𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯: 𝘐𝘯 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳

| 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕒 | 

“Good day to you!” 

Parvati, Lavender, and I shared a grin with one another as professor trelawney made her usual grand, dramatic entrance. I was rather excited, as there were crystal balls sitting on the tables in front of us and i had been looking forward to showing off since trelawney had shown magnus and me how to use them to watch muggle movies.  

“I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned." Professor Trelawney sat with her back to the fire and looked about the class. “The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice.”

Hermione snorted. “Well, honestly, ‘the fates have informed her’ who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!” she did not bother herself with keeping her voice low. that would have been far too respectful of her.

Harry and Ron choked back laughs. I glared at the three of them from across the room. Why did she get away with saying rude things and punching people in the entrance hall? make no mistake, i think draco malfoy is a bleeding git as much as the next gal i just dont see why there should be double standards. Besides if every gryffindor blew their tap every time some idiot said something dumb we'd have as bad a reputation as the slytherins. 

Hermione granger wasnt that cool. There i said it. 

[Yes, Magnus, I know that will make a lot of people mad, i simply dont care!] 

I couldnt tell if trelawney had heard granger and her dumb friends laughing at her but she went on as if she had not. 

“Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art,” trelawney said dreamily. “I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb’s infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes so as to clear the Inner Eye and the superconscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will See before the end of the class.”

for the briefest of seconds she caught my eye. I smiled, pleased to know she had full confidence in my abilities. She gave me a subtle nod and then proceeded to give the class instructions.  i was trying to pay attention but it was rather hard when ron weasley was behind me shoving his fist in his mouth to stifle his sniggering.

"Im going to kill them." I started to get up, but Parvati and Lavender pulled me back down.

"Just let it go," lavender advised. "if they dont appreciate the art of divination the way we do thats their problem." parvati nodded in agreement but i was still feeling rather homicidal.

oh well. I suppose the girls were right. murdering my classmates in broad daylight in front of my favourite teacher was bound to get me sent to detention so i settled on kicking weasley in the knee instead when i was shifting positions in my chair. 

I smirked at parvati and lavender, thoroughly satisfied when he started complaining about me to his friends. The girls smiled back at me. We got to work on our crystal balls after that but i could still hear Ron breaking into what im sure he thought were silent giggles and Hermione tutting every two seconds.

I did my best to tune them out. 

It didnt take me long for something to happen in my crystal ball. At the center, the white mist swirled around before figures began forming: four of them. A cat, a rat, a dog, and a wolf. Odd. I was flipping through my divination book trying to see what those things might have meant together, but of course the "golden" trio as my brother and his slytherin friends liked to call them just had to keep yammering on. It was quite distracting. 

“Seen anything yet?” Harry asked. He sounded bored out of his mind but at least he wasnt outwardly bashing the subject like the other two.

“Yeah, there’s a burn on this table,” said Ron, pointing. “Someone’s spilled their candle.”

“This is such a waste of time,” Hermione hissed. “I could be practicing something useful. I could be catching up on Cheering Charms —”

"if you three loathe the subject so much you should just drop it and take something else," i snapped. 

hermione looked like she might have had a biting retort for me but Professor Trelawney made her way over before she could get it out. perhaps she had sensed a fight breaking out and had come over to stop it from happening but im afraid things only escalated from there...  

“Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?” she offered kindly. 

“I don’t need help,” Ron whispered. “It’s obvious what this means. There’s going to be loads of fog tonight.”

Both Harry and Hermione burst out laughing. I slammed my hands on the table, getting to my feet, ready to fight to the death if i had to. "You know what, if you idiots are too thick ──" 

“Now, really!” Professor Trelawney stopped me before i could say or do anything stupid. the whole class was watching the scene now though. Whatever. I was getting very tired of their negative attitudes.

Parvati and Lavender were glaring at the trio so at least they were on my side here. 

“You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!” professor trelawney approached the trios table and peered into their crystal ball. 

"im sorry professor," i said and sat back down, still glaring at the trio. 

“There is something here!” she whispered, lowering her face to the ball, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. “Something moving but what is it?”

i hoped it was something awful. I know, i know. Harsh. But i was angry and annoyed. If only they actually tried they might actually learn something or else they could just shut up and give our teacher the respect she deserved. Just because they thought it was rubbish didnt mean everyone else did; the rest of us were allowed to have different opinions. 

“My dear,” Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry. I knew what it was a second before she said it. Partly because I am amazing and partly because she'd been seeing it since that first class. “It is here, plainer than ever before" I might have been a bit more concerned if i wasnt so angry with harry and his friends at the moment. My brother had vivdly seen the Lame Lord murdering harry on the train so long ago and Trelawney kept seeing it over and over. I wasnt sure when it would happen but i was half tempted to make it happen a bit earlier by killing him (and his friends) myself.

 "my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer. the Gr —”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” said Hermione loudly. “Not that ridiculous Grim again!”

Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione’s face.

Parvati whispered, "oh for goodness' sake not that ridiculous non-believer throwing a tantrum again!" 

"shes just mad because you cant get all the answers from a book," lavender whispered back. 

