Chapter- 44 : Fraudulence Part - 2

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Her smile turned vapid even as her eyes turned wide and she raised both hands to the sky. Slowly she tilted her head backwards as well but peered down her nose at his wand, which was still lit at the tip with a blasting curse.

"I have foreseen your coming," she cried dramatically, "knowing that you would present grave danger! I feared for my life but even I must obey the Fates. Thus, I did not prevent our meeting."

Harry rolled his eyes, but lowered his wand. "You're a portrait. You had little choice."

"Oh, but our choices weave the tapestry of fate even long after we have left the mortal coil," she cried.

"Well, at least I now know where Trelawney got her inspiration," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" she asked loudly. "I'm sorry, though my Inner Eye is as strong as ever, the same can't be said for my hearing, I'm afraid."

Harry's shoulders slumped. "Never mind." He turned to leave and waved at her over his shoulder. "Have fun predicting... well, whatever you do."

"No, wait! Please!" she cried from behind him and he half-turned, lifting an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but you had me moved from your chambers. Please don't leave me alone?"

Harry shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry too, but I don't want you to tell the Headmaster everything that I do there."

She turned red with indignation. "I would never!"

Harry blinked. "Don't you have to do what he says?"

She scoffed. "Have you ever met a portrait that did as it was told?" she asked disdainfully.

Harry immediately recalled the screaming hag in the parlour of Number 12, Grimmauld Place, also known as the portrait of Sirius's mother. They had tried everything and she just would not shut up.

Still... "Well, there's all those portraits in Dumbledore's office doing his bidding."

"They're friends," she enunciated slowly, as if he was an ignorant child. "The Headmaster asks and they do him favours if it pleases them."

"Oh," he said, stunned. "I didn't know that."

"So, will you bring me back? Please?"

Harry groaned. "I don't know. I'm not all that fond of having my death predicted dramatically all that often." To his surprise she blushed.

"And if I promise not to do that?" she said in a small voice.

He shot her an openly suspicious look. "Are you sure you can?"

She huffed. "I'll have you know that I am perfectly capable of acting like a rational human being. It's just..." She hesitated. "Can you keep a secret?"

This time he lifted both eyebrows before he hesitantly nodded.

"I'm... not really like that. Everyone always wanted to talk to Cassandra Trelawney of the all-seeing eye, celebrated Seer, yadi-yadi-yadah. All the expectations got boring after a while so I developed this hazy persona to, you know, irritate the lot of them until they started treating me like a person."

He gave her a blank stare. "You, Cassandra Trelawney, the most famous-" He shook his head. "You're a fraud?"

She quickly shook her head "Oh no! My reputation was earned, I assure you. I really am a very good Seer and a Prophet and an expert Diviner among other things. I just act ditzy to shallow people I don't like."

"Oh." Harry hesitated. He really didn't want a portrait in his living room.

"How about if you want some privacy you just tell me and I go visit a few others so that you can spell the empty portrait after I leave? I'd hardly ever be in my frame if you didn't want me there."

He nodded slowly. "That I can do."

She clapped her hands happily. "Yay! Thank you, you are a god among men."

Shaking his head at her antics he nevertheless let out a small chuckle.

"Now," she said in a cheerful voice. "Where are we? I don't recall ever seeing this room before and I don't remember being moved."

"Room of Requirement. Becomes whatever the user needs."

She furrowed her brow. "And you needed... my portrait?"

"No, I..." He shut his mouth and frowned. Why had the room given him a portrait of Trelawney?

"Well come on, spit it out," she said eagerly. "You promised to keep my secret, so I'll promise to keep yours."

For some strange reason he trusted her. Besides, he would feel no remorse at utterly destroying a portrait if it was about to betray him, unlike if she were a real person. "I was offered the post of Divination teacher, but I don't actually know a lot about it and I just realised I don't want to lie to my students or be awful at the job."

She arched an eyebrow. "Never studied it yourself?"

"Well, I did, but..." He flushed and the rest of his words tumbled out of his mouth. "I never actually saw anything and mostly made up the homework."

Her lips pressed together in a thin line and suddenly she looked like McGonagall who would not be pleased at the resemblance. "Who was your teacher? Surely they would have noticed and put a stop to it?"

Harry smiled wryly. "Your many times great-granddaughter, Sybill. And as long as I predicted my death and it was gruesome my marks were quite high."

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