Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters... :( though I wish I did...
Seagrass: Hello everyone. Here is the first chapter of my first fanfic, typed at one in the morning on a laptop and a flashlight in a sleeping bag. However, it was edited later. (Although the editing was done four days later, I am almost sure that there are less than 20 errors on this page, grammar wise. Ok, I'll stop talking…)
Chapter One:
Hermione sat at the breakfast table. Her hand propped up her face, as she read her Arithmancy book. Her bushy brown hair wagged as she fought to stay awake...
She yawned and fanned her face with her free hand. She had found herself lying in front of the portrait hole in the morning with no idea how she had gotten there. Her robes were in a crumpled heap. Strangely, though, while she had no memory of waking and exiting the Gryffindor Tower, she found herself feeling as though she hadn't slept all night.
" Hellooooo..." Someone waved a hand in front of her face. " Herm-own-ninny? Snap out of your fantasizing about Viktor! I know how important he is to you, but don't you think your beloved Arithmancy is even more important?" Harry 's messy black hair appeared in front of her face. Behind his round glasses his jade green eyes were twinkling.
" Shut up Harry! Grrrrrrrr..." Hermione growled. Then she launched into a tirade of insults, most of them about Cho Chang.
Harry looked surprised. " Wow Herm. I didn't know that you minded so much when I snogged with Cho. It was just that once, and don't tell me you saw us…" his voice trailed off, his face plastered with a wide smirk.
Hermione rolled her eyes. " Please Harry, I have more things to do with my life than watch you guys snog. Besides, just because I'm insulting you about her doesn't mean I had a problem with you guys being together. I kind of pushed you to date her, remember?"
Harry nodded, smiling slightly as he recalled the conversation he had with Hermione and Ron after his kiss with Cho. " Yeah Hermione, you really analyzed Cho's feelings back then. You're so good at that kind of stuff," he said admiringly, causing Hermione to shake her head modestly.
" What's a hairy afro-head like Granger good at besides dirtying people's blood?" a sneering voice said.
Harry and Hermione turned around. They looked into Draco Malfoy's cold grey eyes.
" What's a slimy Death Eater good for besides sliming the air surrounding him?" said a heated voice next to them. Ron had appeared at the Gryffindor breakfast table, frowning at Malfoy. Malfoy bared his teeth, & looked at the High Table, which was still full of teachers.
" Weasel, at least I don't go around defending my Mudblood friend," he hissed.
Hermione stiffened. She hated that word more than anything else. But today it seemed to have a more lasting sting than the other times that Malfoy had insulted her. She tried to figure out why. Harry noticed her drawn face, and he whispered,
" What's wrong Herm?"
She quickly responded, " N-n-nothing."
Ron looked at Hermione too and then said, " Malfoy you better get your scaly Slytherin arse to your first class. Now slide your slithery robes out of here!"
Crabbe and Goyle could do nothing but jut out their yellow, mossy teeth and push their hairy black brows together. Malfoy stepped away, with his two minions lumbering along in his wake.
" So, Hermy, what's going on? Why were you attacked by Malfoy so early in the morning?" Ron asked.
" I dunno, 'spect ferret boy just couldn't resist," she replied.
The three of them sat down, and ate their breakfast. So far, their day seemed pretty typical...as typical as any day at HoggyWarty Hogwarts could be.
The threesome walked to their first class. Harry and Ron had Divination, while Hermione had Arithmancy. She looked at the two smugly.
" Well, starting off the first day of November in your 6th year with Trelawney shouldn't be too bad…she'll have a new prediction that you'll die a gruesome death eating scalding porridge or something. Have fun climbing up to the top of the castle," Hermione smirked as they began their ascent to the Tower.
" Honestly, she's right. I bet the old bat will have something to say about today being the first day of November," said Harry gloomily.
" Yeah, I think so too. She'll probably say something about You-Know-Who," Ron replied darkly.
