Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 499 Some people just drift apart while walking

The excitement lasted until Professor Lupin's History of Magic class, even after his thrilling and interesting Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.

Compared to the previous three years, Professor Binns' teaching methods remained unchanged.

In short—it's like a ghost giving a lecture, full of nonsense.

However, Professor Lupin's course had a strong aftereffect; even under Professor Binns' unique hypnotic teaching method, everyone remained steadfast for quite a while.

Unfortunately, this momentum didn't last long.

After a little over half of the first class, everyone was already exhausted.

When the first class was two-thirds over, everyone had fallen back into that drowsy state.

It wasn't until the bell rang that everyone snapped back to reality.

Great! I caught up on a nap in class today, so I'm sure I'll be full of energy tomorrow.

When it was time for dinner, Harry made a suggestion.

It would be best to start working on the prophecy assignment given by Professor Trelawney tonight.

After all, Ron's lewd jokes had infuriated Professor Trelawney, who assigned them three times the usual amount of homework.

Otherwise, they might not be able to finish by the time the next divination class begins.

"Sherlock, you're the best!"

Ron said with a hint of envy, "Even if you don't do your homework, Professor Trelawney won't do anything to you..."

This is not the first time this has happened.

For well-known reasons, Professor Trelawney never did Sherlock's homework.

Not only that, she even wished Sherlock wouldn't have to attend her classes.

That way, she can have more freedom in the classroom.

Otherwise, the kind of situation where "you predict the future, and I infer the past" will keep happening.

That was so embarrassing.

Hermione did not participate in Harry and Ron's conversation at the dinner table.

Just like before, she wolfed down her food, eating very quickly.

However, this time before going to the library, she glanced at Sherlock, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping herself.

"What is it?" Sherlock, having noticed Hermione's actions, asked.

"No, it's nothing..."

Hermione shook her head and ultimately went to the library alone.

Watching her retreating figure, Sherlock wore a thoughtful expression.

After dinner, the three of them walked together toward the Gryffindor Tower.

Upon reaching the entrance and giving the command, the fat lady swung forward, revealing the opening.

They climbed into the Gryffindor common room, which was crowded and noisy.

Seeing the scene, Harry said to Ron, "How about we go get the Divination class stuff?"

“Okay,” Ron said listlessly.

They went upstairs to their dormitory to get their textbooks and charts, and then...

"Wait, where's Sherlock?"

The moment Ron found his textbook, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Looking left and right, up and down, it finally dawned on me that Sherlock had disappeared again!
The reason I say "again" is because this is not the first time this has happened.

On several occasions in the past, when the three or four of them were walking together, Sherlock would disappear.

Some people drift apart as they walk along.

Some things fade away as you look at them.

After it happened a few times, Harry and Ron got used to it.

"Uh... I think they probably went to the Forbidden Forest?"

Harry said somewhat uncertainly, "He hasn't been there this week yet!"

"But doesn't he usually go at night when he's sleeping?"

“You just said that he doesn’t have to do homework for divination class... Since we have time, why not go earlier? That way, the exploration time will be extended in a roundabout way.”

"That's right, even if he goes to the Forbidden Forest now, he'll never get caught."

"How wonderful!"

"Yes, it's truly blissful."

"..."

And so, Harry and Ron returned to the common room with their copy of "Seeing the Future Through the Fog," found a table, and began to predict their fate for the coming month.

However, after an hour, they made no progress whatsoever.

Many pieces of parchment covered with numbers and symbols were scattered haphazardly on the table.

Harry's mind was filled with a fog, as if it were filled with the smoke rising from Professor Trelawney's fireplace.

"What does this thing even mean? I have absolutely no idea!"

He looked down at the long row of calculation formulas, somewhat questioning the meaning of life.

Ron's hair stood on end as he kept scratching his head in frustration.
“Well… Harry… actually, I have a bold idea.”

“Oh, what idea is it? Tell me about it!” Harry immediately became interested.

"Using the traditional program of divination classes."

"You mean—made it up out of thin air?"

"That's right!"

Ron snapped his fingers and then swept the messy pile of draft papers off the table onto the floor.

