I wrote a letter to Narcissa, requesting her to meet me at Hogsmeade as I wanted to talk to her. But a week passed and I got no reply. Perhaps Draco was right and she was too busy to just come up to Hogsmeade for a visit.

It seemed as if she was too busy to send a reply even.

Disappointed, I let the matter rest for the time being because there was nothing I could do about it. My duties as a Flying and Quidditch instructor couldn't be ignored due to personal reasons so I ended up focusing on the Quidditch season that was going on.

The third match of the season between Ravenclaw and Slytherin was approaching, followed by Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw then Gryffindor and Slytherin matches had already taken place before our Christmas break. There was always twice the uproar when Gryffindor faced Slytherin compared to the other houses and only if the two teams qualified for the finals would they be going up against each other again this year.

I was returning to my room late in the evening after making sure that the ground was set for the Quidditch match held the next day when I heard but shrill but familiar voice stop me in my tracks.

"Katerina, my dear, how long it has been since I saw you!"

I turned around, surprised to see Professor Trelawney, or rather Sybil Trelawney as she was no longer teaching at Hogwarts. She was right, it had been a very long time since I had met her.

She beckoned me closer and she looked very eager to see me so I didn't refuse. Although I was tired, I approached her.

"Good evening, uh..." I paused on what to call her as it would have been easier to address her as just professor like in the old days.

"You can call me Sybil, dear. Come on in. Would you like some tea? Sherry? A glass of wine with your haggardy old teacher?"

She had always been weird but I was somewhat used to it. After all, her books on Divination had taught me a lot about interpreting my visions too.

"I'm good, thank you," I politely declined her offer to fill up a glass of sherry for me too, "how are you doing?"

"Same old... My inner eye seems to be having a riot," she sighed softly, "and it's been long since I read any tea leaves."

"Oh..." 

I do relate to the inner eye having a riot. I had been seeing Evelyn constantly the past few days too.

I wondered if Sybil would know about her since she was most likely a Seer.

"My dear, don't say no to having tea with me, I insist," she remarked and brought out her kettle and china.

I had heard from Professor Sprout that she wasn't doing well so I thought I could indulge her in her fancies for a short while. The tea she made for tea leaves reading was bitter but I decided to bear with it.

Soon enough, she was pouring out a cup for me and her large green eyes were intently focused on me as I accepted the cup.

"Anything you would like to tell me, dear?" She asked and I wasn't sure whether she was just able to sense my unease or if she had seen anything about me too. 

"I was just wondering whether there were any more Seers than you and your Grandmother Cassandra."

"Why, yes, of course. You are a Seer, I told you that the day I met you," she exclaimed proudly, "I was right, wasn't I?"

"Yes but apart from us," I tried to probe further, "did you know anyone else who could see into the future?"

She had gone silent as if pondering over it but then her eyes lit up. "Yes... Yes, there were more. There was once a whole lineage of Seers but they were very rare. Very very rare..."

A lineage of Seers? That meant probably a whole family who could produce people with the power to see into the future. Perhaps the woman I saw in my dream was descended from them.

"Can you tell me about them?"

"Sure but finish the tea, dear, I must make a reading for you."

"Of course, I will finish it but I'm curious about the Seer lineage. I want to know more about them because I have seen something in a vision that links to them I think."

She looked immediately interested to know more because ever since she had gotten fired from Hogwarts, there had hardly been any interesting prediction for her to make. So I knew she would eagerly take the opportunity to guide me and that would possibly help me in finding more about Evelyn.

"Ah, I see... You should have said that sooner," she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in a gesture that she said could awaken her inner eye. "There was a family of Seers, let me remember their name... Yes, yes... The Everharts. Not much is known about them but all the witches belonging to that lineage were Seers."

Interesting. I might have to look deep into the Everhart family then.

"What else do you know about the Everharts? I haven't seen any student at Hogwarts by that name."

She seemed to get lost in thought as she mused, "Because not many of them studied here. The Everharts were an ancient pureblood family although not part of the Sacred Twenty-eight. And there were rumors that they were cursed and as long as their heirs were alive, the curse would continue to haunt them. I have never seen anything about them myself but my grandmother was distantly related to Florian Everhart. She used to say that if the Everharts had kept their bloodline pure, there would be no other Seers except them. The curse might have lifted much sooner then."

A curse. A Seer lineage. And my visions that kept urging me to find out more about Evelyn. There had to be a connection and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

"When I think about it, my dear, if you hadn't been a Weasley, I could have thought you were an Everhart," her eyes focused on me and even though I had never felt it before in her presence, the way she was looking at me right then seemed to creep me out.

It was almost as if her eyes were searching my features closely to see if her assumption was true or not.

"Say, are Molly or Arthur related to them? They must be... Your younger sister, Ginnevra, does she have green eyes too?"

"No, she doesn't," I tried to change the topic because I could see she was making a far-fetched assumption. So I gave her my cup, hoping she would get distracted by reading the residue of the tea leaves and forget about it altogether, "I have finished my tea. Here."

"Oh, yes, let me see." 

She took the cup and peered into it, her large eyes looking even wider in those round spectacles she wore. She narrowed her eyes as if trying to make sense of whatever she was seeing and then after an awkward silent pause, she looked up.

"My dear child... Your future is very uncertain," she had a grave expression on her face as she showed me the cup, "all I can see is a veil and something beyond it is calling out to you."

A veil...

It couldn't be the same veil from the Department of Mysteries, right?

A chill ran down my spine as I recalled a vision I had had at the start of this term, a vision in which I saw Sirius.

"You must never lose hope, dear," Sybil's voice shook me out of the alarming thoughts, "even when things are uncertain, trust your instincts to guide you. Very few people have your gift, use it to your advantage."

Gift... From all that has happened so far, this gift seems nothing short of a curse.

I took my leave from Sybil and left her room to go back to my lodgings. I had been very tired earlier but now all the sleep and fatigue seemed to be secondary as my brain was churning with everything I had learned about the Everharts.

Perhaps the curse on that family was their ability to see into the future. It only brought chaos and destruction, it only predicted calamities. Perhaps that was why they disappeared because they didn't want their curse to be spread.

But I couldn't say anything for certain. However, there was one person who could help me in researching more about the Everharts. And as sleep was out of reach, I made up my mind to take the next step.

Instead of going to bed, I sat down to write a letter to Percy, asking him to meet me at Diagon Alley.

I knew he would be able to dig out information on the Everharts as he worked at the Ministry and could access their records. And if Evelyn was an Everhart and Percy would be able to find out more about them, it might answer my questions too.

***