All around him, people were scribbling down notes after they dropped their stones in to the water. And Mason? Well, he was just standing there, staring at the already flat surface after he had dropped the first one. He had not seen anything. Atleast that's what he thought. He wasn't even sure where he should look at and the text book wasn't helping either.

And then the giant squid came out of the depths of the water and Mason's mouth fell open slightly as he looked at the creature. Aaaand stepping a little bit closer to land. He had heard about the squid but had never actually seen it. The creature did not seem to harm anyone so the sixth year got back to the task at hand and dropped the second stone in to the water. Having already forgotten that there should have been a 30 second wait in between.

The water splashed and then ripled, but that was all he saw. Frustration ran through him. Why was it that everyone else seemed to see shapes in the water and he did not?! It took all of his willpower not to throw the third stone far away.

It was a bit hard to concentrate given Mr. Henry and that one student being extremely disrespectful and Junia couldn't help but wonder again about all the distractions and disturbances making her readings meaningless. Still, she only had one stone left and she might as well finish the activity.

She ran a finger over the smooth square stone and then let it drop into the water, watching the surface carefully for any shapes that appeared. After a moment, something resembling a cloud did and the third year tilted her head. Hm. That was different. A cloud. A cloud had to be something good, right? Or...well, clouds could mean rain, too. Rain wasn't always a good thing.

...Maybe she should go consult her book now that she was done. Yeah, she was going to do just that.

Once back on shore, the thirteen year old quickly scribbled down which shapes she'd seen for which stone and then, looking up their possible meanings. Every now and then she looked over to see what the giant squid was up to, but other than that, she was focusing.

Tempted as she was to approach the squid and maybe even touch it, Kitty's cautious side won over and she decided to ignore it for now - or at the very least to finish her Divination first. But what shape exactly had the stones taken? At first it looked like abstract art to her, but bending closer she thought she could make out a horse. Yeah - a horse, or at least a horse's head. Was that a symbol in the book?

Kitty waded out of the water and moved to a dry spot by her socks to check on the textbook. First she made sure her socks were okay, and they were. Then humming merrily out loud as she watched the quid out of the corner of her eye, Kitty opened the book and flipped to the section starting with the letter 'H'. Horse was there! So was horse's head.

"A lover??" Her eyes widened as she read the interpretation. Instinctively her gaze travelled to the one boy at Hogwarts she had a crush on, also one of the only boys that she knew she'd get in trouble with a friend if she revealed he was her crush. She looked away quickly in case he saw her looking.

Zara glanced around as she made her way back to her mat and her notebook. Everyone seemed to be busy writing things and still dropping their stones. A sinking feeling that maybe she had done her reading incorrectly started to settle over her. She had felt something was wrong before, but it was a bit too late to go back and change it now. The only course of action would be for her to just continue on as she was and hope for the best.

Divination was open for interpretation, right?

Settling down on her mat, she pulled her notebook and textbook out. Flipping through the pages, she jotted down what she thought she saw and what it could mean.

Quote:

1. bell -unexpected news
2. cloud - troubles, dots means more problems
3. wavy lines - large body of water; lake, river or ocean

Frowning a bit, Zara looked back out at the water in thought. She was even more confused by what she saw and what it meant now. Was there some troubling news coming her way that involved a large body of water?

Tim glanced over at Nat's cauldron and shrugged a little. "It'll be making more ripples than it should be, but I'm sure it won't be too hard to decipher," She scribbled the last few ripples onto her paper and waited the usual thirty second before dropping in the last stone. Tim bent down a little to take a closer look at what was forming. She frowned a little and drew the figures on her notebook, knowing this wasn't going to be so easy to figure out. Once all the ripples were gone, Tim picked up the stone and walked back to her spot. Using a drying charms on her feet and jeans, the Gryffindor sat quietly and began going through her textbook for an answer. 'Hm, this looks like this thing. But it also can look like this one,' Tim thought to herself as she drew two figures on a separate sheet of paper. Lifting her head up, she eyes looked at other students and wondered if they were having a hard time like her. Nonetheless, she managed to finally figure out what she had gotten. "Oh! I've got a tower!" She said, going through her book once again to see what it meant. Hmm. "It means a large, metropolitan area...? Like I'll be moving there or visiting?" Tim wasn't completely sure but she wasn't going to find out just yet. Maybe she'll go to America over summer again. Except to a bigger city.My second one says it's a bear on all fours. Which means powerful helpful from someone," Tim raised an eyebrow at this. Wasn't she the one who usually was helping people? Either way, she wouldn't mind help in soemthing soon. "My third one says a spider, which means reward for work," Like being rewarded for just school work or maybe something in university? Either way, the tower had confused her the most. Will she really go traveling soon?

Okay, he needed to get back to shore before he FORGOT what his symbols were...sooooooooooooooo...

Stumbling and almost slipping - which would have meant that he would have gone UNDER the water - Derf quickly made his way back to shore and emerged from the lake completely soaked. Just a side effect of going all the way in up to your chin, you know?

Bogged down by his now heavy robes, he waddled over to his things and grabbed his textbook. Prooooooobably should have done SOMETHING about all the water, because now he was dripping all over his textbook and pages were sticking together and it was becoming a right mess just turning pages. Turning...tearing...they were rather synonymous at the moment.

"Ciiiiiiiiiiiiircle..." he said to himself as he scanned the meanings. "Ciiiiiiiiiiircllllle...FOUND IT! Succes-s-s-ss... completion...with dot-ss mean-ss a baby....OH! Maybe I am a -sseahors-se too..." Was there a spell for that sort of thing? Maybe he should go ask the healer. Just for curiosity's sake. Yes, mental note made.

And...what had the other one been? Which technically counted as TWO because both rocks had made it.... "Wavy lines-s....large body of water such as a lake, river or ocean..."

And then his bright blue eyes WIDENED like an OWL'S in disbelief and WONDER.

HOLY FLAMING SALAMANDERS! HOW DID THE ROCKS KNOOOOOOOOOOW?!

"PROFES-S-SSOR VANCE!" Derf chirped, jumping up and down in place and waving his arms excitedly. "FEY KNEW! THE ROCKS-S KNEW! FEW PREDICTED I WOULD FIND S-S-SUCCES-S-S-S-S-S AT THE BLACK LAKE AND I DID! ONE OF MY LIFE'S-S-S AMBITIONS-S OF MEETING BARTHOLOMEW HENRY CAME TRUE!"

SO NEATO!

Her eyes lifted as Tim started to talk about her findings. "You are going to leave me for a big city aren't you? Is this your way of breaking up with me Tim?" She was fully grinning playfully as she tried to dramatically pout. Her second one was kind of cool though a powerful help, it was nice to know someone would help her best friend if she needed it. Merlin knew Tim had helped her many times. "Those are really good ones. Seems like whatever you are going to do it is going to be positive."

Now to finish hers she had been laughing so hard over the ring that she didn't look at anything else. "So I had a plane for my first stone and that looks like I''m taking a long distance journey." Which was interesting since she had been told she would have to go to Australia to talk to the MLE there. Looking at her next one she flipped through the book, "Oh what the bloody hell! Children? There is no way in hell this is right." Why couldn't a teddy bear mean snuggles or something. The only kid she even was close to was Zev and she saw Gaia once in awhile. "I had to have read that wrong or saw it wrong. The last stone was that stupid ring and that means marriage. I don't want either of those. "

Ewww, just eww. She wasn't liking this reading at all.

Even though Skylar's trousers were already cuffed to her knees and her shoes and socks were off, it took the third year a bit to get going because she had OTHER things to prepare. Like casting impervius on her notebook because she didn't want to have to remember what shapes she noted, in addition to what steps to do next. Yea, lots to remember and any help possible would be great.

Once she was all set with waterproofing her notebook, the third year carried that with her three stones balanced on top of it, as she slowly made her way out into the water. Last thing she needed was to accidentally drop the wrong stone. She struggled enough with Divination as it was, so accidentally dropping the square one before the round might mean poor results. Once she felt far enough out and away from her peers in such a way that their stone drops wouldn't interfere with her own, Sky felt she was ready. Round stone first. Carefully juggling her notebook with the stones on top, holding it steady in her left hand, the third year picked up the round stone first with her right hand and dropped it... and watched the ripples ...

