Had indeed arrived and with the passing of the first inaggural school match.
The Quidditch banners slowly vanished from the stands, waiting for the moment when the next game would be played, with pitch being adorned by new house colors.
Leaves along the grounds shifted from gold to brittle brown.
The mornings grew colder, mistier, carrying the first whispers of winter.
Students dragged themselves back into the rhythm of classes.
Some complained, some slept, and some — like Hermione — attempted to read four textbooks simultaneously on the way to breakfast as she had them floating before her as she walked.
Cassius walked at a steady pace through the hallways, hands tucked in pockets, listening absently to the chatter of his House drifting around him.
But his mind was elsewhere.
His idle growth had finally reached a new level, Divination a previously untouched subject had overnight risen to become level 2, and with that came the promise for true prophetic visions.
The skill was meaningless at level 0, and Level 1 at most he could say his hunches were more on the mark than they were wrong.
But today was not simply just the day his divination skill reached level 2 it was also the day in class they would be moving on from Tarot and Tea leaves and finally getting into the meat of Divination, Crystal Balls!
~
The Divination classroom had always smelled faintly of perfumed incense and some sort of mold festering hidden in the room.
Curtains draped heavy over circular windows.
Cushions sprawled in disorganized piles.
Candles flickered with stubborn, unnatural colors.
But now — in early November — the room had a stranger glow.
Crystal spheres lined the tables.
Glittering.
Pulsing faintly.
Like they were breathing.
Cassius took his usual seat beside Daphne and Hermione.
Daphne was average in this class, but faking it till she made it.
Meanwhile Hermione had a great start in the beginning but her logic began to get in her own way when she reached tarot.
As for myself, i was also faking things but laying in some futuristic truths that i had 'glimpsed'.
Professor Trelawney practically floated into the room, shawls trailing behind her like a patchwork comet.
"Welcome, my dears," she cooed, "to the most perilous unit of your entire Divination education…"
She gestured dramatically toward the glittering crystal balls.
"Crystal-gazing. The ancient art of future-scrying. A discipline mastered by so very few… so few that in this very school, in all my long career, I have never found a student to have the spark. Not to discount you all but the last true seer has not been seen for close to fifty years now, and their rareity means only one is born every hundred or so years.."
Deciding not to linger on the topic she stood at the forefront of the room and opened her arms wide.
"Open your inner eye and gaze into the crystal ball before you, broaden your minds and you may just get a glimpse at the future in which you live."
~
Predictably, half the class struggled immediately.
Struggled to stay awake that is.
Almost every student viewed Divination as a free credit course, a blowoff class.
And not in the way it was with History or DADA under Binns, Quirrelmort, and Lockheart.
This class had real substance but the affinity requirement among wizardkind really was that difficult to draw out numerous talents.
Reading tea leaves, generally only told you of the past, but you didnt need divination to look that up you could just investigate, then came Tarot, not so much predicting the future but if anything more predicting the present instead.
Lastly came Crystal Scrying, this is a technique allowing for viewing of space and time anywhere from the here and now, all the way into the far flung future as far as your talent can take you.
The last 'true' seer the professor had mentioned was my very own mentor Grindelwald.
His prophetic powers were and still are utterly without equal.
This isnt to say that there are none living in the world aside from him with the gift, only that while he can see whole scene and almost accurately predict the future, even Professor trelawney can only be 'possessed' by her gift reciting cryptic or even nonesensical prophecies that could go unnoticed or un resolved resulting in allowing 'evil' to happen.
Hermione — who sat across from the trio, arms crossed — muttered, "This is pointless. The refractive properties of quartz spheres do not—"
"Shh," Cassius said quietly.
She blinked. "What? Why—"
"Shh."
His voice wasn't dismissive.
It was focused.
Sharp.
Hermione's irritation melted into wary curiosity.
Cassius leaned forward, fingertips brushing the surface of his crystal.
It was cold.
Then warm.
Then—
Something shifted inside him.
A click.
A pulse.
A whisper.
Like the opening of a door that had always been there, but that he had never bothered to look at.
The fog in the crystal curled.
Swirled.
Spun.
Then it resolved.
Into shapes.
Into meaning.
Cassius inhaled quietly.
He saw—
A pen rolling across the table, falling to the floor, rolling until it came to a stop, only for a foot to land atop it causing the person to fall, face first into the table launching the crystal ball high into the air, before landing with a 'crack' down on poor Nevilles head.
His heart beat once.
Hard.
Not a prophecy.
Not a vision of cosmic destiny.
But a prediction.
Immediate.
Concrete.
