The Touch of Prometheus

by Aline Carneiro

Harry Potter is is attending his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a new person appears in his life, his godmother, Sheeba Amapoulos, she has a vision of his future, what can change some things in his life. Written originally in po

2. 2- Memories

Chapter 2 - Memories

"I'm the seventh child. My parents, as Hermione's and your grandparents, Harry, were completely Muggle. My dad was Greek and my mum, Egyptian. We used to live near the harbor, in Southampton. When I was born, everybody find some peculiarities about me: my skin was way too pale and I had this birthmark here," Sheeba pointed at her forehead, "We didn't have much money; basically, we were poor, like your family, Ron. Since I was a little girl, I used to have inaccurate forebodings when I touched people. Those presentiments were like a blur, and my life began to be affected by them as they started being more and more clear and accurate. I simply touched people and said what popped into my mind, and strangely enough, everything I said was right. It, of course, caused fear on people, and what you'd just seen at the Three Broomsticks has accompanied me for my whole life. The adults thought I had some kind of demoniac power. When I was seven, I saved a girl's life. She happened to be a dear friend of mine. I've touched her at school and said 'Don't use the old abandoned quay as a shortcut'. She didn't take my advice seriously until the last moment. At the edge of the old quay, she turned aside, just in time to see the dock sinking under a strong wave. This made her avoid me and everybody started looking at me as if I was some sort of calamity messenger."

"Everybody except a policeman who lived near my house," she added, "Don't ask me how, I still don't know, but somehow, he knew Albus Dumbledore, who was currently the Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts. They were friends, even though the cop was a Muggle. I met Dumbledore when I was eight and when he first saw me, he got astonished. There was over a hundred years since the last witch who had the Touch of Prometheus was born, and I, a Muggle, had it. Certainly, the Ministry of Magic would end up finding me, but the first one to find me was Dumbledore. He didn't need to, but he wanted to test my skill: he touched my hands and smiled. Immediately, I saw that a powerful Dark wizard wanted to kill him. When I told him about this foreboding, he smiled again and told me all about Lord Voldemort, how he was gathering power and that he would soon try to destroy and enslave Muggles. Before he could have told me anything, I knew who I was and with whom I was. I wouldn't let anybody do harm to families such as mine. After this event, Dumbledore started sending me regular owls."

She took a breath, "At the right time, I got Hogwarts's invitation letter. I was considered an investment by the Ministry, so they gave me all the books and stuff I needed to study, and also a hundred-galleons scholarship so then I would be able to buy the stuff for the following years. My parents had never understood well what I used to do, but as I was studying without giving any expenses to my family, everything was welcomed. I remember every detail of the day I arrived at Hogwarts. The first student I met, still at the Hogwarts Express, was a displeasing hook-nosed boy, who knew everything about me. Severus Snape. He challenged me to predict his future, and then, I touched him and told him what I saw: he would be deeply sorry for every wrong choice he would do," she said, "Then he told me that no 'mudblood' could ever be a good witch, but he walked away from me, frightened by the prediction."

"Then," Sheeba went on, "I met a lovely girl, who had auburn hair and green eyes. She was your mother, Harry. Lily. When I touched her, I discovered she was like me, but much more special. There was something about her, an air of kindness and fondness. I knew she would be my best friend at that very moment," she said, "However, there's one thing people who have the Touch of Prometheus can't predict. Their own future. This made me frustrated for a lifetime, but my first real frustration was at that very first day at Hogwarts, at the Sorting Ceremony. I was so sure I would be a Gryffindor, since it was the house in which Dumbledore, my mentor and best friend, was in. When they put that hat on my head, it yelled just as it touched me, 'Ravenclaw'. I walked grimly to Ravenclaw's table. In the middle of my way, the boy who was going to be sorted next said 'Cheers, maybe we even end up together at Ravenclaw?" I turned around just in time to see Sirius Black's cynical grin before the Sorting Hat covered his head. I abhorred him from that very moment on, and I thanked God when he was sorted into Gryffindor."

"As soon as I sat at Ravenclaw's table," she said, "they gave me a thick pair of gloves and a recommendation: I should never touch anybody without them on my hands. Those were Reflector Gloves, and I would spend six of the following seven years I would attend Hogwarts with my predictions under control. I always thought that that would be the happiest day in my whole life, and it ended up being the worst, and it got even worse when Lily was sorted into Gryffindor. I was isolated, sitting next to a blabbering insupportable sort of girl, who was fascinated for premonitions: Sybil Trelawney, my roommate at Ravenclaw. She assured me she could foresee the future, however, even before I could touch her, I knew she was indeed nothing more than a fool."

"I was deeply depressed when Dumbledore made things easier for me by saying that Hogwarts wasn't always what we expected from its outside, but the more I would learn there, the more I would like being there. Then he told me I would have an extra class per week since that very first year with Professor Viviane Lake, who used to taught Divination then. The purpose of beginning such a class so early was to tame my gift so it wouldn't dominate me and then, I wouldn't suffer from the Prometheus's Syndrome: the despair before what was unavoidable. My first days at Hogwarts weren't less horrible than my very first was: I used to hear whisperings and murmurings everywhere. You know it very well, don't you, Harry?"

