Chapter 5: Consequence

"Oh, I believe you," Dumbledore said sadly. "But I doubt the word of three underage students will convince many others."

Harry waited for the old wizard to leave and then he turned to Ron. "You've got to do it, Ron."

"Do what?" the boy said as he lay in the Hogwarts hospital wing with a broken leg.

"You've got to convince them that Sirius is innocent. Have another vision- of them catching Pettigrew and discovering that Sirius didn't betray my parents."

"Okay, Harry, I'll try mate…" Ron trailed off as he spoke.

At first, Harry thought Ron was performing his "I'm using the Inner Eye" act. Until he heard the snore. His best guy friend was unconscious.

"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Ron, wake up!"

Hermione shook her head. "It's no use, Harry. Madam Pomfrey gave him a Dreamless Sleep potion. It'll be hours before he comes to. And what's this about wanting him having another vision? I don't take Divinations and even I know that's not how it works."

"Actually, it is," Harry said before grabbing Hermione's arm. "Come on, Hermione, we need to see Professor Trelawney. She's the only one who can help us."

"Harry!" Hermione Granger protested, "What do you mean?"

"Look, Hermione, you were right. Divinations is a crock," Harry explained. "Ron only pretended to make his prediction and only went along with all that seer stuff because everyone expected him to." Harry explained as the pair raced towards Professor Trelawney's office in the north tower.

"But what about his prediction? And Neville?" the bushy haired witch protested.

"That's the thing, though, Hermione, it came true because enough witches and wizards believed in it. The combined magic of their belief caused it to happen!" Harry was breathing hard as the pair reached the professor's door. "That's how prophecies work. Actually, it's how almost all magic works."

Hermione went stock still. "Harry, you're wrong. Magic doesn't just work on belief. There are rules and laws."

"Look, argue with me later, right now we have to convince Professor Trelawney to save Sirius."

Harry knocked loudly on the door. Professor Trelawney's somewhat befuddled voice responded. "Come in."

Harry opened the door and entered, followed by a reluctant and flabbergasted Hermione Granger.

"Professor Trelawney," Harry addressed the witch urgently. "Sirius Black is innocent of the crime he's about to executed for. Peter Pettigrew is the one who did it. He's an animagus and framed Black for what he did. You have to help us!"

The shocked expression on the Divinations teacher was not feigned. She had not expected to hear this at all. "How do you know this? You should see Headmaster Dumbledore at once!"

"We already went to him, professor, but he said nobody will believe us," Hermione interjected.

"How did you find this out?"

Harry told her what they had seen. The Divinations teacher looked taken aback. And overwhelmed.

"I see…but, I…I don't know. I think…Professor Dumbledore is right. Nobody will believe this."

Harry gave his teacher a shrewd look. "They will believe it if you tell them you saw it in a vision."

The professor's eyes went wide. Suddenly, her expression changed from one of an adult unsure of how to act, though wanting to help, to someone who seemed affronted by an accusation. "I'm sorry, young man, but what you are suggesting is dishonest. Twenty points from Gryff—"

Harry cut her off before she could finish. "Ron already saw Pettirgrew's eventual capture and confession in a vision, professor," Harry lied. "We heard him make the prediction before the potion he was given kicked in." Harry cast a conspiratorial glance at Hermione.

"Oh, right," the young witch said hesitantly. "So, you see, we're not asking you to make a false prophecy, just claim to have one that another seer had first."

Professor Trelawney looked at the pair critically. All appearance of the bumbling, fumbling witch was gone. She looked…shrewd. She met Harry's eyes for several seconds and held it as if gauging him. After a moment, she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, children, but I cannot in good conscience claim to have seen with the Inner Eye when I have not. It would be an affront to the Pillars of Fate." She made as if to leave.

Harry blocked her way. "We know how it really works, Professor." Harry was dead serious. "There is no 'Inner Eye' or any 'Pillars of Fate' telling you what's going to happen. You make it up. And if enough people believe in it, then it comes true. People's magic makes it true."

Professor Trelawney looked from Harry to Hermione. She saw the doubt in the young witch, but the conviction in the young wizard. "I see," she said. After a moment, she looked directly at Harry. "Let's go to the Headmaster then and explain things. After that, we'll see about saving Mr. Black."

While not exactly a ringing promise to do as they had asked, she was at least going to go with them to see Dumbledore. It was the right direction for saving Sirius. The Divinations teacher led the pair through the school. Harry noted that around the rest of the students, Professor Trelawney adopted a bit of a spacey appearance, looking around at the hall corners as if trying to remember which way to go. But their path was straight and they reached the stone gargoyles quickly.

"Caramel éclairs," the witch said with authority, and the statues moved to reveal the winding staircase leading to the Headmaster's office.

