Mothers Tarot Cards, Loving thy enemy, and a scar

Mother’s Tarot Cards

Prologue

It had been a long year, but the final battle was nigh at last. The battle to end all battles that would decide the fate of the wizarding world was to be fought by two men. These two men would be the savior of the light, barely a man in age, but with a mind and a soul more seasoned than any other on earth. He had seen more in his seventeen years than most do in a lifetime. His opponent was the lord of the dark, barely a man by any sense of the word. His mind and soul had become so twisted, so cold, that they had ceased to be anything short of demonic. If the savior should win, the magical world would finally move into an age of peace and advancement. However; if the lord of the dark should prevail the magical and Muggle worlds alike would be ushered into an age of darkness and chaos worse than ever before. One thought was on each mind, one phrase on each tongue: who would win? No one knew. Father Time is not so quick to give up his secrets; they simply had to see what unfolded in this date, space, and time.

Prologue ends

“Harry, mate, you need to go to bed and rest for the duel tomorrow.”

Harry looked up from the window, where he had been staring out over the grounds of Hogwarts. He saw his best mate of seven years with a look of concern on his face. “Yeah, I know, Ron, but I just can’t sleep. I might as well be up and enjoying what could be my last night on earth instead of in bed trying to sleep.”

“We can give you a sleeping draught, you need to at least to get some sleep tonight,” suggested Ron. The closer he drew to his friend, the more concerned he became.

“No, I want to be clear-headed when I face him in the morning,” Harry replied, turning his attention back to the grounds.

“Harry, listen,” Ron said urgently, “why don’t you just call it off? Most of us don’t know why you accepted the challenge to a duel when You-Know-Who offered it. In fact, Hermione and I aren’t completely sure why either,” he finished, sitting down in chair next to Harry’s.

“Because, Ron, we don’t know if we have the strength to beat Voldemort and he doesn’t know if he has the strength to beat us if it comes to war. This duel is the fastest way to defeat him and the Death Eaters until we can figure out a way to ensure he has no way to get back. All of the Order and Ministry as well as the Death Eaters have promised not to physically interfere with the duel,” snapped Harry as he turned and stared at Ron. He turned his attention back out the window to the full red tinged moon and smirked. “Well look at that, a blood-full moon. Trelawney told me once that that foretells the death of someone significant the next day. She must be shooting back a glass of cooking sherry, because she’s predicted something right for the third time in her life.”

“Harry please, call off the duel! There has to be another way to defeat him!” pleaded Ron.

“No, you know as well as I that the first time Voldemort came and tried to kill me, he inadvertently transferred a piece of his soul to me, accidentally making me a Horcrux. The only way for him to truly be dead is for me and the other Horcruxes to be destroyed. Right now, all we can hope to do is for me to kill him, destroy the other Horcruxes, and then see how I can remove his soul from me. And if I fail, well, that’s just one less for you guys to destroy,” said Harry simply.

“Harry…”

“Ron, just… stop, okay? I’ll be up in bed as soon as I’m feeling tired.”

“All right Harry. Night, mate,” said Ron resignedly as he headed back up the stairs.

“Night Ron,” Harry replied quietly.

Harry sat there looking out at the night sky and admiring the way the moonlit grounds were tinged red with the color of the moon. He felt a hand on his shoulder, “I said I’ll go to bed when I’m ready Ron,” growled Harry as he turned to look at the owner of the hand. “Oh, it’s you. What are you still doing up?”

“Hi Harry. I might ask you the same thing, and apparently I’m not the only one to ask. Right?” The redhead took a seat.

“What gave you the first clue, Gin?” asked Harry with a smirk, looking into the chocolate eyes of the freckle-faced girl.

“Oh, just a hunch,” chuckled Ginny, looking at the brunette teen. She stood up and held out her hand. “Come on Harry, let’s get to bed.”

“I’m not tired Ginny, but go on to bed if you want,” said Harry, giving her a warm smile.

