For thelightningstrike's Animal Challenge on HPFC. I chose thestrals, and in a stroke of genius, she gave me Sybill Trelawny, which was such a perfect character for this. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I did her justice. Hope you enjoy anyway!
Carriages rattle down the lane beneath her tower, heralding the new school year. Sybill Trelawney creeps to the window in suspense and looks down to the students coming in, drawn to the castle in the circular coaches.
And that is all she sees. No skeletal black horses. Just the horseless carriages, same as every time she looks. Which is unfair, because of all the hundreds of wizards, Sybill is the only one who knows Death. She loves its intrigue, the way He creeps unsuspecting on those too careless to watch for Him. She talks to Him daily when He appears in her crystal ball or tea leaves, warning her of someone else's danger.
But, then, why can't she see Him? She is His herald, His voice on the wizarding world. If the Potter boy can look upon His creatures, why isn't she allowed to? It's not like he understands or cares for Death and his mystery; Potter only had the dumb luck of watching that nice Hufflepuff lad perish. Yet Sybill has worked closely with Him for years, has watched His black cloak sweep across the world—but has never been allowed to look beyond that shadow.
The carriages rattle towards the school, and students begin to trickle out of them, meandering in small groups towards the castle. She just knows the horses are prancing and Death is beckoning by the way the carriages skitter back and forth.
So Sybill wraps her shawl more snugly around herself and descends the tower ladder, then sweeps through corridors and down stairs until she appears on the now humanless lawn.
The carriages dance back and forth, and Sybill steps towards them anticipatorily. "Don't prance, don't dance," she whispers. "Stay still and please your master."
There's a rattle, and the first carriage soars into the air, dangling almost vertically towards the ground. Slowly the others follow until they stretch eerily across the sky.
Left beneath them, Sybill tries to catch onto the one closest—but it is too little too late, and Death has denied her His most inner workings again.
Sybill chases the thestrals even as they soar out of reach.