The Séance
"Alright, there goes the bell," Trelawney said as the bell rang, indicating it was time for their next lesson. Everyone began packing up their bags, Ila more slowly than usual. The card games did help, but every time she saw Death or the Hanged Man, she couldn't do anything but focus on them, what they meant, what that would mean for her. It was to the point where Ron sneakily put the two cards under his chair so that Ila didn't have to see them anymore. "Don't forget your time slots for your reading this lunch."
The two climbed down the ladder, and Ila's head cleared instantly, almost as if the rational side of her brain had awoken from an hour-long nap. Suddenly, her anxieties were lessened the further she was away from the Divination classroom.
"Oh, I'm so glad we don't have any more Divination till next Thursday," Ron yawned, stretching his arms before slinging them on Hermione and Ila's shoulders as they were walking down the hill.
"You know, if you two hate it so much, why didn't you just switch it last year?" Hermione questioned.
"We didn't know that was an option till it was too late," Ron grumbled. "If we knew that we could have changed it at the beginning of the year, we would have taken something else, like…what even are the other lessons?"
"Oh, you two should have taken Ancient Runes with me!" Hermione said excitedly. "We would have had so much fun together."
"Hermione, as much as Ancient Runes sounds…fun," Ila said hesitantly as she tried to find the right words as not to offend her, "it doesn't sound…."
"It sounds like shit," Ron said bluntly, who was met by an elbow to the stomach by Ila, who was giving him the 'I – know – we – both – think – that – but – that – doesn't – mean – Hermione – has – to - know' look.
Hermione scoffed at his words but didn't sound too offended. "It isn't boring if that's what you mean…it's actually quite interesting, understanding how people communicated with each other when English wasn't a language, how those symbols represented so many things, not just to wizards but to muggles too. Besides, if you had picked it last year, you would have gotten the choice to choose it for your N.E.W.T.S, and if you did that, you would have been able to do Alchemy too."
"Wow," Ron said flatly. "We sure missed out on so much fun, didn't we?"
"Who even takes up Ancient Runes?" Ila asked.
"Er – most of them are Ravenclaws; there are a few Hufflepuffs in there too. I'm the only Gryffindor, and I think…Malfoy has to be the only person from Slytherin taking Ancient Runes."
"Eugh! Malfoy?" Ron exclaimed. "What's he doing taking a subject like that? He's usually the guy to make fun of people taking that subject."
"Appreciate that, Ron," Hermione said as they were at the bottom of the hill and walked towards the class of Slytherins and Gryffindors. Hagrid still hadn't shown up. "He isn't that bad in Runes, to be honest…well, only this year, I supposed. Last year, he was practically a menace to deal with. He was constantly whining and complaining or trying to brag to the Ravenclaws about how his father was only making him take the subject because it would look good for his application to be a Ministry official. Now…he's just quiet. Sometimes I even forget he's even in the class."
"Maybe he finally realised that no one apart from his friends actually cares about what he has to say," Ila said snarkily, only to be surprised when Hermione disagreed with her.
"He found out about that last year when the Ravenclaws told him to shut up because no one actually cares about him," Hermione said. "Maybe he just doesn't care anymore."
There was another thing Ila could add to her hypothetical list of examples that proved Third Year Malfoy was a hell of a lot different from Fourth Year Malfoy.
"A'right!" Hagrid shouted, getting everyone's attention and starting the lesson. "I t'ink yer'll be 'appy ter know, yer'll be with the Skrewts again." Despite the groans and frustrations from the students again, Hagrid was unaffected, grabbing out the buckets that had all the skrewts in. Each bucket was labelled with pairs Hagrid had assigned their first lesson.
"Isn't Halloween tomorrow?" Ron asked randomly as the three of them went to get their buckets.
"Yeah, why?" Ila said, only to be more confused when Ron pumped his fist in the air, yelling a loud cheer.
"Tomorrow's the Halloween party," Ron said and was met with a loud oh, from the girls. "I can't believe I nearly forgot. Oh, what're we going to wear tomorrow?"
"We could go as…wizards?" Ila suggested only to be meant with blank faces from her friends.
"How original," Ron drawled.
