Belle was amazed by how much Jania knew. "I never knew that." belle said in awe. She gave her a thumbs up, but belle whispered, "I don't really know what is going on..but i am trying to following along. maybe you can help me out." she grinned.

Simon looked at the Professor and sighed it was time for another Divination lesson, then the first question came up and he smiled he knew the answer to this. "They use the fire to see into the future or get sent into the future." He couldn't remember which it was.

Ok, it was official, Seers did Divination using the WEIRDEST things. Why would you use fire when you could use something normal, like a crystal orb? Or tarot cards? All Alex knew was that if given the choice, he'd stay as far away from those flames as possible. If he leaned TOO far towards the flames, with his hair at its current length--it was a recipe for disaster!

He raised his hand to answer the professors question. "Well, some cultures used to burn things other than wood when studying Pyromancy. For example, in China they'd burn these special oracle bone things," he explained.

Renée stifled another grin as she watched Dianna shove an entire marshmallow in her mouth as the discussion began. Marshmallows were good, but it was somewhat difficult to talk with your mouth full, and it seemed the Slytherin had wanted to. Glancing at her own marshmallow, which was pretty well burnt by now, she switched it to her other hand, away from the flames, as she nodded. "It's nice to know people did some reading up on things," she commented lightly. "Yes, Dianna. Both of those ideas are correct, so take a point." She paused for a moment before smiling again. "And you might want to consider waiting a bit before speaking after swallowing a marshmallow whole." Speed wasn't necessarily the point of answers in her class, although it paid to speak before there was the chance your answer was taken. And she turned to the others as more people continued offering ideas.

It seemed Treyen wasn't exactly too sure about the idea of sacrificial fires, as Renée caught his glance toward Dianna when she'd turned. He didn't say anything, though, so she simply nodded as he raised his hand, inferring who he was speaking of. She had a feeling that had been intentionally left out of his explanation ayway, but she was used to a bit of challenge by now. "Of course. Pyromancers generally can study any sort of flame, so yes, torches are included. And I'd imagine Professor Hadley could give you a few reasons why three points of flame are better than one." She didn't really think it was too ironic. Curious, maybe, but irony was a bit of an overstatement.

Renée's curiosity continued as she heard Salander speak, and she turned to the Slytherin with a smile. Of course, he was amongst the group of fire-happy girls, which explained a lot. "Fire is hypnotic, and can have power over certain people. Perhaps your pretty girls simply are conducive to that power," she pointed out wryly. She herself generally didn't play with fire, beyond the burning times of Anastasia, but she understood things. Just as she understood his snicker, but at least he added a valid response. "You'd find that most forms of Divination work the same way. Symbolism, reading portents from vague images. Not all forms of Pyromancy work that way, but some do. It's a good comparison," she replied, with a brief nod as she decided she may as well eat her roasted marshmallow before it got too cold.

Swallowing a bit of charred yummy goodness, Renée turned again as Captain Bennet spoke. "Sometimes," she agreed. "Not all the time, as Treyen pointed out. Some forms of pyromancy involve study of the flames themselves, while others in fact do focus on how objects are consumed. Or their appearance after they've been consumed. It's another good addition to the topic, though," she replied. Of course, it could fit in with the idea of sacrifices as well, but that was a fact of pyromancy. Fire consumes, and as such, certain groups used that for somewhat less tasteful pursuits. Luckily she wasn't planning on much discussion or practice of those angles of the subject. Sacrifice of food and perhaps other inanimate objects was it, and she was hoping she'd be able to control even that.

Renée's attention went to Lexi, who it seemed had been the main focus of Salander's earlier comment, as the Gryffindor spoke. It seemed there might be some plotting going on there, but she decided to stay out of it for now. As long as everyone stayed a good distance away from the flames for now, things would go well. She could worry about possible troublemakers once they split off into the smaller groups, and the smaller fires. "They did," she agreed, however, as Lexi had offered another point regarding the discussion. "More accurately, specific people in Athens did, although I'd also like to point out that since it was Athens, it was the Temple of Athena." Splitting hairs, of course, but Minerva was Roman. "Historically, quite a few of the Greek oracles seemed to involve pyromancy in one way or another." Even just as a spectacle. Fire got people's attention, and those who seemed to control it, understand it, had an aura, not necessarily a physical one but a psychological one, around them.

