Ana raised her hand "Spontaneous, Sortilege and Omens and omen texts"

Lyra raised her hand and answered, "Omens and omens text, sortilege, and spontaneous," she said with a smile on her face.

Kaika listened as the others answered and raised her hand, "Sir, is it Cleromancy the same as Sortilege?" she asked, not that she didn't agree with what the rest had said, but it was a question resounding on her mind.

Tobi raised a hand, "There is spontaneous, and omens and omen texts, aaaand...." Tobi wracked his brain, "sortiledge, I think?"

"Exactly the answer I was hoping for. One point to you each."

"Almost. Tea Readings or Tasseomancy would be a form of divination that could fit into one of these four categories. Probably Augury, but sometimes it is stuck into Spontaneous." He explained.

"Yes, it is, Miss Lockheart. Casting of any kind would more than likely fit into this category." He explained warmly.

"For this next portion of the class, I would like you to engage in open discussion. There will be much opinion shared, and the answers may not always be a given. But there I will still be conducting questions and for those of you who reason your answers well, points may be awarded. Please remember to raise your hands before giving an answer, so that we can hear your insightful thoughts on the topic. It won't do to have everyone just speaking at once." He explained to the class.

"To start the topic off, allow me to ask, How many of you believe that people can be born with the innate ability to foresee certain events?"

They were going to discuss Divination things in class? She would be keeping her mouth shut, then. Or... would she? Well, she did memorize stuff before coming to class in order to be able to answer, but. . .

. . . How many of you believe that people can be born with the innate ability to foresee certain events?

Willow could not help but to raise an eyebrow for a split of second, before smoothing her expression and raising her hand to answer, "I believe that a few people are born with that. Very few people. But, it's really hard to know which ones are really. . . gifted? And which ones aren't. You know, because some people claim that they can see the future and all, when in truth they can't." Which is the exact reason why I don't like Divination.

Tobi thought about it. "I do, sometimes I think my sister can. She just knows stuff that doesn't make, you know, scientific sense for people to know. Like that we're going to have lots of customers, but there are no pre-bookings, and it's not a busy season. Or she knows that the radiator is going to break, but we just had it fixed. Simple, practical things like that."

She raised her hand. "Of course they can sir. There have been a few very powerful seers throughout history. One of Slytherin's former prefects was the granddaughter of a seer. I mean we are born with magical abilities." She said.

Camira raised her hand hesitantly. "I do, professor. I believe it is very rare, of course, but I believe it does happen." She paused for a moment, unsure of whether or not she should continue. "I also believe, in wizards only, that if you find your soulmate, and yes, I believe in soul mates, that the bond can be so powerful that when combined with magic, it can cause a special sort of ability to sense things when it comes to each other." She cleared her throat a bit, not sure why exactly she was embarrassed. "But going back to innate abilities, I think it would be pretty obvious that they do exist or else prophecies would just be myth."

Cam raised his hand. "Meeee!" He believed in a loooot of things, as long as they sounded interesting or awesome. Maybe he was one person with the ability to see through the future. Hm... I think I am. I've guessed what time it was once and I got it right! Aren't I like, supah-dupah coool?! Soon he decided to stop talking to himself and just stared at all of the other people's answers. They had reasons though and he didn't, but he wished to add that future-people were not rare at all! Have they been to carnivaaals? There's like tons of 'em there!

Good. And now on to the next question the Professor was about to ask, but he delayed it by a bit...

Kaika raised her hand, "There must be some out there that have an ability, but I think those can be counted with one hand" she started to say, "Some may say they do possess a gift in order to either become known or gain money" because that happened a lot, yet Kaika was starting to ramble on, "And to answer your question, I don't exactly believe that there are people born that way, but I certainly hope so" otherwise, many stories and theories are obviously lies.

Anna briefly considered the question and then raised her hand. "I definitely believe there are people born with the innate ability to foresee certain events, sir," she replied. "Many people throughout history, and in recent times, have been able to successfully foresee the future, proving that 'seeing' events before they happen is very much a reality. There are those in our world who have told us of great things...and terrible things...days, months, and even years before they ended up really happening. I believe seeing the future has been proven time and again."

