| SilverTiger | 01-12-2011 11:15 PM |
Moving on . . . (if you post after this, just wait and post again. DON'T EDIT)
Quote:
Originally Posted by scarsandtetris
(Post 10103474)
Charley walked into the Divination classroom. Most of the other students had already nabbed their seats, and she was surprised to see that the room looked very....normal.
Thank goodness, she thought. A classroom that looks like the ones in school back home. Save for the charmed blackboard, that is, of course. Pretty cursive, too. It looks a lot like Mum's.
Charley chose a desk on the right side of the class, near the bookshelf, that didn't have a student sitting in the one adjacent to it. Professor Bishop had arranged the desks into pairs, so she wanted to reduce her risk of being around any gossip. Or giggling, for that matter.
"Hello, Professor Bishop," she greeted her teacher, sitting down and taking out her notebook, ink and quill, as well as a few jellybeans from the Bertie Bott's package she'd stashed in her bag, which she popped into her mouth one by one. She was still peeved that her Charms class had turned into an ogling session for most of the other girls. Apparently Professor Descoteaux was "sexy" and "dreamy".
It's not as if I was the only first-year either. How creepy is that? she thought, disappointed that there was no response from her brother.
Suffice to say, she was very relieved that she had another female Professor. And Divination sounded very interesting. It was one of the few things Henry had told her he was not good at. Lauren had sent a list in her first letter to Charley at school, of subjects that she was not good at-meaning she wasn't one of the top students in that class when she was at Hogwarts.
I will be, though. I'm off to a pretty successful start. I can definitely do this.
| Waiting for answers to her question, Renée raised an eyebrow again as another student, a little Ravenclaw, chose to walk in late. Not only that, but she didn't really even seem to notice that she had, which made her sigh inwardly. Why did it have to be a Ravenclaw? "Good morning. It was nice of you to join us, but unfortunately you are late. One point from Ravenclaw," she replied, still inwardly flinching. Hopefully the girl would catch up with the lesson. Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselyn
(Post 10103481)
Hello Professor? MEEP! She knew that voice rather well. Which meant, both Gryffindors were in the class! Especially the one which she had been waiting for for like five minutes now.
Looking towards the desk in front of them, the Slytherin smiled before moving up one seat to sit next to Josh. Well, they were all pretty much seated together anyways, their little group that is, but now she was just sitting next to him. Him who...was paying rather good attention to the Professor. Huh. When did he become so studious?
Hmmm?
OMG! That's what her dad used to say to her. Something about spiders being more scared of them then they are of...them...
Or something.
Smiling over to Josh, the Slytherin looked forward once it seemed the Professor was starting to talk to the whole class in general, already feeling as though she'd been sitting there for over an hour. Yes, this was going to be a long class.
Especially if they were only going over the basics.
But, what better way to make herself stay awake then to answer questions? "Divination is the..." What. "...attempt, I guess you can put it, to foresee into future events or gain answers from questions that you may need guidance on, using...various tools."
Tools being things like FIRE!
| "You could put it that way, Evelyn," Renée agreed, sensing a preparation for boredom from the Slytherin. "It's not quite entirely correct, but one point anyway." It was the general forms of Divination she used, and what they'd discuss more in depth in class. But it wasn't exactly what Divination was. Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoerawrr
(Post 10103485)
"Bishop. Like the chess piece," Jake nodded, and went ahead to take his seat.
MOOOOOOVING ON.
Once Bishop was done talking, Jake raised his hand. What he wanted to say was how TERRIBLE he was at this subject... but he settled with something else. "Well, like the name suggests, I guess Divination is... divining. That's usually what some kind of god-like dude does, and a kind of omniscient thing. So... it's... getting information I guess from natural occurances."
...
Maybe.
| Renée nodded at the comment about her name from Jake, keeping the train of thought on present topics instead of going backward. It seemed he had the same idea, and she gave him a smile for his response. "You don't necessarily need to be omniscient, but yes. You can use natural occurrences for divination," she replied. "One point." Quote:
Originally Posted by DamianSlytherin
(Post 10103508)
Damian raised her hand as a habit and immediately dropped it with a loud smash against the table. Not bothered by pain or sound, she hurried to answer:
"Divination is magic which attempts to foresee future events. Many consider this branch of magic to be imprecise at best. There are several types of Divination. The most imprecise is type known as "fortunetelling," also reading tea leaves, palmistry, crystal balls, astrology, and more. The second kind of Divination is practiced by the centaurs. In their view, divination is far more useful for predicting large changes than day-to-day events. The third type of Divination is called Seeing. This is true Divination, although what the Seer reveals is usually in the form of a prophecy. True Seeing is very rare." A deep breath. Damian was gloating inside. "It's quite a grate subject to develop..."
