Chapter 35
The Prophecy
Author's Note: I am giving you two chapters today, because this is a short chapter. This is a shorter chapter, because it doesn't have Christmas or the Yule Ball in it. It will all happen next chapter, even if it is a long chapter. I just didn't want a time-skip and Christmas to interfere with the theme of this chapter.
Several reviewers seemed to think Harry and Hermione were going to believe everything Dumbledore said to be the truth. One guest review (which I did not accept) said they were unfollowing my story because they thought Harry and Hermione were going to just forgive and trust Dumbledore. Really? How have you come to this conclusion after everything you've read so far? I am sure most of my readers will be quite pleased with what happens at the beginning of this chapter.
The description of the Pensieve in this chapter is the one Harry uses in Deathly Hallows, Part 2, to view Snape's memories.
Much of the prophecy conversation is taken from Chapter 37 of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by JK Rowling.
Warning: Dumbledore Bashing
(Monday, December 21st, 1994)
"Do you want to know why Voldemort targeted your parents and you that Halloween night thirteen years ago?" Albus Dumbledore asked, "Why he is so very interested in you? Do you want to know why you are the Boy-Who-Lived?"
Harry Potter knew that Dumbledore had probably been lying through his teeth with most, if not everything, that he had said. He knew that the man was probably trying to throw blame elsewhere, like he tried to blame all those blocks and bindings on the Weasleys. Ron Weasley didn't want Harry to be smarter than him, and his mother wanted to make sure that didn't happen so Dumbledore just went along with it, without issue? Harry wasn't believing it. And that was just one of the issues he had with Dumbledore's answers to his questions.
However, he also knew something else. Albus Dumbledore was doing exactly what he wanted. Well, not what Harry wanted. But what Sirius Black wanted. On their way to Dumbledore's office, Sirius told Harry and Hermione the real reason he was there.
"Amelia wants to know what Albus Dumbledore has to say in his defense to whatever accusations we throw at him," Sirius said. "She believes he will come up with some cock-and-bull story, of course, but whatever he says she can use to help her investigation against him. The real reason I am here, is to produce a Pensieve memory of this upcoming meeting with Dumbledore for Amelia."
Harry wondered just how Amelia Bones would react to everything they had heard from Dumbledore in this meeting. However, Dumbledore's new attempt at trying to win back Harry's trust was something he was interested in. If Dumbledore was willingly going to give up the answer to one of the questions Harry had been asking himself for years, then he could only say one thing.
"Yes," Harry answered the Headmaster, "However, I will not listen unless Hermione, Sirius and Professor McGonagall are allowed to remain and know the answer too. I am going to tell them everything we would discuss anyway, so can we just cut the middleman, Headmaster?"
Dumbledore frowned. "I had hoped it would be a private discussion between the two of us, Lord Potter. However, I cannot fault you for your decision. You have said you do not trust me. In your position, I wouldn't wish to be alone in here with someone who I did not trust. I suppose since there is nothing I can do to prevent them from learning this information, that Heiress Dagworth-Granger, Lord Black and Professor McGonagall are allowed to hear this explanation."
"You better believe we're not going anywhere, Albus!" McGonagall said. "I would be a pretty poor Professor if I left a student alone with someone he did not trust!"
"I would be a piss-poor Godfather if left my godson with you after all that bull-shite you just gave us, Dumbledore," Sirius said, "This explanation better be good, if you want me to believe that you haven't been lying through your teeth."
"I'm not going anywhere, Headmaster," Hermione said, defiantly.
Dumbledore looked most put-upon for a moment. Then he sighed and stood up. Under the watchful eye of his four guests, he walked over to a cabinet and opened it. He removed something from the cabinet, and walked back over to his desk. He sat the object down on his desk. Harry studied the object. It looked like a large, and nearly flat, metallic bowl of some sort. There was some sort of strange liquid-gas substance inside it that seemed to swirl around.
"Perhaps you know what this is, Heiress Dagworth-Granger?" Dumbledore asked.
"A Pensieve, sir," Hermione said, "It is used to store and view memories. The user can either view the memories through the pool of water, or they can be… transported somehow into the Pensieve and see it as if they were standing in the memory."
