Chapter 15:

The next day's Daily Prophet had the headline:

Prophecy from 1980 foretold defeat of self styled dark lord.

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. And the Dark Lord will mark him as 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"

The dark lord, is believed to mean Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr., who rearranged the letters of his name to spell out "I am Lord Voldemort". Editors note: We are now using using his original name, but referring to his made up title when appropriate.

Of the possible persons the prophecy could have applied to, Harry Potter was marked by the self-named Lord Voldemort, with a scar that contained a soul fragment of Tom Riddle.

Harry Potter has removed the soul anchors that the self-named Lord Voldemort left behind, by hiring expert help. They became his hired hands, fulfilling the prophecy. Hiring expert curse breakers is an unexpected power, one that the egotistical self named Lord Voldemort did not consider.

The next article was:

Tom Marvolo Riddle Junior

Born 31 December, 1926 to a muggle father, and a mother, Merope Gaunt, who was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. He never formally claimed the title of Heir of Slytherin, and it is not known if he could have. It is assumed that he would have claimed it if he could have, since he referred to himself as the heir.

He claimed to uphold pureblood traditions, while he himself was not.

The Quibbler article went much further in showing how Voldemort engaged in a series of assassinations during, mostly, the 1970's, resulting in the deaths of many leaders of pureblood families. Also, how he almost single-handily led to the near demise of many pureblood families.

The Quibbler had interviews with newly-former Death Eaters, about how they were routinely tortured by Voldemort, and how the way of life they thought they were defending was instead being destroyed, but that with the Dark Mark they didn't feel that they could disobey him.

Sirius Black arranged a meeting with Narcissa Malfoy nee Black and her son Draco at Gringotts Bank. They have, for a fee, secure conference rooms, where enemies can meet without worrying about the possibility of violence during the meeting.

"Hello cousin Narcissa and cousin Draco."

The replied in turn, "Hello cousin Sirius"

He got right to the point, "You have some decisions to make, as the future of the Malfoy family. Neither of you is on the list for past actions. However, you are on the watch list for future actions.

You can accept the new order, and prosper in business as the Malfoy family has done, or you can cross me and have your line ended."

Draco replied, "Threats can go both ways, after you and Potter, maybe I'd have a claim."

Sirius waved his hand and replied, "The Black and Potter wills are airtight. Neither of you will ever have a claim to house Black.

All I am asking of you is to not get in my way. Do business. You'll find a lot of good opportunities in the near future. You can marry a pureblood. You can do what you want, but don't try to bribe the ministry and don't conspire against me."

Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Albus Dumbledore, called an emergency meeting, to get an international agreement for member nations to keep an eye out for any attempt to resurrect Voldemort or reform the Death Eaters. There were two purposes, one the stated one, the other to get the International Confederation of Wizards used to working together, which will help establish a precedent when future cooperation is needed due to future muggle technology and also with extraterrestrials.

Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones was given extensive information of a timeline branch from 1991, as recounted by a seer at that time. It took a lot of discussion for this information to be accepted by her without her, or the Department of Mysteries, being given more information. Wizarding Oaths were made. And yes, Amelia was suspicious of Dumbledore's excessive number of middle names, and that he might use those to get around wizarding oaths. Eventually she agreed to accept the information, but not press further about it.

The DMLE was reorganized. Alastor Mad-Eye Moody was named its head, but he delegated most of its normal functions, so he could focus on raising the training level of personnel, and rooting out corruption and any lingering support of Death Eaters. He also instituted protocols to prevent any sort of mind control from being used against personnel in the entire Ministry, up to and including himself and the Minister.

Azkaban Prison was changed to no longer use Dementors as guards. Various new protocols against escape were instituted by a special team created by Moody to come up with creative ways to break security.

When Xenophilius Lovegood uncovered information that Draco Malfoy was going to continue paying tutors for the Slytherin study group, Dumbledore passed along the evidence to Minister Bones. Moody was sent to meet with Draco and Narcissa.

He arrived at the meeting, making a lot of loud noises, and talked loudly and sharply, "Malfoy, Just because the DMLE cannot charge anyone living for your family's crimes, does not mean we cannot sue to recover ill gotten gains. Remember that. It is not on our list of priorities, and maybe never will be, but do not test me boy. You're study group is hereby ended. You do what your cousin told you to and be a nice business man, or whatever else you want to be, and we'll all get along jolly well. You understand me boy?"

