Authors note: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I updated the last chapter because I mixed up Welsh Green Dragons with Swedish Short Snouts. I'm trying to keep some things canonical. I might have more time to write soon. My wife said I'm being a terrific dad, but need to spend more time for myself and the things I like to do. It feels like when your boss forces you to take a vacation, but I guess I can use a couple of hours a week to do some bowling with friends or do some more writing alone in a dark corner of a cafe.
Grim Portends
Lunch later that week dissolved into chaos as the last class taking divination showed up in a panic. Harry had heard much about the eccentric teacher of the class that she would regularly predict travesty and death surrounding the students in her classes. However, today seemed different.
Harry squeezed into a spot at the Gryffindor table to listen to the story.
"She was happy! Happy!" people around looked worried at his statement. "She just burst into the classroom and started yelling, 'They're coming! They're coming!' and then she started laughing."
"Laughing?" someone asked in bewilderment.
"Like a dark lord," the storyteller said with a shiver. "A long maniacal laugh. Then she smiled again and said, 'They are coming… and no one can stop it.' Then she laughed again."
"Then what?" Harry asked.
"Then nothing," the storyteller told them. "She just continued with class, but all her predictions were happy. She didn't predict anyone's death or dismemberment, just helpful advice for love, business, or schoolwork. She even said I would come into some unexpected money."
"Isn't that good?" one of the first-year, non-Potter Harrys in Gryffindor asked.
"No!" the storyteller yelled. "She predicts travesties! She doesn't predict happy events. On any other day, unexpected money probably would mean someone I know is going to die and leave something to me."
Another student jumped in, "That's not even the worst part." Everyone listening in turned to her. "While Trelawney was predicting all the good fortunes of the class, we were all seeing death. I saw… the Grim."
There was a drawing of breath from many students sitting around the table. The original storyteller added, "I saw it too," drawing more shocked expressions. One other student admitted to seeing it as well.
"What's a Grim?" Harry asked.
"A death omen," he was told. "THE Grim is a great black dog that signals that someone is going to die."
"Like a banshee?" Harry asked.
"No," Seamus spoke up. "Banshees predict the death of someone in specific families. Someone who sees the grim will have someone near them die soon. Possibly even themselves."
There was a long silence before Harry asked again, "Is it a magical animal or like a boggart?"
The Weasley conglomerate approached Harry from behind. All five of the current students had been gathered together for some reason. Percy put a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"No one knows. No one has ever caught one but plenty have seen it," he told Harry gravely.
"Why would anyone seek out a death omen?" Ginny asked in a terrified voice.
"Now, I bet the all-powerful Harry Potter will catch the Grim," Ron sarcastically rolled his eyes as he spoke.
"Ooh! I'll make a leash for when you catch it," one of the twins said with a grin.
"I thought we would eat it," said the other with a frown. Many people looked disgusted at his remark.
Back in the common room, Lyra went to seek out Meliandra, pulling Harry along with her. Over the summer, she had been hard at work with her mother, reading fortunes for muggles, and now that she was back at school, she had wasted no time trying to start her own fortune-telling business at the school. Every other day, Harry would see her out in the grotto, reading tea leaves or tarot cards for another student. Despite being in her second year, and before even taking the divination elective, many older students were coming to her for a glimpse into their future.
They found her finishing up giving a reading to Patricia under one of the balete trees in the common room. She had a little nook set up with several sticks of incense burning in the tree above her, a number of books on one table to her side, and a crystal ball on a stand to the other. A table in front of her held the cards from her last reading that she was gathering up.
Patricia stood up, and praised the younger girl, "I don't think you're a seer but that was some incredible insight. Can we do this again next month?"
"Of course," Meli smiled. "For the same fee of course."
Patricia pulled out five silver sickles and placed them on the table, "I appreciate the Scamander discount," then walked away.
"You're charging now?" Lyra asked with a smirk.
"Professor Lockhart told us last year," she smiled back, "if you're good at something, never do it for free."
Lyra frowned a bit, "Does that mean you'll charge me too? We never finished the reading on the train."
