Baz walked into Divination feeling like shit. His head pounded against his head as he sat in his seat with Harry and Ron.
"What were you called up for?" Ron asked when they were pulling out their textbooks.
"What?"
"Dumbledore's slip."
"Oh, there were some... complications with my transcript."
Ron sighed, "Aw man that sucks, sorry about that, though you and Hermione did miss one of the best disections ever!"
"So I've heard," Baz placed his book on the table as the teacher passed out tea to the students,"wait, you said Hermione?"
"She got sick during it, excused herself."
"Speaking of Hermione, she invited us all to a study group today after dinner in the Library. According to her it's never too early to start to study up on the tests this year." Harry chimed in. "She expects us all to be there, Ron, that means you too. She made sure it didn't interfere with Quidditch. So there are no excuses."
Ron let out an exaggerated sigh as they gathered all their materials for today's lesson. Baz was glad that this was one of his vampire free lecture classes. He didn't know what he would do if it was. Telawaney rounded to their table and began to give instructions as she passed out the cups.
"Today we will be reviewing tea leaves, the sheet of the signs are all on your table, so I expect no incorrect readings ." Undridge walked into the class and sat in the corner of the room.
"Please excuse me, I'll just be watching over the lesson today, and I would like to speak with you separately."
Trelawney submissively bent her head, "Of course. If you don't-don't mind speaking in private now. The students are doing their warm ups."
Umbridge tightly smiled and both teachers walked into her office, leaving the students to their work.
"Now what?" Baz asked.
"We do nothing!" Ron threw himself back against his seat.
"No, Ron you and I are failing this class, we need to work. Baz do you mind if we try and read yours?"
"Sure, why not." Baz drank the tea and handed it over to the boys as they started to analyze the contents in the cup. Their faces went white as they finished their readings.
Ron pushed aside the cup, "let's read another one."
"Why? What's wrong with the one you got?"
"It's-nothing-it's just-"
"It's the grim." Harry whispered.
"What's the grim?"
"Your reading, it- it's one of the worst signs. I got it my first time in this class." Harry was shaken.
"Harry. What does it mean?"
Harry looked straight into Baz's eyes, "Its the omen of death." Both students sat their in complete silence after Harry's statement.
"Hey, we should do another one. Don't read too much into it Baz, it's just a tea reading thing after all." Ron tried to break up the tension. Baz grabbed his cup back and looked at the image in it. The dog was as clear as day inside the cups contents. All Baz needed was a reading about death to add the cherry on top of his all ready great mission.
"Please! Please, give me another chance!" Trelawney rushed after Umbridge as she began to leave the class.
"Your teachings are barley passable as education! You are a disgrace to this community!"
"Please!"
The toad turned on her hot pink heels, "Predict something to me."
Trelawney stode dumb founded by her request, "Pardon?" All the students stopped their activities and listened in on the situation.
Umbridge scribbled something into her notebook, " How disappointing."
"Wait!" Trelawney stuttered out. She closed her eyes and began to sway on her feet. "An unnatural presence is here in this room." She began to stumble in circles.
Soft whispers hummed among the students but Umbridge showed no sign of amusement. "Is that all?"
Trelawney slowly stopped spinning as if confused of her surroundings, "You." She pointed at Baz dead center, "Your not normal, something, unusual." Her eyes were hazed over for a second before returning to normal color. Everyone in the class stared at Baz, and all he wanted to do was couldn't believe what just happened. The fucking teacher outed him out, or somewhat did. Umbridge studied Baz for a moment with speculation, wrote a note, and left. Trelawney broke down and started to cry as she slowly walked back to her office. The bell rang shortly after that.
The three boys walked silently into the library for the study group. They never talked about Trelawney's outburst in class that day. The library was fairly empty, only pockets of students huddled in sections of the hall. He liked how out of order the books were placed in the library, they reminded him of his mother's own personal library at the school. Hermione was stationed in the corner of the room with stacks of books around her. She noticed the boys and waved them over. "This is gonna be so much fun," Ron complained as he waved back.
They all sat around the table as Hermione organized her set up. "I thought it would be best if we did this by category" she pulled out one stack of books, "so we should start with the Dark Arts."
"Why? The Transfiguration test is two weeks before the Dark Arts, and no offense Hermione, but we all need to improve in that subject." Harry contradicted.
"Who organized this group Harry? If you want to plan our lessons and practice then go right ahead!" Hermione seemed flustered with frustration.
"No no it's fine. You go ahead." Harry stressed defensively.
They all pulled out their textbooks in silence.
"Okay, so we should read over the five chapters on vampires and then I could quiz you guys with questions. Who wants to start?" Ron slowly rose his hand. Hermione snapped her head to Baz, "Baz why don't you start us off." It was odd of her to be so cold to any of them and it made them uncomfortable. Baz started to get worried, the look she gave him spilled with hatred. But still, he began to read. They went on reading and answering questions until late at night. "You know offly a lot about vampires Baz."
"Well, we've have been going over them for the whole day in every class and we just read the chapter, so I hope I would have learned something."
"Of course."
"We should pack up before curfew." Harry yawned as he grabbed his bag wanting to escape the intense situation.
"Hermione are you coming?" Ron asked.
"I'll be right there. Baz, do you think you could help me put all these books back? I seemed to have taken out more than I attended." She laughed.
Baz weighed out the situation, "I'll stay back to help her. You guys could go on ahead."
They bid the other goodnight and began to clean up their station. As they cleaned Baz's thoughts were all over the place. Did she know? She couldn't have, there was nothing that could have given her the clue.
They began to stack books together as their footsteps echoed the empty library. Hermione reached over the librarians table for the keys to the book cases.
"The librarian really trust you, she really left you to close up the place?"
"Have you ever seen a monster?" She said with a villonus tone now that they were alone.
Baz froze, "that's an odd question, why do you ask?
Hermione's lip twitched a small dangerous smile. "Just out of curiosity"
"What does that mean?" Baz started to panic.
Instead of answering his question Hermione walked down the shelf's rows. As they began to put the books back Hermione cursed. "I left a few notes from the books at the table I'll be right back." Hermione rushed out as he began to place the books back in order. A few minutes passed and she returned with no notes in her hands.
"What happened to the notes?" He asked nervously.
"Must have fallen behind the shelves. Do you think you can look?"
"Ya-" Baz stumbled as he bent down to check. "You know Dumbledore has these cakes in his office? They were amazing, but I don't know what they were called." Baz talked too fast, he was nervous and sweating. Turning his back to the wizard was dangerous enough to get him killed. "I'm determined to find out where he got them, I think a friend back at home would love them as a christmas gift."
"Who?" Her voice was muffled.
"His name is Simon, he was my roomate at my old school. We're really close now, though we fought almost every time in the dorms when we were both going to school. Anyways he loves food, that's why I thought of him." Talking about Simon calmed him down inorder for him to gather himself up to face Hermione. "I don't think the notes are back here." Baz pulled himself out of the dusty corner to see Hermione no less than a few inches away. "Are you okay?" His voice was uneven.
"What? Ya of course, sorry I don't think the papers are back there, thanks for looking anyways." She mumbled.
They walked back to the Gryffindor tower together in silence and once they got to the common room, Baz bid his goodnight and ran up the stairs as if he just dodged death.