Dallin had stayed quiet for the last couple questions, not knowing much about the specifics in Divination. He really hadn't cared enough about it to learn much in his other classes. But the Divination at Hogwarts seemed alright, so he decided to pay a bit more attention, and try to contribute and maybe earn some house points.

He listened as students listed off forms of Divination, only recognizing a few of them. He frowned slightly as he tried to think of an original answer. All that was coming to him was muggle forms of fortune telling. Palm reading, Astrology, tarrot cards... sigh. He couldn't remember if they had already been said, but he didn't want to chance it. So he just looked at the professor, waiting for a question he knew, that wouldn't make him sound like an idiot if he tried to answer it.

Satine listened to the next question and flipped through her notebook to her notes from last term from her study abroad time of six weeks at Beuxbaton. She laughed to herself when she found notes on her fave form of Divination. She shot her hand in the air knowing for sure that no one would know this form, "Professor, I have to admit that I find Stolismancy the most entertaining...It's were you draw omens from the way peeps dress..." she said click her blue heels together and smiling.

"Erm, would aichmomancy be an example? It's divination through sharp objects", Chloe said with her hands raised high.

Chris timidly raised her hand. "Um..well I think divination is the art of foretelling the future or discovering unknown or hidden knowledge?" She really had no idea how to define something that seemed so broad... this class as a whole just made her nervous.

Selina looked up from her table as she took down the notes on the separate types of divination. When Professor Bishop addressed the class on any other forms of divination Selina thought hard. Her Uncle Jensen was a healer at St. Mungo's who had done extensive research on the healing effects of tea leaves. She had remembered he had gone through a period of time studying tea leaves use in the magical word. He had mentioned something like tessomancy. It sounded like a type of divination so Selina raised her hand.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Isn't a type of divination tessomancy? My uncle studied tea leaves and had mentioned something about it having special properties to read for divination purposes, ma'am."

GOSH. There were SO MANY forms of Divination out there! This was so confusing! He scanned the list of Divination practices in his book and did a double take at some of them. Why on Earth would some people want to look at the body parts of dead animals to tell the future?!

Seers were WEIRD.

He raised his hand. "Nephomancy is the practice of Divination using clouds. I'm assuming you look for shapes in the clouds and interpret that stuff," he explained. That sounded kind of cool. Maybe he'd look for shapes the next time he went outside!

Treyen frowned, and Cedric pretty much expected it. Giving the boy a rather cool smile, he was about to tell him that he had been having good days, though somewhat boring, when the new Divination Professor started to talk and he knew that professors don't like it... when somebody's talking at the same time she/he is. So he just glued his eyes to the professor, listening to every bit she said as a non-slacker student would most likely do.

Cedric raised his hand in his customary fashion. He raised his hand with a wide knowing smile plastered on his face. "How about Gelocospy, professor?" he started, "Divination through laughter?" Cedric chuckled... bet she could tell something about him, solely using his laugh?

Kurumi smiled as she got her quill ready for any notes and began thinking about Professor Bishop's question. What was Divination? She hadn't ever really thought about it desite her taking the class last year. Guess she should start with the basics. "Divination, which comes from Latin divinare to foresee or to be inspired by a god is an attempt to gain insight into a question or situation. This may not always mean predicting the future, at least, I think Divination has many other uses. For example, last year we kept dream diaries and, while some of those dreams may be telling us about the future, many of my dreams were explaining my current state and providing me with a new road to take in order to change things should I choose to." Kurumi paused for a moment. "There are many different methods including Augury, which is Divination through birds' flight, or Pyromancy, Divination through fire, which my mother performed when she was a Shinto shrine maiden."

Kurumi found herself smiling. Her mother had made a connection to the wizarding world that she had never noticed. It gave her some hope that perhaps her mother could accept Kurumi as a witch.

Kurumi wasn't sure about classifications, so she sat in her seat with her quill in hand ready for note taking.
"As I mentioned before, there is Pyromancy. My mother would often sit in front of a great fire deep in a trance waiting for some sort of sign or omen like an oracle does."

Rex is sitting next to Rene. Rex is happy that Rene, his fiancee. is so smart.
" How about Tarot Cards?" Rex asked the professor.

"What about Hydromancy, professor? The divination by water." Evangeline suggested. Divination wasn't particularly her forte, but she still made an effort.

She couldn't help but laugh, "I have no idea what got into my wand." She checked the time as to make sure she wasn't gonna interrupt class with her pocket burping all period. She listened to what Chris had advised, "That's a good idea, lets see..." She pulled out her oak wand from beneath her robs and pointed it towards her pocket, without thinking she blurted out the first charm that came to mind, "Engrogio," and she flicked her wand and little sparks came out. "Oh no, no no no." She looked to Chris, "woops, oh my gosh what do I do now?" Paranoid the only thing she thought of was her cat and how much she liked playing with them. Jokingly she said, "I could just bring my cat in here, she could probably get rid of them better than I could," and giggled trying to make herself feel better.

