The Meaning of Prophecy

After the Easter holidays, Xiwen, disguised as the Ghost Xiwen, went to the Transfiguration Professor's Office and told Dumbledore, who was sitting behind the desk, about the Prophecy left behind by the Grey Lady before she disappeared.

"You don't seem to have much faith in the Grey Lady's Prophecy?" Xiwen asked, looking at Dumbledore's somewhat nonchalant expression.

"No, I have complete faith in Lady Rowena the Grey Lady's Prophecy." Dumbledore finally looked up at the Ghost Xiwen floating in mid-air and said, "Even skeptics of Prophecy wouldn't easily deny a true Prophecy. And the Grey Lady's Prophecy is clearly a true Prophecy."

"But your expression doesn't seem to indicate that you care," Xiwen retorted, raising an eyebrow.

"What I don't trust is not the veracity of the Grey Lady's Prophecy, but the Prophecy itself," Dumbledore said to Xiwen in a deep voice, giving him a long look.

"The significance of learning about Prophecy lies not in accurately predicting the future, but in breaking free from the shackles of fate, allowing us to understand more possibilities, and thus enabling us to live more freely. Prophecy does not exist to constrain us."

"Doctor Strange, whatever the future the Prophecy may hold, we are still living in the present!" Dumbledore said. "The present is whole, while Prophecy is not. Prophecy is fragmented; it cannot tell us everything about the future, and naturally, it should not interfere too much with our present."

"You mean... the impact of this Prophecy on the present is like Grindelwald's precognitive abilities?" Xiwen asked softly, stroking his chin. "Grindelwald was influenced by us because he believed what he saw."

"That's right," Dumbledore nodded. "It was precisely because he was so greatly influenced by his precognitive abilities from a young age that he was outmaneuvered by me during last year's election for Supreme Mugwump, thus losing the initiative in the war against Muggle."

"Moreover, the more I think about what little Xiwen at the Flamel house, the more likely it seems. Grindelwald may have really foreseen that I would become his lifelong enemy, which is why he came to Godric's Hollow by such coincidence and made Blood Pact with me."

Dumbledore laughed, but his smile was filled with dejection.

"But even though Grindelwald swore Blood Pact with me, how could he have imagined that he himself would be so deeply entangled in this emotional entanglement, unable to extricate himself for nearly half a century? How could he have imagined that such an accident as Ariana Dumbledore's would occur in a small valley, leading to our eventual break?"

"He clearly didn't expect that the Blood Pact we made would actually break down because of a clash of ideologies..."

"Dumbledore..." Xiwen sensed the low spirits of this pillar of the Wizarding World and asked softly, "Dumbledore, are you really alright?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine." Dumbledore slumped in the armchair behind his desk, shaking his head lazily as he spoke.

"What happened with Grindelwald last year shows us that we don't need to rely too much on vague Prophecy. What's more important is to take care of ourselves and do everything we can to improve ourselves so that we can cope with the calamities to come."

After saying this, he waved his hand and brought over a cup of tea from the table, taking a small sip.

After finishing his tea, Dumbledore perked up a bit and sat up, saying, "For example, the last sentence of the Grey Lady's Prophecy mentions 'ending the catastrophe.' Does that mean that even if we do nothing and think nothing, we can definitely end this catastrophe?"

Xiwen thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"Furthermore, do you know why Prophecy are always so ambiguous, Doctor Strange?" Dumbledore laughed, answering his own question. "Because we have never accurately predicted the future! Seer only determine the scope of a future based on their knowledge and experience related to Prophecy."

"And what we can do within that scope, and how we should do it, is our own business. So it comes back to that point: we just need to try our best to live well in the present moment."

After listening to Dumbledore's words, Xiwen was deeply moved and nodded heavily.

He immediately wanted to put the Prophecy aside and focus on improving his abilities!

Just as Xiwen was eager to squeeze through the wall and leave the Transfiguration Professor's Office, Dumbledore suddenly called out to him.

"Wait, don't rush off. Let's discuss what the Grey Lady's Prophecy really means," Dumbledore called out from behind Xiwen.

Xiwen: "...?"

"Didn't you tell me not to pay attention to Prophecy...?" Xiwen's lips twitched as he turned to Dumbledore and asked.

"I only mean that you shouldn't rely too much on Prophecy, but at the same time, I'm not completely denying Prophecy role," Dumbledore blinked and said to Xiwen. "True wise men know that Prophecy words are always important, even if that importance isn't immediately apparent."

"Okay..." Xiwen shrugged and said casually. "The first sentence should be quite obvious: Grindelwald is about to do something big."

The meaning of the first line of the Prophecy, "The rampant Black Fire will stir up waves in the world," is quite easy to discern.

Ever since Grindelwald held a gathering at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the blue-black magical flames he unleashed at that time have become his unique symbolic representation. The Black Fire representing Grindelwald, and his actions that stirred up the world, are both fitting for this world-class dark wizard.

Dumbledore nodded in agreement and said in a deep voice, "It seems I need to pay closer attention to Grindelwald's movements."

Xiwen nodded, then sighed and said to Dumbledore, "But I still have absolutely no clue about the remaining three sentences."

Dumbledore for a moment, then asked Xiwen in a very low voice, "What do you think is the cause of the strange events in the Albania Forest?"

Thinking of the forest that had been completely eroded, the vast black curtain that covered it, and the dark wizard possessed by an unknown entity... the third line of the Prophecy suddenly flashed into Xiwen's mind—

"Demon God descended amidst the chaos, swallowing up all living beings."

"Are you saying that those strange phenomena are because of the Demon God mentioned in the Prophecy?!" Xiwen asked in horror. "Do Demon God really exist in this world?"

Xiwen had never heard of the concept of Demon God in this world before; on the contrary, he had heard his teacher explain the concept of Demon God in his previous life.

Almost every Demon God possesses immense power and boundless ambition. Even in Kamar-Taj, only powerful sorcerers like the Ancient One possess the strength to confront Demon God.

Therefore, Xiwen looked at Dumbledore's extremely solemn expression, hoping to get an answer from him.

"Unfortunately, I also don't know anything about the Demon God mentioned in the Prophecy." Dumbledore shook his head with a heavy expression and sighed.

Xiwen and Dumbledore ultimately couldn't figure out what the Prophecy actually referred to.

However, having already received Dumbledore's advice regarding Prophecy, Xiwen no longer relies on or values Prophecy as much as before.

So he embraced Dumbledore's advice to live in the present moment, no longer dwelling on the revelations of the Prophecy, but instead steadily maintaining his fulfilling life and striving to improve himself so that he would have more power to protect himself when he truly faced the Demon God.

Xiwen spent the last month of his second year at Hogwarts in a fulfilling life.

When Xiwen once again boarded the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade Station, holding his top-of-his-class report card, he suddenly realized that he had already spent two years in the castle.

Xiwen's third-grade life is about to begin...