Right! So they were going to have to talk to these portraits anyways. That was just great. She didn't want the rude one because Hannah would definitely clash with that one. Nobody was going to disrepect her especially a portrait.

Which one to choose? She thought about going with a female because they were usually nicer right? She thought about herself and automatically threw that idea out of the window.

She decided to just pick one without any reasoning. Maybe she would get lucky and get one that was not only nice but cooperative. She was already ready to get this lesson over with. She walked up to a woman who looked to be dressed nicely. "Err... hello." What did she say to her? This was awkward!

Belle decided to pick the panting of Sarah Fairbanks. She was interested to know her story. As Belle approached the painting, it did feel a little awkward but she had to put on her friendly charm. As Belle approached it and said, "Err..Hi i am Belle Lecium."

Eliza wasn't sure about talking to paintings since she'd never done so. Not yet anyway. She was definitely going to have to ask a lot of questions, because she was having a hard time seeing the eye color on some of them. She decided to speak with Benjamin Colonus, because his story sounded sad and she wanted to know more about it.

She approached politely and bowed her head slightly in a greeting. His painting looked old so he would probably appreciate the gesture. "Hello Mister Colonus. My name is Miss Dawnsel. It's nice to meet you."

As the blonde Professor gae her students the instructions of the day's activity, the reason they weren't hanging on their normal wall positions, the people in the portraits looked around and scoffed or laughed as the children asked questions.

And now it was time to get to work.

Madame sat up strighter than before because that was what lady did when she had company and pushed a hand against her corset to help her posture. There, that was a nice straight line.

"'ow do you do, Miss." She spoke in a thick French accent, her small eyes looking the Slytherin over. She seemed like one with an attitude.
Oooh so much fun!

Sarah had really missed talking with the others kids and hadn't spent much time in her real frame because she had to go searching for the places the kids hung out nowadays. She sat eagerly waiting for one of the kids to come play with her.

And it didn't take long! "Hey Belle, it's nice to meet you. I haven't seen you around before. Are you ready to play?" Big smile.
As the Professor spoke, Ben rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Once the students were released to come talk to him he watched as one girl headed his way.

"Afternoon Miss Dawnsel, Benjamin Colonus." he would have kissed her hand in greeting but that wasn't actually possible nowadays. "You have a very pretty name if you don't mind me saying."

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled as she nodded to her, okay so don't ask them things like that, she got that, okay then it was time to pick a Portrait.

Laura suddenly saw Augustus Von Stryer, well that Portrait seemed cool working upto him, he didn't seem to want to be here, so maybe this would be interesting. "HI Augustus." Laura smiled. "I'm Laura Hope Hyde." Laura was hoping that Augustus would speak to her. "You can call me Laura though if you want." Yeah he didn't have to call her by her full name if he didn't want too.

Boy, a lot of these wizards had really depressing backstories, didn't they? Alex looked among them and decided to pick the lady with the earring. She seemed nice enough and hadn't been complaining THAT much...yeah, she would do.

"Hello Miss Mary Banks," he said with a smile. Yes, best be polite with this one. "My name is Alex Greingoth. How are you?" he asked.

Lex raised an eyebrow at the Divination Professor. Had she said something wrong? It was merely a question. Meh. She wouldn't think much of it. The last talking portrait she ran into wasn't the nicest...or the smartest for that matter so she didn't see why people held portraits in such high regards.

She listened to her saying that they'd have to go partnering up with the portraits and doing that whole eye reading thing but the thing was...she still didn't know what she'd be reading for...

Looking around she realized that everyone had grabbed every portrait except one--and it wasn't the one she was interested in either. Mmm. With a bit of reluctance she walked over to the man with puffy white hair. "Hi again." This one had better not be like that other one. "I'm not sure what value you were so you mind telling me what makes you interesting enough for me to wanna talk to you...?"

Yet another innocent question.

