Harry Potter and the Ring of Doom

As they headed back to the library, Hermione noticed Harry getting a little uncomfortable. He came to a stop and said to Professor Dumbledore, "Professor, could I talk to you for a moment?" She slowed down to see what she might be able to add to the conversation, but he became even more embarrassed, and asked sheepishly, "Alone? Sorry, Hermione."

She didn't want to laugh, for fear of hurting his feelings, but she couldn't help it. "Don't worry, Harry, I understand. I'll see you back at the library." She walked off, around the corner, but stopped almost immediately and pressed conspiratorially up against the column. I have the strangest feeling that it involves me, so I intend to find out what it's all about.

"Well, Harry, what's on your mind?" the headmaster asked.

"Well, umm, I was wondering if there's a spell to...well, I don't know the word I want...is there something like a 'cold shower' spell?"

Her hand came to her mouth in shock, with perhaps a hint of ... other feelings. Oh my goodness! I do that to Harry! Oh my!

She barely heard as the professor asked him, "Why would you need one, Harry?" After a pause, he added, "Or does it have something to do with the young lady who just left us?"

What kind of answer do I want him to give? Oh my oh my oh my ...

"I've never noticed that she's pretty before, Professor. She's my best friend, right up there with Ron." I'm glad to actually hear him say that, although it'd be nice if he said it to my face. "If I'm finding my best friend pretty, what does that mean for the rest of the year?" Huh? "Cho, and Parvati, and thank the gods that Alicia and Angela have graduated, in case I ever manage to get back on the Quidditch team." And now he channels Ron, the silly git. I'll give him... "I'll probably be an unholy terror, as my Uncle Vernon would say at the top of his lungs." He shuddered. "Gods, I'm quoting Vernon." Serves you right...

Dumbledore paused for a moment before saying, "Have you considered another possibility, Harry? That you might be realizing that you are falling in love with Miss Granger?" She didn't hear the rest of his statement for the shock, and the sudden sound of her heart in her ears. Ohmygoodness - could that be the reason ... oh my ... She was breathless in anticipation of Harry's response.

"But she's my best friend!" Harry replied indignantly. "And what about Ron? I think he fancies her too!"

"That is something for the three of you to work out amongst yourselves. As for her being your best friend, can you really think of anyone better, if it is love?" Right! she thought indignantly. Wait, this is Harry I'm thinking about ... do I really want to consider being in love with my best friend? Her mind wandered, thinking randomly about the very idea, and she found that if made her feel ... odd, but not in a bad way. Maybe ... she smiled demurely to herself.

Harry spoke finally. "Um, sir? How do I ... how can I tell if I am in love? With her, I mean?" I want to hear the answer to this one myself.

"Ah, Mister Potter, if I knew the answer to that, I would know the answers to all the secrets of the universe. I simply can not tell you because I do not know. I could suggest a few things, but they are obvious with a little thought." Rats! I was hoping for more. Well, I'd better get moving unless I want them to know that I was eavesdropping.

She walked briskly toward the library, thinking as she went. Seems like I need to give this a chance. Perhaps actively consider Harry for a while, and see if it works. Well, that being decided, all I have to do is set it in motion. He won't know what hit him. She quietly chuckled what some could mistake as an evil chuckle. She was almost to the library door when something Harry said sank in. '...fancies her too?' Well, this will be fun!

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By the time Harry and Professor Dumbledore had reached the library, Arthur and Molly Weasley had arrived with Ron and Ginny. Minerva McGonagall was quickly bringing them up to speed on the situation at hand, after which Albus told the assembled group what had happened at St. Mungo's.

Molly spoke up. "If the Prophecy is literal, then Arthur isn't the one needed. The only one of our children actually born at the Burrows was Ron. All the others decided on their own times," she laughed. "I can't say that I'm happy about my Ron being mentioned in a Prophecy."

