Caroline walked into the Divination classroom. Aw man no big bonfire this time. She frowned. Tea pot, Eh? ohhhhhh She bet they were doing tea leaf reading today. Awesome, Maybe she was starting to like divination better this year. Who knew? Things can change. "Hello Professor Bishop" She smiled at the professor and went to go find a seat where was she going to sit? She looked around hopefully. She shrugged and sat down right in the middle of the room.

Nika walked into the room and looked around. She raised her eyebrows as she saw the teapots. Hmmm.... Nika walked up to her professor and smiled widely. "Hello Professor! I can't wait to see what we are going to do for class today! The other classes were so much fun!" Nika's voice carried a tone of excitement. She couldn't imagine why some didn't like the class.

Samira was a bit apprehensive about Divination. She didn't exactly relish in the thought of having your future told to you. It made her feel slightly uneasy. Still, she was excited to see what the class had in store. She wanted to see if she had a natural ability like some people. Walking in, Samira saw her older Slytherin friend Carloline sitting in the middle of the room.

Samira smiled as she walked over. "Hey. Mind if i join you?"

Idly looking through the contents of the wooden box, Renée looked up as soon as she'd heard the first person arrive. The reactions to the new arrangement were certainly interesting, but she smiled at everyone as they spoke to her. "Hey everyone," she said, closing the box again and standing up to lean against her table, before returning Destiny's silent greeting with amusement. She couldn't remember the girl ever really saying much in greeting during lessons. "Are you okay, Selina?," she went on to ask, as she saw the little Gryffindor rubbing her forehead. She'd had some concern for the girl ever since their first talk, but this seemed different. Physical, as opposed to psychological.

Treyen was another one who had made certain strides over the course of the term, when it came to her classes, and she'd given the Hufflepuff a smile before noticing Rae enter. And immediately react to, well, something. Her observation of the seventh year, who she was admittedly a little surprised to see again after everything else, and her discussion with Destiny was interrupted by more entrances, and Renée went on to give the newcomers another smile as she continued to listen. It was hard not to, especially since they didn't seem to be trying to remain subtle. "Your eyes aren't breaking, Rae," she said idly, with a slightly wry smile, if only to let the girl blink again, before addressing little Nika's comments. The little Gryffindor's excitement was welcome, and gave her the slightest of openings to the lesson.

"Well, it seems like a lot of you have some questions about what might be going on during this lesson. Curiosity," she said, voice still in the vaguely idle tone it had been in when she'd reassured Rae. "I figured we'd keep things a bit more relaxed, especially since I can imagine at least some of you have other things to worry about." Exams, that sort of thing. She still wanted to have a discussion though, and a fun lesson. And at that thought, her demeanor turned a bit more animated, more mischievous. "Before we get started, I'm curious to hear what you might think we're going to be doing.Go ahead, try me." She had a feeling people would guess one of the topics, but not the other. It remained for them to actually see how much she'd reveal before she started the real discussion.

ooc: Okay guys. Feel free to guess whatever you like, make suggestions. Anyone who hasn't entered yet should remember not to post walking in, stating their lateness, but feel free to react to the surroundings and suggest things as well. The first topic for discussion will start no later than midday tomorrow, PST, if not earlier, depending on what I get now.

Well, what Kurumi hoped they were going to do was sit around, drink tea, and perhaps read fairy tales. It was getting towards the end of the term, so a nice distraction like that would be nice, but she knew that would be wishful thinking.

"Are we going to practice Tasseography, Professor?" Kurumi asked eying a rather cute looking tea cup covered in small rose buds.

After Freya finished settling herself in one of the chairs, she took out some parchment and quill from her bag and put them on the table. She heard Professor Bishop greeting each and everyone in the class and asking them if they know what will they do in today lessons. Well, from the amount of teapots at the shelves, she would guess they'll do a Tasseography today. Its a far chance that they'll do a tea party.

She raised her hand before giving her answer. "I'm guessing we will do some Tasseography today, Professor." she lowered her hand after she finished.

Okay.

Destiny stared at Mia. And then she stared some more just because she could. Being called mad was not the answer she was looking for and it was apparent that the Hufflepuff was just as horrible as she was at guessing games.

And she was also horrible at reading emotions because Destiny was far from mad. She was quite happy at the moment and yeah, she had no idea she was being called crazy. It was probably better that way anyway.

