The next morning, Alexa woke bright and early. Much earlier than she had done all summer in fact. She didn't mind. She liked long days at school; she only slept late during the holidays to make them go quicker.
She got up and dress in the semi-darkness, then made her tip-toed way out of the dormitory.
The light of dawn was approaching the castle's grounds as Alexa crept into the Gryffindor Common room. Alexa walked past the embers of the previous night's fire, past all the comfy armchairs, and past the shadowy desks. She scrambled through the portrait hole, which she closed carefully because the Fat Lady was snoring loudly, slumped against her frame. It was a calming walk through the silent castle, she thought of going straight to the Great Hall for breakfast, as her stomach was already beginning to rumble, but then she realised that breakfast probably wouldn't be served yet, as it was much too early, she was worried that it was maybe too early even to be allowed out of her common room. Instead she made her way outside, to watch the sun rise from behind the mountains which surrounded Hogwarts.
She just sat there for a while until the sun was fully up, then she decided that breakfast was probably underway by now, so she headed back inside.
Breakfast was the usual noisy affair. Many people were discussing their new timetables and many more were discussing the Dementors. As Alexa passed the Slytherin table, she noticed Draco Malfoy (a pale faced, silvery-blond haired moron) doing an impersonation of someone having a swooning fit. Just ahead of her, Alexa noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting down at the Gryffindor table, and chatting to Ron's older twin brothers, Fred and George. She sat down nearby, so that she could listen in, but not near enough to be noticed.
A fourth year girl, whom Alexa knew by sight, passed her a new timetable, and she scanned it as she heard one of the twins say, "little git. He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," said the other, gleefully.
Alexa glanced up from her timetable in time to catch the eye of the twin who had spoken last, she presumed to be Fred. George was speaking, but Alexa wasn't listening anymore. She came out of her reverie in time to notice the post owls arriving. Knowing she wouldn't be getting anything – her mother only used post owls to reply to Lexy, she was uncomfortable using them otherwise – Alexa got up and head out into the Entrance Hall, glancing over her shoulder at Harry as she left. George was right, she thought, Malfoy was just a little git. There was nothing wrong about Harry fainting because of the Dementor.
When she got into the Entrance Hall, she looked at her timetable more closely and noticed that she had Divination first, at the top of North Tower; she decided that she would make her way over there, even though it was far too early for lessons to start.
It was a long way to get to the top of North Tower, no-one else had arrived yet, so she sat down with her back against the wall, took out her new Divination book, Unfogging the Future, by Cassandra Vablatsky, and started to try to work out what this subject was all about. Turned out there was not a lot of actual fact-based information to be gained from reading the textbook. She set the book down next to her, closed her eyes, and considered impossible possibilities.
… She was sitting behind to Harry Potter. He had taken her for a ride on the back of his broom. He was such a good flier. She wrapped her arms tight around his waist as they soared higher… then there was darkness… it was closing in, darker than the night sky, closing in against her eyes… and it was ever so cold…
"Alexa! Wake up!"
Alexa opened her eyes. The cold and the dark had gone. Neville Longbottom, a clumsy boy with a round face, was crouched down next to her. He had his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine, Neville. Just fell asleep," she said, shrugging him off.
The rest of the class was here now.
"Sybill Trelawney, Divination teacher," said a voice above her. It was Harry. He, Ron, and Hermione had just arrived and noticed a trap door on the ceiling above them. "How are we supposed to get up there?"
Suddenly, the trap door opened and a silver ladder descended at Harry's feet. All was quiet.
"After you," Ron said to Harry. Harry climbed up first; Alexa picked up her book and followed the rest of the class up.
The room they had entered was most unlike any classroom any of them had ever seen. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little pouffes. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with red scarves.
Everyone had gathered at the back of the classroom, close to the trap door. Alexa had just scrambled into the room when she heard Ron say, "Where is she?"
Then a voice from the depths of the shadows on the other side of the classroom said "Welcome, how nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Chills ran down Alexa's spine at the sound of the voice. Then a slightly glittering woman appeared from where the voice had sounded. She was very thin, with large spectacles propped in front of penetrating eyes, and she was almost entirely emblazoned in jewellery: beaded and chained necklaces covering her neck, bangles jangled on her wrists, and the rings on her fingers glimmered in the soft glow of the firelight.
