Chương 21: ITW,H - Chapter 21 - Thursday

(Word Count: 2, 824) In the early hours of breakfast Thursday morning, where it was only Harry and Hermione, Hermione would go on and on about flying techniques she had read about. Unlike everyone who was excited for flying class, she was extraordinarily nervous about it. Flying wasn't something she could learn from books, her strong suit, but she had done her very best to do so anyway. As he listened to her facts, he went over his mail and found one from his Gringotts account manager, Noggrap.

He broke the seal and read it. Lord Potter, There was an incident here at Gringotts, and I wanted to inform you personally before the news breaks in the papers tomorrow morning. For the first time in over a century, there was a break in. The culprit had managed to escape, and we don't yet know who did it. However, I assure you that nothing was stolen. The vault that was broken into was already empty when they reached it. Your vaults are safe. Your Account Manager, Noggrap. That was considerate of him.

If it had been anyone other than Harry, they would have certainly wanted this forewarning and assurance. As it was, he already knew about it. When the rest of the students joined them, all of the Gryffindor first years were excited about one thing: flying class. Ron and Dean wouldn't stop talking about quidditch, and how they were going to be joining the Gryffindor quidditch team next year.

Ron would tell anyone who would listen about how he would fly on his brother Charlie's broom and play a home game of quidditch with his brothers. He was "the best keeper in the world, not one quaffle got past him." The next table over, Harry could hear Malfoy going on and on about his fancy new broom at home and how he was an expert flier. He had been flying for years already and could go laps around anyone, apparently. Morning classes were filled with study hall and Herbology.

The second Herbology class of the week, this time with Slytherin. For Herbology, they were still going over the introductory terms and how to identify different plants, so not much change there. The real interesting bit came from the afternoon classes. Right after lunch was the 3rd year's Divination class, meaning Harry had Divination as well. When Dumbledore placed him in the class, he had given him the class's textbook, so he was good to go.

He made his way up to the Divination classroom, which was at the very top of one of the towers. The classroom was like an old-timey college classroom, with auditorium seating in a semicircle around a center for the professor. Unlike a normal college classroom, instead of normal desks, there were rows of round tables for two. Harry had taken a little while to actually get to the class, so it was already rather full of students. When he entered, the talking died down a little as everyone turned to look at him.

"No way, what's Harry Potter doing here?"

"This is for third years!" Some of the 3rd years were murmuring at his appearance, eyeing him curiously. The Weasley twins were sitting near the back, and when they saw Harry, they called out to him. They were sitting together with Lee Jordan.

"Oi, Harry! Over here, mate! Come sit with us!" Harry made his way up the aisle towards them, the rest of the students watching him.

"Hello, chaps! Fancy seeing you here."

"Hello, Harry!" Both Fred and George said at the same time. Lee Jordan looked at him curiously, "Hello, Harry. Fred and George were just telling me a lot about you! You're helping them with their pranks now? That's a ruddy nightmare if I've ever heard one!"

"Haha, maybe once in a while, but they're amazing at coming up with things on their own," Harry laughed.

"Not to say you aren't welcome, but what are you doing here in a third year class? Are you skipping years or something?" Lee asked.

"No, not really, I just—" Harry started to explain, but the one of the twins—Harry couldn't tell which one—interrupted.

"He's a seer!" one said.

"He's got prophetic dreams and everything!" The other finished. Harry glared at the two, but they shrugged it off.

"What? If Ron's already opened his big mouth, the cat's already out of the bag," one said.

"I'm surprised the whole school doesn't know already," the other supplied. Harry sighed, yeah, that made sense.

"Yeah, I guess I am. Because of that, Dumbledore placed me in this class to help me understand these things better." Lee looked between them all, and realized they were serious.

"Woah! You're a seer, Harry?"

"That's wicked!" They were apparently overheard as several murmurs ran throughout the class. Professor Trelawney came into the room from the back doors that led to her personal quarters. She was similar to what she was portrayed as in the movies, but a little bit thinner and her glasses acted as magnifying glasses, making her eyes far larger. She came in, eyes partially closed and her hand extended as if she was trying to divine something in the room.

"Hmmm… My senses tell me that we have a new student today! Harry Potter, are you here?"

"I'm here, professor," Harry answered calmly. He didn't really have much faith in her ability as a seer, but having lived with Sirius, he could at least appreciate the showmanship.

