Vickers turned into the study area, Divinations book and a few leaves of parchment in his hand. He lay them onto the table then slipped his hand into his robes pocket, fishing out the pouch that contained the Divination stones. Placing the pouch onto his book he untied it and pulled out the string, dropping that onto the desk and started to form the circular reading field with it.

Louisa walked out into the common room, her cat following her lead. She had her bag dragging behind her too as her other hand clutched the pouch with the stones that she supposedly 'connected' with. Vickers apparently had claimed a table for them already. Smiling at the boy the Prefect plopped down on the chair opposite of him, "Hey.." Louisa placed the bag a bit farther away from them, she didn't need those books now.

Viola, her tabby cat, casually slipped under the table and between the wooden leg to curl into a ball at the new boy person's feet. She hadn't licked those before!

The Ravenclaw started opening her pouch and arranging the cloth on the table for a good stone-toss. "I did a small research on our...uhh.. plan." The pouch was now laid down on the table with a circle drawn on it. Louisa's hand patted the cloth as she continued, "Not good news though. We don't seem to have access to information about any memory modification other than the Obliviate spell." She sighed and threw her back against the chair, "My friend, Treyen, if you know him, his family is good at this branch of... spells. But he won't help me." She pouted fingering the scattered stones before her on the table.

Vickers turned slightly in his seat when he felt another person enter the study area. "Hi Louisa!" he greeted his Prefect with ease, glancing as she set her bag down and thought he saw something furry with a tail dart under the table. Finally becoming happy at the rough circle he managed to tease the string into, he started to reach out for the pouch with the stones but paused when she mentioned about "the Plan". Leaning forward conspiratorially-- after all this was top secret matter he murmured back "Yeah... Head Boy Treyen, I know him, he's one of the first people who welcomed me to Hogwarts... we were still on the train." Treyen--train. Easy to remember see?

Oh but yes... Treyen's family an authority with Obliviate spells. No explanations needed for Vickers there, knowing very well who the Lockharts were. "Did you tell Treyen its for a very urgent matter? That your welfare depends on it? That his successor's welfare depends on it?" he asked as he reached out of the pouch with the stones "I mean sure we can likely wing it reading from a book but imagine what the Head Boy could end up as if we dont exactly know how to properly cast that spell." They might end up making the Paulie forget he was Head Boy. Or that he was Paulie.

He poured the stones into his hand and set the empty pouch aside, allowing the stones to roll between his fingers for a bit, the soothing sounds of softly clashing and sliding stones allowing his mind ease into the familiar pattern of calm. With a deep breathe he closed his eyes and cleared his mind of any thoughts, just feeling the tilting of his hands and the sound of stones dropping against the desk.

Peeking one eye open first, then another, he finally gazed at the stones patterns....

Blue sat down at a table, setting her bag by her feet.

Okaaaay. Hinkypunks. Hinkypunksss. Stella needed to come 'round so that they could work on the act. Excuse me, the AWESOME act. Blue pulled out a book from the book shelf and flicked through the book, humming to herself. Okay. So, they were smokey things that had one leg. Cool. And if you poked a miniture one...you lost your memory. ....The eleven year old found out the hard way.

Hmm...

They NEEDED to plan their act.

Yup.

Too much studying. Stella hadn't really thought it was possible last term when Matt had gone kind of crazy and blamed exam studies for doing so, but now that she was actually experiencing having to study for NEWTs, she definitely understood. She wasn't about to borrow a schoolowl to send him a letter saying so, though, since she'd sent Gidget back with a letter only a few days earlier. She'd just have to handle it on her own, or find a distraction. Even Nuage could sense her stress levels going up, as the pygmy puff had practically been glued to her neck and humming comfortingly ever since she'd left the library after the latest study session.

She'd still passed by the study tables on her way to drop the puff off in her dorm to play with Lyra for a while, though, and noticed Blue sitting there flipping through a book on hinkypunks. Hinkypunks. Her eyes momentarily widened as she remembered DADA and the act. She'd almost forgotten, and she found herself turning to walk over to the little firstie instead of continuing up to the dorms. Hopefully Blue didn't have any problems with humming pygmy puffs, but then oddly Nuage's humming started to take on the cadence of whatever the girl was humming herself. Which brought a smile to Stella's face as she stopped next to Blue. "I think you have a fan," she said, setting the few library books she'd checked out for exams studying purposes on the table as she took a seat.

