Seer
The following two years brought a strange wave of calm to Astraea’s life. Her curse — or whatever it was — lay dormant. No more reviving dead creatures. No more inexplicable pull toward something otherworldly. Instead, her days were filled with books, garden walks, and quiet afternoons with Remus.
It was, for a time, peaceful. Not within her mind as she dwelled the emotions of a past life she had no chance to say goodbye to, but she had to make do and accept that the clues of the past would drive her to her present.
Remaining grounded was the best she could do and use it to move forward. It is what it is.
“Careful with that,” Remus warned gently as Astraea balanced a teacup on her knee. They were seated on the porch of her home, the golden light of late afternoon filtering through the summer trees. Astraea laughed, her violet eyes bright. "I read somewhere that balance helps steady the mind and soul. I’m just practicing. See?"
Remus shook his head, smiling. "Yes, but not steady enough to charm it back together if it breaks."
“I’m almost there according to Mum!”
Their relationship had become something more — familial, almost. Remus often visited without formal reason, under the guise of assisting with her studies or checking on her. In truth, he simply enjoyed her company. Like an old soul that comforted. She made him forget, if only for a while, the gnawing grief of his past.
Astraea had grown more comfortable with him, too. She no longer tiptoed around his presence or recoiled from physical affection. When he ruffled her hair, she no longer stiffened. When she caught his far-off stares of longing, she no longer asked — and she didn’t need to—she only sat quietly beside him, offering her silent companionship.
Both of them waited though, for any moment in time for the curse to reveal itself again. But like the seconds, the clock kept ticking, the sun and moon made its usual cycles in the day, and there was no trace of it for now.
Astraea wondered when it would, and how she would prepare herself for it. For now, living was the best remedy she could attempt to make.
••••
The first time her old abilities resurfaced, Remus dismissed it as coincidence.
Astraea was helping him organize the Moonglass library’s bookcase. Because of all the books her mother and father ordered for her over the years, her room was already packed with shelves and there were no longer any empty spaces where she could place the rest.
She had used the ladder in order to return her potions, asking Remus about what he remembered about the subject reading when she suddenly stilled. Her eyes had met with his only for a brief moment and Remus watched as her hand froze mid-air, her expression blank. Astraea did not move nor utter a word, her violet eyes just moved side to side like a shaking rattle. "You should be careful on your next trip."
Remus turned, his coffee now finding its place on an empty table. "What?"
She blinked, as if she hadn’t realized she spoke. "Your trip. Something about... blood. And moonlight. I would suggest staying in.”
His throat tightened. Full moon. He hadnt confided his secret to the thirteen year old yet. She could not know what the effect of the moon had on him. "Astraea? Did you see something?”
Her face contorted with confusion, then panic. There was a piece of the past yet again. Something about seeing two life paths. A chance that fate could twist it or fulfill it. "I don’t — I don’t know. It was like a... flash. There were two moments where you… I don’t know how to explain it.”
Remus knelt beside her. "Breathe, it’s alright. Tell me exactly what you saw."
Astraea’s voice wavered. "You were hurt. I saw you with blood on your shirt, in the woods. There was also one where you were inside a house, writhing in pain." Her voice cracked. "Both scenarios were different but they had a similar fact; you’ll be alone."
Lupin hummed both in curiosity and anxiety. "Could you see when?”
She shook her head. "It was just a glimpse — but it felt so real. Like I was standing right there.”
Remus swallowed hard, dread tightening his chest. He opened his mouth to find an explanation that even he didn’t believe to her — but she was now pale as if the life were being drained out of her like a deflating balloon.
"I don’t feel so—"
"Astraea!" Her body crumpled to the floor, breaths rapid and urgent. Remus was on her in an instant, seeing the spreading heat travel from her cheeks to her whole entire countenance. "Stay with me. Breathe slowly. Breathe.”
This was not the curse, he concluded with a relief, even though his favorite child was burning of a fever that had no proof to be caused by an illness.
This child not just marked by Death had a touch of a seer in her, he thought. Seers weren’t always favored, and their abilities usually came with a price to pay.
Just how much more would Astraea struggle with as she grew?
She awoke hours later, drenched in sweat. Her mother hovered beside her, clutching her hand, whispering how she would be in good health soon and to take as much rest as needed. Remus only remained in the corner of her room, face ashen and worn.
"She’ll be alright," Selene assured herself more than anyone. "It’s just a fever. It’ll pass."
Remus knew better.
The next day, he confronted Selene and Lyall in the kitchen. His voice was low, deliberate. "This wasn’t a random fever. Astraea is developing something else — another gift."
