Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Chapter 6 Summary

Chapter Six:  Talons and Tea Leaves

Classes begin while Harry is teased by Malfoy and friends by fainting in the presence of a dementor and while Ron ogles at the number of classes Hermione is taking. The students make their way to the top of the North Tower with their texts called Unfogging the Future for their first class of Divination. Professor Trelawney appears, looking like “a large, glittering insect” with her flowing robes, hanging beads, and large glasses. She immediately begins making predictions about the class including the most befuddling “around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever." The class gets busy reading tea leaves from tea cups.  Professor Trelawney insults Hermione’s prospects in Divination and then reveals that Harry has “the Grim” which resembles a large black dog, the worst omen of death, among his tea leaves. Harry begins to feel a bit better when he finds out that even Professor McGonagall does not put too much stock in Trelawney’s predictions.

The students head to Care of Magical Creatures where Hagrid has a surprise for them: a group of real hippogriffs (strange creatures that are half eagle and half horse). Hagrid chooses Harry to bow to a hippogriff named Buckbeak who, after he bows back, allows Harry to take a ride (not exactly a very comfortable experience). The entire class begins greeting the other hippogriffs until Malfoy insults one and winds up in the hospital wing. Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit Hagrid later to make sure he is okay only to be chastised by a drunk Hagrid for allowing Harry to wander the unsafe Hogwarts campus at night.