Surprisingly, this obvious scoff came from the scholarly Hermione. She didn't even lower her voice, saying to her companions in a normal volume.
"Hmph, really? The Fates?
What a miraculous prediction!
Who sets the exam questions? She does!"
Harry and Ron struggled to suppress their laughter.
Sherlock first looked at Hermione with some surprise, then showed understanding in his eyes.
Hermione's change happened today. But was just one class enough?
Sherlock waited to see.
Professor Trelawney remained in shadow, so it was hard to tell whether she'd heard Hermione's comment.
Only the exceptionally observant Sherlock knew she had heard it.
However, Professor Trelawney continued as if she hadn't heard, carrying on.
"Scrying in the crystal sphere is a particularly refined art."
She continued in that dreamlike tone.
"I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths.
But today I shall guide you through the first steps of relaxing the conscious mind and the outer eye, so as to clear the Inner Eye and the superconscious.
Perhaps, if we are fortunate, some among you will See before the end of the class."
Hearing this, Sherlock frowned and looked at his three companions. "Has she been like this the whole time?"
Harry nodded somewhat gloomily.
Ron couldn't help laughing.
But he didn't dare be as bold as Hermione, so he could only stuff his fist in his mouth to block the laughter.
Next, the whole class began looking at crystal balls under Professor Trelawney's guidance.
Harry didn't know what others thought, but he felt this was extremely foolish.
He stared blankly at the crystal ball, trying to make his mind blank as the textbook said.
But thoughts like "this is so damn stupid" kept popping up like stubborn weeds on a Quidditch pitch, and he couldn't suppress them no matter how hard he tried.
Ron kept giggling quietly beside him, constantly stuffing his fist in his mouth.
Hermione kept clicking her tongue disapprovingly.
These two made things even worse for Harry, preventing him from calming down at all.
Fortunately, Sherlock remained still throughout, quietly watching the crystal ball before him just like Harry.
Only then did Harry patiently continue observing.
However, even so, after staring silently at the crystal ball for a quarter of an hour, he reached his limit.
He finally couldn't help shifting his gaze to look at his three friends.
"Um... did any of you see anything?"
"Yes, there's a burn mark on the table," Ron pointed. "Someone must have knocked over a candle."
Harry: "..."
'Who asked you about that?'
"This is a complete waste of time."
Compared to Ron's irrelevance, Hermione squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"I could have used this class time to practice something more useful, like reviewing the Cheering Charm."
Only Sherlock understood what Hermione, who possessed the Time-Turner, meant by this, and couldn't help laughing softly.
"It's not entirely a waste of time."
"Oh?"
Hermione immediately became interested, looking at Sherlock eagerly. "Don't tell me you actually gained something?"
Harry and Ron also turned to look at him.
"Yes."
Sherlock said affirmatively. "Through reading tea leaves, reading palms, and looking at crystal balls, I can make a definite deduction."
"What?"
"What is it?"
"What deduction?"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron all played the role of proper straight men at this moment.
"At least in this classroom, not one person possesses the Inner Eye."
"Pfft—"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron couldn't help laughing out loud.
They didn't expect Sherlock to be like this too.
Their commotion attracted Professor Trelawney's attention, and she slowly walked over.
When she saw that Sherlock was also there, her body instinctively shrank back.
But soon, amid the clinking of her bracelets and anklets, she murmured. "Would any of you like me to help interpret the shadowy portents within your Orb?"
"I don't need help."
Ron quickly said, though he soon realized this might make Professor Trelawney target him, and immediately muttered quietly.
"It's very obvious. There will be fog tonight."
Sherlock smiled slightly, while Harry and Hermione laughed out loud.
"Silence!"
Professor Trelawney suddenly said loudly, and everyone turned to look their way.
Parvati and Lavender showed expressions of disgust.
Clearly, they thought this group led by Sherlock was causing trouble.
"You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!"
Professor Trelawney obviously thought so too.
She slowly walked to the four's table and began examining each person's crystal ball.
For Sherlock's, Hermione's, and Ron's crystal balls, Professor Trelawney merely glanced over them.
But when she saw the crystal ball in front of Harry, she suddenly stopped.
Harry's heart sank. He'd already vaguely guessed what would happen next.
"There is something here!"
Professor Trelawney said softly, bringing her face close to the crystal ball.
At this distance, the crystal ball reflected into two in her huge glasses.
"Something moving... but what is it?"
Harry couldn't take it anymore and couldn't help casting a pleading look at Sherlock.
Sherlock gave him a reassuring look.
Harry immediately understood—he wanted Harry to first hear what Trelawney would say.
But Harry felt this was completely unnecessary.
He was willing to bet all his fortune including the Firebolt that whatever Professor Trelawney was about to say, it definitely wouldn't be good news.
Sure enough, after looking for a long time, Professor Trelawney slowly raised her head to look at Harry and said softly.
"My dear, it is here, plainer than ever before."
Harry: "..."
'I knew it!'
"It is approaching, dear, growing ever closer, ever closer..."
Harry: (ー`ー)
'Next, she'll mention the Grim, right?'
"It is—the Grim—"
Sherlock smiled.
Since Professor Trelawney had finished speaking, he was about to speak.
But this time someone reacted even faster than him.
"Oh, for heaven's sake!"
Hermione said loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"
Professor Trelawney froze.
She raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face.
Parvati and Lavender whispered to each other, both glaring angrily at Hermione.
They were Professor Trelawney's die-hard fans, and not standing up to rebuke Hermione was already out of consideration for her being their dormmate.
