บท 351: Interpretations

By the time Oleandra's senses returned to her, she found that Umbridge had given her detention once again, but that truly was the least of her worries. Oleandra knew things were bound to change— the shocked faces of her classmates told her as much— but she was about to find out just how much she had underestimated the impact her prophecy would have on the magical world...

The consequences of the prophecy being overheard by an entire room's worth of students weren't immediate; in fact, the news that Professor Trelawney was an actual True Seer came as a surprise to many— not least Trelawney herself.

When the shock of the prophecy had mostly passed, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown informed Trelawney what had just transpired. It took Trelawney all she had to stop herself from jumping into the air and shouting "yippee!" despite basically having predicted a new age of darkness.

The lesson ended not long after that— Trelawney had claimed that she needed to retire to her quarters and enter seclusion to reflect on the contents of the prophecy… However, Oleandra was quite sure that Professor Trelawney was actually going to celebrate the confirmation that she was a True Seer (and not a total failure like she had previously believed herself to be) by imbibing copious amounts of cooking sherry.

After Divination came Defence Against the Dark Arts, but upon reaching the classroom, Oleandra and company found a note on the door: class was cancelled.

Oleandra would later learn that Umbridge had left Hogwarts for London along with Professor Dumbledore in all haste; it was unknown when they would return, so Oleandra's detention for the evening was indefinitely postponed.

The concept of prophecy was deeply ingrained in Wizarding culture; after seeing Oleandra's and Trelawney's otherworldly display of precognition, there was no way Umbridge could have called them false prophets. It seemed like Umbridge had no choice but to come to the conclusion that they had made a real prophecy, so Oleandra's punishment was in all likelihood going to be cancelled.

By the time dinnertime arrived, the mood in the Great Hall that night was rather sombre and depressing. At that point, there wasn't a single soul left in the entire school that hadn't heard of the prophecy; the rumours had spread like wildfire through gossip, in what had probably been the most important game of Chinese whispers in the students' entire lives, ever.

Over at the staff table, Professor Trelawney appeared to be the only teacher in high spirits, thanks to her newly acquired, over-inflated sense of self-importance. She usually preferred to eat alone in her office rather than with the other teachers in the Great Hall, claiming that the Inner Eye worked better if she detached herself from worldly affairs, but the truth was that she felt inadequate compared to her fellow teachers, who were all masters or grandmasters of their disciplines.

In any case, now that Trelawney knew of her true power, all of her apocryphal excuses for eating alone had gone out the window; swaggering about in public and receiving the adoration of her students was much more enjoyable than hiding in her office to cry alone.

Indeed, Trelawney had become truly insufferable, if the annoyed expression on Professor McGonagall's face was anything to judge by. Professor Trelawney had doubled the number of shawls draped over her head and shoulders, and while her fellow teachers were trying their best to bring their spoons to their mouths, Trelawney would keep shoving her crystal ball under their noses, insisting that they look into it together.

As for the students…

Those who had believed in Dumbledore's words from the start were depressed to learn that no matter what would happen, no matter what choice the so-called Chosen One would end up making, You-Know-Who was here to stay. It was rumoured that he had rendered himself invincible, immortal; it now appeared that those rumours were true. And wasn't it enough that there was a Dark Lord? Now there was a Dark Lady as well? Couldn't the British Magical World catch a break!?

Those who had thought Dumbledore a liar, those who had believed that You-Know-Who had been vanquished for good, all those years ago... They had chosen to believe in the Ministry's lies, but now? Now, they were unsure with whom they ought to place their trust. You-Know-Who was all but named in the prophecy, which went directly against the Ministry's stance that You-Know-Who was dead and gone.

Of course, some were quite happy to learn that the Dark would rise again; namely, many Slytherins, mostly the children of Death Eaters, but that went without saying. They knew the Dark Lady had to be among them; wasn't there a certain fifth-year Slytherin student who seemed to tick all the boxes? An abomination against nature bearing a wand of yew? Hmm…

However, a spark of hope animated the discussions over dinner that night…

The prophecy spoke of a Chosen One. But the real question was, who was he (or her)? Harry Potter was the usual suspect, but others argued that he was already the Boy Who Lived; could he have other titles on top of that one? Hermione, for one, argued at length that the Chosen One could very well be a girl; if the Dark Lady was one, why couldn't the hero of the prophecy be one as well?

And last but not least, the most popular topic of the evening was the prophecy's final lines.

Only the Chosen One may choose… Paradise on Earth awaits...

Everyone had their own interpretations of paradise; some believed it meant a perfect world, while others took the word more literally; notably Muggleborn students who had been raised in more religious families. Those who were aligned with You-Know-Who believed it meant that the Dark Lord and the Dark Lady would lead the magical world to conquer the Muggles and purify the world from the lesser species; that was their idea of a perfect world.

However, to Oleandra, paradise held another meaning— after all, she was a Fairy from Paradise, which was another name for Avalon, the Isle of Apples. Paradise on Earth to her literally meant the return of the island of Avalon to the realm of Midgard, and the success of her life's mission!