The First Prediction

            Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; 1981:

"Why does it have to be all the way across the school from Potions?" Sirius Black groaned as he and his friends climbed their seventh staircase.

"Because Potions is in the dungeons and Divination is in the tower?" Remus Lupin asked, tired of his friend's complaining.

"Stupid of them to make them like that." Sirius grumbled.  James Potter sighed.  They had not been back in school a week; they were in their fourth year.  Already Sirius was in a bad mood, because of an injury he had suffered just before school had started. He had broken his arm and it had prohibited him from playing in the first Quiddich match next week.  He refused to tell his friends just how he'd done it, always changing the subject.  But now he was angry and sore because of their last class Potions, and the fact that his injured arm, as well as his friends, forbid him to kill their archenemy, Severus Snape, who was making several extremely rude comments about Sirius's heritage and Remus's social status.

Just as Sirius thought he would take an axe to the next staircase he saw, they reached the top.  The magical ladder came down and let them up. Why they were taking this class again, after last year, Sirius didn't know. Probably because it was so much fun to torture the Professor so much. She was convinced he was going to die, though he hadn't croaked yet.

They climbed into the smoke filled room.  Sirius sneezed and flopped into a chair, Remus, James and Peter crowding around him, and choosing chairs.

"Hello, children." A misty voice came from the shadows of the dense smoke. Sirius coughed and James swore he might have heard a few words in there that Sirius would get detention for life for saying, had Professor Trelawney heard him.

Professor Trelawney glanced at Sirius, and then continued. "Welcome to your second year of Divination.  This year we will be doing many important things so make sure you keep up your work and come to class. Yes?" she asked Sirius, who was franticly waving his hand in the air.

"But I have a problem. You see, I'm hyperactive and if I don't take my medication in ten minutes, I start throwing things."  The class laughed.  Professor Trelawney glared at him over her rimmed spectacles.

"We will be starting with palm reading, then going into reading the stars, and prophesizing."

"Palm reading? That's easy. " Sirius whispered. He held up his right hand, the one not in a sling, and pretended to be deep in interest, tracing the lines on his hand. " Look at this!  I'm right handed, fell off my bike last summer, and jammed my thumb this morning."  He said in a mysterious voice.

"Really? How can you tell?"  James asked, playing along and pretending to be amazed.

"Well, I'm just physic, Prongs.  I just know these things."

"Mr. Black!" Professor Trelawney's sharp voice broke through their laugher.  Sirius looked at her, innocence written all over his face.

"Since you are so eager to learn, perhaps you would like to show us all?"  Sirius shrugged and got up, sitting beside her.  She glared at him, and then took his free hand. She gazed at his sling until he glared back and she looked at his hand. 

"My my, yes. Oh my, " she kept on muttering as she gazed at it, pulling his hand right up to her face. Sirius rolled his eyes, and James and Remus grinned.

"I am afraid, Mr. Black, that your life line is about the shortest I have ever seen. "

"I'm not surprised." Resmus whispered to James, who nodded. All last year, Professor Tralawney had been informing Sirius in any way possible, that he was going to die simply because he had a "grim" in his tea cup the first day of class.  As far as the Marauders were concerned, the large black dog, Trelawney saw was not a spectral ghost dog, but Sirius's chosen animagi form. He had yet to die, though and so the Marauders were skeptical.  But Professor Trelawney either didn't hear them, or didn't bother to tell them off, and went on   explaining Sirius's hand to the class.

" You hold a deadly secret in your hands.  It would do a lot of people a world of good if you told." She said. For a second Sirius frowned.  It was true; he   was currently keeping several secrets.  But he doubted, Moony's being a werewolf, or the animagi potion to be that bad. So if she was to be believed, it was his home life she was referring to. As to people who could benefit from that, Sirius could only think of two, himself and his twin sister, Addi.

"Then I better tell fast, now hadn't I?" Sirius asked. He grinned. "Fine then.  Did you know that Remus is a werewolf, and James, Peter, and I are planning to become animagi so we can be with him during the full moon."  James and Remus stared at him for a minute, and then James began to laugh, seeing what Sirius was doing.  Remus joined him and soon the whole class was laughing hysterically, pushed by the fact that Sirius sat there, his hand still held by the Professor, and his face perfectly straight.  He had no reaction at all.  This only made everyone laugh harder.

Professor Trelawney glared and opened her mouth to say something else, when a glazed look came over her. She tightened her grip on Sirius's hand.

"Professor?" he asked.  James and Remus stopped laughing when they saw her.  She stared off into space for a moment until there was absolute silence in the room.  No one was sure what to do, whether to go for help or stay put. Sirius tried to take his hand away, but she refused to let go.  He bit his lip in worry and glanced at his friends, who shrugged.

Then she spoke in a low hoarse voice, very much different than her usual light lilting on. 

"The fate of four present among us, has been declared

The innocent will rot, and the guilty, walk free

One will remain and one will die.

From he, who is sacrificed, will come

He who will defeat

The ancient curse must be broken

Or all will be doomed.

The battle must end

With he who will live."

The room was silent, Sirius looking absolutely terrified now.   He was watching her with large frightened eyes.

Professor Trelawney   shook her head, and the glazed look left. She frowned and turned to Sirius, pointing her finger at him and waving it in front of his face.

"Mr. Black, this is not something to joke about.  Now go sit down." Sirius yanked his hand from hers as fast as he could and backed away.  He almost fell into his seat and pushed it back as far as it would go.  Professor Trelawney didn't seemed to notice the strange looks she was getting or the silence of the class.  She simply smiled and motioned for them to pair up.

"Pair up, and see what you can do. If you need help, just call me."  Silently, they did so, giving her wary looks as they did so.  The rest of the class passed without incident, and it soon slipped from the minds of the fourth year Gryffindors. But years later, one would remember it. 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: 1999

Remus Lupin sighed as he walked the halls of his old school.  He was trying to find his classroom.  His first day of classes, and already he was late. True, he'd gone to school, and later worked here, but still everything always seemed to change.

He sighed as he realized he'd turned one corner two many and spun around, just in time to ump into Sybil Trelawney, his old Divination teacher.

She adjusted her spectacles. "Remus Lupin.  It is a pleasure to see you again."

"Professor Trelawney, you haven't changed a bit."  She glared at him, as if unsure as to whether to take it as a compliment, or an insult.

"My boy, what are you doing here?"  He smiled a bit.

"I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And I seem to be a bit lost."

"Yes, it must have been hard for you.  Both Mr. Potter and Mr. Pettigrew dead, and Mr. Black imprisoned. I never would have imagined he was capable for such a heinous act, but then he was always a bit strange."  Remus winced. He wished she hadn't brought that up.

"No, I mean I can't find my classroom."  He covered his sorrow as he had so many times over the past years and smiled.

"Oh. Down the hall and to the right."  She glared at him, and then glided down the hall. He watched her go, and picked up his battered old suitcase, sighing. 

But as he did so, an eerie voice echoed in the back of his mind. Part of something long forgotten and long dormant   shoved its way to the front of his mind. For a brief moment, he was back in the smoke filled tower with James, Sirius, and Peter, and listening to the strange voice coming from their teacher.

"The fate of four present among us, has been declared

The innocent will rot, and the guilty, walk free

One will remain and one will die."

 They had been those four. He shook his head.  Now is not the time to remember the past, Lupin, he told himself as he marched down the hall, suitcase in hand.

He paused at the door. Inside he could hear them.  James's voice, no! He stopped himself, Harry's voice echoed from the classroom. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob, plastered a faint smile on his face, and walked inside.