Rafe's hand bolted in the air. "Extispicy , professor!" Rafe actually witnessed this type of Divination in Italy. It was gruesome, but way awesome. "It's the practice of using anomalies in animal entrails to predict or divine future events. Organs inspected can include the liver, intestines, lungs, or other major organs. It's pretty graphic, but pretty cool. The animal used for extispicy must often be ritually pure and slaughtered in a special ceremony. I suppose it's a lot like Haruspicy." Rafe didn't know if he should say this next part, "And there's Anthropomancy. The ancient Egyptians used human entrails of a dead or dying human as a way of looking into the future."

Looking at the omens professor? Amy said as she raised her hand

Chris raised his hand to give a type of Divination as he heard the other students let off their answers. "Professor Reynolds isnt there a form of Divination in which people studied the flight patterns, and appearanecs of birds? I think the Romans were known for using this meathod." the Head Boy said with a nod of his head.

Evan raised one hand, though then lowered. He didn't know many divination fields... maybe he could describe?

"We've learnt last year, I forgot the name, the flowers had special meanings and we read them..." Did that make sense? Probably not. He obviously should have attended that class and didn't fake to be sick.

Fail.

Types? Selena sighed. "Umm... there are reading tea leaves and palms as well as interpreting dreams," Selena offered. That was more than two but she wasn't sure if they were wrong or right.

Kate straightened in her chair and held back a yawn. To have so many classes is starting to drain my energy.... She rubbed her eyes and thought about the question that Professor Reynols had asked. mmm...one type of divination... ah! maybe...

"Professor, I think that CARTOMANCY is a type of Divination, wich is fortune telling using cards such as the Tarot and PRECOGNITION, an inner knowledge or sense of future events. Is that right?" she said raising her hand.

Lucky had been taking her time creating her lovely nametag that she had missed the chance of answering the first question, but she had gotten done with writing her name just in time to have her hand up in the air to answer the next question asked by Professor Dude.

"Oculomancy," she answered. "NOT Occlumency." Gigglesnort.

She lowered her hand, and then she lifted her nametag so that it was now visible to the Professor.

:: Ehgad raised his hand, "Gyromancy!" He squeaked, then he made a spinning gesture with his raised hand.

Quote:

Ehgad Jarvey Second Year

"Ya spin and spin and divinate!" He added with enthusiasm. His Mother practiced Gyromancy after a few fancy drinks when they had dinner parties. It was entertaining. ::

Nia raised her hand, noting as she did so that she'd knocked down her name card. She carefully stood it up again, before answering.

"Oneiromancy, Professor," she said with a smile. "The art of divination from dreams. I beleive it uses dream interpretation to predict what is going to happen in the future."

"Yes, Palmistry, or Cheiromancy as it's sometimes referred to, is the interpretation of lines and mounds on your palm." Nolan agreed with a nod. True, Palmistry WAS the one type of Divination he was really rubbish at--those lines were just so hard to find sometimes!

"Anyone can look into the crystal ball," he said with a small chuckle to the Ravenclaw who was clearly skeptical about the subject. "Whether or not you SEE something in entirely different. That is called Crystallomancy, which is a type of scrying," he explained. He hoped they were all taking notes on this!

"Yes, that's one of the more...obscure types of Divination," Nolan replied to the captain with a grin. "You'll find throughout this class that you can interpret the future and find insight in things that you never thought of before!"

Like...animal bits. EWWW.

"They do indeed," Nolan nodded in agreement. "Pyromancy is indeed the study of divination through flames, and while humans can and do use this type of divination, due to the complexity of trying to actually make out shapes in the flames, many leave it to the centaurs," he explained.

"Very good," Nolan said, nodding at the two students who had mentioned tarot card readings. "Tarot cards, or Cartomacy, is a very common form of divination and something I myself almost made a profession once," he added with a chuckle.

Tarot card readers didn't make much money though. Hence why he quit that pretty quickly.

Nolan stopped himself from GLARING at Lucky Torelli for bringing that up again--maybe it was karma, though, for him bringing up the bookcase collision with Torin earlier.

"Yes. Oculomancy is a type of divination where you gaze into the eyes of someone, and identify symbols in the reflection. As Miss Torelli pointed out, this is NOT to be confused with Occlumency, which is a type of defense against mind reading," he explaned. "Although it is easy to mix the two up, since they have similar definitions AND very similar spelling."

So easy that even HE did it sometimes. Hmpf.


Nolan KNEW someone would bring up THAT type of divination. He himself was disgusted by it and was definitely NOT planning on teaching it any time soon--why were they so focused on gross, entrail divination??

"Yes, there are two types of Divination focused on using animal...organs to interpret future events. Haruspicy focuses more on the liver and other vital organs, whereas Extispicy deals exclusively with animal entrails." he explained.

The things people came up with in this field of work...he was very happy with his tarot cards and crystal ball, thank you.

