Truth be told, Vivian was still uncertain about Divination even until now, when she'd already taken it for a few years already. Did she have the sight or the will to even know more about this? Apparently, this was one of her overthinking episodes for this term. They were becoming more frequent, but she couldn't help but be overwhelmed at how crazily busy life was in her fifth year.

But she was still trying to remain positive despite being a little tired and hated waking up early. The blond skipped to the barn where they were supposed to have their class today, which only added to her curiosity as to what they had planned. "Good morning, Professor," Vivian greeted her Head of House with a smile and went over to sit beside Skylar. "Hey, Sky!" She waved at her dorm mate, and then wiggled her fingers at Rhea, too. "Hi, Rhea!" Did they have any idea about their lesson today? Hmm.

Miranda was looking around and noticing that she was partnerless... As usual... Always one of the last people to be partnered up...
Maybe people just didn't like her... Maybe the rumors that started last term about her after she had left school had rendered her " An Untouchable"...
A Social Lepper....


She saw Charlotte come in and look as if though she were looking around for a partner so Randa took a deep breath and called over to her, " Hey, Char!... Wanna team up?... I haven't got a partner yet?... Unless you're waiting for someone specifically that is..."

She was not overly hopeful that she'd accept her invitation or not... But it was worth a shot at any rate.

Woohoo outdoor Divination classes were the best sort of classes for this Curly Top. Not that there was anything bad with the Divi tower, but given the subject matter, he always felt more connected to the realms of the metaphysical when they were actually amongst nature.

"Hiya Professor Vance!" Tenacius greeted the blonde woman brightly, although quickly became distracted when his line of vision fell upon a certain Gravity Tester. Naturally he made a beeline for the mat where Owlie sat "Hey Vi!" he murmured as he took his place beside her. Was Owlie waiting for her Hufflepuff Prefect bestie? Plenty of room if she still wants to join them... like this desk thing. Plenty of room on that.

Derf was pretty stoked about Divination. It was one of his better subjects really and one that he had not expected to be...but he was hardly going to complain about that because he was SURE that his Inner Eye was pulsing today. He could just FEEL it. NOT TO MENTION THEY WERE HAVING CLASS IN THE BARN WHICH JUST MADE EVERYTHING ALL THE MORE SLDJFKKLSDJFJSFLKS. Which was why he made his way to the classroom as quickly as possible...although part of that haste was also due to him kiiiiiiiiiinda losing track of time and therefore running a little late.

BUT NO MATTER!

"Good day, Professor Vance!" he chirped upon entering the barn and trying reeeeeeeally hard not to get distracted by all his familiar friends who were looking at all the humans curiously. Whispering salutations as he went,
Derf flopped himself down on the mat next to Jessa. "Hi."

Divination. The art of seeing the future or predictions, right? She glanced over at the door momentarily, before scanning the crowd. Where was Ace? Then she glanced down at her hands, eying the lines on the palm of her hand and her tattoo. And then she heard his voice and she turned her direction to find a one Tenacius Salander joined her. "Hiya Ace!" she smiled at Ace as he took a seat beside her. Just as she had seen!! Well she hadn't seen but she predicted that he'd come to this class and sit close by to her. Speaking of divination and the future and all of that, Vi leaned over to the curly haired Prefect and whispered with heart racing, "Are you free after class?"

---

With one last glance down at her watch and one over at Madam Raventhorne Laurel straightened up in her full length and cleared her throat as she spoke to the whole class. "Good morning everyone and welcome to another class in the art of divining our futures! Professor Wayland has very graciously loaned us the barn and adjacent pastures for our lesson today on a particular divination method."

Pausing to move forwards slightly Laurel gestured around them to the stalls and pens as she continued. "This huge barn is home to many magical creatures and creatures play an essential part in many divination methods/readings. Can each of you in turn raise your hands and mention ONE creature divination method that you've heard of or read about please?"

OOC: Class has started! Is so happy to see so many of you wanting to play in class with me. Feel free to jump in if you haven't already joined in! Just play as if you've been there the whole time.

Answer Laurel's question by having your student mention ONE creature divination method. Can be any methods that just use specific animal parts or a method where you study a creatures behaviour or both. All answers are welcome, even wrong ones. Try not to repeat answers if possible. Class will continue approx 24 hours from now @ 7 pm GMT+2 tuesday night.

