Talons and Tea Leaves

"Ignore him," said Hermione, who was right behind Harry.

"How do you think he'll react when he find outs what he was teasing me about all year?" Harry grumbled.

"That's … honestly a good question. I have no idea," Hermione said.

"Doubt he'd feel bad. He'll probably just use it as more ammunition," Ron said.

"Malfoy," said Ron,

"What's new though," the twins said with a shrug.

Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

"He was terrified," Fred agreed.

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" said Fred.

Nods occurred all around the hall. No matter your beliefs, everyone believed that Dementors and their affects were horrible.

And he said it was the worst place he'd ever been, he came back all weak and shaking…

"Was that the night we had dessert before dinner? We had a lot of chocolate, and we barely ate our actual dinner," Ginny said.

"It was," Mr Weasley confirmed. That one time going to Azkaban for work had been enough.

Most of the prisoners go mad in there."

"Unless they're already mad when they go in," Neville said, thinking about Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?"

"I'm actually happy that it wasn't," Harry said. The Quidditch team all got thoughtful looks on their faces before they nodded in agreement.

"They would have been unbearable if it had been them rather than Hufflepuff," Angelina agreed.

How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?"

"That's not possible."

"How could she do that?"

"That can't actually be possible."

"No wonder she was stressed that year."

"That makes no sense."

"Magic is an amazing thing," Hermione simply said.

"Oh, Ron, what's it to you if my timetable's a bit full?" Hermione snapped.

"We are about you," Harry said.

"We didn't want you to overwork yourself and burn out," Ron agreed. Hermione smiled; she knew that year hadn't been good for her – she hadn't been able to handle it very well like other who did all the subjects did.

It'll take us ten minutes to get there…"

"Thank Merlin you found all those shortcuts Harry. I really didn't fancy a ten-minute walk up all those stairs just to get to class almost every day," Ron said.

"Wait, there was a shortcut to get there?" Seamus asked, horrified.

"There's — got — to — be — a — short — cut," Ron panted,

Almost everyone who had taken Divination at some point grumbled and muttered their agreement, many people shooting annoyed looks at the trio; if they had found a short cut, it couldn't have hurt to tell other people about it and prevent them from dying just trying to get to class.

A moment later, a short, squat knight in a suit of armour had clanked into the picture after his pony.

"Oh no."

"Not that idiot."

"We have to hear about him already?"

"Mental portrait."

"Not him."

"Any portrait but that one."

"He's mad."

He clanked to his feet and shouted, "Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!"

"You managed to get him to shut up?"

"How did you do that?"

"No one could get him to stop his insane rambling."

"How!"

"Of course, Potter would be the one to get him to shut up."

Harry's immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect.

"Yeah, I can see it," Dean said.

"Is your grandmother well?"

"That scared me," Neville said.

"I don't think she was very well when she emerged from that wardrobe later in the week. Her hair was extremely greasy, and she had a disturbingly similar appearance to Snape," Harry said, igniting laughter from those who had been part of that Defence lesson, all of them knowing what Harry was referring to.

By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired man."

"Wrong twin," Parvati said. A red-haired man had definitely made the ball a bad experience for Padma.

"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball — if we have finished with fire omens, that is.

"Did we even do fire omens?" Seamus asked.

"I don't think so," Dean said.

"We didn't," Lavender put in. "We skipped fire omens and went straight from palmistry to crystal balls."

Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu.

"She wasn't wrong. The whole year level got the flu in some degree," Neville said.

"Apart from Harry," Ron added.

"Apart from Harry," Neville agreed.

And around Easter, one of our number will leave us for ever."

"She could have said it in a way that didn't sound like one of us was going to die," Dean said.

Oh, and dear," — she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up, "after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones?

"Reparo is a thing," Hermione grumbled.

Hang on… that means 'great happiness'… so you're going to suffer but be very happy…"

"Oh, I suffered alright. Finding out that rat had slept in my bed, and everything else that happened that night, was definitely suffering," Ron grumbled.

"At least you were happy about it," Harry added, nudging him. Ron grumbled a bit more under his breath but didn't dispute that fact; he hadn't been happy to have found out that his rat wasn't a rat, but he was happy that he had gotten rid of the rat, and extremely happy that Harry had found out he had a connection to his parents.

"Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic…"

"I'm good thanks," Harry muttered. "Although I was considering it."

"'A windfall, unexpected gold.'

Harry nudged Ron, getting his attention.

Triwizard Tournament was definitely unexpected gold.

"Shut up Harry," Ron grumbled, crossing his arms with a huff.

"The skull… danger in your path, my dear…"

"I hate to admit it, but she wasn't actually wrong," Hermione said. She disliked Divination a lot, and she couldn't stand Trelawny, but she could admit that most of those predications had come true in some way. Harry did have a deadly enemy, which every knew, and there was an attack; then again, there was one every year. And he did have danger in his path; what else was the Triwizard Tournament and then everything that followed with Riddle coming back.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "you have the Grim."

"Yes, I do. He makes a great pet," Harry said, glancing at Snuffles who was lounging near his feet.

"The what?" said Harry.

"Well done Harry. You totally ruined her dramatics," Bill said with a snort.

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" said Harry,

"You're not going to die," Hermione and Ron said fiercely, and Harry held up his hands in surrender.

"Alright, alright. I'm not going to die," he said. "Happy?"

"No. I'll be happy when you actually believe that," Ron grumbled.

True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney…"

"Is one," Harry muttered. He had believed she was a fraud, like Hermine had said that whole year. But then she had spoken a prophecy to him, which he was there to see be fulfilled, and Dumbledore had mentioned how that had been her second one. And all the small things she had said over the year had come true now, in hindsight.

I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

"Who knew Minnie had a sense of humour," Fred said.

"I definitely didn't expect Minnie to know how to make a joke, dear brother," George agreed.

"She probably learnt just to keep her sanity over the years. Minnie did have to teach the Marauders, after all," Remus added with a smirk.

"Lupin, Weasley, and Weasley, do not call me that name unless you want to end up in detention," Minerva said.

"You can't punish us for anything that happens during the reading," the twins said cheerfully.

"I believe the terms were that you can't be punished for anything you we learn from the books. I can and will put you in detention Weasley. And don't even try Lupin, I have no issue putting you in detention either; I don't care if you've already graduated."

"Harry," he said, in a low, serious voice, "You haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah. But it's fine. It's only my godfather, who everyone thinks broke out of Azkaban to kill me, checking up on me," Harry muttered, causing both Hermione and Ron to choke on their laughter.

"Probably a stray," said Hermione calmly.

"Definitely a mutt," Remus agreed.

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" said Ron hotly.

"Something very soggy though," Lee said.

That lesson was absolute rubbish compared with my Arithmancy class!"

"She couldn't have had an Arithmancy class though. She was in Divination," Hannah said.

"She was though. I had Arithmancy with her, and she never missed a class," Susan said.

Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other.

"That wasn't unusual that year," Harry sighed.

"Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up!

"It was a good lesson," Dean agreed.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid,

"Really should have come with instructions," Ernie grumbled.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly.

"I thought it already was. After all, he's here," Hermione said.

"Beau'iful, aren' they?"

"They are beautiful creatures," Charlie agreed.

Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

"Exactly Malfoy. The first thing you were told was to not insult one," Ron called across the room at Malfoy. Malfoy ignored him.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening;

"Which is exactly why he got hurt. He didn't listen and then he blamed it on Hagrid," Harry muttered.

The Hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.

"No animal likes having their freedom taken away," Luna said.

"Tha's it, Harry… now, bow."

Harry shuddered slightly, clenching his fists tightly, his fingers digging into his palms. That phrase was too similar to one he had heard in the graveyard to be comfortable. He could hear Voldemort's taunting words echoing in his head. 'We bow to each other … bow to death, Harry … I said, bow.'

