Chapter 329: Chapter 329
Thursday afternoon, the last class of the day was Professor Trelawney’s Divination class.
As Lynn, Edgar, and Ollie pushed open the trapdoor and climbed up the ladder, a familiar scent wafted toward them.
Lynn’s brow furrowed slightly.
No matter how many times he came here, he could never get used to this smell.
The classroom was the same as ever.
A circular attic with dark red curtains, small lamps with crimson shades, and dozens of candles of varying lengths.
But there was also something different from usual.
For instance, on every small table, there sat a sizable crystal ball.
"Oho," Lynn remarked, looking at the crystal balls. "Something new today. Finally, we don’t have to talk nonsense over teacups."
Edgar, who was following behind him, chuckled at the comment and said as they walked, "That’s not necessarily true. What if the things we see in the crystal ball are even harder to make up than tea leaves?"
"When do you not rely on making things up?" Lynn glanced at him.
"That’s my talent," Edgar said, puffing out his chest righteously. "Professor Trelawney said prophecy requires spiritual perception, not rote memorization."
"She says that to everyone."
Edgar was momentarily choked up.
"Mind your own business."
The three of them walked over to the small round table where they usually sat and took their seats.
Humans were creatures of habit.
Once they got used to something, they became too lazy to change.
The three of them placed their books on the table and began waiting for class to start.
Gradually, the classroom filled with students.
The Hufflepuffs and Slytherins each occupied half the room, clearly divided on either side of the classroom, though there was some subtle overlap.
For example, sitting across from Lynn was Draco Malfoy.
They had maintained this seating arrangement ever since their first Divination class in third year.
Ding-ling-ling—
The bell rang right on time, and the trapdoor was pushed open once again.
Professor Trelawney walked in, followed by Umbridge.
Trelawney stood at the podium and didn’t give Umbridge at the back of the room so much as a glance.
She seemed completely unbothered by the presence of a Senior Undersecretary from the Ministry of Magic sitting behind her.
She adjusted her shawl, straightened the peacock feather on her head, and then spread her arms wide.
"Welcome, children. Welcome to the observatory of fate, this hall for peering through the veils of time."
She paused, her gaze sweeping across every young face in the room.
"After so much study, those of you with the gift—those chosen by fate—have finally stepped into the ranks of near-seers."
Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a deliberately cultivated sense of drama.
"But this step is one that many cannot cross in their entire lives."
"How many spend their whole lives unable to move from seeing to foreseeing?"
"How many spend their lives seeing only their own reflections in the mists of a crystal ball, rather than the patterns of fate?"
She walked to the side of the podium and picked up a crystal ball.
"Today," her voice returned to its ethereal tone, "I shall lead you in attempting to take that step."
She held the crystal ball up before her, looking at the students through the sphere.
"Now—place your hands upon the crystal ball."
Her voice suddenly became solemn.
"I can hardly wait to witness the birth of a new seer."
"The curtain of fate is about to be drawn back, and the river of time shall flow before your eyes."
"Who shall be the chosen child?"
"Who shall be the first to hear the whispers of fate?"
"Let us wait and see."
As soon as she finished speaking, Edgar had already impatiently placed his hand on the crystal ball.
The result...
Naturally, nothing happened.
Edgar sighed, muttered, "I knew it," and pushed the crystal ball toward Ollie opposite him.
Ollie followed suit.
Well...
Followed suit in every sense of the phrase.
Ollie expressionlessly pushed the crystal ball to Lynn.
Just as Lynn was about to put his hand on it, he saw Draco looking on expectantly from across the table.
"How about... you go first?"
He pushed the crystal ball forward slightly.
Draco leaned forward a little, his hand already halfway out.
Then he paused, as if remembering something, and withdrew his hand.
"No need," he said. "You first, you first."
"Why be so polite with me?"
Lynn pushed the crystal ball forward again.
"Come on, come on."
Malfoy reached out and pushed the crystal ball back.
"I said you first."
"You first."
"You first."
The two went back and forth, the crystal ball rolling to and fro in the middle of the table.
After three or four rounds of pushing, Lynn used a bit more force.
When the crystal ball rolled toward Draco, it was moving faster than before.
