Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived

Chapter 4

Fifteen Years Ago

It is a good thing that the fates chose to bestow upon Lily Evans not only a life of magic, but also a strong psychological constitution. It took her the better part of three years at Hogwarts to get over the shock and oddity of learning she was a witch. The additional news of having the Sight, being delivered in the form it was, would have driven a lesser person to a permanent state of nervousness.

By the time Lily and James were married, Lily had grown accustomed to Seeing, and learned to control when and where the Sight came on. Being the unusually talented witch that she was, Lily mastered this quickly. Being the unusually curious witch that she was, it took longer to control the temptation to See about everything.

Through experience, Lily came to understand certain signals that came with her special ability. She could direct her thoughts to a place or a person and, judging by how much effort it took to find her target, could ascertain whether or not she should be Seeing. For example, it took merely the thought of I wonder what James is doing for her to see James doing precisely what he was as she thought. But for her to See what will the stock market do tomorrow would require more concentration - a sure sign to her that this information should not be Seen. Likewise, the persistence of a certain thought, dream or flashing vision would indicate to Lily how urgent it was for her to know about something. She would not get random images of the Marauders Up To No Good unless there was real trouble. During the First War against Voldemort, Lily's skills were employed as often as she could stand it (Seeing your enemy or the course of a war taxes one's mind and energy greatly, and can only be sustained for short periods and is usually not very clear).

So with this sensitivity to the nature of her Sight, it is no wonder that Lily took everything she Saw very seriously - her instincts never misled her. And when she kept having visions of green flashes of light aimed at someone that looked distinctly like her husband, naturally she was worried. But she did not want to disturb the Course Of Things To Come by unnecessarily worrying James.

Lily kept quiet about this vision until the day Amelia Bones's brother and his wife were killed. It didn't take long for the Order to put two and two together to figure out who would be the next target of Voldemort's wrath. But this did not satisfy Lily - after the Boneses died the visions of James's death grew stronger, coupled with visions of herself dying. Her thoughts flew immediately to her infant son, Harry, fearful that he would be killed, or worse, left in the world without parents. That thought brought on a vision of James (why does he have green eyes? Or is that Harry? NO! NOT HARRY!) clutching a body in a graveyard surrounded by rats and snakes.

As Voldemort began to target other members of the resistance and the Order, James and Lily used a fidelius charm and managed to hide in Godric's Hollow from Voldemort. Sirius, at the last minute, had convinced James and Lily to make their secret-keeper Peter Pettigrew. But when the body of Winston Figg, the Bones's secret-keeper, was found dead and tortured at a campsite worded to be Voldemort's last hideout, every family involved in the Order began to doubt their safety.

Peter began acting very strangely one afternoon at lunch and excused himself hurriedly before the meal was over. James got up to follow him to the door but as he got there, he saw the door swing closed. The door did not close all the way, however, and James caught sight of Wormtail clutching his arm and apparating, unaware he was being watched. This caused quite a bit of concern when James told the other Marauders, and Lily suddenly went very pale. The vision of Harry surrounded by rats and snakes flashed intensely again, and she had that sickening clutch in her heart that plagued her when she imagined Harry left alone in the world.

Sirius told Remus about the last-minute switch and they decided Peter was not to be trusted. Acting quickly and not willing to take chances, James and Lily hurried to Dumbledore. He suggested they arrange a new fidelius with Arthur and Molly Weasley - each couple would be the other's secret keeper, thus securing both their locations. That very same evening the Longbottoms were killed and their secret-keeper, Andromeda Black, was found hacked to death and her husband, Ted Tonks's disembodied head on a pike - the signature brutality of her sister, Bellatrix.

Voldemort had wanted to kill the Potters, too. Badly. As he and Wormtail left Bellatrix to finish her sister off, he asked Wormtail where he might find the Potters. But Wormtail, professed secret-keeper to the Potters was, of a sudden, unable to tell. Try as he might, the damned fool couldn't get it out. Voldemort hissed and said he'd deal with the Potters later, then. Little did he know that he'd be vaporised before he got the chance.

*

The Present

Rose Potter woke up in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts surrounded by her family. Harry was pacing left to right and James was pacing right to left, which, to the displeasure of all who happened to witness this, was very eye-boggling and distracting. Sirius and Remus were arguing over Merlin-knows-what by the window. Lily was sitting beside her daughter, holding her hand and stroking her hair.

"Mum..." she whispered, and Lily breathed in sharply. Mother bent down to cradle her baby, rocking her back and forth whispering reassurances. Lily remembered all too well the overwhelming exhaustion that overcame her with her first bout of the Sight. Should have known it would be hereditary, Lily admonished herself. James and Harry dashed over when they saw Rose awake. Remus, Rose's godfather, abandoned a witty retort to Sirius mid-sentence (unheard-of!) beat Sirius (wonders never cease!) to the bedside. Harry had alerted Dumbledore of Rose's sudden faint, and Dumbledore immediately notified James and Lily, who could not keep it from Sirius and Remus, who were all still in Hogsmeade investigating that evening's attack.

