Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 31: Danger in Your Path

"Welcome, my children." Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher, welcomed the class of third-year students. "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'll be focusing on Tasseomancy, which is the art of reading tea leaves. So please, take the cup of the person sitting opposite you. What do you see?"

Shaye looked across from herself and sighed at the empty seat. It was very unlike Hermione to be late, even if it was for a class that she had shown a clear distaste for. So instead, Shaye took the opportunity to look around the room.

The Divination classroom was only accessible by climbing a very high, very steep flight of steps. The room was decorated with red tapestries and other unique knick-knacks that probably had some special meaning or something. The tables, which sat on varied levels of different heights, were covered in red tablecloths. To say the least, the subject and its classroom seemed to be very different than the other classes offered at Hogwarts, as was its professor.

Professor Trelawney was what the muggles might call a modern-day hippie. She wore loose, baggy clothing, an abundance of jewellery that clacked together on her wrist and around her neck, and a pair of large, thick glasses that magnified her eyes so much that they seemed to almost pop out of her head. To top everything off, her blonde, curly hair had been brushed, which made it poof out wildly all over the place.

Having no one to trade cups with, Shaye turned to the table next to hers and watched Harry and Ron complete the task. They, like the rest of the class, seemed very amused by Trelawney's quirky personality.

"The truth lies buried like a sentence deep within a book, waiting to be read," Trelawney said as she made her way around the room. "But first, you must broaden your minds. First, you must look beyond."

"Oh, what a load of rubbish." Hermione scoffed.

Shaye turned around quickly and much to her surprise, saw Hermione sitting in the seat opposite her. Shaye looked from Hermione to the classroom door. How had she gotten in without her seeing? Where did she come from?

"Where did you come from?" Ron asked, voicing what Shaye had been thinking.

"Me?" Hermione seemed to be tucking something underneath the collar of her shirt. "I've been here all this time."

Shaye furrowed her brows. Maybe Hermione had been sitting at a table farther back and moved up during Trelawney's speech; that had to be it because there was no way she had trudged up the stairs and crossed the classroom without anyone seeing her.

"You, boy." Trelawney pointed at Neville. "Is your grandmother quite well?"

Neville thought for a moment. Everyone knew that Neville lived with his grandmother and that something had happened to his parents when he was younger, but the details were fuzzy. Neville rarely ever spoke of it.

"I-I think so." Neville stuttered. 

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Give me the cup." Trelawney took Neville's cup and peered inside. She made a few concerning sounds before placing the cup back down and moving on. "Pity," she muttered and Neville immediately grabbed the cup with a worried expression on his face.

"Broaden your minds." Trelawney turned to the rest of the class before stopping in front of Ron. "Your aura is pulsing, dear. Are you in the beyond? I think you are."

Ron's forehead creased with confusion. "Sure," he answered. 

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

Slowly, Ron lifted Harry's cup up from the table and looked at the shape that the tea leaves had made on the bottom. "Yeah. Well ... Harry's got sort of a wonky cross. That's trials and suffering." He flipped through the Divination book in front of himself. "And that there could be the sun, and that's happiness. So ..." he looked over at Harry, "...  you're gonna suffer, but you're gonna be happy about it."