A Hogwarts Legend: Changing Paths [3]

Chapter Twenty Seven

Unedited

Chapter Twenty Seven - "She's batshit crazy."

The tower room is hotter than ever before; the curtains are closed, the fire is alight, and the usual sickly scent makes me cough as I stumble through the clutter of chairs and tables to where Professor Trelawney sits waiting for us before a large crystal ball.

"Good day, my dears," she says softly. "I have called you both up here, as the Oracles have informed me, I will run out of time otherwise."

More like, she didn't realise how long it was going to take her.

"If you could both kindly gaze into the Orb ... take your time, now ... then tell me what you see within it ..."

I bend over the crystal ball first and stare into the swirling white mist. To my surprise, the mist slowly forms shapes and I speak quickly.

"I see a full moon, with a cat and a rat underneath. The rat seems to be injured and scared of the cat."

"Excellent dear," Professor Trelawney beams at me, scribbles something on her parchment. "Your turn, my dear."

Harry stares into the crystal ball and it's silent for a few minutes.

"Well?" Professor Trelawney prompts delicately. "What do you see?"

"Er -," says Harry, obviously clutching at straws, "a dark shape ... um ..."

"What does it resemble?" whispers Professor Trelawney. "Think, now ..."

"A Hippogriff," he says firmly.

"Indeed!" whispers Professor Trelawney, scribbling keenly on the parchment perched upon her knees. "My boy, you may well be seeing the outcome of poor Hagrid's trouble with the Ministry of Magic! Look closer ... does the Hippogriff appear to ... have its head?"

"Yes," says Harry firmly.

"Are you sure?" Professor Trelawney urges him. "Are you quite sure, dear? You don't see it writhing on the ground, perhaps, and a shadowy figure raising an axe behind it?"

"No!" says Harry, starting to feel slightly sick.

"No blood? No weeping Hagrid?"

"No!" says Harry again. "It looks fine, it's - flying away ..."

Professor Trelawney sighs.

"Well, dear, I think we'll leave it there ... a little disappointing but I'm sure you did your best."

Relieved that it's finally over, Harry and get up, pick up our bags and turn to go, but then a loud, harsh voice speaks behind us.

"It will happen tonight."

We wheel around. Professor Trelawney has gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes are unfocused and her mouth sagging.

"S-sorry?" says Harry.

But Professor Trelawney doesn't seem to hear him. Her eyes start to roll. I stand there in a panic. She looks as though she's about to have some sort of seizure. I hesitate, thinking of running to the hospital wing - and then Professor Trelawney speaks again, in the same harsh voice, quite unlike her own: