A massive Thank You to all of my brilliant supporters, with a shout-out to Bailey Henrickson, Tasty Muffin, Josh, Lloyd Bunyan, Joe Foster, Julia Hitch, Shep, Silver1119, Joel miller, sam, Jimmy Adams, Jo Daviz, LegendaryWasabi, Optimum Prime and MareBear. I would really struggle to keep this up without the support you guys give me.

If would like to join my pat re on and get updates at least a month early and be recognized as an all-around great person go to Pat re on and add a /Lowten to the end of the URL. Also, chapter 6 of this book is there to read for free right now. You can also see the cover art for this book and download the chapters as Epub's

Chapter 5

Everyone was eating breakfast together in Grimmauld Place when Dobby popped in and held a letter out to Harry. "An owl is just bringing this, boss." Harry carefully reached around Fleur's back to accept the letter; with ten of them at the magically extended kitchen table they were all squeezed in rather close. After all, you could only extend the table so far if you weren't also going to make the room bigger. Harry opened his letter and started reading.

"Who's it from?" asked Dan.

"The Department of Mysteries," Harry answered without looking up from the letter.

"What do they want?" asked Hermione.

Harry held up a finger for a moment while he finished reading the letter. It took him a couple of minutes but when he was done he said. "They want me to go back there because they have information they need to give me."

"Well they did say that they would tell you what they could about the information you gave them." Fleur reminded him. Harry nodded, and she asked, "When do they want you to go in?"

"'At my earliest possible opportunity'," Harry quoted from the letter. "It makes it sound rather urgent."

"I was going to pop into the Ministry today and drop off a load of finished parchment work for living in Britain from now on. I also need to drop by Gringotts and pick up a pile of documents. Why don't the three of us go?" Fleur asked.

"Sounds like a plan to me. What about you Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Sure," Hermione answered.

Sirius, however, wasn't thrilled with the idea. "I would rather you take a few more people with you. While you should be okay Flooing directly to the Ministry, walking through Diagon Alley will have you out in the open where anyone can see you. You never know when you'll run into a Death Eater."

"Well, we can always Step from the Ministry right to the steps of Gringotts if it's just the three of us," Harry argued. It may be difficult to Step groups long distances, but this was just relatively short hops around London.

"Unless you have forgotten Harry, you don't have an Apparition licence. Even if you Step instead of Apparating, if you suddenly appear on the steps of Gringotts people are going to assume-"

Fleur cut him off. "That I, the of-age one with a licence, Side-Along Apparated my two betrothed."

"I still say it's better to go in numbers," Sirius insisted. "That way if something happens there are enough of us to deal with it."

Unfortunately for the teenagers, the elder Grangers and Delacours agreed with Sirius. It ended up being the group of Sirius, Moony, Apolline, and Sebastian were all going to escort them, while Gabrielle was going to stay at Grimmauld Place with Dan and Emma.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry grumbled as he fell out of the Floo into the Ministry atrium. He really wasn't looking forward to the two more Floo trips that Sirius's insistence on travelling in force was going to make him do today. Uncle Moony was already there waiting for them and helped Harry to his feet. Harry gave the man a quick hug as he hadn't seen him since leaving school.

They quickly got through the registration desk, and after they all had their badges they were let through. They decided to tackle Fleur's stack of parchment work first. That was mostly just handing over the stacks of documents and waiting while the receptionist checked to make sure they were all filled out correctly. There was some grumbling as they had to drop some of the documents into the Department for Control of Magical Creatures because of Fleur being a Veela, but they had all known that was coming. Uncle Moony was supportive of Fleur, reminding her that as a werewolf he had to suffer similarly whenever he dealt with the Ministry, but things were improving slowly, especially since the werewolves had been able to attend Hogwarts openly for a year without a single lycanthropy-related incident. Moony then added, "I also suspect that you openly being yourself and so close to Harry will do a lot to improve things going forward."

Fleur understood what the man meant. To fight prejudice, you first had to dispel the preconceptions of those who hate you. Veela had the reputation of being promiscuous, husband-stealing harlots, creatures that would ensnare a wealthy wizard in their allure and convince them to leave their families and hand control of their fortunes over to the Veela. As a former Triwizard champion and the betrothed of Harry Potter, she would always be somewhat visible to the public, and seeing her earning her own way and remaining loyal to her relationship would send a message that things aren't as the bigots say. Sure, she wouldn't reach everyone, but it would reach some.

