Chapter Two: Family Foresight
Cassandra Trelawney, the acclaimed seer as well as the great-great-grandmother of one Sybill Trelawney, was born on March 9th, 1861 in London. She was the 7th daughter out of nine children, and had two younger brothers. As a young child, she attained fame for visions of the future which she had quite frequently. At the age of four, she predicted the seven weeks wizarding war, which would take place in 1866 over the independence of the magical community in Austria. Rumors of the power of being the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter followed her as her prophesies spread. Her parents moved the family to Godric Hallows in 1868, when Cassandra was seven. Around this time, she started to exhibit extraordinary magical abilities, such as conscious control of objects and auto-levitation. The young witch would often go into a trance-like state in which she predicted the future. Many of these predictions were entirely irrelevant to world events, but a few would later have great bearing on the wizarding world.
Neighbors began to go to the young child for advice about their decisions, and she learned how to control her trances to catch glimpses of their futures, as documented by her neighbor Brigus Newsom. Not much is known about her during the next few years, due to poor record keeping on the part of Mr. Newsom, but Cassandra attended her first year at Hogwarts in 1872, where she was bullied by students and teachers alike who did not understand her unique gifts and saw her as rather deranged. She attended Hogwarts for two more years, nonetheless, preferring the company of centaurs to humans. Due to centaurs possessing the same gifts as the Seer, she found that she could relate to them far easier than she could her fellow classmates. Her knowledge of astronomy and crystal gazing was obtained during this time, although her potions and charms were said to be abysmal at best. In 1874, Cassandra began exhibiting very strange behavior. She would skip her classes in order to climb trees and pick petals off of petunias, all the while mumbling under her breath about dark powers and wars. Her parents were contacted, and the school expressed the desire to have her evaluated for insanity at St. Mungo's. Near the end of the term in 1875 in her third year, the girl disappeared.
Until now, Trelawney's life from 1875-1880 has been shrouded in mystery and rumor. But I was able to speak with a rather old centaur through a very good lead (thank you, Barbara, darling) who was a close friend of Cassandra during her time at Hogwarts. He revealed to me sordid details about Cassandra's disappearance, including the fact that she had a non-human lover in the woods.
"[It is absolutely certain] that Cassie [definitely] had a [lover] in the Forbidden Forest during the time she disappeared," Aquarienze explained to me. "I can at least confirm [this, and also] that she lived in the forest for about three years. She lived in a tree and as far as I know would eat whatever the bowtruckles she befriended had given her. [She and her nonhuman lover] lived in the very heart of the forest, but [they] would visit us often to confer with us on events of the future. I think she had been driven rather mad by her visions, and she was losing control of them. She kept asking us how to retain her sanity when she knew so much of what her future held for her. Centaurs don't have the irrational urge for control that humans do, so none of us had ever faced this problem."
He went on to speak of tantalizing rumors of this lover, but I was unable to determine his or her exact nature, due to the secrecy of centaurs. It is possible that it was a vampire, or even a centaur! Perhaps my four-legged friend was secretive because he was the one in question! Either way, Cassandra reappeared in Diagon Alley in May 1880, to purchase Dragon's blood and crystal. She was spotted in quite the state, with bare feet and filthy clothes, long brown hair hanging uncombed past her knees. It was on this day that the famous picture of the Prophetess was taken, and to her misfortune remains one of the only photos of her available. Her family was relieved to know that she was alive, but they were unable to hunt her down before she disappeared again. This time, it is documented that she visited the ancient site of Stonehenge and performed some archaic ritual involving her hair, her crystal ball and dragon's blood. No less than nine muggles had to have their memories wiped by Ministry members from the Department of the Misuse of Magic for seeing of the eccentric woman dancing about naked under a full moon, covered in blood and flowers. No charges were brought against her, as at the time she was seen as mentally incompetent.
