Mason reached out for his school bag that was placed next to the straw mat he was sitting on and pulled a couple of books out until he got the Divination textbook. He then placed the rest back in the bag and flipped the pages until he got to the right chapter.

So...they had two options. Staying dry and fill a cauldron with water or getting wet by wading in to the Lake. After years at Durmstrang, the water here was pretty warm, even in the winter so Mason checked if his pants were still rolled up and he made his way to the edge of the Lake with the three stones in one hand and the textbook in the other.

Ok so...now he just..dropped a stone in? If all seemed silly how a few riples of water could supposedly tell the future. Aka it could not.

Dropping the round stone in the Lake first, Mason watched the surface break in to spirals. Normal spirals...nothing divinationing about it... mweh...

Post 1
 

Now they got to the fun part! Hattie loved this part. She wasn't very good at this bit, but she figured that was what school was for. She was hoping to get better at divination, and was going to begin right here. She carefully opened her book up to page 30, and then she looked over it, wanting to read all the information before she started. She liked knowing what she was looking for, before she started.

That didn't take too long and now she could start! Hattie smiled, picking up the stones in her hand and waded out into the water. Carefully she dropped the circular stone, counted to 30, then dropped the triangle, and finally after another 30 seconds, she dropped the last, square, stone in the water.

And now to watch for the ripples and water movement.

Looking at both the cauldron and the lake she shook her head. No way that she was going to step into the water if she didn’t needed to! She didn’t had forgotten her fall into the lake while she had been a first year and how afraid she had been because of those creatures inside the lake, not that she EVER would confess to anyone that she had been afraid at that time… But now, she just didn’t wanted to step into the lake and get her feet wet because… Why would she if she could prevent it!? This stupid lesson was already bad enough without getting wet feet! So the decision was a easy one to make and she took one of the cauldrons without even a second thought, not that she expected it to work…

With her textbook flipped open she prepared for the task, still cursing silently because she was forced to be here but now she was just annoyed with the headmaster who allowed such a lesson as this one to be given… Shaking her head again she decided that there was nothing else to do than to just… Get going and she took the first round stone in her hands and dropped it in the cauldron, 30 seconds later she dropped the triangular stone and again, 30 seconds later she dropped the square one and she… Just looked down at the water but… What was there to see besides the normal ripples of the water? Hmm… Not at all surprised she looked up from the cauldron when the water surface had became calm again and she rolled with her eyes. “How surprising…” she muttered softly to herself and quick she took the stones back out of the cauldron to try it again, not because she liked it but because she knew that the professor wouldn’t like it if she stopped already after her first attempt.

So once everything was cleaned and squared away, it was time to drop the stones in. He dropped the square one first. Splash! It hit the water. Jonas studied the ripples...
It looked like nothing to him...huh...okay. So, he tried the next one, the triangle...again, nothing. He frowned and tried the circle...Jonas sighed and rolled his eyes. What was the point of this?

Post 1 (plus helping Ashley)
 

Olivia turned to glance at Ashley. She was always happy to help a housemate, especially someone as nice as Ashley. She grinned. “I used a Hot Air Charm to make them bone dry,” she said with a smile. “I can teach you. With your wand you do a complicated flick and..” Olivia placed her triangular stone back into the Lake and washed it again so that she could show Ashley how to do it. With her wand ready and pointed at the stone, she did a complicated flick and the stone became bone dry. “And voila!” She had always loved that expression. “If you want, I can do one for you as an example?"

Upon hearing Professor Vace’s instructions, Olivia pointed her wand at her feet and cast a heating charm to keep her toes nice and toasty as she headed slightly further out into the water. The water now was halfway up her shins. This seemed like a good place to stop. Round stone first, then triangular stone, and then the square stone. Leave 30 second intervals between the stone drops to study the patterns. She turned to look back at Ashley and Slate. “Do you guys want to team up together?” she offered. Perhaps they could all help each other out.

Post 1
 

Ava was a little bit nervous about doing the hydromancy. She was worried that she might not understand the symbols and would get stuck. No, it'll be fine, she decided. She would just give it a go and see what happened. She picked up her stones and waded out into the lake. It was a bit chilly, but it wasn't too bad.

Deciding that she had found the spot she wanted to stand in, she took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind of distracting thoughts, hoping that might help. Okay. Here we go. Ava dropped the round stone into the water and stared at the ripples that started to form. It looked... circular. Well, the stone was round after all. So that probably wasn't it.

After she waited 30 seconds she dropped the triangle stone into the water. She saw wavy lines, circles, a bird maybe? This was hard. She looked around at the other students, partly wondering if they'd had any more luck, and maybe wishing she had a partner. Was she doing this wrong?

post 2.... questions
 

post 1 ... er.... yes XD and we be near Charlotte cause she talks smart *nod nod*
 

Post 1
 

The cauldron option would've been her choice had Junia not been focusing on the fact that using the smaller body of water would change her reading results. She wasn't even sure if she believed any of this type of stuff could be true to life, but on the off-chance it was, she wanted as accurate a reading as possible. Because honestly, who didn't want a glimpse into their future? It was only natural to want to know a bit more. It was.

