"So what many of your classmates referenced is actually correct." Tiara was proud that her students knew so much. It just proved that the school was fostering imaginative minds that wanted to learn. "The method of Kau Cim is, in a nutshell, exactly what maybe Mister Truebridge hypothesized: whichever stick falls out determines the number to interpret. Kau Cim always starts with a question asked by the supplicant. It should be something succinct and asked with conviction." Waffling back and forth in your mind would certainly not be helpful.

"So now, please take a few moments. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and relax your body." This really felt like that yoga stuff she had heard that Romanos was a big fan of. "I want you to think about the future, whether this coming week or something more far off. Each of us has something we are wondering about, something we would like a sign about." Tiara's was about her future at Hogwarts, but she needn't burden the students with that information.

"I will give you a few minutes to decide which question you would like to focus on for today's Kau Cim reading. Remain calm, quiet, and open-minded."

Adjusting her position slightly on the cushion, Tiara closed her eyes and attempted to calm her mind, even as she was asking the students to do.

Yay, Davie got another mention! Hehe. He was warming up to Arithmancy (and Divination) more and more every lesson. It helped that the professors for these subjects were generally warm and well-educated, too. And he was getting better at meditation too, since like all the professors here made them try it... or so it seemed.

He sank down into his cushion and closed his eyes, gently resting his hands on his knees as he started to think about the future. Hmm. Spring. Start of summer. His birthday! The end of the school year! Oh yeah! Summer was awesome. He didn't know what he was going to do this summer though.... was he going to go on vacation? Spend some time in the sun? Now Davie knew what question he wanted to ask.

So Dante had to ask the sticks a question about his future and then they were suppose to answer it. Sounds like an old school magic eight ball. Though more work. He did not mind the mediation as such because he was fine with not thinking about stuff for a while. But he was already as relax as he would get so yeah.

Done, Professor Tanner.

Dante though about his future and he did not really have any pressing questions to answer. Maybe if he would get a date with Eureka. But really that is just something he really should not being going to a the sticks for an answer to. It was true.So question.

Well how about is Tanner going to forget to give them homework?

He liked the question. She probably will give them homework.

But it was worth a shot.

So Janelle's answer was kinda right, which was good. She took a few notes as Professor Tanner spoke. Now they had to relax? Man, Hogwarts was all about relaxing and meditating and deep breathing this year. Janelle guessed that was not a bad thing, really. She was actually getting kind of good at it and it did seem to help her concentration.

Janelle closed her eyes and took a deep cleansing breath. Exhaling, she tried to let all of the tension out of her body. After repeating the breaths several times, she began to shake out her hands and feet. Then she rolled her head around in a circle, trying to relax her neck. One more deep breath and Janelle felt ready, but not really.

First, Janelle needed to come up with a question to ask during the activity. This was the hard part. She couldn't think of a good question to ask. Well, there was one thing that she wanted to know. It didn't have to do with her, but with one of her family members. Janelle would need a minute to decide. Was that the question that she should go with or should she come up with something else? Hopefully she had time to work it out.

Yep, he was correct. Phew! Thank you, NEWT reading!

The Hufflepuff scribbled his notes down, adding stuff that his classmates referenced too. Well, some of their stuff once Tanner had corrected or modified it. Then he turned his eyes back to her as she continued.

Ahh, here went the yoga stuff. Adi closed his eyes, only opening them briefly to peek at his surrounding classmates to see if the were doing it too. He quickly closed it back though before taking deeeeep breaths and relaxing himself. Oh, wait! He was already relaxed! Hehe.

Sooo, which question should he think about? NEWTs popped up instant. Naturally... the exams were becoming ever more heavy on his mind. So yes, he had his question. Would he be passing all the subjects that he would be taking this time around too?

Had she somehow touched a nerve with the divination comment? Paulina honestly considered the art to be divination though she could see how it also applied to Arithmancy. Maybe she should have kept that part to herself, but at least Professor Tanner could see where she was coming from with that opinion.

