The seer

The owl arrived early in the morning. I woke up to its insistent tapping on my window. The rapping was loud enough that my attempts to cover my head with my pillow weren’t enough.

“Stubborn creature,” I cursed and rose to let it in.

The window cracked as I pulled it open letting the gray shaggy owl enter my apartment. With it, chilly air blasted through and wind bit my naked flesh. I shivered and quickly closed the window after the owl. It screeched and dropped a letter on to my desk. I glanced at it and deemed it better that I ate breakfast before stomaching any news. The owl screeched again and I fumbled through my desk and found a brown bag of owl food for it.

“Here you dreadful owl,” I said and offered food to it. The furball nipped at the food offered and gave me an expectant stare for more. “There. But go on then. I’ve got no letters for you”, I said while I opened the window again. And with a disapproving look it was gone.

I left the letter on my cluttered desk and went to get my clothes. This was my free day from work. Last week I had spent in the Ministry polishing divination balls. Apparently, I needed to earn the trust of the other seers and make myself useful in other ways before that. I didn’t complain. Not when I knew what an opportunity it was.

It was only after eating that I opened the letter. It was small, with only a couple of words on the paper.

“Tonight 8 pm. Someone will fetch you.”’

I lowered the teacup down and bit the inside of my cheek. So, it was finally happening, I had been recruited to join the order of the Phoenix by a colleague of mine. Auror Tonks had been insistent on me joining and I had not said no. They had asked me out on a Friday after seeing me sweaty and dusting my already dirty clothes. I couldn’t tell them why my clothes were dusty, my contract forbid me from telling anyone where I worked. I guess they had pitied me and offered a drink at a nearby pub. And I had joined them, amazed by their metamorphagus abilities - and their auror status.

When they had told me about this right-wing movement who called themselves “death eaters” I had listened with interest. I had started living in this country only a couple of months ago and had no real inside knowledge of any politics. I read the paper, of course, but those papers were run through a big filter. Who knew what actually happened behind the ministers “All is well,” -claim.

The things they had told me had made me interested and outraged. I had expressed my opinions clearly enough for them to hint that I could somehow fight the movement. And that had been the start. We had met a couple of times after that and talked about the same thing. I guess they had deemed me trustworthy enough to invite me to the order.

“Shit,” I cursed as the teacup sloshed burning liquid on my hand. I had been too deep in thought to realize my grip loosening and the cup tilting slowly. I put it on the wooden surface in front of me, the cup staining the letter under it and went to search for my wand.

My apartment was a small chaos. A creative one I might say. I had two rooms, kitchen and a bathroom and I had managed to leave a mark in each one of them. My bedroom, where my desk stood, had books and papers scattered around it. Writing and ink stains marred them and a couple of drops were found on the floor and furniture as well. Some books had also migrated to the living room and laid open on the table in front of the sofa. My old leather sofa. It was the only piece of furniture I had brought with me from Finland when I moved here. It smelled of smoke and leather. A perfect place to sit in the afternoon with a glass of wine and a book in hand.

My living room had a couple of plants scattered around it. A vine draped over my bookshelf. The shelf itself had boxes, crystals and round glass balls. I was a seer through and through. I had majored in it when I studied in Durmstrang and had scored almost perfect marks. Also a couple of animal bones and wooden carved insignia laid on the walls.

The kitchen was linked to the living room, a cozy place with neat spices, dried herbs hung from the ceiling and pots and pans. I liked it.

The apartment itself was a row house with a small backyard. I had rented it from a muggle neighborhood after deeming the prices in the wizarding areas too high for me. I wanted a bigger house for me and I didn’t want to spend my whole salary on one. I had a small cupboard outside of my house for storing, which I used as my apparition point. My house itself was a no apparation space, warded hard.

I had a fireplace in my living room but I had not used it at all. I wasn’t sure it was even working. That, I had added to my ever-growing list of stuff I needed to take care of. Same as my backyard. Now it stood neglected, the grass long and weeds coming out here and there. One lone apple tree stood in the corner of the space, maybe 7 years old. Still young.

After drying myself up I spent the day clearing out the mess in my apartment. Especially the bathroom needed sorting through. I had failed to brew a potion and it had somewhat boiled over. That’s why I always made my potions in the bathtub. I was awful at them.

