The rest of the first day of the fourth year, told from Ron's perspective.

RON XII

"I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in the late autumn."

Professor Trelawney just said that to a terrified Neville, who timidly replied.

"I was born on July 30."

A large part of the class hid their laughs the best they could. At least, there were a few funny moments in Divination. In the middle of their first course of the year, Ron told himself that it may not end up being as boring as last year.

He quickly became disillusioned when, half an hour later, he struggled to show the positions of the planets on March 1st, 1980, the day of his birth. Ron was hearing Dean saying that it would be easier if they were only asked to do a pretty drawing of planets. Everyone knew Dean was very good at drawing.

"I don't get it," Neville said. Ron partnered with him. "Mercury appears three times, but Venus is invisible."

"I think I've got one Jupiter and a half," Ron said, not knowing if this was entirely a joke he just made.

In the meantime, Professor Trelawney took a keen interest in Parvati's chart.

"Oh, my dear. Pluto had the most forward position at your birth. I'm afraid your very birth destined you to a tragic end."

Ron groaned in silence. Nothing had changed from last year. And Parvati seemed to be drinking each and every word from Trelawney as she detailed how the position of every planet and star indicated she was doomed. Ron wondered how much time it would take before Trelawney warned Parvati against redheads again.

Ron couldn't believe that Harry did come to think that Trelawney's predictions could be accurate. He knew it was wrong to encourage Parvati into believing Trelawney's words. Whatever Parvati thought she heard, she must have convinced herself after the fact that Trelawney actually predicted Peter Pettigrew's death. And again, the Indian girl looked totally despaired. Perhaps in an attempt to divert the attention, Lavender asked the professor about some of the planets of her own chart.

"This is Venus, my dear," the professor said, pointing one of the planets.

"Does it mean I'll find love this year?" the girl asked, full of hope. Ron rolled his eyes while Dean and Seamus were laughing not far away. "What about this one, Professor?" Lavender then further asked.

"Uranus."

An idea came to Ron at this moment, and before he could think further about it, he said it. "Can I have a look at Uranus, too, Lavender?"

A brief moment of silence followed what he said, then half the class, mostly other boys, seemed to contain laughter, while the other half, mostly girls, and especially Lavender and Parvati, but also Professor Trelawney herself, looked scandalized. As a result, Ron and the others left the class with more homework than they ever had in Divination.

"Miserable old bat!" Ron muttered when they were out.

"You should not have said that, Ron," Neville said.

"It's not my fault if she has no sense of humor," he countered.

"Me, I found it funny," Dean said, not far away.

"Now I understand why Professor Trelawney warned me against you," someone else almost shouted as she ran past them. Ron groaned again.

"When will this girl stop that?!" he asked angrily about Parvati, as if they didn't have enough trouble with all the homework they received.

A little later, in the staircases, he fell upon Harry, Hermione… and Parvati and Lavender. However, to his relief, the two girls walked at a faster pace and distanced themselves from Harry and Hermione.

"Hey! How were the Ancient Runes?" he asked them.

"My hand is no longer used to writing without end for hours," Harry commented.

"It was very interesting," Hermione assured.

"Homework?" he asked them.

"No," Harry answered.

"Hooray for Professor Babbling," Ron groaned.

He pestered and complained against Trelawney all the way to the Entrance Hall. When they reached it, they came near Parvati and Lavender again, and both walked in another direction after shooting him a scornful look.

"What have you done, Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing. I just…"

Then he thought it was probably not a good idea to repeat the joke he made in class which earned him so much homework.

"So…" Hermione insisted.

"Trelawney warned them against me. Again," he said shortly. Irritated, he turned to Harry. "You shouldn't have encouraged Parvati."

Harry took an innocent look. "I did nothing."

"Come one. You kept talking about this supposed prophecy Trelawney did last year. With her." He made a movement of his head to indicate Parvati as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. She seemed to notice his movement and looked away from him with hostility.

"She heard it, Ron," Harry said. "She tried to warn me about it before we went to see Hagrid that night. She was only trying to help."

