Henry had been busy snacking on the bag of crisps he had stashed in his backpack while class had gotten underway. He really didn't know which of the foods would be best for Divination. Sure, he had his guesses, but they were just that - guesses. And his classmates had plenty of those too, though Professor Cassie soon let the class know what the correct answer was.

The fish and the onion, though it seemed clear that they'd be focusing on the fish first as he soon had one in front of him. It looked pretty neat, if he were honest, though it was awfully smelly. Henry wasn't sure what any other names for Ichthyomancy might be. The only thing that came to his mind was fish.. omancy. And he was pretty sure that was not right so he stayed silent.

Then the twelve year old shot a quick glance to David when he heard his answer for the second question. Er, gross.. the wouldn't really be pulling out its innards, would they? He squinted back down at the dead fish. Maybe he'd have a halfway decent guess and professors did seem to like participation, so he raised his hand.

"Does it have anything to do with their smell? Or maybe looking at something in their scales..?" He didn't really know.. but those were the first two things that came to mind when looking at his dead, smelly fish.

Colt saw Professor Cassie giving him snaps and hey it was a good guess. I mean the fish did stink after all. He was not looking forward to reading the fish though. He heard Professor Cassie's question and he was kind of confused. He obviously had no idea why they would use a fish for a reading. Did he have any guesses. Well maybe one of them. He raised his hand and said, "Well maybe we are gonna learn about fish just for the halibut." Hopefully Professor Cassie got the joke. "I guess maybe we can do something for their scales?" he said looking at them.

There was a dead fish in front of him. Like, a raw one. And it was pretty gross. Olly leaned down a bit so his eyes were level with the fish. He peered at it for a moment, and poked it. What kind of secrets was that fish going to reveal? Could they reanimate it and ask questions about its death and stuff? That would be pretty cool. Wait no, this was Divination not History of Magic. Could animals become ghosts?

His hand went into the air, even though he had no idea how to tell the future based on this fish. "Does it only work to use a dead fish? Or a raw one?" He supposed the answers to those questions would be pretty obvious once he knew exactly what they were going to do. But he didn't feel like waiting to find out. He wanted the answers handed to him. Merlin forbid he might have to figure it out for himself.

When were they going to do something? Olly poked the fish again. He decided that he would name it Liam. Yep, Liam the fish who can see the future.

What would they be doing today? Professor Cassie's lessons were always fun. Divination with fish and onions. That sounded interesting. Penelope had been snacking on apple slices and carrot sticks before Professor Cassie mentioned dead fish. Dead fish? Losing her appetite at the thought of dead fish, Penelope stopped eating her snack. She did not like where this was going. "Is it something to do with the entrails of the fish? The Romans and the Etruscans practiced haruspicy, divination by animal entrails. I think that involved sheep liver." Maybe it wasn't the same thing. She had heard of chickens and sheep being used for haruspicy, but as far as she knew fish were not used. Were they going to have to dissect fish for this and examine fish guts? Penelope wasn't sure if she would be able to handle that, because dead fish smell and fish guts. Maybe they wouldn't have to cut open dead fish and look at their internal organs. It could be something else that they would be looking at. Why couldn't it have been watching the behavior of live fish?

Taking another sip she side eyed the fish, no this wasn't one of her favorite forms of divination, but she would suck it up for her class. She was hoping they would enjoy it even it if might just be the boys.

SPOILER!!: replies

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

No, Davie did not know the other names for itchy-thy-yo-mancy, or however you said it. He was sure his textbook had some commentary on it, but his fingers currently had chocolate on them, and he wasn't about to put his sticky chocolate fingers into his precious textbook. No no no no, he could answer the second question by raising his sticky fingers.

"We have to cut off its head!" the first year declared. He kinda wanted to see the nice professor do this. "Or use its entrails, I think." See, that kind of related to his original idea of feeding animals the food items....

She was going to have to send Annie a note, yes she would try to remember after class. She wanted to let her know how great her son was at Divination. Such a natural. She gave him snaps, "We won't be cutting it's head, but we will be cutting it. The entrails are exactly what we look at during this form of divination."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Adi smirked at Benny. Did he know his dragon or what? Just look at him all pinkish. Ehehe. That nickname was going to stick forever, though.
As he lowered his hand after answering the question. Was it just him or did Cassie look a little... green? Something seriously was off with the woman today. Maybe he would ask about it later. You know, as a concerned student and since she was one of his favourite Professors. Oh, and he saw you, Hades! Adi grinned as he watched her laughing, raising the Frog as though doing a toast.
....................

Uh, no. Adi did not remember either of the two other names though he had read about them during his study sessions. Heh. You'd think he would retain stuff he revised. Okay, he couldn't remember everything but he did think he could remember what they needed to do for a fishy reading. Also, did Cassie have to say she didn't harm the fishes? Everyone should already know that she hadn't.

Adi raised his hand again. "We observe the fish's appearance, I think.'' He eyed the fish before him, now munching on a bit of chocolate covered pretzel he snagged from the boyfriend. He swallowed quickly before continuing. "Their behaviour is also something that can be used but not in this case.'' Because they were deaaad. Poor fishies.

