It was a cool summer's day in the middle of August. Near the top of one of the smaller hills stood a house made completely of stone. Ivy was wrapped around one of the walls. Smoke gently rose from the chimney, painting a grey streak across the pale blue sky. Across the fields dancing with Common Centauries, Gorse, and Montbretia there was the quaint little town of Kiltimagh, Ireland. Following the path from town to the stone cottage, Yarrow decorated both sides of the dirt road. It was a painter's idyllic scene.

Sitting at the top of a hill a little past the house was a young girl. She was sitting cross legged on the ground; only the top of her vibrant red hair visible. The girl simply sat there, her serene, pale green eyes looked unfocused as she looked out into the Irish landscape. In her hands, she played with a stick she found on the ground and occasionally looked at two pieces of paper.

This girl, no matter how normal she looked, was anything but. She was a witch, a muggleborn girl that had not just been given the ability to do magic but the ability to see the future. Elyse O'Brian was simply not fiddling with a twig. It was her wand; silver lime, reasonably supple, slightly rigid, with a dragon heartstring core. There was a painful stabbing in her heart as she thought of the day she got her wand.

Ollivander seemed slightly surprised that she 'chose' that wand. He explained it is a rare match for a muggleborn since the wood had been associated with seers and the beyond for centuries. It was that seeing ability that made her quickly reread over the two letters that had shown up at her house earlier that morning.

The first one was from her best friend, Ursula Black. The words were a little shaky and they were slanted down the paper and sometimes ran into each other but Elyse was able to make out the words.

Elyse,

I don't have much time to write. I just got your letter from a week ago.

Sirius and I are fine. The worst thing that happened to us so far was being forced to go to Bellatrix's wedding. In some twisted, reversed way, I feel sorry for the bloke. I mean, my cousin is insane. You remember her; she is completely demented. It wasn't that bad of an experience because Ben was there (his dad is the Minister of Magic so he automatically got invited) so we got into a little bit of mischief. James would be proud.

But what you said about your eyesight problem, I think you need to tell Dumbledore. There isn't a better or wiser wizard alive right now to help you. Trust me; if Dumbles can't help you, no one can. Just don't write anything in a letter. Things can be intercepted and the wrong people could read it so exercise caution. I don't want to see you get hurt because of something you wrote.

As you can guess, my eyesight came back a lot during the summer. I have to wear these thick glasses (and probably will have to for the rest of my life) to see but I'm not complaining when faced with the other option!

Sirius says hi and hopes you are doing better.

Can't wait to see you next week at the Potter's. Don't forget to bring your camera.

-Ursula

The second piece of paper in her hand held a much shorter message.

I will be at your home on August 14th.

The letter wasn't even signed but since it was delivered by a phoenix, Elyse had a pretty good idea who it was from. She had written a letter to her headmaster earlier that week, saying that it was urgent that she speak to him and that what he needed to know couldn't be put down in a letter. She had received a response in less than twenty-four hours.

There was suddenly a rustling of grass behind her. Soft, barely audible footsteps walked towards her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the light purple flowing robes of her headmaster. He gently lowered himself to the ground and joined her looking over the Irish country side.

It was almost comical how he looked so out of place in her home. Growing up, she never imagined that someone that looked much like Albus Dumbledore would be sitting next to her.

"Hello Elyse," he greeted her in his soft, calming voice.

"Hello Professor," she greeted right back in her harsh, raspy whisper.

His eyes were twinkling and he smiled a little bit at her, "I see you have made great progress in your recovery."

She simply nodded, having no response. What he said was true. She practiced all the exercises that Madame Pomfrey told her to and she drank all her potions exactly when she was supposed to. Also, helping once a week a Healer from St. Mungo's would visit her house and help her with her speaking. As a result of having to learn how to speak again, some of her accent had disappeared. None of the kids in the village found it odd (they had been told she caught tuberculosis at school) since she still retained most of her accent but she was able to hear it every time she spoke and she hated it.

Dumbledore's eyes became oddly serious. "I'm assuming that you did not write me to inform me that you're voice has come back."

She chanced a look at his eyes and she immediately felt calmed by the comforting blue hidden behind his spectacles. But almost immediately she recalled a vision and her heart started racing again.

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Whatever you need to say, you can," he assured her.

She looked away from his eyes and looked back at Kiltimagh.

"It has to do with my visions." She said softly.

"Ah," Dumbledore said softly as he removed his hand.

She continued on as if he had never spoken, "I've been seein' different thin's. I used teh see simple thin's, like woot grade I got on me work or 'o woot me friends was doin'. But now," she laughed bitterly, "I wish I were seein tat."

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen people I know murdered. Me best friends dying."