Harry took this in with interest, carefully ignoring Hermione for the moment, both because he was so confused by what Professor Dumbledore had told him, and also because of the somewhat speculative look she was giving him at the moment. She looks like a hungry cat who thinks of me as a particularly tasty goldfish, he thought warily. He let his mind wander over the words of the Prophecy again, wondering if something would come to him. From the way that Frodo Baggins spoke, it sounds like they have their own Dark Lord, so I'm a bit less worried about having to fight a psychotic Voldemort - at least, no more psychotic than he normally is. Why does the name Tiamat sound familiar, though? Something Hermione talked about at some point? No, it was one summer with the Weasleys ...Charlie was talking about dragons ... "Oh, no!" he exclaimed aloud.

"What is it, Mister Potter?" Severus Snape asked with some asperity.

"I think I know who they are. I just remembered a conversation one summer at the Burrows, and at St. Mungo's I think I puzzled out the Minerva clue." He closed his eyes and said, "Minerva's Maid ... Tiamat's Son ... Burrow Born ... Hirsute One ..." Opening them again he continued, "Minerva's Maid is probably Hermione. She seems to be Professor McGonagall's favorite student right now, and Minerva is also supposed to be the goddess of wisdom, if I remember correctly." He stuck out his tongue at Hermione. "See, I do read occasionally." Amidst chuckling, he continued. "Burrow Born is Ron, it seems. The conversation I remembered revolved around dragons, since Charlie was home, and talking rather excitedly about a breed of dragon they'd found out around Iran; one they'd thought was extinct. It was called the Persian Tiamat. Tiamat is a dragon, and who do we know that ..."

Draco Malfoy had turned white for only a moment. "You mean I have to go on some stupid quest with those two?" he asked, pointing at Ron and Hermione.

"Sounds like it, Malfoy," Harry grinned. "I'm sorry I won't be going, but at least you'll have Professor Dumbledore to keep you in line."

Arthur Weasley spoke up. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Harry. I was worried when I first heard the Prophecy, because I didn't think of 'shaggy' or 'bearded' when I heard the word hirsute. It's most commonly used as a synonym for 'hairy'."

The four children's faces were whiter than fresh Christmas snow. "It can't be!" Ron said. "We're still just students! What can we be expected to do against some Dark Lord?"

"I cannot say what," replied Albus Dumbledore kindly, "but as for how well, I would say that the three of you have done quite well before versus one Dark Lord, even in your first year at the school." He looked at Ron knowingly. "If you were that committed at eleven, and even more so at fifteen, then I don't see you being anything but stronger at sixteen."

"Yes, but look at the hash I made of things at fifteen," Harry said bitterly.

Draco opened his mouth to speak, but Ron said, "Malfoy, if you say one word, I will curse you so badly it'll take them the rest of the year to get you back to normal, and I don't care if they expel me for it, either." Draco blinked in surprise at Ron's tone, but covered it quickly with a look of indifference. He stayed silent, however.

"Now that enough testosterone has been made evident, I would like to get back to the question at hand. Are we certain that the children are the only possibly choices for this ... quest? Remember, our first thought was that either Professor Dumbledore or Hagrid were being referred to in the 'Hirsute One' clue. I am still unconvinced that Athur Weasley might not be the one referred to as 'Burrow Born'. I fear that Mister Potter may be correct as far as Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy are concerned."

"Is there any way to get further information concerning the Prophecy?" Hermione asked. "I'll admit that I don't want to go if I don't have to. Whether or not I've been in dangerous situations before is beside the point. I didn't exactly enjoy them. I'd rather be here worrying about studying and school and maybe even dating." Harry didn't see her eyes flicker across both Ron and himself.

Albus Dumbledore did, and smiled briefly as he said, "I will not send anyone on this quest until we are absolutely certain who is meant by this Prophecy, if only because I do not want to send the wrong group, and thereby doom the attempt to failure."

