Chapter 25: Seerious Trouble
Ron Weasley took a look around the new, expanded Divinations classroom with a very pleased expression on his freckled face. The room was located on the sixth floor on the southwest wing of Hogwarts castle. At one time during Hogwarts's long history, the room had been where the Chants and Auralmancy class had been held, before the course lost popularity and had been discontinued. It was easily twice as large as Trelawney's old room up in the North Tower, with over two score of the small, round tables from the old classroom set up in the shape of an arcane eye in the middle of the floor.
There had been a boom in the number of students signing up for Divinations classes leading to the need to expand the class, but it wasn't just the larger room size or greater number of chairs that had Ron feeling on top of the world; the furnishings that adorned the room were what put the grin on his face. In addition to the packs of tarot cards, rows of crystal balls (which were now arranged according to size and quality rather than just scattered about the cabinets), and the assortment of teacups and candle stubs from the old classroom, there was one new feature that had not been there before. Professor Trelawney had dubbed it the "Weasley Wall."
Dozens of framed newspaper clippings were hung on this wall, most of which featured photos of the red-headed Weasley posing along with some famous celebrity or Ministry officials. Articles from the Daily Prophet, and occasionally even the Quibbler, detailed Ron's more public and widely known predictions and their subsequent fulfillment. Ron smirked as he looked at the photo of the flying pig that had briefly terrorized Hogsmeade. There were, of course, a few clippings there about Professor Trelawney and a few more about her great-great grandmother Cassandra, but Ron's more recent fame took up far more space.
A hazy fog began boiling out of cauldrons installed in the corners of the room, the mist quickly covering the floor and rising up to obscure the bottoms of the chairs. At that cue, Ron slipped behind a dark veil next to Professor Trelawney, who had been busy a moment ago going over some complex notes written up next to the seating charts. Right on time, students began to enter the classroom in small groups. All these Third-year students were taking their first elective class and it was their first time in Divinations, so there was a bit of wide-eyedness about them.
Usually, Ron would have felt nervous at the prospect of his first class, but unlike Harry, he wasn't being asked to teach an entire lesson or manage class discipline. He was there as a glorified assistant, which suited him just fine.
Once the students were seated, Professor Trelawney stepped out from behind the curtain leaning forward as if to better see the class, her over-sized glasses magnifying her eyes as she made her first sweep of the classroom. "Welcome to 1st Year Divination," she said, "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have often seen me before as I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school can at times cloud my Inner Eye."^ She gestured, and Ron stepped out behind her, bobbing his head on cue. "This is my assistant, Mr. Ronald Weasley. Him, I am sure, you know."
Ron noted many similarities between this class and his first when he was a student. There were a mixture of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, with very few Ravenclaws or Slytherin students. Most were here because they thought this would be an easy class, which it certainly would be, but there were a few here who truly believed, just as there were a few who came for more cynical reasons. Ron tried to size up the class as Professor Trelawney continued.
"You have elected to study Divination, the most difficult and obscure of all magical arts. I must warn you from the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little that we will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field. It is a rare gift that young Mr. Weasley and I are blessed and burdened with…."^
The whole room was transfixed by Professor Trelawney's theatrics, their gazes looking back with piqued interest, folded arms and measured reservation, and in a few cases, wide-eyed awe. There was, however, one table Ron noted where a pair of Ravenclaws sat snickering, clearly having a low opinion of the class and the subject. Ironically enough, in Ron's class it had been Hermione, usually the teacher's pet, who had worn her skepticism like a badge on her sleeve.
"We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year," Trelawney continued as if she were unaware of the trouble brewing at the back table, though Ron knew better. "Mr. Weasley, please explain the syllabus."
Now it was Ron's turn to speak. Ron tapped his wand on the sole chalkboard sitting in the front of the room and the words etched themselves into the board as he spoke. "Right, then. The first term will be tessomancy and tassography; that's reading omens of the future in tea leaves and the like. Next term we do palmistry, so I'd sit next to someone you don't mind holding hands with." A couple students around the room eyed the people at their table warily.
While Ron was at the front of the room detailing the syllabus, Professor Trelawney moved among the students observing them, nodding to herself, and making the occasional cryptic comment.
"I hope your father will recover soon," she said as she passed by a young wizard who turned in confusion, the question hanging on his lips unasked as the teacher moved on. "You should avoid the color purple," the professor said to a Hufflepuff girl at the next table, whose mouth opened in surprise, before she started looking around her for anything of that hue.
"In the summer term," Ron went on, "we'll do fire omens and then finally crystal ball interpretation."
"Unfortunately, dears," Professor Trelawney interrupted apologetically, "someone among us today will not be here all the way until finals," she said shaking her head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" one of the three Gryffindors in the class demanded.