With no other thoughts in mind she answered her last question, "pretty good, I'm getting in the routine of classes and stuff. I never adjust easy to new things," she admitted. "What about you?"

Class started, she lowered her voice and continued speaking. She still needed to fix her bubble problem




Witsy's pocket calmed down a little with a few bubbles escaping her view. In her attempt to keep the bubbles away from disrupting the class, she tried ignoring some of them, even though some of them were hard to miss.

Oh no what was her question, she thought. Something about artificial divinations... um what about dream warriors, she thought and raised her hand to speak.

Eino listened attentively as the Professor elaborated on his very brief answer in regards to oracles, the Greeks, and Pythia. He was actually making sense in divination? And understanding? AND LIKING IT?! Absurd! Eino hated divination! Well, most of his hate was a product of his ignorance and now that he understood it, he liked it. He began to write down more and more notes, detailed, specifics, trying to record every word the Professor said. HE raised once again, this time not timidly or hesitantly but very enthusiastically, his hand shot in the air, in a very "Me, me, me! Pick me!" way. And finally it was his turn to speak, "Professor, there are far too many forms of Divination that I have heard of. One of them I have tried practicing was Austromancy, the study of the winds, but to no avail." Eino failed miserably, and left him to wonder how was he supposed to study something he couldn't see. It probably required an additional skill, he thought.

"Umm, how about NUMEROLOGY, which is the numerical interpretation of numbers, dates, and the number value of letters" Ronnie added raising her hand as well. She really wanted to earn her house some points. They were already in last place. And she wasn't going to stand for it this year!! She just wasn't

Ronnie lowered her hand and place them folded on her desk...waiting to see what the Professor thought of her answer.

Luin sat in the class looking down at her textbook frowning slightly. Although she loved learning, Divination was not her normal avenue of looking at things. She liked much more structured, formalized things. Although that last question was interesting. She thought of everything that she had memorized that was in the book, and some stuff she had heard classmates and other friends mention before...hmmm Artificial divination? She raised her hand slowly, "Ummm, would Cartomancy be an example perhaps? Reading cards?"

Violet smiled at Selina sweetly. Then she replied brightly,"That sounds like it was interesting! Oh a dream diary, that is-is intriguing!" Violet smiled again and went on,"I'm interested to see what's in store for this class, my father only told me a little bit about it, but I can't wait see what it's actually about." She giggled. "I wonder where Elektra is.."

"I'm sure you won't, Professor." she said with a smile. Then she took out her parchment and quill from her bag to write some notes from today class.

Artificial Divination?Hmm.. Freya raised her hand "What about Geomancy, Professor? Divination that employs the scattering of pebbles, grains of sand, or seeds on the earth and then the interpretation of their shape and position and Geomancy also applied to the Chinese practice of Feng-shui" she said. Her mother had thought her about it last summer and it was really difficult method.

Selina looked up from the continual notes she was taking as the Professor spoke. It seemed like Violet had a delayed reaction to her original comment and had finally responded after class had started. She did not want to be rude so she grabbed her phoenix feather quill and wrote on the corner of a piece of parchment

She then pushed the parchment over to her friend and shot her a look that said We'll talk later. Promise. At that she went back to her notes and Divination.

Tyrone smirked, going for one of the obvious ones "What about Oneiromancy. Deciphering dreams"

Violet then covered her mouth after she had read the little note Selina wrote her. She looked at Selina and nodded her head. Violet then took out her swan feather quill and wrote on the parchment,

Violet then took out her book and immediately began to write down all of the notes Professor Bishop had mentioned, that she missed, and was completely focusing on Divination now. It didn't take her long to write down all of the notes, in her Glittery ink, and it also didn't take her long for her to understand what Professor Bishop was talking about.

Raven back the smile, Pandora almost has a gift in divination, she maybe could help Raven. "You definitely save me then, I'm new in the divination, the word itself didn't commonly use in muggle world" Raven say. "I'll definitely learn from you" Raven added.

Emily would have normally answerd some questions by now, but it was just so silly!
"My sister's used tarot cards before..."
'But it was a load of rubbish' she thought

As people started offering ideas as to various forms of Divination, Renée started thinking that people were getting more interested in the topic. Or they were just interested in gaining points, but as long as they were participating, she didn't really mind their reasoning. Participation always made class more fun. "You all seem to have done a bit of research," she said idly, noting those who were going to be awarded points at the same time as flicking her wand at the chalkboard once again to start listing the ideas as they were mentioned. It saved her from having to go through everything on her own, although she knew this was still going to be only a partial list.

