Divination methods simlilar to water scrying? Etta literally had no idea.. or maybe she did but she just couldn’t concentrate because she was tired and sleepy. So very sleepy. She wished she could have a cup of coffee right about now. The girl absently took down notes on her parchment, wondering when class would be over. YAWWWWN.

... and the professor was asking another question. She tried to focus, thinking it was best to ignore her tiredness for the moment and answer this question. UM. “Maybe it’s because... people have some kind of connection with the full moon that might help them with scrying?” .. okay, that wasn’t a great answer but it was the best she could come up with.

The little blonde took as many notes as she could. She felt more awake now.

Maisie raised her hand. “Is it the connections to witches in myth? Something to do with heritage and tradition. Witches were always connected to the full moon in the old days. I don’t know about wizards though…” Maisie tailed off.

Patrick had been observing everyone in the classroom and their answers as to why they thought it was best to scry in water in moonlight. His eyebrows knit down as he thought hard about it. He raised his hand thinking it over, "Could it be that it is the type of light that allows you to see the depths of everything." This whole divination thing was still a bit hard, but he figured he'd get better at it as he went on in Hogwarts.

Sam's thinking was honestly pretty much in the same practical vein as Jessa's: it'd be easier to see stuff with more light. Although, really it depended where you were. The city never really got dark, not true dark, so the full moon would have less impact there, than, say, the middle of the countryside with no nearby source of light pollution. Although the city lights would be less focused than the moon's, which gave her the idea for an answer.

"Is it to do with the contrast of the dark sky on the water and light of the moon catching on it's ripples making it clearer to read?"

Worth a try, at least.

"Good reasoning everyone!" Laurel said as she moved over to open the windows, it had gotten quite hot and stuffy in the room. "The full moon effects us every month and during that lunar phase some feel more alert and energized. Our minds and bodies are intricately connected the lunar cycles and so is the water."

"Water scrying under the light of full moon is one of the simplest forms of Divination that you'll be taught here at Hogwarts. All you need to perform it is a clear sky, a full moon, a flat work space and a scrying medium like the dark water bowls set out on each of your tables and a full water pitcher."

"In some minutes we are going to try our hands at water scrying, but before we do that we need to clear our minds of distracting thoughts to get our Inner Eye's ready to SEE.

Everyone come up and gather around me in a half circle under the moon light. Close your eyes and attune yourself to the energy that surrounds you, hear the wind rustling in the trees, feel the earthly scent of snow, grass and dirt that lingers in the air and the occasional cry of creature. Raise your hands over your heads palms up and feel the power of the moon and your deep connection to it. When you deem that the moons power is with you, you can open your eyes, let your hands drop to your sides and retake your seats at your tables."


OOC: Mini activity time! Catch up posts are allowed throughout. Do what Laurel instructed and go up to her by the windows, meditate til your student feels that the power of the moon is with them and then have them retake their seats. You'll have 3 days til Wednesday November 1st @ approx 7 pm to complete the activity in one or as many posts as you'd like before I move on. Have fun, be creative, quirky!

Vi had remained particularly silent during today's lesson. She found the lesson interesting naturally but she just.... her thoughts claimed her attention elsewhere. She was distracted and she wasn't sure whether or not it was about worrying about the play or whatever was going on with this school and torn up dormitories. She turned away from her thoughts as she picked up her quill and began jotting notes down in her notebook about water scrying.

But before they got started at the task at hand, they needed to clear their minds. She took a deep breath and then followed a few steps behind the Professor to start forming the half circle. Standing, she closed her eyes and tried to just listen to the moment. She balled her hands up into fists and then uncurled them with a deep breath. The tension from her shoulders, neck, and forehead disappeared and she just.... relaxed and let herself be in the moment. She felt the wind tousling her hair gently.

Taking another deep breath as she listened to the sound of the rustling leaves, she raised her hands over her head and stretched towards the sky where the moon was. Breathe. Don't think. Just be.

Professor Vance had been able to make sense of that? He wasn't even sure of what, exactly, he had said.