"Yes and no, part of this form is to observe fish in their environment. Since these fish aren't moving we will be doing the other part of this reading." She gave snaps for his great answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

OH THANK MERLIN.

Paulina gave a sigh of relief. So long as they weren't mutilating animals she was okay with this lesson. And even if she wasn't concerned about animal rights, seeing fish heads and guts would turn just about anyone off.

Her alarm did return, however, when she was staring right at one of the dead creatures. They better have died of natural causes or Paulina wouldn't be happy. Killing animals was wrong and she didn't even harm insects. If they were in the house she just brought them back outside. Fact of the matter was that even if Professor Morgan hadn't killed them, someone else MIGHT HAVE.

Raising her hand, Paulina offered a guess. "Do we look at the fish's appearance? Maybe there is a pattern in its scales? Or something to do with its fins?"She had no idea.

Wouldn't that be lovely? She couldn't help but start to regret her decision for this lesson. She just hoped her potion would keep her breakfast from coming back up during the activity part. She gave Paulina snaps, " Nice observation, but the scales will not be what we look at today."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

Not sucromancy then? That was a shame, but it wasn't going to stop him from consuming his beans... the next was a delightfully tangy tangerine. TANGerine! Zeke didn't much fancy becoming a diviner... or seer or whatever, so he wasn't about to 'explore' his 'sucromancy' idea. He had better things to do with his time.

And ew.

Was she trying to make them lose their appetites? Onions weren't so bad, though not great... and fish.. he doubted very much that it would be presented baked in paper with dill and a squeeze of lemon. Shame... he could actually go for some of that right now.

"We gut it, Professor," he announced, convinced of this fact. Mmhhmm. Nice nasty gutting... and as for the onion... how was that connected? "Or... we look at layers? Fish have muscle layers, and onions have layers..." yep... it sounded legit to him. He wouldn't question it. How an 'inner eye' came into this he had no idea, nor did he particularly care.

Zeke as blunt and truthful as he was got snaps, "In a way we will be gutting them. We will be looking at the insides to do our reading."

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Fish? So she was right about that? To be honest, Ava just answered it randomly. Hehehe. Oh hello, dead fish. Too bad that they're dead already. Though fish was such a boring pet, but she loved seeing fish swimming around the pond or the fishbowl. "Maybe we're gonna see through the fish bone? or the shape?" The young lioness wasn't really sure. "Also... can we use any kind of fish?" Like... piranha? Or shark? Wooooo....

No this one had enthusiasm and Cassie was giving her snaps, "I do like your thoughts and they'd be so much more pleasant, but we will be doing something a bit different with these fish." Thinking for a moment she shrugged, "I've never read anything that gives a specific fish so I think any would work. "

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

They would be doing Divination with fish and onions. Um well alright then. Not the coolest items to use but she'd certainly give it a go just like with everything else. For all she knew this could be rather interesting to say the least.

Hady shifted in her seat sitting up more as she listened. She couldn't recall what either methods proper name was but that was alright. "I know that if the fish were still alive then we could study their movements but seeing as they are not any longer I'm hoping that we do what Paulina and Adi suggested and study the appearance." Mhmm she didn't feel much like cutting up an animal. So could they just look at the fish or something?

Hady was giving a good try and Cassie smiled at her with some snaps, "The appearance is nice, but that isn't what we will use today."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DinosaursOnASpaceship

Larissa just sat there and shrugged. She tried to best with this class but she was just horrible at it. It wasn't her fault that she couldn't fully grasp it but at least she was participating. That was the most important part and it prevented her from falling asleep or crying and that right now was a very good thing. Now on to the fish. The brunette didn't know whatsoever, what was something that could be done with a fish in this class. "Does it reference to a body of water somehow?" Honestly that was worth a guess.

She looked towards the seventh year and thought a moment, body of water? That was an interesting thought, "No, but I could see where you would come up with that." Snaps for Larissa.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

“No thanks, I’m not hungry” he waved his hand at the muffin she was trying to give him. It was a nice gesture but no thanks. The fact that Norah thought his transfigured tie looked good made him beam. He smiled broadly at the tie because he had failed multiple times before it had worked. Showed that working hard paid off. Her comment about the sparkles made him snap his fingers. Cause this was Divination and finger snapping happened here when someone had a good idea.

But because class had begun and Yoongi didn’t want to interrupt the class with his chatter, so he leaned in closer to the Hufflepuff Prefect to whisper “You should lend me some of those sparkles”. He grinned as he sat back in his own personal space and looked at the Professor like nothing happened.

So they were going to divination with fish….huh…weird. What was even weirder was the name of the fish divination ichtyomancy. It sounded very ..itchy… Anyways, the Gryffindor thought of what they could do with that form of Divination and the first thing that came in to his mind was ‘cut off their heads’ which sounded really brutal to him so he kept it to himself…..unlike a certain Ravenclaw First year over there…. Heh. “Maybe use the bones of the fish…?”

