I don't own the copyright to Harry Potter, but frankly, neither does Amazon. Go away, Amazon. Stop sniffing around my excellent fanfiction. JK Rowling made these things, and that's generally considered a good thing.
CHANGE YOUR DESTINY
"Lavender. Lavender!"
Parvati seemed excited.
"What is it?"
"Look at this! I got it from Padma! It tells the future."
Lavender looked at the object in her friend's hands, and giggled.
"Parvati! That's a trick we play on Muggles."
It was a folded piece of paper which could open in two directions.
"No, but listen," said Parvati. "Jessica Ponty bewitched it, and she's one of the cleverest students in Ravenclaw. It'll tell us the real future, Lavender!"
"Hang on, hang on, hang on." Lavender struggled to keep calm. "We have to test it."
She took the item from Parvati.
"Ask a question."
"Okay," said Parvati. She addressed the origami object. "Will Lavender and I be best friends forever?"
The object sprang into life. It opened and closed, opened and closed, pulling Lavender's hands along with it. After a few moments, it slowed to a stop - and a single flap unfolded.
Something was written on the flap.
"'Yes'," read Lavender.
"Seems legit," said Parvati.
Lavender handed the object back.
"One more test," she said. Speaking to the object, she asked: "Will Dumbledore still be headmaster when we finish at Hogwarts?"
The object pulled at Parvati's hands, opening and closing again, until a flap proclaimed: "No."
"Makes sense," said Parvati. "He's dead old. He'll probably die soon."
"Parvati!"
They giggled nervously.
"Okay," said Parvati. "Let's ask a proper question now."
Lavender tried to think of a good question.
Oh! And started giggling so hard she could hardly breathe.
"Go on, then!" said Parvati, grinning.
Lavender blushed furiously, and whispered:
"Who will I marry? In the future?"
They giggled as the object activated once more. It opened, closed, opened, closed, slowed, and … and the giggling stopped abruptly.
They stared on horror at the name written on the unfolded flap.
"Neville Longbottom".
"Unacceptable," whispered Lavender.
Professor Binns was droning on and on and on and on about the history of magic. It was fucking tedious.
Nearly as tedious was the book on Divination Parvati had found in the library. There was plenty on telling the future, but no word on changing the future.
"Maybe you can't change it," she whispered.
"Keep searching," said Lavender darkly.
"Maybe we should ask a teacher," said Parvati.
Lavender sighed. Yes, alright.
She put up a hand.
But nothing happened.
She coughed.
And nothing happened.
"Professor Binns, sir?"
Nothing.
"SIR!"
"Hmmm …?" The ghosty professor looked up. Ron Weasley woke up in shock. Hermione Granger shot Lavender an annoyed look.
"I was wondering about Divination …?"
"My dear, I deal with the past, not the future. If you wish to learn the unnecessary art of learning about things without waiting for them to happen, you'll be given the option in our third year. As I was saying, in 1748, Jasmine the Nutter was responsible for a befuddlement charm on the leaders of -"
"Sir!"
Binns appeared cross.
"Yes."
"In history, right …" Lavender thought carefully about her words. "Was there ever a wizard who tried to change the future? To change a prophecy?"
Binns became 0.04% more animated, shocking the room.
"Well. Uric the Oddball put considerable effort into preventing rain on the day of his annual picnic."
"Did it work?"
"The record states that the picnic was cancelled after Uric threw his food hamper into the river as a sacrifice to the underwater hedgehogs he'd come to worship, before discovering that they were reflections of the birds' nest in the branches of the -"
"Did anyone actually manage to change their destiny?" asked Lavender.
"Sir," said Hermione Granger. "In Hogwarts: A History, a footnote tells of the 1300s sorceress Ima-"
"No, no, no," spluttered Binns. "Completely different. There is no evidence that Imania Gamp was possessed of such an ability. Far more likely, the prophecies supposedly made were faked by Gamp herself to aid her growing reputation as a powerful -"
"What prophecy did she thwart?" asked Lavender.
