Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter Nine: The Dramatics of Divination
A/N: Before this chapter begins, I just wanted to express my sincere apologies for not posting this chapter right away. I'm taking summer school (not because I failed!) and get home with only a few hours to spare. Oh yeah, I had to do quite a bit of research for this chapter too... that took a while... Thanks for all the new and old reviewers!
Dumbledore ushered Harry to his office and bade him sit at the desk before him. Harry scanned the room, his gaze alighting upon the many familiarities to him now.
"Harry, I want to talk to you."
Harry gave the Headmaster a slight nod and Dumbledore went on. "Someone, I know not who, though I can speculate, sent me this letter."
Headmaster Dumbledore:
I am in possession of a letter, which seemed to be intercepted by an owl, and addressed to the famous Harry Potter. Enclosed is the letter, and it seems ancient. I made a replica and am keeping it here in case Owl Mail isn't as good as it used to be. There was a charm on it so you and only you could open it, but there are the existence of Polyjuice Potions. Keep its contents to yourself and to the party concerned.
The letter went as follows:
Harry Potter, we have our seers into the future and have chosen you. You, as we have seen, are in possession of many powers that would benefit our kind. You are the beginning of the revolutionary prophecy foretold to us by the centaurs deep within the Forbidden Forest. We have apparated from far away to deliver this message into safe hands until you can get it.
Harry Potter, you are invited to join the Order of the Phoenix. At the same time you read this others across the globe are reading their letters or have already read them. You will meet them in time, we of the past have arranged this part of the future.
Please consider our offer, and say these words if you accept "Accipio invitationem." Something will happen, though we cannot reveal it to you for it is different for each person chosen to be in this Order.
If not, disregard this letter and let the Dark Lord walk all over the wizards and witches of the world. It's all your decision, like Atlas, the weight of the world as we know it rests on your small shoulders.
This is important Harry. We know several of your possible futures, and believe me, we have explored many. The world needs you. Can you deny them what they need?
"What? This is impossible--this is all wrong!"
"Harry, they can't change it now. This was written about fifty years ago. The writers are probably dead by now."
"Then how--"
"They told you they were seers..."
"Then how--" he repeated.
"Harry, I'm sorry for not answering your questions, but you must find the answers for yourself. The only question left now is 'Will you join?'"
Harry nodded dumbly; life was beginning to take its twists right about now...
"Are you sure?"
He nodded again.
"Then say the words once you get back to your common room. But inform no one. Any one person could be someone different or a spy. Learn to expect the unexpected."
Harry tried a smile, but all he could manage at the moment was an upturned grimace.
Dumbledore understood his answer and patted Harry on the back. "There was a parchment, but we are not sure if it still exists. However, if it does, you Harry Potter, have to find it."
Harry nodded again for the third time.
"Good luck in your next class Harry. If I'm right, then it's Divination."
Harry groaned loudly and Dumbledore smiled. "I know it's not your favorite class, but you could learn a few things from Professor Trelawney."
He muttered defiantly, "Yeah, right."
*~*~*~*
The bat-resembling Professor Trelawney closed her eyes for a few moments and sighed wistfully. Opening them wildly and dramatically she looked each one of them in the eyes. Her perfume had clouded the room so it seemed like pairs of eyes floated in clouds... all looking at Trelawney.
"I wonder how I'm supposed to die this year..." Harry whispered.
"Whatever it is, you know it's going to be horrible," came Ron's answer.
"That's to be expected."
Trelawney stopped her gaze not-so-subtly on Harry's scar. Mistily she started, "Harry Potter... the fates have chosen your destiny this year. And this year they believe that you will be caught in the eternal struggle of good over evil."
"As if I didn't know that!"
"The Dark Lord has already chosen his followers and is rounding up the final hope. The Phoenixes are here... we must find them before he does."
She shook her head, ridding herself mentally and physically of any inspiration afterwards. And she started again. "Divination, as you know, is full of complex messages that you sort through. Choosing the right message is incredibly important. This month will be devoted to the most difficult part of Divination."
Asked Ron, "Like it's not all difficult?"
Harry snickered, staring into Trelawney's eyes. Her lips went white around the edges and she went on. "We will be doing Palmistry. Choose a partner and take a handout."
He took the parchment paper filled with little signs and words crammed into every corner.
"What does it all mean?" asked Dean Thomas.
"The Practical Hand is for workers and is characterized by a square palm and short or medium finger length." Seamus quoted, "How is this supposed to help us?"
"Right, just like this quote, "Philosophical Hands generally have long and bony fingers and are always in the search for the truth in whatever they do. They have wisdom, but are sometimes known to overuse it," said Ron nearby.
Trelawney stopped avidly (or more likely blankly) gazing into her crystal ball just long enough to say, "Your hands tell everything about you. Their hand and finger shape and length... the lines and their direction... whether there is an appearance of islands or crosses... each one means something totally different and portrays different messages about personality. Your hands may change with time... but eventually you will understand your pattern and exactly what you lean to in the future."
Harry noticed that the Professor had the hand type called "Philosophical."