After her strangely invented ritual, Cassandra seemed to return to being as sane as she ever had been before. She attended Beauxbaton Academy for several years, befriending a young witch name Ariege Sunstone, a French girl who taught her the language and may have been her second lover. Sources say the two were very close. During this time, she studied astronomy, arithmancy and divination, honing her natural abilities to a sharp point. She graduated early in 1885, and went on a traditional year-long tour of the world with Sunstone. In pages from Sunstone's diary, which was exclusively obtained by one of Sunstone's relatives, Cassandra's behavior during this time was documented as being normal, for the most part, although she would sometimes go into trances and spout prophecies of which she would have no memory of. It can be deduced that the ritual Cassandra performed allowed her to forget the contents of her visions once they were over in order to save herself from knowing about her future before it occurred.
Cassie and Ariege lived in Marseille in a cottage together until 1888 when they had a fight over whose turn it was to visit the nearby market for fresh fish and parted ways. Trelawney returned to Godric's Hollow, much to the delight of her mother and young brother. It is there she briefly encountered a 7 year old Albus Dumbledore and prophesied of his duel and relationship with Grindelwald, although Dumbledore wouldn't make the connection until after the duel had occurred. This led the Great Wizard, more about whom can be found in my book "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore," to have a great respect for Cassandra, and later Sybill, for the rest of his life.
After a year, Cassandra grew to hate the stodginess she felt living indoors and longed for the freedom she had when she lived in the forest. She bid her family goodbye and moved out to the Mourne mountains in 1890. Incidentally, or perhaps not so, this part of Ireland was notorious for the colonies of werewolves that made their homes in the mountains to escape the prejudices of wizarding society. Cassie made her home in a solitary cave, with nothing but her crystal ball, her wand, the clothes she was wearing, and a few bats that she befriended with her. Rumors spread throughout the UK of the young Prophetess, who saw the futures of everyone she encountered, and she soon grew to have many guests to her cave. Muggles in the area were very wary of her, and believed her to be possessed of the devil. The mystic nature of her cave led to even more fame for Cassandra, and she was often found in her trance-state, giving out her wisdom to all who asked for it. She became hailed across the world as one of the greatest true seers the world had ever known, due to her extreme control of her abilities.
A young werewolf, whose name was later changed to Greybane when he became one of the most notorious serial killers of his time, sought her counsel in her cave, among other things, and wizards nearby began spreading rumors of an affair. Cassandra had taken many of her visitors as lovers, after all. Many of the lovers were very open about their proofs at having slept with the Great Seer. However, during this time period, the stigma against lycanthropy was very strong, and the townsfolk saw their relationship as shameful and dirty. When she bore a son the next year in 1895, it seemed likely that a werewolf was the father. They blamed Greybane, thinking that he had corrupted Cassandra into loving him, and mobbed to her cave one night hoping to catch him and kill him. As many spells were cast at once, it is unclear who exactly killed Cassandra, but one of the villagers did, in hopes of getting Greybane. The werewolf was fueled with range, and killed several of the men surrounding the cave before escaping into the night to continue taking his revenge. Cassandra Trelawney was left dead at age 34.
Cassandra's son was raised by the town, who never told him the fate of his mother out of shame. Named Cedar Trelawney, as the name his parents chose for him had been lost, he attended Hogwarts from 1906-1912. He married Andrea Sunstone in 1913, who was the daughter of Ariege Sunstone by some strange twist of the storms of fate. They had three daughters and a son. The son was named Harold Trelawney. He grew up to marry Bellatrix Severn, a pureblood witch, in 1937. They had one son, name Derwyl. No other Trelawneys had shown any psychic ability, which is not unusual for men, but was unusual for the daughters of Cedar Trelawney.
This brings us to the beginning of our tale, the birth of Sybill Trelawney to Derwyl and Constance Trelawney (a muggle) on March 9th, 1962, exactly 101 years from the birth of her great-great grandmother. Sybill had 6 older sisters: Marilane (1955), Alizabet and Jarta (1956), Susan (1958), Harmony (1959) and Lucine (1961). The girls were very close at a young age, but that was to change in the future.
Remember to buy a copy of next week's Daily Prophet to continue the juicy story of Sybill Trelawney's life! Next week: early life and loves, along with family secrets.