| Eyes widened at the loud sound of a hand slamming back onto a desk, but Renée simply turned her attention to the disheveled Slytherin as the girl spoke. "True. And we'll discuss the various types in a moment," she replied with a brief nod. "One point." She went on to address the latter comment as well, though. "It is definitely a good subject to develop." It always was developing, too. Quote:
Originally Posted by Amira With a C
(Post 10103532)
Parke raised his hand, pleased that he knew the answer to this question, at least. He had done a bit of general studying on the topic before class. "Divination, stemming from the latin 'divinare', is the art of gaining insight into a situation or problem of some kind, through use of a certain object, ritual, or combination of the two. It allows you information you would not ordinarily have access to."
| Renée smiled as she heard a bit more of a detailed response. Somebody had done the reading. "Yes," she said simply. "Thank you for that bit of etymological background, and divination certainly does allow information to be known outside of the normal routes. One point." Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry174
(Post 10103535)
Simon looked at the Professor and raised his hands. "Divination is something that helps you clear your mind and make you able to see the future, well sometimes you can." Simon smiled, he had no idea if this was right but he was hopefull it was he had been studying the subject over the summer.
| Renée let a little smile creep onto her face at the next answer she was given as well. Just at the tentativeness, really, not to mention she had a feeling he wasn't entirely aware of the misstep. "Not quite, as clearing your mind is another study. But divination can help you see the future. So one point." He hadn't been entirely off, after all. Quote:
Originally Posted by Wood'sLittleFlower
(Post 10103545)
The Gryffindor grinned goofily as The professor spoke to him. She was a PREEETTY new professor too. Straightening up a little taller, he adjusted his messanger bag, and spoke. "If you say so," he shrugged, bounding away from the teacher, and towards an empty seat.
As he sat, he placed the bag on the desk and openned it, searching for his book. Errrrrr... Looks like someone had snuck him a surprise this morning. Extra sweets for later. The boy smirked, leaving the various candies in the bag for the off chance that he'd lose his initial hyperness, and pulled out the book, placing it on his desk clumsily.
Jayce watched as the professor moved towards her desk and begun class. And now she was asking questions. Ermmm.. Divination.. He'd never exactly enjoyed the course and wasn't particularly good at it..
Right. Time to answer.
The boy raised his hand waving it back and forth in the air. He had no clue what he was going to say, but hopefully once he was called on it would come out somewhat intelligent.
As he was called on, he quickly put his hand down, and opened up his mouth. "Well, Divination is.. it's kind of like predicting stuff.. right? But it's more complicated than that. It can come from various things around you, yes? For example.. you can do a prediction based on tea.. orr.. the clouds in the sky. Right?"
Kinda? Maybe? Sorta? He shut up then, swaying slightly in his chair to the music that only he could hear in his head.
| Renée tried not to grin as the hyper boy simply continued his animatedness, but the fact she was trying to keep class moving helped immensely. She'd watched as he'd taken his book out and everything, though. "True. Divination can be, as you say, 'kind of like predicting stuff.' Among other things." You could learn so much more than predictions, if you did things right. "One point." She just hoped he could concentrate longer. Quote:
Originally Posted by XxPandoraXx
(Post 10103546)
Pandora raised her hand. "Divination is a way to gain insight to questions or situations by way of rituals. Some examples of Divination are Taromancy, tasseomancy, and cleromancy." She said. "It was and still is practiced among Shamans, Pagans, Wiccans, and in places like Africa where the people are still in touch with their ancestral roots."
| "True once again," Renée said with a nod and a smile. Another student who'd done some reading. "And thank you for those examples, although I'll say we won't be discussing all of them this term" That would take much too long, and besides, not every form was easy to teach fully. "One point." Quote:
Originally Posted by Lezleighd
(Post 10103547)
Satine shot her hand up in the air, "Professor, Divination is like making the unknown known..." then paused...that made sense to her but she decided to explain further, "It's the discovery of things hidden in the past, the present, or the future by the interpretation of signs and symbols and stuff."
she said with a little nod.
| Renée grinned as Satine shot her hand up, then seemed to second guess herself a little. "Yes. One point," she replied, before continuing to the class as a whole. "Divination not only is used to 'tell the future.' It can be used to discover many other aspects of life, history, whatever you want to learn. If done correctly." And that was the important part. One had to do things correctly to truly divine anything. Quote:
Originally Posted by lemondrop13
(Post 10103589)
Always the same start to every year in every subject - a definition of key terms or core tenets. Though some might find it redundant, Bennet actually enjoyed the consistency. Everyone starts on somewhat equal footing with the most basic of information.
