Card the moon
Chapter 43 – I see
…
Hermione may have been a neurotic maniac when it came to her homework, but the end of the year finals brought that out in everyone, even Ron. (GASP!)
The year-end had snuck up on all of them. With everything they'd been focused on it was little surprise.
Katie as Sailor Jupiter had been a godsend and with Quidditch done for the year it gave the two of them more time to handle the ever-rising number of youma while Hermione was driving herself crazy with revising for finals.
The youma were taking advantage of the rising tension to increase their attacks, using the cover of overstress to explain all the students being found unconscious in the halls. As far as Harry knew, none of the teachers saw anything out of the ordinary about this.
And why would they? They hadn't noticed it happening all year, why now?
To no one's surprises, Daphne had been good to her word. She'd remained firmly away from all the fighting which was easier said than done. Su Li had been pulled in three times just by virtue of proximity.
The rise in non-school related activity made it hard for Harry to keep up with his own revising… or it would have if not for the TIME card. He'd been using it to train with Luna since he got it; since finals were around the corner, they'd put off his further training in lieu of study time.
Before any of them knew it, the time had come. The first morning was hectic, nothing was where it should have been. Have you seen my quill? It's behind your ear dear.
Charms was easy enough. The written portion was—the written portion; Hermione devoured written tests, the rest of them took it at a more normal pace. The practical is where she struggled, Harry struggled not to make it look too easy. He'd taken the training approach to his revising and it was paying dividends now.
The trend continued through transfiguration. History was all written which changed things up. Professor Jade stalked the aisles the entire time. For some reason, Harry felt as though he were being paid particularly close attention to.
Weird.
Potions changed things up again, because Snape was Snape, and the end of the year didn't make him any more pleasant.
Defense proved particularly fun, all practical. Lupin had set up an obstacle course of everything they'd covered, and they had to make their way through it. Harry grinned like an idiot the whole way through. Compared with youma, none of these things was any serious threat, and that wasn't just because Lupin had done a good job as a teacher.
The boggart at the end was the closest thing to a challenge, but Harry was in such a good mood already; it was the quickest Patronus he'd ever conjured. The smile on Lupin's face said it all.
Hermione did not do as well, faltering at the end with the boggart who transformed into McGonagall who told her she had failed all her tests. She ran out crying.
"You've spent all year fighting a demon invasion and this is what scares you?"
"This is important. Do you realize how much these grades will affect our choices in the future?"
The more things change… you know the rest.
The last day of finals drew to a close with one last, arduous test—divinations.
It wasn't enough they had to tromp all the way up the north tower, it wasn't enough they knew they had no talent for the art, no matter how many cups of tea or crystal balls they looked into. No, she also made them stand out in the hall as she took them in one at a time to be judged. The waiting—the WAITING, was always the worst part.
"Taking this class was a mistake," said Harry as he leaned against the wall.
"Could be worse," said Ron. "We could have taken ancient runes."
"How is that worse? At least runes are something you can learn."
"Yeah, but I heard, the way they teach it here, it's like another history class."
"At least the teachers alive," said Harry. "On the subject of history teachers, what ya think happened to Binns."
Ron shrugged, his expression stating he neither knew nor cared to speculate.
Soon enough it was his turn, and Harry was left alone to wait. He didn't wait long. For as much as Ron believed in the power of premonition, he had none of that power himself. He didn't have to say anything for Harry to know how he thought he'd done.
Climbing the ladder into the stuffy room, Trelawney beckoned him mystically to the table. An old crystal orb sat waiting with the sort of indifferent patience you often see from inanimate objects.
"Look into the crystal ball, tell me what you see," was her only instruction.
His reflection; bent around a spherical object.
Harry had little illusion about his ability to 'see' either. There was a time he'd considered that thing he did with knowing the name of the Clow cards he encountered to be some sort of second sight, but if it was, it wasn't about to help him now.
"What do you see?" she asked.
He hemmed, he hawed, he mumbled, he kept looking, hoping to see something. "I, don't see…" he began to say, but stopped.
It was the tiny things that caught his attention, that was how a Seeker functioned, and staring into the crystal ball, it was a very tiny thing he saw. And it moved… they moved.
"What do you see."
"Uh, I see—crystal balls? There's—seven of them, and, shadows, like people, behind each one, eh… no, one of them, it looks like a, cat? They're, moving, spinning around, something, someone and, behind her, behind her is, is…" it was huge, looming like an angry giant, hands outstretched, grasping.
"What do you see?"
"Danger."
He didn't know what it meant, he couldn't identify anyone in it, but he knew, somehow, he'd be involved. This was the battle yet to come. Seven crystals, but what was their significance, and the great shadow, grasping. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what that was, and the way she moved, she wanted those crystals, which to Harry meant he did not want her to have them.
He was staring so intently at the crystal, trying to glean any detail that might help, he easily heard the crystal cracking. He pulled away when he saw the spider lines trace over its surface, covered his face just before the orb exploded.
It was wrong, the way it went. Rather than blasting into shards, it vaporized into a familiar looking black dust. That told him a lot as well.
Trelawney was surprisingly nonplussed by the whole thing; if anything, she seemed pleased.
"Very good Mr. Potter, Very good."
Was it?
It may have forewarned him of coming danger, but he would have expected that anyway. And the details? He needed to write it all down, quickly.
And when Trelawney dismissed him, he was prepared to do exactly that, but the surprises weren't over. Her hand was like a vice when it latched onto his wrist; the voice that spoke from the lips of Sybil Trelawney, was not the voice of Sybil Trelawney.
