บท 89: Grim Tidings
After Divination class, Oleandra and Tracey gave Harry a wide berth as they headed to Transfiguration class, while Daphne joined up with Granger to return an hour into the past for Muggle Studies or Arithmancy, presumably, but the pair reappeared shortly afterwards in the midst of a full-blown argument. Or at least, it was shortly from Oleandra's perspective.
"No, Granger, you're the one who does not understand," said Daphne hotly. "Not believing in the Grim doesn't make it any less real. Harry is in real danger, and he'd be wise to stay on his guard."
"Ridiculous," said Granger in a huff. "I'm fairly certain that Professor Trelawney's a charlatan. I mean really, tea leaves? Seriously, Greengrass? We've both had our first Arithmancy class; surely, you'll admit it makes much more sense than Professor Trelawney's cold read mentalist nonsense?"
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" Daphne fired back. "And I don't have anything to prove to anyone, least of all you."
"I've gotta agree with Daphne, this is real bad," said Ron, shuddering. "One of my uncles— uncle Bilius, he saw one, and twenty-four hours later— he died!"
"Coincidence, nothing more, nothing less," said Granger confidently. "Or he spooked himself so badly that it ended up as a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"But in the end, Ron's uncle still died," Oleandra pointed out. "Harry, have you seen anything like a big black dog?"
"Yeah, I have," said Harry, trying to maintain a neutral expression. "On the night I ra— I left the Dursleys'."
He tactfully decided to leave out the part where he fell on his behind.
"Probably just a stray," said Granger.
Everyone else just looked at her as if she were crazy.
"Ahem!" came a loud voice from the front of the class.
In the time the argument had lasted, Oleandra and the others had reached the Transfiguration classroom, they had sat in the back, the bell had rung, and then they had managed to ignore Professor McGonagall transform herself into a cat and back to human form again.
"It's not as if I demand applause from my students, not that I've ever failed to receive any while demonstrating the Animagus transformation," she said scathingly, "but at the very least, I'd ask that you stay quiet while I'm teaching! I have no expectations from Miss Greengrass, but Miss Granger, I expected at least a modicum of respect from you!"
Oleandra looked very insulted at that moment, even though Professor McGonagall hadn't specified which one of the sisters she was talking about.
"I'm sorry, Professor," Granger said in an attempt to defend her honour, "it's just that we had our first Divination class, and Professor Trelawney predicted Harry's death—"
Professor McGonagall frowned and her eyes twitched, as if she were trying very hard to keep herself from rolling them.
"I'm very sorry to hear about your future passing, Potter," she said. "But you should know that she predicts the death of one of her students every year, and such a tragedy has never come to pass. Divination is one of the most obscure and imprecise branches of magic, as are all disciplines that deal with time. I very much doubt that she—"
She paused for a second, trying to formulate her thoughts in a way that wouldn't render her liable to be sued on the basis of slander.
"You all know that I never speak ill of my colleagues, but you should also know that true Seers are exceedingly rare, and that's all I'll say on the subject," she said, before continuing on a lighter tone, "Though, in the event that you did die, Potter, even though you seem perfectly healthy to me; you need not hand in your homework."
Granger looked triumphantly in Daphne's direction, who sniffed condescendingly in response.
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After dinner, the girls joined up with Draco and his goon squad for their joint Care of Magical Creatures class. Draco kept whispering and chortling to his two menservants on their way to class on the castle grounds, which didn't inspire Oleandra much confidence. When prompted for the reason for such hilarity, he simply shrugged and said, "wait and see!"
The small group arrived at Professor Hagrid's cabin, where the man himself was waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. As Oleandra tried peering around the corner of his so-called house to see what sort of magical creature awaited them, Professor Hagrid came up to her with a warm smile on his gruff face.
"Ol'andra 'n Daphne, was it?" he said. "Dumbledore tol' me all abou' yeh — It's all thanks to yeh n' Harry 'n Ron that me dream came true—"
Thanks to Oleandra and company fighting and defeating the true culprit behind the petrifaction cases, the Ministry had officially fully exonerated the previous suspect, Rubeus Hagrid, which meant he could finally do what he loved most; share all he knew about dangerous creatures with his unsuspecting victi— students.
"I 'spose not all o' yeh Slyth'rins are all that bad!" Hagrid said with a roaring laugh. "I'll introduce yeh to Aragog some other time."
"Um, thanks for the vote of confidence?" said Daphne, uncertain as to how to respond to the… compliment? "And who's this… Aragog, you said?"
However, Professor Hagrid was no longer listening, as he had spotted his favourite Hogwarts students, Harry and company, who had just arrived. Seeing that nobody else was coming, he jumped straight into the speech he had rehearsed.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called out. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
Professor Hagrid led the class around his hut, towards the Forbidden Forest. Thankfully, they stopped right before the forbidding darkness at the edge of the forest, where a paddock had been set up.
No matter how Oleandra looked at it (even with her Mystic Eyes), the paddock was empty. Her mind wandering, she wondered if a Demiguise's invisibility would let it conceal itself from her special eyes, but Oleandra wouldn't know until she tried.
In the end, it turned out that the paddocks actually were empty; before Professor Hagrid showed them anything, he wanted them to open their course book.
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