"What? It's a good suggestion, I mean, all we have to do is wear our regular clothes, wear our school hats, hold up our wands and hey presto! You've got yourself, three wizards!"
"That only works if it's muggle party Ila," Hermione explained. "Wizards are already a thing here, not to muggles. At least not to their knowledge anyway…oh! What if we dressed up as animals?"
"Hermione, every year you suggest this, and every year it will never happen," Ron sighed frustratedly.
"But I talked to Ginny, and she said that she knew a girl in Ravenclaw that was good at making animal parts. Apparently, she made a lion's head once."
"Good for her, but no."
"Oi Weasley! You coming or what?" Parkinson shouted from across the field, where she and her friends stood talking to each other. Ron threw two fingers at her back before grabbing his bucket, which was shaking viciously when he picked it up and walked to the group. Hermione and Ila did the same, the latter taking her time to do so.
"Hurry up, Potter," Malfoy said lazily as he lounged on the grass. He acted as if he had completely forgotten the last conversation that they had with each other. Knowing Malfoy, he probably has forgotten.
"What're you going to do? Set fire to the tree again?" Ila taunted, dropping the bucket close to his head. He rolled over as if Ila would actually drop the bucket on his head and got up. While she was tempted, there were too many witnesses.
"You could have crushed my head," Malfoy accused, poking his finger close to her chest but not touching her.
"And I would have gladly done so if we were the only ones here," she said coolly.
"And you think I'm the one that wants to hurt you," Malfoy accidentally whispered aloud. Ila froze as he walked to the bucket and opened the lid.
What did he mean by that? Unless she had a bad memory, wasn't that the point every time he went up to her and her friends? To hurt her? What the hell was he on about not wanting to hurt her? Why wouldn't he want to hurt her? He was a Malfoy, for merlin's sake.
Are you sure that he wants to hurt you?
The rational side of her was now fully awake, taking in everything.
Of course, I'm sure. I'm sorry, were you not awake for the last three –
He was eleven, Ila.
So was I, and you didn't see me – us, sprouting all of that hateful shit.
Who was brought up in an environment where that hateful shit surrounded him? You can't not expect him to turn out a bit of a prick.
A bit's an understatement.
Well, he's not like that anymore, is he?
What're you talking about?
You know what I'm telling you, Ila. In case you didn't realise, I am you. I'm your thoughts. You know that he's changing. For –
"You're going to end up killing them if you do it like that," Ila said quickly, rushing to Malfoy's side just as he was about to turn the bucket upside down. She gently snatched the bucket away from him and tipped the bucket out slowly.
"Since when did you care about it?" Malfoy questioned.
"Since I don't want to murder a creature," Ila replied, waiting for the Skrewt to walk out. "Have you no heart in there?" she added sarcastically, already knowing the answer.
"Says the one who wanted to crush my head," Malfoy said, sounding more offended than what Ila had thought. In her peripheral vision, Ila watched him grab a piece of meat with his hands before walking to the front of the bucket. He started waving the meat out. "I'm luring it out," he explained when he saw Ila's confused look. Slowly, the bucket in Ila's arm became lighter and lighter as the Skrewt hesitantly came out, with the help of the meat. Once completely out, Malfoy threw the meat towards it, letting it eat.
The meat that Malfoy gave the Skrewt was large enough to keep it distracted. At the same time, the two were able to sit on either side of it and draw it, labelling its features and key characteristics.
Before drawing, Ila looked around to see that they were the only ones in their class who got to that stage. Most of the others were too busy arguing or struggling to get their Skrewts out without getting themselves hurt. Pushing any thoughts that weren't related to what the hell a Skrewt looks like down, she drew and labelled the Skrewt on her page.
She had finished with its body and started on its head when Malfoy had said something.
"I shouldn't have argued with you," Malfoy said quietly, so quietly, Ila didn't think he said anything.
"What?" she said, looking up from her drawing.
Malfoy looked like he regretted saying anything in the first place. "I'm not going to repeat it. Just know that I was expecting a thank you for fixing your glasses and saving your life, something that I didn't have to do, by the way."
That was it, Ila thought. All the things he had done, he didn't need to do. No one was forcing him to be nice to Ila, so why was he doing it in the first place?