Bone of the fish, she thought of how many uses the fish bones have. "A fish bone is very important, but not for this type of Divination. Good try though." She gave him snaps for trying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sararara

Even if he didn't want any muffin, sparkle sharing could happen for SURE. Duh. She smiled and nodded quickly, only registering how close he'd gotten when he leaned back again. Huh. There were more important things to pay attention to, though, like not failing her Divination OWL which was probably likely at this point because fish and onions? Really?? Of all the good foods she could've picked, Professor Cassie picked those. No wonder she wasn't looking happy as usual.

Norah wrote Ichthyomancy on top of her parchment. Well, it took her a few tries to spell it right, but at least she got there eventually. Ichthyomancy. How was she even supposed to know how to SAY that? This is what happened when you picked a bad food. Brownie-omancy like Zander had mentioned sounded much more pleasant. Nevertheless, she put a hand up in the air to take a guess about this fish thing. "Maybe we can REVIVE the fish, and watch how it swims around to learn something about the future." Live fish were 2387498237x more fun than dead fish. Everybody knew that.

Oh gosh!! "No, no we can never bring back from the dead just communicate with them." She wanted to communicate with the dead and her thoughts of that being her lesson came back to her. It was a nice thought though so she got snaps as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel looked at the Professor and smiled as she raised her hand. "Professor are we going to be asking them by looking at them to see what they know?" Angel hoped they weren't going to be cutting them up because even though they were dead she didn't think she could cut one up.

She couldn't help but blink at Angel for a few moments, "Umm.. no, we can't ask dead fish things and expect them to answer."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Okay, ew.

The onion didn't really bother her, since she knew that the worst that could happen with it is starting to cry when cutting it up (not to mention, she had onion flavor in her snack). But fish had guts inside. Gross, disgusting guts that she would rather not have to look at. Or, you know, prepare to see her potato chips in reverse.

"Maybe we look at their eyes.....?" Please let them at least be looking at the outside of the fish. Heather was enjoying her chips too much to see them come back up today.

She gave Heather snaps, "This would be nice if they were alive so you could see their thoughts and feelings by reading their eyes, but as a dead fish has no emotion it won't be what we read today."

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Henry had been busy snacking on the bag of crisps he had stashed in his backpack while class had gotten underway. He really didn't know which of the foods would be best for Divination. Sure, he had his guesses, but they were just that - guesses. And his classmates had plenty of those too, though Professor Cassie soon let the class know what the correct answer was.

The fish and the onion, though it seemed clear that they'd be focusing on the fish first as he soon had one in front of him. It looked pretty neat, if he were honest, though it was awfully smelly. Henry wasn't sure what any other names for Ichthyomancy might be. The only thing that came to his mind was fish.. omancy. And he was pretty sure that was not right so he stayed silent.

Then the twelve year old shot a quick glance to David when he heard his answer for the second question. Er, gross.. the wouldn't really be pulling out its innards, would they? He squinted back down at the dead fish. Maybe he'd have a halfway decent guess and professors did seem to like participation, so he raised his hand.

"Does it have anything to do with their smell? Or maybe looking at something in their scales..?" He didn't really know.. but those were the first two things that came to mind when looking at his dead, smelly fish.

The smell, it was bad and it smelled even worse to Cassie. She glanced at the fish once again, "No, we won't be smelling it, but those are both great guesses. The scales are nice to look at, but not quite." He got snaps, because great thoughts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Colt saw Professor Cassie giving him snaps and hey it was a good guess. I mean the fish did stink after all. He was not looking forward to reading the fish though. He heard Professor Cassie's question and he was kind of confused. He obviously had no idea why they would use a fish for a reading. Did he have any guesses. Well maybe one of them. He raised his hand and said, "Well maybe we are gonna learn about fish just for the halibut." Hopefully Professor Cassie got the joke. "I guess maybe we can do something for their scales?" he said looking at them.

Fish humor, oh gosh, she laughed at the joke and gave snaps. "Good try, but not quite."

Quote:

Originally Posted by littledhampir

There was a dead fish in front of him. Like, a raw one. And it was pretty gross. Olly leaned down a bit so his eyes were level with the fish. He peered at it for a moment, and poked it. What kind of secrets was that fish going to reveal? Could they reanimate it and ask questions about its death and stuff? That would be pretty cool. Wait no, this was Divination not History of Magic. Could animals become ghosts?

His hand went into the air, even though he had no idea how to tell the future based on this fish. "Does it only work to use a dead fish? Or a raw one?" He supposed the answers to those questions would be pretty obvious once he knew exactly what they were going to do. But he didn't feel like waiting to find out. He wanted the answers handed to him. Merlin forbid he might have to figure it out for himself.

When were they going to do something? Olly poked the fish again. He decided that he would name it Liam. Yep, Liam the fish who can see the future.

