Hermione sat up in her bed and looked at the clock on her bedside table. The hour was almost up, but she could make Divination if she just...made time for it. Her friends might be upset, but they were really worrying too much. She was fine.
Though Professor Kirkland had been concerned as well...
She quickly shoved this thought to the back of her mind. Now was not the time to be doubting herself. She would prove that she could do this, no matter what her peers said.
Hermione resolutely left the dormitory, grabbing her bag on the way out. She slipped the timeturner over her head as she approached the stone stairs. She stopped with a squeak and ducked behind the stone banister. The Common Room was not as empty as she'd thought it was.
Alfred sat before the fire, tracing odd circles in the air with his finger. He froze, Hermione was careful to keep silent. The American sat for a full minute, listening intently. He then shrugged and resumed his...whatever he was doing.
It was clear that Hermione wasn't getting past Alfred. She could never remain undetected long enough to get across the Common Room...and the sound of the portrait hole opening would alert him as well.
'Might as well figure out what he's doing,' Hermione decided resignedly. She was too restless to sleep, and the curiosity was killing her. She moved along the stone banister, observing Alfred through the spaces between the ornate balustrades. She stopped when she reached an overlooking portion where she could safely observe the entire Common Room without being seen. She peered closely, and barely contained a gasp at what she saw.
Smoke from the fireplace, following an intricate trail that Alfred drew with his finger. His expression was utterly enraptured with this, as if it were new to him as well. He pointed his finger up at the ceiling and started to make steadily circling motions. The transparent smoke formed a slow moving funnel. He lifted his other hand over the shape and began to form a ball. He brought his hands together, dissipating the form.
Alfred looked at his own hands with wonder, and then looked at the fire. He stared at the fire, and it gradually began to dim. He made a grabbing motion at it, and pulled back. There was a sucking sound-like a vacuum, and the fire died completely, leaving only glowing embers and the dismal shaded lamps to light the now shadowed room. Alfred unclenched his fist, and the room felt warmer as a whisper of wind seem to travel through it.
Hermione recalled what she'd heard about Matthew, and how he'd frozen a troll solid with a mere gesture. She'd dismissed this as a baseless rumor before. But seeing this now...it wasn't so unbelievable.
Matthew controlled frost, and Alfred was...fire?
The American inhaled a gulp of air, and blew into the glowing ashes of the fireplace. There was a huge gust of wind, and the embers burst into life again, feeding upon the sudden reintroduction of life-giving oxygen.
Hermione blinked and revised her hypothesis. Alfred was manipulating the air.
Harry, Ron, and Matthew climbed the ladder into the dim, stifling tower room. They all sat at the same rickety table together.
"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Ron muttered, casting a wary eye around for Trelawney. She had a nasty habit of popping up behind people.
"Don't complain," Matthew muttered back. "It means we've finished palmistry."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief at that. "Good, I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands."
The class fell silent as the familiarly misty voice of Professor Trelawney exclaimed, "Good day to you all!" as she stepped out of the shadows with her usual dramatic flourish. Parvati and Lavender quivered with excitement, their faces lit by the milky glow of their crystal ball.
"At least someone's excited," Harry commented quietly. His companions snickered.
"I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned," the professor stated, sitting with he back to the fire in the grate and gazing around at the class. "The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."
"'The fates have informed her'?" Matthew whispered with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't she the one who sets the exam?" Harry and Ron barely choked back their laughs.
Professor Trelawney apparently hadn't heard them. She continued dreamily. "Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art...I do not expect any of you to See when you first peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and exernal eyes-"
Harry waggled his fingers mystically and blew out his cheeks while crossing his eyes. Ron began to snigger uncontrollably and had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise. Matthew snorted quietly and shook his head.
"...clear the Inner Eye and the superconcious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will see before the end of class."
And with that, they began. Harry felt extremely foolish, staring blankly at the crystal ball, trying to keep his mind clear when his friends were quietly joking and making funny faces behind the teacher's back.
Matthew leaned over the small table. "Some people in this class seem to have no problem with keeping their minds clear, because there wasn't much in them to begin with." He gestured covertly towards Lavender and Parvati, who stared at the crystal ball with their eyes glazed over like they were on some kind of drug. Ron giggled silently at this and Harry smiled briefly-only to quickly mold his expression into one of intense concentration as the Professor rustled past again.
After a quarter of an hour of this, Harry asked, "Seen anything yet?"
"Yeah, there's a burn on this table," Ron said, pointing. "Someone's spilled their candle."
"Wish I'd stayed behind with Al," Matthew said with a touch of regret. "Maybe something interesting happened-"
Professor Trelawney came by again. "Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?" she murmured.
"I don't need help," Ron whispered. "It's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight."
