The Potter Twins and the Innocent Ex-Convict
Chapter Four: Divination is so Grim
Hermione beamed in excitement. She couldn't believe it – the Ministry was letting her use a Time Turner!
Fascinating. Fantastic. Amazing.
For perhaps the dozenth time, Hermione's hand went to the Time Turner, which was hanging around her neck. Her fingers traced the curves of the hourglass. She'd managed to find a way to tangle the chain around her green, 'elemental' necklace so that the golden chain was mostly hidden with the other necklace and under her clothes.
"What're you so excited about?" questioned Ron, looking at her suspiciously. Hermione realized that he probably suspected that there was something she and Melanie weren't telling the two boys, but until they figured it out or at least understood it better, Hermione felt reluctant to tell them.
Melanie rolled her eyes teasingly. "Well, it's the first day for classes. You know how those Ravenclaws are." True enough, the Ravenclaw table was buzzing with excitement as they looked through the years books. The three other tables were buzzing with excitement as well, but it was mainly filled with students catching up with their friends.
"What's your schedule look like?" Ron reached over and grabbed Hermione's schedule, ignoring her protests.
"Hermione," he said, frowning at the paper, "they've messed up your timetable. Look – they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."
Hermione nearly laughed aloud at the 'there isn't enough time' comment. Of course there was enough time if she had a Time Turner. Instead, she just said, "I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick."
"But look, see this morning? Nine o'clock Divination and Muggle Studies and Arithmancy! I mean, I know you're good, Hermione, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw Melanie shoot her a knowing look and make a turning motion with her hands. Hermione nodded slightly, filing it away in her mental 'To-Ask' list, before turning back to Ron with a stern look.
"Don't be silly. Of course I won't be in three classes at once."
"Hermione, how are you going to get to your classes?" asked Harry, reading the schedule over Ron's shoulder. Draco, on the other side of Harry, peeked at the schedule too.
Hermione plucked the schedule out of Ron's hands and changed the topic. "Pass the marmalade."
"But-"
"Ron, she's fixed it with the professors," said Melanie, passing Hermione the marmalade.
Hermione nodded, relieved to have finally gotten off the topic of her schedule. "Thank you, now-"
"All righ'?" interrupted Hagrid, who'd just walked into the Great Hall wearing a large moleskin overcoat. Hermione felt a stab of pity for the dead polecat, which was being swung haphazardly by Hagrid.
"Yer in my firs' ever lesson!" continued Hagrid, oblivious to the looks he was getting from everybody in the hall. Entering at breakfast with something dead was not the best idea. "Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everythin' ready… hope it's okay… me, at teacher, hones'ly." He grinned broadly and headed to the staff table.
"Wonder what he's been getting ready?" Ron had a slightly anxious tone to his voice.
"Him, a teacher," sneered Draco. "Honestly, I thought that Hogwart's had standards." When he was met by four pairs of angry eyes, Draco held his hands up. "I'm just saying!"
Ron sighed and got up, shooting one last glare at Draco. "Hermione, we'd better go. Look, Divination's at the top of the NorthTower. It'll take up ten minutes to get there…"
"Good luck," said Melanie, with a hint of laughter in her voice. She'd managed to fix her classes with Professor Sprout and was taking Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination. The last subject she was only taking to keep harry company, which she had repeated many times.
"What do you mean by that?" Hermione never got an answer as Ron nagged her to hurry up so they could get to their class.
"This is odd," said Hermione. "You're nagging me about not being late."
"There's – got to be – short cut," panted Ron as they climbed a particularly long staircase, ending up in unfamiliar territory. They only decoration in that area was a painting of grass.
"I think it's this way." Hermione started walking toward a passage on the right, stopping when Ron spoke.
"Can't be. That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake outside the window."
"Aha!" shouted a voice, making both Ron and Hermione jump a little in surprise. They turned towards where the sound was coming from to see that a little knight had arrived in the painting.
"What villains are these that trespass upon my private lands? Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw, you knaves, you dogs!" The knight tugged a sword out and swung it violently in the air, causing him to tip over and land facedown on the grass.
"You alright?" asked Ron, trying to hold back a laugh.
"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!" Holding his hands up in mock surrender, Ron took two steps away from the painting.
"Look," snapped Hermione, "we're late for class. Could you show us the way to the NorthTower?"
The knight beamed. "A quest! Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!"
"How are we supposed to follow him?"
Hermione winced at the loud clanking noises coming from the knight's armor. "He'll go through portraits I suppose."
Eventually, they did end up in a hallway where they could hear the murmur of voices from their class.
"Farewell!" yelled the knight. "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"
Ron snorted once Sir Cadogan was out of earshot. "Sure. I'll ask him if I need someone mental."
"We already have you," quipped Hermione, saved from Ron's response by a silver ladder dropping down from the classroom.
Upon entering the room, she was confused. It looked like a cross between some old cat lady's attic and a circus fortune teller's tent.
"Huh." She turned to look at Ron, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Yep," he said. "I really wasn't expecting this." The two of them found seats near Neville, who was pulling at his collar.
It is rather warm in here, thought Hermione. They hovered, just slightly awkwardly, around the chairs, not sure if they should sit or not.
About a minute later, Ron asked, "Where is she?"
'Coincidentally,' a voice could suddenly be heard from the shadows.
"Welcome. How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Hermione suppressed a snicker. The 'voice' was obviously their professor, Professor Trelawney. Although they were in a Divination class, that airy voice was too much of an exaggeration. Hermione would bet all her books that Professor Trelawney had just been standing there, waiting for one of them to ask where she was for a dramatic affect.
Although slightly surprised at her immediate doubts for this professor, Hermione cleared her mind of the doubts and tried to give Professor Trelawney an unbiased opinion. Of course, that was nearly ruined when she spotted her.
Is she actually… Large glasses magnified her eyes, which were wide and shimmering in the firelight. Draped in a gauzy, spangled shawl, countless chains and beads hanging off her neck, and arms and hands were covered with bangles and rings. The lights reflected off her jewellery, reminding Hermione of fractured glass.
"Sit, my children, sit." Hermione sank into her pouf, trying in vain to sit up straight. Gathered at the table with Neville and Ron, they exchanged a slightly dubious look.
"Welcome to Divination," said the professor, sitting down in a winged armchair in front of the fireplace, leaving Hermione to wonder how Professor Trelawney didn't start overheating. Her airy manner of talking reminded Hermione of the blonde Ravenclaw a year younger than her, Luna Lovegood. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."
Hermione was torn between doubt and interest. Inner Eye, huh?
"So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts." The most difficult? Really? With all those spells and complicated potions, Divination was hardly the most difficult.
"I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can only take you so far in this field."
Immediately, Hermione's doubt was ignored for her worry. Books and practice were what she relied on to get through school.
"Oh, stop smirking, Ronald."
"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future." Professor Trelawney's eyes darted from face to face, stopping briefly to stare at Hermione's doubtful one. "It is a Gift granted to few."
Abruptly, she turned to Neville, startling him so much that he almost fell off his pouf. "You, boy. Is your grandmother well?"
"I think so," said Neville with an audible gulp.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear."
Are all Seers so eccentric? "Don't worry, Neville," comforted Hermione, "your grandmother's fine."
"You think?" Neville sank into his pouf, practically disappearing.
"Positive." The worst would probably be a cold, thought Hermione.
Professor Trelawney continued talking as if she hadn't just terrified Neville. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear, beware a red-haired man." The last part was directed at Parvati Patil, who shot a look at Ron and edged her chair away from their table.
"In the second term, we shall progress to crystal ball – if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."
Hermione rolled her eyes, definitely not impressed.
Professor Trelawney requested Lavender Brown to hand her an enormous teapot, giving her an ominous prediction in the process. They divided into pairs, Neville, predictably, breaking a teapot in the process.
"Right," said Ron. "What can you see in mine?"
Tea leaves. "Uh… That looks kind of like a cross and then a sun." Hermione flipped to the pages, raising an doubtful eyebrow. "You're going to have 'trials and suffering' but the sun means 'great happiness'. Ridiculous."
"So I'm going to suffer but be happy about it," said Ron, looking slightly confused. "You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me." The two of them stifled their laughter as Professor Trelawney turned an accusing eye in their direction.
"My turn…" Ron peered into her teacup. "There's something that looks like… a torch? Maybe that means you'll show people something." He turned the cup around, making sure not to move the tea leaves too much. "There are four leaves over there. Just four. That's odd… Um... I think there's an hourglass, and it's quite large." Shrugging, Ron dropped the cup onto their table. "I give up."
Hermione nodded, glad that he didn't think anything about the hourglass. She patted her Time Turner, reassuring herself that it was still there.
Maybe Ron has an Inner Eye, Hermione wondered.
The rest of the class passed with the two of them giggling over the ridiculous tea leaves, which sometimes looked like bunnies and sometimes looked like top hats. While the rest of the class cleared out, Hermione stayed back to fix the tear in her bag.
I have a feeling this is going to happen a lot.
"A word with you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, gesturing to Hermione.
"Yes, professor?"
There are a pause in which the professor looked straight into Hermione's eyes, making the third year feeling rather awkward. "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."
Hermione stood there in silence, not entirely sure what to say. Thankfully, Professor Trelawney withdrew into the shadows before she had to respond.
Maybe the professor disapproved of how they had been laughing in class. Thinking to what she had just said, Hermione was sure that the professor's airy tone was coloured with a little irritation.
Shaking the thoughts of Transfiguration out of her mind, Hermione turned the Time Turner to go to her Muggle Studies class and then her Arithmancy class.
~.~.~.~.~
"Yeah, I have. I saw one the night I left the Dursleys'."
Ron turned his horrified gaze on Harry. The Slytherin had just told them, complained really, about how Professor Trelawney had predicted his death and the Grim in his future.
Hermione remained calm, cutting in her lunch. "Probably a stray."
"Hermione," said Ron, trying to get her to understand how serious this was, "if Harry's seen a Grim, that's… that's bad. My – my uncle Bilius saw one and – and he died 24 hours later!"
"Coincidence."
"You don't know what you're talking about! Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards!"
"There you are, then." Hermione gestured at him as if that explained everything. "They see the Grim and die of fright. The Grim's not an omen, it's the cause of death! And Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better kick the bucket then!"
You're not always right, Ron thought, slightly angry with Hermione's over-confidence.
"I think Divination seems very woolly," continued Hermione. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."
"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!"
"You weren't even there to see it," scoffed Hermione.
"Professor Trelawney said-"
"Anyways," interrupted Melanie, "how was your Arithmancy class, Hermione?"
Immediately, the Ravenclaw brightened. "Much better than that absolute rubbish Divination class! Honestly, pretending to see omens in cups."
"There's no pretending ab-" Ron trailed off at the look Melanie shot him.
Maybe it's better to let Hermione think what she likes. Ron huffed grumpily. Still, I know what I saw in her cup wasn't just tea leaves.
Thanks to…
Dazer95: Snape is such an interesting character. I think most people felt the same way about him towards the end of the series.
I'm just going to pretend that Ravencalws have Divination with Gryffindors. I don't think it was mentioned in the books, so I'll just improvise.
Question: Favourite and least favourite HP books?
Read and review!
~ScaleneGalleons~
