"Harry? Harry? Merlin, what's with you today?"

Harry jerked slightly and turned his head to find Ron looking over at him with mild annoyance in his eyes.

"Huh? Nothing, m'fine," Harry muttered, shaking his head and heaving a small sigh.

"You sure? You've been really distracted today," Ron said, frowning slightly.

"Yeah, I've just got a lot on my mind," Harry muttered and looked away from his friend and towards the low-burning hearth in the Gryffindor Common Room. He and Ron were both perched on one of the squashy couches while Hermione was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her books and parchments spread out around her. It was Saturday evening now, and Harry realized he'd probably spent most of the day since leaving Maximilian's office, brooding.

The only thing that occasionally lifted his spirits was the memory of what he and Maximilian had done after returning from the Ministry, but even that pleasant memory couldn't quite overpower the full weight that wanted to settle in upon Harry every time he thought about the prophecies.

He told himself that, at least, the first one was done and over with, so there wasn't anything specific left over from that one, that he still had to worry about. Well, except for whatever it was that supposedly had made them 'equal' that Voldemort had gifted him. Harry had actually forgotten all about that until several hours after leaving Maximilian's office, and then spending several hours pondering over the two prophecies on his own. He'd meant to question the older man about that since, at the Ministry, it had appeared that Maximilian knew what it was referring too.

At this point, all Harry could think of was the Parseltongue thing... and he supposed that was, theoretically, a power that had aided Harry in the Chamber thing. Harry wouldn't have been able to get down there at all, if not for being a Parselmouth. The skill hadn't exactly aided him in defeating the basilisk or putting one of it's fangs through the diary, but Harry figured that probably didn't really matter all that much.

So the first prophecy was fulfilled and he supposed that should be a weight off his chest, but there were other people out there who didn't know it was over and done with – people who might still expect Harry to be the one to save them all if and when Voldemort started causing havoc again.

Dumbledore no doubt still expected Harry to somehow vanquish Voldemort for good at some point – although, if he expected that, Harry wondered why the hell Dumbledore wasn't taking a more active role in making sure Harry wasn't magically incompetent – and on the other side of the problem, there was Voldemort himself, who probably still wanted to know what the full prophecy said and very well would probably come after Harry if he knew that Harry knew about it. For that matter, he would probably assume that Harry did know about it because Dumbledore would have told him, to give him motivation to become a great powerful wizard so that he could fulfill the blasted thing. Even though – for some unimaginable reason – Dumbledore was doing no such thing.

Voldemort and his supporters would probably be willing to do anything necessary to find out what the prophecies' contents were – up to and including kidnapping and torturing anyone who already knew. Which was Harry, and anyone he told.

Before leaving Maximilian's office, Harry had remarked upon the fact that it was ruddy Trelawney who had made the first prophecy, and how incredulous he was made by that fact since most of the time the woman was a total fraud and a hack. Maximilian then pointed out that it was the fact that she had made the prophecy, that gave her job security at Hogwarts. Everyone – including Dumbledore – knew that she was incompetent, however, if Dumbledore wanted to protect her from anyone who might go after her to try and pry the prophecy out of her brain, he had to keep her at Hogwarts.

This had served to remind Harry that anyone who knew about the prophecy was probably in great danger of being kidnapped and tortured by Voldemort or his followers. And at the moment Professor Monroe was the only person outside of himself, who knew the full contents of the prophecies, putting the man in potential danger. On top of that, Harry found himself wishing he could finally come clean and tell Hermione and Ron the truth about what he'd learned, but not fearing for their lives, should he do such a thing.

When he expressed this concern, however, Maximilian had almost dismissed the worry outright, which surprised Harry. Harry found himself worrying quite a lot about the line from the second prophecy about his friendships being tested and lost, and knew that keeping secrets from his friends was one sure-fire way to risk losing them. Because of this, part of him really wanted to confide in both Ron and Hermione about the prophecies, but now he was afraid that if either of them knew anything about the contents, their lives would be in danger from anyone who might want to know what the prophecy said.

Maximilian had pointed out that they were in just as much danger if Harry didn't tell them. Anyone who would kidnap Harry's friends in hopes of gaining sensitive information would kidnap Ron or Hermione first anyway. Whether they knew something or not. The difference was that if they knew something, they would have something of value they could give their kidnappers and hopefully find themselves released quickly and without any serious torture. It wasn't like the contents of the first prophecy were really sensitive anymore, so why continue to protect them?