"Yes dead and raw. Cooked wouldn't work because the insides would already be removed. We need them untouched." He got snaps for his questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

What would they be doing today? Professor Cassie's lessons were always fun. Divination with fish and onions. That sounded interesting. Penelope had been snacking on apple slices and carrot sticks before Professor Cassie mentioned dead fish. Dead fish? Losing her appetite at the thought of dead fish, Penelope stopped eating her snack. She did not like where this was going. "Is it something to do with the entrails of the fish? The Romans and the Etruscans practiced haruspicy, divination by animal entrails. I think that involved sheep liver." Maybe it wasn't the same thing. She had heard of chickens and sheep being used for haruspicy, but as far as she knew fish were not used. Were they going to have to dissect fish for this and examine fish guts? Penelope wasn't sure if she would be able to handle that, because dead fish smell and fish guts. Maybe they wouldn't have to cut open dead fish and look at their internal organs. It could be something else that they would be looking at. Why couldn't it have been watching the behavior of live fish?

She got the most snaps of all, "Very good Penelope, it is haruspicy and it does involved looking at the entrails. "

Moving towards the table again she lifted the fish, "Now Ichthyomancy deals with the entrails of this fish. We will look inside of the fish to determine our own fortune. It has been called aruspicy and haruspicy. Back in time it was about the sacrifice of the fish to give the reading. We now know that sacrificing an animal will not make your reading any truer then doing it the way we are right now. We did not harm nor kill these fish. They died and were preserved and sent to me." She could never actually kill anything.

"Now what we need to do with the fish is lay it long ways like this." Placing her fish long wise in front of her she took a deep breath. "Then you will take your wand and make a cut right here." Pointing her wand, "Diffindo " a cut moved across the fish and the smell made her step back a moment. "The next thing you do is open up the fish to look at the insides. You will want to look at the insides." She looked at the inside of her fish and frowned, [b] "If your fish has what looks like blocks in the intestines then it is said that you will have a challenge a head. Possibly a big decision to make."[B] She lifted her fish trying not to gag with it.

"Now go ahead and do this with your fish and you can find your answers for the readings on page 211."

.... Entrails? As in... Fish guts?

No thanks. Zander was out.

Alright, not really. He was still sitting. But it was against his will. There were PLENTY of things he'd rather be doing. Like read Hogwarts, A History in mermish, count all the candles in the Great Hall, study for NEWTs, scrub moaning mrytle's bathroom stall with his toothbrush, step in a room full of angry centaurs. Plenty of things. Fish guts were the last on his list.

Still he kept his nose pinched with one hand, as he lifted his wand with the other. "Diffindo," he pointed his wand and "Eugh," he was gonna be sick. This was horrifying. Poking his wand at it, he slowly opened up the SWEET MERLIN WHY MUST BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

Was he being dramatic? Maybe. But he was also staring at fish intestines. So there's that.

Okay honestly not how sure how accurate this assumption was, but Zander didn't want to have to stick his head close to the fish for any longer. So blocked. He was pretty sure the entrails were blocked. Meaning some sort of decision or challenge. Which made sense, as he was graduating this term. Graduating this term and never gonna be forced to look inside of fish guts for the rest of his life. Could they throw these away now please? His nose was starting to go numb with how hard his hand was squeezing it at this point.

Aha. So the fishes had to be moving to observe them. Adi had thought they could just look at them even of they were dead and do interpretations from their scale patterns or something. However, he nodded at Cassie. Yep, he heard ya loud and clear, Professor!

Now that Cassie was moving on, the Hufflepuff scribbled some notes then eyed his poor dead fishy. He laid it as the Divination had before grabbing his wand. "Diffindo!'' He made a cut like hers, the escaping stench not bothering him a bit. He had gone fishing with his dad and uncle loads of times and had gutted the creatures so this was no big deal.

Adi flipped his book to page 211 then peeled back the two sides of the fish's belly to peer inside at the guts. Oh, looky. Clear entrails! What did that mean? Cue the dark haired guy peering at his text book. Fortune and success! This had him grinning. Yep, he was going to make this reading come through. Mhmm.

She was right about haruspicy and entrails. Unfortunately, that meant that they would have to look at fish guts. Grabbing her textbook, she opened it to page 211. Might as well have an idea of what she was looking for and what it could mean before cutting open the fish. How were they supposed to know the difference between knotted, clear, and blocked? This was something that would require actually looking at the fish guts to find the answer. Penelope positioned her fish in front of her the way that Professor Cassie had demonstrated. Pointing her wand at the fish she cast, "Diffindo." Ewww, more dead fish smell. Even worse, she could actually see the entrails of the fish now.

She couldn't concentrate on what the entrails meant. Were they clear? Knotted? Penelope had never looked inside a fish before, but she was pretty sure that most intestines sort of looked like knots. Or maybe not. She wasn't eager to cut open more fish to find out. All she could see was fish guts that did not seem at all significant to her, and everything smelled horrible. Penelope started to gag because of the smell, but not enough to make her vomit yet. Did they have any of that potion stuff that made you not vomit?

They were gutting them.

Zeke shoved one last bean in his mouth and packed his sweets into his bad. He was NOT going to get fish guys on them, there was already enough risk involved with the favours in his box, he didn't needs flecks of entrails churning his stomach.

