Successful Prophecy

In the spacious and bright classroom, sunlight streamed through the windows into this attic-like space, bathing the floor in a golden glow. But even in the sunlight, the floor in front of Borns remained a perfectly flat and normal expanse, showing no trace of any illusion.

Six students lined up, all sticking their heads out and looking at the ground with great interest.

They had never done anything like this in Trelawney's class in the past three years. Apart from predicting through Jupiter that they would crash into a flying broom or fall into a lake next week, they had never made any serious predictions that came true so quickly.

"We can begin," Victor said.

Burns took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and recited the first incantation with anticipation but also a hint of doubt:

"Aip, Piper, Kaik."

He took a step, the back of his boot pressing against the front of his back foot.

"Sillo, Hollo, Harlo."

This is the second step.

"Zexi, Zexi, Zeke!"

third step.

Under the watchful eyes of the students behind him, the tall, thin Borns stood still, closed his eyes, and listened carefully for a while. After confirming that the second hand of his pocket watch had not changed, he took a step forward.

"Bang!"

Immediately afterwards, the wooden plank beneath his feet suddenly turned into a cloud of mist, revealing the empty ground beneath.

Burns frantically tried to grab onto the floor beside him, but unsurprisingly failed on the slippery surface. With a clattering sound, he fell miserably!

"Aaaaaah—!!"

"flutter."

His screams were abruptly silenced by Victor's spell.

"The incantation was pronounced incorrectly."

"The first sentence should emphasize the initial sound, and the last sentence should have a higher pitch than the previous two sentences."

Victor raised his wand expressionlessly and waved it, causing the empty wooden plank to revert to its original position, blocking the view from downstairs.

The students behind him swallowed hard as they watched Bones fall miserably to the ground below.

Even though the wizard probably won't die from doing that... nobody wants to experience freefall so easily!

"Next."

Swallowing hard, the next Ravenclaw stepped forward, trembling.

He was a freckled boy who looked quite shrewd. He closed his eyes and carefully recalled the incantation for a while before taking a shaky step.

"Aip, Piper, Kaik."

"Silo, Holo, Haro..."

His pronunciation is very clear.

The first six steps were uneventful, but the more he walked, the more sweat beaded on his face, and he seemed to be muttering to himself. When he reached the fifth plank, he finally seemed to gain some confidence and was less anxious.

He took another step forward—

"Bang!"

"ah--!"

"flutter."

"You're overthinking things."

Victor calmly commented, "As I said, the focus should be on the pocket watch, not on mentally calculating the probability of missing the next step."

Ravenclaw students overthink things.

"Next."

It's Tonks' turn.

Although the students behind were still eager to try, after two consecutive examples of falling down, they began to have some doubts about whether they could actually recite the spell correctly.

It wasn't that they thought Victor was lying, but rather that some spells were simply harder to learn than others.

Tonks took a deep breath, and his hair suddenly turned from black back to orange.

She carefully moved to where the first step had begun, clasped her hands together, gripped her pocket watch, and tried to clear her mind. After a series of dazzling prayer steps, she finally closed her eyes and softly uttered the incantation.

"Aip, Piper, Kaik..."

She walked forward slowly.

The first plank.

The second plank.

The third piece...

"Aip, Piper, Kaik."

"Sillo, Hollo, Harlo."

"Zexi, Zexi, Zeke!"

After she finished reading, she lifted her right foot, which was clad in shiny little leather shoes, and prepared to take the next step.

But the next second, her movements suddenly stopped in mid-air, as if she had discovered something.

She slowly pulled her foot back and placed the pocket watch next to her ear.

Everyone behind them pricked up their ears curiously, listening intently to what was happening over there. They heard—

"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock tick-tock, tick-tock tick-tock..."

The second hand is moving noticeably faster!

The students watching behind stirred up a commotion, listening incredulously to the noise—regardless of whether it was divination or not, the two students before them hadn't been able to get the second hand moving!

Tonks opened his eyes with a bit of excitement, then shifted his weight onto the floor and tentatively stepped out with his other foot.

"Bang!"

The wooden board turned into a cloud of mist before her eyes!

"I succeeded?"

"Professor, I did it!"

She turned around excitedly to look at Victor.

Victor didn't discourage her; he simply said:

"Yes, Miss Tonks has set the right example. As long as you pronounce clearly, stress correctly, and don't overthink, achieving the desired effect is not difficult."

"Very good!"

Tonks happily ran away from the wall.

……

With her success story, many more students followed suit. Two out of four students successfully sped up the pocket watch and predicted the location of the illusionary wooden plank.

After that, the first two students tried again. Burns succeeded, but the Ravenclaw student was probably really afraid of weightlessness and couldn't help but let his mind wander. In the end, he fell again in a miserable way.

Time passed second by second as we tried.

Finally, as get out of class was about to end, all the students returned to the classroom.

"Alright, have you tried everything you wanted to try?"

Victor had already sat back down at his desk, bored. He only lazily waved his wand to rescue people who had fallen.

"I know many of you still have doubts, wondering if this prophetic effect is just your imagination, or if I deliberately altered the speed of the pocket watch to create a hoax—"

The students all turned around. Tonks seemed to want to defend him.

But Victor raised his hand to soothe her and continued:

"—And I can tell you with certainty that this doubt is wrong."

Tonks' eyes lit up.

"This kind of divination utilizes your spiritual premonition of crisis. Although you may not be aware of this premonition, it is real and effective against any danger."

"If you don't believe me, I welcome you to try it on any object with your pocket watch after you return to your dormitory. However, it's best not to try it on too many objects, otherwise it's difficult to get a definite answer with this rudimentary method of divination, and the result won't be accurate."

"The simplest way is—go to the Forbidden Forest, choose a side road, and then do some divination. You'll naturally encounter danger on the path your pocket watch warns you of."

At this point, Victor's voice suddenly faltered.

In that instant, he seemed to see in his mind Professor McGonagall furiously confronting him because a student had actually tried it...

"Ahem. But entering the forbidden forest is against school rules, so please don't try it."

At this moment, the students below became particularly excited. Tonks, in particular, seemed eager to try predicting other things after succeeding on her first try.

This is a prophecy!

I'm not afraid of others' interpretations of my prophecies!

At that moment, the Ravenclaw student who wanted to use arithmetic divination to make a prediction suddenly raised his hand.

"Speak. But include your name."

"My name is Ian Jones, Professor," Jones said. "I'd like to ask if everyone can learn this kind of divination? Can we teach it to other students?"

"Good question."

Victor gave this answer, which should have been accompanied by some ups and downs, in a calm tone.

"I don't care if you teach me this kind of technique."

"But not everyone can learn it. First, one must hold a mandrake leaf in one's mouth, and second, only students with a certain level of spiritual sensitivity and a clear aura can foresee danger."

"In other words, you must have a talent for divination."

"It just so happens that all the students here are talented. It seems that Professor Trelawney had some premonition when it came to selecting students."

Victor glanced at the clock, turned away from the remaining students who were raising their hands higher and higher, and simply announced lazily:

"Alright, time's up. get out of class dismissed."