But then he'd gone on to say that he honestly didn't think that Harry had to worry much about that, anyway, and that he should put the matter out of his mind, as there were more pressing concerns to concentrate on – like getting emancipated and getting his godfather's name cleared.

Maximilian had even gone so far as to tell Harry that if he was worried about losing his friendships with Ron and Hermione, that he should just tell them as much as he thought he could, while still remaining mostly vague. He only requested that Harry not tell anyone that his knowledge of the prophecies' existence had come from Maximilian in the first place.

He suggested that, instead, Harry tell them that the Unspeakable who was Mr. Jennings' client, had gone to Mr. Jennings and told him that his client – Harry Potter – Had a couple prophecies that he really ought to see. It probably wasn't normally done, but no one could confirm or deny that it had actually happened, and it avoided any unwanted scrutiny on Professor Monroe from Headmaster Dumbledore.

This was a very valid concern, as far as Harry was concerned, and definitely a reasonable request. A small, but loud, voice in the back of Harry's mind was already worried about what awful fate would befall his teacher and love-interest, that would result in him to lose the Defense post by the end of the year. The curse was consistent in one way only – something always went wrong.

Harry didn't know if their... relationship would become public knowledge and cost Maximilian the job that way (he rather hoped that wouldn't end up the case though), or if Dumbledore would just realize that Maximilian was the one who had opened Harry's eyes and helped him to discover Dumbledore's dubious and illegal actions, and thus, fire Maximilian out of spite.

Of course he also knew it was possible that any number of other, totally unforeseen, things could happen between now and the end of the year (it was only October, after all), that would be the result of the curse, but Harry's mind kept latching onto those two possibilities most of all, and he rather doubted he could get his worried and paranoid mind to shut up about it, no matter how hard he tried.

In any case, he recognized that keeping Maximilian's apparent involvement in his new revelations to a minimum was for the best, and agreed that if he told Ron and Hermione anything about his trip to London and the Ministry, that he would bend a few details to do just that.

So he'd spent the afternoon brooding on whether or not he should tell them – how he would tell them, if he decided to do that – and also stewing over the general details of the second prophecy and what it might mean for him, now.

"So Harry –" Ron began a few moments later, pulling Harry temporarily out of his brooding once again, "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the pitch tomorrow and get in some practice?"

"Honestly, Ronald! You just had a Quidditch game!" Hermione exclaimed incredulously. "It'll be ages before the next one! You cannot seriously think you can keep going with this ridiculous practice schedule!"

Ron sat up straighter and scowled at her. "And why not?"

"In case you have forgotten – which I seriously suspect you have – you are a Prefect, Ronald! You have responsibilities, which you have been neglecting, leaving me to deal with it all, on my own! On top of that, it is also our OWLs year! You're already behind in Herbology because of all the practice you put in last week!"

"I am not! Professor Sprout gave me an extension on that essay," Ron argued indignantly.

"Honestly, Ron," Harry put in tiredly, "Hermione's right."

"Oh, so you're takin' her side? I s'pose you figure it's not even worth my time to bother with the extra practices. Seein' as how I was such rubbish last game. What's the point in wasting my time, when it hardly matters if I'm rubbish at it or not? We still won, didn't we? All because of you."

Harry sat up straighter and looked over at Ron incredulously. "Are you out of your mind? Where'd you even pull that rubbish out from? I never said anything of the sort!"

"Maybe not, but I know you're thinking it," Ron growled with a sour sneer.

"No, actually, I'm not," Harry said in heated annoyance.

"Everyone else is," Ron snapped. "Everyone is going on about how rubbish I was. That I sure was lucky that the Great Harry Potter managed to get the snitch before I went and mucked it all up and lost the game for us," Ron sneered in a mocking, angry voice.

"Who's saying that? Slytherins? Come on, Ron! You should know better than to let that rubbish get to you!"

Ron barked out a harsh, humorless laugh. "It's not just the Slytherins. Everyone is saying it. Don't think I haven't heard. Even last night at the party and all morning around the grounds. Everyone is whispering behind my back, giving me all these pathetic looks and laughing at me. I'm not blind!"

"That's ridiculous! And even if they are, I'm not them, am I? What the hell, Ron? What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me! I –"

"Shut up!" Hermione snapped, standing up suddenly and clenching her hands into tight fists at her side. "Shut up, Ron! You're just making a bigger fool out of yourself. If you don't shut up now, you're liable to say something you're going to regret and can't take back!"