Anyway, now they were meditating, which, if he were being completely honest, Ronan probably needed it. Especially after everything with the dorms being ransacked. He joined the class in the moonlight and closed his eyes, letting the smells enter his nose (ew, someone needed deodorant), and the sounds enter his ears (someone needed to blow their nose). He tried to tune everything else out, but it was hard. Just too much going on in his head.

Inner Eye ready to SEE? Inner eye? Etta didn’t even know she had an inner eye that could see. What did that even mean? Divination was way too confusing sometimes. Half circle, right. She followed the professor to form a half-circle, listening to her talk about... things. Moon power? They were going to have power flowing through them? She looked incredibly sceptical but refrained from making a comment. Might as well properly follow instructions, yeah?

The prefect waited until the professor finished talking before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. But, she couldn’t focus.. not at first. She kept fidgeting for a while, thinking about random things. SIGH. Etta took a few deep breaths once again, trying to concentrate, listening to the sounds around her. After a little, she felt a little more relaxed.

The Hufflepuff felt the gentle breeze brush against her skin, making her shiver a little. Deeeeeep breaths. Oh, this was actually nice. It was almost like.. meditation, right? It felt good to actually not worry or stress about something for a change. Heh. She slowly raised her hands over her head, palms out.. and tried not to focus on anything except the quiet. She stayed like that for a while, until she felt like she was completely relaxed and calm before heading back to her seat. That actually wasn’t all that bad.

Patrick wasn't sure how exactly he was supposed to find his inner eye, but he guessed he would figure it out. He moved closer to where Professor Vance told them to sit down and meditate. He sat on the floor and started by looking around at everyone in the classroom. He wasn't sure what exactly to do but he figured just listening relaxing in would be the right idea. He'd heard of doing this in yoga classes, like his friends parents back in the states, but not when doing magical things.

He placed his hands up on his crossed legs. The sounds of the room were filling his ears. He heard his classmates shuffling around the room still, the night time sounds began to fill his senses. He could hear the silence that only night time could bring. It was different than the quiet that snow had. Snow had a quieter noise, a peaceful noise. He let that thought trail off as he continued to keep his hands palms up on his legs letting the night noises sooth him. He was beginning to feel sleepy as he relaxed more and more.

Professor Vance was expecting a lot of them, Skylar decided. Even though she said this was one of the simplest forms of Divination, the fact that she expected them all to seem to have the inner eye was just a lot of confidence. Another thing was that while she seemed patient and understanding with them, she had perhaps WAY TOO much on her mind lately that clearing it completely of distracting thoughts wouldn't even be possible.

But that didn't mean the fifth year wouldn't try, because for one thing, Vance was her head of house. And for another, the woman seemed to explain it so well and was willing to be optimistic that this was something they could all achieve. Or at the very least, they could make it up. Moving toward the blond as her classmates had, she stared into the vast open sky and closed her eyes. And what she saw and heard was her own thoughts, swirling around. Breathe in, breathe out. And yet still, thoughts of the past few months swirled in her brain ... the stresses she'd endured, the drama, the heartache, the lack of sleep, the books (always the books)... it all just came at her in full force, crowding her brain, but yet despite it all, she just tried to focus on the present, the earthy smells, Vance's soothing voice...

... Raising her hands over head, palms up toward the moon, she tried as she may to feel it, and yet, despite her attempts, all she felt was her head aching, her temples aching, to which she moved her hands to her temples, her index fingers massaging methodically, to try to clear her mind. To relax. Ugh, she could use a marshmallow right about now. Or a hug. Or a snog. Or all of the above.

Um.....

Derf simply nodded as Professor Vance addressed his answer, returning the woman's blinking with plenty of blinking of his own. Um...okay?

Ruffling his hair while processing all that, Derf felt his stomach sink when they were told to...clear their minds. With everything that was going on at Hogwarts - budding teenage angst aside - HOW was that even possible? Distracting thoughts? OH...you know...like a BLOOD MAGIC EAGLE?! Or...um...A MISSING DARK MAGIC BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY?! The Hufflepuff couldn't help but frown because he already knew that he was a lost cause with this activity.
If it wasn't all the weird and scary things happening...it was things relating to the pair of paper lips stowed away in his bag.

