Fooled Them Senseless

Hermione returned carrying both of their cups, filled them with tea, and quickly drank her own scalding hot tea in a few gulps. Then she looked longingly at Loren.

The freshly poured tea was steaming hot.

Loren picked up the cup, took a sip, gently exhaled the warm air from his mouth, and then placed the cup back on the tray.

"Hurry up! I need to decipher your tea!" Hermione urged, blinking her bright eyes. The scalding hot tea made the girl's speech a little slurred.

"..."

Loren glanced at her and asked, "Does your tongue hurt?"

"It seems a little bit, hehe..." Hermione stuck out her tongue and gave an embarrassed smile.

"Then why are you still urging me?"

"Hurry up, hurry up! I really want to try tea leaf Divination, it's amazing!"

"Professor Trelawney wasn't Divination; it was psychology."

"Psychology?" Hermione stared at him, wide-eyed.

Loren picked up his cup, blew on it in a circle, took a small sip, and slowly began to interpret the professor's methods. "She first used ambiguous Prophecy to cause panic, and then observed us when explaining the teaching plan. She singled out the most panicked ones and made bad Prophecy to make them anxious."

"But..." Hermione glanced at Neville at the next table, "The professor Prophecy that Neville would break the cup."

Even if the earlier Prophecy sounded like scaremongering, the Prophecy that Neville would smash the cup was incredibly convincing. Especially since Hermione had personally experienced the Pyramid Prophecy, she believed it wholeheartedly.

"It was a psychological suggestion. The previous Prophecy had kept Neville on edge, constantly worried about his grandmother. Trelawney seized the opportunity when he was relaxed and gave him the suggestion of smashing a teacup."

The tea had cooled down, and Loren took a big gulp, letting out a comfortable breath of hot air. "I think Lavender Brown would have broken the cup too. Hmm, Parvati probably wouldn't. Ron isn't enough to alarm her."

"Is this... is that so..." Hermione was stunned.

With Loren's reminder, Hermione's mind reacted quickly. Recalling the scene of the Divination Class, the Prophecy made about several people did seem like tests. Parvati was the calmest, Lavender was somewhat out of control, and Neville was the most flustered.

"Professor Trelawney is a fraud!" Hermione exclaimed softly, her eyes filled with disbelief. "But her other Prophecy did come true, about Professor Babbling, about..."

"Hmm... I wouldn't call her a fraud, it's just that her Prophecy abilities are beyond her control, and she can't teach them." Loren drank the last sip of tea, shook the tea leaves a few times, and then placed them on the tray to drain.

Hermione's eyes dimmed, her eyebrows drooped, and disappointment was written all over her face.

Setting down her own cup, Loren picked up her teacup and compared the tea leaves with the illustrations and explanations in "Unfogging the Future": "The knowledge about Divination should be true, after all, that's what the book says."

Hermione sighed and, with a little more focus, began to analyze Loren's tea leaves.

However, her prejudice against Trelawney extended to her prejudice against Divination. She couldn't get into the mood for it and felt that Divination was fraudulent.

The girl turned the cup around and around, pondered for a moment, and then said seriously, "Hmm... these tea leaves look just like tea leaves."

"A precise description!" Loren couldn't help but smile as he began to interpret Hermione's tea leaves. "The vertical lines on both sides resemble long hair, and there's a raised crown on top, so there's an empress in your cup. This represents happiness, success, harvest, carefree life, a fulfilling family life, a good environment, beauty, art... You should pursue contact with nature, pleasant travels, and leisure."

Hermione tried to purse her lips, but the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned up. "You said that on purpose, didn't you, just to make me happy?"

"Look for yourself, that's exactly what it says in the book."

Hermione craned her neck to look again and again, but still couldn't see the Queen in the tea leaves, which only strengthened her belief that Loren was trying to fool her.

"Hmm, alright, let me take another look at yours!" Hermione picked through the book, choosing the one with the most appealing description. "It has a long tail, and there's a mouse in your teacup. Ha, the mouse ' Moloch,' the embodiment of time, a symbol of wisdom and longevity, and your soul is unaffected by death."

"Then your teacup represents wealth, career, and courage..."

"Your teacup represents health, happiness... but not love, huh? That doesn't count."

The two laughed and picked out various auspicious symbols from the book, talking about them as if making wishes.

Harry and Ron, who were not far away, started playing around, talking about all sorts of ideas about getting rich and graduating to join the Ministry of Magic.

Their laughter was so loud it caught Trelawney's attention. She strode over to Ron and snatched Harry's teacup from his hand. "Darling, let me see..."

Through the large black dog, she finally concluded that something ominous was about Harry. Several young wizards gathered around, chiming in with their own opinions, which terrified Harry, making him unable to laugh at all.

After the Divination Class, they returned to the main building from the North Tower.

The young wizards along the way were chattering excitedly about this unusual Divination Class.

Lavender Brown, still shaken, whispered in a trembling voice, "I have to be prepared. Professor Trelawney is right. Neville's cup is proof of that."

Parvati Patil patted her back gently, comforting the frightened little Witch as she walked away.

"Parvati..." Hermione didn't have time to call out to them, and sighed dejectedly, "I'll definitely explain this to them when I get back to my dorm tonight."

"Explain what?" Harry asked.

"Regarding Professor Trelawney's psychological techniques..." Seeing that he still looked worried, Loren explained his analysis in detail.

Before Harry could even smile, Ron looked at him seriously. "Wizards are not like Muggle; bad luck exists. My Uncle Bilius saw one, and he died twenty-four hours later! Harry, you haven't seen a big black dog anywhere, have you?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione looked at him in surprise. "You actually believed that liar—the professor?"

Harry was more inclined to believe Loren's version of events, but when he visited Flourish and Blotts before the start of the school year, he did see a book called "Death Omens: What to Do When You Know Doom Is Coming," which also featured a large black dog on its cover.

Harry began to believe him somewhat, and said with difficulty, "In fact, I really have seen it. Sirius Black's Animagus is a big black dog. I even saw it at Flourish and Blotts..."

Ron looked very surprised. "This is terrible..."

Is there any way to do this?

"..."

They mimicked the posture of Parvati and Lavender, walking away arm in arm, uttering words that sounded like their dying words.

Loren and Hermione exchanged a glance, speechless.