The next morning, at breakfast, Ivan sat down at the Gryffindor table, next to his friends Fred and George, and across from Beth and Alex. "I asked Jonas about his long and unusual Sorting last night," he said, picking up a slice of toast and slathering butter and strawberry jam on it. After taking a bite and chewing and swallowing, he continued, "Jonas didn't think he was going to be a Hatstall, but when he put on the Sorting Hat, it said that he could fit well in either Gryffindor or Slytherin. After some thought, he decided that he wanted to be in the same house as me and Dad, and work to improve Slytherin's reputation. That caused the Hat to say that he would do well in Hufflepuff, and some more debate. Finally it decided on Gryffindor, but as you know, Jonas yelled out 'NO!' and there was some more arguing until the Hat gave in and Sorted him into Slytherin."
"Wow," said Alex, blinking in surprise. "I didn't know Jonas would think like that."
"Me either," said Ivan. "The only reason I wanted to be in Slytherin was because Dad and Uncle Sev were in that house." He finished off the slice of toast, and in a much lower tone of voice, added, "And it would have made things easier for Uncle Sev if I were in Slytherin, anyway, since he can't be seen being nice to someone in another house."
Of course, Alex and Beth knew that there was more to it than that. Ivan sincerely looked up to his godfather, and ever since the age of five, had sworn that he was going to become a Potions Master just like Professor Snape. Ivan was also the only person, except possibly Granny Ilsa, who really knew the 'real' Severus Snape, the one underneath the persona of 'rude and snarky dungeons bat' and 'unfair to everyone except Slytherins'. On top of that, Ivan was the only person outside of the Hogwarts staff and the house-elves that did the cleaning to have ever entered Snape's private quarters, and the only one (except for the house-elves) that had been in his bedroom (mainly just to hang up the pictures Ivan drew for his godfather back when he was younger).
While Ivan drank a cup of orange juice and ate a bacon sandwich, Beth looked over at Jonas and Esther, sitting at a corner of the Slytherin table with three other first-years. "They aren't going to regret their decision, I hope? Esther may have a wizard for a father and know lots about the wizarding world, but her mother is a Muggle and her father was a Muggleborn, so many of the other Slytherins will look down on her. If they know about her father, they'll dismiss her as the 'm' word, and if not, she'll still be looked down upon for being a halfblood and being best friends with 'Gypsy trash'. And Jonas will be looked down for being a halfblood and 'Gypsy trash'."
"Esther knows better than to reveal her father's parentage," Ivan said calmly. "And if anyone tries to mess with my younger brother, not only will he fight back, but I'll get revenge."
"And George and I'll help him," Fred put in. "I bet we can get Lee and Cedric to join in too. Cedric might not be the type to get revenge or play lots of pranks, but he hates bullies like we do, and does believe in seeing justice done."
"It won't be that bad," Ivan said. "Esther's made friends with her roommate Astoria Greengrass, and Jonas said his roommates Caleb Selwyn and Ethan Bradshaw were friendly. They were sat together on the train ride, until the dementors showed up and most of them scattered to see how their siblings were doing. Jonas thinks they might form a 'Slytherin quintet', like how you guys formed the 'Gryffindor quintet' and David and his friends formed the 'Ravenclaw quintet'."
"Is Astoria the sister of Daphne Greengrass?" asked Beth. "She's in our year and is actually pretty decent when she's not surrounded by the other Slytherins."
"I think so," said Ivan. He drained his cup and stood up. "Uncle Sev, I mean Professor Snape, is handing out the schedules now, so I'd better get back to the Slytherin table and get mine before I go explain Jonas's Sorting to Vera and David. Could one of you go to the Hufflepuff table and tell Cara what I told you guys, after Professor McGonagall's given you your schedules, of course?"
"Sure," said Beth. Ivan returned to the Slytherin table, and after getting his schedule, headed for the Ravenclaw table. Beth got her schedule from Professor McGonagall, and after looking it over briefly, went to the Hufflepuff table to talk to Cara.
"Hmm, our first class of the day is Divination," Alex remarked, looking over his schedule. "I wonder what that'll be like. Sure, Mum, Aunt Maria, and Granny Ilsa have the Sight, but it's not like they really use it in everyday life. And Beth's 'feelings' tend to be rather erratic, and Cara's Gift is most accurate with tarot and playing cards and pouring the lead."
"Pouring the lead?" asked Neville. "What branch of divination is that? I don't think I've heard of it."
