Came to his senses? That got a good laugh out of Adi. But he supposed AJ was right. He did come to his senses eventually. "You got that right. Now stop thinking of me and go do your gazing.'' He stuck his tongue out at her then got to work.
............................

Moreee unsuccessful gazing. Adi was seriously getting bored with the lack of images popping up in the Ball. He had repeated the steps- sip the tea, do some breathing exercises, close his eyes and tried to clear his mind. Granted, his mind was indeed clearer (though not completely) now but it was no use. Now even the slightest.

"Okay. One more try. If nothing happens, I'm out of here.'' The Puffer took some deep breaths after taking some more tea. After opening his eyes and let them wander to a spot on the ball, he gazed and waited.

Waited...waited...waited...

Nothing.

"That's it. I'm done.'' Adi eased himself up, magically cleaned his teacup, returned the Crystal ball to the shelf and slowly approached AJ, just in case she was actually making progress with the activity. He flopped down on a pillow opposite and watched her. This view was much better than gazing into a stupid Ball.

Jasmine kept her eyes on the mist, trying hard to keep her mind free and clear. As it became thicker and continued to swirl, she began to see faint colors appearing throughout the fog. Jasmine was so anxious to see what forming, she had forgotten to breathe. Once she realized this, she took a deep breath and tried to continue her relaxed breathing. Why was this taking so long?

Slowly the colors started to connect, like the pieces of a puzzle coming together. It was him. Just as he had appeared in what she thought was a dream. Jasmine saw Cris. It was him, but it wasn't the Cris that Jasmine remembered. It was his eyes, the eyes that Jasmine knew so very well. They looked so sad, so lacking their usual spark. She wanted to know more, to see more, but she couldn't help it. Jasmine became so overwhelmed, that she lost her focus and the picture began to dissipate. "Noooo", she whispered, not ready to let go just yet. Jasmine tried to reconnect with the crystal ball, but it was no use. He was gone......again. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her composure. Finally she opened her eyes and wiped them discreetly. Knowing that it was useless to try again at this point, Jasmine stood and carried the crystal ball back to its shelf. Carefully placing it there, she left the Room of Serenity. Maybe she would return to try again and maybe she wouldn't.

Cutty was a good kid, Cassie knew this, so she probably didn't have to react the way she did, but this was her life, her upbringing, and her passion. She was very passionate when it came to every item in this room, everything she taught. Giving him a smile, she nodded. "Very good, just like that. Rub all the smudges out." He was doing a very good job with his circular motion.

"Crystal Balls are sensitive in the fact that they can break, but they also can lose their desire to connect with us. If they are not cared for properly and a human does not try to connect with the ball, they will not show us what we may need to know." She looked at the ball running her fingers over it, inspecting it for scratches or smudges.

Her mind drifted for a moment as she started pulling the other crystal balls off the shelf. Green eyes moving back to the Slytherin she grinned. "Divination is a very interesting subject, it takes training and discipline to be one of the greats at it, but not only that, it takes self confidence to know that you can do it. The snap cup helps with confidence as well as bringing a positive vibe to the classroom. Positive vibes helps our room become more relaxed and if students are more relaxed and their confidence is in a good place, it will make it easier to focus." Plus wasn't it just fun to snap and cheer on other people?

Focusing on her breathing, Lux worked hard to drive all other thoughts from her mind as well as loosen up. Hopefully the tea helped a lot with that since she tended to find hot drinks soothing. Not coffee as much... tea was much better. And hot chocolate.

I am getting distracted by the thought of hot drinks because I am cold...

Shivering slightly she opened her eyes so that she could have another sip from her cup before trying again. This time it was a big one to avoid anymore distractions as she focused solely on the deep breathing. All thoughts were driven from her mind and she let herself go loose, keeping only the positive energy and letting go of all the negative.

Deep breathing in and out... in and out...

Unbelievable. They had to do this scrying thing again. Which- shouldn't be mixed up with crying because APPARENTLY they are totally different things. Weird right? Like, you'd think that the two would be the same all things considered, but nope. Scrying and Crying. Definitely different. He knew, learned the hard way.