Harry and Matthew burst into fits of laughter. Everyone's heads turned in their direction at this sudden noisy outburst. Parvati and Lavender looked positively scandalized.
"Now, really!" Professor Trelawney scolded. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!" She approached their table and peered into their crystal ball. Harry felt his heart sinking. He was sure he knew what was coming.
"There is something here!" the Professor gasped predictably. She lowered her face to the ball, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving...but what is it?"
Harry was prepared to bet everything he owned, including his Firebolt, that it wasn't good news.
"It is here," Trelawney breathed. "Plainer than ever before, my dear. Stalking towards you, growing ever closer...the Gr-"
"Do you ever have good news?" Matthew asked suddenly. The moment this left his mouth, however, he clamped it shut and shot a mortified glance at his companions. It must've slipped out.
Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Matthew's neutral face. Parvati whispered something to Lavender, and they both shot the Canadian evil glares. Trelawney stood, and surveyed the Canadian with mild annoyance. "Mister Williams...I must say that the Inner Eye did not allow me to foresee this uncharacteristic outburst from you of all people. I'd more expect such a statement from the unfortunately absent Miss Granger, but certainly not from yourself..."
Matthew bit his lip. "I'm sorry, I just...It's bothering Harry, for you to foresee his death whenever he walks into the class. Surely you could display your clairvoyant abilities with some other prophesy?" He said all of this with the most wide-eyed and innocent expression ever faked. One wouldn't know that he was making it all up on the spot unless they'd observed his expression a few seconds before.
Trelawney faltered at this. If Harry didn't know better, he'd call her expression almost abashed. "My dear boy...I am sorry. The Inner Eye is such a burden, and even now I find myself telling what I see without consideration as to how it affects those of...the average mindset." She turned towards the now completely silent class. "Beware, children. For those of you who have the gift, I foresee you find yourselves facing a similar issue someday. Even trained professionals such as myself can easily forget what is happening in the present with their thoughts too occupied upon the future."
Harry was surprised to say the least. He didn't know that Professor Trelawney was actually...nice, behind her ominous prophesies. Still kooky, but honestly trying to help. Ron's eyebrows climbed steadily up his forehead as he watched the teacher warily, as if wondering if she were some kind of imposter.
"Class dismissed!" Trelawney exclaimed. "And remember to practice your mind-stretching exercises!"
The Easter holidays were hardly relaxing. The third years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one.
"Back home, we don't get homework on the holidays," Alfred grumbled in the Common Room one afternoon. "'Cause no one would do it. Teachers eventually wised up and left our free-time to us."
"You can't call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared, throwing his quill pen in frustration. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"
"We can hardly complain," Matthew chided gently, looking over his book. "Have you seen how much homework she has?"
"At least she quit Divinations before the holidays began," Ron said, his chin resting on his palm as he leaned on the small wooden table. "That makes it slightly easier for her, right?"
Harry glanced around the room, to see that Hermione still hadn't returned from the library. "She's still taking more subjects than anyone else..."
As if on cue, none other than Hermione Granger stumbled into the room. She had shadows under her eyes, and seemed close to tears. She stopped, and blankly met all the concerned looks she was getting. She adjusted the strap on her bag, and disappeared up the Girls' Dormitory stairs without a word.
"I really worry about that girl," Alfred said quietly. "As her friends, we should make sure that she gets more sleep. This is just unhealthy."
"Agreed," Matthew replied solemnly. "No one let Hermione leave her dorm for a few hours. She's working herself to the ground, and we don't even have classes this week."
Of course, no classes didn't mean no Quidditch practice. And Wood was working his team into the ground daily. What's worse was that this was regularly punctuated by long-winded tactics discussions with Wood. The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading by exactly two hundred points. This meant that they needed to win the match by much more to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on Harry, because the snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points.
"So you must only catch if we're more than fifty point us," Wood reminded Harry whenever they saw each other. "only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're-"
"I KNOW, OLIVER!" Harry yelled exasperatedly.
The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won in so long...But Harry doubted that anyone wanted a victory more than he did. The enmity between Harry and Malfoy was at it's highest point yet. Malfoy was still smarting about the mud-throwing/all-american beat down incident at Hogsmeade, and was even more furious that they'd escaped punishment. But Malfoy's threats to Professor Kirkland, Alfred, Matthew, and Buckbeak, made him most determined to beat Malfoy in front of the entire school.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, update! I'm so proud of myself! I think I'm supposed to be having writers block, but I'm steadily ignoring it and pressing on. I have an ancient technique to combat this unfortunate illness, you see.
Thanks for all forms of support this story has received! I appreciate every form of notification that pops up in my inbox. Review? I can't gauge your reactions if you don't give me one!
Later dudes. ^J^