I must be the only author here who posts fics faster than the
readers can read! LOL. :o)
Muggle genius, this chapter's for you. ~ Kim
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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XXII
The Scroll of Wu-Hsien
But I am constant
as the northern star
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there's but one in all doth hold his place
~Julius Caesar, act.III,
Sc.I
Professor
Snufflegint's office, illuminated in the light of their wands,
was unlike any that
Harry had seen in Hogwarts. It looked like the interior of a rocky
cave, and rare and beautiful
Chinese ornaments were scattered everywhere. A collection of about
fifty delicate porcelain
snuff bottles were arranged on a carved rosewood table, while
large scrolls covered with
calligraphy adorned the walls. A Chinese tea-set, consisting of
a small teapot and cups of fine
porcelain, reposed on another side table, together with an array
of jars filled with different
varieties of fragrant Chinese tea-leaves. Three large bookcases
were filled with books and scrolls
in Chinese, while even more were to be found in several shelves
hewn into the wall.
They had managed to unlock the window without any problem,
using the Alohomora Charm. As
they peered into the dark interior of the room, a thin line of
green fire could be seen glowing on the
floor at the far end, running in a semicircle around a dark shape
that must be the cupboard. Harry,
leaving his broomstick against the wall near the window, raised
his lighted wand and went toward
it first.
"Careful," murmured Hermione, just behind him, as
he stopped in front of the fiery line. Harry took
a breath, then stepped across the line. Nothing happened; Robert
had been right - the Charm didn't
work on non-Chinese!
"All right," whispered Hermione, stepping over the
line and fumbling around in her robes for her
parchment. She tried opening the cupboard, but it was locked.
She then brought a luminous toadstool
out, and placed it on top of the cupboard where it dimly illuminated
its surroundings.
Harry watched as Hermione tried Opening spells on the cupboard,
one by one. Leaving her to it, he
seated himself in a chair near the window and took the Marauder's
Map out, to make sure Snufflegint
was still at the Christmas dinner.
After about ten minutes, there was a slight creaking sound,
and Harry saw Hermione swinging the
cupboard doors open. Hurrying over, he saw that the cupboard was
almost empty, except for a
hemispherical glass dome on the top shelf. A bundle, wrapped in
yellow silk, lay inside, and so did
a carved vessel, made of bronze.
"What's that?" said Harry, looking at the bronze vessel with interest.
"Don't know," said Hermione. She gingerly tried lifting
the glass dome away, but it refused to budge.
With a small sigh, she unrolled her parchment again, and started
going through the Opening Charms
once more.
Harry, deciding to continue keeping an eye on Snufflegint,
turned around and had a terrible shock.
The tall figure of a human-like creature was standing silently
several feet in front of him, silhouetted
against the dim light from the window. His heart beating fast,
Harry raised his lighted wand, and then
realised, to his relief, that it was the Monkey King.
Hermione, turning around, saw it too and gave a small gasp of fright before she realised who it was.
"How did he get in?" muttered Harry, as the Monkey
King came over to them, an inquisitive expression
on its face.
"The window, I guess," murmured Hermione, as she
turned back to the dome, still looking rather shaken.
"Keep an eye on him, in case he starts whooping and gives
us all away."
The Monkey King came and stood next to her, watching as she
tried one spell after another. Harry
watched it for a while, but to his relief, it didn't utter a sound,
and seemed content to just observe
what was happening. After a while Harry went back to the window
and sat down again, and continued
watching Snufflegint on the Map.
Hermione gave up after twenty minutes, and came over to Harry, looking discouraged.
"None of the spells are working," she said. "I can't get the dome open."
Harry felt his heart sinking.
"Let me try," he said, although he was positive that the chances of his succeeding were even smaller.
The Monkey King had followed Hermione over to the window, and
was still staring at her. Hermione,
looking uncomfortable, glared back at it, but didn't dare shoo
it off, in case it started making a racket.
Harry went through all the spells, but couldn't get the dome open either.
"I found another spellbook," said Hermione, coming
over with a book she had taken from one of the
shelves, "It's in English. Let me try again."