Clear.
"Cassius?"
Daphne's soft voice brushed the edge of his consciousness.
Cassius exhaled slowly and spoke:
"Parvati is about to knock over her crystal ball."
"Wha—?"
CLATTER.
Parvati's crystal ball hit the floor and rolled under the table.
The class froze.
What Cassius had just said happened moments later.
But then, something else happened.
having heard his word followed by the action Professor Trelawney who had been heading towards Harry and Ron, diverted making her way to him instead.
But just as she was about to reach their table, a simple 'tink' duga duga, of Hermione's pen falling off the table and rolling on the floor was witnessed.
The unsuspecting Professor tread upon the pen causing her to slip her footing and launch herself into their table.
Launching the Crystal ball high into the air.
But before it could land, Cassius who had ignored all these events going on had stood up and moved to stand beside Neville, only to extend his hands casually and pluck the crystal from the air before returning to his seat.
But his actions just now had everyone staring at him.
This wasnt just watching something happening and making a claim just before it did.
He had seconds before calamity hit, moved to the optimum postion to prevent harm.
Now sure you could ask why he didnt just stop the pen from falling in the first place, but he wanted to confirm if what he 'saw' really was a glimpse of the future.
Trelawney getting back to her feet gasped.
"It's awakened," she whispered, hand pressed over her heart. "The Inner Eye—your Inner Eye—has fully awakened!"
The room continued to stare.
Cassius blinked, nonplussed.
"I wouldn't say fully—"
"No!" Trelawney cried, nearly vibrating. "Do not diminish what you are! There has not been a True Seer at Hogwarts since—"
She cut herself off abruptly.
Then continued:
"Since my Great-Great-Grandmother herself."
Hermione made a choking noise.
Ron muttered, "Bloody hell."
Parvati squealed.
Daphne just smiled, unbothered.
Cassius slowly pulled his hand from the crystal ball.
He had indeed glimpsed the future but without practice his limit would only be the very near future it seemed.
For now.
~
Class ended in a haze of excitement.
Students buzzed around, chattering about visions and predictions — most of which were made up on the spot by students desperate to seem impressive especially with Cassius the 'true seer' being in their class.
Cassius remained behind only briefly to let the crowd thin.
As he stepped out into the narrow, spiraling staircase, he noticed someone lingering near the bottom platform.
Harry.
Shoulders tense.
Expression clouded.
Eyes unfocused in that way only someone who had recently faced death — or kidnapping — could manage.
Cassius stopped beside him.
"You're brooding," Cassius said.
Harry flinched.
"I'm not brooding."
Cassius gave him a flat look. "You're doing the exact posture of a brooder."
"No I'm—okay maybe I am."
Cassius leaned casually against the wall.
He didn't push.
Didn't pry.
He simply waited.
Harry finally broke the silence.
"How do you do it?" he whispered.
Cassius's gaze softened a fraction.
"Do what?"
Harry swallowed.
"Everything... Spells, Quidditch, now even predictions... before you came to the school no one expected anything from you and yet you can do so much, and yet."
"And yet everyone expects the world out of you?"
Harry bit his lip refusing to admit it.
Cassius had not said what harry was thinking but the sentance went on continued in his head.
'Even though your below average and a bit of a dunce?'
Seeing Harry frustrated like this Cassius internally grinned, he didnt mean to antagonize his half-twin like this, but there was just some small satisfaction that he got being the older brother and being able to haze him like this.
"Harry." He finally said, turning to look the boy dead in the eye. "You are Harry, that much is all that can be said, does who you are determine what you will become? Does an act that happened over a decade ago dictate how we must live our lives moving forward?"
"I...-I dont" Harry started to stutter out before stopping.
"Forget the expectations everyone has of you, and just be yourself, enjoy your schoollife without stressing over all the 'greatness' and power that others claim you should have. Afterall look at me, sure im good at spells, quidditch, and well just about everything else, but since i was placed in draconis do you know the thing i've heard people asking me the most?"
"No?"
"Why don't you have a pet dragon?" Cassius responded, this was partially true of course, many mocked him stating how could he be a master of the dragon house without having a dragon.
Of course keeping silent about Serepha living in the forest.
"I mean makes me want to ask them back, why dont you have a pet snake|Raven|Badger|Griffin since thats the house you belong to, bloody infuriating honestly. Basically dont take what others say to heart to much, we're students what can we really do when we're just learning our crafter afterall." Cassius ended his speach laughing a little before walking away laughing down the corridor leaving harry standing there rethinking his life before he snapped to and rushed of somewhere, sweating bullets for some reason.