Rose recovered quickly with her mother there to comfort her. James left after a few hours at Lily's behest, saying that work needed to be done and that she was perfectly capable of taking care of her daughter on her own thank you very much. Suppressing a remark about mothers and daughters, James cuffed his son on the chin and went home. Harry went down to the Great Hall for breakfast then to class.

Lily stayed the day with Rose, going over the basics of control and how to tell when the Sight was coming, and how to deal with the different levels of intensity. They compared feelings and found Rose more adept to control, thanks to her fortitude inherited from her father. The fact that Lily's first sight had been while she was high in the air on a broomstick did not make Rose feel safer, but she assured her mother that she was fine now, and Lily left as Rose went to the welcoming banquet that evening. Rose felt not a little irked by the gushing and concern over just a little faint. I'd hate to see what it would be like if I really got hurt - everyone might just have a heart attack, she thought, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

*

Later that Evening at the Potter Home

Assured that Hogwarts was secure and that Dumbledore felt everything inside the school was safe so long as he stood, James Potter felt the anxiety brought on by the attack ease just a little. But nothing could get him to stop worrying about everything outside Hogwarts. When Lily came home that evening they called Sirius and Remus over.

They sat in their usual foursome around the kitchen table laden with biscuits and mugs of tea. All were exhausted from a day of investigating the twisted rubble of the decimated tracks. Rose had described the entirety of her vision to Lily, who recounted it for the rest of the Marauders. Lily saved the most important detail for the last: the rat. Her words hung heavily in the room, their significance not at all lost on present company.

"Wormtail," Sirius said, the single word laced with betrayal and hatred. "I'll kill him. No - I'll make him live as a rat in a cage for ever. No - I'll gouge out his eyes and..."

"Sirius, we'll all kill him. Merlin, when I think of what could have happened if the train had hit the wards," Remus said, his voice strained.

The four shuddered, banishing thoughts of the charred bodies of their children and the nausea that accompanied such ideas.

Knowing what they now knew, the Marauders decided a short-term plan of action was immediately necessary, and they began to devise a plan to catch a rat. Never in their careers at Hogwarts would anyone have suspected Peter capable of bringing any plan to fruition. Now as Voldemort's favourite henchman, Wormtail seemed to be quite crafty and capable. One would think the rat-animagus would have tipped his friends off in the first place. Ah, hindsight. But this - the attack on the Hogwarts Express - this was too close to success. The Order had to act, and act soon.

*

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts

A similar gathering of minds went on in the Gryffindor common room. It being only the end of the first day of school, it took a few subtle hints for the first-years to catch on that when The-Boy-Who-Lived and his friends got together in the corner of the room that became affectionately known as the "war room", they were not to be disturbed. Hermione also got in the habit of casting befuddlement charms around them to guarantee privacy. Tonight, the topic was intensely serious.

Neville lay on the couch, his head on Ginny's lap and his hand to his scar, rubbing absentmindedly. By the time McGonagall had left that evening Voldemort found out about the botched mass-murder and he let his dissatisfaction be known. Neville's scar burned and his blood boiled with Voldemort's fury. Recovered now, Neville blocked his mind and the meeting commenced.

"...So when they found out," continued Harry, "they redid the spell with Ron's mum and dad so he wouldn't be able to say anything - "

"And none of us could be found," Ron interjected, "so he had to stick with Voldemort and he's still with him."

"How did you find out?" Rose asked, not a little indignant at being left out of the loop. Her parents never seemed to talk about the First War with her, only with Harry.

"I asked Sirius - he told me before he realized what he was doing."

"Ah," said Rose, mentally smacking herself for not thinking of it first.

Her revelation was interrupted by a sudden intake of breath by Ginny Weasley. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, and then gave a pointed look at Neville, followed by a similar reaction from Neville. "

Everyone else rolled their eyes - this "lovers sharing a brain" crap was getting on their nerves, what with all the finishing of sentences for each other and all the wordless understanding. Similar looks were given to Ron and Hermione just as often.

"You tell them, Nev," Ginny said, a look of triumph on her face.

"Well Ginny and I were at the Burrow while some of the Order were over, and a certain someone started to let slip something about that second prophecy. They shushed him before he could say anything important and that was the end of that. We tried to coax the information out of him but Sirius wouldn't let him alone with us - he would've told us if he could. So here's what we do. There's this news about Wormtail that sheds light on how Voldemort's managed to get so much damage done without being seen, and then there's this second prophecy that everyone refuses to tell us. So Ginny's just hit on this brilliant idea inspired by what Harry's just said. What is next weekend?"

Blank looks all around.

