After Professor Lupin's stimulating and interesting Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson ended, everyone's excitement continued right into Professor Binns's History of Magic class.
Compared to the previous three years, Professor Binns's teaching method still hadn't changed at all.
To summarize in one sentence: a ghost teaching class, spouting ghostly nonsense.
However, Professor Lupin's lesson did have lasting effects. Even under Professor Binns's unique hypnotic teaching style, everyone held out for quite a while.
Unfortunately, this energy didn't last very long.
After a little over a third of the first period passed, everyone couldn't hold out anymore.
By the time two-thirds of the first period had elapsed, everyone had returned to that drowsy state.
It wasn't until the dismissal bell rang that everyone woke up again.
Excellent—they'd caught up on sleep during class today, so they'd surely be very spirited tomorrow.
At dinner, Harry made a suggestion.
They should start working on the divination assignment Professor Trelawney had given them tonight.
After all, because of Ron's inappropriate remarks, Professor Trelawney had flown into a rage and assigned them three times the usual homework.
Otherwise, by the time the next Divination class started, they probably wouldn't be able to finish.
"Sherlock, you have it so good!" Ron said somewhat enviously. "Even if you don't do homework, Professor Trelawney won't do anything to you..."
This wasn't the first time this had happened.
For well-known reasons, Professor Trelawney never bothered with Sherlock's homework.
Not only that, she practically wished Sherlock wouldn't attend her classes.
That way she could perform more freely in class.
Otherwise, situations like "you predict the future, I deduce the past" would happen again and again.
That was just too awkward.
Hermione didn't participate in Harry and Ron's conversation at the dinner table.
As in previous times, she wolfed down her food, eating very quickly.
However, this time before going to the library, she glanced at Sherlock, seeming to want to say something but stopping herself.
"What is it?" Sherlock naturally noticed Hermione's behavior and asked.
"No, it's nothing..." Hermione shook her head and ultimately went to the library alone.
Watching her retreating figure, Sherlock showed a thoughtful expression.
After finishing dinner, the three walked together toward Gryffindor Tower.
Upon reaching the entrance and giving the password, the Fat Lady swung forward, revealing the portrait hole.
They climbed into the Gryffindor common room, which was crowded with people and noisy.
Looking at this scene, Harry said to Ron, "How about we go get our Divination things?"
"All right," Ron said listlessly.
They went upstairs to the dormitory to get their textbooks and charts, and then...
"Wait, where's Sherlock?"
The moment Ron found his textbook, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Looking left and right, up and down, he finally realized Sherlock had disappeared at some point!
The reason to say "at some point" was because this wasn't the first time this had happened.
Several times in the past when the three of them or four of them were walking together, Sherlock would disappear.
Some people drift apart as they walk together.
Some things fade as you watch them.
After it happened multiple times, Harry and Ron became philosophical about it.
"Uh... I think he probably went to the Forbidden Forest?" Harry said somewhat uncertainly. "He hasn't been there this week yet!"
"But doesn't he usually go at night when sleeping?"
"You just said it yourself, he doesn't need to write Divination homework... Since he has time, why not go earlier? That way the exploration time is effectively extended."
"Oh right, even if he goes to the Forbidden Forest now, he never gets caught."
"How fortunate."
"Yes, how fortunate indeed."
"..."
"..."
And so, Harry and Ron took their copies of Unfogging the Future back to the common room, found a table, and began predicting their fortunes for the next month.
However, after an hour had passed, they had made no progress at all.
The table was littered with parchment scraps filled with numbers and symbols.
Harry's mind was thick with fog, as if filled with the smoke billowing from Professor Trelawney's fireplace.
"What does this stuff even mean? I have no clue!" He looked down at a long row of calculations, somewhat doubting his existence.
Ron's hair was standing on end because he'd been scratching his head in frustration. "This... Harry... actually, I do have a bold idea."
"Oh, what idea? Let's hear it." Harry immediately became interested.
"Employ the signature move of Divination class."
"You mean, making things up out of thin air?"
"Exactly!"
Ron snapped his fingers, then decisively swept the messy pile of draft papers on the table onto the floor.