SPOILER!!: divination list

Aeromancy
Aichmomancy
Apantomancy
Astrology
Austromancy
Cartopedy
Cheiromancy/Palmistry
Cleromancy
Crystallomancy (crystal balls)
Geloscopy
Geomancy
Hydromancy
Lithomancy
Nephomancy
Oneiromancy
Pyromancy
Rune casting/runic divination
Stolismancy
Tasseomancy
Tiromancy

"You'll notice a few of the forms that were mentioned aren't up here as of yet, but there's a reason," she added then, with a brief glance at Mr Lockhart as he seemed to get into a bit of an issue with Jake. She'd keep her eye on those two, along with the spot by the wall where she still knew she was being watched. It made things interesting, really. "And I'd imagine Professor Truebridge could shed a bit more light on the subject of Runic divination, so we'll let that one stay to the side for now." She could answer questions as well, but the lesson needed to keep moving.

As the little Hufflepuff whose earlier answer had amused her so spoke again, Renée grinned at him. "I believe you're talking about a phenomena known as 'automatic writing', 'psychography', or more commonly called, 'spirit writing'," she replied. "While that could very well be used in some situations as a divinatory practice, it's more commonly used in parapsychology. The study of spirits. Not quite the same, but it was a good guess." And an amusing one, at that. She hadn't expected there to be a spirtualist leaning to anyone at Hogwarts, even with the ghosts that floated around.



As she finished addressing the Hufflepuff, she turned to those who had mentioned numerology. "You three are correct. Numerology is indeed a form of Divination, and Arithmancy can be closely connected to Divination because of that. But as I mentioned regarding runes, I'd imagine Professor Hadley could explain arithmancy to you in more detail." And considering that was her fellow professor's subject, she did explain it quite regularly. "I'll add it to our list, though." There was no reason not to, when they were just giving an overview of divinatory forms.

SPOILER!!: divination list with additions

Aeromancy
Aichmomancy
Apantomancy
Arithmancy/Numerology
Astrology
Austromancy
Cartomancy/Taromancy *
Cartopedy
Cheiromancy/Palmistry
Cleromancy
Crystallomancy (crystal balls)
Geloscopy
Geomancy
Hydromancy
Lithomancy
Nephomancy
Oneiromancy
Pyromancy
Rune casting/runic divination
Stolismancy
Tasseomancy
Tiromancy

Completing their divination list, as established by the students, Renée turned back to the students who'd spoke about tarot cards with another smile. "It seems you might be a bit hopeful about that subject," she said to the two who had mentioned them by name, before turning back to the class as a whole. "Cartomancy, or its similar cousin Taromancy, is quite the delicate study. As was mentioned, it can most commonly be considered reading cards, Taromancy being more specific to the Tarot while basic cartomancy can use any form of cards. Actually, most common is a basic deck of Muggle playing cards. And there's another offshoot that simply uses what are known as oracle decks, which is a bit more, well specific than either divination with playing cards or Tarot cards," she said, moving slightly toward the bookshelf as she spoke. If anyone was curious, she could explain their uses as well, but at a later time.

"For now, let's stick with the basics, though," she continued. "Maybe with the Tarot." And her discussion was turning a bit more casual, it seemed. "Does anyone want to offer a fact or two about the Tarot? Anything about the specific cards in the deck, or whatever else you can think of." Then maybe they could look into the correlation between that deck and the others. It would depend on what she got right now.

ooc: As usual, try to stick with only one fact, etc. per post. Let others get a word in. Try not to get too into chats as well and things will continue later. With more fun.

Helena raised her hand and hesitated for a moment. "We can use cards to gain insight into the current and possible future situations of... what we want to know," she said slowly. "Am I right?" she added, looking at the professor.

OOOH! Tarot cards! Kurumi had had fun with making her own deck last term for homework and was looking forward to studying them again.

"One of the more well known decks is The Major Arcana, or greater secrets," Kurumi offered with her hand raised.

Taromancy. Eino added to his notes including the brief introduction and description the professor had given. Being well acquainted with different periods of European history, such as the Middle Ages, apparently came in handy for more than just History of Magic. He could recall that these were popular during the time and quite often used, perhaps of the most popular used forms of Divination, after Cyclomancy maybe. "Professor," He began with his hand raised, "the deck is divided into two parts, I believe. The Major and Minor Arcana. The Major includes cards like the fool, the lovers, the sun, and so on. I think there are twenty or maybe twenty two total. There are more Minor Arcana cards, something around fifties, I believe, and those are separated into subcategories, too." So he didn't know that many details, but hopefully this would suffice.