The Little Lightning Girl

44- No One to Blame Except Unfortunate Fame

I'd been hoping that McGonagall would brush off the prophecy and say it wasn't about us at all. But nothing in my life had been that easy for years. Sitting down across from the Headmistress later that afternoon, the three of us seemed... numb. A combination of apprehension and exhaustion could likely be blamed for the lack of expression her friends' faces.

McGonagall sighed when she saw us, a sad smile aimed at each of us, "I wish I could tell you that the prophecy spoke of someone else. But after I heard of it, I did my research. You three are the only witches in the world who fit the description."

My shoulders drooped, next to me, Kaley let out a heavy sigh.

Rose started blurting, "Are you sure the seer didn't just misinterpret the prophecy? One time Kaley was sure she had a vision that Alana had grown pointed teeth. The next day she punched Alana in the jaw and fake teeth fell out."

I absentmindedly rubbed my jaw, remembering that fine morning, "Turns out, England doesn't do Halloween."

McGonagall actually smiled a little at our tale, "No, I'm afraid there's very little chance that the seer made a mistake. She's one of the most practiced, most powerful seers on the planet."

I'd already figured that there wasn't any mistake in the prophecy. The Ministry would have made a greater attempt to stop the rumors from circulating if that had been the case.

"Well," I started, trying to keep calm, "what are we supposed to do about it?"

It wasn't quite a shrug, Minerva McGonagall would never make such a casual gesture, but it was something similar as she said, "Go to class, stay out of trouble."

All three of us stared at her, eyes wide. Rose was the first to break.

"What!?"

McGonagall turned to her, "I don't see what else we can do. Prophecies have a degree of unpredictability, as ironic as it is. We don't know how the prophecy is going to come to pass, or how to prepare for it. So, learn defensive magic, learn to fight, but you are still teenagers. You have to go to school. You have OWL exams this year, after all."

My jaw fell open a bit. I wasn't sure what I'd expected her to say, but that wasn't it. She wasn't wrong, though. I doubted she'd ever been wrong in her life. We didn't know how to prepare for the prophecy, so we might as well just get on with life in the meantime.

So we chatted with McGonagall for a bit longer, discussed how to learn more advanced defensive magic, and then we left.

As we were walking down the hall, none of us spoke, but I knew we would later that night in our room. We were so preoccupied in our thoughts that we almost ran into a group of boys, Ravenclaws that looked to be about our age or sixth years. One of them I recognized just because of his reputation as a playboy. Daniel Wessman was a jerk, and somehow, likely because of his well-structured face, none of the girls in this school seemed to notice. Rose and I were intimidating enough for him to never have approached us(anyone who'd seen us play Quidditch avoided irritating us), but Kaley was a different story. She was just as badass as Rose and I, but she walked around gracefully with a lilting accent and a soft smile. For over a week now, Wessman had been one of the people staring at us, but mostly at her, and not because he was curious about the prophecy.

As soon as we rounded a corner and nearly ran into Wessman and his cronies, I shoved Kaley between me and Rose and linked my elbow with hers. Rose did the same. For a moment I thought we might get past without them noticing, as they were talking loudly about something I didn't care about. But just as we passed them, Wessman called out a jeer from behind us.

"Looking good, Finch. How 'bout you and me go out this weekend?"

Kaley rolled her eyes but we kept walking as she said over her shoulder in a carefree voice, "No, thanks! I'd rather gargle Polyjuice."

I sniggered under my breath as we approached the Great Hall. Her easy dismissal of him probably was more annoying than if she'd refused him outright. I certainly enjoyed it greatly, as did Rose.

As much as we hated Wessman, the encounter and Kaley's remark had lightened the mood somewhat, and dinner wasn't nearly as quiet and tense as I'd expected it would be. James sat at Rose's side and we discussed the upcoming Quidditch game casually as we ate. I could see the concern in his eyes, and he knew that we'd gone to see McGonagall, but he didn't speak a word about it.

After dinner, and after our homework had been completed, the three of us sat on the floor of our dorm room to talk. But none of us knew what to say. With a flourish of my wand, I summoned three mugs of hot chocolate and took a deep breath of the aroma before sipping at mine.

"McGonagall's right," Kaley said with a sigh, warming her hands around her mug, "there's not a whole lot we can do if we don't know more about the prophecy."

I shrugged, "Not beyond what we're already doing, at least. We're already learning defensive skills in our spare time and other than that..."

"There's nothing we can do," Rose finished.

I wished more than anything that this prophecy hadn't fallen on us. We had missed our chance to be normal teenagers at Hogwarts, or at least, normal witches. I had never been a normal witch, of course, but now that there was news about a coming battle I knew I'd lost my opportunity to blend in. I wanted to apologize to Rose and Kaley but what was I to apologize for? Existing? The actions of my mother and grandmother that led to me being born a demiwitch? I couldn't blame them either. I had no one to blame, and though I wanted to apologize to my friends, I knew that none of this was my fault. If I didn't credit my friends with this disaster, then I wasn't to blame either.

But there was something that I felt like I had to tell them.

"As much as I want this to all be a bad dream, I know it isn't. But if that time comes, the battle in the prophecy... you both are my family. I would do anything for you. I'd fight for you, I'd die for you."

In a rare moment of physical affection, Rose grabbed my hand and said in the most sincere tone I'd ever heard from her, "I would do the same."

"We both would," Kaley added.

I was so unsure of so many things these days. So unsure of who I was, of how my life was going to play out, and how I was going to survive at all. With all these things I was unsure of, it had to be a miracle that I knew for certain my friends were telling me the truth. They would die for me. Die for me. I didn't know how I'd come to have such people in my life, and I didn't know what to say in response.

So I just smiled, "I know."