yelled the knight, and 
they saw him reappear in front of an alarmed group of women in 

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crinolines, whose picture hung on the wall of a narrow spiral staircase. 

Puffing loudly, Harry, Ron, and Hermione climbed the tightly spiraling 
steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last they heard the murmur 
of voices above them and knew they had reached the classroom. 

"Farewell!" cried the knight, popping his head into a painting of some 
sinister-looking monks. "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have 
need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!" 

"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered Ron as the knight disappeared, "if we 
ever need someone mental." 

They climbed the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where 
most of the class was already assembled. There were no doors off this 
landing, but Ron nudged Harry and pointed at the ceiling, where there 
was a circular trapdoor with a brass plaque on it. 

"'Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher,"' Harry read. "How're we 
supposed to get up there?" 

As though in answer to his question, the trapdoor suddenly opened, and a 
silvery ladder descended right at Harry's feet. Everyone got quiet. 

"After you," said Ron, grinning, so Harry climbed the ladder first. 

He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen. In 
fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between 
someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. At leasttwenty small, 
circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz 
armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson 
light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps 
were draped with dark red scarves. it was stiflingly warm, and the fire 
that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, 
sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves 
running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking 
feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, 
countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups. 

Ron appeared at Harry's shoulder as the class assembled around them, all 

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talking in whispers. 

"Where is she?" Ron said. 

A voice came suddenly out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice. 

"Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last." 

Harry's immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect. 
Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she was 
very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their 
natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable 
chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands 
were encrusted with bangles and rings. 

"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and they all climbed awkwardly into 
armchairs or sank onto poufs. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat themselves 
around the same round table. 

"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated 
herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is professor 
Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too 
often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner 
Eye." 

Nobody said anything to this extraordinary pronouncement. Professor 
Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have 
chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I 
must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is 
very little I will be able to teach you.. Books can take you only so far 
in this field...." 

At these words, both Harry and Ron glanced, grinning, at Hermione, who 
looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this 
subject. 

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud 
bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate 
the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her 
enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift 

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granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost 
toppled off his pouf. "Is your grandmother well?" 

"I think so," said Neville tremulously. 

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, 
the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Neville gulped. 
Professor Trelawney continued placidly. "We will be covering the basic 
methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to 
reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the 
way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired 
man." 

Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her and edged 
her chair away from him. 

"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to 
the crystal ball -- if we have finished with fire omens, that is. 
Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of 
flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number 
will leave us forever." 

A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor 
Trelawney seemed unaware of it. 

"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender Brown, who was nearest and shrank 
back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?" 

Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the 
shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney. 

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading -- it 
will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October." 

Lavender trembled. 

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the 
shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink 
until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with 
the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the 

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last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to 
read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of 
Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. 
Oh, and dear" -- she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up -"
after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select 
one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink." 

Sure enough, Neville had no sooner reached the shelf of teacups when 
there was a tinkle of breaking china. Professor Trelawney swept over to 
him holding a dustpan and brush and said, "One of the blue ones, then, 
dear, if you wouldn't mind... thank you. ... " 

When Harry and Ron had had their teacups filled, they went back to their 
table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. They swilled the 
dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the 
cups and swapped over. 

"Right," said Ron as they both opened their books at pages five and six. 
"What can you see in mine?" 

"A load of soggy brown stuff," said Harry. The heavily perfumed smoke in 
the room was making him feel sleepy and stupid. 

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the 
mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom. 

Harry tried to pull himself together. 

"Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross... " He consulted Unfogging 
the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' -sorry 
about that -- but there's a thing that could be the sun... hang 
on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be 
very happy...." 

"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," said Ron, and they both 
had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in their 
direction. 

"My turn..." Ron peered into Harry's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with 
effort. "There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat," he said. "Maybe you're 

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going to work for the Ministry of Magic... 
He turned the teacup the other way up. 
"But this way it looks more like an acorn.... What's that?" He scanned 


his copy of Unfogging the Future. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.' 
Excellent, you can lend me some... and there's a thin, here," he turned 
the cup again, "that looks like an animal... yeah, if that was its 
head... it looks like a hippo... no, a sheep..." 

Professor Trelawney whirled around as Harry let out a snort of laughter. 

"Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron, sweeping over 
and snatching Harry's cup from him. Everyone went quiet to watch. 
Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it 

counterclockwise. 
"The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy." 
"But everyone knows that, " said Hermione in a loud whisper. Professor 


Trelawney stared at her. 


"Well, they do," said Hermione. "Everybody knows about Harry and 
You-Know-Who." 
Harry and Ron stared at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. 


They had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before. 
Professor Trelawney chose not to reply. She lowered her huge eyes to 
Harry's cup again and continued to turn it. 

"The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup.... 
I thought that was a bowler hat," said Ron sheepishly. 
"The skull... danger in your path, my dear...." 
Everyone was staring, transfixed, at Professor Trelawney, who gave the 


cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed. 


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There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his 
second cup. Professor Trelawney sank into a vacant armchair, her 
glittering hand at her heart and her eyes closed. 

"My dear boy... my poor, dear boy no it is kinder not to say.. . no... 
don't ask me...." 

"What is it, Professor?" said Dean Thomas at once. Everyone had got to 
their feet, and slowly they crowded around Harry and Ron'