False Prophecy

Thank you to my beta, Astopperindeath

The days that followed were busy and exciting as well as nervewracking and tense. The newly expanded room, now dubbed the 'practice center' by the women, was in constant use.

Supplies showed up regularly. Viktor had sent robes, cloaks and sturdy boots. Severus continually sent healing potions and draughts and as many other medical potions as he had time to make. Neville had his people making an incredibly large number of illegal portkeys. They timed it for the days when a member of Snape's Company was in the Ministry of Transportation so they could intercept the alerts from going out. All this had to be smuggled in and through the house until it could be stored in one of the rooms in the east wing. We were developing quite a stockpile. Of course, I kept the potions in my room over the kitchen.

Ma had made clever usage of charms to simulate the sound of large parties going on in other lounges to explain the shortage of available women to whoever came to the door. That left us free to practice with our new wands unless any of the Death Eaters showed up. It was rather nice to have another name to call the younger men. Now when we spoke of Death Eaters, it came with all the same stomach clenching as before.

We took rotation in our same groups of eight we had before, only this time eight girls from one dorm worked downstairs and sixteen were upstairs practicing spells. Ma would send one of her house-elves up after us if we had been requested specifically. We developed a routine of walking to the door, placing our wand on one of the small shelves Neville had set on the wall, shrugging out of our robes and hanging them on a hook by the door and then leaving to go take care of business.

It wasn't many nights before I realized that the other girls were making sure I didn't have any customers on my shift. Sitting in the lounge, I became aware of Dusty or Peaches moving to intercept even the slightest glance and Theo or Vaisey or one of the others would inevitably make some suggestive comment and escort me upstairs where they would immediately drop my arm and apologize.

I walked into the practice room one night, after having been escorted up the stairs by Caddoc Warrington, and saw Ma cuff Peaches and Theo on their heads. It didn't take a genius to realize they had been snogging on one of the couches.

"More wards were removed from this room than just those that closed you off from your magic. Unless you want to start the next generation of Snape's Company, you might want to take it to another room," she muttered and walked away shaking her head, but I saw the little happy smirk on her face. I waited until they had pulled themselves together a bit and approached them.

"Why am I being kept from working downstairs?" I demanded to know. "I'm not comfortable getting special treatment like this; it's not fair to the other girls. Did Severus put you up to this?"

Theo and Peaches looked at each other and then back at me.

"The girls needed a way to actively feel like they are doing something. Protecting you is a tangible thing they can do," said Theo.

"It's good for morale and leaves you free to plan. Get over it," added Peaches. "Snape didn't tell us to; the other girls decided, but I will tell you he was rather pleased with the idea," finished Theo. He grabbed Peaches by the hand, and with a nod to me, they hurried out of the room to finish their moment in privacy.

And so, I spent my days and nights in the practice center where I had a desk and all the ink and parchment I could want. All battle strategy was discussed in this room, since it was good sense to make use of a house that was known to have people coming in and out at all hours of the night. Severus drilled us in defensive spells as well as some nasty ones that would have got us in trouble with the Ministry before, well, before the Ministry started using them. Neville came by often, always under a glamour, to confer about tactics and preparations. Charlie and Percy came to help train us as well; both of them had deadly aim and greatly improved our accuracy. Percy helped organize my legion of notes and charts, and his wife Penelope would often come by, Polyjuiced to look like a man, to retrain people in healing spells and to help Peaches organize the medical corps.

Twice, we were honored to witness a team dueling demonstration with Severus and Theo against Charlie and Percy. I know I was supposed to be watching everyone, but I only had eyes for Severus as he whirled and twisted and flung his hexes in silence. The point of the first duel was to demonstrate the use of voiceless magic and if that meant that it was supposed to leave Peaches and me too breathless to speak, it was a success. After about twenty minutes, Percy clipped Theo, and his shield failed and Charlie quickly took him down, only to have Severus dispatch them both with a silent blasting hex that made it seem as if he had been holding back the whole time. The point of the second duel was straight up face-saving, as the proud Weasley brothers came back for a second match two days later. This time, it ended in a draw as Severus had spent most of the duel fending off a constant barrage of attacks while Theo threw shields on him and couldn't get off a good shot of his own. Charlie and Percy worked a similar plan of one defending as the other tried to pick a weak point. That lesson was actually highly instructive, and we found ourselves practicing working in pairs after that.

The members of Snape's Company kept me updated on the last ploy we ladies had decided to pull off via rumor. Goyle Sr. had made a comment about how we needed a prophecy right now to throw the Dark Lord over the edge. He had talked about how obsessive he had been about the last one and how it would have been nice had there been another to make him just as tactically blind as before. That had set my mind to thinking, and eventually, we had started to disseminate the rumor to the Death Eaters who still came in the evenings. A week later, according to Snape's Company, every wizard and witch on the street now thought there was a savior on the horizon according to prophesy, but no one knew the actual words or where it had come from.

Then one day, about a fortnight after we had set the rumor free, lo and behold: it was found. Once word of a prophecy reached the Dark Lord's ears, he ordered the Department of Mysteries searched until it was found by Mulciber. This caused quite a stir, not only among the people at the Ministry but also for us. We had made up a rumor; we didn't actually have a prophecy.

