DIVINATIONAND CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES "𝗐𝗁𝗈 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽𝗇'𝗍 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍 𝗉𝖾𝗍𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖼𝖺𝗇 𝖻𝗎𝗋𝗇, 𝗌𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖻𝗂𝗍𝖾 𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝖺𝗍 𝗈𝗇𝖼𝖾?"
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—"AH, SOME OF 'EM HAVE GOT STINGS," SAID HAGRID ENTHUSIASTICALLY. The Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth year students were now in their Care of Magical Creatures classroom, learning about blast-ended skrewts.
Alexandria quickly withdrew her hand from the box, grimacing in disgust.
"I reckon they're the males... the females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies... I think they might be ter suck blood." continued Hagrid.
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," said Draco sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting and bite all at once?"
Accidentally letting out a snort, Alexandria covered it up with a cough and a clear of throat.
Her cough caught the attention of Harry Potter, who paled immediately, something flickering in his eyes.
"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Hermione Granger snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"
♡
"Well, at least the Skrewts are small," said Daphne, as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.
"They are now," said Pansy in an exasperated voice, "but once that oaf found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."
♡
When the bell rang to signal the start of afternoon lessons, Alexandria and Pansy set off for North Tower where, at the top of a tightly spiralling staircase, a silver stepladder led to a circular trapdoor in the ceiling, and the room where Professor Trelawney lived.
The familiar sweet perfume emanating from the fire met their nostrils as they emerged at the top of the stepladder.
As ever, the curtains were all closed; the circular room was bathed in a dim reddish light cast by the many lamps, which were all draped with scarves and shawls.
Alexandria and Pansy walked through the mass of occupied chintz chairs and pouffes that cluttered the room, and sat down at the same small circular table.
"Good day," said the misty voice of Professor Trelawney right behind Harry Potter, making him jump.
Professor Trelawney was peering down at Harry with the tragic expression she always wore whenever she saw him.
"You are preoccupied, my dear," she said mournfully to Harry. "My Inner Eye sees past your brave face to the troubled soul within. And I regret to say that your worries are not baseless. I see difficult times ahead for you, alas... most difficult... I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass... and perhaps sooner than you think..." her voice dropped almost to a whisper.
Harry made eye-contact with Alexandria, who gave him a small smirk.
Ron Weasley rolled his eyes at Harry, who looked stonily back.
Professor Trelawney swept past them and seated herself in a large winged armchair before the fire, facing the class.
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who deeply admired Professor Trelawney, were sitting on pouffes very close to her.
"My dears, it is time for us to consider the stars," she said. "The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle."
Alexandria sighed tiredly and grabbed the parchment, raising an eyebrow at it. "What planet is this, Professor?" She asked.
Professor Trelawney looked highly excited. "It is Uranus, my dear."
"Can I have a look at ur-anus too, Slytherin?" winked a Gryffindor— Seamus Finnigan— honestly, Alexandria didn't know, nor did she care.
She pulled out her dagger and flipped it in her hands. "I don't know, can you?"
Seamus gulped and turned back around.
Harry's thoughts had drifted after that.
The perfumed fire always made him feel sleepy and dull-witted, and Professor Trelawney's rambling talks on fortune-telling never held him exactly spellbound – though he couldn't help thinking about what she had just said to him. "I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass.."
What did Professor Trelawney know? She was just a fraud, anyway. He had long since come to the conclusion that her brand of fortune-telling was really no more than lucky guess-work and a spooky manner.
Except, of course, for that time at the end of last term, when she had made the prediction about Voldemort rising again... and Dumbledore himself had said that he thought that trance had been genuine, when Harry had described it to him.. but Voldemort had never really left, so there was that.
"Harry!" Ron muttered.
"What?" Harry looked around; the whole class was staring at him. He sat up straight; he had been almost dozing off, lost in the heat and his thoughts.
"I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the baleful influence of Saturn," said Professor Trelawney, a faint note of resentment in her voice at the fact that he had obviously not been hanging on her words.
"Born under– what, sorry?" asked Harry.
"Saturn, dear, the planet Saturn!" said Professor Trelawney, sounding definitely irritated that he wasn't riveted by this news. "I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth... your dark hair... your mean stature... tragic losses so young in life... I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in mid-winter?"
"No," said Harry, "I was born in July."
Ron hastily turned his laugh into a hacking cough.