“Scourify,” I cast and pointed at the mess in my bathtub and nearby walls. The grimy liquid instantly vanished and only the cauldron remained. I tucked my wand to the sleeve of my green shirt and went to pick the cauldron up. It wasn’t usable anymore. The handle had been melted and the cauldron was badly deformed. I snorted. I added another thing to my list. “Buy a new cauldron”

I trekked through my yard and chucked the cauldron to the apparition point. I would take care of it later. The storage was full of stuff, firewood, jam and other canned goods, dusty boxes and more. Luckily it was big enough that even with the walls lined with shelves there was a nice spot of wooden floor for apparating. A good fit for one or two people at the same time.

Now the melted cauldron sat on an empty spot on the shelf. Good enough. I went for the wooden door as I heard a crunch from my yard. I froze. Was it eight already? I excited the shack half expecting auror Tonks to meet me. But it wasn’t them who stood on the yard to greet me.

A tall man clouded in the shadows stood on the pavement leading to my house. I left the storage room behind me closing the door as I went. I turned my head towards the man and started walking nearer. Black eyes fixed on me as he heard the door slam shut.

I had never seen him before. That wasn’t so surprising when I had just moved here. I hoped that he was the one Tonks had sent for me. Otherwise I was in deep shit as I couldn’t fight here with the muggles seeing. If he was a dark wizard I doubted he would give a damn.

Now nearing on him I could see his features in the yellowish light shining from my windows. Pale skin, thin lips, sharp nose and cheekbones. His black hair reached his shoulders limply. Black trousers, black shirt and a muggle coat down to his knees. A perfect image of darkness itself. Only a fool would think he wouldn’t mean danger.

“Who are you,” I asked from the man. His hawk-like eyes still fixated on me. I couldn’t read his face but I guessed I had to look out place with no shoes on, black jeans and my long hair unbound. I probably had dirt on my face as well.

“I came here to fetch you for the meeting”, he answered shortly. I was surprised by his voice. So deep and rich. And still so cold. It sent shivers down my spine.

“I thought Tonks would- “, I got cut off by him.

“Auror Tonks is not available at the moment. I got sent instead,” he answered with a bored voice. “Now I don’t like to waste my time on small talk, are going or not?”

I sent a small smile to him. A dark wizard indeed. “Let me get a few things before we go,” I said and turned towards the entrance door. I took a couple of steps on the terrace and grabbed the handle. “If you don’t want to stand there, you could wait inside. It’ll be just a few minutes,” I said to the man still frozen in his spot.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes, muttering something about ignorant girl which I chose to ignore. Maybe I had misheard him. Certainly, I wouldn’t want to make things awkward by starting a quarrel. With swift steps the man situated himself in my apartment, and stood in the corridor leading to the living room.

“Make yourself at home,” I said and disappeared to my bedroom. Socks, I needed socks first.

After a couple of minutes, I emerged from the dimly lit bedroom with a clean face, braided hair and a leather jacket on. My wand was securely tucked against my thigh with a dagger next to it. One could never be too careful. They both were hidden by my jeans, only a small glamour charm hiding the form. I had charmed a hole through my pocket for easy access.

I found the tall man in the living room, scanning the pages of a book. “See’ers everyday potions” Standing in my living room, the man looked even more taller. Power seemed to thrum from him and I wondered what order I had exactly agreed to join. What had Tonks gotten me into.

I walked closer to him. “Thank you for waiting. I’m ready to go,” I said to him.

He shut the book and looked at me. “I didn’t know the order was bringing out a seer. And a Finnish one at that,” he said looking at me up and down. The book found its place on the shelf next to other books, written in English and Finnish. “Tell me, how was Durmstrang?”

Something in him seemed to command authority. I couldn’t pinpoint if it was his stern look, his height or the magical aura around him. But regardless of those I found butterflies forming in my stomach with every look he sent my way.

“I learned a lot there,” was the only thing I said to him.

He laid one long look at the crystals and glass balls on my shelf and drawled, “So it seems.”

I huffed. “Where exactly are we going?”

“You’ll see,” the man smirked and turned to go. He managed to take a couple of steps towards the door when he stopped and said. “Severus. My name is Severus.”

