Elisha's eyes were calm, but carried a weight that drew Eira's full attention. "The Dark Lord is alive."
Eira blinked in surprise. "Alive? You mean he is really alive?"
Elisha nodded. "Yes. Dumbledore believed he was dead. On the night when Dark Lord attacked the Potter house, he vanished. For years, everyone assumed he had been destroyed. But then, over the following two or three years after his assumed death, unusual incidents occurred, subtle and unexplained, that suggested otherwise. Dumbledore began to suspect he had not truly died. His suspicions were confirmed only when Harry Potter entered Hogwarts and strange events started to occur more openly. It was then, when the Dark Lord possessed a teacher through magic, that Dumbledore realized the truth. The Dark Lord is neither fully alive nor completely dead. He exists in a state between life and death, searching for a way to return. Dumbledore believes he will eventually succeed."
Eira's eyes widened. "Then all this time he has been preparing to return?"
Elisha inclined her head. "Yes. Last year, the boy himself heard a prophecy. Professor Trelawney spoke to him during his third-year Divination exam."
Eira's brows furrowed. "Another prophecy?"
Elisha recited, her voice calm and precise.
"It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight… the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight… before midnight… the servant will set out to rejoin his master…"
Eira swallowed, the weight of the words settling in her chest.
"Based on this prophecy," Elisha continued, "it is clear that the Dark Lord will return and that he will return with great power. Dumbledore understood that Harry's destiny is intertwined with Voldemort's. Every trial, every challenge, every step into danger serves to prepare him. Potter is not simply a student or a boy under Dumbledore's care. He is the counter to the Dark Lord. They are chosen to destroy each other by destiny itself. (Voldemort, Harry Potter)"
She inclined her head and said. "They both are two sides of the same coin. That is what destiny has made of them."
Eira said nothing for a long while. The candles flickered, and the snow fell soundlessly beyond the glass. She sat across from Elisha's portrait, her hands clasped tightly on her lap. She finally broke the stillness, her voice low but edged with incredulity.
"So Dumbledore is training Harry Potter to fight the Dark Lord," she said. "He's putting all his hopes in a fourteen-year-old boy?"
Elisha's painted eyes softened. "It is not that Dumbledore wants to place all his faith in the hands of a child who has barely begun to understand the world. It has only been four years since the boy came into contact with our world at all. To expect someone who has known magic for so little time to stand against a wizard nearly eighty or seventy years old—one whose very name terrifies the British wizarding world—is, on the surface, absurd."
Eira tilted her head, her brows furrowing. "Why place such a heavy burden on a child who's lost everyone, an orphan no less?"
"Because destiny has chosen him," Elisha replied, her painted voice calm but firm. "The prophecy foretold that one would die at the hands of the other. It is not a question of choice but of inevitability. When a true prophecy is spoken, child, it always comes to pass."
Eira gave a short, bitter laugh. "So Dumbledore has built his entire strategy on a prophecy. Who's to say it will even happen?"
Elisha's expression sharpened. "Do not speak so lightly of prophecies, Eira. Do not act ignorant. Prophecies are not simple riddles to be mocked. The first part of the prophecy already happened—exactly as foretold. That alone is proof enough. And do not forget, Dumbledore has always placed great faith in prophecies. He had a close relationship with a prophet himself, Geralt Grindelwald, one of the most gifted seers of his age. It is no wonder Dumbledore believes in their outcome so fervently."
Eira exhaled slowly, leaning against the velvet chair. "So the Dark Lord is alive. He's returning. And based on some prophecy, Dumbledore is grooming Harry Potter to face him. To make the prophecy real."
Elisha nodded, then her painted lips moved again. "On the night the prophecy was spoken, there was a second part. One Dumbledore has never revealed publicly. Only his most trusted friends at the Ministry and Nicholas Flamel have ever heard whispers of it."
Eira straightened, her pulse quickening. "A second part? What is it? Don't tell me it says the Dark Lord has a child who will rise to fight him next."
Elisha's painted features flickered, as though some memory stirred behind the oil and pigment. "No. Not that kind of nonsense. Dumbledore believes the second part is about you."
Eira's hands went cold. She stared at the portrait, her voice a whisper. "Me? What does this have to do with me?"
"He never said outright," Elisha replied. "But when we spoke in the headmaster's office, he mentioned that the second part referred to another young figure. At first he searched widely, certain the person was out there somewhere. For years he kept his eyes on a handful of children who had signs of what was prophesized, you among them. But after what you did in France, after the way you approached the problems that were placed before you, he became convinced the second child mentioned in the prophecy is you."
