Lockwood Part 6

In the lead up to Christmas, I had gone to my parents and told them about Voldemort looking for the Lockwoods, I didn’t know whether to believe Valentine when he said it, but it seemed my mother knew a little more than she let on. She’d heard rumours that some of his followers were looking for me and had harassed Darren at the end of a couple of Quidditch games. I had no doubts that they would never find me at my house, but I couldn’t do anything about Darren.

My mother said he’d asked for additional security going to and from games and it appeared to hold them back, but there was really no telling where they would turn up next.

Remus had been on night patrols in the Department of Mysteries, I knew a little about what was being protected in there, but he assured me that it was just a precaution and Voldemort wouldn’t get past the front door without alerting someone and that would defeat the point of him rising up in the shadows.

I had written to David quietly and asked when would be an ideal time to come to the castle so as to cause the least fuss and he told me Christmas would be better. Few students would be around and Umbridge wouldn’t exactly be making many visits to the teacher’s offices, most of what she did was to show how powerful she believed herself to be and with no one to show off to, there would be no point.

My plan had been disrupted when the news came in about the attack on Arthur Weasley. Remus had been in disarray, he was worrying most of the day, waiting for me to come home from speaking to Darren about what I found in the Hills and everything looked like it was going into freefall.

‘It’s okay, it’s alright.’ I held him while we sat on the sofa. ‘Arthur is alive and he’s being treated, everything is going to be fine.’ I tired to comfort him, but he was exhausted and ended up crying himself to sleep on top of me.

I thought long and hard about my conversation with Darren, I made sure to catch him at a lunch event with the rest of the team and only spoke to him using legilimency. He gave me the occasional smile in understanding and I could see how hard he was working to keep the brother at bay. I just wished there was more I could do beyond teaching him to meditate and focus on what was important, but they were the two most powerful things he could do to maintain control over himself.

I had taken a detour through Diagon Alley to see how the shop had been doing and Alfred asked if Darren planned on making a visit at any point, I just told him that with what happened over the last few games, it would be difficult to make it over without causing an incident. It seemed to be enough to settle the older werewolf, who was looking a little worse every day. He was getting old and his body was struggling to take the toll of transformation. Alfred was almost sixty and with his relatively sedentary lifestyle, his body just wasn’t able to cope with the sudden trauma each month.

I looked down to see Remus snoring away and ran my hair through his greying sandy hair. I loved him with everything I was, he was fun and smart and sexy and kind and everything I felt I never deserved in life, but I was trying to be a good wife, I was trying to communicate with him and tell him when something was bothering me, I was trying so hard to be the woman he deserved to be married to. I just worried that by the time I figured it out, it would be too late.

I spent most days going to and from Grimmauld Place, the shop and my home, keeping my focus up and trying to avoid Knockturn Alley at all costs, rumour had it, that was where most Death Eaters were meeting privately.

I had been given a few tasks from the minister to investigate a possible coup beginning, he was paranoid that Dumbledore was trying to take his job.

‘Minister, you can’t seriously believe that Dumbledore would want-‘

‘I don’t know what he wants!’ Fudge snapped, he was looking a bit worse for wear, wandering around aimlessly in his office that looked out over the ministry reception area. I could tell that things were getting tighter around the ministry and Fudge was surrounding himself with some very questionable people. I could feel the darkness descending around him. ‘Listen to me, Lockwood,’ Fudge’s pale and bloodshot eyes found mine and I could feel the fear, the confusion, the helplessness. ‘Dumbledore is a powerful man, I’ve never denied it, but he has abused his position at that school long enough, spreading lies about He Who Must Not Be Named, influencing the children-‘

‘Now, just wait a minute, Minister-‘

‘He is a disease!’ Fudge was clearly not thinking straight, he wasn’t of sound mind and I could see glimpses of conversations with Malfoy and other known Death Eaters, possibly he was under the influence of the Imperius Curse, but I had no significant evidence to do anything about it. ‘That man has plagued me since my appointment as Minister, thinks that by his name being merely mentioned as a candidate, it entitles him to some form of special power. No more!’ Fudge stepped towards me, fearfully. Now that he was closer, I could calm him down a little. ‘I want you to go to the school, find out what he’s up to. Stop him from taking my position, disrupting the peace we have lived in for the last fourteen years.’