Act planning now, stress relief later.

The first person to welcome him to Hogwarts? Louisa chuckled and shook her head, "Yeah, that sounds like the Treyen I know." As for what Vickers said next, the girl just nodded her head at him and sighed. "I did tell him. He knows more about the subject than you do actually since he knows Paulie's girlfriend and promised to keep an eye on Paulie for her.." Louisa trailed off and stared at Vickers for a moment. Oops? That was a huge slipup. Not that she wanted Vickers to stay in the dark but... now that it came out that way, she didn't know how he was going to react to the hint. She didn't want judgements.

Louisa fixated her gaze then on his stones, trying to get rid of the thoughts and awkward silence. "I..uh.. I will toss mine too so that while I work on your interpretation, you work on mine." She quickly gathered all the stones in her hands and simply threw them onto the cloth. No closing her eyes, feeling whatever she was supposed to seek from within... nothing. She was already feeling a lot of emotions anyways.





The Ravenlcaw then dragged her bag closer and got the notes form class out, "So.. your first week has the stone universe in it.." Louisa's fingers started fumbling with the notes looking for the right paragraph. Aaa...huh! Found it. "You're.. uhh.. going to be a part of the... uhh.. grand scheme probably. Maybe you'll do something pretty significant concerning something or.. someone." She looked up at the boy before dropping her gaze again and moving to the next week, "Then you got a bundle of universe, air and moon on the second week. If we look at their meanings and.." her eyes skimmed over the notes, "..tried to come up with something that makes sense.." Intuition, psychic ability, hope, wish, grand scheme... Louisa stared for a full long agonizing minute before looking up at Vickers, eyes squinted in thought, and tried, "It's full of.. hope and your instinct will be probably right about certain things that'd help you in your purpose in life. Trust your thoughts and intuition in that week is all I'm saying." She miiiiight've gotten carried away with this and the book Elwood had given her was all to blame.

Moving on....

"You've got a very small portion of the sun stone in your third week..." She looked over to her notes again, "Power and energy. Your third week will be slightly more energetic than the rest of the month.. it could mean physical work, maybe Bentley will be signing you up for some real gardening that requires muscle.." she contained her laughter at that, coz Vickers was like most of the boys around Hogwarts Jelly-armed. HAH. "Your fourth week has the rest of the sun stone and the fire one... powerful passion, strong willpower.." She smirked at him, "Someone's having fun that week." Because powerful passion rang only one bell in the teenager girl's head; the boy meets girl bell. Don't judge, she was seventeen and very naturally focused on those stuff.

"What'd you get for me so far?" She needed a break from all this rambling. Pity she hadn't brought snacks.

Hum-hum-hum-de-huuuuummmmm.

Blue sucked the end of her sugar quill. Kay...if she was the hinkypunk.... She glanced up and BEAMed. Exactly the person she wanted to see. She BEAMed even bigger at the adorable pygmy puff. "I have many fans." Giggle. "He's SOOO cu-hute." Very much sooo.

The eleven-year-old jerked her head to the seat oppisite her.

"I'm lookin' up schtuff for our act. Wanna help?"

'Cause they NEEDED to work on it.

Getting down to the most important stuff she said, "I think we should wear costumes. I'll wear a floaty dress that kinda looks like smoke 'cause I'm the hinkypunk and they're smoky and chu can wear a pretty old fashion dress thats dirty 'cause you're lost in the woods."

Brilliant idea, riiiiight?

Paulie’s girlfriend… Treyen keeping an eye out… so what did that have anything to do with Louisa getting in trouble with P--?....

Oh.

Hello tangled web not weaved by any spider.

A slow, silent nod followed. Yeah he gets it now.

He listened to her readings about his stone casting for the first 4 weeks, eyes wide, lips curling into a small smile. “So that’s how my next month or so will go huh?” It would be curious how any of that will actually happen. So far from his last reading in class, it was just about 50/50 accuracy.


