Mortem

CHAPTER 2

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

September 2nd 1977

Chaos took it's true form as Hedone saw the flashes of light from wands move from one side of the hall to the other as students shouted out a whole range of curses, ones that even she did not know of, with a kind of fierce passion and anger that was never seen inside the walls of the castle. There were so few things that could rival the kind of energy this situation gave off.

Hedone was confused. Why were they fighting? Of course, a few curses back and forth weren't uncommon. Those petty little squabbles just ended with a few points taken off and maybe a detention with a trip to the Hospital Wing afterwards. But this, this was new. Suddenly the realisation that she was a Prefect and that she should probably stop this entire ordeal as there were no teachers present, set into her.

She took out her wand and chanted loudly "Immobulus maximus! Silencio vulgus!" and the hall went dead still. Not a sound could be heard nor could a movement be seen, but that should be obvious as it was the desired effect. You could say heads were attempting to turn to see who stopped this entire ordeal with not much effort.

"Motus incipere. Veni sonus" recited Hedone again to reverse the effects of what she had done earlier. And so the chatter and shouts of the students started again. Some were angry at being interrupted and some were whispering about Hedone stopping them with those spells. Admittedly, those spells didn't exist. Not to them, anyways. Tweaking with spells to make them more powerful wasn't the most acceptable thing to do as anything more powerful than the existing spells were classified as Dark Magic. The consequences of using those can be dealt with later, she thought, at least I stopped that.

The Head Boy and Head Girl stood up and rushed out to inform the teachers about that incident and Hedone headed over to her table. "What in the whole wide world of jumping frogs was that?" asked Freya. "That shall be answered once you tell me why almost everyone in the school was duelling in the middle of the goddamn school? If you were gonna do it, at least don't get caught." replied Hedone.

"I don't actually know what happened but it went somewhat like this. Some stupid bitch called someone something, that foolish someone called the stupid bitch something, insults went on a while, someone hit someone with a curse, slurs were said and boom! The war started!" explained Freya.

"So everyday but more passion?" Hedone questioned.

"Yup"

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The rest of the day passed on without much problems. Points were taken from all houses and a hell lot of detentions were passed out. Slytherins were delighted that Hedone was awarded points for preventing that situation. Hedone and her little group of friends were just glad that no one had bothered to inform the teachers about the spells she used to do it.

The last class of her day was one of her personal favourites, Divination. However "woolly" the subject may be called by others, she found it enjoyable, And all legends do have some basis in truth. And prophecies do exist. And creatures like centaurs have proved that it is possible to tell the future to an extent.

The class was taken by Professor Henry Ollivander. He wasn't a bad teacher. He was a pleasant man who taught well. Many used to take the class even if they disliked the subject just because he was nice to listen to.

"Welcome back, my children. I hope you are all well rested and prepared for this new year to start. We ended last year with body divination and learned about each of its kinds. This year we shall be going into two branches of divination that aren't quite exact. They are clairvoyance and dream analysis. We shall start with clairvoyance as it is necessary to have an understanding of it to go on into dream analysis" announced Professor Ollivander. "For this class, we shall not delve into the topic too much and just see what it is and what its different types are. So no need to fetch your textbooks, just sit back and listen". Hedone leaned forward in her chair and began listening keenly.

"Clairvoyance is what most people expect divination to be really, just seeing the future or having knowledge of what went down in the past without the help or aid of any external devices. Now what you may see may just be a singular vision or multiple, as even if prophecies exist it still depends on the actions of man. Even if you happen to see only one certain vision, it may still not be true, for the actions of the man happened to change. So, do not be discouraged if what you predict or saw turns out to be false, cause, as I've said multiple times, Divination is not an exact science." he explained.

"Now, clairvoyance is mostly divided into three types, those being precognition, remote viewing and retrocognition. I'm going to start with precognition as I've found it is one of the most common types to occur. But most people do not realise and most times, it may not even be right. The term most people refer to it as is 'deja vu'. The feeling that you've seen an incident gone down and know of its outcome. Very few realise that they have this gift though which is why they use that term. People who realise they have it, tend to use it to prevent wrong incidents from happening."

"Although I did not want to try anything practical at the start of the lesson, it appears as though I've changed my mind. I would like you all to just close our eyes and let your thoughts wander for a while. Not too much though, please let it remain rooted to reality and let your mind come up with situations. After, let's say fifteen minutes, I shall tell you to open your eyes and note down the things that stood out to you the most. And by the time our next class comes around, tell me if anything similar to what you saw occurred." said the professor.

"And your time starts now"

Hedone shut eyes and calmed her mind down first, being careful not to fall into slumber. She thought about the events that went down that day. Everything from the sudden wake up call by Freya, the accident with her brother, the duel that started out in the middle of the day to walking up the class played through her head like a movie. The duel bothered her more than she had let on what with all that was going on outside, in the real world. She had a nagging voice at the back of her head telling her Freya knew more than what she had said but she decided to not take it further.

Magic was a powerful energy, whether good or bad was a whole other matter altogether. She thought about the blinding lights she had witnessed earlier that day. Scenes flashed in front of her eyes at the speed of light. She started thinking about magic. Just pure magic. Magic that could not be contained, like the magic that had flowed through her ancestor's veins centuries ago. Without a warning, the world turned black. She saw nothing but could hear the sound of the sea. Darkness. Darkness was all she could sense. Even if the absence of light blinded her, she could feel the danger and pure evil of whatever lay inside radiating off the walls. "Sea, dark magic. Remember this." she thought to herself.

Suddenly out of the darkness, she could make out the night sky. She paused a little while to take in the view. A star in particular stood out the most to her. It was in a constellation which she could only describe as a really fucked up box with legs and something similar to a head. What she could understand without much thought though was the star at the bottom right of the box-like shape. It was the brightest of the lot and stood out without much effort. "Star in a constellation named animal that looks like a fucked up box" she thought. "What a wonderful discovery."

"And your time is up! Please take out your book or parchment and note down what you saw" announced Professor Ollivander cheerfully.

Hedone took out her parchment, quill and ink and quickly began to jot down what she had seen.

Sea with dark magic

Brightest star in rectangular animal constellation (go to Astronomy Tower to check which)

After a few minutes of Hedone watching everyone write in rushed scribbles, Professor Ollivander addressed the class and said "If everyone is done with the writing, then the class is dismissed."

"And don't forget to watch out for peculiar incidents" he added as an afterthought.

Everyone stuffed their belongings into their bags quickly and rushed out of class excitedly as their first day of classes was done. The students began to form groups and chatted cheerfully as they exited the class. Hedone was the only one who took Divination in their friend group, so she kept to herself and did not join the chatter.

She took out her timetable and checked the classes for tomorrow. "Ooohh Alchemy! Oh wow, I finally have free period after Herbology" she said to herself. She strode through the hallways and down the staircases till she finally reached the library. She walked in there hoping to find Freya as this was here favourite place to be (other than the Common Room, of course). Sadly for her, she did not find Freya's brunette head peering into a book. But she did find someone else she had wanted to be talking with for a while.

"EDDY! There you are." screamed Alice Fortescue, a 6th year Ravenclaw Prefect who also happened to be one of Hedone's closest friends.

"QUIET! This is a library and I expect everyone who comes here to abide by the rules. I hear one more sound from you and out you shall go" screeched the librarian, Madam Katherine Umbridge.

"Hey Lizzy" greeted Hedone. "Now a little skip of pleasantries and tell me everything that happened on your trip with Frank"

Alice, who readily took the opportunity to talk about her beloved partner, Frank Longbottom, a 7th year Gryffindor, started delving into the details of the trip to Greece with him.