Harry shrugged. They had not heard anything from the Dark Lord ever since the Ministry of Magic prophecy fiasco... and while no news was hardly good news, Harry hadn't been feeling any pain or seeing any images for a long time. That partially had to do with the fact that he had started taking the Sleeping Potion every night before bed. However, he had not been feeling any pain during his waking hours, and that was a good sign.
" Blimey mate, I think I liked it better when you were twitching on the floor in pain. Now you sleep blissfully while the rest of us attempt to slumber, kept awake by all that snoring," Ron growled jokingly.
Harry grinned to himself. The Sleeping Potion made one snore loudly, especially if taken in large amounts. As a result, the rest of the boys had to put Silencing Charms on their hangings to block the snoring out.
When the two reached the North Tower, they were surprised to see that the ladder had been closed, and there were a cluster of Gryffindor students surrounding the entrance.
They joined the throng. " Hey, what's going on here?" asked Ron, frowning.
" Professor Trelawney's feeling ill today. She won't be able to teach," explained Lavender, with a sympathetic look towards the ladder.
" Poor thing!" cried Parvati Patil, blowing her nose on a handkerchief. She dabbled at her eyes.
Harry furrowed his brow. " If she's so sick then why are you guys still standing here?"
" Oh, that's because she sent the message that she wanted to prophesize for us. She said it wouldn't do for us not to have a prophecy to ponder during the day," explained Lavender. " How kind of her to think of us, even when she is sick!"
Simultaneously, Harry and Ron both rolled their eyes. " Gag me," whispered Ron to Harry.
Just then a loud wailing came from the trap ladder. " The ehhhnnnd—cough cough—is coming! I am pained by the visions that I see in the future!"
The crowd hushed. Harry suddenly grew alert. He could usually tell when Trelawney was bluffing, having been the only one besides Trelawney herself to have heard her prophecy of Voldemort's return. This time, she sounded as if she were giving a genuine prophecy.
She swung down from the trap ladder with amazing agility. The surrounding students looked uneasily at each other. Lavender and Parvati clutched at each other and sobbed, murmuring, " How brave and thoughtful of her to come down!"
Harry would have rolled his eyes but Trelawney looked directly at him. Her gaze was piercing. The other students did not seem to notice she was staring at him.
" The Dark Lord has formulated another plan. This time there will be more slaughter of innocents. This time he will use his servant to play with a student's mind...that student will eventually be—she was cut off by a long fit of coughing. This time he will use the student..." her voice, strong at the beginning, subsided into a fit of coughing and hacking.
Parvati and Lavender were now sobbing, and kneeling on the floor.
" Please, Professor, get some rest!" they pleaded.
Everyone else just rolled his/her eyes. However, they looked back at Trelawney, clearly eager and impatient for her to finish her prophecy.
Trelawney looked up, dazed. " My goodness, why are there so many students here? And what am I down here?" she said in her light and dreamy voice.
" You prophesized for us that the Dark Lord would control a student," answered Seamus Finnigan stoutly.
Trelawney frowned. " Control? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Do not be ridiculous, Mr. Finnigan. I would never prophesize that." She looked around at the students. " That was a babble of nonsense. When I become too stressed I prophesize things of that nature." She gazed around at the students, conviction in her eyes. She then hacked, and snapped her fingers. The silver ladder cascaded gracefully to the ground, and Trelawney ascended, surrounded by Parvati and Lavender, basking in their attention.
The students looked at one another, and shrugged it off. They all walked away from Trelawney, shaking their heads in dismay.
At last, only Harry and Ron were left.
" Let's go, mate. No point in hanging around," said Ron.
Harry nodded. " I think that prophecy is true though. No matter how much Trelawney tried to deny it."
His jade green eyes glittered. " I wonder who Voldemort's going to control."
Seagrass: Ummm…ok. I'm not sure what to make of that chapter. I think it's an amateurish attempt on my part. Any ideas? Suggestions? Please review, and I will try to turn out another chapter ASAP.
