Chapter 7- Looking into the Crystal Ball
Stella Kuo watched as strands of her stick-straight black hair fell out from behind her ears and onto her face. She knew it was a waste of her time to come to Beauxbatons Academy for the Triwizard Tournament. She had known for months that she wasn't going to be the Champion for Hogwarts, just as she had known that there would be four Champions at the previous one. This was because Stella was a Seer, and not a crackpot like their garish teacher Trelawney. When Stella had a dream, she knew it had a meaning. When she looked into a Crystal Ball, she saw the future. She had learned to read the stars from Firenze the centaur. Unlike most of the other girls, who continued to take Divination to have him as their teacher, Stella respected him for his talents. In her opinion, having the body of a horse was a turn-off.
But Stella came because everyone expected her to come. And as the half-giantess, Madam Maxine, talked about the purpose of the Tournament, Stella occupied herself with her hair. As more hair fell, she saw less and less people. Just as everyone turned to watch the Goblet spit out its first name, the only Durmstrang student Stella could see was the largest one.
"Brutuz Maximuz," Madam Maxime read the name aloud and the boy Stella could see smiled and accepted applause from the three schools.
More of her hair fell, and she could only see one Beauxbatons student. It was that girl with the brown hair and the buckle black boots.
"Gage La Monnoye," Madam Maxime read the second name and the applause erupted again, though it was considerably less due to the fact that the Beauxbatons students clearly did not want this girl to win.
Stella watched as the rest of her view was obstructed. Aside from her and her overweight friend, Theresa Whitby, all the other Hogwarts students sat in a large group. Her hair quickly fell and she could only see one boy.
"No way," Stella said brushing her hair out of her face.
"What is it?" Theresa asked, ready in case her name was called.
"Dennis is going to be the Hogwarts Champion," Stella said quietly.
"No way," Theresa reciprocated.
The Goblet spit out its final name and the flames died. Madam Maxime read aloud, "Denniz Creevey."
"Damn you and your Seer skills," Theresa sighed. "Will I ever be 60 kilograms or less?" Theresa often asked Stella random questions about her flaws hoping to know she would be better in the future.
"If I say yes, you'll not do anything to work for it so it won't happen," Stella was always prepared to give an indirect answer to these questions, "and if I say no, you won't do anything because you won't think it will happen. If you want to be less than 60 kilograms then work out and eat healthier."
"If you say so Richard Simmons," Theresa growled and put the piece of candy she had just picked up back down.
"Who's that?" Stella asked, licking fudge off her fingers. Stella was pureblood and did not mind admitting she didn't know something about Muggles here or there. But if someone accused her of being wrong, she would begin a fight to prove herself correct.
"Never mind," Theresa sighed. "Of all the people, it had to be Dennis. The boy shouldn't have even come here. You heard what happened this summer, right? And from what I heard from Kevin, Dennis witnessed the whole fight."
"Yeah, and…?" Stella had seen this in a dream the night before it had happened. She had not interpreted the dream entirely until it was too late.
"What don't you know?" Theresa asked, annoyed that Stella was still shoving more candy in her mouth and didn't have to worry about gaining too much weight.
"Who Richard Simmons is," Stella reminded Theresa. Theresa held back a laugh.
"Well, I'm not telling you," Theresa raised her eyebrows threateningly. "At least there is something I know that you don't."
"That's fine," Stella said. "By the way, steer clear of your brother tonight, he's going to target your hair with a wad of gum."
Theresa's face began to boil red in anger. "The little squirt had better not. If he does, it will be his last day on Earth."
The feast slowly drew to a close, and finally everyone stood up and left the dining hall. Stella and Theresa walked slowly, waiting for the rest of the Hogwarts students to catch up to them.
"How are my two favorite seventh year females doing?" Leo Pasts was hardly as tall as Stella, not to mention several inches shorter than Theresa was. He walked between them and placed an arm around each of their shoulders.
"What do you want, Pasts?" Theresa asked. She lifted his arm off her and allowed it to drop back to Pasts side.
Pasts rubbed his bald head with his freed hand and gave a nervous laugh. He looked up at Theresa and then turned to Stella. She couldn't help but melt in his light blue eyes. If there was one boy who she would consider dating, it would be Leo. However, dating was not on Stella's agenda any where in the near future.
"I need to ask you a question, Stella," Pasts said quietly. He waited a moment, the turned to Theresa, "Privately would be preferred."
Theresa rolled her eyes and walked to the group of the other Hogwarts students.
"You wanted to know something?" Stella asked hesitantly.
"So, I was thinking about having a party, but Dumbledore would have to be away for an extended period of time, say, ten hours."
"And…" Stella was afraid what Pasts wanted her to do almost.
"Any possibility you could use those Seer powers to find out when he will be gone for that long?"
"It doesn't work like that and you know it," Stella protested. She looked at Pasts smiling face, his round cheeks, his shining eyes. "I'll tell you if I See anything."
"Thank you," Pasts said and retreated back to the rest of the Hogwarts students.
Stella rolled her eyes in annoyance at herself. She knew very well that only Ravenclaws would ever help Slytherins to break rules, and now she was just adding herself to the list of the Ravenclaws that had.
There was a scream behind her as she reached the door of the train. "Kevin, you bastard. I'm going to kill you, stop running away, wuss. Do you know how long it takes to get gum out of hair?" When would Theresa learn?