"Exactly!" Richard agreed. "I see you haven't been wasting your time. Last time, quantum physics was beyond you. You didn't simply 'jump' here from a timelike parallel universe—you travelled through time from within a temporal arc. There was never much chance of anything good coming of that."
"So it's my own fault..." the interdimensional traveller frowned. "What an idiot! Would it have killed me to wait a couple of minutes? But no, I just had to eat and powder my nose..."
"Now, now. There's no need to torment yourself, Miss Granger. All is not yet lost. The chances of a favourable outcome are far from zero. Besides, things could have been much worse if you hadn't decided to drop Divination. Otherwise, we might have had another Hermione Granger turning up here every Monday. There's a reason they say Mondays are hard..."
***
Richard attended Professor Trelawney's lessons with pleasure. In the firelit room, heavy with the scent of incense, the students searched for hidden meaning in vague shapes and symbols. Whenever Trelawney looked at Richard, however, her enormous eyes grew sad. Richie couldn't have cared less about her looks; he came here for the chance to learn Divination. He liked Professor Trelawney. And, on the whole, quite a few students regarded her with something approaching reverence.
Together with the original Hermione, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, he was forever running up to Professor Trelawney's tower, where he and the girls delved into the finer points of prediction.
To Sybill Trelawney's credit, she never refused to give them extra lessons and was always happy to receive students in her cosy classroom. There was always hot, fragrant tea to be had there.
Parvati and Lavender would return from the Divination professor looking so superior that one might have thought they had learnt something no one else knew. Richard and Hermione, meanwhile, would mull over the new information they had gleaned from Trelawney each time.
They had already managed to wheedle several techniques for developing the gift of Divination out of her and diligently practised them in the evenings. One was a form of meditation, while another was a technique for clearing the mind in order to 'connect to the Inner Eye'. So far Richard had got nowhere, but he refused to give up. Hermione was furious that she wasn't getting anywhere either, but she kept trying all the same.
In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Fletcher taught the students spells used by thieves. Following the habit his mentor had drilled into him, Richard practised every new charm until he had mastered it perfectly.
October arrived. The Quidditch matches would soon begin. Many students were eagerly awaiting them, hoping they would make the tedious lessons easier to endure. There were few pupils at Hogwarts who would have disagreed. Richard, the two Hermiones, Padma Patil and Percival Weasley, however, could definitely be counted among that small minority.
October flew by. Richard was surprised that nothing of any significance had happened all this time. A situation in which nothing happened at Hogwarts struck him as suspicious, like the calm before a storm.
On the evening of the sixteenth of October, Hermione told Richard that a fox had killed Lavender Brown's beloved pet rabbit back home. Lavender was upset, while Richard was thoughtful. Another of Sybill Trelawney's predictions had come true. And that meant serious upheavals lay ahead of him—something it would be wise to prepare for.
By the end of October, all the students in their third year and above were in a state of excitement. The third-years were particularly thrilled. Their first trip to Hogsmeade, the village near Hogwarts, was coming up.
A long line of students stretched towards the gates facing Hogsmeade. Filch was meticulously checking everyone's permission to leave the castle grounds, causing a bottleneck up ahead. Richie stood at the back of the queue with aristocratic composure, the original Hermione beside him on his right, while Granger from the other world trailed slightly behind on his left. She straightened her shoulders and drew a deep breath of the autumn air.
"It's so nice here!" she said with relief. "No Dementors around the school. Even the air feels easier to breathe."
"Dementors?" the original Granger asked in surprise. "What would they be doing here? This is a school, not a branch of Azkaban."
"But in our world, Minister Fudge sent Dementors to guard Hogwarts," the displaced girl replied.
"He sent Dementors?" The original Hermione stared at her double, wide-eyed with astonishment.
"Dementors?" Richard raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Fudge?"
"Well, yes, Fudge," Granger Number Two said with a shrug.
"Thank goodness our Fudge got poisoned with polonium," Hermione Number One muttered quietly under her breath.
"What?" her double asked, not having caught that.
"Nothing," the real Granger replied in a normal voice. "I said it's a good thing Madam Bagnold is our Minister for Magic."
"Bagnold?" This time it was the second Hermione's turn to stare in astonishment.
"Miss Granger," Richard said, turning to the otherworlder, "perhaps you could tell us why such draconian measures are being taken in your world? Has your Hogwarts been converted into a prison for juvenile offenders?"
"No." Granger Number Two shook her thick mane of chestnut hair. "A dangerous criminal escaped from prison—Sirius Black. They say the Dementors are there to protect us from him."
Hermione in the pink glasses rolled her eyes and drawled:
"Honestly, where do they find such idiots? This is a perfect example of the cure being worse than the disease."
"I told you Fudge was an idiot," Richard said. "You could expect any sort of lunatic decision from him."
Granger from the other reality asked in surprise:
"Didn't Black escape from prison in your world?"
"He did," Richard replied. "Last year. But an investigation was launched, and it established that Sirius Black was innocent of the crimes he'd been accused of. Black was pardoned literally a few days after his escape. The real culprit turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, an Animagus who had been hiding with the Weasley family disguised as a rat. Pettigrew was found, tried and executed. Black recovered his health at St Mungo's and found himself a prestigious job."
(End of Chapter)
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