Put a name to the face and keep your wits about you; Sybill Trelawney as an unwilling witness
She'd had the vision in June. Hadn't known the face then. Hadn't known much of anything except that he was obviously a disturbed and evil individual. Had been obvious from the moment she’d seen him. He just had that... Aura, something dark and powerful enough for Sybill to sense it even in her sleep. Visions of death weren't new, Sybill had been having them since Hogwarts. But this... She'd never seen anything quite as brutal as what that man had done.
Sybill had woken up shaking, rushing to the bathroom to vomit, unable to keep down her late night snack and peppermint tea after what she'd just been forced to witness. She stumbled through her dark house sobbing, tracing crude protection runes into the air as she reached her kitchen, waving her wand about to start a fresh pot of tea, trying to hold herself up on sleep weak and scared knees, setting a new smudge stick to burn.Â
It had taken him all night, he'd picked that man for a reason. Sybill could tell from the way the room faded and changed around him, like her mind was cutting out all the inconsequential moments. Only showing her what she needed to see.Â
Well. Needed what a strong word. Sybill was certain she could've gotten through her life quite fine without ever seeing the mangled carcass of what had once been a man hanging from chains as Evan fucking Rosier looked upon it as if it were art.Â
She hadn't slept for two days after.
Evan fucking Rosier. The tactless but self aware slimy palmed charmer she'd sat next to on a bench while she tied up a smudge stick and they discussed herbs and non traditional magic.Â
It had taken her until getting home that evening to realize, to link the suave man on the bench with the savage monster of her nightmare. Sybill had cast a silencing charm and screamed into a couch cushion,all the fear she should’ve felt sat next to him catching up.
But what now? She knew without doubt Evan had tortured and killed and destroyed all the evidence.Â
Almost all. That blood soaked rag in the corner, that had been part of the victims shirt hadn't it?
So now Sybill was pacing around her living room, battling with her morals and survival instincts.
Anonymous tip offs were hard to keep anonymous in the wizarding world. Especially something so specific as go to this cabin and find this blood soaked rag and link it to that missing muggle, then link him to that bar that Evan Rosier happened to also be present in.Â
Say she told, would anyone even believe her? Seers weren’t respected. Hadn’t been for a long time. They’d laugh at her. They’d call her a liar. And it would only take one wrong person to hear her story for Evan to find out she knew.Â
And then what? She'd be next. He'd kill her too.Â
Cassandra Trelawney, the visionary she had been, would say it was Sybill's responsibility to get the information out there. Her duty to lay her life on the line for the greater good, for the universe.Â
But so fucking what.
So fucking what that the universe had 'blessed' her with the gift of sight. What advantage had that ever given her? If anything it had only ever dragged her down, forced Sybill to carefully consider every interaction, to craft a persona that wouldn't seem strange.Â
Why was it up to her? Why should Sybill have to sacrifice herself for the slim possibility that she'd drag Evan down with her. At best she'd marr both their reputations, but with him as rich and powerful as he was he would recover much faster from the damage and she might find herself dead for all her effort.Â
Was it worth it?
The nameless victim and his family might say yes, but they weren't here.Â
Sybill's life might not be anything grand. She filed papers and read her friends' tea leaves and tried not to be too weird and collected crystals. But it was her life and she liked it, liked it well enough to want to keep living it thank you very much.Â
So another secret. Another burden. Another person she couldn't look at without an overwhelming sense of guilt. Another reason on the list of reasons being a seer sucked.
With heavy heart Sybill pulled a long white candle from her drawer and set it up on the coffee table, surrounded it with peaceful crystals and herbs before lighting it. For him, for that poor man who’s name her mind hadn’t even thought important enough to tell her. She sat on the safe until the candle was almost completely burnt out. Crying and apologizing and wavering back and fourth about what to do.