DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter Belongs To J.K. Rowling and not to me. I make no profit off this story, so don't sue. Really, don't sue, it'll be a waste of your time anyway seeing as I'm broke.

CHAPTER 4

It was several painfully long hours later that saw Fred collapsing in a heap on one of the thankfully free couches in the Gryffindor common room. Trelawney had been so excited to have a 'real seer' to teach that she hadn't left him alone until they'd sorted out a new schedule for him that included private divination lessons, and then insisted on having a first lesson then and there. McGonagall had objected on the grounds that Fred had other classes that he had already missed several days of, but Dumbledore had been on Trewlanney's side, unfortunately, thinking that it was important for Fred to at least get a better idea of what his new powers involved as soon as possible. As a result, he'd been stuck in close quarters, alone, with Trelawney for almost the entire day (due to a lack of interest in Divination in student this year, Trelawney only had one, late class to teach on Friday which meant she was perfectly free for several hours for Fred's benefit, wasn't that wonderful?) At least he'd gotten to skip charms and transfiguration. Losing his own after lunch free period was a much bigger let down, and why, oh why did Trewlanney's one actual class of the day have to coincide with Potions? As if his day wasn't bad enough, they had to add Snape into the mix?

Fate, Fred had decided, was an extremely cruel mistress and she sure as hell better be setting things up to reward him handsomely for all this!

The oh so long lesson with Trelawney itself was rather different that Fred had expected it would be based in the pained descriptions he'd received from various friends and family members over the years… Fred guessed she must set things up different for normal students she wanted to impress from actual seers she wanted to teach. There was no cloying incense, and Trelawney wasn't fluttering around proclaiming death every few minutes. Instead she sat down and spent hours upon hours telling Fred all about the honour and responsibilities of being a seer, the history of various seers she knew off the top of her head and how they'd changed history (her great-great grandmother Cassandra Trelawney being heavily featured of course), and a sort-of brief overview of the various types of divination she hoped to impart on him during their future lessons. In all, it would have been almost tolerable if Trelawney hadn't still been so excited she was regularly break off into giggles and proceed to hug him again!

There really should be a law against teachers hugging students. Maybe he should suggest it to Percy if he insisted on getting involved in that cesspool they called the ministry again, it had to be a better contribution to society than regulating cauldron-bottom-thickness, right?

Anyway, the point was it had been a long, painful day that had lead him to here; lying facedown on the couch in a pile of misery while his loving twin brother looked down on him partly in sympathy but mostly in amusement.

"Rough day, brother?" George asked. To most he would probably sound sincere, but Fred knew him well enough to know that the wanker was laughing on the inside.

"Trelawney is a demon." Fred answered back, his voice partly muted by the pillow he was half-heartedly trying to suffocate himself with. "An evil, giggling, way too touchy demon who should never be allowed among students at all, let alone for hours at a time."

"That bad, huh?" George asked, not even trying to hide his amusement now.

"There should be a law against teachers hugging students." Fred voiced his earlier thoughts.

"There is." A new yet familiar voice spoke up then. Fred looked up from his attempts to smother himself – no doubt Fate would stop him anyway, after she spent so much efforts getting him into the mess to begin with – to see that Hermione had wondered over, with Ron and Harry right behind her. "At least there is in the muggle world. There's a code that all teachers have to legally follow. If they don't, and I'm pretty sure hugging students the way Trelawney was hugging you before wasn't, then they can get reported to the Board of Education and get into all kinds of trouble to the point of being banded from ever working as a teacher again or even jail time if the offense is bad enough."

Well, wasn't that a lovely idea, and Fred could off the top of his head think of several teachers he's like to report to this 'Board of Education' if only they had a equivalent in the magical world. Clearly the muggles were on to something, his father was so right when he said most muggles are far smarter than most wizards give them credit for.

"Was it really that bad, Fred?" Harry asked, looking truly concerned. Belatedly, Fred remembered that Harry had more cause than most to distrust teachers. Even this early in the Hogwarts career at least one teacher had tried to kill him and as Fred knew all too well it would only get worse. He better say something to get rid of the worry starting to form in Harry's eyes before his pessimist behaviour took over and made him imagine something far worse than it already was.

"Not as bad as I feared it would be from the way I've heard others talk about Trelawney." Fred admitted. "She was actually trying to teach me at least, instead of putting on a show the way I'm told she does with her other classes. And she didn't even predict my death once! But she was so excited over the fact that apparently I'm now a seer that she kept giggling and trying to hug me every few minutes. And then after hours of that, she kicks me out in order to teach one of her regular classes, and I'm still stuck going to potions with a Snape who was not amused by the fact that the long walk from the North tower to the dungeons means I was a few minutes late!"

Well, the long walk and the fact that there was no way he would have been able to remember his schedule from six years ago off the top of his head like that. If Fate hadn't jumped back into his head long enough to helpfully tell him where he needed to go before jumping out again before Fred could yell at her for putting him though that torture, he's still probably be wondering the halls trying to figure out where he was needed.

