Harry woke the next morning with renewed vigour and determination. He glanced down at the pendant that was glinting in the sunlight, the stag and dog were curled up side-by-side fast asleep, Harry allowed himself to smile. He could hear the clattering of pots and pans down in the kitchen, where Mrs. Weasley was no doubt already preparing a hearty breakfast for her colossal family and its many adopted members. There was the gentle drum of Ron’s snoring in the background; Harry was amazed by how much he had missed the sound that confirmed his best friends blissful sleeping. He could hear the murmur of conversation coming from the next room, although he knew he probably shouldn’t, he shifted himself so that his ear was butted up against the wall and the voices on the other side immediately became clearer. He heard the voices of Charlie and Ellie deep in conversation as loudly as if they were stood next to him. He had a suspicion that Ellie’s bed was pushed up against the wall meaning they were only inches apart, which would explain how she had heard him calling out in his sleep. He listened carefully to their conversation.
“Ellie, you look terrible, did you sleep at all last night?” Charlie’s spoke with concern in every word.
“I caught a few hours here and there, but I just couldn’t sleep,” Ellie sounded completely exhausted.
“Is something bothering you? You haven’t been your normal self for a good while; well, quite frankly, you haven’t been the same since Harry arrived.” Having been witness to several conversations with Charlie in them, Harry could tell that he was deliberating every word, afraid that they might offend.
“I just…I suppose having him around is reminding me of a lot of things.”
“Sirius?”
“Of course, I can’t really get him out of my head, every time I open my eyes to this room I think about him. I should have been there, Charlie, it was my duty. Maybe if I had then Sirius wouldn’t have died. Maybe if I’d been at Hogwarts, if Harry had known then he wouldn’t have wanted to go to the Department of Mysteries,” Ellie’s voice wavered ever so slightly.
“That’s not true. Even if you had been there, Harry thought that Sirius was in danger, he would have gone with or without you. If both of you had gone then wild horses wouldn’t have stopped Sirius tearing after you. He would have died all the same. None of this is your fault.”
“Then whose fault is it? Sirius’s? Harry’s? Maybe it’s my Granddad’s fault?” All the softness and exhaustion was gone from Ellie’s tone, instead her fury rose and she spat every word out as if it were dirty and venomous.
“Of course it’s not.” Charlie could sense a fight rising, and there was emphasised gentility in his voice “It’s nobody’s fault but Voldemort’s. He caused all this. He killed all these people. The blame lies with nobody but him.” There was a long pause before anyone spoke again. Ellie finally regained control of herself.
“I’m sorry, Charlie, I didn’t mean to take it out on you. There are just so many things rattling around in my head that I feel like it might explode.”
“Well, although that might make you feel better I don’t think it would do very much for the already deplorable décor in here.” There was the hint of laughter in his words and Harry heard a small delicate snort from Ellie and knew that she saw the humour. “Come on, after you’ve had a full English you’ll feel much better. You might want to try a smile, if mum sees you looking like that she’ll be all over you like a wet blanket.” Every word of that was true, if Mrs. Weasley saw Ellie looking as bad as she sounded then she would most definitely go into overdrive and fuss around her like an old mother hen. Sounds of movement echoed from the room and Harry listened as the footsteps muffled past his bedroom door and down the many stairs. He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling absent-mindedly.
What did she mean? Why would having her at Hogwarts have made any difference to him? Of course if Ellie had been at Hogwarts they most probably would have been friends seeing as how they got on so well and had so much in common but he certainly couldn’t see how her presence would have stopped him from doing what he did.
What was her duty? And why was it hers? He was so engrossed in his puzzlement that he hadn’t noticed the absence of Ron’s snores.
“All right there, mate?” Ron mumbled sleepily.
“I’m okay. Ron, what do you know about Ellie?” Harry tried to sound as casual as possible.
“Not much, I’d never heard of her until she started showing up here at the beginning of the summer, never really got a proper look at her, but everyone seemed to know her and they talked about her all the time. Apparently she used to hang around with us a lot when she was a kid. But I don’t remember her. Mum says that I was too young; the last time she was with us was before her parents died. Then she went to school so it’s not really a surprised we don’t know much, suppose it’s because she’s been tucked away in Italy all these years.”
“What about her mum and dad, what happened to them?”
“They were killed a few months before yours from what I’m told.” Ron’s face was screwed up, it was a face he often made when he was thinking particularly hard or trying to remember something he hadn’t paid much attention to in the first place.
“Death Eaters?” Harry felt the wave of sorrow sweep over him.
“No, it was V-V-Voldemort,” Ron shivered. Harry stared at him for a moment, amazed that he had actually managed to get the word out of his mouth. Then he remembered that they were having a conversation.
“They must have been pretty important then?”
“Well, it was only to be expected I mean Dumbledore’s daughter and all.” There was a long pause while Harry’s mind ticked.
“Hang on, if Ellie’s mum was Dumbledore’s daughter then surely when she married Ellie’s dad her surname changed and Ellie wouldn’t be Dumbledore, she’d be something else?”
“For your information, Harry Potter, we’re not living in the dark ages and women don’t have to change their surname when they get married.” Ron and Harry turned around at the exact same moment to find Hermione standing in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest and a very stern expression on her face.
