Glad to be back in the swing of things, J.D. and Serena walked down the next morning for breakfast. Enjoying a light breakfast of eggs and bacon, the girls at the Delphinus table talked, joked, compared class schedules, exchanged rumors about the contest, and waited for the post to arrive.
"Oh great, we have Divination first."
"I met this great guy at the beach last summer, he said he'd write-"
"You signed up for Advanced Charms? I should have done that!"
"I heard this really funny joke, my brother told it to me-"
"Sure is great to be back, huh?"
"Serena, why did we sign up for Divination again? We could be doing something so much more useful!" J.D. complained to her best friend.
"You know we chose it 'cause it's an easy pass. Especially for you."
"But I hate it." Lowering her voice so that the other girls wouldn't hear, J.D. continued, "I hate Professor Cole. She is so phony and no matter how hard I try to be silent in class, some of my natural fortune-telling abilities come out. She loves me for it and it makes me nervous."
"Look at it this way, your gift will come in handy for the Divination portion of the test and your sure to pass the rest. After that you're on your way to Hogwarts!"
"Yeah I guess. Well, let's go and get this over with."
They got up from the table an walked toward their Divination classroom. J.D. was trying to plan how to avoid calling attention to herself and almost walked past it.
They went inside and took their usual seats. The classroom looked like an old, dusty antiques shop. The walls were covered with posters of the constellations, there were shelves of crystal balls (a few were broken), and miscellaneous books with titles like: Divination and You!, Finding Your Inner Eye, and J.D.'s personal favorite, So You Want to Know the Future. As the class settled into their usual chairs, which were strange, almost like bean bag chairs, Professor Cole glided into the room.
"Hello children, it is good to see all of you again. I had a vision, and was afraid that some of you would not be returning to our class. I am glad to see that it was one prediction that did not come true, all though, and be honest, some of you were thinking about not continuing with your study of the future, correct?"
No one raised a hand. A few girls in the front of the room, who Serena always referred to as the 'wannabes', were shaking their heads as if Professor Cole's question had been an accusation against them personally. Walking around the classroom, Professor Cole stopped in front of J.D. and Serena.
"Ah, Miss Miller. Would you like to share with the class any visions you have received this summer?"
J.D. could feel herself blushing. "Uh, actually Professor, it's been rather quiet vision wise."
A few people snickered.
Professor Cole looked disappointed. "Oh, well, that's alright dear. Did any one have a vision or prediction come to them during summer vacation?"
One girl raised her hand and began, in a loud voice, to tell the class about it. J.D. wasn't really listening, she was too busy thinking about how she had dodged a bullet. She could just imagine how Professor Cole would react if she had heard that J.D. had had a vision.
It had been about three weeks before the end of summer break and J.D. was at home reading a book in her room when it happened. It hit quickly, like a bolt of lightning, and she fell out her chair, struck by the force of the vision. There had been a lot of green light in her vision and a high pitched laugh, a laugh that had made her blood run cold. There was a boy, very young, with messy black hair. And then all of the sudden, as if she was watching a movie in fast forward, the boy began to grow up. He got taller and taller and the man with the laugh found him and sent a wave of light at the boy, who collapsed. The vision was almost at an end when the boy pulled a large chunk of something out of his robes and just held it. A light began to glow from the rock and it swirled brighter and brighter until everything was drenched in the light. She woke up sweating.
J.D. was jarred from this memory as Professor Cole started speaking in her misty voice about how Lilliann's vision of a girl crying was an omen for someone in the class. Serena, seeing how miserable this class was making her best friend, decided to do her a favor. She grabbed her head and started moaning and shaking.
"No, not the glass! Don't break the glass! Help I'm drowning in the fire! Grab the boy, the other boy!" Serena started yelling.
She certainly accomplished her goal. Professor Cole rushed over and began questioning her. The other girls just looked at her in amazement while J.D. fought the urge to laugh.
"Miss Goldfaden, are you feeling all right? Tell me child what did you See?"
"Oh Professor it was horrible! Don't make me say it, I just can't, I can't!" Serena's voice rose to a higher pitch and she was shaking very hard.
"Alright Miss Goldfaden, just please calm down. I think that we had better end the lesson there for today, class. Miss Miller, please escort Miss Goldfaden up to your dormitories."
"Yes Professor," J.D. replied.
The class began to pack up and J.D. made a big show of helping Serena to the door. When they reached the third floor hallway they both burst into laughter.
"That was brilliant! I knew you were a great actress, but that was genius. You got us out of class forty-five minutes early!"
"Thanks. I know, I know, I act as well as you play Quidditch. And you're welcome. Just don't expect me to do that every class, my head still hurts. How do you stand it?"
"My head hurts too when it happens. But if I get into Hogwarts then you don't have to worry about doing that for me again because I can guarantee that I won't be taking Divination there."
They reached the sandstone wall and just like the day before J.D. pulled out her wand and played the music. She opened the door and the two of them went inside.
* * *
The rest of the week flew by quickly. J.D. was pleased to find out that she hadn't forgotten every thing over the summer. She spent the night before the big contest with Serena brushing up on some charms, potions, curses, and general spells. If you had walked in on them practicing, you probably would have said that they looked like giggly, normal fifteen year old girls. By day this was certainly true, but at night...
J.D. wanted to tell Serena about her nightmares, but she was afraid that Serena would mistake them for real visions. J.D. knew just by the feel of them that they were dreams from her own subconscious, but that didn't stop them from being terrifying. Over and over she kept seeing herself in a stone circular room. It was illuminated by torchlight and sitting in the corner, sobbing, was the boy from her vision. She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and his face changed.
"You came for me," he said, "but you must go or he'll kill you!"
Just as she was about to ask who was going to kill her, the door was flung open. Instead of a man, there was a dragon standing in the doorway, and next to it was her sister. J.D. screamed for Crystal to run quickly, but Crystal just smiled her infuriating smile and whispered to the dragon. J.D. looked around for anything to attack the dragon with, but the room was bare. She cursed her dream-self for not having a wand. Her dream self then did the most extraordinary thing, she said one word, it sounded like imaginari, and shot a strong, unwavering jet of white light at the dragon. Then she woke up.
But now was not the time to be thinking about such things, she told herself. She had to concentrate on passing the test for Hogwarts. 'That is what matters, not some random firings of my repressed psyche,' she thought, as she executed a perfect summoning charm, 'Passing the test is all that matters, because I have to go to Hogwarts.'
For the first time since the contest had been announced J.D. asked herself why all of the sudden it was so important for her to get to Hogwarts. After all, Tolblox was a good school, she had learned a lot, and she had great friends. In the past week she had been almost neurotic about needing to go.
'Why?' she thought, 'Why is it so important that I go to Hogwarts?'
Because you want to find him and make sure that he's alright
The thought came clear into her mind, as suddenly as a bolt of lighting.