"Umm, no. But I forget now, so nevermind." She'd remember..in a few years.

Bwaha!

Rae was freaking out and Destiny couldn't help but laugh. It was actually quite funny seeing her friend slap her hands over her eyes and if they weren't in the middle of class, she would have dragged her to the Hospital Wing. See how she likes it!

"Yes, Rae. Your eyes are dying. And it's not one of those slow deaths either. This will happen so fast, if you blink, you'll miss it." Hehe. "That's what happens when you have eye-sore-ingitis."

Destiny's parents were Healer's. She could always say she knew about those types of things.


But then the Professor started the lesson and just HAD to mention that Rae's eyes were not dying.

What a fun sucking Professor.

Turning away from Rae, Destiny listened to the question, not having any idea what the lesson could be on. Perhaps this wasn't even a REAL Divination lesson. Professor Bishop could have made her trek all the way up to the towers just to have her rearrange the classroom or something. Old Professor's were sneaky like that!

But, despite not having any guess on what they were doing, she knew what she did not want to do. "I hope we aren't going to be doing Moleosophy."

Mia and Rae were her friends, but looking at their moles..that is just gross.

"We will be doing Divination!" K-Lee piped up. It was an obvious answer, but still true. "Probably something that will sum up all our lessons, or something smaller that won't take longer than a class to cover." A few more details wouldn't hurt.

She wasn't here to guess everything. She was here to look into the future. Maybe she'd find out who would win the Quidditch Cup. That'd be nice.

"Professor, are we going to tackle on interpreting something with the usage of those tea cups?" Elle gave a wild guess. After all there were several cups in the shelves and she heard from her older brothers that they used it before. She just forgot what the "something" was that they interpreted!

Renée grinned a little to herself as it seemed several students had been paying attention to their surroundings, even as she was a bit disappointed they didn't try for being a bit more creative with their suggestions. Of course, it had been Kurumi who had truly brought the idea of half of today's lesson to her mind, but she wanted to see if people would come up with more ideas. "Maybe . . .," she replied to the three students, giving them each a smile. They were right, but that took a bit of fun out of the situation.

Now, it seemed Destiny was thinking along completely different lines, and Renée stifled another grin as she glanced toward the Slytherin girl. With Mia and Rae, who she still wasn't certain had decided she wasn't going crazy. "I can assure you that won't be part of the lesson today, Destiny," she replied with a smile, unable to hide the need to grin entirely. "It could be an intriguing idea, though. For the future," she added, with a wink. She wasn't entirely mean, after all, even though she knew the girl was wondering.

A bit of a laugh did escape Renée at the suggestion that came enthusiastically from K-Lee, however. Not so much at the girl, but with the very excitement behind the guess. Not to mention the fact it was definitely true. "Yes, I can definitely say we will be exploring that subject," she replied, nodding slightly at the continuation. "A bit more toward the latter, although we will be discussing topics brought up in previous lessons." In passing, at least. If they'd discussed them in detail before, this lesson would be entirely review, and somewhat less fun.

Whaaat in Merlin's beard was Destiny talking about? Rae's eyes dying?

Leaning forward to look at the Slytherin's eyes, Evelyn suddenly turned her attention to the Professor once it sounded like class was starting. Suggestions on what they were doing today...OH! Hehe, she had soooooo not noticed those teapots and cups until some people mentioned Tasseography. Well, that wouldn't have been her first guess anyhow.

"Does it have to do with Oneiromancy?" she asked, smiling ever so innocently. Welllll...warm tea plus divination usually meant sleepy time!

Emily looked at the tea cups then she looked back at Professor Bishop... "I'd have a guess at saying we're going to be doing tasseomancy, although perhaps we could simply drink tea and do something like palmistry..." It was an idea after all. Emily was very fond of tea.

So it was tea cup related, but it was only possibly Tasseography....

Hmmmmm, if Patroclus had a bread he would have totally been stroking it right now, but alas all he had was a chin, so stroked that he did.

Oh Dream interepting, nice thought Evelyn, he thought to himself, having to shake himself to remember he wasn't actually the teacher......but he could so totally have been Bishop's assistant.

"Professor, could we possibly, be dropping the tea cups on the floor and letting them smash, and then using the breaks and splinter patterns to divine?" Patroclus was a typical boy, he liked to smash things.

