"Very good answers! You each take 2 points for your houses. What about the 5th house?" Kapoor asked. They seemed to get the hang of it, but it never hurt to get a bit of extra practice in.

"Taurus professor!" Celandine beamed at him. "Should I write it on my chart thingy too?"

Oooh, this was an easy one, too. Fyo raised his hand.

"Taurus, sir."

Shumeeta had copied the chart from the board an' now she filled it in. When the professor asked a question, she put her hand up. "Taurus, I think," the tomboy told him with a smile.

"Professor, Why would Gemini follow Cancer?" Matheu said. He wanted to know, and it wouldn't hurt for the 5th and 7th years to know. "And could you explain what should go in the houses?"

"Good, Celandine! And, yes, please do." He said placing Taurus on the class example. "Take a point for yourself."

"Exactly, Fyo. You'll be well-prepared for the exam when you have to take it." Not to mention any future uses. "A point for you."

"Taurus! Yes, exactly. Another point for the Gryffindors." The Professor boomed, again with the outdoor voice.

Ah, excellent lead-in. "I was just about to ask if anyone had any questions and this is a great one. It is a little confusing that Gemini would follow Cancer when during the course of a year the opposite is true and Gemini comes first. But, when we draw up a natal chart, the order is reversed. This is so, because each zodiac sign shall correspond to each of the numbers written on the chart, which are also reversed."

"As for what should go in each of the houses; We're to have one zodiac sign in each of the houses. With 12 houses and 12 zodiac signs that's one for each. In addition to this, there will also be planets." Which Kapoor would explain in a short while, but first the basics had to be understood. "So the sequence for the numbers is reversed. 3-2-1, instead of 1-2-3. And the sequence for the signs is likewise reversed. Cancer-Gemini-Taurus, instead of Taurus-Gemini-Cancer. Is that a bit clearer?".

"For those of you who feel like you've got a pretty good grasp on this so far, in which house would I find aquarius?".

Um, no. In most common pop culture, Pisces is at the bottom of the list. Where is this all coming from! This is confusing him. "I'm sorry Professor but this isn't a bit clear," Matheu have laughed.

Fyo glanced down at his natal chart. If Gemini was the sixth house, and Cancer the seventh, then Aquarius had to be ... ah yes, the second.

"The second house, professor," Fyo said, hand in the air.

Umm... Shumeeta wasn't sure about this one. She raised her hand and said, "Second maybe, professor?" but that was mainly because Fyo had said that. She was being such a copy-cat! She really shouldn't have given that answer. The sixth year bit her lip and turned to her notes. Then she calculated the answer onher own, and decided it really was second. Because if Cancer was seventh then Sagittarius would be twelve. That made Capricorn number one and of course Aquarius number two.

"It really is number two professor," she said with hand in air.

Fred looked through his book and raised his hand and answered, "You find Aquarius in house number 2.".

The student looked to be one of the younger years, so it was possible that he hadn't had a class on Western Astrology before. Maybe then they could start off with something a bit more basic until he got the hang of it. "We could try approaching it in a more thorough step-by-step fashion if you like. For the remainder of the class feel free to offer answers if you feel you know what they are, but for now could you tell me how familiar you are with the order which the 12 zodiac signs of western astrology follow?" Kapoor asked the younger student.

"That's exactly the answer I was looking for. Points for your houses. So our charts should look something like this now." With that much filled out, Kapoor supposed he should move them onto planets. "As you may have heard me explain earlier, the planets also appear on charts. They tend to not be as picky as the signs, however and many may group into one house and one sign rather than spread out one planet for each house. Sometimes at the time of their birth, a person may have lots and lots of activity in only one half of their chart, or even one quadrant. For the remainder of the class I'd like for you to plot 2-4 planets on your charts and write down the name of the planet and the house in which you've chosen to place it. Just get a bit of practice in. It's the best way to get good at making charts. When you're done, turn it in and you're free to go. And if you have any questions feel free to ask me."

LouAnn stared at her chart almost as if it were a purple, polka-dotted three-headed dog with six arms and three tails. She'd done well in the beginning of class, but things had just gone downhill since then. It seemed that everyone else, well...besides the Ravenclaw boy...knew exactly what was going on. She sighed and placed her head down on her desk, face-down. She hadn't even plotted Cancer and the rest of the class had finished Aquarius and was moving on to planets.

