"Oh how I've missed you!" sighed Bella, falling face first onto the four-poster bed in her dorm.
"The beds in Egypt can't have been that bad." chuckled Freya.
"It wasn't the beds that were a problem. It was Ron constantly making me check for spiders so I got no sleep that was the problem." said Bella, rolling over onto her back.
"He really is terrified of them, isn't he." said Hermione softly.
"It's George's fault. He turned Ron's teddy-bear into a dirty great spider when we were little because Ron broke his toy broom stick." said Bella, sitting up.
"Oh my, that's awful." said Emily.
"It was. Ron had nightmares for months after that. Wouldn't sleep a wink." said Bella.
"I wonder where those two are." said Freya, pointing her thumb over her shoulder towards the beds Lavender and Parvati slept in.
"Probably off boy stalking, you know what Lavender's like." said Bella.
Bella pulled her pajamas from her trunk and tucked them under her arm. She took her time in the bathroom getting ready for bed and sighed contentedly when she finally had her pajamas on. Like a wave, the exhaustion she felt washed over her and she crawled into bed, leaving her uniform on the floor beside her bed.
"Goodnight." said Bella with a yawn as she pulled the hangings closed around her bed.
She fell into a restless sleep, her dreams plagued with images of the foul creatures standing guard around Hogwarts and the chilling feeling she could not shake.
Due to her broken sleep, Bella felt irritable the following morning. She woke later than she usually did and groaned as the early morning light shone through the window.
"Are you okay?" asked Hermione on the other side of the hangings around Bella's bed.
"Yeah." she replied, pulling them open.
Hermione was up and dressed, Freya and Emily not far behind her.
"You're up late." said Freya.
"I couldn't sleep last night." said Bella.
"Wait for me?" she asked, climbing out of bed.
"Always." replied Emily.
Bella smiled to herself, even as she rushed around their dorm haphazardly pulling her uniform on. Harry and Ron were waiting in the common room and the six of them left for breakfast. The sounds of commotion were loud as they reached the Entrance Hall and when they entered the Great Hall they discovered why; Draco, crowded by a hoard of Slytherin's, collapsed into Blaise's arms in a mocking attempt of Harry. When Draco caught Harry's eye he smirked haughtily. His eyes travelled from Harry's at the front of the group to Bella's at the back and his face dropped. Bella held his eyes, shaking her head in disgust as she scoffed.
"Ignore him Harry." she said, turning away from the group of laughing Slytherins.
"Oi Weasley." A raven-haired Slytherin in their year, Pansy Parkinson, yelled over their heads. "The Dementor's are coming! Wooo!" She wiggled her hands in front of her face as the rest of the Slytherins laughed.
"That's quite enough." A voice said from behind Bella and she turned, finding Cedric standing there.
"Oh look." called Pansy smugly. "Weasley's gotten herself a boyfriend."
"Shut up, Parkinson." growled Bella, turning back over her shoulder to glare at the Slytherin girl.
"Are you okay?" asked Cedric, the Slytherins still laughing in the background.
"Yeah I'm okay. You didn't have to do that but thank you." smiled Bella.
"They've always been over-entitled, those Slytherins anyway." Cedric smiled back.
"I heard about the Dementor on the train Harry, how you holding up?" asked Cedric.
"F-Fine." replied Harry embarrassedly.
"Try not to let them bother you." said Cedric softly.
"Thanks Cedric." smiled Bella.
"See you around, tiny." he replied, saluting them before heading off to the Hufflepuff table.
"What was that all about?" asked Ron once they were sat at the Gryffindor table.
"I actually don't know." replied Bella. She could feel eyes on her but she refused to turn around.
No one had seen Bella faint on the train and the only people who knew were her friends and Draco, aside from the teachers of course. This meant that Draco had obviously told his friends what had happened and Bella didn't know how to feel about that. She wanted to ask him why, to know why he had betrayed her like that, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing it had upset her. She knew what type of person Draco was and although she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, he'd just proven himself to be the person everyone else believed him to be.
"The new third year schedules." said George, passing them down the table. "What's up with you two?"
