Chapter 317: Trelawney's Prophecy (Edited)

By this time, Fish had finally drunk enough tea and, as Trelawney had instructed, he stirred the tea leaves and drained it before handing it to Hermione, taking the cup in front of him at the same time and arching his head to look at it.

"How did you know this is a cat nya?"

?ω?

Fish turned the teacup over several times, but couldn't see any of the tea leaves in Hermione's cup that looked like a cat.

"Everyone's gift of prophecy, and the direction it takes, can be different, dear," Trelawney explained patiently, "You just have to interpret them as you see them, and, well, Miss Granger's interpretations can be wrong."

Professor Trelawney instantly forgot her earlier thoughts of not trying to discourage Hermione, after all, Hermione, who was only Fish's best friend, was nothing compared to Fish....

She and Minerva were at odds day in and day out.

Hermione, for her part, heard this and her opinion of Professor Trelawney, which had gone up a bit, immediately regressed, and she began to think again that Divination class was a scam.

"Is that so nya?"

?ω?

Fish scratched his head and started looking at the tea foam in his cup again, it was more interesting to see what the tea foam looked like than the centaurs pointing at the stars and saying unexplainable things.

"Well... it looks like a snake..." Fish pointed to what Hermione thought was the cat's tail, "When Uroboros is happy, he gets up like this nya."

"All right, dear, go on!"

Professor Trelawney urged enthusiastically, her sentiment was indeed correct! Fish's interpretation was almost identical to her own.

Surely Fish must be a great prophet, like herself!

"The shape of a snake means 'windfall'... Huh?"

The little cat compared the book, interpreted the situation in Hermione's cup and suddenly discovered....

That it actually worked.

Since he had already planned to give Hermione a birthday present and had already thought about what to get her, it seemed to fit the "windfall" interpretation.

But how was he going to surprise Hermione, Fish couldn't just tell her that the prophecy was accurate.

So the kitten snorted and said to Hermione, "Maybe you'll find some money recently, Hermione."

(●≧?≦●)

"Gains are not necessarily monetary, my dear," Professor Trelawney routinely filled in the gaps, "Gains in knowledge, gains in affection, all count as gains, and that ties in with Miss Granger's earlier reading."

Predictably, Miss Granger's opinion of Professor Trelawney had improved again.

"Anyway...great divination, Fish! Five more points for Gryffindor!"

Trelawney was delighted, the kitten was delighted with the extra points, and Hermione was delighted with the future "evolving relationship" with Fish.

Hermione then took advantage of her good mood to glance at Fish's teacup again.

"Hmm... Is this... an octopus? Let's see..."

Hermione started flipping through the pages of Dispelling the Mists of the Future again, but Professor Trelawney just looked at it this time and turned away.

Fish's teacup had been refilled so many times that the leaves were so loose that it was, in fact, completely unsuitable for divination, but Professor Trelawney didn't remind her, since she didn't think Hermione had any talent for prophecy anyway, and, being a teacher herself, she couldn't always be on Fish's side.

So she began to wander around the classroom, pointing out from time to time the interpretations of the other students' tea leaves and classifying them, according to their attitude toward her, as "those with the gift of prophecy" and "those with a weak aura and little sense of the future."

To put it bluntly, she was examining the target group, something at which Professor Trelawney was already very adept.

That done, she searched through the students, looking for the one she would predict would "die" this year.

Of course, she did not choose the students she picked each year at random, but had her own criteria.

First, the tea leaves must have an omen of "death," which is the most basic.

Secondly, Gryffindors are usually the best targets, as they tend to be very reckless and accident prone, and even if they don't actually die, there will always be bumps and bruises.

Finally, it is best to choose someone who is popular with the student body, so they can cause more tension.

In this case, Fish is a good candidate, but Professor Trelawney is obviously not going to "curse" Fish.

Besides, there was a more suitable candidate in the student body today.

What could be more shocking than predicting the death of the 'Boy Who Lived'?

Besides, Professor Trelawney knew something about Sirius Black, and while she didn't think she could take Harry down in front of the Dementors and Dumbledore, that didn't stop her from using him to her advantage.

"He looks like an animal. Yes, yes, that's his head... it looks like a hippogriff... no, a sheep..."

Ron stared at Harry's teacup, trying to use his imagination.

Perfect!

Professor Trelawney heard him and the corner of her mouth curved slightly.

Now, the last remaining "harbinger of death" had appeared.

"Honey, let me see."

She walked over to Ron, grabbed Harry's teacup and began to read it....

The difference between Trelawney and Lockhart was that she wasn't actually lying, everything she said was backed up by a theory of prophecy, only she was deliberately steering an already vague omen in a bad direction.

The tea ball that looked like an animal could have been a hippopotamus, a sheep, or, naturally, a "Grim."

When Professor Trelawney spat out the word "Grim," the whole class fell silent and almost everyone covered their mouths with their hands in horror....

Except Fish, Hermione, Harry and a few other students who were not yet familiar with the culture of the magical world.

"The story of "The Grim" was a well-known legend in the wizarding world, and many of the young wizards here had grown up hearing the story of "The Grim", which was like the story of Voldemort. It was one of the shadows of their childhood, like Voldemort.

And for a group of people who were already so full of incredible magic, they were very receptive to such curses, so even some students who had been a little unconcerned by the idea of Harry having an encounter with a "Grim" were surprised to hear it.

Even Harry, with his misrepresentation, became concerned.

After the performance, Professor Trelawney ended the Divination lesson hastily, as it would have been more effective and would have prevented the other students from asking any more questions.

So everyone left the Divination classroom with a heavy heart, the only ones unaffected were Fish, who still hadn't realized what was going on, and Hermione, who laughed at the idea.

"Ron, the Grim is big? how does he compare to Fluffy?"

(? ω? ●) つ

Fish tugged on Ron's robe on the way to his next class and asked him with a twinkle in his eye.

Knowing that the one called Grim was a big black dog, he made the connection to his good friend Fluffy, who was also black and very big.

"It's not fighting that the Grim is good at," Ron gulped, looking horrified, "My . Uncle Bilius saw one, and.... And he ended up dead twenty-four hours later!"

His words elicited a gasp from the students around him, who looked at Harry with increased concern.

"Coincidence."

Only Hermione continued to laugh.

And Fish pursued, "Your uncle died bitten by that big dog nya?"

?ω?

"No, he just died without warning after seeing a big black dog..." Ron looked at his best friend with a nervous expression, "Harry," he asked in a serious whisper, "You haven't seen a big black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yes," Harry answered truthfully, "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys."

Again, the students around them drew in a unified breath.

"Maybe it was a stray dog." Only Hermione said calmly.

They all looked at Hermione as if she had gone mad.

Fish scratched his head in confusion, "But Fish has seen a lot of big black dogs, and Fluffy, everyone has seen it nya, And no one died?"

"But we didn't see the Grim in the tea like Harry did."

Parvati Patil, by now a devotee of Professor Trelawney, stepped forward to fill in the gaps for her.

The other young wizards who had been successfully duped, and who had grown up with a shadow of the unknown, repeated, as if Harry was really going to die tomorrow.

With all the chatter, Fish was involuntarily nervous.

In the midst of all this bickering, the group arrived at the Transfiguration classroom.