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chapter three / prophetic proclamations
CASSIE'S LUNGS BURNED IN AGONY as she crawled up the last few stairs to the Divination hallway. She groaned. "So many bloody stairs."
The seven other Gryffindors she'd been hiking with nodded and wheezed in agreement. A girl Hermione had introduced Cassie to as Lavender Brown tilted her head and glanced up and down the hall. "Um.. where is the class?"
"Right there," a tall boy called Dean Thomas answered, and the rest of them followed his gaze to the trapdoor on the ceiling.
"Well, how the bloody hell do we get up there?" Ron gasped, glaring at the door. Even though this was their first divination class and they hadn't even met their professor yet, Ron despised the subject.
"Maybe the ladder, Ron?" Harry suggested, gesturing to the ladder that was leaning against the wall opposite the trap door. Ron mumbled something that Cassie didn't catch before he and Dean walked over to grab the ladder.
Ron and Dean set the ladder against the wall leading up to the trapdoor and the Gryffindors took turns climbing. When Cassie reached the Divination classroom, she coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. The entire room was filled with smoking incense and sage. Not a single window was open, resulting in absolutely no air flow. Cassie coughed again and moved to sit at a table with Hermione.
She didn't pay attention to what the teacher was saying. She couldn't even take her seriously; not with those bug-eye glasses that made her real eyes seem unnaturally large and her humorously puffy hair. Her bangles jingled around as she moved from table to table, occasionally letting out a gasp of astonishment. When she reached Hermione and Cassie's table, Hermione leaned in.
"Just go with it," she told Cassie, who nodded and returned to peering into Hermione's cup. Professor Trelawney reached their table and Hermione cleared her throat, staring intently into Cassie's teacup.
"Ah, I see.. love," Hermione mused, twisting the cup around to look at it in different angles. "Hm.. yes, love is in your near future—oh! What's this? I believe you're going to get injured somehow, Cassie!"
Hermione shrieked and shook her head, hiding her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook, but Cassie couldn't tell if it was with fake tears of laughter. Probably the latter. Cassie feigned a look of fear and stared into Hermione's cup.
"Oh, Hermione!" she cried, a hand clutching her heart. "I simply can't believe this!"
"What is it?" urged Trelawney, and Cassie had to physically fight to keep from laughing. "What is in her future?"
Cassie's eyes flickered to the open book in her lap for help. "Oh, oh! I see pain and suffering in your future, Hermione!"
Hermione couldn't hold back and burst into a fit of giggles, but Trelawney seemed to think this was tears and patted her back comfortingly. "Don't worry, dear, at least neither of you have the Grim," she said in a soothing voice. When she had moved on to Harry and Ron, Hermione looked up from her hands and the two broke into silent laughter. It was only when Trelawney let out a dramatic gasp and shriek that their laughter receded.