"Sit, my children, sit."
They all scrambled for tables with their friends, trying not to sit too close to the front – which was difficult as the tables seemed to have been placed so randomly. Alexa chose a table right by the trap door, and sank into the chintz armchair.
She sat for a while, not really taking in much of what Professor Trelawney was saying, she was still thinking about that dream she had just had. The Dementors seemed to be creeping into her dreams all the time now, and she couldn't work out why.
The rest of the class was on there feet, and Alexa looked around, trying to see what she was supposed to be doing.
"After you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones?" Trelawney was saying to Neville, "I'm rather attached to the pink."
Alexa got up and followed Neville to the shelf with all the tea cups. As soon as he had reached it, Neville had dropped a cup.
"One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind … Thank you ..."
Alexa grabbed a cup from the shelf, filled it with tea, and went back to her table. Just as she had begun to drink the scalding tea, Neville appeared beside her.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?"
"Only if you tell me what we're supposed to be doing," said Alexa, forcing herself to smile.
Neville sat down, and they drank their tea in silence together. When they had finished, they swapped cups, and opened their books to pages five and six. Alexa stared blearily at the page for a while, not really taking it in. Neville was still looking at her as though he expected her to collapse at any moment.
"I'm fine, Neville. I've already told you, stop worrying about me."
There was a snort of laughter from nearby, Alexa turned to see Professor Trelawney sweeping over to Harry and Ron, and snatching Harry's teacup from Ron's slack grip. Everyone was quiet, watching.
Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it anti-clockwise.
"The falcon… my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
"But everyone knows that," said Hermione, not troubling to keep her voice quiet.
Professor Trelawney stared at her.
"Well, they do, everyone knows about Harry and You-know-Who."
That was a first, thought Alexa, Hermione always showed teachers more respect than that.
Professor Trelawney chose not to reply. She lowered her huge eyes to Harry's cup again and continued to turn it.
"The club… an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup…"
Neville turned back to Alexa.
"Lexy, are you sure there's nothing wrong? You can tell me, you know I won't tell anyone."
Alexa knew he was right. Everyone else was still fixated on Trelawney and Potter.
"Okay, I'll tell you. Just don't go thinking I'm crazy or anything."
Neville pursed his lips as though remembering something both horrific and utterly saddening.
"The night before we came back to school, I had a dream about those Dementors, and then they turned up on the train, which really freaked me out. Then, before class, they were in my dream again."
"Dementors freak everyone out."
"Yeah, but I didn't know about them before I saw one on the train." Neville looked slightly worried about this.
Trelawney was still talking about Harry's cup. Something about a skull.
"That's not all. The first time I dreamed about the Dementors, there was this man, I haven't told anyone else this, not even Hannah or Susan – I think I recognised him from a long time ago. A very long time ago."
Professor Trelawney gasped, and then screamed.
"Neville, I think he was my dad."
Neville gasped in shock, knocking over my cup with his elbow, which made a tinkling noise as it smashed on the floor.
"I didn't know about your dad," he whispered.
Alexa paused. She didn't want people to know that her dad was some crazy evil criminal. She took a deep breath. She had never told anyone about her dad before. She looked over her shoulder at Harry who also appeared to be frightened and confused by something.
"I haven't seen my dad since I was about a year old. I only just realised that it was him." She fell silent, looking at Neville.
"…it is an omen – the worst omen – of death!"
Alexa jumped and turned around in surprise. Harry looked shocked; Lavender Brown clapped her hands to her mouth. Alexa and Neville stared at Harry like everyone else; everyone except Hermione, who had got up and moved around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair.
"I don't think it looks like a Grim."
This must have been the death omen that Professor Trelawney had mentioned.
Professor Trelawney surveyed Hermione with mounting dislike.
"You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
"It looks like a Grim if you do this," said Seamus Finnigan, with his eyes almost shut, "but it looks more like a donkey from here," he said, leaning to the left.
"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" said Harry, taking everyone by surprise, so that they no longer wanted to look at him.
