Chapter Five: Opinions
"It's a load of crock!" Hermione declared.
"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean it isn't real," Gwen replied easily.
"A waste of time! Why learn it? The future is never absolute."
"True, but you could still be forewarned about things that could happen and isn't that good enough? Here," she pulled an Oracle deck from her pocket, "My grandmother crafted this deck for me herself, only I can give readings of it. Wanna have a go at it?"
The boys were out on the grounds with Julie in tow to keep things safe and reasonable. Lord help her, she'd need it.
"I don't know…"
"C'mon, it's a load of crock anyways," she echoed with a sly smile, "It doesn't really matter what it says right? Just a load of hoopla…"
"Alright…"
"Good," Gwen gave her the cards, "Now shuffle and shuffle good…"
"These aren't tarot cards," Hermione realized as she shuffled.
"No, they're Oracle cards. Supposedly tarot cards get their information from the dark side of the universe, Oracle cards are their 'good' counterparts. I prefer Oracle to tarot but then again this is my first deck, my grandmother made it, and it's totally attuned to me and vice versa."
"Your grandmother's a witch?"
"Yes and no, she's a pureblooded Anodite; Anodites can manipulate the natural energies if the universe, the energies of 'magic'. So yes we're witches but not the kind you're used to…"
"Don't you mean witches and wizards?"
"Nope. Anodites are always female, we breed with other races. If the resulting child is female she's an Anodite, if the kid is male he is of the father's race. My human body, the one I was born into, is just a shell for my Anodite form. This body I wear like a costume and body armour. It keeps me from dissipating into a cloud of sentient energy mist. I'm not strong enough, powerful enough to keep my true form together for more than a few minutes at a time. Besides, I'm used to, I like having skin and hair and all the usual human stuff…you can stop shuffling now, take the top three and lay them out side by side face down."
Hermione did as told.
"Now this's a very broad reading setup, let's see here…" she turned over the left card, "Your past was normal and idyllic, you had no idea what was coming for you. Correct?"
Hermione nodded, sniffing, "Lucky pick."
Gwen smirked, "Right." She turned over the center card, "In your present you're confused as hell in many aspects of your life but you're hiding it and hiding it well. Some of it can be resolved if you take that first step…now, the last one, the future one…" she turned over the last one, "It's going to be a rocky road but you're going to get your happy ending—"
"Gwen," he badge lit up, "Gwen, come in Gwen."
She responded, "What happened Julie?"
"The boys are in the hospital wing. There was an accident on the pitch; the flying cannonballs went homicidal—"
"How bad?" The two girls took off towards the hospital wing.
"Well from minor to major; Ron's face is bruised, Harry got a crack in the skull, Ben's arms and ribcage are broken and he hit the ground pretty hard and Kevin has a broken back and a cracked skull…"
"Madam Pomfrey can heal anything," Hermione soothed the now frantic redhead as they broke into a real run.
"It's not Kev I'm worried about," Gwen admitted, "I can heal him easily. It's Ben. He was probably Jet-ray when he got hit. If he changes back to human before he can be healed he could inflict more damage upon himself…the Watch has a time-limit…once that's up he goes human."
"How much time?"
"Ten minutes."
They increased their speed, now sliding and skidding around corners and pushing past students in their way. When she felt she wasn't moving fast enough Gwen slipped from her shoes, hopping as she did so, and increased her speed, tapping into her alien heritage and leaving Hermione in her dust.
When the brainy brunette arrived, huffing and puffing and holding a stitch in her side, at the hospital wing she found Gwen running glowing hands over a large bat-like creature that lay over two human sized cots.
"What the heck happened?" Hermione demanded of Harry. He was at least sitting upright, though his head was bandaged. Ron too was upright in bed, holding an ice-pack to both sides of his face.
"Dunno, the bludgers went mad," he spoke loudly, "hit Ben, took out Kevin, went for Ron and then attacked me. They were still attacking us even as Julie got us out of there."
"Madam Pomfrey," Hermione caught the healer by the arm as she bustled past with a tray of potions, "is his hearing damaged?"
"Only temporarily Miss Granger." Pomfrey assured hurriedly, "he'll be fine in a few hours at most…"
"Why is everybody whispering?"
There was one loud crack and a flash of green light before Ben lay on his cot, completely healed.
Gwen moved to Kevin, lying unconscious on a separate cot and bound invisibly so he couldn't damage his spinal cord any more, saying, "I'm going to need your help Julie…" Julie scurried over, bruising highly visible on her arms and neck, and they each dug their fingers under him, "One, two, three, lift and roll," they rolled him to his side and Julie held him there as Gwen ran glowing hands up and down his spine and head. There was audible cracking and grinding but within minutes he was healed completely.
"You can set him down now Julie," Gwen fell back onto another cot, looking pale and starting to shake with the exertion of her powers, "Harry, Ron, Julie, I can heal you three but I need to recharge first."
"Not necessary Miss Tennyson," Pomfrey deemed, handing the three vials of a deep emerald colored potion, "drink those."
Harry and Ron did so without hesitation but Julie looked at it for a minute or two before pinching her nose, dumping it on the back of her tongue as to avoid her taste buds, and gulping it down harshly and then coughing as it burned it's way down.
"How can you stand that stuff?" she asked the three Hogwarts alumni.
"We've had to use it far too many times…"
It burned down her throat and fell heavily into her stomach, smoldering and simmering. Her skin stung and itched but she was able to watch the bruises on her arms shrink and disappear.
Madam Pomfrey brought out her wand, rapped Kevin on the forehead, and muttered a few words.
"How did you knock him out?" Gwen asked softly.
"A potion of dreamless sleep…"
"Dreamless sleep? Madam Pomfrey can I ask you a favor…?" the two had a hurried whispered conversation, which ended with Pomfrey nodding in agreement, as Kevin came to.
