  MOMoke
Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Winterfell
Posts: 8,760
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Gideon Emerson
Slytherin Seventh Year
  x4
|  Who Am I? Ern's 2460FUN
SPOILER!!: Bishop and her talking of Seering Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverTiger  Renée had in fact asked the students what the first thing that came to their mind when they looked at a crystal ball was, but part of her hadn’t exactly expected to get entirely offbeat and creative answers. Of course, she should have expected it from Josh and Evelyn. In their own ways, they were always the ones who could come up with something interesting. “I’m sure she would enjoy that, Josh,” she said dryly, giving him a wry smile as she glanced at the Slytherin to see if she’d been paying attention. At least they hadn’t gone back to the discussion about fire symbology. It seemed Evelyn had her own ideas about the topic at hand, however, and that might have saved her Gryffindor from too much glares and such. That remained to be seen, though. “It could very well have been a bubble, Evelyn. Good suggestion, especially as it could be said there’s a bit of an ephemeral quality to both,” she said to the girl instead. Still waiting to see if there was going to be a reaction to Josh’s antics. So far so good, and Renée glanced at the rest of the students, still balancing the crystal ball in her hands, as they continued offering suggestions. The few who had offered a cynical point of view made another wry smile creep onto her face, even though they had a point. “Interesting outlook, you two. No less true, considering the fact that crystal balls are quite often present in the imagery loved by Muggle fortune tellers and the like, whether or not they in fact do have divinatory abilities. It can be hard to really say if they in fact do see anything or not,” she began, before Mia’s hand had raised as well to offer another amusing opinion on the matter. “Seems you might have first-hand experience in that matter, Mia. Once again, that is sadly always possible, the use of magic to deceive people.” She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly did happen when a stranger would arrive. They needed to get back on the topic of actual divination, though, so Renée refrained from asking for even more elaboration on Mia’s story. Luckily, it seemed many people were more apt to just go with the idea of crystal balls as conduits for the future, and she smiled at all the students who had said something to that effect. The little history lesson brought a bit of a grin to her face as well. “Yes, most commonly crystal balls are supposed to be said to give the diviner images of the future, although in fact if the right questions are asked images of just about anything could be seen,” she replied, acknowledging William’s suggestion that the past could be seen as well. “And in fact you are correct, Miss Marchbanks. Professor Trelawney allegedly did use crystal balls as weapons during the Battle of Hogwarts, but then I’d imagine if you studied that incident you would find that pretty much everything available was used in that fashion.”
She nodded again as Alex brought up the similarities between crystal balls and the prophecies stored in the Ministry, and gave him a smile as well. “Another valid point, although do you really believe that crystal balls have nothing real inside of them?,” she posited, before sending a little grin over at Kannalynne at her argument. “Uncertainty can, as it seems you have said, be attributed to any form of Divination, Miss Basthowe, not just with the use of crystal balls,” she agreed. “If one truly could know the future, it would mean that none of us have any real choices in life, and I don’t believe anyone would say that would be a good thing. And yes, Miss Malfoy, you are welcome to stop by my office any time if you’d like to discuss the Tarot,” she added, glancing at the blonde Ravenclaw with another little smile. “But let’s try and stay on topic here, alright?” Well, it wasn’t quite staying on topic, but Jai’s suggestion brought another grin to Renée’s face. “An interesting conjecture, Mr. Pierce,” she replied in amusement, before deciding to ask something of him. “What in fact would you expect to see if you had looked in this?” It wasn’t really important to the discussion as a whole, but she imagined the curiosity had been put out there by his suggestion anyhow. It could very well start off another interesting and informative tangent, depending on the answer. Hmm, another fascinating side-track, Renée thought as she heard Kurumi’s answer. “Another interesting fact,” she agreed with a smile, sensing that there had been something else in the Gryffindor’s mind not that long before that she supplanted by the scientific response. “I can’t say I know exactly what this particular crystal ball is made out of, but you very well might be right. This would have to be quite the old specimen if it was made out of beryl, however. Newer ones are made out of rock crystal, or quartz.” She might not have known exactly what made up this orb, but she still knew her history. As, it seemed, did Kurumi. Another grin crept onto Renée’s face as Eino of the previous singing offered his response to the discussion, though. That was getting more to the actual point of the lesson, whether he knew it or not. “More accurately, crystal balls are used for crystallomancy,” she pointed out, “ although that in fact is a branch of scrying. I would imagine most serious Diviners wouldn’t use their crystal balls as paperweights, however. Not the ones they specifically use, as that could dim the orb’s power.” At least, that was her opinion. One didn’t usually use their wand for anything other than magical things, most of the time, and that should extend to other magical tools as well.
She turned and set the crystal ball in question back on her table, then returned her attention to the class in order to speak again. “Scrying, as so many of you have touched on,” whether or not they realized it, “is a method of using reflections, images, to gain insight into the past, present and future. of course, the reflections that one sees aren’t really there, but merely visions brought about through focus and reflected in the orb or whatever is used. Not only crystal balls can be used, in fact, for scrying. Does anyone want to suggest something else that could be used?” Eventually they would get to the actual activity she had planned, but touching on scrying was always in her plans. Everything was related when it came to Divination anyhow. ooc: Moving things along . . .  Same rules apply as usual. (and those who replied to the first question all get one point)
Selina visibly tensed at the topic of conversation in the classroom. It seemed like all of her peers suddenly were discussing the future and the ways to access it like it was some kind of game. What they all didn't realize was the danger in seeing the future. Although the concept, knowing what was coming next, had a certain appeal to it, the burden of carrying around the future on one's conscious must be exhausting. Selina would know.
As the conversation blossomed and Bishop made a few comments on those seeing the future Selina flinched. It was not exactly the topic of conversation that Selina enjoyed talking about. But that was the difficulty in attending this class. Sometimes she had to stretch out beyond her comfort zone of denial to the general public and fear of what she would see next to try to conquer her ability. But it was taking a long time.
She then slowly rose her hand and kept her eyes down at the desk. Any unneeded attention was not something Selina wanted, "Well ma'am, water reflections and mirrors are common practices of channeling the future in this practice." Selina would know first hand, for sometimes when she looked in the mirror she saw something from the future back.
__________________  |