Teacups, would smash quite beautifully!

Yep. Not only was Destiny mad, she was totally forgetful as well. What a shame too because Mia really wanted to hear what the girl had to say. She had heard that Destiny had some amazing facts that she liked to sprout off every now and then.

Mia turned to look at the Professor as she started the class and was just about to answer when Destiny piped up.

O____O

Moleosophy??

What in Merlin's name was that?

Yes the girl was definitely MAD!!

Trying not to laugh, Mia raised her hand in the air. "We're going to do some tea tasting." She said hopefully, knowing full well that they were'nt but eh it was the end of term and Mia was over studying and classes.

Selina smiled at Bishop weakly. Her forehead was throbbing and it was not the most pleasant feeling in the world. One would think that because Selina played Quidditch she would be less accident-prone. The bruise on her forehead begged to differ.

"I'm fine Professor. Just a little banged up." With that Selina headed to her seat next t Kurumi and waited for class to begin.

When Bishop posed her question Selina raised her hand slightly and replied, "Could we be working with tasseomancy or tasseography?"

Guess? Wow.

"Professor, couldn't you--" guess yourself, "...I think, keeping the teapots in mind, we're going to practice Tasseography today." Or drink teas from the teapots while guessing things. Cedric leaned on his chair deeper as he would on a couch. His chair was not that big and so were the other chairs, he observed. His back was starting to sore.

Yes, Josh was known to be skilled at Divination which he had no idea where it did come come from though he had no particular interest in it. However there was no way he could deny the very fact that it was a fun subject. So he did enjoy at least every Divination class he managed to participate. Guessing stuff. He loved doing that as well so by suggesting it Professor Bishop was his new favourite.

The Gryffindor, of course, had seen the tea cups near the professor and he knew what form of Divination they could be used with yet he had a much more fun idea to be instructed in this class. So raising a quick hand the boy stood up and smiled at the woman before starting to speak. ''How about we study Responsomancy by Josh the Divine Master of Divination, professor? That is very simple, easy and fun. It is that i ask you a mere question like the colour of the last bug you saw, you give me the longest answer possible for the question and i tell you your future based on your answer. I assure you it's very accurate. And not unlike Oneiromancy which has just been mentioned by the most beautiful girl in this school''

Hehehehehe...

Samira tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. Hmmm...guessing was not really something Samira was good at; she was more of a precise person.

She raised an uncertain hand. "Will we be trying to interpret signs of future based on what's happening around us now? Or...try to decipher prophecies?"

The more Samira spoke, the more uncertain and stupid she felt. However, she tried not to let it show. So she just nodded a little to herself and acted as if she was sure that's what she wanted to say, hoping the Professor wouldn't hate her if she had a lack of knowledge for the class. Although Samira didn't think the Professor seemed mean at all, so she was pretty sure she wouldn't be singled out...

Nika made faces in her thought. Nika regretted going to the library and only picking up a book about Astronomy. She looked around in confusion as everyone guessed all of these weird words. Tasseography? Huh. Nika shrugged and decided it was worth a try to answer. Besides divination is the class where Nika always speaks what comes into her mind whether right or wrong, usually wrong. "Are we going to be..." Nika's eyes wandered around the classroom and the met the tea cups again. "Drinking tea and then relating how the taste of the tea makes us feel to our future?" Nika gave her professor a weak smile. She knew her answer was most likely wrong and it was a complete guess.

"Hi, I'm Ariana," Ariana was going to say more, but then the Professor started talking, so she stopped.

Hmm... Well, considering that there were teapots and teacups, Ariana would guess Tasseomancy, but a bunch of people had already guessed that. Maybe they'd be doing something else, too, like... Ariana couldn't think of anything realistic, so time to get creative! She tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear and thought for a moment before speaking up.

"Well, we could be doing Tasseomancy, or we could be doing something that has nothing to do with teacups, like Palmistry or something."
Okay, so not really creative. Still... it was different? Oh well, Ariana just waited to see what everyone else did and what Professor Bishop said.

