Chapter Text
𝐄ndevious Burke used to pride himself on being intelligent, resourceful, and most of all, cunning. Some around Knockturn Alley said that he'd softened after his marriage to Elethia, but they were wrong - he simply had to be more careful. Burke still held pride for his shop, and all that he had achieved; a Slytherin to the core. Only now, he had his wife to think of.
Fate is a cruel thing. Endevious had never thought so in his youth, but following one warm June afternoon, he was a convert. He'd been working the shop for hours, and despite the seasonable weather, not a sole had wandered into Borgin and Burkes, the dark alley eerily quiet outside. When he heard the telltale bell ring above the shop door, he returned to his position behind the till. Plastering his brightest smile, he appraised the young woman in front of him.
A slight young thing, skinny and pale, she seemed rather out of place in a shop such as his. A dark travelling cloak concealed most of her face and body.
"How may I help you today, 'mam?" questioned Endevious. He had always been known to be the more personable of the two, but Thomas Borgin's surly attitude made it an easy competition.
"I have a rather interesting artefact I'd like to part with." she spoke. Her voice was raspy, and deep, and it sent a small shiver down Endevious' spine.
The hooded figure handed over a small velvet jewellery box, and when Endevious took the box into his hands and lifted it, he managed to repress a smirk. He'd recognise a fine necklace like this any day. Goblin-wrought gold, with a singular ruby pendant attached. Worth a small fortune, he'd estimate.
"Hm. Not much of a market for this sort of thing," lied Endevious. "People want custom-made jewellery, you see?"
"Are you quite sure?" asked the hooded figure, doubt lacing her words. "It's a family heirloom, you see. I almost can't bear to part with it, but, well, with the economy and the war, it must be done."
"Oh yes, quite sure. Feel free to ask around," he bluffed. "But you'll be told the same. Best I could offer would be... let's say... twenty galleons."
"Oh dear... I had hoped for quite a bit more than that." she sighed.
Endevious knew that the shimmering necklace was worth far more than twenty galleons, of course. He could easily sell a beauty like that to Narcissa Malfoy for two hundred galleons, but he wasn't going to tell his customers that.
"I'm afraid so." shrugged Endevious, his features determinedly sympathetic.
Begrudgingly, the woman accepted a meagre twenty galleons from his outstretched hand, and Endevious eyed the necklace greedily. The woman had almost left the shop when she turned at the last second, eyeing Endevious distastefully.
"Soon you shall learn the perils of greed, Mr Burke. You shall come to regret your actions of the past."
Endevious barely had time to process the sudden change in the woman's demeanour. Gone was the timid, fragile figure. In her place was a furious woman, with magical energy floating around her. She let out a loud cry, sending with it a blast of magical energy that threw Endevious to the floor. By the time he had gotten to his feet, the witch's demeanour had changed yet again. She almost seemed to be in a trance, and approaching her cautiously with his wand drawn, he saw that her eyes had fogged over.
"The middle child, born to a winter moon, will grow powers like none a spell could recreate. She will turn dark to light, along with the tide of war, through our ancient witches’ trials, lest all be lost for eternity."
The strange figure seemed to snap out of the trance once she had finished speaking, sent Endevious one final glare, and disapparated on the spot. Burke was left with a chill in his bones - never in his life had he imagined that such a prophecy would be spoken in front of him. What did it mean? His middle child? Eltheia and Endevious had only been married for a few months, and had yet to start a family yet.
𝐄ndevious had done his best to quell any thought of the prophecy. He had quickly offloaded the necklace to Narcissa Malfoy, who had been pleased to buy it, and had silenced any thoughts of the prophecy ever since. Whilst the Burkes were not Death Eaters, they were certainly associated more with the dark side than the light - a reputation that the shop did not aid - and he shuddered to think what would happen should the Dark Lord discover the prophecy.
After the birth of the first child, Cora Eltheia Burke, Endevious Burke was hesitant. He adored his firstborn more than anything in the world, but the forbidden prophecy floated evermore in his mind. The war was ramping up, muggles and muggleborns going missing every day, disturbing headlines splashed over the cover of newspapers.
But Elethia was determined - they would give Cora a sibling. For three years, they had little success, and watched their beautiful daughter flourish as an only child. And then, Edie Morganna Burke had been born. Endevious had chosen the name - he was a fan of traditional names, and a middle name tied to magic itself - how could she not be powerful?
Four more years passed, in which the family of four tried to live happily. The war had been in full swing for a year now, and the aura surrounding his shop had grown darker and darker, the magical ley lines of Knockturn Alley growing murkier. He'd tried his best to shield his family from both the war and the blasted prophecy, until one day, it simply became too much.
Despite the use of every form of birth control possible - Endevious had even looked into muggle methods - when the Daily Prophet announced that the Dark Lord was gone, Elethia announced that she was pregnant. It was then that Endevious knew that he had failed his family.
His best efforts were wasted; his beautiful, beautiful Edie was destined to be the middle child. The one born to a winter moon - Edie had been born on a cold, January night. She was to have a younger sibling, and would be cursed with this prophecy for her life.
And as if the world was taunting Endevious, his beautiful wife, his childhood sweetheart, took her last breath as Leona Euphemia Burke took her first.
Endevious knew that it was the curse that had killed his wife - his efforts had been in vain, and his lovely girls would be subject to this prophecy for their lifetimes.
𝐓he guilt ate him up day after day - his own greed had caused his children’s downfall - but he carried on, day after day, until the oldest, Cora, was 13, and had begun to attend Hogwarts in September.
He’d had a deal gone wrong the week previous, and he knew that it was going to end fatally for him.
So he made his preparations. He set up vaults for each of the three girls, and arranged Borgin, his co-partner at the shop, to put a set amount of Galleons (his share) into their accounts every month, until his middle child (he had specified Edie) is old enough to work the shop herself. There were two final things to do on the night before his death. He knew he had a matter of hours before they came for him, and he needed to be far away from his girls when that happened.
First, he took the locked trunk from under his daughter’s bed, and made sure the prophecy orb was secured inside. He’d secured little more than a year after it was created, and so far, it had been kept in safe hands.
Second, he gathered his two girls around, having already written a heartfelt letter to Cora. He kissed their foreheads and told them how very much he and their mother loved them, and he’d never forget them. He tucked them into bed, and turned the light off.
It wasn’t until the early hours of the next morning that two Aurors knocked on the door to the house, asking to speak to Cora. When they informed her that she was at Hogwarts, they instead spoke to Edie, only 10 years old at the time.
They told her how her father had been found dead in a forest nearby, and that they had two choices - they could go to an orphanage, or, thanks to an archaic law, could legally reside in the house unsupervised, so long as there was a caregiver. Edie had immediately chosen to stay. She knew that Cora would be home at the holidays, and until then, she would take care of 6 year old Leona.
It wasn’t easy. Thankfully, there was one final parting gift from their father - a house elf, from his father’s house, named Joanie. Joanie was everything the girls could have needed - she used money from the vaults to buy food and prepare it for the girls, and she wiped their tears when they broke down at the realisation that they were orphans.
Leona, later in life, would say that she had three parents.
First, the house elf, who healed her scrapes and braided her hair.
Second, Cora, who brought presents home for Christmas and took her to get her first wand.
Third, Edie, who had raised her as if she was her own.
𝐖hen the time had come for Edie to attend Hogwarts, seven months later, she was extremely hesitant. The idea of leaving Leona behind with Joanie was terrifying. However, between the two of them, they had convinced the young witch to attend. Cora had taken her younger sister to get her first wand, returning home with a beaming Edie, holding a 10 inch, cherry wood, dragon heartstring core wand.
On the train ride there, Cora had discouraged Edie from sitting with her. Whilst Cora, a Third Year Ravenclaw, was not ashamed of her sister - she knew that the best way for her sister to make friends was on the train ride.
And sure enough, Edie had politely asked to join a compartment, comprised of a girl and two boys, and the four had been friends ever since.
Edie, along with the the girl and one of the boys, had been swiftly sorted into Slytherin, whilst the other boy had been sorted into Ravenclaw. She'd learned that her fellow Slytherins were called Rose Parkinson and Harley Warrington. They were kind, polite and loyal - and competitive to boot. The Ravenclaw, Isaac, fitted in well with his Slytherin friends.
However, it all changed when Edie woke up in her Slytherin dorm room, following her first night at Hogwarts. There was a splitting pain in her head, and by the time she'd managed to gain control over her head, all she could hear were a swirling of words.
The mismatch of words slowly faded into clarity, and Edie became aware that they were not words spoken aloud - there wasn't a sound coming from the dorm room.
She sat up in bed and looked to her left, where Rose was dressing next to her emerald bed-curtains. Rose did not seem alarmed in any way - no, she definitely couldn't hear this noise.
Which meant that Edie, and Edie alone, could hear the words. Rubbing her temples, she swung her legs out of bed, her bare feet touching the cold wooden floor with a shiver. Her movement must have caught the attention of Rose, who looked over in Edie's direction.
Oh, good, Edie is awake. I don't know the other girls' names yet, and it's going to be so awkward to ask.
Edie jumped so suddenly that she lost her footing, tumbling to the floor, much to the shock of Rose. The disturbance had apparently awoken the other two girls in the dorm, who all sleepily rubbed their eyes and glanced in the direction of Edie and Rose.
"Are you alright?" asked Rose, frowning at her blonde friend.
"I - uh -" Edie trailed off.
Surely that wasn't Rose's thoughts floating through her head? She'd read about legilimens briefly before coming to Hogwarts, but she knew that it was a skill few possessed, and it was incredibly difficult to learn. She doubted her magical core had that much power, prophesied witch or not.
"Think of a number between 1 and 100." stated Edie, somewhat desperately.
73.
"Okay," said Rose, frowning at her new friend's strange behaviour. "I've thought of one."
"73." said Edie.
Rose's eyebrows raised up at her friend's correct guess. How on earth had she managed to guess that? The odds were, well, one in a hundred.
"How on earth did you guess that?" questioned Rose, narrowing her eyes at Edie.
"I'm not sure - just luck, I suppose." shrugged Edie, her mind racing.
"Okay, I'm thinking of a number between one and a thousand. Guess it."
562.
Edie paused for a second. Whilst, of course, she'd bet galleons on that indeed being the number that Rose had thought, considering she could literally hear her friend's thoughts, she didn't know what this meant. Why could she suddenly read minds? All she knew was that this, whatever it was, was not something to be shared - especially not in Slytherin.
"423." replied Edie, purposefully guessing wrongly. "Did I get it that time?"
"No," grinned Rose. "What was that about, anyway?"
"I had a weird dream about a man who could guess any number. Wanted to see if it was a sign, or something. Merlin sending a message." lied Edie casually, laughing away her friend's suspicious smile.
"That is weird. Maybe lay off the pumpkin juice before bed." giggled Rose.
"Good idea." agreed Edie. "Should we get dressed and head down to breakfast?"
Quickly donning her Hogwarts robes, which she found had magically transfigured themselves into Slytherin robes overnight, Edie tried to stay calm. So, she had some sort of mind-reading powers. Maybe that was common in wizards and witches?
She quickly tried to think what Cora would do. Her elder sister was a Ravenclaw, and always seemed to have the answer. That's it! She would go to the library, during her lunch break. She'd find answers there.
And find answers she did. She'd stumbled upon a copy of The Dream Oracle by Inigo Imago. Inside, there was a small chapter on different types of Seers. She knew what a Seer was, of course - someone who could see the future. But she couldn't tell the future - or at least, she didn't think she could.
And the last paragraph of the chapter held the answers, or at least the most clear answer Edie would get out of this book.
A rare and much rumoured classification of Seer is the natural legilimens. Unlike a trained legilimens, a legilimens Seer is born with their abilities, though they may not become apparent until the Seer begins their magical training.
A legilimens Seer can never truly block out their abilities, however they can develop strong mental shields through Occlumency to aid in shielding from most conscious streams of thought.
Little is known about legilimens Seers, due to their rarity. Moreover, such skills are highly desirable to those seeking to use the powers of Divination for their own gain, leading to any possible legilimens Seers never revealing their magical abilities.
And that was it. That was all she could find. She seemed to be some sort of 'legilimens Seer'. The book had at least explained why she'd never had these powers before - she would literally begin her 'magical training' today.
Now, she had two questions remaining. What was Occlumency, and how on earth did she go about learning it?
For the time being, Edie simply returned the book to the correct shelf, hurriedly leaving the Library to attend her Herbology lesson, and praying that those around her had quieter minds now than they'd possessed in Transfiguration that morning.