A/N: Sorry about the delay! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last
chapter!
Disclaimer: They aren't mine!
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Hermione being a True Seer caused several reactions.
Upon first hearing the revelation, Harry, Ron, and the new Diviner herself all sat in complete shocked silence. And then, all at once, Harry and Ron burst into simultaneous laughter.
And Hermione fainted.
It had taken her exactly fourteen minutes to come back to consciousness, and upon her awakening, she'd told the boys about a strange dream she'd just had. Sitting up in her bed in the infirmary, she'd filled them in on the most outrageous dream imaginable.
She'd dreamed that Dumbledore had said that she was a True Seer.
And when Ron had cautiously told her that she hadn't dreamed that, she'd fainted again.
After that, Madame Pomfrey kicked Ron and Harry out of the hospital wing.
Hours later, when Hermione was finally able to hear the word 'Seer' without dropping into a semi-coma, she'd returned to Gryffindor Tower to find that Harry and Ron were still finding the whole situation quite humorous. In fact, it seemed as if they'd been up in the Tower snickering over it the entire time she'd been out cold in the infirmary. And when she joined them at their regular table, they both seemed to be struggling with the holding back of their laughter.
Hermione wasn't sure why she'd expected any less; after all, Ron and Harry had always had a horrible habit of making fun of her and ganging up on her. Obviously growing up hadn't changed that.
Over the next few days, the boys still continued to burst into sporadic bouts of snickering, and Harry had even stooped so low as to ask her if she would do his Divination homework for him. Ron had, of course, found this simply hilarious, and the two of them had laughed for a good twenty minutes after Hermione had flipped them both off and stalked away.
Hermione, for her part in the whole thing, simply chose not to believe it.
She held to the firm belief that any dreams of feelings that she might have had had simply been coincidental. There was absolutely no way, she assessed, that she could have any sort of gift for a talent, which, in her eyes, was completely fictional. Divination was something for girls like Parvati and Lavender- girls who could draw satisfaction from ifs and maybes. Hermione, on the other hand, chose to deal in facts.
Facts were safe.
Divination was not.
However, the day Professor McGonagall summoned the fifth year Gryffindor to her office, Hermione began to look at the situation a bit differently.
She'd gone to McGonagall's office with a strange sense of foreboding. It wasn't often that the Head of Gryffindor called students out of class to meet with her, so when Hermione was called away from Care of Magical Creatures four days after Professor Dumbledore's discovery, she had no idea what she could have done. If she'd done something and was in trouble for it, she wondered why she alone was getting called away; anything she could possibly have been getting punished for would have indefinitely involved Harry and Ron as well. However, the owl had reached Hagrid at his hut, and he'd told Hermione that Professor McGonagall wished to see her.
"Good afternoon, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall wasn't exactly the friendliest of people to say the very least. She was brilliant certainly, and Hermione had always held a deep, deep admiration for the older witch. But she wasn't the sort of person to discuss things in a casual, laid-back sort of way as Professor Lupin or Hagrid might have done.
Hermione had smiled in return and taken the seat offered to her.
"I assume that the news Professor Dumbledore presented you with has come as a great shock, no?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes, ma'am. It's a bit difficult to believe."
The
Transfiguration teacher almost smiled- as much of a smile as was possible for
someone usually so tight-lipped. "Yes, I
imagine it is."
Hermione thought for a moment and then breached the subject gently. "Professor... You don't really put too much stock into Divination and those sorts of things, do you?"
For a moment, Professor McGonagall seemed to be thinking about the proper way of answering the question. Hermione was a little surprised, though, because she clearly remembered the remarks made by McGonagall in regards to Professor Trelawney during her third year. The answer finally came in the form of a question. "What is your favorite subject, Miss Granger?"
Hermione, thoroughly confused, debated whether to answer the question honestly; perhaps it was a trick question. Finally, she decided that her teacher wouldn't have asked the question if she didn't already know the answer. "Arithmancy."
McGonagall nodded. "Yes, I imagined as much. And what, Miss Granger, is Arithmancy exactly composed of?"
Hermione
realized where the question and answer session was leading, and she finally
caught on. "Using numbers and letters
to make assessments about one's life..."
"Exactly." Professor McGonagall settled a bit further down into the chair that she was occupying. "Arithmancy is one of the oldest forms of Divination. Astronomy is, in fact, the oldest form of Divination, and I don't recall you having any qualms with any of your Astronomy lessons."
Hermione
shook her head.
"So, tell me why exactly you had such a problem with the class based on more traditional types of Divination."
Hermione bit her lips for a second and then settled, once again, for the truth. "Because Professor Trelawney seems like such a fraud."
"Exactly." Hermione was quite surprised to hear it put so bluntly, but she continued to listen intently. "You had a problem believing your teacher, and therefore, you had a problem learning the subject. Miss Granger, I am sure you are aware that there are several different types of Diviners."
