After being given a doozy of a revelation before coffee that morning, Rory was trying to figure out something. Anything. She couldn't sit still as she tried to unravel all the thoughts in her head.

She found herself in the study that afternoon, combing through books wondering if there might be a solution to all of this somewhere on the shelves.

No luck so far. Nothing even jumped out at her. Her inner eye was silent for once. She was going to have to solve this on her own it seemed.

"Hey."

Rory nearly dropped the book in her hand as she turned to the voice at the door. Harry was standing there. She chuckled.

"You scared the crap out of me," she said.

"Sorry," he said. "Just heard all the noise and-."

"Right," Rory said. She'd tossed a fair amount of books onto the floor, which she was certain made a loud noise even if she was tuning it out. "People complaining?"

"No. I just wanted to find the source," Harry said.

"Well, here it is," Rory said, motioning to herself. She sat the book in her hand on the table and turned back to Harry. "I'm glad you're here actually. I wanted to talk to you. Can you close the door?"

Harry seemed confused by this but closed the door anyway. He kept a safe, respectful distance from her, which she appreciated.

"I have to tell you something confidential," she said.

"What's up?" he asked.

Rory laid it all out for him. The Servants of Pythia and her uncle. Harry said nothing as Rory explained all this and hardly seemed to even flinch until she was finished talking.

Then he nodded. "Well, the cult thing definitely came out of nowhere. In a hundred years I would not have expected those to be the words coming out of your mouth. The stuff about Levi is also surprising, but within the context of the situation, it wasn't that shocking."

"This might as well happen, right?" Rory said with a sigh,

"So, what happens now? Wait until you predict the next terrible thing that's going to happen?" Harry asked.

"I guess so," she said. "But I hate not knowing things."

"And that's why you're in here looking through all these books?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes. I keep hoping something will jump out at me and... I dunno. Give me some kind of clarity."

"Like the photo album?" Harry asked.

Rory had very nearly forgotten about that. Mostly because she strongly associated finding it with immediately making out with Harry. Because after things with Not-Moody, he was the only one who always believed her, without question. Even now.

"Yeah. Like the photo album," she said.

Harry nodded. "Did you come in here because this is where you found it?"

"No... I just..." She didn't know. "It felt like the only place might get an answer." She reclined back against the bookcase. "I just feel like I should be doing something instead of just standing around waiting."

"Something will come to you when it's important," Harry said.

"Or when it's too late," Rory sighed.

Harry came to stand beside Rory. "Nothing you see is certain, remember?"

"I certainly have a one hundred percent failure rate when it comes to stopping the bad things from happening though," Rory said. "And my uncle has turned out to be a dark wizard who is trying to use me to stop a different dark wizard."

"That's not great," Harry said. "But I do have some experience with being pursued by a dark wizard, and therefore am happy to offer myself a resource for advice."

"And what advice do you have for me?" Rory asked.

"Take it as it comes. Something is going to happen and something weird and unexpected is going to happen anyway," Harry said. "Expect the worst-."

"Plan on something even worse than that," Rory said.

Harry chuckled. "I'm supposed to be the doom and gloom one, remember? You're the optimist."

"That was before... This," Rory said.

Harry sighed. And seemed to think for a moment. "Well, maybe you found the answers already."

"Wouldn't I know that?" she asked.

"Maybe not. I mean, I told you before, nothing's a coincidence with you," Harry said. "You took that photo album off the shelf. You said you had a feeling about it and wanted to keep it. You're here looking for answers because this is where you found some clarity before."

"And you don't think it's a coincidence?" she asked. Harry shook his head. He had a point. "Well, who was it that I found in the album that I noticed?"

"It was, er, something Black," Harry said.

"Very helpful. Are you going to tell me it's something related to outer space next?" Rory asked.

"I was, actually," he said. Rory rolled her eyes and Harry laughed. "Cygnus was his name."

Rory turned to the shelves of books. Her eyes roamed over them and then landed on one. She pulled it from the shelf. She opened the front cover and read the name Cygnus Black. She motioned Harry over. "Look at this."

Harry came to stand beside her and she tapped the cover.

"Truths and Secrets of Legilimency and Occlumency," he read aloud. He looked up at Rory. "I don't follow."

