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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 176: Dumbledore's Troubles
One week before classes, Dumbledore's Office.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts was not having a great summer. First, he had been stressed trying to locate his mentor, Nicolas Flamel. The man had become more elusive over the years, if that was possible, always going on some long trip and becoming unreachable in the meantime.
After a month of trying every method he knew, Dumbledore finally managed to establish contact and secure a meeting with the man. It did not go as well as he expected. Nicolas, despite his centuries of knowledge, did not have enough understanding about the complexities of time magic to offer any useful insight that could explain the bizarre recent events.
He did, however, promise to put him in contact with a friend of his who was a true expert on the matter.
Dumbledore could only hope his mentor understood the urgency of the situation and did not delay things too much, as he usually does.
"Headmaster, what am I going to do?"
Dumbledore's mind stopped wandering for a moment. He adjusted his glasses and looked at the frantic Divination professor, wondering what he could possibly tell her this time.
"Sybill… without knowing the cause of this issue, I have no solution to offer at the moment."
"But how am I going to teach classes like this? I have lost my gift!" She exclaimed.
Dumbledore sighed. This was her fourth visit to his office this summer.
During the first and second visits, she claimed that her visions were getting muddier and less accurate. He attributed this to stress and told her to take some time to relax.
But during her third visit, she claimed to have become completely unable to predict the future any longer. Now… that was concerning.
To be fair, Trelawney had never been the most gifted diviner he had ever met...other than that one time she made a prophecy about Voldemort, her predictions rarely came true, even the ones about the weather.
The reason he kept her around was that, even with her flimsy predictions, she at least knew enough theory to teach the students, and that was good enough for him.
Even if she had somehow lost her gift, it wouldn't have been a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
But it soon became obvious that this was not an isolated incident.
Through Hagrid as an intermediary, he received a message from the Centaur tribe who lived in the Dark Forest. They wanted to meet with him and discuss some urgent matters.
He had been Headmaster for a very long time, and this had been the first time the centaurs requested to meet with him in person. That went to show the severity of the situation.
Centaur diviners were considered among the best in the entire world, so when they informed him that, like Trelawney, they had become unable to see the future, or as they said it, they couldn't hear the whispers of the stars… that was very concerning.
"Headmaster, are you listening to me?" Trelawney called him again.
"Oh… my apologies. I got lost in my thoughts again." Dumbledore considered for a moment. "Perhaps you can still do your class as usual. Just teach the theory to the children."
"But what if my gift is gone forever? What am I going to do then?"
"I'm afraid it's more complex than that. I have spoken with other diviners, and they are all in the same situation as you, Sybill. Now… I am sure there is nothing to worry about and that this is just a temporary issue that will be solved soon enough."
The professor didn't seem that convinced. "I don't know, Headmaster… my instinct tells me that this is just the beginning of something much worse."
"Don't be so pessimistic, Sybill… I am sure th-"
All of a sudden, the fire in his fireplace lit up with green flames coming out of it. "Albus!, Albus!... are you there?!"
The Headmaster turned around and glanced at the fireplace. Very few people in the world were able to contact him in such an invasive way.
But he was very familiar with this voice. "Cornelius… what is the matter?" He noticed the Minister's alarmed tone.
"Albus!, there you are… you need to come to the Ministry right now... it's an emergency!"
"Emergency?" Dumbledore frowned. 'Could it have been an attack? Did He…?'
"What kind of emergency?"
"Something happened to the Hall of Prophecies. You have to come quickly!" Fudge demanded.
"The Hall of Prophecies?" Dumbledore glanced at his side where Sybill was still sitting. 'This has to be related to this divination issue…'
"Very well. Open the Floo... I'm coming through."
The Headmaster's eyes moved again to the Divination professor. "Perhaps you can come too, Sybill. This may be connected to your issue."
The two of them appeared in a big office. The Ministry of Magic and a few of his attendants were waiting for them.
"Ah, there you are, Albus!... finally, wait… who is this?" He pointed at the redhead woman.
"This is my Divination professor. If there is an issue in the Halls of Prophecies, she may have something useful to add," Dumbledore said.
"Oh… that's fine, whatever. Let's hurry; I have a press conference in an hour, and I don't know what to say. Someone had leaked the issue to the press, can you believe it?!" Fudge looked outraged.
"What is the issue, exactly?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's best if you see it yourself… come on, let's go!" Fudge and his attendants escorted the Headmaster and professor to the Hall of Prophecies, deep inside the Department of Mysteries.
"Let's see what you make of this," Fudge asked his assistant to open the door.
Dumbledore and Sybill entered the hall.
He was very familiar with this place, as he had visited often, especially after that foreboding prophecy made by Trelawney.
He now looked at the hall, and it took him a few seconds to process what he was seeing.
On a usual day, the crystal spheres would have some white mist inside them. This was the prophecy that was contained inside the glass ball. Once activated, this would start to shine with a bright white light.
Once the prophecy was completed, the sphere would go black.
"How could this have happened?" Dumbledore's eyes moved around the hall from one sphere to another, hoping to find a different one, but they all looked the same. "They are all clear!"
The crystal spheres were now all completely clear. There was no color to them and no white mist inside them. There was nothing inside them.
"The prophecies…" Trelawney picked up one of the spheres in her hands. "They are all gone… all the prophecies are gone…"
Dumbledore grew alarmed. "Gone?, how can they be gone?. What does this mean?"
"You know what it means, Headmaster." Trelawney looked at him directly.
"This means that…this is what I was afraid of... Fate has abandoned us."
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