"An excellent description, Heiress!" Dumbledore said "Fifteen points for Gryffindor. Yes, this is a Pensieve. I use it to store many of my own memories inside. I am a very old man. I have many memories. My head tends to become pretty full and sometimes I just need to be able to sort through all my memories and view them.
"Tonight, I will show you one of these memories. But first, I will ask you a question, Lord Potter. At the end of your third year, you told me about Professor Trelawney's prophecy she had given you. You asked me if it was a genuine prophecy. I answered that it might have been. I am quite sure it was a genuine prophecy. Do you remember what else I said?"
"You said it was the second one she had ever made," Harry said.
"I did," Dumbledore said, nodding. "While you witnessed her second genuine Prophecy, Lord Potter, it was I who witnessed her very first. It was the reason she is the Divination Professor to this very day. If you ask Professor McGonagall's opinion about Sybill Trelawney, she will tell you that the woman is clearly a fraud and has no business being a Professor here."
McGonagall snorted. "She is a drunkard, Albus! She drinks sherry constantly, and I am sure she shows up to a good number of her classes drunk!"
"She is a problematic Professor, I will give you that," Dumbledore allowed. "In fact, I had her pinned as a fraud too. You see, I originally met her because she applied to be the Divination Professor. I was going to do away with the class, but then I received her application and discovered she was the great granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney. So I gave her a chance. I did believe she was fraudulent and that I would never accept her as the Divination Professor. I was about to leave the room and do away with Divination at Hogwarts altogether, when an extraordinary event happened. Something that made me hire her immediately.
"Sybill Trelawney made a genuine prophecy. I was so astounded by what I heard, so focused on it. That I did not hear an eavesdropper outside the door of the room Professor Trelawney and I were in, in the Hogs Head. Turned out to be a Death Eater, and he had heard the first couple lines of the Prophecy. My brother, Aberforth, is the owner of the Hogs Head. He caught the eavesdropper snooping, but unfortunately, he didn't know exactly what he had caught. He just tossed the eavesdropper out, not knowing it was a Death Eater, and the man went straight to Voldemort as far as I can understand.
"Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of this Prophecy. He knew the prophecy had been made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy.
"You four are about to hear the very prophecy Sybill Trelawney told that evening. The full prophecy – you will know more than Voldemort does."
"Does?" Sirius asked. "Not did? As in, he's not dead?"
"Voldemort still lives, Lord Black," Dumbledore said, "I trust you remember the letter Lord Potter sent you this summer? He sent me the very same letter, and I assumed – as you were the closest adult he could trust – he wrote you about it too."
"The dream?" Sirius asked, looking at Harry, "The nightmare you had. The one you told me about. About Voldemort… and Wormtail?"
"I thought it was just a dream," Harry said.
"It was not," Dumbledore said, "Your description of the dream was very precise. How could Voldemort hold a wand and kill an old man if he was simply the shade he had once been? He has gotten stronger. I believe he has used rituals to make him stronger, but he has not returned to his full strength yet. I firmly believe he will find a way, sooner or later. Possibly before the end of next summer.
"Therefore, I must ask again if the four of you want to hear this Prophecy. If you do, you will know more than Voldemort does. You will know information he wants. If he finds out you know, you would be in great risk."
"I'll risk it, Dumbledore," Sirius snarled, "I want to know why Voldemort targeted two of the greatest people I had ever known, and the boy I love like my own son."
"I will risk it, Headmaster," Hermione said, "For Harry."
"I agree with Heiress Dagworth-Granger," McGonagall said.
"I want to know, Headmaster," Harry said, "I will risk it."
Dumbledore frowned and looked back and forth between all of them. He then sighed and raised his wand to his own temple. From it, he withdrew silvery, gossamer-fine strands of thought clinging to the wand, and deposited them in the basin. He sat back down behind his desk and watched his thoughts swirl and drift inside the Pensieve for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he raised his wand and prodded the silvery substance with its tip.
