Laura looked at Peyton and giggled. "Sorry my mistake." Laura had miscalculated the size it wasn't her fault the other girl had such weird feet. "I'm a size 5 too." Laura smiled. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything." Laura hoped the girl wasn't cross.

Laura looked at the toes. "Well they look normal to me." Laura didn't want to say anything else, if she said they were short or long the girl might go crazy with her so what was she supposed to do, this was really hard, could she just phone a friend next time.

"It's cool. I guess the mud can make it look all weird," Peyton shrugged, with a grin to assure Laura she wasn't offended. Well...not so much anymore.

Peyton looked closer at her footprint then back at Laura. "It's okay if they're whatever size," she said. "Just analyze it as if I wasn't here, yeah?" she offered. "I won't go all bonkers on you." Nope. She just wanted to finish this assignment.

Gosh, being nice was exhausting. Had it been Seth, Peyton would have ditched him a long time ago.

As Alyssa studied the parchment that Jory had given her regarding the characteristics from the reading of her footprint. Then she heard West ask his question. She had been thinking something along the same lines herself. Only it had been more of the person's health and weight.

She raised her hand asked,"Professor I was thinking something like what West was thinking. It was more about the indentations of the footprint. Wouldn't an overweight or very large person have deep indentations. Would that somehow mess up the reading?"

"We all know that an overweight person wouldn't be active in exercising" she explained.

The older girl seemed nice, mmhmm, so Alice warmed up to her immediately. "I'm ALICE, and I'm awesome." And then Violet got a beaaam. "You seem familiar. You're.. you're a friend of Selina's, aren't you? And Ella's?" So she must be cool, too, then. She got brownie points from the lioness.

She smiled a little when she moved to examine Violet's print and saw her nane written next to it. "Do I just start describing it, then?" Alice inquired, inspecting the sand. "Uh.. well.. your toes seem fairly long, and the heel is deep. I think the arch looks kind of long, too?" She began to scribble notes onto a scrap of parchment, then promptly handed it to the Hufflepuff.

Was Violet going to read HERS now? Alice was excited, yep.

Nerida realized that Mika had gone over to the young girl as well. She hadn't noticed from far away that she was a Ravenclaw to. How cool? "Hello!" She gave a wave at the two of them. "Nice to meet you Aquila. The name is Nerida." She chuckled as she started to go read her print. "Thanks." She turned to Mika and said "Nice to see you again, Mika."

The blonde looked down at Aquila's feet, ready to observe. WHhen she heared the Professor yelling.... She blinked and looked around...Was this the same Professor?? This time around though it wasn't Aspen who got into trouble... This time it was a Gryffindor.

She looked down at Aquila's prints and observed them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Elwood, prepare thyself.

West sort of had his hand up as he launched into his questions.

"So like, couldn't you manipulate how your footprint looks and then change the reading because you smooshed your foot strangely or didn't put that much pressure down or squidged your toes? And wouldn't the footprint be different depending on what surface it is and how wet or dry or solid or how much give it has? And also if you were running or something, the front bit would be deeper than the back and then people would think you're unhealthy which is weird because if you're running, probably you're fit and strong like me? And what about if you were moving backwards or sideways? How could a certain thing about how it looks actually mean what it does if it looks different? Wouldn't it be easier to just look at someone's foot? Is that a thing? What is it called to divine something by a foot? Is it the same as palmistry but with feet? Soleistry? Would you have to touch the person's foot? Isn't that a bit gross? Aren't feet sometimes gross? Could you divine by the smell of a foot? How come divining from animal tracks is different to divining people tracks? Like we weren't trying to figure out the animals' personalities and we're trying to figure out each others? How come the meanings are so general? Whats the point of them if they're just statements you could make about anyone anyway? Have you heard of anthropometry?" That one was barely related, he just wanted to know if she had, "What about if you lost a toe," Like that one Ravenclaw over there who apparently was missing one, "It'd effect your footprint but not your personality, what then?"

Just a few questions to warm up. West waited expectantly and let his hand drop.

*blink*

After all that had just happened she needed to now tackle all those questions? Callie had had trouble even keeping up with West much less what he was asking of her.

How to start? "That's a lot of stuff Mr. Odessa." Why wasn't he a Ravenclaw like his sister? "I would guess you could manipulate your print but why would you? Unless you had something to hide or were self-conscious about a trait you had, I wouldn't see a reason to do such a thing. And as for the different surfaces yes, there would be some differences in the reading because of that, specifically the depth or shallowness of the heel but that would be the only real changing factor." she didn't know all of the different rules off the top of her head but they were in the textbook.

