Oh God Not Again!

Chapter Thirty Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: I know that J.K. Rowling said that Flint failed his final year but...seriously? NO ONE fails their final year. If he was really that stupid there is no way he'd be Quidditch Captain. Besides, she only said that after someone noticed that he should have been graduated after book three was published. Therefore, I'm choosing to ignore it.

Harry was not in a very good mood heading to Divination and it was all his so-called friends' fault. They were in a great mood, of course, seeing as how they had just come from Charms where they had learned to cast the Cheering Charm (even Hermione had remembered to go seeing as how Harry as a concerned friend and Percy as a concerned Head Boy had been making her get some sleep all year and so she wasn't as frazzled).

Harry, sadly, was not under the influence of the Cheering Charm. He had partnered with Hermione while Ron and Neville teamed up and Hermione had somehow gotten it into her head that the thought of an extraordinarily cheerful and hyperactive Harry was a bad thing or something and refused to cast it on him. When she explained the situation, Ron and Neville immediately agreed to let her practice the Charm on the pair of them and as a result both boys were practically glowing with happiness. SO not fair.

"We're starting crystal balls early!" Ron exclaimed. "Yes! No more palm reading!"

"And because we don't have to deal with all the different lines on the hand and just talk about what we 'see', it will be so much easier to make up," Neville added, pleased.

Hermione, even cheerful, was hard-pressed to say something positive about their Divination class. "I…at least we're learning something new," she finally said, lamely.

"How long do those stupid charms last?" Harry muttered, annoyed. His classmates, of course, didn't answer as they were all too busy being high on life. And magic.

"Good day to you!" Professor Trelawney greeted them, perking up at their obvious enthusiasm. "I'm pleased to see you all so excited to start our study of the crystal ball. It's a little earlier than I had planned, but the Fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."

"Well, honestly… 'the Fates have informed her'…who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction," Hermione scoffed. Her resiliency to the effects of the Cheering Charm (and Harry knew it wasn't because of his spell-casting as he'd long since mastered that particular charm) was quite admirable.

"I don't know, Hermione," Harry disagreed, just to be annoying. "Self-fulfilling prophecies are the most dangerous kind and we don't know that the Orb would be on our exam if Professor Trelawney hadn't been notified."

"A self-fulfilling prophecy sounds really, really lame," Hermione replied.

"I'm with you," Harry said easily. "But that doesn't mean that it's not true."

"Well said, Harry," Trelawney smiled over at him. "I am often both fascinated and frustrated by the self-fulfilling natures of many prophecies. For instance, would they have come to pass had the prophecy not been made? And if the prophecy will be fulfilled regardless of the attempts of we mere mortals, then what purpose does receiving prophecies in the first place serve? But alas, that is a subject for another time."

Hermione, who had actually looked mildly intrigued by that line of questioning, looked rather put out.

"So what do you see?" Neville asked when their teacher had finally deemed them 'ready' to begin.

"I see…" Harry trailed off, gazing into the crystal bog. 'Fog', his mind supplied. "My godfather turning Snape into at least four different people by the end of the year," he said instead.