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A Seer Named Rosemary Snape by PlutoLovegood

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"If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time in about five years that you have
consented to draw before a live audience, Miss Snape." Sylvester held a piercing
glance towards his granddaughter Rosie as she drew whatever she had seen in Harry's
thoughts.

"Well, obviously today is a special day, Grampy!" Rosie replied pointedly as she
continued to draw. As Sylvester, Harry, and Neville looked on, the dynamic swirls
of her chalk strokes appeared to billow out, like the unfurling petals of a flower
in the process of blooming. Soon it became clear that Rosie was drawing a
beautiful fish with long, flowing fins, so realistic it seemed ready to swim. "Did
I guess it right, Mr. Potter?" Rosie asked as she finished the drawing.

"You didn't guess it, you saw it, very accurately, Rosie" replied Harry as Rosie
proudly showed off her drawing to everyone. "Mr. Snape, I see you have a large
laboratory flask on your table. I've no doubt it's quite clean."

"But of course, Mr. Potter, spotless as always," Sylvester replied with a mildly
indignant tone, but with a gleam in his eye. "What do you have in mind?"

"If I may, I'll replace your water," Harry replied as he took Sylvester's water
pitcher and filled the flask mostly full. "Now, Professor Longbottom, you may do
the honours."

Neville took his vial of colourful leaflike flakes and tapped two dashes into the
flask of water. Like tiny autumn leaves, the flakes floated and twirled as they
gently drifted down to the water's surface, then sank slowly into the water.
Neville turned to Rosie and said, "If I may have your drawing, I'm going to do
something which you may find alarming at first, but I think you'll like the end
result."

Rosie did so, and was at first shocked when Neville took her drawing, crumpled it
up, then dropped it into the flask of water. But as soon as the crumpled page sank
into the water, it began to twist back and forth ever more vigourously. Suddenly
there was a great splash, and in the water swam a beautiful live fish with flowing
fins, just as Rosie had drawn it.

Speechless at first, Rosie finally said, "That's wicked! Professor, How did you
make it come alive?"

Neville replied, "It was mostly you who did it. The life and the magic were
already in your drawing of the fish. All I did was to set it free." Neville turned
to Harry and said, "I believe we've found a shoo-in for the Slug Club, wouldn't you
say?"

Sylvester had a broad smile on his face as his eyes followed the fish, which was
now swimming playfully in the flask. Sylvester was about to ask what the Slug Club
was, when Rosie broke in with a suddenly serious, longing tone.

"Professor Longbottom, can you make Grampy's cancer go away? Can you save him from
dying? Oh, could you, would you, please?"

Neville sighed as he knelt down and put his hand on Rosie's shoulder. "No, I'm
afraid not. I'm very sorry, but there are some things that even wizards and
witches cannot do."

"But ... that's what I thought it meant when I saw ... " Rosie's voice faltered as
she thought something carefully through with an intense look on her face. "Oh, no,
it wasn't Grampy, it was Uncle Severus, wasn't it?" Rosie began turning pages in
her sketch pad until she reached one page and stopped. "The same snake which you
killed, Professor Longbottom ... I thought I saw it attacking Grampy, only he was
dressed up like a wizard, so that means it was really Uncle Severus, wasn't it ...
The cancer Grampy has, it's like a snake inside him, so that's why I thought if you
killed the cancer snake, it wouldn't kill Grampy ... " Rosie stopped speaking, and
opened her sketch pad to a drawing which affected everyone in the room deeply. For
Rosie had drawn the scene of Severus Snape's death very realistically, with Severus
recoiling as the snake Nagini prepared to strike.

There was a long silence, until Neville spoke up once again. "I'm sorry to say that
the snake had already killed Professor Snape before I in turn killed the snake.
And I'm sorry to tell you now ... in regards to Mr. Snape's cancer, that this time
I can't kill the snake. I'm very sorry, Rosie. I'm very sorry, Mr. Snape."

