The Dreamer

Group Work

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“NO!” Hermione yelled, causing heads to turn towards she and Ginny.

“What, how can you say ‘no’ so easily?” Ginny hissed over her crystal ball, "Also, keep it down! Or did you mean to draw some more unwanted attention here?!”

“I mean it!” Hermione seethed, dropping the ball into its claw-footed cradle, “Stop whatever you’re planning.”

“Why do you think I’m up to something?” Ginny flitted, eyeing Hermione’s swiveling crystal ball guardedly. She’d never seen one do that before.

Hermione fumed, Ginny was so obvious it was more than ridiculous now. And while her little schemes were often playful and harmless in nature, this time was too close to home and over the line!

Hermione’s scowl deepened as she crossed her arms. “Stop means just that.”

The claw-footed thing scurried to the center of the table, dancing nervously while the orb it coddled swiveled from side to side in jerky anxious movements.

“B-u-u-u-t, don’t you want to know?” Ginny’s pleading earned only a gruff snort from Hermione. Ginny sat back in the plush gold cushions looking very put out with Hermione’s resistance.

“I said stop! You know I think this class is one big flaming pile of dragon shi– ”

“Hermione Granger? Ginny Weasley?” interrupted Professor Trelawney, appearing owlish in a yet another set of her ridiculously thick spectacles, “Do you have a reading you would like to share?”

Ginny nodded 'yes' at the very moment Hermione clearly shook her head 'no'. The Professor looked confused as an uneasy silence settled over the two. Hermione resolved not to say anything that might encourage their harmless, but bumbling, Professor to come over.

Rolling her eyes at Ginny, Hermione turned her back to the Professor. But Trelawney was proving difficult to dissuade. “Is it a misreading then? Don’t be afraid to ask questions, that is what this lesson is about.”

Hermione glanced back and saw that their Divinations Professor had been helping Pansy and Neville, who looked relieved that Trelawney’s attention was now diverted. Neville currently mouthed a muted “Thank you”. Hermione glowered at him. And withering under her gaze, Neville shrunk back into his cushions looking confused.

Ginny cleared her throat, “We're not in agreement on what Hermione’s reading means because it’s a little fuzzy.”

Displaying excitement not seen since the Professor predicted Seamus Finnegan’s Dragon Pox scare, which Trelawney had directly influenced in the first place by claiming to foresee his near brush with the afflicting illness, the Divinations Professor now seemed to be waiting expectantly for an answer from their table. However, silence stretched on as Hermione refused to deal with the situation that Ginny was creating through her unwanted meddling.

Still, there was that rare chance that their Professor could stumble onto something again. Hermione couldn’t have that. At the thought of her dirty little secret being discovered, she huffed and turned back to her parchment to falsify some more of her “readings”. She’d just recite from the random lines written if pressed for answers.

She’d never tell Ron and Harry that they’d been right to do so, mostly because they had done it so often the first time they took this class, that it was what caused them to have to repeat it. But under these circumstance, Hermione thought they were on to something. A few more scribbles and the subject would drop. What could Ginny and the Professor do if she refused to participate? Hermione concluded that even if she got detention for insubordination, it would be worth it if it meant her mysterious affliction remained a closeted affair.

“Well, now I shall have to examine both your balls. It seems you're keeping things from us, ladies. Clear them out, please. I very often find jerking them in an up and down fashion does the job quite nicely,” The Professor gestured emphatically from her lap as if she were shaking a crystal ball, however, it looked more like she was vigorously rubbing on a large invisible pole.

Snickers followed from a few students watching the obscene gesture. Trelawney was oblivious to the joke and continued, “Come now! Clear out those balls and then wipe them down. Don’t want to mistake a fingerprint as a sign from the Great Beyond.”

At Hermione’s horrified expression, having to do more with the Professor’s choice of wording and deeply misguided attempt at miming than anything else, Professor Trelawney hastily stood up from her seat looking quite worried. “Is it ominous?”

“Ah, no! It’s nothing! Well, what I mean to say is we’ve seen something, but it’s not a big deal!” Hermione said, a mental lapse over coming her as quickly as the blush that spread across her now rosy cheeks. She stumbled for an excuse. “It’s really nothing, please Professor, Neville looks unwell with whatever that greenish color in his ball is meant to represent.” Hermione pointed frantically in Neville's direction.

Following Hermione’s gestures, Professor Trelawney hesitated and looked back. It was true. Neville’s ultra marine smoke had turned a violent shade of green. Hermione mouthed a quick “sorry” when she caught Neville’s betrayed look.

Pansy snickered openly at the poor boy, but quickly shut up once Trelawney crowed excitedly. “Mr. Longbottom, it appears you’re going to come into some money!"

"Uh, I am?" He asked quite puzzled."How? I mean, are you sure?"

"I'm very certain of it, look at the vibrant shade of green that is swirling about! How is your Grandmother these days? Poor health?” asked Sybil Trelawney with some concern now, Neville slumped in his seat, looking very annoyed with his turn of fortunes. Anyone who knew his Gran was well aware the woman had tenacious grip on life, and wasn't going into the Great Beyond anytime soon.

“That bad, my boy?” The Professor entreated, her hand reaching out to him, “Well, do be easy about it, she is quite old and lived a full life as they say…”

“Oh, Professor, I’m so glad you’re free now!” Ginny interrupted, seizing the opportunity to find out exactly what it was that Hermione seemed so hell bent on avoiding.

“We do need help, we can’t seem to get a straight answer to a simple question and complicating things further, it seems Hermione’s crystal ball has run away. We’re really at a loss about what to do!” A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of Ginny’s mouth, and Hermione wished dearly to slap it off her face.

Scowling, Hermione kicked at Ginny under the table. She missed the first time, but was happy to see Ginny’s eyes well up on the second go. The resulting scuffle caused thumping and rattling to be heard across the Divinations class, and Hermione noted more people openly stared at them as she looked about to see if anyone had caught her in the act.

Ginny’s smile turned into a painful grimace as she gave Hermione a heated look. “You can’t stop me from asking an innocent question!”

Hermione in return, hissed from behind her hand, “I can! I’ll hex you; I promise. A little bibbity-bobbity and then a boo; it’s a toad’s life for you, just let Harry figure out what to do with you then! And I swear kisses won't be reversing it.”

A shadow fell over them, and Ginny’s gaze turned upwards as a full grin spread across her face. Professor Trelawney attended their table now.

“Yes, dear?” The Professor mused, peering at Hermione’s frightened crystal ball with curiosity. Professor Trelawney's magnified eyes followed the trail of fading mist evaporating quickly within it. Her expression was a puzzled one, “What was it you saw that needed interpreting?”

“We don’t need help Professor! I remember the color was lavender!” Hermione interjected futilely, picking at her book's spine nervously. Pulling off another fraying thread from the binding, a bald stripe was beginning to emerge along the edge.

Trelawney looked unconvinced as she made more curiously odd sweeping motions over the crystal balls to clear them out. More snickers followed and Hermione began to feel woozy.

A wave of incense hit her senses again, and more of it began to waft towards her, wave after sickening wave. The air being disturbed by the flapping of her Professor’s ridiculously large multicolored sleeves reeked of mothballs and patchouli.

Hermione cursed the wretched atmosphere of the classroom as well as the idiots who made this subject a required one for graduation.

It was then she remembered very quickly that her textbook, Lorna Pickwick’s ‘Life’s a Ball: The Art of Waltzing From the Past, Present and Future held the answers to potentially getting out of this unwanted situation.

“Oh, I have the book right here.” said Hermione struggling not to gag from the nauseating smells, “It seems a wispy swirl to the left indicates a ‘no’, while a wispy swirl to the right means ‘yes’, no swirl pattern indicates a ‘maybe’. Additionally, the color signifies, and I quote from page 456:

‘When your fortunes read Lavender
Congratulations, look to your calendar

Set the date according to color cues of pale or bold
Timing of wedded bliss is yours to have and to hold

If there is no bride or groom known to you
Engage in another reading to find out who.”

Hermione glanced up to see both her Professor and Ginny looking very unimpressed.

“These are very clear answers here!” defended Hermione, making a sweeping gesture over the page. "It’s all right here in the book you assigned us to read, Professor!”

“You’re quite right, dear.” sighed Trelawney, in attempt to placate her most difficult student yet. “I am so happy you gave Divinations a second chance, and while you do need my class to graduate, I hardly am one to judge a bookish answer unfairly. Evidently you're giving it your best, dear.”

At Hermione’s very displeased expression, Sybil Trelawney pointed to the book with contrived enthusiasm, “Oh, my! And how quickly you’ve picked up what is known as the basic true or false ordinance. And nice color interpretation, yes-yes-yes, very nice.”

The Divinations Professor patted Hermione’s arm in a series of rapid and enthusiastic slaps, and Hermione suppressed the urge to scream that it was all nonsense.

Gazing down at Hermione’s terrified crystal ball, the poor thing edging so far away from them it was nearly in danger of toppling off the table, Trelawney swiped the sphere from its cradle and turned it over in examination.

Holding the crystal up in a shaft of light, the Professor rubbed it gently before turning it over three times to gaze intently, “Calm now my sweet, let us see what you will reveal. Now, Miss Weasley, what was the query?”

“I asked who at this table was destined to marry and when,” said Ginny sweetly, throwing Hermione a triumphant smile, "and we got a lavender color true, but there seemed to be more that we couldn't quite read."

If Hermione’s glare had been capable of producing death rays, Ginny would have been a smoldering lump of ash just then. As it was, the youngest Weasley was very much alive and all the more smug for it.

The room was silent, save a snort that had come from the direction of a few Slytherins. Glimpsing about covertly, Hermione concluded it must have come from someone at Malfoy’s table, though Malfoy seemed engrossed in his notes and was currently the only one not staring in their direction. It seemed a small mercy really, because she remembered very quickly that he could be making a bazillion snide comments right about now.

“All it needs is a gentle touch." Trelawney pronounced, "Miss Granger, I’ll need your hand now.”

When Hermione wouldn't offer assistance, the Professor sighed in annoyance before grabbing Hermione's hand to place it on the crystal anyway.

Sybil Trelawney began rocking back and forth causing Hermione’s entire arm to do the same. Only unlike her professor, Hermione did not hum in a dreary monotone. Rather, Hermione was suppressing the urge to yank her hand back as she quietly contemplated how many points Gryffindor would lose if she made a run for it, and of course, just what kind of detention would she be facing for running out of class unexcused anyhow.

“Look!” Parvati exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the orb, “It changing colors!”

Great now everyone would know the outcome of this stupid reading. Hermione very desperately wanted to hex Ginny, and could have done so, but her wand was out of reach.

“It’s turning pink!” squealed Lavender, who rose from her seat a little. Next to the blond girl, Ron looked queasy while Harry slapped him on the back playfully. This earned the Boy Savior a scandalized look from his best mate.

However, Hermione was too preoccupied to notice any of this, she was currently focused on trying to Accio her wand wordlessly. It rolled three quarters of a turn in her bag before getting stuck between her books. She gave a harried sigh of aggravation, and then tried to think of other ways out of this mess that didn't result in detention.

“This is interesting, I can see many threads,” beamed Professor Trelawney, giving Ginny a nod of approval in the process. This caught Hermione’s attention. She’d glossed over this part of the assigned reading.

“Um, threads?” mumbled Hermione uneasily."Do they mean connection?" Entranced with the swirling mist, she watched on as it went from a pale pink to a swirling cherry color which then quickly deepened into something more bloody. Hermione quickly assessed that the shade was not a good one.

"Ginny Weasely, would you answer the question for us?" asked Trelawney.

"Threads mean connection to the possible future, as there are many that could happen. The presence of many threads indicates a strong likelihood of an event coming to pass, whereas one thread, or fewer than ten, generally indicates a weaker possibility."

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor," said Professor Trelawney, before tisking at the final result, “Well, it seems like there is something coming, an encounter, yes! And judging by the pace of the swirls, it does seem likely to happen soon. The threads, and by estimation there are over 100, are weaving just over the vortex, this suggests a very strong bond is going to occur.”

“Oh, that is good news!” Came Ginny’s excited reply. It was only a shame the younger Witch had learned her lesson and was now out of striking range. “What does the color signify, Professor?”

“Miss Granger, do read to the class what a crimson result means.”

“Uh, I need to look it up.” Hermione stumbled, looking gravely through her book with her free hand; she found the page easily enough, “Um, page 452 says:

‘When your fortunes read Crimson
Passions move to surpass reason

Be it in hues of hot blood or hot fire
A word of caution is said to inspire –

When longings and needs go unfilled and unleashed
Only most ruinous of misfortunes shall meet thee

But if longings and needs are fulfilled and appeased
Only the most greatest of fortunes shall greet thee ’


Her panic set in. Humiliation was but an ill-phrased question away, such as, “Who is the man of Hermione Granger’s dreams?” Not that her dreaming signified anything of marriage, or a normal relationship with the subject for that matter, but she didn’t want her unfortunate condition stumbled upon either, especially when said subject was in the very same class.

Seizing the opportunity to tease Hermione further Ginny asked, “Is the lucky one someone we know, Professor? Is there a way to tell who will be getting married in this reading?”

There was a groan, and this time Hermione was sure it was Harry’s. Hermione threw him a cautious glance, and he seemed to be rubbing his temples in frustration. Maybe this is what Ginny was playing at, an early outing of their engagement, perhaps?

Hermione was certain she wasn’t getting married nor having any passionate encounters in the near future, half-cracked Divinations be damned! At the rate things were moving between she and Ron, nothing was happening anytime soon, and she didn’t need a crystal ball to predict that. This wasn’t about her, she concluded, it was about Ginny getting back at Harry. That must be it. Ginny must have fibbed about some her feelings on the engagement; it made more sense than anything else really.

“Good question, Miss Weasely, ten points to Gryffindor for being so ‘on the ball’ as they say.” The Professor mused distractedly, before she held the little orb up to the shaft of light again. Hermione took the opportunity to discreetly remove her hand from it.

“Let us see now, yes!” Rubbing the orb to the left three times, Trelawney walked her fingers up the curvature, and then lightly smacked its side with a small pop. It was then she proclaimed, “Yes! I can see it now, his face is pale, his eyes clear, and, oh?” the Divinations Professor trailed, tilting the little orb towards the ground, “Well, it’s a bit wispy, isn’t it?”

“What is?” Lavender demanded, before blushing at her own outburst and seating herself again in the plush cushions.

Seamus called out to her, “You don’t you know, Brown? I thought this was your subject!”

Lavender glared at him, but remained silent. The boys at Seamus’s table laughed and hooted at his dig. Hermione had heard they’d broken up three weeks ago and secretly admired how Lavender was able to ignore all of his attempts at putting her down, and the girl's self control in not hexing him for being such a rotten little shite after the break up. She wasn't sure she could have done the same.

“His figure, dear.” Trelawney answered without looking up at her students, “Finnegan it would be a shame to lose your house points after Miss Weasley just earned them, do shut up now. Here Miss Granger, your hand please, it seems to have slipped off. I’ll need your essence if we’re going to see anything beyond shadows.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary, I’m quite fine with the unknown, thank you.” Hermione stammered while trying to inch away from the table.

If she could manage it, she would run without her bag if she had to. Later she’d hide in an alcove and then when the time was right she would bludgeon to death a certain little Gryffindor Witch after classes let out.

However, Hermione was not given much of a choice, and she soon found her hand yanked up again as she struggled to keep from touching the cursed thing.

“Why are you pulling away? This is very exciting news!” Trelawney struggled, huffing from exertion, “We’re close to discovering new facets of your future, it’s so exciting when the third sight chooses to reveal this sort of thing, come now, relax and sweep your hand across it.”

“But I like surprises! ” Hermione exclaimed, curling her fingers into her palm until her hand had balled into a tight fist. “Really, I do!”

Still, Trelawney’s grip was surprisingly stronger than hers, probably because the Professor had a position of leverage over her, and it was then an angry swell arose in her heart. How dare her personal affairs be broadcast as entertainment! Half the class was Slytherin anyhow!

Before Hermione could be forced to touch the swirling orb, a high whine was heard reaching a fevered pitch just as the crystal ball shattered into a fine cloud of dust in the Professor’s hand.

After the debris cleared, Professor Trelawney appeared utterly brokenhearted.

“That’s never happened before.” Trewlawney said dumbfounded, turning to Hermione, the Divinations Professor demanded, “Did you do it? Did you break my poor crystal ball? What a hateful thing to do!”

“No! I did nothing!” Hermione answered outraged as she unsuccessfully tried to yank her wrist back from the teacher. “My wand is still in my bag, Professor, check for yourself, you'll see it's in there!”

Dropping Hermione’s hand, Professor Trelawney turned on the class and dusted her hands off angrily, “Who dares to shatter the crystal balls? Speak up or your penalty will be all the worse for your spinelessness!”

Under normal circumstances someone would have thrown out a joke about psychic abilities being able to tell this sort of thing, but no one had seen a furious Professor Trelawney before, not even when she had been dropping her precious crystal balls on people during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Hermione glanced about the room wondering whom she should thank for putting an end to her public humiliation, but there was no one who seemed to be responsible, they all wore a look of shock on their faces, even Draco Malfoy looked curiously surprised.

“Wands out!” Trelawney angrily huffed, “Each one of you, if the perpetrator won’t answer then I’ll check each wand for the curse that destroyed the helpless little thing, and for no good reason too!"

Walking around the classroom in long strides, Trelawney continued her rant while pointing to random tables, "And when I find the coward among us, its detentions with Filch for the rest of the year!”

Groans were heard, but Hermione focused her attention on Ginny. “Did you do it?” She hissed.

