Destiny

Befriending Enemies and Destiny's Rotten Luck

Chapter 4

When Destiny woke up the next morning, for a moment she didn't know where she was. Looking around, she sighed. 'I'm at Hogwarts, in the seventh year girls' dorm.'

She quickly looked around for her two best friends, who had always been there when she went to sleep, and when she woke up. Checking to be sure that her new dorm mates were still asleep, Destiny smiled at Lily and James. Waving them over, she quickly shut the hangings on her bed.

"I don't want anyone to hear me talking, so I'm just going to nod and gesture, okay?"

"Alright," Lily said. "Do you like the Gryffindor house?"

Destiny nodded happily.

"So, what do you think of Harry?" James asked with a grin.

With a grin she pointed at her eyes and then pointed at James.

"What?" James asked.

"She said you look like Harry," Lily translated.

Smiling even wider, Destiny closed her eyes and fanned herself with her hand. She quickly reopened her eyes when she heard Lily start to laugh.

"So let me get this straight. You think that Harry looks like James and that Harry is hot?" Turning to look at her husband, Lily said still giggling, "James, Destiny thinks you're hot!"

"Yes, I gathered that," he replied, grinning.

Shaking her head at her crazy friends, Destiny climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom.

By the time Destiny had finished in the bathroom, everyone else was getting up.

"Good morning!" Destiny chirped at her three roommates. Hermione smiled as she put on her shoes. "Hi!" Destiny said to the two other girls in the room. "I'm Destiny Black. What's your names?"

Sneering at her, one of the girls replied, "Black? Are you related to the murderer Sirius Black?"

"What does it matter if I am or not? I'm trying to be your friend. I'm not trying to make you be his friend."

Sticking her nose in the air, the girl said snottily, "We don't consort with Death Eaters." With that, the two girls stalked out of the room, glaring at Hermione as they passed.

After a moment of silence, Destiny said amusedly, "Nice girls. Remind me to never ask them if we can paint each others toe nails." Hermione laughed at the thought of Destiny trying to befriend them. "Who are they?"

"The one who made the Death Eater comment was Parvati. The other one is Lavender. Just ignore them, they're not worth spending time with." After a moment's hesitation, Hermione asked, "Are you related to Sirius Black?"

Sighing, Destiny turned to look at Hermione. "Yes, I am."

"How are you related?"

For a minute, Hermione didn't think she was going to answer.

"I'm his daughter." Seeing the look of shock on Hermione's face, she cringed. "Just say whatever you're thinking. It'll make you feel better." 'Oh man. I should've kept my mouth shut,' she thought.

"...You know he's innocent don't you?" Seeing the surprised look on Destiny's face, Hermione continued. "Harry, Ron, and I found out in our third year. Didn't you know?"

"I've always known. My mother still believes he's guilty but I know it was all Peter Pettigrew's fault."

Seeing Hermione's smile, she smiled back and waited for the inevitable mountain of questions that would come.

"I've never heard Sirius mention a daughter before. Have you seen each other recently?"

Giving a sad sigh, Destiny looked down at her lap. "He doesn't even know I exist. My mom found out she was pregnant with me the day after my father was sent to Azkaban..." Seeing the pitying look she was getting, she said roughly, "Hey, don't pity me. Pity's something I can do without."

"Sorry," Hermione said sheepishly. "I can't wait to tell Harry though!"

"No!" Seeing Hermione's startled expression, she said, "I want to tell him. I'll explain everything I know then. Okay?"

"Okay," Hermione said happily. "Oh! And maybe we can introduce you to Sirius! Would you want to do that?"

Smiling, Destiny relied wistfully, "Yeah. I'd like that."

*****

Destiny and Hermione decided to tell Harry and Ron later when class wouldn't interrupt them.

"Hey guys," Harry greeted them as he shoveled food onto his plate. "Where have you been? We waited for you but you never showed up."

"We were talking. In fact, we all need to have a little chat later," Destiny said seriously as she slid into her seat.

Having arrived late, the Great Hall was already crowded and noisy. Professor Dumbledore stood up and raised his hands for quiet.

"I'm pleased to inform you that our Defense against the Dark Arts professor has arrived. Our fifth through seventh years may remember him. I'm happy to say that Professor Lupin will once again be teaching."

At this pronouncement, all the students that remembered him- including most of the Slytherins- cheered. Those who hadn't had him clapped politely anyways.