Ron shot to his feet, glaring angrily at Hermione now. "You two – always taking each other's side lately. You two sure have been getting awfully close this year. You think I haven't noticed how much time the two of you have spent hidden away together in the library?" Ron snarled with an ugly sneer.

"Yeah, because you always ditch us for bloody Quidditch!" Hermione yelled and her lower lip quivered and her face went red and blotchy.

"Yeah, well you two can have each other, then! Who wants pathetic Ron Weasley hanging around, anyway!" Ron yelled before turning abruptly and storming out of the common room.

Harry sat there on the couch utterly stunned and with his jaw hanging open.

"What the hell was that?" Harry said in a shocked, hoarse voice after a few minutes had passed, during which the gawkers had lost interest and gone back to their own conversations and homework.

When Harry looked back up at Hermione he realized suddenly that she looked to be on the brink of tears. Her eyes were red-ringed and had a shine to them from the threatening tears. Harry swallowed thickly, feeling dread well up in his chest. One of the things he was grateful about having realized he was gay was knowing that he wouldn't have to deal with crying girls as often as a straight bloke might. But Hermione was his friend, so this was different, and he couldn't run away from it either.

"'Mione?" Harry ventured cautiously.

Her face hardened with anger and determination. "He's an idiot," she growled sharply before turning around and falling gracefully back into her previous position on the floor, surrounded by books and parchment.

Harry hesitated for several long moments, feeling utterly lost and unsure of what he should be doing. He didn't know if he should try to comfort Hermione, go after Ron, or just go back to his own hardly-touched homework reading. He realized that under normal circumstances he probably would have opted for the easier route – namely, going back to his own reading and dealing with the emotional insanity later – but right now he had that damned prophecy looming over his head and the threat of lost friendships.

"Hermione?" Harry said gently. She flinched ever-so-slightly but didn't say anything else in reply. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

She seemed to remain motionless for several long moments before her shoulders sagged and she sighed. "I don't know, Harry." she finally said.

"What... what was up with Ron? I didn't even know anything was bothering him and then he just goes and explodes like that..." Harry admitted, feeling a bit bad about that. Well, sure, he'd known that Ron had been stressing out over the whole Quidditch thing for weeks now, but Harry still felt blind-sided by this unexpected outburst.

"I don't know, Harry. Ron is Ron. I don't think I'll ever be able to understand him," she grumbled under her breath, still hunched over and sitting on the floor several feet away from Harry.

Harry frowned and tried to run over what Ron had said before storming off. "You don't think he's jealous or something, do you?"

Hermione scoffed. "Well, obviously he's jealous Harry. He's always jealous of you. That's just Ron. In his mind, you'll always be the Quidditch star and the hero while he's just the bumbling side-kick. It's all of his stupid insecurities popping up again. It's just like last year. I can't believe he's doing this again. He –"

"No, not that. Okay, well, there's that too, I guess. But I mean about you and me spending time together."

Finally she turned around and frowned at Harry with apparent confusion. "Well it's hardly our fault that Ron seems to think he's allergic to the library. It's not like we haven't invited him to study with us, or asked him to help do research for Snuffle's case, or for your political research. He's the one who decided his time was better spent chasing a quaffle around the pitch."

Harry hummed hesitantly as his mind mulled over the loose threads of a forming idea. It wasn't entirely there, yet, but there was a hint of a theory in his mind. He scrutinized Hermione for a long moment wondering if perhaps...

"I wonder..." Harry muttered.

"Wonder what?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"What if Ron fancies you?"

"Whut?" she sputtered and flushed, going wide-eyed and looking around as if she were afraid someone was listening in.

"Well, like I said, what if he's jealous – not just of me and all that rubbish about his insecurities and my fame, but jealous because he's afraid you and I are getting too close?"

"You think Ron thinks that we're going to end up dating?" Hermione exclaimed, looking almost amused now.

Harry shrugged. "I think its possible. I mean, maybe he doesn't exactly fancy you – although, I honestly sort of think he might – but maybe he's just afraid of becoming the third wheel or whatever. You know – he's afraid we'll become something more and he'll get left behind."

Hermione's face went somewhat slack and she blinked at Harry with a rather stunned look on her face. "Harry... that's really quite clever. You might have something there. I'm really impressed, Harry."

"Is it so hard to believe that I can work stuff like this out for myself?" he asked with mock hurt.

Hermione gave him a fond shove on the knee and rolled her eyes. "Prat," she muttered affectionately.