"You ever notice how there's a bit of overlap with divination and Legilimency, at least with respect to my particular skill set?" Rory asked.

Harry seemed to agree with that. "Is that why I'm so shit at Occlumency because I'm also terrible with divination?"

"Do you want me to answer that honestly?" she asked.

"Ouch. I think you just did," Harry said.

"There isn't anyone in the Black family who was particularly good at Divination, but maybe there was someone who was good at Legilimency," Rory said.

"And if there was? What would that mean for you?" Harry asked.

Then Rory had a thought. "I know you think it's creepy, but do you think you could help me with something?"

Harry grimaced. "This is going to be about your Spirit Board isn't it?"

"Regrettably so," Rory said.

Harry sighed and then shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Why not? I would undoubtedly get pulled into this anyhow. That's how woefully predictable my life has become. If it's creepy and weird and something that no other person would really want to be involved in, don't doubt Harry Potter is going to get sucked into the middle of it."

"And just like that, I'm back to being the optimist and you're the doom and gloom," Rory said.

"I'd hold onto that optimism," Harry said, opening the door. "I expect it's about to go right out the window."


Harry hadn't been expecting there to be a cult worshiping Rory. For it to be run by her uncle was even more surprising. Now he was sitting in the dining room, well after everyone had gone to bed, with Rory with her talking board between them.

Most of the stuff Rory predicted was about Harry, and most was bad. Provoking her abilities with his help seemed like they were asking for trouble.

But he didn't know what else to do aside from sitting around waiting. Dumbledore was gone, so there was no insight he could offer, not that he'd been very forthcoming beforehand. Before he'd left he'd told Harry to keep up his Occlumency lessons. Harry had sufficiently seen to it that those lessons were over. But Dumbledore had also told Rory to trust her instincts and her predictions. At least this was somewhat what had been asked of them.

Rory handed him a pencil and a sheet of paper.

"Sure you want me to transcribe?" Harry asked. "My handwriting is pretty shit. You've said so yourself."

"I've spent a lot of time reading your handwriting to decipher it easily enough," Rory said. "That's all that really matters."

Right. How many essays had she looked over for him while they were dating? Not to mention he was constantly scribbling things in the margins of her notebooks when they were in class together or studying.

That was a bit painful to think about right now, so he quickly pushed the thoughts from his head. Rory was tying a tie around her eyes so she couldn't see the board and accidentally influence whatever she was spelling out.

Her fingers sat on the planchette and she gave it a few cursory movements around the board.

"So do you ask it questions?" Harry asked.

"Since I'm using it to basically channel my own inner eye, I don't think I'll have to. It's kind of like talking to myself I think," Rory said. "At least that feels like what I'm supposed to do."

"Got it," Harry said.

"I won't move the planchette between questions so you'll know when you need to write," she said. "You ready?"

"Nope. But let's get to it anyway," he said.

Rory was silent for a few moments and then her hands moved the planchet across the board.

C-Y-G-N-U-S

She stopped abruptly.

"Cygnus," Harry said.

Rory nodded. "I knew it." Then her hands moved again. A much longer word this time.

"Legilimens," Harry said.

Again, Rory nodded, and her hands moved.

P-R-O-P-H-E-C-Y

Harry raised an eyebrow at this answer.

He went to repeat it back to her, but suddenly her hands were moving across the board. Harry could only just keep up and it was clear that she was giving more than just a single-word answer.

Harry wanted to look up at Rory, but he was afraid to lose track of what letters she was stopping on. But he could hear her muttering quietly and quickly under her breath. He kept writing, even as she sped up and his hand began to cramp. She abruptly moved the planchet to "GOODBYE" before dropping her head onto the table with a thunk.

"Rory?" Harry said, reaching out for her. He put a hand on her shoulder and pulled the tie from around her eyes. He'd seen her space out once or twice when she was predicting something, but this was nothing like that.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Harry looked over to the kitchen door and saw Remus and Sirius standing there. He didn't even worry that they might be in trouble. He was actually happy to see them after all that. Harry barely motioned to Rory before two pair came over to them.

Remus reached out for her, when she sat up abruptly, suddenly very alert.

