Hermione was let out of the Hospital Wing later in the afternoon. Madam Pomfrey had helped her eat lunch with her left hand, to her embarrassment, and Blaise, Tracey, and Millie came to get her during their cancelled class period.
"I turn my back on you for one class," Blaise said, shaking his head with a dramatic sigh. "One class, Hermione. One class."
"I'm fine," Hermione shot back, embarrassed, and Blaise smirked at her.
"Draco was telling everyone at lunch that Madam Pomfrey had barely saved you from death," Tracey said. "He said you nearly bled out."
Hermione snorted. "How would he know? He didn't come up to see me at all."
Tracey looked satisfied. "That's what I figured."
Blaise was looking at Hermione curiously though, then glancing at Millie.
"Malfoy seems to be making an awful fuss about this, for an injury that wasn't even his," Blaise commented. "All that happened to him was some muddy robes."
"I think he planned it," Hermione told them. "I honestly think he did – he was planning to get injured, and then use it as an excuse to get Hagrid fired immediately."
Tracey looked thoughtful.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Tracey said, slowly. "I'd be surprised, though – it's not like Draco to risk himself."
"That's a fair point," Hermione admitted. "Crabbe and Goyle were right next to him. Maybe one of them was meant to take the hit?"
"Draco's making it out like you saved his life again," Millie said. She glanced at Blaise. "Saying you nearly bled out and could have died."
Something on Blaise's face darkened, and Hermione blinked.
"He's overexaggerating," she dismissed. "It wasn't even that much blood."
"Why did you save him, Hermione?" Tracey wanted to know. "You were running before Buckbeak had even started to move."
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "I just—suddenly I could tell what was going to happen, and then I was running—"
"You could tell?" Blaise asked, and Hermione winced.
"It's hard to describe," she said. "I think I put it together he was going to say something stupid seconds before he did, and then I was running to shove him out of the way."
"Why, though?" Tracey asked pointedly. "It would have been his fault. You could have just let him get hurt."
Hermione blinked.
"I…" she trailed off and cleared her throat. "I really don't know, honestly. I think I just didn't want anyone to get hurt – I was hoping to dodge the claw too, I think, but I couldn't run fast enough on the mud…"
"We really need to do something about this saving people thing, Hermione – you're not a Gryffindor," Blaise groaned. "C'mon. We've got class soon."
Hermione paused.
"Err—you all go on ahead. I'll be right there – I need to check with Madam Pomfrey about something," she said, managing a tight smile.
Tracey and Millie shrugged, leaving, and Blaise gave her a long, curious look before leaving the Hospital Wing. As soon as the door was closed, Hermione looked at her watch, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.
It didn't take long – there was a rush of wind, and she heard the patter of footsteps running out of the Hospital Wing door a moment later. As soon as she heard the door close again, she opened her eyes and hurried out, going down the staircase and catching up with Blaise.
"Sorry," she said. "Just wanted to make sure I wouldn't need another Blood Replenisher or anything."
Blaise was raising an eyebrow at her.
"I thought you were taking Divination," he commented, and Hermione scoffed.
"What, when I've got Luna for that?" she said. She tossed her head. "Anyway, I'm not about to miss Ancient Runes – can you imagine all the uses for this in rituals?"
A slow grin spread across Blaise's face. "That's exactly why I took it."
"I hope there's not a lot of writing, though," Hermione said, frowning down at her arm, bound to her chest in a sling. "If we have to take a lot of notes today, that's going to be a problem."
"It won't be," Blaise assured her as they reached the classroom. It was one of the older classrooms, with tables instead of individual desks. He tugged her over to a table with him, getting out his parchment and ink and helping her get her textbooks out. "I'll take notes for you, too."
Ancient Runes was fascinating, and held a lot of potential, to Hermione's excitement. Even the introductory lecture about what runes could do was promising – runes could be used to literally spell things out, or to imbue with magic or meaning individually for different purposes. Hermione was reminded of the hedgewitches, tracing runes on their windows and mirrors, and she was curious to learn if it worked.
She begged off from Blaise after class, saying she needed to check in with Madam Pomfrey at the Hospital Wing before dinner but to save her a seat. As soon as she got to the Hospital Wing, though, she quietly slipped inside, checked her watch, and waited a few minutes before she withdrew her Time-Turner.
