Chapter 8
An amazing discovery
Harry and Hermione ran as fast as they could away from the library and didn't stop running till they reached the portrait of the pink lady. "Ticklus Dragonis!" Hermione gasped and the door swung open. Then Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him in and both of them leaned against the closed door panting.
"That," She said, "Was close. Come on." She led him into the common room and both of them stopped. James sat in one of the cushioned armchair writing in one of his notebooks clearly doing homework. He didn't even notice them and Harry and Hermione snuck around his chair trying to find some place where they could talk alone. They eventually wound up going into the girl's dormitory as it was empty and sat down on the floor.
"I'm sorry I sneezed and caused all of that trouble, Hermione." Harry apologized. He felt a lot better but his nose was still a bit itchy. She shook her head.
"You're probably allergic to dust and the library IS dusty. What DID you find?" She noticed that he still had the book he had taken out from the shelf. Harry handed the book to her and she looked at the spine, reading the title. "INHERITED GIFTS by Malory Mufflen. Hmm. Wonder what this is all about." She opened the cover and then turned the first page, using her finger to scroll down through the index.
"Inherited gifts probably." Harry teased, receiving a nasty glare from Hermione. Hermione bit her lip.
"Oooh…it tells about animagus and apparition and things like that…ooh…the gift of the inner eye! Predicting the future…this COULD be useful you know. Remember how you were having all of those bad dreams during our fourth year? Maybe they MEAN something!"
Harry blinked. He hadn't thought about them in a while, maybe because he was trying to forget the horror of them.
"I can't believe you're talking about all this predicting nonsense. Wasn't it you that said that Professor Trelawny was nothing but a fraud?" Harry said, trying to get his mind off of his dreams.
"Yes, but she is a fraud. Harry, even Professor Dumbledore seems to think that those dreams were serious." Hermione argued, meanwhile thumbing through the book until she found the page about the inner eye and predicting the future.
"I suppose. Still, I never thought I'd see that day when you would be interested in learning about the inner eye." Harry muttered.
"If you think about it, all stories, true or not, have some sort of basis of fact. For example, think about the Professor Binns back in the second year when he didn't believe the story about the Chamber of Secrets. Or it could be like what happened with Hagrid. There was a series of events and what not that made it look like he had been the one to open the Chamber, but the obvious facts weren't the truth. Either way it means that this is worth checking out." Hermione reasons. Harry nodded his head. He didn't quite understand what she had just said to him, but he thought he got the gist of it. It at least meant to not argue with Hermione because she was bond to prove it some subtle manner that she was more intelligent than normal comprehension allowed.
"So, what is my diagnosis?" Harry wondered, peering over her shoulder. She pointed to where she was reading.
The inner eye is not something that wizards or witches are born with. It is a
remarkable gift that comes as a result of damage to the brain. The magic folk's
ability to use magic compensates the damage by growing a wintaopulous that
is also called the inner eye. Since the wintaopulous is completely grown by the
magic within the witch or wizard, it causes them to be able to see the future.
Centaurs and other such magical beings are born with a wintaopulous, and that
is why they are able to predict the future. Because humans are not born with
this gift, it is not as strong as a Centaur's. Sometimes the wintaopulous will only
trigger a few premonitions in a witch or wizard's lifetime. When they receive
these premonitions, several different things could happen. The person could
either go into a light trance and speak their premonition, have their premonition
occur in a dream, or have a waking premonition where the inner eye makes the
person temporarily blind. Each of these have their benefits and side-effects. If a
witch or wizard has a trance premonition, they are not likely to remember any of
their premonition, but they are not hurt by having one. Those who see in their
dream have head pain, but remember some of their premonition. People with
waking dreams can remember every detail of the premonition, but as it causes
temporary blindness due to a severe headache, it is not desirable. The most
common of these is for a seer to go into a temporary trance.
"So does that mean Voldemort caused brain damage to me?" Harry wondered incredulously.
"It seems so. Perhaps that's also why your scar hurts when you have the premonitions. That may have caused the brain damage." Hermione smiled wickedly as she added, "It also means that Professor Trelawny has had some sort of brain damage." She grinned.
"Now that I can believe." Harry laughed. Still, he wondered about the whole inner eye thing. He had thought that it had all been some sort of a joke the Trelawny had cooked up to make herself look so impressive. Maybe it was true after all. Harry scanned the passage quickly again. He hoped he wouldn't have one of those waking predictions. Those didn't sound fun at all. The thought that he could actually see the future was a little unnerving, yet it would explain a lot.
