A/N: This is a short chapter introducing our new Divinations teacher. This chapter will also include a few flashbacks from the Harry Potter series that you will recognize if you are a true Harry Potter fan. You must be as Potter crazed as I am to be reading fan fiction though. In that case, welcome to the club and read on!!!

Chapter 9 - An Interesting Divination Class

Harry and Ron gladly followed Lillian to the new Divination classroom. When they walked in, Lauren Clayton was sitting at her desk reading. There was no so called mysterious entrances like that of Trelawney. Nor was the room drenched in the smell of overwhelming perfumes,

"Hello," said Lauren. "You may call me Lauren if you like, but only in here, okay? How about we start off with what you have learned so far."

The room got quite. It was quite obvious that there was very little if anything learned from her new colleague, Professor Trelawney.

"Anyone?" she looked at her pupils. "Okay then let's start with the beginning."

With a wave of her wand, four magic balls appeared before them.

"I know Lillian can read by this method, but can either of you two cause anything to appear in the ball?" Lauren asked.

Both shook their heads no making Lauren know she had quite a bit to teach before Christmas break and they had their exams and change classes.

"You haven't been taught much, have you?" Lauren said feeling a touch of disappointment in Trelawney. "That's okay. I believe we can learn everything we need to real quick. First of all, do you know how to turn the magic ball in the on position?"

They shook their heads no again so Lauren began immediately.

"Hold your hand about an inch above the top, circle in a counter clock wise direction," Lauren instructed.

Ron, Harry, and Lillian did as instructed and their magic balls filled with pink fog.

"Good," said Lauren "was that so hard? Now concentrate real hard on what you want to see, but don't be disappointed if you don't see what you want. Some can see the past, others the future, but most the present. Some may see nothing at all. Let us try one thing at a time, first let us concentrate on seeing the past."

The four concentrated, Lauren's and Lillian's picture developed first. Moments afterward Harry also developed a picture. Lillian noticed in Harry's, a young boy no more than sixteen or seventeen years of age standing at the foot of a staircase while some men carried down a stretcher with the print of a body underneath the sheet. She remembered hearing him speak about it. It was Tom Marvolo Riddle AKA Voldemort back in his school days. The year that Myrtle, the ghost who now haunted the second floor bathroom, had looked into the eye's of the Basilisk and died. Tom had framed Hagrid, a third year at the time and his pet spider, Aragog, who now lived in the Dark Forest. A diary, in which Tom recorded his memory, had fallen into Ginny's hands. Ginny, Ron's sister was a first year at that time. Harry and Ron were second years. Ginny had fallen under Tom's control as she poured out her thoughts out and as she grew weaker, Tom grew stronger. Hagrid was for a short time taken to Azkaban, the wizard prison, because once again Tom had managed to frame him. Harry had to prove that Hagrid was innocent.

The memory of Tom standing at the bottom of the staircase as the stretcher was carried down was a memory that Tom had shown Harry when the diary fell into Harry's possession after Ginny tried to dispose of it. It had made Harry believe that Hagrid could be to blame for the death of Myrtle and the petrifaction of other students. Upon questioning Hagrid, though, they were interrupted, by Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy. Cornelius was there to take Hagrid to Azkaban. Lucius was there to give Dumbledore an order of suspension. Before Hagrid was taken to Azkaban, he gave Harry and Ron a hint to 'follow the spiders' that led them to the first major clue that Hagrid was indeed innocent. Of course, it led Ron and Harry to being almost eaten by Aragog's offspring. With Hermione's help by her finding out what the creature was before being petrified, Harry and Ron clue by clue discovered what was going on. Although, not in time. Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets.

The Chamber of Secrets was a chamber that was built by Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. Before his departure from the school because of a disagreement of how the school's students should be picked, Salazar had placed the Basilisk egg into the chamber until the heir of Slytherin would awaken it; that being Tom AKA Voldemort. Taking Gilderoy Lockhart, the D.A.D.A. teacher, hostage, Harry and Ron questioned Myrtle how she died. With her answer discovered the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. Harry used his gift of Parselmouth, the ability to speak to snakes, to open the chamber. Shortly after entering the chamber, Lockhart had stolen Ron's wand and tried to Obliviate Harry and Ron's memories. Ron's wand was broken and the spell backfired and the charm worked on Lockhart instead. Lockhart was tossed against the wall by the force of the spell causing a cave in. Ron stayed with Lockhart as Harry went on. He found Ginny as well as Tom's memory in a physical form. At that time he found out the truth that Tom Marvolo Riddle scrambled spells 'I am Lord Voldemort'. Harry couldn't believe it. Tom called the Basilisk and it chased after Harry trying to kill him, but thankfully Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, had flown in just in time and blinded it and had given Harry a sword that had belonged to Godric Gryffindor, another of the four founders of Hogwarts.

Harry had stabbed the basilisk through the roof of it mouth into its brain, but not before it had bitten Harry causing poison to quickly spread through his veins. Taking the tooth, though and stabbing it into the diary caused the memory that had been written into the diary so many years ago, to disappear from view. Harry weakly had gave directions for Ginny to get out because he thought his time short. However, he had forgotten that phoenix tears have healing powers. Fawkes' tears killed the poisons and had healed the area in which the basilisk's tooth had punctured. After Fawkes had gotten them out of the chamber, they had a lot of explaining to do. In the end, Harry and Ron received awards for services to the school as well as a good lesson. 'Don't ever mess around with any object that thinks for itself and you can't see where it keeps its brain.' All the students that had been petrified were finally awakened with the potion made from the Mandrakes that Professor Sprout had been growing in the greenhouse. Hagrid was freed and all became a memory.

Lillian now understood what Hagrid meant when he said that they liked to get into trouble. She looked over to Ron. His ball was still filled with pink mist and disappointment was written on his face.

"Don't worry, Ron," said Lillian. "The past and future are always the hardest. Harry has seen the past before."

"Okay, now let's try the present," said Lauren.

This time Ron was able to develop a picture. It was of Hermione's class. Lillian and Harry did their best to keep from laughing.

"Is this your girlfriend?" asked Lauren unknowingly.

Ron turned red as Harry and Lillian burst out laughing. Ron, however, just pretended to laugh it off.

"That's Hermione," said Lillian pointing at a figure that every few seconds raised her hand to answer a question. "She is our friend and my roommate. This is her Arithmancy class."

"Ah...Arithmancy," said Lauren. "A very good class to take if you want to study a Divination based math class. That was very good, Ron."

Lillian was the only one to be able to get a picture of the future, but once she seen what it was she cleared it. It was of the Quidditch team roster.

"What did it say, Lillian?" asked Ron.

"Sorry, Ron," said Lillian, "You just have to wait to find out."

When the bell rang, Lauren caused the magic balls to vanish. The four went to the Great Hall for lunch. Lauren joined the teachers. Harry, Ron, and Lillian joined Hermione. Ron and Harry told Hermione about Lauren.

"Finally," said Hermione, "they have a Divination teacher that knows what she doing."

A/N: I hope you like Lauren. She is a witch and very talented in Divinations. She is more laid back and I think that caused Harry and Ron to chill out a little which brought a few things out that they didn't know they had. Well as always, drop me a review if you have time and proceed to the next chapter.