Chapter 16: The Mystic Art of Divination

Divination was held in a small room at the top of the north tower, seemingly only accessible by rope ladder. Luna had arrived quite early, mainly because she had nowhere else to be that morning. She definitely had not broken into the classroom well before Professor Trelawney arrived because she was looking forward to studying divination. She was only taking the class to get some understanding of her dreams… something she was paradoxically excited for and terrified of. She hadn't had any dreams in over a year, since before Pumpernickel's death, but they were something she could not completely forget about, no matter how much she wished to. It was like an itch she couldn't help but scratch. A blister she couldn't help but poke. A scab she couldn't help but pick, regardless of the scar that would inevitably form. She didn't want to find the answers, but she needed to know why. She needed to understand.

A voice broke through her reverie. "What are you doing? How did you get up here?"

Luna looked up to see a witch who she assumed was Sybil Trelawney, Professor of Divination at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "I'm taking your 9:00 class."

"But how did you…" Professor Trelawney gave her a strange look. "The door was locked."

"Well… I… it doesn't matter that much, does it? I'm here already. Is it alright if I stay here until class starts?"

"I suppose." The instructor turned to stroke the fire in the wide hearth on the side of the room. She tossed some powder into the flames and the room was filled with a thin, perfumed haze. She filled a copper kettle with water and… started preparing tea? Well, Luna assumed she would find out in good time.

A few dozen minutes later – maybe she had been a bit too early – the other students for the class started making their way up the rope ladder into the classroom. Ginny drifted over to Luna's table. "Hey, Luna. Mind if we sit here?"

"Not at all," Luna replied, glancing at the two other Gryffindor students accompanying her.

"So, I guess we might as well get introductions out of the way," Ginny said. "Luna, this Jack and this is Lucy. Jack and Lucy, this is Luna. We grew up together."

"It's nice to meet you," Lucy mumbled.

"Likewise."

"Why are you wearing a butterbeer cap necklace?" Jack cut in.

"Jack! What is wrong with you?" Lucy scolded.

"Hey, I'm just curious."

"It's rude."

"Why is it rude?" Luna asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

"Um… well…," Lucy stumbled, casting a frantic glance at Ginny. "You see…"

Ginny couldn't hold her straight face any longer and broke out laughing, to Lucy and Jack's shock. "Luna, that was priceless."

"Thank you," Luna replied with a smile.

"Can someone explain what is going on here?" Jack asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," Luna replied. "And to answer your earlier question, the necklace was a gift."

"So Luna, what do you think of Dumbledore's announcement last night?"

"I think it is a bit surprising for the school to be holding the Triwizard Tournament this year. After all, England already held the Quidditch World Cup. It has probably been such a hassle for the Ministry," Luna replied. She failed to mention that the tournament offered another semi-reasonable explanation for her father's source that the Ministry had filed paperwork for the import of three dragons, too few for the long-planned wizarding takeover of Gringotts, but the perfect number for the tournament.

"I'm not talking about the tournament. I'm talking about the Quidditch Cup being canceled!"

"Ginny, the only other person who cares about this is Demelza. For Merlin's sake, you're not even on the team!" Jack said.

"I'm just trying to get Luna's opinion!"

"No one else cares!"

"Stop fighting guys," Lucy sighed.

"Well," Luna replied thoughtfully, "I suppose the obvious reason is to let Hogwarts present a united front against the other schools. Without the Quidditch Cup dividing the houses, we could all band together in support of the school champion. On the other hand, banding together against the other schools would run a bit contrary to the goal of the tournament to promote international wizarding cooperation. If the headmaster thinks we can't set aside our differences within the school with a competition, how does he expect us to be able to become friends with a different school… Maybe there is another reason for canceling it… A scheduling conflict seems like something that would be too simple to resolve, so that can't be it… Maybe they need the pitch for something…"

Lucy tapped her on the shoulder and whispered, "Luna, sorry but class is starting."