“Well, then we don’t have to sleep. We can do something else,” she purred, pulling Harry’s face to look at her own and leaning down for a kiss.

“Ginny don’t,” said Harry as he shifted to avoid her lips.

“Why not? We’re all alone,” Ginny huffed.

“You know why, I don’t want you to get hurt,” he replied.

“I won’t get hurt. Harry, tomorrow you’re going to defeat Voldemort,” Ginny said her chocolate doe eyes starting to tear up. “What could hurt me about that?”

“And if I don’t?” asked Harry.

“If you don’t, then I want us to at least have this one night together,” cried Ginny, tears coming freely now as she threw her arms around her neck.

“Shh, shh, Ginny, it's going to be ok,” Harry cooed, rubbing her back. “You’re not thinking straight. You need to go to bed and sleep.”

“No! No, I want you to come with me. Stay the night,” sobbed Ginny.

“Ginny, look at me,” said Harry softly. Ginny’s eyes met his. “You need sleep, you’re a nervous wreck, and you’re not thinking straight, so doing it now wouldn’t be right.”

“You always have to do the right thing, don’t you Harry?” sniffed Ginny, still gazing into his emerald depths.

“Of course I do, I’m the good guy remember,” Harry replied, giving her a cheeky grin.

Ginny let out a giggle. “You always seem to make me laugh, Harry Potter, no matter how annoyed I am with you.”

Harry brushed a piece of hair out of Ginny’s face and stroked her cheek. “I’m glad I can at least lighten your spirit. Now, go ahead and sleep, Ginny.”

“Ok, night Harry,” said Ginny getting up and heading for the girls’ dorm.

“Night Gin,” answered Harry as she made her way up the staircase.

When Harry heard her door close he got up from his seat and headed for the portrait hole. Once out into the corridor Harry just roamed the upper floors of the castle, not caring who saw him. At one point in time right by the picture of Merlin on the sixth floor he came across Mrs. Norris who was directly in his path looking at him without blinking. “Go ahead and run off to tell Filch you know he can not and will not do anything about it,” Harry said looking directly into the cat’s silted pupils.

Mrs. Norris looked at Harry for a few more seconds before simply bowing its head.

Harry bent down and scratched the cats head until it gave a delightful purr, “Now you run along now and stalk mice not innocent students.” Harry righted himself and continued on his path of aimless wondering without really noticing where he was going until he came to a dead end. “Bloody hell I’m lost, I haven’t got lost in this bloody castle since fourth year,” he said to himself wile patting his pockets, “and wouldn’t you bloody know it, I don’t have the map with me, I’m going to be wondering around the dam castle till this time tomorrow trying to find my way back.” Harry muttered to himself and started back the way he had come until he heard a small thud that stopped him in his tracks. Harry slowly looked back to see the all too familiar latter leading up to the tower classroom. “Well, I must be in the north tower it won’t take me to long to get back to the common room now,” Stated Harry, as he started walking back down the corridor to the common room.

“Harry, Harry, come to me Harry,” came a ghostly whisper from the top of the stairs.

“What the hell, whose there,” Harry called out slowly drawing his wand.

“Harry, Harry, come to me Harry,” came the same whisper.

“Ok, I’m coming,” Harry called up the trap door he walked over to the latter and climbed up them slowly, when he was about three fourths the way up he extended his wand and muttered “Lumos,” instantly light shot out of his wand and into the trap door illuminating a area of the room. Harry climbed up the last of the rungs trying his best to keep the light shining in the room. Harry finally made it up into the darkened room of the Divination tower only to find it deserted. “Hello anyone here?” asked Harry as he shined his light over the tables, cabinets, chairs, and Professor Trelawney’s rocker but still no one to be seen or heard. “Is anyone here? I swear to god Ron, if this is a joke I’m going to kill you,” yelled Harry.

