Dumbledore had sent us back to Hogwarts, and brought Harry and I alone to his office. Sirius had also arrived, and the two of them explained what had happened that night. 

First, Dumbledore explained that Riddle had sent the visions into our heads, which we now already knew. Then, Sirius explained how they had been alerted; he had tried to contact me that night via the mirror, but when I didn't answer he grew worried and contacted Dumbledore, who in turn had just been informed by an Order member that there was activity at the Ministry, and they put two and two together and altered the other Order members, who came to our aid. 

Dumbledore also explained how he had already seen the prophecy, as he was the one to whom it was made. He pulled out a thought from his head and deposited it into the bowl, which I learned was called a Pensieve, and Trelawney showed up from it, her voice rasping. 

"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 her as his equal, but she will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and a sacrifice must be made in order to overpower the other... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..." 

And yeah. Apparently that meant me. And one of Riddle's cronies heard only part of the prophecy, and so that was why Riddle wanted it so bad. 

But the good news was that Sirius was formally pardoned straight after Dumbledore talked with Fudge. No longer did he have to hide away inside Grimmauld Place. Sirius Black was a free man. 

~~~ 

"'HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED RETURNS 

"In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned to this country and is once more active.

""It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive and among us again." Fudge said, looking tired and flustered as he addressed reporters. "It is with almost equal regret that we report the mass revolt of the Dementors of Azkaban, who have shown themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry's employ. We believe the Dementors are currently taking direction from Lord - Thingy.

""We urge the magical population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defence which will be delivered free to all wizarding homes within the coming month."

"The Minister's statement was met with dismay and alarm from the wizarding community, which as recently as last Wednesday was receiving Ministry assurances that there was 'no truth whatsoever in these persistent rumours that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us once more.' 

"Details of the events that led to the Ministry turnaround are still hazy, though it is believed that He Who Must Not Be Named and a select band of followers (known as Death Eaters) gained entry to the Ministry of Magic itself on Thursday evening.

"Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reinstated member of the International Confederation of Wizards, and reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, has so far been unavailable for comment. He has insisted over the past year that You-Know-Who is not dead, as was widely hoped and believed, but is recruiting followers once more for a fresh attempt to seize power. Meanwhile, the 'Girl Who Lived' -" 

"There you go, Daze, I knew they'd drag you into it somehow." Harry said, as Hermione looked over the top of the paper at me.

We were in the hospital wing. Harry and Suzanne were sitting on the end of Ron's bed and we were all listening to Hermione read the front page of the Sunday Prophet. Ginny, whose ankle had been mended in a trice by Madam Pomfrey, was curled up at the foot of Hermione's bed; Draco, whose nose had likewise been returned to its normal size and shape, was in a chair beside my bed, and Kylie was holding my hand as I was propped up, Terry lounging across the end. 

"She's the 'Girl Who Lived' again now, though, isn't she?" Ron said darkly. "Not such a deluded show-off any more, eh?" 

He helped himself to a handful of Chocolate Frogs from the immense pile on his bedside cabinet, identical to mine, threw a few to Harry, Ginny, and Kylie, and ripped off the wrapper of his own with his teeth. There were still deep welts on his forearms where the brain's tentacles had wrapped around him. According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else, though since she had started applying copious amounts of Dr Ubbly's Oblivious Unction there seemed to have been some improvement.

"Yes, they're very complimentary about you now, Daisy, and Harry." Hermione said, scanning down the article. "'Two lone voices of truth... perceived as unbalanced, yet never wavered in their story... forced to bear ridicule and slander...'" 

"Hmmm." Terry said, frowning. "Sus." 

"I notice they don't mention the fact that it was THEM doing all the ridiculing and slandering in the Prophet." Kylie rolled her eyes. 