He looked at Harry, eyes gleaming. "You know her, we just need to make up unfortunate things, and she'll love it."
Harry looked at the draft papers Ron had swept onto the floor, feeling somewhat regretful.
After all, that was their hard work from the past hour though it was utterly useless.
But seeing Ron already pick up his quill, dip it full of ink, and begin writing with his head down, Harry reconsidered. Ron was absolutely right.
If you don't break it, you can't build it!
With this thought, he simply followed Ron's example and crumpled up his painstakingly pondered work into a ball.
Then he threw the paper ball over the heads of a group of chattering first-years and into the fireplace.
Then the two began to show off:
"Next Monday, I might cough because Mars and Jupiter are in unfortunate conjunction."
Ron finished speaking and looked up at Harry.
Harry: "No problem. Monday, I'll encounter... um... danger of being burned?"
"Very reasonable—we'll encounter Blast-Ended Skrewts on Monday."
"Then... on Tuesday, you'll lose money because of Mercury?"
"No problem. As for you..."
The two began making up prophecies for each other like this.
When they really couldn't think of any more tragedies, they'd flip through Unfogging the Future for inspiration.
As time passed, the tragic coloring of the prophecies they invented grew increasingly intense.
From initially stumbling while walking, to burning, freezing, paralysis, confusion... to curses, petrification, poisoning, bleeding... even to serious injury leading to death.
After another hour like this, people in the common room gradually went to bed, and the surroundings slowly quieted down.
At this time, Crookshanks sauntered over and lightly jumped onto an empty chair.
He gazed at Harry and Ron with unreadable eyes.
Harry thought that look was remarkably similar to Hermione's.
Because if Hermione knew they were cutting corners while doing homework, she would show exactly this expression.
But none of that mattered now.
After all, following the proper procedure, it was genuinely difficult to complete the assignment Professor Trelawney had given.
Harry looked around while racking his brain for an unfortunate event he hadn't used yet.
Just then, he saw Lavender Brown showing Parvati Patil the astrological chart she'd drawn.
Since last year, these two had been Professor Trelawney's devoted followers.
Every class they had to sit in the seats closest to Professor Trelawney, and they treated her every word as gospel.
Professor Trelawney also took great care of them.
Not only did she often claim in class that they were most likely to possess the Inner Eye, but she also constantly praised their exceptional divination talent.
Like this time, although the whole class had been assigned excessive homework because of Ron, Lavender and Parvati weren't unhappy at all.
Harry watched them and saw Parvati shake her head at Lavender, cross something out on the paper with her quill, then say something.
Though her voice was low, it still carried to this end of the nearly empty common room.
She said, "No—that position is wrong. Your omen isn't strong enough."
Then Lavender looked up and saw Harry watching them.
Harry grinned and quickly lowered his head to look at his own prophecy.
He didn't want Lavender to think he was eavesdropping.
Shortly after, Parvati and Lavender rolled up their parchments and actually walked toward them.
As if by prior arrangement, Parvati sat down beside Harry while Lavender sat beside Ron.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going to sleep?"
Harry felt somewhat flattered. After entering fourth year, the Patil twins had become increasingly beautiful.
The two sisters were undoubtedly the prettiest girls in their year.
Even in the whole school, only Cho Chang could surpass them.
Even Ginny, who was a year younger, couldn't match them.
It was just that Harry hadn't been in such close contact with Parvati before, and having grown accustomed to seeing Cho Chang and Ginny, the feeling wasn't that obvious.
Compared to the somewhat flustered Harry, Ron appeared much more composed.
This was normal, after all, he was someone who'd directly made inappropriate comments in front of Lavender.
So, he generously pushed his homework in front of Lavender.
Lavender curiously took it for a look, and her eyes immediately went wide.
"Ron, this isn't a prophecy, it's practically writing a novel!"
Lavender's voice carried that exaggerated tone from Professor Trelawney's classroom. "Look at this line: 'Slip and fall into the Black Lake, get entangled by the Giant Squid, bleeding profusely.'
Too ridiculous!
When Mercury and Jupiter are in poor aspect, it only predicts financial loss—it doesn't say anything about attracting Giant Squids. Professor Trelawney taught us that prophecies must be based on real astronomical phenomena."
