Gideon had thought long and hard on what he could do to strengthen and consecrate the runes from last term like they had been assigned to do. Well at least the experienced runes students had been seeing as they were the ones with the runes. They were supposed to be creative and special to him and so far the ideas that had come to mind had proven to be more mudane and not something that might be considered as such. The sixth year had made his way to the quieter area of the common room with his sachel filled with his various instruments for classes.

Something had to come to mind.

Sitting down at one of the study tables, choosing a spot near the window, Gideon set his bag down on the wooden surface and proceeded to empty the contents out. Three potions vials, one telescope, two transfiguration texts, joined the hand and wand made runes that had made their way up top and taken out first because of the assignment. He looked them over as he tried to decide what to do next. His hands moving to lay out the wooden disks as he did so. With the sun setting, he reached to turn on one of the table lamps but stopped as he noticed how the rising moon's light was coming through the window.

"Moonlight!" he exclaimed before quieting down as to try and avoid attention. "Using the forces of the solar system to consecrate the runes...thats brilliant!" Not to mention...VERY connected to him given how into astronomy he was. Gideon momentarily moved the runes around, trying to make sure they were all within the light. Wanting to make sure it worked, he grabbed his telescope also on the table and set it up viewer to the window so the light would pass through the lens and reflect through the wider other end.

Something else hit him to add to the apparently simple idea of the moonlight to energize his runes set. The assignment had mentioned chant, but what about simple music? Could that have any added effect on them? It probably couldn't hurt any and was a way of getting creative with the assignment. Getting up from his seat at the table and leaving his belongings all where they were feeling no need to pack them up, Gideon rushed up to the stairs and up to his dorms.


--------(See Dorm Post)--------

A few minutes later he was back with his guitar in hand already thinking on what he could possibly play. Gideon thought briefly through the list of songs that he knew well enough as he made his way back to his seat, the runes still placed out in front of him and the moonlight on the tabletop. Sitting down once more, he set his guitar down in position on his lap, his fingers lightly grazing upon it. It took a few minutes before he started to play a random song...a tune that happened to be a bit on the sad side.

After remaining really quiet sometime (some may even begin to question where in Merlin's beard had she been hiding all these time) Heather still had not approached any of her friends being worried that they may begin to be too much worried over her constant brooding on private matters that made her into an introvert for a really long time. But, how does one approach friends back, she asked herself....

it's silly to even think that they would forget her, but even if she would go back to being her perky self, would that make her less invisible now?

what is this silliness she's thinking about. She'd been there all the time, they just didn't notice because somehow they knew she was always there.

Ah this is confusing her too much. Without another thought to cross her mind and trouble her again, she picked up her book and began to read just to pass off some time. She'd think of another plan in order to approach people again.

"This is so un-Gryffindor like of me." she sighed to herself.

Divination book tucked under her right arm and her black velvet bag containing her stones in the other, Kurumi made her way to the study tables still mildly freaking out about the results of her reading from the lesson. She was probably putting far too much pressure on herself, what that one week's results had said and it was very possible that she was totally misinterpretating it - Divination was just a bunch of lousy guess work after all - but what if it was right. What if the day was coming and she was finally able to tell Lewis....

Her cheeks were a ridiculous shade of pink now as she took a seat and began to set up for a Lithomancy reading. She was sure that someone would come walking by soon...and then she would just tempt them with some of the poptarts Carter had sent her to sit down so she could do her homework.

Anya was skipping along the edge of the common room by the study tables when she noticed something strange.

O_O

THEY HAD TABLES! For studying! How long had that been the case?!

Oh! Kurumi was there. Maybe she'd know about these table things. Oooh! What if they were magic?! That would be cool. "Have these always been here?" she asked the Prefect.

Now that she thought about it, they could have been. She'd never really strayed away from they fireplace before. Nor did she often just hang out in the common room.

Circle now laid out on the table from a white shoelace, Kurumi leaned back in her seat and glanced at the bag of stones. Divination...honestly...she didn't have the Inner Eye so what was the point? And WHY did she keep thinking about her reading and taking it seriously? She hardly ever took anything in that class seriously...Merlin help her...