"Malfoy." replied Freya.
"What happened?" asked Fred.
"He was mocking Harry for fainting on the train." said Emily.
"But wasn't he there when you fainted?" George asked Bella.
"Yes." she grumbled.
"He's such a little git." said Fred.
"I agree." said Ron.
Bella pushed around the eggs on her plate half-heartedly as Ron and Hermione bickered across the table. She felt a soft nudge to her side that drew her from her thoughts and she raised her head slowly to see Freya looking at her in concern.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah." sighed Bella.
"Are you sure?" she asked again.
"I'll be fine." replied Bella. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep, that's all."
Freya looked like she wanted to argue but she chose to nod her head slowly and turned back to her breakfast. She knew that whatever was troubling Bella, she would tell her when she was hall began to empty and Ron began shovelling his breakfast into his mouth as he checked his timetable.
"What has gotten into you?" asked Hermione.
"Divination is at the top of the North Tower. It'll take us ages to get there." replied Ron, gulping down the mouthful. Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust but said nothing.
They finished their breakfast quickly and left for the North Tower. Bella walked out of the hall without so much as a glance in Draco's direction. She wasn't going to let him see her upset, not because of him.
"Surely - there's - a - quicker - way - up - here." panted Bella, grabbing the stone railing as they climbed their seventh long stairway.
"I'm going to need some new lungs after this." groaned Freya, holding Bella's shoulder for support.
"I think it's this way." said Hermione, heading up the corridor.
Bella and Freya shared a look of hopelessness as they groaned, reluctantly following after Hermione up the corridor. After another long corridor and a spiral staircase that Bella was sure she was going to spew on, they finally made it onto a platform where the rest of the class were waiting. On this platform, however, there was no door.
"How are we supposed to get up there?" asked Harry.
Bella looked up just as the trapdoor on the ceiling sprang open and a long silvery ladder fell to the ground. Harry was the first up the ladder, Freya and Bella the last as they caught their breath. They emerged into the weirdest classroom Bella had ever seen, if you could even call it a classroom. At least twenty circular tables were dotted around the room, surrounded by tub chairs and large pouffes. The room was dimly lit and an eerie mist hung in the air.
"Where is she?" asked Ron.
A voice spoke from the shadows, a soft, echoey voice.
"Welcome." it said. "How nice to see you all in the physical world at last."
Professor Trelawney stepped out of the shadows and Bella had the realisation that she looked rather like a glittery stick insect. She was an extremely thin woman, her glasses magnified her eyes to at least three times their natural size and her shoulders were draped with a large glittering shawl. Necklaces and beads hung low around her neck and her hands were covered in bracelets and rings.
"Sit, my children, sit." she said and they all climbed awkwardly into armchairs and sank onto pouffes. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat around one circular table; Freya, Emily and Bella around another.
"Welcome to Divination." said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a large winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my inner eye."
No one said a word. Bella, Freya and Emily all looked at each other in bafflement. Trelawney adjusted her shawl nervously and continued.
"So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there will be very little I can teach you. Books will only take you so far in this field." Professor Trelawney adjusted her glasses and continued.
"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are with potions and such, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future." She peered around the room from face to face, pushing her galsses up the bridge of her nose. "It's a Gift granted to a few. You, boy." she said abruptly to Neville who jumped in fright. "Is your grandmother well?"
"I think so" replied Neville shakily.
"I wouldn't be too sure." replied Trelawney. Neville gulped.
"We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devited to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear." said Trelawney quickly as she passed Parvati Patil. "Beware a red-haired man." Parvati shot a wary look at Ron and edged her chair away from him.
"In the summer term," continued Trelawney, "we shall be moving on to the cyrstal ball - if we have completed fire-omens by then. Unfortunately, classes will be interrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I will lose my voice. And around Easter, two of our numbers will leave us forever." A silence fillwed with tension followed her announcement but Trelawney seemed unaware of it.
"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender who sat in the chair nearest her. "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"
Lavender, looking relieved, , stood from her seat and collected the largest silver teapot from the shelf, and placed it on the table in front of Trelawney.
