i went to see love on tour in san jose omg im suffering from post-concert depression i have a date in two hours and i'm sitting here in unwashed merch listening to fine line and hs1 again
also i'm headcanoning that lavender is muggleborn, not sure if you could tell already.
𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 / 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝—𝐫𝐞𝐱 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐲
𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬—𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞
Dahlia coughed at the horrible taste of the tea and made a face at it. "Ugh." The entire room was filled with the sounds of her classmates hacking up whatever herbal wonder Professor Trelawney had put in their teacups.
Parvati was already done, sitting in front of her with her hands folded and a beaming smile stretched on her face. Professor Trelawney was taking forever to come around to their table, so they had some time to themselves. "You heard the Professor, right?" she asked Dahlia and Lavender excitedly. Lavender nodded enthusiastically.
"Those were real predictions if I've ever heard one. She's the real deal." Dahlia pursed her lips.
"Yeah, but future-telling, in theory, violates the natural law of free will," she pressed, setting her teacup down with a clink. "The two can't exist in tandem. They contradict each other. I dunno—I think Trelawney's fake." Parvati gasped loudly and pressed a hand to her chest, but Lavender raised her eyebrow in interest.
"The free will bit is true, but counting the theory of the multiverse, it is quite possible that they could both be genuine," she shrugged.
"Well yeah, but it's just that, a theory," she replied, spreading hands in an i don't know gesture. "Depending on if it gets proven, Trelawney's fake, isn't it? And even if there was a multiverse, wouldn't that imply hypothetically that there were only two universes, which is automatically untrue based on the principles of the theory itself? And let's not forget the entire existence of 'unfogging the future'—" she mocked, referring to their Divination book. "—violates the linearity of time, which is a natural law in itself."
"I dunno," answered Lavender, a glint in her eye. "It could be that we're seeing the outcome of our choices based on our free will in the future. I mean, we're taking lessons in a magic school. Plus, why would Dumbledore hire her?" By now, Parvati (who was not a muggleborn or raised by muggles) was looking back and forth between the two like she was watching a tennis match.
"But that implies having another infinite number of outcomes, and seeing the future is seeing the one that you are on track to. And don't get me started on Dumbledore," she scoffed. "I don't think someone who witnessed World War 1 should get to decide what's good for teenagers. He's experienced, I'll give him that."
"Yeah, but that's exactly why he should be headmaster," argued Lavender. "His age combined with his teaching experience makes him perfect for the job."
"But since when does a headmaster have to be old to run Hogwarts?" questioned Dahlia, amused.
Lavender shrugged helplessly. "I don't—"
"Girls!" Professor Trelawney appeared next to Dahlia and Lavender, scaring them so bad that they flinched and knocked their knees on the low tables. An impossibly wide, very forced grin stretched the corners of her mouth. "Hello. I am Professor Trelawney, Seer and descendent of Cassandra Trelawney, the celebrated, famous Seer of the Wizarding World.
"I was hired by Dumbledore," she said, puffing out her chest. "And he is a very competent employer," she finished, shooting a pointed look at the two third years. Lavender shrunk in her seat.
"Great." Dahlia forced a smile. "Let's get on to reading the cups, shall we?" The Divination professor blinked and seemed to relax. Her grey hair, frenzied and wild as a banshee's, seemed to deflate slightly with her change in emotion.
She turned to Parvati. "Whose cup do you have, my dear?"
"Lavender Brown's, Professor," piped up Parvati, in an exceptionally reedy voice that Dahlia learned as being her roommate for two years to associate with sucking up to someone. "I read her cup."
"What does it say, dear?" The professor sidled up to her, and she glowed. Dahlia rolled her eyes but listened intently.
"Um, it looks like... a sword? And some kind of wolf? It's inverted, so that's negative..." Lavender and Dahlia exchanged amazed looks. Trelawney snatched the cup from Parvati's hands. Lavender flinched.
"A dagger... hmm, aid from friends..." Dahlia kicked Lavender's shin. Trelawney turned the cup and gasped. "A fox, not a wolf. Note the pointer snout, the bushy tail, and the slimmer body, dear. Oh, stars. An intense, messy betrayal from a person close to your heart is in your future." Dahlia, who was about to kick Lavender's shin again, stopped herself just in time. Parvati froze and shot Lavender a stricken glance.
The table was silent. The three third years just stared at each other with wide eyes. It was a full minute before someone spoke.
"Yes, well," amended Professor Trelawney uncomfortably, gingerly setting the china cup down. "Let's move on, shall we?" She moved around to Dahlia, whose eyes fixed on the table. The professor smelled like mothballs and moss. More specifically, Irish moss. She didn't know how specific you could get with mothballs.
"Miss Evans," said Professor Trelawney tightly, with the same forced smile on her face. Dahlia blinked.
"Yes?"
"Whose cup do you have?" asked Professor Trelawney.
"Parvati's, Professor," she answered.
"Well, pick it up and read it, child."
Dahlia swallowed. She picked up the cup with careful hands and began to inspect it. It just looked like mush and tea leaves to her. "Professor, I don't—" Just as she turned to her and met the professor's eyes, the older woman inhaled sharply and her eyes clouded with something Dahlia couldn't decipher.