Hermione winced slightly and put a hand to her ribs. The curse that Death Eater had used on her, though less effective than it would have been had he been able to say the incantation aloud, had nevertheless caused, in Madam Pomfrey's words, "quite enough damage to be going on with." Hermione was having to take ten different types of potion every day, was improving greatly, and was already bored with the hospital wing.

"'You-Know-Who's Last Attempt to Take Over, pages two to four, What the Ministry Should Have Told Us, page five, Why Nobody Listened to Albus Dumbledore, pages six to eight, Exclusive Interview with Daisy Potter, pages nine to twelve... Well," said Hermione, folding up the newspaper and throwing it aside, "it's certainly given them lots to write about. And that interview with Daisy isn't exclusive, it's the one that was in The Quibbler months ago..." 

"Apparently Loony Lovegood's dad sold it to them." Terry said. 

"So, anyway." I said, sitting up. "What's been the bants in school?" 

"Well, Flitwick's got rid of your swamp." Ginny said. "He did it in about three seconds. But he left a tiny patch under the window and he's roped it off -" 

"Why?" Hermione said, looking startled.

"Oh, he just says it was a really good bit of magic." Terry smirked. 

"I think he left it as a monument to Fred and George." Ron said, through a mouthful of chocolate. "They sent me and Daze all these, you know." He told us, pointing at the small mountains of Frogs beside us both. "Must be doing all right out of that joke shop, eh?" 

Hermione looked rather disapproving and asked, "So has all the trouble stopped now Dumbledore's back?" 

"Yeah." Suzanne said. "Everything's settled right back to normal." 

"I s'pose Filch is happy, is he?" Ron asked, propping a Chocolate Frog Card featuring Dumbledore against his water jug.

"Not at all." Draco said. 

"Pathetic little man." I said, then winced. Kylie reached a hand out to steady me, biting her lip-ring in concern. 

"He's really, really miserable, actually..." Ginny lowered her voice to a whisper. "He keeps saying Umbridge was the best thing that ever happened to Hogwarts..." 

All nine of us looked around. Umbridge was lying in a bed opposite us, gazing up at the ceiling. Dumbledore had strode alone into the Forest to rescue her from the centaurs; how he had done it - how he had emerged from the trees supporting Umbridge without so much as a scratch on him - nobody knew, and Umbridge was certainly not telling. Since she had returned to the castle she had not, as far as any of us knew, uttered a single word. Nobody really knew what was wrong with her, either. Her usually neat mousy hair was very untidy and there were still bits of twigs and leaves in it, but otherwise she seemed to be quite unscathed.

"Madam Pomfrey says she's just in shock." Draco whispered.

"Sulking, more like." Kylie said.

"Yeah, she shows signs of life if you do this." I said, and with my tongue I made soft clip-clopping noises. Umbridge sat bolt upright, looking around wildly.

"Anything wrong, Professor?" Madam Pomfrey called, poking her head around her office door.

"No... no..." Umbridge said, sinking back into her pillows. "No, I must have been dreaming..." 

Terry and I muffled our laughter in the bedclothes.

"Speaking of centaurs." Draco said. "Who's Divination teacher now? Is the sexy horse staying?" 

"He's got to." Harry said. "The other centaurs won't take him back, will they?" 

"It looks like he and Trelawney are both going to teach." Ginny said.

"Bet Dumbledore wishes he could've gotten rid of Trelawney for good." Kylie smirked. "She always seemed like a fraud to me." 

"Mind you, the whole subject's fuckin' useless if you ask me, Firenze isn't a lot better..." Terry said, now munching on his fourteenth Frog.

"How can you say that?" Hermione demanded. "After we've just found out that there are real prophecies?" 

My heart began to race, and I glanced quickly at Harry. We hadn't told anyone what the prophecy had contained. I wasn't ready to see their expressions when I told them that I must vanquish Riddle, I must kill him, that there was no other way... 

"It's a pity it broke." Suzanne said quietly, shaking her head.

"Yeah, it is." Terry said. "Still, at least You-Know-Poo never found out what was in it either." 

The others continued chatting as I drifted off in my own thoughts. Riddle marked me as his equal the day he gave me that scar... am I really his equal, though? I know he thinks very highly of himself, but I'm a literal angel. 

I shifted in my bed. I was in here mostly because of the psychological damage I had, but I honestly felt fine. Riddle couldn't hurt me if he tried, clearly. The only thing wrong with me was that I kept experiencing small painful shocks in my stomach where Bellatrix had got me with the Cruciatus Curse, making me jolt and flinch every now and then. 

And being back in school again felt good; surrounded by my peers and friends. Despite the business, I knew I belonged in school until I finished seventh year. 

