The next morning I woke up a bit earlier than any of the other girls in my room, and most definitely much earlier than I had intended. I assumed it was out of excitement for the new term. I rolled over in my bed and sat up, twisting in my spot to see the others still asleep, even Oregano. I put on my slippers and walked towards my trunk of things at the foot of the bed.

I opened it slowly so as to not make too much noise, pulled out my uniform, and made for the girls' bathroom to shower and get ready for the day ahead. Not too long after, I was patting at my soaked hair with a towel, having finished with my shower. I exited the bathrooms, fully dressed except for my robes, and walked back to my room to grab Death Omens: What To Do When You Know The Worst Is Coming, the extra book I had bought from Flourish and Blotts just for a bit of leisure reading. I skipped my way up the steps to the common room with my robe and book in arms, but as I reached the top, I froze.

Malfoy was already awake and dressed, and sat at the chess table playing a bit of wizard's chess by himself. He must have heard the tapping of my shoes coming up the steps, because he looked up in my direction. I seriously thought about turning around and just going back to my dorm to read, and I was starting to too, my left foot turned to the side to make a run for it, when the blond's chilling voice startled me.

"Y/L/N." He had noticed me. "I'm surprised anyone else is awake," he remarked, resting his chin on his palm.

I stopped my foot from turning any further and glanced around at him, "Well, that makes two of us," I responded in a small voice tinged with disappointment. "I thought I was the only one," I added.

"Seems as if we were both wrong. Care to join me for a bit of chess?" he offered, gesturing towards the chair across from him. "It's quite dull playing by myself. It's much better to win against an actual person rather than an enchanted table," he smirked.

I softly shook my head, "I'm not much for chess. Besides, I came down to read," I informed him.

Malfoy's face was overtaken by disappointment at my answer, his thin pointed nose wrinkling up. "Very well," he said dismissively and sat forward in his seat as he went back to thinking up his next move against the enchanted table.

I slowly made my way to one of the black leather couches. It looked green, but only because the floating lanterns in the dungeon were a glowing green. The couch was placed not too far from the chess table that Malfoy occupied. I took my seat stiffly and opened Death Omens to the first page. I tried hard to read but something was off. It was as if I somehow could hear the absence of Malfoy's strategizing. I took a quick glance at the chess table, but he was nowhere to be seen. I sat up from my relaxed position and looked around, wondering where he could have gone.

"Looking for me, are you?" asked a male voice in a soft whisper near my ear. I nearly jumped out of my skin and turned around in my seat to find myself face-to-face with a grinning Malfoy.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" I huffed defensively, looking away from him as I was very aggravated.

"You didn't answer my question."

"What?" I looked at him then away again, "No, of course not. Why on earth would I be looking for you?"

From his position behind the couch Malfoy hopped over and sat beside me. "I saw you looking," he said, eyeing my book.

"Just because I happened to be looking in that direction, doesn't mean-" I was interrupted by Malfoy pulling the book out of my hands.

"What's this?" he asked, examining the book. "Death Omens? Isn't it a bit too early to be reading textbooks?" He was now flipping through the pages.

"No! And it's not a textbook for class, I bought it for a bit of side reading!" I huffed again and tried to grab the book, but Malfoy was holding it out of my reach.

"Side reading?" he said in a judgmental tone. "You sound a lot like that stupid Granger girl," he groaned, plopping the book back on my lap.

"Stupid? I highly doubt she's stupid if she's reading outside of her classes. But I can't say the same for yourself," I said taking a jab at the blond.

Malfoy gave me a sideways look. "There's that smart-mouthed brat again... and I'll have you know, my grades are more than satisfactory. Second in our class," he said defensively and took to his feet.

Breakfast in the Great Hall was always quiet compared to the later meals in the day, probably because everyone was still taking their time to wake up. I yawned and stretched my arms over my head to wring out the sleepiness that had started to crawl back into my eyes. Maybe I should have made myself sleep for a bit longer. Definitely would have beat being with Malfoy.

I heard a great bellow of laughter come from the middle of the table, and when I glanced over I could see Malfoy, Pansy, and a few others all standing up on the benches, each recreating an over-dramatized faint whilst the others caught them. They were obviously making fun of Harry Potter, who had just walked into the Great Hall accompanied by a fiery redhead boy and a girl with bushy brown hair. It was very good of them to ignore the taunting Slytherin lot; I supposed it was a common occurrence which they'd just learned to drown out.

I shook my head in disapproval and opened Death Omens. The book was very quick to get to the meat of the information, for the first chapter was all on the deadliest of omens - the great dog which was shown on the cover of the book. After finishing chapter one, the Slytherin prefect came around handing out our course schedules for this new term. I unfolded mine in great excitement, seeing that I'd gotten most, if not all of the classes that I'd requested last year.