After a few tense moments of staring into space or through people, the class slowly turned back to their partners; and the work ahead of them.
"Ron, I think I understand this whole concept of the mounts..."
"Good. I can't make head or tails of this diagram."
He placed a finger on the Mercury mount. "See, this is the mount of Mercury -- not under that finger Ron! -- next to it is the Sun, Saturn, and Jupiter Mounts."
"Uh huh."
"Can you see the way some of them are flat and the others are totally full? Your Sun mount, also called the Apollo mount is incredibly full. That means that you respond both physically and emotionally to public recognition and pride--"
"Ow! Harry, stop jerking my hand back! My wrist can't take that kind of pressure!" Ron interrupted. "And stop reading off that... you sound like some abnormal muddle of McGonagall and Trelawney."
The Professor strolled languidly through the class, watching each performance with humor. A bit after she announced, "Okay class, it's time for 'line interpretation.'" She stopped at no ones' until she came to the growing redhead and his best friend.
Ron was tilting his hand this way and that in the light in order to see his friend's palm better. This time it was Harry's turn to squeal.
"RON you idiot! Can you do this without wrenching my hand from my arm?!"
"Come on Harry... just stand it for a little bit more while I check out this unmarked line. I don't have this... and it's not on the paper..."
They didn't see the shadow that fell upon their backs or saw the oversized vulture come up from behind them, but they did hear the words that she uttered.
"Ah! Harry! You have a fate line! These lines are the only ones upon your hand that never change with time. Look class, gather round and look at Harry's fate line!"
Harry mumbled inaudibly, dark thoughts filling his brain for the embarrassment this little show was causing him.
Draco kneeled down beside his ear. "Yes class, look at Potty's fate line..." he started mockingly and then said cryptically, "We never know what fate it brings him..."
He whipped his head around but Malfoy had disappeared into the crowd.
A little while later the dramatics of Divination had ceased, and each student dutifully piled out of the class.
*~*~*~*
Slyther slid down Harry's arm and hissed up at him. Slyther obviously wanted to tell him something and it seemed to be important.
Harry dropped his books 'on accident' and bent down to hiss, "Okay, I'll sneak to the bathroom in the next class."
Slyther waited almost impatiently for a snake, restlessly and smoothly tracing a path up and down Harry's arm. Every so often the snake's tongue would flit in and out to taste the air and Slyther would solemnly shake his head and hiss to himself.
"Slyther, would you stop that?"
"Sorry young sir..."
"If Mr. Potter wouldn't be so concerned with whatever was on his forearm," Snape started greasily, "Then maybe he would pay attention enough to answer my question about the Potion of Vitality?"
"Vitality?"
Hermione whispered softly to the air before her moving her lips as much as a ventriloquist, "Name the key ingredient..."
Harry opened his eyes wide and answered, "I believe that the key ingredient in the potion is very important... and useful... and --"
"So Mr. Potter? What is it?"
Hermione mumbled, "Grated maple bark"
"The answer is grated maple bark."
Snape nodded in understanding... but not to him. He nodded to someone behind him...
Ron instinctively cornered up behind Harry and Hermione. "What's up with him? You answered the question right..."
"With Hermione's help," whispered Harry.
"Oh. I see."
The Professor resumed his teaching. "The Potion of Vitality makes nonliving things become animate and living things grow. Not in height, but in age. I will be teaching you the safest side of the Potion and it will wear off after a few minutes to return you back to your normal age. Be sure to make the Potion right, or the consequences will come, and you'll have to deal with it yourselves."
He paused deliberately, letting his last words sink in. "Now that everyone knows what the ingredients are I want everyone to create the potion. We will be testing it..."
"So, who's going to be partners with Hermione today?" asked Ron.
Harry opened his mouth to answer when Snape had beat him to it. Snape stood at the front of the class, eyeing a the roll parchment.
"I will be choosing partners for today," he started, and the class went suddenly silent. Usually with predetermined partners there were audible groans from each side of the class. But Snape demanded just that little bit more of respect from them. Besides, they all knew the consequences...
"Patil and Thomas, Weasley and Finnigan, Granger and Parkinson, Brown and Crabbe, Malfoy and Potter..." but Harry didn't hear the rest of the names, his thoughts turned to something far in the back of his mind as he could visualize his memory in the empty space before him.
Something stirred within him and Harry whispered, "Accipio invitationem."
No one but Slyther heard and his eyes went as wide as a snake's could go and he delved deep into the shadows of Harry's robe sleeve.
He whipped his head back on some kind of reflex and Harry saw his surroundings in a new light. He didn't know exactly what had happened to him, a faint tingling sensation spread from some other source to meld at his scar and a myriad of stars exploded behind his eyes. But then... then it was gone just as quickly as it had come. Unsure, Harry's eyes blinked fast. Once -- twice -- three times and Harry was back to normal.
"Harry? Harry," Hermione whispered, "Get over here!"
Harry's cauldron moved inexplicably closer to listen to Hermione's directions, and saw that Ron was already at her side. Anything that she made would be deemed perfect. The three separated people was one strong trio once again.