Draco didn’t manage to catch it in time, and the crystal ball slipped past his fingertips, rolling right off the edge of the table.
"Hey—"
Lynn’s quick reflexes were put on full display at that moment.
He snatched the crystal ball just before it hit the ground.
"Ah—!!!"
Even though the crystal ball hadn’t shattered, Trelawney still let out a sharp, piercing shriek.
The entire classroom was startled by the sound, and everyone turned their heads in unison to look at the podium.
Professor Trelawney stood behind it, one hand clutching her chest while the other pointed toward Lynn and the others.
"The crystal ball!"
Her voice was high and thin.
"You—how dare you—how dare you treat the vessel of fate in such a manner!"
She strode out from behind the podium, snatched the crystal ball away, and clutched it tightly to her chest.
"The gift of prophecy has not chosen you."
She glared at Lynn, then at Draco, her voice filled with heartbreaking disappointment.
"The doors of fate have not opened for you. You—you have desecrated this sacred object!"
She turned around, clutching the crystal ball, and walked quickly toward the back of the classroom.
She shook her head as she walked, muttering things like "talent," "fate," "pity," and "such a pity."
At the back of the classroom, against the wall, there was a row of cabinets.
The cabinet had several shelves, each holding crystal balls of various sizes, tea canisters, Tarot cards, and all sorts of divination tools Lynn couldn’t name.
Trelawney stopped in front of the cabinet.
She glanced at Umbridge.
"Hold this for me."
Without waiting for Umbridge’s consent, she shoved the crystal ball into her hands and opened the cabinet door.
Just as she turned her head to take the crystal ball back, she suddenly froze.
Her body stiffened in place, her hand still extended, her fingertips hovering in midair just inches from the crystal ball in Umbridge’s hands.
She looked as if her soul had been snatched away, staring blankly at Umbridge in front of her.
Her lips began to twitch, opening and closing as if she were saying something, but no sound came out.
The entire classroom fell silent.
"Is she going to say she didn’t see anything again?"
Edgar’s voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself.
He was likely remembering the time in third year when Trelawney fainted in front of Lynn.
But this time, Trelawney disappointed Edgar.
She had truly entered a state of prophecy.
Trelawney spoke in a drifting, unsteady tone.
"The toad that crawls in the shadow of power..."
"Beneath its skin hides a darkness that refuses to sleep..."
"When the flames of chaos descend with purifying power..."
"The toad shall shed its hideous shell in the burning..."
"And that darkness will be like a shadow severed by a sharp blade..."
Trelawney’s voice paused here.
"Residing in—"
She didn’t finish.
Trelawney’s eyes suddenly rolled back, and she seemed to lose all strength, falling straight backward.
With a dull thud, she collapsed onto the floor.
"Fainted... fainted again?"
"What did she mean by that? A toad? What toad? Was she talking about—"
"Could it be—"
Umbridge abruptly stood, her chair legs scraping harshly against the floor.
"This class is over! Everyone back! Now!"
After saying that, without waiting for the students to leave first, she hurried out through the trapdoor herself.
...
Professor Trelawney’s prophecy was like a bomb thrown into deep water, exploding throughout Hogwarts.
Before Divination class had even ended that day, students had already slipped out through the trapdoor, carrying the news that "Trelawney fainted again" into the corridors.
By the time Lynn and the others left the classroom, there wasn’t a soul in the castle who didn’t know about it.
However, the versions people heard varied.
Some said Trelawney had seen a bloody disaster in Umbridge’s future.
Others said Trelawney had cursed Umbridge to die a miserable death.
Still others claimed Trelawney had prophesied that Hogwarts would be renamed the "Umbridge Memorial School."
By the time the rumor finished spreading, there was even a version saying, "Trelawney is actually a Death Eater spy who specializes in using prophecies to assassinate high-ranking Ministry officials."
Lynn was eating dinner when he heard this version and nearly sprayed pumpkin juice out of his nose.
The attitude of most students toward the event could be summarized in two words.
Pure delight.
It wasn’t because they liked Trelawney all that much.