Harry left her and the monkey, and went back to his window
seat. He checked the Map; Snufflegint
was still in the Great Hall. He stared out of the window. Good
thing it's not snowing tonight, he thought,
or the snow'd come in when we leave through the window, and Snufflegint
would see it melting on the
floor.
He looked back into the office. Hermione was still patiently
trying out charms, but the Monkey King
had now become bored, and was looking around the room. It picked
up a large, intricately carved
sandalwood fan from the desk, and fanned itself for a while. Then
it spied the tea-set, which was just
in front of Harry. It came over and picked up two of the porcelain
teacups, which filled up with
steaming tea immediately. Offering one to Harry, it downed the
other in one gulp.
Harry cautiously sipped the tea, and found it fragrant but
rather tasteless; there was no sugar in it. When
he had finished the monkey handed him another cup of tea, of a
different flavour, but by the third he
decided he'd had enough, and refused to take any more. The monkey,
seeing this, placed the teacups
back. Noticing the collection of snuff bottles on the rosewood
table, it went over and to Harry's dismay,
picked them up one after another and started juggling them.
"Shh, stop!" he hissed, but the monkey ignored him.
Harry watched, holding his breath, and hoping
fervently that none of the bottles would come smashing to the
ground. The monkey was amazingly deft,
and it was quite a sight, thirty or forty snuff bottles in the
air at the same time. The monkey levitated up
in the air, in a seated lotus position, then swung upside down
and hovered there, looking at Harry, still
juggling all the while.
Harry sat and watched, the Map lying next to him, forgotten.
A sudden loud ringing from inside his
robes suddenly brought him back to his senses.
The monkey, hearing the ringing, swung the right way up again,
and sent all the snuff bottles sailing
through the air back to the rosewood table, where they landed
without a sound and stood neatly
upright, in their original positions.
Harry hurriedly brought the ringing globe out, and tapped it
with his wand. The monkey turned and
looked at Hermione, and went over to watch her again.
Ron's face appeared in the globe.
"Snufflegint's just left the table, Harry," he mumbled, so softly that Harry could hardly catch the words.
"What?" he said. Ron shushed him.
"Shh, the others might hear," he said, muffling his
voice with his hand. Harry could see Pixie talking to
someone in the background, and her familiar giggling sounded faintly
through the globe. He guessed
that Ron had retreated some distance from the dinner table, to
make the call.
"But you've only been there less than an hour," whispered
Harry, glancing at the Map. Sure enough,
he could see Snufflegint slowly leaving the Great Hall.
"Old git's being antisocial, as usual," whispered
Ron. "Dumbledore tried to make him stay, but he said
he was tired."
"Stall him, will you?" whispered Harry desperately. "We haven't got the scroll yet!"
But now several other voices could be heard approaching from
Ron's end, and Pixie's giggles were
getting louder. Ron suddenly mumbled, "Gotta go. People coming."
And then, the globe abruptly went
dark.
Harry looked at the Map : Snufflegint was now in the Entrance
Hall, moving toward the marble staircase.
He hurried over to Hermione.
"Hermione, we've got to go," he hissed, "Snufflegint's coming!"
Hermione was looking slightly distraught. "But I haven't got it open, yet!"
Harry took the spellbook from her and placed it back on the shelf.
"Never mind!" he said. "We can come back another time!"
Hermione locked the cupboard doors and, stuffing the luminous
toadstool back into her robes, hurried
over to the window. Harry picked the Firebolt up, and as Hermione
pushed the window open, he turned
and looked back at the cupboard. The Monkey King was still standing
next to it, watching them. Then,
it reached one long arm out and opened the cupboard doors. It
stuck its arm through the glass dome,
as if it wasn't there, and calmly took the yellow bundle and the
bronze vessel out.
Harry and Hermione stood where they were for a moment, staring
open-mouthed at the monkey. Then
Hermione snatched her wand out and hurried back to the cupboard.
"Hermione, there's no time!" whispered Harry frantically,
automatically reaching into his robes for the
Map again. Hermione, however, had taken hold of the silk bundle,
and was bending over it.