"So much for being the brightest witch of the age," i muttered. "if she were really all that you'd think she'd be able to figure something as simple as this out even without a book to guide her every action!" I know it was rude. She did work quite hard for that title, but, you know, i was mad. We all say dumb things when we're mad. 

Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger. I thought it was well within her right to be mad; after all the girl did nothing but insult her and her subject every time she came into this classroom.

“I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane. Unlike Matilda here, who is a natural born seer." 

I turned and gave Hermione my biggest, most immodest grin i could muster up. I shouldnt have. It was just that she was always the best at everything, the little know it all that she was, and people gave her all sorts of praise for being 'the brightest witch of the age' and well it sort or made me feel inadequate by comparison. It wasnt my fault focusing in class was hard. And how was any normal person meant to remember so many dates and facts all at once? i couldnt store that much information in my head. I could hardly even remember what id had for breakfast that morning. it was just nice to be the smart one for a change. 

Hermione didnt think so. In fact, she was so inept at feeling inferior that she shoved her book back in her bag and rose to her feet.“Fine! Fine!” she swung the bag over her shoulder and almost knocked Ron off his chair (hilarious). “I give up! I’m leaving!” 

"Well you know where the door is, love," I told her. Lavender and Parvati giggled next to me. Hermione didnt find my comment quite so amusing; and as she passed our table, she smacked our crystal ball right off the table and sent it rolling across the room. "Wow. That was rude." 

Hermione ignored me and stompped  over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.

"Bye!" i called after her and got up to retrieve the crystal ball again. I imagined later we'd have quite the argument about this little scene in our dorm room, but i wasnt that worried about it in the moment. ron and harry were glaring at me now, but whatever. That was their problem. 

The class was all riled up now, muttering to their friends about the drama that had just unfolded. Well, at least they enjoyed the show. I was more worried about our teacher. She seemed quite upset by the insults to her subject; she turned away from Harry and Ron’s table, breathing heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her. Poor thing. 

“Ooooo!” said Lavender suddenly, making everyone start. “Oooooo, Professor Trelawney, I’ve just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn’t you? Didn’t you, Professor? ‘Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!’ You said it ages ago, Professor!” that was true. Professor trelawney had said that exact thing in our very first class. Hmph. Fraud indeed. That girl didnt know what she was talking about. 

Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile. I thought she was just being polite. “Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs...The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know...”

Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, but i was growing steadily more worried for her. She'd said that she shared my brothers ability to see the bad things. I thought that must have been really awful; I hoped magnus wouldnt become too burdened with it… 

we moved over so that she could join our table instead. I showed her the animals id seen in our crystal ball. "Yes… yes… the wolf is strongly associated with danger and destruction, like wise with the rat. Very peculiar premonitions for you, my dear, very peculiar indeed. Although the rat may be seen in a  more positive light as well. Sometimes they are depicted to show escape from certain death. Cats… rebirth… very interesting… dogs…. Loyalty….guidance… protection… love… unless of course it is the grim…" She gave one last weary look at Harry who didnt remotely take it seriously. "This is very good, my dear. Very good." 

i grinned, watching her move on to help the next group. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I hated quidditch with a burning passion. After our less than relaxing second holiday break, the final match was approaching fast and i could not wait to get it over with. Quidditch made my life a living nightmare, especially Slytherin vs Gryffindor games since, you know, the whole rivals thing. 

Brawls were breaking out in the halls left and right, people from both Slytherin and Gryffindor hexing the other house members. People who werent even on the teams! the teams were the worst at it though. The slytherin team kept trying to trip harry up and the gryffindor team captain, oliver wood, had gone so far as to ask the whole house to take up body guarding the teams seeker. 

I scoffed when this happened. "I'm not your fuckin' baby sitter, Potter. Fight your own fights." 

"i am!" Harry grumbled. "I didnt ask him to do that!" but i was hardly listening, opting instead to focus on the fantasy id been working on, which was, in my opinion, much more interesting than quidditch. 

i did however hex a few of my house mates (older fellows) who thought it would be funny to curse my brother, who cared about the game as much as i did, and his friends. Vice versa he had set a few dozen nasty jynxs on his own house mates for trying to dump a barrel full of some slimy gunk (something they'd gotten from the head of house i assumed) on Lavender, Parvati, and I. 

the professors were not helping matters at all. In fact they were in on it. During one potions class all the cauldrons exploded with red and gold fireworks and streamers whenever Professor Snape tried to say or do anything. It reeked of the Weasley Twins, but they claimed they had nothing to do with it ("well we might have given McGonagall an idea or two," one of them admitted after a second. And the other one said, "we think Lupin was in on it too.").  

And then in Transfiguration the chalk board kept magically changing whatever instructions Professor mcGonagall wrote down so that instead it read things like 'Slytherin rules, Gryffindor drools!'and 'Gryffindors are going down!'. There was even a crude drawing of a snake smothering a lion on the board once. Apparently, Professor Grace, who was a chaotic soul in general, had helped Professor Snape with that one.

