On an ordinary day in the staffroom, after classes are over that is, you would usually find the teachers in a relaxed state. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall could be seen playing a game of chess. Professor Sprout would be pruning yet another exotic plant of hers, Professor Flitwick chatting with Professors Vector and Sinistra about the latest article in the Daily Prophet and of course, Professor Snape would be sitting in his own corner, immersed in a book. All that could be heard was the friendly banter between the colleagues.
Today was no ordinary day though. The teachers were having a special meeting about the OWL students who were moving up to NEWT level and many of them were already in a very bad temper. The pounding rain from the storm outside didn't seem to be improving anyone's mood either.
"I'm telling you, Severus, that the Longbottom boy is not stupid, so I suggest you stop bringing up the fact that he may be mentally challenged!" Minerva said loudly.
"I never said he MAY be," Severus answered, with a smirk on his face. "I said he IS."
"Really, Severus!" interjected Pomona Sprout, noticing the look on Minerva's face. "The boy happens to be the best in the year in my subject! I've never seen such a natural in the Greenhouse!" she cried.
Severus sneered.
"That is only one subject out of how many?" he said nastily.
"Longbottom happens to be quite satisfactory at his Charm work too," said Filius Flitwick. "I noticed that he got an Exceeds Expectations in his OWL for it."
"So what about the Poor he got for my subject? Is everyone just going to overlook that?" Severus snapped.
"No one is perfect! Perhaps Longbottom just doesn't have the flair for Potions," Minerva said. – Severus snorted – "Why even Miss Granger did not get all O's, even though her score, on the whole, was brilliant!"
"Yes, indeed!" said Filius.
"Brilliant! Let's bring that know-it-all Granger into this. Nothing would make me happier!" Severus said in clipped tones.
Minerva allowed herself a small smile.
"Severus, you seem to have forgotten your own childhood days at school. Why I seem to remember a boy who tried to answer every question I put to the class!" she exclaimed.
The staff sniggered playfully, whilst Snape blanched slightly.
"Oh, the horror of having a colleague who once used to teach you!" he thought to himself.
"Yes…well moving on," he said quickly.
More giggles could be heard. Severus glared at the whole room, sending an extra glower at Minerva, who smiled innocently and shrugged her shoulders.
"What about those two girls, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown –"
His statement was cut short by a huge clap of lightning that lit up the whole staffroom, followed by a ferocious rumble of thunder, which seemed to make the sheaves of parchment on the desks tremble.
Immediately, the staffroom door opened. The teachers heads snapped towards the door, all of them still feeling jumpy after the bolt of lightning and in walked…one Professor Sybill Trelawney.
Many teachers sighed quite loudly and noticing this Dumbledore quickly said in loud tones, "Ah…Sybill. What a pleasant surprise!"
He seemed to be the only person remotely happy to see her. The rest of the teachers were muttering and Professor McGonagall, who had had a small smile on her face before, was now frowning. Snape as usual, was sneering, but his black mood seemed to have increased tenfold by this unfortunate turn of events.
"Bet you ten galleons she was waiting behind that door until a huge bolt of lightning struck so that she could make an impressive entrance!" Professor Vector whispered to Professor Sinistra. Both of them smirked.
"You're late Sybill!" Minerva snapped. "Not that we were expecting you in the first place." she muttered in an undertone to Pomona.
"Well Minerva," Sybill started in a misty, high-pitched voice that caused the teachers closest to her to flinch. "I was sitting comfortably in my chambers, with my feet resting on a pouffe and –"
"We don't really NEED the details, Sybill!" Pomona interjected.
Dumbledore looked around at the teachers, who were barely containing their looks of exasperation, with a disappointed look on his face. Couldn't they be more patient?
Unfazed, Sybill continued. "Well there I was and suddenly a strange mist descended over my eyes –"
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP.
Everyone looked around. Everyone except Minerva.
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP.
She was drumming her fingers impatiently on the table, which usually meant she was extremely annoyed.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said coldly. "Did I just interrupt your fascinating monologue? A strange mist you say? Whatever next? A prophetic vision?" her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Well now that you mention it, I do vaguely recall myself having an extraordinary vision of myself coming down from my solitary chambers to join you, my dears!" Sybill exclaimed.
Behind her, Filius buried his head in his hands half out of amusement and half out of despair and Severus rolled his eyes. It took all of Minerva's concentration not to imitate Severus whilst Sybill was looking at her.
"Who am I to ignore the tempting of Fate? I immediately abandoned my upstairs room and hastened down her." she said breathlessly.
"Indeed," Minerva said dryly. "Absolutely riveting!"
Dumbledore intervened.
"Well why don't you have a seat, Sybill?" he asked courteously, pointing to a nearby chair in-between Severus and Pomona and opposite from Minerva.