"As you'd know if you'd read Hogwarts: A History," began Hermione, ignoring the groaning from half the class. "The warlock Petrus Balderby had predicted that Hogwarts would be consumed by an enormous bear on All Saints' Day of that year. 1345, if I'm right."
"IF she's right?" whispered Ron Weasley, slightly too loud. "Hasn't she memorised the whole book?"
"Shut up, Ron. Anyway, Imania Gamp cast a hex which was believed to alter the future."
"Nonsense, of course," said Binns.
"If it's nonsense, sir, why did they burn her in 1370? Her own kind turned against her."
"Fanciful nonsense," said Binns. "Now, if we may return - Emeric the Evil was entering the second week of his siege, and was almost entirely out of cheese …"
Lavender whispered to Parvati.
"Imania Gamp. Isn't there someone called Gamp in this school …?
Matilda Gamp added the final ingredient to her cauldron - three spider legs.
"Alright, Sophie," she said. "It's ready for you to try it."
"I don't know," said her friend Sophie Shafiq. "Should it be so dark?"
"I want to get it pitch black," said Gamp thoughtfully. "But I can't get all the ingredients I want. What can I say? I've improvised. Grow a spine, Sophie, for fuck's sake."
"You try it, then," said Sophie.
Gamp sighed loudly. "I will, Sophie, but if I go first, you'll mess up writing the report on it."
"Are you sure Snape wants you to test the potion?"
"We'll get points for showing initiative. I'm starting to think you don't care about the House Cup this year, Sophie."
"I do," said Sophie softly, biting her lip.
"Then drink."
Gamp filled a goblet with the liquid, careful not to get any on her hands. She handed it to Sophie.
"Hello, Madam Pomfrey," said Lavender. "We're here to see Sophie Shafiq."
"She's sleeping," said Pomfrey curtly.
"We just want to leave these flowers for her," said Parvati. "And Lavender's brought a teddy bear."
"I can see that," said Pomfrey. The bear was very nearly larger than Lavender herself. Pomfrey sighed. "Oh, alright. Two minutes."
Lavender and Parvati thanked her, and entered the wards.
Matilda Gamp was sitting by one of the beds, busily scribbling on a scroll.
"Matilda," said Lavender softly, then went quiet when she saw the frightening state of Sophie Shafiq on the bed.
"Quiet, sweetheart, I've got work to do," muttered Gamp.
"Can you change the future?"
Gamp looked up suspiciously.
"It's just, I heard you're descended from a powerful sorceress."
Gamp put down the scroll and quill.
"I think you'll find I'm from a long line of powerful sorceresses."
"Then … Can you change the future? Like Imania Gamp could?"
"What if I can?" asked Gamp.
"This thing told me I've got to marry Neville Longbottom." Lavender held up the origami fortune teller.
"Who's that, then?"
"A toady boy in my class."
Gamp took the fortune teller delicately.
"Kids' stuff," she said.
"No," said Parvati. "There's a spell on it. It works."
Gamp held he device in her open palm.
"Will Quirrell still be working here next year?" she asked.
The device activated, opening and closing itself, eventually revealing a flap: "no".
"Alright," said Gamp. "So far so good. Nobody ever stays more than a year.
Who'll be reaching Defence Against the Dark Arts instead?"
Open, close, flap.
Gamp read the message to herself.
"Very interesting," she said. "Alright. I'll help you."
She revealed her wand.
"Mutate fata," she announced. Yellow ribbons of light spread from her wand, spinning, weaving around Lavender, and entered her heart.
"Done," said Gamp. She picked up the object again. "Will this firsty marry today boy?"
The device activated, operated, and revealed: "no".
"A job well done," said Gamp. "I'm keeping this thing."
That evening, Parvati came to Lavender with a dandelion clock.
"Lavender!" she called. "Jessica Ponty's bewitched this. It'll tell us the time, down to the second!"
But Lavender Brown had learnt a valuable lesson.
"Parvati, I think there are some things we're not meant to know."
So Parvati went outside to blow the clock. It was eight seventeen precisely.