Portraits? Louisa's mouth opened slightly in surprise and then a smirk made its way through. That was unique and very unexpectable in a Divination class. But then Alexa openly asked the portraits about dying, and then Laura asked the professor about the destructive effects on them. The Ravenclaw tried her best not to laugh out loud. It was funny, impolite but what did you expect from kids other than impolite comments in the wrong time?

Ooooh, notes time! She fumbled with her quill and was ready to scribble down anything comes out from the woman's mouth. When one of the portraits, a man with a wig, complained. EYEROLL. She let down her quill and watched the portraits interact with each other and with them. "Hi." She liked the young girl and the one with the covered hair the most. The stunning one named Mary had amazing dress that caught Louisa's attention for about five extra seconds.

Wait what? They were going to partner up with them instead of their partners? Aw. Louisa cast a longing look at Vickers before she let out a sigh and slouch her shoulders. She was looking forward to reading his eyes! It'd be a great last activity together! Oh! Oh! Maybe they still could do it after class or if they had enough time after the portraits, hehehe.

She took her textbook and headed for the portraits. HMMM. Who to choose. Most of them had normal eyes, nothing too obvious or clear so they were pretty much the same level of difficulty. The girl with the soft features and quiet voice tone was challenging. Louisa stood in front of her and waved her hand. "Umm.. Hi. I'm Louisa." This was the first time Louisa ever introduced herself to a portrait. She did talk with one last term in that seminar but they were only a few words.

And the staring began..

e____e

Ethan raised an eyebrow as a disembodied voice spoke again - rude and abrupt this time as well. He watched curiously as Elwood addressed the voice, then began levitating portraits towards the front of the class. Oh.. so that's where the voices were coming from..

He watched with mild curiosity as they interacted with each other, then turned his attention back to Elwood. Ohh.. so they weren't going to be gazing into each others eyes? Just looking at portraits? Ethan's disappointment was apparent by the slight frown on his face. But talking to a portrait might be alright too..

The boy walked to the front of the room when instructed and stood before the man in the furry hat. Giving the painted man a tentative smile, he said, "Hi there.. I'm Ethan." No, this wasn't too weird.. he did have a portrait of his great-great grandfather at home.. although this painting was more of a stranger. "Umm.. so I guess you know what the lesson is about today.. and you wouldn't mind me asking you a few questions?" Not awkward at all..

Kurumi suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunk into her seat just a little when Professor Elwood was giving her her undivided attention. Really, just telling her to look up the answer in her textbook under Color Divination or whatever the proper phrase was would have sufficed. But noooooooooo, instead the woman had to come all the way over to her, take her textbook, and then read out loud the entire meaning behind the color violet in front of everyone.

Which was surprisingly fitting and Kurumi would have appreciated it more had it not been broadcast to the entire room. "Oh, thank you...professor..." she said as she squirmed a little more in her seat and glanced over at Selina. Probably should write that down...or something.

So, parchment out, Kurumi wrote down a few notes on violet eyes and then shut her book so that it wouldn't be an AWKWARD reminder of what had just happened.

And then the mystery behind the voices was solved and Kurumi's jaw sort of just dropped. Wait, they wouldn't be doing this in partners? Well, it seemed as though they WERE, but just not with the partner that she had been hoping for.

Right. Talk to the portraits. Getting up out of her seat, Kurumi grabbed some parchment and her quill and began to make her way towards the portraits, looking at each one individually to see if there was some sort of instant connection she had with any of them - which she found the moment she looked into the painted blue (?) eyes of Benjamin Colonus. There was a sadness there that went deep...something she felt she could relate to perhaps.

"Hello, sir," Kurumi said, offering the portrait a small but polite bow. "I'm Kurumi Hollingberry, Gryffindor seventh year." She really wasn't sure how much of an introduction to do since she was pretty sure she had walked by this portrait several times since her first year. Only where had that been? She couldn't quite put her finger on it. "If you don't mind me asking, sir, where has your portrait been hanging all this time?" And did it have any special connection to him while he was alive? But the latter was sort of a rude thing to ask out loud.