A figure rose out of it, draped in shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size behind her glasses, and she revolved slowly, her feet in the basin. But when Sibyll Trelawney spoke, it was not in her usual ethereal, mystic voice, but in the harsh, hoarse tones Harry had heard her use once before.
"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 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…"
The slowly revolving Professor Trelawney sank back into the silver mass below and vanished. The silence within the office was absolute. For about a minute, silence reigned from the five people in the room, and the portrait inhabitants that had been listening to the conversation since it had begun.
"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean, Dumbledore?" Sirius asked.
"It meant," said Dumbledore, "that the person who has the only chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times."
Harry felt as though something was closing in upon him. His breathing seemed difficult.
"It means — me?" he asked.
Dumbledore surveyed him for a moment through his glasses.
"The odd thing is, Lord Potter," he said softly, "that it may not have meant you at all. Sibyll's prophecy could have applied to two wizard boys, both born at the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in the Order of the Phoenix, both sets of parents having narrowly escaped Voldemort three times. One, of course, was you. The other was Neville Longbottom."
"But then," Harry said, "but then, why was it my name on the prophecy and not Neville's?"
"I am afraid," said Dumbledore slowly, looking as though every word cost him a great effort, "that there is no doubt that it is you."
"But you said," Harry said, "Neville was born at the end of July too — and his mum and dad —"
"You are forgetting the next part of the prophecy, the final identifying feature of the boy who could vanquish Voldemort. Voldemort himself would 'mark him as his equal.' And so he did, Harry. He chose you, not Neville. He gave you the scar that has proved both blessing and curse."
"But he might have chosen wrong!" said Harry. "He might have marked the wrong person!"
"He chose the boy he thought most likely to be a danger to him," said Dumbledore. "And notice this, Harry. He chose, not the pureblood - which, according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing - but the half-blood, like himself. He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you, and in marking you with that scar, he did not kill you, as he intended, but gave you powers, and a future, which have fitted you to escape him not once, but four times so far — something that neither your parents, nor Neville's parents, ever achieved."
"Why did he do it, then?" said Harry, "Why did he try and kill me as a baby? He should have waited to see whether Neville or I looked more dangerous when we were older and tried to kill whoever it was then —"
"Voldemort didn't know the whole Prophecy," Hermione said, "If he did, he might have given it some more thought. He might have waited."
"Precisely, Heiress," Dumbledore said, "As I said early, he only heard the first two lines, because the Death Eater only heard the first part."
"He heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you — again marking you as his equal. So Voldemort never knew that there might be danger in attacking you, that it might be wise to wait or to learn more. He did not know that you would have 'power the Dark Lord knows not' —"
"But I don't!" Harry growled.
"Do you not?" Dumbledore asked. "I can tell you one thing you have that Voldemort does not know. That he could never know. Love, Harry."
"Love?!" Harry asked, "Again?! You said the same thing when I asked you in my first year here! Love was the thing that protected me! My mother's love! Now you say the same for me?!"
"Your love for Heiress Dagworth-Granger," Dumbledore said, "Your love for your godfather. Your love for your friends. Do you not want to live a full life? Do you not want to grow up and have children and a family with someone like Heiress Dagworth-Granger here? Do you not want to survive?"
"I do!" Harry growled, "Of course I do! But how is that a power?!"
"It is the greatest power in the world, Lord Potter," Dumbledore said, "There is a line in the Muggle's Christian bible that comes to mind. Whenever someone asks me why I believe love is the greatest power in the world. Are you familiar with what I speak of, Miss Granger?"
"Faith, hope and love," Hermione said, "But the greatest of these is love."
"Yes," Dumbledore said, smiling. "Faith, hope and love are all very powerful things. And the greatest is love. Faith and hope that you will survive and live and go on to do great things. That is quite powerful in itself. But none of this would be worth it, if you didn't have anybody you loved to continue on with. It is the Heiress, and Lord Black, and your friends who you will fight for. These people you love, who you want to fight for and survive. Therefore, love is your power, and it is the power Voldemort does not know. He does not believe in it. He does not care for it. He does not feel remorse. But you do, and that is the power he knows not."
"The end of the prophecy," Harry said, "it was something about... 'neither can live...'"