I did my best to calm Fudge down without being too intrusive, the man had been through enough and I didn’t want to hurt him in any way. I took a deep breath and just watched the Minister for a moment or two.

‘Fine.’ I said and watch relief wash over his face. ‘I will go to the school, but I don’t expect to find anything unusual there.’

‘Regardless of what you think of Umbridge, she has always had the best intentions for the ministry and for this country.’ The minister smiled.

‘She won’t get in my way, you can guarantee it?’ I didn’t want to manipulate the minister, but if I could get into the school, without resistance and with Umbridge out of my way, then I could get a look at Benji’s memory and talk to Trelawney about the prophecy. ‘I don’t want her findings to corrupt my own, you understand?’

The minister frowned and thought about it. ‘Fine, fine, I will write to her at once.’

‘Good.’ I nodded and watched Fudge lumber away to his desk. ‘Get some rest minister, if your suspicions are correct then there’s no point in you not being well rested to deal with it and if you’re wrong… there’s no point dwelling on it.’

Fudge turned his gaze towards me and I worried for a moment that he might attack me, but he soon drifted his eyes slowly back to his desk, it was as if he wasn’t quite behaving of his own volition. I took a small step towards him, but he was still.

‘Minister?’ I tried.

‘I gave you the world when you were fifteen years of age,’ he said quietly. ‘And look what you have done with it.’

The struck a painful chord in my chest, he was right, I hadn’t done much good in the last ten years of my life, nothing that I felt could repay the privileges he gave me when I was young. I sighed and wondered what I could do to help the minister, who was clearly suffering just like the rest of us, the only problem was that he was in denial about the cause.

I left the ministry and headed straight for Grimmauld Place where another meeting would occur before we left for Christmas. Remus gave me a small smile and pulled out a chair for me to take. I looked around the table that was only partially full, there were only a few people able to make it, but that was okay because all the information would reach them anyway.

I relayed what the minister had asked of me and it only confirmed what we had all long suspected, Fudge was under Voldemort’s control and he didn’t even know.

‘I expect you’ll be making the trip soon?’ Dumbledore peered over his glasses at me.

I nodded, sadly. I really didn’t want to go to the castle so soon, I wasn’t quite ready, but then I hadn’t been ready for anything in recent years and it was showing.

‘Might I suggest, next week as an opportune time to conduct your investigation.’ I knew Dumbledore wasn’t exactly asking so I just sighed and agreed. I could already feel Remus’s worry building next to me.

‘I thought you wanted to go to the school?’ Remus asked quietly as the meeting concluded. ‘This is the perfect chance to get what you need.’

‘I know.’ I sighed. ‘I’m just worried that it’s too soon, what if I’m not asking the right questions?’

Remus just gave me a half smile and held my hand. ‘You won’t know what the right questions are until you ask the wrong ones.’

I gave him a small smile back and we eventually left Grimmauld Place. Arthur would be there soon with the rest of the Weasleys and the Potters. I was a little confused as to how Harry knew Arthur was even on patrol, but Remus informed me that Dumbledore was keeping a lot more to himself than he was letting on. The days were starting to darken and we were all worried for what was coming.

Christmas Eve seemed like the perfect day to head to the castle, I could use David as a good cover for going to see Trelawney and my reasoning to see Dumbledore would take care of itself.

Snow caked the ground beneath my feet as I trod the familiar path up to the castle gates. Somehow it didn’t have the air of awe that it used to, another indication of the fear growing amongst the wizarding world. No one was ignorant to the feeling surrounding Hogwarts, the ministry, or Diagon alley, but almost everyone was pretending not to recognise what was happening.

‘It’s getting worse.’ David said, quietly as our footsteps echoed throughout the corridors. ‘Every day, another kid comes to find me, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and few others, all of them worried about their parents, or their parents worried about their place at the school.’ David sighed, pulling the sleeves of his cream cable knit sweater down to shield himself from the cooler air. ‘It’s like Azkaban most days, cold, dark and without much hope for happiness.’

‘It’s not just Hogwarts.’ I agreed as we went up the steps to the divination room where Trelawney was presumably waiting for us. ‘The whole world is getting colder. When I was in Bulgaria seeing Aleksander, nothing felt the same as it did before, it was just paranoia and panic.’