An amazing discovery
Harry and Hermione ran as fast as they could away from the library and didn't stop running till they reached the portrait of the pink lady. "Ticklus Dragonis!" Hermione gasped and the door swung open. Then Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him in and both of them leaned against the closed door panting.
"That," She said, "Was close. Come on." She led him into the common room and both of them stopped. James sat in one of the cushioned armchair writing in one of his notebooks clearly doing homework. He didn't even notice them and Harry and Hermione snuck around his chair trying to find some place where they could talk alone. They eventually wound up going into the girl's dormitory as it was empty and sat down on the floor.
"I'm sorry I sneezed and caused all of that trouble, Hermione." Harry apologized. He felt a lot better but his nose was still a bit itchy. She shook her head.
"You're probably allergic to dust and the library IS dusty. What DID you find?" She noticed that he still had the book he had taken out from the shelf. Harry handed the book to her and she looked at the spine, reading the title. "INHERITED GIFTS by Malory Mufflen. Hmm. Wonder what this is all about." She opened the cover and then turned the first page, using her finger to scroll down through the index.
"Inherited gifts probably." Harry teased, receiving a nasty glare from Hermione. Hermione bit her lip.
"Oooh…it tells about animagus and apparition and things like that…ooh…the gift of the inner eye! Predicting the future…this COULD be useful you know. Remember how you were having all of those bad dreams during our fourth year? Maybe they MEAN something!"
Harry blinked. He hadn't thought about them in a while, maybe because he was trying to forget the horror of them.
"I can't believe you're talking about all this predicting nonsense. Wasn't it you that said that Professor Trelawny was nothing but a fraud?" Harry said, trying to get his mind off of his dreams.
"Yes, but she is a fraud. Harry, even Professor Dumbledore seems to think that those dreams were serious." Hermione argued, meanwhile thumbing through the book until she found the page about the inner eye and predicting the future.
"I suppose. Still, I never thought I'd see that day when you would be interested in learning about the inner eye." Harry muttered.
"If you think about it, all stories, true or not, have some sort of basis of fact. For example, think about the Professor Binns back in the second year when he didn't believe the story about the Chamber of Secrets. Or it could be like what happened with Hagrid. There was a series of events and what not that made it look like he had been the one to open the Chamber, but the obvious facts weren't the truth. Either way it means that this is worth checking out." Hermione reasons. Harry nodded his head. He didn't quite understand what she had just said to him, but he thought he got the gist of it. It at least meant to not argue with Hermione because she was bond to prove it some subtle manner that she was more intelligent than normal comprehension allowed.
"So, what is my diagnosis?" Harry wondered, peering over her shoulder. She pointed to where she was reading.
The inner eye is not something that wizards or witches are born with. It is a
remarkable gift that comes as a result of damage to the brain. The magic folk's
ability to use magic compensates the damage by growing a wintaopulous that
is also called the inner eye. Since the wintaopulous is completely grown by the
magic within the witch or wizard, it causes them to be able to see the future.
Centaurs and other such magical beings are born with a wintaopulous, and that
is why they are able to predict the future. Because humans are not born with
this gift, it is not as strong as a Centaur's. Sometimes the wintaopulous will only
trigger a few premonitions in a witch or wizard's lifetime. When they receive
these premonitions, several different things could happen. The person could
either go into a light trance and speak their premonition, have their premonition
occur in a dream, or have a waking premonition where the inner eye makes the
person temporarily blind. Each of these have their benefits and side-effects. If a
witch or wizard has a trance premonition, they are not likely to remember any of
their premonition, but they are not hurt by having one. Those who see in their
dream have head pain, but remember some of their premonition. People with
waking dreams can remember every detail of the premonition, but as it causes
temporary blindness due to a severe headache, it is not desirable. The most
common of these is for a seer to go into a temporary trance.
"So does that mean Voldemort caused brain damage to me?" Harry wondered incredulously.
"It seems so. Perhaps that's also why your scar hurts when you have the premonitions. That may have caused the brain damage." Hermione smiled wickedly as she added, "It also means that Professor Trelawny has had some sort of brain damage." She grinned.
"Now that I can believe." Harry laughed. Still, he wondered about the whole inner eye thing. He had thought that it had all been some sort of a joke the Trelawny had cooked up to make herself look so impressive. Maybe it was true after all. Harry scanned the passage quickly again. He hoped he wouldn't have one of those waking predictions. Those didn't sound fun at all. The thought that he could actually see the future was a little unnerving, yet it would explain a lot.