A muggle author once described St Petersburg as the most abstract and intentional city on the entire globe.
While it was indeed true that the capital of the Russian Empire presented a certain duality, her gleaming aristocratic facades concealing all of human's miseries, it was more the large magical side of the city that had made it this city so peculiar. Indeed, while the Russian Ministry of magic had somehow found an excuse to justify the lack of night in summer, incidents when a muggle would witness a magical events were aplenty and a few muggles ultimately managed to escape the obliviating squad to write about what they saw, believing they got some supernatural vision. For this reason, the city gained a very strange reputation and muggle would now just shrug off whenever something strange was happening.
For this reason, when Caecilius finally left the Russian Ministry of magic nobody reacted at the sight of a man with glasses whose lenses were red and blue retrieving from his breast pocket a little pendulum and making it swing.
As always, he needed to go west.
Following the pendulum's instructions, he finally reached Dyrǎvyĭ kotel, the wizarding pub used as a gateway between the muggle and wizarding world. Still looking at his pendulum from time to time, he finally entered the decrepit pub. Inside, a group of wizards were playing cards and a man with a long black beard cleaning a glass behind the counter was pestering orders to a rather good-looking waitress.
Seeing the pendulum was now turning in circles, Caecilius nodded to himself and put the magical artefact in his breast-pocket. "Excuse me," he told the pub owner in Russian, "I feel like I should warn you that it is highly possible Durmstrang Divination Professor will come to your pub in a few minutes." Adjusting his particular glasses, he added, "Perhaps you should take your precautions in case this happens."
There was a flash. In the potential future he was seeing through his blue lense, the man was saying what seemed to be colourful language at him, in the potential future he was seeing through his pink lense, the man was dropping the glass he had been cleaning and running away.
The man dropped his glass. Leaving the counter, he took the waitress by the arm and forcefully brought her upstairs.
While his reaction was a little extreme, there was a reason why every wizard in St Petersburg knew they had to hide their woman whenever Durmstrang Divination Professor was near.
As soon as the pub owner and the waitress vanished from his view, Caecilius heard the door behind him opening. Turning in the direction of the noise, he saw a slav in his late twenties with a rather long black beard entering the pub.
There was a flash when the man's cold blue eyes finally spotted him. In one future, the man didn't react at all when he saw him, in another future he was mumbling under his breath. And even though it was ultimately the first potential future that came to pass, Caecilius was good enough at lip reading to know what he could have said was 'Chto ya sdelal, chtoby zasluzhit' eto?'
What have I done to deserve this?
Caecilius widely grinned. "I'm sure a few muggles could answer that question for you. If rumours are to be trusted, you have stolen a few horses, are guilty of blasphemy and bore false witness against your neighbours. Quite an achievement really."
The other man gave him an annoyed look. "Mesmer," he cutly said in english, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"The Higher Being brought me here." Seeing the man bristling he laughed. "More seriously, I have heard than you've been on pilgrimage and I wanted a few tips in case I ever wanted to follow your path. Also, we missed you tonight and I wanted to know how you were."
The Russian's right eyebrow twitched. "I have no time to waste for the likes of you. And before you ask, no, I have no intention of going back to that madhouse."
Caecilius pretended to be hurt. "Is that how you treat your friends? Because if that's the case then you shouldn't be surprised if-"
"We're not friends," he interrupted. "Never were, never will."
"You wound me."
"You'll recover I'm sure."
He shrugged with a smile. "Perhaps. But you surely understand why we are slightly surprised by this strange turn of events. Granted, you have never been fond of the guild but we hadn't realized you wanted to outright leave it." He sighed. "Oh well, I wish it hadn't been like this but I suppose I will have to choice but to tell the others what we Saw was unfortunately true. We're going to miss you, Rasputin."
Actually, that one was an outright lie. Caecilius had never been very fond of how Rasputin was handling several matters and was half-tempted to tell him just that.
Apparently, there was a future where he would have for the man scowled. "I didn't think you would gloat. Is that really why you came here?"
"No," he truthfully replied.
"Then why did you?"
Behind his spectacles, Caecilius' right eye twitched.