Harry smiled at her for a moment before it slipped away slightly and he sighed. "What should we do about Ron?" he asked, finally.

"I don't know, Harry. Give him some space and see if he cools off and realizes what an idiot he's being."

"Yeah, but Ron can be a real stubborn arse, and hates to admit when he's wrong – it could take ages before he comes to us," Harry said with a grimace.

Hermione tilted her head to the side and eyed Harry curiously for a long enough period of time that Harry began to shift uncomfortably under her gaze. "What?" he finally asked and fidgeted with the cuff of his robe.

"You've really matured a lot since last year, Harry," she observed. "You're definitely handling this loads better than you did last year when Ron ran off being a stubborn idiot with his jealousy."

Harry ducked his head and gave her an awkward one-shouldered shrug.

"I don't know about that..."

"No, you're definitely handling this better than you did the last time. You just got angry then – angry that he believed everyone else over you, even though he's your friend and should know you better than that – and the two of you just remained stubbornly angry with each other for ages. It was really exhausting. Remember how the two of you were always using me and Neville as middle-men for your conversions? 'Hermione, would you tell Ron that I'm not talking to him right now.' , 'Hermione, would you tell Harry that I don't care if he's not talking to me right now because I'm not talking to him either.' It was ridiculous!"

Harry laughed. "Oh come on! We weren't that bad!"

"You were too!" she insisted quite stubbornly, but she was smiling somewhat as well.

Harry chuckled a bit sheepishly before letting out a bit of a sigh and shrugging one shoulder. "I guess I just... can see the pieces better, and put it into perspective now," Harry said, hesitantly, not really sure how to put it into words. "I... I've been practicing Occlumency with Professor Monroe – I mentioned that to you, right?"

"Yeah, you vaguely mentioned it two days ago," she said frowning. She'd meant to try looking it up but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

"Well, it helps me organize my thoughts. Lets me see the puzzle pieces better, I guess. And I suppose, it helps me uhm... approach things more rationally and not just get overwhelmed by my first emotional reaction – or at least, it will, once I've got a better handle on it. I still get totally overwhelmed by some things," Harry paused and grimaced, thinking about how overwhelmed he'd been at the Ministry and all day since then, and made a mental note to spend an extra long time on his Occlumency meditations that night, going over the memories from that morning with a fine tooth comb. "But I'm getting better at it. Plus I've got a lot on my mind right now, so Ron going all mental for no apparent reason seemed kind of less important, I guess. Does that make sense?"

Hermione's lips parted in apparent surprise. "That's really something Harry. How long have you been working on this anyway? I thought you only just started it this week?"

"Er, well, yeah, just this week. But Professor Monroe is a really good teacher," Harry said with a small grin. "But I am still early on with it all. I really need to dedicate some more time to sorting through my memories. A lot of it is still cluttered in my head. I'll only get better the more I clean it up in there," he said, tapping his finger against his temple.

Hermione nodded slowly before frowning again. "Has something else happened, Harry?"

"Huh?"

"Well, before Ron blew up like that, he did have a point. You have been really distracted today. More so than I would expect the morning after a Quidditch match and party. I mean, you usually stay up late for the parties and then sleep in for ages the next day. But you were missing this morning. Ron slept in, but I was up early and you weren't anywhere to be found. When Ron finally did come down, he said you weren't up there and I was in the common room almost all morning, so I wouldn't have missed you coming down, which means you had to have left before I even got up for breakfast. So where were you?"

Harry heaved a very heavy sigh, realizing in his mind that this really was the moment of truth and he needed to just tell her or not.

"Yeah... er, that's a bit of a big story. I've actually been mulling over in my head all afternoon, trying to figure out how to tell the two of you."

Hermione sat straighter and shuffled closer to him from her spot on the floor.

"I guess one of the biggest problems I've been trying to figure out was just how to tell Ron," Harry went on, grimacing slightly. "I've been keeping a lot from him lately – not because I wanted to keep secrets, exactly, but just because it's so much more work to get him to understand."

Hermione gave him an understanding look and nodded her head sympathetically.

"But now I feel like there's this small mountain of things I need to catch him up on so that he can understand the newer stuff... I just don't know what to do! And then this thing with him being jealous or whatever, comes out of nowhere... I don't know if I can wait for him to realize he's being stupid, so that I can fill him in. He's already so far behind, I feel like if I wait much longer to catch him up, it'll just become too much."

