Susan declared herself to be the group scribe.

"My handwriting is the best, and I've only got one I have to stress over," she pointed out. "Everyone else has more than me."

It was a good point, and no one else seemed to want to fight her for it.

"Let's trigger yours first, then," Hermione suggested. "Get it over with and out of the way."

Luna tilted her head. "How?"

Hermione glanced at Luna. "How what?"

"How do we make sure we get Susan's first?" Luna asked, blinking. She gestured to the basket. "The labels were on the shelves. It's not like we kept track of whose was whose when we put them in the basket."

"Oh, no." Harry's eyes grew wide. "Is this going to be a guessing game where if we guess wrong, we go horribly insane?"

"No," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "They're only jinxed on the shelf. After it's off, anyone can trigger them."

"Oh." Harry paused. "I guess we just go for it then, don't we?"

"I thought we put them in the basket in order," Blaise said. "Susan's should be first on the left corner."

Luna rotated the basket. "Which one is the left corner?"

"Oh, give it here," Blaise said, rolling his eyes. He turned the basket and plucked one of the globes from it. "Ready, Susan?"

He tapped it with his wand, and the specter of an old woman emerged, opening her mouth to speak in a ghostly, echoing voice.

"The Dark Lord shall descend with a vengeance
leaving the Bones house a wreckage of bones
The Matriarch and the Child alone will be left
The Matriarch shall guide the Ministry
While the Child works through the shadows
And together, the Bones Legacy and family shall be rebuilt."

The specter disappeared back into the orb, and they all looked around at each other, wide-eyed.

"Well,"Hermione said. "That was remarkably straight-forward."

Her comment broke the tension, and nervous giggles and laughs escaped them all.

"That's good, though, right?" Susan said, finishing writing down the witch's words. "That's obviously my aunt and me. And working through the shadows – our group is literally 'The Shadows'. So if we both keep doing what we're doing, we'll rebuild my House."

"Sounds like it to me," Harry said, grinning. "Nice."

"The disclaimer we all had to sign made me very wary of making definitive statements about what any of this means," Blaise commented, "but at least yours sounds pretty clear."

"Do we want to go in alphabetical order?" Luna asked. "Or fewest to most?"

"Let's just get mine over with," Hermione said, sighing. "I've heard a few of these ones already. But we might as well listen to them all."

The first was Luna's prophecy. The small, ghostly form of child-Luna made Hermione smile fondly as she spoke the words Hermione knew so well, the words that had designated her as 'New Blood' all those years ago, before vanishing back into the orb.

"I think the next one is from your mum, Luna," Hermione said as Blaise took out the next orb. "Let us know if you recognize her?"

Luna nodded, eyes wide, and at Blaise's wand tap, a youngish witch issued forth from the orb in ghostly form.

"A bridge of bloods will bridge the realms
A tree of power will hold her house and seat.
When she hides in the trees of the she-spawned she,
the blood that runs will lay at her feet

Let the blood run, yea, let them bleed
For it will weaken those in power
The bridge will bridge the realm and realms
She is the last bridge, and none will come after"

At Susan's direction, Blaise triggered that one again while Luna nodded to Hermione.

"That was my mother," she said, a faint smile on her face. "This was the one with both our names on the label, wasn't it?"

"It was, I think," Hermione said. "Not that it helps much."

Luna blinked.

"Of course it does," she said. "If I'm the she-spawned she, you have to be the bridge of bloods, right?"

"Wait, how are you the she-spawned she?" Hermione asked. "My mother's a 'she' too."

"Not she," Luna said. She paused. "The aos sí."

This time, Hermione understood.

"You think it's the Sidhe," she said. "So it essentially means the 'fae-born girl'?"

"I like 'born' much more than 'spawned'," Luna said, smiling, "but yes, that's my guess."

"I've got that one down," Susan said, finishing writing. "Let's worry about the freaky 'bridge of bloods' later, yeah?"

Blaise raised an eyebrow, holding the next globe. "Ready?"

The next was an old, bearded man.

"At the Solstice will come a new dawn
Born of fire and forged in flame
The coven-child cares not for rules
And will entirely reset the game

Deaths shall die a fiery death
and contradictions shall resolve
The she shall respect the no man
and together make Magic evolve."

Blaise shot Hermione a look at this one, and Hermione winced, smiling faintly. In retrospect, it was fairly obvious this was about her destroying all the dementors.

Blaise had the next one at the ready as soon as Susan finished writing it down, to Hermione's gratitude, allowing them to quickly gloss over that one.