Draco glared at him, and muttered, "I understand."

The Hogwarts Governors, with which Sirius Black and his alliance had many of the votes, added an Advanced Study Professor position. It was filled by Griselda Marchbanks for 1 year only, since the term was going to start in a few days. There would be a whole year to find a more permanent replacement. Meanwhile, Dumbledore was going to continue his own private group for its existing members.

The first of September arrived, and group of us in Ravenclaw, who were also part of the Advanced Study Group shared a car. A lot of us visited back and forth with other cars, and caught up with our summer's activities that did not make the news.

The sorting was uneventful, and Dumbledore made some announcements, "The Forbidden Forest, is still forbidden. Over the next two years we plan to remove some extremely dangerous creatures. However, it will always be home to our friends there who do not wish to be disturbed, and we respect their wishes, so students will always be forbidden to go there without approval of a staff member.

We are adding two new elective classes for all years. Dueling and Advanced Studies. For first years, both classes will start in November. Professor Flitwick will be teaching dueling, and he will group students by ability, not by year.

Advanced Study will be taught by Professor Griselda Marchbanks. She will guide students who wish to study beyond the curriculum for their year. Tutors will be brought in for specific subjects as needed."

The main doors opened and Remus Lupin walked to the table, Dumbledore continued, "Please welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin."

For electives, Luna and I took Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Dueling, and Advanced Study. Neither of us would have benefited from Divination, at least the way it was taught by Trelawney.

Dumbledore got Hagrid a formal trial for events 50 years earlier, and used the testimony of the ghost of Myrtle Warren to show that it was not Acromantulas that killed her. It was also shown that Tom Marvolo Riddle was later Lord Voldemort, and that he framed Hagrid. Hagrid was teaching this year and also getting private lessons in various subjects. It was thought it would be too disruptive for him to be in regular classes with the same students that he would be teaching.

A few days after the start of the term, the original Advanced Study Group were summoned to a classroom. I addressed the class, "Last year's newspaper article accused us of being a private army. In a way they were correct. There was a source of future information from the summer of 1991. Part of that information was a long and difficult second wizarding war, which would have included two battles of Hogwarts. So, yes, we were being prepared to fight.

The information of that future is now out of date, since events based on those prediction have changed the present day 1993 very much. That source of information is not available for futures beyond the initial one it predicted.

Now, we all have decisions to make. While we all can join the new official Advanced Study elective, we can also remain in this group. The same rules for leaving this group apply as when we joined, certain information will be removed from us when leaving.

Professor Dumbledore has agreed to continue sponsoring this group as long as it has members. It hasn't been decided if any new members might be added.

In addition, those who remain in this group will continue to learn how to fight as a team, and to defend each other. Remember that simulation we all laughed at, of 16 Death Eaters causing thousands of wizards to run away, and Harry Potter losing his wand? That actually happened in that seen future, in the summer of 1994."

Dumbledore met with Snape, "Severus, how is your arm?"

Snape replied, "Thank you for your concern Albus. It is fully healed and fully clear." He let Dumbledore get to the point of the meeting.

Dumbledore started with, "I'd like you to consider what it is you want to do, during this term, so that I can make any needed arrangements for next September, starting during the Winter break. I have some suggestions."

Snape didn't react and tersely asked, "What are those suggestions?"

Dumbledore said, "I think your talents tend more towards having advanced apprentices than to teach dunderheads, as you describe them. Perhaps your teaching role can be split, with you teaching NEWT level only, plus taking on additional apprentices, while bringing on a new instructor to teach the lower years. That would also give you more time for original research, which your apprentices could assist with. You might also decide if you like the new role of head of Slytherin, which is to guide them towards the changes we are making in Wizarding Britain."

It didn't take long for Snape to decide that he didn't like the scrutiny he had in running Slytherin, and Andromeda Tonks was named the new head of Slytherin. She also became an assistant healer at Hogwarts, and was named a Professor of Healing Arts, for a new elective. Pomfrey was also a co-teacher of that class.

It looked like he was going to accept the rest of the suggestions as well, and Dumbledore started the search for a professor that could begin as early as January.

