Chapter 344

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With the first days of November, you could see a thick blanket of frost in the yards in the mornings, and though it quickly faded, the weather was getting Scottish cold.

Despite the fact that I was, in a way, the cofounder of Dumbledore's Army, neither Hermione nor I went to those classes - we simply had no time for such nonsense. The slight interest in "What are they doing there" was gone almost immediately when we remembered the amount of material we had not yet studied. We started visiting the Restricted Section again, trying to finish it as quickly as possible - there wasn't much left. The reason for the rush was simple. We feared that Umbridge might get wind of this and forbid it for a completely understandable reason: this knowledge is not something that is acceptable for students — even not for every adult.

On the first weekend in November, as always, Hermione and I went to the Three Broomsticks for another lecture by Lady Greengrass. As soon as we settled down at the already familiar table in the far corner of the establishment and cast various privacy charms around, I took the floor:

"I have a question."

"I'm listening," nodded Delphine seriously, this time dressed in a dark green dress and black robe.

"How much credence can one give to a prophecy uttered in front of witnesses?"

Hermione, who was sitting next to me, was also interested in the topic raised, though she glanced at me in surprise.

"Absolutely," Delphine replied seriously. "I'm not very versed in this topic, but I can say for sure that a prophecy uttered in front of reasonable witnesses possessing magical powers will come true for sure and exactly as it is uttered."

"Possessing magical powers?" clarified Hermione.

"Yes. That's right. If the witnesses were ordinary people, the prophecy has no power. Although it would be more correct to say that it can be neglected, events can be changed. According to the books, they were convinced of the truth of that statement in ancient times; those oracles, pythoness, and other gifted persons were kept in very good conditions, but only ordinary people were allowed in their environment. Surely one name is familiar to you, Michel de Nostredame?"

"Nostradamus?" we said simultaneously.

"Yes," smiled Lady Greengrass. "An ordinary man, an alchemist's assistant, was fond of pharmacy. Little known fact - for seven years, assisted the master alchemist in the treatment of one seer. As you can understand, the alchemist was not allowed to see the seer, so it was Nostradamus who took care of the patient. It was from him that he heard the prophecies, which, of course, he carefully wrote down and passed these notes to the wizards in charge. Why do you think none of the prophecies actually came true?"

"There were no wizard witnesses?"

"Exactly. However, prophecies uttered without witnesses will come true if nothing is done. Such prophecies are carefully documented, calculated, interpreted, and the events in them are prevented in advance. If they are bad, of course. True, it is often the "bad" prophecies. Why are you suddenly interested in such an abstract subject?"

"It has come to my attention that there is a witnessed prophecy in which only one boy you know is capable of defeating You-Know-Who," I had to call Voldemort by that nickname, for there was no defense against Taboo around.

"Interesting," Delphine pondered. "However, without an accurate knowledge of the text of the prophecy, it is impossible to draw any conclusions. For example, it says that this particular boy should win, but this does not mean that the actions of all the others do not make sense. Maybe the boy just needs to strike the last blow? Or activate the final trap? Or something else? Just a necessary action on his part?"

"Makes sense," I pondered.

"What 'boy'?" Hermione shifted her gaze from me to Delphine. "A secret?"

Glancing at Delphine, all I got was an indifferent shrug, saying, "You decide."

"Potter."

Hermione thought for a moment, and after a couple of minutes, she smirked.

"Then we're doomed," she shook her head with a smirk, which brought somewhat inappropriate smiles to our faces.

After this conversation, we moved on to more important topics for us, namely, study.