CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DIVINATION
Tuesday, 2nd February 1999
The Slytherins were on the floor around low tables in the extremely warm Divination Tower. Professor Trelawny, whom Buffy thought looked far too much like a very large bug, was rambling about the alignment of the planets, and about how her inner-eye was finely tuned.
The Slytherin girls all glanced at each other before hiding their giggles behind their hands. Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes, though he wasn't sure what he was rolling them at, Trelawny or the giggling girls. He looked at Buffy and bit back a smile, enjoying the sight of her giddiness. He wasn't sure what it was about the small blonde girl that had hooked his attention, but he rather liked the warm fuzziness that had settled into his stomach.
Trelawny walked around the classroom, her hands hovering over some peoples heads as though she was trying to read their minds. Buffy rolled her eyes, but forced herself to sit still while Trelawney stood behind her. The Professor gasped and everyone turned to look at her.
"My Inner Eye never lies, my dear," Trelawney began ominously. "I sense that you Miss Summers, have a great gift for the receptivity to the resonances of the future."
Buffy turned to look at Blaise, confusion evident on her face. "And in some language that's English?"
"You'll be good at Divination," Blaise translated.
Buffy thought about it for a moment and then shrugged happily. "Works for me."
"You're dreams will guide you, Miss Summers," Trelawney continued. "Do not ignore them."
Buffy idly wondered whether Trelawney actually knew what she was talking about or not. As the Slayer, Buffy was used to getting prophetic dreams about things to come. She wasn't prone to ignoring her dreams either, so the Professor's advice was something that she already knew.
Trelawney went to move on, but she stopped, her hands still above Buffy. Trelawney gasped again and placed a hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"I sense darkness in your future," the Professor pronounced. "Death is circling over your head like a vulture, ever lower. Your days are numbered."
The Slytherins shifted uneasily. They were used to Trelawney predicting Harry Potter's death and they had come to expect it of her. But she'd never once told another students imminent doom, especially not a Slytherin. They looked at Buffy who didn't seem to be taking the words to heart. She seemed calm and collected as she always did, and the others settled down slightly. Draco looked a little upset at the thought of something happening to Buffy.
Buffy looked up at the Professor. "Thanks for the warning," Buffy said flippantly.
Trelawney scowled at her, her eyes narrowing into two small slits behind her large glasses. Trelawney moved on, upset that this new student that had power radiating off her wasn't too worried about the prediction of her death.
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Buffy sat in the library opposite Hermione Granger, the two of them with their heads bent over a Transfigurations book. Buffy was surprised to find herself so interested in the subject, especially when she'd never really been too fond of magic when it had been Willow and Giles performing it. But, it seemed so fascinating now.
They'd been studying for over two hours, but neither of them wanted to stop. Hermione found herself caught up in Buffy's enthusiasm of learning new things, and whilst Hermione wasn't learning anything new, she found herself enjoying helping Buffy learn.
"You two aren't still in here, are you?" someone asked as they plopped into the seat beside Hermione.
Buffy looked up at Ron and nodded. "Strangely enough, yes," she replied dryly.
Harry took the seat beside Buffy and leant across her to see what they were trying to learn. He smiled as he remembered learning the spell that Hermione was trying to teach Buffy. A match into a needle, one of the basic spells, though somewhat pointless.
"So, how have your first two days been?" Harry asked politely.
Buffy shrugged and leant back in her seat, cracking her back a little as she straightened up.
"They haven't been too horrible yet. Snape's an alright teacher, except when he's trying to get me to make an idiot of myself."
Harry chuckled sympathetically. "No offence to you, but I'm just grateful that he's found someone else to pick on."
Buffy sighed and absently tucked a strand of hair behind her ears.
"I can just see him making the next five months of my a life a living nightmare," Buffy commented.
"What other subjects did you have?" Ron asked curiously. As much as he may not have liked or trusted Buffy, he was fascinated by her. She seemed like an interesting person.
"Transfigurations which was alright. Except that I'm taking it with a bunch of twelve year olds. And Divination," Buffy answered.
Ron and Harry groaned simultaneously, rolling their eyes.
"You take it as well, I'm guessing," Buffy said.
"Yeah," Harry replied. "Crazy old bat has predicted my death at least two hundred times."
"Well, you'll be happy to hear that another of your least favourite Professors has decided to start picking on me as well," Buffy commented.
