Surprise! It's not the second part of Glory Days! I've come to a decision with this little story, I think I'll do maybe one or two chapters in 'present' times before doing flashback chapters, with some just being their own thing every now and again as well. Don't quite get what I mean? Good, cause neither do I.

Chapter 7: Also 7

OR

Final Year Is Always Serious. I'm Serious

My Seventh Year class was a sharp departure from any other class. As there was no such thing as a NEWT level verification for Divination, most were content to call what they had learned it after getting an OWL in it so they could move other subjects they might use more career-wise, or to go back and remedy lesser marks or grades.

Thus, the only real people I had left were the ones who actually had some serious talent or potential they wanted to polish further, or just general misfits who did wonderfully under my lackadaisical claws.

So I'm sure it was a shock for all of my students when, upon them all entering the room, the door shut and I was acting like a person for the first time in their entire scholastic careers.

Gone was the slouch and swivel chair I half-sunk into, in place of a straightened back and still very comfortable leather chair. My eyes, normally wild and snapped completely open were hazy and calm, small blinks ever now and then breaking up the flat scare. My clothes, always at least a little stained or disheveled, were firmly in place and buttoned, all within view of a half opened red robe.

"Welcome, students. This is your final year now, and those of you still among my class will learn what is perhaps the most useful skill any Seer must ever learn." My voice was flat, smooth and carrying through the class straight to their ears.

I smiled, but nothing about it was right. Even calling it a parody would be generous, as while my lips moved upward and my crooked teeth were shone to the world, there was no joy, no happiness.

There never was.

"For this last year, I will be teaching you all how to lie."

There were questions, of course there were, but they at least thought they knew me well enough by now that not every question would be answered. Which itself was a lie.

What wasn't being said would always be an acceptable answer after all.

My class, downsized from the previous 20 to a paltry 8, did their usual standard of choosing who to ask questions first, and sent forward the youngest of them to draw any potential fire or humiliation. It never worked, but it at least made sure the others weren't the first targets for whatever asinine stunt I pulled out over the following lessons.

So it was 16 and 8/12th's years old Oliver Pine, the boy who had his birthday a full day before the Hogwarts letters went out, was the unofficial guinea pig.

There was the usual swearing and threats amongst themselves, but there was also a drastic undercurrent of tension most of them had generally lost after the first year and a half with me. I couldn't really blame them, with how I was acting right now, you'd be more likely to think I was some imposter or shit with how different I was compared to 'myself'.

"Professor, did something happen? I understand the last year is important, but if something is wrong with you, we can deal with a few weeks of self-study, or go to other teachers for help." Aww, genuine sympathy from well meaning child. I 'smiled' again, but stopped when he shivered, back to the thin lip line. Well, intentions be what they be...

"I'm sorry Mr. Pine, but I can assure you everything wrong with me has been this way for quite a while." I explained without any actual context or details, but I didn't give anyone the chance to ask anything else for the moment as my wand rolled into my hand, releasing a nice little bubble of silence in its wake. Say what you will about the Twins Weasley, but if you bribe them with enough money and booze, they can make some damn fine spells.

I saw the panicking of the students and contented myself with a small nod.

"Of the eight of you present, two of you have what could solidly be defined as a Seer's Aptitude. I will not share who these two are, and any attempts amongst yourselves about this will be met with harshly unequal amounts of punishment. For the whole of you, however, the single lesson I teach this will undoubtedly be the most important thing I ever teach any of you." I knew my words were heard because my students stopped trying to murmur counter-charms to their current predicaments, because the bubbles were designed to echo their own words around them until the caster spoke, which then resonated instead.

I called it the Think Tank Spell, even if the actual Not-Latin was trash.

"During your first year, I learned how you reacted to the unexpected. During the second, I learned more about your personalities, and personal limits. Third, I had you practicing your researching skills regarding multiple different topics at the same time. Fourth and Fifth, applying that knowledge in ways that actually could benefit you. Sixth, finding out if you had any skills or preferences while being mature enough to not immediately blab any thing or one you might see while attempting different things. Now, we come here, for your last sessions with me." I paused for a breath, then continued.

"We will in fact be diving into your found preferences, which our smaller class size actually works to the advantage of. Each day I will be helping one of you with your specific interest while the rest will work on their own assignments, due by the next time I rotate to you. The rest of this time however, will again go to the cardinal lesson of this year."

The air chuffed out my nose, and I spoke the words that needed to be understood.

"People have colorful thoughts about Seer's, our eccentricities and often nonsensical behaviors, odd habits and wardrobes, the vague inconsistencies we bear compared to normal people. All, or at least a majority of these, are false." I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders, popping the bubble around Sarah Kinnley idly, where she gave a small gulp as my eyes narrowed down on her for everything she was and probably would be.

"Why would you do that? The sheer level of effort..." She rasped, a tragic accident involving the wrong spell at the wrong time just on the corners of Knockturn having left its mark. Even before that she was a dry wit, so I don't think she minded it too much.

"I'd probably be dead without it. There has never, not in the entirety of history, been a happy Seer who had been successfully identified as such. The closest one who comes to it is the Oracle of Delphi, and she died as a pile of bones in some cave. Thus, over the years, people learned to pretend to just be the regular kind of crazy instead of prophetic crazy, and to shut the fuck up about what they see regardless. The most successful example of THAT, would be Cassandra, who would give hundreds of prophecies about literally everything from what they'd have for dinner to who would attack the Trojans next, all to the point that no-one could tell what was real besides that ONE of them was correct after the fact." I explained with my usual little pictogram style on my blackboard, one side showing a grinning skull in a cave hole, the other showing a cartoony looking Cassandra with multiple word bubbles around her while the people around her covered their ears trying to drown her out.

Some of the tensions of my student drained out at the familiar drawing, drawing for the first time since they had entered the room that I was in fact their real teacher and not a doppelganger or whatever term I used either.

"The fact of the matter is that, no matter what you see, no matter who is involved, the second you tell someone, anyone, you risk changing it all. That critical moment, that 'sure-thing', suddenly comes into question as the formless thought it soon shall be. Anyone can recall the past or grow to understand the present, but the future had been and always will be a what-if until its happened." At the last words, I deflated, not slouching but resting against my desk, chest to wood.

"That's not to say that destroying a possible future isn't always the right option either though. A catastrophe forewarned can easily be prevented, but we have no idea the consequences of stopping that one disaster. No-one exists in a vacuum after all, and this, is the lesson you will be learning. When you need to share your findings, how to make them count, and how to determine whether the people around you need a silly person staring at the butterflies in the corners of their eyes or their time of death done by the country."

There was always so much work to be done, a shame there was never enough time.

END OF CHAPTER

And there we go! Boy, this story is different every time, and I'm doing that on purpose too! Next it's back to fun, and then we get another Day of Glory. I'm having a lot of fun with this stuff, and if the likes are any indication, it seems you all are too. I love it and you all so damn much. Leave a little comment or just start a convo, attention and discussions always help inspire me to keep writing more than anything else.