A.N.: I should be working on my sequel to Briar Rose, but this idea has been floating around in my head for ages, and I just couldn't resist writing it. Also, I have a bit of a writers block, and I'm hoping that this will get rid of it. Anyway, It's sort of Professor Trelawney's explanation for the way she is and all that. Anyway, I hope you like reading it. Most of the time I'm going to call Professors McGonagall and Trelawney by their first names. Please, please, please review it. I am feeling kind of depressed right now, I don't know why, but getting loads of reviews might cheer me up. So review it please!!! It only takes a little bit of time, and I'd love it!
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all the stuff that you recognize from the four books. I own only a few things in the story, like Transcribus Conversas, and the plot of the story. If you review, the review you write will belong to you. I'm not trying to make any money off of this, nor am I planning to, so please don't sue me.
Dedication: This is dedicated to Maggie Smith (a British actress) because she is going to play Minerva McGonagall in the movie of the Philosopher's Stone, and Minerva McGonagall is the best Hogwarts teacher. She rules!
Minerva McGonagall walked into the staff room, holding a sheet of paper that looked very official and a bottle of clear liquid. She looked around at the couches and chairs, wondering if anyone else was there. The staff room was completely empty, except for...
"Sybil!" Minerva McGonagall said, in a voice that didn't hide her dislike for the woman. "What a surprise to finally see you again!"
In her misty voice, Sybil Trelawney answered, "The fates have informed me that I should go down now, and who am I to put my will against that of the fates?"
Minerva McGonagall rolled her eyes slightly, an action which she reserved for Sybil. "Yes, yes, Sybil. Please sit down." As Sybil sat herself, Minerva set down the clear liquid and the note on a small mahogany table, and sat down, quite far from Sybil. Minerva quite disliked Sybil, partly due to her phoniness and partly due to an incident that had occurred during both of their second years.
Forgetting that she was supposed to possess the inner-eye, Sybil turned her head toward the mahogany table. In a voice much less misty than before, she said, "What is that which you have placed on the table?"
Minerva answered, "Why, Veritaserum, and a certain ministry note. But surely you already know, having seen it through your inner-eye?"
Sybil, looking quite flustered that Minerva had again spotted an error in what she had said, answered, "Of course, my dear Minerva. How many times must I remind you that I frequently hide my inner eye so as not to make those who do not possess it, " she shot a rather nasty look at Minerva, "uncomfortable by my presence?"
"As you like it, Sybil," Minerva said, and it was obvious that she didn't believe Sybil.
"Yes, yes...I was quite surprised in my crystal gazing to see you doing something illegal...but I knew my inner-eye never lies, and it had all the signs in it that you would be doing something illegal..." Sybil arched an eyebrow at Minerva, because Minerva was, after all, the last person to be carrying around illegal Veritaserum.
Minerva dryly said, "It seems that your inner eye has lied, after all. This Veritaserum is just as legal as this staff room is. The Ministry has given me permission -- rather, required me -- to use it on all teachers after the...er...incident with our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year."
Sybil looked absolutely furious with Minerva now. "Of course...I knew..." she said, failing to think of an excuse this time.
"In fact," Minerva continued, "it seems that it would be very convenient for me to do you right now...just check on you..." Minerva kept her composure, but she was feeling very excited. How much she hated Sybil...finally, now, Sybil would tell her all...
Suddenly Sybil's look of fury turned to fright. "No...really, Minerva, you wouldn't...you know I'm not...please, Minerva..." She knew what would happen if Minerva ever got to question her with Veritaserum...and it wasn't anything good, either...
"I'm sorry, Sybil, but the Ministry requires it, " Minerva said icily, and it would be obvious to anyone that she wasn't sorry in the least. "Unless you would rather be investigated by the Ministry itself?"
Sybil wasn't too stupid to realize that being questioned by the ministry would lead to even more trouble than being questioned by Minerva, so she said, "But really...you know Minerva...you don't really have to do this...oh, if you must..." With a trembling hand, she took the small bottle of Veritaserum and put it to her lips. Minerva, seeing how Sybil still looked quite hesitant about drinking the liquid, walked over to Sybil and tipped the cup so that a little of the Veritaserum went into Sybil's mouth.