Harry unrolled the Map, his hands shaking slightly, and saw
that Snufflegint had reached the bottom
of the Astronomy Tower.
"He's coming up!" he hissed.
Hermione had lit her wand, and Harry saw that she had duplicated
the bronze vessel as well as the
scroll. She examined the copy of the scroll she had just made,
then shook her head. Extinguishing her
wand, she gave the duplicate one tap, and it disappeared. She
then bent over the original, and tried
again.
Heart thumping, Harry came over to her. Another look at the
Map showed that Snufflegint was halfway
up.
Hermione was now examining the second copy, and finally seemed
satisfied. Tucking the items carefully
inside her robes, she then took the originals and held them out
to the monkey, indicating it should return
them to the glass dome.
The monkey looked at her with bright eyes, then suddenly flew
up in the air and hovered upside down
playfully, still gazing at her.
"Oh, please," moaned Hermione, under her breath.
She looked imploringly at the monkey, as Harry
checked the Map again.
"He's almost reached this floor," he whispered.
The Monkey King suddenly fell to earth again, and taking the
bundle from Hermione with one hand,
pursed its lips and pointed at its mouth with the other.
Hermione stared at it in horror, and shook her head.
Harry was feeling too panicky to laugh.
"Hermione, if that's what it'll take, just do it, and let's get out of here!"
Hermione, looking sick, screwed her eyes shut, leaned forward, and kissed the monkey on the lips.
The monkey gave a whoop and flew up in the air, and then, swooping
over to the cupboard, deftly
placed the vessel and scroll back inside the dome, and closed
the cupboard doors.
Harry and Hermione were already heading for the window. They
could hear Snufflegint's footsteps
in the corridor outside, approaching the door. As Harry hovered
the Firebolt outside the window, he
turned and saw the Monkey King disappearing with a soft Pop! Hermione
closed the window with a
snap, and then, covered with the Invisibility Cloak, they flew
swiftly back to Gryffindor Tower, their
hearts still beating fast.
One look at the scroll told Harry that it was the same one
he'd seen in Liu Pei's office. Snufflegint
must have been restoring it, for some of the dirt had been removed,
and more of the star-map was
visible. The bronze vessel was shaped like a small vase. They
couldn't make anything out of it; there
was nothing on it to indicate it had anything to do with the scroll,
for they couldn't read the inscriptions
on it.
Shan, Robert and Ron came into the common room about half an
hour later, having got away from
the dinner table as soon as they politely could. They looked relieved
when they discovered the
operation had been successful, and Snufflegint none the wiser.
"So that's the scroll," said Ron, looking at it.
"Couldn't you have duplicated it alone, and not the dirt,
as well?"
"You think it's so easy!" said Hermione, crossly. "I'd like to see you do it!"
Robert was looking at the bronze vessel.
"I don't know much about bronzes, and I've got to learn
ancient Chinese script now, as well," he said.
"I've been leaving most of the translating to Chee Chong.
I'll restore the scroll first, and in the meantime,
we can get some books from the Tian-Long library."
"Can you?" asked Hermione, rather anxiously.
Shan nodded.
"We brought a library catalogue along," she said,
"in case we needed any books for our assignments.
They can be delivered by dragon post, if not too heavy."
Robert went off to the boys' dormitory, and presently came
back with a large roll of parchment.
Taking his Chinese brush, he wrote several Chinese characters
on it, and then tapped it with his
wand. The characters faded, and then other small, fine characters
began appearing, filling almost
the entire scroll.
"Unfortunately, the book on bronzes which looks most useful
is in the Restricted Section," said
Robert, after scanning through the scroll's contents. He began
copying some of the titles onto
another sheet of parchment. "We need a teacher's signature
for that. We'll just borrow the
other books first, and worry about this one later."
He handed the note to Harry, and then kept the scroll, saying
he'd get started on it as soon
as possible. Harry went to the owlery to send Hedwig off with
the note, hoping, as he watched
her fly away, that Lady Wen-Li wouldn't wonder why the Tian-Long
students had developed
a sudden interest in bronze vessels.
