Chapter 15

As Albus had expected, Molly Weasley's Howler was the first one to arrive the next morning. She had a lot to scream about her son and Harry being subjected to the Imperius Curse, and to even being mentioned the Unforgivables at such a young age.

Molly really liked her Howlers. Albus was very relieved that all his mail was automatically redirected to his office. None of the Staff could receive Howlers in the Great Hall, of course, but Albus was the one who benefited the most, since he received them almost daily. Sometimes he considered to filter them as cursed mail, but at the end he always listened to them. They came with the job, after all. And with his decisions.

Molly had nothing on Augusta Longbottom when it came to send Howlers, however. She had already sent one last week, one of the worst Albus had ever received, but she sent another today. And there were more, a lot more. Amelia was also a specialist in Howlers, and in her case the threats were a lot more serious. Maybe Albus should pay her a visit to reassure her before she sent Aurors to arrest Alastor. No one respected Mad-Eye more than Amelia, and she certainly didn't believe that he was insane, but as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement she had to at least threaten with enforcing the Law.

Cornelius was more polite and had sent him a letter instead of a Howler asking him what the hell had he been thinking hiring a crazy Auror and demanding that he go to the Ministry immediately to help handling the PR crisis. Albus sighed.

He spent the morning answering Howlers or letters, and then the rest of the day in the Ministry talking down Cornelius and Amelia. He also visited Augusta and apologized about last week, assuring her that Neville was fine and avoiding to mention the shock episode.

He left his visit to the Burrow for last, hoping that Arthur might be there as well to act as buffer. This proved to be a wise decision, since Molly was just as angry as her Howler had suggested. Albus had to endure her rant for five minutes before Arthur jumped in.

"Molly, dear, you know Mad-Eye, this is how he does things. The kids are fine. The Imperius is not a big deal if done in a safe environment and with teaching purposes. At most he must have made them jump around the classroom or sing a song."

"That's embarrassing, Arthur! They shouldn't have to do anything against their wills! And he showed them the other Unforgivables too, what if next time he decides to use the Cruciatus on them?"

"I assure you that won't happen, Molly," Albus hurried to assured her. "He showed them the Cruciatus and the Killing Curse on spiders, so they could see what they are about, but that's it. I have only authorized him to cast the Imperius on students."

"That's highly irresponsible, Dumbledore!" said Molly in a shrill voice. "What if the kids begin to try the curses on the hallway?"

"They are too young to be able to cast them, Molly, and Alastor has warned them that they are illegal."

"Ron and Harry may be too young, but what about the older students? I'm certain a seventh year could cast any of the Unforgivables. Students shouldn't even know the incantations!"

"I agree with Molly in that is sounds dangerous, Dumbledore," said Arthur with a serious frown. "And it scares the children. Harry's parents were murdered with the Killing Curse. Harry himself had that curse used on him. And the Longbottom boy!"

Albus felt regret again. Poor Neville... He wished Alastor had thought of sending the boy away before demonstrating the Cruciatus Curse. But of course he would have insisted on letting Neville see anyway.

"Alastor is of the opinion that they need to know what they are facing, and I must say I agree. Although of course I regret some specific cases, like Neville's or Harry's. If someone really needs to know, however, is Harry."

"But he's so young!" exclaimed Molly. "And Ron too. They shouldn't have to know those things yet."

Arthur was looking at Albus with a very thoughtful expression.

"Do they really need to know these things now?" he asked.

"They might, Arthur." He didn't want to worry them yet, especially not Molly, but they should at least know that things were getting serious.

"Is it Sirius Black? Are there news of him?"

"No. I'm certain that he left the country," said Albus, wondering if he should bring the Weasleys into the secret. It was something to consider. "But there are always threats. You know what happened at the World Cup."

Arthur nodded, guilt appearing on his eyes.

"I shouldn't have sent them alone into the woods," he said bitterly. "I just thought they would be safer far from the camp..."

"I know, Arthur. But I must ask you to take Harry's safety more seriously in the future. He should always have an escort whenever he's not at Hogwarts or in some other safe place."

