After what felt like YEARS, mediation was OVER with. Thank Merlin. Nettie found that when she had to be quiet and sit still with just her thoughts, they got a bit out of control. Still, she had managed to stop herself from daydreaming TOO much and thankfully was focused enough to listen to the next bit of instructions.

Throwing salt in the fire? That didn't sound so bad. She took her handful of salt, found a spot she thought would be as good as any other, and tossed it in. POP POP POP. The crackling noise made her blink and jump slightly as she waited for the crackling to die down. That looked like...a fence?

Bel was relieved to hear the throat clearing, honestly, because there was only so much of this meditation thing she could take. She copied quick notes down. Salt. Glowing. Patterns. Okay. She could do that.

Probably.

Well.

Maybe.

Bel threw her salt into the flames, making sure that she was away from anyone else's salt of course and then....... watched.

....?

He wouldn't know if she just picked symbols at random, would he? How about... a wave and a motorcycle? Perfect. Oh crap she'd forgotten to pick a question! Uhhhh.... she'd check the meanings and then come up with a question that made sense, how about that?

.... except.......... neither of those..... were listed...... in the textbook. Uhoh.

Uhoh except also.... now she was curious. Bel put her hand up. And then down again, a little uncertainly, and then thrust it high once more.

"Professor, what happens if the symbols you see aren't in the textbook?" Even if she hadn't just picked them out of thin air, it was a valid question, right? And she genuinely wanted to know. Oh and about the question.... uhhh.... would she have a good school year? How about that? Keep its simple. DOne.

Jessa sighed an almost audible sigh of relief when the ten minutes were over and the mediation had come to an end. The anxiety had only gotten worse in the silence. Without the usual chatter of her classmates, the Ravenclaw’s mind was free to roam and boy did it go places. Forget a question, Jessa had at least a million. Even if she did believe in this sort of stuff, there likely wasn’t enough salt to get through everything she now fixated on.

And as if she wasn’t anxious enough, the levels rose higher. It really was the Hufflepuffs, wasn’t it? Why was that one talking? In the new silence, even a pin drop was likely to irritate the man.

The Head Girl took another breath, trying to remember it wasn’t her problem. Without really narrowing in on a question, she moved over to a spot unoccupied by the fire and tossed her salt in. She waited a moment for the crackling to end, then peered over cautiously. The salt that now glowed in the flames didn’t look like much to her at first.....or even after a moment of looking but she persisted, if only to not have to look over at the man, or anyone else that may have decided to test his patience.

Volcano maybe....?

Sure, she’d go with that.

Cal had remained on his feet for the entirety of the lesson as he was expected to.. He had even did the whole salt in the flames things and SURPRISE, he saw NOTHING!.. But then again Cal was thankfully free of the inner eye or whatever it was that the divination professors have tried to make him and his fellow students believe existed.

He had stayed quiet for what may have been a record for him. At least in class it was.. He usually liked to be a vocal part of the crowd. Answering questions and all, but in this class he decided it was best to keep quiet. .. At least he did until Fletcher started to take points for HELPING OTHERS..

" That's a pile of dragon dung!.. Takin' points and forcing physical training for offering a little help?!.. That's ridiculous!.. I'll be informing my father of these gross injustices.. Do the school governors know what sort of men they've hired?.. ". Cal had lost his cool. He was berating the professor and was surely gaining himself another detention, but he couldn't stand silently by. Not when there were obvious abuses taking place at the school.


" Worry not, Sir.. ", he added as he grabbed up his ruck sack and slung it over his shoulder. " Ya won't be seein' me in this crack pot class.. It's a bunch of hooey anyhow and a disgusting waste of time.. Sittin' there lookin' into flames and crystal balls and readin' tea leaves?.. It's all a wide load of rubbish.."

It was like a nerve had been struck. Like a violin had suddenly been played out of tune. Like a hippogriff had charged right into him. That was what the sound of Ms. Livingston could be likened to in the middle of all this silence.

“5 points from Hufflepuff and you will give me 25 push ups as well. It’s appalling that at this point, when we’re nearly through the lesson, you still haven’t learned that you shouldn't be talking unless a question has been given and you’re answering it.” Circe, why weren’t they learning? Was it really so hard?

