Thereos was tired of waiting for the human students to arrive at his lesson and he used his magic to turn the ceiling into the night sky. He averted his gaze to the celestial heavens overhead and focused on one particularly bright star.

"Mars is in retrograde," he said to himself. "An ill omen indeed."

Shuffling her feet, Kurumi hurried down to Astronomy with her textbook clutched to her chest and wondering if NOW she would get the chance to ask about the comet. The sleep over had been nothing short of a mild disaster and, well, her voice had been lost there.

Entering the room, Kurumi was surprised to find the classroom dark and with the night sky on the ceiling. She entered just in time to hear the centaur mention something about Mars...again. THAT...wasn't good.

Since no one was around just yet...which was ODD...

"Good day...Thereos," she said, approaching the front of the classroom, looking up at the ceiling too. "Thereos...does...does that mean that war is coming? What you said about Mars I mean?" Because, after the sleep over she had looked it up and, well, that is what the one textbook had written in it. She then set her things on the table. "There was a comet as well...a little while back..."

The Gryffindor hadn't always been a fan of divination, skeptical of the whole area of expertise like most were unless they were fans. Though since learning of Selina's gift, Gideon had to admit he had taken more of an interest in the subject. However learning of the topic that they were to be learning for the first lesson of the term, abeit late in the year, he wasn't sure what to make of it. If he was loyal to his mother he would hate the lesson, seeing as it tended to muddy the appreciation of her own field as well as that which he liked as well...astronomy. But maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

"Hello Thereos," Gideon greeted with a polite nod as he entered the classroom and neared the centaur. Somehow his usual greetiood day didn't feel right since the situation at the sleepover. He then passed the divination professor and took a seat at one of the desks to await the lesson and whoever else showed up seeing as it was just himself and Kurumi at the moment. The fifth year noticing the night sky on the ceiling and focused his attention on it.

Ella walked into Divination, immediately struck by the replacement of the ceiling with the night sky. "It's beautiful," she said, walking past Thereos. "Hello." she said cheerfully. She overheard him say something about retrograde and frowned. What was that? "What does retrograde mean?" she asked, taking a seat.

Evelyn made her way to the Astrology class, wondering why she was taking this class in the first place. Frankly, she didn't find it that interesting.

The sixteen year old entered the classroom when she noticed..hey, wait a minute. A centaur was teaching the class!? She froze and stared at him for a minute before she murmured, "Hello." She made her way to a seat in the front and sat down, placing her bag on the desk. She hoped that the lesson was interesting enough.

Amelia raised her brow as she stepped inside the classroom and stared up at the ceiling. It had been charmed to look like the night sky, and it was rather pretty.

"Hello, Thereos." She just kept staring up at the night sky now.

Vickers got lost. Well theres a first time for everything but this time he was genuinely expecting Divination classes in classroom at the towers, just has his uncle had during his days here. It was only when he returned to his common room that he finally saw the update to where Divinations will be held.

The ground floor? Then he'd better get hoppin'.

He skidded to a halt a foot from the doorway to catch his breath and straighten himself out. Crossing the threshold he catches his breath as he stares glances at their Divinations Professor.

A real live Centaur. Lookitdat!

Stop staring. Greet! "Hello Professor." Obviously the Ravenclaw was rattled at the moment that he forgot the Centaur's name.

Wait he was starting his class already? The Ravenclaw plopped himself down the seat nearest him and tried to collect his thoughts on what the Professor had just said. Mars. Retrograde. He racked his memory-- his uncle was talking about this from time to time. Should he raise his hand before he talks, well heck just a bit, wouldnt hurt to try to be respectful in case this one had a temper "There are.... setbacks Professor? Plans not panning out as expected?" Or was he mixing it up with another retrograde?

Minerva looked at the ceiling. "Wow this is different, what does it mean professor?" she found her seat and waited to hear what was going on.

"Retrograde is when a planet moves backwards through the zodiac," answered Thereos. "The retrograde phase is when the planet concerned pushes itself into our consciousness, overshadowing the energies of the other planets and so affecting our personalities."

"Mars is poorly placed, Kurumi, as it moves through Virgo. This is dangerous for all of us, human and being alike." He stopped and looked at the students who were in the room.

"Ah, I see that it is now time to begin the lesson. Welcome. Today we are going to learn about astrology. Can someone provide a definition on what this form of divination relates to?" he asked.

Sky interest had been piqued at the announcement of a divination lesson about astrology. So she arrived at the and chose a seat, overhearing the professor(?) mutter something about Mars being retrograde. She remembered reading something about that meaning war was near. Yikes, not good. She wasn't sure if they were supposed to have heard that however, so she just said "Hello, sir." She took a good look around the room and spotted the stars across the ceiling. Wow…

"It relates to the positions of the constellations in the sky?" she guessed, not really knowing.

