𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 5

Adriam wasn't joking; Cassie and Theo managed to enter the class just in time.

It was the strangest-looking classroom they 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 tea shop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside, 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 was stiflingly warm, and the fire burning under the crowded mantelpiece gave off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle.

The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

"Why are we here again?" Theo remarked, frowning at the class.

"I dunno. My dad forced me to take it. Why did you take it?" Cassie asked.

"To give you company, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I—"

"MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!" Cassie yelled at the other students who were staring. All of them immediately looked away, while Parvati and Lavender broke into whispers.

"Where is she?" Ron said.

"Look, the Weasel and Potter are here," Cassie drawled.

A voice came suddenly out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice. "Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times 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.

"She looks like a beetle," Cassie snorted. Theo chuckled, settling around a round table.

"Sit, my dears," Trelawney addressed Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

They looked around for any empty seats, but the only ones available were the three empty chairs next to Theo and Cassie.

Harry groaned and took a seat; Ron and Hermione followed.

Cassie said nothing except roll her eyes, while Theo crumpled his nose as if there was a bad smell.

"Welcome to Divination," said Professor 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."

Cassie rolled her eyes and let out a loud, pointed yawn.

Trelawney looked at her as though offended but continued.

Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. 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 take you only so far in this field..."

Cassie and Theo glanced slightly at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject.

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearances, 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.