Lyall frowned. "You mean the curse—"
"No," Remus interjected. "This is not the curse. It is an entirely different thing. She saw something. A glimpse of a potential future encounter of mine, or well, two forms of it." He swallowed thickly. "She may be a seer.”
“A seer? But that means if she uses her abilities—“
Selene and Lupin’s eyes met. “If she keeps manifesting like this without controlling it, it could have disastrous effects to her health."
The mother covered her shock, as if her daughter could see it behind the walls of the room. After so many attempts of bearing a child before, now that she had one she loved so dearly, she could not live in a moment of peace. "Oh my Astraea…What do we do?"
Remus hesitated to even begin but it was a potential solution. "Dumbledore. She’ll need his guidance. And Hogwarts."
Lyall’s jaw clenched, discouraged blue eyes refusing to meet his wife’s own. "We’ve kept her from Dumbledore and Hogwarts for a reason.”
"I know," Remus said tightly. "I understand cousin, I do so entirely. But the longer you keep her away, the worse this will get. She’s meant to be there. She needs balance and control. To be exposed to the unknown. Something — or someone— is already pulling her toward that place. I’ve felt it. She’s said so, and you’ve seen it. We cannot hold her magical affinity and potential back any further.”
"She’s grown so much. It’s thanks to you we’ve been able to manage this and progress her this far but, she is still just a child. I can’t send her off knowing she’ll—" Selene’s voice cracked as she hugged her husband for comfort.
Remus took a steadying breath. "I’ll go too."
The dripping sounds falling from the rickety faucet grew stronger.
"I’ve just been offered the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts," Remus admitted slowly. He hadn’t even told Dumbledore he accepted yet. He would tonight. "If she’s there... I can watch over her. I’ll protect her. I swear it."
Lyall and Selene exchanged stricken glances. They had spent ten years shielding Astraea from the outside world — from prying wizarding eyes that would surely notice her curse. But now, it was clear: the curse was not something they could prevent. It was already entwined with her fate. And messing with destiny had catastrophic effects that they did not want for their daughter.
Finally after a quiet exchange of words between husband and wife, mother to father, Lyall nodded and Selene relented. "Alright. We know how important this is. She’ll go for her third year. But Remus we expect updates and as much information—"
Remus’s gaze didn’t waver. "You have my word Selene, cousin. I won’t let anything happen to her. You have my word."
The night before Astraea was to leave for Hogwarts, she found Remus sitting alone in the study. The firelight cast deep shadows across his worn face.
“I just finished packing,” she announced, fiddling with the endings of the quilt her mother knit for her as a baby. She usually wore it as a way to regulate the turmoil inside her. The blanket couldn’t erase it, but it allowed her to encompass it momentarily into a closeted ball with no opening.
“Put everything you will need? You didn’t forget your lucky ring did you?” Lupin asked. Astraea had been gifted a ring in the pattern of a star by her father one birthday ago. It was a favorite of hers that she believed brought her luck.
“I will wear it in the morning. I won’t forget.” Astraea took another glance at the study. Her mother and her father had talked to her earlier in the day after breakfast to let her know that her home schooling was ending that that she would go to a magical school instead. She had expected for that outcome actually, she just didn’t know it would have been so soon. She was going to miss her parents and the peaceful tones of her home.
"You’ll be there too, won’t you?" she asked softly.
Remus blinked, then smiled wearily. "I will. Every step of the way."
Astraea hesitated. "I won’t lie to you Uncle Remus. I’m quite frightened."
"I know. But you’re stronger than you think."
She fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. "What if I see something again? What if I can’t learn to control these abilities of mine?"
Remus exhaled slowly, choosing his words carefully. "You will learn. If there is ever a spike, you let me know. If the weight is too heavy to bear Astraea, let me carry it for you."
Astraea took a long moment to read him. Her Uncke Lupin had proved trustworthy but there was still something hidden in him that he could not utter a word of. Similar to her. As close as they’ve gotten, there were certain things better left unsaid, but she wondered if it would come soon to where she could tell him about herself and what else she possessed. How she wasn’t actually mentally thirteen but older… The reddish brown haired girl drew forward, seeking comfort. "I will miss our afternoons."
His throat burned. He hugged her back, as though trying to anchor her to the present. "I will too Astraea but don’t you worry. I’ll always be there. Always."
Unbeknownst to Amaris or now known as Astraea Moonglass, she would now be entering fate’s plot; book three of the Harry Potter series.
Now that her soul had returned home, the wheel was fate was set in motion and back in its place.