Oh! Look! It was the squid!

"Hello Sir Bartholomew Henry!" Charlotte greeted happily, always one to be pleased to see him. She knew from her own experiences with the giant squid, and from advice from her parents from their own time as students, that he responded best to very good manners, so she curtsied with a jaunty flourish right there at knee depth in the water, then asked with great curiosity, "You could really feel our small ripples?" Really? "Wow! The merpeople must be SUPER annoying to you just from their normal moving about and stuff! And also when people go, you know, skinny dipping, that must be WAY more disturbing than a bunch of stones! Sorry though! That you were disturbed! Its just that we're learning about hydromancy! Its a kind of divination, Oh Mr Bartholomew Henry I haven't dropped my stones in yet - do YOU want to have a go? We can figure out your future! I'll let you use mine!" Char extended her hand with the stones in them in offer.

Grabbing her notebook and a pencil, Tim casted a heating charm on her feet. Putting the stones in her sweater's pocket, the blonde nudged her friend and walked into the lake. "I figured we can help each other out since divination tends to confuse me sometimes," She smiled at Natalia. Seriously, either one of them had to be good at divination to be able to get a good reading from hydromancy. Hopefully she'd get a good reading from this; she deserved it. Tim's already had a somewhat ehh summer and just wanted her last term to be better than the rest she's had. Picking a spot and holding her pencil and notebook in her left arm, Tim picked out the circular stone from her pocket and dropped it into the water. Instead of writing what she sees, the Gryffindor decided it was much easier to draw it out. That way at the end, she'll be able to decipher the image much faster and clearer than she could by taking down notes. Watching the ripples forming, Tim quickly sketched them onto her paper the bast way she could.

She then heard a commotion going on and looked up when her ripples from the first stone were pretty much gone. Picking up the stone and looking around, Tim saw the giant squid had made an appearance.... Squealing quietly, Tim tugged on Natalia's sleeve and pointed. The blonde was really tempted to step closer but figured it was best not to. Still, this was probably the first time she actually saw the faint squid pop up from the lake.

Standing before her cauldron she shot a REALLY irritated look at the professor and thought REALLY loud in her head, hoping that if the professor wasn’t fake that she at last would look up at her to show that she wasn’t faking; “HE YOU! STUPID PFORESSOR!? CAN YOU HEAR ME? THIS LESSON IS SOOOOO STUPID AND FAKE! LALALAAALA!” But when she was done she grinned to herself, not expecting a response from the professor at all because she already had decided for herself that this lessons was just… Shaking her head she dropped her stones again inside the cauldron, first the round one, 30 seconds later the triangular one and again 30 seconds later the square one. Looking down at the water she again saw NOTHING more than the normal ripples in the water and with a frustrated sigh she slapped the water with her flat hand to create a splashing sound. “STUPID lesson!” She muttered, just when… Oh oh… Was that... The Giant Squid? Her eyes widened immediately and she was really relieved that she wasn’t standing inside the lake right now…

Nat couldn't help but laugh when Tim said about Divination confusing her, "It does me too." Though it was one of her stronger subjects. Her problem was more believing in some of it then understanding it she decided. She watched as Tim went into the lake as Nat sat near the edge with her cauldron of water. She was good staying out. Her laughter grew more as Tim squealed about the squid. "Have you seen him before?" He wasn't around often so some probably hadn't.

As she sat looking into the cauldron she dropped her round stone. Watching the ripples move through the cauldron Nat picked up her quill and began to write. "So Tim do you think that the ripples are more in the cauldron then they would be in the lake?" It was a smaller space so she was interested to see. Getting up she went over to look at the lake to see how Tim's stone went.

Professor Vance watched as her class spread out along the lake shore and then waded out into the water to get started with their readings. She took her time and walked around from student to student to see how things went or if they needed extra instructions when she first heard 'professor' and then saw Charlotte Kettleburns upraised hand in the air.

Walking over the sand to the lioness Laurel answered kindly as she approached the fifth year girl. "The order of stones matters because if you drop the stones in another order then it will disrupt the reading of the ripples too much and you will have a very hard time interpreting the shapes and forms and lines that form on the water surface."

