New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|31| Chapter Thirty-One

T H I R T Y  O N E 

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"A thousand galleons? A thousand galleons?! That could last you your whole life!"

Ron spoke dreamily, well aware that the Triwizard Tournament wasn't something that he had any chance of entering but the image of himself winning at the end was clearly imprinted in his mind, Saffron could already tell. In contrast to him, the Weasley twins and other students who were bordering on seventeen truly believed they had a shot to win the tournament and protested by standing back as the rest of the school began to make their way out of the hall after Dumbledore had finished his speech.

"I don't want to be seen with them if they're annoyed," Hermione whispered to Saffron, jerking her head towards the Weasley twins were telling told anyone who would listen that they were seventeen in April and should, therefore, be allowed to put their name forward to compete.

"Yeah, you're right," Saffron nodded in agreement as Harry and Ron began to engage in conversation with the twins and Lee Jordan. "Let's go,"

They didn't go too far, however, as they only made it halfway down the Gryffindor table before Lavender tapped Saffron on the shoulder and beamed at her broadly, with Parvati at her shoulder.

"Hey," Lavender said brightly before a serious look dawned on her face. "I just thought I'd let you two know, but during my Divination exam last year, I saw something like this happening,"

"Something like what?" Saffron asked, feigning curiosity as she heard Hermione's hand drop to her side and hang off her lazily. Hearing about Professor Trelawney truly did make her lose the will to live.

Lavender sighed. "Look, I hate to say it like this. But we're friends and friends tell each other the truth no matter how hard it may be,"

"Go on ..." said Saffron slowly. She tried not to assume right away that what Lavender was saying was utter garbage. The prediction that Professor Trelawney made to Harry proved to have some semblance of legitimacy to it so there was a chance that what Lavender was about to say could mean something real.

"I saw Harry," Lavender informed her importantly. "I saw what he looked like over the past few years and then I saw what he looks like now. But once it got to the fourth one, he just collapsed. I would have told you this earlier but you had all that stuff going on with Sirius Black... I think it means something else that's major will happen to him this year. Maybe it's to do with this tournament,"

Saffron raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. In reality, she didn't put very much stake in what Lavender was saying as it didn't look like a very far-fetched prediction considering that something crazy happened to Harry and those closest to him every year.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Lavender nodded gravely. "What do you think it could be?"

"I--I don't---" Saffron was cut off when she saw Parvati look over her shoulder and in turn, saw Padma walking towards them.

"Haven't you got better things to be doing than getting them to predict what terrible thing's going to happen to their friends?"

"Haven't you got better things to be doing than bothering us?" shot back Parvati furiously, glaring at her twin sister.

"Yes, I have," nodded Padma simply. "I haven't come over to talk to you, I just thought I'd remind you to focus on your hairdressing and ... whatever it is you want to do, Parvati, probably adding another boyfriend to your list, instead of bothering them," She smiled falsely as she brushed past them. "Bye,"