Harry looked at her intently. He could understand why Trelawney would keep predicting his death. He'd had so many people try to kill him over the last few years, and the predictions made no difference to him. He couldn't, however, understand why Trelawney would be predicting the death of Buffy Summers.
"You didn't take her seriously did you?" Harry asked.
Buffy shook her head. "Honestly, I don't think that woman could predict tomorrow's date let alone any real event."
Harry sighed with relief. He remembered his initial panic the first time Trelawney had told him that he was going to die. He'd accustomed himself to it over the years, and he was just thankful that Buffy hadn't taken anything Trelawney had said to heart.
"I swear, if you had a galleon for every time that woman told you that you were going to die, you'd be a millionaire by now," Ron stated.
"A galleon?" Buffy repeated. "What's that?"
"Wizarding currency," Hermione replied. "There's knuts, sickles and galleons. Twenty-nine knuts to a sickle and seventeen sickles to a galleon."
"Well, that makes the kinda sense that…doesn't," Buffy said.
Harry laughed a little. He'd thought that the Wizarding money was strange as well. It made very little sense to him, but he wouldn't change it for anything.
"It gets easier with time," Harry assured her.
"Well, that's a relief."
"What's a relief?" asked a new voice from behind them. The three Gryffindors all groaned simultaneously, while Buffy just smiled and turned to greet Draco.
"Hey Draco. What's up?"
Draco moved to stand on the other side of the table, but refused to take a seat.
"You planning on coming back to the Common Room any time soon Summers?" he asked.
Buffy just shrugged and shook her head. "Not really. Hadn't thought about it. Later maybe."
Draco couldn't understand this. If he'd asked Pansy or any of the other Slytherin girls when they were coming back to the Common Room, they would have packed up their books and walked away with him. But Buffy seemed oblivious, and for some reason, it annoyed Draco to no end.
"Why not now?" he asked.
She looked at him curiously and then looked to the three Gryffindors.
"Cos I'm in the middle of something. Y'know, with the learning and the socialising. I'll catch up with you later," she said. She thought about it for a moment and grinned mischievously. "Unless you wanna join us?"
The panicked expressions of Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all identical and Buffy couldn't help but laugh.
"I'll see you at dinner Draco," Buffy said.
Draco just nodded and walked away, his eyes scrunched up in confusion. Buffy looked towards Harry, Ron and Hermione who were all still looking horrified.
"What did you do that for?" Ron asked. "What if he'd said yes?"
"One of these days, you three and him will have to sit down and talk about what exactly your problem is with each other," Buffy warned.
"He's a slimy git with no sense of what's right," Ron replied. "He's an evil smarmy bastard who thinks too highly of himself."
"I think you're wrong about that," Buffy said quietly.
Hermione wisely picked up on the fact that Buffy was about to get defensive if they began talking badly about Draco. She was quick to change the subject.
"Have you finished the reading for DADA?" Hermione asked.
Ron and Harry groaned, but Buffy just nodded. As much as she would have liked to have defied Ethan rather than do as he'd told the class to do, she knew that she couldn't step out of line, even for Ethan Rayne. He would delight in getting her expelled from Hogwarts, and she didn't want to give him a reason just yet. She still had her payback planned, but it wouldn't get her into trouble.
"It was actually pretty interesting," Buffy commented.
"Interesting?" Ron repeated. "What's so interesting about learning about vampires that we're never going to meet?"
"What happens if you do meet one though?" Buffy asked. "I mean, you can't just assume that you're never going to meet a vamp. Plus it always helps to separate fact from fiction. A lot of what people believe about vamps usually isn't right."
"Like what?" Harry asked curiously.
"Well the coffin thing for one," Buffy replied. "What self-respecting vampire would sleep in a coffin? A crypt, yeah, but not in an actual coffin. Talk about too many fright-night movies."
Hermine laughed a little. "All those different versions of Dracula are a little…hokey."
Buffy grinned and stretched languidly, one hand covering a yawn. Her stomach growled softly and she looked at the other three.
"Dinner?"
Harry and Ron were on their feet in an instant and the four of them moved out of the library, down towards the Great Hall.
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Much thanks for the wonderful reviews! Although I really wasn't kidding hwne I asked for help on the sequel to A Murderer's Daughter. I've really got no good dideas for it…am thinking of not writing it unless I can come up with a good plot line… *hint hint people*
Toodles.