I Saw it, you know. Well, of course I did, I could hardly have done otherwise, could I? To be more specific, I Read it. You see, I was lucky enough to be born in a time of relative peace in the wizarding world- no wars, no natural calamities, no Dark wizards, not even a rogue dragon or a chimaera to make headlines. And I must say, this suited me quite well; I was always one for the quiet life. I am, I know it, a rather well known Seer. But Seers are few and far between, and I admit that I didn’t let the fact swell my head too much. Or at least, that is what I tell myself. But, being, as I said, born in a period that bordered on boring, I had never witnessed such an event as this one! It, well, it loomed- a great hulking disaster, overshadowing all other minor future accidents, occupying the Secondary realm so that I was hard pressed to See anything else! But where was I? Ah yes, my Reading.
I had recently purchased a new pack of tarot cards, and powerfully magic ones they were too, the sales wizard informed me, and I decided to try it out. So, I layed out a Significator, or subject card, and was unpleasantly surprised to see that it was a reversed Fool. For those who have never been the best of Diviners, a Fool symbolises the beginning of a journey, and the fact that it was reversed means ill-advised risks and rash decisions which turn out for the worst. And then, of course, the Fool as a significator may also mean someone who is a fool- and the fact that it was reversed gave me a nasty hunch as to whom it might be. But no, I told myself, I said, “Cassandra, how could you let yourself be spooked by such a small thing as a Tarot card? Come on woman, sit up straight, keep spreading those pieces of parchment!” even though I knew that no warning, however trivial, is to be ignored.
And so, I spread them. However, no sooner had I laid them all out on the drawing table than their meaning was apparent:
The Empress: she represents parenthood, and maternity. Not an odd card, after all children are born as often as their elders pass on. Or so I though, till I saw the card’s companions:
The Knight of Death: contrary to its name, this card also often means new life. But, as I saw with a twist of the stomach, it was reversed. This meant actual death, or change for the worst.
The Devil: usually quite an innocent card meaning financial matters, I noticed with a settling feeling of cold dread that it too was Ill Dignified, or reversed. In this form, it signified pure evil.
Just these four cards were enough to set my instincts on edge. Without further ado, I swept the cards back into the deck and hurried off to visit my foster father.
Sir Pryam Gaunt sat across the table from me. Throughout the telling of my tale he remained uncharacteristically quiet, and I knew that he had never favoured me as he had his real children, my adopted brothers and sisters, but I was too far in to back out now.
“And then, Father, I spread the lightning-struck tower! Calamity, disaster, coming nearer all the time! I will admit it, the portents are strange, but you cannot deny they are grim.”
Now my foster father broke his silence with a low, gently dismissive voice and a slight frown.
“Cassandra, I know that you are, these days, recognised as a, a Seer, but you must understand that I have never held much patience for Divination. As you have just displayed, it seems a rather vague, imprecise and unreliable magic; isn’t it easily possible that you have misread these cards? And, although you repeat these warnings of, er, calamity, you don’t seem to be terribly sure what it is. I register your concern, but you must see that there is nothing I can do on the matter at this stage. And if we have exhausted the subject, I have some rather urgent business to attend to.” Pryam got up to leave. In my alarm, I stood up rather quickly, and I felt the blood rush to my head as I fainted.
My father told me later that at this stage I had spoken in a voice that was not my own, and he seemed quite loath to admit what that voice had said. But, as I had no memories of the incident, I persuaded him to tell me, and so he did. I incited the following:
“As seasons turn, mistakes are forgotten,
Lessons once learnt are lost in time.
But a great evil, soon to be begotten
Shall once again attempt the ancient crime.
Be warned, for fair will make foul,
A disguised snake may catch the foolish bird.
As decades roll, Death dons his cowl
And is sung a song of terror as never has been heard.”
Of course, I was as mystified as he when it came to the meaning of this rhyme, and so we parted, I to my home with my half-blood husband, Trevor Trelawney, and he to his chambers and high-flying wizarding acquaintances. But I was on the watch, and rested perhaps from my quest for further knowledge about this coming evil, only to attend the wedding of my younger brother Pariseus and his beautiful lover Helena. I suppose that this day was quite important to my story, and so I will endeavour to explain to you exactly what happened.