"Ah, Sybill, I see you have gotten…" Albus Dumbledore paused seeing Harry and Hermione behind the Diviniations teacher. He glanced at the arriving professor inquisitively.

Harry spoke first. "We've come to tell you about Professor Trelawney having a vision, Professor. We—"

"They know, Albus," Professor Trelawney interrupted.

There was a long beat. "How much?" the Headmaster asked in reply.

"Clearly too much," she responded. "Mr. Potter was the one convincing Miss Granger. They came to me pretending that they had heard Mr. Weasley give another prediction. Then they attempted to convince me to claim that I had had a vision of Sirius Black being exonerated by future testimony by Peter Pettigrew. Very imaginative, I thought."

"So, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said, looking the young man in the eye. "You shared certain theories about the nature of divination with Miss Granger tonight? This is your first time discussing this with anyone?"

Harry looked into Dumbledore's twinkling eyes and nodded.

"Very well," the aged wizard said with a sigh. "Obliviate!"

Harry's jaw dropped just as suddenly as Hermione fell to the floor.

"Ah, Harry, you have put me in a most difficult position, my boy." Dumbledore turned his back to the incredulous young wizard. "Sybill, if you would, please take Miss Granger to the infirmary. Explain to Poppy that the young Gryffindor fainted away after hearing you make a prediction which I, and Mr. Potter here, also witnessed. I will handle things with Mr. Potter."

"Are you sure, Albus?" Professor Trelawney asked apprehensively. "He is still quite young."

"No, Sybill, in this I am not entirely certain. But I believe we have no better alternative."

The Divinations professor inclined her head and then levitated Hermione behind her. She left the room and the door leaving the Headmaster's office closed shut.

"This puts those glowing reports from your other professors over the past few months in a new, troubling light," Albus Dumbledore sighed before turning back to face Harry once more. Seeing the anxious look on Harry's face, Dumbledore nodded towards the outside. "Do not worry about Sirius Black, Harry. I've arranged for his execution to be stayed long enough for evidence to be found and presented to exonerate him. Unfortunately, the problems and choices we face here will be far harder than dealing with a falsely accused man."

Harry was bewildered. First, Dumbledore obliviates Hermione. Then he indicates that he intends to have Professor Trelawney make up a false vision to exonerate Sirius just as Harry had wanted. And now the man was saying that there was a problem more serious than…Sirius.

"Sir," Harry said respectfully, "I…I don't understand."

"Unfortunately, Harry, you do. And that is the problem."

The two stood looking at each other uncomfortably for a while.

"You're not going to obliviate me, too, are you?" Harry asked tentatively. He wanted to be angry, but facing the Headmaster after seeing him remove Hermione's memories without so much as batting an eye made him a bit more fearful than he normally would be in the Headmaster's presence.

"I wish I could, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said honestly.

Harry was taken aback by the frankness of the older wizard. He had expected to be reassured, fed some sort of story, and then probably obliviated anyway. "What do you mean? You mean you can't?"

"Tell me, Harry," the Professor asked in return without answering Harry's question, "how long have you known about the nature of prophecy? And what else do you know?"

Harry hesitated a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. Lying now would probably not be possible. "I've known about how prophecies work since Ron made his prediction and it came true. Took me a week or two to put it all together, but around that time."

"And what else?" Dumbledore prompted.

"Well, I realized that a lot of the rules of magic are not exactly rules. Like, how to wave your wand, or even needing a wand sometimes. It's whether you believe or not what's going to happen that matters."

Dumbledore sighed. "That's what I feared." The man let out another long sigh. "You are mostly correct, Harry, though knowing what you know would be a curse as much as a blessing for the average witch or wizard. For you, however, it is far worse."

"Professor, I don't see what the problem is."

"No, I suppose you have not thought it through yet," Dumbledore mused. "Tell me Harry, what is it about you that makes you special to the Wizarding world? I don't mean you individually to your friends and those who care about you. You are certainly valuable as a person. But, I mean to all of Magical Britain and the entire Magical world."

Harry looked at the Headmaster quizzically. "Well, I suppose, it was because I lived? I survived the Killing Curse and Voldemort was defeated?"

"Not only that, but you defeated him twice more since arriving at this school. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts and yours, Voldemort has managed to survive, albeit barely. Now, Harry, do you know why you were targeted by Voldemort in the first place?"

"There was supposed to be some kind of prophecy, right?"

Dumbledore nodded and waited. A moment later, the light went on.

"Oh. Hang on…Oh! You mean that…that prophecy? It's…oh!"

"Now you begin to see the problem."

"If the prophecy only works if I believe in it, then I have to believe in it or it is meaningless, right? But…since I know that prophecies are made up and only work if people believe in them, I can't really have faith in it."

