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CHAPTER THREE

Their very first class of the year was Divination, one of the electives. This class would take place at the very top of the North Tower, so by the time students actually got there and climbed up the ladder through the trapdoor into the classroom, they were tired and out of breath. Once in the classroom, it was very hard to catch your breath, as there was a strong aroma of perfume. Hermione and Arabella, already disgruntled by the long journey, sat down at one of the tables together and waited for class to start.

"Welcome, my children," said a very odd-looking woman, entering the classroom. "In this room, you shall explore the noble art of Divination. In this room, you shall discover if you possess the Sight. Hello. I am Professor Trelawney. Together, we shall cast ourselves into the future! This term, we shall be focusing on Tasseomancy, which is the art of reading tea leaves. So, please, take the cup of the person sitting opposite you." Hermione and Arabella switched cups. "What do you see? The truth lies buried like a sentence deep within a book, waiting to be read. But first, you must broaden your minds. First, you must look beyond."

"What a load of rubbish," Hermione said quietly. Arabella sniggered as Hermione looked in her cup. "Oh, there's a heart in here. Well, that's got to mean love, right?" She opened Unfogging the Future and looked through it until she found the heart symbol. "Yep, love, as I expected. Bella, you've got love in your future." She was smiling and Arabella could tell she wasn't taking it seriously, but she couldn't help but wonder if it was true or not.

"Yeah, right," Arabella said, rolling her eyes and looking into Hermione's teacup. "Oh, you've got a bunch of dots, kind of like footsteps. Let's see." She flipped the pages in her textbook, searching for footsteps. "That means 'busy.' The tea leaves must know about your schedule. Oh, there's a cloud in here, too. Oh, no, Mione, that means trouble!" Arabella looked up at Hermione with worried eyes, but the brunette just scoffed.

After scaring Neville about his grandmother, Professor Trelawney turned to Ron. "Your aura is pulsing, dear. Are you in the beyond? I think you are," she said

"Sure," Ron answered.

"Look at the cup. Tell me what you see."

"Oh, yeah, uh... Harry's got sort of a wonky cross." Ron opened his Divination textbook and began to look through it. "That's trials and suffering. And, uh, that there could be the sun, and that's happiness. So, uh, you're gonna suffer, but you're gonna be happy about it." Arabella had to struggle not to laugh.

"Give me the cup." Ron handed Professor Trelawney Harry's teacup, but the woman quickly put it back on the table with a loud gasp as if it were hot, startling the entire class. She backed away, her eyes widened in fear. "Oh, my dear boy. My dear... you have the Grim."

"The Grin? What's the Grin?" Seamus asked.

"Oh, not the Grin, Seamus, the Grim," Arabella corrected him, already searching her book for the Grim. When she found it, she looked up at Professor Trelawney, who beckoned her to read. She looked down and began to read the meaning aloud, becoming more and more fearful as she went. "'Taking form of a giant spectral dog, it's among the darkest omens in our world. It's an omen of death.'" She looked up at Harry, who was staring off into space. "Harry..."

Because of this incident, class was dismissed early, allowing them all to make it to Transfiguration just in time. Thankfully, Transfiguration went as it usually did and helped Arabella to get her mind off of Divination. This didn't last long, however, because after lunch, as she made her way down to Hagrid's hut for their first Care of Magical Creatures class with Ron, Harry, and Hermione, Ron brought it up again.