Professor Trelawney also straightened up at this moment, examining Hermione with obvious anger.
Dense, bushy brown curls, buck teeth like a rabbit's, and brown eyes with slight dark circles.
Strictly speaking, she couldn't be called pretty—at least not as much as the Parvati Patil who worshiped her, though she had a better foundation than Lavender Brown.
Unfortunately, she didn't take good care of herself.
Professor Trelawney stared at Hermione and said slowly.
"I am sorry to say that from the moment you first entered this class, my dear, it was apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires.
Indeed, I do not remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."
She was timid before Sherlock but struck hard at Hermione.
These words were extremely harsh, such that the entire class fell silent.
However, what surprised them even more was yet to come.
"Fine!"
Hermione suddenly said.
She stood right up, shoved Unfogging the Future into her bag, then casually swung the bag onto her shoulder.
Nearly knocking Harry off his chair—fortunately, Harry had trained with Sherlock and dodged aside in time.
If it had been Ron, he'd already be on the floor.
Hermione stood up, looking at Professor Trelawney as if in defiance.
"In that case—I'm dropping this course!"
The whole class was dumbfounded.
Before leaving, Hermione looked deeply at Sherlock, then strode to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and disappeared down the ladder with loud stomps.
A smooth sequence of actions that caught the whole class off guard.
After several minutes, the classroom finally quieted down.
Professor Trelawney was silent for a moment, then shook her head. "Gone... just as well."
She first glanced at Sherlock, then suddenly turned and left their desk.
She was breathing heavily, pulling her shawl tight, as if she'd already forgotten about the Grim.
Seeing her like this, Sherlock didn't press further.
"Oh!"
Just then, Lavender Brown suddenly cried out, startling everyone and making them look her way.
"Oh! Professor Trelawney, I remember! I remember!"
She said impatiently.
"You foresaw she would leave, didn't you, Professor?
'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!'
You said that before, Professor!"
Professor Trelawney gave her a teary smile.
"Yes, dear Lavender, I did know that Miss Granger would leave us.
But one can always hope they have misread the signs...
You must know, sometimes the Inner Eye can be a burden."
Hearing this, Lavender and Parvati were completely convinced.
They moved aside to let Professor Trelawney sit at their table.
The other students in class also looked at Professor Trelawney in amazement, whispering among themselves.
Clearly, Professor Trelawney foreseeing Hermione's departure had greatly affected them.
"There'd always be one year when Hermione was going to leave, eh?"
Ron said quietly to Harry, the amusement on his face replaced by fearful expression.
"Yeah..."
Harry stared at the crystal ball but saw only swirling white mist.
Could it be that Professor Trelawney really saw the Grim again?
But... that so-called Grim...
No, that wasn't a Grim at all. That big black dog was clearly Sirius's Animagus form!
How could my Godfather be my Grim? Would he harm me?
Thinking this, he couldn't help looking at Sherlock. "Sherlock..."
Sherlock naturally knew what Harry wanted to ask, and without waiting for him to finish, directly gave the answer.
"No need to worry. It's just a coincidence."
"What?"
Hearing Sherlock say this, Harry and Ron immediately perked up.
Sherlock continued.
"I'll bet you a Galleon that what she said in the first class definitely wasn't referring to Hermione.
Much less in this form of 'leaving us forever' like Hermione just did."
"But..."
"There's no 'but,' dear Ron."
Seeing Ron still looking worried and hesitant, Sherlock laughed.
"Compared to her ambiguous predictions, don't you think my deduction is more accurate?
To be precise, comparing divination with deduction is simply an insult to deduction."
"But her predictions all came true!
Neville broke his cup, Lavender's rabbit died, Hermione left us..."
"Not all of them."
"What?"
"Unfortunately, there will be a severe flu in February causing classes to be canceled, and I will lose my voice because of it."
Sherlock said bluntly. "Dear Ron, it seems you need to improve your memory.
Before making the prediction that someone would leave forever before Easter, this professor made this prediction."
"Right!"
Harry clapped his hands together. "There was no flu in February, no class cancellations, and she didn't lose her voice.
So, Hermione leaving was just a lucky guess!"
"Harry, you've spotted the key point."
Sherlock smiled slightly. "In fact, when our professor made this prediction, I found it very interesting.
Generally speaking, the longer the time span of a prediction and the more ambiguous its content, the greater the probability it will 'come true,' and vice versa.
Half a year is enough time to verify the truth or falsity of her predictions.
Unfortunately, some people still chose to selectively ignore this."
Harry and Ron knew Sherlock was talking about Parvati and Lavender.
Well, plus half a Ron.
"I also have no need to attend Divination class anymore—if it conflicts with other courses."
Both Sherlock and Hermione were true to their word.
In the following time, Hermione completely abandoned this course.
Sherlock only attended Divination class when it didn't conflict with other courses, which only happened once a week.
During this period, Sherlock successively visited Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, Professor Hagrid, and all the staff who had dealt with Professor Slughorn.
Hagrid was the most forthcoming.
Sherlock had barely begun when he spilled everything he knew.
Snape was the least cooperative.
He wouldn't give Sherlock any chance to speak privately—even when Sherlock brought up Dumbledore, it was useless.
The other professors were half-willing and went along with Sherlock, allowing him to obtain sufficient information and preparing for the next step of uncovering the shocking secret related to Voldemort that Professor Slughorn was hiding.
And so, time unknowingly arrived at Easter—spring break.
Though clearly a holiday, it nearly drove everyone to breakdown.
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