Creature divination! This was going to be the best lesson ever! Well, as good as a divination lesson could get anyway. Nothing could ever top herbology. Hopefully they were talking about the sort of creature divination that involved observing live creatures and not the ancient Roman entrail reading sort of divination. Isa would never do anything to harm animals, and she would never participate in a divination activity if it involved dead animals. They were by the barn today, so Isa was going to take that as a sign of observing live animals. Maybe they would be observing the augureys or the winged horses? They said that augureys predicted death, but hopefully they wouldn't be predicting any deaths today.
"I've heard that there's a type of divination called myrmomancy that involves looking at ant hills or termite mounds and watching the behavior of the ants or termites." Ants were interesting to watch actually. They had very organized patterns of ants marching in line when you looked closely. Isa wasn't so sure if you could actually divine anything from ants though. If they were inside it probably meant there was food left out on the table, and if they were outside they were just happily going about their ant business, carrying food back to wherever their nest was. She had had an ant terrarium once when she was younger, and she loved watching the movements of the ants. Maybe she should get herself a new ant terrarium and see if she could apply divination to the ants.

What was that Derf was saying about Urimancy? Rather than being put off, Isa was intrigued by the things Derf was saying about creatures. The thing about tasting dung to identify it was kind of gross though. Isa had found dung left in her bed too, but she went for other methods of identifying it like color, consistency, size, shape, and smell. Derf was absolutely adorable. Educational too. She hadn't known that stuff about gender identification divination. Of course that might not be accurate, but it was interesting all the same. Was some creature pregnant around here? Something that wasn't hers?

The fact that they were out in the barn kind of felt to Stasya like it made the point of the lesson obvious, even if she wasn’t sure what exactly they were doing. Plus, she wasn’t going to say it was obvious that they’d be doing something with animals. Maybe they weren’t. It was possible. But before she did anything, she’d settled in on the mat with Kyle, giving him a grin as he’d agreed to let her sit there. Yay. Now all she had to do was figure out if her squirrel was roaming around anywhere nearby them and she’d be awesome.

The lesson was starting, though, so her attention went to Professor Vance again. So they were doing creature divination. Yay for being right, or sort of right. She really hoped they weren’t doing the kind Emmeline had mentioned, or even the kind Derf said because ew. That and she was very anti-hurting animals so there was going to be a protest if they were going to be told to do that. She did raise her hand, though. “What about augury? Not the creature, but they do predict rain so maybe the creature too. But isn’t it also predicting things by looking at bird formations?” That didn’t involve hurting anyone.

It kinda figured that they would be doing some divination related to animals today, since they were in the barn and everything, but some of the things being mentioned Ronan hoped they weren't doing. Mainly, the ones involving animal droppings and the like. And someone (Derfael) had mentioned even tasting the droppings, which sent his gag reflex right to the edge. WHO ON EARTH WOULD DO SUCH A THING?! EW! *gag*

It took him a few minutes to recover, but once he did, he remembered something. "Sometimes people study animals' actions in order to tell when there's going to be bad weather or even an earthquake. There's even a day built around that idea in America called Groundhog Day. They watch this groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil come out of his burrow and if he sees his shadow, it means there will be six more weeks of winter." Which he had always thought was silly. Wouldn't there be all kinds factors that would come into play? Like the sun's position in the sky, or whether it was cloudy that day?

Thomas raised his hand. "eh maybe a kangaroo could just tell your fortune for you." Yeah he had no idea about what divination was and he didn't want to be left out so yeah he decided to just make something up.

One method? Well. Char stuck her hand up.

"Something to do with poop, maybe? Um... scat that is. There's tons of that where ever there are tons of animals after all. Some people say its lucky to step in it or be pooped on but I think that's people just making the best of a bad situation really."

Not that she minded but something else would be more fun. She didn't think it would be anything that hurt any of the creatures because otherwise she was sure they wouldn't be allowed to be down here.

One thing she had noticed though, there was another board member in this lesson.

Hmmm.

Shortly after Skylar sat down next to Rhea, she was joined by Vivian, to which Skylar forced a smile at. And it seemed she wasn't the only fifth year feeling the exhaustion already, given the half-smile from Rhea. Maybe they could have a lesson about dream interpretation? Since they all were so desperately in need of sleep; she would volunteer to go sleep first.