The Christmas holidays soon came to an end, and the castle
became noisy and bustling again
as all the students came back for the new term. On the first day
of school, as they went down
to the dungeons for Potions, Harry found himself hoping that Jeanne
would turn up to conduct
the exchange class again, instead of Snape.
However, once they entered the classroom, they saw that Snape
was already there. He had a
sour expression on his face, and Harry guessed he wasn't enthusiastic
about having to teach the
exchange class.
Snape waited until they had taken their seats, and then stood
staring at them, his eyes glittering
strangely. The Chinese students sat staring back at him, looking
rather nervous.
"So, it appears I have to waste my time teaching this
class," whispered Snape. He picked up
the register and took their attendance, frowning at each of the
Tian-Long students as he matched
name to face.
"You! Wong!" he suddenly said, looking at Chee Chong.
"Tell me which mammal's organ is
used in the remedy for snakebite."
Harry didn't know the answer, himself. He turned and looked
at Chee Chong, who was sitting
at the table to his right, and saw that he was looking apologetically
at Snape.
"I do not know, sir," he said.
Snape's eyes narrowed.
"What would a fusion of vulture's gall and dragon's tail be used to treat?"
Chee Chong looked even more abashed. Harry looked around, and
saw all the Hogwarts
students looking blank as well, except for Hermione, who had raised
her hand. After a brief
pause, Chee Chong said again, "I do not know, sir."
Snape smiled unpleasantly.
"What is cynocephalia used for?"
Hermione raised her hand even higher.
Chee Chong's face was red, now. He looked at Snape, and remaining
silent, just shook
his head.
"So," said Snape softly, ignoring Hermione, "this
is an exchange programme, and you think
you may come here with little or no preparation. I have the privilege
of informing you that
this class will be different. There will be a test at the end
of the month, and ten demerits will
be awarded to every Tian-Long student who fails."
Chee Chong looked shamefaced, while the rest of the class looked
indignant. Snape, seeing
this, said silkily, "Ten points will be deducted from Gryffindor,
too, for every Hogwarts
student who does not pass."
The Hogwarts students all glared angrily at him. Snape, however,
ignored them, and stood
staring at the Chinese students with a faint sneer on his face.
"Pathetic," he whispered, "Is the standard at
Tian-Long so low? Can not even one of you
answer my questions?"
The Tian-Long students all turned to look at Robert. Robert
hesitated, and glanced at Chee
Chong, obviously reluctant to humiliate him.
Chee Chong said something in Chinese to Robert. Robert turned, and looked at Snape.
"The rennet of a fawn can be used to treat snakebite,"
he said. "Vulture's gall and dragon's
tail is used to cure epilepsy. Cynocephalia is a safeguard against
most poisons."
Snape's eyes narrowed, his eyes falling on Robert's nametag.
"What would a mixture of betony and githrife be used for?"
Robert returned his gaze, his glasses reflecting the surroundings.
"It allows an individual to consume alcohol without becoming intoxicated."
Snape frowned. "Why is vervain never added to a solution of henbane and white hellebore?"
"Henbane and white hellebore are normally used to cure
fever," said Robert. "Adding vervain
to the solution makes the patient hallucinate."
"Name the herbs used in the production of sedatives."
"Henbane, harewort, hedgerife and fennel."
Snape looked at Robert, his eyes glittering coldly.
"It appears that we have two know-it-alls in this class,"
he said, "except that Mr Mo, unlike
Miss Granger, does not feel the need to endlessly show off."
Hermione flushed, and looked at the floor. Snape abruptly reached
a hand out, and gave
Robert's glasses a sharp tap with his wand.
"I expect you to wear normal glasses whenever you appear in this class," he snapped.
He tossed the register aside, and then instructed them to prepare a Shrivelling Solution.