“Hello, Mr. Potter it’s about time you got here,” said a voice from behind; Harry instantly turned around and pointed his illuminated wand straight into the face of Professor Trelawney. “Now, Mr. Potter I don’t believe that force would be necessary,” she said devoid of her usual mystical tone and with a snap of her scrawny finger a fire lit in the grate and the lamps and candles flickered to life.

Harry lowered his wand sheepishly, “Sorry Professor.”

“No need, to apologies boy, I knew full and well that would happen, now take a seat and have some tea,” she said nonchalantly once again devoid of her mysterious tone she was notorious for.

Harry looked down to see that there was a table with tea and a nice comfy arm chair and took offered the seat but hesitated before taking the tea. “Do not worry boy I foresaw that you may not want to deal with tea leaves so I used tea bags this time, now drink up,” she snipped.

“Yes, I suppose you could with as well developed as your inner eye is and all,” Replied Harry while trying to keep as much sarcasm out of his voice and then took a drink of tea enjoying the sweet taste.

“No, Mr. Potter not this time, when I said foresaw and knew I guess should have said figured I mean even someone with their inner eye nailed shut should be able to figure that a person who could face death at any moment would be quick to draw especially in a dark room, and as far as the tea bags go I just thought it would be best seeing how much detest you had for tea leaf readings in class,” she said taking a sip of her own tea.
“Professor, I just have to ask you something.”

“Let me guess your wondering why I’m not talking like I normally do,” she replied looking at Harry over her ridiculously thick glasses.

“Well yes, but how did you know, did you…” started Harry before getting cut off.

“No, I did not see that with my inner eye, once again its one of those things even the thickest of people should be able to pick up on, and just to let you know this is how I usually talk when I’m not at school” stated the teacher.

“Why don’t you talk like this in your classes?” asked Harry looking confused.

“Ha, I’m a divination teacher we are all expected to be all mysteries and find omens in everything we do even in our own speech. Oh and heaven forbid let’s not forget talking about all that inner eye malarkey,” snapping that last sentence.

“Wait, you mean that with all that sputtering you do in class about opening your own inner eye there is no such thing?” Harry sputtered, dumbstruck.

“Oh well of coarse there is such a thing as the inner eye, but not only does it take years of patient training to open your inner eye if its not but also there is much more that just looking though it you have feel it giving your prediction, and just to let you know despite what I show in class I’m actually quite talented when it comes to divination.”

Harry quickly took a drink before he could let out as much as a snicker.

“Although I don’t suppose you believe me considering you were saying that I must be shooting back and extra glass of cooking sherry to celebrate a correct prediction, and that one I did see” said Trelawney.

cough… cough… cough. “Professor I’m so sorry I didn’t mean that I’m sorry,” said Harry frantically have beating his chest several time for his tea to go down the right pipe.

“Potter you can stop lying, I know you meant it, but I can’t say I could really blame anyone else for thinking that considering how much of a fraud I came off to be in class. I must say if it was anyone else who had made a crack about me and shooting back more sherry to celebrate a right prediction that comes few and far between I could understand, seeing how most of the school has come to know me as Professor Tittering Tweety Trelawney however you should have known better seeing as I was the one who delivered your prophecy and who warned you about Voldemort in fourth fifth year,” ranted Trelawney, wile giving a Harry a knowing look.

‘Yea, somewhere around that time… WAIT! A minute I though you never remember your prophecies or visions!” said Harry with an accusing finger.

Professor Trelawney just smiled over her teacup, “Once again another ploy, only this one is for my personal safety, people come to seers for predictions and prophecies of all kinds of natures, if a seer remembers their prophecies and visions they might just find their selves dead when it comes of more illegal and dangerious natures. Not to mention people don’t tend to mind people who can’t remember their own visions and act all mysterious and wacky when it comes to eavesdropping, I have delivered Dumbledore lord rest his soul and McGonagall with useful information many of times anonymously of course, but I didn’t call you here to discuss my voice or my state of remembering visions.”

“Why did you call me here?”

“To make a prediction for yourself that could help save yourself and the rest of the wizarding world,” she stated

“Me? Make a prediction no offence professor but are you sure you haven’t been hitting the cherry a little heavily tonight?” asked Harry.