Thankfully her thoughts were distracted by Anya approaching the tables. "Oh, hey Anya," Kurumi smiled...but then cocked her head to the side at her question. "You mean...the study tables? They have always been here." As far as she knew that is. She couldn't speak for what was here before she came to Hogwarts.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" she asked as she picked up the bag of stones. "Mind if I do a Lithomancy reading for you? You can have some of the poptarts your brother sent me."

Anya blinked at the tables. So... they'd been there this whole time? Sneaky, sneaky tables. She needed to learn to be a better explorer. How was she going to discover all the mysteries in the castle if she couldn't even discover there were tables in the corner of the common room?

Anya nodded. She wasn't really up to anything. She took a seat across the table from Kurumi. "Erm... I... I dunno what it is though. I kinda... forgot about that lesson." A problem she'd been having lately. She slept in or something. She really couldn't even remember why she missed the lesson. It was all just a big blank spot.

Wait... what? "Carter sent you poptarts?" she asked. How come she never got poptarts from Carter? She just got boring letters. You'd think someone like Carter would have a more exciting life. But no. She often fell asleep reading them.

Smiling as Anya sat down, she offered the younger lioness the velvet bag. "Shake that a few times," she instructed before Anya asked about Lithomancy. Kurumi almost snorted at her statement about Divination. She wished that she could forget about the class too, but sadly that had never been the case. "Well, Lithomancy is a way of predicting the future with stones. Each one represents something different." Which she would no doubt go into more detail once they actually got down to the reading. "You see this circle on the table, how it sort of looks like a pie? Each one of the slices represents a week and depending on what stones land there I should be able to predict your future." Or something like that. Predict was such a big word after all. "So, when you are ready, just let the stones fall from the bag where ever they please on the circle."

And maybe mentioned poptarts had been a bad idea. "Um, yeah, they arrived the other day in Ancient Runes. I've never eaten them before, so Lewis had to teach me how to." Mainly the whole toasting them before eating them bit.

Anya took the bag. She shook it as instructed. "Oh. That sounds pretty cool." she said looking down at the pie circle. Just let them fall?

"Okay..." she drawled as she flipped the bag upside down. That's what Kurumi wanted her to do, right?

She nodded. "Lucky." she said. "I just get letters from him." Not even good letters. "Lewis...?" she asked tilting her head to the side. "The yellow one with the badge and the hair?" You know... the one that she'd never ever stared at wondering how he got his hair to look like that...

Ahem...

"Do you like them?" she asked. She always wondered how someone who actually knew how to bake felt about fake baking... you know, things like poptarts.

Yeah... she thought about weird things sometimes.

Pretty cool....ridiculous....it was really the same thing, right?

Not commenting, Kurumi watched as the stones fell onto the table top, making small thumping and clanking noises as they did. One of them ended up spinning around in circles for a bit before coming to a stop and Kurumi leaned over a bit to get a better look at what all was going on.

Now...where was that piece of parchment with notes on how to do these readings...

"I am sure if you asked he would send you some," Kurumi nodded. Carter was crazy about his little sister after all. Kurumi's cheeks flushed a bit when Anya said Lewis name....and mentioned his hair. Hair that she was rather obsessed about running her fingers through every chance she got. "That's him," she managed to squeak out, a smile playing on her lips.

And poptarts were completely forgotten with Anya's next question and the sixth year had complete disregard for Anya's use of them versus him, meaning that the them was referring to poptarts and not the them that was sometimes used in place of him or her when talking about a person. "I...I think I more than like them," she replied, her cheeks rising in color a bit more.

Anya examined the table once again. Looked like... stones on a table. Or... pepperoni on a pizza... But the imagery in the second made her a bit hungry. So... stones it was!

She shrugged. "I'd rather have gummy bears." They were her absolute favorite. In fact, other than Alec and Tag and quidditch... she'd prefer gummy bears to everything else.

Oh yay! She guessed the right boy!

She tilted her head and blinked at the Prefect's blush. "Poptarts are nothing to blush about Kurumi. You're perfectly allowed to love poptarts."

She then blinked. Unless...

A smirk crossed the younger girl's face. "You're also perfectly allowed to love boys with great hair."

In fact, it was preferred to loving boys that didn't have great hair.

Gummies bears. Right.

Laughing softly, Kurumi consulted her Divination notes and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment so she could write down a few memos about what she was seeing. Until Anya went on about poptarts...and her BLUSHING?! Kurumi dropped her quill on the table and covered her cheeks with her hands. "I-I-I'm not blushing," she stammered. Lies. At least not about poptarts she wasn't.