"Don't be sorry, Professor Longbottom," Sylvester replied without hesitation. "We
all have limits to our powers and abilities. You both have done something for me
today which is far greater. You've given me answers to my questions and hope for
the best for my Rosie Lily's future. I can ask nothing more of you."

"Thank you, Mr. Snape," Neville replied. As Rosie gave her grandfather a long hug,
Neville said, "There is something else I can help you with. I wanted to tell you of
it before. I cannot kill the snake, but I can loosen its grip for a time, and take
away the sting of its bite." He held up his vial of colourful flakes once again.
"It involves taking a draught of water with this mixture in it. I've been working
on the blend for some time now. I would understand perfectly if you declined the
offer, but … "

"Ah, yes, Professor Longbottom's Secret All-Purpose Blend. I might have known,"
Sylvester replied with a broad grin. "Shall I mix some into my water glass?"

"You may if you wish, but to be honest, if it doesn't bother you, it would be even
more potent if you drew it directly from the flask with the fish in it."

That detail didn't seem to bother Sylvester in the slightest. He took his nearly
empty water glass from the table and drank the last few drops. He then nodded to
Harry, who was sitting next to the flask with the fish. Harry understood the cue
and moved the flask within Sylvester's reach. Sylvester dipped his water glass in
the flask, and as the water rushed in, most of the coloured flakes floated in with
it. Sylvester raised his glass and spoke with gusto, "To Rosie's future!" and
drank the glassful in two big swallows.

At first Sylvester didn't notice much besides an odd but pleasant nutty sweet taste
in the water. Then came a wave of vertigo and borderline nausea, which quickly
passed. Just as Neville had promised, he felt as if the serpent inside was
loosening its coils, and even better, the pain which had never completely left him
for over two years was subsiding and was soon gone. The relief was visible on his
face. He beamed at Neville with wordless thanks, then had a startling thought. "I
really should have asked beforehand if it would interact with any medications.
I've been most pleasantly addicted to Vicodin as of late."

Neville said, "Not to worry, Mr. Snape. the mixture has the effect of pushing the
medication out of your system with no interaction whatsoever. I do not believe
you'll be needing the Vicodin any more."

Sylvester continued basking in his feeling of immense relief, which also had the
pleasant effect of making his keen mind even more alert. He turned toward Harry
and said, "Mr. Potter, you're some sort of police officer, aren't you?"

Harry was startled, though he was beginning not to be surprised at Sylvester's keen
powers of deduction. He was much like his brother Severus in that respect. "Yes,
sir, I work with the Auror Office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We
specialise in the apprehension of dark wizards and witches. How could you tell?"

Sylvester laughed. "I saw it in your controlled reactions to every word I spoke,
and in particular when I mentioned that my poor Rosie Jane bore the mark of the
Scar-Maker on her neck. I watched your eyes systematically taking in your
surroundings here in this room. I noticed many things about what you have taken
note of, but not spoken about, just like the officers who called upon me far too
frequently, during my Sam's troubled youth. But the important thing is, you're
going after the Scar-Maker, aren't you? Something beyond the normal laws of nature
is clearly going on. Sapoora has seen it in her surgeries, the unnatural way the
Scar-Maker's victims' internal tissues are not only burnt, but twisted. She
suspects something."

Harry was starting to doubt that Sylvester ever missed a single detail. "Yes, sir,
The Scar-Maker is clearly a dark wizard or witch, and every victim has been somehow
connected to the magical world. Oddly, every survivor has been a Muggle with
knowledge of wizards and witches, but every dead victim has been either a wizard or
witch, or else someone with known wizarding ancestry. Unfortunately that includes
your Rosemary Jane."

Even as Harry spoke, his eyes turned to Rosie, who had been listening in rapt
attention to everything. Harry suddenly felt a strange, indescribable wave of
awareness that reminded him of his Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape. He had
the distinct impression that an unseen, powerful Legilimens was trying to read, not
his own thoughts, but Rosie's. Not only that, someone else unseen had blocked the
attack.