And then the Professor began talking and yes, of course it was about creatures. Why else would she move the lesson from the towers to the barns? But what was all this talk about poop and secretions and guts? Surely that wasn't an actual THING, was it? Honestly, her classmates were weird. Of course Jessa did something with dead people, to which Skylar wasn't even sure exactly, so yea.... weird classmates.

"Apantomancy," Skylar suggested, raising her hand. "It deals with a chance encounter with animals." Although technically this wasn't chance, since it was a lesson, but it was a method that dealt with animals.

Also, we see you other adult person. How curious. Perhaps Hogwarts lessons were being evaluated for quality, since poop and secretions is what seems to be on the mind of most students?

Very glad for all the answers Laurel adressed the whole class as she used her wand to make a large chest of omniculars appear at her feet. "Thank you all for your guesses. The majority of them were very good. There are as many methods that study the behaviour of creatures as there are creatures and many fall under the method terms of Zoomancy or Theriomancy."

"Today though we are going to be focusing mainly on bird divination or Ornithomancy as mentioned by Dahlia and Stasya that was a very common practice in ancient Rome. Those that practiced and observed the flight, songs, cries and behaviour of birds in ancient Rome were called augurs.

Before we study Ornithomancy closer I want you all preform a little task which is to take a pair of omniculars from the chest by my feet and go out into the pastures and use your omniculars to study the birds that fly high in the sky and try to label at least 4 bird flight patterns that you also sketch/drawn on a piece of parchment. Most birds fly in a straight line and and flap their wings constantly see if you can spot some other ones with the use of your textbook"

OOC: Mini activity time! You have 3 days to complete the activity until friday @ around 7 pm before i move on.

What you need to do in one or more posts is to:
Rp going out into the pastures (within the lesson thread) and with your omniculars observe and label 4 bird flight patterns that you also sketch/drawn on a piece of parchment eg in a spoiler tag stating 'The bird flew in criss cross motion and i label that as____' and so on.

If you want to do the bird flight sketch/drawing in paint or another graphic program you can. Just keep the graphic within SS weight and height limits and post it with your rp post.

If you aren't graphically skilled then that's okay just post your notes where you label the patterns you've and do the rp. Have fun with this! You can partner if you want to! Any questions ask in class or vm me!

She smiled and said hello to Olivia and Emmeline, but didn't have much time to chat as the lesson was beginning.

Kitty had heard a little bit about augurs before, but she'd always inwardly snickered at the idea that there could be any real magic in all that. It was SO superstitious. But then again, all that snickering happened when she thought the exact same thing about all Divination - and she' been proven wrong about some of her views on this subject already. So...maybe she was wrong about this one too?

Willing to be open minded and curious, Kitty approached the box to take a pair of binoculars. As she picked a pair from the box, she almost asked Professor Vance if she often studied birds to predict her future, but decided that question could wait until after class.

Once she'd retrieved the binoculars, she stood by the side of the barn doors and watched the others to see if anyone wanted a partner. She was totally cool either way.

Emma listened as the professor spoke and immediately went for the box of omniculars. This was the class she'd been looking forward to starting in her 3rd year. Though the rest of her family didn't much believe in divination and such, Emma had found it a fascinating subject just as she had with Arithmancy and Runes. She felt it might do her well in her future, even if it ended up being unneeded.

Taking a pair from the box she made sure she had a quill and notepad to take her notes on and headed into the pasture.

Maddie was kind of surprised her answer was correct, or...it at least had something to do with Divination. There were so many replies about animal poop, and every time it was mentioned, it made Maddie want to laugh. She tried not to, though. Bird divination it was, though, which interested Maddie since she'd never done bird divination before. Actually, she'd never done any divination before. She didn't even want to try to pronounce the official word for bird divination, so for now, she was sticking to BIRD DIVINATION.

OHHHHHHH, they were going out into the field?! Maddie bounced forward and took a pair of the omnioculars out of the box. They looked SUPER FUN to use, and so Maddie skipped toward the pastures, all the while trying her best not to step on any animal poop. She wandered out into a random area of the pasture and claimed a spot she deemed awesome enough for bird watching. UGH. She had forgotten her textbook. Sighing to herself, she hurried back to her bag, grabbed her textbook, and then wandered back out into the pasture.

