"I read somewhere once that a Cerberus would actually make a decent pet but only if you get them as puppies. Otherwise they're super lethal…what?...Yes I read for fun. Surprised?"

- Dean Thomas

Chapter 5: Chili Cheese Fries

After we left my home, we went through a few more fireplaces. Unlike the ones in my house, the others looked more like fancy brick tubes. The landings were all crowded with people that were coming in or going. They even checked over my things. It was like the witch version of an airport.

Kingsley finally put me down when we were in public but held tightly to my hand so I wouldn't get lost. I looked up at him, pictured my father in his place. He was holding my hand at the zoo- no, the town fair. I always liked the town fair better. The zoo doesn't have chili cheese fries. He was holding my hand at the fair and smiling at me and we were having fun.

The memory was so vivid in my mind, I didn't know whether I had truly just made it up or if it had actually happened. I tended to do that a lot. My overactive imagination would confuse me into thinking certain things happened that didn't. Even if they couldn't happen in a million-billion years. "Watch where you're going, Mary." The deep voice snapped through my thoughts like a firecracker. My father's face was no longer present. Instead, concerned eyes stared back at me.

"Yes, sir," I mumbled, suddenly shy for reasons I didn't understand. I had been so eager to leave with them beforehand. Now here I was, and all I wanted was to go home.

I looked around at my strange surroundings. This place was a constant bustling of people with the sound of growing and dying flames flickering in the background at a pace as constant as silence itself. There were tall people with foot long crusting fingernails and short people with sagging wrinkles and beards. There was a man shorter than me with bulging muscles and short creatures with pointy ears and rags draped over their bodies.

There was luggage floating and paper planes flying. One read "MEMO: Watch for immigrating Fa-." That was as far as I'd gotten before it disappeared over the heads of people much taller than me. Lights whizzed and blinked all around for seemingly no reason at all. All I could do was stare and try to keep up with the two adult's long strides. There were a couple of moments where we had to wait in line until we finally reached a large, overbearing man. He had scruffy brown hair and hands the size of really big hammers. Really really big hammers. "Shacklebolt," he grunted with a nod in greeting. He grunted at Tonks much the same way. Then he turned his brown crowfeet eyes down at me. I might have flinched. I'm not sure. A man that big, even bigger than Kinglelesk...y...King. I know it started with King. That's what I'll call him now. What was I saying? "This her?"

I opened my mouth but quickly snapped it shut when I realized that, just because he was looking at me, doesn't mean he was talking to me. "Yeah. Looks just like Ellen, donn't she?" Tonks smirked.

He grunted again, this time with a hint of something dismal in his eyes. "Looks more like Yagar to me. Poor kid." Then he turned around and walked away. We followed him to a desk where there was a much smaller man seated. He didn't look up at us at all. Just kept scribbling away at some paper with his quill.

"What are we registering today?"

"Not a what," The large man corrected. "A who. We want to register a seer."

He looked up at Tonks and raised a brow. "When did you start seeing into the future?"

"Oh not me," Tonks said with a shake of her head. Then I was nudged ahead toward the man with his large glasses. He looked down at me with something like annoyance in his gaze. It was kind of scary.

I didn't know I was backing away until I bumped into the leg of the large man. "The child? How old are you?"

Again my mouth opened and closed. Kind of like the fish I took out of my tank that time. "She's eleven."

"Huh. Supposed to be the coming of age of great seers. I haven't seen one of those in over twenty years." His tone was skeptical at best. "I'm going to need some proof. Can you predict something for me right now."

"R-right now?" It was the first thing I'd said since I got here. "Predict?"

"A vision of the future child." He leaned forward over his desk. "You've had them, haven't you?"

Is that what those things were? When I would see things that weren't happening. "I don't know," I shrugged. It's surprising my voice wasn't lost in all the noise of this place. "I-I don't-"

"Mary." Tonks stooped down to my level, blonde hair hanging in her face. "Mary have you seen anything that wasn't there. Have you ever seen anything happen before it happens?"

My mind briefly flew back to what I saw happen to the older kids at the creek. Was that actually going to happen? Had it happened already? Instead I opted to think of something else. "My letter. I knew my Mama was going to catch me with my letter. I saw her catch me and yell at me. But it hadn't actually happened." I was wringing my hands. Something I rarely did because my mother hates when I fidget.

The old man seemed to be more confused after that but nodded anyway. "That qualifies. Now I'll need a demonstration. Predict something for me."

"What?"

Tonks turned toward me again. "He'll need you to predict something else, Mary. If you can. If you can't it's alright."

"I don't know how. It usually just happens," I shrugged.

"Is there anything that triggers them?" King asked. "Sometimes there's a thought or a feeling."

I thought hard but couldn't come up with anything. There was no hot and cold feeling. No presence of being where I am and somewhere else all at the same time. Nothing. "I can't."