"I can't believe he's back!" Ron exclaimed excitedly.

"He was definitely the best defense teacher we've ever had!" Hermione included.

Destiny just sat as still as stone. 'This wasn't supposed to happen! He wasn't supposed to be here! As soon as he gets near me, he's going to know there's something wrong with me!'

"I can't wait until his class," Harry said happily as he helped himself to more bacon. Turning to Destiny, he enthusiastically, "You're really going to like him. When we have defense, we'll go early so you can meet him."

With a strained smile, she forced herself to reply. "Great!" she grinned, all the while thinking desperately of how to avoid Remus Lupin for as long as possible.

As Professor McGonagall passed out the schedules, Destiny took one look at hers and groaned silently. 'That's it!' Destiny thought frantically. 'I'm cursed! There's no other explanation for it! Nobody is capable of having this much bad luck!'

The schedule said that, not only did she have to deal with the werewolf professor first, she also had potions with a man that hated her father- therefore guaranteeing his hatred for her. To make matters even worse, she had Care of Magical Creatures- where every animal would fear her- and Divination, a class that was sure to cause problems.

'Harry could have taken Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, but NO! Nothing can ever be easy for me!'

"Look Harry!" Hermione said excitedly. "We have Lupin first! We can take Destiny to meet him now!"

Thinking quickly, Destiny hurriedly said, "Oh, I'm sure he to busy at the moment to meet me-"

"Of course he isn't!" Ron said oblivious to her discomfort. "I'm sure he'd like to meet any of Harry's friends."

Grabbing her arm, they hauled her out of her seat, through the castle, to the Defense against the Dark Arts room. Knocking, they walked into the classroom.

Inside was a tall man with graying brown hair. Though very thin, Destiny could sense the power and strength that hung around him like a cloak. The others couldn't see the aura of power like she could, even if they'd known what to look for. But then, they hadn't spent most of their lives looking at two plains of existence at once. She knew that, though he wouldn't be able to see what she was, he would be able to sense the power that classified her as 'Not Human'.

"Professor Lupin!"

"Well hello. I didn't expect any students to show up early. How are you?"

"We're great! We wanted to introduce you to the new transfer student. This is-"

Destiny quickly interrupted before they could reveal her last name. If Lupin found out during class, then he wouldn't be able to ask any questions... hopefully. "Hey! I'm Destiny!" Holding out her hand, she smiled, trying to ignore her instincts that told her to run and not let anybody find out about her powers... Not to let anybody else have a reason to treat her differently... To keep them from treating her like a monster, a plague...

Looking at him, she could see realization come over him.

Giving him a pleading look, she started to drop her hand to her side. He must have recognized the sad, lonely look in her eyes that few ever bothered to see because he instantly reached out and shook her hand.

"Well, Destiny, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Giving a relieved sigh, she stepped back and allowed the others to continue their conversation. The entire time they talked, she noticed that the werewolf kept glancing thoughtfully in her direction.

When the rest of the students arrived, she hurriedly went and sat near the door.

'Quick escape. Definitely going to have to make one,' she thought pensively.

Smiling, Professor Lupin quickly took roll call.

"Lavender Brown?"

"Here!"

"Destiny Black?" As soon as he said her name, his head jerked up, startled. "Black?" he whispered.

"Yes, Sir, that is my last name. I believe you were calling roll..." Destiny said in a quiet, cold voice.

Giving himself a little shake, he nodded and continued.

Defense class went fast. They discussed everything they had been taught in order to find out what had been learned and what had been missed. Eager to prove that even if she was a Black, she was still smart, she spent the entire class competing with Hermione to get her hand in the air first. When the bell rang, she quickly grabbed her book bag and stuffed everything inside of it.

"No homework. Have a good day. Destiny, could I have a word with you?"

Trying no to grind her teeth in annoyance, Destiny waited until everyone had left before heading up to the teachers' desk. As soon as she had made sure that everyone was gone, she dropped the innocent face and snarled, "How much have you figured out?"

If he was surprised at her bluntness, he didn't show it. "You're not human. My guess is that you're the Necromancer or something close to it."

'Oh this is great, just great!' she thought frantically. 'Okay besides my freakout, I may still be able to salvage this mess...When in doubt, play dumb!'

"A what? I don't know what you're talking about." Thinking fast, she added, "I thought this was about my last name."