"… while the other survives,'" Dumbledore finished.
"So," said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, "so does that mean that… that one of us has got to kill the other one… in the end?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore.
"But you don't have to do it alone," Hermione said. "You will never be alone."
"Never alone," Sirius said, "I don't believe for one moment that you have to do this on your own. I don't care what that prophecy says. It could be a lot of horse-shit from a person who has apparently proven herself over and over to be a fraud. You will not convince Harry that he must do this alone, Dumbledore. Nor, for one second, do I believe he needs you to help him!
"He has friends and Allies who can help him! Smart, talented, powerful people in their own right who can help him! Far better than your Order of the Phoenix. We have the Great Alliance, Dumbledore! The Great Alliance is not just politics, Dumbledore! Don't think for a second the Great Alliance will not fight for Harry, especially when they just got him back. The Great Alliance got its heart back again. And we're not about to lose it!"
"Aye," McGonagall said. "I don't know what you think you would accomplish here, Albus. You could have given Harry this Prophecy the first time he asked you why Voldemort was after him. You could have told us before now! Yet you've kept this silent!"
"Of course I have, Minerva," Dumbledore said, "Do you not understand why?"
"Oh, I believe I understand more than you do, Dumbledore," McGonagall snarled. "Thank you for giving us this information. But we're done tonight. This meeting is over. I'm not letting you lure Harry back into trusting you, because you gave him something you've been holding onto for years!"
"Right!" Sirius growled, "If Harry was destined to defeat Voldemort, why was he raised by Muggles! Why was he not trained from a young age for his so-called destiny? You knew Voldemort was still alive, didn't you? You knew Harry would end up facing him again! And yet you have done nothing to help him until now."
"He was too young – is too young," Dumbledore said, "He needs to live his childhood. No child should have to go through with –"
"No, they shouldn't!" McGonagall snarled, "But apparently a Prophecy has given Harry no choice! Until you see that Harry is not a child, and has not been for a long time, you will not interfere in his life anymore, Albus. I will be here to make sure of it. Sirius and the Great Alliance will be around to make sure Harry will survive this! Until you tell me you firmly believe he will fulfill the Prophecy, I will not let you influence Harry any longer! Even I can see you have doubts about Harry fulfilling the Prophecy. I cannot allow someone with such doubt like that to assist Harry with his so-called destiny. I will not! Come, you three! Good night, Albus!"
Dumbledore merely stared, frowning at the four of them as Harry and Hermione were basically pushed from the Headmaster's office. None of them talked for the ten minutes it took for them to get to the Private Common Room in the Lion's Den.
"How much of that in there was hippogriff shit?" Harry asked.
He and Hermione were sitting in one of the couches in the Private Common Room. Sirius was sitting on the couch across from them, and McGonagall sat in one of the chairs.
"Most of it," Sirius said.
"The Prophecy?" Hermione asked, "Divination is such a wooly subject!"
"Trelawney-taught Divination is wooly, Hermione," McGonagall said. "That prophecy was the genuine thing. However, there was one thing it did not say. One thing that Dumbledore seems to believe it says and seems to want us to believe it says that."
"What?" Harry asked.
"The Dark Lord," Sirius said, "Right? Nowhere in the Prophecy does it say Voldemort. Nowhere does it say Voldemort is the Dark Lord in the Prophecy."
"But he marked me!" Harry growled, "My parents defied him!"
"And you weren't the only one born at the end of July, Harry," McGonagall said. "If that part of the Prophecy could be questioned – if one of the subjects of the Prophecy is questioned. Then why can't the other subject? Why can't there be more than one possibility for the Dark Lord?"
"Who?" Harry asked, "Who is it then?"
"No," Hermione gasped, "No, you can't be telling us it is him!"
"Who?" Harry repeated.
"Dumbledore, Harry," Hermione said.
"Dumbledore," Sirius said, "Everything Dumbledore's been doing to you, to us. The reason you grew up with the Dursleys who hated you, who never treated you well. The reason you didn't grow up with me, or another member of the Great Alliance.
