Disclaimer: I wanna meet James and Sirius, but unfortunately this world doesn't belong to me! I only made up Dorcas Proft as the Divination professor before Trelawney.
[Written for The Houses Competition Sixth Year Round 2]
House: Ravenclaw
Subject: Potions
Prompts:
Fortune Favours the Bold
(class-setting) Divination
Tell the Leaves
Mouth gaping in a wide yawn, Sirius lightly tousled his hair in an obviously practiced manner to give it more volume and leaned back into the too-soft plush armchairs — a picture of careless elegance. Beside him, James' glasses were inching down his nose as he squinted into the bottom of the teacup held mere millimetres from his face. The dim light from the nearby fireplace barely flickered over their faces, but the sweltering heat in the room was unbearable; the humidity seemed to crawl into their lungs and slowly turned suffocating.
Sirius turned his head ever so slightly and watched as a bead of sweat slowly made its way down James' forehead, down and down and down, until it clung to the end of his nose for a ridiculously long period of time. When it finally fell into James' teacup with a soft splat, the bespectacled boy groaned and plonked his teacup onto the low tea table between them.
Shoving his glasses up to its original position, James slumped into his armchair as well. "I can't do it anymore. What in Merlin's pants are a bunch of soggy leaves supposed to tell me?" He rubbed a hand tiredly over his face.
Sirius chuckled. "That we're rubbish at this?" He lazily scrawled some notes on tea leaves reading he made up on the spot onto a scrap of parchment. "I don't know why you even bother to look that deeply into it, Prongs. Just write down the first animal or whatever shape you see and Proft will still have a field day."
"A what?"
"Muggle saying; I read it in a magazine the other day. I'll show you later. Anyway, you know she'd be too preoccupied with fawning over your readings to care if they were true or not." Sirius scoffed. "Whoops, here she comes." He quickly bent over his teacup and pretended to be examining it closely while scribbling more nonsensical readings.
Sure enough, as James looked up, he saw Professor Proft approach their table; a large pair of rhinestone glasses that framed and augmented the size of her deep-set eyes, several layers of knitted shawls draped around her spindly arms, and long beaded necklaces swinging rhythmically about her neck like pendulums. Dorcas Proft was a slight woman, with a head of snow white hair that made up half her size and was often found muttering to herself and tripping over anything in her way. She stopped in front of them.
"My dears, you must broaden your minds to See more than the eyes can reach... Look beyond! Into the future! Let me see your teacups, let me see..." She grabbed the cup that James had given up on and peered into it. Her eyebrows began to form a deep crease, and the frown spread from her brows to the rest of her as the corners of her lips gradually turned down, and her body quivered. The rattling noise of her necklaces swaying wildly seemed loud in the tiny, suffocating room as everyone paused to watch her.
Proft snatched up the teacup that Sirius had been holding as well, and held both cups side by side. Turning them in different directions, she suddenly stopped, and her strong grip on them turned her knuckles white. The multitude of bangles she always wore on both wrists were ringing with the force of her trembles.
"Children, your leaves, they align! What fortuitous fate for kindred spirits, that your futures are intertwined! Irrevocably tied, all the decisions you make henceforth will decide the fate of this world! Together for a time, your confidence will shake your enemies. And apart, they will fall. I can see…great change ahead...and many hardships. But Fortune favours those who dare face it, and She looks to you both!" With a flourish, Proft ended with heavy pants, both arms outstretched to the two dumbfounded boys. Sirius arched an eyebrow at her.
There were low sniggers throughout the room, and Proft seemed to come back to herself after her dramatic display. Clearing her throat, she tugged her shawls closer about her shoulders and swept away to the front of the room, hastily dismissing the class.
"We decide the fate of the world, eh, Prongsie?" Sirius prodded James in the side with an elbow. "Guess you're stuck with me your whole life now. Sweaty old you, with beautiful young me." He tossed his hair back luxuriously and winked at James.
James cracked a laugh and nudged Sirius back in the shoulder. "Let's face Fortune headfirst then, shall we Pads? We've long lives ahead of us to show her what we got!"
Words: 773
A/N: Noooo James! :(