The Son of Lord Voldemort

Chapter 79

Pansy emerged into the strangest-looking classroom she had ever seen. In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all; more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned teashop. Pansy felt like she had walked into a second hand shop, the sort of place people like the Weasley's would go to. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves. It looked as though someone closet had ejected all of its contents. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire which was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large, copper kettle. Pansy reached up to loosen her tie, she was already beginning to sweat. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

"What a horrid stench," Jenna whispered wrinkling her nose in disgust. "I can taste that awful perfume, or whatever it is." Before Pansy could reply a soft, misty voice came from the back.

"Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

Pansy grimaced as Professor Trelawney came into view. Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several time their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings. Pansy had only seen the professor several times before, the woman rarely ever ate in the Great Hall. "Sit, my children, sit," she said, and they all clambered awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto poufs. Pansy and Jenna sat around a round table by themselves. The chair Pansy was sitting on was lumpy and uncomfortable. Pansy scowled as she shifted around trying to get comfortable. "Welcome to Divination," said Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

"Inner eye?" Pansy muttered to Jenna who rolled her eyes. "In her dreams."

Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts," Pansy and Jenna exchanged incredulous looks, "I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can only take you so far in this field, many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearing, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Crabbe, who almost toppled off his pouf, "is your father well?"

"I think so," said Crabbe looking confused.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Pansy covered up a snort with a cough as Crabbe looked worriedly at Goyle. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Pansy who looked taken aback, "beware a red-headed man."

"What a load of tosh," Jenna murmured before smirking and leaning her head towards Pansy's. "Maybe you and Ron Weasley will get into a lovers quarrel." Pansy's eyes widened as she scowled.

"That's disgusting," Pansy hissed quietly.

"In the summer term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball – if we have finished with fire-omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu."

"Students always get sick around February," Jenna mumbled to Pansy who nodded her head.

"I myself shall lose my voice," Trelawney said with an incline of her head.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Pansy whispered to an amused Jenna.

"And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever." A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it. "I wonder, dear," she said to Millicent, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?" Millicent, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney. "Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading – it will happen on Halloween." Millicent's eyes went wide and Pansy suppressed a snort at the expense of her dorm mate. "Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside-down on its saucer; wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing."

When Pansy and Jenna had had their teacups filled, they went back to their table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. They swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped them.

"Okay," said Jenna, as they both opened their books at pages five and six. "What can you see in mine?"

"A bunch of soggy tea leaves," said Pansy dryly. The heavily perfumed smoke in the room was making her feel sleepy, and her boredom wasn't helping.

"Broaden your mind, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom.

"Oh yes, we must broaden our inner eye," Pansy said in a perfect imitation of Trelawney, her fingers wiggling and her movements over exaggerated. Pansy and Jenna looked at each other and burst into laughter.