A question.

Ella had a million to choose from but settled on one that was pretty general. One that would hopefully put her mind at ease given everything coming up. She needed to know she'd be fine given things and stuff going on at home. Some hope would be nice so her fingers were crossed as she cleared her mind and focused on nothing else but the question.

Will everything be okay?

Then, with her eyes squeezed shut, Ella let the book fall open on her desk. Her hand found the page and she pointed her finger randomly. She let it rest there and took a moment before opening up her eyes. Now she just needed to read what it said.

So this was going to be so much fun. He wrote down the procedure on his parchment. For his own documentation. Thinking of a question for himself. Right with everything going on lately. He had so many questions.

Maybe he needed to breathe in breathe out. Breathe in breathe out. Breathe in breathe out. Breathe in breath out. Nope this still didn't help him with a question to ask.

Aye of course. He had gotten two letters of teams interested in him to play for them. The Tutshill Tornadoes and the Apppleby Arrows. Both teams were great and he would be glad and happy to play for them both. So question was and what is book it would be a perfect question to ask.

Which team should he play for?

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Professor?
 

Sander frowned as he re-read the passage his finger had randomly picked out, of all the other passages in the book.

He kept reading each line over and over again trying to decide whether any of the lines had a hidden message which contained the answer to his question. Somehow his eyes kept drifting back to that one portion of the passage. The portion that read, "It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out."

Sander pondered on the words. Did the light, the passage was referring to represent hope? That even when he, Sander, doubted that he and Tessa would ever have a future together, that he shouldn't lose hope? That as long as he continued to hope for a future with Tessa, they would eventually be together one day?

Or was the light actually their future? "May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out." Sander read over and over again.

Did it mean that no matter whatever else happened in the future, the one thing he could always believe in was his future with Tessa. That they would have one together?

Was that what the passage was trying to tell him? Or was he just trying to decipher it that way so that it brought him comfort instead of disappointment?

Sander raised his hand to ask for the Professor's help. Maybe he would be able to explain things better to him.

The book was going to be telling her her future? Correct her if she was wrong but was that what this lesson would be doing for her? She didn't think it worked like that...and how would the book know anyway? Did it need something more technical than a random book? What if the one in question had nothing to do with your situation? Would it work then...or lower her into a false sense of security that she would suddenly be yanked out of the moment danger reared it's epic head?

So many questions but in the end none of them were the kind she was interested in getting an answer to. Far too many other things in life that eluded her for her to waste her question on something so menial as how it worked. 'Sides, the Professor had probably explained when she wasn't listening. Asking for an explanation would only prove she wasn't listening.

Alright. Question, she needed a question.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...At first she wanted to go with something candy related but then something more pressing came to mind. Something more pressing than candy you might ask. Well yes. She could buy more candy but it didn't look like she'd be able to grow a new head of blonde hair.

Yup, she had her question, now to concentrate.

In spite of the fact that Mo had several interesting conversations with his photography mentor over the summer regarding the Sight, he was highly doubtful of this process. How in the world could he randomly pick a passage that would speak to him? Wouldn't he end up guiding the response? Or reading something into it?

And what if he'd picked the wrong book? This was the one at the top of the stack in his trunk, but he also had text books, and a couple other fiction books, and there was a whole library of books.

This was probably why the breathing part was so important. Mo took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and slooooooooooooooooooooooooowly released the air. He kept at it, forcing out all the questions, one at a time with each breath, until his brain was fairly quiet. Fairly, because a Mo brain was never really quiet.

Now. All he needed was a question.

No, she wasn't ready to do a reading. What if the passage she landed on translated into her being painfully devoured by a dragon? Beverly would be more than thrilled to be in the presence of such creature, but eaten? She'd rather live.

The question didn't sound open for discussion, so the Slytherin picked up her book and stared at it for a bit. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath.

Think of a question. Okay, easier said than done. She had so many, but they were too broad with more than one solid answer. She'd have to narrow it down. Something easy then.

She dropped the book on the desk, question in mind. Eyes still closed she pointed at a random passage.

...

Heh. Now she didn't want to open her eyes.

A reading? They actually had to attempt to do a reading now? Alex was not sure about this, but if nothing else, it should be interesting. She had lots of questions, but wasn't sure that she really wanted the answer to all of them.

