The Black Bloodline of Hogwarts

Professor Trelawney paced back and forth, this time stopping at Harry's table. Her magnified eyes behind her glasses lingered on the faces of the three of them.

"Miss Granger? When did you... never mind, then you tell us what you saw in the crystal ball."

The mist inside the crystal ball on the table seemed to have solidified, or perhaps it was nothing at all.

Hermione brought her face close to the perfectly round glass ball, trying to make her expression look focused and devout.

She squinted, then opened her eyes wider, then squinted again—out of the corner of her eye, Professor Trelawney was staring at her with the kind of scrutinizing gaze one would give a turkey for a good roast, from behind her thick, bulletproof glasses.

"How was it?" Trelawney asked in a ethereal, almost ethereal voice, "What did you see, darling?"

"Uh..." Hermione bit her lip. A voice screamed in her head: Say something, just say something! Purple, purple is a safe word, or shape—I saw a circle—good heavens, the crystal ball itself is a circle!

"I think..." she began hesitantly, and Trelawney immediately brought her face close, almost touching hers, "I saw something... blurry."

"Something vague," Trelawney repeated slowly, her tone carrying a sense of "I knew it," "go on."

Hermione stared at the innocent cloud of mist, a fierce internal struggle raging within her. She wanted to say it was moving, that it resembled an eagle, that it foreshadowed some kind of... change.

Her lips parted, then closed again. No, she couldn't do it. Her mind was like a knife sharpened to an unsharpened edge, desperately cutting through this illogical fog, sending sparks flying.

"I didn't see anything." Hermione sat up straight, her voice suddenly regaining its usual crispness. "Because there was nothing there to begin with. Crystal ball divination has no rational basis whatsoever. In my opinion, it's not a science at all, it's—"

"These are symptoms of an unopened third eye." Professor Trelawney's voice, barely audible, drowned out Hermione's. She straightened up and looked down at Hermione with a gaze that was a mixture of pity and obvious pleasure.

"Some people are born without a connection to the spiritual world, my dear. Your 'inner eye'..."

"My inner eye clearly sees that it is a glass ball."

Hermione stood up, the chair legs screeching across the floor. "There's nothing in there."

"Tsk tsk, no talent," Professor Trelawney shook her head, her voice even tinged with schadenfreude. "It's very, very obvious. I suggest you drop this course now, my dear, to avoid an even greater setback at the final exam. Some people are chosen, and some are not...

She paused meaningfully, her gaze slowly sweeping over Hermione as if examining a piece of porcelain that had been identified as a fake.

"Oh, I'll give up." Hermione slung her bag over her shoulder, the movement so forceful it nearly knocked Harry's teacup to the ground. "Right now."

She turned and left, her arm drawing a beautiful arc as she turned—sweeping right across the perfectly round crystal ball on the edge of the table.

The crystal ball rolled off the table, tracing an almost elegant parabola in the air before crashing to the ground with a "thud," and then continued rolling away.

The classroom was completely silent.

Professor Trelawney slowly shifted her gaze from the crystal ball back to Hermione, her lips slightly parted. "Did I just say something?"

Hermione strode toward the trapdoor, her thick brown curls swaying proudly behind her shoulders like a victorious banner.

Harry and Ron exchanged a shocked glance, realizing for the first time that Hermione was far more of a Gryffindor than the two of them.

"Julien, why are you laughing so happily?" Liria asked, noticing Julien's sly grin.

"A memorable scene, isn't it?"

"Indeed, I didn't expect Hermione to be so amazing," Elizabeth remarked. "Julien, what did you see in the crystal ball?"

"That's too exhausting and mentally taxing, I won't watch it," Julien said decisively.

"Mr. Black, you tell us," Trelawney then turned to Julien.

Julien: ...

As soon as the school bell rang, the young wizards seemed to sense a signal of liberation and immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

"Julien?" Liria suddenly called out to him, a hint of worry on her face. "Did you really see a wolf howling under the willow tree?"

"Yes, that's how it's called: Ah~ Oh~," Julien laughed.

"He saw nothing, it's all made up," Elizabeth laughed, putting her arm around Liria's shoulder. "Only you would believe that."

As they walked downstairs chatting and laughing, they suddenly saw a crystal ball lying quietly at the corner of the stairs.

Julien recalled that in the original story, it was Harry Potter who found the crystal ball, returned it to Trelawney, and thus heard a true prophecy from Trelawney.

"Where's Harry?" Julien looked around.

"What's wrong?" Liria replied. "He and Ron went downstairs a while ago, saying they were in a hurry to check on Hermione."

"I see," Julien said thoughtfully as he picked up the crystal ball. "This should be the crystal ball Hermione knocked over earlier. I'll go return it to Trelawney."

"Okay, let's meet at the restaurant later. Liria and I are heading out now; we don't want to climb the stairs again." Elizabeth said, then grabbed Liria and skipped downstairs.

"Professor," Julien said as he walked back into the classroom, where Trelawney was still lost in her own world.

Julien placed the crystal ball on the podium in front of Professor Trelawney. "This one fell downstairs, so I'm putting it here."

Professor Trelawney looked up, and the moment her gaze fell on the crystal ball, she froze.

Those big, watery eyes lost focus, and the pupils dilated rapidly until they almost filled the entire iris.

Her mouth opened slightly, and the sound she made was no longer erratic, but a hoarse, deep, and hollow sound that she had never heard before.

The sound didn't even seem to come from her throat, but rather from every corner of the classroom, from the walls, from the ceiling, from the depths of those purple silk folds.

"Shattered stars..." Professor Trelawney seemed to lose consciousness, "A wait of over a thousand years..."

Julien's blood congealed. He felt the eagle-headed hound totem on the inside of his right wrist begin to burn intensely, as if it were about to burst through his skin.

Shouldn't this be a prophecy about Voldemort and that rat? (Check-in failed.)

"The triple keys are converging..." Professor Trelawney continued, her head tilting back as her shawl slipped to the ground. "The raven brought the first fragment... the rose bloomed a second amidst the thorns... and the winds of the North... brought the third aurora..."

Her fingers gripped Julien's wrist tightly with astonishing force. Her unfocused eyes stared intently at Julien, yet seemed to pierce through him, gazing at some distant place.

"The Stargate is about to open..." Her voice grew softer and softer, as if she were reciting an ancient elegy, "The key has been turned... Will the world be healed... or will it come to an end...? It depends... it depends..."

She suddenly began to tremble violently, her voice rising in pitch, carrying an almost terrified sharpness.

"It depends on what, Professor!" Julien tried to break free, but Professor Trelawney's fingers gripped his wrist like iron clamps.

"Watch out..." Her voice suddenly turned into a whisper, that elusive whisper that truly belonged to Sybil Trelawney, "Watch out for the enemy without a shadow... it's more..."

"Even more!"

Trelawney didn't answer, and suddenly leaned forward, her forehead almost hitting the corner of the table. Julien quickly caught her.

"Professor, what did you say?"

Trelawney had returned to normal by now, her eyes clear yet confused. "What did I just say?"

"No, you didn't say anything. I've come to return the crystal ball."

"Okay, have a good appetite."

At the far end of the restaurant, Elizabeth and Liria were standing there waiting for him, their faces questioning.

Julien walked over, said nothing, but gently shook his head, indicating that this was not the place to talk.

But in his heart, Professor Trelawney's hollow voice still echoed:

The stargate is about to open...

The willow tree outside the window suddenly began to shake violently, even though there was no wind at the moment.