After watching the demonstration, Zeke grabbed himself a fish, lay it flat on its side... and looked around.

It was fishy smelling, and it seemed worse for those that were closer to them.

...

He was not going to deal with that.

The first thing he did, was cast a bubble-head charm on himself, the fresh air very much appreciated. Honestly, what would he do without charms? Hmm? They were dead useful, he somehow doubted these fish guys would be of ANY use to him. On a serious note though, it was times like these he was thankful for Charms being his best subject. SO thankful.

Wand pointed at his fish, Zeke cast, "Diffindo," effectively slicing it open.

It looked gross, but at least he couldn't smell it. Aaaaaahhhhhh fresh air.

Heh, bless Norah for wanting to revive the fish and watch them swim around. He looked at her as she spoke and suddenly realised that her hair was sticking in every direction. How did that happen? He chuckled and was wondering if he should say something about it or not. Deciding that he should tell her with body language, Yoongi nudged the Hufflepuff in her side so that he again, didn’t disturb the class and made a motion with his hand by flattening his own hair and then pointed at hers. If she didn’t get the hint than at least he would be the one with gorgeous hair, just saying.

Moving on, Yoongi stared at the fish in front of him and he definitely looked like he was regretting going to this lesson already. And they even had to open them up?! Oh Merlin’s Beard this was going to be disgusting… Grabbing his wand, the Gryffindor pointed it at the fish and with a non-verbal ‘Diffindo’ he cut the fish like the Professor had showed. The smell was awful and he coughed as he tried to breathe through his mouth. Looking at their insides?! Wasn’t cutting them up horrible enough? When he ate fish he was glad to only see the meat part and not the …the ..head and the tail and and….he gagged and had to look away.

Instead, he decided to open his textbook and flipped the pages until he got to page 211, then he peeled back the sides of the fish and stared at the insides. It looked to him that the fish’s entrails were…knotted? Perhaps blocked? He wasn’t exactly sure so he gathered up his courage to open the fish a bit more. Making another gagging sound, Yoongi found out that the entrails were definitely knotted. How did that even happen?

He grabbed his text book and read what this meant. He’ll have a conflict? “I don’t want to have a conflict” he whined and pouted sadly.

They were cutting open the fish and looking at its guts. That was so cool. It was super gross, but that just made it even cooler. He eagerly took out his wand and pointed it at the fish. "Diffindo!" He cut open the side of the fish so he could see its guts. Who on earth had discovered that form of divination? Somebody who spend a lot of time looking at fish guts?

Olly used his fingers to separate the sides of the fish skin that he had just cut, so he could look between them at the guts. What were they gong to say about his future? He kept looking, but there didn't seem to be anything strange going on. The entrails, that's what the book said they were called, seemed to be clear.

You will have great fortune and success. Aw, cool! He sure hoped Liam the great fortune telling fish was right about that.

Even though he wasn't squeamish, he didn't fancy touching fish guts... but he did it anyway. Reaching a finger into the cut he'd made along its side, he hooked his finger around what he presumed were the guts and YANKED.

...

They FELL out... all over the table... and ew. Just ew.

Again, SUPER thankful for his bubble-head charm. Fish was always nasty smelling until it was cooked, so he imagined a dead one being FAR worse, especially with its guts hanging out. And speaking of....

It was knotted.

Wiping his finger on his pants, Zeke grabbed his textbook and turned to the page Professor Cassie had references, 211 was it? He ran his index finger down the lines until-- AHA!... the fishymancy one. And then a head tilt, because, what? A conflict?


That was actually rather amusing.

Hady let out a slow exhale trying not to sigh to deeply about the thought of having to cut the fish open. Studying it's scales sounded much nicer honestly. It took a few moments for her to remind herself that Professor Cassie clearly stated that these poor fish weren't killed just so they could do this. There was NOTHING she could do for the fish, no healing or anything like that.

Slowly getting to her feet Hady choose herself a fish and returned to her desk laying it out before her. Grabbing her wand firmly in her hand and inhaling deeply through her mouth she held the breath in then let it out. This was going to get done. She would be okay even if the whole room smelled of dead fish and guts. Before she could continued on with her thoughts she pointed the wand at the fish, "Diffindo!," she cast moving her wand along the fish easily slicing it open like shown.

Crinkling her nose a little bit she tried not to make a face or gag as she checked out the entrails. She wasn't no expert on this stuff but from her point of view it appeared that the entrails seemed to be blocked up or something. From what was said moments earlier she already knew this to mean that she would have either a Challenge coming up possibly her upcoming duel in the Dueling Club or Decisions to Make which could mean plans for her party during the summer. Both situations seemed likely and weren't to hard to handle just so it wasn't anything else.

Oh. So they were going to be looking at the entrails. As much as the thought of it grossed Henry out, he also found it kind of interesting. He wondered what the fish truly looked like on the inside. The first year did his best to listen to what Professor Cassie was saying, then he grabbed his wand. The severing charm wasn't quite his best yet, but it was a basic charm and one that he had been practicing this year.