"I don't remember the term exactly, it's 'something-starting-with-a-'m'-mancy," Alex replied. "It's an older method invented in ancient Greece, but basically you melt lead or tin and then pour into a bowl or bucket of cold water. Whatever shape forms is immediately interpreted for omens of the future, or you can rotate it in candlelight to create shadows and interpret them instead."
Neville nodded in understanding, then gasped. "Wait! I remember now! Beth got the Muggle book Mystery of the Cupboard from Jonas for her birthday, and she and you were reading it to us every evening until it ended. Didn't Omri's great-aunt Jessica say in her journal that she poured lead to read people's fortunes, and she apparently had the Sight, since she was very accurate at it?"
Alex nodded, and Hermione looked up to ask, "Would Beth lend the book to me to read? I've read the other books in the series when I was in primary school, but not Mystery of the Cupboard since it just came out this year and I haven't had a chance to get a copy of my own."
"You and Beth have been lending books to each other ever since the two of you became friends, so of course she would lend it to you," Alex said. "If she didn't bring it to Hogwarts, we'll write Mum and Dad and have them send it to us. Anyway, when Cara heard about the whole pouring the lead thing from the book, she asked my mum about it. When we got back from Egypt, Aunt Maria let her try it, and she's been accurate so far. When she tried with me, she Saw that I would be strongly affected by something Dark, and look what happened yesterday with the Dementor."
"Maybe Cara should set up as a fortune teller," Ron suggested.
"Not happening," said Beth, having told Cara everything and returned in time to hear Ron's comment. "Cara's not interested in pursuing anything related to Divination for a career. She wants to either become an Auror like her parents, or play Quidditch professionally. Though after meeting Tonks, who was in Hufflepuff also, Cara's leaning a bit more towards becoming an Auror at the moment. Um, Hermione, what's up with your schedule?"
"There's nothing wrong with it," Hermione said stiffly.
However, Ron, who had started reading Hermione's schedule when Beth had asked about it, interjected, "There is too something wrong with it! You're down for about ten subjects a day! There isn't enough time."
"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."
"But look," said Ron, laughing, "see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And" - Ron leaned closer to the schedule, disbelieving - "look-underneath that, Arithmancy, nine o'clock. I mean, I know you're good Hermione, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?"
"Don't be silly," said Hermione shortly. "Of course I won't be in three classes at once."
"Actually, there is a way," Alex said. "But I don't think the Ministry would hand out that method to a student, even one that's as brilliant and rule-abiding as you, Hermione."
"Oh!" exclaimed Neville. "Are you referring to Time-Turners?"
"Isn't that the hourglass device that Mr., I mean Professor Lupin told us about in one of our lessons?" Ron asked. "Where you can use it to go back in time to a few hours at most, and the use is strictly controlled by the Ministry?"
"Yes," said Beth, staring at Hermione, who was starting to look rather uncomfortable. "Did Professor McGonagall really give you a Time-Turner to use when she was talking with you last night? Unlike what Alex thinks, you're the only student, besides Percy and maybe Vera, that I could see actually being given one in order to take all your classes."
"Yes, I was given one," Hermione admitted. "Professor McGonagall made me promise not to tell anyone else, or I wouldn't have kept it a secret from you guys."
"That's all right then," said Neville. "We understand. And we promise not go spreading around about the -device."
Alex, Beth, and Ron promised the same, and Hagrid came in the Great Hall. He paused by the Gryffindor table on the way to the staff table, and eagerly told the quintet that they were in his first ever lesson, which was right after lunch.
When Hagrid had left, the quintet hastily finished the remains of their breakfast and headed for the Divination classroom at the top of the North Tower. Unfortunately, they had never been to that part of the castle, and none of them had the general map of the school that Vera had given them, or the more precise Marauder's Map, on them. They soon found themselves on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall, and wondering which way to go next.
A fat, dapple-gray pony ambled onto the grass of the painting, and started grazing nonchalantly. A moment later, a short, squat knight in a suit of armor clanked into the picture after his pony. By the look of the grass stains on his metal knees, he had just fallen off. "Aha!" he yelled, seeing the Gryffindor quintet. "What villains are these, that trespass upon my private lands? Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"
Alex groaned, recognizing the mad knight from stories that Ivan and Vera had told him about their time at Hogwarts. "You're Sir Cadogan, aren't you?" he asked, as the little knight tugged his sword out its scabbard and began brandishing it violently, hopping up and down in rage. However, at Alex's words, the knight stopped what he was doing in mid-hop and mid-swing. This caused him to loose his balance, and he landed face-down in the grass.