"Stop playing stupid. You're not dumb nor are you as innocent as you pretend to be. You proved that during class today."

'Crap! Me and my big mouth!' she thought angrily.

"Alright, you know. What are you going to do about it?"

Looking annoyed, Lupin asked defensively, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're going to tell Dumbledore, right? I mean, I'm dangerous. Everyone knows that Necromancers are evil, that we don't have souls or feelings. I mean, that is what you were thinking, right?"

Seeing the look of horror on his face, she knew that he would never tell. He might even become one of her rare, trusted friends...

"Of course I won't tell." Seeing the relief flash over her face, he added, "You will have to answer a few of my questions though..."

"Should've expected that." Smiling at her comment, he let her continue. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Your last name is Black. I'm assuming you're Julia Snow's daughter?"

Grimacing, Destiny said, "Yeah, unfortunately."

"So, that would also make you Sirius Blacks' daughter." Before she could reply, he stood up from where he was sitting on his desk and began to pace. "You do know that-"

"Yeah, yeah," Destiny interrupted, "I know. He's innocent. Next question."

"You're really rude. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

"I've heard it runs in the family. Much like my pranking sense of humor."

"Padfoot number two?"

"But of course!"

*****

After a few more questions about her family, Lupin sent her off with a pass to her next class.

Destiny smiled as she thought of what Remus Lupin had said to her before she'd left. 'If he give you a detention for being late, I'll make sure you serve it with me so you don't actually have to do anything.'

Smirking, she whispered, "Lead on, Jamsie Boy!"

"Jamsie Boy! Why I outta..."

Destiny laughed as James jumped around, waving his fists like a boxer.

"Pwease!" she pouted.

"Not the face! No, please!" Screaming dramatically, James Potter took off at a run- or a float since his feet weren't actually touching the floor- with Destiny right on his tail.

After running for five minutes, they finally made it to the dungeon classroom, Destiny panting pathetically. Taking a deep breath to control her breathing, she rapped twice on the door before walking on in.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor Snape. Professor Lupin asked to see me after class."

Destiny stood there and waited to see what would happen next. Sure enough, the greasy haired, hook nosed teacher slowly approached in a threatening manner.

'You think you're so scary,' Destiny thought with disdain. 'I wish you'd seen some of the more grotesque ghosts I've had to deal with. I wish I could make James solid and let him kick the crap out of you.'

"So... You think you have the right to just walk into my class at whatever time you feel is appropriate? Ten points for insubordination."

Raising an eyebrow, she flashed him a smile and turned to walk to an empty seat by a blonde boy, on the opposite side of the classroom from Harry. As she walked, she concentrated on making James solid enough to move objects but still be invisible. Hearing snickering from the Potters, she knew James had done his job.

"Where are you going? I have not finished with you yet!" Snape growled angrily.

And then it happened...

Snape went to take a step forward and immediately fell to the floor. Lily and James could be seen- by her anyway- howling with laughter. James had apparently decided to not only tie Snape's shoes together, but to also tie them to a desk. After a stunned silence, everyone burst out laughing.

Gaining some control over herself, she managed to ask in a voice that would never be mistaken for anything but mocking, "Oh, Sir! Are you alright?"

Growling, Snape quickly pointed his wand at his shoes and untied them before getting to his feet.

"You did it," he whispered quietly. All the laughter immediately stopped. "Detention and fifty points from Gryffindor. Not making a very good start are you? Losing sixty points for your house on the first day."

With that, he turned and walked to the front of the class, where he began to give instructions for making the floating potion.

Smirking at Snape for his stupid manner of inflicting fear, she turned to the boy next to her, who was to be her partner. As she looked at him, she sighed. It was the boy she had asked to help her get a book in Flourish and Blotts.

Pasting on a friendly smile, she chirped, "Hi! I'm Destiny! Who're you?"

"Draco Malfoy," the boy said shortly, obviously not thrilled at having to work with her.

Cringing to herself, she thought, 'Oh, yeah. Definitely cursed. Well, if I have to be stuck with him for the next two hours, I might as well try to befriend him... Man! I want to go back to where everyone hated and ignored me! At least there, I never had to act like a freaking airhead!'

"Well, hello Draco Malfoy! So, let's get started on our potion. Are you very good at this?" she asked as she carefully started shredding the Moonweed Puff.

"Yes. Don't you dare do anything that will mess up my potion."

"Don't worry. Not eager to have to hang out with Snape anymore than I have to. You're a Slytherin, right?"

Seeing that she wasn't going to give up on the conversation, he reluctantly started to talk to her. "Yes, I am."

"Do you like it there or do you wish you had been put somewhere else?"

"I'm glad I'm in Slytherin. If I wasn't though, I'd want to be a Ravenclaw."

Smiling, she exclaimed, "See! We do have something in common! We'd both want to be in Ravenclaw if we weren't in the house that we're in!"

"Shh!" Draco said with a small smile tugging at his lips. "Don't draw Snape's attention to you!"

It turned out that Draco and Destiny had a lot in common. They talked all class period and by the time the bell rang, they had become friends.

Smiling as she got her stuff together to leave, she said, "Would you want to be my partner again, next time?"

"Yes," he said with a smile, "I'd like that."

*****

As Harry walked to Potions class with his two best friends, he couldn't help but feel guilty. "We should have waited for her. She's bound to get lost."

"If we had stayed," Hermione replied reasonably, "We'd all be serving a detention. At least with Destiny, since she's new, she can get away with it- hopefully."

"She won't get away with being late," Ron said sourly. "Not in Snape's class. And she doesn't know how Snape is, so she might try to argue when he gives her a detention."

"What a way to start the year. Detention and guaranteed point loss."

As soon as the bell rang, Snape began lecturing on how difficult it was to make this particular floating potion and how he expected they were all too stupid to make it correctly. Hermione was on the edge of her seat, she was so eager to prove she could do it.

Just then there was a knock on the door and in walked Destiny.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor Snape. Professor Lupin asked to see me after class."

Harry cringed as soon as he heard what she had said. 'Oh, man. Of all the things to say!' He watched as Snape slowly advanced on the petite girl. 'Dear Lord! She must have nerves of steel! She's not even flinching! I don't think she's afraid at all!' he thought amazed.

As Snape started to insult Destiny, he watched the Slytherins. They obviously thought it was great to see the new girl- not to mention she was a Gryffindor- being embarrassed. They also seemed to be waiting to see if she would be like most girls and cry.

Surprisingly, she seemed neither embarrassed nor ready to cry. She just turned her back to Snape and walked to the closest empty seat... right next to Draco Malfoy.

Groaning silently, he thought, 'Oh, this can't get any worse.'

How wrong he was.

Just as Snape started to yell at Destiny, he suddenly tripped and fell. Without being able to stop himself, Harry burst out laughing. Thankfully the rest of the class was laughing too. Through his laughter, he heard Destiny say mockingly, "Oh, Sir! Are you alright?" He immediately shut-up when he heard that. 'Here it comes,' he thought.

Sure enough, Snape gave her a detention, took fifty more points, and blamed his shoes being tied together on her.

As Snape went back to insulting the entire class, he watched as Destiny turned and tried to befriend Malfoy.

"Hey Ron..." Harry nudged Ron to get his attention. "I think Destiny's actually seceding in making friends with Malfoy."

"You've got to be kidding me." He quickly looked over at them and his mouth dropped open. "Holy... Is Malfoy SMILING? How did she do it? All he usually does is smirk and scowl!"

Harry and Ron both shuddered as they watched Malfoy laugh at Destiny's joke.

*****

As Destiny walked out of the classroom, she looked around for Harry and company. Seeing them, she hurried over.

Hola mono chicos!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Hermione asked with amusement.

Smiling happily, she said, "I said hello monkey people... I think... Oh, well. Close enough!"

Suddenly, Ron burst out, "I can't believe you were fraternizing with the enemy!"

"The enemy?" Destiny asked confused. "Huh?"

"Malfoy! He's a Slytherin-"

"Therefore I should hate him without a reason?"

"Yes!"

"Ron, I want to be your friend. But if you're going to be trying to tell me who I can and can't hang out with, then you aren't worth my time. Draco is really sweet and if you would attempt to be nice to him, you could find that out."

"I would NEVER be his friend. He has done nothing but insult my family, Harry and call Hermione a mudblood!"

"Sticks and stones Ron. And anyway, I'm sure you've all returned the favor." Pausing for a second, she looked at them. "Come on guys! Let bygones be bygones!"

Wanting to stop the argument, Harry said, "Tell you what. You be friends with anyone you want and we'll try to be civilized to them. How's that?"

