The Real Story of Harry Potter

Chapter Thirteen: Agnes Riddle

When we were all gathered in the living room, Mr. Weasley began to tell his story. I will recount it here as best I can.

First off all, he said, McGonagall apologized for not giving us information as to what was going on. Due to Moody's memory charm, she didn't know we were at The Burrow, but said she assumed Mr. Weasley knew our whereabouts and would pass on the message. Apparently, she had gone into her classroom that morning and found the ghost of Agnes Riddle, Tom Marvolo's mother, sitting on an empty desk.

Well, as you would expect, she was quite shocked, but she relaxed a bit once Agnes reassured her that she meant no harm and was, in fact, there to help McGonagall defeat Voldemort, who she referred to as "that stupid git whose conception I regret". She then instructed MacGonagall to gather all the others who had been at The Three Broomsticks, but specifically told her to make sure Remus, Sirius, me, and the underage ones stayed where they were. She would explain why in a bit, she said.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley met with Hagrid and the professors in McGonagall's classroom, and Agnes Riddle began to tell her story.

"It all begins with Rowena Ravenclaw," she said. "Now, you all know that the Hogwarts founders had their unique skills, and Rowena's was that she was a prophetess. A real one, Sibyll, who did NOT predict the death of a student every year." According to Mr. Weasley, Professor Trelawney had given a "Well!" look and McGonagall tried not to laugh.

"Due to the vast amount of time she spent in a trance," Agnes had continued, "she was unable to teach. Instead, she would pick the cleverest students to listen in while she was in a trance and record what she was saying. To be picked was a great honor. Now, Minerva, I believe that if you take your wand and tap that brick in the corner, you will find something."

McGongall had taken her wand and tapped the brick. It slid aside to reveal a dusty, cobwebby compartment about two feet wide and one foot high. Inside the compartment was "this book," Mr. Weasley said. He held up a tattered book with yellowing pages. Embossed on the cover was the title, "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Rowena Ravenclaw, Witch".

"On the other side," Agnes had continued, "I can talk with all sorts of spirits. My own twenty-times great grandmother, for example. She was one of the students who wrote down Rowena's prophecies, and she was the sole witness to Rowena's creation of The Safe of the Future. Salazar Slytherin was not the only Hogwarts founder who made a secret place for themselves inside of the school.

"One of Rowena's prophecies was that the contents of the book should only be known to certain people." At this point, Mr. Weasley opened up the book to the back and showed it to us. It read, "To Be Seen Only By Those By The Names Of Potter, Riddle, Granger, Black, Lupin, McGonagall, Weasley, and Rowling. All Other Will Be Cursed From the Great Beyond."

I shuddered. Mr. Weasley continued. "Now," Agnes had said, "I want you all to know that I have no sympathy for my son Tom. As far as I'm concerned, he is no longer my son. My son died the day Tom Marvolo Riddle became Lord Voldemort."

Agnes had then gone on to say that many, many things in the wizarding world had been foretold in the book. "Like this, for example," said Mr. Weasley.

The book said: "Four shall come together, in a fraternity of the night. One is brilliant of mind; one is noble of heart; one is kind of nature, and one shall seek to end their happiness. The weakling shall turn traitor and the fraternity shall be dispersed. One shall leave this world for the next; one shall spend a dozen years of misery; one shall live a life of grief; and the traitor shall pay for his deeds."

I looked over at Sirius and Remus. They were holding hands.

"Or this one," said Mr. Weasley.

And the book said: "On a rushing beast of steel, an outsider shall receive word from a unique and powerful wizard, and on paper shall the two worlds collide."

"That's the owl post I sent Jo on the train!" said Harry.

The thing of it was, Agnes had said, that no one had ever been able to make any sense of the prophecies until after something had happened. For example, in Rowena's time, there were no trains, so the "rushing beast of steel" had made no sense. "But," Mr. Weasley said, "This part was of concern to Agnes." He handed the book to me.

I read: "A clever woman from the outside world shall beget a child, and the child shall be at risk more grave than it will ever know. The key to protection lies with two faithful canines, who shall never leave her side if the child is to survive unscathed. They do not know of their own power, but one whose name is never spoken has the knowledge they lack."