Alex looked at the sample questions on the board. Homework- no, Detention-no, Crush-definitely not, Holiday-well she guessed this was the lesser of the evils. Yeah, best to go with the holiday question. Hopefully it was safe. She took several slow deep breaths to clear her mind and focus on the question. "Will I have a good holiday?, Will I have a good holiday?". Alex continued to repeat the question to herself.

"No problem, ma'am." So Rhapsodomancy was essentially the same thing? Noted.

And now Anna Karenina was going to predict her future. Truthfully, it felt like more of a thing that described the past. And the sad bits, well... most of the book consisted of things she didn't want happening to her. Ever. It was probably the worst book Alice could bring to class for an activity like this, but it easily held the most truth for her as well. So maybe, just maybe, it'd work.

Closing her eyes, the seventh year tried to cease thinking and clear her mind. But instead of choosing a question prior to emptying her head, she reversed the steps. Get her gears to stop turning, and then a question would make itself prominent. Hopefully. And because it was this book, a question did.

Is my mother proud of me?

Next step, then.

The problem was that West didn't want to know anything. Every possible thing he might want to know was too important to entrust in something he didn't believe in. So.... make something up?

Eh?

He looked at Alice, trying to work out what she might be doing. He'd ask her later, or just peek at her parchment.

For himself though...

Just on a whim he thought should I be single?


.................................. this turned out to be a terrible idea.

West went a bit pale as he read the first line that his finger fell on, and then he flipped through and jabbed his finger again. And again. And again.

Uhhh.... new question?

She knew her mind was supposed to be clear and all, but she couldn't help but slit open an eye and peek around the room, curious about what everyone else was doing. Was Mo finding more truth in Emma? What about Schuyler and her Walt Whitman book? Her gaze landed on West last, and he looked a little.... strange. Alice would probably ask him later what he'd been thinking about.

But for now, she would focus on her own assignment. Stop thinking. Empty mind. Empty head.

Is my mother proud of me? Repeating the question in her head a few times, she squeezed her eyes shut again and let the words bounce around with her blank thoughts. Mother. Pride. Me. Mine. Her. Is she?

Finally, she gave the book in her hands a gentle squeeze for luck, then dropped it on her desk. Softly. Very softly, for it was her favorite and she didn't mean to damage or hurt it in any way. Books had feelings too.

Inching her hand up the page it had landed on, she rested her index finger on a line and opened her eyes. What did she have here?

Everything will be much cleaner and fairer.....

Nope.

.....surrender the quaffle to the opposing team.

Uhhh....

the game once consisted wholly of goal-scoring....

West kept flipping and jabbing at different passages at random. Nope. Nope. This was dumb.

He REALLY needed a different question.

Alex finished her deep breathing feeling that her mind was as clear as it was going to get. She picked up her book and laid it on the desk, allowing it to fall open to a random page. Then she concentrated on her question. "Will I have a good holiday." Closing her eyes, Alex moved her finger slowly down the page. She decided to stop when it felt right to her. Opening her eyes, Alex hesitantly looked down to the spot where her finger rested.

Alex could not begin to imagine what that passage had to do with her question. Try as she migh, she could not make sense of it. It was almost as if the book had given her the answer to another question, the one she didn't want to ask. And yet it was the one she wanted answered the most....... just not in Divination class. There was no way she was having a discussion about this with the class. Although Alex did not feel good about it, she decided to try again. She would address her original answer alone, privately.

Now that Adi had his question, he took hold of his book, let the spine rest on the desk and with his eyes closed ,let go of it so that it fell open to a random page. The next step was to point at a random passage. Okay. He could do that. Eyes still closed, Adi pointed blindly to the page before opening his eyes and reading:

Ah yes. This was when the aliens were about to discover Jake, Marco, Rachel, Tobias and Cassie. That was such a tense part of the book. Adi believe he himself had been breathing in "short, sudden gasps" when he first read the book.

Giving the pages a flip, Alex found another place to search for answers. She moved her finger down the page and stopped at what she hoped was a more suitable answer.

