It's All In the
Cards Part 1
A/N I know, corny
title, huh? It's yet another R/H
fic and it involves Divinatory card readings. It was originally gonna be tarot readings, but there are so many meanings
for all the different positions and reversals of the cards that it'd be way
too complicated for me to write it accurately. I have these other cards that are your basic deck of playing
cards that have meanings stuck on the ends of them. They are a lot of fun to use and are the easiest ones to
interpret. Anyhoo, this tale starts
during a Divination lesson for the boys, enjoy!!! Special thanks to METMA Mandy for editing this for me, love ya
lots!!!!!
Disclaimer: *sigh* JKR owns the HP characters and she probably owns a
deck of cards as well.
"Quiet down, my dears, we have a very important lesson today." Professor Trelawney's misty voice was fruitless in its attempts at
settling down her excitable class. The
5th year Gryffindors were all in high-spirits as a result of
Saturday's spectacular Quidditch match, in which Gryffindor slaughtered
Slytherin, 400 to 20. The most
boisterous table in Professor Trelawney's classroom by far was Harry and
Ron's table, where all five Gryffindor boys were gleefully discussing
Gryffindor's newly improved chances for the House Cup. Professor shot them a look of dislike for their unenthusiastic attitude
toward her class, and cleared her throat loudly.
"As I was explaining, class, we will be learning how to tell fortunes
with card readings. Now all of you
take a deck from the shelf over there and I will show you the seven card
method." Everyone in the class
scrambled to the large shelf, which held Professor Trelawney's (sorry bout
that I screwed up!) collection of teacups and tattered decks of cards, and were
bound together with different colored ribbons. Once each of them had taken a deck and sat back down, Professor Trelawney
began to speak again.
"These
are just plain playing cards, and are usually used for the seven card method,
which is the most basic technique in card Divination. In the seven card method, the person whose fortune you're reading will
be required to shuffle the cards and cut the deck three times with their left
hand." Trelawney took her own deck and demonstrated how to cut and shuffle the
cards on Parvati and Lavender's table; the two of them were gazing up at her
with the deepest admiration and awe. "After
cutting the deck and putting the three stacks of cards back together, take the
first seven cards and place them on the table in a row like this." She pulled
seven cards from the deck and placed them next to each other from left to right. "Then you read off the meaning at the top of the card. Each of the seven cards' meaning will pertain to the order in which it
is pulled out of the deck, for example, the 1st position card
pertains to Inner Self, the 2nd pertains to the energy surrounding
the person, etc. This is all in your textbooks, so don't worry about
remembering it all right now." Trelawney's wheezy voice seemed to be
directing this at Neville, who was looking frantic at all the information she
was reeling off the top of her head.
"Now, to give you practice in giving readings, you will be giving one
reading to someone and reporting back to the class to explain the person's
fortune. Explanations of your
readings will be due next lesson. I
think that's everything of importance… Class dismissed"
"Errgh, I hate all these stupid Divination projects!" Harry
complained to Ron as they descended the silver stepladder, "I'm not going to
have any time to do it with all the Quidditch practice Fred and George
planned!"
"Yeah," Ron agreed, "But they'll understand. They're much better captains than Wood anyway," he remarked airily. "Trelawney's such a prat. I'm going to relax this week and make up
some miserable fortune the night before it's due. She never knows the difference."
* * *
The
night before his Divination assignment was due, Ron found himself sitting alone
in a gradually emptying common room, bored out of his mind. Harry had been at practice for what seemed like days, so Ron decided to
wait for him to come back. He
lethargically pulled at stray threads in his aging robes, glancing about the
room sluggishly. His eyes wandered over to the familiar bushy-haired figure of
Hermione, who was sitting at a table all by herself, bent over her usual stack
of books, writing quickly on a scroll that looked to be about 4 ½ feet long. Ron decided to stretch his legs and walk over to her table to say hello.
"Hey, 'Mione, what're you working on?" he asked, moving a stack
of papers off a chair and sitting down.
"Just as second-" she hurriedly wrote a few more words, dotted her
last period with a flourish, and threw her quill down, looking up to beam at
Ron.
"Goodness!, I think that was the longest essay Professor Vector had
assigned us all year!" Hermione said breathlessly. She did not seem to be complaining; in fact, her expression seemed to
radiate a sense of manic pride. "So
what's up, Ron? What're you doing down here so late?"
Ron
didn't really think that 9 o'clock was all that late, but answered anyway.
"I'm just waiting for Harry to get back from practice. That seems to be all he does nowadays."
"Yeah," Hermione agreed, "It's really ridiculous that he has to
practice this much. When does he have time to do his homework?"
"I don't know-" Suddenly, the mention of homework jogged Ron's
memory and he remembered that his Divination report, hadn't been done. He slapped himself in the forehead. "Crap! I forgot to do my stupid Divination thingy. Hermione, can I borrow some parchment?"