Mad-eye Moody at a training session with Harry Potter, told him "I have some bad news and good news. Bad news is our secret training sessions are ending. The good news is that you will be in a regular auror training class that I am teaching. I know that you can handle it.

The reason is that we want you to be a symbol of Wizarding Britain. We want to show off how advanced you are. Of course you'll still need to actually be constantly vigilant, since you are a target for some, while a symbol for others.

Since you are a symbol, even if you don't want to be, there will be some trusted security following you around. They will be known to you, so you can tell the difference between hostile stalking and your own security. I would be disappointed in you, if you could not tell you are being followed."

At the next meeting of the secret Advanced Study Group, we discussed what everyone wanted to do. Noone wanted to fully leave the group, but several wanted to have fewer meetings, or at least to attend fewer meetings.

Hermione Granger presented "I consider each of you my friend, and always will be. If conditions require it, I will fight alongside you, not just at Hogwarts, but forever more. I understand that our magic rifle is a secret of this group. However my current project, which three of you are part of, the magic computer, is not covered by that contract.

I want to be able to publish my work, and maybe build a business around it. I cannot do that if that research is only done in this group. So, I plan to continue developing the computer in the official Advanced Study Class. Professor Marchbanks knows the world of academic publishing, and when ready to build a business there are others who I could consult with.

What I think we should do, is continue to meet occasionally as a social club, and to discuss any emerging threats. We can also continue to develop fighting spells and practice fighting as teams."

I did not know whether or not Hermione had the time turner this year. I mentioned it once in passing to Dumbledore that no harm came from it in canon, and she did manage to rescue Sirius and Buckbeak with it.

Colin Creevey spoke next, "I am not one of the 10 publicly known members of this group. That makes it even more difficult for me to use what I might invent here. I am thinking about ways to improve magic cameras, and I'll do that in Professor Marchbanks class. I agree with everything Hermione said."

After some more discussion, the group voted and agreed to exactly what Hermione suggested.

During one of Hagrid's classes, he brought us into the forbidden forest to learn tracking. He lectured, "This is a Unicorn hoofprint, the way to tell those from Centaur's is to look here."

As he was speaking, a Centaur, which has the upper body of a person and lower body of a horse, walked up and said, "Hagrid. Your class can look at my hoofprint for a comparison."

Hagrid exclaimed, "Firenze! Good to see you, how's the herd?"

Firenze answered, "Good. I would speak to Tom Picard and his mate."

I said, "I would like that" and we walked toward him. I put up the silencing charms, and told Firenze, "We can speak privately now, Mr. Firenze."

Firenze said, "Mars is dimmer now, due to you. 2 years ago you brought a new sky."

Luna wanted to say, "Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that he arrived with a new sky?", but the contracts prevented her.

Firenze continued "We have been starting to see a planet even swifter than Mercury."

I said to both, "19th century astronomers speculated on a planet closer to the sun than Mercury and called it Vulcan. Of course, its location is a metaphor and not its real location."

Firenze said, "So you know of what I speak?"

Luna answered, "Yes. If I can make it visible, should I?"

Firneze answered, "If it is revealed, it will be exactly when it should be. You will know when."

When it was time for Lupin's class on Boggarts, which become the worst fear of the one they see, I had convinced Dumbledore that some of our secrets could become known. We had an interesting theoretical discussion on whether the contracts would prevent our secrets from being read by Boggarts, but he agreed that for general privacy, the exercise with the Boggarts should be private, with only him, not Lupin, in the room.

Harry Potter's turn showed Mad-Eye Moody attacking him, saying, "Polyjuice, it's not just for breakfast."

For mine, I used my full mind shields, and only allowed through a joke to Dumbledore. My greatest fear is that all of my comfy socks had holes in them.

Luna's turn was a holographic display of an Andorian, the blue skinned, moving antenna people, who announced, "All persons in Hogwarts will report to shuttles we have outside your wards. Your precious Vulcans are not here, we are. Resistance will result in the destruction of London to start, the planet eventually. We thank Luna Lovegood for telling the Vulcans about you."

Clearly we were all three going to have a conversation about that vision, and probably not about how their antennas were moving, unlike their appearance in the Original Series.