snake in the lions den|| WTM

twenty-four

A bluebird flies past the Clock Tower, through the Covered Bridge, and out into the Hogwarts grounds. It then flies too close to the Whomping Willow and gets thwacked.

"Ouch." Blaise winces at the poor bird that now is just a pile of feathers.

"Welcome my children. In this room, you shall explore the noble art of Divination. In this room, you shall discover if you possess the sight." Professor Trelawney does her dramatic speech before bumping into the table infront of her causing some students to laugh. "Hello I am Professor Trelawney. Together we shall cast ourselves into the future." She says while doing some sort of jazz hands.

"This term, we'll focus on Tasseomancy, the art of reading tea leaves. So please take the cup of the person sitting opposite you." All the students swap their cups. "What do you see? The truth lies buried like a sentence deep within a book, waiting to be read. But first you must broaden your minds. First you must look beyond."

Hermione whispers under her breath "What a load of rubbish." Ron spins. Frowns at Hermione. "Where'd you come from?" Completely baffled on how she got there. "Me? I've been here all along."

"Mione my love, you were the biggest gaslighter I've ever seen that year." Ada laughs while Hermione smirks "I have no idea what you are talking about." Mattheo lets out a chuckle knowing that she just did it again.

Professor Trelawney spins to Neville "You, boy! Is your grandmother well?"

"I... I think so." Neville says looking nervous. The Professor tuts and looks sympathetic "I wouldn't be so sure of 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." Eyeing Parvati she warns "By the way, dear, beware a red haired man." Parvati eyes Ron dubiously. Edges her pouffe away.

"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." As the class exchanges uneasy glances, Trelawney smiles brightly. "Well then. Shall we?"

Inside, a cloud of tea leaves mutates oddly. Ada, sitting opposite Ron now, frowns at the leaves, consults the Symbols in the textbook 'Unfogging the Future' at her elbow. Trelawney walks amongst them, robes flowing. "Broaden your minds, my dears. And allow your eyes to see... beyond." Trelawney takes Lavender Brown's cup, peers inside. "A five-leaf clover... You can expect to wake with a horrible rash tomorrow morning, dear." Then, casually she warns "Mr. Longbottom, after you've broken your first cup..." Neville fumbles the cup in his hands and the brittle crash of china is heard. "Would you be so kind as to select one of the blue ones? I'm rather partial to the pink." She walks pausing by Ron "What do you see in Miss. Potter's  cup, Mr. Weasley?"

"Well. She's got a wonky sort ofcross, that's trials andsuffering. But this lot herecould be the sun, that's greathappiness. So... she's going tosuffer but be very happy about it." Ron says sounding unsure, confused by the whole thing.

"Well it wasn't far from the truth." Ada shrugs as Sirius looks confused. "What do you mean?" She smiles at him. "Well with everything I went through that year with the dementors and the rat. I still managed to gain two dads in the process and that is something I am very happy about." The Lupin-Black's smile brightly at that.

Professor Trelawney takes the cup, peers inside, she lets out a huge Gasp. "Ahhh!"

"What is it, Professor?" Parvati asks, Trelawney regards Ada with a mixture of pity and fear. "My dear girl... You have the Grim."

"The Grin? What's the Grin?" Seamus asks confused Then a Gryffindor boy named Bem answers "Not the grin, you idiot. The Grim. Taking form of a giant spectral dog. It's among the darkest omens in our world. It's an omen of death." Ada just stares at the dog shape in her cup before rolling her eyes. Of course she's the one who gets the omen of death.