minnow // sirius black

twenty-four

24 :  rush hour

I went back to my dorm shaking, looking over my shoulder every few moments. Every time I felt a surge of magic, mostly from wandering students using Lumos, I'd take a defensive position as I slowly walked.

When I got close, I booked it.

It wasn't until I was in the Common Room that I finally calmed down enough to think.

This was the price of my life, and I knew it. I had not meant it literally when I said I would do anything... but I guess whatever brought me back did not understand the concept of sort of figurative. This was the price, and I had to pay it. It wasn't like there was a return policy on this...

Dumbledore confirmed that I was likely some sort of Seer, and that my newfound talent was a part of that. He said it wasn't unheard of - a witch who could feel magic pulsing through others before that magic was actually used, but it was extremely rare.

The last person who could do it went insane.

I could understand, even sitting in the Great Hall during meals was incredibly taxing. Each time a second-year practiced turning a goblet into a candle, I felt the surge of magic accompanied with panic. During class, whenever we'd be practicing spells, especially in Professor Flitwick's charms class, I could barely focus on my own magic, because of the overwhelming surges of power. Each surge was different, too. I knew, extremely well, when the surge I felt was from James, or Sirius. I could recognize their magic better than I could recognize anyone else's.

Their magic surged strongly, but not nearly as strong as Lily's.

The first time I felt her power surging while she was practicing a new spell, I nearly passed out. It was a few hours after a Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where we were learning how to produce Patronus charms, and I was coming out of the bathroom when she tried for the first time.

It was like the wind had been knocked out of me, as if someone had reached into my torso and squeezed my lungs. After the initial impact of her magic hit me, it felt as though I had touched a live wire and it was sending waves of electricity through me. Each and every nerve was alive, and rather than being pained, it was as if I was high. Her magic felt amazing, but it was still so strong that I stumbled backwards.

She stopped, her concentration breaking, and I took a startled breath. My knees buckled, but I caught myself on my bed frame.

"Jemina, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine," I huffed, making my way to my trunk. I quickly got night clothes. "Wait until I come back before you do that again."

As soon as I had changed, I sat across from Lily on her bed.

"What happened?" She asked, referencing when I nearly fell to the floor when her magic stopped flowing through me.

"I can feel magic, as it is surging through you when you use it, it's surging through me too. It feels different for me, since it's not my magic, and usually, it's just a strange feeling," I explained the new 'talent', and explained what it felt like, especially during charms. "But your magic is so strong, so potent, that it knocks the wind out of me. It... feels amazing, but it is also extremely shocking."

"So, do I just not use magic around you?"

"No, you can use magic around me. Over the summer, when you were at my house, you were using magic often. It was always much stronger than James or Sirius, for example, but it wasn't overwhelming because you were using magic you knew. If you and Sirius uses Lumos on the middle of the stairs, I wouldn't feel his magic, but I would feel yours. But just now? You were trying a spell you don't know, in addition to it being a difficult spell, so you were using more magic than a silencing charm requires. It was a lot of powerful magic at once."