Meli stared her down. After several moments, she replied, "Not with money. I want you to teach me how to climb. I want to get a private room in the spaces higher up. The other girls in the dorm don't like the incense I like to burn."
It didn't look like Lyra wanted to help, and tried to pawn it off, "Can't Harry help you?" She turned to Harry, "You'll do it for me, right?"
Harry was just about to shrug and agree when Meli interrupted, "Everyone knows you're a better climber than Harry. He's good, but you're the one who needs to pay."
Lyra sat down in front of the table with a resigned look on her face.
"Fine, let's do this," she said in a defeated tone.
Meli smiled and shuffled the deck of cards. When they were thoroughly mixed, she laid them on the table and placed a hand on top of them, telling Lyra, "Push your magic through my hand into the deck. One of the older students told me it works better this way. Unfortunately, it won't work at all with muggles back home, all the magic will have to come from me."
Lyra concentrated and pooled magic out of her hand, through Meli's, and into the deck of tarot cards. Meli shivered as the magic accumulated in the cards. As soon as both girls removed their hands from the deck, the books on the table next to them fell over, all at once, creating a small gust of wind that blew the deck of cards onto the ground. All the cards were face down, except one. The Tower.
Meli looked visibly shaken by this turn of events but picked up the cards slowly and said, "It could have just been an accident. We can try again."
She dropped all the cards into a bowl and used her wand to burn them to ashes. Once they were destroyed, she took out a large velvet bag and poured the bowl of the burnt cards inside. Harry was still standing, so he could see that the bag was filled with more ashes. When she was done, she pulled out another deck and laid it on the table. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the deck for Lyra to repeat the procedure.
This time, as soon as Lyra's hand began to channel her magic into the cards, the crystal ball on the other table gave a loud squelching noise and cracked in three places, with the two higher ones sliding off the table and onto the ground.
Meli jumped up and away from Lyra, "No. Nope. We're done. I'm not doing this. We've got enough warnings. The fight on the train. The books. The Tower. My crystal ball. That's enough for me to know that nothing good is going to come from reading your fortune."
Lyra tried to argue with her, but Meli ignored her as she burnt the new deck of cards and dumped the ashes into the velvet sack. As she headed back to her room, Lyra called after her, "I'm not teaching you how to climb!"
Harry shared a serious conversation with his sister on the way to dinner.
"Something weird is happening if magic is preventing your future from being told," he said in a hushed tone.
"That makes me want to know it even more," Lyra said with determination. "Maybe the crazy professor can do it?"
"Maybe…" Harry told her with uncertainty. Then added with more of a firm tone, "But if she says no, please drop it."
Lyra looked obstinacy, then relented, "Fine, but if she does, then you and everyone else close to me are getting a reading so I can piece one together for me."
Harry raised his eyebrows and smiled, "That's a really good idea."
Further conversation was cut off as they arrived at The Great Hall and found a small crowd of people near the entrance gathered around the chess table set up for Hermione and Ron Weasley. Over the past week, they had been playing, typically one move at a time, when the other hadn't been around. This evening, they were both standing at the board together.
Hermione looked stressed. From what Harry knew of the game, it appeared like they had nearly the same number of pieces, with Ron having a slight advantage. Standing near Hermione, he could see that many of hers were threatened. Ron had a smug look on his face and would reach toward one of his and stop when Hermione would flinch before moving to another and repeating the intimidation tactic. Harry had to agree with the twins. Despite any of his other personality defects, the youngest Weasley boy was good at this game.
Harry could see a couple of obvious angles, but Hermione was eying a side of the board that he didn't understand was under any threat. So he slowly walked around to Ron's side to get a different view of the game. As he got closer to Ron, the boy's intimidation tactics stopped and his face scrunched up in thought. His eyes darted around the board and he finally settled on a knight, picking it up and snatching one of Hermione's pawns off the board.
She looked stunned and confused. She frantically searched the board for… something before hesitantly picking up her bishop and moving it all the way across the board to snag Ron's second knight.
"What?" Ron exclaimed. "No! That's not supposed to happen!"