"Ah, yes… I sense a dark future ahead of you, dear boy. Your life will be one of many hardships. Yes, indeed. Especially one blessed with sight as you are," Trelawney said dramatically, gazing at him in pity. He didn't really know how to respond to that.

"For those of you still in ignorance, Harry Potter is taking divination in his first year, because he has been gifted with the sight! He is here so he can better understand the signs and will of the universe!"

"Anyway, let us begin today's lesson! Let's prepare our tea for the day, as we will be continuing our lesson on tessomancy! Very exciting!" The first portion of the class, as they waited for the water to boil and the leaves to steep, Trelawney gave an actual lecture on tessomancy: the art of reading the future from the dregs of tea. This had to be done with loose leaf tea, because it's the sediment of the tea leaves when they've finished the cup that is deciphered.

It didn't work with just liquid, since that was too "transient." Coffee could work, if there were enough dregs in it, but it was said to not be as accurate. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. One of the problems of tessomancy was that sometimes the symbols would overlap, and some of the symbols were orientation specific. This made it very troublesome to tease out what the symbols were exactly.

When they were done with the tea, Harry took Lee Jordan's cup, and he took Harry's. Harry's cup was pretty obvious. It had a spoked wheel symbol in it, which signified inevitable change, or progress. Which was accurate, given his situation. Jordans cup had some wonky waves and… was that a quaffle? That wasn't even a symbol on the list!

"I think you're going to be a part of quidditch, mate. Look, you've got a quaffle and everything!" Harry showed him his cup.

"But you've got waves for unity, so maybe the announcer? That would be cool." Lee's eyes lit up.

"That sounds brilliant! You think I should go for it?"

"Definitely. You should go talk to Professor McGonogall about it." Fred and George reached over and grabbed the cup from Harry's hands and looked in.

"I don't see any quaffle."

"Yeah, isn't that the moon?"

"What? No, it's obviously a quaffle. Look here, see that bit there? Those are the indentations of the quaffle ball," Harry explained.

"But a quaffle isn't a proper symbol!" The twins argued.

"Shouldn't that be a moon then?" Harry shrugged.

"I don't know, mate, I'm just saying what I see."

"I think we should go with the seer on this one," Lee said.

"Besides, don't you think I would make a good announcer? Hemsworth did just graduate after all, we need a new one!"

"That's true," Fred conceded.

"You would be a good announcer," George said.

"Then it's settled, let's go talk to McGonagall after class!" One of the students from the next table over had been listening and called over, "Hey, Harry, would you take a look at mine too?" Soon, everyone in the class was calling for Harry to come read their tea cups. Harry looked over at Trelawney, to see if she would get the class in order again, but she just smiled sadly at him.

"Ah, such are the troubles of those gifted with the sight." So instead of outright denying them all, Harry charged them.

"10 Knuts per reading!" Amazingly, a lot of them still wanted him to do it. Directly after Divination class, Harry had to race all the way down and out to the castle grounds for the flying lesson. This was one of the first quests for the first year, the incident with Neville breaking his wrist and dropping his remembrall. Along the way, he checked the quest options again.

[Fate Quest: Youngest Seeker During the very first flying class, Neville will lose control of his broom and Madame Hooch will need to escort him to the infirmary. He leaves behind his remembrall, which gets picked up by Draco Malfoy. Your options are: Go With Canon!: Let things play out as they did with canon. Call out Draco to give it back, fly up into the air with him, then catch the remembrall when Draco throws it. Don't worry about placement, Professor Mcgonagall will see it. Join the Gryffindor's Quidditch team as the youngest seeker in a century! It's not often a first year's allowed to play after all. Reward: Perk: Smooth Flier. Grants an inherent instinct when it comes to flying, and you're able to fly 20% faster. Don't Fly!: Convince Draco to give back the remembrall without flying into the air. Reward: +1 Control Don't Confront Draco!: Who cares about some remembrall? Allow Draco to steal or break the remembrall. Reward: +1 Focus Prevent the Entire Incident!: Why let Neville get hurt? Prevent Neville from falling and breaking his wrist in the first place! Reward: +1 Power] The flying perk was pretty good, especially since it applied to all flying, not just on a broom. Meaning his crow form would become a lot faster. The rewards from Fate for following "canon," Fate's preferred course of events, was always going to be better than the rest of the options.