"I chose those three stone shapes because I know from experimentation that they are best when you wish to impact the water ripples to form shapes, forms and lines in distinctively different ways. Other stones shapes doesn't give as clear and easy to interpret shapes, lines and forms as the triangular, circular and square give." Laurel finished off wondering if Charlotte had more questions.

It was then that the Giant Squid decided to pay the class a visit. She was going to let him interact with her students for now. If they became in danger then she'd get him to leave.

OOC: Everyone, one day left to finish your readings. I'm wrapping up the lesson tomorrow around this time.

Tim shook her head at Nat's question. In all her seven years here, she had never gotten the chance to see Bartholomew with her own eyes. So this was super exciting for her. She did feel bad about the dropping of the stones into the water, but it was for a good cost. Maybe he'd move to a deeper part of the lake where they wouldn't bother him as much as they currently did. Taking the circular stone out and putting it back in her pocket, Tim made little side notes on her paper and looked around a bit. People were mostly doing well with the simple task for now. Just wait until they have to decipher it. Taking the triangular stone out and dropping it into the water, Tim answered Nat's question.

"Doing it in a cauldron won't be as accurate as in the lake. The ripples might bounce back from the cauldron and to the center again," Tim assumed her friend didn't listen to what the professor has said earlier but was okay with it. Watching her ripples as she answered the question, she sketched these lightly on top of the previous ones. They seemed to be a bit more squiggly this time. Maybe she'll get like a spider or something.

Okay so this was gonna be another year of mystery to the 13 year old.. She never did truly understand this part of magic.. She didn't find it at all consistant enough to rely on really.. But here she was listening to those students around her that had some type of knowledge and maybe even interest if this artform ... Personally she felt it was a mystism more that a magic... She shrugged to herself at the thought but listened nevertheless to the goings on and what was being said...Hopefully some of the information might stick into her brain...

She had been listening, gosh Tim.. lol, but what she had wondered was would the ripples just expand more in the lake or because of all the students would it cause probably the same thing the cauldron would. Ripples bouncing off of each other. She actually wondered if it truly mattered. Either way, she wasn't getting in the lake with everyone. She was already too cold as it was. She wasn't born for colder days. "I don't know though, my ripples are doing pretty good in this." She glanced down at the lake where Tim had just dropped another stone and then back to her own cauldron. Taking the second stone she dropped it in to watch the ripples go out over the first group. It was an interesting site and she jotted more of her notes down.

As she started to jot some notes and grab her third stone she noticed a familiar face just sitting there. "Hey Miranda, did you need some help? If you get your three stones Tim and I could probably help you." Since she wasn't sure if Miranda would want to go in the lake or just hang out with a cauldron like Nat did.

Oh the squid seemed to have tons of students attracted to him now, well then she wondered if anyone would be getting their work done now or would they all just focus on him. Either way she wasn't to concerned. Her eyes went back to her caudlron to do her third and final stone.

Going into the lake sounded like good fun to Kitty. Since she was wearing shorts she didn't have to worry about rolling up her robes, but she did have to remove her red socks. After folding them neatly and putting them on a dry patch of ground where they were unlikely to get wet, she waded into the shallow part of the lake and found a spot a little bit separate from everyone else to study.

She dropped her stones just as Professor Vance had instructed. First fell the round one. Then the triangle. Finally, the square. Kitty mentally counted the seconds in between each drop.

Something brushed her leg, making her start in surprise. It was just a minnow. There were minnows darting around by her feet, a whole school of them. Kitty was okay with that, just so long as no leeches showed up! She wondered what kind of insects there were living in the lake. Were there water worms living in the sand? Curiously she bent down and brushed the sand in the water with her left hand. (The minnows promptly scattered.) Despite being normally a very clean person, mud always felt good to Kitty, the soft touch of mud or sand covered with water always felt oddly satisfying to touch. After playing with the sand for a few moments while examining the plants and fishes swimming around her, Kitty decided she should probably go back to her readings.

Then just as she was about to study her rocks, the Squid came floating out of the depths of the lake to visit them. Kitty ogled it with awe. Part of her wished it would approach her so she could touch it, though part of her was scared it would grab her.

