The seer

Severus had been right. The burns on my hands healed within the day. After a restless night, I had woken up in the morning and seen the healed skin on my hands. The burn-paste had been exceptionally well-made.

I had gone to work with a heavy heart. The Department of Mysteries was filled with more life, aurors, investigators and ward experts for the next weeks. It was stressful for me to try and concentrate on my work with so many people around. Currently we were doing a full inventory of all the prophesies in the department. And boy, it was a lot of work.

Shelf after shelf I had categorized everything, each and every one of those crystal balls were noted on my magical inventory slip. My co-workers were doing the same thing. After counting and noting down for the past eight hours, I was relieved when I saw Adrian come for the evening shift and take over my work.

We had exchanged a couple of words, a smile and a recap of the work I had done in the morning. He had looked like he hadn’t had much of sleep. Dark circles around his green eyes and blonde hair unkempt told me that. I doubt any of us were having a good night’s sleep nowadays.

Within the weeks following the incident, the mood in the Prophecy room had changed. Everyone seemed to be watching their back, alert and more careful. Even the added security measures didn’t keep the uneasiness out of the atmosphere.

I had realized that my boss Anne Vance was most probably collaborating with the order like her sister when she had assigned additional night patrols to us unspeakables as well. Together with Kingsley and the Order, we had fallen to an understanding and were sharing the nightly schedule with them. I was patrolling the prophecy room every second week on Friday nights. One shift in two weeks kept the Order members and unspeakables from exhaustion and allowed us to rest in between work and patrol duty.

I was currently crouched over a glass of Irish Coffee. My hands were cold and I tried to warm them as best as I could in the chilly bar I was sitting in. It was Saturday night and I was waiting for a couple of friends to join me.

I glanced around me in the muggle pub and held back a smile. I was happy to have the night off from work and meetings. It wasn’t unusual for me to end up in a bar after a stressful week and this time I was going with a couple of order members.

The door opened and a breeze of cold air flew past the people coming in. I recognized the long brown jacket one of them was wearing. “Charlie”, I shouted and waved my hand.

The Weasley looked around for a moment before spotting me. He walked through the tables and drunken muggles, pulling an out-of-place looking Remus with him. “Hi, Maria”, he said and took off his jacket. “How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long. I just arrived myself”, I said and turned my gaze to Remus. “I see you managed to bring Remus with you.”

Charlie threw his jacket on the back of a chair across from me and laughed. His brown eyes glinted in the dim lit bar. “He almost didn’t come, I had to bribe him with information about dragons.”

Remus looked a little red. “Well, don’t be so hasty in judging me. I-I enjoy the time at home-“

“Yes, yes we all know that!” Charlie said. He pulled out a chair for Remus. “Sit. I’ll go get you a drink.”

I managed to keep my face on neutral when Charlie took off to the crowd and Remus sat down in front of me. He shook his jacket off and looked around him. It seemed like he didn’t like the noise and people around us. I sipped from my drink. Maybe it had something to do with his heightened werewolf-senses.

I put the glass on the table. Remus flinched from the noise and I met his gaze. He was really wary tonight. Nothing in him seemed to be out of the ordinary. It wasn’t full moon and he still had time to prepare.

My attention shifted involuntarily away from his face to the air around him. I could feel his energy there, flickering about. Shades of grey and brown were mixing with murky green and blue. Remus was under a lot of pressure. The colors overtaking his usual earthy tones told me that he was dealing with guilt, depression and conflict within himself.

“Maria,” Remus said. His voice brought me back. “Your eyes were clouding over.”

I shook the remnants of the magic from my body. I had dozed off and started analyzing his aura when I wasn’t supposed to do that. I bit the inside of my cheek. I shouldn’t invade people’s privacy like that. And I had known it since my studies. But, sometimes things happened without much of a thought. My powers were a part of me and it was hard to turn them off. Especially after a drink.

“Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly.

“Where did you go?” he asked. The scar on his face tightened with every move.

I looked at his grey sweater. It had a small hole in it on the right shoulder. Such an easy fix with or without magic. Why hadn’t he fixed it? “I was just admiring your sweater. It seems dear to you.”

A faint blush crept up Remus’s neck. A pink color lighted up his aura. I cursed mentally and looked somewhere else. I had been looking at his aura again. My eyes found the glass between my hands. The cream in my Irish coffee was mixed with the drink already. It was still somewhat warm but I had to drink it soon.

“The sweater was a gift from a friend”, was all he said about the subject.

I held back a smile. Even when I had turned my attention to my cup, I could still feel the damn energy in the room. Remus had a crush on someone. And that someone had given him the sweater.