He really wanted the perk, but the problem wasn't just the fact that he would have to let Neville, an 11 year old kid fall more than 50 ft and break his arm, but also that he would have to join quidditch, which he really didn't want to do. He wasn't that big of a fan of the sport, so dedicating so much of his time to it wasn't appealing. It would also ruin his morning breakfast with Hermione, and his time for dealing with all of the letters he gets. He would just prevent the incident in the first place.

He found the rest of his class outside on the lawn, together with the Slytherins, and went to join them. There, lying in the grass in two rows, were enough brooms for each student.

"How was Divination?" Hermione asked, she was a bit jealous he had gotten to join a 3rd year class already, so she was very curious about it.

"It was good. We learned about tessomancy, interpreting the signs found in the dregs of tea cups," Harry said.

"Lee Jordan might turn out to be our next announcer for quidditch."

"Why's that?" Ron asked, having caught his attention with quidditch.

"I saw a quaffle in his tea cup, so that's what I've gathered will happen."

"Huh, so it wasn't one of your dreams?" Ron asked.

"No, it was tessomancy."

"Madam Hooch is coming!" One of the students called out, and they all turned to look. Madam Hooch was coming out of the castle, from a side door, which led to the flying instructor's class. She was an older woman, with gray hair and all, but she maintained a very youthful and athletic appearance. The strangest thing about her though, were her golden, hawk-like eyes. Harry couldn't help but wonder where she got them from.

Were they a potion's accident, a permanent transfiguration, or did she have some magical creature blood in her? Madam Hooch arrived, and called for attention.

"Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch," the class echoed back.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson! Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." The class scrambled to get the best looking brooms. They were all old and worn down, with bristles going every which way. Harry went to stand next to Neville, and Hermione stood on his other side. Ron stood across from him. Neville's broom looked particularly old. This wasn't the first time Harry would ride a broom.

Sirius was quite insistent on Harry getting his time in on the broom, so he knew exactly what to do. Still, he waited for Madam Hooch's instructions.

"Now stick your right hand over your broom and say, 'up!'" Madam Hooch called from the front. There were a lot of enchantments on flying broomsticks. As such, there was a certain level of quasi-intelligence to them. Such was the case with any heavily enchanted/magical items. Because of this, it was best to treat a broomstick, especially old ones like these, as if they were a dog or horse: give clear and firm instructions, and don't show any sort of fear or nervousness.

"Up!" Harry commanded, and the broomstick snapped up into his waiting hand. Harry had told Hermione about how to best treat broomstick so she wouldn't have any problems, but she couldn't get rid of her nerves. Her broomstick floated lazily off the ground, hovering for a moment before starting to go back down. She gave it another "up!" A bit firmer this time, and it rose to her hand. Neville's broomstick just rolled fitfully on the ground, and Ron's broom smacked him in the face.

Eventually, everyone got their broom to their hand and Hooch demonstrated how to properly mount and sit on the broom so they didn't fall off of the end when it started moving. She went up and down the line to make sure everyone was holding their broom correctly, and when she got to Malfoy, she had to correct him, saying that he's been holding the broom all wrong. Ron snickered at that, nudging Dean at his side. When Hooch was satisfied that everyone had a good position on their brooms, she returned to the front.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, each of you kick off of the ground, hard. Keep your broom steady, rise a few feet from the ground, and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle! Three, two—" This was the moment Harry had been waiting for. Neville was so nervous about not having enough magic in him that he would be left on the ground, that he was about to push off the ground before Hooch had even said one.

Harry's hand snapped out and grabbed Neville's arm, and silently casted a calming peace charm. Neville's posture relaxed.

"One!" Madam Hooch blew the whistle and everyone, including Neville kicked off the ground. There was no accident the rest of the class period. Though he did have to help Hermione, who was going through the class white-knuckled on the broom. He didn't have to cast any calming charm on her, but he spent some time flying next to her. [Fate Quest: Youngest Seeker! You have chosen to prevent the entire incident, and forgo becoming the youngest seeker in a century. What a pity. Reward: +1 Power] When they got back on their own two feet at the end of class, Neville came to him.

"Harry, I just wanted to say… thanks. You know, for doing that calming charm on me. Without it, I probably would have fallen and broken my neck."

"It was nothing, Neville. Think nothing of it," Harry said. They had DADA class next, together with Ravenclaw this time, in which they could actually attempt to cast the Baubillious spell. It was a very simple spell, so most of the class could manage to at least get some red sparks to appear. Afterwards, Harry disappeared into the depths of the school library to continue his studies into the fourth year material and beyond. Hermione was there, but she was busy reading her own subjects.