Alexa kept staring at him though. She didn't care what some batty old fortune-teller said. In his fury and annoyance, something beautiful seemed to glow behind his green bespectacled eyes, which thrilled Alexa enough to make the memory of her dreams disappear at once.
"I think we'll leave the lesson there for today," said Professor Trelawney in her mistiest voice. "Yes… please pack away your things…"
Silently the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books and closed their bags. Alexa seemed to be the only one who wasn't avoiding eye-contact with Harry. She looked away from him, though, not wanting to draw attention to herself.
"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "fair fortune be yours. Oh and dear–" she pointed at Neville, "you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra hard to catch up."
"Wow that was eerie how she knew I was going to drop the cup and everything. I'd better send and owl to Gran later to check she's alright. I wonder why I'll be late next time…" Neville muttered excitedly to Alexa as they trailed down the staircase, and headed to Transfiguration.
"Maybe you'll get stuck in a trick step again," teased Alexa, knowing how bad Neville's memory was for that sort of thing.
Despite leaving Divination early, they only just arrived at Professor McGonagall's classroom in time because they had become disorientated from the unusual journey from North Tower.
Everyone kept shooting glances to the back of the room where Harry was sat. Alexa felt it was safe for her to look at Harry too, even though, unlike the rest of the class, she wasn't worried that he'd drop dead any second.
The nicer parts of the dream she's had earlier were returning to her, and she was so exhilarated by these thoughts that she barely registered what Professor McGonagall was saying, and only came out of her joyful daydream when she heard McGonagall's slightly annoyed voice say, "Really, what has got into you all today? Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got an applause from a class."
Everybody's heads turned toward Harry again, but nobody spoke. Then Hermione raised her hand.
"Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tealeaves, and–"
"Ah, no need to say any more, Miss Granger," said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. "Tell me, which one of you will be dying this year?"
Everyone stared at her.
Finally, Harry said, "me."
"I see," said Professor McGonagall, "then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favourite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues–" She broke off for a moment, then continued more calmly. "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney…"
She stopped again, and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "you look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."
Hermione laughed.
At the end of the lesson, Alexa followed the rest of the class to the Great Hall for lunch. They were all still discussing the Grim, but Alexa's mind had returned to her dreams. Without a lesson to distract her, these thoughts came flooding back to her. Why had she dreamed about Dementors before she'd even seen one? And why, after all these years, had she suddenly had a dream about her father?
After a hurried lunch, Alexa headed to the library, alone, and began to work on her Transfiguration homework. Like every year, she started off with a plan to do all her homework the day she got it, so she will always get it done on time, knowing that soon she will give up on this idea, and end up doing all her homework the night before it is due in.
"Hey Alex. You alright?" It was Hermione Granger.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just struggling with this homework," Alexa replied, looking up from her work which she didn't actually have a problem with at all; she just didn't want to tell Hermione the truth. "What about you? Did you have another argument with Weasley?"
Hermione smirked, knowing that Alexa understood her annoyance with Ron.
"He's just being so stupid!" Hermione exclaimed.
"No different from usual then?" Alexa remarked, giggling.
Hermione laughed, "he can't help being naïve enough to believe anything irrational. I just don't know how anyone can believe all that stuff about 'The Grim'." She indicated the quotes with her fingers as she said the last words.
Alexa didn't say anything. She whole-heartedly agreed with Hermione (she didn't believe in any superstition – magic or muggle), she just felt that it would be easier to allow Hermione to rant on into her own calm. She never had the bottle to argue with Hermione, even when they were on the same side of the argument; she knew from experience that she would feel less stupid for remaining silent than for making one comment, or a long thought-out speech.
"I mean to say that Divination just seems so woolly to me. I reckon Professor McGonagall was right, it is so imprecise. The fraud Trelawney seems to care more about dramatics of her performance than actually teaching anything. My Arithmancy class was just so much better–"
The bell rang at that moment, cutting Hermione off mid-sentence.
"Have you got Care of Magical Creatures now?" Alexa asked Hermione as she stuffed her Transfiguration homework ungracefully into her bag, which she swung over her shoulder.
"Oh, er – yes," Hermione said awkwardly as she checked her timetable, then her watch.