the siphon | h. potter

~twenty six~

harry

The sound of hushed whispers and loud footsteps woke Harry the next morning. Through the bright morning sun Harry saw Hermione and Ron unsuccessfully attempting to sneak into the room.

"Morning, Harry!" Hermione greeted and rushed over to his bed to give him a hug.

"Blimey, Hermione. I'm not even awake yet," Harry laughed while reaching for his glasses resting on the bedside table. Once he adjusted his eyesight through the lenses, he saw Hermione roll her eyes at him before stepping away.

"Always so dramatic."

Harry ignored that comment and swung his legs over the bed. He barely had time to sit up before Ron and Hermione sat down eagerly across from him on Cass's bed. "So how was your summer, Harry?" Ron asked, "Were the Muggles alright?"

"It was alright, the Dursleys pretty much left me alone. Honestly, it's been rather boring."

"Boring?! You've been off with Dumbledore!"

"I was only with him last night. He wanted me to persuade an old teacher to come back to Hogwarts."

The mention of the new teacher instantly peaked Hermione's intrest. She shot Harry nearly a dozen questions about Professor Slughorn to which he replied, "I don't know" to every single one.

"The only thing I know about school this year is that Dumbledore said he would be giving me private lessons."

"Blimey, private lessons with Dumbledore?" Ron said, looking impressed, "I wonder why he's—"

Ron never finished his sentence due to being interrupted by Hermione's left knee. The pair of them grew uncharacteristically quiet as they pretended to be interested in other things.

"I think he's doing it because of the prophecy," Harry said, trying to coax his friends into talking again. When they didn't speak he continued, "You know the one they were trying to steal at the Ministry?"

Curious it's got the better of Hermione and he became the first to break the silence, "But no one knows what it said though, it got smashed."

"Although the Prophet says—" Ron began before being silenced by Hermione once again. If Harry wasn't extremely confused he would be laughing at the interaction.

"The Prophet's got it right," Harry interjected. Hermione kept her same frantic facial expression displayed as she processed what Harry said, but Ron was nearly bouncing out of chair with anticipation of what Harry would say next. "The glass orb wasn't the only copy of the prophecy. I heard the whole thing in Dumbledore's office last June. It seems like I'm the one who's got to finish off Voldemort. At least it said neither one of us can live while the other survives."

Hermione and Ron only stared at Harry as they processed the full extent of his words. He remembered when Dumbledore first told him of the prophecy, he was quiet afterwords too. Hearing about your probable death wasn't exactly something that stimulated conversation.

"Harry, oh Harry," Hermione said while walking to Harry's bed and sitting down beside him. "When Malfoy was talking to you in the Ministry, all the talk about you and Voldemort, we thought it would be something like this. But I didn't- I didn't know it would be like that. I'm so sorry, Harry," Hermione said before wrapping Harry into a hug.

"We'll figure something out, Mate," Ron chimed in, "we always do."

Harry wrapped his arm around Hermione before saying, "Ron's right, we've gotten past trolls and Death Eaters and wolves, nothing can stop us."