This time, a short, squat woman came forth in ghostly form to issue her prophecy.

"A bond with the fourth, connections to three
Embroiled and entangled, will she be
Worried for all, she will cheer for none
But one will be lost before the game is done
The queen from cold, in the midst of her strife
will find herself desperately bargaining to save a life."

The ghost vanished back into the sphere, leaving them all sitting very still.

"Well, that was ominous," Susan said dryly, writing. "How'd they identify that one as you, anyway?"

"I think from 'the queen from cold' line?" Hermione guessed, doing her best to keep her voice normal. She was rather shaken by the mention of someone being "lost", though she did her best to hide it. "My namesake, Queen Hermione, was from Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'."

"I don't like it," Harry said, shaking his head. "How many more are left?"

"Just the one for Hermione," Blaise said cheerily. "Ready?"

The same squat woman as before issued forth for this prophecy.

"A dark charlatan will pose as mentor
becoming more dangerous than ever before
The New Blood will learn, the charlatan will teach
Deceiving and misleading with manipulative speech
And with all the charlatan will have planned
there will come a new threat across the land."

"Do we think that one's about Tom Riddle?" Harry hissed, eyes wide. "Diary Tom, I mean, not Voldemort. Because if it is—"

"We can't drive ourselves nuts trying to figure these out, Potter," Blaise reminded him. "If we start down this path, we'll end up paranoid and losing our minds."

Harry fell quiet, sulking slightly in his chair.

"I've got that one," Susan said, a moment later. She looked up. "Luna, now?"

Blaise pulled the next from the basket, tapping it. Hermione was surprised to see the same dark-haired squat woman as before come forth to issue this prophecy as well. Though, she supposed, there probably weren't that many Seers around to issue these.

"The moon-child, mad and alone
shall peer through the unknown
her gift will bring her true friends
who will stand with her until the end

Moon-child, learn to embrace your gift
Look into time, peer through the rift
Hold close to your mother's legacy
For your foreknowledge can catch the enemy."

"Oh!" Luna exclaimed, while Susan wrote rapidly. "That was nice."

"Much better than Hermione's, at any rate," Blaise quipped, and Hermione shot him a dark look.

"We think that's about you embracing being a Seer?" Susan asked, finishing writing. "You get that ability from your mother?"

Luna was smiling softy. "Yes. I think so."

"True friends who will stand with her until the end," Harry quoted. He smiled, warm. "That's us, right?"

"I would think so," Hermione said, smiling. "I hope so."

"It is," Luna said simply. She smiled, and Blaise lifted the next orb.

"Ready?" he asked Susan, who nodded.

A wand tap had a long, lean woman with long hair come out of the sphere this time, a woman with a very different style of prophesy. She spoke with a heavy accent that Hermione couldn't quite place, one that made it hard to pick up every word.

"Luna will be fine and learn to enjoy her life," the woman said, "so long as she does not trust the mined heart." The prophetess paused. "I loathe men who think they know everything and choose not to listen. And I suspect Luna will come to loathe them too."

The woman vanished back into the sphere, leaving them all somewhat surprised.

"Not all prophecies are in verse?" Harry asked. "That sounded more like a conversation than anything."

"I guess not?" Susan ventured. She glanced over at Luna. "Do they?"

Luna shook her head.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I have no real conscious idea how I look into the future and See things, or how they come to me and I interpret them. Maybe there's a way to do it more deliberately, where it doesn't come out all mystically like a riddle."

"Harry next!" Hermione said. She sat up, looking at Harry. "The first for you was about you and the Dark Lord. We need to listen closely to this one."

Blaise nodded seriously, pausing dramatically to wait for everyone's attention, before tapping the orb with his wand. A familiar figure emerged from the orb, and Hermione gasped – it was a young Professor Trelawney who opened her mouth to speak ghostly words.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies..." she said, her voice oddly deep and powerful. "And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

She disappeared back into the orb, and they all looked at Harry.

"Can you trigger that one again?" Susan asked. "They're easier to remember to write when they rhyme."

Blaise triggered the prophecy again, and they all listened carefully.

"So your parents defied Voldemort three times?" Luna asked Harry.

"I have no idea," Harry said, shaking his head. "I mean, I guess they did. I was born at the end of July, so that part fits."

"Power the Dark Lord knows not," Hermione mused, drumming her fingers on her lips. "Not sure what that would be, but we can certainly try to get you as many new abilities as possible."