Anya's next words made her heart skip a bit and she bite down on her lip as she averted her gaze towards the spread again. There is was again. The L word. The one she assumed her reading had been about...which meant that in a few days.... Kurumi's cheeks flushed even more and she tried to find something else to focus her thoughts on, which were now on Lewis' hair thanks to Anya's comment. You mean incredible hair, she thought to herself. "Um...thanks...Anya," she said, her shy smile widening a bit more.

She was getting easily distracted from this reading. Back on task! Maybe...

"Okay...so...starting today...and for a week..." Kurumi began as she looked once more at the first slice of the pie spread. "You have the stones for water and fire." That already didn't sound too good, opposite elements on the same slice. On top of it all, the fire stone was sort of acting as a pointer to the water one. Um... Kurumi bit down on her lip as she scanned her notes again. "Fire represents passion, willpower, outside influences while water represents compassion, reconciliation, healing and cleansing." Oh, actually, that didn't sound too bad after all. "Are you having conflicts with anyone right now? It seems like this week you need to follow your instincts and heart and confront whatever it is that is bothering you because now is your chance for it to get fixed." That sounded like a legitimate reading, yes? Glancing again, Kurumi noted the sun stone in the following week. "Next week is ruled by the sun, which means power, energy and life, so the issues you have this week will be resolved and you will be happy and energetic."

Not that Anya never wasn't so.

Anya just smiled as Kurumi denied the ever-so-obvious blush. She'd let it slide. Maybe. Depends how much longer the Prefect was going to do that.

Anya looked down at the rocks on the circle thing. And now it was Anya's turn to blush. She tucked some hair behind her ear and averted her eyes to the downward direction.

"Yeah... I... kinda got in a fight with Alec..."

She glanced at the board again. "Does it... err... say anything more than that? 'Follow your instincts and heart' is a bit vague." Especially since both things wanted to slap him and hug him at the same time.

At least she was going to be happy next week. That was something to look forward to.

Looking up from her parchment, Kurumi's gaze fell on Anya with a look of disbelief on her face. Wait, this ruddy subject had gotten something right? About time it did really. Hadn't done her much good in the six years she had taken the subject.

"I'm...sorry to hear that, Anya," Kurumi replied softly as she turned her attention back to her textbook and the spread on the table. She wasn't going to pry into what the fight had been about. Anya could tell her what had happened if she wanted to or maybe the stones would tell her. Kurumi almost snorted at the thought.

Kurumi chewed on her lip some more while her eyes darted back and forth between her textbook and the spread. "Um...well...the stone representing fire is acting as a sort of pointer stone towards the one representing water. So..." She checked her notes a few more times and attempted to process all these jumbled thoughts on the matter at hand. "I suppose the stones are telling you that you should trust your compassionate instincts because those are going to be the ones that help the healing process."

Did that answer her question? Hopefully it did.

"Should I...go on?"

Anya stared at the stones for a second. "Well... everyone gets in fights..." she said. Not that is was a real fight. She'd just been feeling neglected lately.

She tilted her head to the side. Well... that sounded just as spooky and ominous as the first one. "It's too bad it's my heart and my instincts that are the problem." she mumbled.

Could she just poke the stones until she got a better reading?


She nodded. "Yeah. Go ahead." Hopefully the stones had good news for her.

Kurumi nodded. That they did...and there were all sorts of different forms of fights as well. Again, relationships were so complicated while at the same time seemed to make perfect sense which only made them more complicated and...

Kurumi stopped herself before she gave herself a headache and returned her gaze to the younger lioness.

"I think...it just means to pick the nicer option of what your instincts are telling you," Kurumi shrugged. "Don't act out of anger. Act out of compassion." Again...GUESSWORK and a whole bunch of RUBBISH as far as this Gryffindor was concerned. That sort of statement was implanted in them since birth, wasn't it? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? So yes, thank you stones for stating the obvious.

Bleh.