"How did you know my name?" Sir Cadogan asked, grabbing his sword and using it to push himself back up.
"My cousins have met you before and told me," Alex said. "And we're not knaves. We're in Gryffindor, just like you were, before you went on to be a Knight of the Round Table."
"There's no Sir Cadogan in the King Arthur stories," Hermione whispered.
"All mention of him was removed from the Muggle stories about the Knights of the Round Table," Beth whispered back. "In the wizarding ones, however, he's there alongside Sir Bedivere, Sir Percival, and all the others, and was friends with Merlin."
Sir Cadogan, whose sword had ended up sunk blade down in the grass when he was pushing himself up with it, considered Alex's words as he tried to pull his sword out. Ron stifled a snicker and whispered to Neville, "It's like all those people that tried to pull the Sword out of the Stone before King Arthur came along and did so."
Neville hid a smile as Sir Cagogan gave up trying to remove his sword and instead flopped down onto the grass and pushed up his visor to mop his sweaty face. "So you know all about my great deeds, then?" he asked. "There was the wyvern that I-"
"Yes, we know about the Wyvern of Wye and how you defeated it," Neville interrupted. "However, we need to get to Divination class before we're late, and we have no idea how to get to the North Tower from here. Would you know the way, Sir Cadogan?"
"A quest!" Sir Cadogan exclaimed, looking excited now. He clanked to his feet and shouted, "Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!" He gave the sword another fruitless tug, tried and failed to mount the fat pony, gave up, and cried, "On foot then, good sirs and gentle ladies! On! On!" And he ran, clanking loudly, into the left side of the frame and out of sight.
They hurried after him along the corridor, following the sound of his armor. Every now and then they spotted him running through a picture ahead.
"Be of stout heart, the worst is yet to come!" yelled Sir Cadogan, and they saw him reappear in front of an alarmed group of women in crinolines, whose picture hung on the wall of a narrow spiral staircase. Puffing loudly, the Gryffindor quintet climbed the tightly spiraling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last they heard the murmur of voices above them and knew they had reached the classroom.
"Farewell!" cried the knight, popping his head into a painting of some sinister-looking monks, "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"
"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered Ron as the knight disappeared, "if we ever need someone mental. Honestly, his painting is worse than the stories about him."
The others chuckled at that completely accurate observation as they climbed the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where most of the lcass was already assembled. There were no doors off this landing, but Ron nudged Alex and pointed at the ceiling, where there was a circular trapdoor with a brass plaque on it. "'Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher,'" Alex read. "How're we supposed to get up there?"
As though in answer to his question, the trapdoor suddenly opened, and a silvery ladder descended right at Alex's feet. Everyone got quiet and formed a line to ascend the ladder.
Alex was first and he emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen. In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and many lamps were draped with dark red scarves. It was stifling warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.
Ron appeared at Alex's shoulder as the class assembled around them, all talking in whispers. "Where is she?" Ron asked.
A voice suddenly came out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice. "Welcome, it said. How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Alex's immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect. Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings. Alex recalled what Cara (the only one of his cousins to have taken Divination) had told him about the teacher, which was that Professor Trelawney had the Sight, but it was quite erratic and most of the time she assumed what she considered to be a mysterious air and came off as something of a fraud.
"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and they all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto poufs. Alex, Beth, and Ron sat themselves around the same round table, while Neville, Hermione, and another Gryffindor girl, whom the quintet knew little about except that her name was Fay Dunbar, sat at the next table.
"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye." Nobody said anything to this extraordinary pronouncement. Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of the magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."
Alex already knew this, and he wouldn't have bothered to take the class (since he didn't have the Sight) in the first place, except for the fact that Beth had signed up for it and the two had decided to take the same electives. That their friends had also decided to take Divination had simply strengthened his decision.
"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from nervous face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost toppled off his pouf. "Is your grandmother well?"
"I think so," said Neville tremulously.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings.
Neville gulped, but calmed down when Beth leaned over and hissed, "If something had happened to your gran, Aunt Maria or Granny Ilsa would have foreseen it already and said something to her. They didn't, so it's fine, Nev."
Professor Trelawney apparently didn't notice this, for she continued placidly, "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly to Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired man."
Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her, and edged her chair away from him.
"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball - if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."