Dumbledore was silent a moment as he took that in. He spoke in a deep, grave voice, "You are aware that you cannot tell me about these visions correct?"

She nodded once, "I can't tell yeh any specifics. But I don't want teh tell yeh. I want yeh teh stop 'em."

He raised his eyebrows and he looked amused and surprised. "No matter what anyone has told you, I am not all powerful. I cannot stop your visions from happening. I am sorry."

Elyse didn't respond for a moment. When she did, her voice was soft and scared. "But woot am I supposed teh do? I have teh go teh school wit some of'em knowin' when and 'ow they're going teh die. I can't look 'em in teh face knowin' that I've teh ability teh stop their deaths boot I can't."

"Elyse," He began softly, "You're friends are still alive."

"But tey won't be!" Elyse said harshly at him. Her green eyes were sparking and her knuckles turned white as she clenched her fists. Almost immediately she looked abashed at her behavior. "I'm sorry Professor."

Dumbledore patted her on the shoulder. "It's alright, Elyse. You are under a lot of stress right now."

"I'm scared Professor," she admitted in a small voice as tears started racing down her freckled cheeks.

She couldn't believe those words had just slipped out of her mouth. She was a Gryffindor, she was supposed to be brave and courageous and here she was turning into a blubbering idiot in front of her headmaster. He had faced threats and dangers far greater than here and he was sitting perfectly calm next to her with a twinkle in his eyes. No doubt he finally realized that the Sorting Hat made a mistake. She was too weak to be a Gryffindor, she didn't have the blood to be in Slytherin, and she wasn't smart enough to be a Ravenclaw. She would go to Hufflepuff for sure. It wasn't so bad, she mused. According to Sirius they are close to the kitchens. That wouldn't be too bad.

But then Dumbledore said something that she would remember until the day she died.

"Sometimes what scares us and hurts us the most, in the end is our greatest strength."

Her brows furrowed, "Woot does 'hat mean Professor?"

He smiled in a way that was infuriating while at the same time being uniquely Dumbledore. "Whatever you take it to be."

"I don't understand." She admitted after a moment of thinking about it.

"I didn't expect you to." He said.

Deciding that she wasn't going to get a straight answer from the Headmaster and also contemplating if anyone would ever understand the old man sitting on the grass, she stood and offered her hand down to him.

"Would yeh like teh join us fer dinna?" She asked him and she helped him to his feet. "Me mam is excited teh talk teh yeh again."

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled and he nodded. "If I do recall correctly, your mother made the best cornbread I've ever tasted. Just don't tell Professor Sprout." He winked at her and together they set off for the small stone cottage.


Five days later, Elyse held a suitcase in her left hand as she threw floo powder into her fireplace. Her mother fussed over her right before she stepped into the green flames. She waved goodbye to them before she threw some more power and shouted clearly, "Number 18 Godric's Lane!"

She saw glimpses of other houses before she appeared in the living room of the Potters. It was not much different than she remembered. The only thing that changed was there were more pictures hanging in the room with different people. Before Elyse was able to get a good look at the pictures, she was rugby tackled to the ground.

"ELYSE!" Her best friend Ursula shouted as she hugged her.

Elyse laughed and wrapped her arms around the black haired girl, overjoyed that she looked normal. Not a bruise was in sight and her eyes were sparkling behind her rectangular, thick horntail rimmed glasses.

"Dog pile!" James shouted as he jumped on top of Ursula. Sirius and Ben joined laughing while Peter looked unsure if to join and Remus just turned a page in his book, apparently immune to these things by now.

"You're not going to join us Moony?" James asked, making puppy dog eyes.

Remus rolled his eyes a little. "Because what I want to do a few days after the full moon when my bones break apart to form wolf-like limbs and I literally try to maul myself to death is join a dog pile. How silly of me."

James started laughing but the crushing weight of his two other friends left him silently laughing and shaking in the middle of the pile.

"Boys!" Mrs. Potter scolded as she walked in to greet Elyse. "We let our guests put their luggage away before we accost them."

"Yes ma'am." The boys said simultaneously said and they rolled off the girls. Ursula held tight to her best friend, pinning Elyse's arms to her side.

"That includes you too, Ursula." She chided gently.

Ursula sighed but got off her friend. She held her hand down and helped the red head to her feet. Once of her feet, Elyse was able to see what summer had done for her friends. Ursula was now standing three inches taller than her; two more than last year. The boys on the other hand were even taller. With some of them almost fourteen, they had shot up like weeds. Remus, who had stood up to say hello to her, was now the tallest, towering over his friends. Ben was just barely taller than Sirius and James, but all three towered over her lithe frame. Peter had also grown, but compared to his friends it was nothing drastic.