After that, they made their way down to the Department of Mysteries. Once there, however, the only ones the Unspeakables would let into the Department were Harry, Hermione, and Fleur. It was apparently on record with them that the three teens were bonded, so it was considered a given that Harry would share whatever he learned with them and it was pointless separating them.

Unspeakable Jane was the one who was showing them around again. Harry thought it was weird that he was able to recognise her as Unspeakable Jane once he saw her face, but the second he looked away he couldn't remember anything about what she looked like, but he could remember it was Unspeakable Jane. Harry asked her how her work (whatever it was) was going, just to be polite, and he got some vague answers about the frustration of hitting a mental block in her work while she very deliberately never mentioned anything about what that work was.

Harry had expected to lead to an office where they would sit while an Unspeakable dumped a load of information on them. Instead, however, they were led to the brain room again and then through a door they hadn't been through last time, and after a walk down a short featureless corridor they found themselves in a massive warehouse-like room that was filled with rows and rows of what appeared to be large bookshelves, only instead of books there were thousands of glowing crystal balls. Harry wanted to ask questions, but before he could Unspeakable Jane approached another Unspeakable. "Hey Jack, I brought Potter for you."

The Unspeakable, one Harry didn't think he had seen before, looked over at the three of them and nodded. "Thanks Jane, I'll take them from here." With that Unspeakable Jane left and Unspeakable Jack came over to them. "Hello, I'm Unspeakable Jack and welcome to the Hall of Prophecy. Please follow me and I will explain along the way."

He started to lead them past row after row of bookshelves. Every single shelf had at least one cloudy crystal ball on it. Some were so full that they were stacked in pyramid shapes, like how they used to stack cannonballs on sailing ships. As they continued down the rows they were able to see that a lot of the orbs were glowing, but a lot of them were also dark. Whether they started dark and later lit up, started light and later went dark, or if they were just different, none of the teens had any idea.

"This is the Hall of Prophecy. Whenever a real prophecy is made in the British Isles, a copy of the prophecy is made here."

"Why the whole British Isles?" asked Hermione. "Don't the Irish have their own ministry?"

Unspeakable Jack nodded. "They do, but they didn't when the magic for this place was set up. It would be incredibly complicated and expensive to rework that magic now, it's much easier and cheaper just to leave it as it is. Though it has required some level of cooperation between this department and its Irish counterpart.

"We mostly just act as an archive here, though we do help other projects from time to time. Our main focus is to try and work out who or what a prophecy refers to. A lot of them are so vague that it's impossible. For example, a classic one that was made over 400 years ago just said, 'a man will be born at the setting of the sun with the power to change the world.' It was just too vague to track anything, especially as the power to change the world doesn't mean that they did."

"As interesting as all this is, why are we here?" asked Harry. He had an idea what was coming, but he thought it best to ask anyway.

"A few months before you were born there was a prophecy, one we believe refers to you. If we are right about the prophecy referring to you, then our director has ordered that we read you in on a highly classified bit of dark magic." He let that statement hang in the air for a few seconds before he realised how it could sound so he quite quickly added. "So that you could be prepared to fight against it."

"And if Harry isn't the one in this prophecy?" Fleur asked, not liking the sound of this.

"Then I would suggest running, the three of you take your families and run away to another country and hide there until someone else deals with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The idea of being targeted by a dark wizard who has used this type of dark magic is terrifying to me. But that's just me. I was never particularly apt at Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"How will we determine if Harry is the one the prophecy refers to?" Hermione asked, sounding as anxious as Harry was starting to feel.

"There are protections on the orbs. Only a person who is referred to in the prophecy can remove it from its shelf. We are going to test to see if the orb will accept Mr. Potter."

"And if it doesn't accept me?" Harry asked.

"Well, if you tried to grab it and remove it, then the magic protecting the orb would scramble your brain and you'd spend the next year in St Mungo's relearning how to feed yourself. But if you just put a finger on an orb for a second without trying to move it, then you will either feel a warm sensation for a positive outcome, or your whole arm will go numb for a few hours for a negative response," Unspeakable Jack explained like it was nothing. With how casual he was about the possibility of Harry's brain being scrambled, Harry almost turned around and walked out before they even got to the prophecy. But his curiosity was piqued, and he wanted to know if this prophecy really was about him.

