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Pain surged through her blood, roaring like a wildfire through her body in a tempest of anguish. Her hands grasped feebly at the shimmering silver that had been driven through her chest from behind. The blade slithered out of her flesh and she collapsed as more pain coursed through her and behind that agony came a strange warmth. The warmth of a body's last desperate effort to stop the pain.
Her vision blurred the world around her becoming a haze of half heard sounds and shifting shades of colour. She heard the swish of metal on cloth as her killer wiped his…or was it her blade and sheathed it. A curious silence seemed to envelope her, cutting her off from the last vestiges of the world as her heart faithfully pumped her blood onto the ground below her. Her eyelids grew heavy; her vision darkened and as her eyes closed she felt the bindings holding her spirit to her body slip apart.
The figure behind her waved their sword in a circle around the redhead's body and sheets of blue flame erupted to consume her.
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Hermione's eyes sprang open to find her clothing drenched with cold sweat. She shook her head, trying to dislodge that memory from her mind. Beside her a shape stirred. His black hair flicked across his face as he turned to face her. "Christ `Mione, are you alright?" He whispered as he saw the fear etched across her face and the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.
"Another dream," she wept softly, "this one about Ginny."
"Ginny?" Harry asked his voice rife with uncertainty. "Are you sure? What happened?"
"I'm sure it was her." She responded tearfully, "and it was the same as always but a bit different again. Stabbed this time and then burnt as she died. But the same person and I couldn't see his face!" A thread of anger fought at her fear as she lay in his arms. "I couldn't see his face at all. And I was fully screening with Occlumency tonight. I couldn't stop the dream coming."
"Ok, then I think it's time we went to see a Seer. We need an experienced opinion on this."
"Yo-" Hermione's voice faltered, "You don't think what I'm seeing is the future?"
"I hope that it isn't with every fibre of my being but I don't know, I can't know. Only a Seer can tell if these visions are a true vision of the future. So I think we should firecall Velius in the morning and try and get a proper appointment." He felt her shoulders tense and cut her off before she could protest. "I know you don't want do to this but do we have any other choice? You're tearing yourself apart." He choked out around tears of his own. Hermione must have heard the soul-deep concern within that appeal for she relaxed slightly.
"All right love, we'll firecall Velius. I doubt we'll have much trouble getting an appointment though. He's probably known that this was coming. He has an almost frightening amount of control over his gift."
"And he probably already knows all our questions and the answers to each one." Harry said with a touch of annoyed amusement. "You know, I sometimes get-"
"- so annoyed by Seers, I know."
"Firecall in the morning then. Promise me that?"
"All right….tomorrow." Her eyes closed and she fell back into slumber again, but this time not a troubled one.
Harry stayed awake after Hermione fell asleep, holding her in his arms while his mind raced through everything he had ever learned about the gift of Foresight. Yes, sometimes Seers saw things in their dreams and those were generally the most powerful visions they ever had. But few Seers ever had dreams of the future at the start of their Seeing and none had ever only had dream-sight. He remembered that a passage from Foresight: Curse or Gift that had been written about this particular subject but he couldn't remember the subject matter. After a few minutes racking his brain for anything else he could remember he slipped into a light doze.
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He got up early, before he normally did just as the sun's rays started to spear over the horizon. He went to the window and stepped through the curtains to look out at the sun as it crept up from the hills it was nestled in. He stayed there for about ten minutes, drinking in the sunrise's beauty and then slipped back through the curtain and padded softly down the stairs to collect the post. He was half-way back up the stairs with the post when a piercing shriek of terror shattered the silence from above him. Sprinting back up the stairs to their room he almost tripped as he charged through the door to find Hermione sitting straight up on the bed, her face a marble-white mask of terror.
"Vel….Velius…" She stuttered and then visibly pulled herself together. "Velius is dead, Harry. His house just collapsed on him." Her voice shook as she continued and Harry hurried to her side and wrapped his arms around her.
"It was him." It wasn't really a question.
"Yes." Hermione whispered in horror. "It was him. But I still didn't catch more than a glimpse of him! And now what are we going to do?"
"I…Hermione, we can't be sure that you're correct here." He saw her face contract as he said that. "But we can find out." He reached for a small container of Floo powder on the mantelpiece above their fireplace. <Incendio> He thought clearly, pointing his wand at the fireplace. He sprinkled some of the powder into the conjured fire and then lowered his head into the flames and reeled off Velius's address. There was the familiar whirl of motion…and then nothing. He looked around, this was Velius's fireplace. Something was dripping onto the fire, causing it to crackle but he couldn't see what. He leaned further into the fire and twisted to look upwards. He didn't quite flinch as he saw the crumpled corpse of his former partner ripped almost ripped in half and suspended from the ceiling by warped metal and wood. He saw a trickle of water down from the body and shuddered. Whatever had done that had gone straight through him. He pulled himself out of the fire. "You're right Hermione. Now we know that those visions can see the present at different places." He tried to stop it, but his voice wavered as the image of what had happened to Velius snaked into his head.
Hermione shivered as another thought struck her and Harry heard her resolve starting to crack.
"He knew what we were going to do the moment we discussed it. How did he know? How?!"
"I don't know love, I wish I did, but I just don't know." Harry's voice sparkled with tears. Hermione had met Velius only a handful of times but Harry had worked with him for five years now. They curled around each other, trying to draw comfort from their mutual suffering. Then an owl knocked on the window.
"What? Hedwig doesn't usually come this way." Harry exclaimed, drawing back the curtain. But he revealed not Hedwig but another owl, Halsat, Velius's owl. He held out his claw to Harry as he opened the window for him. Harry reached down and his hand crumpled ashes. He looked down for a moment, stunned. There was nothing in the owl's claws but a small pile of ash. Halsat swayed on the window and Harry suddenly noticed that one of his wings was out of place and there were charred marks around the owl's head. He swayed again and Harry reached out to him but a razor sharp beak made him withdraw his hand very quickly.
"Halsat, it's just me, Harry." He said urgently as the owl began to teeter on the edge of the windowsill. Halsat mantled at him, beating his wings in an attempt to keep his balance. Then he fell. Harry's hand flashed for his wand, swinging half-way out of the window. Too late. A muffled crunch announced Halsat's sudden connection with the ground. "Damn it!" He crumbled the ashes in his hands and his fingers touched something cold and solid. He pulled it out and examined it. It looked like a highly inscrolled ball bearing. Then the thing flashed into incandescence, filling the room with light, and they heard Velius's voice.
"Harry, Hermione. I know what's coming for me, don't worry I'll put up a good fight. But she's coming for you as well. Get out of your house, get out of the country!" There was a crash in the background. "No time left, she's coming. Just got enough time for this. Hermione, I know you're confused but you're a dream-seer. Stop trying to screen it out, it only weakens your gift. Open your mind and see the world without inhibitions. When you know that you're ready, confront this monster. Farewell. Back mage, back to where you belong. I shall not fall to you!" There was a hideous scream, a sudden crack and then the light faded from the room. Harry brought the ball up to his eyes to look at it, but as he did so it crumbled into ashes in his hand.
He stood there, stunned into incoherence. Eventually he felt Hermione tugging on his arm and turned to her ashen face.
"Harry, what do we do?"
"What Velius told us to do 'Mione. We run."
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