“Well, it suits you”, I complimented with a smile.

A swish of yellow and green clouded the corner of my vision and Charlie appeared before Remus had the chance to answer me. I noticed that today I just couldn’t shield the auras away. I must be tired. Remus made room and the Charlie sat next to him and put a tray on the table between us. I eyed the tray and found six shots on it.

“Charlie you shouldn’t have!” I said

“Now”, he raised his other hand up. “I know these are not magical shots but nothing beats having a lemon drop after a long day.” Remus started protesting but Charlie continued and gave a pointed look at the older man. “And, I bought two for everyone just because they were cheap.”

I rolled my eyes and accepted the shots Charlie offered. I laughed when I saw Remus looking so lost with a lemon drop in each hand. “To us!” Charlie said and raised the shots in the air.

“To us”, I repeated and downed the two shots.

A few rounds of drinks later we were all nicely drunk. Charlie was talking with Remus and I about his research in dragons. I was fascinated about everything he had went through in Romania. He explained how being a quidditch seeker had helped him along on his career as he could interact with the dragons better on a broomstick (And avoid the fiery flames as well). And how he was looking forward to returning there after helping us with the Order.

As I was talking and having fun, I couldn’t help but to notice Charlie sneaking glances at me from time to time. Not obvious glances, but small ones meaning that he might be interested. After all, he was almost the same age with me with him being one year older.

I was flattered by his attention. He was a good-looking guy and I found him funny. And after a long time being single, I enjoyed his interest in me and flirted back. Not too much, but enough for us to have a playful banter going on throughout the evening. And in my drunk state I didn’t care about the small guilt building inside me for giving him mixed signals.

Even when I flirted with Charlie, the situation between me and Severus remained in the back of my mind. We had been giving each other mixed signals for months and I was growing frustrated. So, some innocent flirting with Charlie proved out to be the perfect distraction.

I was chilling by the bar with the red-haired Weasley when Remus appeared behind us. He was looking out of breath and was frantically trying to explain something to us. He smelled of cigarette smoke like we all did.

“What?” I asked. Charlie had his hand on Remus’s shoulder and was trying to calm him down. It took a while until Remus managed to speak clearly.

“I can’t believe the stupidity of that dog, To show up in here-!”

“Remus?!”

“Look!” he pointed to our booth where all of our jackets sat abandoned. “Look what the cat dragged in!”

And there, sitting nicely on the bench was a big dog with a mischievous glint in its eyes. I burst out laughing. “I guess he also wants a drink. Maybe we should bring him one in a bowl”

“No, Maria that is Sirius,” Remus hissed.

I looked at his furious eyes. “I know. I can see him.”

Charlie shook his head and picked up our drinks from the bartender. His hair was ruffled and his cheeks were red from drinking too much. He looked at the Animagus and then to us. “Well, he’s already here. What bad could one drink do?” then he turned to the bartender. “One more beer please.”

“Are you completely daft?” Remus hissed. “He could get arrested!” His aura was wild again and a new tone made it stood out from all the different auras in the room.

“He will if you keep up with that. Act like nothing –“ I hissed back but the new tone in Remus’s aura made me lose my train of thought. Deep red. Remus was in love with Sirius.

I looked away. How hadn’t I noticed it before? Remus seems to be the only one Sirius lets close to him. And Remus is the only one who can calm Sirius down. I had indeed been blind. And all the time I had thought Remus and Tonks had something.

Charlie nudged me with his elbow. “Come, let’s go”, he nodded towards the booth. “Take the drink”, he said.

I took my drink and pulled Remus with us with my other hand. “We need to get him out of here soon”, Remus said.

“One drink and then we go”, I said back. I looked at his stormy eyes. He nodded.

We sat back in the booth. This time Remus was sitting next to the black dog when Charlie sat next to me. Remus was trying to ignore Sirius and the frustrated dog started whining next to him and trying to poke him with his snout.

“Don’t be so sad Padfoot”, Charlie said. He transfigured the pint of beer into a bowl of beer. “Have some beer instead”, he said while trying to keep himself from laughing when he passed the bowl in front of the dog.

I, on the other hand failed miserably and burst out laughing like a little girl when I saw Sirius lapping the beer with his long tongue. Tears were streaming down my face as I failed to keep my composure again and again while watching Sirius. All the laughing caused me to have hiccups, which made me laugh even more.

Apparently, my fit of laughter and Sirius’s whining had some effect on Remus when he rolled his eyes and with a huff he allowed himself to look at the dog lapping beer next to him. And after a moment, we were all laughing together.

