Breaking Barriers

"Did Professor Trelawney say anything?" Hermione asked at lunch. Harry took a small bunch of grapes, popping them in his mouth one at a time.

"She did mention something about a witch predicting magical interference due to muggles being able to get into wizarding places," Ron said apprehensively, then added, "You don't think it's that serious, do you, Hermione?"

Hermione considered it for a moment.

"I don't know," she confessed.

"Knowing Hogwarts and our luck, it probably is," Ron sighed, also taking a couple of grapes.

"I suppose it's worth a try looking up in the library, don't you think?" Hermione asked.

Ron shrugged in response.

"Harry?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure. Maybe under Muggle invasions."

Harry slowly ripped off the skin of a grape, deep in thought.

The rest of the day happened without incident, to the disappointment of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. In fact, days went by with no incident. Homework pushed thoughts of the two strange happenings to the back of their minds until exactly two weeks after Hermione had failed the Levitatia spell in Charms. Shocking news came on the morning of October 15th when Ron's daily issue of The Daily Prophet was almost dropped into his glass of milk by a huge tawny owl.

"Harry, Hermione, look at this!" Ron showed them a picture which Harry recognised as Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Ron started reading aloud, "The evening of October 14th was a confusing one for many Muggles and wizards. Muggles, hanging around the platform many Hogwarts' students use to get onto the train, were able to get through the platform. The Ministry of Magic was alerted immediately and able to modify the memories of Muggles who got onto the platform, but no one has a clue as to how they were able to get in."

Evidently, other students had got The Daily Prophet as well and were talking about it excitedly. From the looks of it though, it seemed a few were scared.

"Do you think this has anything to do with what happened to you and Draco?" Ron asked worriedly.

"It almost wouldn't make sense if it weren't," Hermione replied.

"Professor Trelawney did say something about that witch predicting Muggle invasions," Harry reminded them.

"You've got Divination today, don't you? Ask her what the witch's name was, - maybe there's information about her prediction in a biography."

"Good idea," Harry said.

Ron was a little apprehensive, after the first time asking Professor Trelawney about it, he seemed a little put off at the idea of asking her again. Harry must've noticed the look on Ron's face.

"I'll change the subject if she starts going off," he assured Ron.

Hermione looked confused, "What are you two talking about?"

"The last time we asked, Professor Trelawney seemed almost excited at the fact that there could be a Muggle invasion," Ron replied.

Hermione shrugged and changed the subject while Ron began reading other articles in The Daily Prophet. Meanwhile, Harry sat in deep thought. What if that witch's prediction was true? What would happen to Hogwarts? Or the wizarding world itself? He shuddered at the thought of the Dursley's having magical powers.

"Come on, let’s go."

Ron was tugging at Harry's arm. They trudged up to Divination, a look of doom on Ron's face as they got to the pull-down door. Most of the class was already there, some looking only mildly interested in what Professor Trelawney was saying.

"Hello, boys," she said, a little misty-eyed. "I'm going to be doing some more personal predictions for all of you today."

Harry groaned. Whenever she did his prediction, he was always surely going to die.

"Uh, Professor, I have a question," Harry said quickly, before she could start. "Who was the witch that you said predicted the Muggle invasion?"

"Oh, Professor!" Lavender squealed. "Muggles were able to get onto the Platform yesterday!"

Professor Trelawney nodded knowingly. "Yes, I predicted that myself, but didn't want to alarm anyone."

Ron snorted, covering it with a cough. "Yeah, right,” he whispered to Harry.

"Tell us more!" Parvati Patil was practically falling off her seat with excitement.

"Well," Professor Trelawney began. "The first prediction of such an event happened hundreds of years ago, when a witch by the name of Cheryl the Unpredictable looked into her crystal ball and saw Muggles invading once all-wizarding places. At that time no one took predicting very seriously and ignored her, until Muggles started getting into places like Hogsmeade."

"So it's happened before?" Harry asked.

"Oh, yes! But that's not what she was predicting. She was predicting something even greater and more horrible. She predicted that the barriers between the Muggle and wizarding worlds would crumble, that we would no longer be divided but live as one."

<---->

Both Harry and Ron shuddered, thinking over what Professor Trelawney had said.

"Oh, come on you two, you don't really think that's true, do you?" Hermione was sitting in a chair in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, listening to Harry re-tell what had happened in Divination.

"I don't know, Hermione," Harry confessed. To him, it made sense.

