The Office of Professor Nolan Reynolds
 

As soon as Nolan lets you into his office, you see that it is decorated exactly the way you would imagine a Divination professor's office to look. On the south wall there are numerous bookcases filled to the brim with books on Divination and it's many forms, although there are books on other subjects scattered across the shelves as well. There is a big cushy armchair facing you that is a faded shade of yellow--Nolan probably got it because it reminds him of his old house, Hufflepuff.

On the desk, you see a few stacks of tarot cards scattered about, as well as a pretty crystal ball perched in the corner. Directly across from the giant yellow chair are two small grey armchairs...feel free to have a seat!

OOC: In order to post in this thread, Nolan MUST have invited you in IC from the Waiting Area thread. If you have not posted there you will not be allowed in his office!

Rubiey smiled as Professor Reynolds opened the door. "Hello Professor. I'm Rubiey O'Rielly, Gryffindor First Year. I just wanted to come by and introduce myself before your first lesson. I was going to do it at the feast, but I thought it would be better to let everyone eat first." She smiled again, and blushed slightly. She sounded quite confident, but inside she was shaking like a leaf. Meeting older people wasn't a forte of hers, but she hoped she was doing it right.

Sapphinelle entered the beautiful office happily, and stood next to Rubiey.
"Hello, Professor! I'm Sapphinelle. I'm really looking forward to Divination. I was going to talk to all my Professors at the feast like Rubiey here, but....well, the Potions Professor didn't seem to take quite a liking to me." she said with a meek smile. She hoped the Professor was understanding and didn't think she was being blunt and rude.

Nolan smiled politely at the two girls as he took a seat behind his desk. It was so nice of them to introduce themselves...it showed they took their schooling SERIOUSLY. Yup. Cause they wanted professors to know about them! "It's very nice to meet both of you, and it was very nice of you to stop by and introduce yourselves. Would you like to sit down? A cup of tea perhaps?" Nolan asked.

Sapphinelle offered a warm smile in return and happily seated herself. "Wonderful to meet you too, Professor Reynolds!" she said with a smile still on her face. She loved this teacher already! "Tea? I love tea, but I wouldn't want to be rude or anything." she said kindly with her french accent. She didn't want to intrude or sound demanding, politeness to her Professors was a top rule in her little french brain, and she already messed up with two very strict professors, yikesssss!

"Tea would be lovely Professor." She smiled, and sat down; she had a few questions about Divination, so why not? She didn't want to seem pushy, but she was sure Reynolds wouldn't mind; she had heard good things about him, and he seems nice. "Actually, sir, I have a few questions. I'm not entirely sure what Divination is exactly.." She confessed, blushing slightly. "I was wondering if you could tell me?"

Nolan smiled and pulled out his wand, waving it a few times to levitate the pot of tea seated on the small end table by the window so it floated over to the two girls and promptly poured two cups of tea. "I hope you girls like Earl Gray," he said, since it was unfortunately the only tea left in his office.

"What is Divination? Well, it's the study of patterns and symbols in things such as tea leaves, crystal orbs, and other common everyday items in order to figure out future events or personality traits. You can do a Divination reading in just about anything...for instance, there is a whole branch of study devoted to studying the symbols found in the moles on ones face!" he said with a small chuckle. He never understood some of the things people used for Divination readings.

"Also, do you mind if I invite a few more students in? I believe we have more visitors outside," he told them. Had he just sensed that? No, he just had really awesome hearing.

She looked at the levitating tea pot and nodded happily. "Love Earl Gray." she said with a smile as she took the tea politely. She laughed at the thought of studying moles on people's faces. She never had any moles. Just beauty marks... hehe.
"Professor Reynolds, I've heard a lot of things about Divination. Is it....serious? I've read a lot on Sibyll Trelawney." she said with curiosity while she sipped her tea. Professor Trelawney was always said to be a fake, but some of her predictions were true.
"I wouldn't mind at all, it's your office, Professor. What you say goes!" she said politely. "What about you, Rubiey?" she asked, turning to Rubiey and guessing that she'll say the same thing.

Rubiey smiled as Professor Reynolds set the tea down. "Oh, I love Earl Gray." She replied, taking the tea from the tray. She giggled with Sapphinelle at the idea of studying moles. The things people come up with! She smiled at the question that Sapphinelle asked; she had been thinking the same thing.

"Oh no, not at all!" She replied. It was his office, just as Sapphinelle had said.

