Disclaimer - Harry Potter and his world don't belong to me, they're JK Rowlings.

My first fanfic, please be nice. Professor Trelawney reflects. One shot.


I grew up with them. James, Lily, Remus, Sirius, Severus. Peter. The Longbottoms. Lucius Malfoy. I watched them grow up and I watched them all be destroyed. It was terrible. To look at someone you'd known all your life and to KNOW they were destined for the Killing Curse, or for Azkaban. Or to cause the destruction of so many innocents. No one saw it in the stars. It wasn't read in any tea leaves. I couldn't prove my visions, and I wasn't the credible seeress I am now. And I was scared. How could I tell someone who I grew up with, whose life was just starting out, that it was going to end, that they would never know their son? Or that their soul was as black as a Dementor's robe? And so I watched as they all moved towards their doom, unknowing. I watched as every single one of them was consumed by Voldemort. And I did nothing.

It seemed like I was granted a chance to redeem myself for my cowardice. Their children. The Boy Who Lived. I could save him from whatever fate held for him, if only I could see it. I was desperate. I watched him constantly. I read tarot cards, tea leaves, his palm, and the movement of the stars. I watched for anything that could be interpreted to reveal something of his future. I searched and searched in the fog of my crystal ball. And it was a blank to me. But I had to protect him. I couldn't let him go down the same road as his father, as so many others I grew up with, and walk blindly to his downfall. So I prophesied his death at the slightest indication. And he laughed. I don't blame him; I made a fool of myself and my gift.

I watched.

I watched, and slowly, I began to see things in the faces of my students. Sadness. Evil. Death. Voldemort. I was afraid to look at my class, afraid to look out over the dining hall. But then, Harry Potter escaped Voldemort after the Triwizard tournament. And what I saw changed. Now, where before I had seen death, I saw him. The Boy Who Lived. And, in many, where I had seen evil, I saw a choice. I even saw goodness in Lucius Malfoy's son, which I didn't think was possible.

This change bewildered me. The future doesn't change. One person cannot change the course of fate.

And then I realized. ONE person can.

Many still died. Some died for Harry. He inspired them to great heights in the face of Voldemort. Neville Longbottom is now a great leader of the resistance, a member of the Order of Phoenix, and Harry's right hand. Draco Malfoy is an informant for our side, at great personal risk, and part of Harry's inner circle.

And now, all I see is him. Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived.