Omnividence

Chapter Two: Divine Foul Weather

In the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Hermione were berating Harry for not telling them that Sirius was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us!" wailed Hermione as she pummeled Harry's head and shoulders.

"Ah! Get off, Hermione!" Harry raised his hands protectively over his head. "Sirius wanted it to be a surprise - besides, you'd just badger him about what we're going to study and what would be on the exams!"

Ron snorted and Hermione drew in an offended breath. "I'd never!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, you would," said Ron. "But we love you anyway." He ducked as one of the first years sent a paper airplane overhead. "Oi! Settle down!" he yelled, as the new boys bounced all over the room like gas molecules.

"Settle down?" Hermione repeated incredulously. "Stepping into Percy's shoes, aren't you, Ron?"

"Okay... Never mind!" he bellowed to Michael, Adam, and Graham who had all frozen where they stood. "Raise Hell, I don't care!" The boys whooped and resumed their cavorting while the first year girls huddled by the fireplace chatting madly. He looked at his schedule and groaned. "I can't believe we don't have Sirius's class till Wednesday!"

One of the little boys careened into him. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" said Ron irately.

"Watch where you're standing," replied the boy impudently.

Ron took one long stride and picked the boy up by the scruff of his neck. The first-year's feet dangled above the floor. Ron shook him gently, and one of the little boy's shoes fell off. "What's your name?"

"M-Mike," stammered the boy, looking slightly apprehensive and a little embarrassed.

"Aren't you a little short to be a smartass?" Ron inquired mildly. "Unless you want to see a Hogwarts' toilet from the inside, I suggest you be more respectful to your elders and betters." He held Mike close to his freckled face. "Got it?"

"Um. Yeah," Mike replied, resolutely meeting Ron's curious gaze. To his surprise, Ron winked.

"OK. Just so long as it's clear," he said without rancor and turned Mike loose. Ron put his hands in his robe pockets. "Well. That was fun," he said absently.

Hermione shook her head and smiled. Harry, feigning a vast interest in the Commons room ceiling, had a slight smile hovering about his lips.

"Hey! What was I supposed to do?" Ron said in mock outrage. "Anyway, now they've been Sorted into Gryffindor, they have to learn the House rules. Thou shalt not be a git to people who can rest their elbows on your head, and all that."

"Speaking of the Sorting, did it strike either of you as odd this year?" Hermione asked.

"You mean that scene in the Hall, when what's-her-name, the transfer from Durmstrang, tried on the Hat," Harry said.

"Well, yeah," Hermione said.

Ron shrugged. "Dunno. It was a bit weird."

"Know what I think?" asked Hermione rhetorically.

"No, but you're going to tell us any way," said Harry. Hermione looked daggers at him and he raised his hands to ward off her glare.

"She's a Seer. A clairvoyant. They're really rare. McGonagall said so when we first started Divination and Professor Trelawney was going on about Harry and the Grim." Hermione rolled her eyes at the memory of her first, and last, year of Divination.

Seeing that they still looked doubtful, she added: "This girl can see the future... and the past, if she's touching a person or object associated with an event. That's why the Hat flipped out - she could see its past, it could see into her head and suddenly found itself reliving the days of Godric Gryffindor!" Hermione looked faintly awed. "I wonder if she'd be willing to substantiate some of the things I've read in Hogwarts: A History?"

"Do you really want to inflict that on her?" Ron said cautiously. "She seemed almost as freaked out as the Hat." He turned to Harry, "can't imagine how she'd react if she touched you. Probably have a stroke."

Harry, deeply affronted, started to reply, but Hermione cut him off. "Ron's right, you know," Ron looked surprised, then gratified. "If she's a powerful enough clairvoyant to see centuries back to when the Hat was still Gryffindor's, then she's certainly powerful enough to see your past. You definitely don't want to touch her," Hermione's voice seemed a shade more satisfied than the pronouncement called for, and Harry and Ron exchanged a puzzled glance.

"Well, I don't much feel like reliving my past, thanks," said Harry, slightly irritably. "Had enough of that what with the dementors and weird dreams about Voldemort." There was a general flinch as everyone in the room reacted to the name.

"Ooh, Harry - you could ask her about your dreams!" Hermione said excitedly. "She could tell you if they're true or not!"

"Sure. If I have any new ones. My brain seems disinclined to faff off to wherever Voldemort's hanging out." Again, everyone winced, and several of Harry's classmates glowered at him.

"At any rate," said Ron, "we have Charms with Ravenclaw on Tuesday, so we can look her over then." His eyes darkened. "Of course, she is from Durmstrang..."

"So was Viktor Krum, and he wasn't too bad, was he?" interjected Hermione with some asperity.

***

Monday morning arrived, and everyone in Ravenclaw was ecstatic to be back at classes. Aliset toyed nervously with her porridge. Finally, she gave up all pretense of being hungry and pushed the bowl over to Hugin and Munin, who were playing tug-of-war with a piece of bacon.

They eyed the porridge critically, and went back to the bacon.

"Do they really have to sit on the table?" asked Su Li, (a skinny Asian boy, called Li by his friends), frowning at the ravens. "It's not sanitary." Indeed, the rest of the Ravenclaws at the table looked slightly revolted.

"Oh, pardon us for living, I'm sure," said Munin, who finally wrested the rasher of bacon from Hugin's beak and flew off into the rafters.

Hugin strutted across the table and nabbed a second rasher from Li's plate. "Thanks, mate!" he cackled, and flew off to join his partner.

Aliset covered her mouth; it wouldn't do to seem amused at her... colleagues'... antics or to antagonize the rest of her House. "I'm sorry... it's just, they're not people and you can't expect them to have people's manners..." This argument didn't appear persuasive. "I'll try to keep them off the table," she sighed.

Bran Evans, one of the Ravenclaw chasers, smiled at Aliset. "Don't worry about it. You should see this table when the post arrives," he said, waving his hand. "Feathers everywhere! Owls drinking from your glass... Not exactly hygienic," he said, casting a glance at Li.

"Well, at least owls aren't scavengers," sniffed Morag MacDougal, a Ravenclaw prefect.

"No, they just hawk up pellets full of mousie bones," quipped Terry Boot, who was finishing off the last of his bacon. "C'mon everybody. Let's quit talking so much rubbish or we're all going to be late for Herbology. Which, yuck, we still have with Slytherin."

***

"Now, class," began Professor Sprout once everyone was inside Greenhouse Number Six. "Today, we will be treating the Venomous Tentacula seedlings for root-rot. You must gently pull them from the tray and spray their roots with a small amount of Kingsfoil Solution to eliminate the fungus." She peered severely at the class. "Be sure to wear your dragon-hide gloves, as you don't want to be bitten. Two to a tray!" All the students looked faintly apprehensive.

As everyone searched for a partner, Professor Sprout went on: "The Venomous Tentacula is mostly harmless at this young stage - its teeth are soft and its grip is quite weak," she gestured to the dark red, spiky little seedlings, then at the fully grown specimen behind her. "When it establishes itself in an area, it uses its feelers to throttle any competitors for sunlight. The Tentacula then sheds its baby teeth, and develops the venomous fangs that give it its name." Several students backed away from their trays. "Come now, the most the seedlings can do is give you a nip. Their poison at this stage is no worse than a bee sting," Professor Sprout remarked testily. Slowly, the class inched back to the seedlings.

Aliset cast around, looking for an empty tray, when a hand snagged her elbow.

"Here, you can share mine," drawled a pale, blond-haired boy, ignoring the two trollish figures looking at him expectantly and a short, round-faced girl who was hopping up and down like a demented bungee-jumper, trying to get his attention. "Draco, be my partner," she whined monotonously.

"I understand you're from Durmstrang?" the blond boy asked, affecting not to hear the other girl. "It must have been fascinating." Aliset noticed his dragon-hide gloves were black and softly sueded - they looked very expensive.