His gaze fell next to Ms. Calavarez who had refused the water. She was essentially throwing away her salavation. “Just one peep out of you, and you’ll join her.” No leniency with the hiccups. Just one more, and she would wish she’d drank the water.

He rubbed his face as yet another went at it. How did they not understand that now, even more than before, in the silence that followed the meditation, their voices would carry? “That will be 5 from you as well and I’d suggest you begin those 25 push ups quickly so you can get back to the reading.”

No talking meant no talking. If they didn’t already know that, the students who’d been punished for the same should have been warning enough. Hardly any time left in the lesson and students still had’t gotten it.


But he would remain calm.

In the spirit of remaining calm, Calvin turned his attention to one of the least aggravating Hufflepuffs present—by default. It wasn’t a hard title with the way the others were.

“A good question, Ms. Macindoe. In a case like this, it would be considered a failed reading. In instances like these, the fire is put out, there is a wait period of 24 hrs then another fire is lit and another session begins.” He explained, wondering if this was the position she now found herself in. “Will you be needing another fire tomorrow?”

Merlin’s soggy beard. When it wasn’t one thing it was another. He was at his wit’s end. He accio-ed the boy’s bag from his shoulder, a scowl set deep in his expression. You will not be going anywhere, Mr. Prichard. In fact, you will remain behind after the lesson has ended, and that will be another 10 points for your blatant lack of respect. I suggest you complete the activity with your classmates.”


__________________________________


He looked to the class once more, almost relieved they were winding down to the final lap. Once you have determined the shape your salt has taken, I would like you to record and interpret it. First, you will draw the symbol as you see it.” Not optional. “Then you will state the symbols meaning. Finally, you will discuss it’s applicability to whatever question you may have had.”

Simple enough, but in light of the most recent rule breakers, he felt the absolute need to state the next bit. “Please note this exercise does not require any form of talking. Should you have a question, feel free to ask, but otherwise, I expect the same silence that fell while we meditated. Focus on your readings, on uncovering the answers.” On not irritating him further.

“When you are done, you will have up your parchment to me then return to your seat—unless you were instructed to stand—and wait to be dismissed.”

OOC: This is the final activity. Once your character has made out the image the salt has created, have them return to their seat (if they should be sitting) and work through their interpretation. You can do an actual graphic if you’d like, otherwise just have your character describe the image they see then go through the exercise as Fletcher described. I’ll be posting to wrap up the lesson on Monday, Sept. 17 @ 5 am EST.

Daisy quietly returned to her seat and turned to a blank page in her notebook and grabbed her quill. She began to carefully draw the image she had seen among the flames. Within a few moments, Daisy had drawn a slightly wonky mantle clock. She then began to interpret the symbol's meaning in regards to the question she had asked.

Once Daisy had done her interpretation, she quietly got up from her seat and handed her work to Professor Fletcher before returning to her seat, awaiting dismissal from the lesson.

Getting up Stella took some salt and started finding herself a place around the fire. Ah...there was a spot not too far from where she was at. Taking some salt she threw it into her spot careful not to get into anyone else's fire that appeared to next to her. With white a bit of crackling she bit her lip in nervousness. Was the crackling a good thing or a bad thing? Like a bad omen or something bad?

"No Stella don't think like that or think that!" she thought to herself.

With much waiting she steady her breathing as she seen a few objects appear brightly in the fire before her. Ok... it looked like a bird or a Phoenix she wasn't really sure, and it looked to be circling around a heart? Ok... she didn't know what that meant but it faded out now. She didn't know if that was good or bad, heck she didn't even know what it meant! Oh...merlin she hoped it was good she didn't need any bad news.

Taking a seat, she grabbed her book looking through it trying to find out what she saw in the flames

Ok... so the heart meant love... wait what?! She was only eleven years old for Pete's sake!

"Ok....Stella calm down it could mean different kind of love." she thought to herself.

Ok... and she seen a bird that looked like a dove, so maybe that meant hope or so?

Biting her lip she looked through her book again ok... lets see ah birds, now to look for a dove meaning.

She inwardly groaned at what she read.