Hermione hummed while frowning and nodding her head thoughtfully. "Yeah, you really haven't been involving Ron much in all this politics research you've been doing. Or really any of the things you've discovered about the Headmaster."

"He'd find it all boring though," Harry argued weakly. "And I've also been afraid that his jealousy would rear up because of it too. I mean, I've got this mountain of political power apparently, and money and influence... I don't think Ron really gives two knuts about politics or political power, but I don't think that'll prevent him from getting upset over finding out that I, apparently, do have it, just out of nowhere."

"Well, it's hardly 'out of nowhere', Harry. You inherited them from your father's family."

"Yeah, but Ron's not going to inherit anything like that, is he? I mean, even if the Weasley's do have some seats on the Wizengamot – and I'm fairly sure that they don't – they've got 5 other sons before Ron who would have claim to them first. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would probably keep at least a seat or two to themselves for many years to come... I really really doubt that if they have seats at all, that they've got seven or eight of them. There's really no chance of Ron seeing any opportunities like that."

"Not like he'd want that, anyway," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "What would Ron do with a seat on the Wizengamot?"

"Probably let it sit there, untouched, like my dad did," Harry said with a sigh and a shrug. "But that doesn't change the fact that he'll probably find some irrational reason to be upset that I've suddenly got it. Hell, he'd probably even be offended by the idea of my actually wanting to use them."

Hermione frowned thoughtfully before giving a bit of a tilt to her head. "I can see that. It's not logical, but that doesn't mean that Ron wouldn't find some way to feel that way." She paused then and gave Harry a considering look again. "So something more did happen today?"

Harry nodded and glanced around briefly before looking back at Hermione. "Can you pack up your things? If you're busy right now, we can talk later on, but we can't talk about it here."

Hermione instantly began to shuffle parchment and binders and books into neat piles before sliding them into her bookbag. A moment later, she was standing with the bag slung over her shoulder, giving him an expectant and slightly impatient look. Harry smiled and chuckled despite his nerves and stood up as well. The two left the common room and spent the next couple minutes finding a good empty classroom (the first one they went into had a couple of snogging sixth years in it so they had to keep looking.) Once they did find one they spent a minute casting an imperturbable charm on the door to make sure no one could listen-in, and also made sure there were no portraits or ghosts in the room.

Hermione sat herself down into one of the chairs behind a desk and gave Harry a patient look while he settled into a chair that he pulled up opposite her, and sat in backwards.

Harry heaved a sigh and tried to go over in his mind how he had considered broaching this subject, but found his mind blank. He huffed in annoyance at himself and decided to just go for it.

"Okay, this morning I was in London."

Hermione's eyes widened and her brows disappeared into the curly fringe over her forehead. "London?" she echoed incredulously.

"I went to Mr. Jennings' office in London and from there we floo'd to the Ministry building."

"Why? What'd you do?" Hermione asked, leaning forward in her seat.

Harry pulled his lower-lip between his teeth for a moment. "Well, uhm, one of Mr. Jenning's clients is an Unspeakable – do you know what that is?"

Hermione's eyes widened again and she nodded her head. "Of course!"

"So you've heard of the Department of Mysteries?"

Hermione paused and frowned.

"Or... not," Harry said slowly a moment later. Hermione shrugged and shook her head. "Well then what do you know about the Unspeakables, then?"

"Just that they're witches and wizards who work for the Ministry on high level magical research," Hermione paused, "that, and the fact that their work is secret and they take an oath not to speak about it or something."

"Ah, well where they do their work is a place called the Department of Mysteries. I don't actually know much about it either, honestly, but I do know that one of the things they study there is prophecy and divination. Apparently they've got a 'Hall of Prophecy' where they store these prophecy orbs; glass balls holding a prophecy made by a seer at some point. They keep track of which prophecies have come true and which ones never come to pass. That sort of stuff."

Hermione's eyes narrowed and she gave him a rather dubious look. Harry wasn't especially surprised. He knew that Hermione didn't exactly have a very high opinion of the field of divination.

"So what does this have to do with you going to London?" she asked.

"Well, like I said, one of Mr. Jennings' clients is an unspeakable and uh, he found out that I recently put Mr. Jennings under retainer as my legal council. He told Mr. Jennings that there was something of interest to me at the Department of Mysteries and that we should go through official channels to inquire further. Mr. Jennings asked me if I wanted him to investigate and I said yes, so he did. It turned out that there were two prophecies held within the Department of Mysteries with me as the subject, so we scheduled a visit and that's what I did this morning. I went there and heard them."