Hermione nodded again. "Yes, ma'am."
"And I'm sure you've encountered as many 'Diviners' in the Muggle world as you have in the Wizarding world, am I correct?"
Hermione thought about it and realized that she was, in fact, correct.
"You see, Miss Granger, Sybil Trelawney would be better suited to perform as a fortune teller in a traveling carnival for Muggles than she is to teach a class on the subject."
"But even if Professor Trelawney is a fake, shouldn't I have been able to overcome that and still excel if I'm supposed to be a True Seer? I never did anything correctly in that class."
The same half-smirk crossed the teacher's face and she shook her head. "You are one of the most intelligent students I have ever had the pleasure of instructing, Miss Granger."
Hermione blushed, deeply pleased.
"I have yet to see a problem, which you aren't capable of solving. Even when you were eleven years old, you were far more intuitive than half of the graduating class. And so, of course, it would seem natural to assume that you would be able to bypass an incompetent teacher and learn the material on your own. However, you must take into consideration that you were simply being presented with the wrong material."
"The wrong material?"
Professor McGonagall nodded. "Yes. You, my dear, are a True Seer; it is a gift so rare that many people do not even know what the term actually encompasses. Your gift is natural, and therefore, you do not need to resort to external means to See. You don't need to read tea leaves or gaze into a crystal ball for your visions; they come to you naturally."
Hermione was beginning to understand, but some things still didn't make sense. "Why haven't I ever had these visions... or whatever... before now?"
"A True Seer always comes into their full powers on their sixteenth birthday. You are almost a half a year away from yours, correct?"
Hermione nodded.
"The phase you are in right now is the developmental phase. You are just starting to realize your powers, but they are still so premature that you have no control over them?"
"Will I eventually be able to control them?"
"Yes. Once you are used to the visions appearing, you will learn to predict them and only connect to them when you wish to. Right now, however, you are very likely to have random and spontaneous sights that most likely will come completely unexpectedly."
Hermione wasn't too sure at all that she liked the idea of random and spontaneous sights invading her mind at any time. She could just imagine the look on Snape's face if she asked to be excused from class because of a 'vision.'
In fact, she had a feeling she wasn't going to like this Seer gig at all. She asked a question that she feared might make her appear timid and weak. It was important, though, and she wanted to know the correct answer. "What if I don't want to be a True Seer?"
The teacher studied her for a long moment before once again answering the question with another question. "What reason could you have for not wanting such a rare and extraordinary gift?"
There were several reasons; Hermione just wasn't sure which one to actually voice. In a rather shy voice, she admitted something she wouldn't have dared admit to anyone else. "Because I don't want to be special."
There
was a long moment of silence; Hermione realized that she was twisting nervously
in her seat as if she were awaiting execution.
Finally, Professor McGonagall spoke.
"I don't see that you have much choice.
You are one of the most unique people I have ever met, and I must tell
you that I'm quite surprised. You seem
to go out of your way to excel."
Hermione knew she wasn't doing a great job of explaining, and she chose her
words carefully. "I want to know things. That's why I care so much about
school." She frowned slightly. "I know a lot of people think it's because I
want to be the best, but that's not it.
Maybe it was at first, when I first got here... But that was just because being smart was
the only thing I'd ever been good at, and it was the only way I ever got
attention when I was younger." She suddenly
felt extremely guilty for admitting this; she felt as though she were betraying
her parents and all of her primary school teachers. But it was the truth, and she was trying to make her point
clear. "I mean, I had a lot of things
when I was growing up because my parents have their own dental practice,
and they make a lot of money. But..."
she broke off slightly. "But I didn't
really have a lot of friends." She
looked away.
"So, you pushed yourself to almost overachievement to get approval from people?"
Hermione hadn't really thought of it quite that bluntly, but she figured that that was as clear as it was going to get. She nodded and turned back to face her teacher.
"And what about now, Miss Granger?"
"I have friends now," Hermione said immediately. Professor McGonagall nodded agreement. "And I have two best friends, and that's really lucky, right?"
"I don't know," the teacher said smoothly. "Is it?"
Hermione nodded. "It is," she paused for a moment. "Most of the time."
"And the rest of the time?"
Hermione had the distinct feeling that she was in psychotherapy, but, for some reason, she really didn't mind. If anything, she felt relieved, though she hadn't really expected to. "I guess with three people... I guess sometimes someone gets left out."
"Does that happen often?"
Hermione shrugged. "Well, sort of. I mean, if someone does get left out, it's usually me. And, you know, I'm a girl."
"I
was aware."
Hermione nodded. "And, you know,
they're not."
"Thank you for that clarification." Hermione was almost positive that the professor grinned.
Hermione smiled and continued. "So, I don't really mind too much. Not really. Because they were best friends first, and I came later, and they're boys, and I'm not, and, you know."