Professor Vance had basically just asked them all to not think about pink dragons with blue polka dots - because now that was all he could think about.

SIGH.

Ruffling his hair some more, Derf got out of his seat to join the professor and his classmates in meditation...only now all he could think about was WHAT creature was making these calls they were supposed to imagine. There were loads of them in the Forbidden Forest, you know? Needless to say...his mind was anything but free from thoughts right now. Soooooooooooo...his eyes were staying closed.

Maybe the neigh of a unicorn?

Maisie stood at the window, bathing in the moonlight. She’d had an owl from her cousin that morning, and Tabitha had mentioned the full moon. Maisie wouldn’t have remembered otherwise, but she’d been looking forward to her Divination class, knowing that they might be studying the full moon. She yawned. It was really late though.

Maisie raised her arms above her head, palms out and counted her own breaths. She kept stumbling across distractions, like, “I haven’t done my Transfiguration homework,” or “I wonder what Tabitha’s doing,” but she tried to acknowledge the thoughts and refocus her mind on her breathing. She wasn’t used to meditating with other people in the room. Odd noises or voices distracted her. It took Maisie much longer to feel like she was in a meditative state of mind. She always recognised the feeling though.

Maisie started meditating over the summer. She struggled with severe anxiety and she was making a huge journey from isolated home-schooled eleven year old to the kind of eleven year old who was educated in a loud, social setting. She was leaving her mother behind and the familiar comfort of her bedroom. Meditation was one of the things Maisie had experimented with over the summer to help her cope better with starting Hogwarts. It was the one that worked best.

With the moonlight veiling her like a cloak, Maisie focussed on the moon itself. When she felt something click, she went back to her breaths for a few minutes.

When she was ready, she finished her meditation and lingered at the window, watching the moon.

OOooh, they were meditating... That sounded nice. Nice and quiet, just still breathing. Yeah, Natalie could handle that. When instructed, Natalie got out of her seat and joined the professor and her classmates on the floor. Getting comfy on her bum, Natalie closed her eyes (which is all they wanted to do this late at night) and thought about the dirt... and the snow... she wasn't sure how this would help her scry, but she did it.

Oh, the sound of a creature? Mooncalves... there were mooncalves out there. And they were really cute! With their giant eyeballs and little stubby legs and their cute little dances, prancing through the grass. Ooooh, they were probably out there right no--

Right. She wasn't supposed to be thinking of anything. Well, that was difficult. Natalie took a deep breath and raised her palms to the moon, trying to clear her mind. Be in tuuuuuune to the moooooon... But soon she was in tune to nothing. Her arms started drooping and her body started leaning, her sleepy mind enjoying the silence and wanting to sleeeeeep.

Ooh, they were gonna harness the power of the moon! Or something. Emmeline was honestly too sleepy to have taken in much of what Professor Vance said, though she HAD gotten the activity instructions down. The Gryffindor bounced over to the window area with the rest of the class and put her hands above her head, palms towards the open windows. Were they supposed to be soaking up the moon's uber powerful rays somehow? She wasn't too sure, but she closed her eyes obediently and tried to clear her mind.

Only, there were a lot of thoughts in her mind and stuff. The full moon had looked really pretty in the night sky, and had reminded her of their late night CoMC lesson not too long ago when the mooncalves had danced. Emmeline had considered sneaking out of the castle tonight to try and find them again, just to watch and maaayybee make friends with the cutest creatures ever. The only reason that she hadn't tried it was that this Divination lesson had been scheduled instead, mhm. Which reminded her of the current lesson and how she was supposed to be feeling the moon and stuff.

