Daisy entered the classroom and quickly noticed the slight alteration to the layout of the room. "Hello, Professor Sutton," she greeted as she made her way to one of the tables and sat down, preparing herself for the lesson of the day.

Abra entered the classroom, pleased to see that the fireplace had been lit and a blazing fire roared there. It was getting colder and colder outside as the year wore on, and he welcomed every bit of extra warmth in all of the classrooms. In fact, when he found himself a table to sit at, it was the one which was closest to the fireplace. Warrrrrrrrm.

"Good afternoon, Professor Sutton," Abra greeted the professor politely, as he stowed his bag under his table and leaned back in his chair to get comfortable.

Divination was definitely one of Tina's favorite subjects! This girl did not do uncertainty, so any skill that could even possibly help her decode the future was well worth learning. As she entered the classroom, she was greeted by a the smell of sage and the sounds of fire crackling in the fireplace. She smiled, basking in the rush of warmth that hit her. She had to hand it to Professor Sutton, the woman knew how to create an inviting atmosphere!

"Hello, Professor Sutton," Tina greeted, nodding politely as she passed on her way to one of the empty tables. She set her bag on the floor beside her chair. It was only then that she got a good look around. She was surprised to see only a couple of other students were here so far. Although Tina was always on time to class, she wasn't usually one of the first to arrive. Then the tables and curtain caught her eye. Well, this was an interesting setup! She wondered what it was going to be used for. Was whatever was behind that curtain meant to go on the tables? Consider her curiosity piqued!

Call him crazy, but Derf actually missed Professor Fletcher. He knew few would understand his reasoning, particularly with how last term began, but it was the truth. The authoritative stance had been welcoming and, well, kinda unexpected given the subject which tended to draw in the sorts of personalities that almost seemed to validate the negative stereotypes of the subject.

But still.

Despite it no longer being a necessary NEWT level course for the Hufflepuff, Derf was still taking it. There was just something, you know, kinda relaxing about it. Maybe it was all the smells - which thankfully were less poignant than those Professor Vance had always filled the room with.

"Good day, professor," the seventh year greeted as he made his way over towards an empty round table...only he pivoted last minute and opted to sit beside Abey last second, which meant he took a bit of a stumbled step or two and then nearly fell into his seat. "...hey," he greeted a bit sheepishly. There was still an ache in his chest being near Abey, but it wasn't so prominent these days. But he missed spending time with him like they used to. Especially after recent developments which, with perspective and much self reflection, had Derf feeling generally lighter on his feet.

Did the sage smell have anything to do with the curtains and what was behind them? In general, Derf knew that sage...or something LIKE sage that was literally called 'seer's sage' was used to cleanse and purify divination materials like tarot cards and spirits and stuff.

Divination, this was a class that Chloe was just not fully sure about. It wasn't a bad class, but it was odd. All of it was odd and she never truly knew what to make of it. Was it real or was it hogwash? She kept coming back hoping the next lesson would help determine which it truly was.

Making her way up the Divination steps she looked inside before entering. The room smelled interesting enough, so she headed fully in and took a seat at one of the round tables. "Hello Professor" she cheerfully said while she unpacked her bag and got ready for the lesson.

Her nose crinkled a little though as some more of the scent went strongly into it.

"Aaaaachhhuuu"

"Oh goodness, excuse me" She didn't mean to sneeze so loudly and she was pink in the cheeks wondering if it was as loud as it was in her head.

Valencia made her way to the classroom. "Hello Professor." she greeted before taking a seat.

She liked classes like this in this sort of weather. The first year just loved the smell and sound of a crackling fire, it was evident on her face.

SKYLER'S POV
Skyler walked into the divination tower. She saw that a few students were there. She blinked and saw the female professor again. She did not trust her from the beginning. The strange part is, she trusts Fletcher but not her. She started feeling tense and a bit sweaty as she continued walking and not saying anything to anyone. Her vision kind of went fuzzy.

SAM'S POV
---
On the outside, Skyler looked pretty normal, maybe a bit more quiet then the others, but she looked normal. In the inside however, Sam had taken over. He unclenched their fists and continued to walk to an empty chair.
"Hey Professor, how's it going?" He asked. His voice came out as an American boy in his late teens, maybe seventeen or nineteen. He sat in a chair and leaned back in his chair letting it balance on the two back legs.

Kassie held her hands together and glanced around the room. After seeing that she had most everyone's attention, she began. "Today we are going to talk about pendulum divination. Pendulum divination is one of the easiest, and most portable, forms of divination. It's very helpful because you can keep one on you at all times to help answer yes/no questions throughout the day."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her pendulum, but kept it closed inside her left hand. "All you need are a few basic supplies such as a crystal or gemstone, wire or string, and a chain or strip of leather to hang it from." Her eyes scanned the room, checking for blank stares or signs of confusion. "Before we go any further, can anyone name a type of crystal or gemstone that could be used as your pendulum weight? If you know why it would make a good choice, please feel free to share that as well."