Ahhh, now this was a passage Alex could deal with. This one made sense, sort of. At least she could relate this to her question. Alex took it to mean that she would have a good holiday because she would get to spend Christmas with Sander and his family and friends in Norway. She would get to view things from Sander's point of view.....at his home....in his element. Yeah that was it. Alex liked this answer much better than the other one. And about the other one, no one would need to know.......

This passage was not what she'd been hoping for. The eighteen year old just stared at it blankly, wondering why on earth she'd decided to ask a serious question. She should have asked about Christmas gifts or something. Much less emotion tied to those things. Well, mostly.

Will everything be okay? Considering everything she'd been thinking about when she asked that, it seemed like they wouldn't. Too late. Did that mean...? The blonde felt a heaviness in her chest and she sort of wanted to leave to send a letter home. Just to make sure that Gran was okay, y'know? She couldn't leave yet, though. Instead she pulled a blank piece of parchment towards her and started jotting things down. Trying to piece together what this meant for her.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



...She didn't like this activity, Elwood.

Focus ALL his attention on it? Eep. That could be tricky, but it was worth a shot, right? He'd try. Yes.

People were closing their eyes, but Tobias figured the best way of focusing his attention completely on the question was to look at it and stare at it and see nothing else. If he closed his eyes, Toby's attention would wander much more quickly. So he used his hands to cover up the notes on his parchment, all but that one question, and he stared at it, reading it over and over again and really thinking about the question and a little bit about the tryouts because that was what the question was about and everything.

Next he needed to do the closed eyes thing, because that was an actual step.

Probably looking slightly ridiculous, Tobias kept his head bowed and close to the parchment, staaaaaaaaaaring at t he question he'd written and trying to focus only on that as he blindly groped around his desk for the book he'd brought along. Eventually his hands fell on it and he brought it closer, still staring at the question.

Now that he had his question. The only thing left was for him to randomly pick a page and a line of next. So without further thought Nigel picked a random page in the book and jabbed his wand onto the page.

fear of flutes

Nigel did not understand, What did this have to do about his question. He was apathetic about flutes, He did not have Aulophobia, and what did Flutes ever do to him? This was just confusing. It would not get any better if he random jabbed his wand on other pages. This was a lost cause in this book.

Maybe his question was too hard.

So with a question now in mind, Sophie began focusing on that question and that question alone. Well, there were a few other things mixed in, too. Like, for example, possible outcomes to her question. Maybe Tillstorm wouldn't tell her parents and grandparents about that common room fight. Maybe she'd go free and never have to worry about that common room fight again!

Yeah, right.

Sophie picked up her book, again Quidditch Through the Ages, and got ready for step three. How was a Quidditch book going to help her with this question anyway? At least it was something she enjoyed.

So a question, then. Mo couldn't come up with a question when he was purposefully clearing his mind. It was sort of the opposite of a clear mind. He should have come up with a question before mind clearing, and now he was all semi-blank brained without having any idea what to do with it.

What did he want do know?

What should I do after Hogwarts?

Do I have a future with Cat?

Am I good enough to play Quidditch professionally?

Where are my goggles?

Siiiiiigh. Mo moved his book to the middle of his desk and traced the images on the cover. Maybe he better go with something that didn't have any consequences, just in case the book told him his future was in garbage removal.

What's next?

The big question she wanted to ask was whether or not this thing that was happening to her hair and her joints was going to affect her in some way more permanent than she was willing to accept. The Gryffindor wasn't prepared to die of rapid aging, something she'd mentioned far too many times before. This couldn't be a problem. Lottie already told her she'd be fine and that she expected it was just a simple curse gone wrong but this book would be the final word on that apparently?

Honestly that depended. She'd done tons of readings for Divination before but when they didn't come out the way she wanted, she'd never had a problem changing things around until they suited her.

Call it cheating but she knew what she wanted in life and so the question went: How serious is this grey hair thing?

Grey hair couldn't have been that bad but she had to be sure. The Gryffindor concentrated on the question, cleared her mind of everything but the question and just tried getting it to somehow magically transfer to the book...if that was how it worked...she didn't know. After a moment of thinking about nothing but the question she let the book open to a random page and let a particularly section catch her attention, the first she saw.



.........

...............

SO Lex was just gonna go ahead and pick a different question that didn't hint at certain death...yeah...the weather....she liked the weather.