A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, broken only by Beth and Hermione, the former making a snort of disbelief and the latter making a scoffing noise. Professor Trelawney ignored this and simply asked Lavender Brown to pass her the largest silver teapot. Lavender did so, and once she set the teapot down on the table in front of the teacher, Professor Trelawney said, "Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading - it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."
Lavender trembled, while Alex rolled his eyes. Cara had said that the Divination teacher had a thing for 'seeing' bad omens, but he hadn't expected Professor Trelawney to do it this often.
The teacher then directed the class to divide into pairs, each collect a teacup from the shelf, have her fill the teacup, and after drinking the tea until the dregs remained, swap cups with their partner and interpret the patterns in the leaves using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. As Neville stood up, she grabbed his sleeve and added that after he'd broken his first cup, he was to select one of the blue patterned ones, since she was rather attached to the pink.
"Pay Professor Trelawney no mind," Alex said to Neville as they walked to the shelf of teacups. "She may have the Sight, but according to Cara, it's erratic and most of the time she's just making stuff up, based on what she observes of people. And you're not clumsy like when you were younger, so I don't think you'll be breaking teacups anytime soon."
Neville cheered up at this, and when they reached the shelf, he selected a blue cup without any mishaps. Beth, however, grabbed a pink cup, and then dropped it. There was a tinkle of breaking china and Professor Trelawney swept over to Neville with a dustpan and brush. "One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind..."
She drifted off into silence upon seeing him holding a blue cup, and Beth snapped, "Actually, I was the one that dropped the cup, not Neville. If you foresaw a cup breaking, why didn't you See that it was me that was the cause and not him?"
Professor Trelawney blinked, then drew herself up and replied, "What I Saw was a broken cup and the two of you standing next to it. I simply misinterpreted it as, Neville, was it, being the one to accidentally break it, not you."
Beth looked skeptical, but didn't say anything and simply grabbed a blue cup. Alex and Ron exchanged looks, then waited in line to get their teacups filled. Once back at their table, they tried to drink the scalding tea quickly, then swilled the dregs around as instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over.
"Right," said Ron as they both opened their books at pages five and six. "What can you see in mine?"
"A load of soggy brown stuff," said Alex. The heavily perfumed smoke in the room was making him feel sleepy and stupid.
"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom.
Alex tried to pull himself together. "Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross..." He consulted Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' - sorry about that - but there's a thing that could be the sun...hang on...that means 'great happiness'...so you're going to suffer but be very happy..."
"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," said Ron, and they both had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in their direction.
"Don't blame me, I'm not the one with the Sight," Alex said. "Beth would do a better job at this, even if reading tea leaves isn't normally how her Sight works."
Ron snorted and said, "My turn now." He peered into Alex's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with effort. "There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat. Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry for Magic? You did say you were thinking of becoming an Auror." He turned the teacup the other way up. "But this way it looks more like an acorn...What's that?" He scanned his copy of Unfogging the Future. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.' Excellent, you can lend me some...and there's a thing here," he turned the cup again, "that looks like an animal...yeah, if that was its head...it looks like a hippo...no, a sheep..."
Professor Trelawney whirled around as Alex let out a snort of laughter. "Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron, sweeping over and snatching Alex's cup from him. Everyone went quiet to watch. She stared into the teacup, rotating it counterclockwise. "The falcon...my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
Alex rolled his eyes. Of course he had a deadly enemy! Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, was after him, and had been since the guy attempted to kill him as a baby known as Harry Potter. And even though Riddle had no idea what Alex's true identity was, the fact that Alex had stopped him from getting the Philosopher's Stone was enough for him to decide that Alex needed to be removed.
Professor Trelawney continued, "The club...an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."
"I thought that was a bowler hat," said Ron sheepishly, while Beth let out a snort.
"The skull...danger in your path, my dear..."
Everyone was staring, transfixed, with the exceptions of Alex, Beth, and Hermione, at Professor Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed. Neville upturned the cup he was holding, but fortunately didn't drop it. Professor Trelawney sank into a vacant armchair, her glittering hand at her heart and her eyes closed. "My dear boy...my poor, dear boy...no...it is kinder not to say...no...don't ask me..."
"What is it, Professor?" Dean Thomas asked at once. Everyone had gotten to their feet, and slowly they crowded around Alex and Ron's table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Alex's cup.
"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "you have the Grim."
"The what?" asked Alex. Lavender and Dean looked puzzled, but nearly everyone else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror.
"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Alex apparently hadn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen - the worst omen - of death!"
"Oh that," said Alex. "I doubt it's the Grim. It's more likely to be a sign of Sirius Black, a friend of my family, visiting me in the future. He's an Animagus and his form is a large black dog that could be mistaken as the Grim."
