"Oneiromancy." Claudian said putting his hand up.

"Capnomancy... interpreting patterns of smoke rising from a fire." Diabolica answered.

Rhiannon spoke. "Cartomancy."

'Uhh, something called gastromancy?' Shayna offered hesitantly, 'Apparently it's divination using a crystal ball?'

"Tasseography," Hermy answered, smiling. "Or reading tea leaves." So it might be an obvious one, but no one else had said it.

"Chrystal ball reading" James said.

"There's also horoscopy- using astrological signs to make predictions about one's fate." Xana offered. "And apanthomancy-- interpreting random encounters with animals to devine fate. That'd be handy in here today, I wonder what a random encounter with a monkey means?" She smiled at Professor Blaylock.

Diabolica raised her hand again. "Pyromancy-- divination by the appearance of flames after throwing in certain powders and such."

Blaylock clapped her hands, partly to get their attention and mostly to show her appreciation that they had bothered to at least read up on the different methods. "Very well done, dearies..."

She looked at the clock, wondering how much longer before she could put a cold compress on her aching back. Or pick up on her tea consumption...

"Now, today, we're just going to touch on the history of Astrology," she waved her wand and a thin gold ribbon came out of the tip to spell out the numbers "428" in the air above her head, "Turn to page 428 of your textbooks, and 5 points to the first person to tell me the definition of this method."

Claudian put his hand in the air. "Astrology is the method of Divination in which the celestial or heavenly bodies are studied in terms of their movement and placement in order to determine a possible outcome for a person." He wanted to go into aspects and houses, but stopped himself.

Rhiannon opened her textbook to the correct page, scanning down to check and see if the Slytherin was correct. If he wasn't, she was going to pounce on it quickly. But he seemed to at least have the gist of the answer, so she just sighed quietly.

Xana smiled as Claudian answered quickly. Way to represent Slytherin! she thought, proud of her boyfriend.

Shayna flipped through her textbook slowly, turning to the required page. She didn't bother answering, partly because definitions just weren't her thing, and partly because she knew one student in this room or the other would be replying almost instantaneously after the last word left the professor's mouth.

Glancing through the pages, she shifted in her seat to make herself more comfortable. So basically, they were going to be looking at planets and such, yeah?

"Oh, Claudian," Natasha turned to one of her favourite students... she hadn't seen him enter earlier, "I'm glad to see you've taken the time to read the textbook, take 5 points."

As she read the notes she'd written earlier, her hand unconsciously moved to her lower back and she pushed to ease the bone tired feeling, "Astrology and Astronomy were often mistaken for the other, but I would thank you all NOT to do so."

The thought of being mistaken of doing anything like that Insufferable Man riled her up far too much for her to be able to take in this condition. "Astronomers consider themselves far superior to astrologers," she rolled her eyes, "simple because they decided to attach the illusion that their field is a science, whereas Astrology is more about... learning about life here on earth."

She paused, rubbing her back a bit more, "The easiest way to define it would be to say that Astrology is... a study of how the cosmos affects our life here on earth..." turning to her husband who was lounging and looking perfectly comfortable in his own skin, she asked, "Wouldn't you say so, dearling?"

"Rather much so." He chuckled and made his way over to her, hands moving to her waist, his thumbs massaging her back. "Many of us wind up being rather typical of how the stars say we are."

Claudian blushed as Professor Blaylock gave him the points. She had a most sweet and maternal way of doing so and it made him feel all warm inside. He paid close attention to what Professor Harmand Scare-ickson had said and briefly wondered what his Eastern astrological sign could be. Year of the Frightening-Beyond-Belief-Man.

She wasn't exaggerating earlier when she said she tired easily. This past hour and a half had nearly sapped all her energy, and now that she was getting a heavenly almost massage, Natasha felt as if she could just drop to the floor and go to sleep.

"Yes... like when muggles read their horoscopes in the morning, and then spend the rest of their day following what the horoscope said they would be doing."

James looked up. "What?" he asked "They have horoscopes?"

Rhiannon laughed a little as Professor Blaylock talked about muggles reading horoscopes and following them. She had met a couple people like that, although she didn't see why they tried. She watched the two professors together and wondered if her parents had had that much mututal affection for each other. She couldn't remember.

Emily raised her hand. "Professor, does it really do any good for a Muggle to follow horoscopes? I mean, they're not even written by Seers. How can anyone hope to make accurate predictions for people to base their lives upon on a daily basis?"

"Or my dear Virgo who can't help but be compassionate and caring, no matter what. Isn't that so, love?" He glanced over to Claudian, noting the way the boy was paying attention to him. Oh yes, this was fun. He seemed to be studying the boy, to anyone looking, meeting any gaze which passed his way.

Anna sat back in her desk and put down her quill. She had just finished copying a long list of notes about Divination.

This was Anna's weakest subject. She had trouble predicting the future. She liked to see definite facts and definite results. Divination could sometimes be too abstract for her. Nevertheless, she set her eyes upon her professor once again, waiting to see what the next topic would be.

Grinning at the Ravenclaw who looked so surprised at this new tidbit, Natasha nodded, "Yes, indeed... although I think most of them simply make up fortunes and what not just to make a little bit of money."

"Exactly!" she said, addressing the girl's query, "But do we have to be Seers in order to practice the methods of divination?" Pointing a finger to her chest, she went on, "I've never claimed to be a Seer, and yet here I am... teaching Divination."

"Astrology is a method... it's an art, almost a science that can be studied and practiced." She went on, rambling a bit, "After all, we're not born walking or talking... we can learn things, as long as there is a will to learn, belief and someone to guide you along the way..."

"There are three main astrology practices that we study, and we're just going to touch on the Western practices today..." she'd roughly found the right track again, "The Western practices focus a lot more on the horoscope, and yes... as Armand pointed out, I'm a Virgo..."

She swatted his hand affectionately, "But I'm sure there have been those I've interacted with who don't find me compassionate nor caring... Do we always behave according to our star signs?"

Hermy shook her head. "No, of course we don't. They are considered to perhaps be our innate traits, but by no means does everyone follow the characteristics of their star signs the whole time as that would mean all people born at a similar time of the year would behave very similarly."

Claudian tore his eyes away from Scare-ickson to pay attention to Professor Blaylock. "Not necessarily. To most the sun sign is only a skeletal framework for what our personalities are according to Western Astrology. We can dive more deeply into our characters by the studying of a natal chart, which is a chart telling us the planetary placements at the time of our birth. I also think that nurture can affect nature." He said, hoping not to open a can of worms with the whole nature vs. nurture argument, but it stood to reason that logically, your upbringing could very well affect your personality.