Shay was happy with her fire, but she couldn't dwell on her success for long. It was time to move on to the next step. She gathered around the professor with the rest of her classmates and listened. The process for the fire reading seemed pretty straightforward. It was the emptying your mind part that seemed the hardest. Of course when you tried to clear your mind of all thoughts, that was exactly the time when thoughts wanted to be let in. Anyway, Shay made a few notes and returned to her fire pit. The fire hadn't completely died down, so she had to wait.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, there were only coals and an occasional burst of flame left. Shay chose this time to go over to the salt sack. Reaching in, she grabbed two handfuls of salt and returned to her pit. She was happy to see nothing but coals. Shay threw the salt into the fire, both handfuls at once and stepped back. As promised, flames shot up and the fire crackled loudly. Now, the hard part. Shay took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She tried to free her mind as much as possible. It wasn't easy, but she did the best she could. Trying to concentrate on her breathing and nothing else, Shay opened her eyes. Her fire looked ready, but the thought of staring at it for fifteen minutes..........that was a very long time. Shay glanced at her watch, set the timer and began the staring contest.

At first......nothing. Then she thought she saw something. Was it really something or was she starting to hallucinate? It looked like a ship, like one of those that muggles cruised on. That was weird. After a few more minutes, she saw what looked like a rocket. Was there a pattern here, a transportation theme? Shay's eyes were starting to get tired and a little blurry. Her alarm hadn't gone off, so she still had time left. Her next vision was a rose. Well that was different. The next thing Shay saw was a simple triangle shape and then her watched beeped. Time was up.

Shay jotted down the things she had seen in the fire and then got out her textbook. She looked up the things she had seen, wrote them down and started her interpretation.



When Shay had finished writing, she put down her quill. Her signs had been good and she continued to think about her interpretation. She hoped it was correct.