Some Interesting Matches

Chapter 3: Unfogging the Future

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were interrupted from their thoughts as the bell rung for their first class.

Ginny, for the first time ever, was thankful she was a year below Harry. This would make avoiding him a lot easier.

Ron and Hermione, however, were a different story. They had their very first class, Trelawney's, together. As Ron walked to Trelawney's loft with Harry, he cursed who ever had decided to make "Unfogging the Future" a requirement to graduate from Hogwarts undoubtedly not be taking the course with Ron and Harry.

Hermione was having similar thoughts as she left the library for the upstairs loft. Thinking about Ron, she didn't realize Ginny was in front of her until she smacked right into her.

"Oh! Sorry Hermione!" Ginny apologized. "I didn't see you." Hermione bent to pick up her Arithmancy book as she said, "That's alright. It was my fault, too."

Both girls were so preoccupied with their own thoughts, they didn't notice how anxious the other one was.

A few minutes later, Hermione arrived in the loft, flushed and breathing hard. "Sorry I'm late," she announced without looking at Ron. "I ran into Ginny – literally."

"Take a seat, take a seat," Professor Trelawney told her, gesturing towards the empty one beside Ron. Ignoring the Professor, Hermione swung around and took a seat alone by the window.

"Now that everyone is here," Trelawney continued. "We will be doing a rather… unique activity today. I will call out your partners – each group will have two boys and two girls – and the groups will move their tables together. Once we have completed this, I will give you your instructions to begin. First group: Neville, Ron, Lavender, and…" Trelawney looked around for another girl and found Hermione sitting alone. "…and Hermione," she finished.

She continued calling out various people, but neither Ron, Hermione, Lavender, nor Neville heard anything else. Instead, they just moved their tables together. Hermione sat down next to Neville, across from Ron. They all spent the next few minutes staring at their hands as Trelawney finished calling out groups.

Neville, the only one not looking at his hands, was instead staring at Lavender, who refused to look at him.

"Now that you are all in your groups," said Trelawney, "we can begin today's activity. As everyone should know by now, one's eyes are the key to one's soul. A true seer, like I, can tell you your deepest thoughts just by looking into your eyes."

Oh, no, thought Ron. I don't like where this is going. "Today we are all going to try this. Now, look into the person's eyes sitting right across from you and tell them what you see."

Hermione reluctantly raised her eyes to Ron's. "Ron," she said in a strangled voice. When he didn't say anything in return, the two sat in silence for the next few minutes. An extremely awkward silence.

"So… Hermione… how has your day been so far?" Ron was hinting. He desperately wanted to know what she was thinking.

"OK," she replied, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably. "So did you see anything?" she asked, meaning did he see anything "seer-like" in her eyes.

"Yeah-I-saw-the-results," Ron said quickly, his words tumbling over each other. "I meant my…you did? What…what did you…?" Hermione realized he had thought she was referencing the common board matches.

A/N: And I'm going to leave you here, with no idea what's going to happen. Sorry! Also, sorry if there's any errors, typing a story and talking on the phone at the same time is a bit hard. But… maybe I'll update a little faster if you tell me what you think… hinthint :)