"Mm," Aliset was noncommittal, intrigued by the mini-social drama, and uncomfortably aware of her Housemates looking daggers at the boy in front of her.

"What brings you to Hogwarts?" inquired Draco, pleasantly, but with an undercurrent of avid curiosity, picked up by the nearby students.

"I couldn't stand Durmstrang," she replied frankly. "It was horrible and I hated it. I applied to Hogwarts for a transfer." The last bit wasn't precisely true, but plausible she hoped. She lowered her eyes and focused on prying the little tentacula out of its compartment in the tray - it was clinging rather desperately to the edges, forcing her to prise free the individual feelers. The little tentacula came free with a muffled popping sound and started thrashing its feelers around.

Draco seemed taken aback... and disappointed? "I'm surprised you aren't in Slytherin," he said.

Aliset had been picking up some vibes from the school that told her to be glad she wasn't in Slytherin... on the other hand, she didn't want to make enemies her first day. "Yes, well. It wasn't my decision, was it?" She winced as the words left her mouth, not wishing to remind everyone of the debacle at the Sorting Ceremony.

No one seemed to notice, or at least, no one seemed willing to comment on it, but Draco leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "Everyone knows what Durmstrang is like... I wanted to go there myself, but my mother didn't want me so far from home."

Aliset set her jaw and concentrated on the tentacula seedling, which was trying to wrap a toothed vine around her wrist. What was this boy at?

He seemed to pick up on her frustration, and gently unwound the vine from her glove. Watching her carefully, he pinched the tip of the vine and it shuddered and went limp, allowing him to spray its roots with the fungicide and replace it in the tray, where it huddled sullenly.

"I'm Draco Malfoy. My father is Lucius Malfoy, who works for the Ministry of Magic." He waited for her to be impressed. "We have a very ancient name and a vast family fortune," he added, when she seemed insufficiently worked up about this.

"Well?" He was a trifle annoyed.

"Well, you're about to get bitten by the tentacula," she replied, without looking at him; partly because she didn't need to, and partly so he wouldn't see the smile that she didn't seem able to suppress.

"What? Ouch!" He snatched his hand from the edge of the pot as the little tentacula lunged at him, attempting to sink its fangs in. There was suddenly a great deal of coughing and throat-clearing amongst the Ravenclaws in the vicinity.

***

"I think that went well," said Bran, catching up with Aliset as they left the greenhouse. "You sure made an impression on Malfoy."

Aliset stumbled slightly over a hillock in the lawn and scowled at her feet. "He thinks that just because I'm from Durmstrang I'm... whatever he thinks I am."

"Don't pay any attention to him. He's a useless git with more money than is good for him," Bran said airily. "Say, are you trying out for Quidditch?" His enthusiasm was based in part on him being one of the chasers for the Ravenclaw team.

"Q-Quidditch?" Aliset hadn't given it any thought. She tried to focus on where (and when) her feet were.

"Yeah, Cho's put together a good team this year, but we're always looking for reserves. She's holding try-outs this evening. You ought to come! Do you have a broom?" They reached the doors of the castle and he graciously opened them for her.

"Uh, no. But maybe I will come tonight." Flying had to be easier than walking - far fewer distractions in the air. Bran looked at her curiously as she dodged a student in the hall. Arg, she thought, she's probably not coming down this corridor till next week. Or this morning. Or fifty years ago. Blast. She started watching Bran for oblique clues to what else was in the hall.

"I've got to run," he said. "I'm meeting Kevin... Kevin Entwhistle - you met him at breakfast. He said he'd help me with Potions this year so we need to work out a schedule." He took off for the Ravenclaw dorms with a cheery wave. "See you at lunch!"

Aliset decided to try and find the library.

***

"Hi," said a voice at her elbow as Aliset poured over "Helpful Hints for Tough Transfigurations" by Inconstance Fluke. She looked up and saw a Gryffindor girl with a lot of bushy hair.

"H-hi." Aliset was surprised at being approached. "Um, would you like to join me? I'm just trying to brush up on Transfiguration... I've never been much good at it..." she trailed off.

"I'm Hermione Granger." The girl stuck out a hand. "Oops, sorry. Forgot."

"No, it's ok. Gloves." Aliset held out her hands in demonstration, they were covered by the same grey silk gloves she'd been wearing at the feast the evening before. "I'm Aliset Yasnovidashaya." And she held out her hand.

Hermione took the proffered hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you... I recommend Mutacia Shuffle's book "The Basics of Transfiguration in Six Not-So-Easy Steps", myself. Fluke just doesn't go in depth enough on the cross-species switching, and that can be tricky." Hermione dropped into a chair and fished some books out of her bag. One of them was entitled "The Facts of the Future: How to Separate Visions from Dreams" by Claire Fraiser and another was "Clairvoyance: How to Recognize It and How to Cope if You Have It" by Maisri Lovat.

Aliset glanced at the books, then at Hermione. Hermione blushed. "Well, if we're going to have a clairvoyant at school, I thought I'd better read up on it. Fearfully fascinating, although I'm only half-way through Maisri Lovat's book." The book in question was five inches thick.

"I'm flattered, I guess." Aliset shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she was rather intimidated by this Gryffindor. "Look, I better go... I'm trying out as a Quidditch reserve this evening and..."

"Oh? I'll have to tell Harry." Hermione saw that Aliset looked slightly blank. "Harry Potter. He's the Gryffindor Quidditch captain."

"Harry Potter?" Aliset's voice came out rather faint.

In fact, she looked so ill that Hermione leaned forward, and asked: "Are you ok?"

Aliset's eyes had glazed over.

"Show me the Potter boy." Rough hands grabbed her hair, forcing to look at the wizard photo before her. "Find him... he's the key..."

"Aliset?" Her eyes slowly went back to normal, and she saw Hermione looking at her with concern. "Are you alright?"

Aliset stood up, swaying only slightly. "Yes, I'm fine." She started walking towards the door, then turned back. "Just... if he's a friend of yours... try to keep him away from me!" And she fled from the library.

***

Harry watched the transfer student pick at her lunch. "She wants me to stay away from her?" he said curiously through a mouthful of ham-on-rye. "I think I'm hurt."

Ron shook his head. "You're losing your touch, Harry. No longer the most popular wizard in the world. I expect Witch Weekly will have an article out." He let his gaze drift over to the Ravenclaw table. "Y'know, she didn't eat anything at breakfast either. Reckon she's anislexic?"

"Anorexic, Ron," corrected Hermione. "And no, I don't. She's just nervous." She gave Ron an odd look. "And what's so fascinating about watching her eat, or not eat, her breakfast?"

Ron blushed and Harry tried not to laugh as he was in the middle of gulping pumpkin juice. "S'alright, Ron. You're not the one whose apparently death on clairvoyants. Maybe you can ask her to the Yule Ball." Ron open and shut his mouth several times, but nothing came out.

"Speaking of clairvoyants - we have Divination this afternoon," he said, finally. He chortled. "Wonder how Trelawney's going to cope with a real seer in the school."

***

The Divination classroom was just as smoky and cloying as it had been in previous years. Professor Trelawney waved to them languidly from the depths of her armchair. "Welcome back, my children.... Welcome back. This year, we will be focusing even more on Crystal gazing and entrails." Many of the girls looked askance at this pronouncement.

"Yum, entrails," said Ron without enthusiasm. Professor Trelawney sent him a look of long-suffering patience - he was far from being one of her favorite students.

They set up their crystal balls and began examining the clouded interiors.

"So, Harry, what do you see?" Ron asked.

"Scattered thunderstorms with a seventy percent chance of rain tonight," said Harry with a mystical air.

"Y'know, you might want to get that detached retina in your third eye checked," said Ron. Harry snickered into the collar of his robes. Lavender and Parvati tsked at them before resuming their properly reverential attitude.

Professor Trelawney sighed and made her way to Ron and Harry's table. "Now, boys... relax your minds and really try this year." She bent her head to their crystal. "I see... I see... descending clouds..."