The happiness didn’t last long and we were all surprised to hear a familiar voice from next to our booth. “How unfortunate for me to interrupt your happy occasion”, Severus said. He was taking slow steps towards us.

I looked up to him. Shit. His black eyes flickered to mine and then glided over the others. They stopped on the dog, who was sitting next to Remus. Severus looked surprised for a moment and then narrowed his eyes at the dog.

“Dumbledore sent me to inform you about an order meeting tonight. However, I see that you also have some explaining to do”, Severus said as Sirius bared his teeth to him.

“A meeting? Now?” Charlie asked.

“You heard correctly, Mr Weasley.”

“And he sent you?”

“I have instructions to retrieve miss Koski but no obligations to the rest of you. Do as you please with the information I just provided you.”

Remus coughed and nudged Sirius who was still in a defensive stance. “Come on, we need to go.”

Severus laid one look at me. “I don’t have the whole night to wait for you.” He then turned around and headed for the door.

I huffed and ran a hand through my hair. And I thought I could spend the rest of the evening peacefully drunk and sleep in tomorrow. How wrong I was. And out of all the people who could’ve found us, it had to be the man I hoped to avoid today.

I stood up and took a hold of the table in order to stabilize myself. My head a was spinning from the alcohol and it took a moment for it to stop. I opened my eyes and saw Charlie offering my jacket to me.

“Here you go”, he smiled and I took the jacket and put it on.

“Thank you”, I hiccupped and turned to Remus and Sirius. “Thanks for the evening. It was fun.”

“Don’t let Severus drop your mood”, Remus said back. “And try to hold your breath. It’s supposed to help with the hiccups.”

“I’ll try”, I laughed and hurried away from my companions, who were still finishing the rest of their drinks.

I left the pub and stepped out to the crisp November air. All the noises of a crowdy bar faded when the door closed after me. I pulled my leather gloves from my pocket and put them on while scanning the street. There, Severus was leaning on the building opposite to the bar. I couldn’t make out his face in the darkness but I knew he must be annoyed.

I made my way through the icy street towards him. My steps were a little wobbly, but I could still walk and talk. I was drunk for sure. I made a mental note to buy more sober-up potions as I had forgotten to stock up on them before this evening. I hadn’t planned on being sober. After all, the knight bus could always drive me home.

“You almost made me wonder if you fell asleep while I was waiting for you here”, Severus straightened up from the wall.

“Do you-”, I hiccupped. “Do you always spend your extra times thinking about witty remarks?”

Severus’s lips twitched. “How much did you have to drink?” He came to stand by me.

“So much that if I have to tag along, I’m going to throw up on you.”

“How charming”, he had an amused expression.

“We could always walk”, I negotiated. “It’s only a few kilometers away.”

Severus looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “We don’t use kilometers here. Didn’t you learn that in geography?”

“Oh, shut up”, I swished my hand and started walking away from the bar. I remembered the way. “Come on, I haven’t got all night”, I sniped at Severus who remained standing behind me.

I turned back to the direction where I was going and heard Severus mumbling something behind me. He quickly caught up to me and fell into step beside me. Or he stepped, I swayed slightly. We walked for a moment in silence. I held my breath. These hiccups better be gone soon.

“Why on earth would you be out drinking with that dog?”

I looked at him but he kept his eyes on the road. “It was just supposed to be me, Remus and Charlie. He invited himself over”, I said.

“He risked your safety by coming there.”

“He risked his own neck by coming there. It has nothing to do with me.”

“And if he’d been caught? Caught out with you? You’d be exposed”, Severus said slowly.

I stopped. “Are you worried about my safety or the fact that I was out with Sirius?”

Severus slowed down. He then stopped and turned his head slightly. His back was to me and I could see his breath leaving icy mist in the air. “I don’t concern myself with your love life.”

That hurt. He sure knew what to say to shut me up. His words rung inside of my head. My hazy thoughts registered the pain and buried it. How I was not surprised he hurt me again?

I walked towards him. “I know you don’t like him. You don’t like any of them. But could you at least pretend to be civil to them?”

“No”, was all he said before continuing on with the walk.

I walked a few meters behind him dragging my feet. He was a thorn on my side. A thorn I couldn’t take out. It reminded me of him all the time. How we had compatible magic. How I knew he was my amortentia. How he had kissed me over a month ago. And how he could hurt me with his words.

We walked in silence for a moment which seemed like forever. His steps echoed off the icy asphalt and I tried not to fall behind.

“It wasn’t Black”, he finally said slowing down.

“What?”

Severus’s eyes met mine and then he looked away. “He’s not interested in you. I wasn’t ‘worried’ about him.”

“Then who?”

