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═ ∘◦TWENTY•FIVE: What are you afraid of?◦∘ ═
∘◦Where Is My Mind? ‖ Pixies◦∘
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"Clear your mind and focus."
"I am!"
Trelawney looked at Adelaide in surprise, but a dazed smile took over her features. She placed a hand on the brunette's arm and squeezed, "You are thinking much too hard. Be as light as a feather and let your mind go."
Addy sighed but nodded closing her eyes.
November was coming to an end, and it was Adelaides' first lesson with Trelawney. Dumbledore had sent her an owl saying her lessons would start this week. Sebastion had walked her to the divination classroom in hopes of trying to calm his younger sister's nerves, but it hadn't really helped. He promised that he would sit with her at the Hufflepuff table during dinner so they could talk about it once she had finished.
Whether or not she was happy about it was still undecided.
With her eyes closed, Adelaide tried to let go of her anxiety and thoughts as Trelawney had been instructing, but it was nearly impossible. Anxiety was what held the girl together and she didn't know what it meant to not have thoughts constantly running through her head as fast as a snitch.
"I can't do it."
The Professor stood up and glided over to the cabinet with teacups. Addy watched as she pulled two out and placed them on the table at the front of the classroom where they had been sitting. The usually eccentric Professor's sudden quietness was filling Addy's head up with uneasiness.
Trelawney poured them both tea, "You have always been an interesting student. I saw you had the gift of the inner eye before you even stepped foot into my classroom." Addy raised an eyebrow but took the teacup and carefully brought it to her lips as Trelawaney watched her with wide eyes. "You've always been caught up in your own mind. I knew from your first class that you would struggle to grasp it. Your mind so clouded with anxieties of the unknown."
Addy thought about what the Professor had said while she drank more of her tea. "Why is it so hard for me?" Trelawney let a wide grin spread across her face, "Why are you, you?"
Adelaide choked on the warm liquid and quickly wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater, attempting to recover from her Professor's existential crisis-inducing question.
"Try again." Trelawney urged, eyes wide.
Adelaide sighed before setting the cup down and closing her eyes. This time she tried hard not to focus on the anxiety in her chest and more on the blackness behind her eyelids. Taking a few deep breaths, she allowed herself to be pulled in further and further into the dark. Slowly she felt her surroundings begin to fade and the quiet, but present noises of beaded curtains swaying and clattering of nicknacks on shelves around the classroom began to dwindle.
Addy felt herself panicking as she slipped further and further into this subconscious space in her mind and before her abilities could take over she felt the noises come back and she shot her eyes open.
Trelawney smiled at her brightly, "You almost had it. Try it again."
Addy shook her head, "I can't, this is too much."
The Professor shook her head, "What are you afraid of?"
She pondered the question for a few minutes before shrugging, "Honestly, everything. Like what if I get stuck there? What if I can't do it, or can't do it well enough? Dumbledore is expecting a lot from me and I don't even know how to even manage one small lesson, how am I supposed to do this constantly?"
"Well you haven't even been successful, so there's no reason to worry about such things if you don't even try to make it happen. You aren't really trying, my dear."
"I am trying. I'm just nervous."
Trelawney shrugged, "You're safe. I am right here. The things you're seeing aren't really there, not yet at least. There is also a possibility that they might change. The future is quite finicky like that. You cannot get stuck in a place that isn't real, Adelaide."
The Hufflepuff had never seen the Professor act so unbothered in her life. Even when she spoke calmly she still had a twinge of wildness behind her eyes and mannerisms. The woman was eccentric to the bone, yet at that moment Adelaide had felt as if she wasn't the same Divination Professor that she had known for years.
Adelaide allowed her words to sink in. The woman was a seer, she knew what she was talking about. Addy knew that if she couldn't trust herself then she could at least try to trust the Professor.
The amateur seer allowed herself to try one last time. She took a deep breath and tried to force the calmness to overcome her. She allowed herself to feel comfortable in the darkness rather than anxious. Adelaide kept taking deep breaths and pushing her anxieties away as they came to the front of her mind.
She felt the sounds around her slipping away like before and rather than panicking she pushed through and found calmness in her slow and constant breathing. She began to feel her surroundings disappear, almost like she was floating. Anxiety began to seep through, but once again she pushed her mind to blankness and focused only on the darkness around her and the comfort in it.
Once she felt focused enough, she tried to think about making a prediction or seeing something — anything — so she could feel somewhat successful in all this. Once again she began to feel her surroundings again and the focus she had previously slipped away. The Hufflepuff sighed before opening her eyes slowly. She had to blink a few times to try and refocus her eyes on what she assumed to be Trelawney in front of her, but once her eyes finally adjusted she gasped loudly, taking in her surroundings.
