Glamour

Sight

 It had been five days since the snake incident, and Ron had written to Hermione that morning, but he apparently was still annoyed enough with Harry to not include him in his communications. The brief note only said that Mr Weasley was alive, but would be remaining at St. Mungo's until at least Christmas. The healer had requested no visitors other than immediate family, Ron had apologised but told Hermione that the family had invited her to spend Christmas at the burrow. Hermione had pulled Harry aside and conveyed the information, along with a small apology at the fact that she would be abandoning him to Christmas at Hogwarts alone. Harry was quick to assure her that he didn't mind, and he could use the two weeks to start OWL revision as well as start on a couple of personal projects. This was met with an approving smile and hug from Hermione, who then started to talk his ear off about how her own personal S.P.E.W campaign was going.

Ron reappeared the following Saturday, a full week after the incident and Hermione spent the day catching up with him. Harry took the opportunity to retreat to the second floor girls bathroom where the base for the vision correction potion had been sitting under stasis for the last week. Cancelling the charm, his brought it back up to a simmer, ready to start the next step of the potion. He carefully measured out the five billywig stings, making sure to slice them finely as directed before mincing the dandelion root. The potion required advance preparation of many of the ingredients, due to the small time intervals between each ingredient being added.

It was with baited breath that half an hour later Harry reduced the flame under the cauldron to bring it down to a slow simmer and he sat back to wait. The potion was the pale blue that the book indicated, and if he had made it correctly, it would change to a light yellow over the next eight hours. Casting a shield charm around the cauldron to protect from any stray splashing Mertyl might decide upon, Harry sat back in the stall and got out his divination homework. They had moved onto tarot readings, and had each been given a deck of cards to practice with as homework.

As Harry lazily shuffled them, trying to focus on the question they were supposed to be answering with the cards, he idly thought that if he got bored today he could always use them to play solitaire. Shaking his head slightly he slipped into the slight meditative state they had been advised to adopt when dealing with the cards.

A small tingle in his hands pulled his attention to the deck of cards, slowing the shuffle, he dealt three cards to the floor in front of him.

Mind. Body. Spirit.

Turning the first card revealed the six of swords, transition, leaving behind, moving on, checking the textbook, Harry saw it was often seen when someone was moving towards a future that was more promising than the past they were leaving behind, however it does not come without cost. There would be regrets, he would lose things that he once held dear to himself.

The middle card showed Death. Ending and change, or a metamorphosis of oneself, the old Harry had to die to allow for the creation of the new.

Finally the ace of cups representing the power of intuition and heralding the turning over of a new leaf. It promised emotional and spiritual fulfilment, but to achieve this he would need to trust his instincts and remain true to himself.

Harry mused over the relevance of the three cards to himself as he wrote a short paragraph on his findings. While he knew he did not possess any gift for divination whatsoever, there was innate magic in small forms of fortune telling such as cards and rune stones for those who learned to read them.

Today the cards seemed to speak some truth.

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Jangling woke him from his light sleep and Harry groaned before grabbing his wand and cancelling the alarm. He stretched his back, stiff from where he had been sat against the toilet stall wall for the past eight hours, and lent over to check his potion. Somehow it was the correct light yellow, matching the shade described in the book. Letting out a small cheer, Harry put out the flame under his cauldron before replacing the shield charm. The potion needed to cool overnight before he could bottle it. Once it was bottled, he had to add three of his own tears. The completed potion could then be dripped into his eyes like muggle eye-drops and would act like contact lenses for up to 24 hours.