~~~ 

Umbridge left Hogwarts the day before the end of term. It seemed she had crept out of the hospital wing during dinnertime, evidently hoping to depart undetected, but unfortunately for her, she met Peeves on the way, who seized his last chance to do as I had instructed, and chased her gleefully from the premises whacking her alternately with a walking stick and a sock full of chalk. Many students ran out into the Entrance Hall to watch her running away down the path and the Heads of Houses tried only half-heartedly to restrain us. Indeed, a mostly-recovered Professor McGonagall sank back into her chair at the staff table after a few feeble remonstrances and was clearly heard to express a regret that she could not run cheering after Umbridge herself, because Peeves had borrowed her walking stick.

The journey home on the Hogwarts Express the next day was eventful. Firstly, Floppy and the Three Douchebags, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush me halfway down the train as I made my way back from the toilet. The attack might have succeeded had it not been for the fact that they unwittingly chose to stage the attack right outside a compartment full of DA members, who saw what was happening through the glass and rose as one to rush to my aid. By the time Ernie, Hannah, Susan, Justin, Anthony, Luna, Colin, and Louis had finished using a wide variety of the hexes and jinxes I had taught them, Floppy, Ash, Spieler, and Rudd resembled nothing so much as four gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts uniform as Ernie, Louis, and Justin hoisted them into the luggage rack and left them there to ooze.

"I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Malfoy's mother's face when he gets off the train." Ernie said, with some satisfaction, as he watched Floppy squirm above him. Ernie had never quite got over the indignity of Floppy docking points from Hufflepuff during his brief spell as a member of the Inquisitorial Squad.

"Spieler's mum'll be really pleased, though." Terry said, who had come to investigate the source of the commotion. "He's loads better-looking now... anyway, Softpaw, you okay, honey? The food trolley's just stopped if you want anything..." 

I thanked the others and accompanied Terry back to our compartment, where I bought a large pile of cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties. Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet again, Ginny was doing a quiz in The Quibbler, Draco was watching over her shoulder with mild interest, Harry and Ron were playing wizard chess, Suzanne and Shannon were chatting with Cedric about what he was going to do now that he had finished school, and Kylie gestured me onto her lap. 

I whiled away most of the journey making out with Kylie, and Terry and Draco snogged in the corner, as Hermione read out snippets from the Prophet. It was now full of articles about how to repel Dementors, attempts by the Ministry to track down Death Eaters, and hysterical letters claiming that the writer had seen Lord Voldemort walking past their house that very morning...

When the train arrived at Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, Fred and George were waiting with their parents for us, wearing brand-new jackets in some lurid green, scaly material.

"Ron, Ginny!" Mrs Weasley called, hurrying forwards and hugging her children tightly. "Oh, and Daisy dear - how are you?" 

"I'm good, Mrs Weasley!" I said brightly as she pulled me into a tight embrace. Over her shoulder I saw Ron goggling at the twins' new clothes.

"What are they supposed to be?" He asked, pointing at the jackets.

"Finest dragonskin, little bro." Fred said, giving his zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves." 

Mrs Weasley released me to hug Harry. I stepped closer. 

"Not gonna lie, my dudes, you don't have the most based fashion sense, do you?" I said. 

Fred and George blinked at me, looking quite affronted. 

"Wow, Softpaw, tell us how you really feel." Fred said, jokingly disgruntled. 

"Aw, Red, Bushy, I think those are really becoming on you." Terry said, taking pity on the twins. 

"You know who else'll be coming on us?" George muttered to Fred, who turned bright red, and Terry cackled loudly. 

I snorted. "You guys are so dumb. I love you." 

The twins and Terry looked around at me, grinning, and they drew me into a group hug. 

"We love you too, Softpaw." 

~~~ 

Next book will be out in a moment! Just go onto my profile and you'll see it, it's number six. I love you all so much! <3