Mirand a started a bit as she heard someone start talking to her... She looked over and saw her older friend and newly minted Head Slytherin girl Nat... " Oh.. Hey, Nat... Ummm" , she thought for a moment as to whether or not she wanted or needed any help.. She decided it was better having more than one brain working on something so sure why now... " That would be brilliant, Nat.. thanks.. ", She smiled.. " oh.. bugger.. That's right.. I'd forgotten.. ". Randa really didn't want to get close to the water nor did she really care about the Squid.. she'd spoken to him before so it was no big deal to her really that he was there and everyone was crowding around him.." Mmm.. Do you mind if I just hang out here with you?.. I don't much feel like being around everyone.."

Junia's eyes widened slightly when the giant squid appeared. "Hello! You were my example of what could change the results of a reading, but I never really considered that a reading could disturb you." Or the other occupants of the lake, for that matter. She gave Mr. Henry an apologetic smile and then held up her triangle stone, as if giving him warning that she needed to continue with her work. If he got a heads-up, he wouldn't be as cross, yes?

Waiting another moment, the third year let the triangle go, watching it sink until it was no longer visible. The curvy lined ripples that appeared on the surface shortly after were noted, though Junia wasn't sure how accurate they were now that they had company-very large company who could cause lots of movement on the water's surface with the slightest movement of his body. Hm.

That was interesting that she didn't want to be around people. Part of her wanted to ask what was going on and the other part wasn't sure she really cared to talk about it. Her eyes back on her own cauldron she dropped the last stone and looked taking notes on what it looked like. "Sure you can hang over here, but you'll need to fill a cauldron with lake water and grab three stones like the professor said." To do a reading on herself she would have to drop her own stones and things.


Glancing back up to Tim to see how she was doing she looked again in her cauldron, "I think mine looks like a ring. That's kind of an odd thing." Though maybe it was more common than not. Really the ripples were all circles, weren't they? She looked into her book to see if she could find what she was looking for.


What?


Laughter started, so much laughter. She might have been laughing so hard it was echoing the lake. "OMG Tim, you have to hear this." She looked to Miranda as well, "It says in the book that a ring means marriage or an offer of marriage." Who the hell in their right mind would even think to offer her marriage. That was just ridiculous.

Right... since Kat was already in the lake she was ready. Stacking the stones the round one, the triangle, and the square stone on top. That way she could drop them right into the water. She got a good spot or in her opinion a good spot.

Drop goes the round stone. Counting out the seconds. She dropped the triangle stone. Then counting down to the thirty seconds, she dropped the last square stone into the lake.

Since she was out in the lake, wading she couldn't bring her book so she had plenty of time and focus to look at her ripples and decode the shapes. Then she would go and find out what there meaning was.

Alright, time to get hands on and do the activity portion of the lesson. Cassie listened intently at what Professor Vance had to say about what they were going to do, well the options they had to do their readings, in her mind already debating which one to do. More accurate in lake getting deeper into it…or taking the easier, less accurate approach and using the cauldron? Nah! No contest. She wasn’t one to flinch or squirm, at least too much, at the less than clean assignments. So that meant right in the lake for her. Thankfully the Ravenclaw didn’t think her mind was too flighty to not remember what she saw for when she returned back to the shore.

Oh and that her skirt meant her pants didn’t need to be rolled up.

She did kick off her shoes, placing them and her socks beside her bag topped with her note parchment and quill to be ready. Cass left out the heating charm on her feet for now, she could always warm them up once she was back out. When she was ready, she waded into the water with her three stones securely in her grasp, her movements careful and precise. She certainly didn’t want to slip and go plop fully into the water, or take the chance of hitting a spot that might go deeper than she wanted. Not to mention make too much waves in the lake water to affect her reading. As it was, the Ravenclaw made sure to not be too close to others.

Satisfied with where she was, Cassie stopped and settled in place. The fourth year let the water calm before pulling out the round stone from her trio. She took a deep breath and let it drop into the water, concentrating on seeing the effects of the drop and picking up on the shapes made.

Did a simple circle count?

She heard a laugh echo across the lake. She was half tempted to look up and see what was so funny. Must watch the ripples She couldn't take her attention from the rings... ripples. Wavy little lines maybe? Maybe not. Circles?

Or if she tilted her head a little to the right. Mmmmm that was something there. No having her textbook she would have to remember she had seen. She had seen one thing and the water was still rippling so maybe she should look to find something else.