She didn't feel any different. And and, it was SUPER hard to do this clearing her mind thing now that she'd thought about the mooncalves. Naturally, those thoughts had led to thoughts of other creatures -- like the purple pygmy puff snoozing in a carefully constructed pocket of her bag and Sirius and the other babies in the barn and stuff. Emmeline had been realllly worried about them because all that blood in the entrance hall had come from creatures. She had taken to stealing down to the barns between lessons even more often than she usually did (which was definitely saying something). The second year just wasn't able to shake off this bad feeling she had... The bad feeling had become all twisted since Miss Kay's father died too, adding in sadness and pity and a feeling that she wasn't quite ready to identify adults other than Cami with yet.

After several minutes of soaking in the moonlight, Emmeline wasn't feeling any more connected to the moon, not really. Not unless clearing her mind was SUPPOSED to bring icky feelings to the front of her mind and stuff. Maybe that was what Professor Vance had meant by clearing their minds -- that the thoughts from the back of her mind had become all center stage now and stuff? She wasn't sure, but she realllly didn't want to keep dwelling on the strange happenings in the castle or the feeling of foreboding that the worst was yet to come. With that scary thought in mind, Emmeline snapped her eyes open and slowly lowered her hands. The classroom was flooded with moonlight now, so it was easy to retake her seat -- which she just realized was at Jessa's table instead of her normal one. Ooooops. She didn't really want to call attention to herself now that she was back at her arm chair by moving tables, though, so she hoped that the Ravenclaw girl and the others who normally sat around this table wouldn't mind too much if she stayed.

The second year flopped into the chair, kinda unsettled by that whooole exercise. 'Cause maybe the full moon HAD had some kind of effect on her after all and stuff.

So...................basically they were being given permission to go to sleep.

Jessa got that this scrying apparently needed to happen in the full moon but the Ravenclaw was back to wondering why it needed to be midnight. Seemed that if you were gonna tell kids to close their eyes and focus on something as subjective as feeling...you'd wanna do it when they weren't half asleep already. Y'know, sharper minds and all that. She was willing to bet her last galleon that at least a few of them would fall asleep before they started to feel anything.

Would she fall asleep herself? It was entirely likely. The hour was late and she was being allowed to get her eyes closed.

Jessa got up with the others, joining them in the half circle as instructed. Blue eyes closed to the outside world, the young girl tried to feel whatever it was she was meant to be feeling but it was as she expected...the fatigue wasted no time in trying to set in.

Funny how wide awake you could feel until the moment your eyes were given that well needed rest.

There was something abut raising her hands...which she did despite not remembering why but anything to fit in with the lesson and not draw too much attention to herself. What were they doing again?

Well, this was a waste of effort. Ronan couldn't get his mind to clear for nothing. Nope, every time he had just about succeeded, his mind would be brought back to the castle. To the ransacked dorms. To the bloody hawk and Kitty's blood message. To the rumored missing dark arts book. To his rapidly approaching OWLS. To the odd feeling of loneliness he'd been feeling lately. The same stuff that was causing his lack of sleep. He couldn't even 'fake it 'til he made it', so to speak. So he'd just have to fake it.

He raised his arms as if he was feeling whatever it was he was supposed to be feeling. Could they be done with this particular activity now?

As the students got started on their tasks Professor Vance made her way around and among them to see if they had any difficulties, questions or simply just were on task. Considering the very late hour and warm classroom that invited to drowsiness and falling asleep even.

When all the students had left the student's and retaken their seats around their circular tables Professor Vance walked back to the center of the classroom to her high table to demonstrate the water scrying reading to the students.

"Listen up and look closely as I demonstrate how you all are going to do your water scrying readings in just a few minutes! First you need to raise the pitcher full of water over the bowl and trying to visualize wisdom and guidance in the water. Next you carefully pour the pitcher water into your bowl and see the moons energy charging the water." Laurel instructed as she also performed the steps.

"When your bowl is full of water, you need to position yourself so that you can see the moon's light reflected directly into the water. Now stare into the water and look for patterns, symbols or pictures. Don't freak out if you see some images moving or even words forming! Record everything you see on a piece of parchment and what it might mean!"