But anyways, Zander was preparing for the absolute worst when he walked into the room. Worst as in pink and frilly like the rest of Divination tended to be, but it was purple? Well... That's a step up. Considering.

The Gryffindor walked up to one of the smaller tables and set down his bag right beside one of the pillows. How come no one believed in desks anymore? Yoga mats and pillows? His parents would never believe him if he tried to tell them about what they did here. Anyways, the most important thing for this task: crystal ball. Yup, going to grab one of those now. Man, they're kind of heavy too. But no matter, he was a super STRONG Gryffindor superhero. He could do it. Maybe.

So carrying it over to the table was a bit of a struggle, but hey! It made it in one piece so that's the important part, right? Right. Zander reluctantly got down on the pillow at this point and just stared straight at the ball. So uh, how?

She could still make her perfect prefect laugh, and that was a good feeling. There were plenty more cheeky comments where that came from. "If you insist." AJ really did need to buckle down and get this assignment over. There were more fun things that Adi and AJ could be doing together other than homework.

_______________________________________

Bad luck. She was having nothing but bad luck when it came to seeing anything in this ball. Before breaking concentration, she stared for another five minutes. Nothing. AJ was starting to get frustrated, and that wasn't going to help her in the concentration department.

She sat up straight in her seat, and took a few more sips of tea. She held the still warm cup to her forehead, and let her eyes droop close. Once again she let all of her thoughts drift away. Once she felt like she was about to fall asleep, AJ opened her eyes.

Okay crystal ball, let's get some images floating. She stared in the center of the ball, and willed her eyes to see something, anything. Nothing. Not a swirl, not a speck. Zero things were happening. She blew out air, and was about to get up when she saw something. It was Adi. Adi was in her ball. What did that mean? Her eyes cut over to where Adi was sitting to show that he wasn't there anymore. Realization dawned on her. He had moved, and it was his reflection that she was seeing. Rats.

The boyfriend got a smile. "I thought I was seeing you in my ball." False alarm. "Care to enjoy the view some more, or are you ready to get out of here?"

Once Lux was the most relaxed that she'd ever be, she opened her eyes and stared right at the center of her crystal ball.

Everything was misty, and she was sure that she could see something in the depths. But as had happened last time it was too hard for her to make out what it was, and as she leaned in closer it had disappeared. Did these shapes want to elude her for some reason? Or was it simply a matter of training her Inner Eye more? It wasn't as if she took Divination seriously; the subject merely held a fascination for her. But this was something she was failing to master and Lux hated failing.

No matter. She was being silly; all she had to do was practice until she could make out what the shapes were. Finishing up her tea, she cleared everything off her table and returned the crystal ball back where it belonged before heading out of the room.

Still thinking that this whole thing was dumb, Kevin stared at the crystal ball in front of him for some more time. For some reason, his eyes were drawn to the right side of the ball and as he remembered correctly you had to look where you were drawn to right? Or not? He wanted to scratch his head but didn't because that could possibly break the relaxed state he was in right now.

So he stared some more, he would have fallen asleep if something hadn't caught his attention. The boy narrowed his eyes to look more closer. There was...something ...shaping in the mist. Wait...was it working?! Without realising what he was doing, the Gryffindor had jumped up from his seat to look closer at the crystal ball but upon doing so it vanished in to thin air and he groaned.

That had been such a rookie mistake he was embarrassed for himself as a third year...

No matter though, he saw something, he was sure of it but he didn't feel like finding out now cause he wanted to go outside. He still had some time left before dinner and the weather was nice. At least it wasn't freezing. And he was out of his relaxed state already. Picking up the ball, Kevin put it back where he got it from , returned back to his seat to grab his bag and left the room.

He'd come back some other time when it wasn't for a dumb assignment but pure curiousity.

So if scrying meant not crying, then how were you supposed to get in the zone? Important question. This Gryffindor needed answers. All the did in class was sit and meditate. But HOW was he supposed to meditate if there was so much on his mind? Always so much on his mind. There was just SO much to think about lately.

But especially about what Mean-Professor-Stranger had said to him. That he was a disgrace to Gryffindor House. How was he supposed to prove the guy wrong? He wasn't a disgrace. He wasn't!! But UGH. He had to stop thinking. Stop thinking for once so that he could cry scry properly. Taking a few deep breathes, the Gryffindor leaned even closer to the crystal ball. Blinking profusely and staring.

And now some staring without blinking.

It wasn't working!! Thinking about dead frogs was a much more useful method. But alas, scrying was weird. So right. Focusing now. Super focused.

Was he in the zone yet? Had he done it?

Well.... Cinna was starting to get quite the reputation of procrastination. Waiting until last minute to get stuff done. It was actually starting to get interesting doing stuff this way. And trying to see how how much she could do before she ran out of time to do it.

But it wasn't like she wasn't taking this homework assignment seriously. Because she was. She had a pair of comfortable pj's on. She bought the chocolate bar that Bianca had given her because it also calmed her. Unlike some people chocolate turned them into wild banshees. Yes it did.

She went and got one of the crystal balls and set it up on one of the tables. She sit down in the chair Indian style and sipped tea and nibbled at the chocolate bar. Using breathing technics to reach a cool and calm place. Full of Positives, NO negativeness.

Crystal balls withhold information if not cared for properly and no one tries to connect.


So basically, they were housewives playing mind games with you if you didn't comply with their list of demands. Admirable. But also, mindblowing. As Cutty had, until that point assumed very little besides wands were said to be semi-sentient. And he hardly noticed it with his aspen.

"So they're semi-sentient, then? Like wands? Interesting!" Not a lie. He could work with semi-sentient. Maybe he'd try to feed it dirty jokes or terrible images to pass on to the next users. He found himself wanting to test the limits of this condition, though not in front of Professor Morgan. Obviously.

With the purple cloth still in hand he wiped in the circular motion until he reached the bottom of the sphere shaped crystal and finished it up. Carefully, he drew down another of the balls and started the wiping motion. Circle, circle, circle. They grew bigger as he reached the widest portion of the sphere. He'd gotten very close to this one and stared for a moment at his own eye in it's shiny reflection.

"That's almost Slytherin of you, Professor Morgan. Tricking the masses into good vibes." It took a pro (AT LEAST). He wanted to see if she'd take this as a compliment or be very offended at being compared to the snake house. "Soometimes I do the same thing. But I don't want anyone to know it."

Rub.

Rub.

RUB.

Hearing his question Cassie looked at the crystal balls for a moment, "That could be one way to explain them. Yes they are a bit." They were many things to her, but so was everything in this room. "Would you like some tea Cutty?" Peppermint tea just sounded so good at the moment.

Her green eyes looked back towards the boy and she chuckled. "Slytherin? Well I will take that as a compliment. I've never been categorized with Slytherin before, but it isn't about houses nor tricking. It's just making people feel more confident and good about themselves. Isn't that what's most important when trying. If you aren't confident and feeling good in a classroom why would you try your best?"

That was a curious thing to say and she thought for a moment. "If you are doing things to make people feel better about themselves and each other then you are a very noble boy Mr. Cutty." That gave him some snaps, because people should all try to make each other feel good.

Cutty looked at the impromptu arrangement of crystal balls that were, one by one, being taken out of their display for cleaning purposes by Professor Morgan. Drawing the next one slated to be rubbed to a shine nearer he caught a glimpse of his eye huge and brown and whale-like. Tea? "Yeah. I'd love some." He took up the offer not knowing it was peppermint. His own fault, though. That seemed to be a favourite of Professor Morgan's.

That was a Slytherin answer. If the Slytherin in question were trying to get the other person to think he or she was truly up to nothing. Which indeed they might. Gryffindors have faith and pride, Slytherins stay safe and hide. Cutty still did not place too much stock in the whole house thing, with the exception of Ravenclaw girls being quite insane and understanding the houses as a means of topic when he'd go and get his dosages from his Head of House.