But as much as things changed, they also remained the same. Ben's hair was still bright as fire (even though it now flopped into his eyes) and his face still kept his childish features. James's hair was still a mess and he still had his chicken legs. Sirius's hair still fell elegantly into his right eye and his silver eyes remained as joyful and carefree as ever. Peter's hair was getting a little long, but the French sun had done well to him when he visited his grandmother. He was a little burned, but his watery blue eyes were still as friendly as ever. Remus's eyes were actually less guarded and there seemed to a carefreeness about him that would only show us occasionally the previous two years.

At that instant all the visions she had involving the group of people standing in front of her didn't matter. They were here and they were alive. She couldn't ask for more.

Caught up in her euphoria, she threw out her arms and gathered as many of them as she could in a hug.


Later that night, after spending the day outside in the sun with her friends, Elyse walked into the room she shared with Ursula. The black haired girl was reading a book on her bed while she waited for Elyse to finish in the shower. As Elyse dried her hair with the towel, Ursula pulled out her wand.

"You want me to dry it?" She asked.

Elyse looked at her like she was insane. "Yeh can't do magic outside ov Hogwarts!" She whisper said. Her raspy voice sounding like sandpaper in the silent room.

Ursula laughed, "That's only in a muggle home. In a wizard's home, it's the adult's job to make sure minors don't use magic. The Ministry can't tell who used the magic so you can't get caught."

"Wicked," Elyse said with a smile as she nodded her head. "Go ahead."

With her hair perfectly dry and curly Elyse settled into bed after changing into her pajamas.

"So woot 'appened during yeh's summer? Besides teh weddin I mean." Elyse asked.

Ursula was silent a moment, "I've decided I'm never falling love and getting married."

Elyse rolled her eyes, "Of course yeh aren't." She said disbelievingly.

"I'm as serious as my brother right now. Being at Bellatrix's wedding, all the pureblood crap and the arrangement of it; I'm not going to go through with that."

"What are you going to do then?" Elyse asked, propping her head up with her arm to look at Ursula on her bed.

Ursula flopped down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling as she said, "I'm going to find the mugglest muggle of all the muggles in the world and that's who I'll marry. I'm not going to marry some pureblooded wizard who thinks he is all that."

"But yeh agreed teh James's offer teh marry yeh if yeh can't find a husband before yeh's thirty-five." Elyse reminded her of the contradiction. "Woot's teh real reason yeh's don't want teh get married?" Elyse asked, knowing her best friend better than that.

Ursula was silent a moment. At least, Elyse thought she was being silent. But a soft, barely audible sob came from Ursula's bed. Instantly, Elyse hurried out of bed and jumped into Ursula's.

"Woot's wrong Ursey?" She asked, putting a comforting hand around her friend's shoulders.

Ursula laughed to herself and wiped away the tears from her eyes, "I'm being stupid." She muttered to herself.

Elyse tightened her hold around her shoulders, "No yeh's not. Yeh's bein' human. Now tell me woot's happened?"

The other girl sighed and gathered herself before looking Elyse straight in the eyes when she spoke, "You have to promise me that this will remain between the two of us. You can't tell any of the guys and you definitely can't tell Sirius."

"I promise. Just between the two of us," Elyse affirmed.

Ursula laid down on the pillows and didn't look at Elyse when she began her story. "Over the summer, after the wedding, I got up in the middle of the night to get some water because I was thirsty and I didn't want to get Kreacher because he hates me and would probably try to poison me. Anyway, I hear some noises coming from up the stairwell where my parent's room is and it sounded like…" she trailed off with the tips of her ears turning red. "Anyway, I assumed it was my parents. When I passed the drawing room, I saw a shadow. It was my dad."

Elyse gasped at the implication, "Was yeh mom-"

Ursula nodded sadly, "My mom was cheating on my dad and he knew it but you can't get divorced in wizard marriages. It's till death. So Dad's been suffering through how many years of marriage with a spouse that cheats on him and he has to live with the family he's created and act like everything's fudging perfect. The pain in my dad's eyes that night…" she shuddered, "I don't want to go through with what happened to my dad." She said with tears in her eyes.

"That's not the worst part, is it?" Elyse could tell, even in the dim moonlight, from Ursula's face that the story was not finished yet.

She shook her head, "I woke up the next morning before either of my brothers. Do you want to know who was standing in the landing getting his cloak on?"

"Who?" Elyse asked, thinking of every male, adult wizard she knew. It was a very limited list.

Ursula shuddered at the memory. "It was Professor Avery."

"AVERY!" Elyse yelped. Ursula's eyes widened and she slapped a hand over Elyse's mouth.

