Chapter 48: Divination

When Hermione, Harry, and I entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next day, the first thing we saw was ruddy Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with what they thought was a very funny story. As we passed, Malfoy did a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit and there was a roar of laughter.

"Ignore him." said Hermione, who was right behind Harry. "Just ignore him, it's not worth it..."

"Hey, Potter!" shrieked Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl with a face that was pinched like a pug's. "Potter! The Dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooooo!"

We sat down, Harry slumping next to George.

"New third-year course schedules." said George, passing them over to us. "What's up with you, Harry?"

"Malfoy." I said , sitting down on George's other side and glaring over at the Slytherin table.

George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again.

"That little git." he said calmly. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

"Nearly wet himself." said Fred.

"I wasn't too happy myself." said George. "They're horrible things, those Dementors."

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" said Fred.

"You didn't pass out, though, did you?" said Harry in a low voice.

"Forget it, Harry" said George, giving Harry a pat on the back. "Dad had to go out to Azkaban one time, remember, Fred? And he said it was the worst place he'd ever been. He came back all weak and shaking. They suck the happiness out of a place, Dementors. Most of the prisoners go mad in there."

"Anyway, we'll see how happy Malfoy looks after our first Quidditch match." said Fred. "Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?"

Harry looked a bit more cheerful at the reminder, and began to pile food onto his plate

Hermione was examining her new schedule.

"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today." she said happily.

I looked over her shoulder and frowned. Her schedule was a mile long.

"Hermione," I said. "they've messed up your timetable. Look, they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."

"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall." said Hermione in a hushed tone.

"But look." I said, laughing. "See this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And -" I leaned closer to the timetable, 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."

"Well then -"

"Pass the marmalade," said Hermione, cutting me off.

"But -"

"Oh, Ron, what's it to you if my timetable is a bit full?" Hermione snapped. "I told you, I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."

I rolled my eyes at her and focused on my cereal, not wanting to continue our spat any longer. Something was off. There was no way she would ever be able to pull that complicated schedule off

Just then, Hagrid entered the Great Hall. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absent-mindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.

"All righ'?" he said eagerly, pausing on his way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everthin' ready...hope it's OK...me, a teacher...hones'ly..."

He grinned broadly at us and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat.

"Wonder what he's been getting ready?" I said cautiously.

The Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lesson. I checked my schedule.

"We'd better go, look, Divination is at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there." I said, getting up.

I grabbed some toast as Harry and Hermione rushed their breakfast, said goodbye to Fred and George and walked back through the hall. As we passed the Slytherin table, Malfoy did yet another impression of a fainting fit. The shouts of laughter followed us into the Entrance Hall.

"Ignore him, Harry." said Hermione.

"Yeah, you heard what my brothers said. He was just as much as a pussy as you were." I said, smirking.

"Language, Ronald!"

"Thanks Ron." chuckled Harry.

The journey through the castle to North Tower was a long one. We had never been inside North Tower before, and we had no idea that it would take ten thousand years to get there.

"There's - got - to - be - a - short - cut." I panted as they climbed the seventh long staircase and emerged on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall.

"I think it's this way," said Hermione, peering down the empty passage to the right.

"Can't be." I said. "That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake outside the window."

"Aha!" yelled some funny looking knight in a portrait, causing us to jump. "What villains are these, that trespass upon my private lands! Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"

We watched in astonishment as the little knight tugged his sword out of its scabbard and began brandishing it violently, hopping up and down in rage. But the sword was too long for him; a particularly wild swing made him overbalance, and he landed face down in the grass.

I tried hard to hold in my laughter.

"Are you all right?" said Harry, moving closer to the picture.

"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!"

The knight seized his sword again and used it to push himself back up, but the blade sank deeply into the grass and, though he pulled with all his might, he couldn't get it out again. Finally, he had to flop back down onto the grass and push up his visor to mop his sweating face.

"This bloke has some screws loose." I whispered in Hermione's ear.