So far she had seen something arrow shaped, or a straight line. She was going with an arrow shape though. But there were also definitely some wavy lines too. Circles she should go with that too.

Brent had fell silent for a little while, but that was only because he'd lost his train of thought and somehow started thinking about sports. This lake would be awesome to fly over! But Divination...that's what he was here for now. Focus, Brent. So he had two options of doing this, and truth be told, he was definitely going with the funnest option! That meant there would be no cauldron, and he'd drop the stone straight into the lake!

Apparently the cauldron messed up the reading anyway...

He'd already rolled up his trouser legs and kicked off his shoes causing himself to look like an idiot, he thought, so he was probably ready to get started. He wasted no time wading out into the water. He really wanted to go swimming and was tempted to do so. When he got far enough out, he tossed the round stone in the water and looked down at it to look for his results.

First, the ripples went every which way, causing Brent to get very confused. Then they slowly changed until he could see a very distinct letter U. Brent nodded to nobody in particular, as he tried to remember the letter for his interpretation he'd do later. He was just about to move on to the next stone, when out popped the squid. Brent turned all his attention to the sea creature, and when it was done talking, Brent immediately had a question for it. "Sun bathing? Cool! You know any good spots?" he asked.

Soooo, now it was time to begin. Janelle headed toward the water and paused when she reached the edge. Stones in hand, she tentatively put one foot in the water. It wasn't as cold as she'd expected, but she probably wouldn't want to take too long on this task. Janelle continued walking forward, until the water was just below her rolled up pants cuff. Then she stopped and allowed herself to get used to the temperature. Besides, she should probably stay still for a bit, to allow the water to become calm.

Now Janelle was ready. She wasn't too keen on having to remember everything until she could get back to her parchment. What could she do though? She'd just have to remember all the details or her reading would be rubbish. Janelle took her round stone and dropped it gently into the water. Staring at the lake's surface, she waited for something dramatic to happen. The result was a little less exciting than she had anticipated. As the stone hit the water, circular ripples flowed outward from the point of entry, one after the other. Okaaay. Circles. That was it? That one should be easy enough to remember.

Hoping for something a little more interesting, Janelle prepared to drop her second stone. And so in went the triangular stone. This time she was not disappointed. Looking closely, the ripples seemed to form......a bird.......an eagle. Could Janelle have been imagining that? An eagle.......for a Ravenclaw? Well that one should be easy to remember too. Now she was intrigued. Janelle wanted to get back to her textbook and find out what these things meant. Before she could do that, she needed to drop her third stone.

Brent blinked. The letter U? Was that even one of the choices? Squinting, he leaned in closer, hoping some squid didn't jump in his face. Then just barely, he could make out the shape of...was that a unicorn?

Hearing the professor's voice, Brent turned toward her and listened as she pretty much told them to hurry up. Well, not exactly in those words, but he really didn't have a ton of time left. So far, he'd seen a unicorn in the ripples, and that was engraved in his mind, so that when he returned to the shore to write down his findings, he'd remember what to write about.

He pushed himself a little further into the water just to give him a fresh, new place to work. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out both the triangular stone and the square stone. The triangular stone was next, so he tossed it into the water and kept the square stone clasped tightly in his hand. The ripples began to move about, first in little circles but then in all different kinds of lines and shapes. He couldn't make out anything, though, so he narrowed his eyes and studied it more.

A wasp.

The ripples ended up being a very clear wasp-like shape before they dissolved into nothing. A unicorn and a wasp were now his two shapes. He textbook was still on the shore, so he had no idea what the shapes meant. Even still, he didn't really like the idea of Divination and still thought it'd tell him nothing about his future.

With her mind on the arrows, straight lines, wavy lines and circles. Kat headed back to the shore. If she had to be in there much longer she would have gotten cold. She cast a warming charm, just to warm herself up. She sat down in the grass with her textbook, notebook and quill.

She looked up arrow first, "A" arrow first letter, yes. The only problem was she didn't remember which way the arrow she had seen was pointing. Maybe it was pointing down or left or right. She supposed it really depended on the way she looked at it really. She was going to say down for that one.

Then she looked up circle in her book. Completion, and success. And if it had dots a baby. Did it have dots? Was she getting a new baby in her family? Probably. it was highly likely with someone in her family. But she didn't recall seeing dots with the circles.