You know, this girl had a point. Pao wasn't exactly fond of Sierra, but.. she was no dumb airhead chic, that much was sure. The scene in the last Astronomy lesson flashed before his mind's eye. He shuddered. Shake it off, Mancini. Shake it off.



So, there was nothing to worry about? No evil plants? Now he could relax and learn in peace. He trusted her to know her own educational demonstration, after all.

The eyes... are used... to read... thoughts..., he thought as he wrote each word under the heading he had previously scribbled. This sounded wicked awesome. So he was going to be able to like.. read people's minds just by LOOKING at them? This was going to be AWESOME.

Or, wait.. okay, so it wasn't that cool after all. Now he was sort of let down. Phooey. Eye color, eye shape... Man, what else can there be about the eyes? Pao was not an out-of-the-box thinker, so when Elwood discounted these two options right away, he had no shot at this question.



So, notes. He was ready.

Er... nevermind! Portraits..?

OH! The portraits!



Pao giggled. Some of them, he could tell, were quite funny. Even if it was in a "I'm cranky and rude" sort of way. He was guessing they would be doing their Oculomancy readings on their portraits. He started to scope out which ones he may want to consider.

Clive is interesting... Colonus seems pretty nice...



His suspicions were confirmed very quickly. They were indeed partnering up with the portraits. He was let down slightly. But I wasn't HERE a couple of terms ago for that Potions lesson! He didn't like not knowing things. It was the Ravenclaw genes.

He didn't have any questions so.. Which one should he choose? Hmm... Um... maybe try for Colonus? He approached the portrait to introduce himself. Though he hadn't tried for this, it turned out that Kurumi had chosen the same portrait. Now he was definitely self-conscious. "Er... hullo. My name's Pao. Like Paolo."

Parchment ready, he began to study the eyes and scribble notes on his own, letting her first ask any questions that she had before taking his turn.

Minerva listened as the activity was being explained. So they had to pick a portrait and try to read their eyes.. Did she have that right? Noticing everyone else getting up and moving to a portrait Min just sat there for awhile. She wasn't sure which one to pick. This was going to be interesting. She had talked to portraits before, but never studied their eyes.

Finally getting up Minerva decided to move to the Sarah Fairbanks portrait. "Hello, I am going to work with you today if that's okay." She smiled and then looked at her notes trying to figure out what they needed to do first.

They werent going to be reading each other's eyes? But his girlfriend's peepers are much more captivating to look at than the portraits', even if some of the lady portraits are quite pretty.

He exchanged disappointed looks with Louisa and followed her lead when she stood. Funny how they both leaned towards Mary Banks without even talking about which portrait to approach to beforehand. But he allowed the Head Girl to settle on the girl with the pearl earring as his feet led him towards the other portraits....

... the others didnt quite take his attention, seemingly rather difficult or too popular with students already. And the woman drowning in ruffles reminded him too much of his own grandmother.... so he settles for the man with matching fur hat and coat...

... gosh he hopes those arent from actual creatures.....

He nods his head in greeting to Ethan and Laura then takes a better look at Von Stryer. The eyes are the windows to the soul and he could tell this man was rather intelligent and accomplished even if all he heard from him was a greeting "Hello Sir, I'm Vincenzo Vanderbilt, 7th year Ravenclaw... have you been waiting long under those sheets?"

As Belle saw that Sarah was nice and sweet, Belle loosened up and saw she had a twinkle of young in her eyes. She still had the child inside her. Well she was young, and Belle laughed and responded to her, " Hi! It is nice to meet you too Sarah. Of course i am ready to play. I wish i could have brought a ball or something." Belle joked around with her of course. Then Belle wanted to get down to business. "If you do not mind me asking, i would love to know your history and about what happened?" she asked kindly. Belle did not want to sound rude.

