Prophecy Will Have Its Due

a/n – This story came about as the confluence of three different things. One was the assertion that I was incapable of writing an Epilogue compliant/compatible story. While I will admit to being a charter member of EWE (Epilogue? What Epilogue?"), I can write a story that incorporates it. I simply prefer not to.

Secondly, someone asked if I had ever thought about writing another take on Trelawney's prophecy about Harry becoming Minister of Magic and having twelve children. While I touched on it lightly as an Epilogue in 'Grief, Faith, and the Future' it wasn't something I felt a need to revisit.

And finally, someone mentioned that the number of Weasley grandchildren was an even dozen and how it was ironic since that was the number that the prophecy mentioned.

Irony? Or something else?

As always, I don't own anything recognizable from the Harry Potter universe. Or small felines that wander in and out of scenes.

Chapter One – It's a Saving Witches Thing

31 August, 2017 – The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon

Despite the opinions of Hermione Jane Weasley, nee Granger, prophecy will have its due. Even if you relegate most of them to the category of 'self fulfilling', the fact that there was a prophecy does influence the outcome. Or it doesn't.

Or, as she said to Harry one night in Paris when they'd both had a bit too much wine after spending the day at a law enforcement seminar and then having dinner with the Delacour family, "Prophecy's just that damn cat in the box, rigging the game," referring to Schrödinger's cat in her exasperation with the subject.

The Weasley Family dinner on the last day of August had become an extended Weasley family tradition in that all the families with Hogwarts aged children descend upon the Burrow for a Molly Weasley dinner before the children head to Kings Cross in the morning.

While Harry repeatedly joked that the only purpose it served was to keep the children up late the night before so they could continue the "true" Weasley family tradition of arriving at King's Cross as the conductor was announcing the last call for boarding, none of the five couples would deprive Molly a last chance to have the entire clan together until the Christmas hols if they had any say in it.

There were still strained relations between the Ministry and the Danish government over the howler Molly had sent to Percy four years ago while he was attending a state dinner with the Danish royal family as Britain's representative to negotiations regarding setting up a free trade zone for cauldrons between the two nations, so no one else was willing to risk the wrath of Molly Weasley and not attend.

As Arthur looked down the expanded table that sat out by the orchard, since even with space expansion charms the Burrow's kitchen was barely able to handle cooking for thirteen children and twelve adults never mind seating them all for a meal, he smiled beatifically at his dozen grandchildren, thirteen since they counted young Teddy Lupin who was Harry and Hermione's godson as much a Weasley grandchild as any of the others.

Standing, Arthur waited until everyone was quiet before he began speaking.

"While tomorrow will be an eventful day with the start of yet another year at Hogwarts and the Weasley and Potter cousins making their mark upon its hallowed halls once again, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the other eventful day coming up while we're all gathered together."

Pausing to sip from the mug of butterbeer he had in his hand, he watched as Harry blushed from his spot between his wife and his best friend further down the table.

"Tuesday will mark the first orderly, planned transition of the office of Minister for Magic since before the Grindelwald War.

"Minister Shacklebolt's decision last spring to step down and spend more time with his growing family meant that the Wizengamot was finally able to have a regularly scheduled election rather than some rushed attempt to fill a sudden vacancy."

Pausing for a moment, he chuckled as he nodded towards his son Percy. "In fact, it took Percy three days in the Wizengamot archives to actually find the procedure for a regular election since no one currently at the Ministry had ever participated in one and no one was willing to go out to Azkaban and ask Rookwood who was the only surviving prisoner who had been associated with the Ministry before the Grindelwald War."

"Yes, yes," Percy said as he rolled his eyes. "It would have been nice if the Minister had given me a head's up rather than just announcing at the end of the May session that he was stepping down in September."

Smiling as Audrey shushed her grumbling husband with a sharp elbow to the ribs, Arthur continued.

"Tuesday will be a momentous day for this family. Not only will Harry be sworn in as Minister, the youngest in the past three hundred years, but Hermione will be sworn in as the Director of the DMLE and Fleur, who is sitting in the Weasley family seat in the Wizengamot since it doesn't seem Bill is ever going to retire from Gringotts will be sworn in as Chief Witch."

