from underneath her shawls. '- the lightning-struck tower,' she whispered. 'Calamity. Disaster. Coming nearer all the time ...' 'Right,' said Harry again. 'Well ... I still think you should tell Dumbledore about this voice and everything going dark and being thrown out of the Room ...'
'You think so?' Professor Trelawney seemed to consider the matter for a moment, but Harry could tell that she liked the idea of retelling her little adventure. 'I'm going to see him right now,' said Harry. 'I've got a meeting with him. We could go together.' 'Oh, well, in that case,' said Professor Trelawney with a smile. She bent down, scooped up her sherry bottles and dumped them unceremoniously in a large blue and white vase standing in a nearby niche. 'I miss having you in my classes, Harry,' she said soulfully, as they set off together. 'You were never much of a Seer ... but you were a wonderful Object...' Harry did not reply; he had loathed being the Object of Professor Trelawney's continual predictions of doom. 'I am afraid,' she went on, 'that the nag - I'm sorry, the centaur - knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked him - one Seer to another - had he not, too, sensed the distant vibra-tions of coming catastrophe? But he seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!' Her voice rose rather hysterically and Harry caught a powerful whiff of sherry even though the bottles had been left behind.
'Perhaps the horse has heard people say that I have not inherited my great-great-grandmother's gift. Those rumours have been bandied about by the jealous for years. You know what I say to such people, Harry? Would Dumbledore have let me teach at this great school, put so much trust in me all these years, had I not proved myself to him?' Harry mumbled something indistinct. 'I well remember my first interview with Dumbledore,' went on Professor Trelawney, in throaty tones. 'He was deeply impressed, of course, deeply impressed ... I was staying at the Hog's Head, which I do not advise, incidentally - bed bugs, dear boy - but funds were low. Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn. He questioned me ... I must confess that, at first, I thought he seemed ill-disposed towards Divination ... and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day ... but then ...' And now Harry was paying attention properly for the first time, for he knew what had happened then: Professor Trelawney had made the prophecy that had altered the course of his whole life, the prophecy about him and Voldemort. '... but then we were rudely interrupted by Severus Snape!' 'What?'
'Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I'm afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore - you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips! Well, after that, you know, Dumbledore seemed much more dis-posed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Harry, that it was because he appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes - Harry, dear?' She looked back over her shoulder, having only just real-ised that Harry was no longer with her; he had stopped walking and they were now ten feet from each other. 'Harry?' she repeated uncertainly. Perhaps his face was white, to make her look so concerned and frightened. Harry was standing stock-still as waves of shock crashed over him, wave after wave, obliterating every-thing except the information that had been kept from him for so long ... It was Snape who had overheard the prophecy. It was Snape who had carried the news of the prophecy to Voldemort. Snape and Peter Pettigrew together had sent Voldemort hunt-ing after Lily and James and their son ...
Nothing else mattered to Harry just now. 'Harry?' said Professor Trelawney again. 'Harry - I thought we were going to see the Headmaster together?' 'You stay here,' said Harry through numb lips. 'But, dear ... I was going to tell him how I was assaulted in the Room of-' 'You stay here!' Harry repeated angrily. She looked alarmed as he ran past her, round the corner into Dumbledore's corridor, where the lone gargoyle stood sentry. Harry shouted the password at the gargoyle and ran up the moving spiral staircase three steps at a time. He did not knock upon Dumbledore's door, he hammered; and the calm voice answered 'Enter' after Harry had already flung himself into the room. Fawkes the phoenix looked round, his bright black eyes gleaming with reflected gold from the sunset beyond the window. Dumbledore was standing at the window look-ing out at the grounds, a long, black travelling cloak in his arms. 'Well, Harry, I promised that you could come with me.'
For a moment or two, Harry did not understand; the con-versation with Trelawney had driven everything else out of his head and his brain seemed to be moving very slowly. 'Come ... with you ... ?' 'Only if you wish it, of course.' 'If I...' And then Harry remembered why he had been eager to come to Dumbledore's office in the first place. 'You've found one? You've found a Horcrux?' 'I believe so.' Rage and resentment fought shock and excitement: for several moments, Harry could not speak. 'It is natural to be afraid,' said Dumbledore. 'I'm not scared!' said Harry at once, and it was perfectly
true; fear was one emotion he was not feeling at all. 'Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?' 'I am not sure which it is - though I think we can rule out the snake - but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Tom Riddle once terror-ised two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?' 'Yes,' said Harry. 'How is it protected?' 'I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong.' Dumbledore hesitated, then said, 'Harry, I promised you that you could come with me, and I stand by that prom-ise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous.' 'I'm coming,' said Harry, almost before Dumbledore had finished speaking. Boiling with anger at Snape, his desire to do something desperate and risky had increased tenfold in the last few minutes. This seemed to show on Harry's face, for Dumbledore moved away from the window, and looked more closely at Harry, a slight crease between his silver eyebrows. 'What has happened to you?' 'Nothing,' lied Harry promptly. 'What has upset you?'
'I'm not upset.' 'Harry, you were never a good Occlumens -' The word was the spark that ignited Harry's fury. 'Snape!' he said, very loudly, and Fawkes gave a soft squawk behind them. 'Snape's what's happened! He told Voldemort about the prophecy, it was him, he listened outside the door, Trelawney told me!' Dumbledore's expression did not change, but Harry thought his face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Dumbledore said nothing. 'When did you find out about this?' he asked at last. 'Just now!' said Many, who was refraining from yelling with enormous difficulty. And then, suddenly, he could not stop himself. 'AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MUM AND DAD!' Breathing hard as though he were fighting, Harry turned away from Dumbledore, who still had not moved a muscle, and paced up and down the study, rubbing his knuckles in his hand and exercising every last bit of restraint to prevent himself knocking things over. He wanted to rage and storm at Dumbledore, but he also wanted to go with him to try and destroy
the Horcrux; he wanted to tell him that he was a fool-ish old man for trusting Snape, but he was terrified that Dumbledore would not take him along unless he mastered his anger ... 'Harry,' said Dumbledore quietly. 'Please listen to me.' It was as difficult to stop his relentless pacing as to refrain from shouting. Harry paused, biting his lip, and looked into Dumbledore's lined face. 'Professor Snape made a terrible -' 'Don't tell me it was a mistake, sir, he was listening at the door!' 'Please let me finish.' Dumbledore waited until Harry had nodded curtly, then went on. 'Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort's employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney's prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply. But he did not know - he had no possible way of knowing - which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onwards, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father -' Harry let out a yell of mirthless laughter. 'He hated my dad like he hated Sirius! Haven't you noticed, Professor, how the people Snape hates tend to end up dead?'
'You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned -' 'But he's a very good Occlumens, isn't he, sir?' said Harry, whose voice was shaking with the effort of keeping it steady. 'And isn't Voldemort convinced that Snape's on his side, even now? Professor ... how can you be sure Snape's on our side?' Dumbledore did not speak for a moment; he looked as though he was trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, 'I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely.' Harry breathed deeply for a few moments in an effort to steady himself. It did not work. 'Well, I don't!' he said, as loudly as before. 'He's up to something with Draco Malfoy right now, right under your nose, and you still -' 'We have discussed this, Harry,' said Dumbledore, 