Kimi thought and thought and raised his hand and said "Phoenix feathers professor" Kimi had no idea whether it was right or not but it was worth a guess

Etta was excited to see what the professor had in store for them.. especially when they were having the lesson in a barn. Something about creatures, perhaps? Heh.. and she was right. Divination involving creatures, interesting. After pausing for a moment, she raised a hand and answered the question.

"I've heard about Ichthyomancy. It involves fish, doesn't it?" Etta was a little doubtful but she'd given a try anyway. She listened to the other give their answers, wondering and kind of hoping that her answer was right.

"Aw nuts," it was worth a shot, wasn't it?

The defeated third year went to go find a place to sit and chose a mat on the other side of DERF before waiting for the lesson to start. It would've been nice if Professor Vance respected her vision and canceled class though. What a let down.



When the first question was posed Zoryn just ???? um no. She didn't go around reading about divination in her spare time so she didn't actually know what kinds of divination methods involved barn animals.

But when it was her turn, the Gryffindor still spoke. "Sometimes you can tell if an animal is sick by their poop," true story and it worked with humans too fyi. "Does that count?"

Zoryn thought it should. You could predict the future of their health. Isn't that what divinations was all about?

"Sure!" Kyle smiled and made sure there was plenty of room for her. Not that it was difficult for two second-years to fit on a mat.



Kyle frowned. He knew of using the bones and livers of the animals for divination, but he didn't know anything about animal behavior for divination. So, dead animals were apparently more his thing than live creatures. What could possibly be used? He thought about it a little longer. "Maybe observing a hippogriff, professor. They are highly intuitive and would probably act differently if certain circumstances arose. Like, if one got spooked, then something bad is going to happen."

OH! She knew this one. Or at least she thought she did. What was it she'd been reading the other day, in the mound of books she'd piled high in the library? Something to do with birds. Dahlia scrunched her face up and gently pounded her fist into her forehead, hoping it would help her remember.

"Oh!" She waved her hand, waiting until given the okay, before saying her answer. "Ornithomancy? I think that's one? With birds. I think."

Maisie was iffy about Divination. Her mother was a fanatic about it, always using the tarot, and tea leaves, and going for readings. Maisie laughed at her sometimes, and told her she was wasting money on charlatans and frauds, and couldn't we spend it on another ice cream at Florean Fortescue's please, Mum?

Still, class was class and you don't get Sorted into Ravenclaw for nothing. Maisie raised her hand. "Centaurs know a lot about Divination, Professor.
You could look at their knowledge and draw from their techniques. I'm not sure they would count as animals, though."Her heart thumped. She was a timid girl and hated the thought that she might have firstly got the answer wrong and secondly offended a proud creature like the centaur. Not that there was a centaur in class. Her thoughts were racing. That was always a bad sign. Her breathing would be next. "May I have some water, please Professor?"

Rhea stared into space as she waited for class to begin, only looking up when Skylar joined her on the mat. She couldn't quite muster up a proper smile, but at least she tried, giving the fifth year a half-smile and a nod instead.

Shortly after Skylar arrived, the Professor began speaking and Rhea turned her attention to her.

Ah. This question was one she'd seen coming. It was clear to anyone with eyes, ears, a nose, or plain common sense that there'd be a focus on animals today. And with the extra studying that Rhea'd been doing for OWLs recently, she actually had an answer for this one. She'd read about numerous methods of divination that involved animals, so she answered the Professor's question with the first one that came to mind. "Certain animals are sometimes considered to be omens. Buzzards, for example.... If you see a buzzard flying, some people" - not herself - "might consider it an omen of..." She paused, trying to remember what she'd read, "of danger or strife."

Despite the fact that Scarlett still raised her eyebrows at creature divination, she knew of a few of them. Some of them were fun to read about, even if she didn't take them seriously. Although the one she was about to suggest MIGHT be fun, if that was the way this lesson was headed...

She raised her hand. "Alectryomancy is the use of roosters to read the future. Usually you spread some grain or something and watch them eat it and interpret it that way," she explained. She didn't know the details beyond that, though.

Oh creatures divination. The immediate recollection of the class that got him to acquire his beloved Jabba the Slug immediately came to mind, but the fact that they were in a barn made the Curly Top pause for a moment. Did the Professor just mean barn animals or any sort of creature?

He wasnt sure, but being in a barn and hearing the creatures sounding off from time to time got him to remember this detail his mom would talk about during their equine excursions. Up goes the hand "Professor theres the divination by horses called hippomancy. That divination particularly takes note of their neighing and stomping."