As Selina spoke, Renée gave the tiny Gryffindor a friendly smile. After their previous conversations, she still hoped the girl was getting past her fear of things, but it seemed there was still a bit of that to get through. She hoped Selina could relax a bit, realize that she wasn't going to be forced to do anything. That she was safe. The fact she tried to answer the question was promising, though, and Renée nodded. "Fire is one of the natural elements. Earth, air, fire and water, although Chinese culture adds a fourth and fifth in metal and wood, taking out air. Much of divination as a whole uses at least one. Control of them is generally more a focus of Muggle ideas of witchcraft, but all magic definitely takes power from the world around us. So it is definitely possible that diviners can take energy from them to use." Not exactly linear to the discussion, but it was still worth noting.

Another shy response, and Renée gave Jaina a smile as she listened to what the girl was saying. "Similar. The question would stand as to whether they were actually being given the images from the gods, or if they simply were experiencing divinatory skills," she questioned, before continuing. "Many ancient cultures looked to their gods for answers, and fire has always been seen as a source of power therefore a good conduit." Unfortunately, mythology wasn't her subject, although it was fascinating. They needed to get back on topic, though.

Hearing the faintest of sighs, Renée looked over to see Simon. Hopefully he wasn't too discoouraged after the previous lessons, but the fact he'd come was promising. She knew her subject wasn't necessarily a requirement, especially for the younger students. The smile that had followed gave her hope, and she smiled back as he spoke. Somewhere in there was an actual good answer. "Well, getting sent anywhere is more a matter of using Floo powder, and even then you can't get sent into the future. Time travel is another topic altogether. But yes, pyromancers can use the fire to see into the future, so to speak. Like any form of divination, it can be used to see past, present or future, really."

Another student who seemed a bit disenchanted by the flames, as opposed to Lexi and Evelyn, among others. Renée oddly appreciated the carefulness, even as the expression on Alex's face made it seem he was a bit disenchanted by the topic as well. Luckily for him, she was still not trying to find out what was going on, and as long as he participated, his opinion of the subject was extraneous. As he spoke, she smiled, then nodded. "Yes, Alex. That's a good point. Wood is not always the focus, although generally the fires are started with wood before the other items are introduced. Bone doesn't always burn, unless the fire gets to the correct temperature, which is why some of those oracle bones are still in existence. It was the cracking of the bones that was interpreted, not the fire itself." And it was a salient point, leading up to discussion of the various forms of pyromancy.



Renée was pleased by the number of students who had offered those forms, even as she'd filed them away until the discussion was ready for them. "I guess I should be happy nobody went so simple as to tell me what pyromancy means," she said with a little laugh, before addressing the other answers. 'Caroline, Luin, Emily, Sierra, Kurumi and Helena are correct. Pyromancy is only the broad category, and there are many smaller forms that fit into the topic," she said with another smile. taking her wand out, she flicked it to create glowing words in thin air, listing several of the forms. Too bad she hadn't thought of bringing a chalkboard out, but with a few of the students in attendance, there was the likelihood said chalkboard would get incinerated at some point. Not to mention this was more noticeable.

SPOILER!!: list

Alomancy - divination by use of salt
Botanomancy - divination by burning plants
Capnomancy - divination by the movement of smoke
Causinomancy - divination by burning objects; papers?
Daphnomancy
Osteomancy
Plastromancy
Scapulimancy - divination by use of the scapulae of animals, commonly oxen
Sideromancy

Leaving the list glowing there on the side opposite the bonfire, she addressed the class as a whole. "Obviously I haven't listed the explanations of all of these forms, which are the most common. Odds are there are others that are less known, but let's stick with these for now. Does anyone want to offer an idea of what the focus of the other four types of pyromancy might be?" If she was honest with herself, she expected some interesting responses now. Of course, that seemed to be a common occurrence when it came to Hogwarts.

Emily jotted down notes, from what her peers had been saying. They once she set down her quill, looked towards Professor Bishop for the next instructions.

Nika quickly took her quill and scribbled notes down on her parchment. "so-much-to-write."

Slightly blushing, Di quickly wrote down notes to help her later on. She then waited for the Professor's next question and this time no more marshmallows.

