Scorpius hated Divination. He had signed up for it last minute, in lieu of taking Ancient Runes. It had been between Divination and Ancient Runes, and when it came down to it, he knew which class would result in better marks. Rose had signed up for both. The third-year class was taught by Professor Trelawney, who had the odd habit of swooping around in odd-smelling cloaks and making odd predictions while batting her eyes wildly from behind her thick-rimmed glasses. Al and Rose had both groaned upon hearing she would be teaching their class instead of the centaur—their parents had all hated Professor Trelawney. When Scorpius asked his father about taking Divination with Professor Trelawney (his mother had never taken it, she thought the subject to be ridiculous), his father simply replied that he never knew if Trelawney was a good teacher because he had skipped most of his classes.
The worst part about Divination was the climb to the tower. The classroom was located in one of the tallest towers in the school, and the winding staircase made Scorpius nearly sick every time he had to climb it. Al was there with him, wheezing along, while Rose took the stairs two at a time, her curly red hair lighting up their path. The whole time she babbled on about their 'Dreamscapes' and 'Tea Readings,' never missing a beat.
"Good afternoon," Professor Trelawney greeted them one December afternoon. They had class paired with the Ravenclaws today, and Summer Gainsworth joined their table, pulling up a seat next to Rose. Al was hunched over the homework he had neglected to finish, sketching out an aura chart that predicted his moods for the next week. Professor Trelawney shrewdly snatched it away before he could finish and moved on to the rest of the class. "Today we will be doing Palm Readings. Over half of you finished the reading, as I predicted, and will be aware of how to read your partner's lines. Get in touch with your inner eye!"
"I hate when she says that," Scorpius mumbled, and Rose turned to him.
"I did the reading," she said promptly, taking his hand and flipping it over. "Did you?"
"I did half," Scorpius said fairly. "I skimmed. I had Quidditch Practice last night, and Jade is relentless. Now that she's in her seventh year-"
"Keep talking about Quidditch in my class, Mr. Malfoy, and I predict you will be serving detention Friday afternoon," Trelawney snapped.
Rose ran a finger over the lines on Scorpius' left hand and frowned, turning to look at her textbook.
"Your lines are very faint," she said knowledgeably. "I think you have a blood deficiency."
"Rose, I'm just pale. Not all of us can tan as easily as you do."
"Well, alright. Look, here's your headline. It's broken. So that means…you'll experience an emotional crisis and you have a lot of inconsistencies in your thinking pattern."
"It's all cheery in the tower today, isn't it?"
"It's not all bad." Next to them, Summer was informing Al that he had a short attention span. Al began to question her, before an owl that landed outside the classroom distracted him. "Look here. Your lifeline is long and curvy, without any breaks. You'll have a long life, and you're full of energy. Professor Trelawney? I have a question. The textbook says that a curved line could either indicate strength or energy…so how do we know which it is?"
"Get in touch with your inner eye," came Professor Trelawney's answer as she circled the classroom. Rose rolled her eyes.
"We can move on to your fate line, then." Rose touched Scorpius' palm with her pinkie finger, and then shoved her nose close to his palm so she could see better. "Not surprising at all."
"Can you stop being an expert?" Scorpius teased. "I mean seriously, how am I supposed to live after you've told me all there is to know? What's the point?" Rose ignored him.
"This line, this center one, crosses the life line. The book says that you have a strong support system. That means family and friends are heavily involved."
"Clearly," Scorpius smiled, gently bumping his palm into her nose. Rose wrinkled her nose at him and looked back at the textbook. "Come on, Rose. Get to the Love line, that's the one everyone's curious about."
"Not me," Al interrupted, frowning. "James told me that none of this matters, anyway. He read my palm after his third year and told me my love line indicates a lot of divorce."
"No," Summer corrected, shaking her silver head. "No, I think your brother was messing about with you. Your love line indicates a very strong, singular love."
Rose rolled her eyes yet again.
"Okay, Scorpius. Let's see it, then." She narrowed her eyes at his palm. She yanked on his arm and twisted his wrist, trying to get a better angle to view the line.
"Ow, Rose. That arm is attached."
"Sorry," she said, but didn't sound it. "Your line is about half as long as it should be. That means you fall in love easily. It's straight, which means you don't talk about your emotions all that easily. And it's broken, meaning you'll fall in love with the wrong person."
"The cherry on top," Scorpius mumbled, trying to read his own palm. Rose got up suddenly and crossed the classroom with her book in hand. She cornered Professor Trelawney and began jabbing her finger against the page, her face beginning to burn with the look of intellectual curiosity she got whenever she found an error in a textbook.
That night, Scorpius sat in the Gryffindor common room after Quidditch Practice, filling out his Divination homework. He had to draw his palm lines, describe his lines, predict the ways in which they would determine his life course, and then predict what the length of his fingers meant in the grand scope of things.
Al and Rose sat with him, finishing up the rest of their homework. The rest of the common room was rather quiet; many of the students had left early for winter holiday. James was still around, but he had gone off with the pretty girl in his entourage that Al and Scorpius strongly suspected to be his girlfriend.
"What are you working on, Rose?" Al asked, looking up from his Divination. Scorpius snuck a glance at his paper and saw that Al predicted that his strong fate line meant that he shouldn't be too ambitious, since fate would carry him through life anyway. Scorpius resisted smiling. "You're writing far too much for Divination."
"I'm working on Muggle Studies," Rose replied swiftly, blowing on a piece of parchment and setting it aside. "We have a paper due on the Muggle Education system due before we leave, and I just cannot cut it down."
"Cut it down?" Scorpius asked incredulously, looking at the stack of parchment next to her. "You're writing more than you're supposed to?"
"There's just a lot of information," Rose protested, her face turning red.
The common room portrait swung open, and James and his girlfriend had returned, their heads bowed as they giggled together. Lily followed them solemnly, holding a stack of books to her chest.
"Hi Lily," Scorpius said immediately. Perhaps he was a bit too eager, as Rose and Al both stared at him. But Lily smiled and approached their table.
"Hi, you guys." She glanced nervously at their work. "Third year work looks like a lot."
"Not more than we can handle," Rose said.
"What are you doing, Scorpius?" Lily asked, examining his chart. "Is that palm reading?"
"Yes. Yeah. I mean…I don't know if I believe in it or anything." Scorpius smoothed back his hair.
"You didn't seem that way in class," Rose said immediately. "You were pretty concerned over your love line, right? You seemed concerned."
"You were a bit concerned, mate," Albus agreed.
"I think it's cool," Lily piped up, shaking back her hair.
"Yeah?"
"Isn't everyone curious about how their life will be? It would be cool to figure it out just by looking at your hands…"
"It's not that simple," Rose protested, her voice going up an octave. "The lines aren't always entirely indicative. They can change, you know."
Everyone turned to stare at her, even James and his girlfriend, who appeared to be in the middle of snogging by the common room entrance. Rose blushed furiously.
"That's what I've read," she said weakly, closing her textbooks and beginning to stack them. "But I'm tired. I should go to bed."
"I'll walk with you," Lily volunteered. She leaned down to hug Albus quickly, much to his annoyance, and then smiled at Scorpius, her lips turning upwards like the petals of a flower opening to sunlight. He resisted the urge to smile back, because he was sure that if he did, his mouth would fall open idiotically.
"Good night, Scorpius," both Lily and Rose said at the same time.
"'Night," he replied, turning to watch as they both headed up the staircase.
"Rude," Al said, frowning. "You see that? Rose didn't say good night to me."
"Yeah," Scorpius said faintly. He glanced back down at his diagram and felt the urge to rip it to shreds.