A dove, highly fortunate, indicating peace, love and happiness; a goddess bird, promise for the future.

Well... this was just rubbish or it was true one of the two, she didn't understand this at all.

Taking her quill she wrote down what she seen.

Although she felt a bit silly at what she wrote, but hey she had to put something down right? Folding the pavement she handed it to Professor Fletcher before taking her seat looking into the fire.

Nothing.

That’s what Max saw in the flames. Absolutely nothing.

He recalled Professor Fletcher’s previous comments about beginning another session in 24 hours if no symbols made an appearance. AND he overheard him asking Bel if she required another fire tomorrow??????? So that meant if they flopped, they’d have to do a re-do???

Nooooope. No thank you. Not happening.

He stared at the flames until his eyes felt burny, willing something, ANYTHING to appear…. but still saw nothing. Divination truly was a load of tosh.

He was gonna have to make something up because there was NO way he wanted to suffer through this again.

Max returned to his log, pulled his textbook and parchment into his lap and got to work on his blagging. The first thing in the textbook was an acorn, so that would do.

Quote:

Max Carden
Slytherin
Sixth Year

I saw an acorn at the top of the flames. This bodes quite well because my question was about Professor Vance and whether she’d make a return. The acorn symbolises success and gain which I think can only be a positive. I definitely think it’ll be a success if she comes back.

It wasn’t until he was finished that he realised that Professor Fletcher might not be entirely chuffed with his question or with the outcome, but it was too late now. He folded the parchment up so that the words weren’t visible and handed it over. Hopefully, he wasn’t going to read it until class was dismissed and HOPEFULLY it wasn’t too late to drop this subject.

The Gryffindor watched the fire, trying to make out a shape where she had thrown the salt. It didn't really help that her mind was completely elsewhere, but she did feel a sense of comfort as Faith joined and put her head on the Gryffindor's shoulder. Almost as if they weren't in the middle of literally the most excruciating divination lesson of their entire lives.

Only that didn't last for long.

Because next thing she knew, Faith was being punished for doing absolutely nothing?!?!

Okay listen, Zoryn was planning to stay complicit for the rest of the lesson seeing as their Professor was one giant joke and she didn't want her friends to give her their worried eyes anymore. Plus none of this was really worth it and she'd probably get another detention for some other reason sometime soon. BUT making Faith do pushups?!! For ONE SYLLABLE?!

The only thing more ridiculous than Fletcher's blading head was his obtuse personality.

"What?!" She had really tried to bite her tongue sort of. "But she hardly even said anything?!" And Faith was already having the worst time as it already was. Did he SEE how much her hand was quivering before? It wasn't fair that he was picking on someone like Faith. She never did anything wrong. Not unless it was because Zoryn dragged her into it and honestly, Zor was pretty sure Faith only showed up to her detentions out of sheer curtesy and not because she actually had to.

"Sir," she added as an after thought.

Honestly she wasn't trying to be defiant. He just made it hard to actually want to stay silent.

" Take all the points ya like.. I don't see a bloomin' thing in the fire.. I'll stay, but I'm not participating in anything.., Cal said as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Professor Fletcher.

this man would soon learn the stubbornness that this young badger held. He was not at all the type to change course once he'd made a choice and he wasn't going to be made to do anything he didn't want to.

"Um...what? Just for pointing out something that everyone else was missing?" she replied, still amused-toned. The professor could call it an outburst if he wanted, but hadn't been what it was at all. Needless to say, Archer made no move to get up and run, not seeing what she had done wrong, not being able to complete the class assignment if she did and not to mention not wearing the appropriate footwear for said exercise. Though she did wonder how much longer it would be until her younger housemate (Reese/Calum) made like Cardi B and threw his shoe at the professor.

Removing a pinch of salt and tossing it over her shoulder for good luck, Archer opened her salt packet and dumped it into her hand before tossing it into the fire. A few moments later, and she could see nothing in the flames. Because of course, she didn't. This professor didn't seem to be the type to appreciate some made up junk, either. Which is why she wrote what she did.