"Shut up! You're going to wake the boys up!"

They lay frozen on a bed for a minute to make sure that no one woke up. When there was only silence Ursula went back to her original position but Elyse still stared at Ursula in shock.

"Yeh's mom shagged Professor Avery 'n 'hat's why yeh decided yeh's neva getting' married?" Elyse asked incredulously.

Ursula frowned and glared at Elyse, "I'm not putting myself in that position. Ever."

Elyse rolled her eyes and sneakily reached behind her and grabbed a pillow. Without warning she brought around the pillow and hit Ursula dead center in the middle of the face. Ursula yelped at looked at the smirking Elyse in shock and anger, "What the bloody hell was that for?" she screeched as she put her glasses back on.

The red headed girl just shrugged, "Yeh didn't put yourself in a position fer 'hat either boot it still 'appened."

Ursula sputtered a moment before determination and resolve settled on her face. "That's it Leprechaun, you're going down." She grabbed a pillow from under her head and went to attack the smaller girl.

Elyse, acting solely off self-preservation, jumped off the bed and ran from the room. Ursula was right on her heels as they sprinted down the hallway. Ursula was able to hit Elyse, who pushed the other girl into the door of Remus, Peter, and Ben's room. The three boys shot up in bed and went to see what the commotion was. They caught Elyse disappearing in James and Sirius's room with Ursula right on her tail, swinging a pillow behind her head. They all shared a look before they raced back to their beds and grabbed their own pillows.

Once the girls entered James's room, Elyse jumped onto Sirius's bed and forced the much taller and stronger sleeping boy in front of her. Sirius looked around with terrified eyes, "What the hell!" He shouted at the shock of being woken up in such a rude manner and seeing his sister brandishing a pillow in a threatening way in front of him.

Neither girl paid much attention to him. Elyse held an arm around his shoulders and kept him securely behind him. "You wouldn't dare sacrifice your own brother." Elyse challenged.

Ursula raised her left eyebrow, "You think?" She raised her pillow and ended up hitting Sirius right on the side of his head. Ursula tried unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh while Elyse didn't even try to hold anything back. His hair was not standing which every way. If it weren't for the light shinning off his silver eyes, Ursula could have easily mistaken him for James. Speaking of James…

"It's so on," Sirius growled.

Ursula was suddenly grabbed from behind and swung in a circle. James had grabbed her around the waist and started tickling her mercilessly.

"ELYSE!" Ursula screamed through her laughter.

But Elyse was in no condition to help; Sirius was doing the same for her. Through her squinted eyes, Elyse caught sight of the other boys starting to join them in the room. "BEN! REMUS! PETER! SAVE US!" She squealed.

"Fear not gentle lady!" Ben said with . "FOR GRYFFINDOR!" He shouted before he started attacking James with pillows. Remus and Peter started on Sirius and soon the two black haired boys were overpowered.

"RETREAT! RETREAT!" James ordered as he sprinted towards the door. Sirius quickly escaped from his attackers and he followed his best friend out of the door. The five others pursued after them, armed with pillows.

The pillow fight commenced in the large, spacious living room where sides were switched so often that it was impossible to tell who was winning for more than five minutes. Ursula and Ben would later claim victory, but Sirius and Elyse were quite sure they were the winners. Remus and James were positive that the others were mistaken and had taken too many hits to the head to realize they were the rightful winners and Peter was just glad that he made it out of the fight without any serious injury.

The next morning, Mrs. Potter never got a clear answer as to why her living room was covered in feathers and seven of her pillows were destroyed when she found them asleep on the floor.


There you go; tell me what you think. I really like this chapter because I think that is showcases a little bit of what was missing in the last book. It focused a bit on Elyse's emotional reaction to her visions, it has Dumbledore being philosophical, and it has the boys being boys and the girls being girls. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it. It also revealed the first hint of my plan for the enigma that is Orion Black (who if you haven't noticed, hasn't had any lines so far). He is going to be an important character in this book and here on out. Just keep an eye out for him.

If you guys are interested, I'm thinking of writing a one-shot about Ursula's discovery of her father and her mother's infidelity. I was going to make that the beginning of his chapter but I decided to focus a little more on Elyse. If you guys are interested in reading something about that, let me know. I don't want to write something you guys have no interest in.

Thank you so much to everyone that has reviewed. Whether you are new to this story and you just read the first book or you have been with this since the very beginning, it is wonderful to hear your thoughts. I want so badly to tell you who the vision in the prologue is, but that won't be revealed until the end of this book or possibly the next one. But, anywho, thank you everyone that has read this story. Just seeing the views is a boost of confidence. Thank you so, so, so much.