The Puff listened to the Professor's instructions before debating on which portrait to go with.

Jory decided to go with the friendly woman, Sarah Fairbanks. "Hi, there,'' he said with a smile. "I'm Jory Stonewall, fifth year Hufflepuff. I hope you don't mind me working with you.''

Oh gosh. It was bad enough that they had to have portraits in class... now they were forced to 'interact' with them. Hmmph, why should they even do Oculomancy on portraits ANYWAY? It's not like the portraits were cooperative. SNORT SNORT. Initially choosing the one named Clive, Kat dismissed it. That one was so cranky but it would be bad since Kat loved to scowl at annoying people. So she chose the young one named Sarah instead. Hopefully she wasn't that annoying as well.

Kat approached the portrait with the tiny hint of a smile. "Hey there," she said coolly. She was feeling awesome today, for an unknown reason. "My name is Katrina Hudson, but I would prefer it if you called me Kat instead." And no, Portrait, not a cat with a C.

"So...." Kat said. "How would you describe yourself?" Cute, yeah. Cute meant small, evil, and ugly. HEHE. Mean Hudson.

They were pairing up with PAINTINGS? Oh man, that stunk. She was really hoping that she was going to get to work with her best friend. Any form of divination always made Selina nervous because she never knew what was going to set her off. At least when she worked with Kurumi she had some level of comfort with the material because she knew that Kurumi would take care of her, but what cruddy painting would do that for her? Selina had to deal with the fat lady everyday and she was a sour painting, so the redhead was not a huge fan of most paintings attitudes, but she was not one to back down.

So, naturally, she picked the most obnoxious painting to deal with because he would be the most fun person to go head to head with. As she stalked over to the painting, she waved goodbye to her best friend one last time, before she was standing directly in front of the painting, "Afternoon, sir."

She smiled at his compliment and said, "Oh, thank you! My first name is Eliza. I suppose it's only fair you know mine as I already know yours." She knew they were supposed to be determining eye color, but she didn't want to insult him by asking right away. Will he be saddened if he hears it's hard to tell by his painting? Maybe he'd wish someone else had painted him. "Sir, I was wondering if you could tell me what your life was like, before you...passed away." She hoped she wasn't being too forward, but she did have a class assignment after all and assumed he knew there would be personal questions involved.

Sarah was not the least upset about it, like alll things in life she took it in stride. "Thank you so much for coming!" she said.
She had wanted to speak to the other Sarah, yet another student had gotten their first so she went to the lady who was wearing clothes of the nobiity. Sarah who fancied herself as a princess was only to eager to talk to her.
"Hello, my name is Sarah Edwards" Edwards was meant to be the name of noble blood, yet Sarah's family were farmers and not very rich. Yet she like Sarah of the Little Princess pretended that she was a princess. Should she curtsy? The lady looked very noble. "Thank you for joining us this lesson" her motiher always told her to be polite, yet offering a drink was not helpful in this case. "I really like your dress!" Sarah said. "I would love to wear a corset, yet I haven't a clue where to get one". Sarah did not need a corset as she was petite enough as it was, yet she wanted to be even smaller, as until she went to hogwarts she was still able to fit through the diamond window bars yet now her hips had gone too big so she wondered if a corset would help.

Augustus had been trying to get a good look out of the window of the classroom to see if perhaps there were any astrological phenomena that could keep his busy during this experience but that was not an option because 1.) he couldn't see from hsi frame and 2.) a girl had approached him.

"Laura? I guess I can call you by your informal first name if that is what you'd like. I, however, would approve of you calling me Mr, not Dr. Stryer." He hadn't gotten muliplte doctorate degrees from university for some girl to call him by his first name. "What shall you require of me today?" he said squinting his brown eyes at her.
Mary watched as the kids began to move about, smiling here and there at those who had said hello. They reminded her of her own kids, some of them, the less rude ones who blurted out what would happen if their frames burned or if they just died or were important. Siigh.