"Close your eyes," she said suddenly, her voice a lot less mystical and somehow more... real. "Breath the herbs in. Charge your energy with positivity. Clear your mind and let the good thoughts float to your mind. Meditate."
"What?" she asked confusedly. She could feel Parvati glaring at the back of her head.
"Do it." Dahlia turned back.
"Okay," she muttered. She cupped the teacup in her hands, envisioning her mind going white. She sat there, breathing in the hot, stuffy air.
"Deep breaths."
"I got it," she said irritably, without opening her eyes. She sighed and fell silent again. Her mind drifted, lost in the focus of meditation. Suddenly she was envisioning a field, acres and acres of beautiful sunflowers, the thousands and thousands of petals looking like spun gold. The sun hung low in the sky, the late sunshine turning the sky tawny. A laugh echoed. The wind rushed through the field, the rustling filling her mind.
Dahlia's eyes flew open and she shook her head.
"Look," instructed Professor Trelawney behind her. She looked, still sort of disoriented by the picture in her mind. It was very vivid. She could still feel the warm sun on her skin, and the itch of the moving sunflowers. She squinted at the insides of her teacup. She couldn't see anything. It still looked like the contents of an empty teacup.
"Um, Professor..." she trailed off, not sure how to say it. Professor Trelawney sighed and snatched the cup from her hands.
"Let go, child." Professor Trelawney wrenched the cup away from her and inspected the teacup, occasionally turning it so she could observe the tea mush from different angles. "A hammer, just there, on the top. Positive effects... oh my, challenges overcome, a battle hard won." Parvati looked up at Dahlia with confusion. Dahlia stared back, not sure why her demeanour had changed all of a sudden. Professor Trelawney set the cup down with a clink. "Be careful, my dear. Someone in your future awaits."
Parvati stared at the professor in horror, but she had already moved on to the last person.
"Miss Evans' cup, I presume?" she said, softly, her voice lilting and breathy. Lavender swallowed and nodded, and raised the cup to her eyes so she could observe the mushy leaves. Dahlia didn't want to but she came forward. Bogus or not, if there was even a chance it was true...
"Uhm..." Lavender trailed off, squinting at the teacup. "I—There's a knife or dagger of some sort and a tree." She checked the open book on the table. "It could either be—wait, it's normal. Um... aid from friends like earlier, and—and this one kind of looks like a redwood tree, or a pine tree..." Dahlia was starting to see why Professor Trelawney was taking forever to check everyone's cups. The professor took Lavender's cup and her eyes widened.
"A knife, dear. You," she said, her blue, slightly crazed eyes suddenly meeting Dahlia's dark green. "You will meet your violent demise through hatred and betrayal." Dahlia's eyes rounded. The professor turned the cup nonchalantly as if she hadn't said anything that had rocked Dahlia's shit. "A pine tree. See the spindles on the edge just there? It is located on the top, which means you will be contented and your passing will be positive."
Dahlia gaped. Professor Trelawney set down the cup with a soft clink. "Thank you, girls. You were close, except for the child of..." the professor trailed off. "Miss Evans," she said pleasantly, and with a swish of fabric and the jingle of jewellery, she was gone.
Dahlia didn't know what to say. She rolled her lips into her mouth. Parvati's eyes were bugged. Lavender's mouth was very thin, and her expression was frazzled. The three girls just stared at each other in slight denial and amazement.
"Um, what just happened?" asked Parvati. Suddenly there was a loud yell and a crash from one of the other tables, and the girls' heads turned towards the noise. Unsurprisingly, it was from Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Hermione. Where had she come from?
"Wait—oh shit." Dahlia gaped, her eyes bugging for the fifth time that day. Lavender snapped her head to Dahlia's comically pale face. "Hide me."
"What?" she demanded.
"Where'd Hermione come from?" asked Parvati thoughtfully. "She wasn't at breakfast today."
Lavender pulled Dahlia's ear and swiftly pulled them both under the low table. Poor Dahlia's ear smarted and she hit her head on the way down. "Ow!"
"What?" hissed Lavender, crossing her arms. "You take one look at the trio and then you look like you're cosplaying something out of Ghostbusters." Dahlia rolled her lips in her mouth. "What's going on?"
"Nothing."
"Fine. Don't say anything," huffed Lavender, annoyed. "But I'm going to find out what you're hiding. It's no use to keep everything inside. You'll only explode in the end." Dahlia snickered despite the situation. That was certainly a violent way to go.
But... something wasn't adding up in her head. Her roommates' futures were very dark, and for no reason that she could tell yet. The professor had taken a long time to go across the room, maybe because everyone's futures were dismal? That along with her general distrust of Divination and her and Lavender's conversation about the universe and Professor Trelawney's strange remarks at the beginning of the class and after she'd left the table. Not to mention how strange everyone's acting this year, she mused.
Something was off. But what?
nobody asked but the date went well :) also i have a ton of hw and i'm going to a wedding during thanksgiving break in nc so i might have more time to write than i usually do or not but we'll see
also third year is pretty vital to the future as i'm sure it's pretty obvious that third year is basically a foreshadow to the rest of harry's (and dahlia's) years at hogwarts.
fact of my life: i recently starting playing acoustic guitar it's been about 2 years