SnitchSeeker.com - Divination Lesson 2: Shadows by the fire

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- Term 51: January - April 2019 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-51-january-april-2019/)

- - Divination Lesson 2: Shadows by the fire (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-51-january-april-2019/divination-lesson-2-shadows-by-the-fire-112263/)

As soon as Tina had spoken, she immediately wished she hadn’t. She really wasn’t trying to cause panic; she only wanted to make sure she had the most accurate reading possible. Nice going, Tina! She thought to herself. Now you’ve scared everybody! Of course… this was what she got forgoing out of her way to be thorough! Lesson learned… next time she had a question about something, she was going to wait until after class and look up the answer herself. She nodded in acknowledgement to the professor’s answer, a forced smile on her face. ”Thank you, Professor,” she said quietly. “I was just curious.” Better for everyone to think she was asking out of tactless curiosity than that she’d actually seen a headless shadow. Despite the bad omen, the idea of someone dying within a year seemed preposterous!

Tina was so busy inwardly berating herself for the trouble she’d inadvertently caused that she almost forgot the directions for the main activity. Uh… what was it again? Something about singing and dancing around the bonfire and reading each other’s shadows… Yeah, no. Fantine Sophie Dantes did not sing or dance, especially not in the mood she was in now! The dark-haired Ravenclaw reluctantly rose from her hay bale walked -not danced -walked slowly around the bonfire, positioned about two feet from the fire. She decided to do her readings on her own shadows… it would be a lot faster that way, and besides, this way if she saw another headless shadow, it would be her own death she was predicting and wouldn’t cause panic.

She kept things simple at first, walking along with her arms at her sides. Okay, let’s see… that shadow appeared to be shortening,and that meant failure, sadness, negative outcome, or loss. Duh! She was pretty sure that faux pas with the question she’d asked earlier counted as a negative outcome, or was there more to it than that? Did that mean she was going to fail her OWLs? Just when she was beginning to panic, she noticed something else ominous about that shadow. The arms were missing! And that meant loss of a friend or loved one… but that didn’t seem possible. All her friends and loved ones had already either died or walked out of her life… except one. Now she was really worried! She knew this person would never voluntarily leave her behind, but he had had a health scare recently. Did that mean he was going to die?

Tina had to take several deep breaths to calm her racing thoughts. After that ominous first reading, she was having trouble re-focusing her attention on the task. She trudged along for a bit until she calmed down enough to think straight. She decided to try making some shapes with her shadows this time. Standing a little closer to the fire than before, she held her arms out and spread her feet wide apart to create a star shape. She was relieved to see this shadow had the correct amount of limbs, and it looked a little bit longer than the first one.That meant… a positive outcome or yes. In other words, the exact opposite of her first shadow. Ugh, that made no sense! Usually Tina loved divination, but this sciomancy stuff was confusing!

For now, she was going to write off that last reading as inaccurate and move on. Tina stayed the same distance away from the fire as last time, keeping her feet apart, but this time she put her hands on her shoulders to make a shape resembling butterfly wings. This time, it looked like her shadow had four arms instead of two. So additional limbs meant… being helped by those around you. Hmm… Tina guessed that sort of made sense. Now she only had one shadow left to complete the required number of readings, and she was out of ideas for fancy shapes to make with her shadow. She’d just have to go back to basics for this one. She backed away from the bonfire until she was standing about 2. 5 feet away from it, then gradually moved closer. She saw her shadow slowly lengthening, and was it just her or was it leaning a little to the left? So a lengthening shadow meant growth and positivity, and leaning to the left meant looking to the past. Did that mean she she was going to grow from her past experiences? That was the only interpretation that even remotely made sense! With her final shadow done, Tina returned to her seat to jot down her findings. Was she done now?

You know, this whole set up had a pretty yogibogeybox flare to it, you know? Which was pretty fitting considering some of the roots of this particular method of divination. Though, honestly...Derf was struggling with this particular form of interpretation. Especially with his eyes open as he moved about because he felt far too in control of it all.

Which was why, well, the Hufflepuff threw a bit of caution to the wind and closed his eyes before settling into a position. Nothing all that fancy - legs at shoulders' width apart and arms hanging loosely at his sides. It a posture most reminiscent of the sort he would take on the pitch while listening to Bel rattle off the intentions. Which meant that all his limbs were visible in the shadow he cast, so there was that at least. As for the distance, well, he had positioned himself far enough away that his shadow appeared longer than his actual height...which meant a favorable outcome. Though he had neglected to ask any sort of question and it felt a bit counterproductive to do so now. He would just take this as his plans post Hogwarts were the right ones for him and he would accept this little bit of pseudo divine validation. Positive growth and positivity, yes.

Well, things HAD been going well until the professor started going on about people dying and losing loved ones. What a damper. Nettie tried to give Ewan a reassuring look to let him know that was totally NOT going to happen to him, but they had moved on before she had a chance. Tina had gotten her shadow interpretation right, at least!

Nettie was certainly NOT going to dance, but she did look at Gunnar's shadow as he passed. It was...shrinking, and going away from her as he walked away. So that meant...she paused for a second to consult the shadow sheet.

Failure? Sadness? Negativity? Wow. Nope. NO THANK YOU. She had had PLENTY of that this term and was looking for a FRESH start. Obviously Gunnar was just the wrong one to interpret. He was probably giving off bad vibes still from that whole poster thing. Yeah, that was obviously it! Time to move on to someone else.

She stood to the outside of the hay bales as the students worked on their task. Some danced, some walked, and some chose to sit and observe. She was eager to read what they had noted on their papers. A slight frown crossed her face as she caught sight of Ewan crumpling up his paper then taking a seat. Readings, at times, could be a bit disheartening and she hoped whatever the young man had noted wasn’t too upsetting.

Kassie continued to watch as Gunner and Tina both walked around the bonfire while Nettie and Derf appeared deep in thought while reading shadows. Other students were making their way around, all in different places and moving in their chosen way. Even if they weren’t enjoying themselves, at least none of them had fallen asleep or into the fire.

Once their time had passed, Kassie lowered the music and spoke just loud enough for the furthest student to hear. “Sadly, our time has come to an end. Please turn in your readings to the log stack by the sheet and make your way back to the castle. Your homework is to complete ten more readings at various times throughout the day. This is due in one week and I expect detailed readings for full marks. Thank you all for your participation and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

OOC: Thank you all for coming to class!! This will be open for about 12 hours if you would like to make an exit post or finish up with any parts from the lesson.