Minerva smiled slightly as she saw Sybil's face become slack and her gaze unfocused, the signs that the Veritaserum had taken effect. She had been waiting for this for years...for decades...she knew it was wrong to feel so excited, and unlike herself...but she hated Sybil for what she had done in her second year so much that she didn't even care.
Minerva tapped some parchment with her wand and said, "Transcribus Conversas," so that it would transcribe their conversation. Then she turned back to Sybil.
"Right," Minerva said, keeping her business-like manner. "So, first the required questioning. Are you truly Sybil Cadansa Trelawney, as you claim to be?"
"I am," Sybil replied. Her voice was monotonous.
"Good," Minerva said. "Are you, or are you planning to become, one of Voldemort's or another Dark Wizard's followers?"
"No, I am not," Sybil replied, in the same manner.
The required questioning went on for a while, with no surprises. Finally Minerva finished and said, "All right, we've finished that. Now, this piece of parchment says that I may ask any questions I see fit to ask...well...I suppose first I shall ask you: What is the whole story of what happened in our second year, when you predicted my uncle's death? It was one of those few predictions you made that actually came true. Tell me, how did you predict to me? You can't lie and say it was a real prediction this time!" Minerva sounded a bit triumphant, for she had been waiting to her this for such a long time...oh, how she hated Sybil for that prediction, how that one prediction made her blood boil...
Sybil said flatly, "I had hated you since my first year. I had already begun making predictions at that time, as you already knew. Even then, you were skeptical of my abilities, and of the truth of divination in general. You had already figured out that I was a fraud, and you'd been telling everyone that. I hated you for that. And there was nothing I wouldn't do to get you back for it, either.
"I'm sure you remember the day when you had to go to the hospital wing due to that seventh year, Tom Riddle, and his friends. Well, that day you weren't at breakfast in the Great Hall. I saw your owl with a note waiting for you at your seat, and knew that maybe, if I was lucky, this could be my chance for revenge.
"I took my invisibility cloak -- no one knew I had it, it was a gift from Father -- and quietly slipped it on, making sure no one would notice. Then I quickly lured the owl to a vacant corner of the great hall. Making sure no one would see, I took the letter from its leg, and then let it fly away. Then I went back up to my dormitory to read it.
"Well, I had been hoping for something that would help me make some kind of prediction about you, to convince you I wasn't a fraud, but never could I have dreamt it would be something as great as this. The note was from St. Mungo's, and it told me that your uncle had only another month to live. I also gathered from this note that he had only been there for a very short while, and you didn't know that he was even ill.
"I knew that this was the perfect opportunity. Now all I had to do was convince you to let me predict the future for you. This would be the hardest part, it being as I knew how you despised divination. You certainly wouldn't pay the usual one sickle for a prediction as I had everyone else do. You wouldn't even want to hear me out for free!
"That's when I got the idea. I would have to make you pay less than nothing: I would pay you to listen. Ordinarily, you wouldn't have taken money just to do this; too much like bribery. However, I knew you were going through some financial hardship; in that St. Mungo's letter it mentioned that your family couldn't pay St. Mungo's for their care of your uncle. I, on the other hand, had plenty of money and enough to spare in my Gringott's vault alone, not even considering my parents' vaults.
"So I had my parents send me a huge sackful of Galleons out of my vault. I told them I'd be needing to buy something next Hogsmeade trip. They sent it to me. It hardly made a dent in my savings.
"The next time I saw you was at lunch, the day after I had gotten the money. I was carrying it in my bag when I saw you. Well, I was very eager to make my prediction and get my revenge on you. So I waited until you and I were the only ones left in the Great Hall -- you always did eat so slowly -- and then walked over to the Gryffindor table.
"I took out my sack of gold and showed it to you. I told you that if you would just let me predict your future, I'd give you it all. I let you do a charm to check it was real, not leprechaun. I made sure that you knew, in no uncertain terms, that this gold would be yours.