Although I was glad for my brother, I must admit that I disapproved of the match. Pariseus has always been rather hot-headed and impulsive, which I suspect was a result of his mother Hecabe Peverell being our father’s cousin, and he had barely known this Helena for five months before they were engaged. It was rumoured that she was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. And indeed, she was cunning enough for it to be true, even without the heavy, gold and engraved locket which hung always around her neck. The locket, incidentally, was also an object of much consternation to me. I had seen it repeatedly when gazing in my crystal ball. Indeed, there was a great auror of foreboding hanging over their marriage, but when I confided my fears to my father, he brushed them aside, dismissing them out-of-hand as nonsense. After all, Pariseus always was his favourite.
But to my point. The day was fine and sunny, and I could see no reason for my feeling of ominous dread. The laughing couple was married in the sun, and I stood by Trevor and my brother Hector as Helena became a Gaunt. Pariseus turned to the chattering crowd with shining joy on his face, and cleared his throat in an attempt to gain their attention. When this failed, he pulled out his wand and sent a firework into the sky, which certainly did get everyone’s attention. It was just a mistake, I’m sure, his inflated feelings caused him to overdo a simple sparks spell, but it made me jump a foot and heightened my anxiety until I was sweating.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Helena and I would like to thank you most sincerely for your attendance today and make a very special announcement. For you see, my dear friends and family members, we are to have a child, before Easter!” Now shouting to get himself heard over the renewed mutterings, Pariseus added, “And I would be honoured if my sister, the well-known Seer Cassandra Trelawney would be able to do us the considerable favour of perhaps peering into our future and tell us about our child?”
At this, all the murmurings stopped. I am somewhat loathe to make public predictions, and some far-away part of me cursed Pariseus for putting me in the spotlight like that. But I drifted forwards, almost in a trance, until I was standing before Helena. As if in a dream, I placed my hand upon her slim midriff and my head snapped back as pain seared through my eyes. But it was the Inner Eye that was important now, and I Saw clearly the future of the child. Against my own will, my lips parted, and I heard myself utter,
“The child will be a wizard, and he shall be the grandsire of one of the most powerful sorcerers known to Wizardkind. He will have the gift of Parseltongue, and he shall be killed neither by enemy nor illness. His name is to be Marvolo. Marvolo Gaunt.”
And for the second time in this tale, I fell to the floor in a dead swoon.
Since then, many years have passed. To my great astonishment, Pariseus and Helena retained a happy partnership until the ends of their peaceful lives, which I myself lived to see. I saw my father gamble away the family money with his “high-flying acquaintances”, who turned out to be well-to-do wizards with a conspicuous lack of money for various reasons, desperate to regain their wealth even if it meant dragging others down with them. I saw Marvolo grown into an unlikable, spoilt young man who was very inclined to violence and cruelty.
And I Saw other things. I am now on my deathbed, but I feel it is my duty to record what I have Seen these recent weeks, and so I have written this. For I had visions, as I lay confined to my bed, ready to join my husband in the realms of my next life.
I Saw a snake, nailed to a door of a hut as an old, grizzled Marvolo spat abuse at his cowering daughter concerning an equally heartless yet considerably more handsome Muggle.
I Saw a young boy, the image of the said Muggle pointing a wand at a monkey-like, dirty man with tattered clothes and a vicious demeanour in the same hut.
I Saw unspeakable terrors, as this boy became a man and then something more and less than a man, and knew he was the evil I had foreseen.
I Saw another boy, younger, tied to a tombstone and screaming with pain, a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead and a gash on his arm.
I Saw of multitude of images; my brother’s ring, his wife’s locket, a cup, a snake, a diary, and another image- but before I could focus on it, I felt a searing pain,
And I Saw a woman, the picture of myself yet perhaps less beautiful and considerably more deranged-looking. She was clutching at the same boy I had Seen screaming before. She pulled out a Tarot card from her cloak.
“Again and again, no matter how I lay them out! The lightning-struck tower! Calamity. Disaster. Coming nearer all the time...”
And the boy hastily shook her off and changed the subject.
I Knew, the seasons will turn again, decades will pass and the song of terror shall be sung again. Prophecies shall be ignored again, for alas it is our fate.
But I also Saw hope.
~This is the last known writing of the Seer Cassandra Trelawney before she departed from this world.~
A/N: I originally meant to submit this in the competition fics, under the category "Wizard Cards" (just for something diferent to the other submissions) but I forgot about it and ran out of time! Cassandra Trelawney has always fascinated me, I thought that maybe while Sybill is something of a fraud, perhaps her Great-grandmother was the real deal? And then I thought I might mix her and the Gaunts and see what I came up with! As I did this, it became clear to me that I could use the link between Cassandra's name and the Troy legen.
And thankyou to my perfect beta Defying Expectations (or Hermione_Rocks as she's called on MNFF) without whom this would never even come close to working!