"Well, for what it did. Pettigrew almost killed us all still."

"I didn't believe what she tried to tell me, Ron. Maybe that's why we found ourselves in this situation."

"Harry, please," Hermione interfered. "You have never been in Trelawney's classes. I have. Believe me, everything she says is to impress people. Don't start to think everything she says."

"I don't," Harry said, as he took some pork stew with vegetables. "But maybe sometimes she makes accurate predictions."

"That doesn't mean that, out of luck, she says something that happens, that she can actually predict the future."

"That was different this time, Hermione. She behaved really differently. Parvati said she never saw her in that state. She wasn't even speaking normally. And there were too many details that were accurate for it to be only luck. She said that blood would be spilled thrice. Parvati believe it meant that three people would die, but…"

"I know," Ron stopped him before he went further. They already discussed it in length last year. "You were the third to bleed, but without dying, the other two being Buckbeak and Pettigrew. But look at Parvati. Trelawney predicts her death again, and she believes her. So stop talking with that girl and encouraging her. You're making things work."

"I'm not. I told her to not care about what Trelawney told her. Ask Hermione, she'll confirm." Hermione nodded.

"Yes, but I think it's not a good idea. To talk with Parvati about Divination, I mean," Hermione said. "Where she is now, I think the best would be to avoid the subject."

"Yeah, I agree," Ron said. "So the next time Parvati talks about Divination, you walk away. You're not forced to listen to her. You're not her boyfriend, as much as I know."

The mention of this unlikely event resulted in Harry shutting his mouth, giving some satisfaction to Ron. As he began eating, Ron heard people talking behind them at the Hufflepuff table.

"You think they're going to announce more about the Triwizard Tournament?" Ernie Macmillan was asking.

"I doubt it, Ernie," Susan Bones replied. "The students from the other schools are only arriving next month. For now, there's not much that's going to happen."

"Anyway, Ernie," a girl by the name of Sally-Anne Perks began, "we're not participating to the tournament. We have to be seventeen-years-old for that."

"I know. But I hope the champion will come from our house. I already talked to Cedric. He's decided to participate to the tournament."

This caused a flurry of excitement among Hufflepuffs. On his side, Ron internally complained. He didn't know that Diggory was of age.

"Do you know someone who could apply to be champion in Gryffindor?" he asked Harry and Hermione.

"Well, all the students who are in their seventh year. And a few in sixth year," Hermione replied.

"Okay, but who do we have?"

Ron really hoped it wouldn't be Cedric Diggory who would get to represent Hogwarts. Having Quidditch cancelled was already bad, but if on top of that they had to encourage Cedric Diggory as Hogwarts' representative… He spotted him entering the Great Hall with a group of friends as he thought so. And Fred, George and Lee Jordan arrived not long after, looking excited.

"Hey, you three. You'll never guess who's the new professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts," Fred declared.

"The man with the scarred face? Who is he?"

The three boys in sixth year, none able to apply to be champion, burst into laughter at Ron's question.

"Ron? Come on! You should be more brilliant. You haven't guessed, Hermione? And you neither, Harry?" George asked.

Both of Ron's friends denied. He felt reassured that Fred and George wouldn't be able to treat him as the sole idiot in the group.

"It's Mad-Eye Moody!" Lee Jordan finally revealed.

The three of them were stunned into silence. It was Harry who broke it this time.

"Alastor Moody! The Auror?"

"Former Auror," Fred said. "But yes, that's him."

"Wait!" Ron said. "The Moody who filled half the cells in Azkaban? The one who's mad today?"

"Mad or not, his class was brilliant," Lee said.

"He gave speeches and conferences when my mother studied to become an Auror," Harry informed them. "He even supervised her final trials."

"He must not be that mad, in this case," Hermione said. "You just had a class with him?" The three other boys confirmed. "How was it like?"

"Like our friend Lee said…" Fred began.

"… it was brilliant," George completed.

"He knows what it is, fighting the dark arts," Lee added.

"Well, I guess, if Azkaban is almost full thanks to him," Harry said.

