Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Ages

Chapter 2

The Will and The Prophecy!

Harry, surprisingly, was standing on his feet outside The Burrow. He was gasping for his breath when he heard a tinkle and Ron and Hermione came running towards him. Ron, now nearing the height of 6 feet, came first and gave Harry a tight hug and shook his hands vigorously saying, "Welcome mate!"

Hermione was the second one to give him a hug, but Harry was pleased when she gave him a kiss on his cheek. "Congratulations Harry. You've done really well in your OWLs Harry," she said so that only Harry could hear. Harry was extremely pleased to hear that, but was at the same time surprised to see Ron then, who seemed normal, but his ears had turned red.

Harry however ignored it. "I've been dying to meet you all!" Harry said happily, still gasping for his breath.

They went into the kitchen where Bill and Mrs. Weasley were standing around the table. She gave him a hug. As Bill approached, Harry teasingly asked, "How's Fleur Delacour and her E-english classes going?" Everyone at the kitchen laughed, perhaps except Mrs. Weasley-who looked obviously unaware of this news and was looking murderously at Bill. He blushed a little and replied, "They are going ....erm.....Fine. She has improved loads."

Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to Ron's room to talk after having the finest breakfast.

"So!" said Harry. "Congratulations Ron! You got 9 OWLs- I am so proud of you," mocked Harry, as if about to cry.

"Shut up Harry!" Ron said, blushing furiously. "And now for this, Fred and George are taking the mickey out of me." He continued, "But Miss Know-It-All....oops, sorry, Hermione here got 17 owls- the highest OWLs ever...except Dumbledore, who got all 18."

Now it was Hermione's chance to go red. But Harry, somewhere in his mind, had a doubt. "How come you got an 'A' in your Astronomy Practical?" he asked.

Startlingly, a tear came trickling down her cheek. Ron moved uneasily and hesitatingly rubbed it off. At this, Hermione completely broke down and started crying on his shoulders. Ron was obviously caught off guard as he looked awkward and patted her head and looked over to Harry mouthing words "what do I do now?" Harry fetched a glass of water and quickly gave it to Ron, who further passed it to Hermione.

Soon she calmed down a little and spoke, "You kn-know Harry, during the practical, the chaos at Hagrid's hut completely diverted my mind and even as I was doing my moon chart, I misnamed a few of Jupiter's moon. That's why I got an 'A' instead of an 'O'."

"By the way....where's Ginny?" said Harry, keen to change the topic and suddenly noticing Ron's small sister's absence.

"She usually goes down to Fred and George's shop to help............"

"And today also she went there!" cut in Harry.

"Yes but she mentioned about bringing you your gift...." smirked Ron.

***

As soon as they arrived at The Burrow, Mr. Weasley had alerted Professor Dumbledore. So after two days as Harry woke up after an evening nap (which he rarely took), he was told that that Dumbledore was there and wanted to see him.

Trying to remember exactly what he saw, Harry walked down the winding stairs to meet Dumbledore. Dumbledore was sitting calmly on the dining room chair. He and Tonks were talking very fast to each and abruptly stopped as they saw him approaching.

"Ah Harry, you wanted to see me urgently?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

"Yes...er... professor, actually I had a strange dream two days ago- but mind you - it was different from the type-" Harry felt strange at saying the word 'type', "-I had last year. I was sitting at the chair at my Aunt's house and I fell asleep...."

And Harry ploughed deeply onto what he heard and what he saw.

"But the strange thing was...I was seeing the scene from a third person's view. I saw Voldemort-" Tonks flinched at the name "- and me talking to each other. Isn't it strange? What was the meaning of that? Was that a coincidence or I was again going into Voldemort's mind?" Harry finally finished and waited for Dumbledore to say.

He remained silent. "Er- professor?" Harry broke the silence.

"Sorry Harry," Dumbledore said and nodded towards Tonks. She took the hint and went to the kitchen to greet Mrs. Weasley.

"What I have to say Harry is that I don't have any theories on this, yet. But I think that it may be highly significant. Not now, but later it can be. I thank you for your valuable information!" he said and started to leave. But he was at the door when he stopped. "Perhaps nobody has told you that a part of Sirius's vault at Gringotts has been transferred to your vault and his house, 12 Grimmauld Place also now belongs to you as he was the last owner of this house. I will be making an official will-reading tonight," he sadly said and quickly Disapparated from there.

Harry sat there still, stunned from the sudden news. Somehow he felt foolish to have hurried Dumbledore to The Burrow when he already had so much on his plate. Then Harry's thoughts drifted over to Sirius. "I did not want Sirius's money and his house. Anybody can take the money. He wanted Sirius himself!"