‘McGonagall said this is how it started last time,’ David lowered his voice even further, the echo carried and he couldn’t risk his words getting too far. ‘When Voldemort gained power last time, she said it was like the world suddenly started shrinking, but it was slow and when the real war finally broke out, everyone was too tired to actually find something worth fighting for.’

I nodded. ‘It’s an effective way of fighting I suppose, take away that which we care for most, destroy our faith in each other and then tear us apart like we’re nothing.’

‘You sound as if you know what you’re talking about.’

We stopped outside Trelawney’s classroom and David gave me a deep frown.

‘The brothers weren’t the only ones who got themselves into bloody wars,’ I whispered. ‘Felix was responsible for his fair share of bloodshed. So were a lot of Lockwoods, it doesn’t bode well for mine and Darren’s future.’

‘We all know this will end in a war, Angie, we’re preparing for that.’

‘No, you’re preparing to win a fight, but this fight won’t be like when Jack died and it won’t be like anything you or I have ever seen before. It’ll be worse, more people will die, people you and I love more than anything… but if we survive, if we make it out with something more than our bodies, then there will be enough hope to carry us through into the next stage of life.’ I sighed. ‘I have to believe that something better is waiting for us all at the end of this war, because if there isn’t… why are bothering to fight so hard?’

Before David could really take in anything in, Trelawney appeared at her door a little startled.

‘Oh.’ She looked at us both through her huge round glasses that made her eyes look four times bigger than was natural. ‘Can I help you?’

David and I shuffled awkwardly for a moment, she was always a little ditsy at the best of times, something I’d almost entirely forgotten.

‘Yes, Sybil, you remember I said I’d be bringing Angie to meet you?’ David said and suddenly Trelawney began to remember.

‘Oh yes, yes of course, come in, Miss Lockwood.’ Trelawney gave a little bow and gesture for us both to enter into her darkened classroom. ‘Forgive the lack of light, I was… well… yes… tea?’

I frowned at David who just shrugged, she could literally have been doing anything and it wasn’t exactly a priority to find out at that moment.

Trelawney went about making tea, never quite holding eye contact with me and I tried not to think to much on it. She was an incredibly empathetic woman, there was every chance she could feel the brother inside me and it was causing her an immense amount of discomfort. She finally settled in her armchair while David and I sat on low stools, the same way we did back in third year when we were still taking the subject.

‘You have come to talk about the prophecy?’ Trelawney sipped her tea and I eyed David suspiciously. I had hoped to keep the details quiet until I arrived. ‘Oh don’t worry about Daniel-‘

‘David.’ The man himself sighed.

‘Yes, David, he did not tell me about the Lockwood Prophecy,’ Trelawney tried to assure me. ‘I learned of its existence from an old monk who was studying old forgotten prophecy’s, ones that were probably outdated or whose time had passed.’

‘Right,’ I nodded. ‘And you think Lockwood’s prophecy is in the past?’

‘Oh, good gracious no! No, that one is still to come.’

‘Right.’ I shifted again and looked at David who was at a loss as well. ‘Okay, well, it’s just that I had a few questions.’

‘Questions?’ Her voice heightened for a moment, was she scared?

‘Do you know what the prophecy is about?’ I asked as gently as I could.

‘I’m afraid it’s been a long time since reading it, I couldn’t possibly-‘

‘I can write it down for you.’ I said, knowing that she was trying to fidget her way out of it.

‘Well, erm, yes, that would be, yes, useful. Yes.’ Trelawney nodded unable to think of another excuse quickly enough.

I grabbed a parchment and quill and wrote it down word for word, handing it over and watching her worried eyes scan the parchment. David just kept a cautious eye on the door behind him, something I had to admit I was worried about as well, I didn’t want Umbridge suddenly walking in on us.

Trelawney suddenly began focussing on the puzzle in front of her and began mumbling to herself, none of the words were recognisable, but I didn’t want to disturb her mind by intruding.

‘Sybil?’ David softly spoke. She looked over at him and came back into the room, properly. ‘Any ideas?’ He pressed.

‘Oh well, yes, many.’ She nodded. ‘There are several people mentioned, but with age the accuracy of interpretation will be minimal.’