Alright, BIRDSSSS. Show me your stuff!

Halfway through the beginning of the lesson, Vi had shot a smile and a quick wave over to Kitty who had smiled and waved to her before the lesson had started. She'd have to catch up with her Ravenclaw friend after this. They needed to hang out again for she really enjoyed the last time they had spent time together. But back to the lesson.

Ornithomancy was what they would be working on today, was it? The flight pattern of birds and all. Sounded intriguing. She jotted down a few notes in her notebook about the subject and a few pointers on the activity. She picked up a pair of binoculars from the box and her bag which she slung lazily over a shoulder and walked out into the field. Vi brought the binoculars up to her eyes and she stared up into the sky, searching for bird activity. Aha! Found some.

She began gazing a group of large birds.... ducks or geese? Was it? She blinked and then squinted her eyes, trying to determine what formation the birds were in. Was that a triangle formation..... Vi glanced at her textbook. Hmm... Oh wait. She glanced up. No, she knew what formation that was. She turned to her notebook and then began making notes. Vi glanced up and saw another bird flying past. This one was much smaller than the other ones that she had seen and had a very erratic flight pattern. It seemed as if the bird bounced from place to place. Hmm.. She turned to her textbook, chose an option, and then set about writing in her notebook.



Lifting the binoculars back up to her eyes, she began looking for a few more birds.

He might have been sitting there the entire time, but he wasn't paying attention. Why did his mother forced him into this class? Why did she feel the need for him to take it? He swore she was trying to pile the homework on him so much that he couldn't do anything else in his free time. She hated that he was working with his Uncle over summer and she hated that his father supported it.

The only thing making him like being here was the fact they were outside, plenty of things to distract him from his head of house. He felt she was too sweet to be a leader of the snakes and that maybe she was actually a puff and lied to the students.
His eyes moved around the grass area. Maybe he could find his next snake while he was outside. It was hard to keep a good snake when you had poison around your room. Thankfully his sister's cat hadn't gotten into his room over summer break. That's all he needed was his mother after him there.

Trying to listen at least a little more Eddie got up and headed out to the field.

Ummm

What were they doing again?

So maybe he wasn't listening, but he could always fake it if need be. Looking around it seemed people were looking up, so he looked up.

Did Zoryn really wanna watch birds fly? No, not at all. BUT the omniculars looked AWESOME and were VERY tempting. So good job, Professor Vance. Hmmmm... Zoryn almost wondered whether Professor V knew that the omniculars would be super enticing. In fact, they were the only reason why Zor was even inclined to participate.

So without waiting much longer, the Gryffindor grabbed a pair for herself and went out wondering far from her Professor! What?! If she was about to see some birds she wasn't gonna do it with her Professor breathing down her back!!!

Plus, there weren't many birds around where they were standing SO it was only fair. Putting the omniculars up to her eyes, the Gryffindor searched around the sky for some birds. OH OH OH!!!! Found one!!! Zoryn watched it for a couple of seconds (probably not long enough to determine it's actually pattern of flight but like-- oh well!) and began scribbling down in her notebook.

SPOILER!!: notes

Direct Flight: Y'know, a pretty normal bird just doing a pretty normal thing. I think most birds fly like this. Never really payed much attention. But it's wings are flapping like... normal and it's going in a straight line.

How many times did she say the world normal? Did it matter? Did she care? No. That would do!!! NEXT BIRD!!!

As Professor Vance replied to each and every question, Rhea made note of the names, animal or animals involved, and brief descriptions of each method of Divination. Because they were sat on these mats, she was forced to rest her parchment on the back of her textbook, which wasn't exactly convenient. She was probably being overly thorough with her notes, too, but oh well. It distracted her from the smells around her and kept her mind busy. Although.... every time animal poop or secretions were mentioned, it brought her attention back to the foul smell surrounding the class. Ew....

Rhea put down her quill once the questions became more infrequent and cracked her knuckles.

All too quickly, the Professor moved on and Rhea picked up her quill once again. She jotted down the topic of today's lesson and listened as Professor Vance explained what they were going to do. Ornithomancy.... They'd be studying birds' flight patterns? That was fine by her. The less poop involved, the better. The fifth year offered Skylar and Vivian a half-smile before standing up and retrieving a pair of omniculars from the chest in front of the Professor.

