Daughter of Mine | Harry Potter

XV.

Lalia waited for her friends at lunch at the beginning of December, where the trio quickly explained their worries about Rita Skeeter interviewing Hagrid. Thankfully, Ron's jokes had subsided their panic an led to a peaceful lunch.

After, Lalia and the boys headed to Double Divination that afternoon; they were still doing star charts and predictions, but now that Harry and Ron were friends once more, the whole thing seemed very funny again. Professor Trelawney, who had been so pleased with the pair of them when they had been predicting their own horrific deaths, quickly became irritated as they sniggered through her explanation of the various ways in which Pluto could disrupt everyday life.

"I would think," she said, in a mystical whisper that did not conceal her obvious annoyance, "that some of us" - she stared very meaningfully at Harry - "might be a little less frivolous had they seen what I have seen during my crystal gazing last night. As I sat here, absorbed in my needlework, the urge to consult the orb overpowered me. I arose, I settled myself before it, and I gazed into its crystalline depths ... and what do you think I saw gazing back at me?"

"An ugly old bat in outsize specs?" Ron muttered under his breath.

Lalia coughed, gripping her chest and Harry fought hard to keep his face straight.

"Death, my dears."

Parvati and Lavender both put their hands over their mouths, looking horrified.

"Yes," said Professor Trelawney, nodding impressively, "it comes, ever closer, it circles overhead like a vulture, ever lower ... ever lower over the castle ... ."

She stared pointedly at Harry, who yawned very widely and obviously.

"It'd be a bit more impressive if she hadn't done it about eighty times before," Harry said as they finally regained the fresh air of the staircase beneath Professor Trelawney's room. "But if I'd dropped dead every time she's told me I'm going to, I'd be a medical miracle."

"You'd be a sort of extra- concentrated ghost. We'll leave the death predictions to Lalia, I think," said Ron, chortling, as they passed the Bloody Baron going in the opposite direction, his eyes wide staring sinisterly. "At least we didn't get homework. I hope Hermione got loads off Professor Vector, I love not working when she is... ."

But Hermione wasn't at dinner, nor was she at the library when they went to look for her afterward. The three remained their for a little while Ron wondered if he should get Viktor Krum's autograph, as he was the only person using the library. When Ron decided against it, they left the library. 

"Wonder where she's got to?" Ron said as the three headed to Gryffindor tower. 

"Dunno ... balderdash."

But the Fat Lady had barely begun to swing forward when the sound of racing feet behind them announced Hermione's arrival. 

"Harry!" she panted, skidding to a halt beside him (the Fat Lady stared down at her, eyebrows raised). "Harry, you've got to come - you've got to come, the most amazing thing's happened - please -"

She seized Harry's arm and started to drag him back along the corridor. 

"What's the matter?" Harry said. 

"I'll show you when we get there - oh, come on, quick -" 

Harry looked around at Ron and Lalia,  who looked back at him, intrigued. 

"Okay," Harry said, starting off back down the corridor with Hermione, Ron and Lalia hurrying to keep up. 

"Oh don't mind me!" the Fat Lady called irritably after them. "Don't apologize for bothering me! I'll just hang here, wide open, until you get back, shall I?"