Now it was Hermione's turn to be smug, "And yet it did."
Ron looked around and his eyes landed on Harry, "He distracted me!"
"How? No one said anything. Everyone was quiet, I didn't even notice he was here till a moment ago."
Ron glared at Harry and sneered, "Stay away from me when I'm playing. I can't concentrate with you around. You feel like impending doom."
Then he marched away from the game and over to the Gryffindor table. The rest of the watching crowd began to disperse. Lyra was already chatting with Hermione when Harry returned to her.
"Please bring your brother by next time he's at the table," Hermione said with a smile. "If his presence causes Ron to make stupid moves, then that might be the edge I need. I hate to say it but he is really good."
Harry smiled, but told her, "If that does happen, it wouldn't be fair. Maybe it was Lyra, she just tried to get her fortune read and it cracked a crystal ball as a warning not to."
"That sounds bad," Hermione told them. "Professor McGonagall says that divination is a wooly subject and shouldn't be taken seriously."
"It's weird, yeah," Lyra told them, "but I cracked a crystal ball. That doesn't sound wooly at all."
Hermione couldn't dispute that, and more students began to enter the hall for dinner, so they dispersed to their tables to eat. Lyra was telling as many people as she could about her attempted reading with Meli while many other students were still concerned about the predictions and attitude from Professor Trelawney earlier in the day.
In the middle of dinner, a parliament of owls swarmed into the hall, dropping newspapers on many tables. Harry didn't even subscribe to The Daily Prophet but one landed in front of him with the headline taking up the entire section above the fold.
Special Evening Edition
SIRIUS BLACK STRIKES!
Two Dead! Three Hospitalized!
Black attacks near Devon!
Harry quickly unfolded the newspaper to get to the story.
The first sign of the escaped mass murderer Sirius Black has occurred and everything the wizarding public feared would happen with such a criminal being loose. It is unknown how many he had killed before the events following the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but if that was an example of his power then, it has not diminished since. Three of our Auror corps can testify to that.
A contingent was alerted to high magical activity in the Devon region this afternoon and arrived in the aftermath of a battle. Scorched fields, fallen trees, destroyed transfigurations, and pools of acid were signs of a devastating fight before them. In the center of the bedlam, stood Sirius Black, with a wand, over a downed wizard. The Aurors had no time to react as the man was killed in front of them with a piercing curse through his forehead.
From there they sprang into action attacking the escaped criminal from all sides. Despite their valiant efforts, all three were dispatched quickly with several dark curses. Auror Remmington Argent claims to have landed a spell, puncturing Black's side with a large stone spike. As the other Aurors were only knocked unconscious by Black, the criminal's revenge supports Argent's story.
Auror Argent is currently in a special ward at St. Mungo's with his legs and arms severed by dark magic. All his limbs are still functional and seem to still be able to be controlled from Argent but cannot be reattached. St. Mungos is asking for anyone with experience in such dark magic to assist in the Auror's treatment.
Prior to the arrival of the Aurors, Black had been engaged in a battle with two bounty hunters. Both were killed, with the first being the victim of a massive explosive curse, most likely the same that was used on Peter Pettigrew immediately before Black's arrest. The spell's signature on both incidents was never identified, but a morbid note was left by Black at this one that read, "This is for you, Pete."
The second hunter was disabled and killed through the previous method mentioned. No messages were left with him.
Below the article had photos of the Aurors involved along with a sketch of the mercenary that had been exploded and a photo of the other. Harry recognized him immediately as the bald man who had delivered Dantian He on his first day working with Harry. The bounty hunters were hired by Arcturus or Brandt to capture Sirius black.
He was about to go to tell Lyra when Ron exclaimed, "That's next to my house!"
"Merlin's tits," one of the twins cursed. "We play Quidditch in that meadow."
Harry took another look at the picture of the damaged meadow where the battle had taken place and it did look similar to the area he had landed with Charlie Weasley's portkey.
As he went back to the Scamander table, someone at Hufflepuff cried out, "This is Trelawney's prophecy coming true!"