"Whoa, that was weird," she said casually, causing Harry, Sirius, and Remus to nearly jump out of their skin. Rory was surprised by their surprise. "Are you okay?" Then she looked at her dad. "When did you two get in here?"

"Are we okay? Are you okay?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," she said confusedly. "What are you-."

"Rory," Harry interrupted, sliding her the paper he'd been writing on.

Now she looked very confused.

"But I... There were only three..." she trailed off. She stared at the paper in front of her. "Well, that's interesting."

"What?" Remus asked.

"I think this is a prophecy," she said. She took a clean sheet of paper and Harry's pencil and began to transcribe it, separating out each word until it was intelligible.

The four of them read over the words. A rock sank in Harry's stomach and he glanced over at Sirius who paled.

"The black songbird will be caged, marked one will hear her song. The dog star may bark no more or the false god will fall. The light of the acolytes will challenge the death bringer and for him, there will no longer be the one, but the two," Rory read aloud.

"Well," Sirius said, "my death being prophesized was not on my bingo card for this year, but here we are."

"Stop," Rory insisted. "It doesn't say you're going to die."

"You're right," Sirius said. "It says I may die."

"I'd better wake Tonks," Remus said.


"You don't think Sirius is actually going to die, do you?" Harry asked.

Rory grimaced. "I mean, I keep reading it over and over, but it feels like... I can feel death in it. Almost an assurance that no matter what decisions get made between now and this, someone is going to die."

"But you don't know who?" Harry asked.

Rory shook her head. She wished she did. She'd told Sirius she had no idea what it could mean but conceded it was about him. But she didn't want to freak him out with what she actually thought.

Rory and Harry were back in the study after breakfast the next day. They were only kind of hiding from the others in the house. Rory because she didn't want to endure any questions or stares quite yet. She wasn't sure why Harry was there, except to offer moral support. But she was glad he'd stayed with her. Things were complicated between them. Rory didn't know exactly how she felt about him one way or the other beyond that she didn't want to be with anyone right now. But she knew he felt safe. Harry always made her feel safe.

"Can't imagine how Sirius must be feeling," Rory said.

"If I know Sirius, he's probably worried about you," Harry said.

"People do love to worry about me," she said.

"Can't imagine why," Harry said.

"It's not as if I've predicted my own death. That would be super fucked wouldn't it?" Rory said.

"Don't joke. Never know when it might turn out to be serious with you," Harry said.

"Valid," Rory said with a nod.

"If you don't mind me asking," Harry started, "before your unexpected delivery of a prophecy, what were you using the board to find out?"

Rory chuckled. "Wow. In all the craziness I forgot all about our initial plans."

"That's fair," he said.

Rory pushed herself up onto the desk and thought back. "I wanted the answer to three questions."The first question was 'whose bone is this?'"

"Cygnus?" Harry asked.

Rory nodded. "Should probably not tell Sirius that his grandfather's skull bone is being used with the board. He hates that thing enough as it is."

"Agreed. And then the next answer was Legilimens," Harry said.

Rory nodded. "Cygnus. He was a legillimens. I wanted to know if that's why he had his body turned into a tool for divination."

"And prophecy?" Harry asked. "Was that just a coincidence?"

Rory smirked. "Nope. I wanted to know something for you."

"For me?" Harry asked. "What did you want to know?"

"What's Voldemort want from the Department of Mysteries?" she said.

"A prophecy?" Harry asked.

Rory nodded. "There's a hall of prophecies. And there's one in there he wants. Betting that it's about you."

Harry seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "So that's what it's been this whole time?" Rory nodded. Harry thought for a moment. "How do you know it's about me?"

"Well, if there was a prophecy out there about you that said you would be his downfall? That'd be reason enough for him to go after you and your parents," Rory said.

"Yes. That makes sense," Harry said. "But how do you know he's not looking for a prophecy about you?"

Rory raised an eyebrow. "Well, he didn't find out that I was a seer until, presumably, Barty Crouch Junior told him."

"Maybe, but he probably knows about the Servants of Pythia," Harry said. "And how do you think they landed on you being their prophet or whatever?"

Rory thought for a moment. How did they know? Theodosia knew because she was having visions about Rory being a seer. Rory assumed that's how Levi knew and passed the information down to his followers. But an entire cult?