Suddenly a boy, not much older than her grandson was when she passed away approached her. "Hello Alex, it's nice to meet you." She said quitely blinking her green eyes at him. Hopefully he knew what it was they would be doing.
"Hi? Where in Merlin's great beard did you ever learn to addres adults in that manner girl?" Clive squinted his black eyes as he asked the young girl, scandalized by her poor manners. That was nothing compared to his reaction to the next comment.

Excuse me? "I beg your pardon? Are you questioning my VALUE?! Girl, I was once the Head Mugwump of the Wizengamot and helped to create laws strengthening and regulating the Staute of Secrecy and requring Werewolves to register themselves! I've done much to help save your skin and allow you a world to live, if not poor-manneredly, peacefully!" Scoff, huff, puff.
Oh another student, a girl this time. A pretty one at that.

"Hello Louisa, it's nice to meet you." She smiled and looked down slightly, her eyelashes covering her green eyes before turning them to look upon the girl's features. "What should you like to ask me dear?"
Another child, well Augustus had to admit that they were at least polite. Manners had changed with the times, people weren't quite so formal nowadays but then again his collegues had always had their heads in the clouds and didn't have much time for extra curtesies.

"Afternoon Ethan." He said as he searched the boy's face with his brown eyes. He seemed true enough. "I shouldn't see a problem answer a few innocent question, ask away son."
Oh?

"Hello there Miss Hollingberry." Colonus greeted her and cuckled lightly his blue eyes shining as he did so, mostly out of surpise for her immense manners, as she bowed to him. He was used to it back in the day but he knew from experience of being in the Castle that people just didn't do that nowadays.

Where had he been located? "Well I used to hang in the corridor down by the Kitchens but I was moved over the summer to a hall on the fourth floor. I still go visit the Kitchen level every now and then for a sentimental journey you could say." He said it with a small smile but not really showing much cheerfulness.
A young child was the next student to approach him, one that reminded him sadly of the children he never was able to have. He turned his sad blue eyes on the Hufflepuff as he spoke."It's nice to meet you young Pao, I'm Benjamin Colonus."
"Absolutely! Oh joy!" Little Sarah jumped a bit in her seat as another girl decided to pick her to play with. She hadn't expected to get to do this with such other pretty little girls when the Professor asked them to come help. There weren't many other kids her age in the paintings around the Castle sadly. "What should we do to start?" she said, her blue/grey eyes searching the girl's face.
A Ravenclaw? How nice. They were quite intelligent he had learned from the years being in the Castle.

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Vanderbilt, Dr. Augustus Von Stryer, at your service." he greeted the boy, slowly blinking with his brown eyes. The boy seemed to be an upright boy and hardworking. "Oh just now? No it was not long, Clive just found it rude but he is known to overreact." He said with a bit of humor in his tone. That man was so full of himself and had such a big head it was a wonder who he fit in his frame.
A ball? How funny. "You're funny, I wish I could really play ball with you though. I used to play dolls and stick and hoop with my sisters. I had two." She nodded.

"My history?" She asked, her small smile falling just slightly, her blue/grey eyes losing their brightness a bit. "Well I lived in the country with my mom and dad and sisters. We didn't have much but we had plenty. My big sister was going to school here at Hogwarts and my other sister was supposed to start the year after I died. I was 10. The death eaters were working with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named before Harry Potter was born and he was trying to recruit. Fenrir Greyback came to our village to intimidate the wizards and witches. My dad said no and he came back to scare him and I was the one who answered the door." Very sad business.
"Of course not Jory, I like your name." She giggled. "I'm Sarah." The little girl with the blue/grey eyes said.
"Finally one with manners. What can I do for you girl?" Clive looked at her. She seemed polite...enough. Her hair was outright red, a shade that was most ostentatious and certainly brought much attention to her head. She would have been the perfect client for a powdered wig.
"You are welcome Miss Dawnsel." Benjamin nodded as she spoke again his blue eyes following her's. "I can most definately answer that for you. I had a normal childhood. Was rather studious throughout school. I was an only child and came from a family of moderate means. I just fell in love with a woman that I met in the town I went to University in...she turned out to be a banshee and she...ended my life on our first date." Yes, it was a horrific story to recount but he had done it so often it was numb to him now.
Oh 'ow adorable.

