While another Sean was busy with Arithmancy, the real Sean was half-heartedly sitting through Muggle Studies — mostly out of boredom.
It wasn't that Professor Charity Burbage wasn't an authority — she probably knew more about Muggles than almost any other wizard at Hogwarts. But to Sean, even that didn't amount to much. Professor Burbage's lectures were full of generalizations and half-truths about Muggle life, and quite a few ideas sounded downright absurd to Sean, who'd grown up in the Muggle world himself.
If it hadn't been for the Time-Turner, Sean would never have wasted a slot on this class. He considered it little more than filler.
Blaise, on the other hand, was a different story — for him, Muggle Studies was the perfect opportunity to satisfy his curiosity about the non-magical world he knew next to nothing about.
When the morning classes ended, everyone gathered in the Great Hall for lunch.
"Sean, I just saw you heading to Arithmancy. How'd you like it?" Andy asked as he sat down across from him.
Before Sean could even answer, Blaise — sitting next to him — nearly choked on his food. He swallowed quickly and shot Andy a puzzled look. "Arithmancy? What are you talking about, Andy? Sean was in Muggle Studies with me. Are you seeing things?"
Andy frowned. "Seeing things? No way! I know what I saw — Sean walked right into Arithmancy, clear as day. And I heard Professor Vector was really impressed with him. I couldn't have mistaken him for someone else."
Blaise turned to Sean, eyebrows raised. "Hold on. Sean, you were with me, right? You didn't sneak off and use Polyjuice Potion or something, did you?"
Sean just sighed, looking at him helplessly. "Relax, Blaise. I was with you."
Blaise immediately turned back to Andy with a smug grin. "See? I told you! Andy, you must've been half-asleep."
Sean cut in before Blaise got too pleased with himself. "The person Andy saw in Arithmancy was me too. I went to both classes."
Andy blinked. "Both? You're kidding, right?"
Blaise froze mid-bite, then slowly lowered his fork. "Wait… You signed up for all five electives. So there had to be overlaps. You went to the dean this morning… Don't tell me he gave you something — or did some spell — to let you be in two places at once. Is this some sort of clone charm?"
Sean gave him a look. "It's… handled. And it's supposed to stay secret. So just know that I can be in more than one place at once — that's all you need to know."
Blaise's eyes lit up. "So it's a thing, then? A magical object? Not a spell?"
"I told you not to ask," Sean said flatly, shaking his head.
"Alright, alright," Blaise relented, grinning. "But when you can tell me, promise you'll show me. I'd love to get my hands on one of those — just to mess around with."
The afternoon lesson was Transfiguration.
Sean didn't need to take that class right now, so while the others headed off to McGonagall's lecture, he slipped away to the bathroom, took out his Time-Turner, and gently spun the tiny hourglass at its center.
Four turns later, he was back at just before nine o'clock that morning. This time, he picked up his Arithmancy textbook and headed straight for the classroom, choosing a seat at random.
Meanwhile, another Sean made his way to the library. He grabbed his stack of notes and study materials, found an empty spot in a quiet corner, and buried himself in his real work — researching a substitute for the second ingredient in the Wolfsbane Potion.
This was the true reason Sean had signed up for all five electives and fought so hard to get his hands on the Time-Turner. Classes were just cover.
By the end of that same day — during curfew — Sean sat alone in his dorm room, gulping down three Mental Rejuvenation Potions one after another. Then, without hesitation, he turned the Time-Turner again, rewinding the clock back to nine o'clock that same morning. He slipped out quietly and made for the library again — another hidden stretch of hours to push his Wolfsbane research further.
It was only his first day with the Time-Turner, and Sean had already wrung every drop of use out of it.
The next day brought Divination.
Sean and Blaise made their way to the North Tower — home of Professor Sybill Trelawney, Hogwarts' resident Seer and the mistress of all things vague and ominous.
Sean knew a bit about Trelawney. She did have the gift of true prophecy — but real predictions were few and far between, and when they did happen, they were usually grim enough to make anyone shudder. Disasters were her specialty, and she seemed almost fond of them — they were her proof that her Sight still worked.
Sean and Blaise climbed the steep spiral staircase until they reached a tiny landing. A handful of other students were already waiting there — Harry and Ron among them.
Sean nodded a quick greeting. Just then, a silver ladder unfurled itself from above. One by one, the students climbed it and emerged into one of the strangest classrooms at Hogwarts.
The Divination classroom looked like a cross between an attic and a teashop. At least twenty small round tables were crammed together, surrounded by squashy armchairs and overstuffed cushions. Shelves sagged under the weight of crystal balls, tea cups, playing cards, and all manner of odd trinkets — more like the stockroom of a second-rate fortune teller than a classroom in a centuries-old castle.
Sean and Blaise squeezed into a pair of seats, eyeing the clutter of "mystical" paraphernalia around them. Sean leaned back, half amused, half skeptical.
This place really did look like a den for selling cheap prophecies to the gullible.
At that moment, a soft, drifting voice floated through the room.
"Welcome. At last, I see you all here in the material world — how wonderful."
Sean looked up at Professor Trelawney. She looked like some kind of spindly insect — all wispy layers and jangling trinkets. Her huge glasses magnified her eyes so much they resembled insect compound eyes. She wore a gauzy shawl studded with dangling metal sequins that caught the light whenever she moved, and her arms were heavy with beads, chains, rings, and bracelets of every shape and size. To Sean, she looked exactly like the cheap fortune-tellers he'd seen in Muggle carnivals — all show, no substance.
"Sit, my children, sit," she continued, drifting closer like an overly perfumed ghost. "Welcome to Divination. You've not seen me before — how could you? The ceaseless noise of this castle clouds my Third Eye. Only here, high in my tower, can I keep my Sight clear enough to guarantee true visions."
Sean stifled a sigh.
He had thought that the wizards of this world — far stronger and more dangerous than the ones in the stories of his past life — might have turned Sybill Trelawney into something more than the half-fraud she'd always seemed. But judging by this performance, she was exactly the same — a drifting cloud of vague words, tinkling beads, and empty omens.