"It's the first Hogsmeade Weekend, which, because of the attack, won't happen, but happens to coincide with a major trade fair going. So what will happen? Certain students from Hogwarts, with the aid of a certain invisibility cloak will go to Hogsmeade anyway..."

"And certain loose-tongued, addle-brained, indispensable-to-the-cause members of the Order who-happen-to-be-involved-in-said-fair will still be in Hogsmeade..."

There was only one man who had proven his inability to keep things from the Children. A grin broke out on every face in the war room; a single name on every pair of lips.

Mundungus Fletcher.

*

That First Hogsmeade Weekend

Mundungus Fletcher took great pride in his title of Member of the Order of the Phoenix. His shady dealings were not at all smiled upon, but somehow or other, he was always needed to carry out some errands that no one else seemed to be able to. On this particular day in September, Dung, as he was not-so-affectionately called, went to his favourite town: Hogsmeade. Trade fairs always brought black-market traders, and new contacts were what Dung needed.

He arrived in the Hogs Head at four that afternoon, ordered a round of drinks, set out for the fair and by six, was in the Three Broomsticks for a bite of supper. When Neville, Harry, Ron and Hermione strolled in, Dung thought nothing of it. Of course those four would be in Hogsmeade today - weren't they all the time?

A few well placed drinks, a few lead-up questions, a few subtly suggestive comments, and Mundungus Fletcher had recited the prophecy twice, told them all of the circumstances when it was uttered, given six different opinions of it and had given our heroes his personal assurance that absolutely no concrete conclusion had been reached. Before he could realize what he'd done (which, one could imagine, he never really would), the students had returned to Gryffindor Tower and called a war meeting.

The prophecy, so nicely written out on Hermione's charmed scroll of notes, did not improve the group's understanding of the situation one iota - in fact, they were more confused than before.

"There is power to weaken and there is power to destroy, there is power to protect and power to resurrect. When the halved halves join; the Broken, the Whole, the Old and the New come together, the power shall be bestowed. But the path will be lighted only after it is darkened and uncovered only after it is lost. The one who was marked will only weaken the Dark Lord until the power to destroy is found."

"The halved halves? Lighted paths? This makes about as much sense as Happy Luna," Ron said dismally, though cheered slightly by the memory of Luna stoned out of her mind when Harry procured some of those Muggle-weeds. Luna chortled loudly at the memory, and Harry was made to promise to get more.

Turning their attention back to the prophecy at hand, one very important discovery was made. Rose had been musing on the Sight and wondered if she could somehow procure more information. Try as she might, she was still too green and inexperienced to deliberately See, and it gave her a splitting headache when she tried too long. She mentioned this conundrum to Hermione, studying the scroll of notes (oh scroll of wonder! Ron had dubbed it), who looked up over the top of it at Rose.

She considered this a moment, dashed up the stairs and returned a moment later with a thick book in hand. She plopped down next to Rose and thumbed through the leather-bound volume to find some page or other.

"Rose, when you get the Sight you remember what you see afterwards, right?" Rose affirmed this. "And when you're Seeing you don't talk?"

"Sometimes what I'm thinking gets said out loud."

"Well that settles it, then. Rosie you can't prophesize. Your visions are not prophecies - they're trajectories."

"So?"

"According to this, which is describes the nature of the trajectory of time and how the changes in the course of a series of events changes all following events," Hermione garbled as she got blank looks all around, "the visions you are getting show the course of events that would happen naturally based on the way the present time is going. When you saw the boy on the tracks that was only a minute or so before it happened - there was nothing in that minute that changed the path time was taking."

Hermione paused to gauge her audience. Neville and Rose seemed to be catching on, Harry and Ron were lost and Ginny and Luna were exchanging puzzled looks. "Your mother," she continued, "described to you her visions and they seem to be the same: warnings of the immediate result of the current direction of events. Her visions, for instance, of her own death that led them to take action against Wormtail." Rose agreed, and Harry asked what all of this had to do with what Rose was seeing.

"Harry, your mum also has visions of what could have been - Rose said your mum told her she'd seen you after they'd died, and it wasn't pretty. This means that Rose might also have this ability."

"Yes, that's all well and good, but how does that help us?" Harry asked, still not getting it. Ron agreed, further from understanding. Neville gave it a shot.

"So what you're saying is that if Rose can see the immediate future and an alternate future, we can determine what Voldemort's going to do as his next move just before it happens, and see what his grand scheme looks like?"

Hermione beamed at Neville. "That's precisely it. Of course this is not a very precise science, and the visions are not necessarily illuminating. I think we'll all have to work on interpreting Rose's visions, and your dreams, too, Rosie."

Rose agreed to tell them every detail of every vision, to be recorded on Hermione's scroll of wonders ("Just kidding, 'Mione"), and see if a pattern arose. With a plan of action, our heroes went to bed for the first time in a long time confident that they were actually doing something to help the cause.