K-Lee hadn't had any idea what the answer to the question was, so sat back and munched on a raw marshmallow. She didn't like them roasted.

While waiting for a question that she may know, K-Lee wrote down notes on the information already given, carefully avoiding putting marshmallow on her parchment.

Popping another marshmallow into her mouth, she put down her parchment and quill, moving slightly more closer to the warm fire.

Claire had been sitting on a log besides Emily quietly... taking notes with her new quick-quotes quill. This lesson was going to be very interesting. And it had food! Claire loved food! and even better than that there were marchmellows! Claire absolutely loved them... she took few more and popped them in her mouth... no need for toasting them at all.

Kurumi's hand shot up again. "Professor, Plastromancy is when you use the under shell of a turtle. It was mostly used in China, but my great great grandmother did a little of it when she was a shrine maiden. I think I remember her telling me that she used to put small colored stones into the shells and then put the shell over a fire until small cracks appeared. Depending on the cracks, she could then do a reading," Kurumi explained searching her memory for more details. She had been very little when she had heard stories about turtle shells. "Oh! Also, on the turtle shell, the date, diviner's name, and topic of divination was usually written...or carved as the case may be." She paused for a moment. "There is a slight connection with between Plastomancy and Osteomancy I believe as well." But she would let someone else talk about Osteomancy.

Caroline quickly wrote down notes as students gave their anwsers. Looking up and listening as each peer spoke. She made abversions, starred important facts. She finished and enjoyed the warm fire. She waited to see what they were going next in the lesson. Maybe actually do one of the types of Pyromancy. She crossed her fingers.

Piping up finally, the fire had been tooo entrancing not to watch Patroclus cleared his throat and began.

"Professor Sideromancy was a divininational art used by the Ancient Romans. An odd number of straws would be dropped onto a red hot iron skillet, a type of stove, and the diviner would take readings from the patterns of smoke, as well as the ways the straws twisted and warped as they were blistred by the heat."
That one sounded like watching sausages cook on a bbq.......speaking of which Patroclus was rather hungry, where were those hot dogs??

"Also Professor I thought I should make mention of the Vestal Virgin," It seemed Patroclus alwasy found away to relate something to Ancient History, "They were a college of Ancient Roman Priestesses, that were charged with the protection of the Sacred Flame of Vesta, in the Temple of Vesta. Here they would worship and praise the Sacred Flame and divine from it's light. It is amazing how very important they were to ancient Roman Society, yet they are so often over looked."

Riley looked at the list of Pyromancy types on the board and thought hard about them. He had recognized the one starting with a D from something but it took him a minute to realize what it was. As soon as he did he raised his hand.

"Professor, Daphnomancy is the throwing of laurel branches into fire and determining if the future will be good (if the cracks and sparks are loud) or bleak (if they make little to no sound). Ancient Rome used this type of Divination alot." There's where he had learned it. His grandfather was big on teaching him, his brother and his sister about the Roman empire.

Kyle stood there, her arms around her freezing body, she took a small step closer to the fire to warm up. She listened to all the answers and pondered her own. Laurel, what had she heard of that before? She thought.

"Don't the Laurel branches have to do with the grecian nymph Daphne? Who was chased by Apollo? And I know Daphne means Laurel."

Yes, we are still watching you Evelyn, Mia and the boy who helped try to stuff Professor Vinny's vuvuzela with marshmallows. Sure, they didn't say they were going to jump into the fire, but they honestly wouldn't admit to doing it. That would be like Destiny admitting she was addicted to chocolate!

Which she is NOT. Pffft.

Jotting down a few notes as the Professor spoke and made the list of really big words, she raised her hand high when a question was asked. "Osteomancy. That is Divination using the cracks in bones of animals or turtle shells after they have been burned. How GROSS is that?"

Very and she hoped they were not doing that.

Emily raised her hand. "Professor, osteomancy is divination using bones, and this is sort of similar to plastromancy which used turtle shells... they're sort of bony. And both of them are read using the cracks formed in the bones/shell."