But she bit her tongue. She wasn't going to bombard him with questions.
Not now, at least.
"I guess…it was an alright thing to do," she muttered.
"What you did last night was pretty stupid," Malfoy said and looked up at her, "it could've killed you."
Ila was surrounded by noise. She could hear all the different, individual conversations that were going around her. Ron and Hermione were busy arguing over what their group costume was going to be. The third-year Hufflepuffs behind them were busy talking about how they were going to sneak into the Gryffindor Common Room where the party was going to be held.
Even with all the chatter, the clanging of knives and forks on plates, the occasional laugh that permeated people's conversations, sudden dips of quietness before rising in volume, Ila could only concentrate on one thing.
Draco Malfoy was sitting directly opposite her (was that on purpose? He had to be doing that. Don't be stupid, he doesn't care about you that much!) on the Slytherin table, with his friends, Blaise (maybe that's why Malfoy's changed. Maybe Blaise showed him all the discrimination he gets – don't be an idiot, Ila; it's not Blaise's job to change his mind. Besides, does Blaise even care to begin with?) and Theodore Nott, with Crabbe and Goyle sitting on either side of him (maybe we should use Polyjuice Potion again. Would Ron be up for that again? Would Malfoy clock?). Parkinson and her friends were sitting next to them, Malfoy looking relieved that Crabbe was sitting between them.
"Merlin, is that all you have, Mione? Mice!"
Ila suddenly felt a sharp pain in her arm, breaking her away from Malfoy to face her friends were staring at her.
"Did you hear what I said?" Ron said angrily.
"Er – something about mice?"
"Someone" – Ron glared at Hermione, who rolled her eyes at his dramatic-ness – "thinks it a good idea to turn up to the party dressed as the three blind mice! What kind of idea is that?"
"You know what, Ron, I haven't heard a single idea coming out of you," Hermione chided. "So if you think our ideas are so bad, why don't you give us some ideas?"
Ron opened his mouth and closed it a few times, still trying to look confident at the same time. "Well…there's…."
"Not so easy now, is it?"
"Hang on," Ron said slowly, "there's always…oh, I have one, why don't we go up at the Founders of Hogwarts?"
Ron was so confident with his idea that he had said louder than either girl had expected, getting the attention from fellow Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, who looked at his idea in disdain.
"See, even they think it's stupid," Hermione said.
Knowing the conversation could carry on without, she went back to staring at a certain Slytherin, only to find that said Slytherin was now staring right at her. She stayed still, unsure if she should break away. No one else had noticed. It was only him. In fact, he was still having a conversation, even making jokes with everyone else as he stared at her. He didn't look annoyed or even smug. He was observing her. Watching her reactions. Just like during the Quidditch Match.
"Guys," Ila said, finally breaking away from him once again, and turned to her friend. "I need to tell you two – oh for fuck's sake!"
Ila shoved as much treacle tart as she could, downed a goblet of water before taking her bag and running out of the Great Hall, leaving her friends confused momentarily before going back to their argument.
Having watered down treacle tart and running three flights of stairs to the Divination classroom was perhaps the worst mistake Ila could have ever made. She just about swallowed the remaining bits of tart down her throat as she made it to the hallway where her classroom was located. She looked down see bits of water down the front of her jumper. Cursing herself, she tried to dry it with the sleeve of her jumper only to bump into someone.
"Oh, sorry," Ila said reflexively and looked up to see Lavender crying into the shoulders of Parvati. "Oh…what happened?"
Lavender lifted her head to Ila, her eyes and nose red and opened her mouth to tell her what happened. But only wails came out of her before she buried herself into Parvati's neck once more.
"Is she going to be alright?" Ila asked, taking out of tissue that she ensured wasn't used before giving it to Lavender. She sniffled thanks before blowing her nose loudly into it and tried to give it back to Ila. "Don't worry. You can keep it."
"She'll be fine after a few hours," Parvati said, patting her friend's arm. "It was just the reading she had with Trelawney. Had to make her stay with me when I was getting mine done."
At the sound of reading, Lavender cried louder. Parvati took the hint and walked away before Ila could ask any more questions.