Severus remained silent again. He was looking down with his hands in his pockets. Didn’t he wear gloves? For a moment we walked in silence and I waited for him to answer. I knew he needed time to gather himself. His aura was swirling around his body and I noticed streaks of black in it. They seemed to form around his left arm and from there bond with the rest of the aura.

I realized this was the first time I had actually looked at him through my powers. Not just feeling but looking as well. Of course, now that I was drunk it was harder for me to control my powers and hadn’t been able to block them the whole evening.

The alcohol had dimmed my powers enough for me not to get a full perspective of all the layers surrounding him. But I could see blue centered around his head with black and grey. Surprisingly, I could make out specs of red here and there. A different kind of red to what Remus had. This red meant he was determined about something.

“You seemed to be doing fine with Mr. Weasley.”

I was taken aback by his comment. The flirting between me and Charlie had been just that. Banter. Throughout the night neither of us had made any proper moves or suggestions towards each other. I had given him mixed signals and he had seemed to understand them that I didn’t want anything serious with him. Or so I hoped.

I resisted the urge to snap at him about his earlier comment about my love life. I knew it had taken a great deal for him to admit he was indeed concerned. Severus was still looking at the icy ground in front of him.

“He’s a friend”, I said. My cheeks were feeling numb from the coldness.

“He didn’t seem to think so.”

“How do you know?”

Severus said nothing and kept on walking. I glanced around and felt happy that the street was empty. I knew that Severus would shut down again if someone was to walk near to us. I pondered what he said and finally understood how.

“You looked through his mind?” I hissed.

Severus finally looked at me. “I have no reason to explain my actions to you.”

“That’s an invasion of someone’s privacy and you know it!”

“You should know all about that, miss Koski.”

“What?”

“Do you really think I can’t feel how you’re analyzing my energy?” Severus hissed. “I can feel your drunken aura swirling around me like it’s trying to find something.”

“That has nothing to do with this!”

Severus stopped and grabbed my arm and spun me towards him. “It has to do with everything!”

My heart was beating fast as I recovered from the surprise. Severus was holding onto my arm and keeping me from falling as he spun me to face him. Maybe he forgot that I was still somewhat drunk. And I clutched my right hand on his shoulder to support myself.

I was very close to him. The closeness seemed to make matters worse and the drunk haze returned. I couldn’t think properly with him being so close to me. I breathed in to calm myself but it was a bad idea. The scent of him made my head spin even more. I could spend days here in his arms.

I looked up to him with my lips parted. “Why does it have to do with everything?”

“Stop asking nosy questions, witch”, he murmured.

Severus looked down at me and I found myself unable to look away from his piercing gaze. All the thoughts about reprimanding him flew out of the window when the tips of his hair tickled my face. Warmth spread in me and as I still held onto his shoulder. He released my arm and I took the opportunity to lift it and touch his face gently.

The black-haired man before me froze when he felt my clothed fingertips on his face. His eyes remained locked on me and overcome with drunk confidence, I caressed my thumb on his jaw and touched his lower lip lightly. His lips were chapped from the dry winter air but it didn’t bother me. His appearance didn’t bother me at all and I couldn’t see why he didn’t get more attention from people around him. Maybe it had something to do with his persona.

Severus’s hand curled slowly around my wrist and seized it. “You’re drunk”, he mumbled.

“I would still do this if I was sober.”

“Do what?” Severus asked

I smirked. “This”, I answered and grabbed a hold of his black jacket and pulled him down and met his lips in a kiss.

For a moment I was absolutely sure that Severus would push me away. That he would release the kiss and leave me standing there. But somehow this time my drunken confidence had been a good thing. After the initial shock, he finally started moving and to my surprise, he pulled me closer.

Severus sneaked his arm around me and kissed me back roughly. His proximity made my head spin and I answered the harsh kisses with passion. I moaned into his mouth when he ran his hand through my tangled hair and gripped the back of my neck. I wrapped my arms around his neck and enjoyed the feeling he caused in me. Happiness, relief, lust, desperation.

He was dominating me and guiding my mouth with his own firmly. I was more than happy about him taking all the control. His skilled lips turned me on immensely and I wanted him. And I knew that he wanted me too.

A bark sounded far away in the night air. Severus broke the kiss and looked around us. No-one was there. Severus pulled away from me and took a couple steps back. I heard sounds of laughter and steps from around the corner.

Severus met my eyes and a wordless message appeared in my mind. “They caught up with us.” My eyes widened. How had he done that? Severus then extended his hand as the sounds grew louder. Damn, I hoped Sirius hadn’t seen us. I took Severus’s hand and he apparated us to the Orders headquarters.