"As for the changes in the foot print because of running or walking differently, you would switch to a method of Human Ichnomancy closer to what we did with the animal prints. Trying to divine the course of their journey and then compare it to your own. We, as diviners, make the choice based on what we come across. If you are on a journey and come across prints you will most likely use the method related to the animal one but if you are planning to do a personality or almost palm reading of a person with a print you will do the method we just finished learning." It was all about choices and circumstances really, she had just decided to teach them both.

Now they were on questions solely (no pun intended) on the foot. "There actually is NOT a method of Divination for just the foot strangely enough we usually just use the same rules as Palmistry." Solestry was a good name for it if there was one though. The boy definitely was creative. "There's nothing about smell I've ever read about but surely there is something out there, check the Library perhaps?" She was starting to get annoyed.

"Feet could be gross yes but if you practice good personal hygiene you should be in the clear." He was a boy and at that age where smells become distracting. *shiver* "General? That is a question many ask of the Divination Arts and I don't have an answer for that, I didn't make the methods up." She had already talked about the differences in animal and human methods and how the latter could be done both ways.

She was nearing the end of the line of questioning, or at least she thought so. She had sort of lost track and was about to ask him to repeat them. "Anthropometry, yes, it's the study of the measurements of the human body to try and correlate physical and psychological traits. So its sort of interwoven into many forms of Divination like the Ichnomancy of human foot prints, palmistry and any other form of the Noble Art that gives psychological or character based attributes to physical features." A mouth full but she hoped it had made sense.

A child was missing a toe?! They'd lost it before the lesson right? Surely, they would have made a big deal about it if not. Glad to not have to call a search the mud for a toe party, Callie answered the boy's last question concerning the missing foot unit. "Unless the child was born without the toe his destiny and readings would not be marked by it. He would have that stuff set before he lost it, but if they were born without the toe it could just mean that they were uncommonly logic, or very creative and unique in their thinking." That was really all she could come up with, she had never read any studies on those who were missing toes before--it wasn't very common you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

West... he asked a lot of questions, good ones too, and ones that Mo very much wanted to know the answer to as well. He meandered closer to hear the answer, although half of his attention was fixated well away from the multitude of questions and on that very angry Gryffindor who had stalked off to the castle. Maybe she didn't eat enough fiber. That made people really cranky.

Worse, she'd probably hurt Professor Pretty's feelings, and it heart Mo for Professor Pretty to be sad. It was a shame they were here on the beach, because he knew that the answer to all forms of heartbreak and sadness was to give flowers. His father always gave his mother flowers, which was funny on account of his mother was the one who GREW those flowers.

Anything in a pinch, though, right? Mo grabbed up a handful of cattails before finally taking up a spot near West. He offered his cattails in a stubby little bouquet. "I think that girl's footprint shows that she has no inner eye and that her shoes are too tight. And she needs more fiber. Shallow heels, you know? Very unhealthy."

As she was answering the little Odessa's long list of queries, Callie saw Mo Branxton approach them, obviously listening in to her answers. She hoped he was getting it all because she didn't want to have to repeat all of them to him too.

But what was this? A bouquet...where those cattails?

"Are these for me Mr. Branxton?" She was shocked. She grinned brightly and took them without really waiting. Of course they were, he was holding them out to her. "Mr. Branxton that is very sweet of you." She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it before looking at the water-weeds again.

The thought that he was trying to win back points for Ravenclaw only passed through her mind for a millisecond and it was again replaced with his kindness. He had seen she was having a rough moment with that Lion and had tried to help. It really was sweet. Oh and he was making a joke? A divination one at that!

She laughed and wiped the corner of her eye as she did so. "I would have to agree."

Elwood would have to find a vase to put those in when she got back to her office!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Laura looked at the Professor and sighed. "Professor you've just kicked my partner into touch." Laura sighed, how was she supposed to do her work when the Professor had sin bin her partner and given her a detention. "Professor I don't know what to do now?" Laura sighed this was going to be really hard with her partner evicted, gone, out-of there.

Callie heard Laura Hyde calling over to her that she had just sent her partner to the Castle for a detention and sighed. She hadn't thought of that.