For a moment an image flashed in Harry's mind of a life-sized chess piece, a
statuesque, menacing white queen, much like the one in a life-sized chess set that
he and his friends Ron and Hermione had encountered during their first year at
Hogwarts. At the same moment he saw a brief grimace on Rosie's face, and he
realized that Rosie had also seen the white queen. Could this white queen be the
Scar-Maker? Harry said nothing as he formed another picture in his mind for Rosie
to see. It was of a written note that said:

I saw the white queen as well. I think she may be the Scar-Maker, the one who
killed your grandmother and many others. Don't say anything about it out loud.
Someone is protecting your thoughts from her. If you understand this note, please
pick up the white queen chess piece to let me know.


Rosie looked surprised for a moment, then smiled at Harry, walked nonchalantly over
to her grandfather's bookshelf, and picked up the white queen. As she held the
chess piece, she opened her mouth, intending to ask Harry if wizards and witches
played chess, but instead, the words of a prophecy came forth:

As the Scar-Maker grows bolder, her heart grows colder, and her powers grow older;
But her hunger makes her younger, and sets the stage, for her fiery rage.


Rosie looked for a moment dizzy, then puzzled, then shook her head, smiled, and
said, "That's not what I intended to say at all. But it's rather important, isn't
it?"

"Indeed it is, Rosie," said Harry. "It looks to me like you have two special
gifts. One is that you're a Seer, and the words you just spoke are a prophecy.
It's your gift to see events, both in the future and the past. When, may I ask,
did you first see the castle in your Inner Eye, as well as seeing me, and Professor
Longbottom, and Professor Snape?"

"It was just this summer. I started thinking about my eleventh birthday, and
somehow I could tell it was a very important birthday, and it filled my thoughts
with amazing things that I just had to draw."

Neville spoke up. "The other gift we see in you is a natural gift of Legilimency. A Legilimens
can see into someone else's mind and understand what they see."

"You mean, like a mind-reader?" Rosie replied.

"It's not that simple at all," Harry responded. "I must admit I've never been a
talented Legilimens, nor much good at Occlumency, which is the art of hiding one's thoughts from a Legilimens. But I was briefly taught by ... a certain brilliant teacher,
who said, and I quote,

'The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are
not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a
complex and many-layered thing...'"


"It was Severus who said that, isn't it?" broke in Sylvester. "I know, because if
I had knowledge of such things - which I certainly do not - that's exactly how I
would put it."

A knock was heard on the door. Everyone realized at once that they had all lost
complete track of time in the day's excitement, and that it was well after the
stroke of noon. "I expect this is the nurse," Sylvester said, "and she will be
most surprised by my complete lack of pain." He raised his voice. "Good
afternoon, Sarah. Do come in!"

Sarah was a very young nurse with a bubbly personality. "Hello, Mr. Snape. Now I
see why you've been so quiet today. Glad to see you have so much company! Oh,
look at the lovely fish! If you'll excuse us, I need to do some cares for Mr.
Snape. I'll also be putting in a meal order. Would everyone like something to
eat?"

Sylvester replied, "Of course. Please put in an order for plenty for everyone."
Harry, Neville, and Rosie stepped out and stretched for awhile as Sylvester
received his cares. Mrs. Chirpsworth the canary had been twittering on her perch,
but hopped back on Rosie's shoulder as they stepped out of the suite. Later, as
they were returning, Lakshmi appeared carrying a tray filled with assorted cold
sandwiches and a pudding dessert for everyone. They all ate ravenously.

In the excitement Neville had forgotten to hand Rosie her Hogwarts acceptance
letter, so as the group reconvened, he produced the letter, which Sylvester
insisted on reading out loud himself. Rosie beamed, then a look of momentary
sadness came to her face. "I so look forward to being a student at Hogwarts, but
I'll miss my friends at my old school."

"We know," Neville said. "You may still see your friends during the summer when
you're away from Hogwarts. And perhaps this is a good time to mention that we've
recently had the opportunity to meet two of your friends who will also be new
students. You know them not from school, but from Music Camp. I'm speaking of
Gina Paulucci and DaNessa Diggory ..."

