A Sirius Summer

14th August 1995

Trelawney was a fraud.

There was no other explanation. True seer or not, no person could be this bad at teaching and get away with it without some fraudulent behaviour.

Their summer essay was on Crystal balls, which in and of itself was fine. They had an entire module on it in both third and fourth year, and even though Harry had never seen anything, the theory behind it was simple enough. No that wasn't the issue, this summer's assignment was to write about the effects of the weather on predictions made with crystal balls. They had covered weather as a form of divination last year, but nowhere in his book did it say how the two methods crossed. Even digging through the Black family library had turned up no clues, and they had a rather spectacular section on divining using weather. Harry assumed at least part of the assignment was to write about his own experience with the two, but seeing as he had no talent for the subject, he had not the first idea of how to approach it. Groaning he let his head bang onto the coffee table, sighing as he heard the library door open.

"What are you up to?" Sirius asked flopping onto the couch behind Harry.

"Finishing my summer homework." Harry replied lifting up the divination essay he was struggling through.

"Divination? Really? Didn't peg you as the type." Sirius commented raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"I'm not" Harry groaned. "I regretted picking this stupid subject five minutes into the first lesson."

"What subjects did you take?" Sirius asked with a grin at Harry's despair, plucking the essay from his hands to read the few sentences he had written.

"This and Care." Harry sighed. As much as Hagrid was a friend, he did have to admit the classes were a bit of a joke. He really wished he had chosen different electives, but there was not much to choose from, and he still kind of felt he had picked the best of a bad lot.

"Why didn't you pick a third?"
"No one else did. Well except Hermione, but she got a time turner and took all the options." Harry grinned at the memory. His third year was definitely the best one so far, even with the threat of the dementors around the school.

"That's ridiculous. McGonagall should have gotten you all to pick at least three subjects." Sirius growled, "she should also have highly encouraged you to take at least Arithmancy, if not Ancient Runes."

"McGonagall didn't really tell us anything, we just got given the forms in transfiguration one day and told to bring them back next lesson."

"She at least told you that she was available to discuss options if you needed help?"

"I guess that was implied, but I just copied what Ron did. He said they were the better options if I wanted good OWLs, most of the other Gryff's agreed so it seemed okay to just go with what I did."

"They are the better options if you have natural inclination for the subject." Sirius explained, "But once you get over the initial learning curve, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are actually the better subjects. They give you more career options too."

"Well no one told me that." Harry grumbled, throwing his quill down in annoyance. Once again it seemed people had not bothered telling him important information that would affect his life.

"It's not too late to change things if you want." Sirius said gently.

"OWLs are this year, I doubt that McGonagall will let me change electives at this point." Harry pointed out with a frown. As much as he would like to never set foot in divination again, he knew he would never be able to keep up with the work if he transferred electives at this point.

"No she won't, but I can homeschool you. Once you get the basics down you will catch up quickly enough. If all goes well you should be on track to take the OWLs at the ministry during the summer holidays, or if you want we can get you to take them during your sixth year."