SPOILER!!: Rhea's notes

ORNITHOMANCY

Divination methods
Geomancy – Scry with feathers
Ichthyomancy – Observes & interprets fish behaviour
Scatomancy – Animal poop ↝ ‘what’s to come’ in your future
Hippomancy – Hippogriff behaviour ↝ intuitive / horse behaviour ↝ neighing and stomping etc.
Ornithomancy – Birds ↝ behaviour, flight, cry and song
Alectryomancy – Interprets how roosters eat grain ↝ spread grain over letters ↝ yes/no question about future / how the roosters crown
Archanomancy – Spiders ↝ how they look, sizes & general behaviour
Ailuromancy – Cat movements & jumps ↝ predict weather
Myomancy – Rodent behaviour incl. mice
Scatomancy – Animal guts
Felidomancy – Cat behaviour & movements / sometimes called Zoomancy or Theriomancy
Uroscopy - Studies animal secretions ↝ colour, flow pattern etc. / helps healer identify disease ↝ future readings
Myrmomancy – Interprets ant or termite behaviour / sometimes calls Theriomancy or Zoomancy
Orniscopy – Bird formations
Scatomancy – Animal poop ↝ future readings
Apantomancy – Chance encounters with animals / Black cat superstition
Omens – Buzzard (danger or strife) / Grim in tea cup (danger or death) / Animals stampede (bad weather)

Viv was shocked at all the answers. Today she was learning about bird divination. Viv took a pair of omnioculars and went out into the pasture to study birds. She saw a robin in an oak tree. "I saw a robin flying in V-formation.

Harriet wasn't overly good at Divination. It wasn't her favourite subject, and to be honest, she wasn't that good at it. But she wanted to try and at least get a good grade it in for her OWLS. That meant she had to try and pay attention. The subject hurt her brain, and she was going to be glad when she could drop it at the end of the year. But for now, she was going to try and concentrate hard. She wrote a few notes about the subject, trying to jot down everything, so she had it ready for if she needed to revise it at a later point.

But now onto the activity. This was clearly the best portion of the lesson. It also was a period she was less likely to fall asleep in. She grabbed her Omniculars, and headed out to the pastures. She didn't know how good she would be at this but she was going to try at least!

She sat herself down, and then began trying to look for birds, and watch their patterns. She decided to try and watch a few before she wrote anything down. Just so she would know that she was doing the right thing.

Vi bit her lip as she continued using the binoculars to stare up into the wide sky. Now where were the other birds? She slowly scanned across the sky and then saw a bird near the edge of the pastures that flew up high and then dove down all of the sudden looking like a sinusoidal wave. The bird flew lower and then higher. She adjusted the binoculars so she could get a closer look at how the birds were flapping their wings. She noted as the bird began to fly higher, it flapped its wing more rapidly. Then as the bird descended, it lazily descended, gliding on the air flow. Taking off her binoculars, she turned to her textbook, trying to find a flight pattern that it matched.

After writing the note in her notebook, Vi picked up her binooculars one more time and then saw a black bird (she could not tell if it were a crow or a raven) flying high in the sky. The bird flapped its wings as it flew but then it just glided and let the wind carry it for a good chunk of time. The bird then proceeded to continue flapping its wings and then stopping all of a sudden as if it was exhausted from flapping its wings and just wished to glide. Hm... Vi glanced at her textbook and then scribbled down the notebook.

Okay this wasn't as cool as Zoryn thought it would be. She was back on the wanting class canceled train. However, they weren't so fortunate today. Or any day really... HOW COME NO ONE EVER CANCELED CLASS? What a travesty. The real magic of Hogwarts would be a Third Year Skip Day.

Anyways, as for flight patterns, Zoryn wasn't so sure she wanted to observe any more birds. So instead of actually studying them up in the sky she just scribbled something else down in her notebook. How was Professor Vance supposed to know that she was just making it all up? Not like there were tons of possibilities anyways. Eh. Zor thought that alone was reason enough to pretend.

SPOILER!!: notes

Direct Flight: Y'know, a pretty normal bird just doing a pretty normal thing. I think most birds fly like this. Never really payed much attention. But it's wings are flapping like... normal and it's going in a straight line.

Skimming: There's a bird flying close to the lake. I think it's thirsty or maybe it just likes water. MAYBE it's trying to find a mermaid like Derf and I always try. I don't know if it'll find one or if it's even smart enough to find one, 'cause like it's a bird y'know? Are birds even that smart? They've got super small heads so I don't think their brains are very big.

That was a good enough answer right?

Oh! They were gonna be doing birdwatching. Now he kinda wished he knew this earlier as his mom's best friend was some kind of bird man. Had a full sized aviary and everything! But yes he gotta get going since birds aint gonna be waiting around for him, such flighty things they are mmhm....

He scooped up an omnioccular and headed out, pointing the contraption at the sky above, straight towards the horizon, turned, tried the other horizon.... for some reason there doesnt seem to be any--

--- and suddenly he spotted movement emerging from the tree tops of the Forest. What a burst of activity! He was starting to identify the pattern when suddenly said birds moved away from the Forest and seems to be heading towards him-- oh no wait..... no, they were definitely making for the direction of the lake, very decidedly even. Is he seeing a combo flight pattern here? Well birds will fly however they please innit?

He started to fumble for his parchment and quill because wowzers these birds were giving him everything he could ask for in one go and really, it might be a long while before he could spot anything this happening in the skies. The struggle between wanting to write something down and keeping your eyeballs glued to the omniocculars eh?

Oh so now the birds are making steep dive towards the lake. And the Curly Top had begun to wonder-- are they actually going to dive into the water? But what about the Giant Squid? Were they aware that its even there? But it seems like the birds knew they were being watched... or maybe they were just going about their own thing, because they didnt dive into the water, a whole bunch of them just flew really really low on the surface of the lake and skimmed its surface. So close! He was still watching with baited breath if 'ol Bart would suddenly stick a tentacle out and grab one of the feathered friends midflight. But it seems that the flock have gotten what they wanted-- fish? attention? a quick bath?-- because now they all started to soar back up into the sky like a feathered hurricane, followed the same path back as it did earlier and disappeared into the treetops of the Forest as suddenly as they appeared.

Wow ok that was like what... how many patterns were those? He grabbed his parchment and quill and just dropped onto the ground where he stood and started scribbling away hastily.

SPOILER!!: Tenaciusly exciting notes

1. Hawking Flight Pattern
2. Direct Flight Pattern
3. Dynamic soaring Flight Pattern
4. Skims Flight Pattern
5. Static soaring Flight Pattern

So no chance animal encounters? Well, if Skylar was being honest with herself, that made sense considering this was a lesson and while it would be a chance for them, Professor Vance would have pre-arranged it and it wasn't really a chance. Or well, technically it was, because in a sense Divination was a chance. What were the chances that the birds were going to fly a particular way when a particular person looked at them? And how would that be interpreted for different people? See, all chance.

Sort of.

Picking up the omnioculars, after Professor Vance mentioned it okay to do so, Skylar strode from the barn out to the field to have a look. Only she was semi-distracted by the way Olivia Holden seemed so efficient; was it being a NEWT student now that made one more relaxed and more easily able to focus on the tasks on hand? Because she was feeling ALL OVER THE PLACE in every thought.

Focus, Skylar, focus. You're not going to pass your exams by worrying over what other people are doing.

Pressing the omnioculars to her eyes, she gazed up at the sky and then down at her notes with the different bird flights. Hovering, there was definitely some hovering. Almost as if the birds were tormenting her, by staring her down. Also a smooth glide by some other birds...

SPOILER!!: Notes

- Hovering
- Glide

ooc: fyi, the first link doesn't work? <3

Okay once they were done with all of this, did that mean they could leave and class would be over? Zoryn was asking for a friend. Actually, no, she was definitely asking for herself. This was such a snooze fest. The omniculars were cool for all of two seconds until Zoryn found out how unexciting looking at birds flying patterns is.

Okay, she was just about done here tbh.

Holding the omniculars up to her eyes again, she realized that this was pointless and dumb and that Professor Vance really wouldn't know the difference if she just scribbled down answers without actually observing them. So again, she decided to make things up. They only needed four, right?

SPOILER!!: notes

Direct Flight: Y'know, a pretty normal bird just doing a pretty normal thing. I think most birds fly like this. Never really payed much attention. But it's wings are flapping like... normal and it's going in a straight line.

Skimming: There's a bird flying close to the lake. I think it's thirsty or maybe it just likes water. MAYBE it's trying to find a mermaid like Derf and I always try. I don't know if it'll find one or if it's even smart enough to find one, 'cause like it's a bird y'know? Are birds even that smart? They've got super small heads so I don't think their brains are very big.

V Formation: Alright birdies now let's get in formation, amiright? Don't really get it, but it looks pretty neat.

Undulating: These birds are probably gettin' pretty darn dizzy with all the up and down and up and down and up and y'know the rest. Yup. The look like ocean waves.

Was any of that right? Probably not. Did Zoryn Spinnet truly care? Absolutely not. Could they leave now? Was class finally over?

The Gryffindor returned to where Professor Vance was standing waiting for them. "I'm done," btw. Could she leave?

She guessed correctly? Oh, it was so great when she did that. Oddly the feeling of doing well here was even more acute than when she used to do well at her old primary school. Every lesson so far she couldn't stop her smile when she got something right. She was probably far too proud of herself, but it wasn't everyday you get magical questions right, or master a spell.

As the lesson moved on, Dahlia sat forwards and crossed her legs, listening intently and nodding at the explanation and expansion on the subject she'd offered as her answer before. When they were given their first task, she practically jumped up and joined the queue to get her omnioculars. Picking a pair up, she went back to her bag to grab some parchment and her quill, before following the others outside to the pastures to sit and watch the birds.

Okay. So Hattie wasn't actually any good at this. To her it just looked like the birds were flying. Because that was what they were doing. It was kind of like someone using her daily runs to predict the future. She just did not get it. But she was going to try. That was what she did. Hopefully it would make a bit more sense. She'd had a few goes of looking at what the birds were doing. So now she was going to try and see what their patterns meant. She just hoped that she could at least made some sense of it. Otherwise she had just wasted some time really.

She watched the birds for a little longer, remembering some of the patterns in her head, so that she could quickly write them down. She figured not being too picky wasn't bad, since she wasn't really into this. After a few minute, she began to write her notes down



And now to look for some more flight patterns.

Documenting birds' flight patterns sounded like the most boring task ever thought of, in Rhea's opinion, but at least it was pretty easy. And it meant that she could leave the smells of the barn behind, even if it was just temporarily.

Rhea took her time with her drawings and labelling. The longer she was out in the pastures, the better.

She opened her textbook and found the page detailing types of flight patterns, then she looked to the skies. The first bird she saw was alone, high up in the sky. She squinted at it before remembering her omnioculars and brought them to her eyes. Ah. According to her textbook, it was a flap and glide. Fascinating. She attempted to draw it but her artistic skills were pretty much none-existent so she focused on the labelling instead.

.... Bird #1 exhibited a classic 'flap and glide' pattern. High in the sky. ....

She raised her omnioculars again. The next birds she saw were flying in a 'V' formation. Rhea was sure that if she looked in the text book, that was what it would say. She lowered her omnioculars and checked. Yep. There it was. A small smirk played at her lips as jotted her description down and roughly sketched it.

.... Birds #2 flew in a 'V Formation' across the sky ....

Two down, two to go. Merlin knew she wasn't going to do more than that.

Ornithomancy. Etta had read a little about it before, of course. It was the study of bird patterns, wasn't it? She noted down what the professor Vance said, thinking that this activity was going to be quite interesting. She loved birds and studying their various flight patterns was going to be fun! Or, she hoped it would be fun anyway.

She got up, picked up a pair of omniculars and made her way out to the pastures, her eyes on the sky. Obviously, she was going to have to wait for a bit so settled down somewhere on the ground and raised her omniculars to her eyes. Hmmmm... OH. BIRDS! But they were flying in a straight line. Well, that's disappointing. She waited for a little more time.. and birds, again! She couldn't make out what kind of birds they were but their flying pattern.. was different. There was a lot of flapping of their wings.. and they were fast.. UM. She glanced down at her textbook before taking notes and she resumed looking at the sky again. After a little while, she saw a few birds again and they looked like ducks but she could easily recognise the formation this time. She didn't even have to look at her textbook to know that it was the V-formation. Great. But, hey. This was most definitely fun.

SPOILER!!: notes

1. Undulating flight

2. V-Formation