e was counting down the time until Buckbeak's appeal started. 


The line of people outside the classroom shortened very slowly. As each 
person climbed back down the silver ladder, the rest of the class 
hissed, "What did she ask? Was it okay?" 


But they all refused to say. 


"She says the crystal ball's told her that if I tell you, I'll have a 
horrible accident!" squeaked Neville as he clambered back down the 
ladder toward Harry and Ron, who had now reached the landing. 


"That's convenient," snorted Ron. "You know, I'm starting to think 
Hermione was right about her" -- he jabbed his thumb toward the trapdoor 
overhead -- "she's a right old fraud." 


"Yeah," said Harry, looking at his own watch. It-was now two o'clock. 
"Wish she'd hurry up..." 


Parvati came back down the ladder glowing with pride. 


"She says I've got all the makings of a true Seer," she informed Harry 


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and Ron. "I saw loads of stuff... Well, good luck!" 

She hurried off down the spiral staircase toward Lavender. 

"Ronald Weasley," said the familiar, misty voice from over their heads. 
Ron grimaced at Harry and climbed the silver ladder out of sight. Harry 
was now the only person left to be tested. He settled himself on the 
floor with his back against the wall, listening to a fly buzzing in the 
sunny window, his mind across the grounds with Hagrid. 

Finally, after about twenty minutes, Ron's large feet reappeared on the 
ladder. 

"How'd it go?" Harry asked him, standing up. 

"Rubbish," said Ron. "Couldn't see a thing, so I made some stuff up. 
Don't think she was convinced, though...." 

"Meet you in the common room," Harry muttered as Professor Trelawney's 
voice called, "Harry Potter!" 

The tower room was hotter than ever before; the curtains were closed, 
the fire was alight, and the usual sickly scent made Harry cough as he 
stumbled through the clutter of chairs and table to where Professor 
Trelawney sat waiting for him before a large crystal ball. 

"Good day, my dear," she said softly. "If you would kindly gaze into the 
Orb.... Take your time, now... then tell me what you see within it...." 

Harry bent over the crystal ball and stared, stared as hard as he could, 
willing it to show him something other than swirling white fog, but 
nothing happened. 

"Well?" Professor Trelawney prompted delicately. "What do you see?" 

The heat was overpowering and his nostrils were stinging with the 
perfumed smoke wafting from the fire beside them. He thought of what Ron 
had just said, and decided to pretend. 

"Er --" said Harry, "a dark shape... um..." 

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"What does it resemble?" whispered Professor Trelawney. "Think, now..." 
Harry cast his mind around and it landed on Buckbeak. 
"A hippogriff," he said firmly. 
"Indeed!" whispered Professor Trelawney, scribbling keenly on the 


parchment perched upon her knees. "My boy, you may well be seeing the 
outcome of poor Hagrid's trouble with the Ministry of Magic! Look 
closer... Does the hippogriff appear to... have its head?" 

"Yes," said Harry firmly. 
"Are you sure?" Professor Trelawney urged him. "Are you quite sure, 


dear? You don't see it writhing on the ground, perhaps, and a shadowy 
figure raising an axe behind it?" 
"No!" said Harry, starting to feel slightly sick. 
"No blood? No weeping Hagrid?" 
"No!" said Harry again, wanting more than ever to leave the room and the 


heat. "It looks fine, it's - - flying away..." 
Professor Trelawney sighed. 
"Well, dear, I think we'll leave it there.... A little disappointing... 


but I'm sure you did your best." 


Relieved, Harry got up, picked up his bag and turned to go, but then a 
loud, harsh voice spoke behind him. 
"IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT." 
Harry wheeled around. Professor Trelawney had gone rigid in her 


armchair; her eyes were unfocused and her mouth sagging. 
"S -- sorry?" said Harry. 


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But Professor Trelawney didn't seem to hear him. Her eyes started to 
roll. Harry sat there in a panic. She looked as though she was about to 
have some sort of seizure. He hesitated, thinking of running to the 
hospital wing -- and then Professor Trelawney spoke again, in the same 
harsh voice, quite unlike her own: 

"THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY 
HIS FOLLOWERS. 
HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, 
BEFORE 
MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO 
REJOIN HIS 
MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANTS 
AID, GREATER AND 
MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT... BEFORE 
MIDNIGHT... THE 
SERVANT... WILL SET OU... TO REJOIN... HIS MASTER.... 