Soon after, it was finally time for my first class of the term, Divination. I had already grabbed my books from my dorm after I had left the Great Hall and now I found myself at the centre of the castle, in hopes that I could maybe navigate my way to class better from there.

"Well, come on you two! Hurry up! As Ron said, Divination is up in the North Tower!" called out a girl as she walked out of the Great Hall with two boys following her.

I took a few steps towards them and saw Harry was one of the three. Without much thought, I made my way towards them to ask if I could join them on the way up. "Potter!" I called out to get his attention.

The three stopped and turned to look at me. The brown-haired girl gave me a nasty look in particular. "Look, if you're here to bully Harry any more, just don't bother and go away!"

"Yeah! We're tired of you stupid Slytherins thinking you're all so funny!" the ginger chimed in.

At first, I was very confused, but then it struck me, "Oh, no, I'm not here to harass-"

"Then what are you here for?" the brunette spat.

"Divination directions?" I said in a sort of questioning tone, surprised at their immediate hostility. But, I supposed, I couldn't blame them much.

"Well-" the girl began, but Harry interrupted her.

"'Mione, it's fine, I'm sure she's telling the truth," he said, defending me. "Come on, we're headed that way too," Harry said, waving me along, his two friends looking very uncertain at the turn of events.

The journey through the castle to the North Tower was a long one. Even if one spent a whole seven years here, I felt like it'd be impossible to know the whole castle and navigate through the best of routes. I never even had been in this part of the school, let alone the North Tower.

"There's - got - to be - a - shortcut," the redhead panted as we climbed our seventh long staircase and arrived onto the landing. There was nothing but a large painting hanging on the stone wall.

The redhead and the frizzy-haired girl began arguing over which direction we should take next, while Harry just stood staring up at the empty painting. I supposed the main subject of the piece was out and about visiting other paintings as the works of art in the castle tended to do. I was proven correct a moment later, as a stout man in knight's armour emerged from one side of the frame. The strange character spotted us and started yelling about how we were villains and how he was going to slay us for the noble cause - whatever that noble cause was, I didn't know. The little man stopped and examined us more closely.

"Well now, isn't this a strange little army you have here. A Slytherin and a bunch of Gryffindors?" he pointed out.

"Trust me, it wasn't our idea," the ginger whispered in annoyance, nudging the girl beside him. I glanced at him but chose not to say anything.

"We're looking for the way to Divination, in the North Tower," said Harry. "You don't happen to know the way, do you?"

The little knight jumped in excitement, "A quest!" he hurrahed, grabbing his sword, which was much too long for him, "Come follow me, good sirs and gentle ladies!" He ran off.

Quickly, the four of us ran after the little knight, listening for the clattering of his armour whenever we lost sight of him. Not too long after, we stopped at a dead end. "Farewell! If you ever have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!" cried the little man, as he ran off back the way he came.

"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered the redhead as the knight was no longer in sight, "if we ever need someone mental."

I shook my head. Not a very pleasant pair, these friends of Harry Potter.

The redhead groaned as he pointed up at the ceiling, where I now noticed there was a trapdoor. "You don't think that's the classroom up there, do you?"

Harry moved directly under the trapdoor and squinted his eyes in a desperate attempt to read the gold plaque that was nailed to it. "Sybil Trelawney, Divination teacher," he read aloud. "How're we supposed to get up there?"

Then, as if the trapdoor could hear him, it suddenly opened. A silvery ladder came rushing down, falling right at Harry's feet. We all looked at each other for a brief second.

"After you," the redhead grinned, nudging Harry along.

I was the last one up the ladder. The classroom was very odd-looking, it was nothing like any of my other classes. Here it felt as if I had just entered an antique tea shoppe. There were no desks, but instead, there were a number of round tables, all small and very low to the ground, draped in a velvety red cloth and surrounded by pouffes of all shapes and colours. The only light in the room came from assorted candles and oil lamps, for all the windows were draped in very thick dark red curtains. I took a seat at the last empty table at the very back corner. My pouffe was stiff but still comfortable enough that I had nothing to complain about. I looked at the crystal ball that sat in the centre of my table and smiled when I saw my upside-down reflection. This was going to be great. This was the class I'd been most excited about since choosing my courses at the end of my second year.

A voice crept out from the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice. "Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

I leaned forward in my chair in an attempt to spot the speaker, who I assumed must be our professor. Then a small woman moved into the firelight emitting from her rickety-looking fireplace. She was very thin and had a head full of untamed curly hair that seemed to be trying to escape the confines of her cloth headband. She rather reminded me of Harry's brunette friend –well, if she were to ever grow up to be a loony-looking cat lady with glasses so large it magnified her eyes tenfold, that was.

