Daisy Potter and You-Know-Poo's Return (Book 4, Harry Potter ff)

Chapter 10 - Homework Is Fun For Once

As Fred was scratching in between my feathers, with me purring contentedly, we chatted about how Ludo Bagman might have scammed us with our bet in the World Cup.

"Maybe he paid us in leprechaun gold on purpose." Fred suggested, frowning.

"Something I would do, to be honest." I sniggered. "But he looks too innocent to do that. Maybe he accidentally swapped it for actual money, not knowing that it vanishes."

"I -" Fred was cut off by my brother and Ron bursting into the dorm. Neither of them looked strangely at the position we were in; Harry simply requested I join them in Divination homework.

"Shit, I forgot about that." I swore, leaping off the bed and folding my wings back into my skin.

As we passed Harry and Ron's dorm, Dean and Seamus stuck their heads out. "Divination homework?" They chorused.

"Indeed." I grinned at them.

"Naturally." Harry and I said simultaneously.

We all took our copies of Unfogging the Future back down to the common room, found a table and set to work on our predictions for the coming month. An hour later, we had made very little progress, though our table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and my brain was as fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Trelawney's fire.

"I haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean." Dean said, staring down at a long list of calculations.

"What the fuck even is this?" I blinked at a scattering of symbols on the parchment in front of me.

"You know." Ron said, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration. "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."

"What - make it up?" Harry said.

"Yeah." Ron said, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink and starting to write. "Next Monday," he said as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up at us. "You know her - just put in loads of fucking misery, she'll lap it up."

"Right." I said, crumpling up my first attempt and lobbing it over the heads of a group of chattering first-years into the fire. "Okay... on Monday, I will be in danger of - er - burns."

"Yeah, you will be." Seamus said darkly. "We're seeing the Skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'LL... erm..."

"Lose a treasured possession or some shit." I said, flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

"Good one." Seamus said, copying it down. "Because of... erm... Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend, Harry?"

"Yeah... cool..." Harry said, scribbling it down. "Because... Venus is in the twelfth house."

"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight." Dean said.

"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. Okay, I'll lose a bet." I said.

"Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight..."

We continued to make up predictions (which grew steadily more tragic) for another hour, while the common room around us slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to us, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at us, rather as Hermione would look if she knew we were fucking up our homework.

When Fred and George came down, I left my homework in the hands of Harry, who had basically the same handwriting as me, and darted over to them. At the same time, Terry knocked on the window next to where us three were, on his broom.