Ironically the round stone seemed to form circular ripples in the water and Sky wondered if this was due to the stone being round? She'd have to compare notes with her peers later to see how genuine this might be....

Triangular stone next. Picking it up with her right hand, she let it drop. Duck lips? It kind of looked like that? Huh, weird. Soon she'd head back to the grounds and research in her textbook what these shapes meant, but for now she was merely just taking it all in what shapes she noted. Tilting her head in deep thought, Sky hadn't noticed that her left hand holding her notebook also tilted just enough that the final stone - the square one - slid off her notebook and made a *plop* into the waters.... She glanced over just enough time to see rings / beads echoing on repeat ... much similar to the way they are on that counting thing, uh, what was that called? An abacus?

So with her stones all dropped and what she thought she might be the shapes she'd seen, Skylar waded back to the ground to write them down more neatly along with researching in her textbook for an adequate interpretation.

Quote:

CIRCLE - success, completion; with dots means a baby

DUCK - news or message regarding finances; if more than one duck, profitable undertakings.

ABACUS - pay close attention to finances; something's not adding up.

Uh. Were there dots with her circle? She couldn't remember but for the love of Merlin, she HOPED NOT. Cause she was only thirteen. Unless the baby reference was talking about her big sister being pregnant, because that would have been different. Although the success and completion course seemed an okay track to be on, so she'd just say that there were no dots. Yup.

Also, what was up with her finances? Duck first, then an abacus? What wasn't adding up? Again, she was only thirteen and definitely not managing her own finances, so maybe that was what wasn't adding up. How bizarre a reading and it definitely made her wonder how far into this future this reading might extend? Premonitions, perhaps? See this was why Arithmancy made more sense; at least Arithmancy put a number on what age one might expect to see things... Divination was just like 'this will happen, but we're not going to tell you when'. It was just sooooo confusing and hypothetical, it seemed. Sigh.

No…it wasn’t a circle per say. Maybe an oval or an egg-shaped thing. Whatever the case, she made a mental note of it, figuring maybe her textbook would hold answers to possibilities. Then Cass decided to move onto the next stone since more than 30 seconds had passed. In went the triangle stone and Cassie did her best to try and decipher what it could possibly be quicker than before. Was it an infinity? Now, it had more detail…like a shoe?! Geez the fourth year didn’t think water ripples could be so different. It had to be the technique and what had been done to the stones.

Now there was one stone left and when the 30 seconds were up, Cass dropped the square stone in just as she had done its companions, watching the water with interest. Eh…that was…that was… a hat? The fourth year hoped there was something to go with that in the textbook else she wasn’t sure what it could be otherwise. She just shook her head and waded back towards shore, extra careful of disturbing the Giant Squid that had popped up earlier. Not her fault the professor had suggested they do it in the lake.

Casting a hot-air charm on her legs and feet, she was dried up nicely by the time she made it to her stuff, taking a seat so she could work more relaxed. The Ravenclaw then opened up her textbook, turning to the appropriate pages as she jotted down what she had seen. Each item she had thought she had possibly seen in the ripples thankfully had an entry so she jotted that down in her notes as well.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Round Stone – Egg
Triangle stone – shoe
Square stone – hat

Interpretations:

Egg = Good Omen, which was always good to get in a prediction. Who wants something bad to happen?
Shoe = Change for the better. That could be just about anything.
Hat = Improvement, especially in job. Well I don’t have a job, unless you counted being a student. So improvement might be doing well in points for the term or something.

So much for something clear.

Professor Vance was still near Charlotte Kettleburn when she overheard what the lioness said to the giant squid. With raised brows she pointedly said eyes on Charlotte. "I hope you mean that theoretically Charlotte because skinny dipping in the lake is against the school rules, and if groundskeeper McLeod caught you doing that you'd be in detention quicker than you could say Gryffindor."



