The Ten Year Hex [Severus Snape]

18

Dumbledore had an entirely different air about him as he sat across from Jynx. His hands were folded neatly on top of the desk in front of him and his back was straight. She wasn't sure if it was nerves, or if he knew something she didn't.

She shuffled the cards between her fingers, the glimmering skeleton danced in the dim light of the many candles she had lit around the space. It was all simply for her own comfort now. 'I want you to read me again,' the old wizard had said. She had never read someone twice, there had never been a reason to.

Perhaps it was anticipation that she saw in the lines of his face, the hope that this time it would be different. Jynx did not share the same sentiment, her gut was already dropping at the thought of seeing the same scenes. Her throat was tight as the image of Severus' grave flashed behind her eyes.

She shifted the cards in her hand and sat them to the side, the skeleton sat still on the pile as she placed her hands on the desk, "Would you mind placing your hands in mine?"

Again, it wasn't necessary but she wanted to hold onto something or someone as the world turned. Dumbledore's brow raised before he unlaced his fingers and slid his palms across the table into hers. His skin was thin and his fingers bony but they were a tether. He nodded and his long beard grazed the top of the desk, he was ready.

Jynx closed her eyes and readied for the same visions, the same awful future. Her eyes met his blue and the world flipped. The first vision remained the same, she watched herself in the mirror as she placed her hand on the shoulder of Lily's son, who was very much alive.

The scarlet of the stone faded into the stormy night where she stood grieving over Severus' grave. A mist curled in around her.

The mist reformed and there was no fire, no destruction around her. She leaned over Lily's son, his face stained with tears. He screamed at her as he clung to the lifeless body of a boy who could be no more than seventeen. There was no sound, only the suffocating silence that she experienced the events in but she could feel the anguish bleeding from Lily's son and herself. A crowd surrounded them in some sort of stadium and thousands of eyes watched in horror. It was her fault, whatever had happened, she felt it.

The faces melted around her and a bright light took over the night. The Ministry building folded in on itself before straightening and the face of the Dark Lord looked back at her, his wand drawn and his teeth bared. She felt no fear as spells flew around her and she in turn threw them back. Jynx herself would be terrified, but she was not herself in this moment, she was Dumbledore. She was unbothered by the presence before her, in fact she was hardly paying attention to the battle at hand. Her concentration was elsewhere.

The Ministry building evaporated in a puff of smoke and the next scene flowed like a violent river. She stood in a dark cave, Lily's son stood next to her, a horrified look in his eyes. Her insides felt like mush, liquified and toxic. Above them was a ring of fire and she struggled to keep it alive, to keep the monsters away. The flame engulfed her vision, burning back into reality.

This time Jynx wasn't screaming, she didn't jump from her seat and skitter away. Instead she let go of the aged hands that were clenched in hers and they both slowly retracted to their respective sides of the desk.

Dumbledore didn't make a sound as he laced his fingers back together. Severus stood with his hands locked behind his back, the same grief she had seen the last time was present in the lines of his face.

Jynx was completely baffled, she had never read a wizard more than once and she surely had never seen the lines change. The scenes were all different, with the exception of one, and she did not know how to handle it. Dumbledore had changed his future. In doing so he also changed the life of Lily's son.

Jynx drew in a sharp breath between her teeth, "How?"

Dumbledore trailed a hand down the length of his beard, "What did you see?"

"It was different, almost all of it was different," she said.

"As I suspected," Dumbledore said calmly.

What did that mean? "Almost everything I have ever seen has come to pass," Jynx whispered. Though this new revelation opened so many doors. Perhaps her visions didn't have to be carved in stone. Maybe they could be molded in clay and reshaped, a possibility instead of a fact.

"Some things are meant to pass," said Dumbledore, "trees meant to fall. But some things are salvageable, like robes that need mending."

Severus shifted uncomfortably next to her, his body rigid. What the hell had Dumbledore done? "So, Severus-"

"If that is what you saw and it did not change," Dumbledore said, his eyes not leaving hers, "You hold more power than you realize Miss Masters. When Voldemort returns, because I assume that is what you saw, your allegiance will not matter, he will come for you."

A chill ran down her spine, "How did you save Lily's son?"

The air around them grew stagnant, like the air in a room long forgotten, "Some things," Dumbledore said proudly, "are not even for readers to know."

It was true, there were things even the future couldn't show. Jynx had her power and Dumbledore had his. By the tone in his answer, she knew it was the last one she would get. She had been given a warning and an open ended statement without him even knowing what she had seen and he wouldn't ask.

She opened her mouth but immediately closed it again as she stood. She bid Dumbledore goodnight as Severus drew to her side, following her from the office and down the stairs.

She could see the questions in his eyes, dancing just behind the dark but they never escaped his lips. Jynx wondered what she would see if she read him. Would she see herself or would she see a future that she would never be a part of? For someone who could see so much, she felt she could never see where she fell in the line of other people's lives.

Severus accompanied her back to her room and she collapsed into the thick comfort of the bed. Her head hit the pillow and she pressed her hands underneath it, raising it to her face so that she could scream. There were so many raw feelings flowing through her, she needed an outlet. If her visions could be shattered, the opportunities were endless. The muffled emotions were brought to a halt by the feel of parchment caught between her fingers.

She let the pillow fall and pulled the now crumpled page from beneath it. Her thumbs straightened the edges before she unfolded the single crease across the page.

The House
8 pm Saturday

The words were in the same hurried haphazard scrawl as the note that Demi had sent. Who had been in her room? The hair on the back of her neck stood as she rose to her feet. The house, the one they all occupied during their time as Death Eaters. She had an hour, and she had no idea what to expect.

She stopped outside Severus' door, her hand on the handle. Then her feet were moving again, and she made her way through the castle as fast as she could. The gate had not yet locked behind her as she disappeared.