I went to follow him. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Maria,” I introduced.

“I know,” and with that we both left the house, me making sure the door was locked and the wards still in place.

I instructed Severus to apparate us from the wooden storage room I had as some of my neighbors were still up. How he had gotten here, I had no idea and I didn’t want to know. He followed me silently as I led the way through the weeds and stones. I really needed to clear the yard.

I tried to ignore the tug on my skin, the light buzzing in my veins with him looming behind me. His power seemed to radiate from him, bathing me in it. It called to me with soft murmurs and I had to keep my own power tightly reigned so it wouldn’t flare out to reach him. Most wizarding folk couldn’t feel the power of others. It was mostly a common skill of see’ers and mediwitches. It was a skill one could learn as well, many people who knew wandless magic grew sensitive to it very fast. I could usually ignore it, but somehow today, his aura had crossed all the borders taunting me. I had never felt something like this before.

“I see you are in the need of a new cauldron,” Severus said as he examined the storage room. I blushed.

“I’m not very skilled at potions,” I answered a little ashamed. He had seen the disgrace of a cauldron.

His black eyes turned to mine, one eyebrow cocking. “Which potion were you making?” He asked. I offered my hand to him getting ready for him to apparate us out of here.

“Cure for boils,” I said and heard him make a choking sound just before he apparated us. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing or just surprised of my skills.

xxx

We apparated to an empty street with a crack. The smell of rain on grass hit my nose and I shivered at the wetness of the air. I should’ve worn a thicker jacket.

“Come on,” Severus said and let go of my hand swiftly. He didn’t even look at me.

He walked towards a house and tapped his wand a couple of times on an iron gate. I huffed and followed after him as a light on a nearby lamp flickered and the apartment in front of me sprang to life. It was like a spell had been lifted and I could clearly see an extra house in front of me. The house was dark and unwashed. Like nobody had lived there for years.

The tall man in front of me walked up the stone stairs leading up on to the door and knocked. I stood behind him admiring the defensive spellwork around the house. I could feel it thrumming about, ready to turn into hard walls.

The door cracked open and a man stood behind it. He wore a grey woolen shirt with jeans. His face held a massive scar and I instantly looked somewhere else. I didn’t want to stare.

“Severus,” he greeted with a nod and turned his eyes to me. “The new recruit?” he asked.

“Can we discuss this somewhere else than the street, Lupin?” Severus said coldly. I noted that his tone had changed slightly and he seemed to crinkle his nose to the man.

Lupins lips twitched and he nodded. “Of course, of course. Come on in”, he welcomed and let us walk past him to a long narrow corridor.

The door slammed shut and as I turned around, I could see Severus walking away from us. He hadn’t bothered to take off his black coat.

“Don’t care about him. He’s always like this”, Lupin said with blue eyes twinkling at me. He then extended his hand to me. “Remus Lupin.”

I smiled and took his hand and shook it. “Maria Koski, nice to meet you”, I answered and made a quick glance around. “Forgive me for asking but should I take my shoes off in here?”

Remus furrowed his brows. “I-I, you can keep them on. You’re not from, here are you?

I laughed. “That’s good, I’ll keep them on. Sorry for the weird question, I’m from Finland and wasn’t exactly sure how I should behave when visiting others in here.”

“Maria!” Someone said excitedly. I turned my head to look and saw Tonks joining us. “I wasn’t sure if you would make it. Severus tends to scare people off”, they said. Tonk’s hair was pink and I wondered why they preferred it over all of the other colors. “Come, the meeting is already starting!”

We walked through the dusty corridor to a kitchen full of life. Such a contrast after a dark rain to enter the bright room with a lot of people gathered around a long table. Some of them were talking heatedly amongst themselves, a couple were throwing paper cranes around and an older woman was picking at her nails. Or was it paws. She was clearly an Animagus, grooming her nails.

An elderly man with ginger hair walked past me carrying a teapot. “Here is your tea, my dear”, he said to a woman sitting comfortably near the roaring fireplace. The woman was also ginger, and had a warm smile on her face.

“I sit over here”, Tonks said and pulled me with them around the table to a curve near the kitchen. I followed their lead and took a seat next to them. I didn’t recognize anyone else.