And so it was. Luna tried to listen to Professor Trelawney's introductory lecture, but she had a hard time focusing. All the talk of mystic vibrations just sounded so… hollow. Even the history lectures from Professor Binns, despite putting most of the class instantly to sleep, had more substance. More depth… It just sounded like a show. A performance for the sake of the students without any real meaning. Maybe it was just this stupid perfumed smell the air had taken on. It made Luna feel lightheaded… a bit… sleepy…

"Tea?"

"What?" Luna snapped out of her daze.

"Here, have a cup," Ginny said, handing Luna a hot cup of murky brown tea.

"Um… why?"

"Did you fall asleep?"

"I suppose I must have… That is rather strange. I don't usually fall asleep in classes."

"It's probably just one of those days," Lucy replied.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Ginny asked, fixing Luna with a significant stare.

"Yeah," Luna replied, giving an almost imperceptible shake of her head. This was not a case of possession. She had just dozed off, although it was a bit concerning that Ginny was still seeing signs of her own past trauma in other people. "So we're supposed to be reading each other's tea leaves, right?"

"Yes," Lucy replied. "Drink up. You can read mine while I read yours."

Luna gulped the tea down, grimacing at its rather bitter taste, until only the dregs remained at the bottom of her cup. She handed over the cup to Lucy, who began rapidly flipping through the pages of Unfogging the Future while carefully inspecting the cup.

On the other side of the table, Ginny and Jack were coming up with increasingly absurd interpretations of each other's cups. "You see this cluster in the bottom corner," Jack pointed out, "That looks like a pile of Galleons which apparently means you should expect to suddenly come into great wealth."

"I wish," Ginny replied. "You see this ring on the side, it almost looks like a cup. Maybe you're going to become the Hogwarts champion?"

"I can't because Dumbledore said that only those of age can participate. If you're going to be mean, then this cluster of sticks could be…"

"I can't find anything real in your cup," Lucy said as she put the cup back on the table, "and unlike these two knuckleheads, I'm not going to make things up. What can you see in mine?"

Luna looked down at the cup. The tea leaves seemed random, like every other cup she had seen in the past, but maybe – she tilted her head to the side to get a better view – there was a pattern. "Well, there is the picture of a small mountain over here, signifying power to come. The round boulder near it would symbolize the weight of responsibility, probably associated with the power. The snake biting its own tail indicates that there will be a bit of time before any of this comes to pass. On the other side of the cup is a squiggly road with a fork for a difficult choice to come. On one side is a candle for light and hope to others while on the other is a dove for personal peace and security. So the choice will be between something for yourself and something for others."

Luna looked up at the other three members of the table. They were all staring at her with their mouths open. "That's all I got."

"Luna, you didn't look in the textbook at all."

Panic flashed across Luna's mind. She had gotten so caught up in examining the cup that she forgot anyone else was listening. She should have been more careful. Did they suspect anything? How should she play this? It was a Divination class after all. "I looked through it before class," she lied with a small shrug.

"Well can you take a look at mine?" Ginny asked.

In for the Knut, in for the Galleon. "Sure."

Luna took the cup and stared at its murky depths. It was not a happy cup. "Everything is arrayed around the center. There are several clouds of Wackspurts on the periphery as if drawn to the strong emotions…"

"Luna, Wackspurts don't exist."

"I thought those were stacks of Galleons."

"… and the center of the cup is surrounded by storm clouds signifying conflict and turmoil. The lightning both signify action and connect the turmoil to center… The broken circle with the triangle inside means it's internal." Luna looked up at Ginny with eyes filled with concern.

Ginny whispered, "I'm fine. This probably already happened."

Luna nodded, but deep down, she knew that wasn't the case. The ring of clouds was building, not breaking apart as she would have expected from a past trauma. Whatever this was, it hadn't happened yet, and, based on the thickness of the clouds, it would either need to break soon or be really really bad.

"Do you want Luna to read your cup Jack," Lucy asked.

"Nah, I don't particularly care to know what my future holds."

Ginny looked up from her cup. "Then why did you take this class?"

