Percy looked between the ladder up to the Divination classroom and Alaine, another distant cousin in Slytherin and the same year as him. She had taken it upon herself to ensure he went to the Divination class.
Percy was getting more exasperated by the day by everyone insisting he take this class. Sure, when Eric, one of the fourth year Ravenclaws, took the class last year he got hassled for taking an easy course, but Percy was forced to take the class and basically told to like it. "It's for your own good mate," Lee had told him last year. He was starting to think that they wanted him to take this class to torture him indirectly for pay back on all the pranks he pulled the last couple years. To start, the classroom was in one of the tallest towers in the castle, so he would need to climb this rickety old pile of wood masquerading as a ladder to reach the room and try not to get splinters, just about everyone he talked to in the upper years was of the opinion that the Divination Professor had a few screws loose, and, call it a premonition or whatever, but Percy was positive that everything would change once he took this class and the outcome wouldn't be pretty for him.
"Percy," Alaine stared at him unamused, "if you don't go up the ladder of your own will, I can and will make you weightless and drag you up there by your ankles."
Percy didn't doubt she'd do it. He took a precautionary step back with a grimace as he steeled himself to go up the ladder.
After they had both settled into the room and found a small table to sit at, she had given him a smug look and at his eye-roll told him "See, it wasn't that bad was it?"
Percy decided to just leave it be. They were the only Slytherins in their year taking the class and would have to work together on in-class assignments for the foreseeable future. The majority of the class were girls with a few guys who were probably there for an easy O.
The room itself was dim and had a high vaulted ceiling and lots of drapes and smoke curling up from incense trays only further added to the atmosphere of the room. Except that instead of the mysterious vibes the Professor was probably going for it just made it harder to read the board and harder to breath. One of the Hufflepuff girls hadn't stopped sneezing since she came through the door. She must be allergic to something in the incense.
Professor Trelawney's introduction to the course was incredibly dramatic. Percy was of the opinion that she should be teaching theatre instead of divination. Then again, the course seemed more about fortune telling then discerning actual future events from what he'd heard.
After warning them that divination was a talent as much as it was a study and not all of them would have the same level of ability, she led them through a "fun" introductory activity. They read tea leaves.
Alaine "foresaw" that Lexi from Hufflepuff would drop the class before the end of the year. Lexi looked nervous even as she continued to sneeze.
Percy however was convinced the tea he had was laced with hallucinogens. He had swirled the remaining tea and leaves around his cup and thought he saw the tea leaves take the form of a unicorn fighting a strange wraith like thing which killed the unicorn, and then small human figures running away from the wraith thing.
His first divination class wasn't exactly fun to say the least, but at least it hadn't been a literal blast.
Percy's first DADA class of the year was aggravating.
He knew Professor Quirrell would have it out for him this year and he expected all the little pointed remarks about the professor's former subject and side-eye glances at him. He hadn't expected the Professor's new stutter to make the experience even more annoying and tedious.
The third years tended to start with dangerous creatures that could infest populated areas. Naturally, they would begin with a lesson on boggarts, for which a large desk had been brought into the front of the class.
The third year Slytherins and Gryffindors shared DADA and there had been plenty of arguing before the professor walked in to start the lesson, and Percy had no doubt that his classmates were still bragging and dissing each other regardless. They were still passing papers back and forth with a few hand gestures thrown in whenever Quirrell turned his back.
It wasn't really a surprise when Percy was called up to be the first to face the boggart.
When it was released the boggart moved to cover the ground like ice. When he got a good look at what it turned into, he understood why. It now looked like he was standing at the edge of a deep pit. The bottom was covered in darkness and a small stone broke off from the edge echoing as it hit the sides of the pit as it fell. He froze. Staring into the bottomless pit.
"Ridiculous!"
The pit gained light and color and a whole lot of other things. Percy laughed as he realized the boggart had turned into the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland one of his mom's favorite stories.
The rest of the class laughed with him and the next student took his place.
Professor Quirrell looked annoyed but was soon back to his nervous stuttering.
-
Percy hadn't seen much of the first years since their sorting. Only those in his house and he was quickly getting tired of Draco following him around the common room like a lost duckling. It was nice to know how he was doing and hear about what the first year was up to, but it took time out of his usual school schedule, so he now had a lot less time to plan out pranks.
He had run into Neville a couple times in the halls and gave him directions to the Charms classroom. He had heard from one of the portraits that Ron and Harry had made the poor decision to accept directions from Peeves and almost got in trouble with Filch a few times.
Of course, it took less than a month for his younger cousins to find trouble. Only a couple weeks in and he was hearing about the ruckus that happened during the first years' first flying lesson and Draco's elaborate plan to get Harry and co in trouble. The whole thing was ridiculous, and he would be sure to mention it to the twins and Lee the next time he saw them to pass on a warning to their younger housemates.