The blonde was about to call over to her and tell her to find another person's print to read but it seemed she had guessed that much on her own and was already working on it. Good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

As Alyssa studied the parchment that Jory had given her regarding the characteristics from the reading of her footprint. Then she heard West ask his question. She had been thinking something along the same lines herself. Only it had been more of the person's health and weight.

She raised her hand asked,"Professor I was thinking something like what West was thinking. It was more about the indentations of the footprint. Wouldn't an overweight or very large person have deep indentations. Would that somehow mess up the reading?"

"We all know that an overweight person wouldn't be active in exercising" she explained.

Another well-thought out and tough to answer question. Callie looked towards Alyssa and nodded as she spoke. "Well Miss Potter, you ask a question like another one of your classmates asked earlier when we were doing the animal print readings and I will answer you similarly. We can't know if the person was heavy-set or not unless we were there when the person made the print, so naturally today we could." But not all prints would be made like they were today. "Generally if we were practicing the method we did today we would have the person make the print for us to see and then do the personality-related reading. If we did the human readings based on the way we did the animal ones, how they were feeling in the moment it was made or how our and if our journey would be similar to their's we wouldn't know if they were heavy-set." Hopefully it made sense, some complex logic really. "If we know the person is heavy-set we can apply the health part as being mental or emotional health. Nowhere did it say that the health referred to was just physical after all."


-----------------

And that was a wrap, right?

Professor Elwood raised her hands, one grasping the bouquet of cattails from Mo, and waved them to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone, I'd like to thank you all for the great first lesson of the term!" despite the bumps *ahem*

"Please allow Mr. Montmorency and Miss Odessa to spray your feet clean before you go and don't forget your belongings over by the tree." She didn't need barefoot kids running around the Castle. "Homework will be posted in the Common Rooms and my notice board soon!"

OOC: Work submitted from this post on, will NOT be taken for credit. You had plenty of warnings about time and even an extra 3 hours. Thanks for coming and keep a look out for the homework.

Mika felt bad for Aspen and Dylan...maybe more for Dylan because of the eye thing - but she did respect Aspen for her utter toughness...she was like ultra-raven. Super smart, supper cunning, and maybe slightly psychotic at times.

Mika would have to ask to be her apprentice in evildeeding. Yes she would.

She walked over to the edge collected her things and shoes in hand walked over to start a line to get her feet cleaned. She'd help maybe if Professor Elwood wouldn't mind. Cleaning your own feet was nice right? Did anyone else feel creeped by the idea of having someone else clean your feet.

Like a pedicure, but not.

They were done and Elwood said it was time up. Oh well, at least she did interpret Bee's footprint and hopefully they were... accurate? Divination isn't Kat's forte but she did try her best to get it right. Effort... and more effort. Blargh.



Oh, Bee was done. Kat gave Bee her results and in exchange, she got hers. Reading it, Kat was kind of pleased with her results... except that she wasn't that logical. She was working on that. She fails in theory stuff and that's where help from West comes in. Yay for team work. It would be of benefit for OWLs you know. Yeah.


So... they were going to let Aspen and Dylan wash their feet? BLINK. Kat didn't know if she wanted to allow that. Cos 1. She is doesn't have plans on letting Aspen touch her feet; 2. That is her Captain who is going to touch her feet and, 3. It's awkward. She could wash her own feet, really.

She stood there, debating with letting her Captain wash her feet or not.

Alyssa nodded her head when Professor Elwood answered her question. He of course made sense. She had taken into account that she would have seen the person making the foot print. Now she knew that she there was a different type of divination, Anthropometry, to do that. That was the study of a measurements of a human's body to try and corelate physical and psychological traits. She quickly wrote down the name in her journal.

'Wait! What? We're supposed to have our feet washed by either Dylan and Aspen. Do I have to?' Alyssa thought to herself. She didn't want to embarrass either of them but she didn't want to disobey the Professor's instructions either. She stood there trying to figure out what to do.

"Well not all the traits what you said to look for are good things, so maybe people want the best sorts of things read about themselves, so they might manipulate them for that reason." West answered, since the professor had asked and West didn't really DO rhetorical questions. There was no such thing. What was she, a Hufflepuff? Gosh. And he nodded. Depth and shallowness of the heel and whatnot, sure. So she was confirming that it didn't actually mean anything and was a waste of time too.

But the next bit made sense to West, he disgested it thoughtfully. Okay. Human footprint journey divining things would be wayyy more interesting wouldn't it? And it still meant that there were better ways to figure out a personality than looking at a footprint. "Anthropometry is a science what makes sense, I reckon. Like about how your foot and your forearm are about the same length, or your arm reach is the same as your height." As opposed to this other stuff. But he was pleased she knew what it was. Yes. Okay.