Their partners moved towards the trio, they too knew about Hermione's skill with Potions -- with well anything.
"Ron, just start grating the maple bark," Hermione said reproachfully, but smiling at him from her work at Pansy's cauldron.
Dutifully, Ron started grating, a slight smile upon his face. It was the smile that you held when you kept an important secret.
"Could you scoot over Potter?!"
Harry took his ingredients a millimeter away from where they once were. "Enough?"
Draco snorted and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "I would expect some childish action from you."
"Malfoy, just do the work."
In the monotonous buzz of the classroom their cauldron became silent as Draco sliced the newt tails and Harry poured the ingredients in, measuring.
"One half tablespoon of beetle eyes with one unicorn hair..."
Harry held the hair over the cauldron when he felt it snatched from his grasp.
"You idiot!" Draco started raspily, "You always put any ingredients from unicorns last!" He was desperately trying to be menacing, but his voice had cracked midsentence.
Harry barely suppressed the laughter that was bubbling up in his throat, but he could not suppress the tears of happiness that flowed out of the corners of his eyes. Draco looked like a dragon, sure, with his gray eyes hardening into frigid steel and the barely perceptible muscles under his outfit tensing for a response... but he didn't sound like one at all!
Harry thought it better to let his partner cool down while he carefully inspected the cracked stone floor beneath his feet.
A few minutes later it was back to normal, or as normal as anything between them would ever be, the tension between them so strong that you could feel its sharp needles pricking you when you interfered.
He turned his head to a bit farther on his left side where Hermione and Ron stood next to each other sharing the same new Potions book from Chupson. They seemed to be conversing... but by the looks of it, it didn't seem like they were discussing the book.
That was when he felt, rather than heard, the voice from his arm.
"Harry, hurry up..."
"Okay, Slyther, hold on!"
Slyther ducked back into the folds of the sleeve robes, narrowing his eyes and hissing audibly for only his ears. He made sure that Harry felt a few pricks and wriggled a bit before settling down.
"That idiot boy had better learn to listen to me... Have to give him a lesson sometime... He doesn't understand anything at all..."
"Be prepared to test them now," stated Snape, his voice emotionless and as cold as the fire roaring in the middle of his classroom.
Each group stood proudly behind their Potion of Vitality while he moved between the cauldrons, inspecting each one carefully and deeming some fit to be tested.
The ones that were deemed fit were separated for people to gather samples from. After each person had a beaker full, it was time for the testing.
"Drop a milliliter of the Potion onto your test subject."
The Potion hit one of the decreased beetles and it started wriggling spasmodically. Harry removed the pin from its abdomen and it scampered away into one of the classroom's many corners.
"Everybody, on my mark, drink the Potion. I hope you have already prepared yourselves for any aftereffects. Ready, one, two, drink."
Facing Draco, Harry gulped the Potion down. He could already see the effects that it had on Malfoy, he was starting to grow.
And so was he.
Taking a quick peek around the classroom he watched everyone change before his very eyes. Everyone got a few inches taller, and Ron was at least as tall as Snape now and he was still growing. His blue eyes turned deeper and Hermione's cinnamon brown ones acquired flecks of gold. And her hair... it grew down to her hips, and this tamed the bushiness. Her hair turned into a gentle wave instead of its natural frizz..
Lavender's hair lightened to almost a white-blond, while Parvati's hair darkened to near-black. Crabbe and Goyle stopped looking like stunted American football-players and they turned proportional.
Even scrawny little Neville gained some musculature.
Everyone seemed to change for the better, and Harry wanted to see exactly what had happened to him. So he walked up to Hermione and asked for a mirror.
"Ha-- Harry..."
"Yes?"
Hermione was shell-shocked, she had never before noticed any of these new changes in him that she was seeing before her very eyes. His shoulders were broader and more muscular, though she had never noticed before because he always slumped them.
His hair was still it's unruly self, and the scar had turned into a more burnished gold rather than it's normal skin-tone brown.
But his eyes were the things he had noticed the most. They were a bright emerald green, full of some unnatural happiness.
"Here."
She handed the mirror to him and turned away.
The transformation was complete and she went to go talk to Ron. He was now a head taller than everyone in the class, including the Professor.
Slyther wriggled out of his sleeve and hissed, "Can I talk to you now?"
Harry rolled his eyes to the ceiling and walked up to Professor Snape. He started by saying, "Excuse me, but Professor.."
Snape spun around and the split-second after, he backed into the fire. "Ja -- James..."
"No, Professor..."
Startled, Snape recovered and silenced the classroom. "Harry, that's right. Stay outside of the door until you're... back to normal."
Harry stepped out of the Potions classroom, frustration and confusion behind his now jade colored eyes.
After the heavy oak door slammed behind him, the myriad of stars once again exploded behind his eyes and Harry Potter fell to the floor in a unconscious heap.
*~*~*~*
~*Dumbledore's True Love*~: I'm glad someone else has faith in me! I feel so loved..
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