Chapter 13.5 A Glimpse of Things to Come
The sky was on fire.
Sometimes Daddy liked to say that when the sun was setting and the sky turned all red and orange. He would point up at the sky and say, "Look, honey, the sky is on fire," but it never was. Daddy was just saying it to make her laugh. She always did laugh, of course, that was part of the game. This was different though; this time the sky really was on fire. Above her were swirling clouds of burning gas, raining down fiery rain on the dead, ruined world around her. If this were real, the heat would be so intense that she couldn't have stood where she was standing and lived. One breath of this stuff would probably burn her right up... so it was a good thing that this wasn't real. At least not yet.
Lily Potter rose to her feet and looked around carefully, wondering where she should go. This wasn't the first strange dream she'd had, but this one was definitely the scariest. Did this mean that this was going to happen to... where was she exactly? Was this her home? She couldn't tell. There was nothing around her but burnt rubble and ash. Nothing made any sense.
Lily spent a few seconds half-heartedly trying to convince herself that this was just a regular dream, the kind that anyone might have, but deep down she just knew that wasn't true. This was one of THOSE dreams, the kind that showed things that hadn't happened yet. It had been five years now since that first one. It almost made her cry just thinking about it... and this dream was even worse. She knew from those other times that the things she dreamed would come true, but this couldn't really happen, could it? What could possibly have the power to set the sky on fire?
Lily needed answers, and there didn't seem to be any around here. Quick as she could, she made her way down from the ruins around her and went in search of anything that would help her make sense of this dream. Quite honestly, she had no idea what that something would be. Within seconds her bare feet were covered with ash. She was always barefoot in these dreams... so it was a good thing she couldn't feel the heat of the burning ground around her. She shuddered just thinking about it, and didn't want to go on. I need to be brave, thought Lily, I need to figure out why this is happening. That's what Daddy and Mum would do.
She moved slowly through the plain of ash, watching the burning sky with a kind of terrified fascination. There were giant burning gas clouds high above her, blazing and swirling with red, orange and yellow hues. You could almost call it pretty, if not for the fact that all life around her had been burned away. She walked for minutes, or maybe longer, but saw no signs of any living thing. The world around her was completely dead and silent, and, if there had once been people here… well… they were now gone. There weren't even any bodies, just ash, soot and dust. Lily managed not to cry as she walked on and on, but only because she was too young to truly understand the enormity of what she was seeing.
Eventually Lily reached the edge of a large crater. Was this place the cause of all of this? Had something crashed into the earth like in one of those muggle movies and blowed everything up? If that was the case, there wasn't a whole lot she could do about it. No, it had to be something else... something she could fix. All the other dreams had been that way, so this one had to be too. There'd be no point in showing her things she couldn't fix.
"So you have come," came a voice from below her, and Lily was so surprised that she fell over. Out of the edge of the crater below her slithered a huge snake, bigger than any she had ever seen. It didn't seem entirely real, but rather looked like it was a kind of ghost. Not that Lily had ever seen a ghost, of course, but James had told her stories. Plus, it wasn't hard to figure out what a ghost might look like, they were transparent and white and so on. Lily wasn't stupid.
"Hello," Lily said nervously, very aware that she was doing the thing that James had told her not to do. "Don't Lil," he always said, "don't talk to them. People aren't supposed to be able to talk to snakes. You'll get in trouble." Well, she certainly wasn't going to get into any trouble here... and this snake was the only one around. Still, she felt guilty. Lily never liked to do things that James had told her not to do. He was a good big brother.
"Greetings, Dreamwalker," the big snaky-ghost thing said, "it was not a simple thing to bring you here."
"I'm sorry," Lily said automatically, feeling guilty. She always seemed to make trouble for other people, even imaginary snake ghosts.
"You needn't apologize, hatchling," the snake said in an amused sort of way. "It was necessary. As you can see, this world is about to be in a lot of trouble."
"What happened here?" Lily asked trying to not sound as scared as she was. So she had been right, this was actually going to happen in the real world.
"Your kind has once again made something which should never have been made, and now seems to have fallen into... the wrong hands as you would say," the snake said, flicking out his ghostly tongue.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, not understanding.