The third year abandoned her notes on the shore and headed out into the water, just deep enough that her stones could sink out of sight. What was the order the stones were supposed to be dropped in? Round-yes, round first. Round, then triangle, then square. She gave her stones a once over and then closed her eyes and let the round one go. Hm..

Looking down at the water, Junia saw...a circle-y ripple that sort of got wavy as the water moved and settled again...huh.

Had thirty seconds passed yet?

Ashley watched with a wide eyed expression as Olivia dried her stones. She tried to remember the movement. But she didn't here Olivia say anything loud. "Isn't there any incantation?" she asked, "Do we just think of dried stones and flick?" She didn't know such spells existed. Well, she didn't know spells existed until recently for that matter.

Try myself? UH OKAY.

Ashley brought out her wand and tried to mimic Olivia's movement. Her very first spell. Okay, raise the wand, move right and... something Olivia did I have no idea what I'm doing movement and...

OH. NO VOILA FOR ME!

Not that she had expected to dry them on her first try but Ashley was a little bit disappointed. It had seemed cool when Olivia did it. And she had wanted to do it too. She gave an embarrassed look. Did everyone do it on the first go?

She was about to ask for another demonstration when the Professor gave the next task. Ashley scribbled a few lines of what the Professor had said in her notebook. Olivia was already moving towards the lake and she had wet stones with her. I can't just stand here and blow them dry with my mouth!"Can you help with mine?" she asked, "I'll learn the spell from you after the class" she added. That HAD to be done.

Team up? With Olivia?

YAAAAYYY!

"YESH YESH! I'd love to team up with you" She liked Olivia. I don't know about that guy but count me in. She grinned at Olivia, picked up her wet stones and followed the Gryffinguide towards the lake. She turned once to see if Slate followed.

Now she had wet stones and... oh the water looks so cold.

Me poor legs.

Post 1 - and mention of Bro :P
 

Mini activity catch-up *ahem*
 

Post 2
 

Olivia nodded as Ashley asked her to dry her stones. Of course! She'd be more than happy to assist! Mhmm..

Casting the charm again, she made sure they were bone dry. "Don't worry. It took me ages to get that spell working. I can definitely show you how to do this after class," she smiled. Alright so the order of the stones was round, triangular and then square. She eyed her stones as she waited for Ashley to be in the water with her.

Glancing over at the younger girl, she gave her a small nod. "Alright. It's the round stone first and then we wait thirty seconds. In that thirty seconds, we analyze and interpret the patterns. Then the triangular and then the square," she said, repeating more for herself so that she could remember later on in the class. She shuffled the rocks as so to get the round first to drop. "Are you ready?" she asked Ashley.

Main activity starts here
 

Post 1: Mentions of Olivia <3
 

Carlton looked around him and watched the others wade out into the lake with their stones.

Did no one care about the supposedly huge and giant squid?!

Apparently not, since everyone was already starting to drop their first stone into the water. He jumped up from his straw mat and hugged his stones closer to him.

"Show me something good, stones." He murmured as he was struggling to roll up his trousers. "Please don't show me I'm about to be eaten by the squid. He begged quietly before realizing that talking to himself wouldn't help him do the assignment properly or making friends.

After the initial shock of the cold water around his legs he looked over and saw Olivia helping out a younger student. He waded over to her, relieved there was someone there he sort of knew.

"Hi, Oli-"

The wave he'd wanted to do ended up with him dropping one of the stones in the water in the process.

He squealed and looked down at the remaining stones in his hands. One triangular and one square. Which meant he'd successfully started the practical assignment. Sometimes luck was on his side. It wasn't often, but sometimes.

"Oh, it's started! I've started! One..." He continued counting up to thirty silently in his head. He didn't have time to say hello to Olivia anymore.

FOCUS. Don't lose count. And staaare at the water.

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.

Post 2
 

Post two
 

Ripple.

Ripple.

Ripple.

Was it meant to do more than that? Hattie frowned, just watching the ripples. It had kind of gone out in like circles. But that was it really. She tilted her head, just watching her ripples. Was that it?

She looked up, noticing that Charlotte had got her parchment and quill to float behind her. Ooh! That was good! Hattie made a mental note to try and learn that spell, then she could make this so much easier

But for now she needed to try and work out what she had seen. The water had gone more calm now. Well it had. But the giant squid was here now.

"Oh wow..." The third year murmured, staring at her. "Uh... I'm sorry for disturbing you!" Though she still had no clue what she should have been looking at. Oh well. She was distracted by the giant squid now.

Post 3
 

Tim and Squid
 

Slate did, in fact, not know the incantation. Nor did he feel like listening to any of the older students. Why? Because teachers got paid to teach him something. So he'd continue to not know the spell until a Professor taught it to him in class.

So, he followed the girl to the lake and rinsed off the stone. He lightly rubbed them with his fingers under the water and figured that was good enough. There wouldn't be that much dirt that was on it, right?