"Listen," said Harry, taking advantage of the knight's exhaustion, "we're looking for the North Tower. You don't know the way, do you?"

"A quest!" The knight's rage seemed to vanish instantly. 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 lady! On! On!"

And he ran, clanking loudly, into the left side of the frame and out of sight. We shrugged and hurried after him along the corridor, following the sound of his armor. Every now and then we spotted him running through a picture ahead.

"Be of stout heart, the worst is yet to come!" yelled the knight, and we 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, we climbed the tightly spiraling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last we heard the murmur of voices above us and knew we 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." I muttered as the knight disappeared. "If we ever need someone mental."

We climbed the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where most of the class was already assembled. There were no doors off this landing. Looking up, I saw a circular trapdoor with a brass plaque on it.

"'Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher.'" Harry 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 Harry's feet.

"After you." I said, grinning, so Harry climbed the ladder first.

I climbed up after Harry and looked around. 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. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy and nasty perfume smell as it heated a large copper kettle. Everything looked completely dusty, and there were shelves that had crystal balls and decks of cards on them.

What the bloody hell did we sign up for?

"Where is she?" I said as I didn't see the teacher.

A voice came suddenly out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice.

"Welcome." it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight. She was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, which made her look like she had bug eyes, and she was draped in a shawl that even my mother with her odd taste wouldn't be caught dead in. She had numerous chains and beads around her neck, and her arms and hands were ladened with bangles and rings.

"Sit, my children, sit." she said, and we all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto poufs. Hermione, Harry, and I sat ourselves around the same round 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 nonsense she just spewed. Professor Trelawney rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all 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."

At these words, both Harry and I grinned at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject. She had the look of totally lost on her face.

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearances, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future." Professor Trelawney went on to say. "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.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear." said Professor Trelawney. Neville gulped.

Professor Trelawney 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 said suddenly at Parvati, "beware a red-haired man."

Parvati gave a startled look at me, as I was right behind her and edged her chair away from me.

You wish, Parvati.

"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."

Everyone tensed up at this statement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it.

"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"

Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney.

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading - it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."

Lavender looked scared. Hermione scoffed beside me. I could have sworn I heard her mutter "utter nonsense" in my ear.

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh, and dear," - she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up, "after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink."

Sure enough, Neville had no sooner reached the shelf of teacups when there was a tinkle of breaking china. Professor Trelawney swept over to him holding a dustpan and brush and said, "One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind...thank you..."

When Harry and I had had our teacups filled, we went back to our table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. It was nasty and bitter. We swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over.

"Right." I said as we both opened their books at pages five and six. "What can you see in mine?"

"A load of soggy brown stuff," said Harry, looking in the cup to actually try to find something.

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney said.

"Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross." he said, as 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." I said, and we both had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in our direction.

"My turn." I said as I peered into Harry's teacup, trying very hard to see something.

"There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat. Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic."

I turned the teacup the other way up.

"But this way it looks more like an acorn...what's that?" I scanned my copy of Unfogging the Future, trying to find the answer. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.' Excellent, you can lend me some. And there's a thing here." I said as I turned the cup again, "that looks like an animal...yeah, if that was its head...it looks like a hippo...no, a sheep..."

Harry couldn't contain his laughter anymore, causing Trelawney to come over to us.

"Let me see that, my dear," she said to me, sweeping over and snatching Harry's cup from my hand. Everyone went quiet to watch.

Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it counterclockwise.

"The falcon...my dear, you have a deadly enemy."

"But everyone knows that." said Hermione in a loud whisper. Professor Trelawney stared at her.

"Well, they do." said Hermione. "Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."

I couldn't help but stare at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. I had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before. It was actually very refreshing to witness, and I couldn't help but feel impressed by her at that moment. Professor Trelawney chose not to reply. She lowered her huge eyes to Harry's cup again and continued to turn it.

"The club...an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."

"I thought that was a bowler hat."

"The skull...danger in your path, my dear..."