Selina felt a breath that she had been holding in for far to long escape her air chambers when the Professor smiled at her. This class had made her nervous ever since their talk. Things had only gotten stranger for Selina since her first acknowledgement of her... whatever anyone wanted to call it. She was learning that a series of sensations coursed through her body before she had a vision. She was learning that the visions looked similar to that of a memory in a pensive, foggy and dream like. She was learning that they were random and uncontrollable. But the most important thing she had learned was Divination made her more vulnerable to having a vision.

When she answered Selina's response she mustered a grin and sunk back into her seat. Professor Bishop had a way of making Selina feel more comfortable with her... issues.

The next question was posed and Selina raised her hand. She knew the answer thanks to her own personal research on the subject. Of course her research was not school propelled, "Sideromancy is pyromancy involving the burning of straws. This ritual takes place on a hot iron. Anyway with this type of pyromancy the person burns the straws and notes the manner of how it burns. Then they interpret the smoke, flames, the pattern of straws. It's actually really interesting." Selina said.

Yay, she was right! Eeeeven though she couldn't remember every form of pyromancy. But it was a good start.

Helena raised her hand again. "Sideromancy is the form of pyromancy used by burning straw with an iron." Right?

Writing on her parchment as fast as she could because everyone was firing off answers from everywhere, Mia raised her hand in the air when she had finished writing everything she could remember. "Pyro-osteomancy also known as Oracle Bones was a practiced form of Divination, fortune telling and was used by seers to tell the future by using the cracks in an animal bone or turtle shell, in either their natural state or after having been burned. The cracks were then used to determine the future."

Mia had absolutely no idea how that worked but she was sure the Professor would enlighten them. That's why they were here after all.

As she'd left the final descriptions to the class, Renée wasn't entirely sure what to expect. She knew by now that the students had some imaginations on themselves, so anything could come out. Especially knowing that her subject wasn't always the one people took seriously, and she'd found herself roasting another marshmallow simply as something to do while she'd waited. She was pleasantly surprised that the answers given were both serious and fairly accurate, though, and turned to the class with another smile, marshmallow still in the flames.

"You're correct, Riley. Daphnomancy is divination by use of laurel leaves and branches, and it seems you know a bit about how it works as well," she replied to the Gryffindor. She refrained from commenting about his statement about Rome, however, as it was both likely and not entirely important to the discussion. She turned to Kyle as she piped up, though, and gave the girl a smile. "I'd imagine that myth is part of how daphnomancy was named, as Daphne was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo. So in a way the method of divination honors her." If burning part of the nymph actually could be said to be an honor. Of course, that was part of what made myths myths, and she glanced back to see her marshmallow was essentially ablaze and grinned to herself.



Pulling the marshmallow torch free of the flames, Renée blew on it to extinguish the flames before turning her attention to Kurumi, Destiny, Emily and Mia. "Plastromancy and osteomancy are quite closely connected, especially when we go back to the discussion of Ancient Chinese diviners," she agreed with them. "There's the slightest difference between the two, which is evident by their names, but essentially they work the same. Plastromancy actually is specific to the underside of a turtle's shell, however, as Kurumi said. The plastron." Therefore giving the method of divination its name. "Osteomancy is more specific to bones, and I'd imagine that makes it similar to scapulimancy as well. As both involve bones in one way or another."

She glanced at Destiny, however, as the Slytherin's last question registered, and smiled. Some people might think eating charred marshmallow was gross, but that wasn't her. She wasn't affected by the comment very much, but replied anyway. "Gross is entirely a subjective construct. What's gross to you could be completely normal to someone else, but I can understand why you'd think that." And once again, she acknowledged the luck that they weren't going to actually attempt any of the bone-related pyromancy.



Renée was grateful that there was still one form left to discuss, as it gave her an opening to get away from the idea of what was gross. It would be interesting to see how people might react to extispicy or haruspicy, though she hadn't thought about introducing those methods any time soon. She sent a smile to Patroclus as he tore himself away from the bonfire, speaking about sideromancy, and then included Selina and Helena as well. "You three are correct. Sideromancy is divination by the burning of straws with an iron. In the same way that plastromancy and osteomancy got their titles from the objects involved, sideromancy is so named from the Greek for iron, which is sideros. Or at least that's the English transliteration."