"Same reason as Colin. Everyone said it was an easy joke class."

"Speaking of Colin, where is he?" Lucy asked, looking around the room.

"He's sitting with Alex, Vicky, and some Hufflepuffs in the back-left corner."

"Why didn't he come and sit with us? He hasn't been weird around me since early last year." Ginny asked.

"That's not it. You said during breakfast that you wanted to sit with Luna, and he got a bit nervous," Jack explained vaguely.

Lucy and Ginny seemed to understand what he meant. "Because of the…"

"Yeah."

Luna was curious what they were talking about, but even Jack – who seemed to have very little tact – was sensitive to keep it vague. They obviously didn't want her to know. She was saved from asking the question by the arrival of Professor Trelawney to check in on how they were doing.

"Alright," Lucy replied. "Luna seems to have a real talent at reading tea leaves. None of us have been able to see much in the cups."

"May I see your cup dear," the professor asked. Lucy handed her Luna's cup. The professor gave a small gasp and turned to Luna. "My dear, I think we are destined to have tea this afternoon. I'll see you in my office at four."

Before Luna could ask why they needed to have tea or even how to get to her office, Professor Trelawney walked away.

"That was weird," Jack stated.

Luna couldn't help but agree. She looked down into her cup to try to see what the professor must have seen, but there were no unusual patterns. The dregs had fallen into a simple oval lining the base of the mug with a small dot in the center.


Upon returning to the Ravenclaw common room, Luna quickly discovered that none of the other students had ever been to Professor Trelawney's office. The best advice she was able to get was from a prefect who guessed the office must be in the North Tower, close to the divination classroom.

So, Luna found herself wandering the upper floors of the castle until she came across a familiar painting.

"Good evening, sir knight. It has been far too long," Luna said, addressing the painting of a knight on a rather squat pony.

"Ah, my dear lady, it is a blessed evening for you have returned to the grounds of my castle. It has indeed been far too long since you have graced these rolling plains," the painting replied.

"My humblest apologies, sir knight. I shall endeavor to try to visit you more often. However, I have little time. I have been summoned to the study of the Seer."

"The Seer's study! Surely you must mean the magnificent lecture hall at the top of this mountain."

"My pardon, sir knight, but my instructions were very specific. It is the Seer's study that I seek."

"It has been many years since one has sought the Oracle, but you are clearly of pure heart and the need must be great. Pay no heed to the dangers and let the quest begin!" The knight shouted and charged off the side of his frame as quickly as the pony could carry him.

The knight made several turns, and the path often doubled back on the corridor where they had already traveled. Luna started to suspect that maybe it had not been the best idea to ask Sir Cadogan for help, but she had already committed. She just hoped she would not arrive too late to the tea.

Eventually, the corridor started to slope upwards, and Luna climbed the narrow spiral staircase to where the Divination class had been held that morning. She was decidedly irritated at the knight. If he was just going to lead her to the classroom, then she could have been here over ten minutes ago.

The paintings became farther and farther apart. The knight and his pony seemed to jump between frames, and Luna had to climb faster and faster to keep up. They came to a sudden stop on a landing with a narrow wooden door set into the wall. How odd. She had walked past it this morning yet hadn't noticed it was here at all. She knocked on the door and opened it in response to Professor Trelawney's call of "Come in."

As the door slid open, she could see out of the corner of her eye the knight waving his arms trying to catch her attention. While normally she would have enjoyed more banter with the knight, she really didn't have time. The door swung shut with a heavy thunk behind her.

Luna found herself standing in a cozy sitting room. A warm fire blazed in the hearth, and in the middle of the room stood a small table with two chairs. Luna sat in the unoccupied chair and accepted the cup of tea from her professor. She took a polite sip and asked, "What was it you wanted to speak with me about?"

"As you know, my dear, I teach the mystic art of divination. Sadly, most of the students that pass through my classroom have little talent or ability to See. It is truly rare for me to find one with such a strong, clear inner eye."

"I'm not sure what you mean," Luna replied, taking another polite sip of tea.