While he did have the effect of surprise and had prepared accordingly for this confrontation, Grigori Rasputin was also a master manipulator, one with a third eye slightly more open than his. What little Caecilius was going to slip by accident about the future would be immediately spotted by these cold blue eyes.
In other words, if he didn't want to give everything away, Caecilius not only had to use occlumency but also had to make sure there would be no future where he accidently spilled the beans. The only way to hide something from a seer was not numerous plans or much planning, but outright spontaneity.
And this peculiar thing was something every seer was struggling with.
"I suppose I was worried," he finally admitted. "And while I do trust my third eye, I also like to use the other two from time to time. I only thought it was better to get the truth from you directly."
The man's left eyebrow twitched as he was most certainly reviewing every potential answers Caecilius could have given.
He must have found something he was be satisfied with for he nodded and said, "Very well. As you can see, there was no reason at all for you to worry."
'Now go away,' the Rasputin he was seeing through his blue lense finished.
He nodded. "I am so sorry to have taken your time, Rasputin. I know you have barely come back from your pilgrimage and I have no doubt it had been rough on you-"
There was not one future where Rasputin wasn't wincing. And sure enough, he did just that.
"So would you allow me buy you a drink to apologize?"
"No alcohol."
These two words had been spoken so quickly and so firmly Caecilius couldn't help blinking several times. "Really? You love vodka. Not even a year ago you-"
"That was then. This is now."
"Well then," he tried to recover. "How about dinner? You must be starving."
He only realized his mistake too late. Seeing the man's wide grin, Caecilius felt like he was a turkey who had just voted for Christmas.
"Why not? You're right, I'm starving."
The difference between offering somebody a drink and offering a meal was that it was far more difficult to escape a conversation when you have proposed the later. So it was only natural for Rasputin to take the occasion offered to him to ask him a few questions.
"So I heard that you are finally going to teach Divination above what your country calls Ordinary Wizarding Levels," Rasputin idly remarked as the main course came.
Caecilius had been tempted by the pub's beef stroganoff, Rasputin on the other hand had asked for a vegetarian meal.
Another thing that had changed about the man who used to be fond of meat. Could going on a pilgrimage really change a person that much? And why a pilgrimage to begin with?
He smelled the meal and hummed. "Have you now? You must have far better ears than I do then."
So he wasn't the only one doing the spying. That was good to know, he was starting to feel guilty.
"I have to admit I'm rather proud of myself. True, I like to think I am an excellent teacher but so few get the marks I ask to open a divination class. I must have done something good." That being said, he took his fork and began eating.
"I'm sure you have," Rasputin dryly stated. "One of them is your headmaster's son, am I correct?"
Caecilius swallowed his food and automatically smiled. "You are. His name is Phineas Black and I must say he is just as brilliant as his namesake. I know Professor Black is putting a lot of expectations on his shoulders but I must admit they are strong. I just wish both father and son could start seeing young Phineas for who he is instead of who they believe he should be."
But looking at the man in front of him, it was clear his colleague didn't care about the boy. So why asking him such question? What was he really after?
When Rasputin started humming, Caecilius couldn't help tensing. "I suppose you're right. And the other one is one of us, am I also correct?"
Mesmer immediately burst to laugh. "Listening to students' gossip now, are you?"
The man smirked. And despite all his efforts, Caecilius just couldn't see anything in the near future that could help him understand what was truly going on.
"I suppose I should congratulate you, Mesmer. There are so few of us it is always heartwarming when one is spotted before something happens. What is his name if I may?"
As he had no illusion the man already knew he had no problem answering, "Harry Potter."
Rasputin slowly nodded. "Any relation with that pureblood family?"
"I'm not really sure. I can make a few educated guesses but I'm afraid I cannot give you a definitive answer. He may be, he may not. All that I really know is that is related to Patrick Evans."
The other seer frowned an instant. Finally he rolled his eyes. "You mean the Squib."
"Magician," he tightly corrected.
A snort. "You do realize the only one who actually cares about him is you, don't you? The others may indulge your fancy but a non-seer has no place at our side. A non-wizard even less."
He couldn't help scowling. "You'd be surprised."
Rasputin gave him a condescending smirk. "Perhaps you have convinced a few, but you haven't convinced everybody and certainly not me ."