Someone in Slytherin shut them down quickly, "She said, THEY are coming. Sirius Black is just one person."
Harry looked up to the table of professors where Dumbledore, Lupin, and McGonagall were in a hushed conversation. After another minute, Dumbledore approached the podium and clapped his hands for attention.
"As I have stated before," he began. "You are all safe inside the walls of Hogwarts. Professor Lupin and I will be leaving the school for the next few hours. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick will be in charge of the school's defense in our absence."
"Hem hem," came from Professor Umbridge's spot at the table.
Dumbledore stared at her for a moment before adding, "If the ministry needs to be contacted or if there is a historical emergency, please reach out to Madam Umbridge."
Before she could retort, the Headmaster whistled, and his Phoenix dove into the room from somewhere up in the stars above the candles. A burst of fire came from his wings and tail and wrapped Dumbledore and Lupin in a ball of fire. When the fire faded, they had also gone. McGonnagal instructed the students to finish eating and return to their dormitories.
When the Scamanders arrived at the grotto at the entrance to the common room, they were about to cast the water walking charm on their shoes but were stopped in their tracks to see an unexpected guest waiting for them along with Guryon Scamander. He was seated on the far side of the water by the entrance while perched above the door was Daisy, the Blue-toed Amazonian Fire Spitter.
"Come in everyone," he told them and waited for the full group to arrive. "I know all of you got a shock from the evening news. To add to the security of our dorm, I've tasked Daisy with guarding the entrance at least until the headmaster returns. The other heads are adding their own protections, so don't visit your friends in their dorms for the next few days. Make sure this little angel gets a good sniff of you before you enter the common room."
Harry didn't see Lyra but assumed she could look after herself. He hung out until the rest of the class had crossed before applying the charm on his feet and crossing the water. The fire-lizard stuck its long neck down to take in Harry's smell.
"Will she leave Whispers and Silvy alone too?" Harry asked Guryon.
The man nodded in a way that didn't give Harry much confidence, and said, "She knows Dougal and listens to me, so he shouldn't bother them."
"She understands you?" Harry replied.
"To a degree. They are very territorial, so I've told her that this area is her territory and the children are to be protected until I say otherwise."
"So she listens to commands?" Guryon nodded. "I'll be right back," Harry told him.
Quickly entering the common room, he found Whispers and Silvy lounging in a hammock. He scooped up the kneazel and then told Whispers to follow. Then went back out to the grotto where Guryon and Daisy were waiting. He could already see the lizard eyeing Silvy like a snack.
Harry pulled both Whispers and Silvy close to him and flexed his magic, making the creature sharply disengage and bring her head closer to her body in defense of a possible attack.
"Mine!" Harry said simply. A small twitch from the lizard's head meant it understood on some level.
Not to be outdone, Whispers took Silvy from Harry's arms, growled at the predator, and snarled, "Mine!"
She looked a little confused, but after a moment, also nodded to Whispers.
Guryon had been inserting in silence until he said, "Cool, I think that works." he pulled a piece of beef jerky from his pocket and tossed it to Daisy, "Good girl."
Thinking it might help, Harry pulled a piece of flobberworm jerky from his pouch and held it out to Daisy as a peace offering. The lizard curiously sniffed at the snack before taking it and chopped it noisily then looked at Harry for another. Whispers mimicked Harry, pulled a piece of his own from somewhere, and passed it to the predator. When Daisy was done snacking, she turned to Silvy, expecting one more but only got hissed at.
Guryon laughed, "Every day is an adventure here, huh? Makes me almost wish I went to school at Hogwarts."
Harry shrugged, "I'd prefer it without the basilisks and dementors but it seems like this is what happens."
Guryon reached up to scratch the fire-breathing lizard above them around her ear slits, before saying, "You know, you've set the whole magizoologist community on its head with that basilisk killer of yours down in the chamber." He stopped a moment to examine Harry's surprised reaction. "It has been common knowledge for hundreds of years that a rooster crow can kill a basilisk, and now that has been debunked and it's really another giant serpent that screams, and is the remains of the basilisk that is the true killer. There are colleagues of mine and my father that have been demanding to see it from around the world."
