"Merlin's beard this is horrible" Kirra panted with a loud huff
"Is it too late to change classes?" JJ whined and Maxine wacked the two of them on the back of the head
"Stop whining you two are just wasting your breaths, besides... we have to be almost there now" Maxine finished with an exhausted huff
"You said that about 100 stairs ago" Kirra whined out with a pout
"You're a quidditch player, you should be the fittest out of all of us" Max replied
"Oh yes because sitting on a broom flying around definitely makes me fit" Kirra replied with a roll of her eyes and a grin on her face
They 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; JJ nudged Kirra and pointed at the ceiling, where there was a circular trap door with a brass plaque on it.
'Sybill Trelawney, Divination teacher,' Kirra read.
'How're we supposed to get up there?' JJ asked
"It opens by its-" Kirra started but was cut off. As though in answer to his question, the trap door suddenly opened, and a silvery ladder descended right at the trio's feet. Everyone went quiet.
'After you,' said Maxine, grinning, so Kira climbed the ladder first. She emerged into the strangest-looking classroom she 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 teashop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little pouffes.
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 which was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving 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-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls and a huge array of teacups. JJ and Maxine appeared at Kirrra's shoulder as the class assembled around them, all talking in whispers.
Kirra made eye contact with Mattheo who was looking at her impatiently, "Hey i'm going over to the guys okay," Kirra muttered to the Hufflepuffs who nodded their heads. She walked over across the room to Riddle, Nott, Rowle, Zabini and Malfoy.
"where were you this morning?" Mattheo asks her in confusion, "I didn't see you at breakfast"
"Oh, I was outside with Hagrid helping him get ready for his first lesson" Kirra replied with a small smile, "he seemed very nervous but I think he was able to calm down slightly" Kirra said with a shrug of her shoulders
"But you missed breakfast" Mattheo whispered out in concern
"You worry too much Theo, I'm fine," Kirra said and gave him a reassuring smile before grabbing onto his hand
'Where is the stupid teacher?' Jasper cut in, annoyance on his face.
"Calm down cousin, no need to get your knickers in a twist" Theodore said with a smirk, earning an eye roll from Jasper
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.'
ProfessorTrelawney 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. 'Sit, my children, sit,' she said, and they all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto pouffes.
Riddle, Potter, Nott and Rowle sat themselves around the same round table while Blaise and Draco sat at one next to them. '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.'
Theodore and Kirra shared a look, stifling their laughter. Nobody said anything in answer to this extraordinary pronouncement. 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 ...'
"remind me again why I took this subject" Jasper huffed in annoyance, "the teacher is obviously a loony"
'Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, 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 pouffe, 'is your grandmother well?'
'I think so,' said Neville tremulously.
'I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear,' said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. 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 shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, 'beware a red-haired man.'
Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her, and edged her chair away from him.
'In the summer 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 numbers will leave us forever.'
A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it, Kirra, Riddle and Nott all shared a worried look, the three of them did have a tendency of getting into trouble, and the girl had literally died a few months before.
'I wonder, dear,' she said to Lavender Brown, 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 trembled.
'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."
Kirra hated when they had to be split into pairs, she turned her head to look away from the teacher and over to the boys, she opened her mouth to speak but shut it when she noticed the two of them already doing rock, paper, scissors.
Theodore let out a small cheer as he won the game and then turned to Kirra with a smirk, "howdy partner" he said in a stupid voice while Mattheo just rolled his eyes and shoved Theodore softly in disappointment
"I can't believe you too just did rock, paper, scissors to see who would be my partner" Kirra exclaimed with a laugh before shaking her head softly and turning back to Trelawney.
"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 than 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 Kirra and Theodore had had their teacups filled, they went back to their table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. They swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped them. 'Right,' said Theodore, as they both opened their books at pages five and six. 'What can you see in mine?'
'A load of soggy brown shit in the bottom of your cup, kinda reminds me of your face' said Kirra with a teasing grin on her lips.
