Hermione
sat in the Gryffindor common room one late Thursday night
pouring
over her Athrimancy homework. The low lamplight made her
squint at
the thousands of numbers on the page and made Hermione even
more
frustrated.
Hermione was hoping not to put so much work on
herself in their fifth
year but it seems she had failed. She
sighed and raised her hand to
put a stray piece of hair behind her
ear. She was about to start
working on the problem again when she
heard soft footsteps coming from
the dormitory staircase. Hermione
looked up from her work to see a
young girl walking to her.
The
young girl, Hermione had recognized, as a first year. She had
dark
brown hair, which as it usually was worn in two low pigtails
that hung
on her shoulders. The dark hair made her skin look even
paler than she
already does. The little girl walked slowly and
stopped right in front
of Hermione's chair.
"Hermione…
I need to tell you something," the little girl spoke softly
but
with a sweet caring tone.
"Is everything okay?"
Hermione sensed a tone in the young girl's voice
and hoped no one
was in serious danger.
The young girl shook her head. "Someone is in trouble."
Hermione's heart jumped into her throat.
"They're not in trouble at the moment. But they will be. Very very soon."
Hermione looked at the young
girl with a very confused expression.
Was this girl toying with
her? Is it possible Fred and George paid
this young girl to play a
trick on Hermione to lighten her up?
The young girl must have
read her thoughts, for she answered
Hermione's question: "I
have this gift. I've had it all my life. I
have visions in my
head, during the day that is. The visions are
premonitions …
what I'm trying to say is I can see into the future.
Most of the
time I don't know who these people are or where they are.
I get
short visuals of these moments and then they go away. However
this
time I had a gut feeling this person has something to do with you
and
your friends, " The girl paused for a second. " I actually
have a
wizard photo of it. Denis Creevy is in my year and he
noticed
something was bugging me and I told him about my –
condition. He
brought me to his brother, who I believe you know is
big into
photography, and we researched and found a way I could
get my visions
from my brain onto paper and we succeeded,"
The young girl reached
slowly into her robe and took out a small
photograph and handed it to
Hermione.
Hermione reached out
and shaking took the photography. On the
canvas was a veil
and as the scene played, a man (although Hermione
could not see
his face) fell very slowly into the dark black veil.
Hermione's
hand went up to her mouth as she gasped.
"Promise me you
won't tell anyone about this. Not even Ron,
Dumbledore and
especially not Harry. Especially not Harry," The girl
spoke
sternly.
Hermione looked down at the picture again and then
agreed, "I
promise." But when she looked up, the
young girl had vanished.
Hermione put down the Daily Prophet
she had just been reading to
Harry, Ron, and Ginny. She breathed a
great sigh; glad things were
finally going somewhere. A cold
shiver ran down her spine and she
felt the hairs on the back of
her neck stand on end. She had known
this feeling several times.
It was the dreadful feeling of knowing
you're being watched. Her
eyes automatically advanced to the doorway
of the hospital wing.
The young girl who had given her the warning
almost 6 months ago
was in the doorway staring at her with cold eyes.
The girl looked
at Hermione and then shifted her eyes to Harry.
Hermione's eyes
widened with fear and she caught the air in her
throat. She looked
at Harry, who was sitting on the edge of Ron's bed,
and felt she
could never look at him the same way again.