"That's why she wanted Sirius and Remus to stay behind, Jo," said Mr. Weasley softly. "From what we can tell, Voldemort is after your child. I don't think he wants you in Azkaban at all, I think he had other reasons for kidnapping Dumbledore and presiding over the trial."

"Lovely," I said. "Let's recap, shall we? I'm stuck in a house with a zillion people, I can't leave, I'm supposed to be guarded by Remus and Sirius and NEVER LEAVE THEIR SIDE (sorry lads, there goes your sex life), Dobby is blackmailing Malfoy, Dumbledore is captured, and we've got this book. Which no one ever made any sense of until AFTER things had happened."

I shuddered. It was going to be a LONG time before I finished The Order of the Phoenix.

Chapter Fourteen: Two Wizards, a Muggle Woman, and One Bedroom

That night, the question was raised of how sleeping arrangements were going to work. "I suppose we could move Ginny's bed into Sirius and Remus's room," said Mrs. Weasley doubtfully.

Percy looked irritated, probably because "Percy's room" had now become "Sirius and Remus's room".

"Of course we could," said Mr. Weasley. He pointed his wand at Ginny's bed. "Somnus Replacio!"

Sure enough, when I looked in the other room, Ginny's bed was there. "Good night," said Mr. Weasley. He and Mrs. Weasley left.

I collapsed on the bed, exhausted. "Well, this is a fine mess," I said. "God, Sirius, you must really hate me by now. I've interfered with your sex life no less than three times, you have to watch me have morning sickness, we can't leave the house....."

"I don't hate you," said Sirius. "You've been quite a nuisance, I'll admit...."

"Sirius!"

"Well, come on Remus, she has."

"That's not polite!"

"I have to watch her vomit every morning. I've think we've moved past politeness."

Remus wisely decided to change the subject. "What names have you got in mind? For the baby, I mean," he asked.

"Haven't really thought about it yet," I admitted.

"I always liked the name Julius. Or Julia, for a girl. IF I ever had a child, I'd name them that."

"IF," said Sirius.

"Admit it, you know you want them."

It seemed to be an old and repeated argument for them, because each line came from their mouth with no emotion and a well-worn fluidity.

"We can't have any until my name's cleared, anyway."

"After that, then."

"After that, Harry will be living with us. If he isn't grown by then."

"At the rate things are going, he will be." Remus turned to me. "Don't listen to a single thing he says, he wants them. You should have seen him after Harry was born. 'Oh look, he's got James's nose! Look, he's smiling at me! Lily, you must be so tired. Don't argue, of course you are, I'll hold Harry. DON'T ARGUE, YOU KNOW YOU'RE EXHASUTED!"

Sirius laughed the first real laugh I'd heard from him. "All right, Remus is right. I do, but I've got enough stress in my life right now." He lay down on the bed. "Well, good night, Jo."

"Good night."

*

Sometime in the night, I heard a knocking on the door. It was Hermione. "Are they asleep?" she asked.

"Yeah, they're asleep."

"Harry! Percy!" she called. "You can come in!"

Silently, Harry and Percy slipped in the door. "We thought we'd try to figure out the book a bit more," Hermione said. She opened it and rested it on her lap. "There's got to be something in here about how to defeat Voldemort."

Harry looked over her shoulder. "One of the problems is, nothing's in order. It's all scattered around. See, it predicts Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald, and then it predicts the building of the Chamber of Secrets. At least, that what I think it's predicting."

Percy looked at the book too, his eyes alert as Hermione turned the pages. Suddenly, her fingers stopped on one paragraph.

"Well, read it aloud!" I said.

She read, "A citrus fruit shall ward off the Dark Lord."

"Oh great, Voldemort will try the Imperius Curse and we'll whip out a lime to defeat him," said Harry, rolling his eyes. "I think Rowena Ravenclaw had breathed a few too many incense fumes when she thought up that one."

A thought struck me. "Lemon drop," I said.

"What?" asked Percy.

"Lemon drops! Dumbledore's fond of them. He must have known that they had some sort of power. Wonder how."

"But he's still captured," Hermione said.

Good point.