Professor Trelawney's head fell forward onto her chest. She made a 
grunting sort of noise. Harry sat there, staring at her. Then, quite 
suddenly, Professor Trelawney's head snapped up again. 

"I'm so sorry, dear boy," she said dreamily, "the heat of the day, you 
know... I drifted off for a moment...." 

Harry sat there, staring at her. 

"Is there anything wrong, my dear?" 

"You -- you just told me that the -- the Dark Lord's going to rise 
again... that his servant's going to go back to him. 

Professor Trelawney looked thoroughly startled. 

"The Dark Lord? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? My dear boy, that's hardly 
something to joke about.... Rise again, indeed --" 

,'But you just said it! You. said the Dark Lord --" 

"I think you must have dozed off too, dear!" said Professor Trelawney. 

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"I would certainly not presume to predict anything quite as far-fetched 
as that!" 

Harry climbed back down the ladder and the spiral staircase, 
wondering... had he just heard Professor Trelawney make a real 
prediction? Or had that been her idea of an impressive end to the test? 

Five minutes later he was dashing past the security trolls outside the 
entrance to Gryffindor Tower, Professor Trelawney's words still 
resounding in his head. People were striding past him in the opposite 
direction, laughing and joking, heading for the grounds and a bit of 
long-awaited freedom; by the time he had reached the portrait hole and 
entered the common room, it was almost deserted. Over in the corner, 
however, sat Ron and Hermione. 

"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted, "just told me --" 

But he stopped abruptly at the sight of their faces. 

"Buckbeak lost," said Ron weakly. "Hagrid's just sent this." 

Hagrid's note was dry this time, no tears had splattered it, yet his 
hand seemed to have shaken so much as he wrote that it was hardly 
legible. 

Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. 
Don't come down. I don't want you to see it. 

Hagrid 

"We've got to go," said Harry at once. "He can't just sit there on his 
own, waiting for the executioner!" 

"Sunset, though," said Ron, who was staring out the window ill a glazed 
sort of way. "We'd never be allowed... 'specially you, Harry...." 

Harry sank his head into his hands, thinking. 

"If we only had the Invisibility Cloak...." 

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"Where is it?" said Hermione. 

Harry told her about leaving it in the passageway under the one-eyed 
witch. 

"... if Snape sees me anywhere near there again, I'm in serious 
trouble," he finished. 

"That's true," said Hermione, getting to her feet. "If he sees you.... 
How do you open the witch's hump again?" 

"You -- you tap it and say, 'Dissendium,'" said Harry. "But --" 

Hermione didn't wait for the rest of his sentence; she strode across the 
room, pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait and vanished from sight. 

"She hasn't gone to get it?" Ron said, staring after her. 

She had. Hermione returned a quarter of an hour later with the silvery 
cloak folded carefully under her robes. 

"Hermione, I don't know what's gotten, into you lately!" said Ron, 
astounded. "First you hit Malfoy, then you walk out on Professor 
Trelawney --" 

Hermione looked rather flattered. 

They went down to dinner with everybody else, but did not return to 
Gryffindor Tower afterward. Harry had the cloak hidden down tie front of 
his robes; he had to keep his arms folded to hide the lump. They skulked 
in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, listening, until they were 
sure it was deserted. They heard a last pair of people hurrying across 
the hall and a door slamming. Hermione poked her head around the door. 

"Okay," she whispered, "no one there -- cloak on --" 

Walking very close together so that nobody would see them, they crossed 
the hall on tiptoe beneath the cloak, then walked down the stone front 
steps into the grounds. The sun was already sinking behind the Forbidden 
Forest, gilding the top branches of the trees. 

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They reached Hagrid's cabin and knocked. He was a minute in answering, 
and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and 
trembling. 

"It's us," Harry hissed. "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us 
in and we can take it off." 

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and they 
stepped inside. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the 
cloak. 

Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He 
looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This 
helplessness was worse to watch than tears. 

"Wan' some tea?" he said. His great hands were shaking as he reached for 
the kettle. 

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly. 

I -- I took him outside," said Hagrid, spilling milk all over the table 
as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he 
oughta see the trees an' -- an' smell fresh air -- before 

Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his 
grasp and shattered all over the floor. 

"I'll do it, Hagrid," said Hermione quic