Reading more into what the Gryffindor prefect wasn't saying, which was difficult seeing as he was saying a lot, she nudged the container holding the hot dogs (which it seemed everyone so far had ignored) with a foot before popping her blackened marshmallow into her mouth. He could take one if he liked, while she continued the discussion. with more of what he'd spoken about. "It's interesting you brought up the Vestal Virgins, really. They weren't really dissimilar to the priestesses of the temples in ancient Greece, which we mentioned earlier in this class. Both using fire in a way to interpret messages." The worship of fire extended further than that era, however. They weren't exactly discussing fire worship, unfortunately, just the divination using it, and she finished off their list before returning to the lesson at hand.

SPOILER!!: list

Alomancy - divination by use of salt
Botanomancy - divination by burning plants
Capnomancy - divination by the movement of smoke
Causinomancy - divination by burning objects; papers?
Daphnomancy - divination by burning laurel branches and leaves
Osteomancy - divination by use of bones, commonly heating them and interpreting the cracks that result
Plastromancy - divination by use of turtle plastrons (underbellies)
Scapulimancy - divination by use of the scapulae of animals, commonly oxen
Sideromancy - divination by burning straw with a hot iron

"Now that we've discussed these methods, I'm curious if anyone thinks there might be others. I know of one, that isn't necessarily a true method of divination," It was more of a Muggle amusement, that could sort of fit with the time they were at, the month, as opposed to really divination. Although she had some of the necessities nearby if anyone wanted to play with it. She had some ideas related to possible homework assignments when it came to that question as well, but it could be part of the discussion. Not everyone was apt to offer their ideas in a group setting. "Feel free to give ideas as to what sort of practical activity we might be doing as well." Perhaps she'd cook one of Patroclus' hot dogs for Bowie while the discussion continued, or for herself to neutralize the sugar from the marshmallows.

ooc: Be creative with your suggestions. This is all in good fun, and yes, might make the homework easier. I'm curious to see if anyone noticed the clues dropped, either.

"Fortune-telling?" Dianna mumbled. If they were going to do fortune-telling might as well bring out the Fortune cookies. Anyways, her answer.. or more of a mumble wasn't really supposed to come out from her mouth. Di got another marshmallow and chewed on it.

Although as the other girl has said, divination through marshmallows sound like a better idea. "Fortune-telling through food and fire..." she offered.

Simon looked at the Professor. "Were going to sit around the fire and sing camp song and forget all about Divination right?" Simon wished it was true but he doubted it. "Maybe were going to make smoke signals so that we can use them for something to do with Divination?" Simon had no idea he was just guessing.

Emily thought this was an odd question, very open. She considered it for a moment.
"Professor, we mentioned sacrificial pyromancy earlier... now I'm suggesting we sacrifice someone... but I was thinking could divining through pyromancy be more accurate and more relevant to our loves if we burn something that belongs to us? Something that we hold dear?..... like an object, photograph sort of thing? offer it as a sacrifice. Or... alternative just use something like our hair????" Asked Emily... though she was sure the smell would be awefull if they started burning locks of their hair.

Kurumi looked at the stack off food and the bonfire when a rather crazy idea popped into her head. Anything seemed possible in the wizarding world and, perhaps, Professor Bishop had brought the marshmallows for a more specific purpose than to just eat them.

"Perhaps Divination through marshmallows?" Kurumi suggested pointing to the rather large stack of them. "You know, holding them over the fire and seeing just how it browns and in what places it does... interpret the shape kind of like with tea leaves," she paused for a moment wondering if she sounded ridiculous to anyone else besides herself.

Selina nodded as her answer was accepted and listened to Professor Bishop expand on the topic. She was more than just interested in every type of Divination. Any little piece of information helped.

When she posed the next question Selina grew silent. There was another one that they were missing? Of course it wasn't a true form of Divination. Maybe she had read about this in one of her books. But at that moment she could not find any answer to the question. What could it be?

"Oh, ma'am. Are you talking about the Muggle art of fire gazing? I've only read a little bit about it, but Muggles all gather around a fire and one person chants a saying. I'm not sure exactly what is, but then they all gaze into the fire and supposedly they can see the future," Selina offered.

Then when Bishop asked that they give her suggestions Selina said, "Maybe we are going to try fire gazing?" Under her breath she said, "Although I do like Kurumi's suggestion."