Her face went completely blank and she stared straight at him. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mister Potter. Everyone knows all the Death Eaters were dealt with during, or immediately after, the previous war."
Internally, Harry gave a shudder and apologised for interrupting the woman when she was so busy. He wanted nothing less than to get the Hell out of there as fast as he could.
It was easy to deduce the woman, with others assisting, had 'dealt' with the marked Death Eaters through other means. There'd be no trials for them.
As promised, they took Narcissa and Draco on a couple of expeditions into 'Muggle London'. One excursion was to a major shopping mall, another was to the Tower of London, and a third was to see a recent major picture release at a cinema.
Each trip practically left the two purebloods reeling in shock. Folks at the Black House also made sure to leave at least a few days between excursions lest they cause too much shock and overload their pureblood mentalities.
However, after the third such trip, the girls decided to ask that Narcissa and Draco be invited to the wedding. They felt they had learned enough about muggles and the muggle world that they could be both trusted and comfortable enough to be allowed to attend. After a bit of deliberation between the Greengrasses and Sirius the invitation was made; and gratefully accepted.
It was during this time that Harry's results came in from his Ancient Runes exam at the Ministry. He, surprising even himself, scored an Outstanding. The score was barely in the Outstanding range; but, it was there, nevertheless. This meant he'd be joining his wives for OWL year Runes.
He quickly wrote off a letter to Professor Flitwick letting him know he'd be adding Ancient Runes to his timetable and included a copy of the results.
Because of the involvement of the angels, the wedding was being held at a local metropolitan church, Croyden Church of the Church of England in Croyden Borough. The church building was believed to have stood since the time of the Founders and had hosted the Royal family, at times, as well as four Archbishops of Canterbury.
At other times, the girls would need to disappear occasionally to deal with something wedding related. And, at yet other times, the three would work with Sirius on mastering their forms.
Surprising the other two, Hermione - who was slowest to recognise her form through meditation - was the first to successfully fully transform. But, it was only two days later when Daphne and Harry both fully transformed almost together. And only two days shy of the wedding. They'd both had the same 'A-ha!' moment of which Hermione informed them was needed for that final effort to complete the transformation on their own. Their other project was to prepare the false prophecy sphere. Dobby had managed to snag a few hairs from Professor Trelawney's hair brush before going to Dumbledore's private quarters and doing the same.
Everything else transfiguration.
could
be
done
by
With their existing two unused potion phials of polyjuice, they didn't need to brew a new batch.
One day when the weather was right, Sirius booked a room at the Hogshead where the original prophecy was made. They then entered and set up everything to recreate the memory.
Harry was the one who could best imitate the batty old witch's voice because he was the only one who heard the prophecy in its correct form from the memory in Dumbledore's pensieve. Hermione took the polyjuice to match Dumbledore. And Sirius pretended to be Snape out in the hallway, while Daphne remained under the invisibility cloak behind Dumbledore.
They worried it would take them longer to get it just right. However, with all their planning, preparation and rehearsals, they got it in only two 'takes'.
When they'd written down the actual words of the real prophecy, Daphne realised there was really only one line that needed to be changed. 'And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.'
That one line was replaced with, 'The chosen one will face his foe in the place where it all began. And there the Dark Lord shall meet his final end.'
That left them with the following false prophecy: 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... The chosen one will face his foe in the place where it all began. And there the Dark Lord shall meet his final end. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.'
Once they'd finished the four of them were grinning from ear-to-ear to one another.
"This would have to be the greatest prank ever done," said Sirius. "It'll be hard to beat; if it ever can be." The memory string was handed off to Madam Bones the next day, who promised them she'd speak to Croaker about switching it out for the real prophecy.
"I don't know if Croaker will go for it, though," she said, a little worried.
"It's still worth the effort," said Daphne. "Better to ask and be rebuffed than not ask at all when there's a possibility."
On the next morning, Madam Bones asked Croaker to join her in her office. She was a little nervous about what the man would say.
With a muted crack of apparition Croaker appeared before her desk. "Amelia," he softly said. Though he'd, again, appeared in the middle of her office as if to startle the witch, this time Madam Bones wasn't surprised by the visit, as she was expecting it.
"Algernon," she said. "Thank you for coming to see me."
"What's this about?" asked the Unspeakable.
"I would like you to do something for me you might find yourself reluctant to do," she began.
"Well, now you have me intrigued," he replied with a little smirk. "What would you have of me to do?"
"That prophecy sphere in the Hall of Prophecies we talked about? I need you to remove and replace it with a false one," she explained. "And why would I do that?" he asked with a frown.
"Because the prophecy mentions Riddle and he knows of only part of it. He'll be coming to get it when he feels he has enough support to do so," she explained. "I'd like him to have a false version of that prophecy to worry about."
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