Abby raises her hand. "It's hard to disagree that there are people born with the ability to foretell the future. The Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries is full of such predictions."

"Exactly! And, I'm particular wary of Scryers, for that reason. In Scrying, that is, forms of divination which require a person to look into a shiney surface in order to determine shapes or shadows, it is very easy to simply make up an answer as you go along. Perhaps, why is it such a popular methods amongst those who are very willing to exchange a few sickles for the service. Very good point, Miss Kovac."

"It sounds like a sort of very intense 'gut feeling'. Interesting. But, you yourself never experienced any such phenomena?"

"Excellent point, Miss Greenwood. And, I assume you are speaking of Miss Trelawney. I'll be comming back to this topic in a few as well, so keep your information handy."

"I believe that it is rare. But, as the world gets larger and more people come to inhabit it, it might be that the gift may become less and less rare." He thought a bit on what she'd said. "So I take it, it's safe to say that you don't believe that prophecies are merely myths?"

"Good! You've brought an open mind to class!" The professor said, happy to see enthusiasm in a student.

"You're probably right about the gift being rare. And, because someone takes money for their talents, does that make them... less talented somehow? Afterall, we pay good money for paintings as a society, do we not? What do you all think?"

Kapoor raised a finger and gesticulated on Anna's sharp and insightful point. It was also a good lead-in to another aspect of the topic he wished for them to discuss.

"'Earthshaking fire from the centre of the earth
will cause tremors around the New City.
Two great rocks will war for a long time,
then Arethusa will redden a new river.'

Michel de Nostredame, otherwise known as Nostradamus, created this prophecy in quatrain 1, 87. Some speculate that he could have been talking about a tragic Muggle event in which many lost their lives. Critics say that his quatrains were very, very vague and that makes them hard to interpret. The same can be said of many other seers the world has known. We'll come back to this in a bit, so be thinking about other famous seers."

The Professor turned towards Abby. "Oh, that is very true! But, does that mean that the government always knows what it is doing regarding the use of its' resources?" He asked more rhetorically than anything. He just wanted to make sure the students were keeping an open mind and considering as many possibilities as they could.

"No professor, it doesn't. Governments do tend to spend their taypayers money on ridiculous things, so that does make it questionable if all the prophecies are real or not. Someone just mentioned a former student who descended from a legitimate seer, so I think we can say that some seers are genuine, and others are not. I think that statement can apply to all people who practice divination. Some are the genuine article and others are fakes."

Tobi shook his head, his blood bedhead curls flying about. "No sir, just Evelyn, she's the youngest of my older sisters. My two other sisters never had anything like that and I hardly remember things I've been told a hundred times, much less know things I could never have been told."

Tobi considered what Professor Kapoor said about Nostradamus, "But at the same time, Didn't Nostradamus also predict the death of Kings with uncanny accuracy? It seems to me that you can only doubt so much in the face of things like that."

"Yes. Cassandra Trelawney. And, I think that is a pretty safe bet."

"You must be talking about infamous joust of France's King Henry II? Quatrain 35." He tapped his wand to the black board and besides the notes about charlatans, this quatrain appeared;

'The young lion will overcome the older one,
On the field of combat in a single battle;
He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage,
Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death.'

"Many of Nostradamus' predictions are eerily comparable to events which take place in the years to follow the time in which he'd made them and are read into after the fact of the event. This one, however is documented as a warning. Nostradamus gave a warning to King Henry II during his own lifetime. The prophecy was ignored, and in 1559, the king jousted against the younger Comte de Montgomery. The Comte de Montgomery did not lower his lance in time and caused it to pierce straight through the kings protective helmet, causing a wound which led to his death." Professor Kapoor looked to Tobi wondering if he'd heard this one before, and if it was one of the ones he was earlier referencing.