They were led down an aisle, and Unspeakable Jack pointed to one of the glowing orbs on one of the shelves. There was a note attached to the front that read.

S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D

Dark Lord (L.V.?)

and (Harry Potter?)

The letters at the top jumped out to both Harry and Hermione, but she asked the question first. "A.P.W.B.D., does that mean who I think it does?"

"Who else could have initials like that? It has to be Dumbledore," Harry said, surprising Fleur, who was less familiar with the Chief Warlock's ridiculous name than her British-raised companions.

"You are correct, this prophecy was made to Albus Dumbledore," Unspeakable Jack said.

Harry thought about it. If Dumbledore also thought that this prophecy was related to Harry, perhaps it would explain why the former headmaster had taken such a personal interest in Harry's life. Was this the reason the man was constantly trying to interfere?

Harry refused to touch the orb until Unspeakable Jack demonstrated it was safe. The Unspeakable was reluctant, but Harry was adamant he wasn't going to touch something that could scramble his brain until he knew it was safe. Unspeakable Jack reached out a finger and placed it on top of the orb for a second then drew it back. "And now my arm is numb for a few hours," he complained, obviously grumpy about that fact.

Seeing that it was relatively safe, Harry reached out with his left hand (because if one of his arms was going to be numb for hours he would rather it not be his wand arm) and touched one finger to the top of the orb. He immediately felt a warm tingling, similar but also different to the feeling he got the first time he picked up his wand.

Then Harry felt a small stabbing in his arm, and he immediately jumped away and let out a small yelp of pain. When he looked, Unspeakable Jack had a pin in his hand that he just stuck into Harry's arm. "Well, that proves your arm isn't numb, so you are mentioned in the prophecy."

"You could have just asked," grumbled Harry.

"And you could have lied. Not everyone wants to find they are part of a prophecy. The majority would lie and try to deny that they had some type of destiny. Not that destiny is an accurate description, you can still make choices. But it's like trying to turn 180 degrees while flying as fast as you can on a broom. You have to overcome the momentum first. But enough about theoretical time magic, grab the orb and tap it with your wand."

Harry did as he was told. A glowing mist formed above the ball that quickly condensed into a miniature ghost-like version of a woman Harry knew to be the Hogwarts Divination professor, who began to talk in a raspy voice that didn't sound like it fit the woman at all.

"The one with the power to stand against the darkness approaches...

Born to those who stood steadfast before him, born as the seventh month dies...

And the one leading the country to darkness will mark him as his equal,

but he will have power the Dark Lords can't stop ...

The marked will live his life balanced on the edge of a knife,

for even as he stands against the darkness it may take root in his own soul.

The one with the power to stand against the darkness approaches, born as the seventh month dies…"

Harry stared at the orb as the ghostly figure of the woman broke apart back into mist and was reabsorbed by the orb. Everyone was silent as they tried to absorb what the prophecy had said. After about a minute Harry tapped the orb and played the prophecy again.

"I don't suppose there is any chance that this is all a mistake and it's not up to me to fix everything." Harry almost sounded like he was begging.

"I don't think so, Harry. You can pick up the orb, so you're either the one to 'stand against the darkness', or you'd be one of the Dark Lords." Hermione sounded robotic as she spoke, a sign she wasn't processing the information emotionally yet.

"Dark Lords. Plural. Isn't Voldemort bad enough? How many of these bastards will I have to fight? Am I to spend my whole life fighting one after the other until one of them gets lucky or…how did the prophecy put it? The darkness may take root in my own soul. Is that my fate, die young or become the villain?" Harry started to have flashbacks to all the questionable things he had done. How many people had he killed already? How many people had he tried to kill but failed? Worse, he didn't feel bad about what he had done. How was that anything but his soul turning dark?

Almost as if the two of them sensed what was going through Harry's mind and knew exactly what he needed, Harry suddenly found himself sandwiched between his two women. "Don't start thinking that bullshit again Harry," Fleur scolded Harry. "There's a difference between fighting to protect people, and fighting to murder and to place yourself above others. I promise you if you ever start to fight for the wrong reasons, I will personally slap some sense back into you. Understand?"