"Welcome to Divination," said the woman, taking a seat in a large winged armchair near the fireplace. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may have not seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

The class stayed silent. It seemed like she had expected more from the length of her pause. She rearranged her shawl and continued, telling us that Divination was no easy class and might be the most difficult of the magical arts to learn. Apparently, only a few possessed the power of the Sight, and for those who weren't gifted with such talents-–she claimed–books would only get us so far. Some didn't take kindly to this news.

"You, boy," she suddenly blurted out, pointing at a very timid and lost looking boy. "Is your grandmother doing well?"

"I...I think so," the boy responded hesitantly.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," Professor Trelawney said. It was a very odd thing to bring up. The boy looked scared and worried for his grandmother, which probably could have been avoided if the professor had never said anything.

Professor Trelawney then trailed back onto the topic of divination as if nothing unusual had been said. She began to go over the upcoming syllabus for the class this year. First, reading tea leaves, then after Christmas, palmistry. Professor Trelawney stopped again, "By the way, my dear," she began, shooting a sudden gaze towards a tanned brunette Gryffindor girl up in the front of the class. "Beware of a red-haired man." The girl quickly turned around to look at the redheaded friend of Harry's, who was quite, unfortunately, sitting right behind her, and scooted away from him. Again, the professor got back on topic, continuing on with what we should expect from the class, but that didn't last very long, as she took yet another turn in her speech and talked instead about upcoming events that would supposedly disrupt lessons, including a nasty bout of the flu, and something rather ominous about someone apparently being lost to us forever.

This was beginning to get tiresome, and many students were already visibly uncomfortable, clearly regretting the fact they had chosen this class. I, for one, no matter how annoying the tangents were, tried to stay hopeful, for I was very curious about what the difference between Muggle and wizard Divination would be.

Professor Trelawney now motioned towards the curly-haired blonde Gryffindor who sat nearest to her. The fear she'd instilled in the girl was quite evident, as she sank into the seat as if hoping it would protect her from whatever prediction of doom the professor was about to deliver next. She let out a sigh of relief, as did the entire class for that matter, when all Trelawney needed was for her to get a large teapot off the shelf and bring it to her. However, why we thought that'd be the end of that interaction was beyond me. Trelawney was quick to scare the living daylights out of the girl as she handed over the teapot, confirming that "the thing she was most dreading" would indeed come true, even giving the exact date–though, obviously, it was not Professor Trelawney's intention to scare any of us.

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, then 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 give it to your partner for them to interpret. You'll find the patterns up for interpretation on pages five and six in Unfogging the Future," Professor Trelawney instructed.

All of the students got up from their seats and obediently headed to the shelf of teacups to get one for themselves. I waited for the traffic to subside before bothering to get up myself. As I stood, the lost-looking boy from earlier dropped his teacup just as Professor Trelawney had foreseen. He stood there, frozen, and looked at me, since everyone else was already seated with their partners. I gave him a curious look as I grabbed a new teacup and handed it to him. The boy shook himself out of his trance and hesitantly took the cup from me.

"T-thank you," he stuttered incredibly softly.

I grabbed a cup for myself and turned around to look at all my classmates to find a partner, but everyone was already paired up. I looked to my side and saw the boy still staring at me. "Yes?" I said to him.

"W-we're the only ones left," he said in a small nervous voice.

"Oh, okay. That's fine," I said simply. I got some tea poured into my cup and walked back to my table, taking my seat. I glanced at the boy as he very slowly made his way over to me. Was he always like this or was it me that was making him act like this? The boy finally sat down, holding onto his cup tightly and staring intently down into the brown liquid that it held. I took a large gulping swig of my tea and set my cup down on the saucer. "So," I began to get the boy's attention. His head popped up. "I don't believe we've ever officially met. What's your name?" I asked, taking a smaller sip of my tea this time.

The boy took a sip himself, but he looked very distraught about it, as though he were forcing himself to drink under threat of death. "N-Neville. Neville Longbottom," he answered, then took another important sip.

Longbottom? The same Longbottom Malfoy spoke of earlier? "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Neville, I'm Y/N Y/L/N," I said with a small smile.

Neville looked at me strangely, it looked like a good half of his fear that he'd had at the start of our meeting had suddenly vanished. "Y-You too," he responded, finishing off his tea. I finished mine soon after. We did what we were required to prep our dregs for reading, then traded cups. "Erm, could you go first? I'm having trouble, I need a bit of time," Neville asked hesitantly, turning my cup around in his hands and squinting at it from various angles.

