Author's note: I'm still unsure of the pairing I want to use in this fic. Please give feedback. I will decide from there.
Albus Dumbledore sat staring at a small piece of parchment on his desk. Almost willing it to give him an answer. He had actually been waiting for well over seven years for an answer, ever since a small girl had first made her appearance on the enrollment for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Today, however, he was hoping for some concrete answers. Much to his chagrin, the parchment had shown the same few words since it had been created only a few days ago: What does the future hold. Today he had been hoping for some answers courtesy of the school's reluctant seer. One Hermione Granger.
Albus had been hoping that the girl would stumble upon her talent for some years now. Unfortunately her muggle upbringing seemed to stand in her way. The girl was brought up to understand and trust only logic and divination had nothing whatsoever to do with logic. For years he had hoped that the girl would bring him some insight into the war against the dark wizard Voldemort. Though she had done more than her fair share in helping to deal with the threat, she had yet to come to him with the knowledge he had been seeking for these years past.
Hermione Granger had entered the enrollment of Hogwarts well before her first birthday. She had performed the usual tricks of those who entered the hallowed halls of the school by that point: she had disappeared various obnoxious cousins, turned many relatives albino, and even manifested a water spout in the middle of Brighton (which is no small trick). It was not until her second birthday that her true fate in Hogwarts was foretold. It was at this point that she predicted every single one of her birthday presents, both welcome and unwelcome. At this point she gained special notoriety with Albus Dumbledore. And yet, with each passing year at Hogwarts, she had yet to use her gift. It was for this reason that Dumbledore decided to use the NEWTs as a way to access her powers.
He was still staring intently at the scrap of parchment when Professor Snape came barreling into the room.
"How could you do this to us?!!" Snape crossed the room in a flash an in no time at all was standing flush with the desk at which Albus was sitting. "She's supposed to be the best seer to come along in millennia and you let her continue on with no training whatsoever! I just had to carry the girl to the infirmary and nothing she was saying made any sense at all. We waited years for this! Some overachieving teenager babbling about bits of light! I never thought you were mad but now I'm starting to believe it."
Albus pushed his chair back from his desk but waited until Snape had slowed a bit in his pacing to stand and make his case. The man always reacted far too quickly whenever anything concerning the war was concerned.
When Snape finally calmed his temper to a slow boil Albus saw fit to stand and address him. "Calm yourself, my friend. The girl was not ready to accept her gifts until now."
"You call this ready? You had to put a pop quiz in front of her in order to jog her gifts! We could have used her years ago. Before He-who-must-not-be-named had even risen again. We might have known of his plans then. Still you waited! And what now? Even now she cannot face her own gifts. She's in the hospital wing!"
"But at least now she is old enough to understand her gift. Even Harry Potter took years to understand his place in prophecy. At least this way we managed to keep her unknown to Voldemort."
"Unknown my foot. He's known her name since her first year here."
"But only as an ally of Harry. Never as what she truly is." Severus had seemed to gather steam from the moment he stepped inside the office. This small deterrent did nothing to slow him down.
"That does not matter. She is still a target. Even if he does not know what she is she is in danger. You know that as well as I. I will not allow all of our hopes to be crushed because some little girl is too weak to carry them."
"She is not as weak as she seems. She has survived more than many of our greatest allies. Who is with her now?"
"Potter and Weasley. We should probably separate them before they hear too much." Snape finally calmed at the change in subject. It seemed that his rage had found a new victim. While Granger could not be blamed for succumbing to the pressure of her visions, at least Potter and Weasley could be blamed for being present for the event.
"No." Snape seemed to deflate at the word. "Anything that they hear might be used later. Miss Granger might be incapacitated for quite a while and any bit of information that we come across might be useful. She will be more likely to tell them what she sees than to tell anyone else. Leave them where they are."
Finally Snape decided to find a seat. There was no way that Albus would ban Potter and Weasley from the bedside of Miss Granger and it was obvious that there was precious little he could do to make anyone's life difficult from here on out. He resigned himself to the fact and made ready to do some thing he would doubtless find unpleasant.
"Would you please return to the infirmary and tell the boys that I would like to know anything that Miss Granger says both when she in conscious and when she is not." And there was the unpleasant task.