Closing her eyes, she took deep breaths until she could feel her body totally relax. This lesson was so calming - it helped her deal with the growing stress of upcoming NEWT exams. That was what she wanted to ask about since she couldn't even go to University to study Herbology further until she passed the required tests.

Would she get good results on her NEWTs?

Paulina liked that question.

Angel smiled as she listened to the Professors answers and now they had to try and think of a question. Well that was good... she had loads some more important than the others though there was a single question that she really wanted the answer too. So now she was going to figure out how to word the question she wanted to know the answer too. She was also wondering what question her sister would want to ask, she had this funny feeling she knew what it would be but well she would find out.

Interesting...

Personally he preferred to interpret meaning from numbers over other means. Divination was a little too hocus pocus for his liking. Despite his fish entrails claiming he would have conflict, there hadn't been any yet, not in any form that he could tell at least. The onion spouting, reading tea leaves, gastromancy whatever and gazing into crystal balls was not up his ally. In all of those cases he was able to manufacture the meaning he WANTED to gain from it, and so it was highly debatable. Numbers though, numbers didn't lie... he had learned that much in his four years here.

Following Professor Tanner's instructions, Zeke closed his eyes, cracking his neck to the left and to the right before settling into controlled breathing, thinking of what he might want to ask.

His life was pretty good right now, with nothing he was overly unsure of. Things at home were good, things with Maggie were good... no, great, better than great... he had no issues with friends, and his classes were... well.......

OWLs.

He had so many unanswered questions about OWLs, but which ONE to ask was beyond him.

There were the generic questions like: Would he get good results on his OWLs? Would he fail any of his OWLs? Would he graduate with good results? OR... there were more specific questions, like... Would he end up taking HoM OWLs? Would he be successful if he did? Would he achieve at least five O's on his OWLs? -- which is what he was gunning for. Alternatively he could also opt to ask about his future career path. Would he become a Curse Breaker? Would he become an Obliviator? Would he do something else?

So many questions, so many answers. All the possibilities.

In the end he settled for one in the not too distant future. Would he achieve at least five O's on his OWLs next year?

Chinese divination.

Sticks and numbers.

Well Benny was doing his best to follow along but he was listening not answering. And when Tanner spoke up again, he was adding to his notes for reference until she instructed them to take a moment or so to relax and come up with the question they each were to answer for their own prediction. Easier said than done when the future, both recent and further away was mildly making him anxious as the term wore on.

But the seventh year obeyed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breathe as he tried to think. Benny adjusted himself in his seat on the cushion as he worked on avoiding his mind going in a wrong direction. Distractions did no good to his thoughts. Which in turn did no good to his picking something to zero in on.

Focus...focus...what did he want to focus on?

Zander did as was told and closed his eyes and all that stuff... The relaxing was the hardest bit, but he was trying his best. The question though... Zander had SO many questions about the future. Other than avoiding uni, he had no proper plans at all... Which meant LOADS of questions. The entire future was a big ol' question mark, actually.

So it would take him some time to come up with a proper tangible one. However, he tried to sit and pretend as if he did have an answer in mind. Hopefully he'd be able to set on one. But he wanted to know the answers to them all, y'know?

Merlin. Who knew picking something so simple could be the hardest part of the entire lesson!? Uh, they weren't going to do anything harder... Right? Because Zander was sort of banking on this. AHem.

So this actually was making a lot of sense so far and Tia was enjoying the way Tanner was explaining the topic. As she dutifully jotted down a couple notes on the subject, the sixth year inhaled and then exhaled, before closing her eyes as she was told. Focus on the future. Surely it shouldn't be too hard; she was sixteen, going on seventeen.

Except the thing that first popped into her head didn't really concern her at all. Focus, Tia. It doesn't matter what other people are doing with their lives, what matters is you. Ugh. So apparently this narrowing down to one or two questions about the future was a lot harder than she imagined and some things she wondered about, she really didn't want to share in the public classroom.