"Of course, Dumbledore. I'm sorry. I should have at least sent Percy with them..."

The Weasleys' guilt about Harry's lack of security during the World Cup helped assuaging Molly's anger and Arthur's concerns about Alastor's questionable teaching methods. At least Molly had stopped yelling at him. There was nothing to be done, anyway, since Alastor had already shown the curses to the students and cast the Imperius on them.

"What about the Triwizard Tournament?" asked Molly anxiously after a pause. "Is it true that there will be an age restriction?"

"Yes, only students over seventeen will be allowed to enter their names," said Albus. "I will draw the Age Line myself. And no, the twins will not be able to cross it, I assure you, although no doubt they will try."

There was obvious relief on both Weasley's eyes, although they were still worried. Albus felt confident that the twins would not be able to outwit him, however. And since he was using them as reference to draw the line, he was confident no underage student would be able to cross it.

Howlers kept arriving the next day. It also arrived a letter from Sirius, which despite being written in regular paper sounded very much like a Howler. As he had feared, Sirius had ignored his advice and had returned to Britain, and he was clearly angry at Albus for having sent Remus undercover. Not that Sirius knew that for sure, apparently Remus had not told him explicitly, but of course he had guessed right. Sirius had always had a sharp mind, and it seemed that he still could find moments of lucidity to put all the clues together. He was also worried about the Triwizard Tournament, and angry at Albus for having told him to stay away when there was so obviously a plot against Harry going on.

He sighed. It would have been nice not to have to worry about one person this year.

He considered meeting Sirius in person to try and convince him to go away again, but he knew it was a lost cause and he wasn't all that keen to be yelled at person by a Black, so in the end he opted for writing back suggesting a few hiding places far far away from Hogwarts and hoped that Sirius would stay out of trouble.

By mid afternoon he was already feeling weary of so much correspondence, so he decided to take a break. He needed to disconnect himself from the immediate present for a few hours.

"Ah, your Excellency!" exclaimed the portrait knight, taking a knee. "You honour these halls with your presence!"

"Good afternoon, Sir Cadogan," said Albus pleasantly. "I trust you are well?"

"Oh, yes, your Excellency! A knight must always be well and ready to charge at his king's command!"

"That's good to hear. Anything to report on our fair Lady?"

"Nothing new, your Excellency. She hasn't come down since the end of the summer, and only innocent lads and lassies have passed this way. I will not allow any harm to come to the Lady in the tower, rest assured!"

Albus nodded, satisfied. Of course Sir Cadogan would not be able to do much more than yelling threats, but it was always good to have vigilant eyes across the castle. And no portrait was more protective nor willing to guard the North Tower than Sir Cadogan.

A few minutes later he was directly under Sybill's trapdoor. Albus took a deep breath and politely knocked at the door with a flick of his wand, thinking once more how lucky it was that Sybill felt so inclined to isolate herself. It would be a lot harder to protect her if she had the habit of coming and going, and even harder if she regularly left Hogwarts. As it was, she was happy to be the Lady in the tower.

The trapdoor opened slightly, and a pair of magnified eyes looked down with mistrust.

"Oh, Headmaster!" said Sybill's surprized voice. "I was expecting your visit, although the crystal ball wasn't too specific on the exact time..."

"Oh, well, I changed my mind several times," said Albus with a smile, "that must have confused your predictions. Should I come back at a different time, when my visit might have been better announced?"

"Oh, no, not at all, now is as good a time as any. Do come up, Headmaster!"

Sybill sent down the silver ladder and opened the trapdoor fully for him to climb through.

"Will you have a cup of tea, Dumbledore?" she offered once he had walked into her refuge and the trapdoor had safely closed below him.

"Yes, thank you, dear Sybill. I might even be up to a bit of Tea Leaf Reading today."

Sybill smiled in delight and began preparing the tea. Albus sat in his usual chintz armchair, gathering his patience for another session of boring nonsense. One would think that such an important and busy man as he was would have better things to do than to waste an hour several times a year listening to Sybil Trelawney's blabbing. Minerva certainly thought so, and often Albus had to agree with her. But, unlike Minerva, he knew that Sybill was a real Seer. Fate had at least twice chosen her to express itself, and one of those times it had chosen Albus as the recipient of that expression, so how could he ignore her? Especially after she had made another prophecy only a few months ago. Clearly, Fate was very interested in Harry Potter. And so was Albus.

