Jane Yu hadn't expected her prediction to come true before noon.
"Did you hear? Blaise has gone home!" Daphne Greengrass burst into the dormitory like a whirlwind. "His father passed away, and he's gone back for the funeral... Not that I know which number father this one was."
Jane was taken aback.
The speed at which her prediction had come true was truly astonishing!
Could it be… that tea leaf divination actually worked?
Daphne continued, her eyes filled with admiration and awe:
"Every one of his fathers was filthy rich, leaving him and his mother a fortune in inheritance!"
She had already heard about what had happened in Divination class; gossip never escaped her ears.
So, her roommate was a Seer!
With such unparalleled talent, combined with her extraordinary abilities...
Daphne felt her admiration for Jane surge like an unstoppable tide.
Her thoughts drifted to Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, who were constantly at odds with her and Jane—
Once again, she felt like the only one awake in a world full of fools.
News of Jane's prediction coming true quickly spread throughout Slytherin.
After all, in the Slytherin social circles, Madame Zabini was infamous, and her marital history was an open secret.
Soon, a line of students began forming during breaks, eager to have Jane reveal their fates.
Jane now had yet another source of side income.
As long as her words were cryptic enough, they would interpret them to fit their own situations—
And words like "ambition," "goals," and "seizing opportunities" were universally effective among Slytherins.
"You're unique, unlike anyone I've ever met. You give off an air of detachment, a sense of profound loneliness..."
The upper-year boy sitting across from Jane took a deep breath, nodding fervently like a pecking chicken.
"I've heard many people claim they feel lonely, but your loneliness is the real deal. Deep down, you've always been alone, always pretending to be someone you're not."
The boy closed his eyes, clutching his left arm with his right hand, where a lone wolf was tattooed.
"You crave excitement, danger, the unpredictable. You have ambition, a desire to achieve your goals and meet your parents' expectations... You seek excessive indulgence, irrational obsessions..."
He left in tears, but not before doubling the Galleons he handed over to Jane.
...
Today's Care of Magical Creatures class was a joint session with Gryffindor.
In fact, perhaps due to the tendency for Gryffindor and Slytherin classes to devolve into chaos, there weren't many joint lessons between the two houses.
Unfortunately for Hagrid, his first lesson had to face this awkward combination.
And his opening words immediately puzzled the students.
"Gather around the paddock!" he called out. "Oh, and—first things first, open your books—"
According to his plan, some students should have already figured out the secret to opening The Monster Book of Monsters: stroking its spine to calm it down.
But the students, clueless, simply laid their books flat.
Hagrid froze, clearly not expecting this. For a moment, he seemed at a loss for words.
"Er..." He picked up Hermione's book and discovered that the students' books were nothing like his own.
"What... what did you do to them?" Hagrid seemed flustered. "Why don't they have teeth anymore?"
Draco Malfoy immediately retorted with a sharp tone:
"The owner of Flourish and Blotts wouldn't want the textbooks biting off our hands—"
"They offer a tooth-removal service, and anyone with common sense would pay for it!"
Hagrid covered his broad forehead with one hand, suddenly at a loss for words:
"Alright, alright... I thought it'd be fun..."
The Slytherin students responded with discontented hisses. No one thought being bitten by a book was "fun."
Even the Gryffindors, for once, found themselves agreeing with the Slytherins, many of them rolling their eyes.
"Well, you've got your books," Hagrid said loudly, clearly struggling to handle the situation. "Now we just need the creatures... I'll go fetch them."
He left the students behind and disappeared into the Forbidden Forest.
Draco immediately began to slack off, saying smugly:
"Yu! Guess what? I beat Wizard Duel in just two days!"
Jane gave him a strange look.
This was a class with his nemesis present, and the Golden Trio were watching them warily—
Yet Draco wasn't provoking them; instead, he was bragging about clearing a video game?
"Uh... keep up the good work?" she encouraged uncertainly, feeling like Draco had become a different person since discovering video games.
But just because Draco wasn't provoking them didn't mean Harry Potter wouldn't.
Harry glared coldly in their direction and said, in a voice not loud but just loud enough for them to hear:
"Is that really worth bragging about? I beat it in a day."
This, of course, ignited Draco's anger, and the tension between them was about to explode.
Fortunately, Hagrid returned at that moment, leading a dozen Hippogriffs chained together.
Jane recognized the creatures from Newt's book. He had once told her that his mother used to breed them, which sparked his interest in magical creatures.
But seeing them in person still left her awestruck by their beauty. They had the bodies of horses, but their heads and front halves resembled eagles; their steel-like beaks gleamed, and their bright orange eyes were filled with pride. Their feathers shone brilliantly, varying in color.
They looked incredibly pettable.
And they could serve as mounts.
"They're temperamental, so don't insult them, or you might lose your life!" Hagrid said, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "Be polite, bow to them. If they bow back, you can approach and touch them. If they don't, step away quickly; those claws can be dangerous."
He asked for volunteers to try first, but most students took a step back, even his close friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione hesitated.
Jane was about to step forward to pet these adorable creatures when Draco's voice rang out beside her. He seemed to have finally found an outlet for his anger:
"Why not let Potter go first?"
Harry glared at him, and if not for Hagrid and Jane's presence, he might have punched Draco—
Or so he thought.
But Hagrid's pleading expression softened Harry's resolve. Out of support for his friend, he climbed over the paddock fence and bowed.
He succeeded. Buckbeak—the gray Hippogriff Hagrid had led out—allowed Harry to ride it into the sky, circling the paddock. The experience was far from comfortable, more jarring than playing Quidditch.
Looking down, Harry felt even worse. Jane and her roommates were chatting with Malfoy, none of them paying him any attention—which left Harry feeling frustrated and dejected.
With Harry's successful demonstration, the other students soon began nervously bowing to the Hippogriffs.
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