"Diffindo!" he commanded as he drew a line with his wand along the underbelly of the fish. Okay, so maybe it didn't cut all the way through the flesh on the entire line, but it was good enough for him to put his fingers through and tear the parts that weren't completely severed. It got the job done.

But grooosss. If Henry had thought the fish smelled bad before, it was nothing once the fish was opened up. He instinctively recoiled with his nose scrunched up before he got back to work. Okay.. what was he looking for? Henry pulled out some of the intestines, running the light grip of his hand over a section of them. He didn't see much difference with them, but maybe he should consult his book. Maybe he should have consulted his book before getting fish guts all over his hands.

Wiping his hands off on the back of his jeans, he pulled out his Divination book and flipped through it till he reach the appropriate page. Hmm. He pulled on the intestines again. There wasn't any sort of knot that he saw but he wasn't completely sure about a blockage or anything like that. Maybe that meant it was all clear and that he would have great fortune and success. That would be awesome! Maybe he really would be a great Quidditch AND Gobstones player one day!

Aw MAN. It really had to be dead? That was just tragic. If reviving a fish was possible Norah was ready to argue that it'd be a much better way to spend their time. Then the fish could be happy and alive and all that, even if they didn't know the future as a result of it. There were more important things, y'know? Don't tell Professor Cassie, though. She looked sad enough as it was.

She looked up from her notes (where she was sure she was spelling everything wrong) at Yoongi's nudge, eyebrows raised at his attempt at charades. She reached up to touch her own hair, and wasn't the slightest bit surprised to feel her curls sticking up in all sorts of directions. Her hair used to be like that all the time, before she'd given in to her mum's nagging and actually used her hairbrush vaguely frequently. Who cared, really. There were much more important things to pay attention to. Instead of flattening her hair, she waited until Professor Cassie wasn't looking, then reached down to grab the fluffy pink hat she'd discarded and jammed it onto Yoongi's head. Now THAT was worthy of attention.

Upon facing forward again, it wasn't hard to suppress her giggles on account of a very dead fish that she was meant to be working with. Norah took a ginormous breath and held it, then cast "Diffindo!" down the belly of her fish. Her dead fish. DEAD. It was still tragic, okay? She set her wand down and used both index fingers to poke the slit open. It felt kind of cool, really, if she ignored what she was touching. And how dead it was. Wrinkling her nose, she bent a bit closer to get a good look at the entrails. They looked....like guts. Go figure. The entire thing looked foreign, how was she supposed to know which object was too foreign to be considered fish guts? She stared a bit longer before deciding they were just plain old regular clear entrails, then pushed the fish as far away as she could without knocking it right off the desk. Alrighty. Could she be done?

Norah wiped her hands on the chair--her clothes were NOT getting dead remains on them, nuh uh--then cast "Scourgify" on every surface that could have even theoretically come in contact with the guts, including Yoongi's new pink hat. "I'm gonna have success! Maybe I'll win your conflict. OOH! Or maybe YOU'LL win your conflict and I'll be happy for you!"

So he and Adi, and anyone else who had mentioned fish or onions, had both been right about which foods present could be used in divination. And with that, there was a fish in front of them both thanks to Professor Morgan's wand movements. One dead fish in front of them all...great. Hint of sarcasm seeing as the not-so-nice sight didn't go all that well with the usually more upbeat flowery happiness of divination class. Hearing the answers about how they were to divine using the fish, Benny was seriously hoping the scale idea was the right choice.

Wrong.

Inside the fish only meant one thing. Bye bye to some appetite. Good thing he had only had one chocolate covered pretzel...any more would be saved for when he wasn't thinking on fish guts like the ones currently being displayed by the professor's demonstration. Otherwise he would surely not enjoy the treat that was one of the chocolate stuffs he actually liked.

Come on Atreyu...you can do this.

If only they had gloves like they would in Potions. Or COMC.

The seventh year making sure the fish was laid flat as shown before taking out his wand. He then propped open the book to be able to see the options while he looked inside the fish. Then with a deep breath to clear his nerves and fill his lungs with fresh air in preparation, he cut his fish with a clear "Diffindo!" A quick move or two of the skin with the tip of his wand gave him a slightly better look inside. Please be clear...please be clear. He could see Adi had gotten lucky beside him.

But alas no such luck for him.

It was either knotted or blocked he couldn't be sure without moving more .

The prospect of gutting a fish that was less than fresh was far from appealing to Sabbath. Surely, it wasn't a divining prerequisite for the fish to be past its prime. Apart from that, he was also looking pretty snappy in his pink satin suit and black pencil tie, and he wasn't keen to get fish entrails all over it. Grumbling, he flipped his text book open to page 211 and tied back his hair.

He watched the professor closely as she demonstrated the gutting procedure and the Diffindo spell, Sabbath picked up his wand and followed suit. “Diffindo” he said, lancing the fish lengthways to reveal the innards. "Pwoah!" he exclaimed, closing his eyes briefly as the unsavoury aroma reached his nostrils.