Quote:

Sterling Archer Calrissian
Fifth Year
Hufflepuff

So, I didn't see anything. Of course I didn't, because this isn't Ancient Greece and I'm not an oracle. So sue me.

Okay, maybe she also wanted to tweak his nerves a little too.

At this point, everything about the lesson was making him anxious including people like Zoryn...and Faith...and that Hufflepuff kid...who all just seemed to want to argue. Lucas had not been raised to argue or question any adult, even one he might not respect, like that. In fact, by virtue of being older than he was, Lucas did feel slight respect for the man. It was just...the way his parents were, and what they had passed down to their son. AND THEN THIS GIRL [LUCILLE] REFUSING THE WATER AND TRYING TO GET HIM IN TROUBLE? He shook his head immediately and pushed the water back to her and motioned for her to drink it. It would help! And see--the professor even said--NOT ONE MORE HICCUP. HE WAS TRYING NOT TO SAY WORDS BUT IT WAS VERY HARD AND HE WANTED TO HELP THIS GIRL.

Ahem.

He was no longer feeling relaxed, but he kept fingering the packet of salt, enjoying the feeling. He nodded at Professor Fletcher's words and stepped towards the flames, feeling the warmth of the flickers caress his cheeks. He thought about his question--which now, on reflection, seemed like a STUPID question. But it was too late and he was too nervous to think of a new one. So...just...thinking about Violet more than he had to, again.

He then carefully tossed the salt into the flames, watching the result in mild admiration; it was beautiful. He was paying close attention for patterns, feeling a little bummed that he didn't see anything in the flames immediately. He wondered if Professor Fletcher would have anything against squatting...because like...it was easy for Lucas as well as being able to see the flames from a new perspective??? He nearly did it, but then decided it was much too risky. He was more afraid of his parents than he ever was of a professor, even this one, because he knew...no matter how crazy unreasonable a professor was, his excuse would not matter to his parents if he were to receive a mention or do too poorly with his behavior. They didn't expect perfect grades, merely reasonably high ones. He was fine in that front. He was normally fine in the rules front, too, but this guy...was just.... mean.

So he kept looking at the flames...and looking, and focusing, and then drifting to Violet again...and all he could really make out was....a.....table???

A table????????

Hanna listened to the instructions Professor Dungbrain gave them, and went back towards her allocated piece of log. Which, of course, she didn't sit on. But how she was going to neatly do what he had asked, without having her knees to lean on, she didn't know. It was use her palm as a 'table' so that she could still read her textbook, or lean on her textbook and try to remember what she'd read. Going for the textbook open one, she got ready. Pulling out some parchment, which she reinforced by folding in half, and then half again, and opening her ink and text book, and dipping the nib of her quill into the ink.

She'd asked whether her parents might forget about her now that they were having another baby. It had been on her mind. When they'd had Elsie, Hanna was still around. She held her baby sister when she was only hours old, and helped until she left for Hogwarts. But now that she wasn't at home, and wouldn't be home, she didn't know if she'd have anything to do with the new sibling. Would they even know Hanna as its older sister? Even Elsie didn't act the same way around her that she did with Lena and Mikaela. Hanna sighed, hating the question.

Putting quill to unsupported parchment she got to drawing her kangaroo. It wasn't the best picture, because she didn't like the feeling of the nib scraping on the paper. It gave her goosebumps. She didn't do any shading or colouring, just an outline. As she started, though, the nib broke through the parchment in a few areas, of both the drawing and writing. It was the best she could do without something to lean on.

Quote:

Hanna Newton, 3rd Year Ravenclaw

Symbol seen in the fire was a Kangaroo.
This means Harmony at home.
This relates to my question, and puts my mind at ease.

Well really, what else could she say? She didn't want the Professor to know what she had asked, that was personal. And he hadn't shared his question. The meaning behind the symbol was fairly obvious, although it might mean harmony at home without her there, or harmony at home with her.

Finishing up, emptying the ink from her nib and packing up her ink, she handed her parchment to the Professor and went back to stand by her piece of log.

Merlin's Beard this class was something alright. And did anyone notice that it was most of the Hufflepuffs who were rebelling against the Professor? He sweared, if they did not change that attitude and even won the House cup at the end of the year, he was going to file in a complaint.

Dorian shook his head in dissaproval as Reese just refused to listen to the Professor and when the boy had lost points again, this time Dorian didn't even feel remotely sorry for him. He had definitely crossed the line the moment he started to talk bad against the Professor and the lessons itself. Was he the only one who could see that the Professor only wanted to teach them about Divination? He personally was at Hogwarts to learn and not to fight against it.

If he was getting a headache about this he wondered how the Professor must feel. Rubbing his forehead, Dorian stared back at the fire. So far he hadn't seen any shape in the salt and he wondered if he had even done it right. Which made him wonder if he had missed the shape or if nothing had been there at all.

The Ravenclaw looked around him and was mildly panicking when a lot of students were already writing down what they had seen. Should he just...pick a symbol and make something up? But that be concidered lying... But no one could prove he had or had not seen the shape right?

So it was either the truth ,write nothing down and fail the lesson or lie and make something up and maintaining his good record. Although, the Professor couldn't get mad if he didn't see anything.? He wondered though.... As much as he didn't hate the man like most of the others did, he did not have a good feeling about him either. So....he was going ro regret it one day but the fourth year grabbed his parchment and pen and opened up his textbook to find a symbol that would give a good answer.

Flipping the pages until he was on the correct one, Dorian used his finger to read the words until his eyes stopped at: Mask - something hidden.

This could mean hundreds of things but since he wanted to be in a relationship in the next few years, it would be really mysterious to use this right? Yup he thought so too.

Soooo many people getting in trouble. Soooo many people misbehaving. Soooo many people just... making things harder for themselves than they had to be. Benji just didn't get it. He wondered particularly about the girl with hiccups who was refusing the water. How absurd. What, did she want him to be angry with her? These people!

Thankfully, the lesson was just about over, it seemed. Benji was surprised that he'd actually seen a symbol -- that almost never happened. It seemed like the "inner eye" liked to make freak appearances for him rather than being reliantly present. Mostly, he believed it was a mixture of luck and an overactive imagination. But still, he would take what he could get.

Following instructions, Benji returned to his seat on the log silently and began searching through the textbook to find the symbol of a dagger. Once he'd located it, he got his parchment and wrote:
Or maybe he was being explicitly told that this school year was going to be dangerous and horrible, but he felt like the professor wouldn't particularly appreciate seeing that response written down.

He obediently and wordlessly brought his parchment up to Professor Fletcher before returning to his seat on the log and waiting quietly to be dismissed.

All she could do was blink for a moment... He... He was punishing her for trying to help another student. What was this? Wasn't she supposed to be kind and helpful to people and now he was chastising her for it... What a load of hippogriff dung. She bit her tongue from saying bite me, and also reminding the professor that usually chugging down water just made the hiccups worse. But maybe that's what he wanted because the man seemed to enjoy punishing students.

Regardless, before she did her push ups she turned again to Lucille and gave her two of the packets she'd offered earlier to help the poor girl with a kind smile, hoping she wasn't worried about her current state.

Josie sighed but got down, doing the push ups easily. If it was supposed to be a problem for her at least he was in for a rude awakening, she used to wake up at the crack of dawn and do yoga with her step mother, she'd had plenty of strength built up because of it... So yeah back to her previous comment of 'bite me'.

The fourth year spared him an angry glare before tossing the salt in the fire and watching for a moment before going and sitting down. At least his rudeness gave her a question to answer.

Quote:

Name: Josephine Livingston
House: Hufflepuff
Year: Fourth
My question was whether or not I should have listened to my father on signing up for this class. Unsurprisingly at the moment, I saw the symbol of a whale, which typically is a reminder to listen, which I really should have done so I didn't get punished for being FRIENDLY.

What was he going to do? Yell at her again for being snippy? She didn't really care at the moment, so she folded up the paper and handed it to the rude professor before going back to where she'd been sitting before hand.

There... assignment done, could she go now?

Oops. Nettie hadn't counted on having to turn this in for a grade. This posed a bit of a problem, since she couldn't very well write the REAL question she'd asked - about when these terrible professors would be leaving the castle - so she would have to figure out a...nicer way of putting it. She took out her quill, consulted her book on the meaning of the fence once more and then began to write out her answer.