"Don't you dear. Well let me be a bit clearer. There are many levels to divination. The most basic level is the use of objects to interpret things relating to another person or the surrounding world. This includes magical aids such as reading tea leaves, palmistry, crystal ball gazing, Tarot cards and others. It can be taught to almost anyone with a sufficiently open mind and is even quantifiable in some ways with keys such as the one used in class today to interpret tea leaves. However, these guides are not necessary and, in many cases, can hinder the true interpretation by one who can see beyond the mundane. Like you did in class today."

Oh no. So she really did make a mistake this morning. On the other hand, this was a teacher. Someone who could explain how the dreams worked. Who better for her to trust? But she still made a promise. "I still don't quite follow."

"No? well, beyond the use of tools, the next level related to the use of dreams. This too, I try to teach in my classes, as even normal dreams can have significance beyond their simple appearance. Many witches and wizards can accidentally breach the veil while asleep and briefly See the world. However, it takes some innate ability to be able to see the difference between the truth and fantasy. Even to those with the inner eye, the meaning is not always clear. However, those who can See often find themselves Dreaming when they let their minds open. Have you ever Dreamed, Ms. Lovegood?"

Luna didn't trust herself to respond. This indecision was crippling. She should be able to trust her teacher, but something held her back. She took another sip of the tea. The air felt heavier than it did before. It had a faint, perfumed scent.

"Prophecy is the final stage of the Sight. The inner eye overwhelms the host and tells someone else the Truth about the world that they must know. Prophecies are rare and the contents are never remembered by the Seer. It is not for them to know. Only for the intended recipient. For Seers are simply tools of the inner eye."

The air was definitely heavier. The perfumes scent, stronger. It was becoming difficult to breathe.

"The Sight is so rare – so precious – that it is a shame to see one who has forced their inner eye almost closed."

Something was very wrong. She couldn't breathe. The world was… bending… blurring. Her thoughts felt sluggish. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing, my dear. I simply opened your Eye."

The world fell into darkness.


Luna was… floating, for lack of a better word. Oh, she knew full well that her body was sitting, slumped over in the chair in Trelawney's office, but her mind was floating free in blackness. She could feel the space: the vast expanse of nothingness that surrounded her. Everything felt so big, and she felt so… insignificant, dwarfed by the vast space. But it wasn't really empty. There were other things there. Everything was there. Close, yet far away. As her mind expanded, her vision sharpened. She stared out into the blackness, but it wasn't just empty anymore.

A girl with dark black hair, an old friend, stood with her wand drawn and a face like a thundercloud. The girl had never drawn her wand meaning violence, but now she had. Her face was not meant to be that angry, yet it was.

Four called forth by the ancient flame. Yet the contract was only meant for three and only three would return.

A ghost pulled on a living soul, threatening to consume from within what it had once failed to take directly. But the ghost was not there. Only a single soul.

A lost boy who only ever knew fear, yet who had once been told he was brave, surrendered to the darkness believing there was no atonement.

A shredded soul, a severed hand, and a desiccated bone bound together by screaming blood.

A bolt of lightning struck a tall tower. The ground wept, the sky roiled, and the flames grew higher and higher. Yet the tower did not weep, for it had been planned.

A silver doe held a sword to honor two promises.

A boy who believed he was nobody stood alone against a wall of darkness, knowing he would fail, because it was the right thing to do. Yet he made three mistakes that changed everything.

A girl knelt sobbing by a coffin above which stood a crystal prize. Yet it never had been worth the cost.


Luna's eyes slowly focused on the table. Her head was pounding, like a muscle stretched too far. She was still sitting in the chair. The half-finished cup of tea – with a thin wisp of steam still rising – sat where she had put it down on the table. Only a few minutes had passed, but it felt like an eternity.

They were back. After over a year, they were back. After all that fear, they were back, and it was that woman's fault. That woman sitting across from her.

Luna bolted upright, grabbing her wand from behind her ear. The chair tumbled to the ground behind her. She pointed the wand at the witch who sat there studying her as if a puzzle. "What did you do to me?!"