Right at that moment Laurel's face went blank as she stared into the water bowl and said loudly "I see images forming..I see a pair of twins, a man and a woman ... the Williams twins, writing a letter and placing it in a black envelope and sending it away with an owl." Coming out of her prediction trance she momentarily stared straight at the students for a good minute or two before she snapped out of it and addressed the students. "Well what are you waiting for you've got 30 minutes! Start water scrying!"

OOC: Main activity time! We're water scrying, follow the following steps to get full point credit for the main practical. You can complete the activity in as many or as few posts as you'd like. There is no post count. And catching up posts are still allowed

Steps to water scrying:
1. Raise the water pitcher over the bowl and try to visualize wisdom and guidance in the water.
2. Pour water into the bowl see the moons energy charge the water
3. Position yourself so that you see the moon light reflected directly into the water in your bowl.
4. Stare into the water and record/write down all patterns, images, symbols you might see on a piece of parchment and try to interpret what they mean.

For interpreting symbols you can use the list in the spoiler below or use this site if those aren't enough since tea leaves symbols are similar to water symbols.

SPOILER!!: Common symbols

Water Scrying Interpretations And What They Mean:
When you concentrate on your bowl and concentrating on the water you will see colours or visions around in there. These visions will be negative or positive. These are merely visions from your own mind.
Light colours = Good omen
Dark colours = Inauspicious
Clouds of white, green & blue = Good signs, joy
Green = Hope, increases with the depth of the tint
Black = Negative, inauspicious, evil
Red, orange, yellow = Unfavorable signs
Red, orange = Hatred, passion, danger, violent emotions, trouble
Yellow = Envy, malice, jealousy
Rising clouds = affirmative
Sinking clouds = negative
Visions far in the background = Distant past or future
Visions near the middle = Near past or future

If you somehow notice some symbols in your water bowl, that's perfectly alright. Below are the interpretations of what these symbols mean.

Flaming torch = Enlightenment and progress
Serpent = Astuteness, cunning
Ship = Commerce and travel
Sun = Prosperity, success, honor and preferment
Waxing moon = Growth, increase of prosperity
Waning moon = Ill luck, bad health, loss
Visions near the front = Present, immediate future

You have 4 days to complete the practical until Sunday November 4th at approx 6.30 pm when i'll wrap up the lesson. Have fun! Be creative! If you have any questions then nudge me via vm or post here in the lesson and I'll respond as soon as i can...

After feeling somewhat meditated, Natalie got up and returned to her seat, trying to keep her mind clear. She didn't really think she had "the sight", and sometimes it seemed a little strange or inaccurate, but honestly she was kind of curious to see if she could find anything in her water bowl.

Looking up, she watched Professor Vance demonstrate what they were supposed to do. Lift the pitcher, visualize wisdom and guidance, pour the water, see the moon charging the water... whatever that meant. Maybe she'd see it when it happened. Natalie grabbed her pitcher, but then paused when the Professor suddenly seemed dazed. Oh.. was she making a prediction? Williams twins? Who were they? HER twin was named William, but.. errr.. best not to dwell on that, she decided. Sounded fake.

Natalie lifted her pitcher and sat up tall, trying to figure out how to visualize wisdom and guidance. Wisdom... Teachers were wise. Her grandma was wise. And she always offered them advice, so maybe she could try and visualize her. Very slooooowly, Natalie poured the water into her bowl and really hoped that it was being charged by the moon's energy. Once the pitcher was empty, she set it down and turned her chair a little until she could see the moon's reflection in her water. Alright, now it was time to scry!

For a long moment, her water bowl remained still with the bright moon reflecting on its surface. But Natalie stared at it long enough to start to see something change. Clouds appeared, coming into the middle and started to cover the moon. They were dark, but the sky was still darker. The clouds sunk in and rolled through and then a few moments later, a red waning moon poked through the clouds where the real moon's reflection had been once before.

Blinking, Natalie sat back and the water returned to it's original state. She didn't know much about divination, but she knew that RED and CLOUDS weren't usually good signs. Opening her book, she looked up the symbols that she saw and then scribbled them down on a piece of parchment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natalie's Notes

Clouds - trouble, negative
Red - Unfavorable signs ,hatred, passion, danger, violent emotions, trouble
Dark Colors - inauspicious
Waning moon - ill luck, bad health, loss

After copying her notes down, Natalie frowned and sat back in her seat and truly hoped that the art of water scrying could occasionally be inaccurate.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah....Derf had being incredibly unsuccessful in clearing his mind and therefore had not moved from his spot in the meditation circle thingy...so he was still sitting there when Professor Vance started moving things along.

........................................

And if he was supposed to clear his mind now THAT was completely impossible.
Visualize wisdom and guidance in the water? Uuuuuuuuuuh...how about they take a moment to pause and reflect upon how their professor had just...been in the BEYOND or whatever.

Because...er...he was preeeeeeeeeetty sure that no matter how hard he looked into his bowl he was NOT going to find the Williams twins, you know?

Wait...who even were the Williams twins?

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh...professor?" Derf asked, swiveling around from where he sat on the floor with his hand raised. "Who are the Williams twins?"

Tennis players? Hadn't they come up in Muggle Studies before?

Connected to the moon was something Sam was definitely not feeling right now. She'd gone through the meditation steps as Professor Vance had instructed, but clearing her mind and feeling the moon had been quickly replaced with trying not to obviously yawn too much, palms to the ceiling or not.

Oops?

Fortunately, Sam was under no illusion of being a Seer...and connected with the moon or not, she was pretty sure the only thing she'd be seeing in her bowl of water was her own reflection. She just needed to...er...fabricate something that she could do a decent job of interpreting.

So, step one...pour the water from the jug into the bowl and visualise wisdom in it. What did wisdom look like, anyways? Her mind flitted through a few thoughts, between the library and the Ravenclaw Common Room, and through several of the adults in her life...her Dad, Nic, Spike and Addy, even her Pa. Members of the Hogwarts staff too. And with the bowl full, she started to adjust her seating position as she caught Derf's question.

"Wasn't one of the Ilvermorny Professors a Williams?" What was so interesting about sending an owl though, she had no clue. Seemed a fairly routine activity to her. And twins? Well, that was the symbol of her star sign, although she doubted being a Gemini was really relevant to anything.

Zoryn had absolutely no interest in doing the activity. She was MUCH more interested in that weird spooky stuff that Professor V literally said one second and then forgot that she said the next second. She was quite pleased to see that Derf also had questions about it and nodded LOADS to what he said.

Yeah could they get some more information, please!!!!

ALSO, "What did the letter say?" Zoryn was very curious AND lowkey trying to avoid this scrying stuff because honestly, it had been a very long life and she hated lessons.

So whether or not she was truly interested in these Williamson twin people or whatever, was completely irrelevant. She just wanted to waste more time so that she wouldn't have to actually do the activity. It was the oldest, yet, most overlooked trick in the book.

Ronan returned to his seat completely unsuccessful at clearing his mind. But while he had been completely unsuccessful at clearing his mind, his ears still worked fine. And while he had almost glossed over what the professor had said she'd seen, Derfael's question and Sam's response had called his attention to it. "Weren't they both?" Also, was this how scrying worked? You could potentially see something that had no relation to you at all? If that was the case, thanks but no thanks. Though......

.......his cousin Parker went to Ilvermorny. And black in a scrying vision meant......

"......negative, inauspicious, evil." he finished reading out loud. "So, whatever it was, it wasn't good." Merlin, he didn't need anything else to worry about! But worry he would, since Parker was more like a brother to him than a cousin.

Derf felt a liiiiiiiiittle validated that for ONCE his classmates were jumping on to something he was theorizing about. Save for Zoryn because she always played along with him and indulged his imagination.

The emphasis Ronan put on black made him look back into his bowl and...well...it was a DARK WATER BOWL so everything was already kinda dark and black. Which really only played emphasis to the point that the professor had seen something, right? In the BEYOND.

His blue eyes darted between Sam and the Gryffindor as they spoke about the two visiting professors from last term. He...honestly could not recall all THAT much about the two of them and just vaguely remembered their subjects. Potions and History of Magic, right? But...seeing as he personally had next to no interaction with them (although he REALLY had been hoping that there would have been a joint lesson with the subjects but alas)...he really could not draw all that much from this conclusion.

"Told you that eagle was a bald eagle," he said. Although he had said nothing to no one about this and it had all been in his head. "Blood magic. Bald eagle which is the SYMBOL of America!" Although, technically, not all those students were American because HE knew all that he could about one Valerie Gray and she was actually Canadian. As was Kyle Baker. "But...they won...why would they bother Hogwarts if whatever is in the envelope is bad?"

Sour winners? The Hufflepuff hadn't been present in the stands for any of the tasks, opting instead to stay with Abey in the castle for reasons...so if there were any hints as to why that had occurred in the stands, well, he was clueless.

Derf glanced back into his bowl and...yup...ripples in the water and lots of darkness because of the interior of the bowl. Thoughts certainly NOT clear at ALL. He supposed he could make some things up to appease the activity? Blue eyes quickly glanced over at Natalie's parchment to see what she had come up with. "Maybe this technique is just all about doom and gloom," he observed.

Professor Vance was standing amongst students tables giving directions to one student that was struggling and hushing a duo of girls that was laughing uncontrollably when hands were raised and questions were asked. Her prediction of the twins in the water and SEErish trance had not gone as unnoticed as she had hoped.

Turning her attention to Derfael and Sam first she responded "The students from Ilvermorny that visited us last year had staff with them and two of them were the Williams twins, a man and a woman that taught Potions and History of Magic respectively to our visiting students."

Looking over at Zoryn and Ronan now she shook her head "I don't know what was written in that letter Zoryn. The prediction didn't reveal that part only like Ronan said that it wasn't anything good and could possibly be evil. I shall take this vision up with Headmistress Hawthorne later and upon her request I will see if I can discern anything else." It was worrying though. Auspicious letters that could even be evil were not to be taken lightly.

Clasping her hands together Laurel ordered "But now let's not worry about that letter anymore. Focus on your water scrying you've got 15 minutes left. Get back to work everyone!"

So for the record? Skylar was definitely not relaxed or focused, which it seemed she wasn't alone with that either judging from the chatter of her classmates. Especially upon seeing her head of house making a FULL OUT PROPHETIC experience for them to witness right in front. So that was what it was like to have the inner eye? Yea, Skylar was pretty sure she didn't have that, but she was still fascinated by the subject, even if she wasn't gifted with sight. Even if she didn't believe in half of it. There were more concrete methods to divine ones future, at least in the mind of the fifth year.

But that prophetic proclamation by Professor Vance, was interesting... Two twins... Williams twins... sending a letter in a black envelope. It wasn't until Sam mentioned one being a professor at Ilvermorny that Skylar recalled them both present during last year's tournament. She might have been able to recall more about them, but her attention was very narrow focused between teenage feels of first boyfriend and her academics and of course cheering said boyfriend on as his number one fan in the championship. But apparently they weren't to focus on that, even if trying to recall what she could about those twin professors was at the forefront of Skylar's brain.

Back to water scrying, the she-snake lifted the water pitcher over the bowl, trying as she might to focus on wisdom and guidance ... the energy from the water. Yet all she could visualize was those Williams twins, but not blessed with the gift of sight, it wasn't much. It was just a memory she was trying to draw from, anything suspicious she noticed last year. Nothing though, because well, again, she'd been distracted. If it was her third year self, she'd probably had remembered more, but fourth and fifth year Skylar was a complete and chaotic mess.

Right, water. She was wise, so she liked to believe, so she could do this. Pouring the water into the bowl, she gazed into the water and glanced for any sort of moon reflection ... was it just her, or did her water look kinda red and orange? Which meant what? Danger? Violent emotions? Trouble? Uh, yea, it was called June when she finally sat for her OWL exams - how much more trouble and danger could await? And definite violent emotions when she received those results and the passion for how much she so desperately wanted to do well... and hatred at the school, at the exams. Yea, definitely made loads of sense. Or she was completely thinking about this wrong, and those weren't the colors present at all...