"Why haven't they come?" Harry asked.
"The headmaster won't allow it. Otherwise, the school would be overrun by researchers."
"That's not his decision," Harry said testily. "When the Usurper wakes up, I'll ask if it would allow people to visit."
Guryon perked up, "That would make a lot of people very happy. Can you think of any specific qualifications that it might like in a visitor?"
"Humble," Harry said immediately. "It is a king slayer," Harry clarified. "It does not like anyone who would think they are in charge when they don't have authority, particularly over it."
"That's why you think it's not the headmaster's authority to deny access to it. Good to know, anything else?"
Harry thought for a moment and absentmindedly dodged an attack from Whispers who popped out of invisibility next to him, then replied, "Bring gifts, food. Do you know any other parselmouths?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I do. I guess you would like someone else who speaks your language, right?"
"That would be interesting, but mostly so I don't have to do all the translations," Harry replied and then ducked another attack from Whispers. Changing the subject slightly, "I met your son again, I think the Usurper would like him too."
"Any reason why?" Rolf's father asked suspiciously.
"The Usurper likes the Hidden. It likes demiguises. Rolf seems to be a lot like them," Harry hinted toward Rolf's ability, trying to see how the man would react.
"So you found him?" Guryon asked with a big smile. "How did you pull that off?" Before Harry replied, he answered his own question, pointing to a rock where Whispers was sitting, invisible. "You play with demiguises like they're completely visible, no wonder you could see him too."
"He told me a story about why it started happening…" Harry trailed off.
Guryon frowned, "I think that is part of the reason, but my wife and I believe that his primary role model as a baby was Dougal and even now, he probably would turn into a demiguise if he could. Dougal practically raised me, and when Rolf was born, he was like a nanny to him whenever we were around, like his favorite uncle."
Harry nodded, that made more sense. He and Lyra mimicked the Hidden as one of their first acts of controlled magic. However, even now, it wasn't completely voluntary for Rolf, he just faded away when he wasn't being paid attention to.
"I think it's a bit of both," Harry told the man.
"You're probably right," he nodded. "It's why I got him to start writing the column of our adventures, so people would know his name without it being attached to 'Scamander.' It's probably also why he didn't end up in Scamander house. I was half expecting him to go to Slytherin so he could train his ambition there."
That sounded like a good idea, so Harry supplied, "I could introduce him to a few people…"
"That would be great, but now it's time for you to get to bed. Daisy is on duty to guard the common room." He turned to where Silvy was now hovering in mid-air while her fur was being stroked by an invisible hand, "You too Whispers."
Despite the strong warning from the universe not to have her fortune read, Lyra's enthusiasm did not diminish. Whatever was waiting in her future, it would certainly be helpful to have an inkling of what it was, whether it helped her avoid or face a difficult situation.
At dinner, the following night, she grabbed Pavarti and Lavender and explained the situation.
"And the crystal ball just cracked?" Lavender gasped. "That's so, so, so, something. I don't know what to call it."
"You're both taking divination, right?" Getting nods, "Can you introduce me to the professor? She's not at dinner most nights."
"She's the real deal," Parvati gushed. "Nearly every class, she throws out a prediction. First class, Neville crushed a teacup in his bare hand, which she said he would when we were setting up."
"She needs isolation to focus her inner eye," Lavender added. "We can show you where her classroom is."
The three girls left the hall and were about to start up the staircase when Lavender stopped at the portrait of Sir Daucourt.
"Oh Sir, we are all so exhausted after such a long day and a full meal, could we please use the lift?"
"You seem fine to me, and could probably use the exercise," the portrait of the musketeer retorted.
"How rude," Lavender frowned. "Here I was told you were a gentleman, but I will need to tell the other ladies around the castle that I was misled. A real gentleman would always lend a hand to a young woman in need."
"Who told you about me?" he replied with a note of shame. "Was it Madame Florence?"
"It might have been and even if it wasn't, I do chat with her regularly," Lavender flipped her hair and turned to leave.
