Chapter 19: As Far as an Explanation Goes....
Harry was a little concerned about his meeting with Dumbeldore. Because Pandora had decided to visit early Harry had been summoned about halfway through his third class of the day, which was astronomy. He stood beside the gargoyle and waited for someone to let him in. The gargoyle shivered and moved out of the way quickly as Dumbeldore greeted Harry in the now visible hallway.
"Hello Harry, come on in. Would you like a Strawberry Sherbet?" The gentle eyes glistened with apparent fondness of this famous young Gryffindor.
"No thankyou, Professor." Harry stepped up to him and smiled, all nerves temporarily flushed to some dark recess of the body.
Fawkes greeted Harry loudly as he stepped into the office. The phoenix then flew onto Harry's shoulder and watched Pandora, who was slouched in her chair and pulling a face at the taste of her sherbet.
"Do you have any idea why you are here with Pandora, Harry?"
Harry became a little shy of Pandora at that moment. He looked at his beloved Headmaster then slowly dropped his eyes and fiddled with his robes. "Because she is different from the other students here, she has a special ability." Harry refused to look up, but whispered slowly. "I think she has been in my mind."
Pandora looked at him. She knew at breakfast that he had worked something out, but she didn't think that he was going to successfully dock a blast-ended skrewt on the first go.
Dumbeldore looked between his two students currently sharing his office and smiled brightly. "What makes you say that Harry?"
Pandora looked at Harry, already knowing the answer but desperately wanting the words to escape his mouth, to resonate around the sleepy portraits with his voice. She needed to know that he was ok with it.
"When I um, fainted the other night I had a strange dream. I was stuck and I think that she got me out." He shivered as he glossed over major details he didn't want to remember. He didn't wish to feel a retched helplessness and visualise Pandora soaked in blood every time he seen those strange, yet beautiful eyes. "Why did you approach me as Mrs. Weasley?"
"I thought that you might freak out if I presented myself to you. Besides you have no reason to trust me, you have reason to trust her." Pandora was uncharacteristically quietly spoken. Usually the minds of those she invaded for medical or psychological problems just didn't want to ask any questions.
"Why did you bring me here Professor?" Harry's tone was slightly angry and he was unconsciously recoiling away from Pandora.
"A couple of reasons Harry. I felt it was necessary to facilitate a conversation between the two of you about your experience and to assist in any questions you might have."
Harry looked at Pandora, a strange concoction of emotions patterning his face. "What are you?" He didn't say it as though he was disgusted; he merely posed it as a childishly asked question.
"I'm a seer, Harry."
"Like Professor Trelawney?"
"No." Dumbeldore interjected. "Well actually, yes and no. Seers have different levels of ability Harry. Pandora is far more advanced than Professor Trelawney and may actually be the first all-connected seer the magical world has had in a long time. I believe that Pandora does not reveal her full capabilities because she is feared as it is."
Harry looked at her, gently and childlike, his green-eyes full of innocent curiosity. "Why do people fear you Pandora?"
"Seers are commonly feared among the magical community Harry. Professor Trelawney is accepted because people do not have faith in her abilities." Dumbeldore sighed softly.
'And..." Pandora continued. "Most people believe that I can read everyone's thoughts all the time, so I know everyone's secrets and can therefore manipulate their minds and actions. Also stronger seers have abilities that actually extend upon seeing."
"Sort of like an Oracle?"
Pandora blinked at Harry. She had been told in a prophetic dream at age nine that she was an oracle. The first true full ability seer in almost six hundred years. Her fates also told her that she would be questioned about her status and the word 'Oracle' actually in the questioning once she had reached the revealing age. Evidently that age had dawned.
"Kinda." She said, non-committedly.
"Why did you enter my mind?" Harry had become the wary interrogator. Being brought up muggle he didn't know about the Middle Ages Wizard Wars involving the treachery of the seers and he wasn't going to study them until his final year.
"Harry," Dumbeldore once again gently intervened. "When you fainted on your first evening here this year we were very worried. You just left without warning or reason and Madam Pomfrey couldn't revive you despite her best efforts. I believed you had suffered the 'Faint of Aramis' and knowing some of Pandora's capabilities I knew that she would be the best way to help you join us again."