I saw kip a day or two before the game. He looked like he was getting on well. "Gotta love how well these people have their priorities in order," he said. "a known killer broke in twice but they all wanna sit around watching some dweebs with brooms."

"yes, i know its dreadful…" though i wished he hadnt brought up sirius black. I was still a bit queasy from our run in; plus nina kept coming to my brother and i with her mad 'hes actually innocent' theory. I'd just rather not think about all of it.

unfortunately nina dragged us into her secret room the night before the game. "I'll be glad when this whole mess is over…" i mumbled, pulling silly string out of my hair from when id got caught in the cross fire of someones prank. 

"Never mind that. Look i think i figured it out," nina said. She pointed at the newspaper shed been obsessing over since december. Only now it had a circle around rons image drawn in red marker. 

"Rons the real killer?" i asked. "Well i suppose that would explain a few things…and it would give me another excuse to hurt him real bad..." 

so i was still a bit sore about the trios behavior during divination. Hermione and i had been at each others throats ever since and it wasnt much better with the other two either. Every day we had divination either ron or harry had some remark they though was clever or witty or theyd be rolling their eyes and sniggering. Naturally i had begun plotting their murder.

[Actually come to think of it, nina could have probably helped me with that as she knows quite a bit about how to hide a body...]

"dont be daft," Nina rolled her eyes. "Look closer. On his shoulder." 

magnus squinted at the board. "The rat?" 

nina jumped, a big grin on her face; i found myself backing away. She looked even scarier when she was happy. "The rat!" 

"The rat is the killer?" Magnus said. "I dunno, nina, that seems even more unlikely than it just being one of the weasleys…" 

"unless its not really a rat…" nina was so excited about her latest theory she forgot to correct the way my brother said her name. "I realise its a bit of a leap, but i think he could be an animagus." 

"a bit of a leap. Yeah." i laughed. "How do you come up with this stuff?" 

i wished i hadnt asked. It sent her off on a tangent. "something set him off about this picture. It couldnt have been anyone in the family, and the only other one in the photo is the rat. A bit of guess work, but i think Sirius Black must have known whoever the rat used to be, he knew whoever it is, is the one who framed him. So he recognizes him in the photo and sets off to get revenge or clear his name or something. Sneaks out easily because hes an animagus too and he finds his way to hogwarts, not to kill you or potter but to get the rat! He said 'rat bastard' remember?" 

"Nina, that's just a turn of phrase…" I said trying hard to be nice about bursting her bubble. 

But she was determined to see this mad theory through. "I dont think so. I think it was a hint. Who he was really after. The rat. thats why he went to weasleys bed instead of potters that night. He wasnt mistaken. He just missed that the rat wasnt there." 

"didnt hermione grangers cat eat that rat?" magnus asked. He was believing this as much as i was. 

"yes he did," i nodded. "They had a big fight about it." they were still fighting about it as a matter of fact. Another reason for my ever growing annoyance with them. They just had to make their problems everyone else's problems too didnt they?

"those two are always fighting about something. How much you wanna bet they get married?" 

i scoffed. "Oh, they'd better not! that relationship would be horrible! besides im pretty sure hes secretly in the closet…" 

nina was looking at the both of us with her arms folded. She was not amused by our twinly antics. "That rat isn't dead. It's hiding. Probably because he knows Sirius Black is after him. Maybe he's turned into a human again and walked out of the school without anyone noticing… but i doubt that. Risky. I think he'll stay a rat for as long as possible…" 

 I sighed and exchanged exasperated looks with my brother.

"Alright, here. If the rat is secretly a man, I'll owe you three galleons, how 'bout that?" Magnus said. 

nina rolled her eyes. "Fine." 

It was past curfew when i finally got back to my dorm. I was ready to crash when something caught my eye from outside the window. A flicker of movement. I looked around the room, but everyone else was asleep. No one else had noticed. I made my way to the window. My heart leapt at what i saw.

 A cat. Hermione's cat, I think, judging from the tail. It was easily spotted even from all the way up in the tower. I wasnt sure how he got outside, but he was prancing around with another animal — a gigantic, shaggy black dog that i could easily recognize even from far away. It was the same dog id seen bolt down the stairs the day id been attacked. It was his animagus form but it was him nonetheless. Sirius Black. 

ʕº̫͡ºʔ

A/N: Here's some memes for this chapter because I can.

(Image Description:/ White captions in the left hand corner of a black background reading: "Me anytime there's a quidditch scene:"

there is an image of a big blue button and a hand, blurred to signify it is preparing to slap the button, over the button and part of the hand another caption also in white lettering reads: "SKIP!" /: End Description)

(Image Description:/ A still picture of a guy from the office wearing a blue dress shirt with a striped brown tie and tan pants. He's standing with one hand pressed to the wall which is covered top to bottom with papers and strings connecting them. In his other hand he holds a pen between his fingers. He has a crazed look in his eyes. There is part of another person's shoulder and head in the bottom right corner.

This image is pasted on top of a white background; above the image there is a caption in black lettering that reads: "Nina explaining to the Pettigrew Twins how Sirius Black is innocent because he said 'rat bastard.'" /: end description)