"What do you know, Harry - You were right," Ron said with great surprise.

Trelawney looked up with a moue of displeasure. "For your information, my dears, descending clouds indicate strife and ill-fortune..." She lowered her voice dramatically, "Even death."

Lavender and Parvati gasped, but Harry shrugged, unfazed. "No disrespect, Professor, but you've been predicting this for four years straight now... so you won't mind if I run that passed Hogwarts' new resident Seer?" he said mischievously, waiting to see if Professor Trelawney's erratic eye had informed her of Hogwarts' new student.

Professor Trelawney blinked and tried to regroup after this bombshell. "Well... no of course not, if it makes you feel better to get a second opinion, my dear."

"Ah, thunderstorm's rolling in," Ron rubbed his arms. "I distinctly felt the temperature drop in here."

***

Eventually class ended, to the girls' disappointment and Harry and Ron's profound relief. "Doesn't seem like Trelawney's going to go off in a séance if I cark it this year," said Harry as they climbed down the ladder from the classroom.

"Mm, she does seem to have gone off you a bit. Maybe she'll start predicting the death of someone she'll miss more, for a change," said Ron. "She didn't like it when you mentioned that new girl, that's for sure."

"Nice recovery though, especially as she obviously hadn't a clue."

"When is that breaking news?" Ron patted his stomach. "All that talk of entrails made me hungry, let's go to dinner."

***

Aliset's day had been largely uneventful. Now she had to work up her nerve for the Quidditch try-out. Durmstrang was very keen on Quidditch, but not on having girls on the team.

"Ooh, you're going to try flying!" Hugin cackled madly as Aliset made her way to the pitch.

"Isn't that our department, love?" crooned Munin. "Don't want to make a boo-boo out there."

"Sod off and go back to the castle, you flipping ingrates." Aliset's temper distracted her and she tripped over a small divot in the turf. "Ahh! Yob tvoiu mait!*" she cursed.

"What a mouth!" Hugin wheeled off towards the Astronomy tower. "C'mon, Munin. We'll get a good spot to watch all the students snogging on the roof."

"You guys are perverts!" she turned and yelled after them, only to flush crimson as she saw Bran Evans, Kevin Entwhistle, and Stephen Cornfoot coming down the hill and looking rather startled.

"Sorry. It's just those bloody ravens," she muttered, brushing grass clippings off the front of her robes after she had picked herself up off the ground.

***

Cho had brooms for those trying-out. Aliset watched with interest - she'd never seen girls play Quidditch before, but it was obvious that the aerial playfield was admirably suited to feminine agility. The boys might have superior strength (hence, usually boys were Beaters and Keepers) but the positions of Chaser and Seeker could easily and aptly be filled by girls.

She was glad she was one of the last to go. It was getting late in the evening and most of the earlier try-outs had gone back up to the castle. Aliset mounted the broomstick and took off on Cho's whistle.

She kicked off the ground rather clumsily before realizing that there were far fewer distracting visions in the air. While at Durmstrang she had learned to fly on a broom but never got much practice. She found having a used broom gave her just enough visions to fly well, as the probabilities resolved into something much simpler. Soon she was racing around the field at Cho's direction. Then she was out flying the other hopefuls, stealing the Quaffle repeatedly. The real test happened as Cho released the Bludgers.

Harry sat in the stands watching, as befitted the captain of the Gryffindor team. He was very impressed with Aliset's flying. She's not even looking behind her! he marveled as she executed a roll to avoid a Bludger.

Cho was as impressed as Harry. Thinking that if she was that good at flying and dodging bludgers she might be a good Seeker, Cho released the snitch. After it was well away she shouted up: "ALISET! You are the Seeker! Find the Snitch!" Without a glance and before Cho had finished talking she rocketed up, barely avoiding knocking another player off their broom, only to streak back down towards the ground dodging both Bludgers pulling up so sharply near the ground that the one still following her slammed into the ground. With a flick of her wrist, she suddenly had the Golden Snitch in her hand.