She looked at her godson, "Being considered special is a heavy burden. And just to get even worse, with those gloves, I could be considered everything unless special. Without the only magical power I knew, it seemed I was less than a Muggle. I could barely hold my wand; the gloves disturbed me. Our first Transfiguration class, along with the Slytherins, was humiliating: I was supposed to turn my eraser into a stone. I was the only student whose eraser didn't transform in anything at all. You can imagine what Slytherin's gang made, can't you? All the horrible jokes were aimed directly at me."

A faint smile played on her lips, "It was your mother who saved me, Harry. I was very, very depressed after another fiasco in Charms, and deeply believing I was a complete Muggle, or worst; I was thinking that I wasn't neither Muggle nor witch. Defeated, humiliated, a nothing. Slytherin's gang, leaded by Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, had gotten the taste of humiliating me in public. Lily got closer to me and said that I was gifted, that I was a real witch, or else, Dumbledore would never have invited me to Hogwarts... I doubted it, then. At this exact moment, Lucius Malfoy was planning a peculiarly cruel joke about the fact of the 'Mudbloods' be getting always closer to those of the same kind. Just then I saw how really powerful Lily were: she turned on her heels, and then I saw she wasn't the sweet and kind girl anymore; she faced him with a haughty stare and said 'Malfoy, you're calling us Mudblood because you're afraid, isn't it? You're afraid of not being a competent wizard and losing your place to Muggle-born witches like us. Just imagine if Sheeba remove her gloves and predicts this nasty future for you? You're scared of what she's going to say then, aren't you?'"

"From that day on," Sheeba went on, "Lily helped me a lot. It was your mother who taught me not to complain for having to wear gloves. She helped me discovering talents I did not know I had; I studied a lot to find out each little spark of magic I had inside, and the results were cheering me up, so then I became one of the best Ravenclaws."

"Besides your mother," she said, "my best friend was Professor Viviane Lake. With her, I learned that some things are better left unsaid. She never wanted to hear a word about her future. She had the Touch of Cassandra and was the first witch in the world to predict Voldemort's arise. I found out in my first class with her that she would be horribly killed by him. I would spent the next seven years trying to give her hints about this, but she insisted on ignoring them. Vivian Lake also showed me why I was sorted into Ravenclaw: the defiance of being among those you aren't fond of is essential to keep the premonitory gifts under control. If I had been sorted into Gryffindor, I wouldn't have had nothing to fight against, and I probably would end up being mediocre in everything, except in the gift I already had and would have very little to polish in it."

"My friendship with Lily was my best foundations," Sheeba said, "she was like a sister to me, and I dare say, I was like a sister to her, even though we were very different from each other. We resembled two different sides of the same coin: Lily was kind, sincere and calm; I was bold, the provoking-kind and very irritable. There was a group of four boys who used to annoy us, not like the Slytherin gang, but still... Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. Sirius loved to say how nasty-looking my gloves were, what made me rough. Among those four, only Pettigrew used to share the fear of me I could feel in the other students. James, Remus and Sirius didn't seem to be afraid of the future at all," she went on, "In our second year, when James started playing seeker in Gryffindor's team, Sirius's jokes started irritating me even more. Then I made something I shouldn't have done: I decided I would use my gift secretly on him. I hid myself behind I pillar, awaiting for him to show up, and I slowly took off my gloves. I saw when the four of them were getting closer, and then, I prepared myself to throw myself at Sirius, but instead of touching him, my gloveless hand touched Remus Lupin! I heard a howling and saw the unmistakable silhouette of a werewolf. I stepped back, horrified as I was. He looked at me with a scared look on his face and ran away. I ran after him to tell him his secret would be safe with me. And when I was with a gloved hand and a gloveless one, Dumbledore found me. I saw disappointment in his eyes and I felt enormously ashamed of what I had just done: I had disobeyed an order that was given to me for my own sake, and I used my gift in a stupid and frivolous way. I deserved the punishment I got for doing this: the gloves were conjured in my hands by Professor Lake and were just taken off at my Divination classes. I looked for Remus to apologize, and I found a very furious Sirius. He told me that Remus's secret could have been destroyed by me, and that he would be expelled from Hogwarts. He also told me that I deserved being locked up with Remus when he was turning into his wolf form. Nowadays, I think it would have been way better if I had touched accidentally Peter instead of Remus, so then I would have found out who he was before it was too late," she sighed, "To forget what I had done, I decided to talk to Professor McGonagall and tell her I wanted to be a registered Animagus. As usual, she loved students being hardworking, so she gave me all the support I needed and became my particular mentor in this task."

Hermione interrupted Sheeba at this moment, "Oh, I know where I had found your name! You turn into a..."

