Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 530: The Good Old Divination Standby

After cleaning his fingernails from the toad guts, Neville went back to sleep. He was exhausted this evening.

Evan continued to study the ancient magic script on the sofa in front of the fire, while Colin was doing his Transfiguration homework beside him.

Harry and Ron took their copies of Unfogging the Future, found a table in the corner, and set to work on their predictions for the coming month, filling in numbers in the complex planetary trajectory table.

It was already late, and the Common Room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed.

An hour later, Colin also went back. Evan put away the parchment filled with magical words and took out the Marauder’s Map for a while.

It was full of names, and the young wizards were mostly concentrated in the Common Room and their respective bedrooms. Evan saw Fred and George in the Owl Room, and Hermione was alone in the library.

Then, he moved his eyes to other places.

Evan had been looking for a whole week, but did not find the name of Barty Crouch Jr.

This was really weird, and he didn’t know who Barty Crouch Jr. was impersonating to get into Hogwarts. Or, maybe he hadn’t yet sneaked into Hogwarts. After all, the tournament had not yet begun. Perhaps, like Caresius, he had cast a spell on his name, so that it would not be marked on the Marauder’s Map.

Evan couldn’t be sure, but anything was possible. He thought for a while before putting the map away.

It seemed that there was little hope of finding Bartemius Crouch, Jr. through the Marauder’s Map, so he had to find another way.

Evan rubbed his eyes and stood up. He stretched out. He was going to wait for Hermione, who had not returned from the library.

Harry and Ron were also at the small table, muttering something in a low voice, discussing their Divination homework.

In fact, they had made very little progress. Though their table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, Harry’s brain was as fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Trelawney’s fire.

“I haven’t got a clue what this lot’s supposed to mean,” he said, staring down at a long list of calculations.

“I don’t understand it at all!” said Ron, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration. He pointed to a planet and said, “Evan, do you know what it means for Saturn and Mercury to move to this position?”

“I don’t know!” Evan took a look at the complicated star map and was confused.

“It’s not easy, is it? We finally found something that even Evan doesn’t know!” said Ron, turning around to look at Harry. “Harry, in this case, I think it’s back to the good old Divination standby.”

“You mean, making it all up?” Harry’s eyebrows picked up.

“Yeah,” said Ron, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink, and starting to write.

“Next Monday,” he said as he scribbled, “I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter.” He looked up at Harry. “You know her… just put in loads of misery, she’ll lap it up.”

“Right,” said Harry, crumpling up his first attempt and lobbing it into the fire. “Okay… on Monday, I will be in danger of… er … burns.” 

“That sounds good. I haven’t done my Divination homework. We can do it together!” said Evan. He quickly took out his Divination textbook and parchment and sat next to Harry and Ron.

He also needed to predict his fortune for the next month, and he didn’t want to spend the weekend drinking tea and fiddling with tea residues.

Without the gift of prophecy, he was not destined to make much progress in Divination. Instead of wasting time making useless predictions, it was better to solve these assignments as quickly as Harry and Ron.

Anyway, Evan had already made up his mind to make it up, and he did not expect Professor Trelawney to give him high marks anyway.

Seeing Evan doing so seemed to give Harry and Ron a lot of encouragement, and both became excited.

“I may also be in danger of burns next Monday…” wrote Evan on his parchment, “Because I saw a flame in the teacup.”

“Yeah, we all will be,” said Ron ominously, “we’re seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I’ll… erm…”

“Lose a treasured possession,” said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

“Good idea!” said Ron, copying it down. “Because of… erm… Mercury. Evan, you, there will be a curse of death on you, because you will see Professor Trelawney again on Tuesday! As for you Harry, why don’t you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?”

“Yeah… cool…” said Harry, scribbling it down, “because… Venus is in the twelfth house.”

“And on Wednesday, I think I’ll come out the looser in a fight.” 

“Yes, I can have a good fight with Malfoy, but I don’t want to lose to him anymore. I’ll just write about losing a bet.”

“I stayed in bed all day because I bet it would rain on Tuesday and I would be already sick.”

They continued to make up predictions, which grew steadily more tragic, for another hour. It was close to eleven o’clock, and there were only the three of them left in the Common Room.

Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at Evan, Harry and Ron, rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren’t doing their homework properly.

This scene was really interesting. The three of them sat there, trying to think of a kind of misfortune they hadn’t yet used. 

After a while, Fred and George went into the common room. They were holding thick parchment and quill pens, whispering, not knowing what they were doing and looking exhausted. They said good night to the three and went back to bed.

“They must’ve been working on some order form for Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.” said Ron, “Remember, shortly after the beginning of the summer vacation, Mom burned up their last order, so they have to make a new one.”

“But why are they doing it behind our backs? If it were and order form, they would surely have let Lee Jordan in on the joke.” said Harry doubtfully.

“Who knows!” Ron shrugged his shoulders.

Evan knew what was going on. The two of them actually wrote to Ludo Bagman asking him for the Gold-Galleons they had won in the bet.

Although the Quidditch World Cup ended with an attack and a Dark Mark, they were both right on the outcome of the match. The Irish Team won the match and Krum caught the Golden Snitch.

That was a very rare result, and Bagman gave it high odds. That meant that he now owed Fred and George a lot of money.

However, he did not intend to pay back the money at all. The twins’ previous letters were all without response. The two of them decided to write an appropriate threat to Bagman.

“So late, why hasn’t Hermione come back yet?”

“She must have forgotten the time in the library. If Madam Pince doesn’t drive her away, she won’t leave.”

As soon as the voice fell, the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed into the Common Room carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked in the other. Crookshanks arched his back, purring.

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