Seamus Finnigan was tilting his head from side to side.
“It looks like a Grim if you do this,” he said, with his eyes almost shut, “but it looks more like a donkey from here,” he said, leaning to the left.
“When you’ve all finished deciding whether I’m going to die or not!” said Harry, taking even himself by surprise. Now nobody seemed to want to look at him.
“I think we will leave the lesson here for today,” said Professor Trelawney in her mistiest voice. “Yes… please pack away your things…”
Silently the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books, and closed their bags. Even Ron was avoiding Harry’s eyes.
“Until we meet again,” said Professor Trelawney faintly, “fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear”—she pointed at Neville—“you’ll be late next time, so mind you work extra hard to catch up.”
Harry, Ron, and Hermione descended Professor Trelawney’s ladder and the winding stair in silence, then set off for Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration lesson. It took them so long to find her classroom that, early as they had left Divination, they were only just in time.
Harry chose a seat right at the back of the room, feeling as though he were sitting in a very bright spotlight; the rest of the class kept shooting furtive glances at him, as though he were about to drop dead at any moment. He hardly heard what Professor McGonagall was telling them about Animagi (wizards who could transform at will into animals), and wasn’t even watching when she transformed herself in front of their eyes into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.
“Really, what has got into you all today?” said Professor McGonagall, turning back into herself with a faint pop, and staring around at them all. “Not that it matters, but that’s the first time my transformation’s not got applause from a class.”
Everybody’s heads turned toward Harry again, but nobody spoke. Then Hermione raised her hand.
“Please, Professor, we’ve just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and—”
“Ah, of course,” said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning.
“There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?”