She'd read the safety pamphlet, and she knew how to use it. Carefully fussing with the tiny dials, Hermine carefully set the Time-Turner before setting it off, and she watched as the world blurred around her, a sped-up version of Madam Pomfrey bustling around the beds speeding by in reverse. There was no sense of movement at all, just of time being rewound before her eyes.
As soon as it stopped, Hermione quickly looked away from the place she knew where the pervious her was, closing her eyes. She ran out of the Hospital Wing door and chased Tracey and Millie up the stairs, who slowed down for her to catch up.
"How far is Divination?" she asked.
"The North Tower, I think," Tracey said. "All the way at the very, very top."
There was an enormous number of stairs, and they were all staggering by the time they got to the tiny landing where their other classmates were assembled, Harry and Neville included. Everyone looked slightly confused until a circular trapdoor opened up, a silvery ladder descending in front of them.
Hermione groaned.
"How am I supposed to get up with this?" she bemoaned, lifting her injured arm. Tracey looked worried.
"We could have you go last and tie you to the ladder?" she suggested. "Then we could all haul you up from the top?"
"Go ahead." Harry had come over. "I'll come up last with her."
"What, you're going to carry her?" Millie was skeptical, looking at Harry. "I know you're a big, bold Gryffindor, but that is not an easy task."
"Just go, Bullstrode," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "I've got this."
After casting skeptical looks back at them, Tracey and Millie joined the line to climb up the ladder, the ladder shaking slightly as students clambered up. Harry stepped closer to her, his voice low.
"I figured you could just fly," Harry told her conspiratorially, his eyes sparkling, "but that you'd need a plausible excuse for how you got up."
Hermione laughed.
"So you decided to volunteer to be my brave hero?" she teased, and Harry grinned. "You're so sweet."
When they were the last two, Hermione slowly and carefully flew up, hovering just outside the lip of the trapdoor while Harry climbed up. She timed her entrance through the door for the same moment Harry's head followed up, so it seemed like she'd managed to roll off of his shoulders and into the classroom. It was unlikely, but it was plausible, and that was enough.
"Is this the right place?" Harry asked, uncertain. "This is weird."
They had emerged into the strangest-looking classroom Hermione had ever seen. There were maybe twenty small, circular tables crammed inside the room, with armchairs and poufs scattered around to sit on, reminding Hermione of beanbag chairs. Dim light filtered into the room, red-tinted from red curtains at the window and from lamps draped with dark red scarves. The room itself was stiflingly warm, a full fire burning under a crowded mantlepiece, and there were knickknacks and random objects scattered around.
"Must be," Hermione said, pointing at an assortment of crystal balls lined up on a set of shelves. "C'mon."
Hermione took a seat at a round table with Tracey and Millie, Harry sitting at the neighboring table with Neville and Ron. Tracey was scanning the room with wide eyes, and Millie looked skeptical already.
"Where is she?" Millie asked. "If she's late to her own class…"
"She has to be here somewhere," Tracey pointed out. "Someone had to let the ladder down."
A voice suddenly came out of the shadows, soft and misty.
"Welcome," the voice said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Incredulous and already amused, Hermione sat back into her pouf and watched.
Professor Trelawney, Divination professor, looked like a caricature of a muggle fortune teller, bedecked in a gauzy shawl with many necklaces and bangles and rings. She wore very large glasses that magnified her eyes many times, and Hermione tried not to laugh at the mental image of her new professor on the telly, imploring viewers to 'call in now and get your cards read'.
Professor Trelawney was very dramatic, and she was putting on a bit of a show, talking about her Inner Eye and the difficulty of Divination, how very few were gifted with the Sight. She paused periodically, making casual predictions, asking after Neville's grandmother's health, warning one of the Gryffindor girls to 'beware a red-haired man', and predicting something dreadful for Lavender Brown on the sixteenth of October.
Professor Trewlawney eventually got around to the class itself and their lesson for the day, though it took a while. They were doing Tasseomancy today, apparently, where they would learn to read the future from the remains of tea leaves in their teacups. Tracey went to get them all a teapot and cups, while Millie helped Hermione get her copy of Unfogging the Future out of her bag and open to the pages where it said how to interpret the patterns.