"And both are firsts, since Mum will be the first first generation witch to become a major department Director in the Ministry and Auntie Fleur will be the first foreign born Chief Witch of the Wizengamot since William the Conqueror's daughter Matilda was appointed Chief Witch to oversee the melding of the councils of both sides," said Rose with a smug look from her spot beside her cousin Lily.

"Yes, yes," Arthur nodded. "I think that calls for a toast for all three of them."

As the ragged toast ran around the table, Arthur sat down and turned to his wife in quiet conversation.

As the food was passed back and forth, Ron suddenly snorted in disbelief and started choking.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione turned to her left and thumped him between the shoulder blades.

"Honestly, Ronald, if you'd stop eating like a barbarian, you wouldn't have these problems," Hermione chided wearily, mentally cataloguing how many times she'd scolded him about his eating habits since that long-ago September when they were both first sorted into Gryffindor.

"Oi, lay off woman," Ron returned in exasperation. "I'd just remembered that hoary old prophecy that that harridan had and realized it was coming true."

Every adult witch at the table and Harry suddenly froze, their eyes darting back and forth as Arthur asked, "Which prophecy was that, Ron?"

"It was at the end of a class, when Trelawney was predicting death and destruction right, left, and center for anyone her 'inner eye' fell upon when she spouted some doggerel about Harry becoming Minister and having a dozen sprogs."

Chuckling to himself, he added, "While no one dropped dead the following week, she finally gets one bit of it right next week when Harry becomes Minister."

A nervous laugh went around the table as Molly took charge and sighed. "While I'd never second guess Albus' choice in hiring Sibyl, I think we can be gratified that she 'saw' Harry being Minister and just leave it at that."

Pausing for a moment, she added, "though if she hadn't been addled on cooking sherry most of the time she would have predicted Hermione taking the Minister's chair someday instead."

"Oh, Aunt Hermione is going to be next," Lily piped in. "She and Daddy have it all planned out. They're going to switch off whenever the Wizengamot gets too annoyed with them so they can keep getting things changed whilst the other goes back to a real job for a few years."

Reaching around his wife, Ron slapped Harry on the back and chortled, "Well that'll give you and my sister more time to pop out those other nine sprogs. One for each time as Minister, eh?"

Looking around her husband, Ginny Potter arched an eyebrow at her brother and said in a very controlled voice, "Unless you're willing to ask the Greek Ministry for that ancient potion that they rediscovered so that you can 'pop out' the nine sprogs for me, I think Harry's contributions to the task of fulfilling dodgy prophecies and populating Hogwarts is quite finished."

Pausing for a moment, she turned back to her husband and asked, sweetly, "don't you dear?"

Smirking, Harry looked at Ginny and their three, Hermione and her two, Audrey and her two, Fleur and her three, and Angelina and her twins and simply said, "I think I've done what was needed by keeping my wife happy and getting elected as Minister."

"Totally unreliable and a wooly subject at best," Hermione harrumphed with a soft smile. "I'm not certain why they even keep it on the calendar."

"One should, instead, utilize reliable, dependable Arithmancy," Fleur said as she remembered the calculations that she had worked out on three different times while her husband was overseas with Gringotts.

"Not to mention relying upon family support along with hard work and dedication," Audrey said with a wistful smile as she remembered her husband's burying himself in his job, and his assistant, in his quest for advancement and the lonely nights she'd spent before she'd talked to Fleur and Hermione.

"And teamwork," Angelina chimed in as she gave a sly wink to the 'youngest seeker in a century' who was still capable of 'catching the snitch' with the best of them.

"Well yes," Molly said as she shook her head at the hash her sons had made of their family lives. "I think we can simply chalk it up to Sibyll 'seeing' a dozen Weasley grandchildren and leave it at that."

"Does that mean Charlie's finally off the hook," Bill asked, the usually observant cursebreaker totally missing the byplays and undercurrents around the family table.

Smirking, Roxanne Weasley, George and Angelina's youngest by two minutes, simply shook her head. "If Uncle Charlie actually gets married, this time, to that Swedish Dragon Healer next summer in Stockholm, I'm certain Uncle Harry will be able to 'talk him around'."

"Although, unfortunately, we won't be going to the wedding," Ginny said with a smile.