Nodding, Kurumi peered at the spread again and consulted her textbook and notes for a few moments before speaking. "Um...the week following the one rules by the sun isn't ruled by any stone...so the effects from the sun's week will continue or...you will just have a quiet week." Sound vague? Yep, that is what this subject thrived in though, so on to the next week. "Four weeks from now comes under the influence of Mercury, which means intelligence, self-improvement, overcoming bad habits. Do you...have any bad habits you have been wanting to...erm...overcome?" Like eating gummy bears before bed perhaps? "The week after that is influenced by the air element...so... wishes, hopes, dreams and inspiration. Which means...." Kurumi paused to chew on her lip some more. "It is going to be a very good week and one of your dreams will come true." Probably.

Anya bit her bottom lip. Nicer? Act out of compassion? "What if... I'm mad at him... because I'm... er... selfish?" Because that's what she was, right? She had no right to demand more time from Alec. They both had other friends now. She just needed to accept that.

Gah. Why was growing up so confusing?

"Erm... I dunno." she said. "Why would I do something if I knew it was bad?" It just didn't make sense to her.

She blinked several times. Did she even have any dreams or wishes? "At least it'll be a good week..." Maybe that meant the fighting and feeling weird with Alec would be over.

Kurumi cocked her head to the side and flipped through the pages of her book a little furiously. "Um...I don't know Anya...I am not sure I can tell you that from what these stones are saying." Only they weren't really saying anything and she was putting arbitrary words into their imaginary mouths and making up what sort of meaning they could be trying to tell.

"Well...being selfish can be a form of a bad habit," Kurumi pointed out gently. Like...selfishly depending on one person too much. Kurumi had been, and still was to a certain extent, guilty of that.

Furrowing her brow a bit, Kurumi simply nodded at Anya's comment. Her guess was as good as her's when it came to what a good week meant. It seemed like whatever was on Anya's mind was very personal and not something that the sixth year should pry into. Instead Kurumi decided to continue on with the reading. "The following two weeks fall under the influence of the universe...which means that you are...going to find your place in the grand scheme of things on a cosmic level." Blink. Erm, right. Because as a second year Anya was going to find the answer to her role in the universe. Yeah, good going ROCKS. "Or, um, it probably means that you are going to find peace with where you are in your life right now. Things will more fall into place and you will be happy and understand more why things happened they way they did." Whatever it was that those things were.

Anya glanced at the stones once again. What was the point of telling someone's future, if you didn't actually tell someone's future? Maybe she should consult a Magic 8 ball later?

"Yeah... I guess." she said slowly. So that makes... 10 years of the same bad habit? "I should... work on... not being so jealous and possessive..." And probably making more friends. That way she wouldn't miss Alec so much in the first place.

Right?

"Err... the... second one sounds better to me..." Two options meant she got to pick her fortune thingy, right? "Thinking of things on a... um... cosmic level is a bit much. Makes me feel itty bitty..."

She'd rather be more comfortable with her life right now. That that she wasn't uncomfortable. She just felt like she was going through a bit of an... awkwardly possessive jealousy stage...

Which... would go away in like... 4 weeks according to these stone thingys.

Kurumi set her book down on her lap for a moment to simply study Anya. Strangely enough, Kurumi had had...similar thoughts before and it had taken a certain Hufflepuff to help her realize what it meant. For her at least. She couldn't speak for Anya and her situation.

"You will be happier if you can," she nodded, her tone indicating personal experience on the matter. It wouldn't be easy though and it had little to do with the other person. It was all an internal battle with oneself and, for her at least, trust issues.

Kurumi laughed softly. "I like the second one better too." Mostly because it was a ridiculous notion to have one's role in the universe figured out already. Weren't they in school to learn? Finding your place now would make the whole attending school a rather inefficient method of spending one's time.

Moving on to the following week, which contained two stone, Kurumi consulted her notes once more. "So, after you come to terms with your current life situation...you have a week rules by Saturn and the spirit with both stones sort of being pointers to one another." Was that right? Both stones were sort of elongated in shape and looked like they could be pointing to one another. Could you even have that in this sort of spread? Kurumi decided to just assume you could and go with the flow. It was all guesswork anyway. "Saturn represents longevity, protection, purification and the spirit is t needs of the self, communication with the Divine. I think...in this case, you can see the Divine as someone you look up to. Someone you can seek advice from." You know, in case Anya didn't really believe in all this Divine stuff like Kurumi. "So...since both stone are pointing to each other, making their influence even more prominent... this is a week where you should seek the council of someone you look up to for advice." On whatever it was she needed advice on.

Stupid stones. Always being vague.

