There were many who scoffed at the very thought of divination, who saw it as frivolity at best and predatory falsehoods at worst. Balthazar Urquart, who had spent much of his life in the Department of Mysteries, was not one such person. He had spent time in the Hall of Prophecy, had investigated the nature of time, of love, of the universe itself. While he may not have understood it, he did not discount it—fortunate, for it had become one of Ruby's greatest joys.

"Oh?" he asked with a smile. "Have you decided to drop out of school and pursue a life of fortune-telling on the strets of Magical London?"

He would not have dared ask if he believed the answer could be anything but a resounding NO.