She couldn't make out where she was, the place was unfamiliar to her and she couldn't fully grasp what it looked like. Everything was almost... fuzzy? Adelaide had let herself smile. She did it, she actually did it. Taking a deep breath again she tried to ground herself so she didn't lose her vision and remained there long enough to have something of substance to tell Trelawney.
Adelaide blinked a few times searching around to find out where she was or if there were people there. She turned around and suddenly appeared in a different room, which she assumed to be the kitchen and she saw people sitting at the table. She walked forward and took a look at who they were. It felt like she was floating through the motions, she had expected it to be the same as the last vision she had, where she was seeing everything through her own eyes, but that wasn't the case.
She jumped slightly when she caught sight of her own face at the long table sitting next to Ron with Hermione and Harry across from her. She realized that she had been leaning against Ron as if he had been supporting her. The closer she got the more nervous she became at the sight, she looked awful. She had bags under her eyes and there was a bruise on her cheek and a cut on her forehead. She was wearing a large knitted sweater and sweatpants, both items she didn't recognize as they swallowed her whole.
Addy looked around the room trying to figure out where she was. The wooden table stretched across the majority of the room and wooden chairs along each side. The wall behind Harry and Hermione had shelves covered in plates, the one behind her and Ron had a stove top with pots and pans covering its surface. The wallpaper was reddish with cream flowers and the floor was a simple grey stone. It almost looked like the house elf quarters in Greenwood Manor, but it was nowhere she recognized.
"What do you think will happen?" Addy jumped at the sound of Hermione's voice. She turned away from the shelves of plates and moved closer to herself and her friends.
She watched herself shrug, "Dunno."
Adelaide frowned at the answer she gave. Her tone of voice was almost defeated and the way she brushed off the question could be considered rude if Hermione didn't offer a smile and place a hand over her own.
"I heard Mrs. Weasley talking about Dumbledore coming to speak with you tomorrow," Harry informed.
Addy watched herself shrug, "I don't know what for." Sarcasm was evident in her voice. Ron and Harry both smiled at that whereas Hermione frowned, "It's not funny."
There wasn't a chance to reply as the door swung open and the twins waltzed in with Bash in toe. Addy gasped at her brother's appearance. He was sporting a black eye, a nose that had obviously been broken but had been reset expertly, and he had a thin but quite long cut from his cheekbone to his jaw. The rest of him was covered with a black hoodie and a pair of pajama pants that she knew for a fact weren't his, but they didn't do well to hide the slight limp he had as he walked to the chair next to her own.
"No, Hermione's right — it's hilarious." Bash joked as he situated in the chair. Hermione gave the older boy a subtle glare but didn't comment further.
Adelaide felt the corners of her sight begin to go black and panicked even more. She had to know what had happened to Sebastion. They were both clearly injured, but she had no idea what could've happened to them or where they were. She closed her eyes trying to ground herself so that she wouldn't slip away from this moment — so she could figure out more.
When she opened them she saw everyone talking, but couldn't hear them. She saw herself flinch at something and Ron reach under the table to grab her hand. She blinked again and everything became fuzzier than before. She was slowly losing a grip on her surroundings. She felt warm tears fall down her cheeks as she realized she couldn't get anything more out of the vision. She closed her eyes again but knew that the next time she opened them she would be back in the Divination classroom so she kept them closed for a few moments longer.
She opened her eyes and gasped loudly. Her hands gripped the arms of the chair she was sitting in and blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the lighting in the classroom. Her breaths were short and quick and she felt the familiar warmth of tears on her cheeks. She raised a shaky hand to her face and wiped away the tears.
Her eyes darted around until they met with Trelawney's. The Professor was looking at her with anticipation, but her eyebrows were creased together in concern, "Are you alright, my dear?"
Addy shook her head, "No — no. I need to go back. How do I go back?"
Trelawney gave the Hufflepuff a kind smile, "You've done enough for one evening."
Addy shook her head again, the tears still falling, "Bash, he was... Sebastion was hurt and we were in a strange place. And I have to — I have to figure out what happened."
The Professor reached forward and pulled Adelaide into a hug, attempting to calm her down the best she could. Addy closed her eyes and felt her breathing even out. She sighed into Trelawney's shoulder and opened her eyes again, the sun had begun to set outside.
She pulled away, still looking out the window, "How long was I gone?"
"Around an hour." Adelaide's eyes widened and Trelawney took notice, "The more you do this, the better you will get, and the faster it will be. You cannot expect to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future so quickly."
Addy continued to look out the window, her mind distant as the Professor poured more tea into her cup. "Here, drink up and I'll send you on your way."
Do you guys prefer shorter chapters like these or the longer ones i've been posting?