"It's a good thing you're gone then, isn't it? And also," he couldn't help adding, "I do believe we can learn a lot from our clients and anybody who does not happen to have the Sight. Unlike you, I refuse to let my prejudices corrupt what I see."
It was an old argument the two of them have had many times. And sure enough the man rolled his eyes and didn't bother defending himself, knowing perfectly well that this discussion would go nowhere.
Caecilius was eating his stroganoff and considering his next move when Rasputin spoke again, "What sort of person is this 'Harry Potter'?" Seeing Caecillius raising his head he shrugged. "You're giving high praises to this Phineas. It is only natural to wonder what the teacher thinks about his other student. Especially when this person happens to be a seer."
He took his napkin and pretended to wipe his mouth to hide it from the other seer. Ignoring the other seer's glare, he thought about what to say a moment. What he was allowed to say, what he wasn't allowed to even imply. What could satisfy the other man's curiosity. Finally he posed his napkin.
"I suppose I should begin by stating he's nice but a little dumb. And when I say dumb, I mean it as rather naive. Imagine, he was looking for a book on occlumency in our library and he is still not wondering why a master occlumens like myself happened to borrow every single book on it minutes before he could do the same."
The other seer unceremoniously snorted. "That gives one more than enough time to use legilimency on the boy and extract all his secrets without him knowing any better. If he doesn't even realize the one person who has left him vulnerable for several days or weeks may have done that for this very reason, he is very dumb."
"I admit that I did not do that, though I confess I was tempted once or twice."
He would have if he hadn't already known all he wanted. Granted the wizard hadn't known how his Sight worked and couldn't have known he could see several possible futures but why on earth had he been so tempted to just spill the beans and say 'I'm actually a time-traveler' the very day they met?
"Then why did you?"
"Why, to give him an incentive to seek me, of course."
"Oh right." His lips twitched. "That generally works. I do hope you intend to cure this wide-eyed child of that particular flaw."
Caecilius didn't answer.
"Anything else you are going to teach him?"
Behind his glasses, Caecilius frowned.
So this was what Rasputin truly wanted to know. Forget the one or two politicians he's had to throw under the Abraxans during the starter, it was Harry Potter Durmstrang Divination Professor was truly interested in.
But why? The two were in different countries, so why was he so fixated on him? Could he know he was a time-traveller? It seemed unlikely so could he know something Caecilius didn't? If one were to ignore the fact that Harry Potter was from the future, the wizard was not that different from the other students so what was this hiding?
"For now I'm focusing on Divination."
"Naturally, but what then? Knowing the future is all good, but it is meaningless if you do not do something with it. That second part is as important as the first, perhaps even more. I've heard he did brilliantly for these Ordinary Wizarding Levels of yours. Surely such talents must be nurtured, no?"
"What are you proposing then?"
Rasputin started caressing his beard. "I've heard he was excellent at Defence Against the Dark Arts and even managed to conjured a fully corporeal patronus. It'd be such a waste to not nurture this part. And if he's good at Defence then the Dark Arts will come as easily as breathing."
Cecilius almost choked on his food. After swallowing, he gave the other man the brightest and most fake smile he got . "We don't teach the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."
"Ah yes," he absent-mindedly murmured. "I forgot you don't. I've never understood this part, to be honest."
As the man seemed to be lost in his reflections, Caecilius desperately tried to find a way to make him stop this interrogation.
Focus, Mesmer , a voice that sounded awfully like Professor Black's said. Don't let him make you lose sight of your goal. You came here before you wanted to know why he has been behaving so strangely and what he was planning. If you want to get your answers, then you've got to get to the heart of it. Understand why he's so focused on the boy.
Because if getting to know Harry Potter truly was his newest fancy, then the man would have had a golden opportunity earlier had he decided to come at the Divination guild Headquarters. Granted, Caecilius would have warned Evans not to bring the boy had he thought this could happen but at least Rasputin would have made an attempt. In this respect, his earlier decision was completely counterproductive.
So what was Rasputin truly seeking?
"Why did you really leave the guild?"
Rasputin seemed to snap out of his reflections and looked at him, face impassible.
"Granted, you were never very enthusiastic about it, but we all believed you were getting something out of it and were not willing to risk that. So why such a change of heart? Did we do something that displeased you in particular?"