At least she was relaxed.

Finally, after much deliberation, she settled on something simple; will I be recognized for anything after I'm gone at Hogwarts or will it be as if I never existed?

Norah shut her eyes and began taking long, deep breaths. Relaxing was always so much harder than it sounded. She supposed she'd gotten better at it, what with Professor Myers and all his meditation stuff, but somehow she still couldn't go more than a few seconds before getting swept up by a whole nother train of thought. It was very rude of her brain to do that, y'know. It just never seemed to learn.

She took breath after breath, until finally her mind was ready (as it'd ever be) to focus on her question. An OWL-related question, to be exact, 'cause as much as she didn't want to think about those, there seemed to be a whole set of new ones every time they were mentioned.

Hmm, okay. So this Kau Chim stuff didn't sound too hard to figure out. Plus, Kate got to relax in class, which was always a plus. She closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath. The professor hadn't said to do it slowly, but that just helped Kate relax a little better. She tried to think about her future, but at fourteen, that sounded so far off, that she had a hard time thinking past fourth or fifth year or so.

At least this coming week counted for the future. Kate tried to think about her end-of-the-year marks. She hadn't put as much into this school year as she normally did, but she thought that was probably because she had tried to be more sociable this year. Focus, Kate. The classroom got quiet, so Kate tried to rid her mind of any other distractions and focus solely on the question she wanted to ask.

From the start of the lesson when Tanner had said the day's topic would be related to divination - at which Sophie had groaned - she'd been mentally checked out. Though the subjects had their similarities, she thought that arithmancy at least was based upon a more exact science. Working with numbers and things of that sort made a lot of sense, whereas a lot of the time divination was... just way out there. Not as concrete as set-in-stone things were regarding the numbers and things they studied in this class. She didn't know anything about the Chinese Fortune Sticks or whatever fancy shmancy names Tanner had called them, but they did pique her interest considerably.

And even further, then, when Tanner went into explaining them more in depth. They would ask a question... and whatever the number on whichever stick fell out would be the answer? Had to be a pretty good question, then, if things were this serious.

Doing as instructed, Soph got comfy and rolled her shoulders a bit, working the tension out of her body - but not before glancing over at Zander beside her, just to see what he was doing, too. But then her eyes were closed and she thought. A dangerous thing these days, as thoughts tended to drift back to the tragedy just a few short months ago, but they were being encouraged to think about the future, so she did just that as well as she could. She thought about graduation, about leaving Hogwarts, about leaving her friends and her professors behind, about Zander and her future with him, about Tobes and her future with him, and... she gave a deeeeep, pensive sigh.

What did she want a sign about? The most dangerous question of all.

But she already knew precisely what she wanted to ask.

Tiara took to watching her students relax, which could actually be quite telling. First she sought out her eagles: Sophie Brown was rolling her shoulders, David Truebridge was smiling contentedly, and Janelle Guidry was shaking out her arms. Then there was Benjamin Atreyu picking at his cushion and Zeke Brown cracking his neck. The rest of the students were mostly sitting still and silently focusing.

"Just a few more moments, everyone," she called softly so as to not startle them. After an appropriate pause, she took out her wand and pointed it into the corner of the room. "The cim buckets are now making their way towards you," she said as several black bamboo tubes settled into the center of their gathering. "Once you open them you will see 78 Kau Cim sticks, each with one end painted red and the other inscribed with a number."

She had never intended to ask the students what questions they were seeking answers for as that could be quite personal. Therefore she wanted to make sure they were comfortable with their partners, as they were about to hear their partners' futures. "Now I need you to pair up with someone who will be performing your reading. You may share with them the question you will be asking if you desire, but it is certainly not required."

Blaise already knew the question on his mind. It was something that had been plaguing him since he'd gotten to Hogwarts and he didn't think it would stop until he got a response. That was what this reading was for...yeah?

