I gasped as a powerful surge of emotions coursed through me and my eyes flew open. I felt a great pang of shock that hit me like a furious bolt of lightning and left me reeling in its wake. There wasn't time to recover as the feeling gave way to one of utter horror laced with a great yearning sadness that tore at my heart and rendered me speechless as tears formed in my eyes. Slowly, the feelings subsided, and I was left shaking and gasping for breath, the tears of my own shock glistening on my face. I realised that I must have screamed or cried out, as the rest of the class were gathered round me, a mixture of concern and fear on their faces. Behind them, Professor Sye was regarding me with a strange expression that I couldn't quite read; it seemed like a mixture of elation and triumph. But in an instant it was gone, replaced by an impassive look.
'You felt it?' she whispered in her mysterious voice. 'It can come as quite a shock the first time you experience something like that. Here, take some chocolate; I came prepared, just in case.'
She handed me a couple of squares of chocolate and I took a bite, wanting to be rid of the horrible shaking feeling. As I ate, my limbs stopped quaking and my breathing returned to normal. However, it did nothing to clear my thoughts.
'Can you explain to us what it felt like?' Professor Sye asked, gesturing to the rest of the class, who, now that I seemed to have returned more or less to normal, were looking less fearful.
Steadying myself, I began to recall what I had experienced. 'It felt like someone who had experienced, or was experiencing, a huge tragedy,' I said. 'Something that caused her a lot of pain. Something that upset her. Well, not upset her—it tore her heart.'
'It was a woman, then?' Professor Sye asked. Up until then I wasn't aware that I had given the feeling a gender, but now that I thought about it, it did make sense. There was something feminine about those feelings.
'Yes,' I replied. 'It felt like a woman, somehow.'
'You could be right,' she said. 'It only seems to be women who experience it. Could you tell anything else from it? Was she perhaps on the throes of death or contemplating suicide? Did she throw herself from the balcony?'
'No,' I said. 'No, she didn't kill herself. She saw something from the window, I'm certain of that.'
I was certain that I was right, I just didn't know why. It was like how you instinctively know that comfort is good and pain is bad.
'Do you know what it was? What caused her to feel all that?'
I shook my head. I had no idea what the woman had seen that had broken her heart so terribly, and after that experience, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. As I looked at my professor, I saw a strange look in her eye. It wasn't the triumphant look she wore a few minutes ago, it was different. I couldn't say for definite, but I got the idea that Professor Sye already knew the answers to the questions she was asking me. As I looked, the vision I had had on the Welcome Feast crept into my mind. I had a funny feeling that she might know about that as well.
She said nothing more on the subject, but led us back to the North Tower where she set us notes to copy from our textbooks. I, however, had a lot of difficulty concentrating on the task I was supposed to be doing. Most of the words made no sense on the page, and the ones that did only haunted me. Words like ghost, apparition, spirit, and vision leaped out at me and plagued my mind, swirling my thoughts around in a confused mess. I knew who I needed to talk to, and so when the bell rung to signal break I was the first through the trapdoor. Lily had Care of Magical Creatures, so I made my way outside to wait for her. Just as I was descending the marble steps to the Entrance Hall, the doors swung open and a dozen dripping wet students came pouring in, Lily among them. I hadn't noticed, but it was pouring with rain outside and meant we would spend break time in the Common Room.
'Hey, Clariss! Fancy a shower?' Lily said shaking her head like a dog and sending drops of water all over me.
'Don't do that!' I shrieked, shrinking away from her. 'I had one this morning thanks! Look, I need to talk to you.'
'What's the matter?' she asked, looking at me. 'What's happened, you look really pale!'
'Shh!' I hissed, checking to see if anyone was listening. Thankfully, our greeting had caused us to fall behind from the main group, who were already half way up the stairs. 'Something happened in Divination just now. I sort of had a funny experience.'
'Like the one at the feast?' she asked, completely serious now.
'Sort of. I don't know. It was really strange, Professor Sye took us to this disused balcony in the Astronomy Tower and told us that some kind of ghost haunted it and that she wanted us to try and experience it.'
'And you did?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'But I was the only one who did.'
'What was it like?' she said. I looked at her in suspicion, but was surprised to see that she looked genuinely interested.
'It was like a shock at first,' I said, 'and then this terrible sadness and longing. It was strange. It felt like it was a woman who had seen something from the balcony that broke her heart.'
'How do you know that?' she asked.
'I don't know. I just felt it, it was like an instinct. It was scary,' I confessed. 'I think I'm going mad.'
'Why?' Lily looked surprised at my declaration. 'Clariss, you were in a Divination lesson! Things like that are supposed to happen. It's what Professor what's-her-name wanted you all to experience. You should be proud that you were the only one that did. People have been Seeing things for centuries, just because you have doesn’t mean you're bonkers.'
I had to admit, what Lily was saying made sense. There were plenty of normal explanations for what had happened. It was also a mark of our friendship that Lily had said this. Ordinarily, she would have been the first person to say that Seers were definitely mad.
'Do you think this and the vision I had last week are connected?'
'No,' she said after a moment's thought. 'I don't think they are. What you experienced today was like what your Professor said. It was probably some sort of ghost. That other thing was like a vision, wasn't it? I mean, you actually saw things, but after all, you were full and tired, it could have been a product of that.'
'Yeah, I suppose,' I agreed. It definitely made sense to think of it that way, and it was comforting to see that there were other explanations. I cheered slightly, feeling as if a dead weight had lifted out of the pit of my stomach.
I hadn't been aware that we had been walking as we were talking, but now that my mood had lifted I saw that we were in fact on the third floor, nearing the entrance to the Charms corridor. There, I saw something that lifted my mood even more. A lone, dark figure was loitering by the archway. I knew that figure and that stance; I had admired it for years. It belonged to Hero van Millen, Albus Potter's friend, and the guy I had harboured a not-so-secret crush on since my fourth year.
'I swear Hero looks even more gorgeous when he's surly,' I whispered to Lily, nodding at the corner we had just passed. Lily turned to look.
'I don't see him,' she said. 'Was he actually there, or are you just making a general comment?'
I turned my head to look again. She was right, he had gone.
'He was there,' I told her. 'Must have gone down the Charms corridor.'
'Shame,' she said, mischievous twinkle in her eye. 'He is better looking when he's brooding on something.'
'Lily!' I exclaimed. 'You've got a boyfriend! What would Conor say?'
'No harm in looking,' she said cheekily.
'You leave him alone,' I warned her, trying unsuccessfully to look serious. 'He's mine.'
The topic of the dashing Hero carried us all the way up to our Common Room, where we were bombarded by a high-spirited Tristan and a disgruntled Murray, who had apparently been gambling again. All thoughts of paranormal experiences and visions forgotten, we went to lounge in front of the fire, teasing Murray for yet another loss.
Shine a Light by Sapphire at Dawn
Chapter Notes: So, this is the right chapter this time! As usual, thanks to my brilliant beta, Gina/gene24.
Chapter Endnotes: Please let me know what you though! Just type something in that little box down there!