"Ron! Don't curse!"
Hermione answered, scowling, but pulling a fresh roll from her bag. "What's
this report about anyway?"
Ron
explained about card Divination and how he was supposed to give a card reading
to someone and report back about it.
"Well, wait a minute," said Hermione, looking slightly puzzled,
"How are you going to do the assignment if you haven't given anyone a
reading?"
"I'm not actually going to do
the reading, that would be a waste of time. I'm just going to make something up like I always do. As long as it's depressing, she'll believe every word of it."
"Ron, I don't approve of you doing your homework in such a
haphazardly way! I think you should
go get your textbook and things and do this assignment properly." Hermione
replied commandingly, crossing her arms and giving him a reproachful look.
"Hermione, who are you, my mother?" Ron said indignantly.
"You're mother would agree with me that homework should be done
properly!"
"Well, what do you care, it's Divination, you don't believe in that
stuff anyway!"
The
two of them bickered like this for several minutes until Ron, finally sick of
Hermione's nagging, gave up and went to his dorm to get his deck of cards and
textbook. (A/N Is it a
little OOC that Ron gave up fighting? I
mean, is he so stubborn that he won't do something just to make her shut up???
AHHHHHH!) Once he came back down with his Divination things, he glanced
around the common room, which was now suddenly empty except for him and
Hermione. It was as if an invisible
specter had driven everyone away.
"Oh, great, now that you're forcing me to give someone a reading,
there's no one here. Oh well, I
guess I'll just be going up to bed then."
He
began to turn around, but Hermione's imperious voice stopped him.
"Well, since I'm a good friend who doesn't want you to have
incomplete homework, I'm willing to put aside my dislike for Divination and
let you give me a reading." Ron
turned back to face her, his expression contorted in exasperation.
"You just don't give up, do you?" he asked.
"Nope," she replied simply, pulling out the chair next to her. "Now
sit yourself down, you great prat." Ron
threw his hands up in defeat and sat down. Hermione smiled triumphantly, and took Ron's deck of cards out of his
hands. "So what am I supposed to
do with these cards, exactly?" she asked.
Ron looked in his textbook and read the directions for shuffling aloud to Hermione and she followed them. When Ron took the cards back and laid them out, they looked like this:
| Inner Self Card | Energy Around You | Past | Hope/Fear | People Around You | Obstacle | Outcome |
| Be patient, everything shall pay off soon. | A brief meeting will cause much confusion | A dark, older man is working to make things come out right for you. | You will marry sooner than you think. | Ignorance is Bliss. | Don't wait too long before saying, "Yes." | Your Wish |
"Okay then," Ron's brow furrowed as he read the cards and began to
analyze the meanings on them. "This first one here is probably telling you to
be patient about something…don't know what exactly… and the second one may
be telling you that you'll be confused about a meeting of some kind…"
"Gee Ron, you don't sound stupid in the least bit," Hermione said
derisively. Ron gave Hermione one
quick contemptuous glance before continuing:
"…And this third card here says that there's some dark older guy-
Hermione, is there something you're not telling me? Oh wait, that's the past card, that means that it happened a while ago
so it doesn't really matter now…" Hermione's expression, which had shown
skepticism during Ron's spiel, now betrayed a sense of comprehension mixed
with incredulity; she looked like she was beginning to understand what the
reading was referring to, but could hardly believe it to be true.
"…'You will marry sooner than you think?' Oooooookay, moving
on… your 'people around you' card says that someone near you is ignorant-
no surprises there, Miss Smarty Trousers." Ron looked up from the cards to
see if Hermione would giggle at his comment, but she was still staring wide-eyed
at the cards. "…Then your
obstacle has something to do with saying yes to something-maybe you'll have to
make a decision or something? I
dunno… and then your outcome will be your wish." Ron scribbled the meanings on his parchment for class and put the 7 cards
back into the deck. "Okay, I have
no clue what any of this is about, do you?"
Hermione
remained silent; her eyes didn't budge from the spot where the last card had
been.
"Hello?" Ron said, waving his hand in front of Hermione's face. "Earth to Hermione? I
said, I have no clue what this reading is about, do you?"
Hermione
finally glanced at Ron, her eyes glittering.
"You really don't have any idea what those cards were referring
to?" Hermione mumbled, she sounded hurt.
"No, I don't," Ron replied impatiently, "I've already told you
that I don't. Why don't you
just tell me what all this is about so I can finish my this stupid assignment
and go to bed."
Hermione,
outraged by Ron's insolence, yelled, "If you don't know Ron, I'm not
going to tell you!" She leapt up from her chair and stormed toward to the
girls' staircase in a huff.
"What is your problem?!" Ron shouted back, confused and indignant. Hermione froze, slowly turned back to face Ron and said in a icy whisper,
"You, Ron Weasley, are my problem." And with that, she ran up the stairs,
leaving Ron taken aback and more confused than ever.