The Ten Year Hex [Severus Snape]

1

The sound of police sirens droned in the distance as Jynx drew the blinds. Her London flat was situated on the third floor of a large building. Candles lit the small room where a couple sat at her round table waiting for her. The glow of the candles illuminated their anxious faces.

The rest of the room was dark, it added to the illusion for some. Whether they believed in her ability or not. The stack of cards were embellished with the picture of a glittering skeleton on the back. She joined her waiting customers at the table and as she shuffled the cards in her hands, the skeleton seemed to dance.

"Jynx, are we ever going to have kids?" The auburn haired woman asked, a hopeful lilt in her voice.

Jynx continued to shuffle, she gave no immediate answer to the question that hung in the air. The reason they had come to see her. Muggles believed in fortune tellers, but Jynx was much more than that. The cards and palm reading were mostly for show, to make them feel comfortable. The true fortune telling came from within Jynx herself.

She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair, quickly twisting it into a braid before she laid the cards on the table and asked the woman to cut the deck. The woman did, her hand trembling slightly as she picked up half the deck in her fingers and laid it next to its bottom half before stacking them again.

Jynx picked up six cards and laid them in a neat pyramid. "Look at each card and think about what it brings to your mind. Then look me in the eye," she instructed. She waited as each of them did just that, the man looking up first.

They were expecting a long drawn out explanation of what each of the cards represented, but in truth they were meaningless. The man's brown eyes locked with Jynx's, one emerald and one gray.

His body grew rigid as the world seemed to flip around them, it was never a very pleasant experience for the one she was reading. They couldn't see what she did, but they could feel her poking. Some said it made them nauseous. When she read Muggles, she watched as a third party. She often stood as a side character in the story, but she could feel emotions as if they were her own.

She watched as the same man who sat in front of her now sat in front of a woman with short black hair. The restaurant around them hummed with life, but he was nervous. His eyes shifted over the other patrons as his hand slid across the table and held the woman's. The woman was not the same one who sat across from her now.

He departs, unaccompanied and returns home to find his wife holding a small white stick in between her hands. She waves it merrily in the air before wrapping her arms around his neck in the doorway. She slips the stick into his fingers and two pink lines stare back at him. Jynx feels the guilt twisting in his gut as the scene dissolves and the world flips once again.

"What did you see?" The man asks.

"Best I read both of you first," she says as her eyes slide over to meet his wife's. She did not seem to endure the same discomfort that her husband had.

Once again the world spins, it can be dizzying when done too rapidly. Two bodies are in the throws of passion, the wife lets out a scream of pleasure before the man on top of her collapses. He rolls off of her and the face Jynx sees is not that of the husband. The man reaches for a cigarette and offers the woman one. She simply shakes her head.

The scene slams down, squashed by the next. The wife sits on the sofa with a white stick clutched in her palms. The same sequence unfolds. This time the emotions in the room are a twisted mix of guilt and excitement. When the world once again tips, Jynx trains her attention to the cards still splayed out on the table.

She is never quite sure of the timeline she sees, she only knows that it's something to come. It's up to her to put into words the pieces that she is given.

"You will have children," says Jynx, her voice low and ominous. "However, if you do not change your ways," Her eyes rise to meet the woman's and then the man's, "it will not be a joyous occasion."

Guilt flashes in both of their eyes, before they both seem to fold in on themselves. "The cards told you that?" The husband asks in a whisper.

Jynx nods her head. Her fingers begin to pick up the cards from the table. "I suggest you both work on your marriage before you think of bringing children into it." A heavy knock on the front door draws all of their attention. She had no more clients scheduled for the night, these were her last. She finished gathering the cards as the couple stood. "Please leave your payment in the crystal skull on the pedestal on your way out, and I wish you both the best," Jynx said with a small smile.

Jynx stood, flipping on the light switch. Her home was washed with light, bringing the place back to life. The man placed the money in the skull and they disappeared out the door. In their place came a tall dark figure, his robes pulled tightly around him. He paused for a moment in the small area of the doorway, his dark eyes seemed to take in every detail. He plucked a string of lights that decorated the entryway and held it in his palm, the light twinkled in his dark irises.

"Imagine finding you living among Muggles," he said as he let the string of lights fall.

"Severus, to what do I owe the pleasure?"