It was a wild night; the prefects showed the new first years to their rooms and left them to settle in before disappearing themselves. Per tradition they would only intervene in their housemates antics the first night of term if it seemed likely that someone would be seriously and permanently harmed, which luckily had never happened to date. Even Percy who was now head boy wouldn't dare try and send them to bed tonight. Instead he was forced to content himself with putting as much distance between him and the revellers as possible, muttering something about plausible deniability as he took himself up to bed ridiculously early. The story was he actually did try to put a stop to the celebrations once, in his first year of being a prefect, but he had been so swiftly put back in his box that he hadn't bothered since. After all it stood to reason that if Professor McGonagall, who surely knew about the parties herself did nothing to prevent them, then a mere student, prefect of otherwise, had no business interfering.

By the following morning though Harry almost wished someone would have put an end to it. He had only gotten a couple of hours sleep and was incredibly tired plus with all the sugar he had eaten; it felt as though his blood had turned to syrup in his veins.

He pulled on his uniform and ran a comb through his hair, his father would be mortified if he turned up for breakfast in his current dishevelled state, then plodded down to the great hall after Ron, wondering if there were similar parties held in the other common rooms. The other students looked equally tired, but somehow he doubted that his father at least would tolerate such high spirits.

The sight of all the food was turning his stomach but he forced himself to nibble on a bit of toast as Ron inhaled sausages beside him as though he hadn't eaten in a month. Years of being underfed by the Dursleys had left him with a smaller appetite than some and he probably wouldn't have even eaten at all if Hermione hadn't absolutely insisted upon it – she had a sort of thing about breakfast and it being the most important meal of the day and it was just easier to comply. He really didn't have the energy for arguing with her this morning.

McGonagall came round after a while, wearing an expression that suggested the common rooms might not have been the only sites of celebrations last night as she handed out their timetables for the year and once Ron had finally finished wolfing down food they set off for their first class.

Locating the divination classroom however was no easy feat and they probably would have been late if not for the assistance of Sir Cadogan, a somewhat irritating knight who left his usual portrait to aid them in their quest. If Harry had had any aptitude in his new subject he might have recognised this as a bad omen but he didn't, but within fifteen minutes of him entering the classroom he was seriously starting to regret his subject choices.

It had started off interesting enough, a few cryptic comments to various members of the class, the prophecy that one of them would have gone by Christmas and then the lesson commenced. First topic on the syllabus was the reading of tea leaves, and he had happily gulped down his tea - he was starting to feel more himself again now after the walk through the castle - then traded cups with Ron to see what the future held for one another.

Neither he nor Ron could make out much though and when professor Trelawney came to see how they were getting on, she made the foreboding announcement that Harry's cup contained the Grim. It took him a few moments to realise the significance of this, he hadn't actually heard of the Grim before but as the others schooled him on his ignorance he had the unsettling realisation that he had might have already seen the actual Grim that day at Ron's when they had slipped away from Mrs Weasley and went off gallivanting around the countryside. At the time he hadn't really paid much heed to it, it hadn't approached them and he wasn't sure if any of the others had even noticed it at all but being somewhat wary of dogs thanks to Aunt Marge and her vicious pack he had been conscious of it watching him and now that he thought back on it that dog looked just like a grim. He was definitely doomed!

Feeling dejected and despondent after so stark a warning the class trudged on to their next lesson in total silence. None of them, not even Ron seemed able to meet his eye and yet somehow it seemed to Harry as though he was standing on a stage in the blinding light of a spotlight with everyone staring up at him waiting for him to do something.

He slid into a seat at the back of the class and just willed classes to be over for the day as he continued sadly contemplating his impending death. He wasn't even sure why he was so bothered by the prophecy, hadn't he already known he was marked for death? Voldemort had tried to kill him three times already; surely he had not thought he would be lucky enough to escape a fourth time?

It didn't take Professor McGonagall long to realise something was wrong though, not one of them seemed to be paying any attention to her lesson and as soon as Hermione started to explain that they had just come from Divination, she asked which one of them was dying.

The whole class turned to look at Harry and he tried to sink further down into his seat as his head of house smiled sympathetically at him. She then tried to reassure him that what Professor Trelawney alleged to see in his tea leaves didn't really mean anything and that every year she predicted the untimely death of one of her students and as yet it had never come to pass.

Severus wasn't having a great morning either. His classes were going okay, the students were all too tired to cause much trouble today and no one had managed to blow up anything yet but he was angry with Minerva for assigning Harry detention with Lupin. They had argued over breakfast about it. He understood the need to punish him of course; his violent outburst had disrupted the sorting ceremony after all he just didn't understand why it had to be with Lupin. He really wasn't comfortable with Harry being left alone with him and there was plenty to do in the dungeons too, why couldn't Harry serve his detention with him? Minerva had refused to budge though and so he found himself faced with a dilemma. Could he risk his son being left alone with Lupin or should he offer his assistance with the move also so that he could keep an eye on him.

Before he had time to dwell on it any longer though he heard shuffling outside in the halls and the murmur of voices that indicated it was time for his next class. He took one more sip of his tea, then vanished the evidence, he forbade all eating and drinking in his lab, so this was setting a very bad example but there was a lot going on today and he just needed a few moments peace to get his head straight during the break.

Harrys class were coming in now for a double, a third year Gryffindor and Slytherin mix, and it was really important that he set the right tone. Harry knew he was expecting a return to business as usual, but would his classmates? One wrong move today and the wall he had spent so long erecting between teacher and students might crumble away into nothing forever.