The talking ceased as an old man entered the room. He was tall, easily over 180 cm and wore a brightly colored robe. His beard was long but not as long as his white hair which hung to his waist. Somehow, he reminded me of the typical wizard you saw in muggle books.

“Welcome everyone. I trust you all are well after the summer”, he said taking a seat next to a man with a blue hat. The man seemed somehow familiar but I couldn’t place where I had seen him. “Now as you can see, we have a couple of new recruits here. A big welcome to Fred and George Weasley", he gestured to his right where two young men sat. They both had the same ginger hair and a smile on their faces.

“The honor,” the other one started “Is ours,” and the other finished.

This earned a few chuckles around the room and the old wizard lowered his hand to calm the people down. “I’m sure you will bring lots of wisdom and courage to the order”, he continued. The ginger woman blushed. She seemed pleased as she took her mans hand in hers.

“Now, we have one more newcomer amongst us. Say welcome to Maria Koski, our Finnish friend who has decided to join our ranks”, he gestured across the table to me.

I clenched my fist and tried to keep my heartbeat in order. “Hi everyone, nice to meet you.”

Some nods and greetings followed and I was relieved for the wizard to start speaking again. “I’m Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. And this –“ he gestured to the end of the table, a couple of seats from me “Is Sirius Black, our host.”

I smiled and nodded at him. “Thank you for welcoming me to your house,” I said.

Sirius flashed a boyish smile. “The pleasure is all mine,” he said. Then he looked at Albus. “Do you have any new information? Have you talked to Fudge?"

Albus scratched his beard. A man on his right spoke with a thick accent. “Fudge is in denial. The whole ministry is keeping the situation from the public.”

I tried following the conversation. It was quite hard when this was my first meeting. Tonks had explained me a lot but not everything. I hadn’t promised I’d join and they weren’t allowed to share all the information.

I turned to Tonks but a man on my left whispered to me. “Don’t worry if you can’t keep up. It took me a month until I understood what they were saying,” he smiled.

I looked up at his green eyes. “Thank you for that. I was already needing help with this,” I smiled.

“I’m Charlie by the way,” he said.

“Maria.”

We smiled at each other and I turned my head back to the conversation. The topic about the ministry was still going on.

“Voldemort is growing desperate. His followers have diminished since the war. Most of the giants and other magical beings have abandoned him. I’m guessing his next move is to infiltrate the ministry,” Sirius said

“The dark lord has already managed to place his followers into the ministry,” Severus said from the doorway. He had stayed out of the light in the shadows and it was only now when I noticed him. He stood with his arms crossed and his face in a scowl. “His inner circle has all stayed with the exception of Igor Karkaroff. Most of them have acquired high positions in the ministry over the years, gathering information and connections.”

“Wouldn’t you know all about that-,” Sirius started but I cut him off.

“What happened to headmaster Karkaroff?” I spoke before I realized I had. Eyes turned to me.

Severus clenched his jaw. “They found him in deep Siberia.”

“Severus-,” Albus said.

“They found him there, mad. He had cut his own arm off to get rid of the mark. It didn’t work. The dark Lord tortured him until he took his own life,” Severus hissed.

Bile rose up my throat. Such a cruel fate. I had known him for years. As a headmaster he had been strict, his methods questionable. But nothing he had done would be bad enough to deserve this. He had never hurt any of us, not physically or verbally. Severus was still looking at my whitening face.

“Why do you speak such things in here,” The older ginger man said. “She doesn’t need to hear everything all at once. They don’t need to hear,” he said looking at his young twins. They had both gone pale too.

“You always have to ruin the mood with those disgusting stories,” Sirius said

“Those are no stories, Black,” Severus said. I could see Sirius riling him up. For some reason Sirius seemed to hate him equally.

Before Severus could continue, I gathered up my courage and said, “Severus is right. I - , we need to know what he can do. I need to know what I’m up against with.”

Sirius looked at me.

“She’s right. There is no point dancing around the subject. We are the ones who have to fight with him. We need to know every detail,” a woman spoke. Her nails had retracted back into human nails and she was looking sternly at Albus.

“Minerva-,” Albus said.

“I have told you several times. In order for this to work, you need to stop shielding us. You need to start trusting us more,” Minerva said. She laid her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “We all have our own reasons to fight." I bit back a smile. I liked her a lot already. She was an assertive persona with a big charisma.