Nolan nodded. "If done correctly, it can definitely be considered a serious form of magic. I will admit, there have been numerous phony Seers over the years," he said with a slight scowl. "But I do believe that some people, like myself, DO indeed possess some sort of inner eye. Even people with the gift of sight can find out lots of interesting things from various forms of Divination!" he assured her. As long as they took it seriously and didn't automatically assume it was a joke, they could learn loads about the future and themselves.

"Fantastic," he said with a smile, waving his wand and watching the door open. "You may enter!" he exclaimed out to the crowd. Ehh. He was slightly lazy about opening the door today.

Bodicea walked into the office, and realized there were other students there. She hoped she wasn't a bother, intruding on others' conversations like this. She took a good long look around, and smiled when she saw the Tarot decks lying around. That was a good sign.
"Hello, Professor," Bodicea said shyly. She stepped further into the room so the other people who entered with her had more space to move around her.
"I have a question about what all we might be doing this year...and I just wanted to see where I'll be studying one of my two favorite subjects!" She glanced around again, and noticed the crystal ball. She had never done Gazing before, and wondered what it would be like.
"Excuse me, Professor, I don't want to be rude, but do you know what a Crystal Ball is made of? All those clouds moving around in there, it can't be solid crystal.....is it blown glass, or something like it?"

After being told that she could now enter the office, Mia skipped into the Professor's office. "Hello Professor..." her eyes flicked down to his name plate and then back to his face..."Nolan." She sat down on one of the chairs.

Oh wait!

Was she supposed to sit down? He hadn't told her that she could sit.

Ooops.

"You have a lovely office Professor, very...mystical."

Alice, hoping he didn't mind that she had sat down, looked around the office which had a nice vibe to it. She could tell already that she was definitely going to enjoy this class.

Waiting until she made sure she didn't interrupt anyone who was already speaking Alice did a tiny throat clear and introduced herself.

"Hi Professor Reynolds. My name is Alice Page, and I'm new here. I've read a bit about the subject of Divination and your class, and I'm very excited for it. I thought it would be nice to come and meet you in person...I hope you don't mind."

Alice realized this was probably silly just coming in here to introduce herself when other people probably had more serious things to discuss with him. She was tempted to just get up and leave but thought that would be rude, so she sat there, stiff as a board, her cheeks flushing by the second. Not to mention the professor was kind of cute.

Rubiey couldn't wait for Divination. It was very interesting. Imagine, being able to see into the future! Awesome. "Sir, have YOU ever predicted something? Like, for real?" She asked.

Rubiey turned and saw the stream of students entering, and she spotted a familar face. She beamed and waved at Alice. Teehee. She had come to introduce herself, just like Rubiey had. They had sooo much in common, it was scary!

Nolan smiled at the young Hufflepuff as she came into the office...she was a first year, by the looks of her, and when she asked about the crystal ball, he frowned just slightly out of pity. Awww, she'd missed the crystal ball lesson last term! No matter, he was sure he'd get to them again later in the girl's academic career.

"Well, as an answer to your first question, I like to keep my lessons a surprise," he told her with a grin. "Although I will say that I have some interesting lessons planned...I hope. I asked the students last term what interested them most about Divination and got some helpful responses, so hopefully everyone finds them enjoyable!" he explained.

"And as for the crystal balls," he said, moving the large quartz ball on his desk over towards the middle so the girl could get a closer look at it. "It actually IS pure crystal. This one is quartz, to be exact. Lots of people think there is gas floating around inside, but it's a trick of the imagination. The light bounces off the patterns in the crystal and makes it seem like it's actually moving, giving it the allusion of being filled with swirly gas," he explained. "Some wizards put spells on their orbs to further that effect, but I personally find it distracting," he added.

Nolan chuckled. He always got a kick out of people calling him Professor Nolan. "It's actually Professor Reynolds...Nolan is my first name. But you can call my Professor Nolan if you like! As long as you don't call me Professor Dude or something," he joked with a smile.

Like that Lucky Torelli, who'd gotten a fair few people to call him that last year.

"Thank you," he said when the young girl complimented his office. "It's rather stereotypical of me to have an office decorated with stars and crystal orbs, I'm sure, but what can I say? I find them soothing," he said with a chuckle. It always calmed him down when he was stressed to take a look into the orb and see what he could find about the stressful situation.

Although, sometimes it had the opposite effect.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name," he added. He looked at the other students who had just entered and smiled. "You may all take a seat as well!" he said, pulling out his wand and quickly duplicating a wooden chair in the corner for the students who hadn't sat down yet. It was getting crowded in here!

