Ch33

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.

Neville snorted. "Only four?"

Harry shrugged. "I said 'at least', didn't I? Anyway, what do you see?"

Neville glanced idly into the crystal ball then smirked. "I see Gryffindor winning the House Cup for the third year in a row."

"I hate you," Harry deadpanned. "You know that, right?"

Neville shrugged. "I can live with it."

"You two are just making things up again, aren't you?" Hermione accused. "Ron and I can't see anything."

"Prove it," Neville said.

"I told you, Hermione, I saw-" Ron began by Hermione interrupted him.

"I highly doubt Harry and one of the twins are going to enter themselves into some sort of international competition at Hogwarts."

Harry started coughing. Ron was alluding to the Triwizard Tournament? How in the-? And why would Fred or George-? Maybe these things weren't so ridiculous after all…no, on second thought they were just that stupid.

"Just because you can't see anything is no reason to shun the true believers, Hermione," Harry said seriously.

"Yeah, you can't be good at everything," Ron added.

"I don't want to be good at every-" Hermione began, red-faced.

"Yes you do," Harry and Neville chorused.

"They have a point, my dear," Trelawney said gently, coming up from behind her. "And as it stands, you are far too devoted to the world of logic and facts to ever really succeed in such a delicate art form as this."

"You know what?" Hermione said angrily, shoving her book back into her bag. "I don't even care anymore. This class is a waste of my time and I can't believe it took me seven months to realize this. I'm leaving." She then stormed out rather dramatically (but still slightly bouncy from the residual effects of the charm).

"Ooooo!" Lavender squealed the moment she was gone. "This is so cool! You told us that 'Around Easter, one of our numbers will leave us forever!' And she totally did!"

"Isn't that a little hasty?" Seamus asked. Seeing Parvati and Lavender's sudden glares, he quickly backtracked. "I mean, not that I don't have absolute faith in divination and everything, but she just stormed out of one class. I can't really imagine that Hermione Granger, of all people would willingly drop a class. Especially before exams. And especially considering the fact that she's using a Time Turner to get to all of her classes on time in the first place."

"I suppose you have a point," Parvati said grudgingly. "But on the other hand, the prediction is right so far. What are the odds that it's just a coincidence?"

"Besides," Dean added. "Hermione basically told us all that she's not coming back. If she does end up returning, it would be really embarrassing for her and considering that she never liked this class anyway and spends a lot of time with Harry – who we all know would never let her live it down – I think it's safe to say that she won't be coming back anytime soon."

"You're amazing, Professor," Lavender said, her voice full of awe.

"I'm impressed, too," Harry admitted. "I mean, it figures that if someone would drop the class, it would be her, but how did you know she'd be able to make it seven months? You'd think if she managed to last this long she could last another month and a half until exams and then not sign up for it next year."

"When you have had as many years of experience with the Inner Eye as I have, you too will be able remove logic from your interpretations of future events," Trelawney said dreamily.

Harry grinned. "Can't wait."

Ron paled and started shaking.

"Can I drop the class, too?" Neville asked, sounding slightly desperate.

"No," Trelawney said without looking at him.

----

"That was quite a show," Harry said as he slid into his seat in Muggle Studies.

"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione said shortly.

Harry smiled apologetically. "I figured that. Still, dropping a class right before the exams? Are you sure that's the best decision? It will have made all the work you've already put into it completely pointless."

"The fact that I apparently don't have the 'Inner Eye' or your skills at lying your ass off makes all the effort I've put into it all year completely pointless," Hermione countered. "Besides, even with using the Time Turner to take breaks and get some rest, I'm still really stressing out and having to spend hours brushing up on something that really has no practical purpose and that I'm not convinced is genuine in the first place just seems rather…a bit too much, really."

"You do realize that now half the class is convinced that Trelawney made a prediction, right?" Harry said, grinning a bit.

Hermione cocked her head, confused. "No, why?"

"Apparently our first class, she told us that 'one of our number' would be leaving forever or something like that. I think she was talking about dying as I'm fairly certain that was before she decided I wasn't doomed after all, but it was vague enough it could easily apply to that. Although how Lavender managed to remember that all these months…" Harry shook his head, impressed.

"Maybe she wrote it down," Hermione suggested.

"Maybe," Harry conceded. "Hi, Theodore!"

"Why are you talking to me?" Theodore Nott asked, sounding bored. "Again?"

"Because you're the one person I've found aside from Professor Snape who doesn't like me," Harry explained.

Theodore snorted. "That's what you think."

"Well, that's this obvious about it," Harry corrected. "And as for the people I don't know…well, I don't really care what they think as long as enough of them like me well enough to do whatever I tell them to do."