"Ha ha" Theodore replied sarcastically as he glared at his best friend
'Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!' Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom. Kirra let out a small groan of annoyance and then a loud huff followed, she had never been good at divination, in any of her lives.
'Right, you've got sort of... well it kind of looks like two hearts and one... I don't know it kinda looks like one is thriving while the other one is suffering...' she said, consulting Unfogging the Future. 'According to this stupid book... it means that you are in love with someone and they love you back – sorry about that– that's just one heart. Hang on ... with both of the hearts, it means...
Kirra went silent and furrowed her eyebrows "the missing love" ... "so you're in love with someone but you know that they could never love you back the same way that you love them ...'
Theodore played with his fingers softly before looking up at the girl and putting a fake amused look on her face 'You need your Inner Eye testing, if you ask me,' said Theodore and Kirra nodded her head softly.
'My turn ...' Theodore peered into Kirra's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with effort.
'That looks like ananimal. Yeah, if that was its head ... it looks like a badger maybe ... no, a fox ... maybe a goblin...' Professor Trelawney whirled around as Kirra let out a snort of laughter.
'Let me see that, my dear,' she said reprovingly to Theodore, sweeping over and snatching Kirra's cup from him.
Everyone went quiet to watch. Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it anti-clockwise. 'The falcon ... my dear, you have a deadly enemy.'
'But everyone knows that, so does Harry' said Hermione in a loud whisper. ProfessorTrelawney stared at her. 'Well, they do,' said Hermione.
'Everybody knows about the Potters and You-Know-Who.' ProfessorTrelawney chose not to reply instead she walked over and grabbed Harry's cupp too, "They're the same" she muttered out. She lowered her huge eyes to Kirra and Harry's cups again and continued to turn them.
'The club ... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup ...'
'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 twins – my poor dear twins – no – it is kinder not to say – no – don't ask me ...'
'What is it, Professor?' said Mattheo Riddle and Theodore Nott at once, concern and fear in their voices.
'My dears,' Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, 'the two of you have... the Grim.'
'The what?' said Harry and Kirra, the two of them sharing a look. They could tell that they weren't the only ones 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.
'The Grim, my dears, the Grim!' cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Kirra and Harry hadn't understood. 'The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear twins, it is an omen – the worst omen – of death!'
Harry's stomach lurched but Kirra rolled her eyes, not believing a word of it and it seemed she wasnt the only one
Hermione got 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 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 my sister and I are going to die or not!' said Harry, taking even himself by surprise.
Now nobody seemed to want to look at him but a few eyes around the room were looking at Kirra in worry. '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.
"This is crazy" Theodore whispered to her and Mattheo nodded her head, "you have to be careful"
"Honestly boy's it's a loud of crap" Kirra replied as she packed her things up
"How can you be sure?" Mattheo fired back.
"I'm not going to be dying at 13 years old," Kirra said with a small chuckle
"You died at 12!" Mattheo shot back angrily "just... Merlin just dont do anything stupid this year"
"I won't" Kirra said quickly, even though she planned on meeting up with a so-called mass murderer to try and prove him innocent '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.'
Kirra, Theodore, Mattheo and Jasper descended Professor Trelawney's ladder and the winding staircase in silence, then set off for Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration lesson. It took them so long to find her classroom that, early as they had left Divination, they were only just in time.
Kirra chose a seat right at the back of the room, feeling as though she was sitting in a very bright spotlight; the rest of the class kept shooting furtive glances at her and Harry who also sat at the back, as though the two of them were about to drop dead at any moment, though they quickly stopped looking at the youngest Potter after receiving death glares from her surrounding Slytherins.
Theodore and Kirra had been sending each other worried but also cheeky glances throughout the whole lesson as Professor McGonagall was telling them about Animagi, and she transformed herself in front of their eyes into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.
'Really, what has got into you all today?' said Professor McGonagall, turning back into herself with a faint pop, and staring around at them all. 'Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class.'
Everybody's heads turned towards Harry and Kirra 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 stared at the twins.
'Me,' said Harry and Kirra, finally.