The Teller of Fortune
By: Amazonia
The Boy Who Lived was still alive, but not living. And, as the days wore on and became the grays of winter, he began to loathe the prophecy and what it had made his life. Didn't the precious prophecy foretell that he was to LIVE after defeating Voldemort? He wasn't, he was surviving, just like before. What if he really didn't have to defeat him then? Couldn't he have forgotten all about it and lived, really lived? He had money; he could've traveled the world. Seen things that many people didn't get to see, done things, lived, loved, and been happy and merry, and all that other rubbish that meant you were living life to the fullest.
Ron and Hermione were married, each happily working jobs of choice- as Chudley Cannon's Keeper and an Unspeakable- and taking care of their baby girl, Lilliana. Neville was a medal-winning doctor at St. Mungo's for getting Harry healed, when many others couldn't, after the war. Ginny was a Curse-Breaker with her brother, Bill, in Egypt. She was due to marry Khalid, an Egyptian wizard and the third Curse-Breaker on her and Bill's team, in half a year. Harry, he just sat and stared out of a little window in the kitchen, watching the sky go from dark to light to summer to winter- a winter sunset.
He finally decided that he needed a second opinion on this prophecy...
--/\--
"Harry, dear!!" she squealed, like he'd asked her to the Yule ball, and jiggled her multi-colored bracelets raucously. "Won't everyone be after me now! I got Harry Potter to come see me. Didn't I prophesize this to Tabitha just a couple of days ago; I'll be rich in no time!!"
Harry Obliviated her as he walked out of the bead flooded corner, just like he did the last five 'Seers' he went to. Maybe it was some kind of sign; maybe he should offer his services to the Muggle Obliviating Squad. If this happened once more, he would go to the Ministry straight afterwards and fill out an application.
--/\--
"Oh, here we are, look in to the crystal ball, Mr. Potter. Carefully now, there it is." He looked and, after several minutes, saw two familiar bodies completely wrapped around each other, sleeping contently. He turned his eyes from the haunting image and focused them on the grain of the wooden table instead.
"It seems to me that the future is the most accurate in this ball, sir," the graying witch said with a small smile. This was the seventh crystal ball they had tried. Every time she had found an image, she had shaken her head, pulled that ball off the stand, and rummaged some more until she got to this one. It was clear, forest green crystal with swirls of silver metal going through it. It was beautiful and Harry had felt a connection immediately, much like he had with his wand in Ollivanders during his first day in the magical world. But this one felt like a warm buzzing in his heart; it was a very comforting way to feel alive.
"It's the love of another and your love in return that you seek, only when you achieve that will you be able to truly live fully," she continued and smiled secretly, albeit a little sadly, at Harry. He could only see what a non-gifted sees, and so he could not see the halos around their heads: a sign of death. The white silk they were curled around signaled happiness in the afterlife, and for that she was thankful. This young man needed happiness, even if it was in his impending death, for she had felt the heaviness of his soul pervading her senses when she saw his lost image in her mind.
Harry smiled bitterly; she was a Seer all right. He hadn't even told her what he was there for. When he had walked into the room she was already gathering materials and telling him to sit, without even turning around. It seemed that he would not live. He paid her, against kind insistence not to, and thanked her dearly. She looked sad, and he believed that she knew this part, and his subsequent predicament because of it, too. He left the modern building in tears, his heart breaking for him, and them, all over again, with every step.
Draco Malfoy was dead.