Sybil Trelawney stood up and faced the group. Her eyes were unfocused, and as she opened her mouth, Harry got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as the hoarse voice of Prophecy escaped her lips. "... HALFLING BORNE THE RING HAS COME, HALFLING BORNE THE DEED BE DONE ... DARK LORD'S RAGE SUBSIDES WHILE DESIRE ABIDES ... REMOVE TEMPTATION OR FACE DAMNATION ..."

Nonplussed, Minerva McGonagall said, "When did she become a poet, Albus? Not a very good one, but nonetheless ..."

"So we have to get Frodo and his friends back to health quickly?" Harry asked. "That doesn't fit with the other Prophecy."

Albus looked sadly at him. "I have often heard it said that you should be careful what you wish for, because you might get your wish granted. This answers the question all too well." He shook his head. "I do not like sending children into such a potentially dangerous situation."

"I don't understand," Ron said. "We're not halflings, whatever they are."

Hermione had risen and walked to the dictionary in the library. Turning back to the group she said, "Yes we are, Ron. "Look at the dictionary, and you'll find that the definition of halfling refers to children or young people. Oxford English Dictionary, unabridged. It's an archaic usage of the term, but it is accurate. Face it Ron - you, me, Harry, and Draco have to take that Ring to this Rivendell place Frodo spoke of. In another world." She walked back over to the table and sat down heavily.

"Well, Uncle Vernon will be glad to be shut of me," Harry laughed weakly, no real humour in the laugh.

Ron echoed it with a weak laugh of his own. "At least I don't have to figure out how to tell my parents," he said, looking up at his mother, who was fighting tears, and not entirely winning.

"Taking this thing will bugger up Voldemort's plans, right?" Draco Malfoy asked. "I mean, he brought those four that Potter and Granger saw, to take the Ring they were carrying?"

"I does appear that way," Albus Dumbledore replied.

"Then I'll go, if only to spit in Voldemort's eye." He turned and glared at the Gryffindor friends. "That barmy bastard killed my mother and father because he thought Dad had something to do with those four not showing up where they were supposed to. I'll jump into a volcano if it'll keep Voldemort from getting this ring you're talking about." He turned violently away from everyone else. Harry could hear a very quiet sniff.

"I'm still not looking forward to telling my parents," Hermione said quietly. "'Mum, Dad, it seems that I have to go on a quest in another world with a ring that Voldemort wants very badly, just to make sure he doesn't get it. It was made by another Dark Lord, who probably wants it back himself. No, no danger at all!'" She chuckled mirthlessly. "I'd much rather be spending the summer complaining about boys." Her eyes flickered to Harry for a moment.

"I don't like it!" Molly Weasley said. "What are four children supposed to do that four adults can't? Why must we risk their lives?!"

The room was silent for a while. No one could answer that. Suddenly, Ron spoke up, surprising everyone, including himself. "Mum, I can't say I like it either, but when was the last time you heard a Prophecy that was wrong? Not a prediction, Mum; a Prophecy. These say that it has to be us four. I don't think I want to take the chance of this Ring thingy falling into Vol ... You-Know-Who's hands because we decided to go around what was Prophesied."

Hermione spoke up. "Besides, we might also be helping to save that other world as well. That might be the thing we were picked for. Not to save this world, but to save Frodo's world."

Ron leaned over to Harry and murmured, "I was hoping someone could give me some examples of Prophecies gone wrong...I don't want to go." It was loud enough that the adults in the room chuckled for just a moment, which caused him to wince and try to hide.

Dumbledore spoke up. "Whether we like it or not, it appears that these four young ones must take this item back to the world whence it came. Before they can do that, however, we must find the method of sending them. And I must endeavour to contact this Gandalf that Mr. Baggins spoke of." He looked to Arthur Weasley. "Have we any of the possessions or clothing of Mr. Baggins' friends? It would certainly make the attempt to contact Gandalf easier." He looked up at Professors McGonagall and Snape. "I believe that we shall be forced to give these four an accelerated curriculum. What they would have learned during their sixth year here may very well mean the difference between life and death in that other world."