CHAPTER 3 THE FULL MOON OF DECEMBER
'I WAS HERE FIRST!' Rita roared.
'WHO CARES? I have extremely IMPORTANT matters to discuss!' Gilderoy roared back.
This had been going on for the past ten minutes. Sybill said motionless in her chair, waiting for them to seize their shouting so that she could explain to them that she had quite making predictions. That she was focusing on a more serious future now. That she needed rest to expand the view of her almost-all-seeing-eye.
But the two before her, were far to busy shouting.
'OK,' she said after a while, tired of their constant shouting. When the two of them continued, she slammed her fist on the desk (which hurt more than she had expected). They fell silent immediately and turned to her. Perfect. 'I am not going to help either of you.'
'Pardon,' Rita blurted out, before she could stop herself.
Gilderoy just rolled his eyes. Whatever, he thought. No one denied him. He was Gilderoy Lockhart for Godsake! If that damned Skeeter-girl would just back the (he inserted a very rude word which shall not be repeated) off, he'd have her convinced in no time. He'd just smile a little at Sybill, woo her, buy her some flowers maybe and everything would turn out just fine.
'Sybill, Sybill. Sweet, sweet girl,' Rita said, her voice turning that annoying fake-honey-sweet-like again. 'You don't understand. It is really important that you just focus that wonderful Third Eye for me, just a very short moment. I have been missing out on…' She cleared her throat, suddenly realizing she had gone too far, after all, Gilderoy was here. When was the bastard going to leave? 'Missing out on your lovely company,' she laughed nervously. 'I didn't realize what a good friend you really were, and… and… well… I have been treating you rather crudely, and I wished to make up. I thought by letting you, you know, do your whole predicting-thing, I could re-establish our former… er… friendship, without seeming to… forward.'
'Convincing speech, Skeeter,' Gilderoy said sarcastically. 'Look, doll, Sybill. I'm going to be up front with you. I need you. I need your gift. I am willing to pay for it as much as you will. Hell, we could even go out on a little date together. I believe there's a Hogsmeade weekend scheduled…'
'I'm in my second year,' Sybill said coldly. 'Besides, I have a strong feeling you are not going to live up to that promise.'
'See!' Gilderoy said excitedly and clapped in his hands. 'You can not stop yourself from predicting! You're doing it even without realizing it! Come now, pumpkin. Let's not make this a bigger deal than it really is. Just look into that little Crystal Ball of yours and tell me what the devil is going on.'
At least she had tried to make her point clear. They deserved what was coming to them. 'Well, alright then.' She said. 'I will have a private session with either one of you. Skeeter can go first. BUT, first you pay.'
Both Rita and Gilderoy were far too pleased that they had their wish granted to worry about paying a galleon. They both placed their money on the table and Gilderoy swiftly left the empty classroom.
Sybil gazed into the Crystal Ball, contemplating what was the best next move.
Rita looked kind of annoyed that it took her so long, but didn't dare to say a word, in case Sybil would change her mind and decide not to help.
Than, when Rita had nearly dozed of, Sybil suddenly let out a horrible, long wail. 'No!'
'What? What?' The other girl asked excitedly.
(Ha! She won't be that excited in a few seconds, our favourite fortune-teller told herself.)
'No,' she said, making some dramatic gestures and eventually throwing the Ball of the table, as if she could take it no more.
'What? What?' Rita repeated, her voice sounding unnaturally high.
Sybil wailed once more, and put her head in her hands. Than she raised it slowly and said in a whisper: 'I am afraid that I will have to bring you some horrible, horrible news.'
Rita put her hand before her mouth, shocked beyond speech.
'A terrible fate awaits you, on the first day of Full Moon in December. I do not think, you will survive.' She hung her head. The show had ended. She should win some kind of award for this, yes she should! Silence filled the empty classroom for longer than she would have wanted, she was afraid that Rita might not believe it. After all, she was one of the smartest girls in the school, especially when it came too solving mysteries. Not that they had ever been so important as these, but still! She had managed to prove or kill gossips that had been going around for at least a year. Probably, solving this would not be as difficult as well. But than again, Rita trusted her completely.