She looked up straight lines, and found nothing.... oh lines. Wavy curvy that was like the same thing right? Journey with minor complications. Well that made sense but so did the arrow too. Wavy lines... She peeked at book and snorted, yes this reading took place at the lake.

That reading might be the truest one.

It was now time for Charlie to go forth and conquer! There was a lot less risk involved with Divination, as opposed to her other subjects, so that allowed the girl to fully enjoy and take in her new experiences.

So, she had to drop the stones in the water--round first, triangle second, and square third--with 30 second intervals between each to leave adequate time to study the patterns. Right. It was a good thing she had remembered to take her cauldron with her, because she didn't want to bring her textbook out in the water (and she didn't have the best memory either, so she wouldn't have the best of luck remembering the patterns). With her cauldron, she wouldn't have to go out--or stay out, at least, because she did have to fill it up first. She smiled back in Derf's direction to be polite, but waved him off as she wanted to be able to focus. Unfortunately, if she was with her friends, she might not want to focus as much.

Charlie set the stones back down on her mat, and she picked up her cauldron before making her way to the lake. She waded in a bit to get enough water in her cauldron and did just that, getting a nice, big scoop out. She hurried (but not so much that the water would spill out) back to her mat shortly after, as the water was quite cold.

Now it was time to get down to business. She took a seat on the mat, setting the cauldron down in front of her. After drying her slightly-damp hands on her pants, Charlie cracked open her textbook to the correct page and picked up the first stone--the round one, of course. Holding the stone over the cauldron, she let it drop, keeping her eyes on it as it plopped in. Well...she saw circles. That seemed pretty typical, but maybe it still meant something. She turned her head away from the cauldron for a brief moment and to the textbook, letting her finger drag down the list to locate "circle." Abacus...barrel...chicken...circle!

Charlie said the definition quietly to herself: "Success, completion; with dots means a baby." Well, there were no dots, so it had to have something to do with success or completion, or possibly both. She wasn't really sure what this would refer to (she would hope school), but made sure to take note of what she saw and the supposed meaning on her parchment. This way, she'd be able to refer to it later and see if it came true.

30 seconds had more or less passed, so it was now time for the triangle stone. She picked it up and dropped it in the cauldron, just like the round one. She saw circles...again. Well. Maybe it referred to an excess of success, or, completion, but that was probably a reach. She made note of seeing circles again on the parchment.

And finally, the square-shaped stone. Dropping the last stone in, she squinted extra hard, trying to determine even the faintest of a symbol from the ripples. Huh...this one rather looked like a kite. Maybe? It was good enough for her. She turned to the textbook, locating the word kite. "Wishes coming true," Charlie read. If she did indeed see a kite, she was pleased! Success and fulfilled wishes were certainly positive omens. She took note of supposedly seeing a kite on the parchment.

Charlie had finished the activity, and in good time too! To pass the time, she took to reading some of the other meanings in the book. She'd have to try some more readings on her own time.

Zara frowned as she looked at the water where she had just dropped her stones. She could see that there was ripples and shapes but she didn’t really know what they were. Squinting her eyes a bit, she attempted to identify whatever was there. There looked to be maybe something that looked like a bell. A bell? She wasn’t all that sure, but she focused again and notice another shape faintly. A cloud. Yes, it looked like a cloud to her. It was kind of blob like, but she thought it resembled a cloud and she was going to put that down. Focusing once again on the water, she tilted her head and blinked slightly. There must be something there still. She had a feeling there was more!

Staring again at the water, she about gave up when she thought she saw wavy lines, but again it was possible that they were just the natural movements of the lake water. Glancing around, Zara shrugged and slowly made her way out of the water. She needed to get back to her notebook and textbook to look up what she thought she saw.

So now it was time for the third and final stone--the square stone. Brent still had it in his hand, so he tossed it into the water and played the whole waiting game. Since he'd already done this twice before, he pretty much figured he'd have to look at a mess of ripples before he was able to see anything specific. Then just like he said, the ripples circled out in all directions making it hard to figure out if there was any kind of shape in them at all.

Brent looked down at them. Literally the only part of his body that was moving was his eyeballs. He stood still and quiet while he waited for a shape to appear. Slowly, the ripples began to morph into something else. The bottom ripples disappeared, and the top ones curved upward a bit more. Pretty soon, Brent was staring at a horseshoe in the water.