"Do you think... The servants of Pythia have been around since before Levi started leading them?" she asked. "That this wasn't some cult that he created? That there have been people waiting for this to happen? For me?"

"That's what makes the most sense to me," Harry said. "What if he's looking for answers about both of us?" He sat beside Rory on the desk.

"Do you think they know?" Rory asked. "The Order, I mean."

Harry shrugged. "About me, at least. They've been keeping an eye on the Department of Mysteries all year, after all. Have they even considered it might be you he's looking into? Or both of us?"

Rory wanted to rest her head on his shoulder. She wanted him to put his arms around her and hold her tightly. But that wasn't the way things were anymore.

"Harry... Why are our lives so goddamned weird?" she asked. Harry laughed. "Honestly though. I know I'm just some regular, boring girl outside of being a seer, but I didn't need this to make life exciting."

"Well speaking as someone who is regular and boring outside of the many attempts on my life, I can say that the more it happens the easier it gets," he said. "And on a side note, Aurora Lupin."

It still made Rory feel like her insides might turn to mush whenever he called her by name. She didn't have a reason why, aside from her just loving the way he said her name.

"You are not some regular, boring girl. You've always been this courageous and determined girl I've ever met. Even before all the seer stuff. You just always... You've always been brilliant. Without ever trying," he said. "You make everyone else look bad."

"Thank you," she said. "Though, I actually do try. I try very, very hard."

"Well, I try hard to, I'm just not nearly as successful," he said. "Look at my Occlumency lessons."

"But did you really try your hardest? Really?" Rory asked. Harry sighed and she laughed. "Oh, Harry. Not even Voldemort worth you cooperating with Snape."

"It's not just Snape, although you have got a point about that," he said. "I just... Everyone is concerned about Voldemort seeing what I see. But what if I can do it the other way around? I mean, if I hadn't the one time, Mr. Weasley would be dead. I'm certainly not capable of helping any other way."

"But it could be-"

"Dangerous, I know," Harry said. "Could be dangerous if I don't try either."

"It would still help, the Occlumency lessons I mean. Learn how to shut it on and off. Only open that door in your head up when you mean to," Rory said.

Harry shrugged. "Well, Snape's definitely not going to let me help, so I'm out of options. Unless you know how to teach me."

Rory thought for a moment. That wasn't a bad idea now that she was actually thinking about it. She didn't know Occlumency and she'd never really tried Legilimency, but she already had the inclination toward it. How hard could it be to learn it?

"Rory, I was fully joking," Harry said,

"And, it's not the worst idea I've ever heard," she said. "I help you learn Occlumency by teaching myself Legilimency."

Harry looked at her thoughtfully. "You'd really do that?"

"Why not?" Rory asked. "We're already up shit creek. And it's not like they're giving us answers. We've had to get them ourselves. And if it only works to get you to shut your mind out from Voldemort, then that's what they want anyway. No harm no foul. And you weren't learning with Snape anyway."

"Can't disagree with you there," he said. "You know if it goes sideways you'll likely get into a heap of trouble along with me?"

"Yeah, but what's new?" Rory asked with a shrug. She flashed Harry a smile and he smiled back.

"Thanks," he said. He reached out and brushed a lock of her hair back behind her ear. "It's good to have you in my corner."

Rory felt her skin tingle with heat. Her heart pounded in her chest. And, oh my god, she really, really wanted to kiss him.

"Absolutely not," she said getting to her feet. "Do you think I don't know what you're up to?"

"...Trying to spy on Voldemort with your help?" he asked.

"Don't think you're going to get one over on me with your charming Harry Potter bullshit," she said.

Harry laughed. "Rory, what on earth are you talking about?"

Nope. Rory was not going to fall for his charms today. She'd already established quite clearly that she was not up to being involved with him again and he was not going to sweet talk her or be cute and touch her hair to win his way back into her good graces.

"I know your game," she said backing towards the door.

"That makes one of us I guess," Harry replied, still seeming beyond amused. "By the way, Rory."

"What?" she asked, her hand on the doorknob.

"I think you're the only person to ever tell me I'm charming," he said.

Rory felt her face flush with heat again. "I'll see you later."

She walked out the door and slammed it behind her.