VOID, harry potter

ii. tea leaves and hippogriffs

"Did you hear what she told us to do?" Juliet asked Kate.

"Nope," Kate turned in her seat and tapped Dean Thomas's shoulder, "Dean, what are we meant to be doing?"

"Oh, um..." Dean said, surprised by the sudden interaction, "We're meant to drink the tea and swirl the dregs before draining it, and then read the leaves using the textbook,"

"Thanks!" Kate said with a smile and Dean's cheeks flushed, but she had already turned around to notice it.

"Urgh, I hate tea," she groaned, after taking a small sip.

"Speak for yourself," Juliet said, taking three long gulps and finishing it. She followed Dean's instructions and then passed the teacup to Kate, who then also passed her own teacup while eyeing it with disgust.

Kate eyed the tea leaves in Juliet's cup curiously trying to decipher the symbols with her textbook laid open next to her. Juliet just stared blankly at her cup.

"There's something that looks like a jug... it says here that jugs are a sign of clutter, which means at one point your entire life will scramble to the point you don't know who's your friend and who's your enemy?"

"Merlin, that's dark." Kate laughed.

"Right? Now tell me about mine,"

But before Juliet could find out what Kate was going to say about her tea leaves, the two saw Professor Trelawney grab a teacup from Ronald Weasley's hands. 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 Granger in a loud whisper. Professor Trelawney stared at her.

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

Kate and Juliet exchanged impressed glances: they had never heard of Hermione Granger undermining a teacher like that before.

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. Kate snorted, and quickly covered her mouth, playing it off as a cough.

"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.

There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his second cup. 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 got to their feet, and slowly they crowded around Harry and Ron's table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Harry's cup. Juliet was leaning very close over Harry's shoulder, which was as rigid as the table he was sitting at.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "You have the Grim."

"The what?" said Harry.

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. Juliet was baffled that the class was reacting like this, omens in the Wizarding world weren't to be taken seriously. Well, that's what her mother had always said to her.