Ginny seemed floored by the question but quickly recovered. “Of course not, I wanted to know who was getting married, apparently it’s you and a pale mysterious smoke figure with clear eyes, we'd know if it was possibly Ron's if you'd just done as asked, I mean, why wouldn’t I want to know the rest of the reading?!”

“Never mind,” Hermione bit out, “I don’t care. I’m not forgiving you for the mess you’ve landed us in. I asked you to stop and you didn’t listen.”

Ginny fumed. “Me? Plan this mess, as if I could have known that the crystal ball was going to blow up! And if you don’t believe in any of it, why would it matter at all if a bunch of silly questions got asked?”

“It doesn’t!” Hermione said grabbing her bag as she heard Ron being asked for his wand. He was soon cleared of any wrongdoing.

“Fine!” Ginny said, turning away from their shared table and crossing her arms defiantly. “It’s not my fault it went all poofy. But whatever, fine, don’t let me stop you if you want to be a brat about it!”

“Everything’s not fine!” Hermione seethed, standing up. “Find a new partner, I’m not working with you anymore.”

“Miss Granger?” asked Professor Trelawney, pausing mid-investigation, “And just where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m changing partners. I’d rather work with Pansy Parkinson from now till the end of classes.” Hermione declared. She was quite certain Neville and Pansy wouldn’t hesitate at the opportunity to jettison the other. That they didn’t like each other was no small secret.

“Oh, well, if neither Miss Parkinson or Mr. Longbottom have any objections, proceed.” Trelawney permitted with a wave of her hand, returning to her inspection of Draco Malfoy’s wand. Like the others before him, he was cleared of the transgression.

Neville gathered his things as Hermione approached. Waiting for him to move, Hermione absolutely refused to look in Ginny’s direction. Neville said a quite apology as he passed Hermione, and she nodded at him before taking what had been his seat only just moments ago.

Pansy said nothing as Hermione sat down, and went back to her own notes on the meaning of the smog color that swirled about sluggishly in her crystal ball.

The end of class came quickly. Finding that all the wands were cleared of any foul play, Professor Trelawney’s mood soured and she dismissed the entire class early, but not before assigning ten feet of Divinations homework. No one left class happy, and Hermione was sure that people would be blaming both she and Ginny for their extra work.

As Hermione filed out of the class with the others, she ignored Ginny who was now walking out with Ron and Harry. The boys looked back to her expecting her to catch up, but she made an obvious point of looking the other way. She only shared the next class with Harry anyhow.

Pansy came up behind her as a few more students cleared out, “Trouble in the ranks, Granger?”

There wasn’t a hint of gloating in the question, and Hermione strangely felt compelled to answer. “It’s nothing. I’m not talking to Ginny for awhile, that's the extent of it.”

“Well, from where I was sitting it looked like a whole lot of something,” reflected Pansy dryly, “And it seems to have gotten us all in trouble, what with all this extra work I know I personally don't have the time for, but find myself now stuck with."

“Save your thanks for Ginny Weasley." Groused Hermione, upset that Ginny's meddling was still affecting her life even after class let out, but then this was Pansy, making life harder was this Witch's forte. Hermione cleared her throat, "I think it was pretty clear that I didn’t want to ask those stupid questions in the first place, Parkinson. I'll be going now.”

“Don’t defend yourself to me, I don’t care one way or the other, because its obvious what caused it.” Pansy sniffed, "Just make sure nothing like that happens when we work together is what I'm saying, understand?”

“Works for me.” Hermione mumbled finally getting clear of the other girl. Hermione was down the steps in record time and heading for her next class. She shared it with few others from her Divinations class, and thankfully that did not include Ginny. Hermione was determined to make a point of switching all her partners in all her classes shared with that meddlesome girl.

As for her odd conversation with Pansy, it figures the Queen Bitch of Slytherin had little interest in getting caught up in someone else’s drama, much less a former enemy’s. Life after the Great War was turning out to be quite unpredictable.

Though halfway through her Ancient Runes class, Hermione was suddenly stuck with delayed curiosity. Had Pansy said something about knowing what had caused the crystal ball to go up in smithereens? Maybe she'd ask Parkinson later if the opportunity should arise during Decorations Committee. It seemed odd that Pansy would mention knowing something. Which then lead Hermione to wonder if anyone else knew why it blew up, and this of course caused her to question how it was that she didn't know the answer to this little mystery.

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A/N: Sorry for the late update. I got sick with the flu and actually I'm still not feeling all that well, pounding headache, but I wanted so badly to finish this Chapter before another week went by. Hope it was worth the wait because the mischief is just starting!