Blaise closed his eyes, taking a DEEEEEP breath as he did.

It was admittedly very hard to relax given what was currently the topic of his concentration but the boy's shoulder's slumped some nonetheless. His overall posture may seem to have relaxed but the more he thought was the worse he felt. If he was being honest, this hadn't been the most promising year and he didn't think it would get any better.

Without really thinking about it, his brows knitted and his eyes squeezed shut. Could they stop thinking about this now? The future wasn't looking so great.

There was instant relief after the Professor put an end to the reflection. His eyes shot open without further invitation and the boy looked about for the buckets containing the sticks. His guess was they were meant to take one and so he took four. The logic? If he didn't like the reading off the sticks in one of the buckets, he still had another three chances at a happy future.

It all made sense, really, then he turned to look at his fellow classmates.

"Anyone need a partner?"

When Tanner quietly spoke to them again, Adi opened his eyes. He was done thinking up of his question. He briefly looked at Benny as he wondered if his bestie- boyfriend had gotten hold of a question and if he had, what was it.

But looky! Tanner was having those containers with the sticks levitated to them. Cool! Adi happily snagged one. Yep, loads of sticks in there with an end in red and the other with a number inscribed on it would be in there. As for partners? Well, his was right next to him. He looked over at Benny. “I’m wondering if I’ll pass all my NEWTs,’’ he told him. Nah, he didn’t need to ask if they should partner up or even suggest it. Also, he had no misgivings about sharing the question. They couple always told each other everything, anyway.

It was a lot harder to relax when thinking about the future, the more she thought about it, and Sophie grew convinced that it was impossible to TRULY be relaxed when considering the future at all. There were SO many uncertainties and SO many things to be anxious about, and though she had a lot of her own things settled...

She was worried about the young man beside her. Her boyfriend and HIS future, which... also meant their future. It was her future, too, if it was his.

It wasn't that she was worried that his future wasn't going to be bright. No, she knew he would find his niche and achieve beautiful, brilliant things and change the world. That was the kind of guy he was. He was sweet and compassionate and more than just the silly Zander Adair most of Hogwarts saw. He was so much more than people gave him credit for, and that was what worried her: people discouraging him from achieving his full potential and plaguing his thoughts with rotten self-esteem issues. The views of his peers getting to his head and fogging his confidence that he had been building, and thinking he was going to be less than he really was. She was worried that he would fall into a toxic mindset of selling himself short, of thinking he couldn't be what he wanted to be, and of being too deflated by the world around him to discover what dream he wanted to pursue in the first place.

That worried her. That the world would take its toll on him before he even got the opportunity to grab it by the horns and seize the day.

"Partner?" she asked the Head Boy beside her, her eyes open and her expression slightly concerned for him. She could only imagine the kinds of questions he wanted to ask, but she assumed he trusted her to do his reading more than anyone.

They were moving on to the activity already?

That was rather fast.

Opening her container, Paulina looked inside. She had already seen these sticks before, but it was still rather interesting for her. Now she would have the chance to do a reading on one of her classmates and this should be rather fun. Since she wasn't asking a personal question there was also no need to be uncomfortable in sharing it with her partner.

"Who wants to work with me?"

This relaxation stuff was not working the way he assumed it was meant to. But he was really trying. And it was probably evident too, what with the way he was forcing his eyes to stay shut. Definitely evident. But alas, what more could he do... Really? Wasn't Arithmancy supposed to be about numbers anyway?

He was one of the first to open his eyes when time was called, still unsure of what question he was going to ask. How ironic. Zander Adair seemed unsure about a lot of things lately. Beautiful irony.

But that wasn't really important at the moment because they were picking partners and there seemed to be a handful of people that needed one. Immediately he looked around, on instinct, however, he knew that Arithmancy belonged to Soph. It was their thing. Ever since that one time when Tanner took them outside to do chalk. Always partnered up with Sophie Brown. As annoying as it probably seemed to everyone else around him... Zander knew this decision was already made and quite frankly he was sort of glad? Firstly, it was SOPHIE BROWN and she was gorgeous. And his GIRLFRIEND, like WHUT yes this was actually real life. Ahem. And secondly, he wasn't sure that he wanted anyone else to know his future...