For a moment, Caecilius thought the man wasn't going to answer. There were several futures where he was brushing off his concerns, in fact. There was then the different answers he could potentially give him. And they were so numerous he knew more than half of them were a lie without even looking into it.
He sighed. He hated where people were being dishonest. In that ocean of lies, finding something remotely genuine was even more difficult than searching for a needle in a haystack without a wand and Caecilius had to do this all the time.
What was the truth? What was a lie? Which option was he supposed to pick? If people were so distrustful, then what was genuine?
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…
"It's not what you did, it's what you did not do."
Caecilius dazedly blinked and went back to focusing on the present Rasputin. "What we didn't do?" he numbly repeated.
He nodded. "When I first came to the Guild, I believed we were going to do something with our gifts, that we would use them to guide our world to a better place."
"We're not doing nothing."
"But you're not doing enough ."
There was something in the seer's voice that sounded genuine. A fervor he had rarely showed the other seers in all the years they've known him. And perhaps him leaving them wasn't as sudden as they had all first believed.
"Trelawney may have a lot of influence over our politicians and I am aware that you try to steer a few from making rash decisions but ultimately we are doing nothing but playing the court jester as the world around us is burning."
"The world is not burning."
" Yet ."
Mesmer grimaced and looked away.
While the British and Russian Empire were at their zenith, both he and his colleague had no choice but to contemplate their twilight. Like one's eyes couldn't help focusing on the one black spot at the middle of a white parchment and gloss over everything else, seers had no choice but to stare at the darkness coming their way. And it was utterly foolish to believe that this darkness was not going to swallow them whole.
"I find the way you're all handling the entire situation to be distasteful," he heard his colleague saying, "and I think playing cards is a waste of time, especially when there are far more important things to worry about."
Looking at the windows and avoiding the other man's reproachful face, Caecilius looked at the group of wizards playing poker.
"What do you expect us to do?" he murmured. "Not only don't we have the faintest idea what brought these horrors and how to avoid them, nobody is going to listen to us."
Nobody wanted to know the future. It was a truth Caecilius had learned very early. They might not realize it themselves, but even the people who went to see a seer -especially the people who came to see the seer- didn't truly want to learn from a wacky man what their tomorrow was going to be like. And out of the three sort of people seeking them, none of them wanted to hear bad news and could be easily upset if they were to deviate from what was expected of them.
And by upset, Caecilius meant accidentally forgetting one shouldn't curse the messenger.
"We'll make them."
Why had he thought seeing Rasputin was a good idea again?
"Let's suppose they do listen to us," Caecilius tried to reason the other man, hiding how uncomfortable the conversation was making him behind cold logic. "How do you intend to stop something that is in some cases going to happen in twenty years? In fifty years? We only have glimpses, never the full picture. Even with our combined efforts, we are still in the dark. We just cannot see a way out."
"Do you know why you don't? Because you keep hesitating. What does this means, what if I'm misunderstanding what I'm seeing… You may think you're being careful, but these hesitations only trouble your mind and make it harder for you to see clearly," Durmstrang Divination Professor countered. "And we cannot let the little things make us lose sight of the big picture. I can only hope that your student will not make the same mistake you keep doing."
Caecilius grimaced.
That made him pause. "Did he do something you disapprove?"
Caecilius considered denying it. At the same time he didn't believe it was harmful to share this point.
He humourlessly chuckled. If he was hesitating so much, then Rasputin was going to know anyway. Considering his colleague was being honest for perhaps the first time he's known him, he supposed he should grant him the same courtesy.
"It's not that I disapprove really. I just… don't understand." Seeing the other man tilting his head, he sighed. "I'll spare you the details, I doubt you'd care what brought this on. Let's just say his methods and mine do not align on this specific subject. I wouldn't have done anything, he has. And in this instance, he was in the right and I've been told I would have been in the wrong."
The worst thing about it was that even with the explanation given Caecilius still couldn't understand. Who would be mad enough to trust a mere muggle and break the statute of secrecy? How on earth hadn't this entire mess blown up on his face? The odds everything was going to be fine were so low Caecilius was certain he would have never seen them even if he's had all the time in the world to stare at every single potential future.