"Nothing, my dear. I simply helped you relax and open your mind. Your inner eye did the rest all on its own."

"No! I didn't want it! I never wanted it!" Luna screamed at the teacher.

"My dear, you may have tried to hold your inner eye shut, but it would eventually have sprung open like a bottle under pressure. I simply helped it along and reduced the backlash."

"Do you know how many people this made me hurt? Do you know how much I suffered just to get rid of it?"

"The inner eye sees only the truth, and sometimes the truth can be painful."

"I never wanted this curse!"

"It's not a curse, my dear. It is a gift."

"Don't tell me it's a gift! It only ever hurt people. I only ever hurt people. But I was finally free of it. AND NOW YOU GAVE IT BACK!"

"I did nothing of the sort. It is a part of you."

Luna looked down at her shaking hand and saw the wand. What was she doing? Yelling at a teacher. Pointing her wand at a teacher. This was too much. Things were out of control. She needed to escape. She needed to get away. So Luna did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

A haunting voice echoed down the hallway behind her. "You can try to run, Ms. Lovegood. But you can't run from yourself."


Luna didn't stop running. The halls of the castle blurred by. People stared, but she didn't notice. She needed to get away, but there was nowhere for her to go. The crazy hag was right. She couldn't run from herself.

Yet Luna ran faster. The castle fell away to an open field which in turn surrendered to a stand of tall trees. Branches tried to grab her. Roots tried to trip her. Yet she ran faster and faster. She needed to get away.

Away.

A dark shape moved from the trees. Luna stumbled and fell, scraping both her knees. She struggled to sit up, and the dark shape resolved itself into a dark wing skeletal horse with deep blue eyes. Midnight.

Midnight let out a gentle moan and tipped his head down and licked the blood off of her knees, one at a time. He tapped her elbow and licked it as well. Luna hadn't even realized she had scrapped it.

After cleaning her wounds, Midnight gently tapped her head with his, but Luna shook her head. "Thank you, but I don't feel up to going with you now. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I'm just so tired."

Midnight rose onto his hind legs, letting out a loud screech while beating his wings. Leaves whipped up off the forest floor, scattering into the blackness in a series of small tornados. He leaned down and tapped her on the back with his head.

"No, Midnight. Not now."

Midnight ignored her, and gently but firmly bit down on her sleeve, pulling her to her feet.

"Alright. I'll go with you."

Midnight let go of her arm and gave a very satisfied shriek. Luna leaned on the Thestral as he led her deeper into the forest.

Luna's knees still stung badly, so progress was slow, but they eventually reached the clearing where a large portion of the Thestral herd had gathered. As soon as she arrived, Spot and Dot, the two young – but no longer small – Thestrals walked up to her, sticking their heads into her hands and pockets. Midnight settled to the ground to watch the exchange.

It took Luna a minute to figure out what they were looking for. "I'm sorry guys, but I don't have any apples or food today. I'll try to bring more next time, alright?"

The young Thestrals shrieked in response, and Spot took off flying above the trees and out of view. Dot tried to get her to play by butting his head into her side, but quickly realized the human girl wasn't up to it and let her settle down on the ground next to Midnight.

A few minutes later, Spot came soaring back into the clearing and gracefully landed in a flash of running hooves. He stopped by Luna, who couldn't help but laugh when he dropped a slightly mangled bird in front of her.

"I'm sorry, but I can't eat that," Luna laughed while patting Spot's nose, "but thank you."

Spot rolled his head in what Luna supposed was the Thestral equivalent of a shrug and swallowed the bird in two gulps. Spot and Dot settled down onto the ground with Luna and Midnight and watched her with their large white eyes. It was almost like they were waiting for something. All three of them.