"Of course I don't mind! It's nice to meet you Alice, and I'm thrilled that you're excited for my classes," he told the young girl with a grin. It was very pleasing to hear people say they were interested in Divination...most new students were all about Charms or Transfiguration or something else.

"Would you like some tea?" he asked her. He looked at all the other new arrivals as well. "That goes for all of you! I have Earl Gray here if anyone would like some," he said, waving his wand and levitating the pot over to his desk once more. Good thing he'd been brewing some earlier for some readings, eh?

Nolan chuckled. "Well, I've made a number of small predicitions...for example, last year I had a glimpse of a student's cat destroying her pillow in her room, and sure enough she went home to find her pillow ripped to shreds. It's usually just little things like that," he said with a small sigh. He'd never tell the students, but he himself was still WAITING for the day he had a huge, life altering prophecy. He knew the chances of that happening were slim to none, but it was nice to dream about it, right? "Although I did predict the name of my sister's husband before she ever met him, as well as the day they'd get married. Other than that though, just small everyday things, like the weather!"

Cause weather was just SO INTERESTING.

Alice seeing that Rubiey had noticed her did a tiny wave. Perhaps she should have just come early with Rubiey, but ah well, they were both here now. It was nice having someone so like-minded around.

Alice had only ever had iced tea, and that was once. Usually her mother was a big advocate of drinking water, or fresh orange juice when she felt like making it. Although, with her magic abilities it should have been really easy to make, right?

"Sure...I've never really had hot tea before but it sounds good," Alice said with a smile. "So, is it true that you can read the future out of tea leaves?" Alice had read it was possible but she was having a hard time believing it. Although, perhaps with the help of magic they could be more than just the tea leaves she saw in muggle cups of tea. "Sorry if my questions seem silly, but I'm half muggle and my mom whose a witch hasn't really gone over this with me." There she went again, rambling about how poorly her mother had prepared her for this whole new world that she had know nothing about. Alice shook her head slightly, and with an apologetic look said, "I imagine it is rather interesting being able to see the future?"

A small blush spread across her face. Oh oops the very first Professor she meets and she gets his name wrong. Mia was just about to apologise when he told her that she could indeed call him Professor Nolan. "Right, I'll remember that. Don't call you Professor Dude." She was not sure why she would even do that but it was good to know.

Mia looked around his office again and she smiled, "I don't think it's stereotypical at all. I mean if you can't have your office outside then why not bring outside in." Hmm, did that sound stupid? Most probably. "I have to agree, the crystal balls give it a nice touch. Do you actually see anything in them?" Because she had always wondered whether magical people could actually see into crystal balls. "We have this lady who lives in our commune who has a crystal ball and she says that she can see the future in them. But between you and me I think she's a bit of a fraud. She told old Artie that he was going to win first prize at the county fair for the largest watermelon grown but he didn't." Although she conveniently left out the fact that she had accidentally blown it up when she was supposed to be levitating it.

Oh yes name that would probably help, wouldn't it? "Mia Gibbins." She replied with a smile and sitting up straight in her chair, "Fourth year, Hufflepuff."

"Wow!" Bodicea said, mentally storing away the information so she could write a letter back to her mother, telling her what they were really made of. She and her mom used to wonder together when the Gypsies wandered through. She was a little disappointed to learn she wouldn't know what they would be studying because she really had wanted to know if they were doing Tarot and tea leaves. She sat down at his invitation.
"I would love some tea, tank you," she said, then blushed, looking down at her lap. There she went again, and after all those years of English study, she would still slip up. How her brothers would tease if they ever heard of her slip-ups back in Ireland!

Sorry I'm lateeeeee...lessons take up so much time ya dig? xD
 

"Not at all silly," Nolan said with a smile. "It's true, you can find out about future events through tea leaves, they're one of my favorite things to use in Divination, actually," he told her. "There's more than just learning about the future...you can also get more insight into your personality and learn more information about the present time as well," he added.

"I can and I have," Nolan said with a grin. Crystal orbs were one of his favorite mediums! "And it's true...there are SOME frauds out there. It's why there is such skepticism about Seers these days," he said with a small sigh. HE was legit though...she didn't need to worry about being taught by a phony!

"Nice to meet you Mia. Hufflepuff has always held a soft spot in my heart, it was my house when I was in school," he told her.

"You're quite welcome," Nolan said as the tea poured itself into her cup.