"One of the many challenges of going back and accurately interpreting the quatrains is that they can be compared to many different people and events, sometimes centuries apart. Is 'He' who 'shall be found less a Prince than a butcher' and 'cost the empire dear' Napoleon Bonaparte...or Ferdinand II? Or even, Hitler? With our limited knowledge on Nostradamus, it's very difficult to tell what exactly he means. Who else, besides Nostradamus has made world predictions which many believe have come to fruition?" He asked not only Tobi, but the class as a whole.

Tobi raised his hand again, "Well sir, there was Daniel Douglas Home, he was more of a victorian seance man though. And there is also Madam Helena Blavatsky, and if you go back as far as ancient Greece, there is Cassandra, whose warnings were ignored, and Pythia of the Oracle of Apollo."

The fifth year had really been just trying to comprehend all that the Professor was saying. Sure Dominic was slightly grateful that Professor Kapoor had never once made Divination out to be some bologna subject that you make up, but honestly, some of what he said also seemed to make little sense half the time.

Who else, besides Nostradamus has made world predictions which many believe have come to fruition?

Right? As if he, Dominic Denton, would know that!? Listening to the other student speak, he frowned and not wanting to be bested, did something rare and looked up the name in his book before raising his hand to speak, "Would some figures in history such as Alessandro Cagliostro or John Brinkley count as ones similar to Nostradamus in making predictions that many believe? Unless of course, well perhaps, it's not really possible to identify all of the people that have made predictions, because sometimes, even us, in our daily lives make predictions and not realize it. SO wouldn't we too be considered in the same class as those before? Just because one it is not recognized for their predictions doesn't make them less true, right?"

She scribbled on her notebook and just as soon as she had thought of an answer, Via eagerly raised her hand, "Edgar Cayce, Professor." she said. "He is known as the sleeping prophet. Although not all of his predictions came true, majority of them did."

Via continued to think about other people who had predicted the future.

cedric was listening on today's discussion about people who foretell the future

cedric raised his hand "sir Professor Trelawney is one of the people who foretell the future..Remember he foretell that the boy who lived, harry potter, is the one who defeat you-know-who Voldermort"cedric answered..

Elizabeth felt the need to jump in as the Gryffindor boy mentioned ancient Greece, and raised her hand. "Actually, Cassandra was the daughter of the king of Troy. And she predicted the fall of Troy, but wasn't believed. And then she became the lover of Agamemnon, and was murdered with him by his wife and her lover. Which she also predicted. Apollo had given her the gift of prophecy, but when she didn't repay him the way he wanted, he also made it so everyone saw her as a madwoman. And Pythia was a priestess of Apollo. Or even, more accurately, just a name for the priestess of Apollo who worked from the Oracle at Delphi. And her 'gift' was given by Apollo as well, through breathing in vapors and inducing a trance-like state." She paused to take a breath, then continued. "And the Roman Empire had the Sybils, who wrote books of prophecy, as well as offered prophecies to people without being asked."

As Bonnie hurredly jogged up the stairs to Divination, she wondered if she should have spent less time by the lake with Lydia, for she could hear the eccentric tones of Professor Kapoor growing louder; she was late.
She tentativley knocked three times on the oak door before entering and walked into the cosy room. As she did she noticed her cheeks redenning."I- I'm sorry I'm late, Sir", Bonnie automatically said to Kapoor, but didn't want to look to see his reaction to her lateness and so she quickly took the last free seat by the window. As she sat down in the deep armchair and took out her book she sighed a sigh of utter relief; all was well!

"Oh ok," Theo said. He frowned as he looked at the Professor. He knew nothing about divination. Apart from crystal balls. And they were shiny. Oh and tea leaves. But he didn't drink tea, so he didn't know alot about them. He quietly hummed in his head. His head bobbed in time with the music. He was listening to the Doctor Who theme. He knew it back to front.

Varius rose his hand after searching through his textbook, "This one I find particularly interesting Professor. This woman, right, Mother Shipton her name is - well, she used to go to a cave and write her predictions as poems. She predicted things like the plague, the spanish armada and even the great fire of London. Fascinating."

"Oh, oh," he continued, "And Jeanne Dixon had apparently predicted the assassination of the muggle President of the US, JFK."

Wow. He thought in his head. Imagine being able to SEE the future.