Quote:

Name: Trinetta Gladin
Year: 2nd
House: Ravenclaw

For this assignment I pondered over the question "Will I continue to have mood swings" because, having just turned 13, I find myself having more moments where I feel like I am not in control of my emotions.

Thankfully, I saw a fence in the pattern created by the salt that I threw in to the flames. Fences indicate at the issue at hand is not permanent and is only temporary. It also indicates that it is a minor setback, meaning I should not have any lasting consequences from my mood swings. This was something I had hoped to be turn, but it was nice to have verification of this.

In reality, she DID find it kind of reassuring for another reason - this meant that these terrible Ministry people would hopefully be OUT of here relatively quickly.

If the salt and fire and nonsense was to be believed. So maybe she wasn't all that reassured...

”Join her.” He replied, his voice level, cool even. By this point in the lesson, with only about 10 minutes left, the man was over their outbursts and their inability to just remain quiet. It wasn’t a difficult ask and yet......yet.....

“That will also be 5 points, but I’d like you to do 30 for the repeat offence.” This would be the second time in one lesson he had to address Ms. Spinnet. Not off to a good start at all. He wouldn’t argue with her. Ms. Chosen had heard the rules. All she had to do was remain silent as well. If they wanted to break such a simple rule, they could very bloody well handle the consequences. That happened, in life, consequences. It didn’t seem these children were accustomed to such a thing but that would be changing.

This time, the man rubbed his hand against his face, taking in a much needed breath in order to remain calm. This level of outright defiance. Did his parents know this was how he disgraced them when he came to school? By acting as if he had no home training? Had he indeed been raised in a barn, even then the Professor supposed he would have turned out better than he currently was.

All the points he liked? As many as he wanted? “Don’t mind if I do.” The Professor replied. Whether the boy had been bluffing or not, such an offer demanded retribution. “That will be 150 points from Hufflepuff—or would you rather I take more still? As many as I’d like, correct? That was the offer? Kind of you, but foolish and insubordinate. Distasteful. That is how you are behaving Mr. Prichard. You will complete the activity before leaving here tonight and I will be seeing you in detention. Not another word.” He warned. At this point, the boy would shut up and do as he was told if he knew what was good for him.

It didn’t escape his attention that this one hadn’t done as instructed. He waited for her to be done and hand up her parchment, his expression solemn as his patience ticked away. “I do believe I gave specific instructions for you to run. You will run now or during detention, the choice is yours but you will run.” He glanced down at the parchment she handed in, scowling deeply. “I will also see you tomorrow evening for a re-attempt at the reading.” Not a smart one. He’d already told Ms. Macindoe that no symbol meant having to do another reading in 24 hours.

Perhaps it would have been better to fake it.


For the others, he accepted their parchments as they handed them in, looking them each over for anyone else who may not have seen a symbol in the fire. They would also have to do another reading tomorrow. So far, he was pleased. They got the work done and returned to their spot quietly. These were model students.

He ignored the angry glare of the girl, neither fazed at the swift nature of her pushups nor the anger she harboured. His gaze did linger on Mr. Choi. It was smart of him not to accept the glass and to remain silence even in doing so. See, it wasn’t a hard ask at all.

The packet of sugar Ms. Livingston offered was vanished.

Just a few minutes left.

Pulling a leaf of parchment from his textbook, having tucked it in the back of his textbook before moving over to the fire, Derf began the balancing act of holding the book in one hand for a writing surface while writing with the other. It wasn't too difficult a task, though he was tempted to levitate the book in the air to free up his hand a bit more but quickly opted against it. He was still fairly certain that his reading was offering him sarcasm as a response, which he reckoned did not bode well but he could appreciate Divination's attempt at humor in light (literally by lite of the fire) of how bleak this lesson had gone for him.