"Well, I could tell you were hesitant about it. After all, it was an awful lot like bribery. But at last you mumbled, 'Well, as your predictions are all fake...I may as well...just get on with it, Sybil, and make it fast.'
"This was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. Trying not to show my excitement, I took out my crystal ball and set it on the table. I looked at it, gaining that far-away, misty look that by that time I had perfected. I then put my hands over my mouth and said, in my voice I used for whenever I made a prediction, "Oh...my dear...I cannot tell you...no, it is best that you don't know...
"Well, I could tell that even though you hated me, you wanted to know what I was going to say, and you knew that I wouldn't give you the galleons if I didn't finish. So you asked me, 'What?'
"'If you must know, my dear, I see your Uncle John...on a bed, it looks like a hospital...he is dying...my dear, your Uncle shall die near Easter!' I made it sound as though I were surprised.
"Well, you just rolled your eyes, took the Galleons, and parted. All you said as a goodbye was, 'Well, Sybil, seems like your phony predictions are getting darker and darker, aren't they?' It was quite obvious that you still didn't believe me, but I didn't care. You would get your comeuppance in a few weeks.
"And sure enough, in about a month's time, around Easter, you received the news. Your Uncle John had died at St. Mungo's. You were grief stricken. Though you still thought I was phony, and still hated me, I was glad. I had gotten my revenge on you at last, and that was what mattered." Sybil finished.
Minerva seemed trembling with rage. She had known that something had been going on...it was very dubious that Sybil could have made such a good guess, but this was just awful. How could Sybil, how could she have done that? Sybil must have known how awful it would make Minerva feel, but Sybil didn't even care...just did it, for the sake of revenge. She lost all her composure and growled, "Sybil, you are so low, so terrible..."
After she had regained her composure, Minerva asked, in a voice that still held a hint of fury, "For the sake of the ministry, if they read this transcript Sybil -- although you and I know the truth quite well -- are any of the predictions you made true predictions?"
Sybil said, "I have only made two true predictions ever: when I said that two of the Potters shall die on Halloween but that the third shall bring defeat to the murderer, and that time when I told Harry that Peter would return to Voldemort that night. However, with both I was in a trance."
Minerva smiled slightly. "All right, now that that's over with, we shall get to the more interesting matters. For example, Sybil, why are you so intent on predicting a student's death in each class?"
"When I was in my sixth year, Myrtle, my best friend, died. At the time, I was away, in the hospital wing, and I knew nothing of it. When I got back, I felt angry and sad. How could my best friend have died? I felt like I should have done something, that it was my fault. I became bitter about life, and death, and everything.
"Nobody seemed to share my sorry. Sure, they talked about what a pity her death was, what a shame. But I know no one but me really cared about her. It became all the more obvious when she got her nickname, Moaning Myrtle.
"I was determined to show other people what it was like. I was determined that I should not be the only one feeling misery. I still am determined of this. I hope that perhaps with my woeful predictions, someone, anyone, will share the sorrow I felt and still feel."
Minerva looked sympathetic. She had never known Sybil and Myrtle had been close...she knew how much it hurt when someone close to you died...almost gently, a note of caring and sorrow in her voice, Minerva asked Sybil, "Do you ever regret doing any of what you do or did?"
"No," Sybil answered. "I felt pain when Myrtle died, I do not regret any of the pain that the students are feeling due to my predictions. And as for the incident of our second year, you deserved it, Minerva. You deserved it."
At the mention of the incident, Minerva's eyes seemed to turn back to fire. After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, Minerva said. "All right, Sybil, I think I shall conclude our interview here. There is no more I feel the need to ask you."
She stood up and performed a spell to remove Sybil from the effects of the Veritaserum. Then she left the staff room, holding the note from the ministry and the transcription of the interview in one hand and the Veritaserum in the other.
A.N.2.: Well, that's it. Stupid, I know, but the idea was dancing around in my head, and besides, I had a bit of a writer's block. I'm not planning on doing it for any other teachers, unless you want me to...if you do, please tell me in your review. And remember: please review!!! If you do, I will like you a lot for it. So please, please, please review. I need reviews.