So he had a unicorn, a wasp, and a horseshoe. He hurried back to shore, dried off, and retrieved his textbook. Opening it, he moved his finger across the page until he came to the words he'd been looking for.

UNICORN - something lost for good
WASP - romantic problems
HORSESHOE - good luck

Hmm... Spreading out a piece of parchment before him, Brent dipped his quill in ink and jotted down some notes.

So I've just seen a unicorn, a wasp, and a horseshoe. I'm not really sure what to think, but let's start with the unicorn. It means something lost for good. That doesn't sound really cool, and I honestly have no idea what I've lost.

Or that's what I thought.

Moving on to the wasp stone, I see where wasp means romantic problems. Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks! You see, I had this girlfriend in America named Madelyn. She dumped me when I told her I was moving all the way across the pond. I miiiiiiight miss her. We won't share that secret with anybody, will we?

Anyway, I think the unicorn and the wasp are trying to tell me Madelyn is gone for good. GOOD. She dumped me! I still can't believe she did that! Then, as if the lake is just begging to tell me it's on my side, the third stone showed a horseshoe in the ripples, and that means good luck! So in conclusion, I've learned that Madelyn is gone for good, but there should be lots more luck hopefully finding a new girlfriend in the future!

Taking a deep breath, Janelle dropped her square stone into the lake. Immediately, the water started to ripple. Looking down, she tried to make out some type of pattern. This one wasn't as easy as the others. Janelle tried to make sense of what she was seeing. The closest thing she could come up with was........a tent? The ripples kind of looked like a big circus tent. That was a serious stretch, but that was the best she could do. As much as Janelle liked the water, she had never spent time analyzing it like this. It seemed kind of like trying to find things in clouds.

With her stones dropped, Janelle hurried back to dry land. She did not want to forget what she had seen. Plopping down next to her things, she grabbed her quill and began to write. When she had written down everything she could remember, she grabbed her textbook. Janelle turned to page thirty and began to scan the list for her items. Fortunately, she was able to find all three things in the book. Getting a fresh piece of parchment, she began to write.



Janelle was extremely glad that the meaning of her symbols had been positive. With Divination, things could go either way. Now that she was done, Janelle put her parchment down and sat back, waiting for further instructions.

So...um...first stone had been all circular ovaly ripple shape...and he couldn't remember what that meant off the top of his head but it was easy enough to remember anyway...probably...and since he had now counted to 20...21...in his head he...26...27...needed too...28...29...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Squid

There were more students than usual around today but that was not what had attracted Bartholomew. Objects were constantly being dropped into his Lake. That made him slightly irritated. Bartholomew splashed his way closer to the shore to observe. There was a professor with them which meant there was a lesson being held.

“I say, children. Must you keep dropping objects into the water? It is very disturbing to me. I was trying to sun myself.’’ Bartholomew did not mean to be rude. He was just trying to enjoy the peace of the day.

30!

His remaining two rocks were flung into the water in front of him at the same time - er...those were WAVY lines...LOADS of them...for whatever that meant! READING FINISHED! Well...once he got back to shore and looked things up in his textbook that is - and GAPED at the appearance of the Giant Squid.

HOLY FLAMING SALAMANDERS HE WAS HERE! THIS WAS HAPPENING!

"HELLO S-S-SIR BARTHOLOMEW HENRY! MY MUM TOLD ME LOADS-S OF S-STORIES-S ABOUT YOU! YOU HAFF JUS-ST MADE ONE OF MY DREAMS-S COME TRUE!"

Oh, right.

"And s-s-sorry for disturbing you. Only not really becau-s-se I wanted to meet you...." Because it was important to be honest while apologizing.

But how was he trying to sun himself under water?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilFox06

Was he supposed to be seeing something?

He consulted his textbook. Circles and dots. ... erm?

He leaned over and whispered "Either I'm doing something wrong, or I might be pregnant." But it was probably the first.

SO MANY QUESTIONS and he was about to ask a TON of them...when Slate said something that naturally drew his attention and he just HAD to respond.

"YOU'RE LIKE A S-S-SEAHORSE!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Oh! Look! It was the squid!