Ron, Harry and Hermione tried to learn more about the class Fred, George and Lee just had, but none of them wanted to say. They said it would be way better if they learned at their first lesson, which would only take place Thursday.

After they finished dinner, they fell upon Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins in the Entrance Hall, in front of the stairs. The son of Lucius Malfoy had a satisfied and victorious smile on his face, with a dozen people behind him.

"Hello, Potter. You won't mind if we overwhelm you. After all, you did as well the last time."

Ron was about to draw up his wand, but Hermione stopped him, and spoke up.

"You're blocking the stairs, Malfoy. Please, make way," she said on an even tone.

Malfoy and his friends laughed. "Why should we grant you your wish, Granger? You know, the corridors are not yours simply because you get high marks out of pity and favoritism." They all laughed again.

"It's not yours either," Harry said. "You have no privilege here, Malfoy. Perhaps your friend's father, Goyle, should have thought about it this summer. Is he doing well in Azkaban, Goyle? Did you wet your pants when you visited him?"

A few other students who stopped to watch the scene laughed at Harry's comment, while Goyle was inflating his muscles.

"So, Potter," Malfoy resumed, "I suppose you were disappointed when Dumbledore said the Tournament was restricted to real wizards. Too bad. I would have enjoyed watching you running away from the first task like the coward you are."

"I guess I wouldn't have been wailing as much as you did during Quidditch last year. Tell me, what took the longest to heal this time? Your arm or your ego?"

New laughter from the rest of the Hall. Malfoy was livid. "You didn't seem so proud during the Quidditch World Cup. Remember when you stood up as the Veela were dancing, ready to join them?"

The Slytherins laughed this time, and Ron reddened as well, as he behaved ridiculously as well at this moment of the game.

"I guess this is what happens to you when your mother looks at you," Harry suggested after a moment. This got Malfoy even more angry.

"You can talk! You're always hiding behind the skirts of yours!"

"At least, I have a mother I can be proud of!"

"But no father. I wonder how he looked like when the Dark Lord killed him." Harry was about to draw his wand, but Hermione firmly stopped him. "What, Potter? Too weak? You're letting women decide for you?"

The Slytherins kept laughing.

"What's going on here?"

Cedric Diggory arrived in the Entrance Hall, and quickly placed himself between Harry and Malfoy.

"We're just having a friendly conversation," Malfoy said.

"In the middle of the Entrance Hall, with everyone listening? And you blocking the stairs?"

"What do you want, Diggory. I've got many friends."

"That doesn't give them the right to occupy stairs. Make some way."

Malfoy did so with his friends, and Cedric, being a Prefect, made sure Hermione, Ron and Harry got between them without problems, and ordered the other students to scatter, other Prefects taking care of it as Cedric escorted them.

"Thank you, Cedric," Hermione told him after they were a little farther.

"You're welcome. Everything is alright, you three?" he asked.

"Yes, we're fine," Ron retorted. He knew Cedric just helped them, but he couldn't shake the feeling that they could have dealt with Malfoy on their own.

"I'll let you continue. I don't think the Slytherins will cause you further problems. By the way, Harry, I'm trying to organize a friendly practice of Quidditch on Saturday. I know we won't have any season this year, but still, it would be good to enjoy the sport a little before the Tournament begins. Are you interested?"

"Oh, yes. Of course. It's a good idea," Harry said.

"Talk to the others in Gryffindor about it. I'll talk with Roger and the other members of my team."

"Does he really have to try to be so friendly?" Ron asked as Diggory walked away.

"He was just trying to be kind," Hermione said. "As for me, I think it is a very good idea, to play Quidditch without the rivalry between houses."

Ron debated the virtue of competition with Hermione for the rest of the journey to the common rooms. When they arrived, Hermione suggested he should start to work on his Divination homework, but Ron didn't feel like it tonight, and instead he went to play chess with Harry, Dean, Seamus and Neville for the remainder of the evening.

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Next chapter: the girl who Ron believes could never possibly date Harry