.

Harry found himself holding his breath. There was one more card laying on the table, its' soiled edges turned up as if it had been looked at over and over again. He stared at it and

reached out to place his hand over it, not touching but levitated within millimeters of it. He quickly pulled his hand back and tucked it into his robes.

Neville was almost breathless.

Trelawney reached for the card and spoke, "The Sorting Hat spoke to us several times of binding our forces together and becoming a unified whole. Many thought the words meant that the Houses should stop feuding and the students should come together, work together to stand against evil." Trelawney held her hand on the card but looked at Harry. "Mr. Longbottom and I have come to another conclusion." She turned the card. It was the Four of Wands."

Harry was not sure of the attributes of the card and all of its meanings. He tried out his assumptions, "It means... it means stability, a holding pattern, the roots of a foundation." He squinted in his attempts to wrestle the long forgotten lesson out of his memory.

"Normally, it would mean that; a solid foundation, like the roots of a tree. The card can also mean it is about the foundation of a house- or in Hogwarts case- Houses. The four houses; Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. In this case, I think it means a healing must take place to bring about stability, to bring about this equilibrium, but it was Neville who came to the conclusion that it was literal."

Neville was beaming. "All I saw was four wands on the cards."

Trelawney reached over to Harry with her long claw-like fingers and pressed it on his chest directly over the wand he still carried. "You have it don't you? she asked.

Neville stood and did a small dance in the middle of the room, his arms flapped like wings. Harry fell back, still staring at Trelawney's huge eyes and then turned in slow motion to watch as Neville began to perform some crazy gyrations.

"What...?!" he mumbled in confusion.

"I found them, Harry!" Neville laughed. "I found them. We've got them all! And now you have the last one and they are complete!" And then, as if doing muggle magic tricks, Neville began to produce items from his robe, from behind his ear, and from his sleeve. Three long objects he laid lovingly on the table in front of Harry.

They were wands.

"Hufflepuff!" Neville exclaimed and laid a jade-handled oak wand on the table. "Ravenclaw!" Next came the willow wand with a bronze tipped handle. "Slytherin!" This one as expected was of a black wood gilded in wrap-around filament wire of silver. He laid it one the table with his fingertips.

Harry stared at the three wands and then looked at Neville who was beaming and at Trelawney who had folded her hands in her lap and was watching him.

"Don't you see, Harry? The Sorting House said we must join the Houses together to defeat evil. What it means is that we have to use the four wands together, weld them together to kill Voldemort."

Trelawney shuddered at the name of the Dark Lord. Harry looked from the wands, to Neville, to the cards laid out on the table.

"That's good, Neville," he began slowly and noticed the beginning traces of disappointment in his friend's face. "That's really good!" he finished. He didn't have the heart or the desire to explain the problem of the Horcruxes and the impossible feat set before him. Voldemort was almost invincible, almost immortal. It wasn't a matter of trying to kill him. Harry wasn't sure he could be killed even with the four wands. And he wasn't at all sure who would use the wands to do the deed.

Trelawney stood and gathered her cards and pulled her shawl around her frail shoulders.

"I have foreseen in my dreams four standing together as one. Whoever welds the wand must be true in their heart and the wand will answer it's master." She stuck her face into his. "True in his heart ,Mr. Potter without doubt. By the way, you need not worry about six of the objects you seek. They are no longer important, only the one that lingers within."She turned and walked across the room and disappeared behind the tapestry.

Harry sat for a minute in stunned silence and then gathered the wands together and wrapped them in the cloth that covered the table. He couldn't begin to fathom how she would know about the Horcruxes and yet he could not deny she was taking about them.

"Neville, I don't know how to thank you." The enormity of the task had suddenly hit him. Finding the original wands of the three greatest wizards of all time must have been a daunting feat. He shook his head, "They should have put you in Hufflepuff, Neville. You've completed an impossible task and you are truly a loyal friend."

"Harry," Neville began, "I know it isn't the whole solution. Luna helped me and some others did too. I can't take credit for all of it. If it ends up saving your life then I'll be happy. You're my best friend, Harry. I miss you." The young man looked as if he were struggling not to cry.

Harry forced a smile and then put his arms around him and hugged him quickly. "I've missed you as well, Neville, but time is getting away from me and I have to hurry. Will you help me get into Dumbledore's office?"

"Oh sure, Harry," Neville straightened. "That's easy"

"Easy? I thought Professor McGonagall put a charm on it that was almost impossible to break."

Neville suddenly looked sheepish and grinned, " I think she gave up on me a long time ago, Harry. I never could remember the passwords for the Fat Lady to open the portrait or how to get into an office for detention, or whatever, so McGonagall gave me a universal password that opens all the doors in Hogwarts. She made me promise to never use it in front of anyone, or forget it. She said if I did she would expel me."

Harry grinned. "A universal password."

Neville nodded.

"As Ron would say; cool."