"And my brother and I are Romany, and we don't believe in Grims, anyway," added Beth, looking dismissive. She moved around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair, and gazing at the teacup, said flatly, "I don't think it looks like a Grim, or even like a dog."
Professor Trelawney surveyed Beth with mounting dislike. "You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
"Are you sure about that, Professor?" Beth asked sweetly. "You said something similar about my cousin Cara, and you were mistaken with her, since she is very accurate when it comes to reading tarot and playing cards, and recently discovered that she can also pour lead and interpret the signs there."
Professor Trelawney stiffened, and Alex said, "My mother, grandmother, and Aunt Maria all have the Sight, in addition to my sister and cousin Cara. None of them have foreseen my death anytime soon, so if you'll excuse me, Professor, I'm more inclined to believe them over whatever you claim you saw in my tea leaves. In fact, Cara read my future before term started, and the only thing she saw happening that could be interpreted as bad was my being negatively affected by a dark creature, which occurred when the dementors stopped the Hogwarts Express yesterday and searched the train."
The rest of the class looked between Alex and Beth and Professor Trelawney and back. Finally Ron said, "I'm more inclined to believe them, too. I've known them ever since I became friends with Alex and Beth back when we were four or five, and every time they've Seen the future that I know about, it came true unless the people involved worked to keep it from happening."
Neville added, "And they don't seem to find it necessary to see bad omens every time they use their Sight, either."
"Thank you, Professor Trelawney, but I don't think I shall continue with your class," said Beth. "I'm sure you are a lovely teacher, but you were unable to perceive that I have the Sight, so I believe I shall leave the tutoring of it to my mother and grandmother."
At that, Alex, who had been wishing that he could drop Divination, added, "I'm sorry, Professor, but I'm not going to continue with the class, either. I don't have the Sight, since it only runs through the female members of my mother's family, and I only signed up for Divination because my twin did."
He and Beth gathered up their belongings, while the rest of the class looked on in shock, and left the tower. They had reached the landing where Sir Cadogan's painting was when a voice behind them shouted, "Hey, wait up!"
The two turned to see Neville, Ron, and Hermione running up to them. "We decided to drop Divination too," Neville said, a bit out of breath. "Professor Trelawney's Sight doesn't seem to be as good as yours is, Beth, or as good as your relatives' Sight."
"It's not like we have the Sight, either," Ron added, "so we don't really need to take the class."
"And dropping Divination will lighten my schedule somewhat," said Hermione.
"But what class are you going to take to replace Divination, Ron and Neville?" Beth asked. "You need at least two electives."
"I figured I'd take Muggle Studies," Ron said with a shrug. "It shouldn't be too difficult a class, and I already know enough about the Muggle world that I wouldn't stick out if I had to spend a few days there."
"I think I might take Arithmancy, or do Muggle Studies like Ron plans," Neville said after a minute of thought.
They reached the Transfiguration classroom five minutes before the lesson was due to start, and quickly informed Professor McGonagall that they were dropping Divination and the reason why. "Professor Trelawney has been predicting the death of one student a year ever since she started teaching," she explained kindly. "None of them have died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. It is good that you five have more sense and did not believe her."
"If Alex was going to die, I or the other members of my family that have the Sight would have Seen it already," Beth said. "Since none of us did, the only conclusion was that Professor Trelawney was making it up. And if Alex was in any danger, well, he knows to be on his guard and try to prevent it from happening."
"Very sensible, Miss Romanov," said Professor McGonagall, approval in her voice.
Ron and Neville then told her that they wanted to take Muggle Studies in place of Divination. Beth and Alex didn't have to take another class, since they had signed up to take Arithmancy (which was a form of Divination, but with numbers), but they decided to take Ancient Runes. Professor McGonagall said that she would arrange that and they would get their revised schedules tomorrow at breakfast.
The rest of the class came in then, and once everyone was settled, the lesson began, which was on Animagi. Alex paid close attention, since he had been thinking about becoming an Animagus ever since he found out that his biological father and godfather (plus the traitor Wormtail) had done that in order to keep Remus company during the full moon. When the class ended, they headed to the Great Hall for lunch.
Author's Note: The branch of Divination that involves pouring melted lead is known as 'molybdomancy'. I only included it in the chapter since I happened to remember it from Mystery of the Cupboard, the fourth book in the Indian in the Cupboard series by Lynne Reid Banks.