Updated: June 17th, 2017

Chapter 7: Divination Disaster

The next morning I found myself sitting at a small round table all alone. I was perched on fat little pillow in a murky, incense-laden room. The Divination tower was the strangest classroom I had been in yet. In fact, it hardly looked like a classroom at all. More like a cross between an attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. Lots of small tables, like the one I was at, were crammed in the tower and everyone was sitting on little multicolored poufs. It was very dim with red light and the windows were shut with paisley drapes. It was too warm and I found myself loosening my necktie and hiking up my skirt to my knees. My fellow third years had the same idea. Boys took off their robes and girls pulled their hair off their necks.

"Welcome, my children," our Professor greeted us. She was a very thin woman; her large glasses magnified her eyes making them look like saucers. She was draped in a gaudy spangled shawl and had bangles up and down her arms. "In this room you shall explore the mysterious art of Divination. In this room you shall discover if you possess…the Sight. I am Professor Trelawney. Together we shall cast ourselves into the future!" There was a murmur of laughter as Professor Trelawney threw up her hand. She hit the table stand next to her, causing the large tea pot on it to wobble. She slammed her hands on it so it wouldn't fall. "Know this. One either has the Gift or not. It cannot be divined from the pages of a book. Books only cloud one's Inner Eye."

I snorted. Sucks for Hermione then. No sooner had I though Hermione's name, she was sitting next to Ron and Harry at a table in front of me. What the hell? I nudged her back with my foot. When she turned around I mouthed, 'when'd you get here'? Hermione waved me off and turned back to the front.

Professor Trelawney spun around, startling Seamus and Neville. She asked if Neville's grandmother was well. He said he thought so and then Trelawney asked for his cup. When she got it, she gave Neville a sympathetic groan and moved on. He stared at his cup, trying to read what it said.

Trelawney looked at Parvati and hummed, "Beware a red-head man." My fellow Gryffindor stared at Ron in shock and scooted closer to the table she shared with her Ravenclaw twin, Padma.

The crazy Professor continued her little rant from before, "Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And in late spring, one of our number will leave us…forever."

That did not sound good. Trelawney told us to break off into pairs. We were to get a tea cup from the shelf and bring it to her to fill. Next we had to sit quietly and drink the tea until only the dregs remained. Swirl those in the cup three times with the left hand, turn the cup upside down on the saucer and wait for it to drain. After, we had to give our cup to our partner to read. We had to interpret this using our book, Unfogging the Future. Before we split up, Trelawney told Neville that after he broke the first cup to pick a blue one. It was weird.

I partnered with Hermione. She picked a purple cup and I grabbed a white one. Sure enough, Neville broke his pink one. Trelawney had to remind him to take a blue one. Our tea was poured and Hermione and I sat at our table behind Harry and Ron. We drank in silence and preformed all the correct instructions. I took Hermione's cup and stared at it. The tea leaves mutated oddly. It just looked like a load of brown stuff to me. I consulted the book and it made me feel stupid.

"This is rubbish," Hermione commented as she flipped through the pages.

"Broaden your minds, my dears!"

I rolled my eyes. "Right," I flipped though the tea leaves chapter. "Hermione you have what looks like a…tortoise. It means…oh."

I paused. Hermione would not like what it meant. She already thought this class was crap. "Well," she pressed, not looking up from my tea leaves.

"It means you attempt that of which you have no knowledge," Hermione's head snapped up. I gave her a weak smile. "Of course, I could be wrong."

"Remember," Trelawney voiced. "The tea leaves never lie!"

Hermione slammed her book down, placing my cup on the saucer rather hard, "You have a walking stick. It means the arrival of a male visitor. Whatever rubbish that means."

For the rest of the class, Hermione pouted. I began to flip through the book when there was a crash and Professor Trelawney let out a loud yelp. She looked at Harry with a mixture of pity and fear. "My dear boy, you have…the Grim."

"Grin? What's the Grin," Seamus asked.

"Grim. Not the Grin, you idiot," a Ravenclaw girl rolled her eyes.

"What does that mean," John Haring asked.

"'The Grim'," Bem, a Nigerian boy, read. "'Taking the form of a giant spectral dog, it is among the darkest omens of our world. It is an omen of death'."

My stomached lurched. Everyone was looking at Harry, everyone except Hermione. Trelawney released us and everyone gave their tea cups back to Professor Trelawney and packed up their things. Hermione was the first person out of the tower. Harry, Ron, and I had to run to catch her going down the stairs. We walked to our next class in silence. That happened to be Transfiguration with McGonagall.

We were learning about Animagi (wizards who could transform into animals). I must have been the only person actually paying attention because I was the only one who gasped when McGonagall turned herself into a tabby cat.

"Really, what has gotten into you today," she asked when she changed back.

Hermione rose her hand, "Please, Professor, we've just finished our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves and –"

"Tell me, Miss Granger, which of you will be dying this year."

"Me," Harry raised his hand.

"I see. Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll 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 favorite way of greeting a new class," McGonagall stopped to think. She had our attention now. "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney – well, you look in excellent health, Potter. So excuse me if I don't let you off homework this year. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Hermione laughed. I felt better in some way. It was good to know that Divination was a bunch of hocus pocus. McGonagall was right. Harry wasn't going to die, Hermione was a smarty-pants in everything, Ron…well I don't know what Harry saw in his cup, and I doubted that male visitor would come for me. As we left Transfiguration I paused in the corridor. What if that man was someone I knew? What if he was Sirius Black?