Did You Ever Have A Dream
Never let it be said that the Black brothers were anything less than child prodigies. Both boys were currently sitting on the floor of their infamous family library flipping through texts that should have been far too advanced for either of their ages. Most four-year-olds couldn’t even sound out the title of a book, much less read and understand A Complete History of Known Seers: Northern Hemisphere Edition. Regulus had already skimmed the more interesting entries, but was now scowling at his companion as Sirius read a passage from his own book - A Modern Day Practitioner’s Guide to Divination - aloud.
“The modern day witch or wizard will likely think of prophecies when they hear the word Seer. However, prophetic texts are only a small part of the complex inner workings regarding the art of divination. While true Seers are rare, their visions can manifest in a number of different ways, only one of which is prophecies. Many practitioners have reported their visions coming in the form of dreams or vivid hallucinations. One memorable witch remembered nothing that she saw, but possessed a room full of paintings that she had done while in a sight trance. A number of Seers have also made note of physical side effects that accompany their visions, be it headaches from the strain or physical sensations associated with the event that they saw. Some researchers have found a correlation between strength of the sensation and how powerful the practitioner is, with stronger ability lending to an increased potency of side effects.”
Sirius gave his brother a dry smile. “Well congrats, Reggie. Based on this I’d say you’re a pretty damn powerful Seer.”
Regulus groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face. “What’s a sight trance?”
Sirius turned back to the book and flipped through a few pages. “Ehem, a sight trance is a mental state that comes into effect whenever a Seer experiences a vision. The trance is different for everyone, but there is consistent evidence to support the claim that the practitioner in question temporarily loses all recognition of the world around them and is sucked completely into their vision. Attempts made by an outside force to break the trance have so far been unsuccessful, as a Seer only regains full consciousness once the vision has run its course.”
“Lovely,” Regulus grumbled.
“Maybe this was just a one time thing?” Sirius didn’t quite sound like he believed his own words. “You could’ve just had an episode of accidental magic, or maybe someone cursed you!”
“Oh how comforting, I could just have a stranger out to get me instead of being a member of one of the most hunted wizarding subclasses that exists.” Regulus regretted the words as soon as he saw the dawning look of horror on the older boy’s face. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, Siri. We don’t even know for sure that I am a Seer, let’s just keep this to ourselves for now and see what happens. Who knows, maybe you’re right and this was just some weird one off incident.”
Sirius nodded hesitantly, but the look of concern stayed.
Regulus tapped his thigh nervously and went back to his book. Hopefully this really was just a one time thing.
. . .
It absolutely was not a one time thing. The brothers spent the next three months walking on eggshells, waiting nervously for the ball to drop. The holidays came and went with little fanfare, the winter months dragging on as everyone grew impatient for the first blooms of spring.
Regulus was sitting in Sirius’s room after dinner one night listening to him read a muggle storybook that Andy had secretly gifted them for Yule when the vision hit. One second, he was listening to his older brother’s soothing voice regale the tale of three clever pigs and a wolf who could never seem to learn. The next, he was drowning.
It was different than last time. The hands were there, his lungs were full of water, and he was still thirsty, but he could also think. Those thoughts had inevitably turned to Sirius. Sirius, the brave lion of the snake den who had managed to escape their parents and make a better life for himself, leaving Regulus behind. His big brother, the one that promised to always be there for him, off gallivanting with his friends while Regulus died cold, frightened, and alone. He hoped that what he had done would be enough, that his betrayal would aid in the downfall of the Dark Lord. He hoped that his friends would not suffer-
Regulus was choking again. This time, he was already on his side when the water was forcibly evicted from his windpipe through a series of hacking coughs. Sirius’s voice was trembling a little as he murmured soothing words and traced circles onto the younger boy’s chest. Once all the water was gone, the sobs came. Just like in the garden, Regulus was gathered up against his favorite person and cried into his neck as Sirius rubbed his arm to banish the lasting sensation of cold.
“Deep breaths, Reggie. I’ve got you.” Sirius started humming quietly as he rocked back and forth, trying his best to soothe the panic that the vision wrought upon both himself and the boy in his arms. “Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot. Prête-moi ta plume, pour écrire un mot.”
The room filled with the sound of soft singing and sad sniffling. By the time Sirius had reached the end of the lullaby, the younger boy was lying against him with half-lidded eyes and ruddy pink cheeks. Regulus might’ve fallen asleep if not for the cough that ripped its way out of his torso unexpectedly.
“I swear to God, if these stupid visions give you pneumonia I’m going to riot.”
A wet sounding giggle followed the cough, but faded quickly as he slumped against Sirius in exhaustion. “I don’t know how to deal with this, Siri. No one has ever found a way to prevent visions, how am I supposed to live with the knowledge that I could just start drowning anywhere at any time?”
“Don’t talk like that, before long we’ll both be at Hogwarts and we can work together to find a solution to your sight problem. Until then, we keep this to ourselves and try to make sure you don’t have an episode in front of anyone else. We start looking for warning signs that a vision is coming and track their frequency so that we can at least try to predict when they’re going to happen. You should start keeping a journal to record what you see and we can determine what the hell is so important that your magic thinks it’s worth putting you in pain for.” Sirius sighed and dropped his chin on top of his brother’s head. “But there’s no denying it now, little star. You are most definitely a Seer.”
Bollocks.