“I know we’re not living in the dark ages any more, Hermione, but I mean it must have been sometime in the seventies when they got married, not taking your husbands surname must have been unheard of then.”
“Actually, Harry, the sixties and seventies were the most important decades for the feminist movement. From what I understand Ellie’s mum was quite an independent sort of woman, the type to not take her husbands name just because she married him.”
“Okay, Hermione, we get the point.” Ron was always a little irritable in the mornings and it seemed today was no different, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m starving and I want to get changed,” he moaned at her.
“You’re always hungry. I only came up here to tell you that breakfast was ready anyway so keep your snappy comments to yourself.” With that she turned on her heel and left the room without as much as a backwards glance.
“Well, if she came to tell us that then she should be happy that I want to get up.” Ron had moved to the wardrobe and begun leafing for something to wear, “Women. Honestly!” Harry just grinned at his best friend and followed his lead by getting up and dressed.
Last night just before he had fallen asleep Harry had made a rather important decision. The events of yesterday had settled an argument in his mind, he had been debating whether or not to tell his friends about the prophecy but having been presented with the obvious displays of loyalty and support the decision had been made for him. There was no question about it he would tell them. Finding the right time to tell them was a much more difficult task. He had eventually decided that it was a case of the sooner the better, which was when he settled on telling them today.
He thought the best time to tell them would be just after breakfast, so as everyone sat digesting the wonderful food he was building up his nerve. “Hem-hem,” he cleared his throat in an attempt to get everyone’s attention, a very successful attempt at that.
“Is something the matter, Harry?” Molly’s face was quickly flushed with concern.
“Well, it’s just that I wanted everyone to know how much I enjoyed yesterday. I wanted to thank all of you; it was very kind and generous.”
“You deserve it, dear. We wouldn’t be a decent family if we didn’t give one of our own a good party on their birthday.” Molly’s face shone with delight. Harry meanwhile was truly touched she had called him ‘one of their own’; he was a member of the family.
“Thank you. But there’s something that I’d like to tell you. It’s about the Department of Mysteries.” At the mention of the events Ron and Hermione shot each other very dark looks, Ginny’s smile sunk away from her face, and Ellie’s head drooped so that she was looking at the empty table in front of her, while Charlie clasped her hand comfortingly. Harry had never seen the twins look so serious; Molly and Arthur were visibly holding in their breath, and Remus had paled significantly as if the thought of that night was too much to bear. Tonks was watching Remus with growing concern. “I just think that if we’re going to be like a proper family then you have to know what you’re getting yourselves into. I found out something important that night and I want you all to know too. That way you can decide if you still want to be my family.”
“Harry, there’s nothing that could make us think of you differently,” this time it was Arthur who spoke.
“I’d like you to see it none-the-less.” Harry reached across and grabbed his Pensieve, which had been sitting on the sideboard behind him. He pulled his wand from his holster and raised it to his temple just as Professor Dumbledore had shown him the night before. He focused in on the memory of the shadowy figure of Sybil Trewlawny rising from Dumbledore’s Pensieve. Slowly he began to pull his wand away from his temple and found that a silvery thread was running between the two, he lowered his wand to the bowl where the molten silver deposited itself. Once it had settled there Harry poked it with his wand and a misty version of his former divination teacher rose from the stone bowl and began to speak in her low almost demonic voice.
“THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES… BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES… AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT… AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES…THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTHS DIES…”
Harry could see from the various expressions that everyone understood its meaning. He could practically see the cogs of Hermione’s brain springing into action. Ron’s jaw was almost hitting the table; and Ginny’s eyes were beginning to pool with tears. Molly looked completely crestfallen, as did Arthur. If Remus had looked pale before then it was nothing to what he looked like now, his expression reminded him of Ron’s when he had managed to curse himself into vomiting slugs back in their second year. Tonks had her arm around his shoulder and was whispering into his ear rapidly. The reaction that surprised him the most was Ellie’s; she had not moved the entire time. He could not see her face, as puzzled as he had been by her conversation with Charlie this morning he was only more bewildered. Molly stood up and moved towards him in silence.
“And you’ve known about this since that night?” Molly looked him straight in the eye, probably trying to tell if he was lying or not.
“Yes, I have, I’m sorry I should have told you all sooner.” He felt so ashamed of himself, how could he have not known that these people were his family, and that they would accept anything that he threw at them, hadn’t they already proved that time and time again?
“Oh, Harry, you’re so brave,” she reached out and pulled him into another one of her mother bear hugs, he could never remember being held the way that she held him now. He looked at the bushy red hair and fully appreciated that she was the closest thing he would ever have to a mother.
When he was eventually released Remus was next to him, and laid a firm hand on his shoulder. No words passed between them but the sentiment was understood. Harry sat back down at the table in the shocked silence and felt relived that the burden of what had been foretold was gone, he put his hand on Ginny’s and smiled at her comfortingly, he hoped she wouldn’t cry. When she looked up to him, her tears dispelled and her eyes grew determined and she gripped his hand right back. It was in that second when the fiercely determined eyes of Ginny Weasley looked into his that Harry felt his stomach give a nervous little flip.