Laurel was near Leesha of the snakes when the girl started to yell that she was stupid and that the whole lesson was fake and stupid. It was disrespectful and rude and more that ran through Professor Vance's head as she marched over and stopped in front of the girl and stared her straight into her eyes with a stern look on her face. "Ms Griffel, that is 30 points from Slytherin for your blatant rudeness and disrespect of this class and me! I don't tolerate that any student talks to me in that manner. It is not appropriate behaviour and you should really think over how you address professors in the future. If you continue to disrespect professors and school subjects then you will not only lose house points but you will also earn yourself a detention and a meeting with headmistress Hawthorne." Bubbling with irritation, Laurel glanced down at her watch, it was soon time to wrap up the lesson.



Her head still bubbling with irritation and thoughts that one shouldn't say out loud Laurel almost tripped over her own feet as Derf's sudden loud chirping caught her off guard. Quickly plastering on a smile and finding some happiness deep down, Professor Vance looked over at the badger youth that was jumping up and down in place on the sand several meters away from her. "How exciting Derfael! Fun for you, it really shows that what the readings predict of the future really can come true! I hope more of your life ambitions will come true."

****
Glancing down at her watch again Laurel brought out her wand and cast a sonorus charm on her voice so that it could be heard by those students still out in the water. "All right class, it's time to come up out off the water and record your last stone interpretations! You've all done wonderfully today and I hope that what your hydromatic readings have predicted of your futures will come true." The good things of course, not any bad things.

Professor Vance let her eyes run over the students as she continued speaking. "Class is dismissed! You are all free to go up to the castle and go get cleaned up and get a little break in your dorms before dinner. Feel free to grab some extra stones on your way up if you want to do some hydromatic readings on another day with your potion cauldrons."

Ooc: Class is dismissed! Thank you all so much for coming to class and playing with me and making it fun! I will leave the class thread open until around 2 pm GMT +1 tomorrow so that you all can have your characters leave.

Simon had been just quietly going on with his work, yeah there was nothing to see here at all. Simon instead of doing any work had just been playing around with the stones. Hey that was what they were there for right. Grabbing a couple of stones he smiled as he looked at the Professor.

"Thanks Professor" Simon thought about calling the Professor old but decided against it. He then turned to the Professor. "I have learnt a lot more about how to make a rock skip across the water." Simon had no idea what a reading was.

"Oh and if I want to do some reading, I'll grab a book. I don't think a rock would make a great bedtime story, for some reason." Simon pocked a couple of rocks though, they be good for a few other things.

After dropping the first stone (the round one) in the water, Olivia focused on the shape of the ripples. Hmmm... She couldn't exactly see a shape at first. She blinked a few more times, putting more energy into it. The ripples represented either a coin, a clock, or a circle perhaps? But then again, maybe a circle was being too literal. Come on. Try to see it. No. It was definitely looked more like a wheel. Yes. A WHEEL. Was it broken or complete? Still complete.

Then Olivia dropped the next stone. It was the triangular one. This one when it dropped. It looked like a triangle at first but soon it spread out more to become more like a fan. Interesting. She wrote that one down. Fan... Flirtation.

The final one was the easiest. The square one was dropped. House? Envelope? Cup? Chair? Perhaps bread? Olivia blinked. NO. It was definitely an envelope.

Wading her way back to shore, she opened her textbook and tried to find the images that she had seen. Complete wheel, fan, and envelope. What could they possibly mean? The first had been a wheel which meant fortune (as it was complete). The second was a fan. Flirtation. She glanced up from her book briefly before staring strangely at it. That was a demented idea. She was terrible at flirting. The third was an envelope. She blinked. Hmm.. Was important news on the way? Was Simon writing her a letter at this precise moment?



Closing her textbook and notebook, she contemplated the meaning of all three rocks further. Interesting She slipped them into her bag. No. She had to stop thinking of what they meant. She probably read the rocks wrong anyway. Silly girl, she thought. "Thanks Professor!" she said with a smile and headed back towards the castle with her thoughts geared towards what news could possibly be headed her way. Fortune. Flirtation. News. She was confused.