The old man clucked his tongue and pulled out his wand. "Then I suppose the only other option would be to take a peek into your memories myself." He pulled out a wand from his robes and pointed it at me. Then it hit me like a slap in the face. That feeling again.

Everything swirled into a weird void of dark dampness. Chains rattled and screams shook the molding walls. And there was growling. Growling and laughing. A dark cloak loomed above me. It was a man in a shiny metal mask. And when he lifted his wand to my face, he sleeve rolled back to reveal a skull and snake tattoo like the ones I've seen before. He pulled his mask away and it was the old man, looking down at me with large manic eyes. He looked so much more sallow and pale. "It has to be this way child. For my little Ravenclaw. Now stay still."

There was a flurry of light and wind before I was pulled back to the present. I was being asked a question but the sound around me was garbled, like I was underwater. "Hey kid," The large man nudged me. "You spaced."

The old man was leaning over his desk, looking at me intently over the frames of his large glasses. "Your eyes..." he mumbled. "Did you just have a vision?" I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. The man before me no longer made me nervous. He had me terrified. He took my wide-eyed frozen expression as a yes. "Tell me what you saw."

I shook my head no, but my mouth unhinged and blurted out a reply that even I hadn't expected to come from me. "You have a child." It was clever. I was clever. It had to be because I'm English.

But then again, I'd never been particularly clever before...

His face drooped into something somber. So, I guessed right. "Yes. Megan. She's seven. Why? What did you see?"

The other adults were interested as well. I pasted on a nervous smile. "You...call her your little Ravenclaw?"

"I've never called her that," he frowned. "Unless...unless you're trying to say that Megan's going to be sorted into Ravenclaw?!" I had no idea what he was talking about but his face looked so joyous that I simply agreed with it all. He was a bad man. Every person I'd seen associated with that mark was doing something bad and this one wanted to hurt me. The sooner I left him behind, the better. "Oh this is good news. My wife thinks she'll be a Slytherin like her but I knew any child of mine was bound for Ravenclaw." Never mind how sick it was that this incredibly old man had a seven year old child. I just nodded and smiled like I knew what he was talking about. "Did you see anything else?"

I think you were going to kill me. "No. I'm sorry."

He simply nodded. "It's okay. It isn't anything big but you did manage to predict something relevant to a person present. Not many seers can do that. Level 3 at the least. Not too shabby-"

"Uh, sir," Tonks but in. "I don't think that's necessarily appropriate given her lineage."

He peered at me again, this time more curious. "What is your name child?"

"M-M-Mary Ellen Greggory."

"Greggory? I haven't heard of any seers named Greggory-"

"Smith," The large man corrected. "Her last name is Smith. Greggory is the surname of her previous caretakers."

"...Smith?" He seemed to ponder it.

"Yagar Smith and her mother Mary-Ellen McGowen Smith. She's the last blood relation of the McGowen family. Famous for their talent in the paranormal."

Wide eyes looked into my own. I had no idea what they meant exactly but apparently my biological parents were a big deal. "The last McGowen," he whispered in awe. "A line of some of the most talented witches and wizards of all time. Not a single seer from that family has ever been anything less than a level 6." He scribbled a few things down then got up from around his desk. His wrinkled bony hand trembled when it grabbed onto my arm. "Now I want you to stand here," he said before standing me in front of a large blue sheet. There was what looked like an old fashioned camera in front of me. I only saw that kind of thing in movies. "Smile." He ducked under the cloth of it and snapped my photo. I never got the chance to smile. I probably wouldn't have either. "For now we'll register her under a level 3. There will be changes as necessary the older she gets."

After that the big man, who's name I finally learned was Mac, disappeared. King, Tonks, and I were all seated for a while until someone finally came over with a pocket sized file for me. "These are her papers. She'll be officially registered under Ministry file by next Monday. This gives time for the background check and all that. And this," she said, holding up a small trinket, "is your bracelet. With this on, all your visions will be recorded, orbed, and stored in the Department of Mysteries." Department of Mysteries? Like Scooby Doo? The woman kneeled down to my level where I sat, looking me in the eye. "After you've officially been registered, you are required, by law, to keep this on at all times." It was a small slip of a bracelet- glassy blue with a small clear ball hanging from it. She instructed me to hold out my arm while she clasped it on. I held it up for myself to see and watched as the little ball glowed green. "Green is the color of a Level 3 seer. So, remember. Don't take it off."

I nodded, too focused on the glowing green thing to pay attention to what the mousy woman had to say. "Yes, Ma'am." Her eyes widened a bit, possibly not expecting the southern drawl.

We left after that to another one of those fluuing things. King held onto me again and spoke loud and clear. "Floo number one, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." And just like before, we disappeared in a grand blaze of green flames. I hate traveling this way. It makes me dizzy...