THAT'S HOW IT STARTED
"What's the point in this?" thought Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of the famous school of Witchcraft and Wizardry of Hogwarts, recently elected Chief of Wizengamot. He had a meeting that evening with an applicant to a teaching job, "a fraud job" though the Headmaster; why the governors wanted Divination to be taught was a mystery even for the wise man. But a meeting's still a meeting; "I gave my word".
Dumbledore slowly made his way down the stairs of his office, and through the gargoyle guarding them. He reached the Great Hall, and gave a glance at the ceiling, which was as dark as possible with clouds, though an occasional lightening blinded everything for about a second. "Great", he though with sad irony. The weather in that middle march 1980 was almost unbearable, and now he had to reach the town of Hogsmead, the only all-wizard town in Great Britain. It was just a ten-minute walk, but nothing too pleasant with this weather; it was also cold, just not enough to snow, but enough to make you dream a cosy sofa in front of a fireplace. He arrived at the doors of the castle.
The ancient wood portal stood there since the school founders' time, covered and guarded by the strongest of ancient magic, given to it by the founders themselves. It could be opened just by the Headmaster at this time of night, and given the dark time the wizarding world was going through.
A Dark Lord, heir to the founder Slytherin himself on his mother's part, was becoming more and more powerful each day, killing those who were brave or stupid enough to stand in his way, claiming pureblood superiority and quickly building his army of men, the Death Eaters. His self given name was Lord Voldemort, a name which inspired a sudden sense of fear in whomever heard it. Whomever except Dumbledore, to be exact. The old man, now approaching his hundred and thirty fourth birthday, used to think that fear of a name only increased the fear of the person himself. Also, he was one of the few which knew Voldemort's real name: Tom Marvolo Riddle. Yes, Riddle. How ironic that the self-claiming Lord of the pureblood superiority had a muggle father. In fact, that was the reason he changed his name with an anagram, and "Tom Marvolo Riddle" became "I am Lord Voldemort".
With a quick wandless "Alohomora" Dumbledore stepped outside the castle, and was met by a cutting wind, mixed with rain. He muttered "Impervius" on his winter cloak and began his walk. He didn't notice two young, black eyes spying on him from a hidden spot just outside the gate.
Severus Snape was silently cursing his own stupidity. "Why didn't I think of that charm?". With that he withdrew his wand and proceeded to imitate the old man. Following Dumbledore, the 21 years old Severus thought back at his life, and wondered what had he done to have it going so wrong…
He was raised by his mother, the pureblood Eileen Prince. His father was the muggle Tobias Snape, a loving man which died of a cancer when Severus was 3. All his life he blamed muggles for not having a cure to this kind of disease. Furthermore, being a muggle, potions and other magical healing method could not work on him.
With his hatred for muggles constantly increasing, he entered a true dilemma when, at the age of 11, he was accepted at Hogwarts: there he met the most beautiful girl in the world, he thought. Lily Evans; the problem was she was a muggleborn witch, but he nonetheless began to fall for her. In the same time, four boys known as the Marauders were making his life a true hell, humiliating him in front of the whole school more then once a week. Their names were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettygrew. He began developing new spells and dark curses to defend himself from the Marauders. But in his seventh and last year at Hogwarts, Potter gained his complete and deep loathing: he asked out Lily Evans, and she accepted.
Up to that moment, he was never really interested in the Dark Arts, at least not as a follower, even though most of his friends were, as Regulus Black, Sirius' brother, Bellatrix Black, Sirius' cousin, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and the older couple Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, sister of Bellatrix. But now, the broken hearted Severus decided he would have done everything to make Potter suffer. He once heard his enemy say that he was going to be an Auror. "Then, I'll be a Death Eater", was the decision of Severus.
This was his very first mission on his own, after four years of tutoring by Lucius and his (now) wife Narcissa. He was to follow the Headmaster and try to gather as much information as possible on his Order of the Phoenix, a group of people lead by Dumbledore to fight Lord Voldemort. Potter was a member of the Order, and he was more than glad to be on this mission.
Dumbledore opened the door of the Hog's Head, a pub in Hogsmead. No one was there except the bartender which was busy cleaning the tables.
"I suppose you could offer a cup of tea to your older brother, my dear Aberforth" said Albus with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
The bartender looked up, and smiled at his brother. "Of course, Albus, have a seat".
"Not now, Abe, I'm here on Hogwarts business. I believe you have Sybill Trelawney as customer".
"Yes, in deed. She's at room 3. Trelawney… Don't tell me it's for the Divination job!"
"I'm afraid it is, Abe", said Albus with resignation.
"Then I'll be taking you tea and sandwiches at her room. I think that's going to be a long work".
"Thank you, Abe. I'll be seeing you in about an hour".
The eldest of the Dumbledores climbed the stairs, and knocked on the door with a fading number 3.
"Enter", came an almost surreal voice.
Sybill Trelawney was a young woman in her early twenties, just out of Hogwarts herself. She was draped in shawls and her eyes were magnified to an enormous size behind her glasses. She spoke with the same surreal voice: "Good evening, sir. So nice to see you again"
"Good evening, Sybill. I'd like to begin as soon as possible our interview, if you don't mind. Surely you've noticed the weather, and I have all intentions to return to my warm office early".
"Of course sir. As you understood, I'm asking you the Divination teaching spot, since I know dear old professor Tiresias Gates is going to retire at the end of this month".
"Well, he is retiring, as you've said. Let's see what you can do with your sight. For exemple… how many customers will be at this pub tomorrow?"
"Headmaster!" came the scandalised voice of Trelawney. "Surely you know that the Inner Eye does not See upon command!"
A soft knock was heard, and Aberforth entered levitating a tray of tea and sandwiches.
"Thank you Abe", Albus said with a smile, then turned to Sybill: "If I'm not mistaken, you are the great-great-granddaughter of Cassandra Trelawney. But please correct me if I'm wrong… no one in your family has been a Seer since her times".
"Hem… those things often skip three generations".
"I understand. Well, if that's all, I'll let you know about the job in a week" said Albus, beginning to reach for the door. At that moment, Sybill gave a strange grunting noise, and then began to speake in a hoarse voice.
Severus Snape, once disillusioned, managed to hear all the conversation of Dumbledore and Trelawney. He was highly disappointed; all this work to listen to a job interview. When he was about to leave, he heard Sybill change voice.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies".
At this point Trelawney stopped, and Severus, thinking the prophecy was over, quickly apparated away, feeling really lucky. "The Dark Lord will be most pleased", he thought.
But he made a mistake apparating away, because Sybill continued: "…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies".