Our Lovely Home_ Marauders Era Fanfic.

20. Marlene's Predictions

She shuffled the cards between her fingers a dozen times before dealing.

For Marlene, divination was not a game, and she wanted to show her classmates that they should not joke about the future.

She, in Professor Cyrene¹s own words, possessed the sacred gift of clairvoyance, and if she worked hard at cultivating it, she could dictate momentous prophecies for the morrow.

For that very reason, when she heard James and Sirius laughing as they hurriedly went about their fortune-telling task, writing down terrible events in their predictions, Marlene became angry.

"Don't take it so seriously, woman" James mumbled as he received the cards, "it's no big deal."

"What are they doing?" Lupin asked, approaching the table. He was coming from the library with a couple of thin books "Are they going to play broom, if so, they should bet on it for excitement."

Ignoring that none of the three had any idea what "broom" was, Marlene held out a pair of cards to Lupin and pointed to the chair next to James.

"Marlene is going to read our futures" mentioned Sirius, who received a slap on the hand when he wanted to check his cards, "Want to try your luck, Moony?"

"All right, I'm in "said Lupin, sitting down at the table, "although I'm not even in Divination... it seems like too much of a subject...." Marlene looked at Lupin with flames in her eyes, who said, "Subjective?"

"The art of Divination is noble, I'll show you!"

With a wave of her wand, Marlene put on some soft rock music in the background, closed the curtains and turned on the light beside her. Undoubtedly, her rebellious blonde hair, thick black eyeliner, black nails, and deep red lipstick contrasted completely with the most identifiable image of a psychic.

"Turn over your first card."

James' card was an Ace of Gold, Sirius, had the five of spades, but Lupin had just turned over his card and hid it again.

"Lupin, your card."

The moon showed up in his deck, the boys were starting to get a bad feeling about the whole fortune-telling thing.

"James, your card is a good omen; you are going to enter a very productive period of life, you will accomplish what you have always longed for, and it is the ideal time to work for others" Marlene determined without hesitation.

"Sirius, your letter tells me about your past, that you have suffered too much because of your pride, that your life is in constant conflict, but still, you have a good self-esteem. "

Sirius bit his lip, with some resentment, as he had never revealed anything of that delicate subject to Marlene.

"Lupin, the moon can have several interpretations, but knowing you, it refers to your fear, what you're hiding, or both. You've been hiding something in your life, which if you don't understand it in time, can trigger a depression that you won't be able to get out of."

The boys swallowed hard and both Lupin and Sirius decided that they didn't want to check their future anymore, so they put the cards back in the deck, but James, encouraged by the good prediction, decided to continue with the second card.

The Devil.

"You're going to need a period of reflection, and start checking your relationships, because one of them is going to pact with the devil." - James frowned and Marlene concluded "It also tells me that in a couple of years, you're going to make a decision that will determine much of the future."

Giving him a bad feeling, he decided to get up from the table, leaving the last card undiscovered. He mocked along with Sirius at Marlene and before the girl managed to reply they left the common room. Lupin stayed behind to help his friend, who was putting away the letters. Out of sheer curiosity, Lupin turned over James' last letter.

"What does this one mean?"

The tower.

Marlene dropped the cards and began to interpret, with respect to James' turn. The song ended and she answered:

"Something bad will happen in a few years, many things will happen in a short time and the conclusion will not be a happy one" Lupin ordered again, listening to Marlene carefully, "This card, along with the others I gave James... means a premature death, just after the attainment of his great dream."

Lupin looked at Marlene who turned over a random card from the deck and, powerless, left all the material on the table and left the Gryffindor room.

That couldn't be true, could it? Divination was a lie to swindle people.

When Remus picked up Marlene's letter, he stared at it for a while. She had brought up the death as an omen of her own.

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1) Cyrene, having renounced the labors proper to women of the time, chose to live a wildlife, and after an intense battle she had with a lion, Apollo, a god renowned for being in charge of prophecies, abducted her, making her one of his mortal wives.