Eira's eyebrows rose. "Do you know what the second part actually says?"
Elisha shook her painted head slowly. "No. He has never shared it with me, nor with anyone else in the office. Only that he once suspected several people, and you were among them. Now, after everything, his suspicions have settled entirely on you. That is why he watches you so closely. Why he tests you."
"Tests me?" Eira repeated, her voice rising slightly. "I haven't done anything for him to test. What could he even be looking for?"
"That is Dumbledore," Elisha said, her tone almost gentle now. "He is certain of very little, except that the person named in the second part of the prophecy is crucial to what comes next. And he believes that person is you."
Eira fell silent. Her gaze drifted to the window, to the cloudy night sky beyond. Thoughts coiled tightly in her mind, dark and restless. If she was truly part of this prophecy, then perhaps she had always been entangled in these events, drawn in by some unseen thread. The World's Will itself had tried to push her out of the spotlight. It had warned her when she first came to this world not to interfere too deeply with the original course of events. It had even taken her memories, stripping away what she once knew of this story. As though it had wanted to restore the tale to its original shape, to keep its order untouched. Yet her rebirth had changed things. She had altered the flow simply by existing, and the world could no longer correct itself. And now Elisha was telling her that she belonged at the very heart of the story.
Elisha's voice broke the silence again. "From now on Dumbledore will observe you more. Always. But you need not be afraid. He is careful not to make an enemy of you or of the White family. Your power, and the way you have secured your position, makes him cautious. He has no wish to create another adversary like the Dark Lord, especially not from someone as young and unpredictable as you."
Eira's lips twitched with a humorless smile. "So he's just going to watch me?"
"Yes," Elisha said simply. "And more than that, he hopes to win you to his side. He wants you to be a friend to Harry Potter. He speaks highly of you to the boy. He has tried to plant the idea of friendship between you two in that boy's mind."
Eira blinked. "He's been trying to make me and Potter friends?"
"Something like that. He has never said it outright, but in his conversations with Harry he paints you in a positive light. He wants Harry to approach you. To trust you."
"So that Harry Potter is supposed to have powerful allies," Eira murmured.
Elisha nodded. "If you and Harry are seen as close, it will strengthen him politically. He will be backed by two of the most significant families—Black and White. It will stage his rise for the battles ahead. That is Dumbledore's plan. He is building another Dumbledore, in a way—someone supported by powerful allies until he can stand alone."
Eira leaned back, a low sigh escaping her lips. "So if the Dark Lord returns, Dumbledore expects Harry to fight him, and me to stand at his side. And to bring the White family into it."
"Yes," Elisha said. "Last time, our family remained neutral. It cost us influence in Britain during the Dark Lord's first reign. This time, Dumbledore will try harder to secure your allegiance. He may even hope to involve the French wizarding world through your ties here."
Eira's eyes narrowed. "He tried to reach my grandfather once, didn't he?"
"He did. But your grandfather was in America, and your father, then head of the House, rejected Dumbledore's overture. This time, he will try to make you his ally—and Harry's."
Eira was silent for a moment, then she said quietly, "If Voldemort returns—now, or decades later—the White family will be involved anyways. We've been attacked before by his followers. We won't remain neutral again. I've worked too hard to strengthen our position to stand aside this time."
Elisha inclined her head. "It is good you have found my portrait. I can advise you. When you need information about Dumbledore or the Dark Lord, I will be here."
Eira tilted her head. "But I've heard the portraits in the headmaster's office can't reveal what's said there. Some charm, perhaps. How can I trust what you're telling me? What if Dumbledore is using you?"
Elisha's painted laughter was soft but clear. "You need not worry. Hogwarts' portraits are bound by loyalty to the castle, yes, but I created my portrait myself. I know its loopholes. I can travel, I can speak, and I can send information in ways that bypass the usual restrictions."
Eira stared at her for a moment, then allowed a faint smile. "I'm glad to finally have an ancestor I can actually talk to. The others downstairs are… well, not exactly helpful. They insult me for studying in France, for not following every old tradition. Most ignore me entirely."
Elisha's eyes sparkled. "Portraits are memories, Eira. They behave as their creators behaved unfiltered. Some are rude. Some are kind. Most care little for the living. But I am here for you."
Eira looked back at the portrait, the flickering candlelight glinting in Elisha's painted eyes. Then her gaze drifted to the fire in the fireplace. She stared into the flames, lost in thought, turning over the prophecy and her own place within it.