OOC: Class has started. The question is to name one type of crystal or gemstone that could be used as the pendulum weight. Feel free to add why. If you are just now joining us, please feel free to jump in as if your charrie has been here the entire time, or IC consequences if you want to post being late. Catch up posts are always welcome. Class will continue in about 24 hours.

"My afternoon is going well, thank you, Professor Sutton," Daisy replied. She loved the more easy forms of Divination. Why carry a crystal ball around to know your fortune? She took a few moments to think about her answer and then raised her hand. "I think due to its' meditative and balancing properties, the Amethyst crystal could be used."

Kaira raises her hand. 'Emerald can be used for healing purposes and protection from enemies,' she said. Her grandfather owned one such emerald pendulum. This is what she had been told when she had asked why he wore it.

-----
Skyler raised an eyebrow. Really now? Nothing? She grunted and sat back not really feeling like giving an answer to her question.

From three complete years of Divination classes, and reading of the textbook, she had heard of Pendulum Divination. But she had never tried it. Nor did she really know many gemstones or crystals, or why they might be good for this form of Divination.

But she had a think, and raised her hand. "Professor I think Milky Quartz would work well." Not only that it was white and looked pretty. "I think... it boosts knowledge and wisdom. And it relieves stress. So... so if you were really stressed about an answer, and you used it it might... help to relieve the stress of whatever question or decision it was."

Honestly, the only reason Max was still bothering with Divination was because it seemed like an easy pass. He and Bel had proven that yonks ago when they'd made up their own version of Divination... because that's all it was really, wasn't it? Made up stuff.

Not that he'd ever admit that out loud though. Didn't want to ruffle any feathers.

Anyways, he was going to do some making up stuff right now.

"What about moonstone, Miss?" He asked, hand in the air. That part wasn't made up, he'd heard of that stone before. The next part was definitely made up though. "Symbolic for.........." Uhhhhh. What was even related to the moon? "......cheese. I read somewhere that if you eat cheese before bedtime it gives you funky dreams. So y'know..... moonstone..... cheese...... powerful stuff....."

OoooooOOoooOooohhh.

A pleasure to have in class. Wasn't that just the goal, really?

Abra was quite comfortable now, sat by the fire, though he was still shaking off the chill from walking up through the stone halls of the castle, and that was no easy feat, fire or no. He was just trying to surreptitiously put both hands to the fire, palms towards the flame, to really get the warmth back in them again, when the lesson started.

Oh. Uhhh. Uhhhhhhhh. Was this in their textbooks? Abra didn't know, but he eyed his schoolbag where it sat just poking out from under his table, as though it was its fault that the book wasn't already sat open on his desk. Not that that would have been much help; he didn't suppose he could really rifle through it without being noticed.

Sooooo... time for a guess? Abra was born in April, and the birthstone of April was... "Diamond?" he tried, raising his hand in the air. "I don't know much about it though, but I bet it's heavy, and I bet the pendulum needs to have a good bit of weight at the end of it, right?" Was it obvious he didn't have a clue?

Tina smiled. "Thank you, Professor. It's nice to see you too," she replied, then went back to looking at the tables and curtain. What were they going to be used for? Before she had much time to guess, the lesson started. Pendulum divination... not the direction Tina was expecting the class to go. She'd read about pendulum divination and seen other people use it before, but she'd never tried it herself. She had to admit it sounded interesting though!

Okay, so... gems. Tina bit her lower lip, mentally going over all the gem properties she knew. So many choices! What if she picked the wrong one and looked stupid? As she listened to her classmates' answers (some weirder than others), that fear diminished slightly. If nothing else, her answer might seem better by comparison! Feeling more confident, Tina raised her hand. "Rose quartz could be a good choice because of its calming properties, " she said. "It's also thought to be helpful in matters of the heart." Not that she'd know anything about that firsthand, of course!

Patrick had made the trek to the divination classroom and felt as if he had been run over. Like who needed a class this high up in a building. Why had the castle made the stairs like escalators yet? Sure he was in shape for quidditch, but did anyone ever not sound out of breath after climbing stairs? He sure hadn’t met anyone.

He greeted their professor while taking his usually seat on the far side of the room. He grabbed his paper out of his bag so that way he would have something to do so he wouldn’t be tempted to nap. He did not need that right now. He listened to the question and wasn’t exactly sure which crystals to use. But then again this was one of his least favorite subjects since he felt like he was always grasping at straws for his answers. So instead he just wrote everyone else’s answers down.

Uuuuuuuuuh. Awkward.