'Well,' Rita said after a while, gathering her thoughts. 'Nice that I know the date and all, but can you give me a clue as to what…'
'NO!' Sybil cried out. 'I can not and I may not. It is your destiny, your fate. It would be wrong of me to meddle in it.'
'Hehem,' the girl cleared her throat and started tapping her fingers on the desk. 'So what you are telling me is… Something terrible will happen to me, and I may not survive….' A short pause was put in so that Sybil could show that it was correct. When no reply came, she continued. 'It is on the first day of Full Moon in December… You know what it is, but you will not tell me.'
'No, no, I can not that is something different than will not. It is difficult, my dear Rita, to be All Seeing. To know everything, but realize that you may and can not warn the persons in question, for future is the way it is for a reason. So is yours. Tar tar!' She waved, smiling sweetly.
In all honesty, Rita would have liked to punch her right between the eyes, so hard that her nose would break. Instead, she put up her best fake-smile and left. Gilderoy rushed inside to get his money's worth, nearly trampling Rita on the way.
Sirius, Remus, Peter and James were sitting by the fireplace, in the Common Room. Discussing ideas for their next trip to Hogsmeade. The first weekend was soon, but they could of course test some of their newly-discovered secret passage-ways. Maybe more than one lead to Hogsmeade, and if they indeed ended up there, well, no complaining here!
Than suddenly they were distracted by Gilderoy Lockhart who came in. His face was pale and he seemed slightly… drunk.
They exchanged glances, wasn't he the role-model of the goody-two-shoes? The perfect example of how the most boring student at Hogwarts should be? But indeed, in his right hand he was holding a half-emptied bottle of whiskey. 'My life is over,' he sang softly. 'Yes it IS!'
He spread his arms and swayed slightly.
'What the Hell happened to you?' Sirius said. Remus got out of his seat to try and steal the bottle of whiskey from Gilderoy, who started to run away, in the other direction of his room. When Remus followed, Gilderoy ran once more.
Sirius, getting tired of this game, softly muttered: 'Accio whiskey.'
The bottle flew out of Gilderoy's hands, but considering that Sirius did not have this spell fully under control, it went straight up and crashed into the ceiling. Bits and pieces of glass flew around, and the content of the bottle fell over Remus' and Gilderoy's heads.
'My bad luck is already starting today!' Gilderoy said, his voice cracking. A seventh year looked at the mess, sighed annoyed and called out: 'Scourgify!'
'Why don't you sit down,' Remus said gently.
James cast his friend a look, that told him he was not at all pleased with that bastard sitting with them, but Remus purposefully ignored it. 'Now how about you tell us exactly what is going on and maybe we can help you. We are a lot better at fixing things than that bottle of whiskey.'
Gilderoy's shoulders slumped as he sat down in an armchair. He probably looked like crap too, as if his day wasn't worse enough. 'I went to see that… you know… that crazy girl, that second year… the one that does the tealeaf…'
'Sybil Trelawney,' James helped him out. 'What did you need her for?'
'Well… You know I'm dating Melinda Belinda right?'
The guys nodded.
'Well, she's becoming a bit annoying.'
James and Sirius grinned slightly, having both more than enough experience with girlfriends.
'And lately she's been pestering me about having an affair with Hyacinth…'
'Gross,' Peter couldn't stop himself from saying.
'Exactly. I mean, she's nice and everything, but truth be told, not exactly…'
'A troll is sexier than she is, we get the picture.' James said. Gilderoy smiled at this comment, which didn't look anything like his famous my-extremely-white-teeth-are-so-pretty-smile. For some reason, this kind of worried the four friends. 'And last time I went to see her, I had this amazingly bad hair day. I mean, it was dreadful.'
He didn't get much recognition on this subject. He even swore to hear them try and suppress their laughter, but he liked being the centre of attention to much to break this conversation because he 'did not feel respected'. Who needed bloody respect anyway, as long as people knew who you were. 'And than, I found out, that there was a zit forming on my face. And I am not talking about this tiny itty bitty one that no one will detect, no… it was one the size of a Giant. So I had to go and find Madam Pomfrey of course, I could not possibly going 'round looking like that.'