In order to be dismissed, though, she had to get something on her chart. So what had been said? Aquarius is house number two? LouAnn dipped her quill in ink and plotted Aquarius in house number two. She quickly plotted Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer in their own houses. She'd have to figure out the planets all on her own, though. She tapped her fingernails lightly on her desk then plotted Mars in the number nine house. One planet down, three to go.

Dipping her quill in ink once again, LouAnn plotted Mercury in the house just to the left of Mars...making it in the number ten house. A few minutes later, she'd put Venus in number eleven and Jupiter in number twelve. There...two to four planets! She was done...hopefully. She collected her materials and made her way to the professor. "Thanks for a great class, sir. I...hope I did this right," she said, blushing just a little.

Matheu was nervous and feeling a bit selfish, taking away class time from the older students. "I know the signs of the Zodiac: Ares, Cancer Capricorn, Pisces, Scorpio, Gemini, Leo, Sagitarius, and about 3 others," he half laughed. "I know they each correspond with the planets and moons, and sometimes other constellations in mythology."

Celandine finished placing all the signs on the chart and randomly chose some planets. Sun, Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Teehee.


"I'm done Professor, thanks a bunch and stuff." Celandine liked natal stuff better than the real interpreting stuff at the moment because at least she could blame being right about things on the fact that the information was right there and it wasn't coming from her.

"Wonderful, Celandine, you may go. Best of luck on your OWL, my dear and I shall see you at the end-of-term feast." He said still somewhat beaming from her enthusiasm and eagerness for the subject. It was well-appreciated.

Kapoor took a look at LouAnn's chart. She'd put all the signs in their correct houses and added a planet, three in fact. "This is a good chart, Miss Purple. Why don't you hold on to it so you may use it to study off of?" He offered, noting that she'd placed her head down upon her desk, perhaps out of exasperation. "I'll see that you get your credit for this and you're free to go. Best of luck on your exam, LouAnn."

Kapoor listened as Matheu told him what he knew of the zodiac. "Well that's a good start. One that we can definitely build off of." He grabbed his copy of the text from his desk and placed it on a clear spot on Matheu's desk, flipping it open to the pages devoted to the western zodiac. "The zodiac characters: Aries, Cancer, Pisces, and the others you mentioned are all based on Roman mythological stories or represent the gods. There are twelve of them in total to go with each of the twelve months." The divination professor placed a finger on the books page which listed the 12 astrological signs of the western zodiac.

"They are listed in order according to the Roman calendar, which listed April as the first month. 'April' being latin for 'opening', as in the opening of the spring season." He explained. "With me so far? Or have any questions?" He stopped to check their progress.

"Thank you professor!" Celandine waved, checked she had all her things and skipped out of the room. Yup she had some 'zams and finalz to dooo.

Matheu nodded as the professor explained the zodiac to him. "Yes, that makes sense," Matheu said.

Freee to goooo? Nuuuu.

At least they had to get a bit of work done, before that. Fyo beamed at his natal chart, then picked up his quill and began to scribble away. When he raised his head again, his sheet glistened with two shades of ink - one maroon, the other a dark pink - that had not yet dried.


He raised his hand to get Professor Kapoor's attention. "Is this alright, sir?" He asked their Divination teacher, politely.

Shumeeta frowned at her chart. Did she get it or did she not? She wasn't sure to be honest. She quickly plotted Jupiter in house #12 which was the same house as Sagittarius, the moon in house #8 which was the same as Leo, Mars in house #3 which was the same Pisces an' Uranus in house#5 which was the same as Tarus. Then she wrote the following on her sheet, underneath the chart she had drawn:

Jupiter in Sagittarius.
Moon in Leo.
Mars in Pisces.
Uranus in Taurus.

"Done," she announced to the room at large.

"Go ahead and turn your chart in, or you may show it to me and hold on to it for study purposes." He told the young Gryffindor girl who had announced the completion of her assignment loudly and proudly.

"Fyo, this is a fantastic chart. You and Miss Toussaint and Miss Purple are sure to do well on the practical part of your exam. Excellent work. You may hold on to it if you'd like something more to study from or turn it in. I'll make sure you get the credit either way." He looked over the exam as Fyo held it out for inspection, afterward pointing towards the only empty corner of his desk as a possible place to leave the chart should Fyo wish to turn his in. "You've got quite a gift for Divination. I've only known one other student, long since graduated to have been so talented. Nonetheless, I wish you the best of luck on your exams."

