Lily Evans hated Divination. The second she entered that poorly lit room with its musky smells and furniture akin to her great grandmother's tearoom, Lily knew without a shadow of a doubt that she hated Divination. The teacher was strange, no doubt – an elderly woman (even by Wizarding standards) with curly, blonde hair sticking out in every direction and frighteningly buggy eyes that Lily constantly attempted to avoid.
The teacups were a joke. A muddy substance filled the bottom of the cups in blobs. As Marlene McKinnon determined Lily was to live a very short life based on a spot appearing to be shaped like a cross, Sirius Black stood up dramatically.
"Dear Merlin, Professor!"
The woman hobbled over.
"Yes, boy?"
"Poor Moony is a goner!"
Sure enough, Professor Babbling confirmed the worst: Remus Lupin had the grim.
Lily snorted. Surely no one believed this rubbish! However, many children in the room shrieked and one particularly pale-looking Ravenclaw fainted. Sirius and Remus were snickering to themselves, pleased with all the commotion.
Marlene leaned over to Lily, a smirk on her face, and stated, "This sure is interesting, isn't it?"
A month hadn't gone by before Lily began dreading Wednesdays, a day she and Marlene now referred to as Grimday. Two weeks prior to Christmas break (and three days into reading crystal balls), Lily unceremoniously packed up her things in the middle of class, left without a word, and headed straight to McGonagall's office.
"I cannot do this for one more second. I will literally take anything else available to me, but I really just cannot be in that room for one more second of my life."
Lily, expecting McGonagall to be furious with her outburst, was in shock when the elderly woman merely laughed.
"I take it, Miss Evans, you do not possess the Inner Eye?"
Lily Potter was twenty-one when she heard the news. Of course, she thought to herself and erupted into a pile of giggles. James and Dumbledore just stood there, first looking at one another and then at her.
"Er – Lils… Did you hear what he said?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes (a mixture of laughter and sorrow), and responded with, "Of course I did. Of course that damn subject has come back to haunt me."
It was only fitting that her least favorite topic – the one she had thought she had left in the dust when she was thirteen – was now not only in her present but affecting her future. Some crazy woman only a few years older than her and her husband had prophesied that Voldemort was after them and their baby.
Marlene wasn't there to make any sarcastic remarks about the absurdity of it all. Remus was gone, somewhere with the werewolves, and wasn't there to be the butt of what was surely a joke. And Sirius… Was he to be their Secret Keeper? She stayed up every night for weeks, wishing she had kept taking Divination. Maybe then she'd know some way to get her and her family out of this ironic mess. She was prepared to die – she had been since she'd joined The Order – but that didn't mean she wanted to.
Lily Potter heard her husband hit the ground with a thump. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and held on to their baby boy for dear life. Nothing has changed, she thought smugly. Lily still hated Divination.