metanoia

Chapter Fifty-four

James shuffles down the stairs sleepily, whispering after his blonde cousin, "What's up, Shorts? What's so important that I am awake before the sun?"

Alex tightens her grip on the Invisibility Cloak, given to James by her Uncle, and the Marauder's Map as she whispers, "I need to tell you something really important, Jamie. But not here. Let's go to the Kitchens, I'm hungry."

"Why is it that every time there is an important or emotional moment, you're hungry?" James laughed, ducking under the Invisibility Cloak with her and began walking side by side through to the Kitchens.

He wasn't wrong. On multiple occasions, she ended a heartwarming moment or an argument with asking to get something to eat. When she was a child, her mother would always make her something to eat anytime there was an important conversation or if she was sad. So as she got older, her body and mind associated those feelings, those conversations of importance with hunger. 

Alex rolled her eyes at the question, hearing the low growl of her stomach in the silent corridor, "Because my stomach is aware of how awkward I am in regards to human emotions, so it saves me. Gives me something to do."

The pair reach the large portrait covering the Kitchen's door and James tickles the painting of a pear, while laughing at one of the most relatable things she had ever said, "Whatever you say."

"Miss Alex, how can I help you at this hour?" Jordy the house-elf asked the blonde, happy to see her again so soon. The Hogwarts House-elves never see many kids, mostly because not many students know how to get into the Kitchens, but Alex always stops by and says hello while she gets a snack.

Alex and James sit on the barstools that sat in front of the counter. Alex smiles at her favorite buddy, the one she even freed in her 3rd year, however Jordy refuses to leave because she loves Hogwarts, "Good morning, Jordy. Could you please make us a little snack? Anything you decide is fine."

"Anything for you, Miss Alex," Jordy winked at her, always happy to help the teenager who treats her as an equal. With a snap of her small fingers, two plates full of bacon and fruit appeared in front of the two hungry cousins before Jordy disappeared, leaving them to eat.

James looked at his cousin, waiting for an explanation as to what was so important as she filled her mouth full with bacon. Alex catches his eye, remembering that she owed him an explanation for dragging him to the Kitchen at such an early hour. She swallows her bacon, coughing as she begins to explain the situation at hand to him, "So, I have something very important to tell you. So, uh, as you know I have very descriptive nightmares about people's death. But they're not just dreams, they're telling me what's going to happen. Dumbledore calls me a Seer. He says that I can see bits of the future with my Inner Eye and the "sleep talking" are actually prophecies."

James stared at her both confused and overwhelmed, his cousin having seen his death. A small part of him wanted to believe that she was lying, that she was playing a prank on him or that Dumbledore was mistaken and that they were in fact just nightmares. But he knew that she wouldn't lie about something like that and that Dumbledore would not have made a mistake about something as important as this. Sighing with his silent revelation about her abilities, James grabbed her hand to comfort her, "So you wake up from these dreams screaming or crying because you see our deaths. Why didn't you tell me before, Andy, I could have done more to help you?"

"Professor Dumbledore told me to keep it from you because if Voldemort finds out, he could try and hurt you guys to get to me. To use me for his own personal gain," she explained as a tear fell from her eye.

"What all have you seen?" James hesitantly asked, fearful to hear the names to follow though he already knew his name would be among them, catching the escaped tear from her cheek.