"You realize you sound like some sort of cult leader, right?" Theodore asked. "I think you picked the wrong house if you were thinking of being a Dark Lord."

"Oh, no, I've currently got my heart set on Minister of Magic," Harry assured him.

"Now that is a scary thought. I'll definitely make a note to go abroad in the event that ever happens," Theodore said, actually shuddering a bit. "Besides, I am not 'obvious' about disliking you; you didn't even notice until we had this class together."

Harry considered this. "True…but now that I do know I can't stop thinking about it! It's driving me crazy."

At this Theodore actually looked a little offended. "You cannot possibly blame your vast array of mental problems on me."

"Well, you've certainly exacerbated them," Harry muttered.

Theodore rolled his eyes. "That I can live with. Do you often obsess over Slytherin boys?"

"No…" Harry lied, remembering those few months in second year and all of sixth year with Draco back when he was Malfoy and Snape…well, whenever anything went wrong, really.

"Hello class," Professor Burbage said, entering the room. "Today I thought we'd take a break from our normal topics and instead examine how Muggles view magic. Let's start with Divination…"

Hermione groaned loudly.

----

"Don't worry, Harry, you'll be fine," Hermione said, her terrified look belying her confident words.

"I know I will," Harry said, spreading some margarine on his toast.

"You've got a Firebolt!" Ron added, trying his hardest to support his supposedly anxious friend.

"I've had a Firebolt for the other two matches as well," Harry pointed out.

"If you lose, you know Draco will never, ever let this go, right? As in ever," Neville reminded him gravely.

"I know, but the fact of the matter is that I've got a better broom and, what's more, I'm simply better at this than he is. The only time I've ever lost is due to circumstances beyond my control and if, for some ungodly reason, Dementors invade again, I'm catching the Snitch THEN saving everyone's souls," Harry vowed.

"Good to see you have your priorities in order," Ginny said sarcastically. "And speaking of, if you die, can I have your broom?"

"Are you guys even listening?" Harry demanded.

"I doubt it," Percy replied from a few seats over. "But then, today's the day of the big match and everyone seems to have caught Quidditch fever."

"You don't," Harry pointed out, ignoring his spazzing friends in favor of someone that could usually be counted on to be sane. Well, unless his career was involved, but Percy hadn't even graduated yet.

"Oh trust me, compared to first year I have a great deal of enthusiasm for Quidditch," Percy countered.

"But…you barely support the team," Harry said, confused.

"Bill and Charlie used to play it all the time using my toys as Quaffles," Percy explained. "So did the twins, come to think of it. Naturally, I was quite anti-Quidditch when I started Hogwarts."

"So what happened?" Harry wanted to know. You'd think that having siblings on the Quidditch team wouldn't help with that."

"Indeed it didn't," Percy agreed. "Seeing as how first Charlie and then Fred and George felt the need to steal my books anytime they wanted to play a pick-up game. Still, one does not surviving rooming with Oliver Wood for seven years without picking up a basic appreciation of the game."

"So it was self-preservation, then?" Harry grinned.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

----

"Hey, Flint," Harry called out.

"What, Potter?" Flint snapped back. They were in the middle of the game, after all, and even if Harry – as Seeker – could dally around all he wanted to as long as Draco didn't spot the Snitch either, that didn't mean that a Chaser like him could.

"I didn't go to the other Slytherin matches so I wouldn't know is you were there or not, but why are you here?" Harry inquired. "I KNOW you graduated."

Despite his annoyance, Flint actually smirked. "True, but Dumbledore never comes to the matches and the other teachers all just assume I'm repeating someone else's class. I'm actually not sure it I should be insulted or relieved it's that easy to convince everyone that I somehow managed to fail."

"What about the other Slytherins?" Harry wanted to know.

"What about them?" asked Flint.

"Wouldn't they realize that you're only ever seen at matches and possibly practices?" Harry said reasonably.

Flint snorted. "Of course they do, but they have a lot of House Pride and not much respect for school rules. Besides, there weren't any other prospects for captain."

"I see," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Great, now bugger off," Flint ordered as he zoomed after Katie Bell.

"Fine, be that way…now let's see…hey, is that the Snitch?" Harry wondered aloud as he hurtled towards it. Fifteen feet away from it, his broom lurched. Surprised, Harry turned around to see Draco grabbing onto his Firebolt and pulling it back. "What the Hell?"

Draco looked positively gleeful. "All's fair in love and-Ow!" One of his hands released the broom.

Harry nodded and cast another stinging hex at the other boy to make him let go. "Indeed." With that, he hurtled after the Snitch again. "Yes! Three for three! I've still got it!"