The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 14 February 2010


A/N Thank you to those who reviewed. akayuri - thank you for letting me know that I was not clear on the time jump between the visitors for Evan and the morning Harry woke up with pain. Harry needed time to properly grow the fetus, but I wanted her born just early enough to attend Hogwarts with the others. I hope this explains everything.

Chapter 73 A Prophecy and a Rat

It was in the middle of October when Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his cushy chair behind his desk looking at a written version of the prophecy he had heard. He was trying to understand just exactly, what it meant, and what he could do with the knowledge. It was times like this he was extremely glad for his memory skills; he then closed his eyes to allow the memory to float before him.

FLASHBACK
It was at the end of June when there had been a meeting not too far from the school between the headmaster and a potential teacher. They met at the Hogshead Inn that his brother owned. There was a future teacher who was none other than the great-great granddaughter of the famous Cassandra Trelawney, a noted seer from years past. The woman, Sybil Trelawney was applying for the post of Divination Professor.

Now, if one would look closely, they would think the woman was ‘off her rocker’. Of course, they could possibly be correct. She was not ‘gifted’ in the powers of Divination as much as she was gifted in believing that she had power. Dumbledore was not fooled; he knew she didn’t have power. He, however, could not afford at this point to offend anyone that could remotely ‘see’ any of his plans. So, he had granted this ‘imposter’, in his opinion, an interview just to see what she had to say.

He was about to get up and leave when the woman’s eyes rolled back into her head and she started speaking in a raspy sort of 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 month dies...”

It was right in the middle of this that someone had screamed in the hallway about a rat trying to get into their room. He could hear his brother Aberforth scrambling around with a broom to try and whack at it and kill it.
END FLASHBACK

As the old man sat at his desk, he pondered what he had written on the paper so he could read the words slowly and think about their meaning. There were two babies that he knew of who fit the description ‘born as the seventh month dies’. He wasn’t sure which child would be the lucky one to have ‘power the Dark Lord knows not’.

He had visited the hospital to see if there was something special about the baby boys; to see if they exhibited a strange aura or showed some exceptional magical residue. There was none. Of course it was a little early to tell, but he thought that only a very strong magical infant would grow up to vanquish Voldemort and that they would somehow show something that would let him know who it was.

He knew that Lily and James were very powerful and gifted, but so were Frank and Alice, the latter couple being aurors and a little older than the first couple. But, Frank and Alice Longbottom were both purebloods and he knew from years of observation that when a powerful muggleborn had children, the offspring somehow ended up with more power than usual. If he was to believe what was written in those books that company was selling, he would have to say that their theories were quite brilliant and quite possibly accurate.

Both of these families were Order members so he could keep a close eye on them. Of course there were others born on the same day, it was what had prompted his visit to the hospital. But these two infants seemed to fit the description more of parents ‘who had thrice defied him’. Perhaps he could have a little chat with them in a few months and see if either of the infants was exhibiting any accidental magic.

As summer was turning into fall…

Becca had started taking walks in the neighborhood to get to know the neighbors. She had met a few of them before when working with Buddy in the garden. He was now working on the house issued to the Lupin family. Officially they lived across the street and two doors down, but they stayed underground like everyone else where they didn’t have to be careful of their magic.

Buddy waved hello and stopped his weeding to come see the children. It had been warm enough to take the children for a walk in the stroller. Evan was now eleven weeks old and Lillian was six weeks old. The stroller had been charmed so that there looked to be triplets as later they would eventually have little Harry with them.

Buddy looked down at the children and spoke to Becca about how cute they were and they all looked alike but the little girl looked smaller that the other two. He didn’t try to touch them or hold them as his hands were covered in soil.

“Sometimes that happens Buddy. She is strong and will grow to be as big as her brothers soon.”

“Miss Becca, Mr. Lupin told me about getting the gardens fixed for winter. I need to order the stuff for them.”

“That’s fine Buddy, you can do that and if you need help you can ask some of your friends to come and we will pay them too.” The man actually did ten yards on a consistent basis. Doing one each day of the week for two weeks then starting over again. There were several of the houses that had small greenhouses in the back yard that the elves managed, but Becca and Remus Sr. had talked about putting more of Buddy’s house members to work and letting them do that also. Some of them worked in the muggle part of the publishing company also, packing boxes of books for shipment. They turned out to be wonderful workers.

