Seeing Vid walking in with Harry and Ron, the eyes of everyone at the Hufflepuff table immediately lit up.
"Hey! They're here!" Michael waved vigorously and said cheerfully, "Over here!"
"You all should try this, the new meat pie from the kitchen is absolutely amazing!" Theo picked up a steaming pie to indicate.
"We have Neville to thank for this." Leian said with a smile, "He taught the House-Elves his grandmother's secret recipe."
"It's not that exaggerated." Neville said sheepishly, "Just that my gran found out by chance that adding a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce while making meat pies, and some roasted nut crumbs in the ingredients, makes the flavor much richer."
"Really? Then I must give it a try!"
Ron eagerly grabbed a pie, took a big bite, chewed twice, then his eyes sparkled, and he gave Neville a thumbs up.
Hermione closed the book in front of her and gave Vid a warm smile, her eyes seemed to say, "Finally, you're back."
Padma waved her hand as well, muttering to herself, "Celebrating by having a piece of cake isn't too much, right?"
She finally gave up fighting her stomach and quietly reached out for the small cake.
Fred and George also turned in their seats, winking at Vid, "Hey, Chief Advisor! Quick, give us your opinion on the market potential of our 'Burper Bubblegum'!"
Harry thought he'd misheard: "What bubblegum?"
Vid smiled and sat down in the spot that had been deliberately left for him, everything felt just like before, as if he'd only spent a bit more time in the library.
Soon, his ears were filled with discussions about homework, matches, holiday plans, and "Burper Bubblegum".
But Harry and Ron, who weren't very skilled at hiding their emotions, found that after the initial ease and joy, they quickly recalled Trelawney's prophecy, and suddenly found the food in their mouths hard to swallow.
Hermione, with her keen sense, caught the unease on their faces, but didn't press them immediately, she just tapped the table.
"Tap, tap!"
The clear sound drew everyone's eyes to her.
Hermione said, "Looks like we need to cut lunch short, Harry and the others seem to have something to say... how about we all head to the Umbrella House in ten minutes?"
Though it was phrased as a question, her demeanor suggested she didn't expect a negative response.
Even the Weasley twins nodded, saying, "Sure!"
Harry's expression relaxed a bit, he quickly said, "Alright, let's do that!"
Everyone understood, swiftly sped up their eating pace, and the food on their plates was quickly devoured.
In just five minutes, this group of people got up in tacit understanding, crossed the bustling hall, and headed towards the Umbrella House.
...
During Vid's absence, the Umbrella House also underwent some small changes, such as a few thriving magical plants growing by the windows; two new moving sketch paintings on the wall, featuring all of them as stick figures; and the shelves where soda cans and snack boxes were frequently changing.
The practice area had been replaced with more durable dark wooden boards, targets in the corner were updated, and there were even a few heavy wooden posts for testing spell strength.
Vid hesitated for a moment.
He noticed that his desk was almost unchanged from when he left last time, with a few unfinished alchemy items still on the shelf.
And...
The room was just like before, without an extra seat added for Ron. He casually sat on Harry's desk, as if he didn't mind at all.
The Weasley twins were also leaning against the desk, so Ron's actions didn't seem out of place.
As soon as the door closed, Hermione put down her bag, turned around, folded her arms, and scanned the three of them sharply, "Alright, you can talk now, what happened?"
Harry took a deep breath, exchanged a glance with Ron, then looked at Vid.
Vid nodded slightly, signaling him to speak.
"We... just heard a prophecy." Harry said in a dry voice.
"A prophecy?"
Hermione's brow immediately furrowed, a look of undisguised skepticism on her face:
"Is it Trelawney's usual stuff again? What did she say… ominous, shadows, or death?"
"Let me guess, did she say someone's life line is unusually short, or that she saw a skeleton shadow behind one of you?"
Her gaze swept over Harry and Ron, finally landing on Vid, "Vid, don't tell me you've also started taking her seriously! Don't we all know she's just a phony fortune-teller who talks nonsense?"
"This time it's different, Hermione!"
Ron interrupted her hastily, his face a bit pale, "It really is different! She... she transformed completely, her voice sounded like... like it came from the grave! And what she said was completely incomprehensible!"
"Wow, cool!" Fred whistled and said, "Looks like Professor Trelawney invented a new method to bamboozle people, her followers are bound to increase, even our little Ronnie can't escape!"
George continued, "So what did she predict? That you'll find true love, and it'll be with Filch's crab?"
"Shut up, you two!" Hermione snapped at the joking twins, her expression turning serious as she looked at them and asked, "What exactly did she say?"
"Wait, I wrote it down."
Ron hurriedly pulled out a crumpled, slightly ink-blurred piece of parchment from his pocket, cleared his throat, and began reading haltingly:
"Two shadows fight over the sun, one crawls out of the grave... uh... the time has come, we go to wed?"
He squinted, struggling to decipher his scrawled handwriting, his voice filled with disbelief.
Vid choked on his breath and started coughing; Harry gaped in astonishment, the twins who had started to take things seriously were now laughing uproariously, and Hermione shouted in exasperation, "What are you talking about?!"
Ron said aggrievedly, "But that's exactly what she said! They heard it too."
He pointed at Vid and Harry, and Harry, being pointed at, suddenly felt uncertain, hesitating as he said, "It... it seemed to sound like that?"
"Just keep reading to the end." Vid said vaguely.
He realized that Ron had likely misheard "Weave the Web of Time" as "we've" and "wed," and then freely combined them in his mind.
But Vid didn't correct him, just listened.
He didn't like the part of the prophecy that might be about himself.
Ron steadied himself and continued reading the prophecy he heard:
"Let the world enter the cloak on the deck, he wishes to create the world, and also to... discard shame?"
"Another, walking in flames, with a golden crayon... and scissors... cut life... in his kingdom, rivers weep, diamonds turn to ashes..."
"The person standing on the bridge must be careful... careful of the fall abyss, and the porch of bright light? Go back, go back, only by returning to the original difference can you find your own key and stone?"
After reading, even Ron was silent.
At that moment, he was only focused on capturing the words he heard, scribbling them down rapidly, without taking a closer look at the content.
Dazed by Trelawney's eerie demeanor and voice at the time, Ron instinctively felt that what he had recorded was very important, very serious.
But looking at it now, is there something not quite right with this prophecy?