"Why do you think you didn't know about magic for ten years, Harry?" McGonagall asked. "Why was your magic bound? Why were all your abilities bound? Why were you weakened so badly? Why has Dumbledore been keeping all this from you?"
"Especially the Prophecy," Sirius said. "It is because Dumbledore might very well be the Dark Lord in the Prophecy. Hell, Voldemort and Dumbledore both might qualify for it! People call Dumbledore the Leader of the Light, and yet everything he's done to you, and to others, including me and Hermione. That doesn't sound like someone who works for the Light would do, would it? Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in Great Britain. If he isn't a Lord of Light, then he is a Dark Lord."
"I firmly believe Dumbledore knows he is named in the Prophecy," McGonagall said. "I also firmly believe he wants to do everything to deny it. He hopes it is Voldemort. Because he doesn't want you to defeat him.
"I believe he wants you to defeat Voldemort, Harry," Sirius said, "Actually, no. I think he wants you to weaken Voldemort and then die against him. Or perhaps he hopes that if you do destroy Voldemort, Dumbledore could come in and defeat you."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "Are you sure that Dumbledore is the Dark Lord – or one of them – in the Prophecy?"
"I am, Harry," Sirius said, "It would explain so much about what he has done – not only to you, but to me, and the Great Alliance, and others as well. The Great Alliance is a powerhouse is the Wizengamot. But they are also good. Every Bill they would want to pass does good things for the future of our society. Why, if Dumbledore is the Lord of the Light, would he try to weaken the power of the Great Alliance? Why would he block its two most powerful Houses from being a part of it? From having votes. Why would he try to block your Emancipation?"
"Because he wants something much different than the Great Alliance wants," Hermione said.
"Yes," Sirius said, "He isn't the Lord of the Light. He's a Dark Lord, and he's the Dark Lord in the Prophecy. Voldemort might also be, but Dumbledore definitely is. And I am quite sure Amelia will agree with me when I take this information to her tonight."
"Go, Sirius," McGonagall said, "Mallory! Sadie!"
McGonagall's two house-elves appeared.
"Escort Sirius out of the castle, and make sure he leaves from the Grounds safely," McGonagall said. "Take him through the One-eyed Witch passageway. I trust you know that passageway, Sirius?"
"I do, Professor," Sirius said, "But how do you know about it?"
"We used it to get out of the castle and go to Gringotts last Saturday," Harry said.
"Ah!" Sirius said, nodding. "I would be happy to be escorted by such lovely elves. I will see you soon, Harry, Hermione. Keep in touch through the mirrors, you two. Watch Dumbledore. Tell me and Professor McGonagall if he tries anything."
"We will," Harry promised.
"Good," Sirius said, "Because this isn't over. He now knows that you know many things he wanted to keep from you. That makes him more dangerous. Especially if he is the Dark Lord in the Prophecy."
"We know this, Sirius," Hermione said, "We'll be careful."
"I know," Sirius said, "I trust you two. I just don't trust him. I am surprised that I ever could. I must go now. Take care."
And with that, Sirius followed the two House-elves out of the room.
"You're not alone, Harry," McGonagall said. "No matter what the Prophecy says. You're not alone. It will not come down between you and Voldemort, or you and Dumbledore. You have friends, family, loved ones, and Allies. You have a growing army of your own, just like the Order of the Phoenix was. Only the Order of the Phoenix has lost several of its greatest warriors. The Great Alliance will help you when they hear what you're up against. I can guarantee that."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said.
"I will see the both of you tomorrow," McGonagall said, as she stood up.
"Keep an eye on the Daily Prophet," Hermione said, "There will be a very interesting headlining article if Rita Skeeter got our message."
"Your Betrothal Contract," McGonagall said, smiling, "I saw your rings. I knew what they were immediately. I do not know if Dumbledore did, because your hands were almost always at your lap."
"Dumbledore won't be happy with the Betrothal Contract we made," Hermione said, grinning, "Especially if he still believes he can split us up."
"I will be eager to see his reaction," McGonagall said. "I must leave you now. Good night, Lord Potter, Heiress Dagworth-Granger."
