Disclaimer: Don't own nothing. Pandora won in her official complaint so I can't even claim her. She is her own self and had given me permission to utilise her in this story. I'm not making nothing from this.

*A big thankyou to Jagged Epiphany for allowing me to spider-sit Princess for a while.

Chapter 17: Trelawney Sees Red

'Hey, I have divination with you and Harry after breakfast.' Pandora sort of said between mouthfuls of porridge with dried fruit.

Ron nodded, his own mouth too full to do anything but stretch into what looked like an attempt at smiling.

'Trelawney is a bit you know.' Harry gave the universal signal for loopy.

'All you really have to do to pass the subject is predict terrible things that are going to happen to you.' Ron added, finally getting breakfast down his oesophagus.

Pandora looked up at Harry, who had suddenly found his spoon very interesting.

'Great.' Pandora said, making Harry's eyes shoot up and stare at her, as if all the little mechanisms in his head suddenly reached the same forgone conclusion.

'You.' It wasn't a question, it wasn't an accusation, it was purely a statement; the mouth confirming the conclusion of the head.

Pandora looked at him, her steady eyes holding his, telling him to shut up, things would be explained in time.

Silence had sat down and joined the company; the entire table had quietened down and watched the strange goings on among two fifth year Gryffindors. The boy-who-lived was still, incredulously staring at the strange new Australian girl across from him who was coolly staring back.

'Later.' She said in a tone borrowed from Severus Snape.

Harry accepted this and looked away, up to the head table noticing Dumbeldore's pensive glance in his direction. Dumbeldore sensed the strange air among some in his former house and realised there was a need for explanations and soon.

The perfect break of silence came with the owls entering the Great Hall, shrieking and hooting in conversations that only they understood. One weird looking bird dropped a package in Pandora's lap.

'Thanks Wagga.' Pandora smiled up at her unusual owl, which many of the students were staring at, some of them quite frightened.

'What in the blazers was that?' Ron was trying to hide his fear, but failed slightly because he robe sleeves were now wading around in what was left of his porridge.

'That was Wagga. She's my Tawny-Frogmouth, my familiar.' Pandora smiled at everyone's rather confused faces. 'I'll show you.'

The flock of owls were circling like homing pigeons nearing their coop. Pandora jumped up onto a chair, her dark locks tickling Ron's nose on the way. A low musical whistle joined the noise of flapping wings.

'Wagga, quit being a bloody galah.' She yelled to just about everyone's surprise.

'I thought she said it was a Tawny-Frogmouth.' Ron said to the table.

'Ron I think that Pandora is back home at the moment in her mind. A galah is Australian slang for a stupid thing or a clown.' Hermione looked up at Pandora who was still standing on her chair but now gently stroking one unusual looking bird.

'How come she knows so much?' Ron questioned the table once more.

Pandora stepped down, and Wagga eyed off her curious audience. 'Ron, you're such a dag.'

Ron's eyes were rapidly morphing into those of a bug. 'I'm a what?'

'I believe Mr. Weasley that Miss Romulus just called you sheep excrement.' Snape had appeared at

Pandora's side without anyone even noticing he had left the teachers table.

A couple of his fellow Slytherins sneered at his remark.

Ron looked at Pandora, who smiled warmly at Snape. Her warmth hitting his ice almost caused a visible streak of lightning.

'Oh Ron. Back home it's a term of endearment. It means that you are a …um, well it means that you are a sweet incorrigible person.' She tickled Wagga's chin, who was lapping up the attention.

'Miss Romulus, Mr. Potter, Professor Dumbeldore has requested your presence at lunchtime in his office. Someone will collect you from here at the commencement of lunch.' Snape turned and headed for his own house table, but not before giving Wagga a look that probably should have killed her.

Harry looked up at the Headmaster, who smiled in return.

"I wonder what this is all about.' Ron looked up and caught the quick glance between Harry and Pandora.

'I guess we'll find out at lunch.' Replied Harry, looking at Wagga. 'What is she exactly Pandora?'

Pandora smiled at her table, all of whom appeared to be staring at the animated log resting on her hand. 'This is Wagga, named after where I found her back home. She is a Tawny-Frogmouth, which is a type of nightjar, cousin to the owl. It's strange actually because we didn't tend to use owls for mail back home cause they aren't exactly common. I found her on a holiday, she had fallen out of her nest which her mother had abandoned, so I looked after her and she became my familiar.'

'Cool.' Seamus went to touch her, Wagga looked at him indignantly. Pandora gestured to Seamus; Wagga jumped over to him and raised her head.

'She wants you to scratch her neck. Just keep your wand away from her Seamus.'

Seamus obeyed and tickled her slowly, Wagga evidently loving every second.

'She's a strange colour.' Pavrati drawled.

'It's not very pretty.' Lavendar added.

Hermione stared at them, remembering comments they made about Crookshanks when she had first got him. "I think Wagga is cool. It's amazing you found her Pandora with that sort of camouflage.'

Pandora smiled at Hermione, the reinforcement of the friendship bond gladly acknowledged. The bond was totally absent with the two other fifth year Gryffindor girls.

'Thanks Hermione. I only found her because she was making so much bloody noise. Rotten show off.'

Wagga was surrounded by onlookers and petters, she lapped it up like the natural heir to some forgotten throne, her regal head held high.

'You wouldn't think that Tawnys were actually quite shy by nature, would you? Come on Wagga, back to the warm corner of the owlery.'

Wagga looked at her beloved owner reproachfully.

'Don't you look at me like that, we have classes to go to. Go on.'

Wagga lifted and left aware of her new legion of fans watching her every move.