"Hey, you alright?" Ron asked, his quiet question managing to break him out of the words playing on repeat in his mind. He let out a slow, shaky breath, his fists still clenched, fingers digging into his palms.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be alright."

"If you're sure. We're here if you need to talk," Ron said, his voice, though quiet, clearly showing that he didn't believe him, but he wouldn't press.

He was used to a broomstick; but he wasn't sure a Hippogriff would be quite the same.

"Not the same. At all," Harry said quickly. It hadn't been a terrible experience – flying never was – but he knew that he preferred his broom. He could control his broom; he couldn't control Buckbeak.

It was nothing like a broomstick, and Harry knew which one he preferred;

"Broomstick. Definitely broomstick," he said, ignoring his discomfort from the wings jostling him as Buckbeak flew, slowly unclenching his fists, even as his fingers remaining pressed to his palm, able to easily go back to digging in at the slightest discomfort.

"Are you, you great ugly brute?"

"Mr Malfoy. The first thing your professor told you about those creatures was to not disrespect them or insult them and you just did both," Minerva exclaimed.

It happened in a flash of steely talons; Malfoy let out a high-pitched scream and next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he strained to get at Malfoy, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming over his robes.

"And that's why you don't insult a Hippogriff. He's lucky Hagrid was there to restrain Buckbeak, or he could have been killed," Charlie said.

"It was Malfoy's fault!" snapped Dean Thomas.

"It was. And if he wasn't injured, he would have lost points for deliberately ignoring a teacher," Pomona said.

Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts in about a second," said Harry, who had had far worse injuries mended magically by the nurse.

"Seconds. Not the weeks he spent playing his injury up," Harry muttered.

"Sirius Black hasn't got past the Dementors yet, has he?"

Snuffles rolled his eyes but otherwise didn't react; he had already gotten past them as was hiding in the Shrieking Shack.

"Madam Pomfrey fixed him best she could," said Hagrid dully, "but he's sayin' it's still agony… covered in bandages… moanin'…"

"Faking it," majority of the DA said.

Trust Malfoy to milk it for all it's worth."

"Of course, he would. He's a Slytherin, no matter how often he acts like a Gryffindor when he rushes into confrontations. Of course he'd use anything he can to get what he wants," Luna said.

"Stuck his head in the water barrel," said Hermione, putting the tankard away.

"That's one way to sober up," Charlie said.

"Definitely the quickest," Bill added.

"YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER DARK, HARRY!

"Technically, no one knew that Harry knew that Sirius Black was apparently after him. Mr Weasley wasn't actually meant to tell him, and none of the teachers had told him, so he wasn't meant to have known," Hermione said. "So how were we meant to know that it was especially dangerous for Harry." The trio all smiled innocently at their group, their expressions the picture of innocence, as if they really hadn't known it wasn't a good idea.

"You three are going to make me go grey," Mr Weasley muttered.

"If not from the books, then from anything else you learn, probably. Sorry dad," Ron said with a shrug.

"I suppose I will just have to accept the greys then. I love you three all as my children and I'll just have to make peace with the fact that I'll be grey before you graduate."

I'm not worth that!"

"Firstly, he is definitely worth it," Harry said.

"Your life is important," Hermione and Ron sighed.

"I know. But he is my friend, so he is worth it. It would be worth it for any of my friends or my family. Anyway, I had a second point. I've forgotten, never mind," Harry said.

"It is time for lunch now, so if you will all stand, the tables can be returned," Dumbledore announced. Everyone stood up and the comfortable seating was vanished, the house and head tables reappearing. Everyone took their seats around the tables, the food for lunch appearing as they sat down.

"At least the tables didn't appear back on the ceiling," Ginny said.

"I quite liked eating in the clouds," Luna said.

"I didn't. I hate heights," Neville groaned.