Setting his things out on the table as class began - and yes, Chloe, that sneeze HAD been as loud as you thought it had been - he tried not to glance too much at Abey out of the corner of his eye since it seemed like the Gryffindor was more keen on focusing on the lesson. Which, well, that was fair enough. You know? He was just going to try not to spiral and make any sort of assumptions and instead set to getting his things together as class officially began.

Aaaaand Derf didn't know a thing about gemstones and rocks, this was more his dad's territory with his hobby of dabbling in Earth magic. So, upon thinking for just a bit about what he DID know about pendulums when it came to muggle physics, he raised his hand. Both of them, actually, because he was scratching the back of his right hand with his left. "I reckon you ought to use a gemstone or rock or something that you have a sort of connection with since, you know, Divination is kinda a personal journey of sorts? Maybe your birthstone or something? I mean...if you're gonna do it for yourself." Were there any neutral stones out there? And his mind was turning into a proper spider web in his quest to make connections with things, presently the focus being on the divination aspect of runes. "So...like...for me...mine is emerald....though I also reckon each stone means something special, like how runes work? So...you might want to use different gemstones and stuff depending on what you're asking? Maybe has a connection to chakras too?"

Like with the runic yoga stuff they had done last term? Which, well, he still sorta did from time to time because it was relaxing.

And NOW he was wondering what emerald represented and he glanced at his textbook curiously with the temptation to flip through and see if there was a listing somewhere.

He also figured that whatever you did use...it needed to be balanced. It's shape and everything needed to be uniform so that the pendulum didn't swing in favor of one direction because of it's weight and stuff.

"You could also use, like, a coin or a key. Leave the crystals and gemstones for jewlery," was Archer's suggestion. They looked better and therefore, were of more use there. Could you tell she didn't put much stock in pendulum divination? Because she didn't. Science had made her a disbeilever in such things. So, why was she here? Easy: it was something to do.

Also, could sage make you itchy? Because she was definitely itchy. And had anyone noticed her awesome hair?

That sounded suspiciously close to a muggle magic 8 ball. With the 'yes or no' answers. Muggles were completely fascinating.

Quill scratching noisily against parchment pages in his journal, Aaron didn't immediately offer any answers. It seemed smarter to get insight from others before offering something up. So he could make sure his answer was a good one. Luckily, Divination was a subject the young Seer had no problems with. Though that ability was so touch and go, it was hardly useful at all. Very frustrating.... if he allowed himself to get frustrated.

He inhaled the scent of sage deeply.

"Any gemstone could be used, yeah? As in, the different stones lean to different powers. Like amplifiers." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Labradorite is supposed to boost several things."

After the answers had been given, Kassie looked out across the tables. “Well done. A lot of excellent answers. As you have heard, there are multiple gemstone and crystals that can be used for pendulum divination. Some more feasible than others. We also know that what might be a good fit for one person, would not be the best choice for another.” She took a few steps back to get a better view of the class.

“Before we start our activity, I have one more question for you. Now that we know some crystal and gemstone options, we need to know how to cleanse them before making the pendulum. What are some ways you could cleanse your magical crystal or gemstone?”


OOC: Question 2 is to name one way you could cleanse a magical crystal or gemstone. Catch up posts are always welcome, just post as if they have been in class the entire time, unless IC consequences are the goal. You have about 24 hours before we move on to the mini activity.

Lenora didn’t understand this subject. AT ALL. Or rather, she chose to not make the effort to understand because she wasn’t stupid. Heh. She quietly listened to the answers that were offered by her fellow classmates while she gave the question some thought.. and came up with nothing.

Yeeeah, no. Since she had absolutely no idea, she remained quiet while drawing random things on her parchment.

Cleansing magical crystals/gemstones? Daisy was going through the different and proper ways to cleanse them in her mind until she slowly raised her hand. "I think the light of a full moon can cleanse an amethyst."

Skyler put her chair back on four legs again. Ways to clense a pendulum...
"Wouldn't the sun work just as well?" Skyler asked.

There was something extremely satisfying - not to mention a huge relief - when a total guess of an answer turned out to be right, or at least more or less on the right lines. Abra nodded along to the professor's response, and in all honesty he was trying to stow the information away in his brain (Abra wasn't a big note-taker), but he'd probably forget it sooner rather than later.

But yes. Air. Fire. Intuition. Expensive. He'd likely remember that last part, at least.

UhhHHHHh. Okay. This question was even harder than the last one, and almost definitely called for some kind of pre-reading of the textbook. So, not something one Abraham Botros (Jr.) would have done. Uhhhh.

Another guess then. He raised his hand.

"Could you... polish it? Like you do with a broom? But not with broom polish, just, you know, with a cloth or something?" Clean... cleanse... it was all pretty much the same thing, wasn't it? ... Uhh... wasn't it?