Chapter One: Don't Stop Believing
"Gin, if I have to forceably stop you trying to squeeze your giant stomach on ONE more fairground round we are leaving! For the love of merlin woman you are 23 years old and PREGNANT!" Hermione laughed exasperatedly and shook her head fondly at her female best friend,
"Oh but Hermione I've never been to a muggle funfair before. It's so exciting. The lights, the music, the-oh my god what is THAT?" Ginny squeeled in delight and waddled as fast as she could toward a colourfully lit festival stall that Hermione looked up to discover was selling Candyfloss. Ginny was eyeing each individually wrapped bucket with ill-hidden lust.
"It's Candyfoss. It's so bad for you Ginny! It's full of sugar and will rot your tee-"
"Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Excuse me Sir? How much for five?" Ginny beamed at the bemused looking, gangly teenager who was running the stall and brandished her hand at him. His eyebrow lifted in suprise as he looked at the assortment of odd coins in her hand,
"Three fifty love, sterling that is. Not that funny foreign shit"
Hermione gasped and quickly dove into her purse, grabbing a handful of muggle money and pushing it into the mans fingers. Ginny laughed giddily and started helping herself to the buckets, choosing to take a blue, pink, yellow and two green. Hermione grabbed at the younger witches arm and began moving her away from the stall. Her breathing was a little fast and her heart felt like it was racing.
"You should know better than that Ginny!" Hermione scolded softly. "Haven't you been paying attention to the Muggle Integration classes?"
Ginny shook her head happily, "Not one Iota. Look Hermione, relax. It's your birthday for crying out loud! Let's live a little."
Hermione sighed deeply. She was only turning 25, but she swore she was going to find her first grey hairs any day now. That was the price she figured, for having such devishly impulsive friends. That, and the cost of paying for her own birthday outing, since Ginny had forgotten to change any muggle money.
She shook her head at her own thoughts and promised herself she was going to try harder to relax and the enjoy the day. Ginny had suprised her with tickets to the muggle funfair that was visiting the village and Hermione had to admit she was touched by the thought her friend had put into the trip. She fondly remembered trips to the circus, the funfair and summer stalls with her parents and was exceedingly happy her friend had listened to her nostalgic stories and decided to take her for a trip down memory lane. She was pulled from he thoughts by Ginny scoffing loudly as she noticed they were close to a bright purple, tented stall with a large, crystal ball outside. The sign entreated people to visit with "Psychic Priscilla - The worlds foremost love psychic" for the bargain price of only £10 per person she would tell you your romantic destiny.
"Oh Hermione we NEED to go in there. Let's consider it a what-do-you-call it Spientific Exspeerment"
"What? Do you mean a Scientific Experiment?"
"Yeah exactly!" Ginny enthused, "Divination VS Muggle intuition. Let's go!" And with that Ginny grabbed Hermiones hand and led her into the tent.
The tent was dimly lit and smelled strongly of incense. A round table sat in the middle of tent, complete with a ruffled gaudy table cloth and four chairs encircling the table. On the furthest side sat the woman Hermione presumed to be Priscilla. Bizarelly, Hermione thought she looked a little familiar. Her hair was wild and unruly. She had large, expressive eyes which were framed by oversized round spectacles. She was smiling and Hermione couldn't help but notice that the smile looked like a knowing smile. She shuddered unexpectedly.
"Welcome Ladies!" The woman greeted them loudly, waving them over to the table. The wave caused all the bangles and bracelets on her arm to jingle and tinkle in a hypnotising rhythm, "My name's Priscilla. Get yourselves comfy. Now, who is paying? And more importantly - WHO is going first?"
Hermione reached into her bag and extracted a crisp £20 note, which she promptly handed to the older woman. She pointed to Ginny, who beamed excitedly and reached her hands out towards Priscilla,
"So how does this work?" Ginny asked excitedly, "Do you hold my hands? Read my palms? Crystal balls?" Priscilla laughed, a rich throaty laugh,
"Give me your hands my love, there you go." She took hold of Ginnys outstretched hands and began to run her fingers over the lines of her palm, "Oh well isn't this lovely." she remarked happily, "A childhood romance!"
Ginny looked over to Hermione, wearing a look of complete shock and nodding to Priscilla to continue. "I see a wedding in the future my girl. Not that far in the future. Baby must be about one i'd say. And either you're going to do a terrible job of shifting the mummy tummy, or you're going to be pregnant when you marry."
"How many children?" Ginny asked excitedly, "Girls?"
"One girl." Priscilla told her confidently, "But not this time. Three total. They'll take after their father. Lovely green eyes all of them. But with more than a pinch of your attitude in there! There'll be trying times - always are with children. But I see a strong, happy marriage. I see many happy people, I think you might even make the newspaper my dear!"
Ginny beamed at the older woman happily, but Hermione eyed her with distrust. She had been remarkably accurate with certain details and mixed with the air of familiarity about her, Hermione was beginning to feel that it couldn't be a coincidence.
"Ginny, maybe we should be going now." Hermione said loudly to her friend, eyes still trained onto the older stranger.
"No Hermione she has to do you next!" Ginny said excitedly grabbing her friends hands and pushing them into the older womans, "Go on Priscilla tell her what you see."
Priscilla grasped Hermiones hands firmly and again began to rub her fingers along the palms of her hands. She frowned uncertainly for a moment before looking up into Hermiones eyes. She took a deep breath and Hermione was suprised when the woman before her started crying softly,
"My dear, dear girl." Priscilla said softly, letting go of Hermiones hands to stroke her face softly, "Fate truly has a suprise in store for you. A good one!" She assured Hermione when she saw the look of suprise on her face, "A man you've always held in high regard, who has been lost to you for years, will resurface within the year. Your future is so bright, so complete."