Everyone, including Aliset, was surprised at how skillfully and quickly she had caught the snitch.

Aliset came back to earth with a happy flush in her cheeks - it had been so easy. Bran and Kevin were clapping her on the back. "That was great!" exclaimed Kevin.

"Of course it was," snapped a female voice. It was Hermione. "Of course she's going to be great if she can see everything that's coming at her." She folded her arms and stared at the Ravenclaw team. "I'm pretty sure clairvoyance is against the rules of Quidditch."

Aliset dropped the broomstick, suddenly feeling sick. "I - I never thought of that," she admitted. Cho and the rest of the team looked furiously at Hermione.

"Well, what can we do about it, then?" Cho said, finally.

Hermione smirked, an expression which didn't suit her. "I found a charm which should interrupt Aliset's clairvoyance sufficiently for this. If you want to try it." She addressed the last bit to Aliset.

"Yes." Aliset picked up the broomstick again, looking determined.

"Fine. Conspectus Incognitum!" she cried, pointing her wand at Aliset.

***

The less that was said the better, of Aliset's attempt at flying without the benefit of clairvoyance. She was hit three times by Bludgers, missed the Quaffle every time, and couldn't spot the Snitch even when it was practically in front of her. She obviously hadn't any idea of how to fly properly, turning her head so desperately in all directions it looked as though it were about to come off. The admiration of those on the field gave way to derision - it was awful.

When it was all over, Aliset had flung the broomstick to the ground and fled to the castle without a word. The Ravenclaw team was slightly dejected, since for a few minutes they had thought they might finally have a player to match Harry.

Harry himself felt distinctly uncomfortable about what he had witnessed. It wasn't like Hermione to humiliate someone, and this had smacked of it. He climbed down from the stands and came over to where she stood, seeming very satisfied as Cho called an end to the try-outs.

"'Mione, was that really necessary?" he asked. "Couldn't you have just said something to Aliset or Cho in private?"

"I didn't want there to be any doubt that she wasn't as good as you," Hermione said. "And as it turns out, she's not even as good as Neville." The look on Harry's face was quite shocked - Hermione was never this callous.

She thought a moment, correctly interpreting his expression, and remembered the grey-haired girl fleeing towards the West wing with what looked suspiciously like tears on her face. Hermione admitted she did feel a little ashamed of herself by making the new girl's humiliation so public. "I do owe her an apology, don't I?" she sighed.

***

Aliset threw herself onto her bed. Who cares, anyway? Rarely could she see, both physically and psychically, as clearly as she had on the Quidditch pitch. The school was so full of echoes - things to come, a half-dozen centuries already passed, the thoughts and emotions of hundreds of students. That's why she kept bumping into things and tripping all the time. I know where there's an obstacle, just not when. Her talent didn't seem much inclined to distinguish between now and then, or now and soon. I hate Hermione. She tried that thought, but she didn't really have the energy to hate anybody at the moment. She's only protecting Harry. She rolled over onto her back, staring at the ceiling. I wonder if either of them knows why. With that last thought, she fell asleep.

***

Karkaroff went to the dorms and flung open the door. Eleven year-old Aliset was sitting on her bed, already in tears. He stopped and stared; the child's hair had turned completely grey.

She turned miserably to face him. "My parents are dead," she whispered.

"Yes." He nodded. "It's true, then. You are a seeress."

Numb with grief, the bereaved girl could only stare at him with incomprehension.

"I have use for you," and Karkaroff rubbed his hands together in triumph.

***

[*Yob tvoiu mait - for any of you who don't speak Russian, this is an extremely rude curse. I'm not going to translate it here, because this chapter is only rated PG-13. Anyone who wants to know the literal translation is welcome to owl me.]

Stay tuned for Chapter Three - Out of Order. What is Voldemort up to? Where's Karkaroff? What on earth is wrong with Hermione? Is Harry going to have more prescient dreams? For the answers to these questions and more - don't miss the next installment of Omnividence!