He looked at Harry, his eyes gleaming:

“You know her—we try to make up some unfortunate stories, and she likes to see them.”

Harry glanced at the draft paper that Ron had swept to the ground and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it.

After all, it was the result of an hour of hard work—even though it was ultimately useless.

But then he saw Ron pick up his quill, dip it in ink, and start writing.

On second thought, Ron was absolutely right.

Do not break or stand!

Thinking of this, he simply followed Ron's example and put all the results of his hard work into one piece.

He then tossed the crumpled paper over the heads of a group of chattering first-year students and into the fire.

Then the two started showing off:
"I might cough next Monday because Mars and Jupiter are unfortunately in conjunction."

After Ron finished speaking, he looked up at Harry.

Harry: "No problem, on Monday, I'll be in... um... danger of getting burned?"

"That makes a lot of sense. We'll encounter the 'Fried Tail Snail' on Monday."

"So... you'll lose money on Tuesday because of Mercury?"

"No problem, as for you..."

The two then began to fabricate prophecies for each other.

When I couldn't think of any tragedy, I would turn to the book "Seeing the Future Through the Fog" to find some ideas.

As time went on, the tragic elements of their fabricated prophecies became increasingly pronounced.

From the initial stumble while walking, to burns, freezing, numbness, confusion... to curses, petrification, poisoning, bleeding... and even death from severe injuries.

Another hour passed, and the people in the common room gradually went back to sleep, and the surroundings slowly became quiet.

Just then, Crookshanks strolled over and nimbly jumped onto an empty chair. It gazed at Harry and Ron with a profound and enigmatic look.

Harry thought that look was remarkably similar to Hermione's.

Because if Hermione knew they were cheating on their homework, she would have the same expression.

But none of that matters now.

After all, following the normal steps, it would be really difficult to complete the assignment given by Professor Trelawney.

Harry looked around, racking his brains for an unfortunate incident he hadn't yet encountered.

Just then, he saw Lavender Brown showing her drawn celestial divination chart to Parvati Petil.

These two have been staunch supporters of Professor Trelawney since last year.

He always made sure to sit as close to Professor Trelawney as possible in class and treated every word she said as gospel.

Professor Trelawney also took good care of them.

They not only frequently claimed in class that they were the most likely to have a third eye, but also always praised them for having extremely high divination talent.

For example, this time, although the whole class was assigned a lot of homework because of Ron, Lavender and Parvati were not unhappy at all.

Harry looked at them, and saw Parvati shake her head at Lavender, cross something off the paper with her quill, and then say something.

Although the voice was very low, it still carried to the other end of the almost empty lounge.

She said, "No—that's not the right position; your premonition isn't strong enough."

At that moment, Lavender looked up and saw Harry staring at them.

Harry grinned and quickly looked down at his prophecy.

He didn't want Lavender to think he was eavesdropping.

Shortly afterward, Parvati and Ravander rolled up the parchment and walked toward them.

As if they had planned it together, Parvati sat down next to Harry, and Lavender sat down next to Ron.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to sleep?"

Harry was flattered. Since entering fourth year, the Petit twins had grown even more beautiful.

The two sisters were undoubtedly the most beautiful girls in the entire grade.

Even in the entire school, only Qiu Zhang could outshine the two sisters.

Even Ginny, who is a year younger than them, is not suitable.

However, Harry had never been this close to Parvati before, and being used to seeing Cho Chang and Ginny, the feeling wasn't that obvious.

Compared to the somewhat awkward Harry, Ron seemed much more outgoing.

That's normal, considering he was the one driving right in front of Lavender.

So he readily presented his homework to Lavender.

Lavender took it curiously and his eyes widened immediately.

"Ron, this isn't a prophecy, it's clearly fiction!"

Lavender's voice carried the exaggerated tone of Professor Trelawney's lectures:

“Look at this sentence: ‘He accidentally fell into the black lake, got entangled by a giant squid, and bled profusely.’”

That's outrageous! When Mercury and Jupiter are in aspect, it only indicates financial loss, not that it will attract giant squid.

Professor Trelawney taught that prophecies must be based on actual celestial phenomena.