"Do not concern yourself with such things, Dreamwalker, for it is not your battle to wage. You are barely more than a new-born. You need only bear witness for those who will stand against this fire."
Lily didn't like being told that she was too young... she was nine years old after all, but the snake probably had a good point. She couldn't possibly hope to prevent... this.
"What should I do?" Asked Lily, her voice small.
"Watch, and remember," the snake said simply, slithering down into the crater and leaving her behind. Lily scrambled down after it, wishing it would be a little nicer to her. Snake or no, it was rude to just walk away from someone like that. It was something her stupid cousin Hugo might do. He was always doing rude things like that.
They made their way across the bottom of the crater, which ended up being much, much bigger than she'd thought it would be. What sort of thing could have made a crater this huge? Lily wanted to ask the snake, but he was too far ahead of her for her to talk to. Not only that, but he was moving much faster than her too. He sure was a rude snake-ghost.
When it came into view, Lily stopped dead, refusing to believe what she was seeing. She might have screamed... actually, yeah, she'd screamed, although she didn't realize it at the time. She was too shocked and scared to notice such things. Sitting on the far side of the crater that she now knew wasn't a crater was the burnt, crumbling ruin of Hogwarts Castle, barely able to keep itself from crumbling into the dried-up lake that the snake was leading her through. She had been to the castle before with Daddy, and she had seen so many pictures of the place that she knew the view from the lake well. Her brothers... what had happened to her brothers and cousins?
She didn't want to cry, she really didn't, but the enormity of what she was seeing was finally too much for her to bear. Some people weren't so bad when they cried, like how some of the other girls she knew could still look cute while doing it. But Lily wasn't one of those girls. When she cried, she balled her eyes out and tears and snot went everywhere. It was really embarrassing, but she couldn't help it. Sometimes you just need to cry.
"Hush hatchling," the snake said, coming back to soothe her… eventually. "Now you understand what is at stake. You must return, and bear witness to the fire that is coming for us all."
"But no one is going to believe me," Lily said, hiccupping pitifully. How could she possibly explain what she was seeing to anyone?
"This is not the first time you have walked in a dream, is it?" the snake asked, sounding as if he already knew the answer.
"N-no, no it's not." Lily said, drying her eyes. That was a good point, actually. She had been able to make a difference before. "Still, my brother James was the one who helped me last time. He always believed whatever I said."
"And does he still?" The snake asked, fixing his large snaky eyes on her.
"Yes, yes he does," Lily said, smiling for the first time. James would know what to do. Her big brother would believe her. He was always on her side.
"Then he at least must be told what is coming. The world must be warned, no matter what."
"I don't think anyone else will believe me," Lily said in a sulky voice. She could just imagine trying to get Daddy to believe her. That is, if he didn't kill her after she told him all the secrets she had been hiding from him and Mum. No, they would just end up thinking she was crazy.
"You must do what you think is best," the snake said, inclining his head.
Lily frowned at the snake, not understanding something. "Hey, wouldn't it make more sense for you to just tell me everything that is going on and how to prevent it?"
"Unfortunately I cannot," the snake said, shaking its transparent, scaly head. Typical.
"And why is that?" Lily asked, putting her little hands on her little hips and glaring at the snake. He was being deliberately unhelpful... she could tell. Boys were always the same.
"What do you know of the nature of prophecy?"
"Uh," Lily said, suddenly too confused to properly maintain her glare, "I don't know..."
"Prophecies refer to specific paths that one might take down the road to the future," the ghost snake said patiently. "If one has the ability, one can look down specific paths and see where they lead. Human seers are among the least reliable, often barely able to make sense of what they see and repeating their visions in cryptic messages that are of very little use to anyone. That is not the way of the snakes."
"Snakes... snakes can see the future?" Lily asked in a little voice, completely stunned. Was he being serious?
"On occasion," the snake said mysteriously. "As it so happens, I looked down the path of the future in which I tell you everything and you tell the world what was coming. This is that future, where all things end in fire."
