Meanwhile, the Professor continued:
"My Inner Eye told me that if I went downstairs, I would die. So I remained here in my classroom. And I was right! That very day, the castle shook and the lake level dropped. Thus, thanks to my gift for Divination, I miraculously escaped death."
Richard didn't know what to make of it. He was both frightened by the Professor's gift and fascinated by it. After all, on that fateful evening Harry Potter had been in a highly unstable state and had been right at the foot of the North Tower. It was entirely possible that, had Professor Trelawney appeared at the scene of Dobby's death, Harry, in the heat of the moment, might have tested the railguns on her as well.
"And now I would like you to divide into pairs, take a cup from the shelf and come to me. I shall pour you some tea, then you will sit down and drink until only the leaves remain at the bottom. Swirl them round three times with your left hand, then turn the cup upside down upon the saucer and wait for the liquid to drain away. The tea leaves remaining on the sides of the cup will have something to tell you. Your textbook, Unfogging the Future, will help you interpret what you see. I shall walk between the tables and assist you."
Suddenly, Trelawney seized Neville Longbottom by the hand as he rose from his pouffe and reached for a cup.
"My boy!" she exclaimed. "Please, after you break your first cup, take your second from the blue set. I'd rather you didn't use the pink one. It's my favourite."
Neville had scarcely picked up a cup and saucer when there came the sound of shattering china. The Professor hurried over to him with a dustpan and brush.
"Take one of the blue ones. Please. Thank you very much."
Richard watched what was happening with bated breath. A mystery was unfolding before his very eyes. Of course, he allowed for the possibility that Professor Trelawney might simply be extremely observant and had deduced from Neville's nervousness that he would break the cup. But she might just as easily have foreseen it. Richie was thoroughly impressed and filled with the desire to master the methods of Divination, even if it turned out that he possessed no gift for it. After all, he remembered his mentor's words perfectly: Magic can do anything.
All the pupils were doing the same thing: drinking scalding tea, swirling their cups according to the Professor's instructions and tipping the contents onto their saucers. Then, amid the rustling of pages, they searched the book for a similar pattern of tea leaves and interpreted the resulting prediction.
Harry and Ron were busily conferring in loud whispers, working out a strategy for what they were going to write in their report.
Richie approached the task with complete seriousness. He wasn't convinced by merely approximate resemblances between the patterns and searched for the closest possible match. Realising that he could spend ages leafing through the book like this, he scanned it with his wrist-mounted AI and gave the computer a query. Within moments, the AI processed all the information in the textbook and displayed several similar patterns on the lenses of his glasses.
"Think carefully, my dears. Let your gaze pierce the veil of the mundane," Trelawney's voice drifted towards them as though through a dense fog, lulling them into something resembling a hypnotic trance.
Professor Trelawney reached the boys' table and bent over Richard's cup.
"Let me have a look," she said.
The entire class fell silent, waiting for her interpretation. The Professor turned the cup anticlockwise, carefully examining the patterns upon its sides.
"A very large sign... Some momentous event... Four petals... My boy, a great misfortune awaits you..."
"Ma'am," Richard said tensely. "Could you be more specific?"
"Try again."
The entire class watched with bated breath as Richie drank another cup of tea and repeated the procedure. The tension was heightened by the fact that he did it all with a completely stony expression.
The Professor took Grosvenor's cup once more.
"It's a bird," she said, squinting. "A bird of prey... Or perhaps not? Oh! It's a phoenix!"
"A phoenix?"
Richard immediately thought that some disaster was about to befall his space programme.
"Yes, my dear," Trelawney said sympathetically. "Good heavens, what an unlucky cup!"
Everyone stared at Professor Trelawney with bated breath. She turned the cup one final time and gave a cry. At that very moment, the sound of breaking china rang out again. Neville had smashed another cup.
Professor Trelawney sank into the nearest armchair, closing her eyes and pressing one gem-encrusted hand to her heart.
"My boy, my poor boy... No, it would be kinder to remain silent... Do not ask me..."
Richard tried to recall every little detail that might conceivably cause his space programme to fail. His face remained as expressionless as stone.
"What can you see in there, Professor?" Dean Thomas of Gryffindor immediately asked.
All the pupils sprang from their seats and crowded around Harry, Ron and Richard's table. Everyone tried to peer into Grosvenor's cup.
"My boy!" The Professor's enormous eyes flew open. "You have the PHOENIX!"
"Ma'am, you already said that," Richard replied calmly.
"The phoenix, my boy! THE PHOENIX!" Professor Trelawney was struck by Richard's composure. "The magical bird, herald of sweeping change and troubles on a vast scale! And you will be at the very epicentre of it all! My dear boy, this is one of the most dreadful omens there is."
Richard relaxed, though outwardly he did not change in the slightest. He now understood that nothing had changed. He already knew about the global troubles ahead and was actively preparing for them.
"Thank you for the warning, Professor," he replied calmly. "Forewarned is forearmed."
(End of Chapter)
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