"Does this actually work?" Tracey asked, pouring the tea for them. "My mother goes to tea parties all the time. I've never seen her do this."
"She must not have the Inner Eye," Millie drawled, smirking.
They drank their scalding tea as instructed, then swapped cups.
"Right," Hermione said, looking at Millie's cup and consulting her textbook. "You've got some clouds, so that's 'trouble on the horizon', but then you've got a ring, which means 'events related to marriage'…"
"This is such tosh," Millie said disgustedly, but Hermione was getting into it now.
"You've got a mushroom next to the ring, though, which is 'fighting and romantic breakups', but right next to it you've got a house and an angel, which are 'business success' and 'good news related to love'. So if I were to summarize…" Hermione tapped her lips thoughtfully, looking down into the cup. "I would predict that your father's going to try and put you into a betrothal contract you don't like, you're going to fight, but you'll manage to break the contract. Oh, and you'll make money somehow somewhere in there." She grinned.
Millie snorted. "At least it ends well. I don't want to go through any of this marriage crap just yet."
Hermione laughed.
"This is kind of vague," she admitted, looking into the teacup. "I mean, all of these symbols kind of mean multiple things, don't they? And what shape they are is up to interpretation…"
"My turn!" Tracey said. "Millie, do me!"
Millie looked at the Tracey's cup, cocking it sideways and blinking.
"Err, you've got a bunch of brown clumps, really," Millie said. She peered down at her book. "Is there a symbol for 'potato sack'?"
"You've got to think creatively," Tracey admonished. "Open your mind."
Millie rolled her eyes.
"Okay, so that one kind of looks like scissors? Which means 'fighting or illness', but you've got a tree too, which means 'good fortune and happiness'. And… hang on…" She peered into the cup. "Err, I think you've got a line with a bit of a hook on it? If it's an arrow, it means something good, but it's not quite an arrow…"
"Is it a letter?" Tracey said, peering at the textbook.
"No, it's just a line with another little line, like half an arrow." Millie sat back up, putting Tracey's cup back. "So you'll get sick but be better afterwards, Tracey."
Tracey huffed. "That's so boring."
"Well, do Hermione then," Millie said, eyes glinting. "Let's see if your Inner Eye is any better."
"I will," Tracey said primly. Hermione stifled a giggle as Tracey picked up her cup.
"What do you see?" she asked, grinning. "What's in store for me?"
"Well, you've got a fox on your saucer," Tracey said. "It looks like most of the tea leaves fell, but that's definitely a fox. Do things on the saucer count?"
"It's still tea leaves," Millie said, shrugging. "Still counts."
"Right. So a fox is 'deceit or betrayal by someone close'," she said, wincing. "Not great. As for your cup… err, you've mostly just got lines left."
"What are they, though?" Hermione prompted, stifling a giggle. "Open your inner eye…"
Tracey laughed.
"Okay, so you've got an up arrow, which just means 'yes, good direction', but no idea what it's saying is good, and you've got an hourglass, which means 'approaching danger'. You've got a crooked cross, so that's 'suffering and trials' again, and a crooked sort of H? Which just means something to do with someone with that initial." She peered into the cup again, squinting. "And you've got a pregnant-looking line. No idea what that means, though."
Professor Trelawney was drifting around, reading cups. She approached their table.
"Are we having any success?" she said. "Do not be disappointed if not. Not everyone has an Inner Eye to open…"
"Hermione's got a fox on her saucer," Tracey said, pointing. "Does that still count?"
Professor Trelawney took Hermione's cup from Tracey, looking at Hermione.
"I'm afraid it does – be wary of betrayal…" Her voice was misty. "Though, for it to fall outside of your cup…"
She examined Hermione's cup for a moment, before looking at it quizzically and turning it different directions. She gave Hermione a suspicious look.
"Familiar with Ancient Runes, are you?" she asked. Her voice had lost some of its misty quality, and she seemed almost annoyed.
"Err, I mean…" Hermione faltered. "I only just started the class."
Trelawney gave her a suspicious look.
"Students do not usually take both Ancient Runes and my class," she said. "You must have a very logically-organized mind, though – your cup is full of runes, my dear, and not symbols at all."