"What?" Lily shouted, close to tears again. "Then what am I supposed to do?"
"I have no idea, for you must choose your own path. Only then is there any hope of success."
Oh no, thought Lily, mind spinning. Not good.
"Do not lose hope, for all futures do not lead to this point, although I do not have the skill to identify the ones that do not. For that, I am sorry. But even so, you know as well as I do that unwanted futures can be prevented." That was certainly true, Lily thought, trying to be positive, she had done that much before.
"But I don't know what to do," Lily said miserably. The snake was asking rather a lot of her. Saving the world was too much pressure to be putting on a nine-year-old. Wasn't there someone else who could handle this sort of thing?
"Nor do I," the snake said, which Lily found hardly comforting. "But you are the only witch ever born who has had the power to both walk in dreams and speak the tongue of snakes. Without you, all hope of saving the school and the world would be lost."
"The school?" Lily asked, confused. "Do you mean Hogwarts? So this is all going to start at Hogwarts…um, isn't it?"
"Thsss, I did not say that," the snake said, slithering his tongue lazily. He had the same sort of tone that Albus got when he was trying to sound clever. Lily saw right through that. "At any rate, my advice to you is this. Tell your brother to seek out those with power enough to save the school. Again, I do not know what must be done to save the future, but I have faith in you, Lily Potter."
"Um, thanks," Lily said. "Oh, I'm sorry, I never asked what your name was."
"There is no need to apologize, hatchling. Long ago, one of your kind named me Oxalion, and bid me watch over this world after he was gone and could watch it no more. That is what you may call me, if you desire."
"Oxalion," repeated Lily carefully. It wasn't the easiest name to say. "How long do we have before something sets fire to the sky?"
"You have until the end of the year. When the sun rises on the year 2018, it will be too late."
Well that wasn't so bad, thought Lily. That was still a few months away, which was good since she had absolutely no idea what to do. Who should she be looking for, again, someone who had unusual powers at Hogwarts? She hoped James would know who that was. Someone had to know.
"It is time for you to return to your world. Do not forget, and do what must be done," Oxalion said, bowing his head to her again.
"Wait, Oxalion!" Lily said, alarmed by the suddenness of it all. She didn't feel like she knew anywhere near enough. "What is-"
Lily awoke with a start. Her mother was sitting at the foot of her bed smiling down at her.
"Did you have a good nap, Lily-bean?" Mum asked, smiling cheerfully at her. Lily just scowled. Stupid nickname. She wasn't really mad at her mother, but it was frustrating that she was woken up before she had been able to learn more. She didn't understand nearly enough, and now there was no way to find any more answers.
"Something wrong?" Mum asked, looking at Lily with concern.
"No, I'm fine," Lily lied, sitting up slowly. James... she needed to tell James what had happened. "I thought you were going to Hogwarts with Auntie Hermione."
"I did, but that was hours ago, dear," Mum said, ruffling Lily's hair fondly. She wished her mother wouldn't do that. It always messed her hair up. But right now there were bigger things to worry about than her hair.
"Mum, I want to send an owl to James, but I want it to be private. Is-is that okay?" Lily asked. Her mother gave her a strange look, but said it was fine. It would mean getting one of the post owls to come by the house and pick it up. For some reason Lily didn't understand, Daddy refused to own an owl. It had never made much sense to her.
Mum looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end she got up to leave without saying a word. Lily didn't like confusing her mother like this, but there was just no way to tell her the truth. These things she saw were real, but she knew no one would believe her. No one but James. Probably.
"Mum," Lily said impulsively as her mother reached the door. "There isn't... isn't any way to set the sky on fire, is there?"
"What?" Her mother asked, completely shocked. "What are you talking about, Lily?"
"N-nothing, it was just a dream. I had a dream that the sky was on fire," Lily said quickly.
"There's nothing to worry about, dear," Mum said soothingly, "A dream is just a dream."
Lily put on a false smile to reassure Mum as she left the room. When she was alone again, Lily lay back on her pillow and sighed. If only what Mum said was true... but it wasn't. Hopefully James would believe her. He just had to. She got out of bed and started writing her letter.