Quote:

NAME:

HOUSE: Hufflepuff
YEAR: sixth


a hammer or a wonky horseshoe

HAMMER - hard work needed, getting a point across
HORSESHOE - good luck, attraction, Earth's magnetics, Omega or Leo, closure

ANALYSIS:
Ended up asking the flame and salt if my outlook on this term and the general direction of my attitude was right for getting me where I want to go. If, you know, it was the right path for me to take. Mostly the two possibly symbols I think I see seem to be validating that it is right and I should keep at it, though it won't be easy. But really...what in life IS easy? The hammer tells me that I need to keep at it but that I am getting my point across. Reckon that is accurate seeing how tonight has gone. The horseshoe, which I take as a bit of divine sarcasm, is wishing me luck on my hard work as it is always a bit of a struggle to redefine ourselves. I don't know anything about Earth's magnetic...we have't really talked about that in Astronomy that I remember, but I know a thing or two about Omega and Leo! Mostly that Omega is last letter of the Greek alphabet and I reckon that means endgame here. Leo is a fire sign, which seems fitting giving tonight's medium, and is also associated and ruled by the Sun. I just got a tattoo over the summer on my shoulder of a sun - you probably don't want to know this but here it is anyway - by taking the lines of some of the scars from inferi bites and claw marks and inking them. Reclaiming my skin, to put the whole concept into a nutshell. So this association showing up in my pyromancy reading I reckon is more confirmation that this is the right thing for me though - as the hammer cautions - I gotta work hard and be diligent. Even Leo has positive and negative sides:

Positive Traits:

• Love the Limelight
• Generous and warmhearted
• Creative and enthusiastic
• Broad-minded and expansive
• Faithful and loving

Negative Traits:

• Pompous and patronizing
• Bossy and interfering
• Dogmatic and intolerant

Tickling his nose with his quill, there was something else about Omega that he was recalling. Something about it being a symbol of resistance somewhere in history. His bright blue eyes flickered back towards the Divination professor, a new sort of resolve bubbling within.

Then, without another word, he boldly walked over to the man and turned in his parchment. Not lingering at all this time, he returned to his log with his textbook tucked under his arm and stood. Waiting.

It was peculiar to feel so....good at the end of this lesson given everything...but, here he was. Feeling good and confident and genuinely looking forward to his talk with Professor Noble.

And just as he did...the man was threatening to take 150 points from Hufflepuff because of Reese Callum. Well, Derf WOULD offer to try and talk to the boy, they had a bit of a bond going on, but Derf had been instructed not to speak and thus he remained silent. Though really? Derf never found point deduction to be an effected method of discipline - and it was clear that Callum cared not about point loss so it was hardly getting through to him anyway. Instead, Derf tried to meet the younger boy's eyes to communicate something there. Something that would hopefully get him to step back, take a breath, and step back.

She was terrified of him and didn't want to answer nor even participate. What if he got angry if they were wrong? What if she was made to look even dumber then she was? This was all too much and the little Ravenclaw just held her head down as she focused on the ground more than anything.

As he went on to talk about the activity and how to see things in the fire Chloe took a few deep breaths and looked at the fire. The meditation part made her heart rate slow a little and she was trying to relax, but every time she heard his voice she jumped.

Then there was Cal, she tried to give him looks to stop talking and stop losing points. No wonder he wasn't getting many friends in his house, he really needed to just stop before he got beat up or expelled.

Trying to focus on the fire again she squinted and looked to see if she could find anything, but she wasn't able to see anything be red and it was starting to make her face feel way too hot.

She had to put something though, what could she put? She just started writing and would try to make something up not to look stupid.

She honestly didn't know if that was right, but she hoped it was.

This guy needed to chill. Seriously, he had to be on the verge of a heart attack with how much he was stressing over truly small things. Not that Archer really cared if he keeled over, just as long as it wasn't in front of her. "In stiletto boots? You've got to be kidding," was her reply, served with a chuckle. She considered continuing to not do the running, but she really valued her free time. Not to mention wanting to limit her exposure to Mr. Sourpuss as much as possible. So, she took off running, er, as well as one could in said boots.

And no, he would in fact not be seeing her tomorrow evening. She had done the assignment as asked, was honest in her paper and the facts would not have changed in twenty-four hours. In fact, she could take an actual time-tuner back to actual Ancient Greece and still probably not be an Oracle.