Hermione's lips parted for a moment before they pressed back firmly together and she frowned. "Two prophecies, about you? What..." she trailed off, looking thoughtful and concerned.

Harry pulled in a slow breath and pressed on. "It turns out that the first prophecy is known by a few other people. Dumbledore knows about it because he was the one who witnessed it when it was first made. One of Voldemort's spies heard part of it and told him about it, too. This was back in the winter of 1980, before I was even born."

Hermione twisted up her face. "Did you just say Voldemor?"

"Er, yeah, Professor Monroe says that's how it's supposed to be pronounced. Anyway, like I said, this prophecy was made back before I was even born and Voldemort found out about it. The prophecy said that someone was going to be born that was supposed to have the power to defeat him. It gave out some details to identify the child, said that Voldemort would give the child some of his power and that one of them would have to kill the other." Harry paused and pulled in a fortifying breath. "It was about me. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort determined that it was talking about me, once I was born and the details apparently lined up.

"That was why he came after me. That was why he killed my parents and tried to kill me. All this time I thought that Voldemort came after my parents or... or well, honestly I didn't know why he'd come after me. No one would ever tell me. When I asked Dumbledore he refused to tell me. And he knew! He knew about the prophecy because he was the one that witnessed it in the first place!"

Harry clenched his jaw and closed his eyes for a moment to try and force himself to calm down. He paused and tried to force the storm of thoughts and emotions in his head to stop spinning about. He could see the frenzy in his mind, and visualized it ordering into neat piles and literally felt his mind clearing and calming down.

When he opened his eyes again Hermione was watching him with terrible worry in her eyes.

"People seriously believe this prophecy insanity? I mean... wait, what exactly did it say? One of you has to kill the other? But – I – no! That's just –"

"Hermione! It's okay," Harry said, trying to sound reassuring.

"It is not okay, Harry Potter! This makes it sound as if one of you is destined to kill the other, and this is You-Know-Who that we're talking about here! You've been fortunate before, but I'm not about to watch my best friend's life go on the line for hopes of luck and chance! Just become some barmy old seer says that one of you has to kill the other does not mean it's your responsibility!"

"It's already fulfilled!"

"I – wait, what?" Hermione came to a sudden halt and frowned at him in confusion.

"Yeah, I know. I reacted the same way," Harry said with a weak chuckle. "The Unspeakables are able to tell if a prophecy is fulfilled or not. He waved his wand over the thing and there was some sort of magical readout. It told him when the prophecy was made, who the Seer was and who the witness was. It also told him if the prophecy was currently active, or already fulfilled and when it's status switched over to fulfilled. The first prophecy – the one that was made before I was even born – was marked as fulfilled during the spring of our second year. Apparently, on the same day that I put a basilisk fang through the diary, down in the Chamber. And that counted as fulfilling what the prophecy was apparently really talking about."

"Wait – what?"

"I know! It didn't make any sense to me either. But then this thing was explained to me about Voldemort having put a piece of himself into that book, and when I destroyed it, it allowed the piece that had been trapped to be returned to his main spirit, or something... it was pretty complicated, honestly. Anyway, it was suggested that the wording of the prophecy was misleading. It didn't say that I would kill Voldemort, it said that I would vanquish the Dark Lord. So apparently, even though it sounded like the prophecy was foretelling my killing him, all it was really foretelling was that I would trigger the thing that would switch him from being 'The Dark Lord' back to just being... Voldemort. Or something. And that happened, so it's fulfilled."

Hermione looked very dubious at this. "But that's... that doesn't even make sense!"

"I believe I remember you dropping Divination specifically because the whole subject didn't make sense," Harry teased.

Hermione huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

"You said there was a second prophecy?" she said, finally.

"Yeah..." Harry frowned. "The second one was made during September at the very start of fourth year – so, it was before the Tournament's Champions were announced. It said that on Halloween night, my life would get screwed up again and then I'd have to face three tasks. Oh hey – did you know that you can build up power for some rituals by going through a whole bunch of difficult stuff before hand, and supposedly, magic will reward your hard work by making the ritual that much more powerful?"

"Huh? No – I've... actually... you know, I do think I've read something along those lines once," she mused, suddenly thoughtful.

"Yeah, well apparently that's the reason why Voldemort had me entered in the Tournament and go through all that rubbish first, before portkeying me to the graveyard. That was to build up a bunch of extra magic power so that when he used my blood for the ritual, it would have enough power to recreate his body."