Harry relaxed. He was far from finishing processing what he had just heard, and he would definitely need to spend some time going over it in his head, but having Hermione and Fleur supporting him helped calm him down. Luckily, as always Hermione had some paper and a writing utensil, so she wrote down the wording of the prophecy for everyone to look at later.

Unspeakable Jack took them to a break room for ten minutes where they could get their heads on straight, and then they were off to an office where they met another Unspeakable. Strangely enough, they didn't forget how this one looked the instant they looked away, and while he never said anything about it, they had the impression that the name he introduced himself by, Bode, was in fact his real name.

After they were seated, he offered them all tea and coffee. Once the accepted drinks were handed out by a Ministry elf, he got right down to business. "Right, so Jack told me about you being able to pick up the prophecy. That means you are likely to be going up against You-Know-Who, again. We have been going through all the memories you showed us last week trying to work out how it is that despite you killing him two times - two and a half if you count Quirrell - he is still alive and very much a problem.

"There is good news and bad news on that front. The good news is that you were able to provide some very useful insights, and we believe we know exactly how he is doing this. The bad news, however, is twofold: it is going to be very difficult to undo, and unfortunately we can't give you the information on how to undo it without taking some very drastic but necessary precautions." He took a drink of his strong black coffee. It looked like he was drinking more to ward off the effects of a lack of sleep than tor the flavour.

"You have to understand that this magic is dark. And I don't mean dark in the way people like to throw around casually, like how they do with blood magic that, while dangerous, has very real ways it can be used positively. No, this is dark in a very real and fundamental way. Every member of my department who knows about this magic, including me, is under an Unbreakable Vow to never use this magic, to destroy or report any book they find to have instruction on this magic save for those in the Department of Mysteries library, and finally to never spread knowledge of this magic to anyone who has not themselves taken a similar Unbreakable Vow.

"Now, I'm going to offer to tell you everything we think you need to know about this magic, but you will each of course need to take an Unbreakable Vow first."

"What can you tell us about it without the vow?" Hermione asked carefully.

"Not much. I can tell you that unless this magic is undone, permanently stopping You-Know-Who is unlikely. I can tell you that if you have any sense of morality, you won't be disappointed you took the vow that you will never do this type of magic. And I can tell you that almost all magical countries around the world have a Department of Mysteries, and ninety- nine percent of them have the exact same precautions around this particular piece of magic. I can give you some time to think it over if you like."

"I don't need to think about it," Harry said boldly. "I'll take the vow. If I am going to be forced to fight Voldemort, then I need to know what his weak spots are. But it will only be me. Th-"

Both Hermione and Fleur cut him off. "Don't go making that decision for me, 'arry," Fleur said, her French accent coming through a little stronger because she was annoyed.

"Same. Don't go tell me what I can and can't learn, Harry." Hermione shot Harry a death glare as she spoke.

"But vows are dangerous. What good will it do for you to take the risk that one day you'll say the wrong thing? Why take that risk when only one of us needs to do so?"

"And how can we help you work everything out if you can't tell us the problem?" Fleur said next.

That had Harry. He wasn't stupid, in fact he considered himself above average in that department. But he wasn't on the same level as Fleur and Hermione. Fleur he could maybe see himself catching eventually, the biggest barrier currently was that Fleur just had more academic experience. She may be a little smarter than him, but it was something he could overcome with hard work if he wasn't constantly being distracted by other things. Hermione, on the other hand, Harry was convinced was a certifiable genius. While he may have the edge on her in practice, information was Hermione's strong point. Keeping the information from her would be as dumb as going to a duel without a wand.

"Fine," Harry gave in. "But please be careful. I don't want to lose you to a stupid mistake."

"If you like, I can put some compulsion spells on you to not talk about the subject without securing the area first," Bode offered.

"You want to put compulsion charms on us?" Fleur sounded disgusted. Given her heritage Harry didn't need to ask why, that would be a touchy subject for her. He could easily imagine just what some wizards without morals would do to a race of women with magical beauty.