The two names drew vigourous reactions from both Rosie and Sylvester. Rosie
clapped her hands to her cheeks with a look of rapturous surprise on her face, but
Sylvester took on an expression of mock dread. "Diggory, Paulucci, and Snape," he
spoke with an ominous tone. "The Tympanic Trio ... The Menace of Music Camp ...
united at Hogwarts ... being taught to perform ... Magic ..."

Rosie resumed pummeling her grandfather's left arm. "Oh, stop, Grampy! You make
it sound so dreadful."

"You have more on your hands than I imagined," Sylvester continued, undaunted.

Rosie asked question after question about Hogwarts, until she suddenly yawned and
said "Oh, all this excitement is wearing me out! If you don't mind, I think I'm
going to relax for a bit." As she let herself fall backwards onto her futon, the
impact made all her stuffed snakes bounce. In less than a minute she was fast
asleep.

Harry turned to Sylvester. "Concerning the case of the Scar-Maker, how often does
someone enter the house where Rosemary Jane died?"

"Very seldom," said Sylvester. "Occasionally the hapless realtors try to show it,
but always with the same result. It received minor repairs shortly after we moved
out, but it remains largely undisturbed, much the same as when we vacated the
premises twenty years ago."

"I would like to investigate the scene of the crime, with the assistance of an
associate of mine who is the chief investigator for the Scar-Maker case. Magical
acts, including magical crimes, leave distinct marks and evidences which are, in
some cases, indelible. My associate's name is Sparkles, and she's an expert
Magical Crime Scene Investigator with the Auror Office. Sparkles and I will visit
the scene of your wife's death, and I will assist her in walking the grid."

"Better you than I," said Sylvester. "Sparkles, eh? I shouldn't be too surprised
at such a name for a witch."

"Well, she's not exactly a witch," Harry replied, looking at Neville, who was
looking back at Harry with a knowing smile. "But she is highly skilled in her own
people's brand of magic."

Neville came close to blurting out that Sparkles was an elf, but he could see that
Harry wanted to make it a surprise, so he waited silently as Harry pulled out what
looked to Sylvester like a simple, old-fashioned slate. Harry turned to Sylvester
and asked, "Is anyone from hospice staff expected to come to your room soon?
Sparkles would be ... a bit hard to explain."

"Not for a couple of hours, unless I call for someone," replied Sylvester.

Harry put the slate to his ear much as if it were a Muggle cell phone, and spoke, "Hello,
Sparkles ... yes, this would be a good time. We will await your arrival." Harry
looked at Sylvester, who had a dumbfounded look on his face. "Mr. Snape, she
literally will arrive in only a few seconds."

There was a pregnant pause. Even the canary was completely silent for a few
seconds, until there was a sensation of a sudden breeze and the impression of a
small whirlwind at the centre of the room. At once the whirlwind was replaced by a
three-foot tall, smartly dressed figure with huge eyes, long lashes, and pointed
ears. She appeared to be wearing a tea towel as a scarf, and over her skirt and blouse she wore a long brown
Auror's coat tailored to her size and proportions, with no sleeves, revealing her tattoos. Her
right shoulder bore a portrait of Hermione Granger as a teen girl, with the
initials S.P.E.W. underneath. Sparkles' left shoulder held a portrait of Dobby
with a determined expression, and up her left arm in two lines were the words:

Dobby has no master
Dobby is a free elf


The hint of a third tattoo peeked above the neckline of her blouse, a leafy design
which clearly had its centre somewhere further down. She turned to the speechless
Sylvester, and said with a radiant smile, "And you, Love, must be Mr. Sylvester
Snape. My name is Sparkles, and I've been wanting to meet you for a long time!"
Chapter Endnotes: Chapter Five will be entitled "The Scene of the Crime."

Update 1-27-16: I'm hoping to submit Chapter Five before the end of the month, so thanks for your interest.