Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bazinga 
WHAT!! WHAT!! Was she shaking the ball! Cassie almost had a heart attack, "Holy Hippogriffs! OHMYGOSH!!! ZAHRA NO!" She didn't mean to be so loud, but goodness the girl had to learn. "You can not do that to a crystal ball. I really really hate to do this, but you have left me no choice. There will be five points taken from Gryffindor. I have expressed many times about touching these balls. You have to be careful. No please Zhara. Please do not touch them again and please focus like I know you can." She was frowning and Cassiopeia did not frown.
Thornton's concentration snapped. Rubbing the blur out of his eyes, he turned toward the noise and saw an older Gryffindor lose points for mishandling the ball. Oh my word, had she shaken it? Thornton looked away, lest he be accused of staring at another's misfortune, and turned his attention back to his own crystal, silently thankful it hadn't been a Ravenclaw scolded.
Thornton centered himself once more, closing his eyes and steadying his breath. When he felt ready, or at least able to ignore what was happening around him, he opened his eyes and gazed into the crystal ball.
His vision went soft as he stared at the space in the center of the crystal and it began to turn misty. This time, instead of bright jellybeans, the smoke grew darker and thicker. As Thornton continued to stare, the jellybeans returned, but muted against the dark smoke. A chocolate frog hopped through Thorton's field of vision but soon disappeared as the smoke in the center started to part and
"ah!" A quiet exclamation of surprise escaped Thornton's lips as he blinked and lost the images.
It had been his grandfather's face there in the smoke.