Pandora nodded at Dumbeldore's diagnosis and anticipated Harry's next question before he got the words out. "The Faint of Aramis is an occurrence where the subconscious fails an attempt to jump. An outer body experience shall we say. The spirit attempting to jump is usually caused by dark magic being cast; and falling into the Faint of Aramis the result of a diversion of attention. This failure means that the subconsciousness then gets stuck on a dream-plane or a dreamscape. This means your mind, or perception of self gets stuck in an area of existence which may be a memory, a prophecy, a dream or nightmare." Pandora paused momentarily, sensing Harry's sadness as he revisited that terrible place. "The only way out of the Faint of Aramis is that you realise you can leave and will yourself out, the longer you are there, the more helpless you become. Most people don't achieve the realisation of the ability to escape and remain stuck in a single scene forever."
Harry looked up at her sharply, realising what she was actually telling him, she had saved him from the future of a St. Mungo's Hospital bed in the Sanatorium section. "You saved me."
Pandora blushed horribly. "I don't often enter a mind like that without asking the person involved. If you don't know about it the body tends to attempt to reject the invader and we both usually suffer worse repercussions once we both are alright again, that's why you haven't been feeling great the past couple of days.
Harry smiled at her, then gently touched her pale arm. "So you've been sick for the past couple of days because of me. Thanks."
It was Pandora's turn to look at Harry sharply. This certainly was not on the same astral plane as she was expecting.
"Can you read my thoughts?"
"I can." Pandora replied stoically, then decided to expand. "But I usually don't."
"Pandora has some amazing abilities Harry, but she has had to learn to control them. Could you imagine the repercussions of always hearing everyone's thoughts all the time? It would be like that muggle girl on the vampire fighting television show..."
Harry and Pandora laughed.
"What's her name, Muffy or something?"
"I didn't know that you watch television Professor." Harry managed to say between laughing fits.
"I see a little on occasion Harry."
Pandora stopped laughing. "On top of traditional seeing abilities, what animal spirit you posses, ability to tell some of your future and seeing past and future both awake and whilst dreaming I can read thoughts. This ability is based on touch. When I first touch someone or they touch me; I am automatically jolted with some aspects of their being and whatever thought is going through their head. Once that contact has been made I can, on will read their thoughts unless they are purposely completing a shut out. This means they are blocking me. It's not easy to do, but some people have it as a normal part of their guard. It's not like I sit and read thoughts in my spare time. Trust me, most thoughts aren't all that interesting or you just really don't want to know."
Harry pondered this and silently agreed. While as a child it is always one of those abilities you wish you had, but he guessed that some thoughts were never vocalised for good reason. But still there was a mind or two he wouldn't mind snooping around.
Dumbeldore's eyes glistened at Pandora with what appeared to be some youthful mischief. "I am suspicious that Pandora can do more than read personalities, thoughts and know some future, but she won't confirm it."
Pandora smiled at him coyly. To tell him everything would mean he would realise her full capacity, know what she really is. This meant he would then be privy to her destiny, something Pandora was hoping to push away for a little longer.
Fawkes flew back to his perch and pulled out a tail feather with his beak. He shivered, sang a couple of melodic notes then flew over to Pandora and dropped the feather in her lap before reclaiming his spot on Harry's shoulder.
"Interesting." Dumbeldore mumbled into his beard. He cast his eyes over the slight girl before him. She has that look, he determined, she was definitely one. But there was something else too. Perhaps muggle psychologists were accurate in claiming that the environment is influential towards some aspects of personality.
"I don't wish to keep either of you much longer." Albus interrupted the animated conversation between his two students. "Pandora you may leave in a minute, but before you go I wish to ask your permission for Hermione, Ron and Harry to attend the teachers meeting with you on Friday evening."
'Of Course." Pandora smiled. "But Hermione already knows."
The oceanic eyes twinkled like sunlight caught on the tip of a wave in appreciation of this. "That does not surprise me. I also wanted to ask you to have a few choice words with Ron before the meeting commences. But be careful with how you put it, he is from an old wizarding family."
Pandora nodded and stood. "See you in Care of Magical Creatures, Harry."
Harry smiled. "Yeah see you Pandora."
Pandora left the last words she heard being those of reassurance of safety to Harry.
Looks like he's about to find out about Tyran, Pandora thought sadly as she passed the gargoyle.
Authors Notes:
This was written quite a while before I had any idea that Snape was an Occulmens/Legimens. I guess that Professor Trelawney would be proud of me. It also shows how absolutely hopeless I have been at updating. TO all of those who have held in there I thank you sincerely and to those who haven't, I can't really say that I blame you at all. This has sort of been pushed out of the way in favour of my SS/HG story, but I am still working on progressing this story and the next three chapters at least are already written and waiting for me to get off my lazy arse and edit them.
SummerRainForever: Thanks for your review, you certainly had me giggling.
RunningInCircles: Thanks for your short and sweet review.