“Just let Mr. Lupin know what you need and he will get it for you, Buddy. I will tell him to call you.” Becca assured the young man before her.

“Thank you, Miss Becca.” He replied and went back to his weeding.

Becca continued to stroll down the walkway waving hello to the neighbors that she saw and pushing the buggy with the children in it. When she was approaching home, she passed Petunia outside working in her garden.

Good afternoon Mrs. Dursley.” Becca cried cheerfully. She knew Petunia wanted to pretend she wasn’t there, but as other neighbors were outside watching her, she would not take the chance of them seeing her antisocial behavior.

“Good afternoon, Miss Prince. I see you have the little ones out today.” Petunia returned Becca’s greeting, but then turned her back and continued with her gardening.

Becca chuckled to herself as she caused a piece of trash to roll into the yard while Petunia’s back was turned. So far, if Becca’s count was right, Petunia and Vernon had picked up over two hundred pieces of trash out of their yard in the last two weeks. It was a small revenge, but they couldn’t risk them moving before little Harry arrived. The magic need to move a piece of paper into their yard was so slight that it would not be picked up by anyone either.

She headed into the house with the sleeping infants in the stroller and continued down through the cupboard under the stairs until she got to her quarters. Once they had arrived in the house, Harry came out from under the invisibility cloak and smiled at her.

“You just couldn’t resist, could you?” he said with a smirk.

“It’s my only revenge right now. You should be happy. Why don’t I see you doing anything?”

“Because I send others to do my dirty work.” He replied mysteriously.

“What others?”

“I explained to The Seven what they were like to me, I wanted them to know so they would understand later as the little ones grow that they were to be kept away from those horrible people and their offspring. The snakes have taken it upon themselves to go over there and slither in her gardens pulling up her prize flowers or leaving impressions in her soft ground or digging holes in the earth. Sometimes they even inject some of their venom into the plant so it will die of unknown causes. She spends every day outside trying to fix the problems they create. I have fun watching from the sidelines and don’t use an ounce of magic to cause the problem.” By the time Harry finished explaining, he and Becca were doubled over in laughter as they entered the sitting room where Sal and Sev were sitting patiently waiting for them.

“What’s so funny?” Severus asked his husband.

“We were talking about Petunia.” Harry answered before he burst out in another fit of laughter.

“Do I want to know?”

“Probably not” Harry quipped back.

Severus picked up his son out of the stroller, while Harry picked up his daughter. He knew Lily was ready to be fed but Evan had already done so just before they left for their walk. Harry went into the nursery to nurse the baby knowing it would not be long before she would be feeding herself. He would be glad when his body was more normal for a man so he could take a walk in the open. Right now his stomach was still a little bigger than normal and he actually had small breasts. When he wore a coat he could cover these post pregnancy symptoms, but on a day like today, when the weather was warm he would use the cloak to hide completely. It also gave them the element of surprise if they were attacked.

“Hey my little man” Severus said to the infant in his arms. He held him with the baby’s back against his chest so he could see out into the room. While they were sitting there, Third Born came slithering up the chair and into Severus’ lap where the baby sat.

“He is cold and wet” the snake informed the father of the child.

“Here Severus, I’ll change him” said Becca. But Severus had already gotten out of his seat as soon as the snake moved.

“No, you stay here with Salazar. I will go and change him.” He walked into the nursery where Harry was still feeding their daughter and moved over to the changing table. He never in his life thought he would be changing nappies on his own children. He actually never thought he would have children. Now he had two in diapers and was having the time of his life taking care of the small ones.

“Harry, love, do you want to try to feed Evan too? Since we are already here and he seems to be fussing a little bit.”

“Sure, bring him here as soon as you finish changing him. I will put him on the other side. Lils is not finished yet.”

Severus secretly loved watching his babies get their nourishment from their Daddy. There was something deep in his heart that was touched at the thought of the two being able to nurse like that from his husband.

He turned around when he finished with Evan and brought him over to his husband. Evan, upon seeing his Daddy, squealed and started moving his mouth in a clear sign he wanted to be fed. Severus helped Harry uncover his other breast and place the child in his arm so he would be comfortable. When he watched his son start feeding, a tear formed in his eye and as he wiped it away Harry noticed.

“Everything alright?” the younger man asked.

“Have I told you how much I love our little family lately?” Severus asked in a reverent tone.

“Every day when you wake up next to my side.” Harry answered with a smile.

They spend the next half hour in the nursery with the children.