Ella raised her hand, pretty sure she knew what it meant. "Does astrology relate to what sign a person is? I mean I think my astrological sign is a virgo..." Ella didn't know much more than this and sat back, notebook ready to write down any new information on the subject.

Nate walked into the classroom and found a seat. So this was what it felt like to be in a divination class. When the professor had asked the first question that really stumped Nate. He had to think about this one. Natehad to go out on a limb here and guess. Hopefully this would sound at least a little bit smart. He said "Divination was a branch of magic that involved attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into future events, through various rituals and tools." Hopefully that would at least be a bit close to the correct answer.

Taking a seat and looking at Thereos as he answered her question...sort of, and addressed the rest of the students who had followed her in - where had they all come from!? The classroom had been empty moments earlier. No matter. Parchment and quill now on her desk, Kurumi dated and titled it before raising her hand. "Astrology is a form of divination through astronomical phenomena. The rotation of planets in the night sky, paths of comets, position of the sun and moon...among other things."

Evelyn frowned at his question. What is astrology? The girl hesitantly raised her hand and answered, "Well..doesn't it have something to do with predicting the personality of an individual based on the position of the stars..?" That's the best she could come up with.

Minerva wasn't completely sure but she put her hand up. "Professor is it relate by the way planets and stars are positioned as well as constellations?"

Amelia blinked as she listened to Thereos. She really.. wasn't that good at this subject by any means. :/ But she did know something about Astrology. She raised her hand now. "As far as I understand, Astrology is the study the effects that the moon, stars, and planets have on human affairs. There are also Astrological signs, which everyone has depending on what month we're born in," she added for good measure.

It was all too possible that Arya was only attending the lesson, one she never did before, only to get to interact with the centaur professor. But really, when else would she get a chance like this? Probably never once she graduated.

She was terrible at figuring out the parts of Divination though, and so didn't bother giving a response. Eased back in her seat by a window, she twirled her quill and let her eyes float about.

"You're all very close in your definitions, and thus 1 point each for your replies. Astrology in the West is horoscopic, that is, it is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person's birth, in which various cosmic bodies are said to have an influence," Thereos said. "Let us begin with the zodiac."


"What does 'zodiac' mean?"

Daichi scribbled down the answer on a piece of parchment as the class had started. He knew he wasn't able to remember it so writing down notes was the best thing he could do.
Hearing the next question, Daichi placed down his pen and thought for a second. "It was something about a circle, professor" he said after raising his hand in the air. "But i'm not sure"

Ooh! Evelyn just earned one point. That was awesome. Yeah, it was just one point but it made her feel like she was doing well considering the fact that she didn't like the subject much. What's a zodiac? Ooh. She'd done this before.

The girl raised her hand and said, "Well, in astrology, a zodiac is divided into twelve equal parts that are called signs. Each of the signs bear the name of a constellation." Uh. Was she right?

And thus the note taking began. Kurumi was only vaguely familiar with Astrology from her grandmother telling her stories about the constellations and what not, but when Thereos mentioned the zodiac, well, that brought up another story. A rather sad one actually about how the cat had been tricked by the rat and had missed the chance to earn his place in the heavens as one of the zodiac creatures. It was all really sad...and why Kurumi was not very fond of rodents. Poor cat...it just wanted to be like all the other creatures...

But that was the Chinese zodiac, and Kurumi wasn't sure that that was what they were talking about right now.

Shaking her thoughts away from this, Kurumi raised her hand once more. "Zodiac, in Astrology, is a circular diagram that shows the 12 zodiacal constellations." Unless he was looking for the ACTUAL definition of the word...like its roots and all that, which she had no idea.

Nate raised his hand and said "Professor it has two meanings. The first one is a belt-shaped region in the heavens on either side to the ecliptic; divided into 12 constellations or signs for astrological purposes. Then the second one has something to do about the twleve zodiac constellations." Nate was hoping this would be correct. Unlike the first one.

Amelia started talking notes on what was being discussed right now. She figured it all might be important for later, and she had no idea if she could remember everything otherwise.

She raised her hand at the next question. "Isn't the zodiac said to be an imaginary belt in the sky? The sun, moon, planets seem to move within this belt, and it's divided into twelve sections. These sections are called signs of the zodiac and are named after constellations."

Thereos nodded at Amelia's answer. "The zodiac is the belt or band of constellations through which the Sun, Moon, and planets move on their journey across the sky," he explained. "Evelyn is correct in stating how the zodiac is divided in Western astrology, and has earned a point for her answer while Amelia has earned two."

"Most astrologers use the tropical zodiac beginning with the sign of Aries at the Northern hemisphere Vernal Equinox always on or around March 21 of each year. Can anyone tell me what the Western Zodiac is based on?"