Again the emotions rose high over him and he ran to Ron's empty room (Ron and Hermione were downstairs helping Bill in the cleaning of their garden) and cried. He had not felt this pain and loneliness for a quite a few days and it was very painful to feel an empty place in his heart.

He didn't know for how many hours he cried, but when someone knocked on the door and he quickly wiped his tears back.

"Harry, what are you doing? Can I come in?" a voice came.

"Yes," he replied.

In came Ginny. She was carrying a parcel in her hands and was grinning. But she stopped doing so at the sight of Harry's face.

"Were you crying?" she asked shrewdly, her eye-brows contracting exactly like Mrs. Weasley.

"No," Harry lied.

She thought over it and said, "You definitely were. Don't tell me the reason but please, for Merlin's sake, don't cry."

Harry contemplated how much he could say to her, and finally said, "OK. I'll tell you."

"What is it?"

"Well you know how Sirius died last month," he continued, choking, "and now they are going to give his properties to me. I don't want it. I want him, even if it means dying earlier than destined for me." Ginny suddenly slapped him on the arm sharply, by which he was taken aback at this abrupt action.

"Don't talk rubbish, Harry. You can't die and leave us all of us here alone in this misery," she said. "And talking of the dead won't bring him back, so stop mourning on him."

Harry was shocked. Ginny looked at him with a deep concern in her eyes. "Well, perhaps you could try and remember a thing about last year. You were manipulated by 'incredibly powerful dark magic.' But you lived, again."

Harry looked down and barely whispered, "Not everyone lived."

Ginny put her hand on his shoulder, and Harry looked up. She looked him in the eye. "Harry, it wasn't your fault. You went to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius. Your reasons were noble. You can't expect to always make perfect decisions. You made the best decision you could with the information you had. For Merlin's sake," she said, suddenly exasperated by his views. "You saved my father using a vision. How could you know the same process wasn't at work with Sirius? You tried to find out if it was true."

"But Hermione was the one..."

"Yes, Hermione had the idea to check out the information. So what? Even if you hadn't had the idea to check, you still acted from a pure heart. Harry, I don't like to think about this, no one does. But you do know, that more people are going to die before this is all over, don't you?" she sighed. Harry looked stricken. She had voiced his worst fear.

"Harry," she said gently, "how do you think I feel with eight other members in my family, so close to the action? The odds on my family coming through this unscathed aren't very good." Her voice shook a bit at the end of this. Harry looked at her in shock. Her mother had made a similar observation the year before. It never occurred to him that Ginny would be thinking the same thing. Of course she is, and probably Ron is, too, he thought.

"Ginny, I'm so sorry. I have been stupid lately."

Her voice grew grim. "And Harry, if someone in my family dies, it won't be your fault, or Dumbledore's fault or anyone's fault except You-Know-Who's. He is the one killing people." Her voice took on a pleading tone. "Please try and remember that, Harry. It's -" she took a deep breath and whispered, "Voldemort's fault."

It was the first time Harry had ever heard Ginny use Voldemort's name, and it moved him somehow. He spoke in the same quiet voice. "Okay, Ginny, I'll try and remember." There was a long silence, as they both let the gloomy thoughts sink in. He looked up at her and said sincerely.

"Thanks."

She smiled at him. "Anytime, Harry." She paused, and then suddenly chuckled, releasing some of the tension in the room. "I never thanked you for saving me from Tom Riddle, did I?"

He smiled back. "No, but you don't need to".

She got up and started to walk toward the door.

"Oh, Harry?" She turned and looked at him. Her voice became serious. "Thank you for saving me from Tom that day in the Chamber, anyway." Harry nodded, embarrassed. She silently walked through the door and gently closed it behind her.

***

They were having dinner in the garden (strawberry-pudding cake with the same flavour ice-cream topped with custard) when Mr. Weasley came looking grave, and said, "Dumbledore has arrived to read Sirius' will".

With Dumbledore in the lead, members of the Order entered. They took time to greet each other (very concerned about Harry in particular) and settled down.

Dumbledore was about to start the will, when suddenly they heard footsteps and turned around just in time to watch Percy entering looking exhausted. But he stopped dead at the sight of the younger Weasleys.

He started, "Look! You don't underst-"

But Fred interrupted by shouting, "We don't want to understand anything. You acted like a real prat and are a traitor- enough to be given a life- time imprisonment." He turned onto others, an incredous expression on his face. "Am I only going to say all this to him? How come he's not thrown out of this house?"

