164: Chapter 164 Fragments of Prophecy

"I refuse to keep smelling tea dregs."

Draco stood at the door of the Divination Class, looking terrible. "The whole classroom is like it's been marinated in spices by Trelawney."

Zabini stuffed the candy box into his sleeve. "At least she won't make us cast spells at a Boggart."

Nott looked up toward the ladder. "She'll make us invent ways to die at the bottom of a cup."

Allen walked up, holding the railing, eyelids half-drooped. "Keep it short."

Draco followed behind. "If you fall asleep today, I won't explain what the tea leaves said for you."

"Write that you'll be crushed to death by essays."

"Shut up."

The Divination Class was stuffy and hot, round tables crowded together, curtains drawn tight. Professor Trelawney wore large glasses, strings of beads hanging from her wrists, standing by the fireplace.

Harry and Ron sat at a table near the window. Ron saw Draco enter and immediately moved his cup away.

Hermione was half a minute late.

When she climbed up from the trapdoor, her hair was messier than usual, and she was clutching an Arithmancy book. Professor Trelawney stopped lecturing, her eyes behind the lenses fixed on her.

"Miss Granger, your soul is rushing."

Hermione put down the book. "Professor, I was just late finishing my previous class."

Ron muttered, "Wasn't that class with us?"

Hermione stepped on his foot.

Allen sat in the back row, fingertips pressing against an empty cup.

In the Portable Space, the ebony box was quiet. The Void tail wrapped around the cracked pocket watch, Peter in the cage curled into a corner.

Trelawney began to let students look at each other's tea leaves.

Draco looked at the bottom of Allen's cup. "A blob of black."

Zabini leaned over. "That's tea leaves."

Draco said crossly, "Of course I know that."

Nott pushed his cup to Allen. "Professor said to interpret it."

Allen took a look. "You will write many words."

Nott nodded. "Accurate."

Zabini laughed. "This class is really easy."

Trelawney walked to the Gryffindor table. Harry's cup bottom made her gasp.

"A black dog." She held the cup. "An omen of death."

Ron's face changed immediately. "Again?"

Harry was already numb. "Professor, it was a black dog last time too."

Hermione closed her notebook. "The black dog pattern might come from the angle of the tea leaf sediment; it doesn't necessarily mean death."

Trelawney acted as if she didn't hear, turning and walking toward the back row.

Draco sat up straight immediately. "Don't let her look at my cup."

"She's already here." Zabini reminded him.

Trelawney stopped at Allen's table and reached out to pick up his cup. The bottom of the cup had very few tea leaves, only a few stuck to the white porcelain, the shapes scattered widely.

She stared at the bottom of the cup, eyes behind the lenses slowly losing focus.

The fragrance in the classroom pressed down even lower.

Nott's pencil stopped on the paper.

Hermione also looked up.

Trelawney's fingers loosened, the cup tapped lightly on the table. She stood very straight, her voice becoming hollow, as if squeezed from deep within her throat.

"When the sleeper truly opens their eyes, time and space will bow simultaneously..."

The classroom was silent.

Draco's face turned pale instantly.

The candy box in Zabini's sleeve rattled.

The tip of Nott's pencil broke on the paper.

Trelawney continued, her voice intermittent. "The old door confirms, the cracked pocket watch ticks, the void swallows the Killing Curse..."

Harry looked up abruptly.

Hermione's quill dropped onto the table.

Allen didn't move.

In the Portable Space, the cracked pocket watch glowed bright blue for three seconds.

The Void raised its head, silver pupils narrowing, the tip of its tail almost pressing the ebony box into the ground. Peter opened his mouth in the cage, the silencing spell preventing him from making a sound.

Trelawney's voice suddenly cut off.

She swayed, holding onto the table edge, her large glasses crooked on the bridge of her nose.

"Oh, my dear children." She looked around blankly. "Where was I? Tea leaves, right, the symbols at the bottom of the cup."

No one answered.

Ron looked at Harry. "She said the sleeper, is it you?"

Harry was also stumped. "I don't know."

Hermione immediately grabbed her quill and quickly wrote down the sentences just now. "No. She entered a state of true prophecy just now."

Ron was even more panicked. "Didn't you always say she was talking nonsense?"

"Nonsense and true prophecy can appear in the same person." Hermione pressed down on the parchment. "Dumbledore will record it."

Draco looked at Allen sharply, lowering his voice. "She was talking about you."

Allen picked up his quill and transcribed it word for word onto his parchment.

When the sleeper truly opens their eyes, time and space will bow simultaneously.

The old door confirms, the cracked pocket watch ticks, the void swallows the Killing Curse.

After writing, he folded the parchment in half and tucked it into his sleeve.

Draco's hand pressed on the edge of the table. "You're still copying it? Shouldn't you find a way to make the whole class forget first?"

"No one understood."