"This is the last time, young lady, I would prefer not to have my reputation tarnished. Please come to me with valid reasons in the future for accessing my passage," he tried to sound firm as the portrait swung open.
As soon as they were inside, the two older girls started laughing.
Parvati looked at Lyra and told her, "Men are all the same. The portraits make good practice too."
Lyra had not taken the lift before, though Harry had told her of it. As soon as Lavender got taken up to a thrilled scream, she rushed over to one of the ropes and slipped her hand in before yanking seven times. She was picked up off the ground and yanked upwards. It was a rush. Nothing like a broom but fun in its own way because she wasn't in control of it.
When she saw the ledge that Lavender was standing on, Lyra let go before the rope stopped and let her inertia carry her upwards as she hopped onto the ledge to her friend's shocked reaction and immediate scolding at her recklessness. The scolding continued and started again when Parvati arrived and was told of her stunt.
At the end of a twisting hallway that led to one of the most isolated towers in the castle, there was a ladder leading up to a trap door. Lavender climbed up and knocked. No answer. After a few more attempts, she came back down saying they should give up, that the teacher was probably asleep.
"I didn't come all the way for nothing," Lyra stated and started fishing through her pouch looking for something specific.
After the chests from the poachers' ship came up, she snagged the Loud Coin for herself. Technically, she stole it from that other guy whose name she couldn't remember, but he had taken it from the stash without permission, so it was hers now. Digging it out, she climbed up the ladder and banged it on the trap door, releasing a thundering noise.
Dropping back to the floor, she smiled at her friends' shocked expressions before saying, "Aren't you two Gryffindors?"
That mere statement took away any rebuttals they might have had as they were the ones who were about to end this small adventure prematurely.
After a minute, the latch came undone and the door opened to have a woman with oversized glasses and frizzled hair look down at them.
"What was that awful noise?" she demanded.
Lyra played it dumb, "What noise? I merely knocked."
She started at the tiny girl at the bottom of the ladder, stuck a finger in her ear, wiggled it, and then asked, "Well, what do you need? I was meditating on the future and the ends of the world."
Lyra adopted a sad tone, "I tried to have my fortune read today, and it didn't work…" she trailed off. "But my friends said you were the real deal, so we hoped you could help."
She spied the two third-year girls and smiled, "Two of my favorites. Those who believe in the art and true form of divining the future. Come up, come up," She stepped away from the entrance.
Up the ladder and inside the room, it was set up as a classroom. However, all the tables were low to the ground and surrounded by pillows. Each table had a crystal ball in the center and four tea cups and saucers at each one. There was no evidence the room had been expanded like the ones for the core classes. She led them to the front of the room where there was a wide desk with chairs on their side and a crystal ball nearly three times the size of Meli's. As they sat, she poured each a large glass of tea.
"So what do you seek to see in your future?" she asked Lyra as she lit a stick of incense on the corner of the table.
"Anything really," she stopped short as the smoke from the incense seemed to jump and move toward her as she spoke.
"My brother has a reading from a muggle…" she stopped again as the smoke had reached her and began to circle her head. "Well, it still worked, and looking back, it explained nearly everything that happened last year."
She had spoken as fast as she could the last part, but that just made the curly smoke move even faster, a tendril wrapping down her wand arm. Her friends were staring at it in fascination.
Professor Trelawney made a motion with her fingers and the smoke retreated, coalescing in her hand before blowing it toward her crystal ball, where it settled inside, fogging up the blank space inside.
Momentarily, the professor's eyes turned white and she intoned, "A brother of soul…" When her eyes returned to normal, she smiled and took a sip of her tea.
"So you want a similar experience? What stopped you before?"
Lavender and Parvati jumped in, retelling Lyra's last reading, embellishing quite a bit. Apparently, one reading had knocked over all the books in the Scamander common room and the other had turned an entire crystal ball to dust. Lyra added about the fight on the train stopping her first reading.
"Three warnings," the teacher nodded. "You still want to know what you are clearly being told you shouldn't know?"
Lyra nodded without hesitation.