Sighing Destiny replied, "Good enough." Switching back to happy mode, she asked, "So what's next?"

With a look of relief on his face, Harry said, "Divination."

Groaning, Destiny whined, "What the heck! I swear, somebody up there has it in for me!"

Laughing, Harry said, "Great! You can join our 'I hate Trelawney ' club."

*****

After lunch, Harry, Ron and Destiny headed to Divination. Destiny looked sadly after Hermione who had Arithmancy instead of Divination. 'Why, oh why couldn't he have taken anything but this!' she thought, depressed.

When they got to the top of the tower, she looked around. "Um... guys? There's nothing here." Just then a trapdoor opened above them and a silver ladder slowly lowered itself down. "O...K... That was anticlimactic..." Destiny mumbled.

With a snort of laughter they started to climb the ladder. As they got to the top, she looked around. There was a bunch of little tables with chairs at them. The entire room was filled with thick incense smoke and it was all she could do to not start coughing. Just as they were sitting down, a misty voice came from the corner of the room.

"I have been informed by the Fates that we have a new student joining us today."

"The Fates?" Destiny whispered to Harry.

"I am Professor Trelawney," the strange moth-like teacher explained to Destiny. "I will help you learn to use your inner eye while you're here. I have been burdened with the knowledge that you have not done well in your last Divination class," she informed them, sighing sadly.

"Um... Okay," Destiny said with amusement.

"Today I have been informed by the Fates that we will be reviewing tea leaves." At this, Harry groaned quietly. "Please get your cups and return to your seats. Oh and Mr. Longbottom? Please don't break more than your first cup today."

At this, Destiny's face twisted in anger. Hurrying over to the cups, she grabbed two, before going over to Neville and handing one to him. Leaning close to him, she murmured, "Be careful with it. Let's show that ugly cow just how much of a fake she is!"

Looking at her with surprise, he answered, "But she's seen that it will break. She's a Seer!"

"No, trust me, she's not."

"How do you know?"

"I can't really explain it but if you don't believe me, ask Harry. He'll tell you the same thing." With that, she turned and went back to her table with her cup. "Where'd Ron go?" she asked looking around.

"He's going to work with Dean." Seeing her questioning face, he explained, "Well you had to work with a stranger in the last class, so we decided to have one of us work with you. So... tea leaves." After about five minutes of trying to read Destiny's future from her cup, he exclaimed with exasperation, "Okay, this is stupid. There's nothing here!"

Sighing, Destiny reached out and took Harry's cup. "Okay, let's see what we have here... There's a swamp, which means grave danger; a cross, which means safety if you hold on to whatever you have; and a heart with wings, which means true love is within your grasp, but if you don't grab onto it, it'll get away." With that, she looked up and saw Harry, Ron and Dean- who had come to sit at their table- staring at her in shock. "What?" she asked irritated.

"You can actually see things in the cups, can't you?" Harry asked amazed.

Giving a quick look around she sighed and whispered, "Yes." Waving the three of them closer to her she whispered, "I'm a Seer. That's why I got so mad when Trelawney said that to Neville. That wasn't being a Seer; that was bullying an already self-conscious boy." Clenching her teeth, she added, "A real Seer would never announce to a room full of people that she- or he- could see the future. Only those who have, by chance, had a vision or made a prophecy, have ever announced it. Sometimes it's better not to know what will happen. I mean, if you know you're going to die, you'll never be truly happy again. You'll always be waiting for death to catch up with you."

"But if you know that someone's going to die and you know when, wouldn't you try to stop it?" Dean asked curiously.

"I'd like to think I'd be strong enough not to." Seeing their confused looks, she added, "Sometimes it takes more courage to let destiny take its course than to stop it."

"It's wrong to let somebody die if you can stop it," Harry said quietly.

"Everybody must die someday. Sometimes people just die sooner rather than later." With a more cheerful expression, she said, "Enough doom and gloom! Let me read your guys cups."

Happy to be doing anything but discussing what they had been, Dean pushed his cup forward.

"Hmm... Okay, I see a sun. That means happiness in the near future. There's a cloud though so something bad is going to happen to take the happiness away." Seeing his eyes grow wide with fear, she said, "There's no Grim in your cup. That means you're probably going to break-up with your girlfriend or break your leg or something."

