Divination Brief Lesson: Clairvoyance, which literally means "Clear Vision," is the ability to gain telepathic information about an object, person, location or physical event, through means other than the known human senses. It is often called 'ESP', meaning Extrasensory Perception.

Task: For this task, I would like you to write about a character besides Cassandra or Sybil Trelawney 'seeing' something. They must have some kind of vision, premonition, or an episode of clairvoyance in the story.

What Could Have Been

(Companion piece to "A Weighty Decision")

1)

She doesn't know what causes these dreams - all she knows that when she carried Petunia, she slept well throughout her pregnancy. However, the same cannot be said of her current one.

She dreams of a little girl with claret-colored hair that she herself and her maternal grandmother shares and her husband's emerald eyes and whenever she cradles her stomach, she feels a light buzz, a tingling sensation that reminds her of the days she spent with her grandmother in Scotland when she was a child.

"This little girl will be special, I just know it," she tells her husband as they lie in bed, her forehead touching his.

"How do you know that the baby you're carrying is a girl? Isn't it a bit early on to know that," he quips playfully.

"I see her in my dreams, Liam," Orchid shares softly as she looks directly into her husband's eyes.

"I believe you," he answers just as softly, his absolute belief in her resonating in his voice.

2)

The first time she sees her, they are at the grocers.

Orchid feels both a wave of pity and protectiveness towards the tall, slim woman with hair the color of a raven's wing. When she first glanced at the woman, she was taken aback at what she saw. In that brief moment, the woman looked much older, bitter and defeated. Once the vision clears, what she sees is much different, yet the same. The woman is younger, yet she can see an aura of despair and the beginnings of the bitterness that the vision of the older version of the woman in front of her showed.

The woman's shoulder brushes hers as the woman walks by her and Orchid feels a jolt and then her eyes widen as another vision overcomes her.

There's a little boy with the same raven colored hair as his mother on her doorstep and his fathomless dark brown eyes look too old and too sad for a boy his age. However, his eyes gain a spark when he sees her daughter rushing down the stairs, a spark that is echoed in emerald eyes.

"See you later, Mom," her voice sweetly says and she replies,

"Don't be late for dinner, Li-,"

The vision is interrupted before she can hear her little girl's name by the woman apologizing for bumping into her and before Orchid can respond, she is gone.

She has a feeling that they will meet again.

3)

Since bumping shoulders with the woman with the raven colored hair, the frequency of her visions (which she grudgingly accepts as part of her life) increases.

Some of the visions are happy ones, of two little girls, one with hair the color of corn silk, the other with hair the color of crackling flames, laughing as they swing higher and higher on a swing set. Some of them are melancholy, the vision of the raven haired boy with eyes too old for a face so young sitting at her table for dinner and Orchid feels her heart ache and fill with love all at once as she sneaks a second helping of everything, for he is much too thin and she strongly suspects he doesn't eat much at home.

She even sees a baby boy with a lightning bolt shaped scar upon his forehead, messy black hair and the same emerald green eyes she sees every day when she looks upon her husband being left in a basket on a doorstep. It is this vision that fills her with such a profound sadness that she cries every time she remembers it.

As she progresses further along in her pregnancy, Orchid tells her unborn daughter stories that her grandmother told her, about King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin. She tells stories about being descendants of a woman named Charlotte, and how her rumored magical powers have manifested in the women of their line throughout the centuries.

"I think it's true," she whispers as she rubs her stomach and ponders the many peculiar things that have surrounded her grandmother, aunt, and mother. "I think it's true and you, my sweet one, will be even more than even I think is possible."

4)

She's restless and as much as she wants to blame it on the fact she is due to deliver in less than a month's time, Orchid knows that it's more than pre-delivery jitters.

Liam recognizes that his wife is becoming restless so he suggests that they go for a drive, just the two of them. After getting one of the neighbors to watch Petunia (who is becoming brattier as the delivery date looms closer), Liam helps his wife into the car.

Their impromptu date is a good one and as they drive towards home, he has the urge to make a detour.

"Liam, where are you going?"

"Just had the urge to drive by the hospital, sweetheart," he answers and Orchid doesn't question it. For some unexplainable reason, his decision to do so feels right.

It is lightly snowing when she sees a familiar figure carefully walking through the snow that is on the sidewalk and Orchid urgently asks Liam to stop the car as she rolls down the window. Once she gains the woman's (who introduces herself as Eileen) attention, she offers her a ride home, which she gladly accepts.

Orchid sits in the back seat with Eileen and her newborn baby and when Eileen loosens the blankets she has tucked securely around his face to prevent the cold air from reaching him she uncovers her son's face. Orchid gasps when she sees the slumbering baby in the carrier because she knows without a doubt that the baby boy she sees is the same little boy she has seen in her vision.

"His name is Severus," Eileen shares, "for even when he was minutes old he had such a serious and stern face."

Eileen's voice fades into the background as Orchid look at the sleeping baby and Rose sees him playing with her younger daughter, going to school with her younger daughter, loving her daughter from afar, dying because of the love he felt for her daughter. Orchid abruptly pulls out of the vision and asks –

"When you return home, will you be staying there?"

"No, I shall return to my father's house if he will have me," Eileen answers and a sudden rush of relief overcomes her.

"No matter how we depart, our parents will always welcome us home," Orchid shares as she softly strokes Severus' cheek with her thumb.

5)

A few years pass before Orchid and Liam see Eileen again, although the two women exchange letters after Rose received a thank you card and a gift basket (Orchid wondered how Eileen knew) full of baby items for a girl. Her favorite gift was a beautiful spring green dress with matching bonnet, both that boasted a hand embroidered lily motif.

It is a warm spring day and Orchid is in her garden planting flowers with Petunia (who dropped the bratty attitude once she realized that her parents had enough love for her and the new baby) and Lily when it happens.

"Orchid, Orchid Evans," a voice questions and although she hasn't heard the voice in years, Orchid knows who it is.

"Eileen," she exclaims and she gets up from the ground and hugs her, noticing how much happier the woman seems.

"And this," she whispers, kneeling so she can be at eye level with the young boy who stands behind his mother shyly, "must be Severus."

"Hi, Mrs. Evans," he intones softly as he seriously holds out his hand so Orchid can shake it.

"Oh, there will be no shaking of hands or you calling me 'Mrs. Evans.' I'm Aunt Orchid to you," she says and she holds her arms out, signaling for a hug. Severus looks back at his mother for approval and at her slight nod; Severus walks forward, leans into Orchid and gives her a hug.

The contact brings the final vision Orchid will have in her lifetime and it is one full of happiness. She sees Petunia marrying a kind man and pursuing her passion for art. She sees Lily flying on a broomstick and Severus chasing after her merrily. Orchid sees some bumps in the road, feels a sense of foreboding, but she senses that the troubled times will not last long and more importantly, will not linger.

As Severus ends the hug and stands beside his mother, Orchid introduces her daughters to Eileen and Severus and is amazed at the literal spark that forms between Lily and Severus as they shake hands most seriously.

Orchid and Eileen share a look that communicates that the just the two of them will be sharing tea soon. In the meantime, Orchid invites Eileen and Severus into her home for a light afternoon snack and as the three children chatter away at the kitchen table, Orchid is relieved that the future she saw is a happy one, for it is immensely better for what could have been.