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I PROMISE THAT I CAREMORE THAN I SHOW
DECEMBER 7TH 1994
THESTARTOFDECEMBER BROUGHT wind and sleet to Hogwarts. Drafty though the castle always was in winter, Harry was glad of its fires and thick walls every time he passed the Durmstrang ship on the lake, which was pitching in the high winds, its black sails billowing against the dark skies.
A lot of tension went off his shoulder after the first task. Ron was his best mate again, he won against a dragon and the next task won't be happening for another three months.
( and also the fact that the girl he liked might've started to reciprocate his feelings, but Harry tried hard not to go into that yet. )
Harry thoroughly enjoyed double Divination that afternoon; they were still doing star charts and predictions, but now that he and Ron were friends once more, the whole thing seemed very funny again.
Professor Trelawney, who had been so pleased with the pair of them when they had been predicting their own horrific deaths, quickly became irritated as they sniggered through her explanation of the various ways in which Pluto could disrupt everyday life.
Harry was staring at Athena every few minutes and, after an entire month of only eye rolls and huffs, Ron finally started teasing him again.
Trelawney showed visible annoyance when Harry turned around to doodle on Athena's table, drawing a small snitch at a corner and watching Athena sketching in a small book. Ron slapped his arm when he saw Trelawney's face.
"I would think," she said, in a mystical whisper that did not conceal her obvious annoyance, "that some of us" — she stared very meaningfully at Harry — "might be a little less frivolous had they seen what I have seen during my crystal gazing last night. As I sat here, absorbed in my needlework, the urge to consult the orb overpowered me. I arose, I settled myself before it, and I gazed into its crystalline depths... and what do you think I saw gazing back at me?"
"An ugly old bat in outsize specs?" Ron muttered under his breath.
"A mask who told you, you weren't the most beautiful in the school?" Harry heard Athena mumble quietly in a very sarcastic tone.
Harry fought hard to keep his face straight.
"Death, my dears."
Parvati and Lavender both put their hands over their mouths, looking as horrified as they do every time their favourite professor announced a death sentence.
"Yes," said Professor Trelawney, nodding impressively, "it comes, ever closer, it circles overhead like a vulture, ever lower... ever lower over the castle."
