THE RAVENCLAW PRINCESS

chapter 8 - trewlawney's prediction

A few weeks later, Flitwick asked Lyra to collect one particular crystal ball from Professor Trelawney for a lesson for the fourth years. Lyra sighed while climbing up the extensive staircase to the Divination classroom. Her schedule had been completely busy lately with increasing classwork, helping George and Fred with the KissCams, prefect meetings and patrols, and quidditch practice. It was certainly no help that at every opportunity Charlotte reminded her to study for OWLs and dragged her to the library on countless occasions just to emphasize the importance.

Lyra opened the door to the divination classroom and barely got one step in the door before Professor Trelawney approached her abruptly.
"Um, hello professor. Professor Flitwick sent me to bring him one of your crystal balls for-"

"My goodness!" Trelawney grabbed her shoulders abruptly. The professor's eyes seemed to stare straight through Lyra as she held her tightly and exclaimed, "The fate of their lives rests with you. How your family becomes more tied up in their world! You won't want them to join their world but some must! You have come from such darkness. A dark lineage speaks volume to a person's character!"

Stunned beyond measure, Lyra stood still as a statue eyes wide and fixed on Trelawney. The professor blinked her eyes a few times before smiling, "Hello dear, oh! You must be here for the special crystal ball Filius requested. Just a moment, I will retrieve it."

Lyra nodded, still too stunned to speak. She collected the crystal ball nodding again and faintly smiling at Trelawney again before leaving to deliver the parcel to Flitwick.

"She's talking nonsense. Divination isn't proven and you shouldn't take it to heart. I mean- Lyra!" Charlotte looked incredulously at Lyra. "You believe what she said don't you?"

"Look, I don't know what I think, okay? She just mentioned my lineage and-" Lyra waved her hand dismissively. "Nevermind- look, divination- I don't think it's valid but Trelawney just- it didn't seem like she was messing around."

"Hey what's got you both worked up?" Mieko joked as he sat in the seat next to Charlotte.

"Ugh forget about it. Charlotte's just going to rant again about how pointless Divination is," Lyra gave up. She didn't really know how she felt about what Trelawney said but Charlotte's pessimistic attitude towards divination wasn't really helping her.

Troubled, Mieko examined both girls and was wondering how to respond to diffuse the slight tension when the head girl and head boy stood to begin the prefect meeting.

"Alright," Penelope began. "First, Percy and I want to thank you all for doing a great job as prefects so far this year! Our next order of business is planning the All Hallow's Eve Ball."

The room divided pretty evenly between the people who groaned and those who cheered at the annual ball. Lyra and Mieko felt pretty indifferent but Charlotte had always looked forward to it.

Percy continued, "because Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year, Penelope and I were thinking it would be more convenient to have the ball on the saturday before, so October 28. Also, as suggested by our seventh year prefects we are going to have a masquerade All Hallow's Eve ball. This means everyone is required to wear a mask, no exceptions! Now we need you all to help with setting up and cleaning up. Come up at the end of the meeting to sign up for a slot to work for the ball."

Mieko and Lyra rounded the corner on the fourth floor as they continued patrols.

"Ly, I'm not saying Trelawney is wrong. It's just that it makes no sense why she would do a prediction without holding a ball or looking at tea leaves or something. Look, maybe there's no harm in thinking about it for a while for fun just don't let it get to your head. Besides, Trelawney is known to mess with students."

Lyra sighed but nodded. This was what she needed. Mieko always knew what to say to help her make sense of life and every crazy thing that happened to them. Hogwarts was a magical place but they were still just teenagers going through life and having someone like Mieko felt like a godsend for Lyra.

"Okay, enough about me. What about you? Know who you're going to ask to the Halloween ball?" Lyra asked as she began walking backward alongside the long corridor.

"Nah, I might just go solo."

"What? No one catching your eye? What about that gryffindor 4th year? Katie Bell? She's sweet," Lyra teased.

"She's just a friend," Mieko laughed, rolling his eyes. "We study together sometimes but that's it. I dunno Ly, I guess I just don't fancy anyone right now. Maybe I will before the ball though, who knows."

"Okay anyways, I was talking to Harry and Ron and he was-"

"Who?"

"Harry. He was talking about ditching the ball this year and I mean I understand why but being cooped up in his room alone wouldn't do him any good so I forced him to come," Lyra finished triumphantly.

"How exactly?" Mieko asked, tellingly.

"I just said if he does go, I can forge the signature he needs to go to Hogsmeade."

Mieko just rolled his eyes and they continued down the corridor until they heard muffled noises behind a door.

"Ugh," Lyra sighed. "What if we just leave them there? They're not hurting anyone."

Mieko sighed. Lyra had proposed this on multiple occasions since they began patrols and every time he ignored her requests and took points from whoever they found. This time was no different and Lyra knew it was pointless so she followed as he silently walked to the broom closet and opened the door.

Immediately both prefects' eyes widened as they stared at the inhabitants of the closet.

"Well, fancy seeing you two here," Fred winked.

Finally finding her words Lyra exclaimed, "Fred Weasley! What are you doing?!"

Fred looked between Lyra and a hufflepuff girl she didn't know before smirking, "You know I thought you were at least a tad smarter than that, Lyra."

Mieko looked thoroughly flustered as he looked at the equally flustered hufflepuff but managed to speak, "get back to your dorm and that's 10 points from Hufflepuff."

The poor dark haired girl quickly walked out of the closet and down the stairs. Fred's everlasting grin broke slightly when Lyra yelled, "Fred! You knew we were going to be patrolling here so why are you here?! I didn't need to see that!"

He walked out of the broom closet finally and regained his smile, "Ly, it might shock you to know but I've never cared much for rules and well a man's got needs."

Mieko's brow furrowed and he shook his head, muttering at Fred's idiocy in that sentence.

Lyra scoffed, "A man's got needs?! Fred, you are disgusting, truly. I can't believe you wanted to be caught."

He shrugged and leaned against the wall still smiling. No one seemed to have any inclination to move and Lyra wanted to see him falter.

"What do you think Charlotte will think of all this?" She asked, pointedly.

Mieko threw Lyra an incredulous look. He knew she had hit a pressure point but was honestly curious to see how Fred would react.
Fred tried to act nonchalant but was betrayed by all of his body language, "Who cares what Picquery thinks. I wanted to have some fun and so I had it. Whatever, just take points from me so I can leave."

"10 points from Gryffindor. We'll uh see you tomorrow Fred," Mieko said as he nudged Lyra in the opposite direction.