"Don't let it worry you," Professor Trelawney said with a wave of her hand, "it will do no good to worry about that today. There will be time for worrying about things like in the coming months. Now open your books to pages five and six of Unfogging the Future and let's begin, shall we?"
Ron instructed the students on where to get their cups and saucers as well as the procedure for obtaining a reading while Professor Trelawney filled their cups with tea. One by one the students sat down with their tea and quickly drank it before swirling it around the cup three times with their left hand then turning it over on their saucers for the last of the liquid to drain out. Ron and Professor Trelawney walked around the classroom listening to the students interpret the symbols, sometimes nodding, sometimes frowning, and occasionally making a hmm-ing sound.
A hand went up. "Professor," a young Hufflepuff witch with strawberry blond hair asked, "I got what I think looks like a bear here. But the books says it's either a journey or some kind of misfortune. So, which does it mean for me?"
Trelawney indicated that Ron was to handle the question with a gesture and a nod.
Ron walked over and took a look at the cup and studied it for a second. "Right, there is a bear there, as well as a hat and an hourglass."
"So, what does it mean, Mr. Weasley?" the girl asked, wide-eyed, slightly trembling. Ron checked the seating chart. Her name was Emma Green, from a long Pure-blood line.
"Well, you're right, the bear can mean misfortune like Vablatsky lists on page 6, but where the pictures are and the…er…relationship between the symbols are important, too," Ron explained, pointing to the images. "See, the bear is there between the handle and the front of the cup? It's showing that both misfortune and a journey could be it. But, see here? The hat is on the other side of the cup. If it were at the bottom you'd have to worry about an enemy or a rival, but on the side here it means you gotta try to be careful how you talk. Diplomatic like, if you know what I mean. And there in the middle is a small little hourglass, which is what this is all about. Some small decision that will cause you to go on a journey, have misfortune, or both."
Emma nodded, seeing the sense in Ron's interpretation. "So…what should I do?"
Ron shrugged his shoulder. "I dunno. Don't make a stupid choice?"
The class, which had gone quiet to listen to Ron, now burst out into laughter.
"What a load of dragon dung!" one of the Ravenclaws in the black exclaimed as he laughed.
Ron's ears went red, blood flowing to him has he felt a tinge of embarrassment. He looked over to Professor Trelawney, but she just stood in the back of the classroom wearing her beaded necklaces and bangled earrings with her arms folded. The message was clear: Handle it.
Ron walked over to the table with the pair of Ravenclaws. "What was that, Mate?" That last word was said so that everyone who heard knew Ron Weasley definitely didn't think they were mates at all.
"No offense, Ron," the Ravenclaw third-year said, in an overly familiar tone, "but it's all just nonsense."
Ron checked his copy of the seating chart Professor Trelawney had handed him. William Thompson. Muggle-born. It explained the skepticism—just like Hermione, and a common occurrence according to the professor. Perhaps he could use this.
"What, Mr. Thompson, do you think is nonsense?" Ron asked, keeping his cool.
"Tea leaf reading, the stupid fog on the ground," Thompson answered, confidence building, "This class. Divinations. You. It's just folk wisdom and coincidence dressed up as some mysterious hocus pocus. It's not real magic. And you being famous for it is a joke."
The room went quiet. Ron felt the blood in his face burn, and he could almost tell that Professor Trelawney was just about to step in with her spiel about a student with a very low aura and lack of aptitude for the art. He'd heard her use it before, including once on Hermione. But he didn't want the Professor to have to handle this. So, he spoke before she could.
"Tell that to Harry Potter," he answered, looking William Thompson directly in the eye.
If the room was quiet before, it suddenly went stark silent. It took a beat for the Ravenclaw to respond.
"Just because you're friends with—"
"Harry didn't really believe, either, you know," Ron interrupted. "Not at first. When Professor Trelawney saw the Grim in his teacup, saw a club that predicted an attack, saw the falcon predicting a strong enemy—Harry didn't really believe her," Ron said turning to the whole class. "Me, I was his partner in this same exact exercise, and I missed the signs because I hadn't had my eyes opened yet. I did get one thing right, though—I said he was going to suffer, but be happy about it," Ron laughed sheepishly before continuing, "Luckily, though, Harry wasn't so foolish as to totally ignore her warning and prepared himself."
"What happened," Emma Green asked, her voice a whisper.
Ron held his hands palm upwards in another shrug. "Danger. A powerful enemy was revealed; then there was a bloody dementor attack. It all came true, although Professor Trelawney did get one detail a bit wrong. It wasn't actually the Grim she recognized in the cup, but rather Harry's godfather, Sirius Black." Ron pointed back to the Weasley Wall, "You can read all about it back there in The Daily Prophet."