But the general answer bit wasn't satisfying at all. As one of those advocate people shouldn't she HAVE an answer? Even if it was a made up and dumb one, shouldn't she have an answer to support it rather than just say yeah its general? Cos that just made it even more.... pointless. He noted Mo's approach and would have opened his mouth for MORE questions but then the professor said they were done!

He wasn't done! He still had things to SAY. But at least he had learned that people happily wasted their time on stupid things. West shot a casual look over at the footprints he'd faked earlier. Hmmmm what would Professor Elwood say about thooooose?

"I have MORE questions professor." Paaaause. "I'll make a list and bring them to you on account of you'll probably have to research them." You know, bring them when he brought her the literature on Westomancy? Yes. Then.

"Thank you for the class." Not because he'd learned good things about feet, just about how people would believe all sorts of silly things. It was good research really. This class, West rather felt, could help him be a better Slytherin.

So, to get his feet clean then. He wandered off. Aspen and Dylan could get one each.

OOC: So I know part two of her work won't receive credit, but I finished it for the fun of the RP, not for the points. Thanks for a great lesson, Chris!




Sierra was one the verge of getting annoyed. There were way too many footprints around here and not enough that weren't claimed yet. She couldn't believe she was going around in search of something made by somebody's foot. She was just one of those people who hated other people's feet. It grossed her out. Leave it to Divination to do something weird like tell the future through the usage of feet. Even still, Sierra had to admit this was one of the most interesting Divination lessons she'd been through. Two thumbs up, Elwood.

Just as she thought that, she came upon a footprint that didn't look to be claimed by anyone. She hastily stepped up to it as if claiming it for her own. Which she was, in a sense, doing. She looked down at it and studied it for a few moments, taking note of the position of the toes, the arch, and the heel. Afterwards, she collected a piece of parchment and a quill and began writing:

• Toes - Toes appear to be pretty far away from the rest of the foot. Looks like this footprint might belong to a Claw. They're the logical ones, right? Either way and either house, it's true that the toes aren't close to the rest of the foot, so this person has some logic to them.
• Arch - The arch is extremely high. You can barely see a sign of it from this footprint I'm viewing. You pretty much just know it's there, because...well, it's a foot! So I would say this person is really hyper-aware of their surroundings and always has an idea of what's going on around them. I bet they'd be really good in a duel!
• Heel - The heel is very deep in the mud, so I'd say this person is pretty fit and healthy. All-in-all, this person looks like they've got the best of what footprint divination has to tell us!

...and it seems that just as she finished, the professor finished, as well. Also...Dylan and Aspen were responsible for spraying everybody's feet clean? Eww...what a job. See, this was why Sierra hated feet. Cleaning them was considered a punishment for misbehavior. What had gone on between them anyway? She'd heard a commotion, but ehh...she'd hear about it later.

"Thanks for a cool lesson, Professor," she said. She wasn't that good at Divination, but she was good at making a footprint in the mud. Heh.

Wow west was smart. As Sarah thought divinition was just plain luck of getting it right she never thought to ask questions, yet did he have a lot of questions. He must be a real thinker. Which was good, Sarah always liked to ask questions not that she believed in it (although her foot print seemed to match her a bit - yet that was based on luck or statistics)

Allow someone else to spray her feet. Sarah did not mind it at all, yet she felt bad for the feet sprayers. How humiliating! How could she do that to a person. It would be embarressing for them, but also demeaning. Also, she lowly Sarah Edwards was not at all important enough to get her feet cleaned by anyone. Sarah then quickly decided not to use the services. Why should her own laziness come at the expense of others. She then moved in the line towards Aspen and instead of holding out her feet to be cleaned she flashed Aspen a smile and said, "don't worry about cleaning my feet, I feel bad that you have to be humiliated into doing it for others, so can you please let me do it myself?" not waiting for an answer Sarah did some quick spell work so her feet were nice and clean and then remembered - her shoes and stockings. "Accio" she said, summoning her things. She then quickly put them on before turning to Aspen and saying, "thank you" after all even if Aspen had not done Sarah's feet Sarah was thanking her on the behalf of the others that had had their feet cleaned as well as thanking her for A) being prepared to clean her feet and b) for letting Sarah have it her own way. "have a nice day" she said sweetly, that poor girl deserved it, sure the girl had messed up and deserved a punishment yet could tthey not leave the students out of the punishments? Sarah hated causing pain to others. Sarah then began to walk off, first thanking the teacher for the lesson before she remembered her things which she ran off and got. All the while she was hoping that there was more that she could do to help Aspen, perhaps clean feet from afar? No she did not want to rouse the teachers anger.