At this very moment, Sheeba turned into a huge white tiger, and then, into herself again. "Unfortunately, my vanity prevented me from choosing a more useful animal," Sheeba laughed, "I apologized to Remus Lupin, and my relationship with their group got better and better from our third year on. Except with Sirius, who insisted on making inconvenient jokes about my gift. He loved to call me a 'Miss Piton Know-it-All', what annoyed me terribly. We argued every time we met. A teacher witnessed a discussion of ours, and gave us detention, what was right indeed. We would accomplish our detention at that night, under Filch's alert eyes. We would have to clean the trophies from the Prize's room... without magic. I obtained authorization to take off my gloves, so then I wouldn't damage them. We started cleaning the trophies, and Sirius and I were in opposite sides of the room. Filch was bothering us when Peeves, the poltergeist, showed up and carried with himself an enormous Quidditch trophy cup. Filch ran after him. At the moment, I picked up a trophy to clean it, and I had a terrible vision that knocked me off. When I came back into reality, Sirius was leaning over me, listening to my heart beats. He thought I was dead."

"'What are you doing, you moron?', I asked, and for the first time in my life, I saw Sirius losing his presence of mind," she said, "He asked me what had happened, and I remembered the trophy. I pointed to it and said 'This trophy is a lie; it was awarded without merit,' and then, Sirius asked, 'Who the hell is Tom Marvolo Riddle?'. I knew it, and I didn't want to hide it, so I said, 'It's Lord Voldemort, Black.'"

"From this day on, we stopped showing hostility towards each other," Sheeba went on, "I accidentally touched Sirius's hand when he helped me in that Detention, and I found out he wanted to be an Animagus too, but secretly. I knew he wanted it in order to help Remus. As time passed by, we were in our fifth year when an embarrassed Severus Snape came over to invite me to the Ball. Even though I didn't know who was Sirius going with, I said I would go with him. I would do anything to get rid of Snape. Then, I immediately ran towards Lily and told her what had happened. She assured me Sirius hadn't invited anybody to the Ball, so I asked her to ask him to invite me. Sirius always had a strange ability of getting closer without being noticed and listening to my conversations with Lily. I don't know how much of it he had listened to, I just realized he was listening to it when I heard the sound of mock laughter behind me, and then, the statement 'So Miss Piton needs my help?'... before I could start an argument, Sirius made a mock bow and invited me to escort him to the Ball in a very mock way. He looked up at me and said between laughter, 'Don't you even think about refusing me, miss... imagine then, you'll have to spend all the Ball dancing with that hooked nose snake!'. At the Ball's day, Sirius really seemed to be willing to provoke Snape, since he didn't let me stop dancing for a single minute."

Sirius cut her off, between laughter, "I'd drank some Restless Feet potion, and I'd secretly put some in her punch too... I wanted to make her dance with me the whole Ball. Then, I thought it was just to tease Snape, but actually, I was in love with her ever since I first saw her at the Great Hall. The Ball ended and we went on dancing for over an hour, in the middle of the house-elves who were cleaning the hall, and our feet didn't seem to be willing to stop. She thought it was very stupid to dance without music, so then I started singing, to hers and the elves' despair."

"And you sing terribly bad," Sheeba said as she laughed and covered her face with her hands, "After this event, I realized Sirius and Snape were hating each other more and more. At the same time, I was getting closer to Sirius, explaining to him how an Animagus transformation was. He didn't have the faintest idea that I knew all about his plans. Without even touching him, I knew when he succeeded in it; we were in our sixth year at Hogwarts. He was joyous, and then, I told him I knew about his transformation in Animagus and that I knew it ever since that day in the Trophy room. He gulped, and after that, we talked very little about this. In that year, Slytherin and Gryffindor disputed the final match of Hogwarts's Quidditch championship."

"It was usual for your mother to hold my hand very tight during the matches, because she always got very nervous, Harry," said Sheeba, "I was cheering Gryffindor, as almost all the other students were, and I saw, along with your mother, as your father captured the snitch just some feet above our heads. She held my hand almost painfully when James Potter smiled showing the snitch in his hand and winked at her. Immediately, I said, 'You and James Potter will get married'. Lily looked at me astonished: I was her best friend and she hadn't ever told me anything about her love for James. Besides, I was using my Reflector Gloves! I grinned and showed her a minuscule hole in my gloves' fabric. I 'd been collecting forebodings through that hole. At that time, I was already a prefect, and I wasn't used to break rules aimlessly... Lily asked me suspiciously the reason why I kept that hole in my gloves, and then, I said, 'I want to know if Sirius Black's in love with somebody,' so then, I heard a voice just behind me."

Sirius interrupted her and said, "You don't need to have the Touch of Prometheus to know I want to date you, Sheeba Amapoulos. Wasn't exactly this what I said?"

"Exactly," Sheeba answered, a smile playing on her lips, "And, as far as I can remember, the best time in my life begun from that day on."

To be continued.