Murmurs started around the room, students were looking at their tea cups once more, and with more seriousness. It was almost perfect.
Then William Thompson spoke again.
"It's not like any of this is important. It's just a bunch of meaningless little details," the Ravenclaw interrupted. He was one of those who needed to be right all the time and clearly had no respect for a Fifth year as an assistant professor.
"Oh?" Ron snapped. "Then why is there a whole section in the Department of Mysteries just for prophecies? And not only are there some of mine in there, there's one about Harry Potter beating Voldemort. You think that isn't important, Thompson?"
There were several moments of shocked silence. Ron had said Voldemort's name, right in class. And that whole business of there being a prophecy about The-Boy-Who-Lived beating him was big. Ron's mouth gaped open, as if he had said far too much.
"Right, now, let's forget about that and get on with—"
"Alright, Weasley Seer," the Ravenclaw called out, referring to Ron with clear contempt in his voice. He'd lost too much face in that exchange and wasn't going to let Ron go on unchallenged. "If you know everything like you are saying, tell me what my sister will give me for my birthday next month. Or what the answer to the next riddle I hear will be. Or just tell me what I have in my pocket. Then I'll believe you."
The class waited expectantly. Some of them expected Ron to make a prediction then and there. Others guessed he'd give some kind of enigmatic answer, or make a completely unrelated prediction. Or just deduct points from Ravenclaw and give Thompson detention. They were all wrong.
Ron smirked. "I knew it. You don't understand Divinations at all." He turned away from the students and addressed the teacher instead. "Typical of Ravenclaws, just as you said Professor," Ron remarked. "But I think it's best if you explain it."
Professor Trelawney eyed Ron for a moment and then nodded. She stepped to the middle of the room and with a wave of her wand banished the haze from the floor. The reddish glow from the candles turned to a more natural yellow.
"Yes, it is sad that many witches and wizards who think themselves clever scoff at the art of Divinations, never realizing their folly. Fortunately, not all who follow Rowena's path remain so ignorant. I, myself, was in Ravenclaw. But perhaps it will help to teach you all a bit of epistemology before we continue with our more esoteric endeavors."
Ron looked around the classroom, noticing that only about a tenth of the students in the class had followed their teacher's comments. Had he heard those comments just a year ago he would have been lost as well, but after studying with Professor Trelawney as long as he had, he was happily surprised to realize he understood everything she had said.
"Divinations could be described as a mode of gathering knowledge, this is true. But it differs from our normal methods of reasoning: query, induction, and deduction. For example, I could answer Mr. Thompson's question about what is in his pocket using magic by many means."
Professor Trelawney waved her wand several times.
"Animus revelio. Charta revelio. Tricae revelio. Materia revelio. Metallum revelio." As she cast each spell, different items around the room briefly glowed—parchment and stationery, then decorations, then everything made of wood, then everything made of metal.
"From this, I could quickly get a good idea of what is in Mr. Thompson's pockets. Or were I a Legilimens I could use legilimency to glean the information from Mr. Thompson's mind, or from that of his friend. These are all ways of using magic to gain knowledge."
Sybil tapped her seating chart with her wand, silently casting the gemino charm on it, causing it to duplicate and then the copies flew off to each of the tables. There, beside each table were sets of numeric symbols, as well as names, some of which had been crossed off and replaced by another.
"Or, if you were to study in Professor Septima Vector's class, you could use arithmancy to predict the answers to specific questions, given sufficient information to begin with, of course. But Divination is different. It is not us asking the universe to answer us; it is the divine telling us what we are to know."
Trelawney let that sink in.
"Wait," William Thompson called out, pointing to the seating chart. "Why is there a mark next to my name?"
"Not your name, Mr. Thompson, your seat," Professor Trelawney responded. "I divined someone would come in today with strong doubts, it was just a simple application of arithmancy to see where you would sit."
"You could have added that mark to the charts any time," William responded, not willing to concede his skepticism, even to a full teacher.
"True," Professor Trelawney answered, one eyebrow raised, "but I wasn't the one who chose the teacup with the corkscrew on it."
Thompson looked at his cup again, then smirked. "I'm sorry, Professor, but there's no corkscrew in my cup."
"Did you look on the bottom?"
He looked. There was a crack in the middle, clearly resembling a corkscrew.
"But, what does that mean, Professor?" Emma Green asked.
It was Ron who answered. "Try page Appendix B on page 212."
The whole class quickly flipped to the list of less common symbols. William Thompson got there first. After reading he abruptly stood up, gathered his things and hurried out, but not before a number of students started laughing.
Author's Note:
^Some of Professor Trelawney's dialog is taken from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban