Yup, no symbols on this cup, just bland plain old boring red plastic cup. Oakey took out a parchment from his bag and set it out on the table. Turning the cup upside down and taking his quill Oakey traced a circle around it. Once he finished he set the cup upright and took one 1 teaspoon of tea leaves from the box and took out his wand. "Concavus". He spoke swishing his wand with a small downward facing arch into the cup. Much like the smiley face smile Elwood had described it as.
The Bottom of the Cup instantly curved at the bottom and Oakey carried the cup over to one of the Cauldrons and carefully poured in at least 3/4's of it into his bland and boring red plastic cup. Yay Him.

Taking it back to the table Oakey took his tea leaves and settled them into his Hot Water. How long did he have to wait, 2 minutes? Oakey sat there holding his cup steady slightly as it sat with his right hand and placed his other hand on his cheek and his elbow on the table. Yes this was meditation even if it didn't look much like it.

More notes. Jory scribbled as quickly as he could. The activity sounded like fun and he could hardly wait to get started. "And done!'' Now for the fun part.

"Concavus sounds a lot like Vacavus,'' the badger noted as he picked up his wand. He pointed it to the inside of his cup. "Concavus!'' And a swish of the wand. Like a smilie face as Professor Elwood said. He peeked into the cup. Yup. It resembled a tea cup now.

Jory now flipped over his cup onto a piece of parchment and began to trace the cup's outside rim onto it. He now measure out the one teaspoon of the tea leaves. As he did so, he remembered what Professor Elwood said about the tea. "I'd better get another cup for water.'' He did so and returned to his seat. He was not a big fan of teaand if it were bitter that was even worse.

"Hot water.'' Jory poured some from the cauldron into his cup until it was 3/4 full then added the tea leaves. Now to let it cool.

This step was easy, and Theo was grateful.

He filled his cup with hot water, but kinda wanted to use his spell to do it. Too bad he didn't have a clue how to make the water come out steaming hot. That could be useful in duels and stuff... hmm... anyway, Theo filled the cup to the 3/4 mark, from using the hot water from his heated cauldron. Trying his hardest to keep a steady hand, he tipped the teaspoon of tea leaves into the cup and watched it for a moment.

OH, next step...

Just let it brew? He could do that. Easy. Theo watched the tea leaves floating around in his cup, his eyes becoming heavier the more he stared. But he couldn't fall asleep now! He was doing soooo well. Granted, he hadn't seen any symbols, nor predicted anything yet, but it was still early days. Theo was feeling... optimistic.

As for the meditating, though... The Slytherin really did not fancy that. He just closed his eyes gently and thought about stuff, trying his hardest to clear his mind.

The more he did it, the more he needed a wee.

Ella eyed her cup thoughtfully for a moment or two before reaching for the hot water and pouring it inside. She leaned closer so she could be precise and stopped when the cup appeared to be 3/4 of the way full. Right, now for the tea leaves. The blonde added them in and sat back, biting her lip.

Now for two minutes of meditation, yeah? Meh. The badger was rubbish at clearing her mind. Too many thoughts floating around up there as she nearly always had things she was thinking about, or worrying about, or trying not to worry about. Breatheeeee. Maybe closing her eyes would help?

And so she did. And instead of giving in to all the thoughts in her head, she focused on the scent of the tea and the sounds floating in from the open window and she cleared her mind.

...Was two minutes up yet?

These cups were...

...ridiculous.

Richard eyed his plastic cup with a not-so-happy expression. That made him started to think that school was beyond broke. This was something else. Selling cups? Meh...how much could you get from selling cups anyway to finance a huge castle like this? Yeah...ridiculous. He was going to use his cup plain anyway. He was not going to bother drawing anything on a stupid plastic thing like this.

Unholstering his wand, he pointed it to the inside of the cup and murmured ''Concavus'' while doing the wand movement that professor had described. He thought he might fail at his first try yet there, it worked. He did not feel satisfied a bit though. No. And that was not because of the result of his spell casting, it was fine, he was just still annoyed about the school being broke. Putting the plastic cup on the the far corner of the desk, he took out a large piece of parchment and and put it on the desk as well. Then he picked up the cup and placed it upside down on the parchment and began to trail the outside rim of the cup with his wand. He took the cup back, the stupid paper saucer was done.

Once this was done, he got his one spoon of the cheap tea. Ugh...cheap tea. This was going to be disgusting. He had no doubt about it and he knew he definitely could have told it if the professor had no informed the class about that. He knew when he saw the kind of tea leaves that were not supposed to used to make tea. Lazily leaving his desk, the Slytherin filled his cup with hot water then added the tea leaves in. Now it was time to wait and...meditate?

Okay...whatever it was.

Richard let out a deep sigh then closed his eyes as he tried to meditate. Or trying to do what he understood from meditating. Was not it something like 'be silent, focus your thoughts and try to relax'. He could not really relax yet he tried. He pushed his annoyance at the school out his mind yet a much more troublesome one filled his mind this time.

Aurora...

He immediately remember how much he was missing her. It was really hard for him to be away from her in this school. Merlin.

Plastic cup in hand, plain plastic cup that she was not planning to draw anything on, Rhodes made her way over to her seat and settled back down. She.. didn't understand why everyone was complaining about them using plastic cups instead of real tea cups. With everything they had to do for themselves because of how cheap the school was being, she obviously didn't understand the concept of a cut-back, plastic things were just the way to go! She was sure that Professor lady would have made them clean the real tea cups, if they had any, out themselves anyway and cleaning was something she didn't like to do. Even if they were able to use magic to do it.

At least the plastic cups would be able to be thrown away. Less work for her!

Well.. less physical work. Sort of. They did have to transfigure, or charm, she didn't know the difference, the cup first. Ehh. She was almost tempted to just leave it as it was, since she was sure she wasn't going to see any actual shapes in the tea leaves, but not wanting to get into trouble, she quickly bent over and pulled her wand from out of her shoe. Rhodes sat back up, and after writing the spell and wand movement down on her parchment, pointed the tip of her wand right into her cup. "Concavus." There was a swish in the shape of a happy face, and after a good long while, a really good long while, the bottom of the cup began to cuuuuurve.

There was a smug look on her face as she picked up her quill once more and got started on writing down all the directions.

Jory needed to keep track of two minutes. In the mean while, he took deep breaths and tried to clear his head. He stared at the table, and just tried not to let any thoughts or anything else cross his mind.

He averaged when the two minutes were almost up. The puffer put a hand against the cup, to determine if it was cool. It seemed so he reached for the cup. He was right handed so he picked it up somewhat awkwardly with his left hand and drank while trying not to swallow too much of the tea leaves.

Jory focused to determine if there was any stubborn thoughts lingering. But there seemed to be none instead he focused on his breath and the bitter taste of the tea.

How had she not noticed those cauldrons before? The bouncing and hyperactivity might have had something to do with that. She looked to them as the Professor went on with her explanations for what they'd be doing shortly. There was something like a scowl that disappeared as quickly as it came when she mentioned the taste of the tea.

Why couldn't they have hot chocolate instead and just...add tea leaves maybe?

She didn't know how tea worked but then she wasn't a fan of the stuff either. This was all Lottie so the girl should have been here. Before she began she raised her hand, there was an important question that needed asking. "Professor, is it possible for those who have...oh I dunno...let's candy...like...chocolate frog kind of candy to have one after drinking the tea, instead of water? I don't think water would help me--I mean, the class."

And while she waited on that response she raised her wand. "Concavus!" That spell wasn't even very hard. Lex flipped the cup on the piece of parchment she'd gotten out and began tracing the rim. Easy stuff again, yup.

Okay, she'd go get the tea leaves too while she waited on the answer but for now she was stalling...trying to put off drinking this stuff until she was given the go ahead to have her chocolate frog.

First things first. Haruka took out her wand and pointed it into the cup. Smile swish and- "Concavus!" The tip of her wand glowed as the small plastic cup curved out into the shape of a tea cup. 'Now that was cool!' Haruka thought. Then she flipped the cup over onto the parchment and traced the rim to make the saucer. Step one done.

Haruka then walked over to the cauldrons to fill her cup. '3/4, right?' She looked at the chalkboard to confirm, and then added the hot water to her cup. "1/4, 2/4, and 3/4," she muttered to herself. She walked back to her table and added the tea leaves.

'Let the tea brew for 2 minutes.' Haruka breathed in the scent of the water turning to tea and attempted to clear her mind.

Once she finished adding the tea leaves, she glanced back down at her notebook for the next step.

Quote:

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Okay. Time to meditate. She closed her eyes and began to clear her mind, which was hard at first but eventually she did it. When she was sure two minutes were up, she slowly opened her eyes again and looked at step four.

Ronnie let her tea cool down for a second before grabbing it with her right hand and sipping it, being careful not to swallow the leaves. This was actually kinda fun!

Sarah looked t the cup in front of her. She then took out her wand, "Concavus" she casted doing the swish with her wand. It did look like a smile, which reminded Sarah to don her own smile to match.

Grinning merrily Sarah looked in the cup, the bottom had changed and now looked perfect.

She then took out her notebook and began to write what was on the board. She tried to write neatly, this made it take longer and her hand began to ache. Yet she soon made her way down and all the instructions were written down.

She shook out her wrist and then she realized that there was no delaying any more. She had to practical, which to Sarah felt like a waste of time in that subject

SPOILER!!: notes

Step One: Flip cup over onto piece of parchment and then trace outside rim of the cup to create the 'saucer' out of the area made by doing this (Leaves on saucers don't have much purpose on their beginner readings without "real" saucers"). Retrieve 1 teaspoon of tealeaves from boxes at each table.

Step Two: Fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves.

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Step Four: Let tea cool a bit and then drink. Try not to swallow many leaves. If you are right-handed, lift your cup with your left. If left-handed, drink with your right. If ambidextrous, reach for your cup, stop, and then use the other hand.

Once relaxed, identify the issue foremost in your mind. As you attempt to think of nothing in particular, is there a stubborn thought that keeps returning to your attention? If so, that is the subject of this reading. Focus on that thought. If nothing in particular comes to mind, then this will be a general tea leaf reading. Focus on your breath and the taste of the tea.

Leave a small amount of tea at the bottom of your cup.

Step Five: Hold your nearly empty teacup in your hand and give it three good swirls. The tea leaves will disperse around the interior of cup. Gently dump out the remaining liquid by turning your teacup over into a saucer.

Wait at least three breaths before turning your cup back over.

Step Six: Because your cup has no handle, begin reading from 12 o'clock. Make a notation of the first symbol you see. Mentally divide the cup into three sections: rim, middle and base.

Rim - area is above the tea level when you first poured your tea represents the current moment in time.
Middle - area between the rim and bottom, represents near future (2 weeks)

*Both the rim and middle section represent influences in your outcome.

Base - The bottom of the cup below the middle section, represents the ultimate answer or conclusion.

Step Seven: Look up recorded symbols in Textbook and record your reading results.

Mika ran her hand through her hair and quickly tied it up into a ponytail so it wouldn’t fall into her face as she tried to read these tealeaves. Before she could read them though, she had to get to that part. Now that she had measured out her spoonful of lavender tea she sighed as she glanced up at the chalkboard.

Her thoughts were a little foggy as she stood up and walked over to the little cauldron. It was lucky it wasn’t china right? Because a plastic cauldron was probably be a very idiotic idea. She was sure that fire and plastic would never make a good pair what with the melting goop the cauldron would become. So she took the ladle from the cauldron and carefully filled her cup three quarters of the way before heading back to the table and setting her cup down. Carefully she dropped the contents of the spoon into her now warm cup and watched, as the leaves seemed to float for a moment before falling beneath the surface drowning in the warm waters of their funeral cup.

When she sat back down she made sure to pull her legs underneath her as she tried to calm herself down and meditate. She rather liked meditating it was such a calming thing so she was ready to do this. Leaning her head down so as to relax her body and mind she slowly began to breath in a calming manor.

Breath in.

Breath out.

She placed her hands on her knees palms facing upwards as she sat there breathing in and out and calming her mind. The smell of the lavender was really helping because she was almost asleep mentally – but physically she was awake, and aware. She knew she wasn’t alone in the room and sure she probably looked a little silly but the girl loved meditation and right now she had things she needed answered. As she sat there she imagined a golden ball of light forming, reshaping itself, and growing from her chest. That little ball of golden light she had been seeing in her minds eye just kept on growing and growing until her whole body was encompassed in its glow. Opening her eyes slowly she glanced up at the tea in front of her and smiled. It had steeped. That was awesome now all she had to do was wait to drink it.

While Sonea waited for the professor to answer her question she looked back at her cup and tried to find more symbols. She turned her cup around and around in her hands and stared at the dirt on the bottom from the cup. Sonea stared at the cup until her eyes were hurting and she needed to blink a few times before she could look down again.

She now saw a few other symbols, a small Balloon was visible somewhere at the corner from her cup and quickly she looked in her textbook, hoping that she could find the new symbols she had found in her book. And this time she had no problems with finding the right symbols and she wrote them down on her parchment.



Sonea smiled while she copied the text from her textbook to her notes and hoped that the improvements would come quickly and that it was true wat she saw in her cup.

The student had all set to work but Callie was going to wait a few minutes before starting her own reading because she had a feeling there would be at least a few questions.

And she was right! Seer's intuition?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Tucker sighed and pulled out a piece of parchment. This was so ridiculous. Why wasn't Gabi taking her savings out of Gringotts and donating it all to the school? This was deplorable! Regardless, he had a job to do, so he pulled out his quill, flipped the solo cup over and traced the lid to make his makeshift saucer.

He then wrinkled his eyebrows and raised his hand. "Umm professor, I have a question - do we cut out the saucer? Or just leave the circle marked on the parchment?" he asked her.

The first was a Hufflepuff boy asking about their make-shift saucers. "Oh you can just leave it in with the rest of the parchment. Because we are using plain cups and the fact that it's not a real saucer, it doesn't have much purpose other than designating a place for you to tip you cup into." Make sense?

Yeah she knew this was odd but it was how things were going to be today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Ethan frowned when he saw those dumb plastic cups again. It was bad enough that their dining equipment had to be affected but classroom supplies too? How were they supposed to learn properly without the proper tools? Because he was fairly certain that West kid was right.. the structure of the cup would affect the reading. But, oh.. they would be charming the shape of the cup. That would work, but he was still rather annoyed with the situation.

He didn't really see the point in decorating the cup because 1. it was disposable and 2. it wasn't the symbol on the outside that was important. That was more for show, wasn't it? It was the symbols in the leaves that were important. So he settled for a clear plain one and sat back down once he had retrieved it.

He pointed his wand inside the cup, making a smilie face motion and commanded, "Concavus!" The cup rounded out a little more like an actual tea cup and he glanced up at the board to see what he was meant to do next.

Create a saucer.. okay. He flipped his cup upside down on a piece of parchment and traced around it with his quill as he listened to Elwood speak. Cheap, bitter tea.. wasn't that fabulous? Ethan didn't like tea that much to begin with and now it was going to be even worse. Casting a quick diffindo around the circle on his parchment, he picked up his cup and went over to one of the cauldrons. "Professor?" he called over as he filled his cup with hot water. "Would the reading be affected if we were to say, add cream or sugar to the tea?" Hopeful, yes.. it might make the tea taste better, but he had a feeling he knew what the answer would be.

Prefect McCarthy had his hand up next and the Divination Professor went to check on his progress. He seemed to be fixing the cup nicely so what was it he needed?

Oh, the bad tea. "I'm sorry about that but adding anything to the tea generally is not good for the reading. If we had had a better budget we could have gotten herbal teas and ones with better tastes but that wasn't really an option I'm afraid." She nodded slowly when she talked. "Try holding your nose when you drink it, it's what I've had to do."

Hopefully the REST OF THE CLASS HEARD THIS?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonea

With a sad feeling the young girl stared at the cheap tea and swallowed, she loved tea and when she was in the great hall when always drank some, but if this was a bad tasting tea she was not sure if she wanted to drink it. But… She knew that she could do nothing about it, if she wanted to have a good grade for this class she needed to do everything what the professor wanted her to do, and besides, she was still interested in this class and she was willing to do her best for this class, even if she needed to drink bad tasting tea.

After a few minutes when she had her tea cub in her hand, filled with the tea who also smelled not so good she took a deep breath and held her breath while she drank the tea. The tea was really horrible but she swallowed it!

Sonea stared in her cub and frowned, she saw immediately a few things but she had no idea what they were meaning. Quickly she took her textbook and searched for the symbols she saw, but couldn’t find them! She saw a Alligator and a Arrow who was pointing away towards handle in her cub and she had a strange feeling now that she saw the two symbols. She was worried that they were not good for her, she had expected cute and friendly symbols, but the symbols she now saw were not friendly at all, at least, that was what she thought.

“Eh, Professor Elwood, i can’t find the symbols in my textbook, what do they mean?” Asked Sonea while she had raised her hand.

The next person to raise their hand was a young Slytherin who seemed to have sped her way through the activity and was having trouble finding the meaning of her symbols.

"Well dear it says you have Alligator and an arrow facing away from the handle." That was odd because their cups didn't have handles. "The Alligator means ' that all is not as it appears. Watch out for mischievous happenings' but there is no handle for an arrow to be pointing to. Maybe you should try to do the reading again? A little slower this time?" It could help her find better symbols most likely, except for the Alligator, it looked legit to Callie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

How had she not noticed those cauldrons before? The bouncing and hyperactivity might have had something to do with that. She looked to them as the Professor went on with her explanations for what they'd be doing shortly. There was something like a scowl that disappeared as quickly as it came when she mentioned the taste of the tea.

Why couldn't they have hot chocolate instead and just...add tea leaves maybe?

She didn't know how tea worked but then she wasn't a fan of the stuff either. This was all Lottie so the girl should have been here. Before she began she raised her hand, there was an important question that needed asking. "Professor, is it possible for those who have...oh I dunno...let's candy...like...chocolate frog kind of candy to have one after drinking the tea, instead of water? I don't think water would help me--I mean, the class."

And while she waited on that response she raised her wand. "Concavus!" That spell wasn't even very hard. Lex flipped the cup on the piece of parchment she'd gotten out and began tracing the rim. Easy stuff again, yup.

Okay, she'd go get the tea leaves too while she waited on the answer but for now she was stalling...trying to put off drinking this stuff until she was given the go ahead to have her chocolate frog.

SPOILER!!: Steps

Step One: Flip cup over onto piece of parchment and then trace outside rim of the cup to create the 'saucer' out of the area made by doing this (Leaves on saucers don't have much purpose on their beginner readings without "real" saucers"). Retrieve 1 teaspoon of tea leaves from boxes at each table.

Step Two: Fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves.

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Step Four: Let tea cool a bit and then drink. Try not to swallow many leaves. If you are right-handed, lift your cup with your left. If left-handed, drink with your right. If ambidextrous, reach for your cup, stop, and then use the other hand.

Once relaxed, identify the issue foremost in your mind. As you attempt to think of nothing in particular, is there a stubborn thought that keeps returning to your attention? If so, that is the subject of this reading. Focus on that thought. If nothing in particular comes to mind, then this will be a general tea leaf reading. Focus on your breath and the taste of the tea.

Leave a small amount of tea at the bottom of your cup.

Step Five: Hold your nearly empty teacup in your hand and give it three good swirls. The tea leaves will disperse around the interior of cup. Gently dump out the remaining liquid by turning your teacup over into a saucer.

Wait at least three breaths before turning your cup back over.

Step Six: Because your cup has no handle, begin reading from 12 o'clock. Make a notation of the first symbol you see. Mentally divide the cup into three sections: rim, middle and base.

Rim - area is above the tea level when you first poured your tea represents the current moment in time.
Middle - area between the rim and bottom, represents near future (2 weeks)

*Both the rim and middle section represent influences in your outcome.

Base - The bottom of the cup below the middle section, represents the ultimate answer or conclusion.

Step Seven: Look up recorded symbols in Textbook and record your reading results.

*snort*

Candy, the kids wanted candy in class. "Miss Cambridge if you have candy, then you may eat that with your reading instead of drinking the water." She smiled and shook her head incredulously at the girl. She could be an odd one at times, but that was good. The world needed more eccentric people.


OOC: Everyone, I forgot to mention how many posts I wanted. I would like for you to have AT LEAST 4 POSTS, in order to receive full credit for the assignment. Also don't worry about numbering your previous posts I will keep a look out, just start numbering them from now on.

SHE COULD HAVE HER CANDY!!! WOOT!!

Okay, Lex could stop procrastinating now, which meant it was time to get to the next step...which was...she craned her neck a bit and tried getting another look at the board amidst the sea of students heading to the cauldrons or to get their own tea leaves. Just as she'd thought, they couldn't go adding stuff to it. Meh. It would have been a waste of chocolate anyway.

Lex got up again, taking the tea leaves with her and headed for the cauldron. Yeah...any day now people. She wasn't in a rush to get back to her seat and eat her chocolate frog have the tea or anything. Nooope.

Finally, when the last of them moved she got to filling her cup. 3/4 full just like the instructions said. There was the adding of tea leaves afterwards and let's not forget the face she made at the mixture. This was nothing like the drink she and Lottie made. NOTHING like it. Though she wouldn't really know until she tasted it and that wouldn't happen for another two minutes. Had to let it brew first and all so in the mean time she headed back to her seat and tuned out everyone and everything. This was meditating...or something like that. Just her and the tea. Nothing else.

Eventually though it got boring so she assumed the two minutes had gone and began blowing on the tea. After waiting for it to brew it seemed like a waste to wait much longer just to make sure her tongue wasn't scorched. She was a big girl she could cool her own tea down.

Sip.............Criiinge. Merlin's beard. Think of the candy Lex...or rather...

Emptying her mind...nothing in her thoughts...all that stuff...

Sip. Sip. Sip. Ugh.

Idiots did not exist, the world was a perfect place.

Sip.--

But 'cept for the fact that her candy money was being spent on things she didn't use to pay for and she was here sipping bad tea. She rather liked having her candy instead of paying to eat food that didn't taste good and her father needed to send her more money. Candy was important you know--

Ahem.

Siiiiip.

Clearing her mind...

As Kace was waiting for the instructions, he saw the professor flip the board and knew he had to get to work. He reread the steps carefully and made sure he copied each step.

Alright Step 1...he looked back at his notes for it.

SPOILER!!: Notes!

Step One: Flip cup over onto piece of parchment and then trace outside rim of the cup to create the 'saucer' out of the area made by doing this (Leaves on saucers don't have much purpose on their beginner readings without "real" saucers"). Retrieve 1 teaspoon of tea leaves from boxes at each table.

Step Two: Fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves.

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Step Four: Let tea cool a bit and then drink. Try not to swallow many leaves. If you are right-handed, lift your cup with your left. If left-handed, drink with your right. If ambidextrous, reach for your cup, stop, and then use the other hand.

Once relaxed, identify the issue foremost in your mind. As you attempt to think of nothing in particular, is there a stubborn thought that keeps returning to your attention? If so, that is the subject of this reading. Focus on that thought. If nothing in particular comes to mind, then this will be a general tea leaf reading. Focus on your breath and the taste of the tea.

Leave a small amount of tea at the bottom of your cup.

Step Five: Hold your nearly empty teacup in your hand and give it three good swirls. The tea leaves will disperse around the interior of cup. Gently dump out the remaining liquid by turning your teacup over into a saucer.

Wait at least three breaths before turning your cup back over.

Step Six: Because your cup has no handle, begin reading from 12 o'clock. Make a notation of the first symbol you see. Mentally divide the cup into three sections: rim, middle and base.

Rim - area is above the tea level when you first poured your tea represents the current moment in time.
Middle - area between the rim and bottom, represents near future (2 weeks)
*Both the rim and middle section represent influences in your outcome.
Base - The bottom of the cup below the middle section, represents the ultimate answer or conclusion.

Step Seven: Look up recorded symbols in Textbook and record your reading results.

Kace flipped his cup over and started to trace it. This seemed easy enough. Once he was done tracing, he went up to the room and got a teaspoon measuring spoon. He had to get one from each table. After he got them from each table he looked at step two.

He had to fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves. Kace filled his cup with 3/4's with hot water. It was quite hot and he went back to his table as fast as he could. Then he added the tea leaves and allowed the cup to cool down with the tea leaves. He cast the spell "Concavus" with a swish of his wand and he smiled and was glad it worked.

He began to clear his mind and meditate. It seemed so peaceful. He was liking this lesson already. He was not talking to anyone just thinking of himself.

After letting the tea cool for a bit, Haruka grabbed the cup with her right hand and drank the tea through her teeth, as not to drink the tea leaves. She cleared her mind focusing on her breathing and the taste of the tea, which was as bitter as nothing she'd ever had before!

One thought always stayed in her mind, no matter how much she tried to clear it. She focused on this thought as the topic of the reading. Haruka finished her tea, leaving a little bit behind at the bottom of her cup.

After she finished trying to clear her mind, she opened her eyes and scanned through step five.

She nodded as she read, then gave her cup three swirls. She watched as the tea leaves dispersed. Alrighty, now what? Her eyes fell back upon her notebook. She gently dumped out the remaining tea onto her... 'saucer'.

Then, she waited for about a few seconds before turning her cup back over.

She would be ill by the time she was done this tea, she was sure of it. How was anyone meant to relax and think straight when they kept gagging on the bitterness of the tea?

When she couldn't down anymore of the stuff she figured it was time to stop and get the reading started, surprizingly enough, she'd actually gotten most of it!! There was only that little left at the bottom but they weren't meant to drink that so all was good. Also. Finishing the tea meant one very good thing. She stuck her hand down her pocket immediately and drew for the chocolate frog inside.

Sweet deliciousness.

Excuse her while she lost herself in the SUGAR. Good, wonderful, amazing beyond words, SUGAR. It was only after finishing every last bite that she forced herself to get back to work. Right. Tea leaf reading. She upturned the cup on the parchment, you know, where she'd drawn the rim thingy? Three breaths then the cup was righted once more.

The first thing she saw after doing so was...Er....um...what was that? Lex stared at it for a good long time...um...a deer...? Yes?...No? .....Yeah, she'd go with that for now.

Deer it was.

SPOILER!!: notes

Step One: Flip cup over onto piece of parchment and then trace outside rim of the cup to create the 'saucer' out of the area made by doing this (Leaves on saucers don't have much purpose on their beginner readings without "real" saucers"). Retrieve 1 teaspoon of tealeaves from boxes at each table.

Step Two: Fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves.

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Step Four: Let tea cool a bit and then drink. Try not to swallow many leaves. If you are right-handed, lift your cup with your left. If left-handed, drink with your right. If ambidextrous, reach for your cup, stop, and then use the other hand.

Once relaxed, identify the issue foremost in your mind. As you attempt to think of nothing in particular, is there a stubborn thought that keeps returning to your attention? If so, that is the subject of this reading. Focus on that thought. If nothing in particular comes to mind, then this will be a general tealeaf reading. Focus on your breath and the taste of the tea.

Leave a small amount of tea at the bottom of your cup.

Step Five: Hold your nearly empty teacup in your hand and give it three good swirls. The tea leaves will disperse around the interior of cup. Gently dump out the remaining liquid by turning your teacup over into a saucer.

Wait at least three breaths before turning your cup back over.

Step Six: Because your cup has no handle, begin reading from 12 o'clock. Make a notation of the first symbol you see. Mentally divide the cup into three sections: rim, middle and base.

Rim - area is above the tea level when you first poured your tea represents the current moment in time.
Middle - area between the rim and bottom, represents near future (2 weeks)

*Both the rim and middle section represent influences in your outcome.

Base - The bottom of the cup below the middle section, represents the ultimate answer or conclusion.

Step Seven: Look up recorded symbols in Textbook and record your reading results.

Mika was now fully meditated and ready to drink her tea but she just sat there instead and calmly watched as the tea steamed. She waited a few minutes – two or so until the tea was nice and medium warm. She didn’t want to burn her throat or anything after all. So she glanced at the cup in front of her and let the scent of the lavender mingle in the air for a moment before thinking which hand she should use…was she right handed? Taking her quill she quickly jotted down at note on the paper and then switched hands and wrote her name once more. She was trying to judge weather she was right or left handed.

Well, of course that answered it. She was able to use both hands – that made things a little more complicated right? She had to use the hand she didn’t reach with. Brilliant.

She lifted both hands to table level and concentrated on the cup, as she began to reach her right hand for the cup she forced herself to stop and grabbed it with the left hand instead. There, she had the cup in the proper hand now. She lifted her cup to her mouth and slowly began to sip at the liquid. It was hard not to get the lavender leaves into her mouth but she was trying not to. Of course she had no idea one got jammed between her front teeth.

She sighed and tried to realize what the biggest issue on her mind was. She didn’t know at first and thought about clearing her mind then it hit her. It wasn’t what she thought it would be. She was thinking about friends, and friendships and it always came back to her. That nagging thought about how she had an influx of guy friends to girlfriends and well…she wanted more friends she needed to do this with people of her own gender sometime.

Will I become friends with more of my fellow dorm-mates this term?” she thought to herself and bit her lip as she thought about the girls she had been somewhat nervous to talk to the terms before…she loved Blue but, she needed to talk to her more and there was Aquila who was so sweet and she needed to talk to more – and there was Dora who was awesome and well…she realized then it wasn’t about her dorm it was more about having girls as friends. She needed to have girls as friends. She took out her quill and jotted down her question so she would remember it.

Girls as friends what is stopping me from making them? she thought as she took a few drags from her cup. The warm liquid calming her as it slipped down her throat. When she had just a lick of liquid left in the bottom of the cup she quickly glanced at the board to check the next step.

Spinning the liquid in the cup. Cup in hand she gave the cup not one but three large swirls the liquid whirl-pooling around the edges of the cup and almost to the rim before she flipped the cup over onto her make-shift parchment saucer. She just sat there and watched the paper become quite a bit wet. Yeah that was one awesome saucer she thought with a chuckle. Breathing in and out she waited, repeated the breathing and waited some more, and then breathed again and waited. Slowly when she was finished waiting she reached forward and flipped the cup back to an upright position.

Now, all she had to do was to read leaves and, well, to find the definitions in her opened book.

Sarah then located a piece of partchment and placed her tea cup on it after turning it upside down. She then began to trace a rim of her cup. After completing the circumference, she removed the cup and examined her handiwork. It looked right

Then she reached over and got the tea leaves that were at her table. She then walked up to the cauldron and filled her cup three quarters of the way with the hot water.

Back at her table she sprinkled the tea leaves in. Sarah hardly had tea that way, at home she usually had the tea that her grandmother got them from South Africa fo rher mothers birthday Rooibos tea. It was her mothers favourite and Sarah's too. Yet now they were using real tea.

Sarah settled down in her chair and began to wait

After she had turned her cup over, she skimmed through her notes and read through step six.

That wasn't hard at all! She looked into her cup and raised an eyebrow at the first symbol she saw. It looked like... a cherry. She quickly scribbled the word 'cherry' down into her notebook. Okay. Back to the cup. Then, it also looked a bit like a... nut. She jotted down 'nut' right underneath cherry. Alrighty, what else did it look like? She squinted at the symbol. Kinda looked like... an ear? Yeah she was pretty sure. She wrote 'ear' right under 'nut'.

Now, for step seven.

Easy peasy! She grabbed a textbook and flipped it open and searched for the word cherry. Once she found it, she copied down the definition into her notebook. Next, she looked for nut which she found rather quickly. Once she copied down the definition, she looked for ear, and wrote that one down as well.

She took a look at her finished notes and definitions, giving her notebook a nod of approval. It looked perfect!

She had long since agreed with herself that what she'd seen was a deer but a little confirmation never hurt anyone so she pulled out her text and skipped to the section on tea leaf reading. Sure enough, some of the more common symbols were there for the symbol cup and as luck would have it, the deer was there too.

Lex looked from the print to the book then back again.

Yup. That was a deer, now she could move on to the next step. This next step happened to be reading the other two symbols. Here's to hoping they weren't as indiscernible as the first. She pushed the book to a distance then got to staring again. This time, the middle...it wasn't as hard...if you looked at it with one eye closed it kinda looked like a dot...several dots actually. Oh merlin, were dots even possible?? Time to consult the book again. She reached across for it and sure enough, there were dots. Okay. The middle was officially a bunch of dots.

Moving on.

The last one...the base. She didn't think she'd shut one eye for this one. Nah. She wanted to see.

Pretty soon she was giggling. Hehehehehe, it kinda looked like an elephant, only...was it really an elephant. Hahahahaha. Ella would love this, maybe she'd show it to her. Oh but wait...they were all meant to be focusing. Eh, she didn't want to break the girl's concentration. She'd tell her afterwards.

For now she would just record what she found.



She glanced down at her recordings. The rim being the immediate future she was willing to guess she was meant to be more sensitive to those around her...sharing her candy maybe. Pfffft. NO. Not gonna happen. Sorry tea leaf, you're being disregarded. Anyway. Next was the dots--Oooooooo, monetary gain. Well she was looking forward to her father sending her more money so she could have candy. Yup. She liked this one more...too bad it wasn't the present that it applied to. As for the last, with the term shaping up to be what it is she could see that she'd be needing a lot of that determination and persistence stuff. She WOULD make it, and she WOULD have candy. Nodnodnod.

Just when Sonea had written everything she had read in her textbook she stared at the now two things she had wrote. She had a bad feeling about this, she didn’t knew exactly what was going to happen but this was not what she had expected, she had hoped to see that she would have a great future and that she would become once a very important witch, but this was something very different!

Sonea stared at the cup in her hands and wondered if there was also good news inside, something like she would win a lot money, or that she would become a very smart witch who was much better than everybody else. She also was curious if she could find something about a future love… “Let’s see what I can find more” said Sonea slowly to herself.

SPOILER!!: notes

Step One: Flip cup over onto piece of parchment and then trace outside rim of the cup to create the 'saucer' out of the area made by doing this (Leaves on saucers don't have much purpose on their beginner readings without "real" saucers"). Retrieve 1 teaspoon of tealeaves from boxes at each table.

Step Two: Fill cup 3/4 full with hot water from cauldrons and add tea leaves.

Step Three: Allow tea to brew for 2 minutes. Clear your mind and meditate. No talking please.

Step Four: Let tea cool a bit and then drink. Try not to swallow many leaves. If you are right-handed, lift your cup with your left. If left-handed, drink with your right. If ambidextrous, reach for your cup, stop, and then use the other hand.

Once relaxed, identify the issue foremost in your mind. As you attempt to think of nothing in particular, is there a stubborn thought that keeps returning to your attention? If so, that is the subject of this reading. Focus on that thought. If nothing in particular comes to mind, then this will be a general tealeaf reading. Focus on your breath and the taste of the tea.

Leave a small amount of tea at the bottom of your cup.

Step Five: Hold your nearly empty teacup in your hand and give it three good swirls. The tea leaves will disperse around the interior of cup. Gently dump out the remaining liquid by turning your teacup over into a saucer.

Wait at least three breaths before turning your cup back over.

Step Six: Because your cup has no handle, begin reading from 12 o'clock. Make a notation of the first symbol you see. Mentally divide the cup into three sections: rim, middle and base.

Rim - area is above the tea level when you first poured your tea represents the current moment in time.
Middle - area between the rim and bottom, represents near future (2 weeks)

*Both the rim and middle section represent influences in your outcome.

Base - The bottom of the cup below the middle section, represents the ultimate answer or conclusion.

Step Seven: Look up recorded symbols in Textbook and record your reading results.

She glanced into the cup at the spot that she assumed would be twelve o’clock and tried to denote what the shapes were at this location. Sure there were things on the rim but some of them just looked like smears and clumps while others were a little bit more defined and shape-like.

Around the rim of the cup there was a clump of tea leaves that looked most definitely like a lamb…so, lamb she didn’t know what that meant but they were sweet, and docile. She jotted that down on her notes before trying to find the next shape was just slightly below it looked like an anchor. The moment she saw that she beamed.


She loved anchors after all and it was like coming home, finding one in her cup that is. The next thing she did was to move her eyes down the cup to try and find the next shapes in the cup. More splotches were all she found at first until she middle area of the cup. A dragon. She glanced up and smiled, yeah dragons were cool.

When she moved further down the to right above the line where the bottom of the cup started she saw it. What she had spotted was something that looked surprisingly like a nail. She jotted it down and looked at the other bits of leaves around the base of the cup. Another shape she had spotted and immediately smiled at the base of the cup was that of a rabbit. The one she doubted most of all; the last one she had seen was a ring.

That was preposterous right? She was right wasn’t she.

SPOILER!!: notes

Rim of the cup: Lamb, anchor.
Middle: Dragon, nail
Base: rabbit, ring.