‘What does that mean? How many people are mentioned?’ I said as calmly as I could.

‘Oh, erm, one, two, three…’ she counted them up quickly. ‘Six, possibly?’

‘Six?!’ I exclaimed.

‘Or two.’

I was started to lose a little patience. Why couldn’t these things be clear?

‘Two or six? Is that what you’re telling me?’ I clarified.

‘As I said, accuracy of interpretation diminishes over time-‘

‘All I needed was an interpretation!’ I snapped. ‘Just one accurate theory about whether my brother and I will kill each other, just one shred of hope that there was a way out of this-‘

‘Angie.’ David said, calming me down.

‘And you can’t even do that.'

‘That’s enough, Angie.’ David snapped back, making me turn and realise what I had done.

‘I’m sorry.’ I shook my head. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap, I don’t know why I got so angry.’

‘They fury of a wolf.’ Trelawney mused, accepting my outburst.

‘Sybil, you said accuracy diminishes over time,’ David refocussed the conversation. ‘Why is that?’

‘Oh, language, culture, differences in religion, it is impossible to interpret prophecies of the past with precision unless you have a full understanding of the seer and the time it was made.’ Trelawney explained.

‘Okay, well, this was made three thousand years ago,’ David pushed on, he was the only one thinking with any clarity. ‘Does that help?’

‘Well, it certainly gives context, but I’m afraid without knowing which seer made the prophecy, I will not be able to give you more than I already have.’ Trelawney looked at me sympathetically and it was the last thing I needed.

‘Is there a way out of prophecies?’ I asked. ‘Is there a way to stop them happening?’

‘Impossible to say,’ she shook her head. ‘Three thousand years ago, they were placed into smaller glass spheres, many thinking the size of orb would indicate it’s importance, the smaller being less so and the bigger being more so, but those with less than kind intentions may well have taken advantage of that.’ Trelawney placed the parchment on the table next to her tea. I stared idly at the words thinking that this had all been a waste of time. ‘These days prophecies may only be retrieved by those whom they are about, but before the time of the ministry, they could be retrieved by anyone.’

‘Well then how did they stop everyone hearing them?’ David frowned.

‘Professional seers would place a containment charm on the orbs, so that they may only ever be heard by those whom it is about.’

Something about that sentence had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end.

‘Okay, well Angie heard it so does that help you interpret anything else?’ David asked, hoping it might give more detail on how to get out of the oncoming war.

‘Oh, well, the words indicate that the prophecy is about this one called the Last Wolf, mentioned a total of five times, the mentioning of a subject multiple times can be an indicator of who the prophecy is specifically talking about.’ Trelawney quickly counted them up. ‘The way it is written may also indicate a change of subject, possibly daughter and she-wolf are in reference to the same individual?’

‘But there’s no way to be sure?’ I sighed.

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Okay.’ I nodded and tried to think for a moment. ‘What if the prophecy isn’t about me? What if it’s reference to someone else? Could it be heard by more than one person?’

‘Like Darren?’ David nodded with me.

‘Your brother?’ Trelawney mused. ‘Hmm, yes, that would change some of the meaning of certain lines, but I’m afraid there really is no way to tell.’

I eyes Trelawney for a moment, there was definitely something else on her mind, but she seemed somewhat fragile and I would feel guilty about disturbing that.

‘I am sorry I couldn’t be more useful to you.’ She handed the parchment back to me. I nodded and sighed.

‘It’s fine, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting anyway.’ I stood up, David following my lead. ‘There really is no way out of this? Darren and I will die at the end?’

‘Prophecies are curious things, yours is particularly complex, but once a decision has been made, I’m afraid your fate cannot be escaped.’ Trelawney looked away.

‘Right.’ I nodded finally and led David out of the old classroom.

‘Well, that seemed like a waste of time.’ David commented quietly as we began making our way to Dumbledore’s office. ‘What are you thinking?’

‘I’m not sure.’ I shook my head. ‘I feel like she said something important, but I’m very frustrated right now and I can’t focus properly. What do you think?’

David took a deep breath. ‘I hate to say it, but I don’t think this will end well for anyone.’

I appreciated the honesty, I could always rely on David to be so, but sometimes, a lie couldn’t hurt.