Bode held up his hands. "A compulsion that you agree to, while knowing in advance what it will do. It may not be talked about, but such things are actually used quite often. An aversion to alcohol for an alcoholic, a compulsion to eat healthier for people with eating disorders. And of course a compulsion to not break the terms of an Unbreakable Vow. While there certainly are some rather dark and unsavoury uses for that branch of magic, like so many things it depends on how it is used. You can use a cutting charm to make a sandwich for a hungry man and preserve his life, or you can use it to cut off a man's head and end his life. It's all in the application. Plus, if you don't trust me you can always cast it on each other."

That last part had all three of them calming down. They all definitely trusted each other to do the spells more than someone they had just met. It was one of the more positive side effects of the bonds they shared, you knew without a doubt that the others cared about you to the point that it would take a lot for them to betray you.

With that settled, they all agreed to at least take a look at the Unbreakable Vow. In anticipation of this, Bode had it already written out for them to read. He did warn them that the name of the magic was in the vow, and if they refused to take the vow he would have to Obliviate the knowledge from them before they left. He handed them over and they all gave their copies a read.

Do you, {insert name}, vow to never create or attempt to create the magic known as a Horcrux?

Do you, {insert name}, vow to never spread the knowledge of Horcruxes to anyone who has not taken vows stopping them from using the knowledge themselves and stopping them from spreading the information to others without requiring a similar vow?

Do you, {insert name}, vow to put forth a reasonable effort to destroy any writings regarding the nature or construction of Horcruxes not held by the Department of Mysteries or a similar group, and that if you are unable to destroy them yourself you will report the writings to the Department of Mysteries or a similar group so that they can see their destruction?

Do you, {insert name}, vow to make every effort to destroy any Horcruxes you find or to report them to the Department of Mysteries or a similar organisation that has vowed their destruction?

It wasn't as bad as Harry had feared, though he did check on Hermione when he read the part about destroying books and caught a disgusted look on her face quickly switching to one of determination.

All three of them agreed and weren't surprised when Bode flicked his wand, sending his desk against the wall so that they had the space for the vows right there and then. Harry took the vow first, while Fleur stood in as the bonder, and Hermione stood to the side ready to stun Bode if he didn't ask the questions exactly as they had been written. Once done, Fleur took the vow while Hermione acted as bonder, and then Harry acted as the bonder while Hermione took the vow. They all had enough experience with vows that it went smoothly, though this would be the first time any of the three teens had taken a vow without a built-in time limit. This one would follow them for the rest of their lives.

Bode didn't give them any time to process that, and after setting his office right he began explaining. "A Horcrux is a device that a witch or wizard can make so that they can't die." He paused for a second. If he expected shock and awe, he didn't get it. They all already knew Voldemort had done something to keep himself alive. "Well, that may not sound too dark, but the method used to make them is rather disturbing. To create a Horcrux, a magical person must break off a piece of their soul and then take that piece and put it in a specially prepared vessel. The reason this works is because an entire soul must cross over at the same time. If any piece of a soul is bound to this world, then so is the rest of the soul."

"So far this doesn't sound that bad, why is it considered so dark?" asked Harry.

"Because of what you need to do to make one," Bode answered. "First, you need to break your soul, and to do that you need to commit murder. The cold-blooded act of taking the life of another person and not feeling any remorse; worse, you have to enjoy it. Then you need to undergo a ritual to prepare the soul fragment so that it doesn't just start to heal and re-attach to the rest of the soul.

"Once that is done, you need to prepare your vessel. The problem is that the vessel doesn't have the ability to shelter a human soul. The ability to house even a portion of human souls needs a human. The only way to prepare a vessel is to imbue it with that ability, one you need to take from a human. The only way to do that is to take a person and transfigure them into energy, which you then push into the object you are preparing. The original human's soul is then consumed by the soul shard when it's placed in the prepared vessel," Bode explained, looking disgusted at what he was explaining.

The three teenagers suddenly had no problems with the vows they had taken. This was disgusting magic that needed to be purged from the earth. Whoever it was that had discovered this process must have been a certifiable lunatic.

"Wait, is that what happened with Ginny? Did she have a piece of Voldemort's soul in her? Where did she get it? What happened to her soul?" Harry demanded as he realised the implications of Bodes words.