"Harry understood the Killing Curse!"

Zabini looked toward the Gryffindor direction. "Granger understood the sleeper and space."

Nott changed his pencil. "Lupin will hear it, Dumbledore will hear it, and Snape will too."

Allen pushed away the empty cup. "So panic less."

After Trelawney resumed the lecture, the atmosphere was a mess. Harry kept looking back at Allen, Hermione lowered her head and wrote three pages of paper, Ron's face was ashen, muttering "the black dog is enough".

The bell rang, and students crowded toward the trapdoor.

Draco grabbed Allen's sleeve. "Walk faster."

Hermione, however, blocked the stairs first.

"Allen Potter, you heard it."

Draco immediately blocked her. "Granger, you want to manage the Divination Class too?"

Hermione ignored him. "The sleeper, space, the Killing Curse. Last year's Philosopher's Stone, the silver light in the Chamber of Secrets, the black void of the Boggart, it all connects."

Harry stood behind her, his expression complex. "What about the Killing Curse?"

Allen looked at the parchment in Hermione's hand. "Are you planning to hand it to Dumbledore?"

Hermione bit her lip. "True prophecy must be reported."

"Then report it." Allen said.

Draco was anxious. "Allen!"

Hermione was stunned instead. "You're not stopping me?"

"Stopping you is useless." Allen walked past her. "You'll copy it into three parts, hand one in, and hide two."

Ron whispered: "Hermione, will you really?"

Hermione didn't answer.

Harry caught up to Allen. "She said the void swallows the Killing Curse. Last year, Quirrell against me..."

Allen stopped.

The students in the corridor all slowed down.

Draco's face was livid, Nott hugged his old book tightly, Zabini stood on the other side to block a few Hufflepuffs.

Allen looked at Harry. "You are alive."

Harry gripped his book bag strap. "I remember there was silver light. Someone blocked in front of me."

Hermione immediately followed up. "Your memory was tampered with. Ginny's too. You can't always brush it off with 'you're alive'."

Allen looked at her. "You are alive too."

Hermione was blocked to the point her face turned red. "That's not an answer."

"The answer will kill you." Allen finished speaking and walked around them downstairs.

Draco followed, his voice very low. "Prophecy is more troublesome than Lupin."

Nott said from behind: "It ties several lines together. Sleeping, time, space, the Killing Curse, the void. Anyone who understands will think of you."

Zabini looked toward the top of the stairs. "Trelawney herself doesn't remember, the students will pass it on as the black dog and sleeping. Only in Granger's hands is the original text."

Draco tugged his tie irritably. "Snatch it?"

Allen glanced at him.

Draco corrected himself. "I was just suggesting."

"Don't touch Granger." Allen said. "The more nervous she is, the more Dumbledore will watch her. Let her report it, the Principal will first judge if the object of the prophecy is Harry."

Nott nodded. "Harry's name is easier to draw fire. The sleeper can be explained as being affected by Dementors, and the Killing Curse can also refer to Lord Voldemort."

Zabini added. "Time and space are too obvious, but Granger lacks evidence."

Draco looked at Allen. "Then what about you?"

"Sleep."

"Every time you say sleep, something big happens."

"So you guard the door."

Before dinner, the news had changed three versions in the Castle.

Hufflepuff passed that Trelawney predicted Harry would be chased to the end of time by a black dog.

The Ravenclaw version became that a certain student would master time magic.

The older Slytherin students laughed at Gryffindor for being able to scare themselves to death even in Divination Class.

Nott brought back the most accurate version. "Granger went to Professor McGonagall's office. Harry and Ron are waiting outside the door. Professor McGonagall took her to the Headmaster's Office."

Draco cursed in a low voice. "It's over."

Allen put down his dinner knife. "It's not over."

Zabini looked at the staff table. "Dumbledore is not in the Great Hall. Snape is not there either."

"They will find Trelawney to confirm." Nott said. "They can't confirm. She forgot it completely."

Draco asked: "What about finding you?"

"Let them find me." Allen wiped his hands. "I slept in class, the whole school can testify."

Zabini laughed softly. "The sleeper himself has sufficient evidence."

Draco didn't laugh.

In the Portable Space, Allen put the prophecy parchment into the independent thin wall next to the ebony box.

The cracked pocket watch was quiet, the gold thread of the new crack still glowing.

The Void tail pressed down on the four characters "Prediction Fragments".

Allen looked at the last sentence on the paper.

The void swallows the Killing Curse.

He paused for a few seconds himself.

"So even the prophecy saw it."

The Void looked up.

Allen closed the thin wall. "No need to rush. What it saw is just a corner of the result."

Peter in the cage hunched his shoulders, eyes fixed on "Time and space will bow simultaneously", even his breathing became light.

Allen put away the file.

Outside, Draco's knocking signal came from the door of the Dungeon.

Three times.

Snape had arrived.