"How are classes going, Sybill?" he asked over his cup of tea. "Any interesting predictions?"

That was all it took to set her off. Albus knew that Sybil was mostly a fraud, and that the only likely value he might extract of these visits was if she happened to pronounce another Prophecy in his presence. That was why he came to her regularly: so Fate would have a chance to manifest itself if by chance it was waiting for Albus to be around Sybill.

He was beginning to think that her authentic divination talent might go beyond the occasional Prophecy, however. Sure, she still made up most of her predictions to impress or frighten her students, but when it came to Harry Potter her predictions tended to be fairly accurate, if misinterpreted. Last year, Sybill had droned on and on about the Grimm. Of course, she did that every year with a different third year student, but in Harry's case it was possible that she had just confused Sirius the dog with a Grimm. She had been quite insistent during his visits in that the Grimm kept appearing over and over again both in the tea leaves and in the crystal ball. Sybill had also predicted Harry's death multiple times, insisting about deadly enemies and danger in his path. It might be all made up, but Albus knew better than anyone that Harry did face such a dark future, so who knew? The problem with Divination was that it was extremely difficult to correctly interpret the signs ahead of time. That was what generally made Sybil a terrible Seer. And what good was to have the future predicted if one didn't understand the prediction until it had all already come to pass?

He came out of his reverie when he heard Harry's name mentioned.

"I still don't understand," she was saying, sounding rather cross. "Mr. Potter is so obviously a Saturn person! Are you sure he was born in this hemisphere, Dumbledore?"

Albus blinked in perplexity.

"I'm quite sure, Sybill."

"And he really was born in July?"

"Most definitely. Why do you ask?"

She frowned.

"It's just that everything indicates that the boy was born in midwinter, with Saturn powerful in the sky. The dark hair, the tragic losses so young in life... Mr. Potter is a difficult subject to study, always full of contradictions..."

"Is that so?" asked Albus with genuine interest.

"Oh, yes! I noticed it last year. Some predictions always come out the same way, but others... sometimes it's as if he were different people. At this point it's most certain that he will die young, but sometimes I see him dying in his seventies, and others at a hundred and fifty. Most times he dies childless, but on occasion I could swear that there are three children wearing his name. It's really frustrating."

"It certainly sounds confusing," agreed Albus.

Sybil began blabbing about other predictions (apparently Alastor was going to lose an eye or a leg —or both— at some point this year, or perhaps last month, or a few years from now), but Albus was no longer paying much attention to her.

Of course Sybil might be simply confusing her predictions and interpretations, as usual, but it was also possible that the future in Harry's case wasn't yet set in stone, being as he was a subject of Prophecy. He might have several different possible futures waiting for him. And there was also the fact that he almost certainly had a piece of someone else's soul attached to his. Sybill might be predicting Tom's future at times, instead of Harry's.

Midwinter... Tom had been born in midwinter, on December 31th to be precise. And he had also been a young man with dark hair and tragic losses early in life. Not that predicting the past had any use, of course. But if Sybill was predicting Tom's past through Harry, maybe she was predicting Tom's death as well. Tom was over 67 years old now. Maybe he would die childless at some point in the next few years? One could hope. Although Sybill had also predicted Harry dying young. And that was sadly a certainty. Maybe Harry would die when destroying his Horcrux, and then Tom would die shortly afterwards? As far as Albus could see, that was the best case scenario, being things as they were. Was there a chance, though, that one of them might live until a hundred and fifty and have three children?

Albus sighed. He hated Divination. It was really frustrating, and deceiving. It could give hope or take it away in a whim, and at the end the future ended up occurring in a completely unexpected way no matter how many predictions one heard.

"Oh, I see you finished your tea! Do you want me to read it?" asked Sybil excitedly.

"Yes, please," he said with a smile. He could always try to interpret what she saw on his own.