She was sure it wasn't anything. Yes, the cards might have spooked her out, but that was only because…Ila found that she couldn't find a decent enough reason to calm herself down.
Wonderful!
Reminding her of the first lesson, Ila stared into the dark abyss that lead into the Divination classroom. She could always skip it, telling Trelawney that she had forgotten all about it and make it up another time, preferably when she had forgotten about all the cards that predicted her fortune.
And yet, there was a pulling force, tugging at her, luring her into the classroom and she couldn't do anything but go in. And so she did. Slowly, she focused on the wooden creaks of the ladder until she couldn't. Pulling herself up, she stood up carefully as to not fall through the hole. She saw that the classroom was darker than it was in the morning. There was barely any lit incense; only two sets of floating candles formed a path for Ila to follow. It lead to a large red tent in the middle of the classroom. The more time she spent in the classroom, the more she was beginning to wonder whether all of this was necessary just to read her palm. Not to mention, how on Earth did Dumbledore let this woman start teaching here?
Opening the curtains, she saw Professor Trelawney sitting there, eating her lunch, a sandwich on a beanbag. There was a desk, like the ones the students had, except there was a bigger crystal ball, along with a seat opposite.
"Oh!" Trelawney said, covering her mouth as she hid her sandwich under the table. "Sorry about that. I was just having my lunch." She giggled nervously. "Come, darling, take a seat."
Ila slung her bag to the floor as she took her seat, waiting for Trelawney to get ready. In the back of her head, something was telling her that she would be told that she was going to die.
She didn't need a psychic to tell her that her life would be in danger soon.
"You're going to need a piece of paper and quill" – Ila followed her instructions, taking those things out of her bag and placing them onto the table – "and you're going to have to write down everything that I will do and say, alright?"
"Sure."
Professor Trelawney took out an old wooden box that looks like it's going to break anytime soon. Is she going to see these notes? Oh well. Anyway, she's opening up the box and telling me that she will use the item in the box to read my future. She shows it to me, and the only thing I see is...is that dust? What? I thought she was going to use cards. But to be honest, I don't know which one I would rather prefer. I think she realised how confused I was because she's explaining that people can use dust or dirt or stuff like that to predict people's future. Yeah, I get that part. Does she not remember that we did it before? Actually, remember that time when Ron came out of that lesson covered in dust. Oh my god, I didn't even get to tell Hermione about everything. Anyway, I'm confused because I haven't seen anyone else get covered in dust! I can already feel my allergies acting up. She takes one of my hands and now tells me to remain calm and have a blank mind.
Which doesn't make sense since I'm going to have to
WHAT THE FUCK!
Why the fuck would she fucking slice my hand with a fucking knife? What kind fucking reading is this? I don't remember Lavender's hand like that? OW! THIS KHUTTI!
She's telling me to inhale, exhale all the bad things. She's also telling me if I'm writing down exactly what she's saying. Yes, Professor, I am. I better get a good grade on this. She keeps telling me to breathe. You know, apart from getting my hand SLICED OPEN, it's actually alright. I feel calm. I feel…
Maybe not.
She just started breathing heavily and closed her eyes. I think I should be a bit concerned.
Ok, so I'm very concerned. She keeps saying things in…Latin, maybe. Hang on.
In quacumqure die invocavero te ex animi mei atque ad aviam spirituum est locus apud me adiuvet. Salva me ab Ila in posterum quarere Potter. I think that's what she's saying. Sorry that I'm not up to scratch in a language that's been dead for billions of years. She's repeating this a couple of times and
Oh, and she's just shoved my wounded hand into the box of dust. Great. This is wonderful. Honestly, when I woke up today, I thought, wouldn't it be nice if someone decided to cut my palm open and then shove it in a box of dust. You know, while we're at it, why don't we just squeeze a lemon on top of it as well. Really seal the whole thing.
She's really rubbing my hand in it, moving it in a circle, and she keeps saying whatever that thing was. Is it getting cold? Since when were the windows open. Holy fuck! Everything is moving up. The ball, the box, even her hair, which means my hair is levitating. I'm glad I put it in a plait -
Right, sorry, there was a bit of a gap – you can't tell – actually unless you remember – basically, after I wrote that, all of a sudden she bends her back to the point where it's a bit unhealthy and then comes back up with no difficulty. Her eyes end up being black, like fully black, and I'm fucking shitting bricks here. I think she's saying something else now.