Slowly he counted to ten before rising from his seat and throwing open the classroom door with a wave of his wand.

It crashed hard against the wall, successfully eliciting a few jumps from startled students as Severus barked at them to quickly come in and take their seats. Then without pausing for breath he launched into a scathing analysis of their progress over the past two years, the dismal answers given in the summer exams and his supposition that what little they did know had likely been completely forgotten over the summer.

The Gryffindor's looked to his son, clearly expecting their classmate to refute his claims or defend them in some way but the boy remained silent, in fact he didn't even look up. Severus was impressed, he had warned him to expect his of course but he didn't actually think he would be able to refrain from reacting at all, especially not with the way Longbottom was quaking away beside him, a complete ball of nerves.

Smirking to himself he continued in his tirade for another few minutes until he found himself interrupted by a sudden snort of laughter from the Slytherin side of the room.

Furious, he whipped round to see Pansy Parkinson practically dissolve in a fit of giggles.

"Something funny, Miss Parkinson?" he asked blandly.

"No Sir." She replied shaking her head as she quickly regained her composure.

"Could you be having some kind of seizure then perhaps?" he continued darkly, as he pressed his hand to her forehead to check her temperature.

She glanced guiltily at his godson before attempting to pass her outburst off as a cough. "I was trying not to Sir, I didn't want to disrupt your lesson but I think trying to supress it made it worse." she explained sweetly.

"Do you want to go to Madame Pomfrey?"

"No Sir, I'm okay now."

He glowered at her crossly for a moment, his Snakes knew how he felt about being lied to but he as a rule he didn't chastise them in public so he went with it, "Are you sure? Despite the numerous potions disasters you dunderheads have brewed I have yet to have a student die while under my care and I would hate for that record to be broken by such mundane thing as one of you choking on your own breath."

She nodded frantically, eyes wide as the rest of the class gasped in unison.

Severus did a double take, what on earth had brought on that reaction he wondered to himself as he suddenly took in their unusually pallid complexions and shocked expressions. They couldn't exactly refute his comment; Longbottom and Finnegan in particular would be lethal with a cauldron if left unsupervised but this wasn't anger, this actually seemed more like fear.

He glanced to his son, hoping the boy might be able to shed some light on his faux pas but Harry was lost in a world of his own, clutching his hands to his throat as he rocked himself gently back and forth.

Severus crossed the room and coming up behind Harry, placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, trying to still him without drawing inordinate attention to his distress. The boy softened at his touch, and lowered his hands as he came back to the present. Severus gave him a comforting squeeze and reluctantly moved on, casting his eyes over each of his student in turn. Had one of them nearly choked earlier? Had Harry? He shot a worried glance back toward his son. Someone would surely have alerted him if something had happened Harry, he reasoned as he struggled to push nightmarish images out of his mind.

"Come now," he said addressing himself as much as the class, "There is no need to look so alarmed, I was only teasing."

Usually he would have expected such an uncharacteristic comment to elicit a chorus of snickering throughout the classroom but though the students fidgeted awkwardly in their seats they remained silent.

Sighing, he swept back up the front of the class and was about to resume his lesson when he had a different idea. "Mr Malfoy?"

"Yes Sir?" Draco replied, rising respectfully from his seat to address him.

Snape smirked, "Please share the joke with the rest of the class"

"Errr, what joke Sir?" the blond asked as his eyes flashed from his Professor to Harry and back again.

Snape cursed himself as he glowered furiously at his Godson, he had been hoping to lighten the mood a little but he hadn't realised he would be doing so at his son's expense. It was too late to back down so now though so he pressed on, perhaps Malfoy would have the good sense to come up with something else, but if not at least he wouldn't be able to crow over the incident as much later if he was embarrassed by it too.

"The one Miss Parkinson seemed to find so very amusing." He said pointedly as he continued to glower at him.

"Well err, it wasn't really a joke Sir? Pansy had just wondered why you were in such a bad mood and I said you had probably heard about Harry's Grim."

"Harry's what?" he asked, hoping he had misheard before realisation hit him. "Trelawney!" he snarled.

Draco dove back into his seat, relieved that the Potion Masters anger was no longer directed at him as the class nodded forlornly and Lavender Brown began filling him in on the specifics. They had had their first divination class earlier and the seer had foreseen that one member of the class would be gone before the end of the year; how she had been right about Neville breaking his cup and then while reading Tea Leaves how she had seen that Harry had had the Grim. Severus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose to help regain his composure; Trelawney was seriously going to regret this later he thought to himself before advising the class that he would have been shocked if she hadn't predicted death for one of them and that they shouldn't worry about it. Finally, shattering the last of his own rules, he told Harry in front of all his classmates, that they would talk about it after class and then swiftly returned to the lesson at hand – a recap of everything they had already learned over the last two years followed by a quick test to see if there was anything he needed to go over again in more detail before moving onto anything new.

When the bell rang he called Miss Parkinson back, instructing Harry to wait for him in his office as the other students scrambled up with their answers before flooding out the door.

Enchanting a sheet of parchment so she couldn't cheat, he set the young witch 200 lines to be handed in Monday and sent her, scowling, on her way. Then, noting that Weasley and Miss Granger were still lurking out in the corridor directed them down to the Great Hall, informing them that Harry would be having lunch with him but suggested that they might like to come back to fetch him before their next class.

"Yes Sir." Miss Granger replied obediently before heading off toward the great Hall pulling Weasley after her leaving him alone to return to Harry.