"Really?" Tracey was intrigued. "Can you still read it?"
"Of course I can read it," Trelawney snapped. She examined the cup again. "Here, at the start, you have Hagalaz… hail, wrath of nature, and uncontrolled forces…"
"I thought that was just an H…" Tracey winced.
"Nauthiz is next… self-reliance and endurance, even in obstacles and challenging times…" Trelawney had affected her mystical voice again, but her eyes remained sharp on the cup. "Oh, dear… you have Tiwaz crossed with Thurisaz… a sense of justice and leaderships, but crossed with conflict, defense, and a violent outcome…" She turned the cup again. "Your last is Dagaz – radical change and a breakthrough, but who is to say of what sort…?"
She looked over them with her large eyes, all three girls silent.
"Be careful, my dears," she advised them. "Opening the Inner Eye can bring great suffering. To know what is ahead, and to not be able to change what may come…"
She drifted over to the Gryffindor boys' table, and Tracey, Millie, and Hermione exchanged a look. Tracey looked unnerved, while Millie looked annoyed.
"Half of this is cold reading and performance art," Millie complained. "A bunch of lines in a teacup doesn't mean anything."
"Okay, so I want to see this," Hermione said, digging in her bag. "I've got the Ancient Runes texts right here. Hand me my cup?"
Tracey handed it over, Hermione examining the cup.
"So this hourglass is actually the Dagaz?" Hermione said, blinking. "This kind of works, though – that pregnant line, Tracey, that was Thurisaz, the conflict and violence rune…"
"Is there a hooked line in there?" Millie asked. "That's what I couldn't get for Tracey."
Hermione flipped through.
"Oh! There is – Laguz. Water, power of renewal, dreams, fantasies," she read. "There's not any other context, though, really."
"I change my prediction, then," Millie said gravely. "Tracey, this year you will get very sick…" Her eyes glinted. "…in the head. Your insane fantasies will drive you to sleep with someone in a delirium of love, giving you great joy and happiness until you eventually wake from your dream."
"Oh, shut up!" Tracey said, shoving Millie but laughing. "Like you're one to talk about a rich fantasy life!"
"My fantasies revolve mostly around raising Kneazles in the woods entirely by myself, thank you very much," Millie shot back primly. "Not of Adrian Pucey feeling me up under my skirt."
Tracey waved a hand. "If I wanted Adrian to feel me up, I could have let that happen ages ago." Her eyes gleamed. "But some of our classmates are finally catching up to the older boys, you know? Quite a few came back this summer a lot taller."
There was a scream, and Hermione whirled around to see Professor Trelawney collapsed onto a nearby chair, her eyes closed and a glittering hand at her heart.
"My dear boy… my poor, dear boy… no, it is kinder not to say… no… don't ask me…"
"What is it, Professor?" one of the Gryffindor boys wanted to know.
"My dear…" Professor Trelawney's eyes opened dramatically, looking at Harry, "you have the Grim."
"The what?" Harry asked.
There was a reaction around the room of gasps and looks of horror. Hermione didn't react though, and neither did Harry or the Gryffindor boy, though everyone else seemed to be shocked and clutching their metaphorical pearls.
"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen – the worst omen – of death!"
Everyone around Harry looked very worried by this, but to Hermione surprise, Harry started to smirk.
"I'll have to look out for that, then," he said casually, taking his cup back from Professor Trelawney. "Thanks, Professor."
Seemingly astounded at Harry's nonchalance in the face of death, Professor Trelawney was at a loss, not knowing how to react. Hermione watched as she again impressed on Harry the danger and terror he was facing, but Harry's small smirk only grew. Eventually she gave up, going over to terrify another group of girls, and Hermione put her books away as Millie and Tracey cleaned up their tea set.
Harry had to stay to 'help Hermione down the ladder' after the others had left. He still looked amused.
"You're not scared?" Hermione asked. "Even though you got a death omen?"
"Not really," he shrugged. He gave her a grin. "It all seems a bit woolly, doesn't it? Plus, I figure if I'm going to kick it, Luna would let me know first, y'know?"
Hermione slowly started to smile.
"You know," she said, "I do believe you're right."