Hermione's mouth fell open with a small silent gasp.

"That was mentioned in the prophecy – that me being in the tasks would build up the power and then I would face He-Who-Flies-of-Death – which apparently means Voldemort. Then the prophecy said I would find a new path and that someone who was an ally would become my foe, which I think is most likely Dumbledore –"

"Harry! You can't mean that!"

"I most certainly do," Harry shot back sharply and she flinched slightly at the fierceness in his verdant green gaze. "Dumbledore left me with muggles who lied to me, isolated me, constantly tore me down and told me how worthless I was. He was supposed to be my Guardian Proxy – he was supposed to check in on me, make sure I was healthy, safe, and informed, but he never did.

"And after I came to Hogwarts, it was his responsibility to make sure I was safe and to stand up for my rights. At the bare minimum, he should have stepped forward and prevented the Ministry from forcing me to participate in the Tournament. He could have, you know. He could have put a stop to it, but he didn't. He insisted I participate! He used me as bait! Even Professor McGonagall said as much.

"He was supposed to make sure I was educated about my status in the House of Lords – make sure I was kept informed once I turned eleven – and he was not supposed to actively vote on any of my seats without my express permission and participation. It's only allowed at all so that I can have a mentor and a guide while I learn and prepare for my responsibilities, but he never told me anything. He kept it hidden from me and voted my seats without permission or consultation. That's illegal, Hermione. My solicitor is already preparing to press charges on that and a number of other issues.

"And what's more, he's kept the fact that there even was a prophecy about me, hidden, all these years. He never once told me – even when I specifically asked him why Voldemort had come after me all those years ago, he refused to tell me. He's hiding things from me, Hermione. He's using me and my position and he's been guiding me down a path for who knows what reasons. But I can tell you this – it is not because he has my best interests at heart. Mr. Jennings told me that Dumbledore fought tooth and nail to gain the appointment as my magical Guardian Proxy. And what has he done with that power? It certainly wasn't for my benefit that he fought so hard for control over my life and my assets."

Harry pulled in a deep breath to try and slow down his heart rate and his frazzled nerves. Finally he looked her back in the eye, pinning her with his gaze. "Right now, Hermione... Dumbledore strikes me as more evil than anyone else in my life. And that's really saying something. He hides and manipulates and lies, and abuses power; all the while, projecting this genial, barmy, wise old man. He's a trickster and a liar. And... and he has become my enemy. He was my ally, and he's become my enemy. The prophecy's proven true on all fronts so far. And it's right on this one too."

Hermione let out a shuddering, slightly horrified breath. She appeared to swallow quite deeply before giving him a shaky nod. "I... I think you've got a point, and you... you might really be right. I just... I just hate to think it could be true. It's just all so awful."

Harry let out a humorless sort of laugh before sighing heavily and sinking back into his chair, tiredly.

"I still think that you should try talking to Dumbledore, though. You've found out all these things and you're making all these accusations against him, but you haven't spoken to him once since term started. How is he supposed to defend himself against any false charges?"

"It's hardly my fault that we haven't said one word to each other all year. He's been avoiding me like I've got dragon pox. He didn't even say one word to me at my trial back in August! And believe me, I tried to talk to him!"

"But would you talk to him if you got the chance?" Hermione asked sounding hopeful.

Little alarm bells went off in the back of Harry's mind and he sat up a bit straighter, pinning Hermione with a stern look.

"Don't approach him," he said in an almost demanding tone.

Hermione frowned in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Not yet, Hermione. Don't go to him about this."

"Why not?"

"Because I've got some things in the works, and if he finds out, he'll interfere. It's too early. If you go to him, it could ruin a lot of things right now. You can't tell him anything that I've told you."

"But Harry –"

"No buts!"

"What things, exactly, do you have going on, though?" Hermione asked, frowning deeper.

"Mr. Jennings is working on getting me emancipated. He thinks that there's more than enough precedent already set by the Ministry, and the evidence he's building up against Dumbledore, to get me legally declared an adult by New Years. If it goes through, Dumbledore will lose access to my votes, completely, and he won't like that, at all."

"But Harry! He should have a chance to defend himself!"

"And he will," Harry said harshly, "in court. I'm not going to give him the opportunity to try and sweep this under the rug, or use political influence to slow things down."

"Oh Harry... I don't know..." Hermione groaned, worridly.

"Just promise me you won't go to him," Harry said in a pleading voice.

