They slumped into mismatched leather chairs, slightly out of breath, happy they weren't late.
"Good afternoon," Madame Trelawney said in her wavering voice. Lavender and Pavarti immediately straightened in their poufs and watched Madame Trelawney with rapt attention.
"Today, we shall be going over tarot cards," she began passing out stacks of cards to the students. Ron slid his stack out of their box and looked at them skeptically.
"So, we bet on what sort of future we get? How do we get a royal flush? Oh hey! They got a king and queen here, I guess that's how."
"Tarot card readings is an art form," Trelawney had just finished giving out set of cards to each student, "We will begin with Classic Tarot. Even Muggles can sometimes tap into the spiritual plane with these sets of cards. We will move into proper Tarot in a short bit. For now, you have each been given a small booklet which describes the portents and meanings of the cards the querant chooses. You are all in pairs. One of you should hand the other his or her deck and shuffle it anyway you like it. Then hand the deck back and sort the cards into little piles. The querant should then turn over cards one by one and the other partner should read the descriptions from the book. But first you must familiarize yourself with the cards and their meanings. Take a look at the decks you have been given for a few moments and then begin practicing reading one another."
Ron and Harry exchanged glances. "Why are we in this class again?" Harry asked Ron, who shrugged.
"Arithremancy is just scary?" Ron proposed, "Hey!" he said handing a card to Harry, "Who does that look like?" Harry examined the card in the poor light of the tower room. Ron had given him the "High Priestess" a woman in a tight fitting, dark green dress was holding aloft a glowing blue and white ball. A ruby encrusted staff of some sort was in her relaxed other hand. A tabby cat was sitting next to her flowing robes. Harry watched as the cat in the picture yawned and then began batting the dangling silver charms which hung off the staff.
"Doesn't look like her?" Ron asked him. Harry looked at the face of the High priestess and did a double taken the quickly stifled a laugh. The High Priestess on the card looked just like McGonagall. He and Ron exchanged the briefest of snickers before schooling their features and Trewlawney floated by.
"The High Priestess: a wise woman or person, able to make smart decisions," Ron read aloud.
"Fitting," Harry mused then passed the card back to Ron.
"Here! Look at this one!" Ron handed Harry another. The Magician. It was obviously Dumbledore. He sat behind his desk and seemed to be eating sweets. What was unmistakably Fawkes was perched on the back of his chair. Symbols and pictures faded in and out around him. The next, Death, was Snape. He was sitting in his dungeon and slapping the tip of his wand against the open palm of his other hand. He glared at them from the card.
The next card sent them into silent gales of laughter. The Fool was Madame Trelawney. She was perched on one of her leather pouf stools and wore a jester's hat. She was drinking tea, reading the leaves, trying to scry a crystal ball and laying tarot cards.
"The Fool," Ron read, "Not looking before you leap. Not paying attention to the important things. Not being able to see the woods for the trees," Harry and Ron burst into laughter and then stopped suddenly when Trelawney shot them a glare from across the room. They hurriedly packed Ron's deck away and took out Harry's. Finding that none of the pictures on Harry's deck resembled any of the faculty they tried the reading exercise. Harry handed Ron the deck which he shuffled quickly. Harry then lay the cards out in neat little piles. Ron reached over and turned over a card. It was "The Heirophant".
"OK," Harry said and consulted the little book, "It's reversed so it means 'Breaking out of the mold; finding ones' self and one's niche in society,' Huh. Ok try another. The Chariot: 'Resolve to do something; power. Triumphing over an obstacle.' Ok next, Temperance. Right," Harry flipped through the book and found the card's entry. "This says it means 'Taking a situation and molding it into one of your own choosing'" Harry said and then was sort of quiet, "You don't think it's anything but circumstance that these cards could all relate to you wanting to become an Animagus, do you?" Harry asked. He and Ron exchanged a glance.
"Nah," they said together.
" 'Kay here's the next one," Ron said and flipped the card, "The Sun," he said to Harry.
"Right… here we are. Oh! This says you'll have a bit of good luck."
"Wait, wait we're predicting positive things!? In Divination?" Ron asked, "There has to be a mistake," he laughed. Harry had to agree. Madame Trelawney always predicted horrible things for everyone.
"I think I like Tarot," Harry said, "Lets do mine," The collected the deck and Harry was shuffling the cards when Madame Trelawney came by and somberly handed them another stack of cards.
"This is a wizarding tarot deck. Put away the other decks and try with this," Harry nodded and took the deck from her. "How did the reading go, Boys" she asked.
"I got the reverse Heirophant, the Chariot, Temperance and The Sun," Ron told her cheerily, "Looks like I'm going to make a bit of a change in my life, find my niche in society and have a bit of luck doing it," He said. Madame Trelawney's eyes narrowed, as if she couldn't believe that anyone could possibly get those cards without stacking the deck. She sniffed, nodded and went to distribute more wizarding decks.
"Right then, "Harry said and began shuffling. The wizard deck was probably twice as large as the normal deck and it took him a bit more time to shuffle.
"Flip them around and stuff," Ron said, "it'll make it more interesting." Harry nodded and flipped a few cards around. After a moment more, he handed Ron the deck. Ron sorted the cards into little piles.