Ila Potter: habet enim vita tua semper fuisse turbatum, sed illud pejus erit. Surculum tua cutis erit peius, si nec aliquid circa hoc. Eam servabo pronus et pronus, donec enucleat praedictam. Tu faciem illius, quem odio erit, tantam doloris vir qui fecit vos. Opus tibi erit auxilium ab aliis, sed quae superare potes, et non homo, cui nomen non est. Tu et amici per viam dignum aliquid simile fortasse amor Si vestri 'captiosus satis. Opus tibi erit denuo eius faciem, IIa. Mox. Citius quam putas.
She keeps on screaming that. She keeps saying it but in a different voice. Like the same voice during third year when she predicted Petti
She's stopped now. She's just staring at me. Ew! I just want to go back. I want my treacle tart. Ok – her back is bending again. This time it's further than the last time. Is it even possible to bend that far? She looks likes she's going to break her back. Which means she won't be able to teach! Yes!
She's coming back up. Her mouth is open. She looks like she's going to scream. Why is her mouth getting wider? I can literally feel my hair pulling out of my scalp. Her hand is practically making mine bleed even more. What the hell is she going to
"ACHOO!"
At the sound of her sneeze, everything dropped to the floor, the crystal ball shattering, Ila's braid flopping back down on her shoulder. Ila closed her eyes, scared that if she opens it, what just happened will come true.
"Sorry about that. I think my allergies were acting up," Trelawney said sheepishly. Her voice had gone back to normal. She let go of Ila's bloody hand and blew her nose loudly into a tissue. "Oh well, there goes grandmother."
Ila opened her eyes immediately. "What!"
Confused, Trelawney raised her brows. "Didn't you realise?"
"Realise what?" Ila said, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"I was using my grandmother's ashes. I told you initially that one could use dust, silt, sand, dirt or ashes, especially if they've dealt with Divination before. Helps strengthen the connection, if you know what I mean."
"Professor?"
"Yes, Ila?"
"So you mean to tell me that on my face right now is a mixture of your snot and grand…grandmother's ashes?" Ila asked calmly though she wanted to do nothing but rush out of the room and scrub her skin raw.
"Well…it wasn't supposed to happen that way. You were only going to have the ashes on your hand," Trelawney said as if having one of your students being covered with your grandmother's ashes was a normal thing that happened to her.
Ila seemed to have forgotten about the deep gash in her hand that was slowly filling up with her grandmother's ashes.
Trelawney's grandmother was now in her….
Oh, she was going to throw up!
"Make sure to write everything up properly for next lesson!" Professor Trelawney called out after Ila as she quickly climbed down the ladder and running all the way to the common room.
After a long, cold shower, Ila was satisfied that she was gotten rid of every single speck of Trelawney's grandmother's ashes off of her and down the drain. She tried not to think too hard about where her grandmother was going but to be honest; it was Trelawney's fault for using her in the first place. As she dried her hair, she wondered what Trelawney'd use for the rest of the students. Maybe she'll have to use dust and say that it was her grandmother's ashes for the rest of them.
Ila stepped out of the bathroom to find Ron and Hermione talking until they saw her and stopped.
"What're you two doing here?" Ila asked, rubbing her hair with the towel.
"You didn't come back to the hall, so we wanted to know where you went," Hermione said. "Ron said that he saw running out of Divination to the common room, so…."
"Oh." It was all that Ila could say as she sat on the edge of Hermione's bed.
"Was everything ok?" Ron asked. "You looked like you were going to throw up. And you had something on your-"
"Trelawney's grandmother's ashes."
The pair's eyes bulged out of their sockets as the words came out of Ila's mouth before she was met with a flurry of questions.
"What do you mean, her ashes?"
"That's so unhygienic! Where did it go?"
"She never used her ashes on me-"
"What?" Ila said, looking up at Ron. "What did she do you to instead? Did she used dirt or sand or something?"