Mel had quietly slipped into the room RIGHT before Professor Vance had started class. Thank merlin she hadn’t been late – that would have been bad. The Gryffindor sent Vi and Ace a little wave before settling into the ONLY other seat at their table.

Hippomancy…of course, Tenacius was like secretly a horse whisperer – like…really. She’d not put it past him to just whisper about them. Raising her hand she beamed at Professor Vance.

”Aletromancy?” she finally blurted out the moment she had been called on. ”a divination form using birds…usually roosters and crowing?” she shrugged nad grinned at her.

Gosh.

Professor Vance was like amazing…really, there was a part of Mel that wanted to learn all of being a seer and divinations. It was just, magical and amazing…and wait had she just thought it was magical? Of course it was magical – she began chastising herself for her own thought process still smiling brightly all the while.

Class had started and Shay sat up taller, her attention on Professor Vance. Soooo, they would be doing some sort of animal divination. Of course they would, this being the barn and all. The first question of the day was posed and Shay listened to her classmates' answers before raising her hand.

When she was called on, Shay began to explain her answer. "Arachnomancy is a form of Divination that has to do with studying spiders......how they look and how they behave." She certainly hoped that the lesson had nothing to do with that particular topic. There were so many animals that she would rather work with. Not that she was afraid of spiders. She wasn't, but Shay could not deny that they were creepy and not on her top ten list of favorite critters.

Yes, Olivia had had a good breakfast in fact. She smiled at the Professor's inquiry. "Very good morning and nice breakfast," she replied with a happy smile and nod, keeping the conversation brief because she was sure that the Professor was starting the lesson any minute. And speaking of almost late people, Mel snuck into the barn just in time. She raised her brows at Melbourne, wondering where her fellow Gryffindor and roomie had been. Sleeping in or with a certain Ravenclaw Prefect? Hmm...? Soon enough Vi's attention was distracted by the first question and then Ace's response. Hippomancy... Listening to a horse's neighs and stomps and interpreting them? Wow. She didn't know that was even a thing!? Learned something new every day, huh?

Then Mel had raised her hand and spoken about one that had to do with birds and roosters... Merlin. These two knew much more about the crossover between divination and creatures than she did. She'd just stick to her charms... Heh.

Though all hope was not lost for this Gryffindor (as of right now) as she had read something about cats in her textbook. She raised her hand to offer a response."I forgot the exact name of this method, Professor, but this Divination method has to do with cats and analyzing their movements and jumps in order to predict the weather.." Now what was it called again? "I think it's something along the lines of ailromancy? .... Ailuromancy was what it was... I believe."

Ooooooooh...

Did the professor just say animals?

Well...she said 'magical creatures' but those were animals too, right? As he loved animals, Hunter suddenly became super interested in the class. Also he was excited, cause since the professor teacher mentioned creatures, she would show them some and let him pet them, right?

Maybe she would let him pet all of them if he would impress him by being a good boy. Like good good boy. Super good. As good as he could be. Oh wait...what was she saying?

Divination with animals? Divination was guessing the future...

...soooo she asked if they knew any animals that can guess the future. Looking around, the little Gryffindor listened to what other people were saying. Wow, he surely didnt know anything like those. But he felt like he heard such a thing before. Animals that could understand future. Or people. He was sure his dad mentioned such a thing before.

Ummmm...

He had to say something though, so he would impress the professor. When he remembered something, Hunter raised a hand excitedly.

"Professor! I know one of them professor!! Dogs!!" yup "Dogs, professor"

But...dogs werent magical, right?

That was embarrassing. Yet still he had a point to defend his statement.

"The dogs at home can bark and let us know if something is approaching."

That was still future, right?

Ah, well. It kinda made sense that they were to talk about a divination related to animals. Why else would they be at the barn when they normally held lessons in their classroom at the tower? Vivian took out a fresh piece of parchment and scribbled stuff on it. She was determined to take more (and better) notes this term. OWLs were a thing, and she didn't want to be unprepared for it.

Vivian didn't know much examples, to be honest, and she looked a little panicked as other students kept on adding more to the list. She needed to act fast. Think, Fairfield, think! Making a list on her head on what she knew and what was already mentioned, she sifted some examples out and immediately raised her hand. Sorry, this was survival of the fittest. "Myomancy, Professor," the blond shared. "It involves mice and their behavior." Which was a little weird because this Slytherin wouldn't want to handle with mice, but they only needed to share a type of animal divination... so there's that.