Sybill took Albus' cup and began rotating it counterclockwise while she peered at it with her big eyes, which turned even wider as she looked.

"Your cups are always interesting, Headmaster," she observed. "I see a snake... or maybe a worm. Yes, a worm, I'd say. Secret enemies. And there is the falcon, of course, as usual..."

Sybil had seen the falcon in his cup every single time she had read his tea leaves in the last fifteen years. It was one of the reasons (the less significant) why he had been convinced that Tom wasn't permanently gone. A man like him had many deadly enemies, of course, but he doubted Fate would bother predicting anyone less dangerous than Lord Voldemort. He supposed Tom could be considered a secret enemy at the moment. Although the worm could also refer to Pettigrew... And if it was a snake instead of a worm, it could mean many different things. Not a very useful prediction, all in all.

Albus left the North Tower feeling the way he always felt after a visit to Sybill: deeply conflicted and wishing never to talk to a Seer again. Especially to a Seer that was also a fraud. He cursed the day when he had been singled out by Fate to hear a true Prophecy that, by all indications, would mess with his head until the moment of his death. He really shouldn't come to see Sybill anymore. What if she made another Prophecy during one on those visits? Wouldn't it be better never to hear it? There was a part of him that wished Seers not to exist at all. Tom might have been up to something when he had murdered as many Seers as he had been able to find fifteen years ago. Although it was pointless to eradicate Seer's lineages, since Fate would just give the Gift to random people if it didn't have a proper vessel available.

His anti-Divination mood directed his steps towards Minerva's quarters, as usual, quite forgetting that she was currently still angry at him. He remembered when he saw her cold demeanour, but before he could change his mind about the visit she seemed to notice his weariness.

"You really should stop visiting Sybill," she commented with an I-told-you-so look, more amused than annoyed.

Albus sighed.

"Yes, I end up thinking that every time," he admitted. "But then I forget."

She rolled her eyes and let him in. Mercifully she didn't even offer tea, no doubt knowing that he would not be in the mood for anything herbal until next week.

"I don't understand why you bother. Sybill is a fraud, and Divination in general is too imprecise."

"It is," agreed Albus, taking a seat and immediately being jumped upon by Deirdre. "But sometimes interesting stuff comes up. Like today. Sybill predicts that Alastor will lose his eye and/or leg at some point between last summer and 1997."

Minerva snorted.

"Well, at least she doesn't pretend to be precise this time. Predictions about the DADA teachers don't count, anyway, since we all know something will happen to them. And judging by what I have seen so far this term, I'd say Moody losing at least his eye and leg is an easy guess without any need of a Seer. I would even venture to say that Severus will have something to do with the fulfilment of such prediction."

Albus couldn't argue with that. Sybill might rarely leave her tower, but she kept herself informed of all Hogwarts' gossips by means of ghosts or portraits. She used that information to fake her predictions. And the tension between Severus and Alastor was quite obvious.

"I might give Severus a hand," continued his Deputy Headmistress. "I swear, Dumbledore, if Moody crucios a student I will turn him into a ferret and feed him to Hagrid's Hippogriffs. Severus can exhibit the eye and the leg in jars around his office."

"That will not be necessary," said Albus seriously, knowing that when Minerva used that tone she meant business. He wouldn't try to stop her if Alastor actually crucio'd a student, though. But he would not do that, Albus was fairly certain. "How is Neville?"

Minerva's eyes flashed in anger again.

"He seems fine. The prefects don't report any nightmares, and he looks normal enough. Pomona lent him some Herbology books to cheer him up, and I think even Severus is making an effort with him."

Albus nodded. Neville was a resilient boy. He would be fine, especially if Severus stopped terrorizing him.

"And Harry?"

"Fine too, I think. Although it's hard to tell with him. He's always putting on a brave face, but no doubt seeing the Killing Curse demonstrated must have been disturbing."

"Yes, no doubt," said Albus with a sigh. "But he has to know."

Maybe he should have told Harry about the Killing Curse years ago. There were so many things he had to tell him... He had hoped to have more time, to be able to grant him a few more years of blissful oblivion, but things were speeding up...