Talons and Tea Leaves

Well, if any of my readers are still around, I'm back! August ended up being a string of health problems (two trips to the emergency room and a trip to my doctor) but I'm finally healthy again! Now, blogger is being really weird, so I'm going to get right into it.

It's the first day of lessons and the very first class of the day is Divination. Harry, Ron and Hermione find their way up to the Divination tower, which is in an area of the school they've never been to before. They start out reading tea leaves and Professor Trelawney sees the Grim in Harry's cup, a prediction of death. In their next class Professor McGonagall (and Hermione) scoffs and tells the class that Trelawney predicts the death of one student a year and a death is yet to occur. After lunch, they have Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins. Hagrid introduces the class to hippogriffs and Harry rides Buckbeak. Malfoy insults Buckbeak and is attacked. At the end of the day, the trio go see Hagrid in his hut, where they manage to cheer him up a bit before Hagrid realizes Harry shouldn't be out after dark and escorts them back up to the castle.

Unfortunately, I got sucked into the whole time aspect of Hermione and her classes and spent most of the time pretty distracted (So Harry and Ron actually sat through the class three times? Was the last time the time with Hermione there? If it hadn't been, would they remember a different version of what happened in class? How do the professors of her other classes know she was there? etc.) I most definitely have time travel issues...I want it to make sense. Generally I prefer sci-fi time travel to fantasy time travel I suppose; I much prefer when they try to explain it with science than magic!

Before my time-related distraction, I did manage to wonder who else is taking Arithmancy and Muggle-Studies with Hermione. Every 3rd year Gryffindor we know of (though I do wonder if there are a couple of nameless girls we never hear about) is in the Divination class. Yes, those classes are most likely with other houses (I'm pretty sure we find out later that Arithmancy is with Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff), but doesn't it seem weird that no other Gryffindor wanted to take those classes? I can tell you right now that if someone were to give me the option of taking Arithmancy, Muggle Studdies or Divination, Divination would be my last choice (of course, I'm a Ravenclaw). It seems odd.

Thoughts? Admonishments for my lack of posting? Anything interesting happen while I was away? Share in the comments!