The Tian-Long students, still unused to some of the ingredients
used in the west, fumbled a
bit, except for Robert, who managed to find time to help Shan
out as well. Harry saw Shan
smiling at Robert, who looked much nicer now that his glasses
were like normal ones. Ten
minutes later, Chee Chong made one of his windmill gestures and
knocked his cauldron clean
off the table, and onto the floor.
"Blundering idiot!" snapped Snape, clearing the mess
with one wave of his wand. "It appears
that Longbottom has competition."
Pixie, seated next to Ron, was in trouble. Her solution was
turning blood red instead of blue,
and she had accidentally cut her finger while chopping her roots.
Snape, noticing her predicament, came over.
"Ah, the redoubtable Miss Pei," he said, looking
from the red solution to her frustrated face.
"Your esteemed Potions teacher in Tian-Long has told me much
about you." He flicked a
glance at Ron. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, for
not helping her properly."
Pixie flushed. The implication that Lady Han-Yin had told Snape
how poor she was at Potions
rankled.
"Lady Han-Yin would never say anything like that about
me!" she said heatedly. "And this has
nothing to do with Ron. If you're so anxious to punish someone,
you might as well punish me!"
Snape's mouth curved into an unpleasant smile. He came right
up to her table, and stood staring
down at her.
"Very well," he said, his eyes glinting, "The
other teachers have all been very lax with you, but I
shall take this class in hand. I will not tolerate discourtesy
from any student, Chinese or otherwise.
You will sit alone in that corner and work on your solution until
you get it right, after which you
will come and see me, and I will arrange a detention for you."
"Hold on a minute!" said Ron indignantly, "That's
completely unfair! She hasn't done anything to
deserve that!"
"Five points from Gryffindor for insolence, Weasley,"
said Snape coolly. "And if you open your
mouth again, I will double the length of your little friend's
detention."
This successfully shut Ron up. Pixie, still looking angry,
gathered her things and moved to the back
of the classroom. The rest of the class continued working in silence,
darting sympathetic glances at
her, and angry looks at Snape.
"Spiteful git!" said Ron angrily, as they left the
classroom, where Pixie was still valiantly trying to
resurrect her solution, "I shouldn't have sat next to her,
fat lot of help I was, in the end."
Their next hour was free, so Harry waited with Ron outside
the classroom for Pixie to come out.
Shan, seeing them, gave them a sympathetic smile as she and Robert
went past. Harry noted that
Robert's glasses had reverted to their usual reflecting state.
Snape came out half an hour later, with Pixie trailing behind
him. Snape had a smug expression on
his face. Pixie's anger seemed to have subsided, and her face
was now rather pale. She looked at
Ron as she passed, but did not smile.
"C'mon, Ron," said Harry, as the two disappeared
down the corridor toward Snape's office,
"There's nothing you can do. We've got to go for Lupin's
class soon."
Ron stood watching until Pixie and Snape disappeared inside
the office, then turned and followed
Harry, still looking angry and worried.
Shan and Robert arrived late for the first Defence Against
the Dark Arts exchange class of the new
term, and Harry suspected that Shan had almost decided not to
come. Her coolness to Jeanne had
not extended to Professor Lupin, and she had got along very well
with him during the first month of
the exchange programme in Hogwarts. However, ever since that night
on the Plateau, she had
become very shy of him, and would go red and stare at the floor
whenever she happened to pass
him along the corridor, or look embarrassed if anyone mentioned
his name.
Lupin, having probably noticed her behaviour and guessed her
problem, kindly left her alone for
the time being. They had been concentrating on Dark creatures
for most of the programme so far,
and he had brought a Grindylow along with him that day. Robert,
who had been seated at the back
of the classroom together with Shan, came up to the front to examine
it when the class ended,
obviously pleased to meet a real-life Grindylow at last.
As the students began leaving the room for their next class,
Lupin made a small gesture at Harry,
indicating he wanted to talk to him.
Lupin waited till Robert had finished with the Grindylow, and
then quietly asked Harry, "How is
Shan getting along?"
Harry glanced at the back of the classroom, and saw Shan disappearing out the door with Robert.
"OK, I guess," he said. "We never talk about
- what happened. I think Robert would know better
than me."