Somewhere at an undisclosed manor…

The rat had finally been able to come back to his human form. He had been scrounging around an alleyway eating off of other people’s scraps for months. When he had been chased around by that Aberforth Dumbledore and hit several times with the broom, he had been hurt and not able to transform all summer. His injuries had been severe and he almost died a few times just from hunger. For awhile there, he couldn’t even remember who he was. But everything was fine now and he knew what he had to do.

The rat animagus slowly but surely made his way back to the Dark Lord. First he had to find out where he was, and then he had to get into the place past the wards. He found out that the others had thought he was dead so they had not been looking for him. He knew he had been missing for months so that meant the baby with the power to defeat the Dark Lord was born already. He had only heard part of the prophecy before that woman started shrieking about rats but he had heard enough to let the Dark Lord know that there was trouble brewing.

Finally, he found one of the followers and got him to bring him before their lord.

“Wormtail, where have you been!” the Dark Lord shouted to the little man bowing and scraping on the floor before him. “I thought you were dead.”

“I was attacked and very badly hurt. It took quite a while to heal from my injuries. I had no medical care as I was in my animagus form.” Squealed the runt of a man.

“You mean it took you four months to heal and come crawling back to me. Explain why I should let you live.” The man’s hand twitched as he fingered his wand.

“I…I have n…news…m…m…master.” The man on the floor stuttered. “I…I… I h..hheard of a p…pr… prophecy t…that in…involves y…y…you.”

Voldemort couldn’t stand the stuttering and shaking of the idiot in front of him. “Someone get this idiot a calming draft, I want to hear what he has to say.” He shouted to some of his lackeys in the room. He normally wouldn’t be this generous, but he could have sworn he heard the word prophecy in that jumble of staccato words that left the rat’s mouth.

He waited, waiting for the moment he could crucio this shaking, quivering bundle of nerves before him. He should not be so weak. What was his group of followers coming to if they couldn’t stay strong for the cause? He hadn’t seen Lucius Malfoy in a while either, no matter how many times he tried to summon him. That Snape fellow was missing also, but he had said he was going to be at Prince Conglomerate so perhaps he couldn’t leave. They may suspect him of something, but the Dark Lord had not even a scrap of parchment from the two men that were told to gather information about the company that had published ‘The Book’, that was making his recruiting much harder. Parkinson was missing too and some others that he didn’t even know the name of because they were lower level and were not worth bothering with.

Finally someone came in with the calming draft and helped the man, which was still crawling on the floor, to take it. Once he was calm and the potion had taken effect, the Dark Lord scowled at the quivering heap and asked.

“Now Wormtail, can you manage to tell me what you were saying a few minutes ago?” It might have been said in the form of a question, but there was not a soul in the room that didn’t see it for the demand that it was.

“I… I heard a prophecy, Master. A prophecy about you.” Wormtail started again. “We should be alone Master so others will not hear.” The man might be an idiot, but even he knew not to say anything about vanquishing the Dark Lord in front of others.

“Everyone, clear the room!” shouted the man on the throne.

After all the followers left, very quickly, Voldemort looked at Wormtail and said, “This had better be good, Wormtail. If I find out you had me clear the room for some half baked muttering of an old hag, you won’t have to worry about healing anymore.”

“Yes, Master. The woman was the descendent of Cassandra Trelawney and spoke in quite a raspy voice, as if she didn’t know what she was saying. She was talking to Dumbledore at the Hogshead in Hogsmead and was applying for a teaching position.”
This information the rat had gotten after the meeting as he was sneaking around while his injuries healed.

“She said…
‘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..’

That was all I heard before I was discovered. It was then that I was injured and could not get back to you immediately.”

The Dark Lord was somewhat impressed with this information. Who would have known that Wormtail, of all people, would be able to find out something like this and be able to deliver it to him? It did not excuse him for being weak, but for now he would not punish him.

“So, we need to find out who had a child as the seventh month came to an end.” His voice drifted off as he was not really asking the fool in front of him that information. He was starting to form a plan and would need to get a few of his inner circle in here.

“Wormtail!” the lord shouted. “Give me your arm.” He would call Belletrix and see if she knew anything about who recently had a baby. As he was summoning her, he put a little extra power behind the call so Wormtail did not escape his presence without a little pain. Then he decided to call a few more of his inner circle just so he could inflict a little more pain on the man sitting on the floor.