"It's worth a look in the library, I suppose," she said, standing up to pace the room a bit. It was getting late when they’d finally decided to go to the library.

"Why do we have to go now? Can't we wait until morning?" Ron was trailing behind, thinking of his non-existent essay that was due to Professor Snape tomorrow.

"We're not forcing you to come, Ron," Hermione pointed out. He would have said something back, but just then Professor McGonagall came striding up the corridor.

"What are you three doing in the corridors so late?" she questioned.

"We're going to the library to look up information about Transfiguration," Hermione smiled sweetly, knowing she had hit her mark.

Professor McGonagall smiled back saying, "If Madam Pince has a problem with you there, tell her to come talk to me." With that she walked away.

"Nice job," Ron said appreciatively.

They made their way, quietly, to the library. To the relief of all three, Madam Pince was helping another student find a book and didn't look like she would be done anytime soon.

"Where should we look?" Harry asked.

"The Divination section, most likely," Ron replied, a little sarcasm in his voice. Harry and Ron took seats at a table near the back while Hermione went to the Divination section.

"What did you say her name was?" Hermione asked from behind a shelf of books.

"Cheryl the Unpredictable," Harry and Ron responded in unison.

A minute later Hermione yelled [as much as you can yell in a library without getting in trouble] "Found her! Why didn't I see this before? There's a ton of books on her."

Hermione sat down at the table, holding three very thick books.

"They're all on her?" Ron asked in amazement.

"Well, one of them is a biography and the other two are on famous witches and wizards that were fortune tellers."

She started flipping through a book, handing the other two books to Harry and Ron. The minutes dragged by slowly as they turned each page, only skimming the pages. Cheryl the Unpredictable had made more predictions then they had originally thought. Not helping the situation was the fact that most of them were also very complex and detailed, taking up at least ten pages each.

Ron looked at his watch nervously, his eyes also darting towards Madam Pince. "It's almost 9," he said.

"Let's just check them out, we can read the rest of the books in the Common Room."

Hermione gathered the books out of their hands and walked towards Madam Pince.

"Can I check these out?" she asked.

Madam Pince looked down her nose at the books Hermione was holding. She nodded, leading Hermione to a desk near the library doors, scanning the bar codes of the books on a machine that looked eerily like the ones at Muggle libraries.

"Ok, let's go," Hermione said to Harry and Ron, who were still sitting at the table, talking about something. They headed back to the Common Room, being careful not to run into any teachers on the way.

"I hope Professor McGonagall doesn't ask Madam Pince what books we got," Ron said, mumbling "trick or treat" to the Fat Lady. The painting swung open, letting the three crawl through.

"You're starting to sound like Hermione," Harry laughed, following Ron into the Room.

"I resent that," Hermione retorted. She suddenly stopped short. Harry and Ron followed her eyes to pair of red heads sitting in chairs in front of the fire. She suddenly hid the books behind her back and put on a fake smile.

"Hermione, my lovely!" George said sweetly.

"Up to no good again, Ron?" Fred smiled.

"I could say the same about you," Ron replied. George and Fred shrugged.

"We won’t tell if you won’t," George said.

"Deal."

Ron sat down in a chair. "Hermione, I don't think George or Fred are really going to care." Hermione was still hiding the three books behind her back. She sighed reluctantly.

"Care to share?" Fred said, peering with a look of interest over George's shoulder.

"Yes, do." George was looking, too.

Hermione instinctively covered the books with her hands.

"Aw, come on." George pouted.

"Only if you're going to tell us what you're doing," Ron said, knowing that would get rid of them.

"All right, all right, we're going." Fred and George gathered up their things and headed to seventh year boy's’ dormitory.

"Now that they're gone..…" Ron grabbed the book he had been looking at in the library and flipped to the page where he’d left off earlier.

Again, the minutes passed by slowly, and Harry and Ron made small conversation while skimming.

"I've found something!" Hermione said excitedly.

Both the boys had been sprawled out on the floor but now jumped up to join Hermione at her side.

"Look at this." She pointed to the page she was looking at.

She read, "Perhaps one of Cheryl the Unpredictable's most popular predictions was the one about Muggle invasions. Cheryl predicted in the 21st century, barriers protecting the wizarding world would crumble, leaving them vulnerable to Muggles. Not only that, but she also said Muggles would start gaining wizarding powers, and many wizards would experience 'magical shortages' periodically."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at each other.

"I think we just got our answer," Harry said, his face draining of colour.