All three Professors shifted slightly in the chairs as Sybill sat down and the smell of cooking sherry infiltrated their nostrils.
There was an awkward pause. Gone was the ease of conversation between the teachers.
"Right, so to continue Severus, you were going to say something about Miss Patil and Miss Brown?" Dumbledore said suddenly.
All the teachers started talking, glad to be rid of the awkwardness,
"I've never seen such a talkative pair in my whole teaching career!" Pomona exclaimed.
"They always seem to be more interested in the latest episode of Witch Weekly than their lessons." Snape said shrewdly.
"Good point, Severus! I remember that for her career consultation, Miss Brown said she would actually like to write for that dratted excuse for a magazine! I have to say that any publication that can award Gilderoy Lockhart with a 'Most Charming Smile Award' five times in a row certainly has a problem!" Minerva said matter-of-factly.
The teachers snorted. All of them were happy were to be rid of Lockhart, who had taken it upon himself to give them 'fashion advice', as he called it.
In fact, after last year's disaster in the form of Umbridge and Lockhart three years ago, it was a wonder that the teachers were still in one piece, physically and mentally.
"Excuse me, my dears…those two children happen to be my best students," Sybill said mistily, staring of into the distance.
All the teachers started at Sybill. Minerva's eyebrows had risen so high, they were almost perched on top of her head. "Best students?"
"Yes. They are very apt at crystal gazing – Minerva and Filius shared a 'look' – and I believe they both got O's in their Divination OWL."
The teachers stared at each other. Then Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Well that must have been quite an achievement!"
Vector snorted, but hurriedly disguised it as a cough, as Dumbledore's electric blue eyes swivelled over to him.
"Yes…I'm very proud of them. I believe I have you to thank as well, Minerva," Sybill said vaguely.
Whatever Minerva had been expecting, it was definitely not that.
"I beg your pardon? You think I had something to do with Misses Patil and Brown getting O's in Divination?"
"Yes my dear. Didn't you hear me correctly before?"
"I heard you, Sybill! I'm not deaf!" Minerva said loudly, not noticing the uncomfortable looks the teachers were giving each other. All of them had witnessed Minerva's famous Scottish temper before and had no wish to do so again. Severus, who had actually had that temper directed at him before, looked the most wary.
"I just wanted to know why you think I helped the two girls get an O in Divination of all subjects!" Minerva asked.
"Well, my dear…isn't it obvious?" Sybill said dazedly, completely immune to the signals the other teachers were trying to convey to her to be quiet.
"If it were obvious, do you think I would be asking YOU?" Minerva snapped angrily.
"Maybe not…well I have to thank you because if the two darlings had paid as much attention to your classes as they did to mine, they probably might not have gotten O's in my class at all."
Minerva hit the roof. The teachers seemed to move their chairs away from the table a few inches.
"Let me get this straight. You're thanking me because they didn't pay attention in my classes?" she said loudly.
"Minerva –" Dumbledore started, but he was interrupted.
"Yes my dear, of course!" Sybill said, once again oblivious to the frenzied gestures of the teachers.
"She's been at the bottle again, hasn't she?" Filius said to Vector, who nodded mutely, all the while keeping her eyes locked on Minerva.
"You think she's going to blow?" she asked Sinistra.
"If Trelawney doesn't close her mouth then she most definitely will lose it," Sinistra answered.
"Of course she's not going to close her mouth. She won't be able to breathe! Besides, I don't think she's even aware of what she's saying. Look at her. She's drunk!" Pomona hissed.
"I think we are about to witness the school famous 'Scottish Minerva Temper'," Severus said, ever the bearer of bad news. (But then again, what could you expect from a former Death Eater?)
The teachers dived for cover. Only Dumbledore remained firmly in his seat, but he too, looked as though he knew a fight was brewing.
"Are you even aware of what you are saying!" Minerva said loudly.
"I'm always aware of my surroundings, dear…not to mention the fact that I can also be aware of the future..."
The teachers exchanged looks. That was one of the worst things to say to Minerva when she was in a temper.
"The future? Please don't start with that!" Minerva said scathingly.
Dumbledore could see that someone was going to say something hurtful in a moment and he couldn't let that happen between his staff members. But, before he could say anything, Sybill butted in yet again.
"Why, Minerva dear? Why I was just staring into the depths of Smokey the other day and –"
"Excuse me? Smokey?"
Pomona and Filius shared a mystified look whilst Vector leant over to Severus and Sinistra and whispered, "Maybe she's actually got herself a man…"
She and Sinistra collapsed into giggles, whereas Severus looked slightly nauseated at the thought.
"Smokey, my dear…Smokey my crystal ball…" Sybill said placidly.
Silence.
Stretched silence.
Awkward silence.
Silence so tangible you could cut it with a wand.
