Chapter 3-6 Talons and Tea Leaves

• On the first day of school, Draco is heard mocking Harry's fainting on the train at the Slytherin table. Ron notices the apparent mixup in Hermione's timetable, having three classes at the same time, but Hermione says it's all fixed with Professor McGonagall. Harry, Hermione and Ron set out for their first Divination class at the top of North Tower.
• They had never been to the North Tower before and need to ask directions. Sir Cadogan, a personage in one of the paintings on the wall, shows them the way.
• The teacher is Professor Sybill Trelawney. She starts telling them about the Inner Eye, the ability to penetrate the mysteries of the future. This term, they will be learning to read tea leaves, next term they will start palmistry. Later on, they will progress to fire-omens and the crystall ball. She scares them with all kind of warnings and events, regarding the future. She tells Lavender Brown that the thing she is dreading will happen of Friday, the sixteenth of October. They start reading tea leaves and interpret them using their book Unfogging the Future. Professor Trelawney interrupts Ron and Harry, predicting terrible things to Harry from his tea cup. She says Harry has the Grim, the giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards; an omen of death. Harry remembers the dog on the cover of Death Omens in Flourish and Blotts and the dog in Magnolia Crescent. The whole class is upset by the prediction of Harry's death.
• Next lesson is Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. She is telling them about Animagi, wizards who can transform at will into animals, and she transforms into a tabby cat to show them, but stops abrubtly, asking what is wrong with them, showing no attention at all. Hermione tells what happened at divination. Professor McGonagall tells them that Professor Trelawney predicts the death of a student every year, but none of them has died yet. She also questions her ability, saying that true Seers are very rare.... Most students feel a bit relieved by her words.
• Ron is still upset. After asking Harry if he did see a great black dog, Harry confirming, he tells them that his uncle Bilius once saw one and died twenty-four hours later.
• In the afternoon they have their first Care of Magical Creatures class, taught by Hagrid. Hagrid tells them to open their books, but everybody seems to have sealed their copy of The Monster Book of Monsters with ropes. Hagrid showed them they could open them by stroking them. Next he show them Hippogriffs, creatures with the body, hind legs and tail of a horse, but with the front legs, wings and head of a giant eagle. The way to deal with them is to never insult them; bow to them and if they bow back you are allowed to touch them. Harry volunteers to try first with a Hippogriff called Buckbeak. He bows, it bows back and Hagrid has Harry ride it. After flying around the paddock once they head back to the ground. Next the rest of the class does the same.
• Malfoy insults Buckbeak and is attacked by it. He has to go to the Hospital wing to have his arm taken care of.
• At night, Harry, Ron and Hermione go and see Hagrid again. Hagrid reckons he will be fired soon. The school governors have been told and they reckon he should have started smaller, with Flobberworms or something similar. Next he takes them back to the castle, telling them off for wandering around after dark