But she too grew angry when she heard the reason behind Angelina's shouting. "Did you take in a single word of what I said last week about controlling your temper, Potter? Another five points from…"
"The dance of the Fairies has begun!"
...
Practically everyone in the entire room jumped at the sudden rasping voice that seemed to echo around the entire Hall, coming from almost every angle at once. Most of them were looking wildly around for the source, but Harry's eyes swivelled towards the staff table like laser beams. He knew that voice. He'd heard it once before in his third year, right after an appalling Divination exam.
Just as he suspected, Professor Trelawney had gone stiff as a plank, her mouth looking almost unhinged and her eyes behind her thick glasses rolling around and making her look eerily like a zombie. Umbridge had drawn away from her in shock as Trelawney continued speaking, slowly gaining the attention of the rest of the room as they realised where the voice was coming from.
"It will begin with the lowering of the fifth Sphere. As darkness gathers, the Fairies will converge to join the fight of the Wizarding World. But the fight will not be an easy path, for they shall be met with fear and the darkness will rise to greater heights than ever to oppose them. Magic, new and old, modern and ancient, will clash together. Doorways will open. Old battles will be rekindled. Bygone evil will be unleashed - thirsting for revenge against that which imprisoned it. Alliances will rise on both sides. The skies will burn with the fire of Dragons and the land echo with the cries of beasts, devils and the dead. The war will begin… when the fifth Sphere diminishes."
The silence of the Great Hall when Trelawney was so thick you could have used it is butter on the toast. The Diviniation teacher slowly seemed to regain her senses, shaking her head in slightly bewilderment before noticing that every eye in the room was on her and shrilly demanding, "What!? Do I have something on my face?" Before suddenly hurrying away from the table in a fluster and storming across the hall and out, probably to head back to her lonely tower.
Almost as soon as she was out of sight the entire room broke into fevered whispers. McGonagall, who looked rather pale, murmured, "Look, all of you… just keep the noise down, alright," before she hurried over towards Dumbledore.
Fred whistled slightly. "Well, I have to hand it to Trelawney, when she gets desperate she really goes all out. She never did anything like that when she made fake predictions in our Divination classes."
"Lucky break for you, eh, Harry?" George grinned. "She interrupted McGonagall before she could finish docking points off you."
"Honestly, what was all that about anyway?" Hermione huffed. "I admit that was an impressive piece of theatre but we all know she's a fraud. And of course she couldn't keep all the death and doom out of it, could she?"
"Hermione…" Harry said slowly. "I don't think that was fake. I think… that was a real prediction. Right then, she was acting just like she was when I heard her predict Wormtail's return to Voldemort's side. Exactly the same."
Despite the collective flinch at the name, Hermione blustered, "But Harry, really, come on. The woman's been predicting your death for the last two years and you're still alive. You know you can't take what she says seriously…"
"Look, Hermione!" Harry growled, shutting Hermione up with his tone of voice alone. "I know you don't like her, but I know what I heard her say that day. Everything she said came true. It wasn't just some crap that she said to make herself look all mystical. Even Dumbledore agreed with me when I told him about it. And she just gave another one, right there and now in front of us. Everything she just said… it was a real prediction."
A deathly hush fell over the table at his words, Hermione looking somewhat stricken, while Ron looked he was torn between being annoyed at Harry for snapping at her and worried about what the consequences of Trelawney's words might be. Harry caught his slightly accusatory stare and sighed. McGonagall was right - he really did need to reign in his temper.
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that. But it's true."
Hermione slowly nodded her head before nervously voicing, "But… if that prediction was a real one… all those terrible things she said would happen…"
"I didn't get half of it but… holy crap it sounded bad," Ron agreed. "All that stuff about dragons and beasts and bygone evil… what kind of hell is the Wizarding World going to come to. And what was up with all that stuff about fairies rising up to fight. You've got to admit that part is mental - fairies are useless at everything except looking pretty. That can't even fight each other properly."
"I don't know what it means," Harry muttered, clenching his fist and the cuts on the back of his hand going white. "But how much worth is school education going to be if half that stuff comes true? I should be out there! Doing something. Not sitting here at breakfast getting ready to go and learn how to make a cat howl like a wolf or whatever Flitwick will be teaching us today."
There was another brief silence amongst the group, before Fred murmured, "Looks like Dumbledore's taking it rather seriously too." And indeed McGonagall and Dumbledore were holding some sort of whispered conference.
"I bet the Order will be hearing about this before the day is out," agreed George.
"Be that as it may, Harry, we don't really know what the future holds for us," Hermione noted. "Maybe learning a new Charm isn't as important as saving the world, but right now that is what our future definitely holds. So come on… let's finish breakfast and get going."
