Oh, Cam! Jessa gave him something of a breathless smile when he took the spot next to her, still much too preoccupied with convincing her lungs they didn't need a full on asthma attack to be relevant. It seemed the Professor had noticed it too--Merlin, lungs, get a hold of yourselves. "I'm fine, Professor. Just need to catch my breath is all." And not run up then down seven flights of stairs thinking she'd be late when clearly it wasn't the case.

Lesson learned, she supposed.

Jessa waved over at Nat when she joined them, noting the girl looked like she was in need of proper insulation. With Cam already on the case, the Ravenclaw turned her attention to the first question.

So far, she wasn't sure how she felt about this one because of how easily it could've fallen into the realm of science in which case, Divination and that whole seer's eye thing couldn't really take any credit for the diagnosis prediction that may have come about as a result.

Jessa remained silent, but found she agreed with those who touched on it being a good indicator when it came to health. Depending on the spots or blemishes--texture of the nail too--you could more or less figure out specific conditions as it related to the person. How it actually related to the future....she was still a little sketchy on that point and as of now trying to forget the jokes she and Jahan made. They were NOT helping with this open-mindedness thing she'd told herself she would try this year where the subject was concerned.

Yet another thing that wouldn't help, the skeptical look that crept onto her face before she could really do anything about it. Fingernail clippings....?

Sure........

Not wanting to question it too much in case she overthought it all and missed the lesson, Jessa simply rose with the others and headed for one of the cauldrons. While she waited her turn, the 5th year gave her nails a once over. They were already mostly clean but for the sake of uniformity and going with the others who took the lessons seriously, she would give them a nice scrubbing just in case.

Oh. A spec. The Prefect would need to get that out while she was washing her hands, just because she was sure it would somehow "mess" with the "prediction". Had to give herself and this reading as fair a chance as possible before writing it off. That was sorta what science was, y'know. Approaching with an open-mind that was willing to learn if there was something to be learned.

Once it was her turn, the Ravenclaw dipped her hand into the cauldron, being sure to get as much of her nails as possible.

Even though she was sure she didn't need to be standing there as long as she was, Jessa still diligently stood there getting her hands clean.

Professor Vance had said about clippings, which was part of what Abra had thought to himself concerning the topic, and then she also mentioned the shape of the nails too, which was ANOTHER thing Abra had thought about. Maybe he should have given his answer out loud? Maybe also it was something to do with having Seer powers too, actually; it made him more likely to guess or instinctively know the right answers in Divination.

It was a good theory, but not a solid enough one to convince him to start giving answers left right and centre in class. Not that he even had the opportunity to start doing so right now in any case; rather than answering more questions, they were getting straight into the practical. Abra perked up at once.

But just for a moment.

HAND washing. Well, you know, first of all, rude. Was this actually just a sneaky ploy to get everyone to tidy themselves up? Or a subtle comment that they were all filthy? And ALSO actually, was this REALLY necessary? Abra was not at all eager to get his hands all wet when he was already outside and it was cold. Even if the water was charmed to stay warm or whatever, it still wasn't very appealing because they would nevertheless have to take their hands OUT of the water and INTO the cold air.

"Why do we have to do this outside?" Abra grumbled quietly, and mostly to himself, before realising that actually he really did want to know. Was it so that they could have the benefit of the sunlight? Because there were those window things that could let the sunlight inside, if necessary.

Abra eyed up one of the cauldrons for a few moments, doubtful about how necessary and also how comfortable this was likely to be. Even so, after delaying the inevitable for as long as possible, he removed his hands (which up until now had been very warm) from under his arms, dipped them into the water, and got to work scrubbing them clean.

Fingernail reading? Hmm, that was a new one. Luckily for him, Ronan kept his nails pretty well, cutting hangnails, filing them when they broke off and clipping them when they got too long. Nothing too unmanly. Just enough to show that he took good care of himself.

He dipped his hands in the cauldron, making sure his nails were spotless before using a drying spell on them. He picked a woodsy-scented oil to use and set about rubbing it into his nails. Once he felt they were shiny and massaged enough, he picked up the mirror and used it to focus the sunlight onto his nails. And failed to see what he was supposed to be looking for. Was he supposed to see something? Because all he could see was a fingernail.

Uh oh. Uhh....how was he going to tell her that he overslept today? Nathan slept in late at about 4am. Definitely, past his curfew. But there's no way he was going to tell the professor that. He gave a slight /convincing/ cough. "Sorry professor wasn't feeling too well. Umm, yeah a bit."


Nathan looked up to see Alyce sitting next to him. "I'm alright, just a little cold. Nothing to worry about." He gave her a small smirk. "I think I would need to copy your notes again..." he whispered.