Lavender spoke eloquently, but Ron simply shrugged and nonchalantly scratched his messy red hair:

"Hey, anyway, she loves hearing these kinds of unfortunate stories. The more tragic the story, the happier she is."

Besides, my mind is full of those divination symbols right now, I really can't make up any more.

Look over there, Harry—"

Harry looked at Parvati nervously.

Parvati was sitting very close, and Harry could clearly smell the floral scent in her hair, which made him even more nervous.

He thought of Cho Chang—Pavati's beauty was indeed not much less than Cho's, only she was more lively.

Parvati, on the other hand, was quite composed and simply picked up Harry's draft paper and glanced at it.

“Harry, you said here that ‘I’ll be whipped by the Willow next Wednesday because the Sun and Neptune are in opposition’, that’s too casual.”

Parvati shook his head, his tone slightly teasing, but his eyes were serious.

"The Sun opposing Neptune can easily cause hallucinations, which has nothing to do with plant attacks."

Lavender is right; you need to combine it with real divination theory.

She opened the book on the table, "Seeing the Future Through the Fog," and turned to the page with the Tiangong charts:
“Look here—if Mars is in the seventh house, it indicates potential physical harm.”

You could change it to 'Mercury retrograde caused a leg sprain,' at least that sounds more plausible.

Harry looked at Ron with a wry smile. The two exchanged a glance and realized that Parvati and Lavender genuinely wanted to help.

Or perhaps they simply couldn't stand their haphazardly fabricated "reserved programs" anymore.

Crookshan remained seated on the chair beside them, watching them intently, his unfathomable eyes seeming to grow even deeper.

But Harry quickly dismissed the thought and focused on Parvati's advice.

Lavender pulled out his prophecy diagram and handed it to Ron: "Alright, I'll polish it up for you."

Professor Trelawney said my clairvoyance is very accurate; last time I accurately predicted that Neville would burn the crucible.

Come on, take a look—how much more accurate is it to change this to 'Mars opposes Jupiter, indicating shortness of breath on Monday'?
Ron, you do always sneeze during Snape's class.

Ron grinned and began copying, immediately feeling much more relaxed.

Lavender pointed out the flaws from the side, occasionally bursting into laughter.

Parvati, on the other hand, focused on instructing Harry:

“Harry, don’t be so nervous. The secret of Divination is to disguise prophecies with real events—for example, you just said ‘burned,’ wasn’t that good?”

The "exploding snail" experiment presents a real threat, and the professor would definitely buy into it.

Harry gradually relaxed and followed Parvati's instructions to rearrange the numbers and symbols.

Only the four of them and Crookshan remained in the common room. The moonlight outside the window was hazy, and the firelight from the fireplace made the parchment glow red.

Lavender suddenly exclaimed, "Ron, and here too, it seems you're going to drown twice next month!"

All four of them couldn't help but laugh, and the atmosphere became relaxed.

The assignment gradually took shape: Harry and Ron's "prophecy" was revised to be much more reasonable, but at its core it was still a story of misfortune they had made up.

As they signed their names and put away the parchment, Lavender suddenly said seriously, "Alright, but you'd better do your homework properly next week!"

The professor said that true fortune tellers rely on talent, not on making things up.

Ron nodded perfunctorily, while Harry muttered under his breath, "Thank goodness Hermione isn't here, or she would definitely laugh at us for not being brave enough."

Just then, the portrait of the fat lady was suddenly pushed aside, and Hermione hurriedly scrambled in.

She held a roll of parchment in one hand and a box in the other.

As she walked, the contents of the box made a clicking sound.

Crookshan arched its back and purred.

"Hello," she said, "I'm done with my work!"

“I’m done too!” Ron said smugly, tossing down his quill.

She glanced at the divination books and scattered parchment on the table, her brow furrowed—a look exactly like Crookshanks'.

Hermione sat down, placed what she was holding on an empty chair, and pulled the prophecy written by Ron in front of her.

"You've had a really unlucky month, haven't you?"

She said sarcastically that Crookshan was curled up on her knees.

Seeing this, Harry immediately stuffed his homework into his bag and pretended nothing was wrong.

Lavender and Pavati exchanged a meaningful glance.