"Ok," Harry picked a card which was in the center of one pile and flipped it over.
"The Owl," Ron read. A Tawny owl was continually flying in the picture. Harry watched as the sky behind it moved.
"The Owl means you will receive something," Ron said, "Do cookies from my mum count? Try another. Oh, the Star. Secrets are hidden from you and possibly more people. Ok, the Devil. Hmm is someone indebted to you Harry?" Ron asked. Harry immediately thought of Wormtail and the night two years past when he'd stopped Black and Lupin from killing him.
"Not that I really know of," Harry said instead. He had a chill going up the back of his spine. Ron didn't seem to notice and for that Harry was very glad. He turned over his next card.
"oooOOOOOooo," Ron chortled and Harry's cheeks pinked, "The LOVERS. A partnership or union. 'Cept in the wizarding deck it might mean you're just playing match maker or something," Ron said. The next card was the "Dragon and the Phoenix". The phoenix and the dragon seemed to fly in little circles, head to tail. The dragon was a long Chinese fireball, and the Phoenix had gold tipped feathers and was a much darker red than Fawkes. Harry couldn't really describe why, but the felt that the phoenix was female and the dragon was male. The background behind the phoenix was a dark color and followed it around its circular path. The background behind the dragon was white and followed the dragon
"Diametrically opposed opposites. Male and female or Good and evil. Or something like that. It lists a bunch. Anyway, 'This is a powerful card,' " Ron read, " 'It generally is strongest when the querer has also turned over the…lovers.' Heh," Ron smirked, "It means the querer might be the center of an unexpected love affair or he might be the catalyst for an unexpected attraction or alliance of some sort. And you might not be part of it, you might just cause it. Tough luck pal. Try again."
Harry wasn't sure he wanted to continue, but he turned over the next card.
"The Werewolf," Ron said and looked for the entry.
"It's inverted," Harry said and Ron nodded absently as he watched the man turn into a wolf and back again.
"OK, got it. Not-Inverted means that someone is fully capable of transforming themselves and they don't want to. Someone around you has the power of changing themselves, but inverted means they cannot change. They wish to but are prevented by some other force from doing so. This is sometimes an actual physical change but more often it's a spiritual one. Huh, any ideas?"
"None,"
"Right, next?"
"The Grim," a large black dog was walking in some dark mist.
"Geez don't let Trelawney see that one Harry. It means Death. Not necessarily the death of the querer."
"Or it could just mean I'll see a big black dog," Harry said hopefully. Ron smiled,
"Hey there is that," he said, also brightening.
"The Rose. It means a sort lived acquaintance. Well we DO get a new DADA teacher every year." A Rose grew quickly and died a few times as they watched.
"That's true. Ok how about, The Harlequin?" Harry asked and showed Ron his next card. A woman in black and white danced around. She turned and suddenly the black and white were on the reverse sides they had been and the woman was a man.
"Things are not what they seem. Huh now it says to pick the next three together, from different piles and do it quickly." Harry nodded and did so.
"OK. The Magician, the High Preistess and The Warrior."
"What does the warrior look like?"
"What?"
"Well it says here it has a lot of variations. What does it look like."
"Uhm it's a woman and she's wearing some sort of armor. And she's holding a staff in both hands. There's a sunrise behind her."
"Ok so that's the Auror," Ron said and peered at the book, "I wish Trelawney would have better lighting in here. OK the Auror, in conjunction with the Magician and the High Priestess. Well it doesn't say anything about that particular combination, so lets think."
"Uhm I meet a female Auror?"
"Possibly. The two other cards might be other people or descriptions of the Auror. Or you briefly meet three people like that or just one person who has the qualities of all three. Remember the rose card. Or you help an Auror catch someone with those qualities or maybe the Auror is the wereworlf Or The high priestess is Or-"
"Ugh, I remember why I hate this. It's so indefinite." Harry sighed.
"Yeah. Well pick the next card. Only one more after that,"
"OK. The World." The card showed a beautiful picture of the planet. It looked like the pictures from space Harry had seen on TV when he was home for summers.
"The World means that things will come full circle. The queerer must be aware that there are sometimes circles within circles. Interesting," Ron said.
"Yes. Most interesting." Trelawney said. The boys looked up and saw that several people were watching Harry's tarot reading with interest. Harry flushed and Ron looked around warily.
"I see you will once again meet the Grim face to face," Trelawney said, stroking the card with the big black dog almost lovingly. Harry shuddered. She looked at the Lovers and the Dragon and Phoenix. "And you might be responsible for some sort of unlikely union. Very interesting. Watch to see if two of your classmates who normally hate one another begin to become attracted. People who have this card generally cast its changing powers about them. The Magician, The Auror AND the High Priestess? This is a very powerful reading Potter. I would heed it well,' she said airily and then moved on towards Lavender and Pavarti who had begun to squeal.
Harry and Ron sighed relief when Trelawney left. Harry sat for a moment to still his shaking hands. He had the same sort of odd feeling he'd had when Trelawney had made her real prediction. He slowly peeked under the next, and final card. Light. The power of good will triumph if it can. A creepy feeling in the pit of his stomach, he quickly and silently put the cards away.