So far, so good. Kapoor had managed to not lose the young student while showing him some basics. "You can think of the 12 zodiac signs as linked. Like a chain or like charms on a bracelet. No matter which sign is listed first, the sign next to it (either coming before it or coming after it in their natural order) shall follow it on one of these natal chart thingies."

"It might help to know that a natal chart is meant to be nothing more than a drawing of where the constantly moving celestial bodies where in the sky at the moment a person is brought into this world. Sometimes they are called 'birth charts'. Astrologists believe that these drawings, these natal charts will tell them everything they need to know about a person or event. I'm a bit skeptical of that, myself, but some people believe it completely and wont so much as leave their homes without a harmonious alignment of planets." He explained remembering the case of one of his neighbors as a child.

"Just like in Astronomy, because this is meant to be a picture of the sky, it is drawn in the form of a circle. Each of the 12 zodiac signs has a constellation or star in the sky. Through observation of the skies, Astrologists are able to tell where the planets and signs are in a chart. That process and concept usually takes a while to understand completely. So don't worry if this part isn't making a whole lot of sense right now. With a little practice you'll be able to create a basic chart soon enough. Right now, the order in which the signs follow is mostly what we'll be looking at. So..." Kapoor drew out another blank sheet of parchment from a stack on the top of his somewhat messy desk.

"Going back to how the signs are like a chain. For credit, instead of making a chart, I want you to use the list we made which starts with Aries and ends with Pisces to create small lists of signs in their correct orders. Make about 12 of them leaving some blank spaces so you can fill them in with the correct sign, like so..." Kapoor took a wet quill which dripped a droplet of dark blue ink onto the parchment on which he about to write. He created a fill-in-the-blank sheet for Matheu to practice familiarizing with the order of the zodiac signs.


1. ______, Taurus, Gemini
2. Leo, _______, Libra
3. ________, Pisces, Aries
4. ___________, Virgo, _______
5. Sagittarius, Capricorn,_________
6. Pisces, _________, Taurus

"You can use the other 6 to practice trying to list the signs in the opposite order. From last to first. Like..." Kapoor once again created small groupings on the parchment.


7. Pisces, Aquarius, _________
8. Leo, _________, Gemini
9. Capricorn, Sagittarius, _____
10. _________, Cancer, Leo
11. Aquarius, ________, Aries
12.

"You try the last one on your own and remember that you can look at the list we made earlier, but if you feel confident go ahead and venture a guess. The worst that can happen is you guess wrong and learn from it."

1. Aries
2. Taurus
3. Gemini
4. Cancer
5. Leo
6. Virgo
7. Libra
8. Scorpio
9. Sagittarius
10. Capricorn
11. Aquarius
12. Pisces

Matheu listened as the professor taught him Astrology. Some of the things kind of flew over his head. But he took a guess at the practice (while looking glancing at the list):


1. Cancer, Taurus, Gemini
2. Leo, Virgo, Libra
3. Aquarius, Pisces, Aries
4. Leo, Virgo, Libra
5. Sagittarius, Capricorn,Aquarius
6. Pisces, Aries, Taurus

7. Pisces, Aquarius, Leo
8. Leo, Taurs, Gemini
9. Capricorn, Sagittarius,Scorpio
10. Gemini, Cancer, Leo
11. Aquarius, Pisces, Aries
12. Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra

I think that's right," Matheu said unconfident.

"Let's have a look." Kapoor said getting a peek at Matheu's work. After examining it carefully, he said, "Well, it looks like you've gotten most of them right. Seven and eight gave you a bit of trouble, but that's alright. You'll get the hang of it the more you do it. Very good! You've demonstrated a basic grasp of a concept and have earned a point for your house in the process. You're free to go, and it was a pleasure having you in the class." The professor looked around and it looked as though they were the last two people still in the class room.

Mmm, Fyo thought he would turn it in. That way, when he needed to study, he would know he had to make a new one. Which meant, of course, more practice. Which was a good thing, of course.

"I think I'll turn it in, sir," he said politely, but his lips curved into a bright smile at Professor Kapoor's next remarks. "Thank you, professor!" He beamed, as he carefully placed his chart on the only empty corner of the desk. Then he went back to his seat, and began to gather his belongings.

Ah yes, time to leave.

Unfortunately.

"Thank you, Professor," Matheu said. He looked at his work and felt somewhat at ease with it. So he didn't learn how to do a naval chart, but that'll come in time. He packed up his things, thanked the professor again, and left.