Bring a fairy tale to Hogwarts!

Time quickly moved to the next day.

Victor's first Divination class at Hogwarts began in the early morning and was for the seventh-year students.

Seventh-grade students are already used to fake fortune telling.

They'd been hanging out with Professor Trelawney for the past three years and could easily write four or five pages of parchment to explain why they'd been knocked into the Black Lake by a unicorn that suddenly appeared on Thursday.

Nymphadora Tonks is one of them.

"Sigh, I really don't know what kind of person this new professor is. I just hope he'll allow us to study on our own during his class," Tonks said worriedly.

"I only have two weeks to review NEWT."

"It's true! Hey, are you going to the Auror training in two weeks?"

"Yes!"

Speaking of this, Tonks proudly puffed out his chest.

She was a girl with red hair, wearing a robe bearing the Hufflepuff logo. She was not only a proto-Auror but also a Disguise Magus, capable of changing her appearance at will.

For her, divination was just a hobby and had nothing to do with graduating.

Tonks and his companions chatted as they climbed to the top of the tower.

The divination classroom was located in the spiral-shaped north tower, which originally had no steps. To maintain her mystique as a diviner, Professor Trelawney required all students to climb up a ladder hidden deep within a trapdoor.

But when Tonks reached the spot where the trapdoor had been, she was surprised to find that the door had disappeared.

Instead, a wooden spiral staircase allows them to walk directly up.

"Wow, this is really good."

She soon discovered that the divination classroom was completely different from what she remembered. The curtains that used to tightly cover the windows were all drawn back, and all the teacups, cabinets, and spices that filled the classroom had been moved away, making the classroom appear spacious and bright.

The only thing that gave the classroom a somewhat mysterious atmosphere was the four brass pocket watches placed on each round table according to the number of seats.

Victor van der Bohm sat behind a newly moved wooden table by the fireplace. He was dressed differently today, wearing a blue short-brimmed hat with silver trim, revealing a pair of dark, empty eyes on his pale face as he stared at the students below.

The students who had already entered sat quietly in their seats, not daring to make a sound.

Tonks was stunned for a moment.

"Welcome," Victor said casually.

"Just find a table and sit down, you two are the last two."

Tonks quickly pulled his companion to sit at a round table that was missing someone.

In fact, including the two of them, there were only seven people in the entire classroom—which fully demonstrates how unpopular Trelawney's divination class was before.

After they sat down, Victor spoke:

"I think you already know that my name is Victor Vanderbom. You can call me Professor Victor. I will be in charge of your divination class this year."

"Professor McGonagall has already told me that many of you will be doing internships, and she hopes I can teach you something useful without taking up your internship time. So in this class, I will teach some basic tips and tricks. If you are not interested, you can study on your own in the following classes."

Several students breathed a sigh of relief, including Tonks.

They were afraid that he would be like Snape, suppressing students and preventing them from studying on their own.

Victor paused for a moment, then continued:

"But no matter which option you choose, I have only one requirement—that is, you are absolutely not allowed to bring any random stuff that claims to be fortune telling into my class."

"Absolutely not."

Tonks raised his hand curiously: "What does it mean to claim to be a fortune teller? Does Professor Trelawney's teaching on how to predict one's own death count?"

“That’s a very good example, Miss Tonks,” Victor said expressionlessly, “so Hufflepuff loses a point.”

"?!"

Tonks puffed out his cheeks, and his hair turned black.

But Victor pretended not to see it.

...The little dictatorial trick Snape taught him is really useful.

"You've all been studying at Hogwarts for so many years, there's no need to pretend you're outsiders. Any prophecies you made that didn't come true are worthless—yes, I know that includes most of the prophecies you made in the first three years."

"To avoid you thinking that this is fortune telling, I'm going to let you try the real thing today."

After he finished speaking, he stood up from his seat and, under the dissatisfied yet curious gazes of the seven students, took out seven special leaves from a small box and distributed them to the students one by one.

As a Slytherin student accepted the leaf, he couldn't help but ask suspiciously:

"Are you serious? I've heard that there hasn't been a true prophecy in the magical world for hundreds of years."

"That's right, but I'm not going to teach you to make real predictions, just to have a little sense of what will happen in the future," Victor said.

"What's your name?"

"Professor Burns."

"Borns, put the leaf in your mouth."

Borns frowned, somewhat reluctant, but under Victor's intensely imposing gaze, he gritted his teeth and ate. He asked, with a slight lisp:

"What does this look like?"

"The leaf of the mandrake. If you want to become an Animagus, you need to keep this leaf in your mouth for a month."

"I studied it a couple of weeks ago and found that it can amplify spirituality, making you more perceptive of the world."

Because Professor McGonagall was an Animagus, the seventh graders finally realized what was happening and put the leaf in their mouths without hesitation.

Tonks then asked, "And then?"

"Then take the pocket watches in front of you and line them up against the wall on your right."

"After you've lined up, you need to close your eyes, focus all your attention on the pocket watch, listen carefully to the speed of its second hand, and take three steps forward. For the first step, say 'Aip, Pipe, Kaik.'"

"Ep, Piper, Kaik!" the seven students repeated in a low voice with great interest.

The second step is to say "Silo, Holo, Haro."

The third step is to chant "Zexi, Zexi, Zeke!"

"Zexi, Zexi, Zeke!"

The students read it aloud with even more interest.

This doesn't seem like a normal incantation.

Although the two Slytherins looked suspicious, Victor's imposing appearance prevented them from saying anything offensive.

...Of course, there's no need for that.

They've been taking Trelawney's classes for three years, don't they know what fortune-telling is all about?!

It's not a big deal to try it once more.

So after they finished reading it once, they happily ran to the right wall and quickly lined up in a row.

Pale and tall Bones stood at the front, another Ravenclaw student in second place, and Tonks in third.

After all the students had lined up, Victor walked over to them at a leisurely pace.

"Very good. Think carefully about the spells you just recited, and their pronunciation. Because you'll need them soon."

He pointed with his wand at the row of ground in front of them.

The floor of the divination classroom was made of large wooden planks laid vertically together, one after another, until the end.

"I've cast a spell on these planks, causing one of them to randomly transform into an illusion. You need to walk across them with your eyes closed, one step next to the other, taking exactly three steps to cross one plank."

"If you recite the incantation correctly, you will hear the second hand in front of the illusion board speeding up, which means you have successfully completed a rough prophecy."