"Miss Weasley was indeed carrying a part of Voldemort's soul. We believe that it was a piece that was originally in the diary. It already had its hooks in Miss Weasley when you destroyed the vessel, so it anchored itself inside her. There is no need to worry about your friend's soul, however. Miss Weasley had both her mind and her magic to fend off the soul shard with. Her soul wouldn't have been damaged that much, and she wasn't a Horcrux. While holding a shard of a soul she would have the same effect as a Horcrux, but it was her own capacity to hold a soul and not something else, making her something fundamentally different."

The three teens relaxed. After Harry's leap in logic they had all understandably been worried about Ginny's soul, wherever she was now she deserved a happier afterlife than her last year had been. "Oh thank god," Hermione couldn't help but say after the emotional roller coaster Harry's last question had sent them on.

"How are Horcruxes destroyed?" asked Fleur. She was not anywhere near as close to Ginny as the other two, having only ever really known the girl from her conversations with Harry and Hermione, which let her be a lot more objective and focused on the main topic of conversation.

Bode nodded to her, appreciating that Fleur had got them back on track. "To destroy a Horcrux, you need to destroy the vessel's ability to hold magic. Basalik venom is one way, as Mr. Potter knows. Another is Fiendfyre, a spell that creates cursed living flames. Of the two, I recommend you check to see if the basilisk you killed still has any venom. Fiendfyre is extremely difficult to control, a lot of very talented witches and wizards have been burned to death by their own Fiendfyre. Though, now that I think about it, what happened to the sword you used?"

"It's in the headmistress's office at Hogwarts. Why?" Harry answered.

Bode smiled at that. "It is a peculiar property of masterworks of goblin forging that they take into themselves anything that will make them stronger. It is possible that it has taken the properties of the venom into itself and can destroy a Horcrux. If you do get the opportunity, I recommend you try it."

"Considering that the shard in Ginny and the main soul were both exposed at the same time, I suppose this means you suspect Voldemort has multiple Horcruxes. Do you have any idea how many he has? Or any way to find them?" Hermione asked, sounding like she just wanted to go home and forget all about Horcruxes.

"Well, there are no known cases of someone making more than one, so we don't know where the limit is. There isn't an unlimited amount of soul, so there has to be a limit, we just don't know it. We do, however, know that a person who reabsorbs a Horcrux can't ever make any more. The theory is that it's something akin to scar tissue preventing the soul shard from breaking off again, but we don't know for certain. People who make these things don't tend to be easy to lock up and examine. As to tracking the soul shards, that is a maybe. The soul wants to be whole, so the shards are drawn together. If we had one, it's possible we could use it to find the rest. Unfortunately, I have no idea where you could find one." Bode really wasn't happy with what he was saying, but unfortunately he didn't have any better news to give.

The rest of the meeting was filled with unknowns and maybes. As much as Bode was an Unspeakable, it didn't mean he knew everything about the mysteries of magic; if he did, the Unspeakables would mostly be out of a Job. He did promise them that he and the department would offer what aid they could, but did remind them that they were a bunch of researchers and not the right type of people to help with any fighting. At the end of the meeting, Bode helped them all cast the compulsion charms on each other so that they wouldn't have any problems with accidentally breaking their vows, and it was time to leave.

The three joined back up with the adults and then took their trip to Gringotts. The information they had gotten from the Unspeakables, however, had overwhelmed them, and any window shopping or people-watching they may have intended to do was ignored. It was a good thing the adults had insisted on coming, because the three teens were so caught up in their heads trying to process everything they had learned that they wouldn't have noticed if a Death Eater walked right up to them and stuck a wand in their faces. The adults were of course concerned, but the teens just said they couldn't explain it and asked for a little time to sort it out in their heads before they were asked questions.

Once they got to the bank, they only did the parchment work they had intended to do, though that did include Fleur opening her own Gringotts vault and her father transferring her two thousand Galleons from his vault in the French bank. Then it was back to Grimmauld Place, where the three locked themselves in Harry's room. After putting up a ridiculous number of privacy wards, the three set about talking everything through and getting it all straight in their heads.

A/N

Yes, the prophecy is a tiny bit different to the version that Dumbledore remembers. I have said in this story a few times that memories aren't perfect.

Please remember my writing is fueled by energy drinks and your comments. please consider sending one of those my way.