"It is still Mr. Potter and Miss Granger to you and the Professors while we're still students, ma'am," Harry said; and Hermione nodded in agreement.
"I will let my fellow staff know," McGonagall said, with a nod.
She said farewell again, which Harry and Hermione echoed, and left the room.
"You're not going to convince me to leave you, Harry," Hermione said, "I know you thought about it. Don't. It won't happen. We're in this together. Always."
"Always," Harry said, "Because Dumbledore was right about one thing. I do want to survive. I want to have children with you. If you want a Quidditch team of children, I am going to make sure we have a Quidditch team of children."
"If you promise to never let me go," Hermione said, "I will give you a full Quidditch team of children. I love you, Harry Potter."
"I love you too, Hermione Granger," Harry said.
He kissed her, and for several minutes, they simply held each other, and kissed and snogged. For a while, neither Harry nor Hermione thought about he revelations they had discovered that evening. They simply basked in the comfort of each other.
(Monday, December 21st, 1994 – 8:30 PM)
Amelia Bones and Sirius Black emerged from the Bones Family Pensieve, after a viewing of the meeting with Albus Dumbledore that evening.
"That goddamned bastard!" Amelia growled. "He knew Voldemort survived that Halloween night, and he kept it to himself? He didn't warn the Ministry. He didn't let us know. We could have prepared for this! And now he believes Voldemort will return by next summer?! Fuck!"
"What about the Prophecy?" Sirius asked.
"Oh, you were right about that," Amelia said. "Dumbledore is the Dark Lord in the Prophecy! Voldemort might be too, but Dumbledore is definitely a subject of that Prophecy! As soon as possible – as soon as the old git will let me see him – I am going to speak to Unspeakable Croaker and ask him about the Prophecy. I am going to ask him if it is in the Department of Mysteries, in the Hall of Prophecies. If Voldemort returns to strength, and wants to know the full Prophecy, he would target the Department of Mysteries. The Prophecy, if it is there, needs to be removed. There is just one problem."
"Only the subjects of the Prophecy could remove it," Sirius said, "But then that means that Dumbledore might have already…"
"No," Amelia said, "He hasn't. It would only confirm his fear that he is the one named in the Prophecy. It is still there, I am sure. And your godson will be the one to remove it."
"He can do it while he is back in England for his shortened Christmas Break," Sirius said.
"Yes," Amelia said, "It must be done then. Which means I have until then to get in contact with Unspeakable Croaker."
"So what do you think about the rest?" Sirius asked. "The part about the ICW hit-wizards? Him blaming Molly Weasley for all those blocks and bindings."
"I don't believe Molly Weasley is the only one responsible for that," Amelia said, "Not for one moment. Remember, Dumbledore had to have been the one to put those Secrecy Enchantments on Molly's children, so they couldn't reveal their secrets."
"I forgot you mentioned that to me!" Sirius growled, "As did Harry, Hermione and Minerva. It was just something we forgot to bring up."
"He would have blamed it on someone else, Sirius," Amelia said, "Just like he did tonight. As for the hit-wizards, and the whole ICW keeping the Statute of Secrecy from being breached world-wide? It is possible, but I doubt it. I firmly believe Dumbledore did it. He lied through his teeth tonight. But he did it as he always does. He makes it believable. He is a politician after all. It is what he does, and has been doing it for a long time.
"I think that is why he told you all the Prophecy. He had hoped it would give proof to the stuff he had discussed tonight. That he was being honest and lenient with his information. Giving you this big important secret he's been hiding."
"Yes," Sirius said, "He wanted us to believe he was giving us all his important secrets, while hiding the far more important ones. Which leads to an obvious question."
"What else is he hiding?" Amelia asked.
And so another chapter ends! Sorry I didn't put anything beyond that evening in this chapter. The theme just doesn't fit.
So… our heroes now know the Prophecy, and suspect Dumbledore is the Dark Lord mentioned in the Prophecy! But what can they do about it right now? Especially with the warning that Voldemort will return soon.
Next Chapter: A very long chapter! The end of Book 1. Rita Skeeter's article. A short-time skip to Christmas, and then Christmas day, presents and the Yule Ball!