"Of course!" My eyes followed the outline of the clumped dregs at the bottom of the teacup as I tried to identify the most coherent shape to analyze. Neville's dregs seemed to form a large blob that had a bit of a jagged top. I tilted my head and skimmed through pages five and six. I cleared my throat and sat up, believing I had my final diagnosis. Neville looked back at me expectantly. "I think this is a crown," I explained. I pointed at the crown's meaning in the textbook and read, "You will have great success and honour in your life." A couple of students sitting near us giggled, and Neville looked very embarrassed. Professor Trelawney took notice of this and came over.

"Ah, dear children. Are we doing well? What do you see?"

I looked up at her and nodded. "Oh, yes. I just was telling Neville that he is to have great success and honour."

Professor Trelawney shuffled over to read the dregs herself, "Yes, yes, the crown! That is very much indeed what is here, my dear. Very good, very good," she praised me, patting my shoulder with a smile. She looked to Neville, "Now, dear child, what do you see?" Many students were now watching our interaction.

Neville scrambled to quickly come up with an answer, his eyes frantically jumping from the dregs to the book. "Er-Erm… They're kind of…scattered. They...they kind of look like worms? Snakes maybe?" he mumbled half to himself. "Snakes are a…a b-bad omen," he stuttered, looking up at me. Trelawney waved at him to continue, the whole class's attention was glued on us now. "Take caution in all your endeavours…" He trailed off.

"And the worms?" asked Professor Trelawney as she bit her lip in anticipation.

"Th-the worms?" Neville looked back into his book. "Beware of secret enemies." He looked up at me with a very apologetic face. We both looked up at Professor Trelawney, and she verified that his readings were correct.

"Tch. Anyone could have guessed that!" said a bothered voice from somewhere behind Trelawney.

Everyone's head turned to look and see who had made this statement. It was the buck-toothed girl who was friends with Harry. I looked at her, very confused. Everyone else's expressions showed a mix of confusion and amazement.

"Why do you say that, dear?" asked Trelawney stiffly.

"Snakes and secret enemies? Just look at her! She's a Slytherin. Of course, it's snakes, and what Slytherin doesn't have enemies?" she cried, a lack of belief in the art of tasseography very apparent in her tone.

"Bloody hell, Hermione! What's gotten into you?" the red-headed boy muttered to her. "I mean, yeah, you're right, but I'd never expected you to actually say it."

"Now, now, Miss...?" Trelawney started, walking over to their table.

"Granger," the girl huffed, and crossed her arms, looking away from everyone.

Granger? I didn't know why, but I almost felt betrayed hearing the name. Was she really the one that Malfoy was comparing me to? The thought that just this morning I had actually defended someone who was so hostile towards me without even knowing me made me very frustrated. I knew now why Malfoy must not have liked her very much. She wasn't very pleasant to be around, especially with her house prejudice–not to say Malfoy was any better, we all knew that he could only dish it, not take it.

"Well, Miss Granger. That is no way to talk about your fellow classmates," Trelawney softly reprimanded her. "Continue on with your readings if you haven't yet finished, children," she called for the rest of the class to hear.

"I'm sorry," Neville said quietly, holding his hands in his lap.

I looked at him and shook my head lightly and smiled. "No, it's okay, it's not your fault that my readings were bad."

"No, I meant about Hermione," he corrected me. "She's usually never like that." He then looked up at me. "I don't think you're all that bad… for a Slytherin, of course. I was scared for my life when you were the only person left to partner up with," he confessed. "I was scared you'd bully me here on out since you now know who I am. But… you seem nice."

I gave him a sweet smile - for a Slytherin - it was of course fake.

There was a sudden scream from across the room, and Neville jumped, breaking his second teacup. The scream had come from Professor Trelawney, who was draped over her large armchair, staring into someone's teacup with horror.

"My dear," she gasped, looking at Harry, "you have the Grim." Everyone, including Harry, looked around at each other in confusion. "The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" she cried.

"It's an omen - the worst of omens - the omen of death," I chimed in without thinking. Everyone quickly turned to look at me, Granger and the red-headed boy looking especially bothered by my contribution. They both looked as though I had just personally threatened Harry's life. Is that what I did?

"Yes! Yes!" cried Professor Trelawney again. "The omen of death! The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards!" Harry looked quite shaken at this.

Granger jumped to his defence immediately and challenged the professor, speaking out her opinions on how the dregs didn't quite look like the Grim at all. Trelawney told her that she saw no aura around her, giving her little to no receptivity to the resonances of the future. Granger looked particularly annoyed and insulted. Professor Trelawney must have had enough bad aura for the day because she then quickly dismissed the class a whole thirty minutes early. Nearly everyone was more than happy to leave. I left the classroom in a thoroughly worse mood than I had entered in, quite ready to go to my next class and put first period out of my mind.