"Hello Sir Bartholomew Henry!" Charlotte greeted happily, always one to be pleased to see him. She knew from her own experiences with the giant squid, and from advice from her parents from their own time as students, that he responded best to very good manners, so she curtsied with a jaunty flourish right there at knee depth in the water, then asked with great curiosity, "You could really feel our small ripples?" Really? "Wow! The merpeople must be SUPER annoying to you just from their normal moving about and stuff! And also when people go, you know, skinny dipping, that must be WAY more disturbing than a bunch of stones! Sorry though! That you were disturbed! Its just that we're learning about hydromancy! Its a kind of divination, Oh Mr Bartholomew Henry I haven't dropped my stones in yet - do YOU want to have a go? We can figure out your future! I'll let you use mine!" Char extended her hand with the stones in them in offer.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

He was just going to...wade through the water a little bit more towards this Gryffindor's direction because that sounded really NEAT!

Not to mention she had explained the best to the Giant Squid what all they were doing - probably...she had been the only person he had actually HEARD so his view point was a bit biased - but her offer to perform the reading was really REALLY nice and interesting and...

"Can I watch?! PWEASE?!" he pleaded asked with BIG OL' BEGGING BLUE EYES.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonea

Standing before her cauldron she shot a REALLY irritated look at the professor and thought REALLY loud in her head, hoping that if the professor wasn’t fake that she at last would look up at her to show that she wasn’t faking; “HE YOU! STUPID PFORESSOR!? CAN YOU HEAR ME? THIS LESSON IS SOOOOO STUPID AND FAKE! LALALAAALA!” But when she was done she grinned to herself, not expecting a response from the professor at all because she already had decided for herself that this lessons was just… Shaking her head she dropped her stones again inside the cauldron, first the round one, 30 seconds later the triangular one and again 30 seconds later the square one. Looking down at the water she again saw NOTHING more than the normal ripples in the water and with a frustrated sigh she slapped the water with her flat hand to create a splashing sound. “STUPID lesson!” She muttered, just when… Oh oh… Was that... The Giant Squid? Her eyes widened immediately and she was really relieved that she wasn’t standing inside the lake right now…

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

HOW COULD A LESSON BE STUPID IF THERE WAS A BARTHOLOMEW HENRY IN IT?!

Not to mention just outright mean. Definitely not helping that stereotypical view of Slytherins!

"Imperfect understanding is often more dangerous-s fan ignorance....but I fink you s-suffer from boff!" he shouted back at her. So...it really wasn't the lesson that was stupid...you know?

Professors could only lead thirsty hippogriffs to water, not make them drink.

And of course he took no offense to Charlie opting to work off by herself!

Carlton's eyes were fixed at the squid that had appeared right after he'd dropped his first stone.

It talked. It talked. Although he was terrified he still didn't refrain from dropping his second stone after 30 seconds had passed. He was terrified of the squid but also desperate to finish the task. He dropped the square stone and counted silently to himself for the third time. Since he didn't know any heating charms and hadn't had the time to ask Olivia for help before he accidently dropping the first stone started his reading.

The appearance of a huge giant squid that talked to the students might have disturbed his focus sliiiiiiightly. His brow furrowed and looked down at the ripples on the water. He glanced at the other students and then back to the water.

He could see his own reflection, but he was pretty sure Professor Vance wouldn't accept that as an answer. Then he looked at something that looked like a bird, feathers and wings and balls or circles. Then the rippled died out.

Carlton squealed and hurried up from the water. Bird, wings, circles. Bird, wings, circles. The absolute first thing he did was to put on his dried socks.

Sweet Merlin, the warmth. When his feet weren't two popsicles anymore he opened his textbook to find... Anything that made sense.

CHICKEN - domestic comfort and happiness
FEATHER - lack of concentration
BALL - fun and games

A chicken. A chicken is a bird. So... That could be right. He nodded to himself and scribbled it down into his notebook.
And then he saw wings... A feather? It stood for lack of concentration. Worriedly he glanced over at the professor. She-She would understand his concentration was disturbed by the giant squid, right? Right?!
And there were just a lot of circles from the third stone; Circle. Success and completion. Carlton shook his head. Probably not. He went with Ball instead which meant fun and games.

That was probably it. He obviously wasn't good at Divination.