Not wanting to prolong the unpleasant task he quickly opened the fish, allowing the entrails to slither out onto the table. He stretched them out with the tip of his wand, his lip curling in disgust. He glanced at his textbook and back again at the entrails in an effort to devine the meaning. It seemed that his fish had revealed a blockage. He was unimpressed, but not surprised, he already knew he had some major challenges and decisions ahead of him.

So they WEREN'T looking at the scales.

It was worth a shot, and at least these fish had died natural deaths. Didn't mean Paulina wanted to GUT hers though. What had the poor animal ever done to her? Why couldn't she just observe it and try to make a reading from that? People were weird to think that looking at an animals guts could tell them their future...

Watching Professor Morgan give a demonstration, Paulina felt sick. She didn't think she could do this. Feeling a little shaky, she raised her hand. "I'm sorry but I don't think I can do this. I don't believe in cutting up animals. I don't even brew potions that require animal parts." Well, hair and blood were okay because they could be obtained by living things, but hearts were out of the question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Taking another sip she side eyed the fish, no this wasn't one of her favorite forms of divination, but she would suck it up for her class. She was hoping they would enjoy it even it if might just be the boys.

She was going to have to send Annie a note, yes she would try to remember after class. She wanted to let her know how great her son was at Divination. Such a natural. She gave him snaps, "We won't be cutting it's head, but we will be cutting it. The entrails are exactly what we look at during this form of divination."

Moving towards the table again she lifted the fish, "Now Ichthyomancy deals with the entrails of this fish. We will look inside of the fish to determine our own fortune. It has been called aruspicy and haruspicy. Back in time it was about the sacrifice of the fish to give the reading. We now know that sacrificing an animal will not make your reading any truer then doing it the way we are right now. We did not harm nor kill these fish. They died and were preserved and sent to me." She could never actually kill anything.

"Now what we need to do with the fish is lay it long ways like this." Placing her fish long wise in front of her she took a deep breath. "Then you will take your wand and make a cut right here." Pointing her wand, "Diffindo " a cut moved across the fish and the smell made her step back a moment. "The next thing you do is open up the fish to look at the insides. You will want to look at the insides." She looked at the inside of her fish and frowned, [b] "If your fish has what looks like blocks in the intestines then it is said that you will have a challenge a head. Possibly a big decision to make."[B] She lifted her fish trying not to gag with it.

"Now go ahead and do this with your fish and you can find your answers for the readings on page 211."

SPOILER!!: page 211

Entrails are clear: You will have great fortune and success
Entrails are knotted: You will have a conflict
Entrails are blocked: You will have a challenge or decision in your future
Entrails have a foreign object: You will have pain.

No beheading of the fish? Oh darn, Davie was looking forward to that. But gutting them and examining their entrails would be just as entertaining, and he beamed at all the professor's praise, then wiped his fingers on a bit of paper towel and wrote down a few notes about ichthyomancy, aruspicy, and haruspicy. Interesting names, all those had.

When he got his fish, he took his wand in hand and confidently made a cut across the thing's belly. Just like a Healer doing surgery! Easy-peasy. He didn't even flinch at the smell. Davie splayed it open, next and pulled out a bit of its entrails to see what they said.

Womp womp womp... his were knotted together. According the book (which he had turned to page 211 before beginning this, because fishy hands and paper did not mix), David was going to have a conflict in his near future. Hmmmmmmm. But he'd be able to resolve it, right? He looked up as an older Hufflepuff claimed to be unable to deal with the fishyness. Did she want help cutting it open orrr was this one of those vegan-protest things? Interesting. How would she pass her NEWTS if ichthyomancy were on them, huh?

She was totally NOT daydreaming during the divination lesson. She would never do that. She was just thinking more about other stuff that was not divination. N E V E R. The last thing she could honestly remember was finishing off the last of her chocolate frogs and and peppermint toads.

She looked down to find a fish in front of her. Ha. She did smell something fishy. Sushi anyone? Come to think of it she could eat some sushi. Later. She could eat later. So taking her wand she give a silent diffindo. Slicing the fish, and opened it up. Let's see, what was it going to be.......

Mmmm it was looking a little knotty in there. Conflict. Ugh. That's something she didn't like.

Cinna looked her at Paulina who wasn't going to cut open a fish. and rolled her eyes. Really? It was a fish. Not a pet. Just some fish you could cut it up and eat it. Some people. Like really but whatever. Good luck with that. She was half tempted to just cut it open her self. It was that awful of a thing to do really.

She walked around watching all the student as they began opening up their fish. Her stomach was doing very well with the fish smell she was super impressed. "Now make sure you are pulling the sides of the skin apart so you can really see." Just cutting it wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Now if your entrails are knotted they will look very squished and moving over and around each other. The clear entrails would look like a nice line moving inside the fish like this, " She lifted a fish to show what she was meaning. "Once you have finished examining your fish, make sure you write your results in your notes. We are going to move on to the onions in a moment."

Though she was stopped by a student;

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

So they WEREN'T looking at the scales.