Harry nodded slightly bitterly. But he knew he wasn't going to enjoy today. Trelawney's words were going to weigh far too heavily on his mind for that.
...
"Why the hell do I have to do this!?"
"I'm not having freeloaders living under my roof doing nothing but gulping their way through my food and drink. Don't pull so hard - you'll hurt her!"
"If the bloody thing tries to bite me again then I swear to all the gods out there that I'll chuck it through the nearest window!"
"You will do no such thing! Stop pulling so hard and she'll stop biting!"
"Sure she will. HEY GUH! OH, SHE DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"
"Well that's what happens if you pull too hard - you make them panic. Haven't you ever tried being gentle?"
"I'm the Iron Dragon Slayer! I don't do gentle!"
Wendy did her very best not to laugh as she watched Aberforth and Gajeel arguing as the elderly man tried to teach the reluctant mage how to milk a goat. And the goat had just panicked and bucked around, stamping its hoof right into the bucket of milk that Gajeel had already made and splashing the milk all over Gajeel's front.
"I can hardly believe I'm seeing this," Happy snickered. "Gajeel, of all people, milking goats. I just wish Natsu could see this."
"Though I have to admit, I am a little concerned for the goat's safety," Lily remarked.
"You could get over here and help me, you know," Gajeel griped as he glared at his Exceed partner.
"But my hands aren't built for milking a goat in this form. And my other form would just scare the poor girls," Lily grinned.
"Bastard," Gajeel muttered. Lily laughed.
"Amusing as this is, what exactly are we meant to do today?" Charla asked as she folded her arms. "Just sit around like a family of lobsters waiting for something to happen?"
"There's not much else we can do, Charla," Wendy pointed out. "Dumbledore-san said that he was going to try and think of a way for the Ministry to find out about us and not have them think we're a threat."
"Which might be hard to do considering the trouble we've already caused," Happy noted.
"Nevertheless, if it can be done, it should be," Lily agreed. "We'll have a much easier time if the official governing body of this world is on our side than if we have to skulk about in the shadows all the time. Besides… I may not have been in this guild long but I definitely got the impression that skulking is generally something most of us do very badly."
"Very true," Charla accepted. "But so is sitting still. It really does feel like we should be doing something more than just…" she suddenly stopped and looked up sharply, her pupils shrinking into dots as her eyes gained a rather vacant look.
A sudden flurry of images seemed to blur their way rapidly and unbidden through the white Exceed's mind:-
Some kind of massive explosion as men and women in long cloaks and pointy hats went running all over the place.
A woman with long dark hair and wearing chains that she didn't know grinning maniacally as the door to what looked like a cell was ripped off its hinges.
Natsu barrelling down a brightly lit hall of some kind with Gajeel and Wendy both right behind him, using their magic to sweep several startled, squat humanoid creatures aside and their faces all absolutely livid.
A young boy with dark hair and glasses angrily throwing throwing a red flash of light from his wand right at an ugly woman with a toad-like face dressed all in pink.
Juvia collapsing to the floor and thrashing about in what looked like unbearable agony while Gray, Tonks and Lucy looked on in horror.
Erza falling to her knees and clutching her head, wailing in what appeared to be utter horror and despair, tears streaming down her face and shaking violently as Cana and Sirius tried desperately to hold something back but not looking much better off.
A village of some description that had been practically levelled with smoke still rising from the buildings, the area littered with the bodies of the dead while a couple of dark figures she couldn't see moving away from the carnage through the smoke.
Several dozen men riding broomsticks and casting spells at each other madly before Laxus blitzed in and added his lightning to the mix, closely followed by all three members of the Raijinshuu, throwing the entire area into chaos.
A man with a pale face, slitted nostrils and red eyes laughing as he fired flashes of green light at a furiously dodging Elfman before Mirajane appeared in front of the man and threw a punch at him only for the man to vanish into thin air before she could hit him.
Lisanna pinned to the floor by some kind of giant, clawed foot and staring up in fear as what looked like the two oldest Weasley brothers and a woman with silvery hair she didn't know fired on whatever it was that had her pinned down.
A group of children in black robes fleeing down a hallway as several adults pursued them angrily before McGonagall suddenly lurched out of a door nearby and angrily started hexing at the adults.
And finally another vision of a woman with long dark hair she didn't know, but a different one this time and garbed in what appeared to be a long, black dress kneeling on stone and staring into a crystal, a smirk growing wide on her face as she looked up and seemed to stare straight at Charla herself. After this last one, the visions broke off and Charla fell back with a gasp and almost fell off the table, panting for breath and looking decidedly frightened.
...
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