"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…"

Lord Voldemort perched on the edge of his borrowed chair in Titus Yaxley's cluttered office. Ordinarily he preferred to operate from Abraxas Malfoy's home, which was much cleaner, owing to the efforts of a small contingent of house elves, and also more spacious; today, however, Abraxas would be holding a prominent gathering at his manor in celebration of Walpurgis Night, and Voldemort had prudently decided that he would finish more work elsewhere.

At the moment, he was occupied with a spare bit of a parchment on which he had carefully inscribed the known part of the prophecy made, apparently, by Sybill Trelawney several days ago. The first thing he had done after hearing Severus's report was look up the alleged prophet. It had not been too difficult to confirm that she was the great-great-granddaughter of Cassandra Trelawney, celebrated seer and contributor of prophecies and visions. Having accepted Severus's pensieve memory of the event, Voldemort was now fairly certain that the prophecy was genuine.

He was also certain that the second half was vital to its interpretation. The orb containing a recording of the full prophecy was likely already in place in the Department of Mysteries, but Voldemort doubted he would simply be allowed to walk in and request to hear it. Since Sybill Trelawney was still alive, the best method would be to dig the prophecy out of her mind; even though she could not remember it consciously, by pulling the memories of the surrounding events to the fore of her mind, it would be possible to induce her to repeat her prophecy. But Trelawney had been hired by Dumbledore as Hogwarts's divination professor, and Voldemort did not think it would be feasible to reach her before the summer holidays; by then, it could be too late.

Even though the prophecy seemed to revolve around a child who would be born at the end of the coming July—the seventh month by the calendar the prophet should be most familiar with—it was entirely possible that events before the birth could set the magical properties of the prophecy into motion. Even then, it would not be impossible to escape the described outcome, but the seer's magic would attempt to guide all knowledgeable participants toward that goal. Voldemort scowled at the thought; perhaps he ought to punish Severus for bringing him potentially disastrous information—had he known nothing of the prophecy's existence, he would be entirely free of its ensnaring power unless another involved party (the prophesised child, likely) knew and believed its contents. At that thought, he reprimanded himself for not immediately considering that possibility before feeling ungrateful toward his loyal servant.

Voldemort set the paper down on a corner of the overflowing desk and pondered whether it would be possible for him to simply ignore the prophecy. It would depend upon whether it was completely self-fulfilling or partially autonomous. That, in turn, depended upon the magical strength of the prophet, though even that did not guarantee anything. Divination as a whole was a terribly tricky subject and Voldemort had stayed away from practicing it to guard himself from the many pitfalls of the art. Now, it seemed, he had no choice but to delve into its intricacies.

Knowing nothing else at present, he decided it would be foolish to ignore the prophecy entirely. Even if it were self-fulfilling, having spent time contemplating it would aid him, he hoped, in avoiding the ultimate failure of creating his own downfall.

He was fairly certain that the first lines indicated that a boy of great power was to be born at the end of this coming July, probably to his enemies, given his express purpose seemed to be to "vanquish the dark lord," though "those who thrice defied him" was irritatingly vague. Voldemort underlined the phrase several times. There were greatly varying levels of defiance, after all, and it was possible that he could have no idea that one of these acts of defiance had occurred. The entire prophecy was from the perspective of the seer, and Voldemort doubted Trelawney received the same news or associated with many of the same people he did.

There was nothing for it. He would have to obtain the rest of the prophecy before he acted. Yet, not acting at all could be a trigger for its fulfillment, though he acknowledged that that was unlikely, as most prophecies involved the subjects actually doing things. Voldemort twirled his quill about in his hand, managing to fleck his face with ink for his efforts. He frowned. Most prophecies also depended on one or more of the subjects knowing the entire contents. Theoretically, the magic would be incomplete or flawed if he acted on only half or less of the prophecy, as long as his foretold "vanquisher" also did not act with knowledge. Given the boy was not yet born, Voldemort thought he had at least several years of guaranteed time to come to a decision.

As it was, a week later, Voldemort found that did not have to do any further analyzing of the troublesome prophecy. It seemed that his enemies had taken it upon themselves to complete his work for him and choose the candidates for vanquisher.

"Longbottom or Potter." he murmured to himself. Neither child had been born yet, of course, but they were confirmed male and had projected birth dates for late July and early August, respectively. Their families had both disappeared quite suddenly from map and memory—they had hidden themselves under the recently developed fidelius charm, undoubtedly, after rendering their residences unplottable. Both families were members of the pesky Order of the Phoenix, and if Dumbledore had shared the contents—or even the existence—of the prophecy with them, then Voldemort knew that one of the children would be the prophesised one. Because it had been recognised, the prophecy's magic would begin to work toward expectation, and in the spirit of simplifying his life, Voldemort decided he might as well believe also that these were his two options. Then he would determine the correct one by his birth date. Because he was still rather uncertain about having been defied, he decided to rely on Dumbledore to have already taken that into account in his selection.

Relying on one's enemies to make correct moves was usually rather risky, but Voldemort trusted Dumbledore well enough on the matter of thoroughness. If Albus Dumbledore was willing to put stock in the prophecy, then Voldemort was willing to simply wait and allow someone else to do all of the research while he worked on improving his own movement.

A/N: Please read and review. Also, if anyone notices any major errors, especially with something Harry Potter Universe related, please point them out. I've done some research, but probably not enough to be correct all the time. For example, as far as I can tell, Yaxley the death eater doesn't have a first name; I took the liberty of making one up, but if someone knows otherwise, I would be pleased to be informed.