Push and Pull (Sirius Black X Reader)

Chapter 21

I take a deep breath and walk into the meeting room. There's one long table with dozens of chairs around it, and each chair is occupied by a witch or wizard from the department or from higher up. Hal sits in one of the chairs closest to the head of the table, a stack of papers before him. I can see that his forehead is glistening with sweat, and the skin of his neck is bright red.

I spot Gracie and Noah across the table from him. There's a seat open directly across from Hal. Noah waves me over to it. I do my best to settle my nerves before taking my place.

"Hey," Gracie says as I approach. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," I respond, straightening my blouse and sitting down in my seat. I meet Hal's eyes over the table. Despite his nervous appearance, he manages a patronizing wave across the table.

"We're going to do great," Noah says.

"I know we are," I say.

Rosie enters the room and everyone quiets down. She shakes hands with a few people as she passes, and then she takes her seat at the head of the table.

"Hello, everyone," she says and smiles. "Thank you all for coming today. We are going to be hearing from Mr. Hal Rhodes and Miss Y/N Y/L/N regarding the recent discourse about reorganizing the Hall of Prophecy. I'd like to let both of them present their cases before we open the floor to questions, and we will finish today with a vote."

She gives everyone a moment to prepare themselves before she says, "All right, Mr. Rhodes. You can begin."

"Thank you, Rosie," he says, standing up from his chair. "And thank you all for being here. I know you wouldn't have attended if you didn't think that we could improve the ministry. This is just the beginning. I have been pushing for the reorganization of the Hall of Prophecy for a few years now, but until recently, I haven't been able to get anyone to consider the ideas. I understand that it seems frightening at first, but if you listen to my logic, you'll find that the reorganization of the Hall of Prophecy makes sense. In fact, I think you will find that the only nonsensical thing that I will be presenting today is the current situation we are in.

"The Hall of Prophecy contains prophecies from as far back as the tenth century. Some have already come to fruition; some have not; and some never will. This is the simple fact of prophecy. It is not always as we think. It is often pseudoscience. It is often, quite simply, a waste of space in our building.

"The Hall of Prophecy is bigger than is efficient. There are over a hundred thousand prophecies currently in the hall. I would like to remove some of these prophecies. Irrelevant prophecies, prophecies that came to be over a century ago, and any prophecy delivered by someone who has not been officially registered as a prophet will be some of the many prophecies removed from the hall. There is no need to document such trivial things. To do so is a complete waste of space.

"I thank you all for your open-mindedness concerning this matter. I understand that this is a touchy topic for many, but logic prods us to do something about the issue."

"Thank you, Mr. Rhodes," Rosie says as Hal sits down. "Miss Y/L/N?"

"Yes, thank you," I say and stand. I look around the table, my face growing warm at all of the faces staring back at me. "Uh, thank you all for being here. This is an issue that I, and many others in the department, feel very strongly about. I requested the chance to speak against this proposal to try to preserve and protect the Hall of Prophecy.

"When the Hall of Prophecy was first created, there were only 437 prophecies preserved. As many of you know, after the hall was established, prophecies started coming more frequently to the Hall of Prophecy, and gradually our collection has grown to what it is today. When Mr. Rhodes refers to an irrelevant prophecy, he is referring to a prophecy that does not matter. But what that really means is that the prophecy doesn't matter to him. But he is not the only wizard who has strong feelings about prophecies.