The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.65 | D-Day

Stories did not always come to a perfect end. Life sometimes gave you the same dreadful sensation of having several pages of a book left even when everyone had made up and everything had worked out.

It was one of Margaret's bad habits to expect everything to go wrong as soon as everything seemed too good to be true.

Normal days went on peacefully, all her friends were happy, Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley, Ron and Hermione were on better terms than they had ever been, and Gryffindor was still coming down from the high of winning the Quidditch cup. Everything was all right. Everything was good. Life was good.

In solitude, Margaret wondered if she kept faking it, maybe it would last forever... Maybe this year would come to a peaceful close. Maybe they would all head home for the summer. Maybe she would spend days playing Quidditch with the Weasleys without worrying about an oncoming war...

Even though she knew it was not going to happen, the normal days fooled her. The happiness and cheer, the peace and friendly chatter were all fooling her.

When June's days began tripping forward at an alarming speed, Margaret's feeling of heading head-first into impending doom increased. It was beginning to feel like her anxiety was slowly screwing her brain lose.

Instead of finding something to help calm her, Margaret had started to read the Daily Prophet regularly as it reported disappearances and dementor attacks; she had even started looking forward to her horrible visions (although she avoided going anywhere near the Room of Requirement) because they reminded her that what she had now would not last forever, not even till the end of the month.

And yet, a part of Margaret desperately tried to enjoy the simplicity of her routine. These normal days were what Hogwarts was supposed to be about.

As days blurred into nights which blurred into days, Margaret wondered if Dumbledore had read her notes and seen her visions. It was rather odd. There had been no scheduled appointments with him and he had not been present for meals for about two weeks now.

"Margaret?"

Margaret looked around to find Astoria Greengrass standing behind her.

"Oh hi, Tori," says Margaret, smiling. "How've you been?"

"I've been good, thanks for asking," says the girl softly. She held out a scroll. "Here, I've been told to give you this."

"Oh, thanks!"

"No worries. Hey, I've gotta go or I'll be late for Astronomy."

"See you around, Tori."

As Astoria left, Margaret untied the scroll to find Dumbledore's long slanted writing informing her that he was cancelling her last lectures of the day - double Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Snape - and that she was to come to his office.

Margaret's heart jumped. Even though she had wanted exactly this, a feeling of anticipation and dread erupted in her gut.

"Tori?" Ginny's voice caught her attention and Margaret looked up. "Isn't she younger than us?"

"Yeah, that's Daphne's sister," Margaret tells her. "She's a bit shy, but friendly."

"Who's it from?" asks Hermione, gesturing at the scroll.

"Dumbledore," answers Margaret, the dread crawling up her chest. "My last classes of the day are cancelled. I'm supposed to go to his office instead..."

"Really?" says Harry, sitting up straighter. "Has he said why?"

Margaret shook her head in response.

"That's a bit odd," Hermione speaks up, frowning. "Dumbledore wouldn't pull you out of class like that..."