Raising his hand to contribute to the conversation, Bennet added, "Foretelling the future using any one of a vast number of different methods and materials as decided by the divinor. These methods and materials are systematic means with which to organize what appear to be random components of existence."
| Renée nodded as she got yet another contribution to the discussion. "Of course. Systems are integral to many forms of Divination," she replied. Unless you went into the more ephemeral aspects of Divination. Predictions, Seers, things like that. Those often used symbolism, but there was little that was systematic about them in the beginning. "One point." Quote:
Originally Posted by Starbreeze
(Post 10103599)
Eino listened to everyone else's responses, but they all sounded like parrots in a vast room, that is repeating each other and speaking over their echoes. He dipped his quill in the ink bottle and wrote down. Divination, the art of foretelling the future. One would suppose it would require painting or sculpturing the future, but it wasn't that sort of art, or at least he hoped not. "Professor," He began with his hand in the air "Divination is only presumption, correct?" He had heard that most Diviners and Soothsayers were frauds and that Divination was often inaccurate. "Also, I heard that Muggles, most notably the Greeks, practice Divination through what they consider to be 'divine beings,' such as the Greek gods and goddesses, that show them prophecies and the future, is this true? Is their form of soothsaying accurate?" This led him to a series of other questions, but someone else began speaking before he could continue, which was for the better, otherwise he would never shut up.
| Renée looked up as it seemed they had at least one sceptic in their midst, and she smiled as he posed his questions. "Not entirely, but take a point for showing the opposite side of the argument," she said. "That is definitely one view of Divination, however, and comes into being when people misuse it." And that was what everyone else had to fight against. The frauds who abused divination for monetary or entertainment purposes. "The Greeks looked to their gods for much more than just divinatory help, but yes. In its own way, I would say their practices were accurate. Have you ever heard any of the predictions received from the ancient Greek oracles?," she asked, before moving on. They could go back to that later. Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinky
(Post 10103629)
Lexi knew what SHE thought Divination was... probably not appropriate to say it was the most useless magical learning EVER. She might offend... Raising her hand she said, "Uuuh... Divination is magical readings of tea leaves... dream interpretations... stuff like that. Magic that tells the future or something about the inner eye..." SOunded about right to her.
Lexi looked over to Evangeline and smiled but also gave a little shrug of sorts. Who knew. She never grasped Divination... even when Kapoor taught it and he was her fave. Still spoke with him often. He and his wife. Hehe.
| And another person who wasn't a fan. Renée gave her a little nod, and silently gave her a point, as the girl at least tried to avoid outward derision. "It can be. Even if you don't think there's much use for it," she replied with a smile. "More the inner self than the inner eye, however. The inner eye is simply a construct explaining how diviners understand what they see." Hopefully she could make even the tiniest impact on her beliefs by the end of term. Quote:
Originally Posted by PattyH.
(Post 10103631)
Still grinning proudly, Patroclus turned his head towards the Professor as she began the lesson. Listening to the others around him, Patroclus thought he would help with a definition of his own.
"Divinations is a noble art, that one uses to ascertain information, or educated guesses about certain elements of the past, the present and most often the future." He nodded, "There are a variety of tools that one can use in Divinations to discover this information, such as smoked, entrails, cards, palms and tea leaves."
Patroclus still remembered the lesson from the last two term with Professor Nolan, especially the cloud gazing one, which Patroclus still held the conviction that Evelyn had charmed the sky.
| Renée smiled yet again as she turned back from glancing at the board to see if it was writing things down. "Lofty words, Mr. Hudson. One point," she replied. "But yes, divination involves a healthy amount of interpretation from hints given by objects, tools, or symbols. Those and many other things can be used in Divination, for any number of forms of information. Unfortunately we won't be using any entrails in this lesson however." Or at all, as that was a bit out of her wheelhouse.
Moving the discussion along, she looked out at the classroom as a whole yet again. "Now that we've gotten a basic idea of what Divination is, I'd like to see if anyone knows the answer to this. Ancient peoples generally separated Divination into at least two types. Each encompassing many forms within, but can anyone give me those classifications?" Or anything even close. She knew what she was after, but there was the possibility the texts gave slightly different information, not to mention she didn't know what all the students might have read beyond the textbook. |