Professor Trelawney moved her crystal ball in front of her and lowered her chair until she was at eye level with it. At the same time, Lyra's chair scooted itself over as well and adjusted until she was on the exact other side of the crystal. The older woman gripped the crystal ball with both hands and appeared to play it like a piano or some other kind of instrument, tapping her fingers on it in an indiscernible pattern.
She lifted one finger and a crack appeared in the ball, releasing a little bit of smoke.
"You will need to be able to spill blood for others," she said with an echo.
Another finger was lifted, creating another crack more smoke was released, "And the blood of legions may be spilled for you."
Another finger, another crack, and more smoke, "There is darkness within you, more than just shadows."
"You have just brought two into your life who will soon die… one right after the other," a larger crack appeared across the ball as smoke was released.
Before she could release another finger, the entire crystal ball turned into dust, and a menagerie of animals formed from the smoke. There were creatures from the land, sea, and skies; from many different continents as well. Suddenly the Professor let out a tiny scream as something that looked like a dementor of smoke chased all the animals away… and then… for a brief moment, before the smoke cleared, the dementor's face turned into that of a woman.
There was nothing but silence for nearly five minutes as the three girls and the professor digested what had just happened. Finally, the professor broke the silence.
"Death follows you. One day, you will also be capable of dealing death, as well. Do you now wish you had taken the warnings you were given and not pried these visions of the future from me?"
Lyra didn't take a moment to respond, replying, "No. Any glimpse of the future can help. My entire family once came close to death or imprisonment because someone didn't see far enough or clear enough into the future. So I will take whatever I can get."
The professor gestured to the shattered crystal ball, "Your future has been forced to be revealed to you, however vague it was. Other than an oracle, no seer or fortune teller will be able to provide you with another glimpse again. You have sacrificed that to be given what you have now."
As the girls walked back down the hallway, Pavarti spoke in an even tone, "That was intense…"
"Lavender was a bit more afraid, "You're going to have to kill someone. And others are going to be killed because of you."
Lyra shrugged, "She said I needed to be able to kill. That sounds like there will be consequences if I can't. That is the best advice I could have gotten."
"Two people you know are going to die!" Lavender half screamed and half whispered. "What if it's the two of us?"
Pavarti soothed her friend, "We met Lyra a year ago. Professor Trelawney said it was people she just met. Which might be just as horrible since we just had the sorting… it could be a first year."
"Or I could stop it all," Lyra said sharply. "We all know my future, so we can try to stop the bad things. The future changes when you know it. Whispers and the other Hidden all know what is about to happen to them and they avoid the bad parts. I'll do the same."
The Gryffindor girls split off at their common room and Lyra snuck down to hers as well. She had her astronomy pass for breaking curfew, but she didn't want to have to deal with anyone at the moment, so she turned invisible to avoid a perfect patrol. When she got to the grotto, Daisy perked up and sniffed her before letting her pass into the common room.
Lyra immediately went to find Harry. Despite her cool demeanor with her friends, she was a bit afraid. Harry woke up as soon as she approached his bed. After a quick exchange of sign language, they both turned invisible and slipped back out, heading to Harry's empty project room. There was a large container for processing fertilizer there but Professor Sprout had yet to fill it so he could start making any or provide him with flobberworms to make jerky.
After she had told him the entire story and what the professor had told them, Harry smiled.
"It's always good to know. You also know that you need to work harder. I have no doubt you could do what you need to if you had to protect our family, but it won't be a pig with horns, a sigbin, or a child who threatens us in the future. We both need to be stronger."
"None of that scares me," she replied. "I'm worried what you would do to protect me. If blood is spilled for me, it's probably you that will do it."
Harry nodded, "Probably. Or Brandt or Arcturus. But most likely me."
"Just make sure that I really need help before you go on some kind of rampage," she cautioned him.
"Or you could stop me," Harry smirked.
"If Dartian and Ransom won't have a duel this weekend, we should do it," Lyra grinned like an imp as she pulled out one of her knives made by Pik'kal.
"Sounds like a plan," Harry agreed.