When Ariana found out her first class of the day was Divination, she felt the urge to put her head through a wall. She had always preferred focusing on books and facts rather than staring intently into a crystal ball and reading tea leaves. It was such an imprecise subject, one that the girl wished she didn't have to study, for the sake of her mental health. Nonetheless, she had to attend. Qualifications and working hard in school were her tickets to a better life and nothing was going to stand in her way. Having recognised the girl's dedication to learning, Professor McGonagall had offered Ariana and her just as studious friend Hermione a time-turner, enabling them to take more subjects than those abiding my normal laws of time could. It was a privilege to be offered such a powerful object and trusted to use it wisely - after all, one mistake in bending time could have devastating results. It felt good to be trusted.
Class had started five minutes ago and Ariana and Hermione were dashing towards the North Tower for Divination, however reluctantly. After climbing multiple flights of stairs and a shining silver ladder, they arrived at their destination. The smell of sickeningly sweet incense gave Ariana a small headache before she even pulled the heavy oak door open. She and Hermione shared a quick glance of dread before yanking on the iron doorknob and disappearing into the murky fog which inhabited the room. The girls found silently slid onto little pink pouffes beside Harry and Ron; the small circular table between them was covered in a satin-like purple fabric. The room reminded Ariana of an old exotic marketplace, covered in vibrant fabrics draping from the walls, silver swirls of smoke rising from incense sticks and the faint sweet smell of things Ariana couldn't quite recognise. Their teacher, Professor Trelawney, glided into the firelight, and took in her new year of young students; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a pink gauzy spangled shawl. She rather reminded Ariana of a massive rosy maple moth.
"Welcome, my children. How nice to see you in the physical world at last. In this room, you shall explore the mysterious art of Divination. In this room, you shall discover if you possess the Sight. Hello. I'm Professor Trelawney. Together, we shall cast ourselves into the future. But know this. One either has the Gift or not. It cannot be divined from the pages of a book. Books only cloud one's Inner Eye," she stated, waltzing around the room.
As she sat down, Ariana, a complete and utter valuer of books, rolled her eyes and scoffed, completely disagreeing with their Professor. Her mind was not suited to any form of Divination, nor did she want it to be... the witch was much more suited to the precise science of Potions.
"What rubbish," Hermione said under her breath, alerting the boys to her and Ariana's presence.
"Where'd you come from?" Ron questioned, flabbergasted, as his head twirled towards them so fast that it might of flew off of his body.
"Us? We've been here all along," Hermione replied dismissively.
Trelawney suddenly spun around and stared at a fellow Gryffindor, Neville, who was quite rightly shocked at her abrupt actions.
"You, boy! Is your grandmother well?" she demanded, hovering uncomfortably by his face.
"I... I think so," Neville stuttered, his face turning as scarlet as the inside of Gryffindor robes.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Trelawney added.
Ariana's eyebrows raised at the Professor's bluntness and watched as Neville grew more and more concerned for his grandmother. The young witch knew Neville was like herself and Harry: an orphan. All he had was his grandmother and Ariana was angered by the Professor's complete lack of tact or consideration; even if she was unaware of the situation, you do not frighten someone like that.
"The first term will be devoted to the reading of tea leaves. If all goes well, we will proceed to palmistry, fire omens, and finally... the crystal ball," Trelawney continued, as if she hadn't just terrified one of her students about his grandmother's health. "Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And in late spring, one of our number will... leave us forever."
The quartet shared uneasy glances, wondering who was going to be 'leaving them forever' and why. With Sirius Black on the loose, Ariana's mind couldn't help but think of Harry. She scolded herself for thinking like that, but it didn't stop her from making that guess; it was as logical assumption to make, no matter how atrocious the thought was.
"Well then. Shall we?" Trelawney smiled, seemingly oblivious to the amount concern her students were feeling.
Each student was handed out a tea-filled teacup. Once they had swirled the tea and emptied the liquid, all that was left were the loose tea leaves at the bottom. They had been instructed to swap their cups with the person beside them, so Ariana swapped with Hermione and Ron gave his to Harry. Ariana grumbled as she consulted her textbook Unfogging the Future - even the title made the witch skeptical - trying to figure out which symbols were present in Hermione's cup. She peered at the leaves, attempting to match any of the shapes to the ones in the book until a loud gasp made her look up. It was Professor Trelawney being over dramatic. She assumed such things would happen often in here.
"Your aura is pulsing, dear," she told Ron, who still recovering from the shock of her dramatic gasp. "What do you see in Mr. Potter's cup, Mr. Weasley?"
"Well," Ron began, staring at the cup in his hands. "He's got a wonky sort of cross - that's trials and suffering. But this lot here could be the sun - that's great happiness. So... You're going to
suffer but be happy about it."
Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it counter clockwise. "The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
"But everyone knows that," said Hermione in a loud whisper. Professor Trelawney stared at her.
Ariana, Harry and Ron all stared at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. They had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before.
"Hermione's correct - it's common knowledge," Ariana added, receiving a smile of gratitude from her friend. While Hermione never spoke up to a teacher, Ariana had no problem with it, providing it was warranted.
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; Ariana sighed in exasperation. 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?" Ariana enquired with a hint of boredom in her voice, sharing a sceptical look with Hermione.
Everyone had got to their feet, and slowly they crowded around Ariana, Harry, Hermione 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?" Harry asked.
Ariana raised an eyebrow; she didn't know what 'The Grim' was, and she didn't put as much importance on the term as her professor. She could tell that they weren't the only ones who didn't understand; Dean Thomas shrugged at her and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror.
"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!"
Ariana eyed Harry, who was staring into his cup with worry dancing around her light blue irises. She never wanted to see any of her friends in danger, especially if she couldn't do anything about it. The rest of the class had been quite quiet, with the exception of their Professor, who made quite random exclamations as she waltzed around the room, bright robes flowing behind her as she walked.
The white-haired witch's teacup had produced a similar reaction to Harry's: Trelawney had dropped it as soon as she knew what was inside it, screaming. Ariana had trials & suffering, danger and an imminent, quite possibly fatal, attack in her future. The news of this wasn't shocking to her, since she was attacked every day at home by her adoptive parents. Ron and Hermione were incredibly concerned for their two friends, Ariana could see it in their eyes.
~~~~~
Question:
Which wand is one of the three famed Deathly Hallows?
A:
B:
C:
Congratulations to Blackstars36 for answering the previous question correctly.