Lupin looked thoughtfully at him for a moment.
"Fatty and Pixie have been spending the last few weeks
of the programme trying to persuade me
to catch a Boggart, for this class," he said. "It seems
that Seamus and Dean have been regaling
them with enthusiastic accounts of the previous Boggarts they
have fought with, and they are now
extremely keen to meet one."
Harry looked at Lupin, wondering what he was trying to say.
"I don't think Shan is ready to meet a Boggart yet, Harry,"
said Lupin, looking intently at him,
"which is why I have purposely not included one in any of
the lessons. However I am aware that
Dean and the others have been keeping an eye out for one, and
they are quite capable of capturing
a Boggart by themselves now, if they happen to come across one
in the grounds. If that happens,
I want you to keep Shan away from it."
"But - how?" said Harry. "I might not even be there when they find it."
"They will likely keep it till they've gathered all the
Tian-Long students together, in which case you'd
most likely be there as well," replied Lupin. "If not,
it can't be helped, I suppose."
He looked out the window, his expression sober, and gave a
small sigh. He then smiled and nodded
at Harry, to indicate he could leave, and began to pack his things
away.
Pixie did not turn up in the Great Hall for lunch, but they
found her later in the Gryffindor common
room, looking slightly subdued. When they asked her what had happened,
she said that Snape had
given her some Potions ingredients to sort out and keep away.
"Probably all the squishiest and most evil-smelling stuff,"
said Ron, looking at the brown stains on her
fingers, which had refused to wash off. "Well, at least it's
over."
"Not really," said Pixie, in a rather odd voice,
"I didn't finish sorting everything. I could tell Professor
Snape wasn't pleased. I said I would come back another day and
finish it."
"What?" said Ron. "Why?"
Pixie didn't look at him. She seemed rather distracted.
"I want to show him I can finish what I've started."
Ron flicked a look of disbelief at Harry, who was nearby, listening.
"All because Lady Han-Yin told him you were poor at Potions?"
he said, incredulously. "So what?
Who cares what he thinks?"
Pixie gave a small sigh, and didn't reply. Seeing Parvati and
Lavendar entering the room, she gave
him a small smile, and then went over to join them.
Ron stood watching her, looking nonplussed and rather worried.
"Snape's done something to her," he muttered to Harry,
ten minutes later when she'd gone up to the
girls' dormitory to get something. "I'd better keep a sharp
eye on her, from now on."
The library books from Tian-Long arrived a week later. Robert,
after skimming through several,
seemed to pick up ancient Chinese script without any effort, and
having restored a bit more of
the scroll, told Harry and the others whatever he could, for the
moment.
"These red squares are seals, and the characters inside
them are names," he said, indicating a
string of faint red squares running along one side of the scroll.
"This probably means the scroll
has changed hands many times. Each new owner normally likes to
stamp his own seal on."
"Whose names are they?" asked Harry.
"The majority have the surname Wu," said Robert,
"so it looks as though the scroll was kept in
a family with that surname for some time, and handed down from
father to son. Then it must have
been lost or stolen, because other names appear after a while.
I'm guessing that eventually
someone stole it for, or gave it to, the Emperor, so that it ended
up in the Imperial Archives."
He paused for a moment, looking at the scroll.
"Only one name looks familiar," he said, "and
that is Wu-Hsien. He may have been the author of
the scroll, because his seal is faintest, and is situated on its
own at the bottom here. His name also
seems to appear in the main text." He pointed at two Chinese
characters, vaguely visible through
the dirt on the scroll.
Hermione looked intrigued. "Who is he?"
"He was an astronomer who lived during the Tang Dynasty,"
said Robert. "If it's him, that is. There
are probably many people with a similar name. There's a book in
Tian-Long that might tell us more
about him, but it's also in the Restricted Section."
Ron was looking at the bronze vessel. "What about this?"
"It may not have anything to do with the scroll,"
said Robert, "It's a Western Chou Dynasty bronze.