"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading - it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."
Lavender gasped loudly and dropped into her chair.
"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink; drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer; wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh, and dear -" she caught Neville by the arm as he stood from his chair, " after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue cups? I'm rather attatched to the pink."
As predicted, Neville had no sooner made it to the shelf of teacups when there was a clatter of breaking china. Professor Trelawney swept over to him with a dust pan and brush. "One of the blue ones if you wouldn't mind, my dear."
When Bella's cup was filled she went back to her table and tried to drink her boiling hot tea as quickly as she could. Emily had opted to work with Hermione leaving Freya and Bella to pair up. They swilled the dregs around the cup as instructed; waited for them to drain and swapped them.
"What do you see in mine?" asked Bella as they both opened their books at pages five and six.
"A load of soggy tea leaves." replied Freya, tilting the cup towards her.
"Broaden your minds children!" cried Trelawney through the mist. "Allow your eyes to see past the mundane."
"This class is dreadful." sighed Bella, tilting Freya's cup in all directions and seeing nothing.
"Tell me about it." replied Freya shaking her head.
"Let me see that, my dear." Trelawney pulled Harry's cup from Ron's grasp at the table behind Bella and the pair turned to watch.
"The falcon... my dear you have a deadly enemy."
"Tell us something we don't know." snorted Bella.
Professor Trelawney stared at her.
"Well we all know Harry has a deadly enemy, You-Know-Who." added Hermione.
Trelawney said nothing, instead lowering her huge eyes into Harry's cup again.
"The club... an attack." said Trelawney under her breath. "Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup."
"The skull... danger in your path, my dear."
Everyone was staring at Professor Trelawney who gave the cup one final turn, gasped, then screamed. There was nother shatter of china; Neville had broken his second cup. PRofessor Trelawney sank into a vacant arm chair, glittering hand clutching her chest. Bella shot form her seat, standing at Harry's back, peering over into his cup. Everyone followed her lead, crowing round Trelawney's chair.
"My dear boy - my poor dear boy - no - it is kinder not to say - no - don't ask me -"
"What is it, Professor?" asked Dean.
"My dear," Professor Trelawney's eyes widened dramatically. "you have the Grim."
"The what?" said Harry.
Bella clutched Harry's shoulders and leaned down so her mouth was in line with his ear. "You don't have the Grim Harry, she's batty." she whispered.
Harry didn't look fazed, as if he had no idea what anyone was talking about. Dean shrugged but everyone else clasped their hands to their mouth.
"The Grim, my dear. The Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, she looked baffled Harry hadn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen - the worst omen - of death!"
Everyone clasped their hands over their mouths in horror, everyone except Hermione and Bella. Hermione rounded the back of Trelawney's chair, staring down into the cup.
"I don't think it looks like the grim." she said flatly.
"Me either." added Bella as she joined her behind Professor Trelawney's chair.
"You'll forgive me for saying so, my dears, but I percieve very little aura around you both. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
Seamus was tilting his head from side to side as he stood beside Bella.
"It looks like a Grim if you do this." he said with his eyes almost shut. "but it looks like a donkey from here." he added, leaning slightly to the left.
"When you've all finished decideing if I'm going to die or not." snapped Harry.
"I told you Harry, I don't think you've got the Grim." said Bella, rounding the table to stand beside him.
"I think we will leave the lesson here for today." said Professor Trelawney softly. "Yes... please pack away your things."
Silently, the class took their teacups to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books and closed their bags.
"Until we meet again." said PRofessor Trelawney faintly. "Fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear -" she pointed at Neville. "you'll be late next lesson, so mind you work extra hard to catch up."
The six of them descended the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom then the spiral staircase in silence. It was only when they were near Professor McGonagall's transfiguration classroom that Bella spoke.
"I told you that class was dreadful." she said. "I don't think you've got that Grim Harry, she doesn't know what she's talking about."
"I don't know Bella." replied Ron.
"Harry doesn't have the Grim and that's that." said Bella, throwing her arm around Harry's shoudler and pulling him down the corridor to Transfiguration.
