The next morning, we were walking back up to the castle from Care of Magical Creatures when, just behind us, I heard Draco talking about Hagrid.

“Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic? And he’s supposed to be our teacher!”

I glanced down to see Hermione, Harry and Ron just behind him.

All three of them made furious moves towards Draco. Hermione got there first. SMACK! She punched Draco hard in the face, and I couldn’t help but grin.

“Don’t you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul – you evil –”

“Hermione!” Ron exclaimed, trying to hold Hermione back.

She shook out of his grip. “Get off, Ron!”

Then she pulled her wand.

That was going a bit too far.

Draco muttered something to Crabbe and Goyle – I didn’t hear what –and they ran off, past us.

Ron and Harry were looking at Hermione with respect, but I had no time to lose.

I turned away from Blaise and Anja, who were arguing (as usual), and turned the Time-Turner.

Then I walked off to my next class.

***

In Divination, everything was normal.

That is to say, Kaya was being extremely sarcastic, and Holly…well, Holly was being crazy.

So far this lesson, in her crystal ball, she had seen a rainbow, a pig, herself, and a lot of fog.

According to her, that meant she would have money, bacon, her life…and fog.

“Hmmm…” Kaya observed, peering into her crystal ball.

Her face turned serious. “Oh, what is this I see?Oh, dear me, I think it is…fog! Oh no, how terrifying!”

Holly and I burst out laughing.

Anja looked over at me, eyes raised.

I turned back to my crystal ball, attempting to see anything at all.

As Kaya said, all I could see was a whole lot of fog.

And that wasn’t exactly cause for excitement.

Professor Trelawney went over to Harry’s table, where he, Ron and Hermione were seated. She peered into Harry’s crystal ball, and I had a very good idea of what she had ‘seen’.

“My dear…” Professor Trelawney breathed, “It is here, plainer than ever before…my dear, stalking towards you, growing ever closer…the Gr –”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Hermione exclaimed. “Not that ridiculous Grim again!”

Trelawney stood up, giving Hermione a death stare.

“I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly Mundane.”

“Fine!” Hermione shoved her textbook into her bag and stood, glaring at Trelawney. “Fine! I give up! I’m leaving!”

And, honestly, I didn’t blame her.

She climbed down the ladder out of the classroom, leaving total silence behind her.

Lavender, to my complete and utter disgust, reminded the whole class loudly of Trelawney telling us that one of our number would leave us forever.

Trelawney agreed, of course.

I pondered the depths of my crystal ball thoughtfully.

Was Trelawney really just a fraud, or could she actually see these things?

But as I peered closer into the swirling fogs of the ball, I thought I could see a shaggy, black dog, moving closer and closer…

***

After having to go back in time to the library twice to do my work, I was still struggling.

The exams were fast approaching.

Not to mention all the excitement with the final Quidditch match fast approaching.

It would be on the first Saturday after term started back. We were 200 points ahead, but with Harry’s Firebolt, he was much more likely to catch the Snitch than Draco was.

So we had a reasonable chance.

The night before the match, the Common Room was extremely tense. Everyone was talking. Draco seemed fairly confident.

Blaise and Anja kept trying to talk to me, but I had work to do.

Finally, I put down my book, parchment and quill. I couldn’t concentrate.

Most of the attention was on Draco and Flint, but everyone knew the other team members too – including Anja and me.

Some older student – a sixth-year or someone around that age –came over to where Blaise, Anja and I were. For some reason, he seemed primarily interested in Anja. “Hey, you! Is it true that you’re dating a Ravenclaw Chaser?”

I had an idea of where this was going.

Anja frowned. “Yeah…why?”

“You’re a traitor!” the sixth-year accused her.

I stood up. “How could you say that?! That’s ridiculous! She’s allowed to date whoever she likes!”

The sixth-year took his wand and pointed it at me. “You’re a traitor too! Tara –”

“Expecto Patronum!” I didn’t want to actually hurt this guy. My owl flew at him and he stumbled back.

He gave me one last glare before marching off.

I smirked, then turned back to the others. “So, what were you saying?”

The two of them stared at me, awed.

That night, no-one went to their dormitories until 11:30 pm, when Sirius and Gemma ordered us to go to bed.

***

Before breakfast, I grabbed my Invisibility Cloak. I never knew when I might need to sneak up on someone…

The atmosphere at breakfast before the match was high-charged. The Gryffindors kept giving us rude gestures, along with some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs who had sided with them.

But they weren’t the only ones.

Flint was mouthing swear words at Wood, while gesturing rudely at the members of their team.

The sixth-year who had called Anja and me traitors was giving me dirty looks every couple of minutes.

I raised my eyebrows at him and turned away.

After breakfast, Alex and Blaise wished Anja and me good luck and then walked away.

***

Not long into the game, Angelina scored.

It didn’t take long for Gryffindor to get well ahead of us.

Soon the score was 80-20 to Gryffindor, and that meant that if Harry caught the Snitch now, they would win.

Draco saw the Snitch first and went into a dive, a look of triumph on his face.

Harry, meanwhile, was scattering the Chasers, who had tried to stop anyone scoring.

He suddenly looked over at Draco and I could see his face change to one of horror.

I smirked and hit a Bludger at him, which he unfortunately dodged.

The two Seekers raced towards the tiny Snitch.

Everyone else abandoned whatever they were doing, watching the two of them dive.

Finally, Harry reached out and caught the Snitch.

Noise exploded from every direction.

I didn’t know how to describe the way I felt right then.

It was exactly like euphoria…only the complete opposite.

The Gryffindor team were yelling incomprehensibly while Flint screamed at us.

I sank back to earth. I didn’t pay much attention to Anja, who was going on about how Harry had cheated, or something…

And then I saw it.

I quiet scuffle in the bushes nearby drew my attention. I saw a familiar orange cat emerge, followed closely by a shaggy, black dog.

I felt around in my pockets for my Invisibility Cloak.

I finally found it. I walked over to Anja, whispered, “See you later,” and then threw the Cloak over myself.