Obviously having heard Destiny mention the Grim, Trelawney gasped and quickly exclaimed loudly so the whole class could hear, "Oh my poor girl! You too have seen the Grim in Mr. Potter's cup!" Grabbing Dean's cup, she exclaimed, "Oh dear! Even now the Grim is becoming more clear!"

"Umm... Ma'am? That's not Harry's cup..." Destiny said. All around her, the boys were smirking. "And just so you know, there's nothing in there that even remotely resembles a Grim... Or for that matter, any type of animal."

Very stiffly Trelawney said, "My dear, I'm afraid that you don't have much clairvoyant energy around you. I'm not surprised you did not see it."

Destiny's mouth dropped open.

"The nerve of that lady!" Lily exclaimed angrily. Without thinking, Destiny nodded.

"Who are you nodding at?" Ron asked.

"No one," Destiny said as she snapped back to attention.

After Trelawney's insult, Destiny refused to take part in the conversation any more until Ron, near the end of class, asked the question that set off her anger.

"Don't you want to see the future your cup tells?"

"Are you nuts! No! Why do you think you switch cups?"

"I never thought about it. So you won't just see all good things or all bad things?"

"If I read your cup for you and I see the Grim, then I can pretend to have seen something else. Nobody should know when they are to die. That is why. If I read my own cup and saw that something bad was going to happen, then I would try to prevent it. If I tried to prevent it... then I might make it even worse and get others killed too. That is why nobody should ever look in their own cup!"

During the silence that followed, the bell rang. Walking down the hall to their last class, Neville hurried up to Destiny.

"Guess what?" Without waiting for an answer, he said, "You were right! She is a fraud! I made it through the entire class without breaking it!"

"Good for you! You know, you shouldn't let people push you around like that."

"I know..."

Seeing his enthusiasm of the topic, Destiny gave him pointers all the way to Care of Magical Creatures. By the time they reached the class, it was obvious that Neville had a huge crush of her. Hermione- who had met up with them in the Entrance Hall- was smiling knowingly at her.

"I think he likes you!" she said laughing.

"Shut it you," Destiny replied good-naturedly.

"So how was Divination? Have you now lost all respect for our school?" Hermione asked.

"No. The school is great, but I lost all respect the Divination class though the instant that over grown moth tried to be mysterious with the ladder. It was all down hill from there."

Giggling, Hermione asked, "What happened?"

Looking to Destiny for approval, Harry said, "Destiny's a Seer. She was reading our tea leaves and she was saying there wasn't a Grim in Dean's cup and Trelawney heard. She ended up saying Destiny wasn't a Seer and then Destiny started lecturing us on why certain things are the way they are."

"I wasn't lecturing. I was trying to get you to think, " she said with a pout.

As they arrived at Hagrid's hut, they called out a hello to him.

"'Ello there!" Hagrid called to his three friends.

"That's Hagrid," Harry said. "He teaches this class and he's also Game Keeper."

When the Slytherins arrived a few moments later, Destiny raised her hand with a smile, and waved, calling out loudly, "Hi Draco!" She immediately dropped her hand when she saw the glares she was receiving from both the Slytherins and Gryffindors.

The class went much as Destiny expected it to. The animals that they were studying kept freaking out if she got to close. She quickly backed away after their first panic so as not to draw attention to herself. She didn't want people asking why a Griffin- which was a ferocious, half lion, half eagle that had little competition on pure cruelty- kept panicking when she was around. Walking back to the common room after class, Destiny was, for the first time, thankful for her powers: the other seventh year Gryffindors, were all covered in dirt and scratches.

"How did you manage to stay so clean?" Ron asked, examining her perfectly clean skirt and robes.

Laughing, Destiny replied, "Well I was smart enough NOT to try and play with the psycho animal!"

As they reached the common room, Harry said, "I have to go. I'm supposed to be meeting with Dumbledore."

"Why?" Ron asked worriedly. "Did You-Know-Who do something else?"

"Voldemort is always doing something but I don't know if that is what this is about." About twenty minutes after Harry had left, he returned, slightly out of breath. "Destiny, Dumbledore wants to talk to you about permanent year placing. You know, it would have saved me a lot of walking if I would have just brought you with me the first time." As Harry smiled at her, she couldn't force anything more than a weak, half-hearted grin in return. The next hour or so could determine whether or not Destiny was able to stop the reign of evil before it conquered them all.