A/N: So so so so so sorry everyone for the delay ... I finally managed to get off my ar$e and update, and now I'm addicted to writing again. Hopefully, everything will be faster now. Again, sorry!

Chapter Four

I missed breakfast the next morning ... I was back into the whole not-eating thing, and wasn't interested in them making me eat. I spent the breakfast time instead, looking for the North Tower, where I was to have Divination first. As expected, I was the first at class. There was a tiny landing, with no doors, but a circular trapdoor in the ceiling, with a brass plate declaring that the classroom was Divination, and Sybill Trelawney was the Divination teacher. I stared up at it for a while, til the rest of the class started arriving, looking around in confusion for the classroom til they got my point and looked up. Harry, Ron and Hermione were last up the spiral staircase, breathing heavily. Then the trapdoor opened, and a silvery ladder descended, and we all climbed up.

It was possibly the strangest classroom we'd ever had. About twenty small circular tables were crammed into the tiny, attic-like room, all surrounded by armchairs, and little pouffes. The room was lit with a red light, all the curtains closed and the lamps draped with red scarves. It was way too warm, and the fire was giving off a sickly sweet scent, as it heated a large copper kettle. Shelves running around the edges of the room were crammed with dusty feathers, candle stubs, tattered packs of cards, crystal balls and a lot of teacups. Peering around, I looked for Professor Trelawney.

'Behind you.' Spark warned me. However when her misty voice came out of the shadows, the rest of the class jumped. I suppressed a laugh, for none of them had dragon-lizards to warn them.

"Welcome. How nice to see you physical world at last." Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and we all saw her. She was very thin, with large glasses that magnified her eyes. She was draped in a gauzy shawl, and innumerable chains and beads around her neck, arms and fingers coated in bangles and rings. All in all, very sparkly. Spark was very impressed (he likes sparkly stuff).

"Sit, my children, sit." She said, and we all clambered awkwardly onto armchairs, or sank into pouffes. Professor Trelawney sat on a winged armchair by the fire. "Welcome to Divination. My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before-"

I zoned out, watching the light glint off her jewellery, and little shiny objects around the room. I only zoned back in when Spark nudged me slightly. Instructions. Right.

"Now I want you all to collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink; drink until ownly the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside-down on its saucer; wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then read it, interpreting the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging The Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing-" I zoned out again, grabbing a blue patterned teacup, and getting it filled. I drank the scalding tea, offering some to Spark, who sniffed it, then turned his nose up. Fussy creature.

I finished my tea, swirling the dregs in the bottom three times with my left hand, as instructed, before tipping it upside down. I then flicked to pages five and six, quickly scanning the omens, so I knew what I was supposed to be looking for. I flipped the cup over again, looking down at the mushy green and brown leaves in the bottom. I spotted the cross first: trials and suffering. Hmm, I thought, deciding to think about that one later. Then I saw the skull: danger in your path. Geez, my future was not looking bright ... The falcon was also in my cup: a deadly enemy. Wormtail? I wondered.

'Or Draco Malfoy still?' Spark added. I discarded that idea. Alongside the falcon was a sun: great happiness, according to my book. I didn't have much time to think though, I was broken out of my reverie by Professor Trelawneys' scream, and the tinkling of broken china as Neville smashed another cup. Professor Trelawney sank dramatically into a vacant armchair, her glittering hand at her heart and her magnified eyes closed.

"My dear boy-my poor dear boy-no-it is kinder not to say-no-don't ask me ..."

"What is is, Professor?" Dean Thomas asked at once. Most of the class was at this point crowded around around Harry and Ron, pressing close to Professor Trelawneys' chair to get a look at my dear brothers' cup.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney opened her eyes wide-again dramatically-and eyed Harry. "You have the Grim."

"The what?" Harry asked. He wasn't the only one who had no idea what she was talking about: Dean Thomas shrugged, and Lavender Brown looked puzzled. The rest of the class however clapped their hands to their mouths in horror.

"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" she cried, looking shocked that he hadn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen-the worst omen-of death!"

Lavender Brown clapped her hands to her mouth too.

Hermione got up, moving around to the back of Professor Trelawneys' chair.

"I don't think it looks like a Grim." She said flatly. Professor surveyed her 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. Unlike Miss-" she paused for a second, as if thinking. Very very hard. "-Potter. Miss Potter here. Her aura is blinding. Tell me, did you see anything in your cup?"

Flaming red, I shook my head, as Spark made an affirmative chirrup. Thankfully, Seamus Finnigan saved me. He was tilting his head from side to side, his eyes almost shut. "It looks like a Grim if you do this." He announced. Then he leaned to the left. "But it looks more like a donkey from here."

"When you've all finished deciding if I'm going to die or not!" Harry said sharply, taking everyone by surprise.

"I think we will want to leave the lesson here today." Professor Trelawney said in her mistiest voice. "Yes ... please pack away your things ..."

Pushing my book into my bag, I wondered a bit about what I'd Seen, and then what Professor Trelawney had said. If it was right. If I was able to See things. And what I had Seen. Frustrated, I shook my head, clearing it for Transfiguration. Divination was complicated.