The Marauders: Year Four

The Evidence of the Seer

The Evidence of the Seer

"So I got loads of Gryffindor duvets," James was whispering, "And a bunch of extra house ties from the laundry. We can do the Shack up really brilliantly. I figured if we knick some candles we could magic them to float about and stick the duvets up on the walls..."

Sirius and James were sitting together in the corridor outside of Divination, huddled in the corner by one of the suits of armor. Peter was taking deep breaths, nervous about meeting scary, old Professor Mopsus, pacing back and forth. "He just seems so mean," Peter was saying, fretting.

Remus came up the hall, having left to go fetch a cup for some water for Peter. Sirius and James instantly stopped talking. "Here, Pete," Remus said, holding up the cup and waving his wand, "Aquamenti!"

Peter quickly gulped down the water.

The door to the Divination room opened up apparently by its very own accord and the students gathered out in the hall looked among one another nervously before beginning to file inside. Conspicuously missing from the lot of students filing into Divination was Severus Snape, who none of the Marauders missed being there.

James leaped off the floor and ran to catch up to Lily Evans as she turned to follow Marlene McKinnon to a table in the corner, "Wait.. where are you going, Evans?" he called, stopping at the aisle, "Our tables down this way."

Lily looked between Marlene and James, "Well, I thought that since Professor Vablatsky isn't teaching this term that... that we wouldn't be paired like we were before."

"Oh." James blinked, trying not to look stunned. "I - I suppose you're right."

"But now you're free to pair up with Sirius," she pointed out, "You four can all sit together and... cause trouble, I'm sure."

"Yeah," James nodded numbly, "It'll be brilliant."

"Or something."

"Or something," he repeated.

Lily smiled and turned to go sit with Marlene.

James stared after her with a stupid expression on his face.

"C'mon, Prongs," Sirius said, reaching over and pulling James over by his cloak, "The pretty thing walked away, time to do the same."

They took a seat in the back, the four of them gathered about a table. Peter was wringing his hands. Remus reached over and gently put his palm over Peter's hands to calm their movement, "It's alright, Pete," he whispered, "I'll bet he's not so bad once you get to know him."

"I hope so," Peter whimpered.

The room had been redone nearly completely since Professor Vablatsky had last been there. Everything was clean and the tables were surrounded by squat three-legged stools now instead of cushions as they'd been before. Gone were the sashes and scent of incense. The quirkiness of the room was now in the collection of clocks that stood on rows and rows of shelves lining the front wall of the room. Dozens and dozens of clocks, maybe even hundreds, all ticking out of sync with one another so that the sound was more of a low drone than a bunch of ticks and clicks, all the clocks shaped differently, with various faces. Some without any numbers at all. James looked over all the different clocks.

"Blimey, he's got quite a collection, huh?" he whispered.

Sirius nodded.

A large house-shaped clock suddenly made a loud CUCKOO! sound and a bird shout out on a spring. At the moment it cuckooed, a curtained off doorway in the left corner of the room swept open and the haggard old man hobbled through, clutching his funny cane that looked like a great many trees roots had entwined together. He swept the floor with the cane, feeling his way along as he walked. Everyone in the room was silent, watching as he moved to a table in the front where Professor Vablatsky's desk had once stood. The table was covered with a dark blue cloth, dotted with shiny silver stars, and in the center of it was a great glass orb, sitting on a wooden pedestal. Mopsus moved slowly over and lowered himself onto the squat stool, his hands shaking on the cane, his milky blank eyes staring into thin air.