"That is correct, good job," Nolan said with a grin, ready to get the conversation away from animal guts. "It's a rather difficult form of divination to persue but nevertheless, it is fairly common."

"Runes and Divination are, indeed, fairly closely related. However, since runes are also a type of alphabet, and there are many, MANY types of runes out there, they require more in-depth analysis--hence the reason we have someone much more skilled in rune readings teaching you instead of me," he said with a grin.


"Omens are a very broad subject in Divination, and can pop up in almost any type of divination--tea leaf readings, crystal ball gazing--they can show up at any time," he explained to the class. "So, not necessarily a TYPE of divination, but definitey very important," he added.

"Ahhh, yes, this is a type of divination called Augury...in fact, in ancient times, people who specialized in this type of divination were called Augurs and focused only on this, rather than different types of divination as many people do today," he told the Head Boy.

"Yup, that's floromancy, a type of divination where flowers are assigned different meanings, and are then used to give insight into personalities and certain events," Nolan said with a head nod.


"It sounds like you're thinking of Seers," he said, his cheeks heating up as he spoke. It was not common knowledge to the students that he MIGHT, maybe, sort of have the gift and he was determined to keep it that way. "Some people possess what many refer to as the 'Inner Eye' and it does, indeed allow people to have certain visions or feelings about future events. The strength of these can vary from simple hunches and being rather accurate in predictions, to having full prophecies," he explained. Sigh. Too bad he himself was on the low end of that spectrum.

Nolan chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm. "Yes, divination through...dizziness. Another obscure form of divination that's floating around out there," he said with a smile.

Ahh, another badged person! "Yes, dream interpreation...a very interesting type of divination to look into, in my personal opinion. Not only that, but it can also give insight into that person's soul, as well as subconscious problems or desires that they may not pick up on during the day when they're awake," he explained.

AHA! They'd finally gotten to the subject of the lesson. "Yes, Tasseography--or the reading of tea leaves--is one of the more well known types of Divination, and the subject of today's lesson. Excellent answers everyone, points to all who answered."

He leaned against his desk once more and looked at the students. "Tasseography is a fairly simple process and a great beginning method for those just starting in Divination. To do an accurate tea leaf reading, you must first brew a cup of tea, and while drinking it, focus on a certain thought or concern that is currently bothering you."

He reached over to the corner of his desk and picked up a tiny white teacup. "Today, we'll be using white teacups, to keep things simple. However, more advanced readings of Tasseography may use Fortune Telling Cups. These are three types of cups that have specific symbols or grids on the inside to give more accurate readings. Can any of you name and describe these cups? Please, only describe ONE cup per person, please," he added.

:: Ehgad raised his hand, "Zodiac cups!" His Mother also believed in the Zodiac. ::

"Symbol cups, These sets are decorated with between a dozen and fifty of the most common visual cues that can be found in tea leaves, often numbered for easy reference and supplied with an explanatory booklet. The symbols are generally displayed inside the cups, but there are also sets in which they decorate the outside or appear in the cups and on the saucers." Simon said quickly and quietly in case he was wrong.

"Umm...there are playing card cups," Rafe answered. "They are decorated in the inside with a deck of cards, including the Joker. It's kind of a version of Cartomancy, I believe." Ugh, they were going to talk about tea. Definitely not as exciting as livers and intestines.

Tea leaf reading? Seriously? Oliver crinkled his nose. Examining Nancy's moles would have been much more interesting.

o_O

He flicked through his textbook and raised his hand once again. "Zodiac cups, sir? The cup contains the planetary symbols, while the saucer has the astrological sign symbols. The placement of the symbols allows the reader to combine astrology with tasseography."

Mmhmm. Okay. Writing down the write answer - or at least, the incorrectly spelled version of it - Ty put down his quill once more to listen to the main subject of the lesson.

Oooh WAIT. He had read this before coming to school!! "Professor, there are the cups with the card deck drawn in them... The playing cards cups! Er, then you can use both Tasse... Tass... graphy as well as the card-graphy!" Ty nodded enthusiastically, beaming at the fact that he had remembered.

But these Divination words were HARD. . .

:: Ehgad continued, "Zodiac cups have zodiac and planet symbols. They have neat saucers that are decorated also." His family liked coffee more than tea, but they had a set from his Grandmother. ::

Lysandra raised her hand saying There are playing card cups which have tiny images of a deck of fifty-two cards decorated in the interior of the cup.She was pretty sure that was one of them, but she wasn't the teacher and she was only half sure that was the third one. Am I right, Professor? she asked, just to be sure.

Guhh. Types of cups now? Erm. Well.

"Professor, there are symbol cups which have symbols decorating the inside of the cup," Abby said. "They're like cues, the most commonly found in tea leaves."

"Oh, er... Goodday Professor.." She didn't expect him to actually talk to him. This was the first professor that noticed her without her taking to effort to be known. Then he announced that it would be a few mor minutes..... She waited.....

Rae waited more... Until he finally started class... But the professors ALWAYS started off with the same question... What is.... [Name of class here]? Rae didn't want any part of this.. So she listened.........

And listened........

And listened......

Then dozed off......

Then woke up.....

Then listened.......

And listened more.....

Merlin, this was long.... Can she DO something now? Rae was tempted to start doodling or just fall asleep but her determination to not be terrible in all her grades this year kept her listening to what seemed to be nothing at the time. She could make alot more sense of it if she was doing something hands on at least.....

Chris had listened to each student as the gave their type of Divination and then focussed particularily on Lucky, the Slytherin girl he had met in Diagon Alley. She gave an answer that he hadn't really known the difference between the two types mentioned. "Good one!" he said after looking at her with wide eyes. 'Man she was smart!'

There were different types of cups....just for tea leave readings?!!!

Being the smart Head Boy man that he was...he consulted the BOOKKK!!! He then found the page where they talked about the cups. "Professor, there is a type called the Symbol cups, where the reader, after drinking the tea, will see a variation of common symbols found in readings and can help make it easier to read the leaves."

Psssssh. Lucky knew that Professor Dude just didn't want to admit that he wasn't smart enough to know the difference between the two words, that's all. She didn't think it was that hard to know the difference between Occlumency and Oculomancy. It doesn't take the Minister of Magic to know the difference, right?

She rested her hand on her hands as she listened to him explain about having different cups just for tea leaf reading... wow, that's all she had to say.

Raising her hand, she looked over at Chris when he commented about her previous. Hehe. She was such a SMART ONE, wasn't she?

"Symbol Cups... those thingies... things, yeah," she replied. "Those things. They have little pictures inside the cup, and even on the outside at times." She wasn't too sure if she had gotten the name right, but ah well; he would know what she was talking about, hopefully.

And now she had a question!

"Do the cups have to be white? Or can you change the color of them to, I don't know, pink?" White was just sooooo boring.

Marie sat there listening and writing down notes as the oher students answered the questions. She wasn't much in the talking mood right now. Well talking to the professor about class that is.

What? They were going to gain insight into a particular situation going on in their lives right NOW? Marie didn't need anymore insight into a particular situation. She had all the insight she wanted... or did she? She looked over at Carter sitting there all quiet. Maybe he would be the one she would gain insight on and not a certain someone else who she already knew hated her.

Maybe this lass could be intersting after all.

Meh meh mehh.. Divination. Cedes didn't really see the point in being stuck in class trying to 'predict' the future. Shouldn't the future just be left alone? She knew that 'predicting' the future wasn't the only thing that Divination was about but she didn't care. It was blehhhh. And it wasn't because she was bad at it. Hmph. 'Course not.

Everyone else had already named all the types of fortune teller cups so Cedes found no reason to go out of her way and raise her hand to answer a question with an answer that would make no answer at all. Instead, she looked down at her parchment and twirled the quill around in her hand.

Alex decided to keep quite and her head down, everyone had already answered anyway. She did however make sure to keep notes on the different types of Divination who knows if someone would ask that again next year or in the next class.

"Correct--in the future though, please don't regurgitate information straight out of the textbook. I'd rather hear in the answer in your own words so, for future reference--don't do it again," Nolan said with a smile at the Hufflepuff. He'd let it slide, since he was a first year, but still, Nolan knew they could all read the textbook.

OOC: Please don't copy and paste straight from Wikipedia. Put it in your own words, please! :]

"Correct, points to all of you," Nolan said with a smile, looking at each person individually. "Some people prefer cups that already have the symbols printed on them if they have difficulty making shapes out of the tea leaves themselves. In this case, all they need to do is look at which symbols the tea leaves landed on, and come to a conclusion from that," he explained.

"Once again, correct. Playing cup cards can be rather difficult to use, since it requires a knowledge of Cartomancy as well, but they give interesting readings as well," he told the class. He loved anything having to do with tarot cards--he couldn't help it!

"And you are correct as well," Nolan said with a grin to the two Slytherins. "Sometimes the placement of the planets and astrological symbols are flip flopped, but they're still fun if you're a fan of the Zodiac," he said with a little chuckle.

Nolan shook his head. "Nope, it doesn't HAVE to be white, but many people prefer that, because it's easier to see the tea leaves up against a white surface. Perhaps if you insisted on doing it in a pink cup, a really light pink would be your best bet," he assured her.

"Now, a big part of the tea leaf reading is the actual drinking of the tea. While you're drinking, you should try and focus on a specific thought or problem that you'd like the tea leaves to give insight on. However, some people DO choose to just do a general tea leaf reading--they simply remain calm and serene while drinking the tea, and the reading they get afterwards gives insight to their life in general, not just one specific part." Nolan explained. As he spoke, he twirled his wand in midair absentmindedly, causing the tea cup he had been holding a few moments ago to spin in circles in front of him.

"While you're drinking, one thing that many people overlook is which hand you drink your tea with. Does anyone know the proper hand you should use to drink if you're left handed? What about right?" he asked the class.