By this point in the lesson, Jessa was ready to go. Don’t get her wrong, she’d been ready since she got here but with the continued defiance and the man steadily losing his patience, even she was beginning to feel tired in every sense of the word.

She almost sighed when Rylee’s brother went on but was careful to keep any noises to herself. The 150 points that were taken were by now not even shocking. This cycle of acting out and punishment had been going on for so long that it was the same as if the man had only taken 5.

Rather than focus on any of it, Jessa moved back to her spot on her log and began leafing through her textbook. When she got to the answer, she could say that wasn’t a surprise either. Harmful emotions. Yeah. A lot of that going around lately, she didn’t need a fire to tell her that. Tuning out her classmates, she pulled for her quill and parchment and began scribbling. At the end, she added a crudely drawn volcano. He didn’t say it had to be perfect but she wasn’t gonna risk NOT drawing anything at all.

Quote:

Name: Jessa Cambridge
House: Ravenclaw
Year: Seventh

Symbol: Volcano

Interpretation: Based on this reading I’d say I’m in for about the same sort of term as every other one I’ve had in recent years. The volcano represents harmful emotion and while I suppose harmful can be a subjective term when it relates to emotions, I guess I’ll have to take the fire’s word for it.

After she was done, she got up, handed him her parchment then returned to her spot to wait for them to be dismissed.

... Daehyun had yet to figure out what he saw out there. Had the salt taken the shape of ascending birds, dropping feathers on their way, or were they daggers? It didn't take a genius to know they symbolized entirely different things and, in his case, it was as though answering his question with both yes and no.

Maybe he should start writing and see where it gets him.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Daehyun Yoon
Third Year
Gryffindor

Reading

Birds: ascension, good news, rebirth, resurrection
Feathers: ascension, moving beyond physical reality
Daggers: warning, danger from self or others, power

My question was about my future as a magizoologist and, therefore, the birds and the feathers that I saw mean that I might do a good job, but the daggers say the opposite. It looks like I might do well, with dangers on the way (?), but in the end, be reborn like a phoenix from its ashes and succeed.

With that, he set his quill aside and moved over to professor Fletcher to give him his parchment, before returning to his seat. Who would've thought he'd be so poetic?

...... with her classmates... her housemates losing points and doing pushups left right and centre, Bel was more than a little distracted even given her own internal thought process with the activity.

But uh. A good question. And uh.... another fire? Another reading? "Yeah I guess I would need another reading, professor." Could you see point loss in a reading because that was all that was going through her mind now.

And maybe a little selfishly because she was worried that potential team members might get barred from Quidditch entirely... and honestly, where would SHE be without a team to captain?

"Professor," She put her hand up at the instructions, "Should I still try and complete the assignment, draw a picture and interpret what I saw even though I have to redo the reading or should I do that part tomorrow as well?" Just... um. Checking.

Faith had barely noticed when the initial twenty-five pushups were assigned, because surely he hadn't been talking to her. She had barely sighed! But when Zoryn's temper flared, she could almost taste blood in her mouth as her heart jumped (metaphorically) into her throat. The blonde put a hand on Zoryn's shoulder, extracting herself from the position she was in before looking levelly at the professor the way Echo taught her.

"She was just defending a friend, sir, but if you insist on pushups, I will do hers for you," she said, in her best Tashina Youngbird impression.

That was friendship. That's what happened, in life, when you cared about someone. You'd do their pushups for them. You'd do a whole tonne of things for them. You'd probably even die for them.

So, what, fifty-five pushups? She could do pushups. Faith Teaghan Chosen was an athlete. She capped at seventy in one go, but she was a keeper. Keepers had some pretty decent upper-body strength and flexibility and basically, she could do this.

She slipped off her shoes so they wouldn't get destroyed by the small stones, toed off her socks so they wouldn't get dirty, and lowered herself onto the ground. "Fifty-five, fifty-four, fifty-three -" she began, counting every pushup more for his benefit than hers, doing the full pushup rather than the modified-knee-version. This was civil disobedience, it was a perfectly legal way to protest unjust laws. She'd know. Her brother was a lawyer.

"Thirty-two, thirty-one, thirty."

She'd go on if it killed her. Which it wouldn't, but it was the principle.