The boy's told him after the subject was settled that he had tried to see what he was supposed to do and had drawn the cards. What he got was the Devil, the King of Swords, the Hermit, the Tower and the Magician. And if he ultimately hadn't used this reading to make his decision, he was curious to know what it was supposed to say.
The Devil had been freedom, release, the King of swords as it represented authority had been symbolizing that muggle Auror and the Hermit the journey of self-discovery he was going to take as the truth about the wizarding world was revealed. As for the Tower and the Magician, it was the utter end of Evans' problems, the man harassing him for a good decade or two being arrested and the magician being released of his former bonds.
Hindsight was always 20/20. And if Caeciliuss had more or less guessed which cards got picked after hearing their story, he knew perfectly would have never understood the cards this way had they been presented to him.
But then again he had always been wrong whenever Patrick Evans was involved so perhaps that was to be expected.
The magician had admitted years later that he surprisingly hadn't been the worst person his father had forced him to meet. It was just that his honesty had somehow made him realize how done he truly was of being told again and again how he should live his life and how gratting it had been to realize his father and he had come to trust cards over what Patrick could do. Young Patrick Evans had just needed to scream all his resentment to the world.
'You were… You were like a mirror, Mesmer. A little smarter than the one we had at home, but it was like you were reflecting everything I was showing you tenfold. And honestly? I didn't like what I was seeing. And I was so disgusted I felt like I needed to prove to you and to the world that you were wrong on everything.'
His lips twitched.
His colleague was now looking at him with interest. "Oh really. And which conclusion have you reached now?"
"One I've suspected for a long time. That maybe that naming seer my parents met had been unto something when he decided I should be known as 'Caecilius'."
The blind one. When it was discovered he had the Sight, little Caecilius had been quick to dismiss the meaning behind his first name, believing his parents had merely met a fraud or a person with a sick sense of humour.
But there was so many things he missed, so much he couldn't see. He might be able to see far in the future, people like Evans and Potter could somehow look into people's hearts and just know who they truly were.
"Have you ever wondered why we were given our gifts?" he asked the Durmstrang Divination Professor.
He chuckled. "I don't think there's a single seer who hasn't. Isn't that why we are all referring to God, Anake, the Higher Being and other divinities so often? We may not agree on the name, there has to be some divinity. If we know Trelawney is not the one talking when she makes a prophecy, then who is?"
"But why Trelawney? Why us? Why ? If there is really a Higher Being, what did they see in us to decide we should be granted the Sight?
A shrug. "I suppose they Saw we would be worthy of it and were going to use it as intended."
"And that's where we disagree, where we've always disagreed. If being granted the dubious gift of seeing the future was a matter of merit, shouldn't the same logic apply to magic? Wizard are simply superior beings compared to muggles while said muggles are nothing but vile creatures. Muggleborns have only proved they deserved a chance to prove themselves while squibs are revealed to be unworthy. I know for a fact this logic is faulty, meaning ours has to be erroneous as well."
Rasputin let out a long-suffering sigh. "Not again."
He sadly smiled. "I'm aware we're turning in circles. But this is what I believe and recent events have only reinforced my convictions."
If the Sight wasn't given on merit then there were few options left. And none of them painted them in a very good light.
"So you're against me."
He frowned at these words. "I want the same thing you want, dear colleague. The same thing we all want: for the best future we can have to come to pass."
He just didn't think it was their call to decide which one it was. Or how to grab it.
The waitress had somehow found a way to escape her boss and possibly husband and was now serving dessert.
As she was posing his Napoleon cake in front of him while giving a sultry smile to the Russian, Caecilius couldn't help thinking that something in all this didn't make sense.
Where did Harry Potter fit in all this? Because while it was possible that Rasputin's views on the future and his strange interest in Harry Potter were completely unrelated, Caecilius wasn't one to believe in such coincidences. Did he know the boy was from the future and wanted to use him? Did he have a vision involving him? Did he hear the same things he had? While he didn't believe the man would actually wish the boy harm, Caecillius knew he wouldn't stop feeling dread until he knew what this was all hiding.
But how could he figure it out? he wondered as Rasputin was smiling and murmuring sweet words in Russian to the waitress. Their discussion was in all respect over and he knew the man well enough to know he wasn't going to tell him anything. Not willingly at least. More than that, he had nothing that could truly grab his attention and make him slip.