So now Louisa cast her stones and he peered into how they were spread about. Taking his Divination book and notes, he shifted back and forth between those and the stones “Alright, your first week has the sun stone… and that means it will likely be a lively week, or something or someone powerful will make its presence felt.” he started, then noticed the direction of where it was pointing at “It might have something to do with what will happen later, since its pointing to your Mars and Saturn stones.” He looked curiously at the next stones “The latter half of your second week will have your Air and Venus stones…. something that you’ve been wishing for or something that will inspire you will occur around this time, perhaps something about love and happiness.” Love and happiness about a certain Head Boy? Vickers gave Louisa a look, he aint gonna say it out loud but that gaze said everything. “This influence can stretch into your third week, but it will start to quiet down towards the latter half of that week since the start of the 4th week looks pretty quiet too. It’s the latter half of your 4th week heading into your 5th week that will allow you some moment of introspection or perhaps a chance to communicate with the Divine-- as symbolized by your Spirit stone… ”

Stella couldn't help but grin at the beaming smile she had gotten from Blue as she'd stopped and spoken. Especially as it seemed Nuage got an even bigger smile, although she had to correct the firstie on one thing. "Actually, Nuage is a she," she said gently, taking a seat as one was gestured toward. Pygmy puff discussions aside, it seemed they were going to go straight into hinkypunk talk. She didn't argue, however. While improvisation did happen in theatre, she would much rather not end up having to do that for her final grade in DADA. Maybe if it was required once she was at WADA, but right now planning seemed like a better idea. "Of course I'd love to help," she added, letting her pygmy puff creep down her arm as she slid a book over. The creature curled up on top of one of her other library books, and she let her stay there for the time being. There wasn't any harm going to happen to the book, and she wasn't going to look at it right now.

She looked up from her own research as Blue had spoken again, smiling at the suggestion. "I love the idea of costumes," she replied, momentarily resting her arms on her book as the explanation went on. "You'll need a lantern, too, or something that can work as a lantern. Maybe we can find a charm or something to make whatever we use glow," she added. She wondered what time period her dress should be from, but that could confuse her partner. She could decide on that herself, and she didn't figure they wanted to go too old-fashioned anyway. "Have you had any other brilliant ideas while you've been reading?," she concluded, giving her another little grin. They were going to have the best act of all of them.

..... oh for Merlin's sake! He didn't just give her that look.

Louisa stared back at him defiantly. He was interpreting her week of 'happiness' and 'what she wished for' as in 'love with Paulie'? She would've PFFFFFFFTed if she hadn't kissed the head boy. "Okay, listen here.." she interrupted him when he finished her fourth week, and leaned across the table to get closer to him, then looked into his eyes, "I. Am. Not. In. Love. With. Anyone." Did that sink in? It should be. "I don't even believe I will, at any moment in my life. I'm an independent girl, I like it this way. Kissing someone doesn't mean you loved them or had feelings for them." Treyen wouldn't be so proud of her if he heard this piece of advice she just graced a sweet boy with but... it was her experience. And it would stop the false impression Vickers was obviously getting. "It was just a test," she added as an afterthought, more softly.

Back to his stones. Louisa leaned back in her chair and looked down at her notes, "Anyways... the effect of your fourth week will probably stretch to the start of your fourth one, but mostly you have Mercury stone which indicates intelligence - huh, that's not so hard to believe - and overcoming bad habits." She tilted her head to the side slightly. "It also points at the Spirit stone in your sixth week which resembles self's needs. Maybe giving away your bad habit for the sake of yourself...or something like that." She stared down at the notes for a few and then continued, "Your Spirit stone in its turn points at the Saturn stone which symbolizes longevity. So those two weeks are connected, you giving up a bad habit for good for yourself's sake."

"Your seventh and eighth weeks in your month both has Saturn stone in them. I'd like to think that it's an emphasize to your decision in the week six, maybe that's how long it'll take for you to live in peace with that decision.." of giving away that habit. Mhhmm. Sounded legit to her."Then in the end of your eighth week, there is the Mars stone. That means conflict... which could be a new level in your life, or an outcome of that decision from three weeks ago..." Someone had a lot going on next month. Oops.

The Ravenclaw blinked back and shrank in his seat juuuust a little, with Ravvie Prefect being all intense like that. A test? Like what… quantitative or qualitative analysis? Yeah better not say anything, since he doesn’t want to be made to eat any of those stones as a test either.

But right, her reading of his stones. Moarrrr blinking, but this time it was one out of so many processing data whizzing around in his head. Yeah sure he was smart, he took pride in that, given that it’s the only good thing going for him… but what about bad habits?… and making decisions for his own sake? And there is conflict—out of that decision or maybe something new.

Sheesh conflict. He usually avoids conflict. Mostly because he ends up on the wrong end of someone’s wand... or someone’s fist.

But yes lets focus on the Ravenclaw Prefect not in love with Head Boy but just wanted to see if he was a good crash-test dummy…

“Well, as I said, your 5th week carries over from the 4th, using that time for introspection, but it quiets down towards that latter part of that week. But I see your Spirit stone pointing at your Fire stone which is grouped together with your Water stone on the 6th week. The Water stone influence is felt first.. I guess after this moment of introspection there would it would be followed by that week of healing and reconciliation, finding your inner compassion… or maybe just letting all the negative stuff inside out for that much needed spiritual cleansing.” Yeah healing and cleansing, that makes sense to him. “But watch out for the Fire stone influence happening on that week too.. seems like you will be pulled on the extremes of the emotional spectrum, Fire stones will indicate passion and willpower, even aggressive outside influences—kinda the opposite of what the Water stone usually says. ” So uhm good luck for that week? Hehe


“Other than the spillover of the Fire stone’s influence at the beginning of the week your 7th week will be quiet.” He looks up at her. That was a good thing right? Given what she will be going through the week before “The later half of your 8th week shows the Universe stone, which will give you some idea where you are in the grand scheme of things at this point in your life… or maybe trying to review whats happened given the events a couple weeks before. Your Saturn stone is also grouped together with the Universe stone and also your Mars stone on the 9th week… but anyway the Saturn stone being present in the 8th week may also express your need for protection and longevity-- a kind of purification from anything that is just never did you any good.” Merlin he hoped that made sense.

Louisa frowned at Vickers, trying to find the GOOD side of his interpretation. All she could understand from her stones so far indicated struggle or fights or fire... it was very likely for that to happen of course but it was also nice to hear something "quiet and relaxing" was going to happen to her, geez.

"Okay..." she simply reacted to that by one word. This was something rare for a Louisa.

"Well your ninth week has the Mars stone still... which is an extension of the week before it. Or maybe you'll pick up more courage to deal with whatever you're going through." Her fingers skimmed over her notes for a moment before she went on with the next week, "See, on your next week.. very small portion of it has Mars which means your courage either is fading out or not needed that much because Venus stone is wholly in there which I can only say is very good. It's basically about positive things... gentler, softer effect into your life." Maybe his struggles and conflicts would cool down during that week...? Maybe. "And then a small part of Jupiter's stone gives you prosperity meaning at the end of your tenth week and the start of your eleventh one."

She tilted her head trying to look at the stones from a different angle before tilting it back to normal and looking down at her notes. "Well... your eleventh week has Jupiter majorly... that means prosperity is one of your biggest highlights that week. Earth's stone is in there a bit too... that's family and friends." She swallowed and stared down at the stones, a smile starting to form on her face, "So Jupiter with Earth are definitely a great combination. It's prosperity with family or friends... something positive and to look forward to, I guess." She leaned against her chair and crossed her legs under the table, "Your last week proves it. You have Earth's stone there, the good side of home... serenity maybe, too. And it points at the universe stone which is the cosmic level. Serenity it is." The boy's month apparently ends up happily ever after...or something like that.

If there was a smile on Louisa’s face after that reading, so did Vickers’ “Well I always did feel good coming home, you never really realize how much you miss even the little things until you go without it for a while.”

He looked down again at Louisa's stone spread and continued...

“Now I did say your Mars stone is grouped together with your Universe and Saturn stones, so while Saturn still exerts some of the protection and longevity influence in your life the Mars influence will start too, meaning this will be the time when your courage will be called upon, or that the peaceful period has passed and you will once again be faced with conflict… or something will happen-- or if its related to the Fire stone incidents of the 6th week--has happened-- that will cause you to defend yourself or people you care for.” Vickers paused for a moment and looked up at the Prefect before continuing “Its interesting to see that your Mars stone is pointing at the Jupiter-Mercury stone combinations happening on your 10th week. Jupiter usually stands for justice and prosperity… combined with the Mercury influence of intelligence and self-improvement maybe the whole 9th to 10th week period is about fighting to make things right in your life and you’ll finally get it.” he smiled, that is good news right?

“And look… your 11th week starts with the Earth stone, which means security of home, family and friends, and it points to your Spirit stone in the 4th-5th week which means what you’ve been reflecting on during that period has come to fruition.” More happy smiling “Then on your 12th week, your Moon stone appears, which ushers in a period of inspiration and intuition, perhaps something that will come to light on the next cycle. It certainly seems to be that way since its pointing to what should be your 13th week.”

He leans back onto his seat staring now this time at his own circle. He was indeed looking forward to that 12th week period, which should be around the time when summer lets out and he’d be back home.

Louisa barged into the common room, her springy outfit contrasting her angry and unhappy mood, and headed right for her dorms. She was fuming… and very disappointed in that PATHETIC excuse of a friend called Paul Foster. However, she promised herself not to ruin the rest of the term because of this. It was his decision to ditch his friend, Louisa, for the sake of that girl's heart, Tori, and so Louisa was not going to even give him the honor of being thought of.

Grabbing whatever book her hands laid on that was sitting on the shelf by her bed, she stormed down to the common and headed for the study corner where she claimed a nice quiet table to pretend to read and get her mind off that silliness.

Just… whatever. He could do and choose whatever he wanted. HMPH.

Vickers made his way back towards his Common Room from the Greenhouses, trying to figure out what questions he would ask the staves. This part has always been tricky for him, as his conscious mind seem to go one way and his subconscious another, and many times any divinatory reading for any of his subjects seems to reveal the latter rather than the former.

As he entered the study area he glanced to find the Ravenclaw Prefect engrossed in a book. Not wanting to bother her concentration he quietly selected a table and lay the newly created staves onto the polished surface.

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his head, trying to come up with a question that was truly in his conscience. When he has that thought clearly in his head he wrote it down on a small parchment and listed it as QUESTION #1. Sticking his hand into the pouch he felt the newly painted staves rolling under his finger tips. As he picked up a stick and brought it out another stick slipped out along with his hand. Huh… ok so there would be two staves to read for this question. He turned the staves carvings to face him and realized it was the REED and HOLLY staves.

He took out his textbook again and the parchment handout Elwood gave them and looked up their meanings.



Vickers furrowed his brows in thought, his eyes darting between the definition and the question on his parchment. That nervous knot at the pit of his stomach that he usually feels during Arithmancy classes is making its presence felt again. He could feel that the readings are asking a lot of him when he wasn’t even sure of his own abilities, if he can live up to what its predicting. He bit his upper lip as he scribbled his stave selections and readings onto the parchment. Well, 7th term is just on the other side of this summer. Guess he’ll have to wait and see if this reading holds any water.

He returned the staves back into the pouch for the next reading. Drawing his parchment close to himself again he listed down QUESTION #2, shook the pouch to mix the staves a bit again and reached in. Again, two staves slipped out with his hand when he was just intending to pick out one. His lips creased at the corner as he narrowed his eyes to look at the staves that just insisted on coming out of the pouch— the ELDER and ROWAN staves.

He blinked in apprehension then quickly reached out for the handouts and the textbook to look up their meanings…



Vickers must’ve held his breath a full minute after reading that.

His hands clasped and re-clasped together nervously, his eyes staring steadily at the definitions in the textbook as his second question echoed in his head. He could guess which stave referred to which person in his question, but the art of prediction was such a sketchy thing, and his rational mind has taught him never to set his assumptions to stone based on something so inexact. He can sit there all night and mull things forwards and backwards but it wouldn’t help a bit in matters like these, matters that have consistently defied logic, which is exactly what his knee-jerk reaction is doing now.

He let out a long sigh. The clock on the wall says he has spent a good part of his study time on this already. He collected the staves back into the pouch and added the final touches to his homework.