Chapter 83: Eighty-Three

"Oh, two young wizards, the esteemed Divination professor has just appeared in the first-floor corridor. I believe she might be heading to the kitchen to warm some wine. If you'd like to avoid her, you'd better leave now," said an older house-elf, its tea towel emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest.

Lys's expression changed instantly, and she hurried toward the door. Snape, though puzzled by her urgency, followed her. After all, given her knack for avoiding Peeves earlier, sticking with her seemed like a safe bet.

As for why Lys was in such a rush, it all went back to the last Divination class. Ever since she realized Divination was utterly useless, Lys had spent most lessons zoning out. She would stare at the tea leaves at the bottom of her cup, her mind wandering to other topics—spell progress, the lily's growth, the boundaries between light and dark magic, or the impact of emotions on spellcasting accuracy.

This habit led to an embarrassing moment when the professor called on her to read the third line of tea leaf shapes. Lost in thought, Lys began reading aloud: "According to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, food cannot be..." She was halfway through before realizing she was holding her Transfiguration textbook instead.

The gypsy witch, who reeked of alcohol, sipped from her own teacup—Lys strongly suspected it was sherry—and stared at her with an odd, dreamy gaze for an uncomfortably long time.

Feeling uneasy, Lys shifted her gaze away, only to feel a hand suddenly brush aside the hair on her forehead before quickly withdrawing.

"Sit down, child; it's nothing to worry about. Divination is a field where we can only confirm its existence through the lens of history. What I'm teaching you now is merely a method to sift through the masses and identify the rare, one-in-a-million individuals with talent and vision. Clearly, child, you're not suited for this path."

"That said, I'm merely someone who has barely taken half a step down this road. I can't definitively judge your journey, but..." The professor pulled out a deck of cards from who-knows-where and solemnly lit a bundle of white sage over them.

After studying Lys's face, shuffling the cards rapidly, she asked Lys to pick one.

Still fuming internally about someone touching her head without permission, Lys absentmindedly pointed to a card in the corner, having no idea what it meant. After all, she had spent most of the class daydreaming.

The professor drew the card and stared at it for a long time. She then reached out again, seemingly intending to brush aside Lys's hair once more, but this time Lys dodged.

The professor's demeanor shifted slightly, her tone growing sharper. "Divination reveals only possibilities, child, but what I see isn't promising. That's all I can tell you."

The alcohol-induced haze in her eyes momentarily cleared, replaced by a strange emotion.

"What I see is... a resolute executor," she said, before hiccupping. Students seated nearby discreetly covered their noses and mouths—the smell of fermented alcohol was far from pleasant.

A Ravenclaw student at a nearby table muttered impatiently, "Here we go again. If we've been deemed unqualified after months of this, just let us study something else instead of wasting our time here."

Clearly, the professor's spiel about talent selection had been repeated many times before.

Ignoring the boy, the professor turned to Lys's teacup, which she had just placed on the table. She rotated it left, then right. "Hmm, determination and fear... And is that a thorn? Hardship, obstacles... Oh, and what's this? Well, at least... there's still hope," she murmured, clicking her tongue.

She glanced at Lys again, as if about to whisper something in her ear. But before she could, her pet—a magical dormouse—rolled off the brim of her hat.

Neither the students nor the professor reacted much; such incidents were common in her classes. After speaking with a student, the professor would simply place the dormouse back on her hat to continue its nap.

But this wasn't just any student. This was Lys, who carried a snake with her at all times—a snake with an unusual appetite for magical creatures.

When Gobble lifted its head from beside Lys's ear with a crunching sound, she instinctively swiped the professor's pet off the table, sending it flying.

She grabbed Gobble by its short, stubby tail as it leaped after its prey.

"Gobble! No eating!"

Though the dormouse appeared unharmed, the professor was visibly furious.

Even at the Christmas feast, the professor would shoot Lys a look of indignation whenever their eyes met.

So while Snape could afford to be seen by the Divination professor—after all, a professor who openly drank during class wouldn't trouble a student for sneaking into the kitchen at night—Lys couldn't.

If she were caught tonight, she'd surely end up scrubbing cauldrons in Professor Slughorn's office as punishment!

The Divination professor didn't like her, not after Gobble almost devoured her pet...

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