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The Divination class sat quietly anticipating Professor Trelawney's mystical entrance. Lavendar and Pavrati were ready to burst, each one flanking Pandora and bubbling over like an unwatched cauldron. Pandora stared at each one incredulously and then over at Ron and Harry, who were smiling at her without actually looking in her direction. They knew she didn't share the other girls enthusiasm for divination and they wondered at her motive for being in the class at all. Well Ron did anyway. After breakfast Harry had a clue or two, but wasn't about to say anything.

Suddenly a gentle vanilla smelling mauve smoke was emanated from one corner of the room and Trelawney stepped though it, all organdie and lace.

'Good morning my students aspiring for the gift.'

Pandora rolled her eyes.

'I see that we have a new young one among us. Come my dear let me look at you.'

Pandora obediently stood and walked over to her new divination mistress. She looked into Sibyll Trelawney's eyes and almost laughed aloud. Trelawney had used a glamour charm, changing her eyes to a light purple which perfectly matched her organdie gown. The stars on the gown twinkled at her. Pandora was willing to bet her dress robes that she wasn't seeing Sibyll's natural hair colour either.

'OH my dear child, you poor thing. I foresee pain, terrible pain. Beware of unfamiliar corners. Strange things lurk in areas that the unseeing eye misses.' Her voice was light and airy, or what Pandora would have defined as flaky. 'What star sign are you Pandora?'

Pandora smiled, she was actually a cusp and neither actually suited her personality. 'I'm a cusp between Capricorn and Aquarius.'

Trelawney allowed a gently mysterious smile to play her face. 'Ahh, a student with an interest of all things divine. Perhaps this is to be expected from someone with such an old mythological name. Now my dear, I want you to look at me and attempt to foretell a future occurrence.'

The mischief glistened across Pandora's face; her eyes lighting up with a devilry perhaps only matched by the Weasley twins. "I see a furrowed brow….'

Professor Trelawney looked at her waiting, anticipating. But Pandora said nothing and the high lady of divinations grew impatient. She grimaced and a couple of the class members snickered.

'What else?' she said quite coldly.

'I see a beast with two backs, it looks like it is having some kind of fit and it is moaning loudly. The colours are strange, mauve and black intermingled. Now I see you talking to Professor Snape, you are resting your hand on his arm; he is pulling away coldly. He looks angry.'

We could say that Pandora hit a nerve unintentionally. Professor Trelawney was starting to look mad, really mad. Her ruffled organdie altered into a deep purple, one of the stars on her gown burst into a supernova and her eyes darkened accordingly. 'Relations between Professors should not be the topic of student gossip. I do not like your false insinuation into what is essentially a private matter. Gryffindor loses 10 points.' The misty voice was misty no more; it was actually kind of gravelly.

'Trelawney is just upset at the idea of Snape being unimpressed with her horizontal dance moves.' Ron cheekily whispered to Harry, who was covering his mouth and going red because of the difficulty of withholding a belly laugh.

'Ron Weasley, Gryffindor loses another 5 points for you're being such a smart arse.' Trelawney snapped.

But Pandora wasn't finished. She had pre-prepared for what she was going to predict to Trelawney and therefore already had her comeback prepared as well. 'Is divination not the art of prying into what is someone else's business? Isn't the way that someone is going to die also a private matter and not for the world to know? To the ancient Egyptians death was revered much greater than life and therefore probably far more private!'

Trelawney was more than surprised, Lavendar and Pavrati looked as though their made up faces were about to slide off.

'I predict two more things Madam Trelawney.' Pandora hadn't prepared this, but had just had a revelation or two. Her eyes glowed strangely in the crimson light. 'The girls in the class are going to start screaming in about thirty seconds and I am going to visit Headmaster Dumbeldore today ahead of schedule.'

Pandora calmly sat back down watching one corner, but now on a pouffle next to Ron as her former female companions had now fused together and shuffled away disgusted, her former chintz armchair filled with angry fashion victims.

Trelawney looked at Pandora, aghast at what to say. Should she deduct more points for this arrogant Aussie telling her a couple of home truths or just pretend that it hadn't happened at all? That questioned was answered for her when Lavendar let out a terrified scream.

Pandora smiled triumphantly.

Pavrati looked at what Lavendar was screaming at and jumped up on her chair and proceeded to join in the unpleasant chorus. A couple of boys paled and slowly moved out of the way of what was the biggest spider they had ever seen paying a divine visit to a classroom.

Ron was losing freckles at a rapid pace and was using Harry to guard him from the large creature casually strolling across the floor. It was only some recess of Ron's ego that stopped him from screaming also.

'Someone kill it!' Lavendar shrieked.

'No!' Harry bellowed in reply. 'That's Princess, Lee's spider, you can't kill her.' But he wasn't about to do anything either.

Pandora grinned at the pandemonium around her. What a bunch of wusses for screaming at this spider. Sure it was bigger than most of the arachnids back home, but it was also harmless. Pandora walked over slowly to Princess who had started for Trelawney's vanilla corner and gently picked her up. The class collectively recoiled.

'Pandora, what pray tell are you going to do with it?' Trelawney looked disgustedly at the girl caressing the fine hairs on the spider's back.

'I thought I'd look after her till the end of the lesson. Tell you what, she's a fair bit heavier than the Daddy Long Legs I used to tease back home.'

'Right, well. I think that perhaps you should instead find Lee Jordan and give him back his pet.'

Pandora headed for the door and smiled wildly at the class on pouffles and armchairs, looking at her as if she had just announced she was about to have Hagrid's love child.

'Will you be returning Miss Romulus?' The mist had returned.

'Nah. I reckon I'll go and pay Prof Dumbeldore a visit. Cheeya Trelawney.'

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