The Marauders: Year Four

The Prophecy of the Chosen One

The Prophecy of the Chosen One

James stayed standing between Lily and the apparition of Mopsus, his arms spread out to keep her covered, eyes wide behind his thick-framed glasses, the ghost reflected in them clear as day. Lily clutched onto his shoulders from behind, for he was still a bit unsteady on his feet and she didn't want to see him fall down or anything of that sort... James held his wand out before him, aimed right at the ghost of Divination Teachers Past...

"What do you want with us?" he demanded.

The apparition was a strange sight indeed, made up of all the bits of clockwork pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. If you looked close enough, you could see each individual cog and wheel creating the features of his face and arms and torso, trailing off into the smoky, billowing curtain in the stone archway. Mopsus seemed to stare not only at them but through them and James felt utterly exposed. Lily did, too, he could tell, because she seemed to shrink behind him and her fingers were tight 'round his shoulder blades.

Then Mopsus opened his mouth and though his lips did not move, his voice came from within him, as though this version of him were nothing more than a sort of haunting intercom, and he spoke the following prophecy:

"The Dark Lord will rise to great heights --
A terrible star in the pitch black of night...
None shall deny his greatness!
But Greater Power exists --
The Dark Lord shall choose his equal
From two that could defeat him
Both will rise from the ashes of those
Who have thrice defied him.
Two lives laid down in love - and -
Two descend to the depths of darkness
Madness... Madness...
The Dark Lord will rise and fall and rise
Like the coming of the tide
But the one chosen shall bring hope
To the darkness that the Dark Lord shines in
The Chosen One shall bring hope
To the darkness..."

The words echoed in the silence that followed, heavy and still. Lily's breath was the only thing that James could hear and he realized he was holding his own breath and quickly took a large inhalation of air.

"Who is it?" Lily asked, "Who is the Chosen One?"

But the mouth of the apparition of Mopsus closed... and for a moment, there was absolute, ringing silence... a calmness that seemed to vibrate... and then there was an actual ringing - a horrible sound that seemed to shake the very muscles under James's skin. And then the apparition burst. Bright light - brighter than any James or Lily had ever seen before - shooting out from amongst the cogs and wheels of the time pieces and with a burst - the light spreading to every corner of the room, making James clench his eyes shut and Lily bury her face in his back. Cogs and wheels and little clock hands and shards of glass from clock faces, numbers, and little even a wooden cuckoo bird flew about the room, stinging James as they struck him and making Lily shriek...

Then suddenly it all went dark.

James opened his eyes. The apparition was gone.

Lily was crying.

James stood, hesitant to believe he really was gone, staring at the place where he'd hovered over them, then, finally, he turned around, catching her up in his arms. "It's okay. It's alright, Lily." He pulled her close to him and she let him, her cheek pressing against his chest as he cupped his arms 'round her shoulders, "C'mon. We gotta get out of here. We gotta find Moody... and Pete, we gotta warn Peter..." But she shook her head against his chest. "Are you alright, love?" he asked her gently. She shook her head again. He sighed and tightened his arms about her, clutching her to his chest. "I'll just hold you 'til you are, then, okay?"

Lily nodded against him, her heart in her throat. Mopsus's apparition had been absolutely terrifying; worse, she felt, than even Voldemort himself... She couldn't seem to stop the tears that were flowing from her eyes, it had just been so terrible - that awful man's face, his awful voice, the way it had sounded odd - like a voice within a voice as he spoke... Later, she would talk of it as though it hadn't alarmed her even the slightest, but right then, in the moment, she needed strength and James Potter's arms were stronger than she would have thought them to be. It was comforting, too, that he smelled of trees and deep woods. Though she worried that he wouldn't ever let her forget the fact that she'd turned to him to cry like this, she couldn't bare to turn away - not yet. Just a few minutes more, she told herself...