The books we've borrowed aren't that detailed, so I haven't been
able to figure out the inscriptions
yet, except for a name, Wang Lao, which doesn't appear
on the scroll."
Hermione was referring to one of her books on Chinese history.
"The Western Chou Dynasty lasted from the 11th to the
7th Century B.C.," she said, "That means,
if Wu-Hsien was the author, the vessel is at least 1400 years
older than the scroll."
"Or more," agreed Robert, "I'll have to restore
the rest of the scroll first, before we can know whether
the two are related in any way."
Shan, who had been sitting quietly, listening, since Robert
had already discussed all this with her, now
spoke up.
"I guess that means we have to get those books from the
Restricted Section," she said. "But we need a
teacher's signature."
They looked at each other.
"How about writing to one of the Tian-Long teachers?" suggested Harry.
Shan and Robert shook their heads.
"We would have to ask our Astronomy Master, because it
would be very odd to ask one of the other
teachers if we can borrow an Astronomy book," said Shan.
"And our Astronomy Master will know
straight away that there's nothing in those books that have anything
to do with our current assignments."
"Well, what then?" said Ron. "We can't pretend
we want it for our Hogwarts assignments. Even if we
tell Sinistra that we want it for general knowledge, she's sure
to ask Snufflegint about it, and he'll guess
at once that we know about the scroll and vessel."
Shan and Robert looked at each other, and smiled.
"Robert and I were discussing this earlier," said
Shan, looking as though she was trying not to laugh,
"and we thought that maybe we could ask Professor Trelawney."
"What?" said Ron, "Why her?"
"It makes sense, actually," said Hermione thoughtfully,
"We're supposed to be looking at the movements
of the stars, these two weeks."
"Yes, we can say we want it for general knowledge,"
said Shan. "You know, look at it from the Chinese
viewpoint, as well."
"Fine, but will she agree?" said Harry, "Especially as all of us here aren't keen about Divination at all."
"We must put her in a good mood," said Shan, her
eyes glinting, "Predict a really catastrophic event is
going to happen; maybe one of us could pretend to have a premonition,
have a fit and roll around on
the floor, or something like that."
Harry noticed that both she and Robert were looking at him.
"Hold on a minute," he said, "Surely you're not suggesting that I pretend to have the fit."
Shan and Robert grinned at him.
"You're her favourite, Harry," said Shan, persuasively.
"I've noticed she loves it when you make dire
predictions about yourself. You can - you can pretend your scar
is hurting, or something."
"No way!" said Harry. "Why me? What about Robert? She picks on him too!"
"I can't act," said Robert, with perfect truth.
Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. Ron was keeping quiet, obviously
not wanting to oppose Harry,
but he couldn't help grinning, as if he thought the idea very
funny. Hermione, too, seemed to be trying
not to look amused.
"We have to admit, Professor Trelawney is the only teacher
here who might fall for this," she pointed
out. "None of the other teachers are that gullible."
Harry glared at her. Ron, feeling obliged to help him out, tried to change the subject.
"Is that all that can be made out from the scroll?" he asked.
"I can only make out a few other words, besides Wu-Hsien's
name," said Robert, bending over the
scroll again, "The scroll is in such poor condition that
I can only restore it slowly, or it might fall apart.
These characters" - he pointed at another part of the scroll
- "look like the words for 'Great Occurrence'."
All of them leaned forward, and bent their heads over the scroll.
"Great Occurrence?" said Hermione, "Is something going to happen?"
"We can't tell, until I restore the rest of the scroll," said Robert, patiently.
Harry looked at the scroll, at the two characters which were
supposed to make up the name "Wu-Hsien".
He then looked up, and saw that the others were all looking at
him.
"Why do I need to throw a fit, or anything?" he protested.
"We can just chirk her up with a few depressing
predictions, and then ask her to sign the letter."
"Well, we want to make sure," said Shan. "If
we haven't convinced her enough or she's in a bad mood,
she'll say no, and we won't have any more chances."
Harry looked at them. Even Ron was grinning away at him.
"Give me some time to think it over," he said. "There
has to be a less ridiculous way to get hold of those
books."
-