To be honest, most students thought she was an old fraud, and her classes consisted of repeatedly reading tea leaves, looking into crystal balls, and making up ambiguous nonsense.
But Umbridge was different.
Umbridge was the kind of person everyone hated.
Her very existence was like a thorn.
And now, someone was pointing at that thorn and saying, "This thorn will rot sooner or later."
Everyone’s first reaction wasn’t, Is it true?
It was, Great, when?
So after the news spread, the atmosphere in the corridors changed.
Previously, when people saw Umbridge, they would walk around her with their heads lowered, pretending not to see her.
Now, when people saw Umbridge, they still walked around her, but they deliberately slowed down as they passed, ears pricked, wanting to hear whether she would suddenly let out a scream and drop dead on the spot.
Umbridge was likely the first person in Hogwarts history to have the entire school’s staff and students collectively looking forward to her demise.
Even Peeves began singing adapted nursery rhymes in the corridors, with lyrics containing words like "toad" and "charred."
Whenever he saw Umbridge, he chased after her, cackling after he finished singing.
Filch chased him through three corridors without catching him.
In the end, Peeves hit him square on the head with a bag of flour, turning him white from head to toe.
Of course, a portion of the students held a different view on the matter.
This group mainly consisted of those who had taken Divination class and had been "prophesied" various misfortunes by Trelawney.
For instance, Neville Longbottom, whom Trelawney had once prophesied would break a pink teacup.
As it turned out, he did break a teacup the next day, but it wasn’t pink.
It was white.
Trelawney had said, "Pink is the color of fate. You have broken fate."
Neville believed her at the time, but later discovered that the teacup didn’t even belong to her.
It belonged to Professor McGonagall.
These students knew very well that Trelawney’s "prophecies" were less about seeing the future and more about random nonsense.
So their attitude toward the matter was simple.
Trelawney had probably just said it on a whim to scare Umbridge and avoid being fired.
After all, Umbridge had been inspecting professors lately, and several had already had "insufficient teaching ability" written into her reports.
Trelawney was likely desperate.
And in her desperation, she spoke nonsense and then fainted.
She had fainted before.
It wasn’t the first time.
No one knew for sure what the situation was, or whether Trelawney actually knew anything about divination.
But people were very interested in the outcome of the prophecy.
The most direct manifestation of this interest was the queue starting to form outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.
Previously, that place had been one of the quietest corners of Hogwarts this term, with almost no one going there.
From the afternoon the prophecy spread, that corridor became lively, almost turning into a Hogwarts landmark.
Lynn heard people say that when they passed the corridor, they could hear the sounds of things being smashed and curses coming from inside.
And in this school-wide carnival, two people were making a fortune.
Fred and George.
On the afternoon the prophecy came out, they realized one thing.
Demand created a market.
What did the market need now?
It needed to hear more clearly.
Everyone needed a tool.
A tool that would allow them to clearly hear what was happening inside the office without getting too close to the door.
Fred and George just happened to have such a tool.
Extendable Ears.
They had invented this item before, but it had never been mass-produced.
Because it was too specialized.
Not every student needed to eavesdrop on others.
But now, the demand was here, and it was explosive.
So that evening, Fred and George set up a small stall in the Gryffindor common room.
"Extendable Ears."
Fred picked one up and held it before him.
"They let you hear more clearly. Walls have ears? No, doors have ears too."
"Magic amplification, high-fidelity sound, noise filtering—you can even tell what brand of cup is being smashed by the sound it makes," George chimed in.
"Limited supply, first come, first served. One Galleon for two, two Galleons for three."
"Why two Galleons for three?" someone asked.
"Because we’re unscrupulous businessmen."
Even so, that pile of Extendable Ears was snatched up within half an hour.
Consequently, a strange sight appeared in the fourth-floor corridor.
Every day between classes, during lunch breaks, and after dinner, a group of students would sneakily gather outside Umbridge’s office.
They huddled in groups of two or three, jostling each other and whispering about what they had heard.
"She’s cursing again."
"Cursing who?"
"Can’t hear clearly. Sounds like she’s saying ’that old woman.’"
"Old woman? Trelawney?"
"Probably. She also said something like, ’I’ll make her regret it.’"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
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