Renée watched everyone curiously as the bulk of the suggestions continued to run along the lines of tasseography/tasseomancy. It seemed her trying to get them to be creative hadn't exactly been understood, but at least she had to appreciate the attempts at educated answers. Not to mention there were still a few who it seemed had chosen to go a different direction. She smiled at Evelyn as the Slytherin brought up Oneiromancy, inferring the hidden meaning behind the idea. It seemed at least one person wasn't quite as excited about tea as the others, especially given that oh-so-innocent smile. "We aren't going to be discussing Oneiromancy today, Evelyn, but that was a good suggestion." Maybe another time. And her grin grew as Josh spoke up, with his own little angle on things and yet connecting them all to Evelyn. As she'd discussed with certain other professors, the information brought across by the parchment floating around the castle hadn't eluded her. So that little inter-house connection wasn't missed either. "Another good suggestion, Josh. I'd have to ask if you truly think that's divinatory, though, or if it's merely psychological," she asked, giving the Gryffindor a little wink. Symbolism could always be interpreted both ways, of course.

Addressing herself to the people who had continued suggesting tea-related ideas, she raised an eyebrow at the start of Cedric's suggestion after nodding as Selina said she was alright. "Couldn't I what, Cedric?," she asked curiously, wondering what he had meant to say. As far as she knew her abilities weren't widely known yet. But while she waited for that enlightenment, she sent another smile to the class, making a note of those who had mentioned palmistry as well. Another possibility for later. "Alright. All of you who made the observations about the teacups and pots are correct, in one way or another. Although I'd hope none of the cups get broken except by accident," she replied, glancing at Patroclus in amusement. She hadn't thought the prefect was destructive, but maybe it was due to end of term. "In any case, the tea will come later. First, I'd like to ask you all something a bit more related to what Samira mentioned." The idea of prophecies, at least. "Who wants to tell me what they know about oracles?"

ooc: Start of the true points-related portion of the lesson. Try ti limit yourself to one idea per post. Let others join in with their thoughts as well.

Oh they were going to study oracles. Mia liked her tea tasting idea better but she supposed that had to learn something. Just because it was the end of term didn't mean they were supposed to slack off even though she wished they would.

Raising her hand in the air, she piped up. "Oracles are people who supposedly can predict the future and are inspired by the gods. They were thought to be portals which the gods would speak directly to man. Which is different from seers because they interpret signs from the gods." Yep that was the short version of it.

No Oneiromancy? Shaaame then.

Yet, she grinned as she glanced over at Josh. He had said that plenty of times before, but she'd never get tired of hearing; whether she was angry at him or not. However she was sorta hoping Patroclus' suggestion would have been the answer as well, but apparently not. Darn. She should've suggested they would be setting the tea cups on fire. THAT would always be fun, no matter the subject they were supposed to be learning.

"Aren't they like...a form of a seer or something?" she asked after raising her hand. Or something. Meh, oracles.

Sierra had always been rather mehh about Divination. She was sort of in-between when it came to how she felt about the subject. It neither interested her or bored her. It was just--a subject. She sat and listened to her classmates sprout out idea after idea, but she hadn't really come up with anything to suggest yet. That is, until the professor brought up oracles, which was actually something she'd heard about in her home-schooling years.

A little reluctant to actually answer, she raised her hand slowly into the air. "Oracles are similar to seers, but they relay messages directly from the gods instead of just interpreting signs," she said. Hopefully, at least. Sierra's knowledge of Divination was about as strong as her interest in the subject itself.

Dang! No smash, band thank you Ma'am for Patroclus, it seemed all the teapots would be remaining intact.

However, Oracles? They were pretty cool tooo!

"Professor," the Prefect began, "An Oracle, is a divine lightening rod, if you will. A human person that is like a mouth piece of the ancient gods. They were seen to be extraordinarily important in ancient societies. The Oracle of Delphi, in Greece is a perfect eaxmple, " here came the ancient history part, "Delphic Oracle was seen to be directly linked to the god Apollo, and Greek city states would travel from miles around to ask questions, to which the oracle would reply in riddles. One of the greatest notes mentions of the Oracle is by Herodotus, in his Histories, when he mentions that the King of Sparta consalted before marching to Thermopylae."

This boy loved ancient history, but with every story there was a grain of salt, "Recent discoveries have tried to prove than rather than being used by the Gods, the Oracle at Delphic was really just issueing drug-fueled ramblings. They use to sit over a burning fire, which was full of Laurel and Henbane, both of which are hallucinogens. So where it was magic or just a trick, we still use the Oracle as a representation of Ancient Religious belief in the power of the Gods to tell the fortune of mortals."

He was done.