Chapter 14

Palmistry

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

James was sitting at breakfast next to Rangi who was bluntly refusing him more information on the gambling club. Their conversation had been going along for a long time now without much progress.

"Please?"

Rangi sighed, putting down the butter knife and giving him an exasperated look, "I'm not telling you any more James and that's final!"

"Any more what?" Interrupted a curious voice.

"Go away Al." James told his brother grumpily.

"Why?"

"I said leave me alone Al! Go eat with Rose, it's her last day!" James snapped.

"Fine, I was just leaving." His younger brother said sulkily walking away.

"See, I'm great at not telling the younger people." James pointed out hopefully.

Rangi rolled his eyes, "I've got class."

"No you don't. You have a free period." James pointed out.

"I know…" Rangi said sadly, "I'm going to the common room and sitting with Molly. That way you might leave me alone."

"Molly has Transfiguration." James said smartly.

"Nothing ever goes my way!" Groaned Rangi.

James grinned, "I dunno, I'd love to have a free period every now and again! I have Divination now."

Rangi smiled, "You'll live."

"Not so sure." James said, pulling a face, "The way Trelawney goes on you'd swear I was about to drop dead at any moment."

Rangi laughed, "I'll talk to you later James."

James watched him leave and sighed, he'd really hoped Rangi might tell him something more about the club. Alex plonked himself down on his right,

"Well?" He asked.

"Nothing." James said sadly, "Rangi thinks he's said enough already. You know he doesn't want to be the one to bring it down."

"Neither do we." Alex pointed out, "Anyway, how could he?"

James gave his friend a knowing look, Rangi was more than likely to say something that would later get him into trouble.

"Okay… But you know what I mean. All we need's a little hint! It's been ages and we still don't know anything!" Alex admitted.

"I know. Where's Blue?" James asked changing the subject. For the past month he'd been trying to find out more about the club and so far he'd had no luck.

"Over there with 'Tetia. They're wishing Rose luck." Alex said pointing down the table to where Rose, Albus, Philip, Blue and Letitia were gathered.

Blue hurried over soon after and they left for class.

"James okay?" Philip asked Albus as they watched Blue, James and Alex leaving the hall.

Albus shrugged, "Just a bit grumpy. You know James."

Albus was perfectly used to his brother's moods and was perfectly used to James taking them out on him. He had to admit he was curious though. Last year James had been moody most of the year and Albus had known he was up to something. So far this year he hadn't been too bad but now it looked like he was up to something again and he didn't want Albus snooping around.

"You know Rose, you never told us about what happened last year." Philip pointed out.

Rose looked up but looked straight down again, "You know I promised I wouldn't."

"You won't even tell us? We're your best friends!" Philip protested.

"I promised."

Albus shook his head. Rose never would break a promise. Usually this was a good thing as she was usually on his side but now it was thoroughly annoying.

"I just want to know if it's finished business or if he's still up to stuff." Albus said reasonably.

"It's finished. It was just something stupid and it's over now." Rose said looking him the eye.

Albus didn't question her further, Rose was a terrible liar and he knew she wouldn't say more anyway.

"You know what I will tell you though." Rose said confidently.

"What?"

"You know those plants we won in Herbology last year? I found out what they are." Rose smiled.

"Yeah?" Philip asked glancing at Albus.

Philip and Rose had each won a mystery plant from Professor Longbottom last year for their Herbology project. Philip and Albus had actually been quite disappointed with the prize. It didn't seem to possess any magical properties and so far they had been taking pretty bad care of it. In fact they had forgotten about it and left it in their dormitory all summer. Luckily, it appeared one of the school's many house-elves was tending it because it still seemed to be in perfect condition.

"Its called Razkovniche." Rose continued, "It's a herb, sometimes used in potion making, it grows wild in parts of Eastern Europe. It's incredibly difficult to identify so it's quite valuable really."

"Can we sell it?" Philip asked eagerly.

Rose gave him a stern look, "Really Philip? Professor Longbottom didn't give them to us so we could sell it on the black market!"

"I didn't say anything about the black market." Grumbled Philip, "I just meant around here."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"So what does it do?" Albus asked changing the subject.

"It's used to unlock things." Rose said quickly.

"What things?" Albus asked her frowning.

Rose shrugged, "I don't know. The book didn't say."

"So this is what you've been doing with your last few days at Hogwarts?" Albus asked shaking his head, "Walled up in the library."

"Well, you were both at training!" Rose said defensively, this was true, Philip and Albus had been at Quidditch training a lot lately, "And please, let's not talk about later, I'm nervous enough as it is!"

"Why? You don't start in Beauxbatons for next week." Philip pointed out.

"Yeah but I'm nervous anyway. I mean, I'm excited to be going but it's going to be so strange and different and far away." Rose said twisting her hands in her lap.

"You'll be fine Rose. We're only an owl away." Albus said gently, he wanted to make up for his earlier discouragement. Rose smiled at him gratefully.

"We're late." Philip said suddenly and Albus looked up to see the almost empty hall around him.

They all stood up quickly,

"We'd better run!" Albus said as he swung his bag onto his shoulder and the three second years legged-it out of the hall.

"Today class, we'll be starting palmistry." Trelawney said airily as James stared out the window at the misty horizon, "You'll find all you need to know on pages thirty to thirty-five of your text book."

Absent-mindedly James turned the pages of his already battered book, this class was so pointless. He could be doing anything he wanted right now. Trying to get into the gambling club, trying to figure out what that statue did, even helping Rangi with his Quidditch tactics.

He sighed and Alex poked him in the arm, hard.

"We have to pair up." He said.

James yawned, "Okay. Whatever."

"Hold out your hand." Alex instructed and James lazily extended his arm, palm up.

"Hmm… let's see." Alex said frowning as he examined James palm.

"Well, how does my fortune look today?" James muttered under his breath.

The truth was that Alex was really good at this class, annoyingly good. This meant that James didn't even have Alex to mess and laugh with through their classes anymore. It also meant he had to sit back and listen to Trelawney and Alex solemnly discussing the prominent death omens that kept cropping up in his tea leaves and crystal balls.

James knew that Alex knew this annoyed him and as soon as they left the classroom, Alex would joke about it but whilst in class, Alex appeared to take it entirely seriously.

"Woah, James! You have a really short life line…" Alex said looking up at him in shock.

James glared at him and pulled his hand back. He didn't believe in palmistry but he still found it offensive when Alex said this, especially when he looked at him with that real fear in his eyes.

"Oh come on Alex! You don't really believe this stuff!" James snapped.

Alex shrugged but didn't reply.

"Listen Alex, I promise I'm not about to drop dead on you, okay?" He added rolling his eyes.

Alex grinned at him and everything went back to normal.

Alex promptly read the palms of the other students at their table and then Trelawney came over and started praising him on his work. James went back to staring out the window.

Later, he caught himself peering at his hands but then stopped immediately and began poking a spider that had scuttled over with his wand trying to make it change colour.

"James Potter, if you could pay just a little attention!" Trelawney said suddenly, James looked up guiltily.

Trelawney glared at him looking offended at his lack of interest. The spider scuttled away, still as dark as ever.

"You know, if I were you Mr Potter, I would pay a bit more attention in this class. If you had seen what I have in my meditations I'm sure you would stop treating this class like a joke. I'm afraid I have seen terrible things in store for you." Trelawney continued as James openly yawned, Alex glanced at him nervously and James knew he was thinking about James's short lifeline.

"What have you seen?" Squeaked one girl nervously.

"Most terrible things!" Trelawney said dramatically completely in her element, "I'm afraid I find it difficult to talk about it!"

James could see tears sparkling in her eyes as she looked away from him tragically.

"What is it?" Asked Owen from the table next to James looking terrified.

Trelawney looked back looking almost frightened, "I'm afraid, I have seen death in your future James Potter!"

The class gasped, James turned away grumpily, he hated them staring at him with that pitying look.

"If you don't understand the future James, how can you hope to change it?" Trelawney added as the bell for the end of class sounded in the distance.

James shoved his books into his bag and was first down the ladder, out of the tower room.

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review. Also, I have a new poll on my profile page for everyone's favourite character in 'The Serpent's Tongue' so please vote! I love seeing what you all think!

A huge shout-out to blitzer99 - "Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and good luck with your new story!"