INTERLUDE II

The Third Prediction

Harry, still shocked by the disastrous letter Hermione'd received, climbed wearily into bed and drew the hangings. He fell quickly into a deep dreamless sleep.

Only a moment later (or so it seemed) he opened his eyes once more, only to find himself back in the stone picture-lined chamber.

"This is getting really strange," he muttered, struggling to his feet. As he did so he felt his glasses slide from his face, and leaned back down to grope around the stone dungeon floor to find them.

When his hand connected with the plastic frame, he grabbed them and jammed them back onto his nose. Once more he tried to stand – this time, he realized too late that his shoelace was caught on a stone protruding from the chamber floor – wildly, he thrust out his arms toward the walls in a mad effort to regain his balance –

– and as he did so, he felt his hand slide through something fluid – with a start, he realized it'd come to land on one of the moving pictures that lined the wall –

The dungeon began to whirl around him in swirls of grey, but this time he did not black out. Instead, a moment later, he found that the world was stationery once more, and that he had fallen face-first to the floor of a classroom.

He couldn't help but groan as he saw which classroom; large, fluffy poufs and armchairs dotted the rooms, ranged around little tables. On each table was placed a crystal ball – it was, Harry realized with a sinking feeling, Trelawney's room.

As if to confirm his unspoken thought, a dreamy voice spoke to him from behind.

"Hello," the Divination teacher said mistily. "I Saw your visit and therefore decided to wait for you here instead of joining the rest of the castle at supper," she continued. "My Inner Eye was right, I see."

Harry stifled the urge to point out that Trelawney rarely joined the rest of the castle at supper; instead, he simply eyed the teacher in mild confusion. He was still trying to work out how he'd got here – had he touched a picture of Trelawney, perhaps? And why hadn't he blacked out, like he had those other times? He was beginning to consider going to Dumbledore, beginning to wonder if he was going insane. . . .

"What is it that brings you to my lonely tower?" Trelawney was asking, sounding as if half of her was in some other galaxy. "Have you –,"

Suddenly she stopped, going suddenly rigid. Harry stared, utterly nonplussed. She couldn't be. . .the only other time he'd seen her like this was in his third year, when she delivered a true vision. . .it couldn't be happening now – or could it?

"It is happening now," the Divination professor said in a voice that was very unlike her usual dreamy tones. "It has been foreseen since the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, and later The Two Towers, and now, with the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix –," Harry's insides gave a little flip at this –"It is now that it happens. No resident of Fantasy will be safe; all must be on their guard as the Enemy appears within our midst: for if we are not careful, our lives and our bookverses will be destroyed by rampant Mary Sues . . . we must be careful . . . we must . . ." She stopped suddenly, and her eyelids fluttered behind her magnifying spectacles.

"Funny. . .I didn't think I was the least bit tired," she said with a small false laugh. "Sorry about that, my dear . . . now, what were you saying?"

Harry was staring at her in unabashed confusion. Rampant Mary Sues? What on earth could that mean? And what was The Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers? Or, for that matter, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? Had it something to do with Fawkes?

"Nothing, Professor," he heard himself saying. "I'll be going now . . . sorry to disturb you . . ."

Without another word, he turned and fled down the ladder. But in his haste he missed a rung, and found himself falling – falling to the hard floor beneath – he hit his head, and groaned at the impact – and then the scenery began to whirl, and –

He was back in the stone chamber.

"That was weird," he said softly to himself. His mind was still in turmoil over the odd escapade, and the Divination teacher's words – what on earth was a Mary Sue? – and he didn't seem to notice as his fingers brushed another one of the pictures lining the wall.

He groaned as the chamber began to swirl again. A moment later he landed with a dull thud on something uncomfortably solid; then it all turned black, and he knew nothing more.