"You named your crystal ball?" Minerva asked incredulously.
Then Vector and Sinistra snorted with suppressed laughter and that set off the rest of the staff. Dumbledore looked around despairingly, but he couldn't say anything in front of Sybill.
Sybill looked mildly surprised. "Of course I did. Doesn't everyone?"
"We don't even have crystal balls to start with, Sybill!" Filius said.
"Oh, my dears!" she exclaimed loudly. "They are an essential part of life! How do you cope without one?"
Pomona nudged Severus who raised his eyebrows at Sybill. Sybill herself looked on the edge of a nervous breakdown to hear that her colleagues actually did not own a crystal ball.
"We'll manage somehow, Sybill!" Minerva snapped. She was getting more and more annoyed by the minute. "Not all of us are recluses –" She broke off, horridly realising what she had just said.
Sybill snapped back to life. "I beg your pardon, Minerva?" she said in icy tones.
"I – er – didn't mean it, Sybill," Minerva said quickly.
Sybill stood up, her eyes bright. "I may spend a lot of time on my own, but there is no need to be rude!"
The teachers stared; open mouthed at Sybill, none of them ever having seen her in this mood before. Dumbledore shook his head very slightly.
Minerva opened her mouth, but Sybill ran to the staff room door, wrenched it open and could be heard stumbling over her numerous shawls in her haste to get back to her room.
There was silence once again. Severus was looking at Minerva like he never had before. He had a look of complete surprise on his face.
"Um…Minerva?" Pomona asked gently.
Minerva didn't answer. She sank back into her chair and closed her eyes, trying not to let the guilt overwhelm her.
"How dare she! No aura whatsoever, the lot of them!" Sybill muttered to herself, whilst stumbling towards her room.
She hadn't wanted to go to that dratted staff meeting in the first place. She had run out of sherry and just wanted to get some more from her 'private stock' when that bolt of lightning had stuck. She had nearly jumped out of her skin and decided to go to the staff room first to calm her nerves and to her bad luck (why hadn't she foreseen it?) a staff meeting was taking place and she found herself being ushered in.
She walked up the ladder to her room and sunk down on one of the armchairs in front of the fire, her eyes swimming with tears. A few moments after staring into the fire, replaced a new emotion in her though. Gone were the tears. All that was left was the anger that coursed through her.
Did they all really think she was a recluse? Was it her habits that bothered them? It wasn't her fault that she was related to such greatness as Cassandra Trelawney. She had an image to uphold.
"They're just aren't gifted with the Sight. They don't know what it's like…" she muttered to herself.
Sybill looked around. There he was, sitting on the table before her, his curved surfaces reflecting softly the glowing firelight. Sybill reached out and grabbed the ball. Images of Minerva's annoyed face and the staff laughing flashed before her eyes. Anger pounding in her head, Sybill took a deep breath.
"What have I done to myself?" she whispered.
Lifting her arm, she threw the ball with all her might, but felt no satisfaction as she saw it smash into a hundred pieces.
Minerva stood under the trapdoor of Sybill's room. The teachers had given advice on how to apologise to Sybill, but now that the time was actually here, Minerva felt all her Gryffindor courage seeping out of her.
"How can I say sorry to someone I have disliked for so long?" she said quietly to herself.
Knowing she was going to regret it, Minerva looked up at the trapdoor once more, before walking away slowly. She couldn't do it.
As she reached the end of the corridor, Minerva distinctly heard the sound of shattering glass and flinched. Somehow she knew that Smokey was no more.
Lying in her bed that night, (after the teachers had finally stopped pestering her) Minerva found that she couldn't sleep. The guilt was too much to bear. How could she say sorry? She searched her mind for a solution late into the night when it finally hit her. Smiling, Minerva closed her eyes and decided to go to sleep at last. She had some shopping to do early tomorrow morning…
Sybill woke up later than usual the next morning. Her head was throbbing. Groaning she got out of her bed and looked around her room. Everything was still and quiet. Suddenly, she heard a noise beneath her trapdoor. Curiosity got the better of her and she drew one of her shawls around her. If it were one of those people who called themselves her colleagues, she would give them a piece of her mind.
Opening her trapdoor, Sybill peered down and saw a parcel sitting on the floor right beneath her. Frowning slightly, she descended the ladder and picked up the parcel. It was quite heavy. She went back up the stairs, not noticing the swish of tartan that swept around a nearby corner.
Sinking onto a chair, Sybill opened the parcel and gasped. Inside, was one of the most beautiful crystal balls she had ever seen. The highly polished surface glinted in the soft candlelight and the inside was full of pearly white smoke and swirled about serenely.
Smiling, Sybill opened the small piece of parchment that was attached to it, even though she knew who it was from. Inside, there were only two words. But they were the words that meant the world to her:
I'm sorry.