"Lovely to meet you dear Sarah." Madame Meade said to the little girl asking about corsets she wished she could design one for her. She looked over the girl's waist with her blue eyes as she went on. "Now let us put clothing aside for a bit to work on your assignment, we can come back to it if time allows." She winked.

Oh yeah, this one got a raised eyebrow too. "Fine, I'll simply take it back then you won't have any greeting at all." Happy now portrait? Now instead of an informal one you'd be getting none at all. This portrait was proving to be just as annoying as the last.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

That's really all she was hearing. "I'm sure that's all well and good but I'm afraid it means very little to me since I don't follow politics so you can stop being all high and mighty about it." Her attention span was much too short to allow it. "Tell me something more practical. You don't look very old which means you didn't die of natural causes. Did someone do you in when you weren't looking? What'd you even do to make someone else do you in?" Then again he could have just met into an accident then died...not a very interesting story so she'd wait for him to tell it. In the mean time she scribbled notes about his black eyes. They were saying a lot today...

Portrait of Sarah:
Minerva smiled and grabbed her parchment looking at the girls eyes the best she could. "Well I need to ask you questions and look at your eyes and stuff. So I see your eyes are blue like mine, but they don't seem to be a bright blue. Are they mixed with another color?" She wondered if the girl would even know this. Hmm had she ever even seen her own eyes before. What if the little girl didn't know the color. Smiling Minerva felt like just getting to know her, "So how old are you Sarah?" She wanted to get to know the portrait as she did her work.

Writing a few things on her parchment so she would know what to put when taking to Sarah she looked back up at the girl.What shape would you say her eyes were Minerva thought. Studying them and watching as she answered Minerva's questions. "Sarah, where is your portrait at in the castle?" She wasn't sure she had ever seen it before, but the little girl seemed nice, maybe she would visit her after this class.

Sarah!
Jory grinned. "Nice to meet you, Sarah,'' he said, quite liking her fun manner. "Thanks, my last name suits me, I should think. I'm a bit of a stonewall.'' Pretty lame thing to say but he didn't think she would mind his silliness.

"You came to Hogwarts, right?'' he asked. "Obviously,'' he though. But he was just making sure. "Which House were you in?''

Laura looked at Mr Stryer and smiled. "It's nice to meet you." Laura smiled, as she tried to work out what his eye colour were. "A couple of questions to start with." Laura was going to try and find out some information on him. "What Hogwarts House were you in?" Laura was sure that he had come to Hogwarts. "And Did you ever have a girlfriend or a wife?" Laura wanted to know if the Portrait missed his wife since she obviously wasn't in the portrait with him, that was if he had one of course.

Sarah nodded. So this lady had blue eyes.. she also had a high forheadand long slender fingers like Sarah had... yet Sarah turned her attention to the ladies eyes. They were blue, and were on the elongated side of almond shape. They were also about average distance apart. Sarah wondered what kind of blue were htey, were they electric blue, calm blue or icy blue. Sarah decided to ask questions to find out, "what colour eyes did your parents have?" Sarah was interested in genetics and she wanted to find out if the lady's eyes were a mix. "Did you go to Hogwarts and if so what house were you in? I and three of my brothers are Gryffindor, my other three brothers are Ravenclaw, my mother was a Gryffindor and my father was a Ravenclaw", Sarah always seemed to be speaking too much. "Also, what year were you born?" she asked