"Calm down Fred," said Harry, thinking whether what he pondered over at the Dursleys' was true or not, "I think Percy was always with the Order only and was faking to be with Fudge on Dumbledore's order."

Ron had opened his mouth to speak something, but was shocked to hear Harry speak that and stared at him instead. Fred and George also fell silent.

Percy beamed at him but suddenly frowned and asked, "And may I ask how you came to know that?!"

"I gave it some thought over it in the summer and tried to remember your letter in the school. At that time I thought that it was more a warning than a throw at me," Harry paused, "and I also think that the reason was that Fudge might have been checking every letter so you tried and -successfully, I must say -put it in codes."

"You are really very bright Harry. I wonder how come Ron brings more marks than you in school," Percy said, clearly impressed.

Ron scowled but Harry just laughed. "My line is practical thinking, I can't do all that long term learning."

Percy continued, "Fudge was indeed checking every message in and out of the Ministry. I hoped that you would hand that letter to the members of the Order here, but again thanks to my stupid brother here," he pointed at Ron, who looked like he wanted to kill Percy, "you didn't."

All the younger members of the Weasley family and Hermione had their mouths open. But Ginny recovered first from the shock and coughed in an uncanny voice of Umbridge.

"Now Sirius's will," said Dumbledore seriously. The room went quiet.

He continued, "I, Sirius Black, leave this as my only will, under no magical or alcoholic influence. I hereby, leave 12 Grimmauld Place to Order of The Phoenix, to be handed to Harry Potter after the defeat of Voldemort. To Severus Snape," everyone sent a suspicious look at him, as if wondering what Sirius might leave for Snivellus. Snape shrugged. "I leave my house-elf Kreacher, if he has not died by then crying over my mother's pair of bathroom slippers." Harry snorted, looked at Ron and both burst into silent giggles. Snape looked sour. "To Miss Hermione Granger, I leave my entire library to use as she sees fit." Hermione let out a squeal of excitement but blushed when everyone looked at her. Ron, who was sitting beside her, grinned broadly and shared a wink with Harry. "To Rubeus Hagrid, I leave my dear Hippogriff- Buckbeak. To Ginny Weasley I leave money to buy a whole set of her cauldrons, quills, books and everything she needs in her fifth year at Hogwarts. To Mr. Ronald Weasley, I leave my new Nimbus 2001 which I bought recently just for fun." Ron gasped but smiled gratefully at the same time. "To the Weasleys I leave ¼ of the money in my vault, to Moony, ¼ of the same and the rest to Harry Potter, my Godson. I also leave my flying motorbike to Harry, which he may use after he has completed his sixth year at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore took out a piece of paper and handed it to Harry. "Sirius gave it to me to give it to you if he died before this war."

Harry took the note and read it aloud-

"Dear Harry,

You will take my detailed book - THE UNFORGIVABLE CURSES- from Dumbledore as soon as you read this letter. Don't feel bad about it in any way as you have to now be prepared for them. My last wish to you Harry is, that to fulfill the destiny the prophecy by Sybill has given to you.

Don't ever blame yourself for any deaths caused in this war; this is Voldemort's fault,

I will be always there for you, even after my death,

Love Sirius"

There was a stunned silence in the room which was broken by Fred.

"What is this prophecy? And by Sybill did Sirius mean Trelawney?" he whispered.

"We're in the Order for past 4 months and you never even mentioned a prophecy- let alone telling us," added George indignantly.

"We didn't tell you that Fred doesn't mean that we know it. That is Harry's business, not ours, we do not have a right to know everything about it- do you understand that?" shot Mrs. Weasley from the other end of the table.

"Only Harry has the right to tell it, it is related to him. If he wishes, he will tell us" interrupted Hermione, taking everybody in the room by surprise.

"I think I'll tell everybody now, I'm ready" said Harry, feeling very grave and wondering how everybody would react. He rose, quietly and slowly, and repeated everything about the prophecy that he remembered- what it contained, from whom it was made, whom it referred to and its meaning along with what will probably happen now. But he had not mentioned the part concerning Neville.

Everybody's reactions were quite the same as Harry expected. Ginny quickly stifled her sobs and rushed upstairs. The twins were dumbstruck and without saying anything went to their sister. Hermione was about to cry when she aggressively rubbed her eyes and went to her and Ginny's room. Ron looked at him horror-struck as if asking him how was able cope with the news that he will be either the murderer or the victim of the murder. Mrs. Weasley silently cried and gave him a bone-crushing hug. Moody had a scowl on his face (which was, as Harry thought, probably on the thought that he could not kill Voldemort himself). But the most unexpected reaction was of Snape- he had look of sympathy mixed with a smirk towards Harry.