"She never even mentioned anything to do with that," Ron said. "She was just using the cards that we were using this morning."
Ila took his palms, turning them over to see no fresh cuts or bandages on them.
"Ila, what happened to yours?" Hermione said, gently taking her hands and looking at them.
For the next twenty minutes or so, Ila explained to them in great detail what exactly Trelawney had done to her to read her future. During this explanation, she found that not only had Ron not given the same ritual, but so did everyone else. He told her that he bumped into Dean and Seamus, who said they were using Tarot cards on his way up here.
"That sly bitch!" Hermione exclaimed, taking her two other friends by surprise. "I bet she's wanted to do this with you, use you as some…guinea pig to test some bullshit ritual on you and found the perfect time when you were alone with her!... That's it. I've had enough of her already; we're going to tell Dumbledore."
Ron and Ila looked at each other before running after Hermione to Dumbledore's office.
"Mione, you sure that want to go?" Ron said, slightly out of breath as they were close to his office.
"Ohh!" Parkinson said in a high pitched voice, with her friend surrounding her. "I think the threesome have another lovers tiff!"
"Fuck you!" Ila said, shoving a middle finger to her before running after Hermione.
"I am," Hermione said sternly as they reached the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office. "Fizz Whizz – it's an important issue that needs to be discussed, Ron. She's been constantly targeting Ila for no reason."
Hermione took two steps at a time as Ron and Ila followed behind her, their heads down, knowing that they were too late in convincing her. With their heads down, they didn't realise Hermione had stopped at the top of the stairs until Ron had bumped into her, causing Ila to bump into him.
"Wha – oh," Ila said simply as they saw what made Hermione stop. Professor Dumbledore was at his desk, talking to a person, another teacher, Professor Trelawney.
"Hello Hermione," Dumbledore said calmly, "Ron and Ila. What are you doing here?"
Hermione pulled Ila to the front so that Dumbledore could see her better and showed him Ila's palm.
"I think you know Professor Dumbledore," Hermione snarled, "I'm sure Professor Trelawney has told you all about it."
Ron and Ila shared an impressed look. Why couldn't think Hermione come out more often?
"What do you think happened, Ms Granger?" Trelawney asked calmly.
Hermione grabbed Ila's wounded hand and showed the two professors. "I think you've been targeting Ila from the moment you found out who she was. You've been using her as your own guinea pig, testing out your theories, harassing her about how she's going to die every two seconds. And then, since none of those things worked, you decide to amp everything up and physically assault a student! It's practically harassment! You should be ashamed of yourself for targeting Ila. As if she doesn't get enough from other students!"
Trelawney calmly regarded her answer, which seemed to annoy Hermione even more.
"What do you think should happen then?" she asked once more.
"I think you should be fired immediately. You harmed a student, which goes against the regulations of Hogwart's code of conduct when it comes to protecting students and against child safety regulations of the Ministry. It explicitly states, in both, that if a teacher is abusing a student, then said teacher must be suspended until an investigation takes place to look into the abuse!"
Dumbledore raised from his seat and walked around his desk. "Unfortunately, Hermione, we cannot do that."
"What?" Ron asked. "But Mione's right. She's always going on about how Ila's going to die. I've seen it myself."
"As I've said, I'm afraid I can't do anything about it," Dumbledore repeated.
"Why, sir?" Ila asked.
Dumbledore sighed as if he felt bad for not being able to tell the students his reasonings. "These are reasons that are beyond your understanding, Ila. I can assure you, once your know everything, you will understand. But for now, while it may seem unjust and unfair, Trelawny will stay. I can assure you that she won't be harassing anymore."
"But Professor," Hermione said, "Professor Trelawny did a completely different reading on Ila, compared to the other students, that was far more invasive than reading off their future from a bunch of cards. How could you possibly allow a teacher to stay after endangering one of your students?"
"I don't mean this as patronising, and I apologise beforehand if I do sound that like, but as bright as you are Hermione," Dumbledore said, "there are somethings that you won't understand until you are older…I can't do anything else apart from recommending you see Madame Pomfrey about that cut on your hand. I don't want you three to miss the assembly. We have guests coming over, and we don't want them to give a bad impression."