AN – thanks for the reviews!
Disclaimer – I still don't own any of the characters or places in this fanfic. I don't own any of the songs either, thankfully. Because if I were responsible I would feel very ashamed of myself. Mind you, if I were responsible for the songs very few would have been completed. So many people would have been saved…
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Professor Trelawney's room had one thing going for it as the weather got colder- warmth that Harry could tell would be much appreciated in even a few weeks. He could see Divination becoming a bearable lesson, because of the fire constantly kept burning, by Christmas.
He and Ron half ran, half hurdled across the crowded room to reach their favourite table. When they sank into their chairs they could see a trail of Cheerios across the room. Ron shoved the cereal box under the small table behind his bag.
"What are you going to do with those?" Harry asked, indicating the cereal box.
Ron looked fairly pleased with himself. "Snack. Next best thing to biscuits. What? They taste really good, can I help that?.. Oh dear God, here come the wannabe Weird Sisters." Lavender and Parvati had just come up the little ladder and were singing very loudly:
"Stick to the status,
Stick to the status,
Stick to the status QUO!"
The end of each line was punctuated with a little dance move, and all the time they were building in crescendo. The overall effect was annoying the first time, mind numbing after about one hundred repeat performances.
Ron groaned. "What is that even from? What git would make up a song that can probably land people in St Mungos?"
Harry had no idea but Professor Trelawney's entrance into the cramped room stopped him from answering and generally bemoaning that anyone had created High School Musical.
"Good morning class," her voice drifted over the class. "You all now know the procedure for tealeaf reading. And Neville, could you please get a blue cup again?"
A general bustle filled the classroom for the next few minutes. When everyone was set up Professor Trelawney started to circle the classroom with the boiling water. Lavender and Parvati forgot to sing, they were so absorbed in waiting for the tea to infuse. Neville watched the kettle warily when it was his turn and pushed the teacup towards the middle of the table when it was full- the previous week he had managed to smash the teacup over his bag, only narrowly missing a stowaway Trevor.
Hermione was reading her Ancient Runes book under the table and barley bothered to hide it while her water was poured. For a week or so the book had been on Divination, but she had swapped to her favourite subject quite quickly. Ron especially thought it was an amazing way to tease her, but both he and Harry were fascinated that dislike of a teacher could invoke such a rebellion from her.
The water came to their table and was poured. They circled their cups in a way that had become almost second nature to them and set them down to let the drink cool.
Ron took another handful of cereal pieces and offered the box to Harry. "Do you want some? I've got plenty."
"Not really. I had a fairly bad experience at the Dursley's with them." It had been just before the summer holidays before everyone went to secondary. Dudley and his gang had decided to play one last joke at his expense and had found treat size boxes of Cheerios and cans of milk and poured them into his bag. The bags were kept in a room with constantly running central heating and by the end of the day the place smelt of bad milk. He had been made to spend the first weekend of the holidays in his cupboard, which had been quite beneficial for him really. It had kept him away from the gang for the first boisterous weekend. By the time he was let out they had a more exciting project than beating Harry up. Something to do with getting spray paint.
Ron shrugged. The Cheerios that were sitting in his cupped hand jumped a little. Suddenly there was the crash of Neville's teacup. Everyone turned round to see where the water had gone. None of it had splashed onto the floor. Neville got up to get a new teacup while Professor Trelawney cleared up the water and everyone else turned round now they knew that there weren't any endangered toads in the room.
And Ron's hand was half empty. In his cup there were little ripples across the surface.
Harry broke the silence that seemed a little over-dramatical for some cereal. "Are they in…" he didn't need to end the sentence because Ron nodded looking like he had eaten one of the worse flavours in Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, the flavours no one could ever distinguish and were quite glad to leave well alone.
He shoved the rest of his Cheerios into his mouth. He chewed slowly. When he swallowed he looked unhappier than before. He took a sip of his tea and grimiced. "Harry, never use tea as a substitute for milk. It doesn't do much for it. I'm in for it, aren't I?"
"Afraid so" Harry took a sip of his own, Cheerios free tea. The leaves were actually quite nice and made good tea. It was refreshing first thing in the morning.
They drank the remainder of their cups in silence, Ron grimacing, circling their cups when needed, and eventually tipped out the leaves onto the saucers. Harry's leaves looked like the normal assortment of dregs he always found at the bottom of his cup. No dogs as far as he could see, but by now he would have but money on Professor Trelawney being able to find one in what looked like the Whomping Willow. Ron's saucer was covered in a light brown sludge that had hints of leaves mixed into it. There were no shapes, just a gloopy lump. Ron poked it gingerly with the end of his wand and the lumps slurped into a bigger heap.
Professor Trelawney had started winding her way around the room checking people's saucers. She was just pointing out to Neville a duck in his. It apparently meant chaos. After Neville she always came to their table. Ron began poking the mass more forcefully, trying to coax it into vague shapes, but as soon as he moved his wand it sunk back towards the main shapeless blob.
"Harry, swap with me," he hissed. "If it's yours she'll find some way to say it's a dog."
Harry was having a hard time trying not to laugh at the look of desperation on Ron's face. "Sorry mate, your mess. Besides, she'll probably be too busy reminding me I'm about to die to notice that. Much."
"Well," Professor Trelawney said across a disgruntled Hermione's table (disgruntled partly because the teacher was favouring death and destruction to mere bad fortune and partly because she was unable to see any omens, discouraging or otherwise), "What do you two have? Let me see yours first, please Harry. This does look rather interesting, what have you managed to…oh."
The "oh" was when she saw Ron's Cheerio mush.
Although rather dramatic upon seeing Harry's predictions each week the Divination teacher was, for the most part, serene. She had never become angry at anyone in the class before. As far as they had heard, she had never shouted at anyone in any class. But when she saw Ron's teacup her eyes flashed menacingly in a way not unlike Professor McGonagall's had that morning. Only, Professor McGonagall had a calmer expression.
That day, Harry was not warned of his immediate and inevitable death.