Now that he had rinsed stones, he dried them off on his shirt. Now... he needed to get them wet again...? Well... okay... He could do that. It just seemed kind of counter productive.

Slate grabbed his textbook then followed the girls out into the lake more. He rolled his trousers up as he walked so he wouldn't be completely wet later. That wouldn't be pleasant. Once they reached a spot he unceremoniously dropped the round stone. He watched it splash into the water, causing ripples and water droplets to pop back and fall back down.

...
...
...

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.

But hey. There was... a ... squid? That was a squid right? Could he drop the next stone and say that that was what he saw? What would be the chances the Professor would know that's what he'd done?

Ava was focusing on counting her last thirty seconds, when she saw movement in the lake. She had heard talk of a giant squid being in the lake, but no one had said anything about it talking! It startled her so, that she dropped her last stone into the water. Had it been thirty seconds? She hoped so. Looking at the water she tried to concentrate on the ripples as much as she could, and not worry about anything else. She turned her head slowly left, and then slowly right, trying to imagine what shapes from the textbook could be in the water.

When the water became still again, and she went over what she thought she had seen so that she might remember it, for whatever good that might do, and she glanced over at the squid again. "Very sorry to have disturbed you, uh..." Squid? She didn't know what to call him.

But back to the lesson. Ava looked back at the Professor, wondering what would happen next.

Jacob had thoroughly cleaned and dried his chosen stones and the indicated body parts. Okay, then. Time to get practical. He weighed his options, cauldron or lake. There were getting to be a lot of people in the lake... Professor Vance had said using a cauldron would affect the reading, but surely the ripples of twenty students' stones dropping in the water would affect it more. He opted for the cauldron, thinking that it might leave less room for error. He could use that leg up in divination.

He opened his book to page 30 as instructed, then put it off to the side where it was out of the way, but he could still see it. He took a quick glance at some of the symbols... Maybe if he knew what some of the possibilities were, he'd have a better chance of seeing something. Although he still had no idea how doing this was supposed to show him anything. It's like he'd been saying before, he could only see that there was a shape in the Magic Eye pictures. He couldn't see what it was. Alright, so it wasn't a direct correlation, to be sure, but it had to mean something, right?!

He frowned into the cauldron, as if he could will the water to cooperate with him and make it easy to see the shapes he was meant to. Okay, better just do it. He braced himself, raising the hand in which he held the round stone over the cauldron, then let it fall into the water with a satisfying plop.

He counted thirty seconds, then repeated the process with the triangular stone, then did the same with the last square stone after another interval. He peered over the lip of the cauldron, looking at the ripples to see if any shapes or patterns emerged.

The water had muffled most of the sound from the rocks, but the cauldron was reverberating a bit with the impact. That was probably going to affect what he saw... If he saw anything. He sighed, still looking in concentration into the cauldron.

Well, he guessed that part there looked sort of like an eye... It was sort of ovally. And that bit was a triangle kind of shape... He guessed that might have just been from dropping the triangle stone, though. Still, it counted, right? Hmm... That ripple looked kinda like a bird, he guessed.

He was tempted to stir the water to get more shapes to appear, but he also knew that defeated the entire purpose, so he refrained. Three was enough, right? It was more than he thought he'd see, anyway. (He sort of doubted he'd actually seen any of these, really. His brain probably made all of it up because he was so worried about seeing nothing.)

'Kay, so time to interpret. First one was an eye. He looked at the textbook, skimming the alphabetical list until he came to what he was looking for. Was it one eye or two? Definitely just one. So that meant... "Insight; clear understanding of a situation." Okay, then. He liked that, he guessed. It was good to have insight and understanding... Still, what situation was that supposed to be talking about? There was a good chance he'd understand any situation he might be placed in. He wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing. Well, that just seemed generic. Like No-Maj horoscopes that were so vague that they could apply to anyone and be right.

Anyway, moving on. Second was a triangle. Moving down the page, his finger landed on the word. Upright or reversed? Well, it was right-side up. And it looked like that was a good thing. "A positive situation with three people." Hey, that might actually make sense. He had been feeling very positive about his newfound friendship with Olivia and Etta. With him, that was three people. And that had turned out better than he'd hoped it would. He really liked the both of them.

Last one, then. A bird. Hmm, three options... Perched, flying, or a flock. It had sort of just looked like a squiggle to him, like the kind of bird little kids draw flying around. So... Flying, he guessed. "Good news." Well, alright then.

So... He'd understand a situation... A positive situation with three people involved... And then get good news about it, too? He guessed that was a good reading. If his interpretation was correct, anyway. And it very well might not be. Again, he wasn't even sure he'd actually seen anything... His Ravenclaw brain just couldn't handle failure, so it made up some stuff for him to see, probably. Oh, well. At least it hadn't made up something that said he was going to die or something like that.

He wrote down his findings quickly, attempting to draw the shapes he'd seen, as well. He looked around to see if everyone else seemed like they were getting it easily... And he secretly wondered how many of them were just making things up.