Squinting at his best friend, Dylan snorted. "I'm not anxious."...and if I am, no one will know. HMPH.

...Besides...he was the one being made to clean feet after class because of something he hadn't really been responsible for. Not to mention doing it with a GIRL would was Aspen Odessa.

The Slytherin was allowed to be anxious...in secret...


...And then the Professor was calling time on them. Good thing he and Skylar had worked quickly. He'd been rather behind...

Blink.

Merlin, and Dylan thought she might forget...UGH. Just...GAH...He was not a fan of feet. They were disgusting...and not all feet were made alike. Some were downright ugly...with weirdly shaped toes...

The Slytherin got the distinct feeling that he might hurl on someone...and really, if he did...it wouldn't be his fault. One cannot control things of that nature...

So, who was first?

Some Ravenclaw girl...Yea. He didn't like them at the moment. Females from this house were OBVIOUSLY a danger to his health, physical and mental...

Eyeing the girl's muddy feet, he pulled his wand. Professor Elwood hadn't said anything about NOT using magic. So, obviously he would be. Using magic, that is. Yes! Dylan didn't wanna actually touch them...

Ew. Just........UGH.

"Aguamenti!" The Slytherin said the spell with force, a stream of water immediately spewing from the end of his wand. Once he'd rinsed them off thoroughly, he waved the girl away.

Shoo.

The next was a member of his House and team. Dylan looked up at Katrina Hudson and sighed. SIGHED. At least she had the decency to seem conflicted.

Also, her feet weren't deformed or...weird-looking.

Repeating the water spell, the Captain doused her feet, taking care with hers. The care of her feet might have effected her Quidditch skills...and he needed her. So, yes.

Once he was finished, he offered her a grin.

It helped that she was hot. So....Ahem.

Alyssa.

GLARE.

Dylan was NOT a fan of this girl...BUT...he was being punished. Not even looking at her, he shot water at her feet's general direction...whether the Hufflepuff wanted it or not. The Slytherin wasn't getting in further trouble because of her.

After several minutes...he felt confident that some of the water, at least, had hit her feet.

So, on your way...

Dylan squinted at West made his way over. Once again...It was a thing of "Would Quidditch be effected by poorly cared for feet?" The Captain needed his best players on the field. West was obviously one of them.

So, FOR THAT REASON ALONE...he wouldn't mind as much.

It's not like he'd touch them, anyway.

"Aguamenti!" He sprayed them thoroughly, noticing that the younger Odessa had decent looking feet. It pleased Dylan, for whatever reason, that his teammates had attractive feet. Finishing quickly, he waved him off.

"I'll see you in the common room." They were doing Task Force together a bit later...

Was Sierra declining his services?

Again, Dylan didn't mind so much...Team love...and her being who she was. He stood and made his way over to where his fellow leader stood. Sierra was the last, anyway...

Smirking, the Captain knelt down, spraying her feet carefully. He couldn't bring himself to actually touch them...but his work was still effective. After a few moments, he finished her feet off, lifting his wand.

With water still spraying, Dylan grinned, "accidently" catching Sierra's top half with a large amount of water.

GRIN.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to get you wet..." Beam!

.....................

Seeing no one else in line for feet-cleaning, Dylan collected his things, cleaning his own feet before slipping back into his socks and shoes. Pulling his robe back on, the Slytherin grinned at Professor Elwood. She had punished him...and he'd completed it.

He'd held up his end of the deal...or whatever.

TAKE THAT, ASPEN ODESSA.

"Have a great rest of the day, Professor." Forced cheerfulness. With that, he was OUT.

Alyssa blinked when she felt her feet get wet. She looked down and realized that Dylan had sprayed her feet with water. Surprised, she thanked him nonetheless. "Oh...Um...Thank you."

Then she walked away until she found a rock she could sit on and taking out her wand, she said,"Aguamenti" and as water sprinkled out, she properly washed off the sand from both her feet, and when they were clean, she ended the spell."Finite". Holstering her wand, she slipped on her socks and then her shoes.

She then stood up, brushed the remaining sand off her clothes before she picked up her backpack and made her way back to the castle.