Albus Dumbledore sat staring at a small piece of parchment on his desk. Almost willing it to give him an answer. He had actually been waiting for well over seven years for an answer, ever since a small girl had first made her appearance on the enrollment for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Today, however, he was hoping for some concrete answers. Much to his chagrin, the parchment had shown the same few words since it had been created only a few days ago: What does the future hold. Today he had been hoping for some answers courtesy of the school's reluctant seer. One Hermione Granger.
Albus had been hoping that the girl would stumble upon her talent for some years now. Unfortunately her muggle upbringing seemed to stand in her way. The girl was brought up to understand and trust only logic and divination had nothing whatsoever to do with logic. For years he had hoped that the girl would bring him some insight into the war against the dark wizard Voldemort. Though she had done more than her fair share in helping to deal with the threat, she had yet to come to him with the knowledge he had been seeking for these years past.
Hermione Granger had entered the enrollment of Hogwarts well before her first birthday. She had performed the usual tricks of those who entered the hallowed halls of the school by that point: she had disappeared various obnoxious cousins, turned many relatives albino, and even manifested a water spout in the middle of Brighton (which is no small trick). It was not until her second birthday that her true fate in Hogwarts was foretold. It was at this point that she predicted every single one of her birthday presents, both welcome and unwelcome. At this point she gained special notoriety with Albus Dumbledore. And yet, with each passing year at Hogwarts, she had yet to use her gift. It was for this reason that Dumbledore decided to use the NEWTs as a way to access her powers.
He was still staring intently at the scrap of parchment when Professor Snape came barreling into the room.
"How could you do this to us?!!" Snape crossed the room in a flash an in no time at all was standing flush with the desk at which Albus was sitting. "She's supposed to be the best seer to come along in millennia and you let her continue on with no training whatsoever! I just had to carry the girl to the infirmary and nothing she was saying made any sense at all. We waited years for this! Some overachieving teenager babbling about bits of light! I never thought you were mad but now I'm starting to believe it."
Albus pushed his chair back from his desk but waited until Snape had slowed a bit in his pacing to stand and make his case. The man always reacted far too quickly whenever anything concerning the war was concerned.
When Snape finally calmed his temper to a slow boil Albus saw fit to stand and address him. "Calm yourself, my friend. The girl was not ready to accept her gifts until now."
"You call this ready? You had to put a pop quiz in front of her in order to jog her gifts! We could have used her years ago. Before He-who-must-not-be-named had even risen again. We might have known of his plans then. Still you waited! And what now? Even now she cannot face her own gifts. She's in the hospital wing!"
"But at least now she is old enough to understand her gift. Even Harry Potter took years to understand his place in prophecy. At least this way we managed to keep her unknown to Voldemort."
"Unknown my foot. He's known her name since her first year here."
"But only as an ally of Harry. Never as what she truly is." Severus had seemed to gather steam from the moment he stepped inside the office. This small deterrent did nothing to slow him down.
"That does not matter. She is still a target. Even if he does not know what she is she is in danger. You know that as well as I. I will not allow all of our hopes to be crushed because some little girl is too weak to carry them."
"She is not as weak as she seems. She has survived more than many of our greatest allies. Who is with her now?"
"Potter and Weasley. We should probably separate them before they hear too much." Snape finally calmed at the change in subject. It seemed that his rage had found a new victim. While Granger could not be blamed for succumbing to the pressure of her visions, at least Potter and Weasley could be blamed for being present for the event.
"No." Snape seemed to deflate at the word. "Anything that they hear might be used later. Miss Granger might be incapacitated for quite a while and any bit of information that we come across might be useful. She will be more likely to tell them what she sees than to tell anyone else. Leave them where they are."
Finally Snape decided to find a seat. There was no way that Albus would ban Potter and Weasley from the bedside of Miss Granger and it was obvious that there was precious little he could do to make anyone's life difficult from here on out. He resigned himself to the fact and made ready to do some thing he would doubtless find unpleasant.
"Would you please return to the infirmary and tell the boys that I would like to know anything that Miss Granger says both when she in conscious and when she is not." And there was the unpleasant task.