Anya gave Kurumi a little nod. She knew she was right. It just took a lot of active effort to put the "sharing the best friend" idea into action.

She looked back at the spread as the Prefect continued talking. So... she was supposed to ask advice... after her problem was... resolved? Was Kurumi sure she wasn't reading it upside down or backwards?

Or maybe... she was the one that thought backwards. Or her possible future self. Or however these stone things worked.

She looked at Kurumi for a second before flashing a smile. "So... this week I'll be in conflict... next week will be better... the week after I need to be nice... the next week is quiet... then... I need to learn to play well with others... then everything works out...and THEN I ask for advice."

"... I don't really have it together, do I?"

Kurumi nodded her head each time Anya recapped what it was Kurumi had read in the stones. Again, not that you could actually read these stones because there was nothing written on them, but that was beside the point.

And then...Anya once again proved just how flawed this subject was. "I don't think it is you..." Kurumi muttered as she almost glared at her Divination textbook. It was this ruddy subject that didn't have it together. Just like Professor Looneywood. "Um...maybe it is not advice but counseling? To talk about everything that happened?" Merlin, was she really trying to defend this reading? No, it wasn't that, Kurumi was more concerned with her interpretation of this bloody guesswork being wrong.

MOVING ON!

"The week after is influenced by Jupiter...meaning money, justice, prosperity...so...you win the lottery or something. A bet with a friend perhaps." Kurumi was really just throwing random things out there now. Anya was right, this stones made no sense. "And your good fortune carries over to the following week where Mars also comes into play. Which...shows more conflict." Oh, so maybe the advice week was actually on par? Stupid stones. "But Mars also means courage...so you will face whatever challenge easier than before." Because of the advice she sought from someone?

Anya giggled lightly. "I was making a joke Kurumi." she said with a smile. Divination was one of those things that was open to interpretation, right? So it wasn't like Kurumi was going to be wrong.

Ooh! Winning a bet sounded lovely. Perhaps she ought to place one first? Unless... she was really lucky and won without doing anything.

....

And now there was more fighting. She just wasn't a good person in the near future... apparently...

So... another recap seemed in order...

"So... a talk, some money, another fight, I do my Gryffindor thing..." And they were about around the circle now, right?

Kurumi couldn't help but blink several times. Sarcasm was it? Kurumi thought that she was better at reading that on people...but then again, she had only really gotten better at reading Jonathan's sarcasm and, well, that didn't matter anymore. Kurumi bit her lip shyly for a moment and turned her head towards the spread and then back to Anya. "Oh." Kurumi managed to match Anya's giggle somehow, probably because the feeling of embarrassment was dominating instead of the other one. The one she always felt when she thought about the Slytherin. "I still think it is this subject that doesn't have it together."

She was being mildly serious about that.

Checking the spread again, Kurumi took a deep breath. Only two more weeks to go. "So...after you do your Gryffindor thing you have a week ruled by the Moon and Venus." Heh, that was sort of ironic considering the comic she watched growing up. In it, the Princess of Venus acted as a sort of bodyguard for the Princess of the Moon and would even act as her double. Interesting that both stones made an appearance on the same week here. Heh. "So, this week you will be....inspired in love." Stare. Inspired in love? "I guess...the start of a new relationship?" Kurumi eyed Anya. Yes, she herself had been a second year when her and Adam had sort of started dating, but now that she saw just how young a second year was Kurumi knew that she hadn't really been ready then.

And neither should Anya. So there.

"Like a new friendship."

Yep.

"Then, the twelfth week is ruled by the Earth. So...we finish off the year feeling very secure with your family and friends."

Anya smiled a little. Although the reading had worried her a bit when they started, it was becoming more and more humorous. She didn't really believe in "possible" vague futures. Her future was hers to decide as far as she was concerned.

She blinked at the following week. Ruled by... love? The start of a new relationship...? What if she liked her current set perfectly fine?

Not that she was against making new friends or anything. She just didn't want... a whole week of that one new friend.

Or. Ahem. "Relationship."

And this reading was starting to weird her out again.

She blinked again as Kurumi finished the reading. "And secure in my new... relationship...?" she asked.

"When did you get your first boyfriend?" Because Anya felt like she was in no way ready to dedicate her time to a single boy. At least in that way. Because it was true that Alec took up most of her time now. But they were just friends. Best friends.