Black's Return {Jade Book 3}

Chapter 4

My first class was Divination. Well, it was also Muggle Studies and Arithmancy. Blaise looked over at my timetable at breakfasttime. "What? Divination, nine o'clock...Muggle Studies, nine o'clock...Arithmancy, nine o'clock! How...?"

I sighed. I knew I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about the Time-Turner. "Professor McGonagall's sorted it all out. It's fine."

Blaise frowned. "But..."

"It's fine," I repeated.

Blaise raised his eyebrows but said nothing more, which I was glad about.

Blaise and Anja both had Divination first, so we all walked to the North Tower together. It was a long way.

Alex would have had Arithmancy, which was at the same time as this. I had better not forget to go to Arithmancy, I reminded myself.

"Hope the teacher is good...I think it would be only too easy to have a complete fraud," Anja commented, and we agreed.

When we climbed the ladder that went into the classroom, my first impression was, Oh, great. This class'd better be worth putting up with that horrible scent.

Many of the other students were already there.

The teacher suddenly appeared and introduced herself as Professor Trelawney. She told us to sit down, indicating that Divination was extremely difficult.

I rolled my eyes. I looked over at Hermione and saw that her expression was the same as mine. That is to say, she looked completely disgusted.

We were meant to be reading tea-leaves. Anja paired up with Blaise, so I paired up with Holly Burton, a Ravenclaw sitting nearby. "This is stupid," she whispered to me after about 10 minutes of just turning each other's teacups over and over.

I nodded, then frowned as I saw something. "Hang on, there's a sort of sun thingy here..." I consulted the book. "That means great happiness. There you go, you'll be very happy. Umm...well, that looks sort of like a tick, maybe you'll get good marks in your exams?" I suggested, laughing. "Well, you are a Ravenclaw."

Holly grinned, then looked at the teacup again, frowning. "Wait just a moment. That could be a sort of a dog. It would have to be a big dog..."

I checked my book. There was only one symbol for a dog, and that was...

"The Grim," Holly gasped, horrified. "Oh...Jade...that's an omen of death!"

Before I could say anything, Trelawney examined Harry's cup and let out a soft scream.

She collapsed on her seat. "Perhaps it would be wiser not to tell you..."

I had the feeling I knew exactly what she had seen in Harry's cup. Everyone crowded around her, wanting to know what she had seen.

"Is it the Grim, by any chance?" I asked loudly. Lavender gasped.

I ignored her.

Professor Trelawney, however, nodded. "You seem to possess the Sight, my dear...what was your name?"

"Jade Evans," I told her, not bothering to add that Holly had in fact seen the Grim in my cup.

Everyone around me looked horrified. They knew exactly what the Grim meant. Harry, along with a few others, simply looked confused. Someone said that the Grim was an omen of death.

Harry looked scared, along with most of the class.

"Well, of course Harry has an omen of death in his cup. He's already faced a lot of evil, so that's not surprising. Besides, everyone has to die sometime," another Ravenclaw girl – Kaya Adams – commented scornfully.

Professor Trelawney glared at her, but personally I agreed with Kaya.

After a lot of discussion as to whether it was actually a Grim in the cup, which ended up with an extremely angry Hermione, we were dismissed early.

I told Blaise and Anja to go ahead without me.

The classroom emptied until only Hermione and I were left.

We left the classroom last. Hermione turned to me. "Ready?"

I nodded. We both turned our Time-Turners, then I glanced at my watch. "We've got 5 minutes until Muggle Studies starts – we'd better hurry."

So, together, we rushed off. Older students gave us strange looks – a Slytherin and a Gryffindor getting along – but we didn't mind.

"Well, let's hope this goes better than Divination," I whispered to Hermione.

She nodded, looking disgusted at the very mention of the class.

Then a thought occurred to me. "Hermione...in that Divination lesson, Holly Burton – a Ravenclaw girl – saw a dog in my cup. And the only symbol which is a dog is..."

"The Grim," Hermione finished, frowning. "That's odd. Well, Divination is a load of rubbish, in my opinion."

I agreed with her. "I know, Hermione. But the thing is, she saw the Grim in my cup. It doesn't matter whether it's an omen of death or not. It was the Grim," I repeated.

Hermione looked thoughtful. "I honestly have no idea why she would see that. Wait a moment, have you seen a black dog around anywhere?"

I shook my head.

She shrugged as we entered the classroom together. As we sat down, I happened to glance out the window. A black dog was disappearing under a bush, followed by a ginger cat that looked as if its face had been squashed.

"Hermione," I hissed, "look out the window!"

She surreptitiously looked out the window and frowned. "I'm sorry, Jade, what am I meant to be looking for?"

I looked out again. The black dog – the Grim, I realised in horror – and the cat had both disappeared.

"I saw a dog," I whispered. "A black dog. The Grim...? Oh, and there was a ginger cat, too. Sort of looked like it had a squashed face."

Hermione paled. "You saw...the Grim...with...Crookshanks?"

"That's its name?" I asked in confusion.

Hermione looked offended. "Well, I didn't name him! He was already named Crookshanks when I bought him!"

"You...you bought him?" I repeated faintly. "You mean to say that your cat is friends with a dog that looks like the Grim?"

She winced. "I didn't know he was friends with that dog."

We turned our attention to the teacher, who was beginning the lesson.

I took notes, of course, but was still distracted thinking about the Grim.

At the end of the lesson, we turned back time again and went to Arithmancy. "This is weird," I muttered to Hermione. "We're still at our first class."

She nodded. "Well, at least we only got homework from Muggle Studies."

Alex was taking Arithmancy, so he was in this class. He waved at me as I sat down next to Hermione. He clearly didn't seem too worried about me not sitting next to him, as he was sitting next to another Ravenclaw boy – Felix Helve, I thought.Our teacher introduced herself as Professor Vector.

The lesson passed in a blur. Naturally, we got homework.

Finally, we could move on to our second class – Transfiguration.

She didn't seem too surprised about Harry supposedly being doomed.

At the end of the day, I had homework from every class except Divination.

As a result, I sat in my Common Room until about 10:00 pm just doing work, then studied for another 30 minutes.

That was when I first realised how hard this year was going to be.

Some Saturdays, I turned the Time-Turner and did homework in the library while everyone was watching a Quidditch match.

I hoped I hadn't overestimated myself. It would be even harder to focus with Black on the loose.

Not to mention me seeing the Grim.