'No, 'course not,' Sirius said, though amusement clearly rang through his voice. James was having a harder time controlling his laughter and he was turning a deep shade of red. Remus punched him in the ribs as a warning.
'But Melinda was already mad, and now probably even more so. I fear that next time I meet her, she will break up with me…'
'Than why don't you make sure you're the one that dumps her,' Peter said softly.
'Brilliant idea, Peter!' Sirius called out. 'Would that not solve all your problems.'
'No, no, that's preposterous!' Gilderoy replied. 'Than I would be an insensitive jerk. I've only dated her for a couple of weeks! Everyone would think I used her.'
Another snicker from James' side, followed by a second punch from Remus.
'But that is not all!' he waited a moment to have a more dramatic effect. 'As I said, I went to see Sybil, everything was going wrong and I thought, maybe if I have a little inside information on what's going to happen, I may be able to prevent it.'
'Sybil's a fraud,' Potter said.
Gilderoy shrugged, perhaps. That wasn't the point, the news had been terrible anyhow. 'She told me that on the first day of Full Moon in December, an terrible fate will befall me.'
For some reason, Potter did not reply with another one of his speeches about Divination being thedumbest thing he'd ever heard off.
Rita Skeeter had been following the conversation between the four friends for nearly half an hour, before Gilderoy came in. She had a hard time following them, for they were speaking in such hushed whispers that she could only catch two or three words. As far, it had not been really interesting, but she knew that when it came to these boys, something worth hearing could pop up at any second. They were her favourite to stalk, luckily, she had become so good at it, that the usually didn't even notice she was there. At the beginning they'd catch her at it and hex her until she could barely walk.
When Gilderoy came in, terribly drunk and looking like Hell, she knew it had to do with Sybil, so she followed the conversation more closely. Moving a chair nearer to the fireplace.
No one paid any heed to it at all.
As she followed the conversation, she made a few notes of things she could spread through the school. For one, Gilderoy was clearly not having an affair. And the supposed affair being with Hyacinth, she had not a hard time believing what he was saying. Second: Gilderoy was having enough of Melinda Belinda and the only reason he was still with her, was because he was afraid that it would hurt his reputation, no matter which party decided to end it.
And than he came to what she had been dying to hear from the beginning. His prediction.
'She told me that on the first day of Full Moon in December, a terrible fate will befall me.'
Was it just her imagination or did she see Remus pale slightly. And was it her, or had the atmosphere in the group changed drastically.
'Rubbish,' Sirius said, being the first to break the silence. Gilderoy looked strangely pleased with himself, though Rita could not possibly understand why he'd be so happy on a time like this. 'Absolute rubbish.'
'Was that what she told you?' Rita said in a loud voice. 'I'm sorry,' she continued, her voice trying to sound perfectly innocent and sweet. 'I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, Gilderoy.'
'I bet you couldn't,' James piped up.
She said nothing in return. 'I just wanted to say, that that was exactly what she told me as well.'
'Really?' Gilderoy said surprised.
'See, I told you,' Sirius said, 'It's rubbish. Giving two people the exact same….'
'It proves,' Rita cut him off smoothly, 'That there must be some truth in it if she saw it more than once. I for one, am not willing to wait and find out if she's right or not.'
'But didn't she say there was no way to prevent it?' Gilderoy asked bewildered. He wasn't exactly feeling like going around and investigating.
'There's no harm in trying and you are going to help me out.'
Gilderoy rolled his eyes but let himself get pushed out of the arm chair and followed her out of the portrait hole.
The four friends were quiet for some time, not really sure whether to take this seriously, or not.
A/N: Thanks Myste ;). But I've kind of given up on the whole review-thingy. I've never been a main attraction for reviews. As long as I enjoy writing it, I'm cool with how many – or in my case, how little – reviews I get. I have a good feeling about this one and I think I might even finish it. Or at least come past chapter six.
As for now, the third chapter (fourth if you count the prologue) will follow a little sooner... I always say that, but this time I mean it.