"Essentially, yes. This knowledge is a dangerous thing for any witch or wizard to have. Which is why it is carefully guarded by those who possess it. But for you to have this knowledge is worse because the most important prophecy of our time is about you."

Harry paused for a moment. Now he understood why Dumbledore had acted as he had when he and Hermione came into the room. Harry closed his eyes and said two words he thought he would never utter. "Obliviate me."

He waited. Nothing happened.

Harry opened his eyes. "Sir, if my forgetting about the nature of prophecies is that important, you have to obliviate me. Go ahead."

Albus Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid it is much too late for that, Harry. Unfortunately, memory charms are very delicate and require great amounts of skill to be used to great effect. Even then, there are limits to what they can accomplish without risking permanent damage to the mind. With as much as you have learned and as long as you have known it, if I were to obliviate a specific moment in your mind, you would soon rediscover the secret by piecing together the rest of your memories. The only way would be to completely erase the entire school year."

"Then so be it," Harry volunteered bravely.

Harry's willingness was deeply touching to the Headmaster. "Oh, Harry," the old wizard said emotionally. "Willing though you are in this matter, I'm afraid such an action would be potentially even more damaging than the knowledge you have." Dumbledore saw Harry look at him expectantly for elaboration. "You, more than any one else in the world, more than me and more than the Ministry of Magic, you represent hope to the witches and wizards of the world. If something as catastrophic as you losing a year worth of memory were to occur… I'm afraid the consequential weakening of morale would have a net effect even worse than your disbelief in the prophecy of your defeating Voldemort."

"But the only way to defeat Voldemort is through me…" Harry stopped and then pondered. He only believed he was the one to do it because of the prophecy, a prophecy which Harry now knew had been fabricated the way all prophecies were fabricated. "Wait. If anyone can defeat him, why have the prophecy at all? Why all the games and deception?"

Once again, Professor Dumbledore answered the question with another question. "Harry, do you know why Tom Riddle is the most feared dark wizard in history?"

"He's a ruthless murderer? And powerful? He uses the Killing Curse loads of times?"

"That is all part of his power, yes, but not the true reason he is so feared." Dumbledore looked directly at Harry. "It's his belief in himself, Harry. Voldemort believes so strongly in his own legend, so powerfully in his own immortality and omnipotence, that he is far stronger than any dark wizard in memory. No wizard struck by the Killing Curse from his wand has ever survived. And no curse from an auror has ever penetrated his shield."

"But, how is that different from any other Death Eater?"

"Harry, I think you are laboring under a false belief that you are the only one to ever be hit by the Killing Curse and live. That is not so. Most senior aurors have been hit by the avadra kedavra curse at some time or another and lived. Were a child with a wand to cast it recklessly, it would do little more than sting. Dark wizards can cast it upon their enemies, but if their enemy's belief in their ability to survive is stronger than the caster's belief that they will die, the victim can survive. But nobody, I repeat, nobody has been hit by Tom Riddle casting the curse on them and lived."

Harry nodded. "I think I get it. Riddle thinks he is unstoppable, which makes him more powerful because of the power of his belief. Those he battles believe the same thing, making their defense against him weaker. So, in the end, it makes it true. And everyone he faces dies."

"Exactly, Harry. Several aurors and duelists have attempted to stand up to him and prove his vulnerability, but they have all fallen. The idea behind using a prophecy against him was to make him doubt his own invulnerability and believe in the power of a force capable of defeating him."

This made Harry pause and think. "So, when Voldemort acted on the news of the prophecy and sought to kill an infant that might fulfill it, he tacitly bought into the prophecy. Had he ignored it and simply doubted it, it would have had no effect. But he didn't. Brilliant, Professor!"

A sour look crossed the Headmaster's face. "Yes, it was a brilliant move. Unfortunately, the costs were far higher than I would have liked."

"My parents," Harry said soberly.

"Yes, Harry. And not only them. But now, I'm afraid we have run out of time. Events have been set in motion and I must act now if we are to save your godfather."

"Professor, if we manage to save Sirius…could I stay with him for the summer?"

Professor Dumbledore looked at Harry apologetically. "Yes, Harry, you absolutely can. In any event, you will not be returning to the Dursleys. I'm afraid I have some apologizing to do to you on that score. But for now, you will need to return to the dorms. We will speak about this again further. For now, I trust that you will speak of this to nobody else?"

Harry nodded his agreement.

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Author's Note: There will be a bit of a break after this before I continue/finish this story. I will finish this story whether people review or not, but more reviews might convince me to expand the story more than I originally planned. If interest is low, I'll move on to something else. If this story suddenly gains a larger audience I would add more to accommodate them.