As the blushing waitress started flirting back, Caecilius looked around and paused at the sight of the wizards still playing poker.
His lips twitched.
Well, it was poker night. And he was still in a betting mood.
Taking advantage of the fact nobody was looking at him, Caecilius reached for his wand and waved it in his pocket.
There was a scream. Suddenly a man on the betting table got up and punched the one facing him.
The waitress ran to grab the furious man as the other one took his wand and started fighting back with a well-placed curse.
"Looks like somebody finally realized the other was cheating," Caecilius remarked.
As the pub owner finally came back to push the players out of the pub, Rasputin gave a long-suffering sigh and went back to eating his dessert, "Amateur."
"Speaking of amateurs, did I tell you we stole all of Mr. Potter's pocket money tonight?" He chuckled. "Kid actually thought we were playing fair."
The man froze. "The boy was at the guild tonight?" he numbly asked.
"I told you he was related to Evans, didn't I? The boy apparently insisted on coming." Taking his spoon he started eating his Napoleon cake. "As you were unfortunately not here, Soleil insisted on him taking your seat, and trying his luck."
Seeing the man's face and the variation of either annoyance or shock he could have shown him, it was clear the man hadn't been expecting this and was even regretting not taking this occasion to meet him.
Tough luck, Caecilius had specifically insured the other man wouldn't come for All Hallow's Eve so he couldn't ruin the party and/or take interest in the boy. Furthermore, had he even suspected he was going to come tonight he would have specifically told Evans not to bring him. Nonetheless, he should have at the least made an attempt.
Conclusion: Rasputin had never considered the idea that Harry Potter was going come to the guild and had he known that fact he would have stayed a little longer and attempted to meet him.
Beginner mistake, Rasputin. Beginner mistake.
It was even suspicious. The man was clever, very clever so why had he missed that possibility?
Granted the man couldn't have known the boy was related to Evans. Nevertheless, he had known he was keeping an eye on Harry Potter and as such it was just possible he would mention the boy if not outright introduce him to the rest of the guild in the near future.
So why? Why had he made such basic mistake?
He took another spoonful of his dessert and hummed in appreciation.
And promptly stopped when he noticed Rasputin had finally realized what he was doing and was now glaring,
He innocently blinked. "Is everything alright?"
His lips twitched. "I wonder… Does your protégé realize what you're doing?"
He frowned at these words. "What I'm doing?"
"Yes." Leaning on his chair and crossing his arms he smirked. "You've taken a rather peculiar interest in your Ministry's Department of Mysteries. And although you're spending most of your time in the Astronomy section as per your employer's orders, you've also been seen slipping in the one housing recorded prophecies quite a few times. Considering the protections put on these, one may wonder why somebody like you who should know better is even wasting his time looking at these orbs."
"Well, they do make a pretty sight. Very relaxing."
"Stop playing dumb. We both know you're anything but that. One can only wonder… Could the sudden appearance of this 'Harry Potter', a boy who doesn't exist in any known record, and that renewed interest for prophecies be somehow linked? I do not believe in coincidences so what are you really hiding, Mesmer? Why would you take under your wing somebody so suspicious if your intentions were as harmless as you pretend? You have plans for that boy, admit it. Big plans. So what are these?"
Behind his glasses, Caecilius dazedly blinked.
He… He hadn't once suspected this problem ran so deep. Yes, they had always spied on each other but his colleague shouldn't know such sensible information. There was something Rasputin was seeking. And he finally had enough of their mind games and was even willing to drop the mask to get his answer.
There were so many answers he could give and Caecilius inwardly winced at how much the other seer was most certainly Seeing him saying. There is nothing to hide, I'm just trying my best, I told you we both want the same thing… If Caecilius had been playing poker, then Rasputin had just flipped the table on him and he was that stupid boy once more, desperately searching for the last card he hadn't revealed and showing him everything else.
You were like a mirror, Mesmer. A little smarter than the one we had at home, but it was like you were reflecting everything I was showing you tenfold.
Caecilius froze.
A mirror.
For a moment, he couldn't think. He needed to time to digest the information he's just deduced. Finally he looked at Durmstrang Divination Professor and finally saw him for what he was for the first time.