Everyone was staring at Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed. 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?" said Dean. Everyone had got to their feet, and slowly crowded around our table, trying to get a good look at Harry's cup. Harry looked as if he wanted to disappear.

"My dear," began Trelawney, her huge eyes opening dramatically, "you have the Grim."

"The what?" said Harry, as Dean shrugged and Lavender looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror.

"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Trelawney, who looked shocked that Harry didn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen - the worst omen - of death!"

Harry looked sick. I was completely taken aback, Lavender Brown clapped her hands to her mouth. Everyone was looking at Harry, everyone except Hermione, who had gotten up and moved around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair.

"I don't think it looks like a Grim." she said flatly.

Professor Trelawney glanced at Hermione as if she was growing tired of her.

"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."

If she thought Hermione would be insulted, she was sadly disappointed. Hermione looked just as over it with her as she was.

Seamus tilted his head from side to side, trying to analyze the cup himself.

"It looks like a Grim if you do this,l." he said, with his eyes almost shut, "But it looks more like a donkey from here."

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" said Harry, angrily.

"I think we will leave the lesson here for today." said Trelawney in her mistiest voice. "Yes...please pack away your things..."

Silently we took our teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away our books, and closed our bags.

"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear," - she pointed at Neville, "you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra-hard to catch up."

We descended down the ladder and the winding staircase in silence. None of us knew what to say to each other, and Harry looked as if he didn't want to say a word.

We were almost late trying to find Transfiguration class. Harry chose a seat right at the back of the room, whole Hermione and I sat a bit in front of him, thinking he wanted a bit of space. No one was really paying attention to what Professor McGonagall was telling us about Animagi (wizards who could transform at will into animals).

"Really, what has got into you all today?" said Professor McGonagall. "Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class."

Everybody's heads turned toward Harry again, but nobody spoke. Then Hermione raised her hand.

"Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and -"

"Ah, of course," said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. "There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

Everyone blankly stared at her.

"Me,l." said Harry, raising his hand.

"I see," said Professor McGonagall. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues."

"Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney..."

She stopped again, and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Hermione laughed. Harry looked like he felt a little bit better.

I wasn't convinced. It didn't really feel right to me. Especially with this Sirius Black on the loose.

When the Transfiguration class had finished, we joined the crowd thundering toward the Great Hall for lunch. I gave Harry a concerned and dreary look. I couldn't help but worry.

"Ron, cheer up." said Hermione, pushing a dish of stew toward me. "You heard what Professor McGonagall said."

I spooned stew onto my plate and picked up my fork, but I couldn't bring myself to eat it.

"Harry," I said, in a low, serious voice, "You haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I have " said Harry, causing me to drop my fork. "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys'."

"Probably a stray." said Hermione calmly.

I looked at Hermione as though she had gone mad.

"Hermione, if Harry's seen a Grim, that's bad! My uncle Bilius saw one, and he died twenty-four hours later!"

"Coincidence." said Hermione nonchalantly, as she poured herself some pumpkin juice.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" I said, starting to get angry. "Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards!"

"There you are, then " said Hermione in a superior tone. "They see the Grim and die of fright. The Grim's not an omen, it's the cause of death! And Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better kick the bucket then!"

I mumbled incoherently at Hermione, who opened her bag, took out her new Arithmancy book, and propped it open against the juice jug.

"I think Divination seems very woolly." she said, searching for her page. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" I snapped.

"You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep." said Hermione coolly.

"Professor Trelawney said you didn't have the right aura! You just don't like being bad at something for a change!"I said, knowing I had just hit a nerve. Hermione slammed her Arithmancy book down on the table so hard that bits of meat and carrot flew everywhere.

"If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared with my Arithmancy class!"

She snatched up her bag and stalked away. I frowned as I watched her leave. Arithmancy class? How the bloody hell did she have time to go there when all three of us were just in Divination?

"What's she talking about?" I said to Harry. "She hasn't been to an Arithmancy class yet."