Day 1:
Somehow, Harry had managed to get through all of his previous classes without incident. In Potions, there had been an accident at the beginning of the previous hour, so Professor Sprout had substituted for Professor Snape.
Divinations class was next. Harry knew his luck wouldn't hold, and accepted the fact that it was very likely going to go the same way it had yesterday... which is to say, in a word, horrendously.
Sitting down at his seat next to his lab partner, he gratefully received the tea that Neville had prepared before class, and drank it down in one swig, resigning himself to his fate.
"How do you think you're going to die today, Potter?" Teased Draco from the front row, earning laughter from the Slytherins.
Neville, who sat next to Harry, spoke up.
"L-Leave him alone, Malfoy! Last week, didn't you meet a 'foul end'?"
The blonde haired boy turned a vibrant shade of red and sputtered indignantly.
"I flew into the wrong end of a duck during quidditch practice, but that hardly counts!"
It was at that moment that Professor Trelawney entered in an explosion of pink smoke from the fireplace.
"Be ready, my students! Today, we shall start with the most sacred of all rituals- the most humble, yet powerful method of-"
"Get on with it, you old bat!"
"Yeah! Let's just get this over with!"
She narrowed her eyes for a moment.
"...Twenty points from Slytherin. The most humble, yet powerful method of prophecy: The reading of the leaves! Now, as your tea has already been drunk, I'll simply start with the tea leaves! Which of you will go first? Do we have a volunteer?"
Neville raised his hand.
She examined his cup.
"Mr. Longbottom, I see fire in your future! Great, burning fire!"
"I have detention with Professor Snape next, ma'am. My partner for the assignment is Seamus."
"Oh, yes, that would explain it... Next?"
They went one by one until, finally, it was Harry's turn.
"Mr. Potter last yet again... My, it must be fate! Come now, let me see them!"
He wordlessly handed her the cup, praying that it would fall to the floor, spilling the leaves and excusing him from participation.
"Oh, my dearest student! Terrible things have been foretold!"
"My inevitable demise?"
"Indeed! And you will go through many hardships, for your-"
"Greatest enemy has returned?"
"Why, however did you know?" She asked, confused.
"Lucky guess."
"Not luck, I'm afraid, for I see an encounter with death upon your dawning horizon!"
"Death, you said?"
"Yes! Now, I must go warn the Headmaster that you are fated to die!"
The hour ended at that moment, and the students were excused.
Harry walked out, accompanied by Neville.
"An encounter with death?"
"Purple Death is the name of Seamus' owl. Since you're both in detention, I'm feeding her for him."
"An encounter with Death!"
"More or less."
"...Well, she wasn't wrong."
...
I've been meaning to write this story for a while. I've got at least thirty on the back-burner, and I've all but discontinued Spectral Shots (Though there's still hope!), but I decided to put this series out here because...why not?
{For those of you who didn't get the joke about Malfoy meeting a foul end: Ducks are waterfowl, and to fly into the wrong end of one is to meet a 'Fowl end'.}
I missed writing. Trying to write in a new fandom? It sounded like a fun challenge.
No promises on frequent updates, though I will try.
Regards,
Asphodel Gray