Maddie grinned when the professor returned her greeting, and then she TRIIIIIED to settle down on her mat until it was time to start class. TRIED was the key word, because some Gryffindor girl came in and made a prediction about class being cancelled, and how funny that comment was got Maddie to fidgeting again. There was no way she was meant to stay still for the entire duration of a lesson!

She was going to try, though! Maddie sat up on her heels and did a little rock back and forth before raising her hand. "What about an animal stampede? Sometimes when a ton of animals are all running in one direction at once, it means something is chasing them," she said. She'd seen that in a few muggle movies. One involved dinosaurs, and when ALLLL of the animals started running, the people started running, too.

Daisy vaguely remembered one form of animal related Divination that she had read about so she raised her hand. "What about Alectryomancy? I think it uses a white rooster and some wheat."

The Divination lesson was off to a good start! Amelia jotted down Professor Vance's question and some of the students' answers, some of which were excellent and some of which...were not. She would take careful note of how the professor handled students with less impressive answers. Hogwarts teachers were expected to be able to deal with different ages and ability levels after all.


-----------------------------

Emmeline was super sleepy. She had gotten up extra, EXTRA early so that she could play with the baby creatures before class. So she gave everyone she knew polite "hi"'s and waves and stuff, but she really wasn't paying much attention. She was surprised that Miss Kitty had chosen to sit next to her, but it wasn't a bad surprise, really. Maybe the older girl would have some weird ideas in this lesson too, and that could possibly be entertaining.

She was reallly wishing that Professor Vance had taken Zoryn's suggestion to heart when the professor's question sunk past the fatigue cluttering her brain. Oh no! Another class where she had to worry about creatures getting hurt!! It was bad enough with just Potions... Although she'd expected that today's lesson would involve creatures since it was in the barn, she hadn't really thought about what that might mean. As she listened to the other students' answers, though, Emmeline started to calm down considerably. Listening to horses and stuff wouldn't be so bad, and wouldn't hurt the creatures. As far as divination methods involving creatures went, Emmeline wasn't really sure, but she had kind of heard of an awful one from somewhere. She raised her hand and answered: "I think there's one that uses, umm, bird guts. I hope we're not doing that one, Professor."'Cause if they were going to be hurting creatures today, she was gonna do something about it. What, she had no idea, but she'd think of something. Emmeline shot Stasya a concerned look from her mat. She had a feeling that if it came to that, she'd have a partner maybe.

Derf's arrival in the spot next to hers on the mat got a wide grin of greeting out of the Ravenclaw. While she didn't necessarily take the subject seriously, there was no denying how much more entertaining it was with the Hufflepuff around. As far as he was concerned, he had some inner eye and it was usually worth a laugh when he gave his input. This, of course, wasn't a malicious thought but rather Jessa being relieved to have some distraction from the joke that was this 'noble art'.

The question asked was expected. By now, Jessa was accustomed to Professors making them guess before telling them what they should have already known from their curriculum guides. Suffice to say the young girl had learned by now to simply roll with it.

"There's also Felidomancy, Professor. Deals with diving the future through the observation of cats and their movement." Which she wasn't buying for even a second but never let it be said that Jessa Cambridge never read her Divination textbook.

There were a whole bunch of branches that dealt with animals actually. Vague, this question was vague.

No protest from the Ravenclaw, not that he really expected there to be any, meant that Derf was comfortable settling into his seat and instantly becoming distracted looking at all the creatures nearby. SO distracted, in fact, that he nearly missed the professor's question. Only he didn't, and his hand was up IMMEDIATELY because he had a really really NEAT option!

"Urimancy!" he squeaked gleefully. "Studying the SECRETIONS of creatures...sometimes people too...like the color...or flow pattern...or like...in the shapes it makes when it hits the ground or when you catch it in a bowl! Some do it by TASTE too...kinda like I did in my dorm to identify these neat little bags of dung left there on the first night back. OH! But also in like..bubbles found in the secretions too ... if I remember correctly. Big bubbles were good...and I guess like...this form of divination was kinda the start to gender identification in pregnancies...OH OH OH! Are we going to try and guess the gender of fetal creatures by watching their mom's pee!?"

LIKE THIS WAS REAL APPLICABLE MAGIZOOLOGY STUFF RIGHT HERE! SORT OF! BUT OH OH OH WHICH CREATURE HERE WAS PREGNANT?!