“No, I mean yes, I mean I haven’t even touched the sherry since before the end of last year,” snapped the seemly insulted teacher. “Whatever you may think of your divination skills I have a feeling that you may be able to do it with these.” The seemly bug eyed professor reached under the table and retrieved small but beautifully carved chest, she slowly raised the lid to pull out a rectangular shaped object rapped in a dark blue silk. Carefully, the middle-aged teacher unwrapped the object to reveal a deck of cards. “I doubt if you know this Mr. Potter, but your mother was in my class. She was one of the best I have ever had for having no prior training in divination or any past relatives seasoned in the art. She was no where close to being a seer with visions and her skills with crystal balls, palms, and tea leaves were barely average, but her skills at scrying and interpreting dreams were phenomenal. However; they were nothing compared to her skill with the tarot cards, if she was any more talented at them the cards might as well have read themselves for her. I had a friend of mine make her this deck and gave it to her as a graduation gift when I witness her get not just an O but an O+ on her N.E.W.T’s, doing nothing but a Tarot reading for her instructor telling her that she was pregnant with a twins. Stupid women wouldn’t believe your mother until she got so frustrated at the instructor that she quite literally told her too march her happy ass down to the hospital wing and prove it, and that if her prediction was wrong she would put the T- on her record scroll personally. Poor women, the only thing she said when the tests came back true was ‘give that bloody girl top marks’ before she fainted on to the hospital bed in shock. The night your parents died these somehow made their way back to me and were in my rocker as you see them now when I came into make sure everything was ok when I saw a giant flash of green light from under my door in my personal chambers, and tonight I was feeling a strange pull to them and when I opened the box I saw the same green light pulsing though the silk raping. The more I thought about it the more a I realized that the light was the same color of eyes as your mothers eyes, your eyes, then it hit me the cards must be calling out for you to use them, that is why I called out to you with my mind in hopes that these card would help you defeat lord Voldemort.”

“Professor I don’t think that a deck of cards are going to help me do that,” said Harry giving his teacher the weirdest look he had ever given her in the years of having her.

“Perhaps, Perhaps not, but what my question to you Harry is what can it hurt?” asked the teacher sliding the pack of half exposed cards toward him.

Harry looked at the cards and picked them up and fully unwrapping them, as soon as his hand touched the bare cards the deck glowed with a brilliant green light the same color green as his own eyes. With the light a sense of power and knowledge overwhelmed Harry until he had to close his eyes to focus. “What’s happening?”

“You feel it, don’t you? The power of knowledge flowing though your body, overwhelming your senses,” breathed the teacher studying her young pupil.

“Yes, it’s almost like it’s in every pore of my body from my toes to the very tip of my hair,” he replied eyes still closed concentrating on the power.

“Then use it, use the cards for a prediction.”

“But we haven’t even started doing readings in class this year all we did was go over the meanings, and if you hadn’t noticed I was usually zoning out.”

“Yes, I noticed, however I have a feeling the cards will speak to you and tell them what they mean, and if not I can interpret for you. So just close your eyes, think or say your question to the cards and channel your energy, then shuffle the cards until you feel like you’ve shuffled them enough, this isn’t potions if you do something not enough or to much it won’t blow up on you so just relax, then once your done shuffling place three cards next to each other and then open you eyes,” said Trelawney in a calming soothing voice.

Slowly and hesitantly the boy who lived and the savior of the light starts to shuffle the deck of cards, as he gains more confidence that he won’t send cards flying everywhere he picks up speed in his shuffling, as he does this a sense of calm and reassurance mixes with the feeling of knowledge of power. “Will I defeat voldemort? Will I defeat voldemort? Will I defeat voldemort?” He said out loud over and over until finally somewhere in depths of his mind a little voice said to stop shuffling, slowly Harry laid out three cards right next to each other and opened his eyes and looked at his Professor smiling face.