"Is your scar how he 'marked you as his equal'?" Susan asked, and Harry shrugged again, bewildered.

"What's this 'neither can live while the other survives' bit?" Blaise asked. "I don't like the sound of that at all."

"We'll have to deconstruct this one for sure," Hermione said. "We know that Dumbledore was the one who got this prophecy. Not only do we have to figure out what he did with it, we have to figure out who else knew about it."

"I had another one," Harry said. "Maybe that one will be more cheerful."

Blaise tapped the next one, and an old man came forth in ghostly form, his voice tremulous and creepy.

"The boy who lived must learn to lie
or he must tell his friends goodbye
Deceive the deceivers, manipulate the truth
only then will he manage to survive his youth."

"Well, that's at least straightforward," Harry said practically. "I have to learn to lie and deceive people, or I'll end up giving us away somehow and screwing myself over."

Blaise snickered. "You think?"

"I'm not exactly sure how we can help you 'learn to lie'," Susan said, frowning. "I suspect it's just a matter of experience. But we can try."

"Blaise next!" Luna said, bouncing in her seat. Blaise shot her a look.

"Why are you excited?" he asked.

Luna grinned. "Yours are all from the same person – with the same initials as the informal one I got, the one that wasn't in verse."

Hermione laughed. "So you think he'll get very straightforward prophecies?"

"We'll see," Luna said, smiling, and, rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Blaise tapped the next orb.

The same tall, lanky woman with long hair that had come out of Luna's orb emerged, somehow looking angry.

"You're a wicked, wretched woman," she snapped, her English heavily accented. "It's a miracle your son will turn out as well-adjusted as he will."

She went back in the ball, leaving them all to stare at Blaise, trying to suppress laughter.

"That counts as a prophecy?" Harry said, stifling his sniggers. "Someone telling your mum off?"

Blaise couldn't help but smirk himself.

"Apparently," he drawled. He shook his head, amused. "At least I know I'll turn out 'well-adjusted'."

"Well, 'well-adjusted' is rather a matter of opinion, isn't it?" Susan said innocently, and Blaise shot her a look, making her laugh.

Blaise took out the next sphere and tapped it. The same long, lanky woman came forward, but this time to Hermione's surprise, she wasn't speaking English.

"I—I've got no—" Susan said, faltering.

"Pass it here," Blaise said, gesturing for the parchment as he watched the prophetess with wide eyes. "I remember some of my Italian."

He triggered the sphere again, writing quickly. To Hermione's dismay, he wrote the prophecy out just how it was said, in Italian.

"That's not fair," she complained. "You know all of ours."

"I'll translate it later," Blaise said. "Translation is tricky, and probably doubly so with prophecies. It's not to be rushed."

The last orb was similar – the same woman speaking in Italian, but this time, speaking for a much longer period. Blaise had to trigger it three times to get it all down, his eyebrows going up as he finished it.

"Well," he said. "That was interesting."

"Not fair," Harry groused. "Give us the gist of yours at least."

"The second one was the woman telling off my mother again," Blaise said, smirking faintly. "She said something about me being lucky to get part of my father's legacy and not just my mother's."

Luna laughed. "That's fun."

"The third one was…" Blaise paused, frowning. He seemed to think the thought over, before looking back up at them. "I don't think I should say," he said slowly.

"What?" Hermione objected. "Why not?"

"Those forms we signed, they warned us of knowing things changing the way things end up," he said. "This prophecy… it talks about a path dividing in two. I think if the coven knows the entire prophecy, we'll be forced onto one of the paths, and it'll be the worse one."

"Just through knowing about it?" Susan's eyes were wide. "Really?"

Blaise nodded, and Harry whistled.

"Lucky that one was in Italian, then," he quipped, and Blaise managed a weak laugh.

"That's all of them," he said, looking at the empty basket. "Now what?"

"Now we put them all back in the basket and leave them for the Unspeakables to deal with," Hermione said decisively. "We can pin all the prophecies up later and try to interpret them. Tracey will have fun with it, if nothing else. We can make a big conspiracy board and everything."

They gathered up their parchment and put all the prophecy globes back into the basket, before very carefully easing out of their conference room and down the hall. No one else was in the main Truth room, but Hermione was wary all the same as they tiptoed over lined in the floor that she suspected were Truth Circles.

Once they'd all made it out the door to the round room with many doors, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"The Ministry, please," Hermione said clearly, and the room spun around them before one door opened, revealing the shining dark corridor that would lead them home.