"I do not pretend to understand the fifteen year old psyche, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said matter-of-factly. "However, I do think I know what you are saying. But, tell me, do you still get left out?"
Hermione thought about the question and answered it carefully. "Not so much. I still do sometimes, but I guess things are different now..." She blushed and forced herself to study the floor. "And maybe Harry feels left out sometimes now."
"Perhaps he does." Hermione was relieved to hear that the tone of her teacher's voice did not change at all. "But I am confident that he knows who his true friends are."
Hermione nodded and looked up. "And I guess that's really why I don't want this Seeing thing."
"Yes?"
"Yeah,
because of Harry."
McGonagall stared at her student over the top of her wire frames. "Would you care to elaborate?"
Hermione thought about her wording. "I've been around Harry enough to know that maybe being special isn't such a great thing." She swallowed slightly. "I mean, look at him. He's rich, famous, and most people worship the ground he walks on. And even those who don't idolize him still expect him to do something great and powerful. And everyone just expects him to be so brilliant and brave, and they all expect him to save the world."
"Do you share their opinion?"
Hermione chewed on her thumbnail. "He is very smart, really. But he's a bit of a slacker. And he is brave, very brave. But he's really normal, too." She lowered her hand from her mouth. "And people don't realize that."
"Do you expect him to save the world?"
Hermione
thought about the question and answered it honestly. "Maybe. I think he's
going to do something spectacular somewhere down the line, but for all I know,
it could be becoming the youngest professional Quidditch player in history or
something." She sighed. "He's fifteen
years old. He shouldn't have to save
the world."
"There are many people who would argue that he saved the world at fifteen months old."
Hermione bit back her bitterness. "Well, being a baby hero hasn't really made him too happy, now has it? Perhaps it's better to just be normal."
"Perhaps
it is."
"And then Ron," Hermione went right on. "Ron thinks he's as normal and ordinary as it is possible to be. And he's always wanted to be something special. He's not happy being normal, and Harry's not happy being a hero. Ron wants something to make him stand out from his brothers, and Harry actually wants his brothers. And Ron wants Harry's fame and money, and Harry wants Ron's parents." She shook her head. "They both want to be each other, and yet, neither one of them is exceptionally happy being the person that the other wants to be."
Professor McGonagall folded her hands beneath her chin. "And why, do you suppose, that neither of them is happy being who they are?"
Hermione
paused for a moment, reflecting.
Slowly, she answered, "Because the grass is always greener on the other
side maybe."
"Maybe." She looked very pointedly at the student. "And what is your opinion on the boys?"
"Pardon?"
"Just
what I asked, Miss Granger. What is your
opinion of your friends."
Hermione didn't speak for a minute. "I
love them both very much, and I wish they'd just be happy with
themselves." She shook her head. "But it won't ever happen."
"And why is that?"
"Because it's impossible to be self-satisfied."
"Is it?"
Hermione nodded. "Maybe it's possible later, but there's no way someone can be totally satisfied with themselves as a teenager. Even if it's something as superficial as wanting to be taller or skinnier or something."
"So, in essence, you are saying that each person is their own worst critic?"
She nodded again. "And everyone is jealous of someone. Ron and Harry are jealous of each other."
"Does that ever affect your friendship?"
"Last year it did. For a little while." She frowned slightly at the memory. "But they really do love each other even if they'll never say that out loud. And they know what's important. I know they'd never let anything stupid like jealousy come in the way of what really matters."
"There are acquaintances, and then there are true friends. You have two of the best, Miss Granger." It was the truest of statements.
Quietly, Hermione nodded and said, "I know."
"They would die for you. Or for each other." She sought out the younger female's eye. "I am confident of that."
Hermione stared wide-eyed at the floor and whispered, "I know." It was the truth, though she hated to even think the thought.
"And whether or not you realize it," Professor McGonagall went right on, "the three of you are growing up far too quickly than any child should have to. It's happening, though, and part of growing up is facing challenges. The gift of Seeing that you have been presented with is a challenge. Maybe it's not something you want, and maybe you see it as more of a plague than a gift. But you have been faced with a challenge, and you must face it."
Hermione
had a feeling that her teacher was referring to something much larger than the
news of her being a True Seer.
But a voice rang out in her mind. It
was from the year before when Professor Dumbledore had given his speech about
Cedric after
Harry had returned from the maze.
If the time should come when you must choose between what is right and what is easy...
And
then she understood.
She was a True Seer for a reason; she'd yet to figure out the reason, but she
knew that sooner or later she would know.
And even though she just wanted to be normal, she knew that she was
serving a purpose.
And maybe it wouldn't be easy.
But it was right.
And it would help her friends. Her friends, as Professor McGonagall had said, who would die for her or for each other.
And that was what was most important of all.
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