“Very good Mr. Potter, you are just as much of a nature as your mother when it comes to dealing the cards now lets see how you read them.”

Harry looked down and focused on his first card until it filled his line of vision. The picture on the card was a man with a spiky hat with bells at the end of each spike, he was also holding a walking stick in one hand, a heavy pack on his back, and he was walking along a path that extended to the end of the card. The caption on top of the card read the Fool, “The Fool, that’s real assuring,” Harry muttered voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Oh, stop being such a bloody wet blanket Potter, what did I tell you about just looking at a sign, don’t just look feel it, reach out with you mind and what do you sense?”

Harry slowly opened his mind and focused the card, a sudden feeling a weariness overwhelmed his body like he had just walked along way and was searching for something, “I feel exhausted as if I have been walking all day for a long time searching for something when I focused on the card, does the fool mean traveling Professor? He asked looking at the mousy women again with a look of wondering on his face.

Professor Trelawney smile grew bigger until it took up her whole face, “Very good my dear lad, the fool usually represents the person doing the reading or asking the question, is going on a long journey or quest along the path of life, in this position the Fool is represents the past meaning that you have already completed or are near completion of a journey or quest, which makes since as your duel with the dark lord is at dawn, Now what about the next card?”

Harry looked at the next card that was situated in the middle of the three. It was a regal but kind looking woman with long black hair cascading down her shoulders, in one upturned palm was a star placed in a circle, she was perched nobly on a throne clad in a flowing robe. On top of her head sat a delicate gold grown with the same star in a circle on in the center. The caption read the Queen of Pentacles, as he did with the fool he focused on the card, instantly he was smothered with the feeling of being in a warm comforting embrace as if nothing in the universe could hurt him, “I feel protected completely as if I’m safe from everything that could hurt me, like a child would feel being rapped in his mothers arms.”

“A very good and accurate interpretation Harry, the Queen of Pentacles is usually presented as the great mother and like a mother she symbolizes protection. In this position she represents present and near future protection. Which means that the powers are more than likely with you because of your previous card the Fool represents not only a great journey but you as well, what about your last card?” she asked her smile getting even bigger if possible.

Harry looked at his last card which pictured two people naked from the waist up in a loving embrace in a beautiful garden; the caption above said the Lovers. As with the last two cards Harry focused on the picture on the card, as before he was filled with another feeling instantly, he was once again enveloped in an embrace. Only this one was different instead of the calming peace that accompanied the last card this one made his skin heat up with passion and instead of feeling protected he felt the need to protect the other being embracing him from harm. “I feeling like I’m in a hug like the last time only in this one my skin is on fire, and I feel like I’m ready to tear someone apart if they try to take the person away from me,” he said seriously looking at his professor as soon as the sentence left his mouth the three cards levitated and joined the rest of the deck, the cards instantly pulsed with the same green light when Harry touched them, the deck slowly lifted up and the blue silk wrapped itself around them again and they floated back to the box from where they had came. The feeling of knowledge and power slowly left Harry’s body leaving him exhausted.

“Aw just as I though you are just as good if not better than you mother at reading the cards they speak to you just like they did for her, The Lovers card is actually self explanatory they mean feelings of romantic love, and in that position it means near to distant future, which could either mean you will meet that person in the near or distant future or you already know them and will lover each other for a very long time. Feeling tired Harry?” asked the Professor with a peculiar tone in her voice.

“Yea,” Harry replied simply and looked into his Professor’s face at the strange tone in her voice only to see a strange twinkle in her over magnified. “What did you do to me Professor?” he asked feeling betrayed.

“Nothing bad my boy I can assure you that, you know that you will defeat the dark lord now I merely gave the means of finding out how,” she answered and snapped her fingers and Harry was on a comfy couch a little way from the table.

She got up and walked over to the boy and pulled a light blanket over the boy. “Sweet dreams Mr. Potter they hold the fate of us all,” was the last thing Harry heard before he let his mind fall into the deep abyss of sleep.