Adriam wasn't joking; Cassie and Theo managed to enter the class just in time.

It was the strangest-looking classroom they had ever seen. In fact, 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, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs.

Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire burning under the crowded mantelpiece gave off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle.

The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

"Why are we here again?" Theo remarked, frowning at the class.

"I dunno. My dad forced me to take it. Why did you take it?" Cassie asked.

"To give you company, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I—"

"MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!" Cassie yelled at the other students who were staring. All of them immediately looked away, while Parvati and Lavender broke into whispers.

"Where is she?" Ron said.

"Look, the Weasel and Potter are here," Cassie drawled.

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, and they saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings.

"She looks like a beetle," Cassie snorted. Theo chuckled, settling around a round table.

"Sit, my dears," Trelawney addressed Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

They looked around for any empty seats, but the only ones available were the three empty chairs next to Theo and Cassie.

Harry groaned and took a seat; Ron and Hermione followed.

Cassie said nothing except roll her eyes, while Theo crumpled his nose as if there was a bad smell.

"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."

Cassie rolled her eyes and let out a loud, pointed yawn.

Trelawney looked at her as though offended but continued.

Professor Trelawney delicately 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..."

Cassie and Theo glanced slightly at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject.

"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, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face.

"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 tremulously.

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

"You, girl," she said suddenly, addressing Cassie, who just rolled her eyes.

"Your parents—"

Cassie cut her off. "Well, my mom's dead and my dad is a mass murderer on the loose," she scoffed.

"Your Inner Eye didn't recognize me, did it, Professor?" she snided.

"No, no, of course it did, Miss Black!" Trelawney exclaimed, her voice no longer high-pitched, clearly terrified.

Theo smirked approvingly.

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.

"Incidentally, that thing you are dreading—it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October." She suddenly addressed Lavender, who trembled.

"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."

"It's probably you, Professor, judging by the looks Cassie has been giving you," Theo interjected with a chuckle.

Professor Trelawney's demeanor shifted slightly, a flicker of discomfort crossing her features as she glanced at Cassie, who looked severely annoyed, twirling her wand in her hand. She shook her head before briskly resuming her lesson.

"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, and 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."

Cassie scoffed uninterestedly, nudging Theo. "Let's get this over with."

Once they had their cups filled, they walked back and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. They swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over.

"What can you see in mine?" Theo passed the cup to Cassie.

"A maple leaf," Cassie said almost immediately, flipping through the pages of Unfogging the Future. "It means... you'll find love."

"How can you tell? All I see is loads of brown soggy stuff," Theo frowned, perplexed.

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney's voice echoed through the gloom.

"Uh, okay. It looks like a thorn and a knife?" Theo mumbled, confused.

"Sounds like Black," Harry snorted.

"You're right, Potter. Darkness, pain, murder, danger... sounds like what I'm about to do to you," Cassie snided, her expression murderous.

"All right, we're done... let's see how you do, Potter," Theo scoffed.

Harry tried to pull himself together, turning to Ron's cup. "Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross..." 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..."

"He needs his eyes tested if you ask me," Theo snorted while Cassie chuckled.

Harry turned red as Professor Trelawney gazed in their direction.

"My turn..." Ron peered into Harry's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with effort. "There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat," he said. "Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic..."

He turned the teacup the other way up.

"But this way it looks more like an acorn... What's that?" He scanned his copy of Unfogging the Future. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.'"

"Great, Weasley, you can take some," Cassie said cruelly.

"Oh, shut up, Black," Hermione said irritably.

"Defending your boyfriend, are we?" Cassie smirked, causing Hermione to blush.

"There's a thing," he turned the cup again, "that looks like an animal... yeah, if that was its head... it looks like a hippo... no, a sheep..."

Professor Trelawney whirled around.

"Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron, sweeping over and snatching Harry's cup from him.

Everyone fell silent 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. Cassie and Theo stared, amazed. Granger swiping at a professor—now that was new.

Professor Trelawney stared at her.

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

"Oh, say the name, will you? Voldemort is not hard to say," Cassie said irritably.

The class broke out in gasps.

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," said Ron sheepishly.

"The skull... danger in your path, my dear..." Everyone was staring, transfixed, at Professor Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed.

Professor 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 Thomas at once. Everyone had gotten to their feet and slowly crowded around Harry and Ron's table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Harry's cup. "My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically.

"You have the Grim."

"The what?" said Harry. He could tell that he wasn't the only one who didn't understand; Dean Thomas shrugged at him, and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror. Except Cassiopeia and Theo, who both seemed to be chuckling.

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

"Maybe finally I'll be able to kill you this year, Potter," Cassie chortled.

Everyone stared at the bluntness of her threat.

"What? It doesn't look like a Grim to me... as much as I would like it to," Cassie said, shaking her head.

Hermione nodded, moving around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair. "I don't think it looks like a Grim too," she said flatly.

Professor Trelawney surveyed Hermione with mounting dislike. "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."

Seamus Finnigan was tilting his head from side to side. "It looks like a Grim if you do this," he said, with his eyes almost shut, "but it looks more like a donkey from here," he said, leaning to the left.

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" said Harry, taking even himself by surprise.

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

Silently, the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books, and closed their bags.

"Grow a fucking spine, Weasley... getting scared by a teacup... some Gryffindor you are," Cassie scoffed, marching out of the room, Theo following closely, pushing Harry while leaving.

**********************************

"She was the worst," Cassie complained while McGonagall droned on about Animagi.

"Oh, come on... I'm sure she wasn't that bad," Pansy consoled.

"She was," Theo affirmed gravely. "Cassie was almost going to kill her."

"She is a fucking fraud. Honestly, how does Dumbledore assign teachers?" Cassie frowned.

"Well, since Miss Black has so much to say, how about you tell us what is the first step in being an Animagus?" McGonagall appeared behind them, causing Pansy to jump.

"To keep a single Mandrake leaf in their mouth for an entire month (from full moon to full moon)," Cassie drawled, uninterested.

She didn't pay attention primarily because she didn't need to... she was gifted in most of the subjects.

McGonagall huffed in surprise. "Correct. Five points to Slytherin."

Blaise high-fived Cassie.

"Now, I'll show you the transformation of an Animagus," and she transformed herself in front of their eyes into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes, turning back into herself with a faint pop.

The Slytherin group burst into applause.

"Let's go, Minnie," Cassie exclaimed, wolf-whistling and winking.

"Well, thank you, Miss Black," McGonagall remarked, staring around at the Gryffindors, who looked like someone had died.

"Really, what has got into you all today? That's the first time my transformation hasn't received applause from this 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?"

"Haha," Cassie chuckled. "It's Potter," she grinned.

"Yeah, me," said Harry, finally.

"I see," said Professor McGonagall, fixing Harry with her beady eyes. "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—"

Professor McGonagall broke off, and they saw that her nostrils had gone white. She went on, more calmly, "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—"

"Is a fraud," Cassie concluded.

"Miss Black!" she exclaimed sharply, giving her a stern gaze.

Cassie shrugged. "You were thinking it too."

McGonagall 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."

Everyone laughed.

"Hope he actually dies though," Draco whispered. "Would be a good riddance."

When the Transfiguration class had finished, they joined the crowd thundering toward the Great Hall for lunch.

"I'm starving," Cassie groaned. "What do we have after lunch?"

"Care of Magical Creatures," Pansy informed, checking her schedule.

"With that stupid oaf," Draco groaned.

A/N

two chaps in one day. yes I was jobless. 

mx riddle