"That sounds like fun! I can't wait to start our dream journals for your class. Plus it's always interesting figuring new things out about your personality and what different aspects of you mean in a more....mystical sense?" Alice said, not sure if that was the right term. "I'll be looking forward to all of your lessons. I've never really studied anything like this in muggle school before."

"Oh how cool." Mia said her eyes widening a little at the thought of being able to bring the stars inside. She wanted to be able to do that one day. Brighten up her tent a little back home.

She nodded her head as he spoke about Seers. Mia knew that the old gypsy lady back home was just telling porky pies and making money off it as well. "But you're a real one, aren't you, Professor Nolan?" Because they wouldn't have a fake one teaching at the school. Nuh uh. No way. "What about auras Sir? Do you study those as well?"

Oh squee!!! The Professor had been a Hufflepuff too. "I think it's by far the best house." And not because she was in it but because she believed that the Huffies had more going for them the other houses.

"Yes, it's always best to look at this stuff from a wizarding point of view," Nolan said with a smile. "Muggles can and have studied divination, but the number of people who inherit a real sense of the Inner Eye who aren't related to wizards is incredibly small. It's hard to find a legitimate Muggle fortune teller," he said with a sigh. THAT was why everyone doubted this subject so much...all those muggles trying to make a living by being fakes. BOOOO. They made him sick!

"In a sense. My Inner Eye isn't exactly...mature, if you know what I mean," he explained with a small frown. One of these days he'd get there...one of these days. "Auras? Some people do, I personally don't, I've never really excelled at figuring out that stuff," he explained. It was like how he really hated palm reading...all those lines just looked the same!

"I agree but again, I'm biased," he chuckled. Hufflepuff WAS the best. "I was even a prefect for a year back in my day...I ended up dropping that though, I wasn't very good at managing my time and my schoolwork was taking a serious hit," Nolan added.

Alice nodded in understanding. "We had a fortune teller come to my elementary school once, and she made some pretty big claims about where people would be five years from now. If I remember correctly she told me that I would be a teenage prodigy singing on Broadway." Alice chuckled at the memory. She was an atrocious singer. "I suppose if I told her I was actually a witch at a magic school she would probably think I belong in a loony bin somewhere." Alice thought back to five years ago...if only she had known then what she was, perhaps it would have explained so much.

Mia nodded her head eagerly, totally understanding what he was saying. "But it's because you're so young Sir. I bet it will come through more over time, you know when you have experienced more of life." She deflated a little when he said that he didn't study auras. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. "I can see them." She whispered, "They're not as clear on adults as they are on kids, I think because kids aren't as complex, you know?"

Oh and he had been a Prefect as well. "I hope you're good at managing your time now." She said in a teasing voice otherwise that wasn't going to be good for the students but she chose not to say that out loud.

Nolan laughed. "Yeah, they may be complete frauds, but every now and then I like to go to one, just to see what they say. One time, I decided to go to the same fortune teller once a year, every year, for four years, as an experiment of sorts to see if she was legit or not. Of course she wasn't...she told me I was going to fall off a balcony, get attacked by a rabid squirrel, and have five kids by the time I was 28. Oh, and every time I went there, she told me I was going to move in 3 weeks. I haven't left my loft since I moved out at 21," he added with a chuckle.

He knew it wasn't really right to heckle innocent muggles who were simply trying to make a living by basically being really good actors, but still--once you knew they were lying it was just a riot.

"Well, I'm not THAT...I mean, maybe you're right," Nolan said with a small chuckle. He wasn't SUPER young but, he was NOT old. NO NO NO. He refused to acknowledge his aging. Still, 31 was awfully mature in Seer terms, and it still puzzled him that he hadn't seen ANYTHING worthwhile yet. Maybe he never would. Sigh. He could always fall back on that whole wedding thing with his sister but other than that...just stuff about weather and cat's ripping up pillows. The usual.

"Really?" Nolan asked, sitting up a little straighter. How interesting! How was he so lucky as to meet a student with super fascinating abilities BOTH terms he'd been here?! "That's a bit more spiritual than many Seers get into...in fact I'm not sure many schools touch on the subject in any class...but it's still very interesting. As I said, some people DO study them in addition to Divination, but it's not exactly the norm," he added. Hmmmm, now that he knew, he HAD to ask...

"What color is mine? Or can you not see?" he asked in interest. After all, she had just said kids were easier to spot than adults. He also wondered how that all worked...did she always see the auras? If she did that must be awful distracting, seeing all these aura-ish colors throughout the day...