Or lack thereof.

He did however feel a twinge of guilt when he saw Blaise looking around for a companion. Working with the boy probably would've meant regaining trust with him and maybe being able to more easily convince the boy to attend all his classes... But no, Arithmancy was Sophie's.

So he turned to face her right in the nick of time too because there was a question posed at him, "I'd be honored," he beamed widely. Heh. Duh. Work with the prettiest and smartest girl in the entire school? Didn't have to ask him twice.

With his question decided - he supposed - Zeke opened his eyes as Professor Tanner continued to direct them. The black tube things were a curious thing, and when Zeke accepted one for himself, he removed the lid to see the red-painted ends. Neat.

But then... partners.

He had hoped this was something they could do by themselves, but apparently not.

Spotting the first year Lion (Blaise!), Zeke held a hand up in his direction, "Me." Mmmhhmm. He needed a partner too. So without waiting for a response he closed that gap between them, fist-bumping the small dude in the shoulder. Hi.

"What's your question?" he asked without thinking it might be 'rude'. He was just curious is all.

Hady closed her eyes slowly taking in a breath before letting it out. The main goal was to relax which was easy enough to do really. Her problem would be selecting a question she wanted to know the answer to. Something that's been on her mind a lot lately would do...only what?

After a few more breaths the fourth year opened her eyes and looked around the room silently. Everyone else seemed to be focusing on relaxing as well. Professor Tanner was once more speaking to them quietly and Hady glanced at the black tubes floated towards them. She still wasn't sure she entirely understood what they were doing but she figured it would make sense in a few more minutes.

What she needed now was a partner. So when she heard Paulina ask if anyone wanted to work with her Hady took that chance. They had worked together before and she liked the older girl. Walking towards the seventh year she gave her a light smile. "I will," she confirmed quietly. That was okay with her, right?

Angel was totally enjoying this lesson and now they were going to do something with a stick that had one end covered in red, she had a feeling this was going to be epic, but first she had to find a partner. "Anyone, want to be my Partner?"

Angel had relaxed as much as she thought she could and she had finally figure out which question to go with. It was important she knew the answer to it because if she didn't get the answer she wanted she could always change career paths whilst she was young right?

Janelle was as relaxed as she was going to get for this task. She had finally decided on a question to ask and this one was about her. The problem was, she didn't know if she could share it with her partner. It was kind of something she wanted to keep to herself. Janelle wished that she could be partners with Zeke 'cause he already knew her issues. Unfortunately, he was taken.

Looking around the room, Janelle spotted someone she thought might be in need of a partner. It was someone she wouldn't mind working with. Walking over to Angel, she made her pitch."Would you like to be partners?". Janelle had worked with the older girl before and hoped that she'd agree to give it one more go.

Okay so Benny thought he might have an idea of a question to ask, so a few more moments was fine. Soon enough the sets of sticks they were supposed to be using were given out and the Gryffindor grabbed a set for him to use in particular. The tube and the sticks were there and he could vaguely make out the markings Professor Tanner had mentioned would be present upon each of them.

As for partners, while he was open for offers, he was more than comfortable with working with Adi beside him. For most of what he was curious about and willing to ask a question about pertained to both of them so it was better to share it with his boyfriend than work with another friend now and let them find out something personal before he shared or didn't share it with Adi.

Benny nodded as the other boy shared his question, understanding the concern about their NEWTs. "Alright..." However he figured they shouldn't both ask questions on the same vein, so the Gryffindor decided to definitely switch more personal. Except he had something he wasn't sure about and raised his hand to get the professor's attention. "Um...professor? Is there a limit to what type of question it can be? Like yes or no or something?"