Percy really felt for Neville. Flying for the first time was nerve wracking and for some people like Percy it never got any better. Falling from any height was never a great perspective. He had slipped instructions for where the kitchens are, and how to get in to Neville during lunch the next day with the suggestion that he get some hot cocoa and left over dessert.
During the Halloween Feast Professor Quirrell ran in and passed out after screaming himself silly about there being a troll loose in the dungeons.
Dumbledore of course decided that the thing to do would be to have all the students go back to their common rooms. Never mind that Slytherin and Hufflepuff's common rooms are in that part of the castle, and that the great hall is better fortified and since most of the students are there it would be easier to keep an eye on all of them.
Sure. Fine. Whatever.
Professor Snape at least had the common sense to corral Slytherin in the back room of the great hall that was behind the head table where the professors sat. He had sneered later, after the other professors had left with Dumbledore and the other houses had left to their common rooms, when Professor Quirrell had regained consciousness and scurried back out into the castle. Snape had left the Seventh years in charge and strode after the DADA Professor.
A barricade had quickly been put up to block the only entrance to the room and one of the Prefects was able to contact the house elves to have their food and a few tables and chairs moved into the back room.
Percy couldn't say he was too happy with the situation, but it could've easily been worse. He had the fleeting thought that his Great Grandfather was right, and Dumbledore was growing senile in his old age before Draco and his cousin's first year friends distracted him with a dramatic rendition of Professor Quirrell's entrance to the Feast.
It was some time later, after a debate had broken out between the members of the Slytherin Quidditch team and a few of the others as to which of the professional teams would win the world cup this year, that Professor Snape returned to inform them that the troll had been dealt with and it was safe from them to return to the dungeons. He seemed to be in more of a mood than usual. It did not go unnoticed by Percy and many of the other Slytherins that Snape was injured, probably from fighting the troll, which could account for his crabbier mood.
The next day he found out from Lee that Harry and the Twin's younger brother had dealt with the troll after they had gone to get Hermione from the girl's restroom, since she hadn't been at the feast to hear about the troll.
Percy wondered how Snape had gotten injured then.
Maybe he had gotten annoyed with Quirrell for being a sad excuse for a DADA professor and dueled him.
Only, he couldn't see Professor Snape losing to Quirrell.
They were starting the section on crystal balls in Divination now and Percy hated them. Every time he looked into one, he got a headache and zoned out. Even worse when he looked around the classroom afterward everyone would be staring at him.
Professor Trelawney had told them that crystal balls were a more advanced practice in divination and that while the unit would cover the basics on how the use them and interpret what they showed, they were not expected to read from them until next year. Which Percy took to mean that reading from a crystal ball would be their final exam.
Percy had gotten an outline of the divination syllabus off of one of the Ravenclaw fourth years who had taken the class last year and documented the units and what order they were taught in exchange for an invisible ink set. So, he knew their next unit would be on dreams and keeping a dream journal.
He wondered why the rest of his class was so surprised when he mentioned to Alaine that she would need another journal for the assignment while they were packing up to go to their next class. Percy was climbing down the ladder carefully when he heard one of them say: "Blimey, he really does now the future!"
Percy rolled his eyes and went on his way.
-
Bonus scene:
Albus Dumbledore stared into the open air of his office, seeing but not taking in the glimmering oddities he had decorated it with over the years, as he listened to Sibyl tell him, Severus, and Minerva what young Mr. Black had seen in his tea leaves during class.
"A dead unicorn you say?"
"Yes Headmaster."
He leaned back in his chair as he considered what the image could mean. Severus and Minerva were already silently arguing with each other through only the use of pointed looks and frowns.
"I shall inform Hagrid to keep an eye out for disturbances in the Forbidden Forest."
The two waring heads of house each looked like they wanted to interject, but he raised his hand to silence them.
"This is all we can do for now. Visions are notoriously difficult to interpret, so we will just have to wait and see what Mr. Black's tea leaves are trying to tell us. That will be all for now."
As the three filed out of his office Minerva graced him with a final stink-eye as she closed the door behind her.
Albus looked at the base of his pensive which was still two centimeters to the left of where it had originally been. The carpet was lighter where the pedestal had once covered it. He still hadn't managed to move it back and was beginning to get used to the new placement. It had been nearly a year since it had been moved. He knew it had been the Weasley twins and the Black heir who had pranked him, but there hadn't been enough evidence to really accuse them.
Besides, it was funny. He only wished he could ask them how they had stuck the pensive to the carpet. All attempts to move the pensive had failed.
Albus sighed.
The portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black smirked knowing that the three boys had used super glue to fuse the bottom of the pensive to its new place on the carpet.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Realized I haven't put a formal disclaimer (oops), just know that it is to my continuous and great dismay that I do not infact own the Percy Jackson nor the Harry Potter series.