The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

A Visit From the Blind Seer

James Potter instinctively stepped before Lily and pulled her close to him, the moment the bluebell flames extinguished. The darkness was complete, thick, and impossible to see anything through. He felt his heart rattling within himself and a great weight fell upon him: if anything happened to Lily now, it would be all his fault, his fault for marauding about this castle, for taking her down this passageway he had never been in before.

What had made him notice the doorway? he wondered, and why had the draw to explore it been so deep in his veins that he had forgone safety measures, forgotten to act in a defensive manner? It was suddenly as though he were realizing that his brain had been a bit taken over, and his mind was now unfogging. How foolish to traipse off down this corridor like this, how stupid! And now they were in trouble for it, and now —

He'd been imperiused, he realized. Or some other dark magic had been used to bring them here, perhaps? He wasn't sure how what had promised to be a stress-free birthday holiday had turned into this.

Rather just like his luck, it was.

"You may lower your wand, Miss. Evans," a low, rasping voice came from the dark, the speaker as good as invisible to them.

Lily had drawn her wand the moment the light was snuffed, and her hand protruded over James's shoulder, his fist shaking with the grip on the wand. How the man who spoke had seen it was beyond comprehension, however, seeing as even she could not see her wand extended in the darkness. Slowly, she withdrew the wand, though she did not put it away, only held it down at James's side.

"Who's there?" James demanded, voice lowered to sound older, more in command. Silence followed his question so that his words seemed to rest, dead in the air around them. Lily's grip on his shoulder tightened in nervous anticipation.

Finally, after what seemed the world's longest pause, the reply came. "The question is not who am I, for I am he who belongs here in this place, while you are the intruders... Mr. Potter."

"How do you know our names?" Lily demanded bravely.

The answer chilled them both to their cores.

"Mopsus sees all."

Lily hissed, "James, we need to go. Now."

James reached back and took Lily's hand and moved in what he hoped was the direction of the stairs they'd descended, but in the absolute darkness it was near impossible to tell which way he was moving. He paused, suddenly realizing that they could bump into the old man and if they did - then what?

"Its quite impossible you're Mopsus," James said boldly, trying to get a feel of where the Blind Seer might be. "You see, he's dead. And has been for some time now." He pulled Lily along, gently, his hand holding hers, though careful not to grasp too tightly. Their feet shuffled slowly.

"Oh? Am I dead at this point in time?"

"Quite, I'm afraid," James replied.

Mopsus's voice was low. "For some - death is not the end, but the middle, a pause. A brief moment that is at the finish, with many times beyond it coming from behind. For some, who have the time, that is..."

"You haven't got any time left," James said, and his toes hit the wall and he knew they'd missed the stairwell somehow and started slowly shuffling further along the dark, feeling for where the wall would give way to the open air for their escape. Lily stayed close, her hand still gripping James's shoulder, her wand still pressed to her hip.

"Perhaps not in my future," Mopsus said. "But in my past, I have made more time than any other wizard has ever done... and with my time, I have orchestrated many a thing in your future, so that in the end it might all turn out well."