Augury [Harry Potter Fanfic]

b. one

"Aren't you scared? You might die."

"Aren't you scared?" she shot back, and her shadow shifted ever so slightly. "I'm Death."

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A gasp escaped her lips as she sat up, far too quickly, looking around her. Her heart was beating rapidly, fear pumping in her veins.

Danger, danger, danger, the voice still nagged, screaming, before whispering, shouting, and the disappearing.

"Sawyer?" Snape's voice questioned.

She turned to give him a look, and she realized quickly she was asleep for a while. "It's two a.m.?" she wondered, "have I been out for five hours?"

"You've been out for months," he spoke carefully, making her eyes widen. "What is it?"

"The Heir?" she remembered.

"The Basilisk is dead," he informed. "You knew it was a basilisk, right? That's what you meant when you warned him of the serpent." Sawyer nodded, and her heart suddenly started beating quickly.

She saw fire, and a snake, and a boy.

"Voldemort," her voice inaudible, but Snape somehow knew. He flinched, and she blinked her eyes, each time she closed it seeing a forest.

I'm death. I'm death. I'm death.

She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to wash away the vision.

"Sawyer?" a voice asked, and she recognized it, as she would recognize it everywhere. She threw her legs over the bed, watching the man. She wobbled to her feet, a smile decorating her dry, pale lips. Snape's frown was visible, but ignored.

"Remus!" she cheered, stepping closer, hugging him. 

"You bloody idiot, I've been dead worried!" 

Dead.

"Sir, Remus," she stepped back, voice tense, recalling the conversation with Tom Riddle, with Voldemort before he was truly Voldemort. "Seeing... being a seer, isn't it... different than what I do?"

"What do you mean?" Remus asked, confused, supporting her. She raised her eyes, glancing around.

"We're alone," Snape assured.

"Don't seers see the future? In visions? Read it in leaves, or tea? Or stars?"

"I don't see your point, sweetheart," Remus spoke, confused and scared. What was she leading them unto?

"Do seers really have affinities to things?"

"Are you implying you aren't a seer?" Snape sneered, that was ridiculous. 

She sat down on her bed, deep in thought. Snape and Remus realized at the same time she was implying that. "While I was... petrified... I found myself in a forest. Apparently, I've been there the whole time I've been petrified. There was a fire there, and when I came closer, I saw a boy... and a snake." she raised her eyes, eyeing Snape. "Nagini," black eyes wide, Snape watched with curiosity. "I reckon you realize who the boy is?"

"If you're saying you've met the Dark Lord--"

"We've spoken." she continued, "briefly. He asked me if I'm cold, which is usual, but I didn't want to make theshiver that passed my spine suspicious, so I nodded, and he offered me to join him. He introduced himself, Tom Riddle, and after a while... He made a warning, or a threat. He said it's dangerous alone."

"Did he do something?" Remus asked, concerned.

Sawyer shook her head. "I said I'm not alone, he's there, and he gave me a threat again. He said he was dangerous, and asked if I wasn't afraid to die." With a sigh, she continued. "In reply, I asked if he isn't afraid."

"Of what?" Snape asked, incredulously looking at the girl. She was good at potions and charms, and transfiguration, but a thirteen years old girl could never harm the Dark Lord. 

"I'm death," she whispered, and silence settled, the fire that danced on the torches around them blowing away. Eyes wide, she turned to look around. Snape quickly lit them again.

"That's a coincidence," Remus assured. "You're not... Death! That's ridiculous, Sawyer."

She watched Remus, half hopeful.

"You are a seer. You had a vision, remember?" he asked, "you saw this guy that shoved you in Diagon Alley dying three days before he did."

"Did I see him dying?" she wondered. "Or made him die?"

"That's honestly ridiculous, Sawyer! Listen to yourself! You'd never hurt a fly."

"I used the killing curse." The two adults froze up.

"How do you know how to do it?" Snape inquired. "No teacher would teach that-- not Quirrel, not Birmingham. Defintely not Lockhart," he scoffed. "How did you know to use it?"

"I don't know," Sawyer said. "I stood in front of the basilisk, and I just said the words, I barely realized it was the killing curse until it hit his eye."

"You've got affinity to death, Sawyer," Remus said sternly. "You're not Death. You just, familiar with it more than most people. You know what? If Death is an Entity, like you think, you aren't him... It. You're affiliated with it, that's it.

"You're not Death."