Luna wasn't sure what they wanted, but she started talking. She doubted they could understand her, but she spoke anyway. "You know, it's been over a year since the last dream. I thought I was finally free of them. I thought they stopped. I guess I half believed that if I pushed everyone away they would stop completely, and they did. When Ginny reached out and told me what happened with Tom, I couldn't push her back away. She had already been hurt so much, you know? She reached out because she needed help… because she needed a friend, and I couldn't reject her, not when she was so vulnerable. If they came back again, they might hurt her, but she was hurting worse now. I thought it was a calculated risk. It had been over a year since the last one. I thought it was over. I thought I had won; that I finally escaped. And then that stupid old hag had to try to rescue me. I didn't want to be rescued. I just wanted to be left alone. Why couldn't she have just left me alone?"

Midnight tapped Luna gently on the shoulder. He was probably just reacting to her raised voice.

"They're back. It's not safe for me to be around anyone anymore. I should push Ginny away again, but I don't want to. I probably shouldn't even be spending time with you. Who knows if you will be affected?"

Midnight pushed lightly on the front of Luna's shoulder, knocking her onto her back.

"What am I even supposed to do about these? Every other dream was so clear. Like a memory, but one that hadn't happened yet. This was so different. So… abstract."

Scree!

"Maybe that means they're different. Every other time I tried to change something, it ended in disaster. I hurt the people closest to me, the ones I was trying to protect. I told Mum, I tried to warn Ginny both times, I pulled Olivia out of the way, and I tried to save Pumpernickel by keeping chocolate out of the room. Each time,

From the first nightmare to the warning for Ginny on the train to the cauldron explosion to Pumpernickel. But unlike those, this was less formed. More fluid. Maybe it can still be changed!"

Screech!

"But most of them were so vague… except for the last one. I know that girl… It was Cho Chang, the fifth year. Okay… so who could be in the coffin and how does that fit with the trophy… I think she is dating Cedric, a sixth year Hufflepuff, so maybe it is him… The tournament! It would have a trophy, and as a sixth year, he would be the right age to enter. It is supposed to be incredibly dangerous, so there is a change he would get hurt… that is probably the possibility I saw… but if I could warn her, maybe she could look out for him! Warn him to be careful! And if it is inevitable, at least it would let them make the most of the time that is left."

Screech!

"Thank you so much," Luna said, giving Midnight a tight hug. "I know what I need to do now."


It was dark by the time Luna made it back to the Entrance Hall. After a quick bite to eat in the kitchen – she really didn't want to give Chloe or Liam any opportunities while so emotionally volatile – Luna rushed up to the common room and took a seat with a clear view of the entrance portal. Cho was a fifth year, so she had just started OWLs, which meant longer classes and more work. She wasn't in the common room yet, and Luna doubted she had already gone to bed. That meant all she had to do was wait.

It was late when Cho and her close friend Marietta Edgecombe returned to the common room. Most of the crowd had cleared out, with only a few scattered students hunched over books. A few of Luna's fellow third years were huddles near the common room's small library, and a group of carefree first years playing Gobstones in one corner.

Luna was on her feet as soon as they crossed the threshold. "Cho, you're dating Cedric Diggory, right?"

"Yeah…?" Cho replied uncertainly.

Well, now Luna knew that assumption was right. Now it was time for the big gamble. "Please warn him to be careful."

"Okay… Why? Is he in danger of some kind?"

"No… just look out for him. Also, try to make the most of this year, alright?"

"Sure… If there is nothing else, I'm going to head up to my dorm now."

"No, goodnight," Luna replied. Hopefully Cho would take her weird warning seriously. Maybe this time, being known as loopy would be helpful. One rarely forgot unnerving exchanges with crazy people. Even if Cho didn't take it seriously now, she would remember it. If Cedric eventually became champion, then she might even take the warning seriously.

Satisfied, Luna started gathering up her books to go to bed when a rough hand grabbed her shoulder. She was forcefully spun around to face Marietta Edgecombe.

"Were you threatening Cho, Lovegood?"

"No. I was just trying to warn her."

"Well, I am giving you a warning as well. If anything happens to Cho. If you cause her any pain, I will come after you. Do you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Don't forget it Loony."