The world changed quickly, as it normally seems to do, through Larissa's years at Hogwarts. She blamed it on Harry Potter. He caused the routine life she established in her first year to be disrupted by random bouts excitement and involvement in something bigger than schoolwork. It all started her second year; She thought it was going to be a very smooth and happy year, which it was, but it didn't go the way she expected. Michael remembered that year fondly as he pieced it together through Larissa's Diary.

Larissa Dawn knew things, not normal things, mind you, but still things. She didn't know a charm to unlock doors, she didn't know what potion to use on burns (nor what it was made of), and she certainly didn't know whether or not the Hufflepuff house team stood a chance at Quidditch in the upcoming year. What she did know was that something strange was going to happen at Hogwarts.

"Being a Seer," her favorite book read, "is a lot more difficult than people like to think it is. The key to Seeing is interpretation. If you See things but then interpret them incorrectly, the entire reading will be untrue and you will be considered a fraud."

That book, Seeing Yourself, was the main reason she rarely shared what she Saw. Larissa desperately wanted to be right.

Now, the reason that she wanted to badly to be right was because she had a little crush. Earlier she had done a reading about the future of this relationship, and all she had gotten was that her feelings for this boy would increase. However, she took a cue from her Slytherin-esque Ravenclaw friend, Melanie, and kept quiet, letting the small things, like love, sort themselves out. She focused instead on more important things, strange things. For example, what she Saw today.

Tea reading is an art. It takes no concentration, just a ready imagination and some tea leaves. Well, that plus the consumption of the tea made from said tea leaves. Today, however, Larissa's limited knowledge of tea reading and absolute hatred of the only tea left in the house were put to good use.

It started as any other normal summer day, Larissa woke up at about eight and made breakfast for herself and her sister, Tania, while Tania cleaned the house. After breakfast Larissa proceeded to sneer at the forgotten to-do list for her mother's apothecary, then sit down for her daily tea reading.

This morning, Tania seemed to have cleaned the window unusually well. The sun was shining through it in an insanely bright and cheerful way as she brought the still steaming cup to her lips. She hated the smell of the tea and put it down abruptly without taking so much as a sip. Outside, a bird sang, a sort of happy love song that would end in the coming of the rain she had predicted yesterday. Once more, Larissa brought the cup to her lips, but spilled some of the scalding fluid on her clean white shirt, sending her quickly upstairs for a change. She returned soon after and attempted to drink the unnaturally strong black tea yet again, only to be distracted by a few brightly colored butterflies and the previously mentioned bird that promptly ate them.

Larissa turned away from the window and raised the now cooled cup to her lips for the fourth time, finally getting in a sip. She ended up accidentally gulping down the entire cup when she was startled by a rather spectacular thump against the window.

She didn't even glance at the dregs in the bottom of the cup before opening the window for a slightly confused, and extremely familiar albino elf owl. The owl was insanely small, making Larissa think of a warm, fluffy snowball that never flew where you aimed it (she knew from experience). It carried a message addressed simply to "Hufflepuff." As expected, it was an invitation to visit Diagon Alley (and possibly Knockturn Alley, the letter hinted) within the week before returning to school. Larissa was looking forward to returning to Hogwarts as an overexcited, hyper, clumsy Hufflepuff second year, instead of an overexcited, hyper, clumsy Hufflepuff first year. Larissa attempted to shoo the tiny owl out the window (deciding to reply later), but gave up after knocking over and breaking a lamp that was charmed to be unbreakable. The owl could just fly out on its own.

She returned to her empty cup, and was startled to find a sort of soggy, strange-looking lightning bolt-ish shape residing right in the center of it.

"A great adversary, or victory," she said to herself, starting the reading properly. She turned the cup a bit. "The king is dead, the game is won? Why a chess symbol?" She tilted the cup the other way. "A hand and a vase. Planting?" She stared blankly at the cup before yelling to her diligent familiar.

"Toad!"

A simple, plain, Siamese cat padded into the kitchen at the sound of his name.

"Go catch Fininimum, would you?" She asked, digging into the nearby desk for paper and a pen. The cat gave her what may be called a smile and went in search of its prey.

Dear Melanie,

Today the fates did not want me to read the tea leaves. I think something big is going to happen at school this year. There will be an adversary, mine or not I cannot tell. Not an enemy, but certainly not a friend. I also See a great leader being conquered, a king or such. Also maybe something to do with planting... Maybe I'll hurt myself in Herbology or something. Anyhow, Athalyndi sent me a message about shopping for school, and I borrowed her owl to send you this.
What do you say we meet in three days at Flourish and Blotts?

Hufflepuff

A few minutes later, Toad slunk back up to Larissa with a puff of white feathers about the same size as the little owl held lightly in his mouth. Using the cat's grip on the bird to hold him still, Larissa fastened the letter to its leg before freeing him from the cat's grip.

"Take this to Melanie, alright, Fininimum? Mel-an-ie. Got that?"

One thing Michael could say about Melanie was that he was surprised the girl's sardonic tongue didn't get he into trouble more often. She didn't stand out much, but then again there were very few people in the world that caught more than a few peoples' eyes.

Melanie Sparling was of a slender if not normal build, average height, and had, framed with heavy mascara, dark blue eyes that sparkled slightly when she was inflicting pain on others, verbally or not. She had creamy white skin just a shade above 'pale' and long thin pitch-black hair that seemed to uncooperatively fly any which way with the slightest breeze. She was nothing special to behold, especially not at 13. That year was her third year and despite her Ravenclaw status she interacted with very few of them; She was acquainted with many Slytherins and a few Gryffindors and friends with only three people.

Not that Michel cared about her then, Melanie Sparling was just a mild curiosity to him; she still was but now she was also an ally. He looked at the smiling picture of four young girls and winced in sympathy; Melanie Sparling, now an Auror and Death-Eater, was one of the few on the mission to hang the deceased Hufflepuff's body up for display. Melanie never showed up at the funeral.