The mystery of the suddenly appearing prophecy was solved the next night when Severus and I were alone in our room. We didn't get much time together anymore, and this was the first time he had been able to stay the night since the night of our big argument. Not wanting to waste time, we had set upon each other as soon as the door was closed, and an hour later, we were relaxing in bed. I was still perched on his lap, leaning against his bent knee, fingers playing absent mindedly with his long hair. He was stretched back on a mountain of pillows. His body was languid, eyes heavy lidded, his movements sated as he lifted his arms and rested his hands behind his head. His two tattoos were visible in the candle light.

I smiled as I remembered the lecture I had given him on that subject. He had just smirked at me and it taken me a minute to realize that not only had he stopped listening to me, but he was actually enjoying my attempt to scold him. I think if he had actually said he thought I was adorable, I might have run screaming down the hall in my frustration. As it was, he didn't have to; he just radiated it in the most infuriating way. When I had demanded to know if he had marked himself as well, he just raised that damned brow and unbuttoned his cuff. Pulling back his sleeve, he showed me he had. Of course, his was slightly different, not just because his serpent was much larger and more intimidating and the lightning bolt was much smaller but also, under the lightning bolt, his serpent curled protectively around a lioness in full roar.

"Well," I had said. "I won't even go into detail about what Freud would have to say about you wanting the bigger snake."

I smiled now to remember his quiet rumble of laughter.

I had finished braiding the lock of hair I had and reached to grab a new one, when I remembered I had wanted to ask him his thoughts on the prophecy. I started to card my fingers through another lock, separating it into three pieces.

"Severus?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you know about this business with the prophecy?"

"Quite a lot actually."

His answer intrigued me, and I searched his face, waiting for an explanation. Reading Severus's expressions was a frustrating hobby, but I was desperate to perfect it. Once the effects of the backlash had worn off, he was back to introverted and rarely forthcoming unless he was undone by sex, and he was getting better at recovering from that quicker as well. It was important that I learn to break his code, to try to avoid miscommunications. A quirk of a lip there, a glitter in the eye, just so, a carefully too smooth brow, and it added up to... smug.

"Severus! You planted the prophecy!"

Full blown evil smirk. He reached up and tugged a lock of my hair and let it spring back.

"But how? What does it say? How did you manage it?"

"Easy, woman!" His hands shot out to stop my excited bounce, and I remembered my position. I threw him an apologetic look.

"I thought Goyle's idea had merit, but I knew it wouldn't work without proof. I whipped up something vague enough to sound real and creepy enough to send him over the edge. Krum helped."

"Viktor? How did he help? How did you make it creepy?"

"There is an old instructor in Durmstrang who knows how to fashion memory message bubbles that can pass as recorded prophecies. I sent Krum a message to record, and he had his sister speak the words into the matrix. He brought it back with him, and all I needed was to rig it with names and dates and place it on a shelf."

"What does it say?"

Snape looked at me and then cleared his throat and in a sonorous voice intoned:

"She comes. The one who purifies comes from the house of the vanquished. On the last day of the seventh month, she will purge the house of law. The phoenix shall be vindicated, and the loyal shall be laid low. She comes. The one who purifies comes from the house of the vanquished."

His voice trailed off, and then he ruined it by waggling his eyebrows, breaking the spell.

"That's very good!"

"Thank you, I'd like to think twenty years of listening to Sybill would lend a certain verisimilitude."

"It sounds real enough, too real; are you sure it doesn't point a bit too directly to me?"

"Well, I have been sent here to investigate the possibility, and I think I investigated you rather thoroughly, did I not?" His hands swept up and over my body.

"I'm being serious, Severus!" I batted at his hands.

"The Dark Lord is deranged, and with the discovery of the prophecy, he has only the most tenuous hold on his sanity. He ordered a rounding up of all the female Gryffindors still alive. I left the explanation of why that was unfeasible to Mulciber. He is still recovering, but he did get the order rescinded. I'm just following up on a possibility. I will present the Dark Lord with some edited memories of your more than willing acquiescence, and he will be satisfied."

"I can't say I'm happy with the idea of him watching us."

"He... has before."

"Oh. Right."

"Quite."

"Getting back to the prophecy, I have to say it sounds real, but it doesn't sound particularly creepy."

"You should hear it with a Bulgarian accent. Bulgarians always sound creepy."

"Stop that. How did you get it into the Department of Mysteries without anyone seeing it?"

"The same way you always snuck into the library at night before every exam."

"Oh, Harry's cloak!"

"Indeed. I especially liked how the prophecy was inscribed. It just said 'The Lioness' and then 'The Loyal'. So everyone that the Dark Lord forced into touching it thought it was about them. Idiots."

"Hang on, give me that date again?"

"...On the last day of the seventh month..."

"But Severus! That's Harry's birthday! That's only two weeks away, how can we be ready by the thirty-first?"

He sat up and pulled me into his arms while rolling over so he had me pinned to the bed under him.

"Don't be a dunderhead. The prophecy isn't real. We're not going to attack on the thirty-first."

I relaxed under him, relieved, and he started to nuzzle along my ear with his nose.

"We're going to attack on the first."