She liked to feel proud of her house.

"I am a noble boy." He said as if he were commenting on the temperature of the lake into her snaps and taking the soft purple cloth to the surface of another crystal ball. "And, do yer mean an O for effort is worth more than an A for result?" He asked looking at his work starting the spiral small then growing it out and around the largest part of the crystal.

Making two cups of tea she took one back over to Cutty and set it on the table not to interfere with his work. "There you are Cutty." She moved away from the table to work on dusting off some of the other things in the room. He had that well taken care of so no need to hoover over as he cleaned the Crystal Balls. "Oh if you could do the same with those mirrors, that would be a great help." She needed to make sure they were all clear of smudges as well.

She busied herself around the room, bouncing two and from cleaning and organizing. Not sticking to one thing long enough to finish, but piece by piece was getting it done. When Cutty spoke again she turned to him, "I'm not doubting that." Giving him a smile, he seemed like a very nice and noble child.

"I would say that success is all in what you make of it. If you give your best effort and help others along the way, then I would say you are being successful even before the result." She always wanted people to do their best and try instead of just saying they couldn't. If she could give credit for that alone she would.

Jasmine entered the Room of Serenity in a pretty good state of mind. She wasn't going to take on the crystal ball today. She wasn't quite ready for that just yet, but she was working up to it. Today though, she was there to see if any tidying up needed to be done. When Jasmine felt herself sliding into a dark place she tried to keep as busy as possible. Anything she could do to focus her mind on something positive was helpful.

Taking a moment to look around the room, Jasmine tried to decide what she would do first. She knew that it was Cutty's job to clean the crystal balls so she would not take on that task. Seeing some tea supplies that needed cleaning, she headed in that direction. Before she started, she made sure to clean her hands. Having taken care of that, Jasmine lined up the dirty cups, saucers and teapots. Then taking out her wand, she said, "Sourgify" and proceeded to clean all of the teacups. Next she tackled the saucers saying, "Scourgify" over and over until she was done. Finally, Jasmine cleaned the teapots. Of course there were fewer of those to deal with so it did not take long. Once she had finished everything, Jasmine took the dishes over to the cupboard and stored them neatly inside.

The room looked pretty good otherwise, but Jasmine went over to the shelves
and made sure that everything was neat and tidy......lining up here, straightening up there until she was satisfied with the result. Finally she thought about things that she could do the next time she came. Eyeing the crystal balls for a moment, Jasmine vowed that she would return soon and attempt scrying. Until then, she would do her best to help keep the room in good shape. Finished for now, she headed toward the door. Next stop, the Ravenclaw Common Room.

The scent of peppermint hit him in a waft from the hot cup and Cutty looked over at it. It's colour was distinct giving a secondary confirmation to its minty badness. He reached for the next crystal and readjusted the purple cloth on his hand glancing at the dirty he'd collected. Angel should be doing this. Angel and her still squeaky little voice.

The boy was smiling, and not just of his own accord, but returning Cassiopeia's pink and bright with his own monkey-like one. She didn't doubt his nobleness. He moved on to the next crystal and then the next as he listened to Professor Morgan's answer. Stopping mid-way through, he turned to take a sip from the tea and looked to Morgan. "Yer mean..." A sip and then a holding of his face together as the strength hit him. "It's a show of strength to help othehs?" He put the teacup down and continued with the purple cloth. "This one seems really eager to connect. Or is I joost me?" He commented on the large crystal ball he'd just finished.

Zhenya had somehow wandered up to the Divination tower. She didn't want to go searching through the classroom without Professor Cassie, so she decided to just poke her head into this room.

She poked her head in and felt immediately relaxed. Mmm, she liked this room. What was she doing again?

Oh yes, searching for a book.

She walked around the room a few times, trying not to disturb the room. She couldn't see anything.

Search all you like around the tea cups and crystal balls, but there is no Book of Fairy tales hidden in this room.