"We already sent our regrets, since the wedding was scheduled for the same week as the Commonwealth's Collegium Arcanum's 150th Anniversary celebrations that are being held next year in the Bahamas.

"While most of you lot will be lounging around scenic Stockholm enjoying a family wedding, those two weeks will be, sadly enough, a working vacation for Harry, Hermione, Fleur, and I."

Raising an eyebrow, Percy stared at his sister and scoffed. "Working? Sounds as if someone's going on a two-week shopping and sunbathing holiday if you ask me while she shirks her familial duties at a wedding."

Smiling coyly, Ginny simply said, "While it won't be announced Tuesday, Harry and Hermione have asked me to take the Department of International Cooperation in hand for a while so it will be necessary for me to oversee those three and ensure there are no international incidents."

"Good enough," Percy said as he turned back to his food. "It's about time someone with a firm hand took control over those three."

Leaning over and invoking the privacy and redirection spells they had developed years ago that allowed them, and the others, to carry on private conversations during family gatherings, Hermione whispered in Harry's ear, "When are you going to tell Percy he's married to the new Senior Secretary under you, I mean your new Senior Undersecretary?"

Frowning, Harry gave Audrey a meaningful look before he turned his attention to Angelina. The former "Flying Fox of Gryffindor' simply nodded and turned back to her husband George, giving her daughter a 'behave or else' look as she started steering a conversation she had been putting off about her taking a different job now that the twins were older.

"About twenty minutes after the newly appointed Commissioner of the British and Irish League, along with our Representative to Q.U.A.B.B.L.E. tells George she's not going to be available as much to help out in W.W.W."

Smirking, Hermione shrugged. "While that will mean more 'management training time' for George with Verity, I wonder when he'll figure out that means she won't be going to the wedding, either."

Chuckling, Harry added, "I'm certain he'll stop complaining once he realizes Verity's going to be at the wedding. She and Charlie's fiancé hit it off really well a couple of years ago when she accompanied George to Romania for the opening of their Eastern European division."

"I still can't believe Angelina didn't just leave him when she figured out what was going on."

Sighing, Harry shrugged and looked apologetically at his mother-in-law for the mess the Weasley family situations could devolve down to if it ever became public knowledge, before he said, "Fleur was there when she found out and she promptly let Angie in on the 'daughter in law' secret of the Weasley family.

"With the sole exception of Arthur, not being able to keep their wands in their holsters seems to be a Weasley wizard trait."

"That, and being totally useless with said wands," Hermione purred back.

Leaning over and kissing Ginny on the cheek, Harry winked at her knowing full well that she could hear them.

Seeing her nod of agreement, he then turned back to Hermione and whispered, "What's a dutiful brother-in-law to do but pick up the slack?"

Scoffing, Hermione shook her head, "like I told you and Fleur that week in Paris when she found out Bill was shagging anything that moved on that expedition to Angkor Wat, it's all that damn cat's fault.

"The three of us could have been happy once I woke up to the fact that Ronald was fairly useless for any witch he wasn't going behind someone's back with, but no..."

Feeling someone trying to get their attention, Harry looked up to see Fleur's oldest Victoire smiling at him.

"Tante Gabby said to tell you that once you're settled in office, you need to make an official trip to Paris. She has a new kneazel kitten she wants to show you."

Smiling mysteriously, she added, "She said to tell Tante Hermione that she named it 'Pixel' just for her."

a/n2 – Pixel just wandered in for an offstage cameo appearance from Robert Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls" where we discover that the connection between Pixel and Schrödinger's cat, whom Hermione keeps blaming Harry's part in yet another prophecy on, since like all cats, he feels compelled to play with any loose ends he can find.

In simplified terms, 'Schrödinger's Cat' is a thought exercise that posits that there's a cat in a box with a device that could either kill the cat or not. It's totally random, with no way to know which has happened unless you open the box.

Until you open the box to see, that cat is, for the purposes of the experiment, both alive and dead and the observation of the cat by opening the box is what influences the outcome one way or the other.

Similarly, in Hermione's opinion, prophecies are both valid and invalid and only by being known do they either come to pass, or not.

She seems convinced that if Harry's involved, then it will come to pass.

She still blames the cat.

Crookshanks, on the other hand, thinks it's just fine as it simply provides more minions to attend to his desires.