Lavender spoke convincingly, but Ron just shrugged, completely unconcerned, scratching his messy red hair.
"Hey, she just loves hearing about unfortunate things anyway. The more miserable I make it, the happier she is. Besides, my head is full of those divination symbols right now, I really can't keep making things up. Look at Harry over there—"
Harry was looking at Parvati uneasily.
Parvati sat very close, and he could clearly smell the floral scent from her hair, which made Harry even more nervous.
He thought of Cho Chang, Parvati's beauty truly wasn't much inferior to Cho's, just somewhat more lively.
Parvati, however, was quite natural. She directly picked up Harry's draft paper and scanned it.
"Harry, you wrote here that 'next Wednesday you'll be whipped by the Whomping Willow because the Sun and Neptune are in opposition.' That's too casual."
Parvati shook her head, her tone carrying a hint of teasing, but her eyes showed seriousness. "Sun opposing Neptune easily produces illusions, it has nothing to do with plant attacks. Lavender's right, you need to incorporate real divination theory."
She opened Unfogging the Future on the table and turned to the astrological chart page. "Look, here, if Mars is in the seventh house, that predicts potential bodily harm. You could revise it to 'Mercury retrograde causes a sprained ankle', at least that sounds plausible."
Harry smiled wryly at Ron. The two exchanged glances and both realized that Parvati and Lavender genuinely wanted to help.
Or rather, they really couldn't stand watching this kind of wildly fabricated "signature performance" anymore.
Crookshanks was still watching them from the chair beside them, those unreadable eyes seeming even deeper.
But Harry quickly shook off the thought and concentrated on listening to Parvati's suggestions.
Lavender pulled out her own prophecy chart and handed it to Ron.
"All right, I'll help you polish this. Professor Trelawney says my Inner Eye is very accurate. Last time I accurately prophesied that Neville would melt his cauldron.
Come on, look—change this to 'Mars opposing Jupiter predicts breathing difficulties on Monday.' Much more realistic, right? Ron, you really do always sneeze in Snape's class."
Ron grinned and began copying, immediately feeling much more relaxed.
Lavender pointed out flaws on the side, occasionally laughing aloud.
Parvati focused on guiding Harry. "Harry, don't be so nervous. The secret to Divination class is disguising prophecies with real events—for instance, you just said 'being burned.' Isn't that perfect? The Blast-Ended Skrewt experiment is a real threat. The Professor will definitely buy it."
Harry gradually relaxed and followed Parvati's guidance to reorganize the numbers and symbols.
Only the four of them and Crookshanks remained in the common room. Outside the windows, moonlight was hazy, and the firelight made the parchment glow red.
Suddenly Lavender exclaimed, "Ron, and here—it looks like you're going to drown twice next month."
All four couldn't help but laugh, and the atmosphere became relaxed.
The homework gradually took shape. Harry and Ron's "prophecies" were corrected to be much more reasonable, though at their core they were still the unfortunate stories they'd invented.
As they signed their names and put away the parchments, Lavender suddenly said seriously, "All right, but next week's homework you really need to do properly! The Professor says true diviners rely on talent, not fabrication."
Ron nodded perfunctorily. Harry muttered quietly, "Good thing Hermione wasn't here, or she'd definitely mock us for not being bold enough."
Just then, the Fat Lady's portrait was suddenly pushed open, and Hermione hurriedly climbed in.
She held a roll of parchment in one hand and a box in the other.
As she walked, the contents of the box rattled.
Crookshanks arched his back, purring.
"Hello," she said. "I'm finished!"
"Me too!" Ron said triumphantly, throwing down his quill.
She glanced at the Divination book and scattered parchments on the table, her brow furrowing—that look was identical to Crookshanks's.
Hermione sat down, placed what she was carrying on an empty chair, and pulled Ron's prophecy in front of her.
"You're having quite an unlucky month, aren't you?" she said sarcastically, as Crookshanks curled up on her lap.
Seeing this, Harry immediately stuffed his homework into his bag, acting as if nothing had happened.
Lavender and Parvati exchanged a meaningful glance.
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