That got rid of the building worry in Harry and got Fred a sympathetic look from him and his youngest brother and even the pro-teacher Hermione. George on the other hand just snickered, the wanker, although Fred guessed he could give him at least a little leeway since he'd been stuck with Snape too.

"That aside, did you work a new schedule out Fred?" Hermione asked, Fred guessed to get the topic off Snape before anyone said anything she would feel obliged to scold them for.

"Yeah, she didn't go through with the threat of taking away your weekends did she?" Ron asked sounding concerned and slightly horrified by the idea.

Even George stopped laugh to hear Fred answer to that, as he hadn't been able to ask him that before now. Not even the twins were dumb enough to risk Snape's wrath by talking in class when he was already in a poor mood.

"No, thank Merlin." Fred said, truly relieved for this small mercy. How was he expected to terrify the staff with his pranks if all his free time was spent in Trelawney's stuffy tower? "I've officially lost my free periods on Tuesdays and Fridays, and my early finish on Mondays is now a thing of the past, but my weekends at least are safe."

Hermione nodded. "Good thing you sorted that out so fast Fred. It would be awful if you had to give up another class to take divination or something, even with all you could learn now. What exactly does being a seer mean anyway? It sounds so exciting!"

"Not nearly as exciting as you would think." Fred said with a groan, thinking of all his time tin this second s\chance being lost in boring lessons he doubted he would ever need or use. "A lot of seer tricks are little more than fancy guess work, and there's really no way to really predict when a true vision let alone force it without resorting to various potions which really shouldn't be used on a person. A lot of it is just sitting back and waiting for visions to hit."

"Then why do you need so many extra lessons?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Fred said with a shrug. "McGonagall seems to think they're a waste of time, although from what I've seen and heard she's never had any patience or trust in divination to begin with. Dumbledore however is big believer in prophecies and all that junk, so he's pushing for the extra lessons too, and hence I'm stuck with them."

Harry frowned slightly, seemingly thinking something over/ "Isn't it weird that you suddenly gain a random power like this? Didn't Dumbledore say that wizards who are hit my lightening expand on their powers, not suddenly develop all new ones, or something like that? Shouldn't you get a stronger version of some magic you already had if anything happened?"

Before Fred could think of anything to say to that, which probably been along the lines of 'I don't have a clue, why are you asking me I'm no expert' Ron spoke up, sounding weirdly excited.

"Maybe Fred did have some seer powers before and no one noticed?" Ron asked, looking somewhat proud of himself like he'd just solved a mystery no one else had even noticed. "he always knew when I was trying to prank him back for whatever he's done to me, and he always caught the quaffle no matter how a feinted when he was keeper when we played quidditch."

Fred just looked at Ron like he was an idiot. He knew when Ron was trying, emphasises on the trying, to prank him because Ron was as unsubtle as a bull in china shop and he was a professional prankster, it wasn't exactly hard. And really, Ron couldn't feint for shit, of course Fred had always been able to catch the quaffle, it was a good thing Ron had eventually gone for Keeper, it was the only position he could actually play. And he was trying to use this as examples of a budding seer talent. Really, Ron would have to do better than that if he was going to convince anyone, and pull out something like…

"And last year before we went to Hogwarts he kept telling me if I got into Gryffindor I'd have to wrestle a troll! Come Halloween we we're all in Gryffindor and what were we doing? Troll wrestling in the girl's bathroom!"

Something like that, Fred thought staring at Ron in disbelief. Did he really say that? From the way all four of them were staring at him now he did, or at least they believed he did. That was too weird.

Whether it was true or not, both Ron and George seemed to really get into the idea now and were comparing times when Fred seemingly had 'known' something would happen and reacted accordingly. None of which Fred could recall off the top of his head, but he was sure there was a better, simpler idea that him being a 'budding seer' to explained them.

After a few minutes of listening to his brothers, as far as he was concerned, making fools of themselves with all their 'proof', Fred gave a mental shrug and dropped him head back onto his pillow. If they wanted to believe he had some kind of seer powers before, by all means let them. It couldn't hurt after all, and it made them happy. Hell, it might even help make Dumbledore listen to him when the time came to really starting messing with the plans the old Goat had made and seemed stubbornly determined to keep.

In the meantime he had better things to do, like get started on planning all the 'chaos and mayhem' Fate wanted him to inflict. He'd no doubt have to get George involved at some point in the near future, his brother was always the best at coming up with escape routes and such after all, but for now he could at least get started on sorting out some ideas.

After all, if he was going to have to suffer through the rest of Fate's plans, he saw as well wasn't missing out on the fun bits of it. Now, how was he going to smuggle Fluffy into Lockhart's office without Hagrid making a fussing over his 'beloved puppy' going missing, and how was he going to get Lockhart to enter said office with noticing until it was too late?

Hum, decisions, decisions.

Author's Note

Yes, I live. Sorry about taking so long with updating, and I'm sorry this chapter isn't as exciting as some of my other work. Once i get back into the habit of writing more regularly i should hopefully be able to start coming up with more interesting stuff again. I can't make any promises though, we've all seen what happens when I make promises. I will try though.