It was worth a shot, and at least these fish had died natural deaths. Didn't mean Paulina wanted to GUT hers though. What had the poor animal ever done to her? Why couldn't she just observe it and try to make a reading from that? People were weird to think that looking at an animals guts could tell them their future...

Watching Professor Morgan give a demonstration, Paulina felt sick. She didn't think she could do this. Feeling a little shaky, she raised her hand. "I'm sorry but I don't think I can do this. I don't believe in cutting up animals. I don't even brew potions that require animal parts." Well, hair and blood were okay because they could be obtained by living things, but hearts were out of the question.

"I'm sorry you feel like that Paulina" Moving closer to her she took her wand and sliced the fish. "There that should help you."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

Even though he wasn't squeamish, he didn't fancy touching fish guts... but he did it anyway. Reaching a finger into the cut he'd made along its side, he hooked his finger around what he presumed were the guts and YANKED.

...

They FELL out... all over the table... and ew. Just ew.

Again, SUPER thankful for his bubble-head charm. Fish was always nasty smelling until it was cooked, so he imagined a dead one being FAR worse, especially with its guts hanging out. And speaking of....

It was knotted.

Wiping his finger on his pants, Zeke grabbed his textbook and turned to the page Professor Cassie had references, 211 was it? He ran his index finger down the lines until-- AHA!... the fishymancy one. And then a head tilt, because, what? A conflict?


That was actually rather amusing.

.......and then this happened!!!

Cassie was near the desk and fish splattered on her dress and she felt the gagging happening.

OH NO!!!

She couldn't be sick in front of the students, but she was struggling to keep it together as it was. Hurrying back to the front of the room she swished her wand to get windows open and moved to one to get some fresh air for a moment. "Go ahead and vanish your fish once you have your predictions on your parchment." Getting it together she vanished the fish at her own table.

"Now the onion, what form of Divination uses this and how is it similar to the fish?"

Vanish the fish? Thank Merlin, he thought she'd never ask.

Zander didn't waste a single second.

OH HOW GLORIOUS IT FELT TO BREATHE AGAIN.

Ahem.

Chill. Totally chill.

Honestly fish divination was the weirdest thing he had ever done. And Zander Adair has done a lot of weird things. But nothing to top fish divination. That was the worst. And the smelliest too. Speaking of which, he could still smell the stench.

Ew.

As for onions, Zander's best guess was onionomancy. So he kept quiet. But here's to hoping they wouldn't have to cut them up. He'd rather not cry, thanks. Hadn't his nose been through enough today? His body was done with divnation.

Adi happily peeked over at Benny's fish only to have the smile on his face droop. Uh oh. A challenge or some kind of decision. He patted his boyfriend's arm reassuringly. "You'll get through it if that fish is being reliable.'' The Puff didn't trust Divination methods fully.

Polly though. Adi knew she was a vegetarian so this must be tough for her. Even if Cassie did the cutting. But Cassie... seriously, the woman did not do well around fishy odors. He watched her at the window with continued concern.

He lowered his eyes to scribble his prediction then vanished his fish. Eyes still filled with concern for Cassie, he raised his hand. "Cromniomancy, Professor.'' As for that second part of the question. "Um, both methods uses objects that give off weird smells.'' It was the best he could think of right now, okay? Adi popped a bit of pretzel into his mouth after lowering his hand. There was only one reason he would be distracted from food and the reason was certainly not any lingering fishy odors.

Paulina's face whitened as Professor Morgan took the initiative to cut open her fish for her. Oka, that wasn't exactly what she had been going for. "Thank...you." Did she REALLY have to look at its guts?

She caught Cinnamon's eyeroll but she didn't care. Paulina didn't like doing anything to mutilate animals even if they were already dead. She was a vegetarian and proud of it. Adi at least probably understood since he knew her well.

Giving a sigh, she felt that she had no choice in the matter. "I'm sorry little fish. I don't want to do this to you." Trying her best to ignore the smell even though it made her want to gag, Paulina looked inside the fish. It looked as horrific as it smelled and her hands were still shaking.

From what she could see, the intestines appeared to be blocked by something. She wasn't sure what, but she was not going to spend any longer looking. Quickly Paulina cleaned her hands before recording the findings in her notes.

She didn't waste even a second before vanishing the fish.

Trying to take her mind off of what had just happened, she raised her hand. "I believe it's called Cromniomancy. I think the similarity lies in the fact that both the fish and the onion have strong odors."

When given the okay Hady wasted no time with grabbing her wand once more and vanishing the fish away. While still holding the wand she took an extra moment to 'scourgify' her desk and well anything that had come close to the dead fish and it's 'contents'.

With things now cleaned away the fourth year took out a clean sheet of parchment and wrote down her finding and her ideas on what the blocked entrails could mean. Setting her items aside she raised her hand to give the best answer she could for this questions. "I believe it's called Cromniomancy and it's normally done by studying the sprouting of the onion but I don't think we have time for that so maybe it has something to do with the smell it gives off when peeled or cut into?" Yeah the oniony smell was a strong one and always made her eyes teary.