"You're saying that," he whispered, "because that's what you're doing."
And even though the man wasn't reacting in every single potential future ahead, Caecilius knew he's hit bullseye.
He left out a nervous chuckle.
That was it, wasn't it? While Caecilius had been busy dealing with a time-traveler, Rasputin has found another seer. And he had big plan for that seer, plans he didn't want the others to know about. Hence why he hadn't told anybody about that person and had began to draw back.
But he had started to become a little paranoiac. And when he had been spying on him, he had learned about Harry Potter's existence. From that point, he had started to believe that he was doing the same thing and had started obsessing about what this could potentially mean for him and his plans. Why hadn't he thought Potter could be at the guild? Because he was most certainly not going to show them this boy or girl until the proper moment and hadn't considered that if Caecilius indeed had his own plans he would take a vastly different approach.
"I suppose I should congratulate you, Rasputin," he repeated the words Durmstrang Divination Professor had said an hour ago. "There are so few of us it is always heartwarming when a seer is spotted before something happens. What is his name if I may? Or hers. We both know the odds that seer is a boy are not very high."
If looks could speak, Rasputin's would have said 'Avada Kedavra'.
It was at that precise moment that the waitress came back and, with heart in her eyes, asked the Russian whether or not he'd like a coffee. On the house.
Rasputin's eyes were on him when he answered, "Nyet."
That was alright, Caecilius thought when he received the bill. He could figure it out himself.
Also note to self: Avoid Russia for the next decade.
Mr. Evans was the first to break the silence. "It's very… modern."
"It's very green," Harry bluntly said.
In the middle of his panic in June, Harry hadn't noticed it, but the Hogwarts Express was green.
And not any green. It was a shade of green so bright that even when closing his eyes Harry could still see it.
Mr. Evans looked at the train. "Well, now that you mention it… It is green. Just a bit…" Quickly shaking his head, he asked, "You got everything?"
"Yes."
"Trunk? Food? Wand?"
"Yes. Yes. Yes."
"I'm asking because while I can send a dove they're not very good with carrying heavy packages and I'd rather not use a post owl."
His lips twitched. "I've got everything."
He knew he should have expected this but Harry hadn't helped feeling surprised when this morning Mr. Evans had helped him with his trunk and later taken his hat, gone to Kings' Cross and walked between Platform 9 and Platform 10. And if Mrs. Evans disliked being anywhere near the wizarding world, she still had given him food for his trip and shouted whenever she had spotted one of them looking for another of his books that Harry should have prepared his trunk the day before and that he was going to be late.
And to be honest, they were far from early.
Mr. Evans checked his watch. "You still have five minutes before the door closes on you and the Hogwarts Express leaves the station." Closing his watch, he put it in his pocket as they quickly walked to a car. "So, I suppose that is goodbye."
Harry's heart skipped a beat. Because, yes, while he knew he had to go back to Hogwarts another part of him… actually wanted to stay with them.
To think that two months ago, he wanted nothing more than to go back to Hogwarts.
"Can I..." He winced when he realized how childish he sounded.
Somehow the magician knew exactly when he intended to say. "We're actually expecting an owl from you. Not all the time of course, I know a young man your age has better things to do than writing hundreds of letters but it'd be nice to know whether or not a troll has killed you during class or if you've vanished and decided to try living in the Founders' era."
Harry tried to imagine himself in the tenth century and snorted. "I'd rather not. If I could find a way to go back to the twentieth century now…"
He was getting in the train car when he realized that it was one year ago that he's been sent in the past.
One year exactly. And he still had no clue how he was supposed to go back.
"Wait, you mean you're actually looking for a way to go back?" Mr. Evans' voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I would have told you how you could go back ages ago!"
"… What?"
The train whistled. Without further ceremony, Mr. Evans took Harry's trunk and gave it to him. "Work hard and try not to get into troubles. Still, try to have fun and have a good year."
"Wai-"
The door closed. And if Harry shouted, Mr. Evans didn't seem to hear him for he only grinned and began waving.
When the train started to move, Harry dropped his trunk and started running. Entering a compartment, he ignored the people within and opened the window.
And looking at the small figure in the distance, he screamed.
"I HATE YOU!"