Hermione held his gaze and chewed on her lower lip for several seconds before heaving a sigh and nodding her head. "Okay, I promise."

"Thank you," Harry said seriously with a firm nod of his head.

Hermione just sighed heavily and leaned back in her own chair for a minute.

"Did it say anything else?" Hermione asked quietly, several silent moments later.

"Hmm?"

"The prophecy?"

"Oh..." Harry grimaced and hesitated a moment before sighing. "It did..."

Hermione looked up more concerned now, having heard the reluctance in his voice. "And...?"

"It said that my greatest foe would become my ally," Harry admitted with a deep grimace.

Hermione's eyes widened very slowly as she no doubt interpreted precisely what that line most likely made.

"That's..."

"Yeah. Believe me... I'm not really sure what I think about that one," Harry grumbled and reached down to pick at part of the lining of his robes. "I mean... it's one thing for me to come to the decision that I'm no longer on Dumbledore's side – whatever side that even is – but it's another thing entirely to embrace the whole 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' deal. And that's pretty much the only way I can even fathom the idea of being on the same side of anything as Voldemort. It's just.." Harry huffed and shook his head rather helplessly, looking hesitantly over at Hermione who's lips were still parted with apparent shock.

"Merlin, Harry. This all... it's just a lot to take in..." she said, shaking her head slightly as she attempted to wrap her mind around it.

"You're telling me?" Harry said with a small humorless laugh.

She looked back over at him and gave him a sympathetic grimace. Finally she just blew out a deep breath and shrugged. "Well, I guess we'll just take it as it comes. I mean... well, there's no guarantee that the whole prophecy thing will happen at all. We could just be getting worked up over nothing. I've never put much stock in divination nonsense –"

"Yeah, but everything else in this prophecy has come true," Harry pointed out and Hermione gave him a pointed glare before sighing and giving a conceding tilt of her head.

"I suppose that might be true – but if the first prophecy is anything to go by, it's apparent that the words can be misleading at times."

Harry didn't especially think that there was a lot of room for the words in this instance of being wrongly interpreted, but decided not to point that out right now.

"Was that it, though? The prophecy?"

"Oh – actually, there was one more part," Harry said with another small sigh.

"Oh no – what else?" Hermione asked with a cringe.

"It said that friendships would be tested, lost, and made. The Greater Good would fail, but that wizarding Britain would be better for it – whatever that means. That was it though."

"Oo... that bit about friendships lost is rather ominous," Hermione said, looking at Harry with a worried reluctance.

"Yeah, I've been stewing over that line all day," Harry grumbled before bringing his arms up and folded over the back of the chair in front of him and let his face bury down into them.

Hermione sighed and reached out to lay her hand on his arm, supportively. "I'm sure we can work it all out, Harry. I don't care what anyone says about prophecies and divination – and I don't care if the rest of the stupid thing has come true or not – I don't think anything is set in stone."

Harry gave her a slightly grateful grin but it mostly turned into a grimace. The two didn't stay there for much longer after that, and soon enough they were back in Gryffindor Tower, working on their various homework assignments.

Ron didn't return to the common room until much later that evening, and by that time, Harry had already gone up to their dorm room to work on his Occlumency meditations. Harry was aware, on some level, when Ron came up to the 5th years boys dorm room, as he heard Ron and Seamus talking briefly before the two each got into their respective beds. Some part of Harry had considered leaving the isolation of his bed hangings to approach Ron, but in the end he didn't think that he'd really have enough time or privacy at the moment to accomplish anything worthwhile, and so he remained isolated, in bed, and refocused on organizing his mind, instead.

– – –

AN: The thing about Voldemort being pronounced with a silent 't' is actually true, going by one of Jo's quotes. "JKR says she pronounces Voldemort "Voldemor," not "Voldemort," but she is the only one." - it's on the Harry Potter Lexicon and on Accio Quote. I'd link to it, but it's such a bother to do links in ffnet, so just google it if you really care.

In other news, I've got a poll on my author page that I would like opinions on. I mentioned when I started posting this story that while I was writing it, I bounced off onto a couple other stories before bouncing back onto this one. One of the stories that I was writing at the same time as this one is a story I'm considering posting. It has a lot of very similar themes, but is also extremely different. I really like the idea behind it, actually, but I'm not sure I can figure out where to go with it. It got to 197 pages before I lost my muse on it. Would anyone want me to post it, even if there's a decent chance that I'll never get around to finishing it?