The conversation continued and I noticed Severus falling back into the shadows. Now that I had seen him, I couldn’t help but glance his way a couple of times. He was leaning against the doorframe with a rigid posture. He seemed to be the only one standing. His black eyes scanned the room, observing everything tightly. And even from meters distance, I could still feel his magical aura thrumming with power.

Suddenly his gaze snapped to mine and my eyes were locked with his. His face was expressionless, stony even. I held his gaze until I heard a name midst of the conversation. “Harry Potter”

I tore my eyes from his and looked at the person who had said the name. Lupin was fiddling with his sleeves as he spoke. “The ministry is after him. I’m sure Umbridge was sent to spy on him.”

“Harry Potter,” I mumbled. I recognized the name. I knew it well.

Albus heard me and he looked at me curiously. “What do you know about him,” he asked.

I looked up to his blue eyes, brows furrowing. “There is something. Something addressed to him,” I said.

Albus nodded and lifted a hand as Remus tried to speak. Then he urged me to keep on talking.

So, I continued: “There’s countless of them in there. But this one is accumulating a lot of energy around it. It knows the time has come,” I said. “Some of the new interns have been asking about Harry Potter. They aren’t allowed in -" I said but the magical contract with the ministry forbid me from continuing the sentence. So I tried another way. "They are curious if there are any other things addressed to the him.”

A few whispers broke the air.

“Are you speaking about a prophecy”, the man with a hat asked. "I'm Kingsley by the way."

“I can’t tell you. The contract forbids me from sharing that.”

“But you found a loophole to tell me that there is something”, he demanded.

“Tonks knows where I work. They saw me leaving the floor”, I struggled to say. The magical binds were already active and reminding me of the contract.

Tonks looked at me, realization dawning on their face. “The department of mysteries. The prophecy is in the department of mysteries,” they said. “That’s why you couldn’t tell me anything! No wonder, Maria, I was starting to think there was something wrong with me,” they chuckled.

I smirked at them. “There are certain things I can and cannot tell you.”

“So, he is after the prophecy again”, Albus said. He leaned back in his chair. “I hoped he wouldn’t go after it so soon. This is bad news indeed.”

Kingsley stood. “These interns, you think they are death eaters?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I have never seen one,” I said.

Sirius scoffed. “One is standing there at the doorway. Take a good look,” he said glaring at Severus.

I widened my eyes. I hadn’t been wrong about him being a dark wizard. Severus scowled at Sirius with an angry look on his face. “Why don’t you shut your snout, Black?” he sniped.

“Enough,” Albus said at the two men. Then he started giving instructions. “Kingsley, find out all the new interns at the department of mysteries. Bring me a list. Severus, find out who has returned. Hagrid,” he said looking at a huge man on Tonks’s right. “You know what to do. Find the giants", this went on and on until Albus laid his eyes on me. “Maria, don’t let those interns get to the department. Watch anyone who gets near the prophecy.” He instructed.

I nodded biting by lip. This would require a lot of sneakiness from me. I was sure I could somehow manage it. Just not sure how yet. The seers could detect any charms I placed around the place. I’d have to find out if muggle equipment worked down there.

The meeting finished soon after and people started leaving. Tonks sent me a couple congratulations on my first meetings and I talked briefly with Sirius as well. I was talking with Molly and Arthur when Severus stepped beside me.

“Shall we go?” he said. It wasn’t a request but an annoyed comment.

Molly glared at Severus while Arthur made his best to give him a small smile. “It was a pleasure, Maria. Thank you for joining the order,” Molly said.

“Thank you for having me,” I said and excused myself to go after Severus, who was already walking towards the door.

The door slammed shut behind us and we stepped into the cold air. The dark-haired man extended his hand as soon as we had descended the stairs.

“I can apparate back myself,” I said looking up at his black eyes.

“You’re not from here. We can’t be sure if Finland keeps track on foreign apparations,” he said with an annoyed look on his face. I bit my teeth together and took his hand.

A gut-wrenching sensation followed and I was pulled through time and space back to my shaggy storage room. I took a deep breath as we landed on the wooden ground.

One dark look from Severus and he was gone before I had the chance to open my mouth to thank him.