The Marauders: Year Four

Mopsus Sees All

Mopsus Sees All

An early summer thunderstorm blew over London, lightning streaking across the sky, lighting up the shape of Gringott's Bank. Rain poured in sheets so thick it was hard to see and the patrons of Diagon Alley huddled from shop to shop, or else splashed frantically through puddles, rushing to where they needed to go. Carts were shut up and the umbrellas over the tables at the ice cream parlor were folded shut. A cloaked figure walked purposefully down the street, holding his hood on as the wind threatened to flow it off, his long white beard wagging about. He reached the dark storefront, the window panes old and corroded, rusty in color, and he paused a moment to read the barely visible lettering that had once been gold but faded with time and lack of care.

Past - Present - Future - Mopsus Sees All - Free Consultations.

Dumbledore stepped inside.

Out of the rain, he lowered the hood and squeezed the water from his poor beard as he looked about the curious little room he'd stepped into. Every single surface had been affixed with a clock using permanent sticking charms. They hung at odd angles, the hands and faces not always seeming to work properly or even read in measurements that were easy to understand, some covered with runes or symbols or even photographs of people. Some had spoons for hands and one particularly nasty one had actual hands for hands. Dumbledore shuddered at that one as his eyes inspected them all, waiting.

A figure appeared in the doorway - an old man with a cane that looked like the roots of many trees had been twisted together. The man's eyes were open, but vacant, and milky white with blindness, the pupils faded, giving faded violet irises an eerie, empty sort of look. He man wore long, tattered robes of brown and his face was wrinkled so deeply that his skin seemed to fold upon itself in places. "Dumbledore," he said in a low, rasping voice. "Headmaster of Hogwarts. You come to see me."

"You sound surprised," Dumbledore said in an admonishing voice.

"I sound annoyed is what I sound," croaked the old man. "I expected you. Come, I have already prepared tea." He turned and led the way back to a parlor, using his cane to feel the walk away before him, gliding the bottom of it back and forth in a wide arc across the hall.

Indeed, there was a tea already prepared and Dumbledore followed the seer into the room. "You will sit in the blue chair by the fire," the old man said, and he waved his cane and the pot of tea, which had just begun to whistle on the fire, poured itself into the teacups already waiting on the table as Dumbledore settled into the indicated chair.

"Thank you most kindly, Kostos," he said.

"Of course. Tea is the least I owe you, as I shall be refusing your request to fill the post at Hogwarts," replied the seer.

"But Kostos, you've promised to come back to the school should I have need, don't you recall?" Dumbledore said in a friendly, though persuasive tone.

"That was before," the seer replied. "Things have changed."

"What things?"

"Dark things."

"I know that the Dark Lord threatens you," Dumbledore said, and he looked the tea cup over for a moment, unsure if he fully trusted it or not. After all, Cassandra Vablatsky had died from a cup of tea, and she was heavy on his mind at this moment, seeing as it was her post which he was seeking to fulfill. "I can offer you safety."

"Safety as you offered Veigler? As you offered Vablatsky? As you provided for the Bell Family and for Honey Pettigrew? Safety as you've given all of those who have suffered already for this war?"