View Single Post
Old 03-30-2019, 04:20 AM   #23 (permalink)
Birchwoodmom


DMGS & MO
Snidget
 
Birchwoodmom's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: PNW GMT-8
Posts: 2,694

Hogwarts RPG Name:
Kassandra Sutton
Graduated

Ministry RPG Name:
West Riedel
Games & Sports

Ministry RPG Name:
Foster Davis
Minister's Office
Default
| Ravenpuff | Part Ninja | Boat Rocker | Exhausted Pigeon |

Text Cut: Tina
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy View Post
Tina had just enough time to pull a quill and parchment out of her bag before the class started. So they were learning Sciomancy? Well, what do you know… the guess Tina had thought too far-fetched turned out to be correct! She was a little surprised to hear they were covering that topic, given its connections to necromancy, but her concerns went away when Professor Sutton said they wouldn’t be going into that. She considered the professor’s question carefully. What did she know about sciomancy? She knew it was a branch of divination that used shadows to tell the future, and it originated with the ancient Greeks and Chaldeans… but all of those things had been said, and Tina didn’t like repeating answers.

She remained lost in thought for a few moments until suddenly something came to her. She remembered reading something about people in ancient times using shadows to hide their valuables. Her hand went up, and she said, “Sciomancy is said to originate from ancient Greeks and Chaldeans using shadows to hide treasure in times of hardship. They would mark the point of a shadow on a given day and time, and hide their valuables in that location.” As soon as she’d spoken, she began to doubt that was the sort of answer the professor was looking for. Yeah, she was just gonna… keep quiet now.

Tina gave the second question careful thought. Why was sciomancy beneficial? Based on the information she had so far, it sounded as if it would provide a greater measure of certainty about the future than other divination methods with shorter-term results, even if it was a negative reading… and a sense of security was important to Tina! But that answer sounded a lot like what Ewan had said. As for the cons of sciomancy, she couldn’t think of a single thing that wasn’t already covered by the Head Boy’s answer. Come on, Tina! Think of something! She berated herself. This had never happened to her before; she always had the answers!

Before Tina could think of anything to add, they were moving on to the mini activity. She watched from her seat as Nettie took her place behind the sheet, studying the shadow that appeared intently. It appeared to be getting longer as her classmate moved. She consulted her shadow sheet. “That looks like a long shadow,” she mused out loud, “and that means… a positive outcome or a yes., and a lengthening shadow… that’s growth and positivity.” Merlin, she hoped she was doing this right!

Tina wasn’t feeling particularly confident about her reading for Nettie’s shadow, but she had even more trouble with Ewan’s. She scrutinized the shadow carefully. It looked as if it was moving closer to the curtain, therefore… shortening? She thought… She looked at her guide again. So a shortening shadow meant… failure, sadness, negative outcome, or loss. Hmm, Tina wasn’t sure she wanted to say that prediction out loud. She looked at the shadow again to be sure, and - wait, where was its head?! What did that mean? Her eyes scanned her shadow sheet, but she saw no mention of a headless shadow. Her hand went up, and she asked, “Professor, what does it mean if a shadow is missing its head?”

When her turn came, Tina took her place behind the sheet, thinking hard about the kind of shadow she wanted to make. The thought crossed her mind to try to make a butterfly shape, but she thought that might be a little hard for others to read. She’d start out with something a bit simpler. She started out about halfway between the sheet and the light, drawing herself up tall to create the longest shadow possible. Then she slowly moved further back toward the light to make her shadow even longer. When she was almost i front of the light, she made a sort of ballerina-esque pose with her arms raised in a circle above her head and leaned to her left. She held that pose for a few moments, then returned to her seat, just in time to hear the instructions for the main activity.


She knew someone would end up asking about a headless shadow, she had just hoped they wouldn't. Not that the majority of the students wouldn't be able to handle the answers but she didn't want to upset the younger or more sensitive students so late at night.

"Well, Ms. Dantes, a headless shadow or no shadow is considered a very bad omen and predicts that a person will lose their life within the course of the current year." Kassie looked out across the class. "Now, I don't want any of you to worry about this if you happen to think you see a headless shadow." She spoke loud enough for the entire class to hear. "If you think you see this happening, just let me know and we can evaluate it together."
__________________
Birchwoodmom is offline