His attention was back to the professor a few moments later, this time trying to fully understand their activity today. Onycho.. -what? Fingernail prediction? He sighed deeply. Why were they doing girly things all of a sudden? Nathan looked down at his nails...wow.../yuck/ .....nevermind. He went up to the front and starts washing his hands thoroughly in the cauldron. Brr...so cold!

Even if divination was not her favourite class, Shera wanted to do well! That was why she was desperately trying to scribble down notes on everything that Professor Vance was saying. Everything might have been a bit much to aim for, she mused as she noticed how she was leaving out half the words in order to keep up. She was wondering if there was anything she could do to get quicker…

Reading using their finger nails? Glancing down at hers, compared to those of other girls, she grimaced. They remained clipped short so they wouldn't break while playing sport. She supposed the only benefit of that was she didn't need to wash nail polish off like she saw other girls doing. But it still left her less than happy about the upcoming reading.

Not that there was anything that she could do about that.

First of all she still needed to get her fingernails ready, as she had been instructed. She washed her fingernails as intensely as she could in the water in front of her cauldron, making sure that she couldn't see a speck of dirt on them or under her nails before she counted herself as finished. Her fingers then reached for the scented oils. This was actually a part that she was pretty sure she would enjoy. And it would be actually taking care of her body, in a way that she usually neglected it.

That in mind she poured a generous amount on her fingertips and began lathering them in on her nails and across the tips of all of her fingers.

Now, were there any markings on her fingers? Shera was trying to tell by reflecting sunlight on them. All that cause her attention was lines that seemed to run vertically down all of her nails, and a white spot that she'd never paid attention to on her right pointer finger.

Was there meant to be more than that?

So there was a similarity. Intrigued, Vi let her mind wander a little before realizing that the lesson had moved on. Oh! Best to pay attention now. Yes, yes.

Time to wash those hands in the cauldrons. Vi brought her hands over to the nearest cauldron and then began washing them. She made sure to get underneath her fingernails, in between her fingers, and then all over once more. It was as if she was prepping to go into the kitchen. Same level of cleanliness. Once her hands were sufficiently scrubbed and cleaned, she dried them and then began massaging the oils into her hands.

OH. Those smelled VERY, VERY strong. She blinked her eyes and then moved her hands lower as to try to decrease the scent of the oils. Deep breath of fresh air. Deep breath of fresh air.

Okay. She was good. Vi continued rubbing the oil into her fingertips and hands. Grabbing a mirror, she turned her gaze towards her fingernails. Now let's see what markings she could make... Oh... There on her pinky finger. There was a little white dot. Small, tiny thing right on her pinky. She added more oil and then continued looking.

Excited that it was time to start doing the activity, Emmalyn quickly rolled up the sleeves of her robes and dunked them in the water. The temperature was just right, probably a spell the professor did to keep it from getting too cold. She swished, rubbed, and scrubbed her hands until they almost sparkled. After pulling her hands out of the water, she gently blotted them dry and handed a clean towel to Derf. "Here you go."

Now for the smelly oils. She picked up a bottle, uncorked it, as far away from her face as possible, got a few drops and started massaging it onto her fingers. Much to her surprise, it felt quite nice. She continued to massage until almost all of the oil on her hands had been absorbed.

Emmalyn then picked up the hand mirror and tried to figure out how she was supposed to get the sunlight to shine on her nails. In her haste to make it work, she dropped one of the mirrors on the hard ground, shattering it. “I’m so sorry I broke your mirror, professor. I’ll clean it up.”

Ohhh girlfriend knows her stuff innit? Its a good thing that at least one of them had some idea whats going on.

So today they be at the nail salon-- Hogwarts branch. His grandmother would absolutely loooooooove Professor Vance, because what they're doing this hour is pretty much the stuff of toddler Tenacius' afternoon with grandma. Minus the copious amount of bubblies.

No polish on his fingers to have to clean off , the Curly Top just started washing his hands in the cauldron like how his grandma would do it, as best as he could remember, then sprinkled a few drops of the oil onto his nails, rubbing it over and around until they were mostly absorbed. Wow so luxurious, he could understand why his grandma enjoyed it so much.

Now has his nails somehow miraculously generated more white stuff? Ha he wished. His nails looked pretty much the same as it did earlier, just cleaner now and more shiny. Shining a light from the mirror didnt do anything either--

-- his head spun sharply to the sound of something crashing. One of the Hufflepuffs broke a mirror. Uh..... seven years bad luck? Was there any truth to that? He could never know for certain because the entire Astor clan take great lengths to make sure it doesnt happen. The only thing not worth courting is bad luck as they always say.

Daisy walked to the cauldron and began to wash her hands as thoroughly as she could. She didn't realise how much dirt she had on her hands. Once her hands had been washed, she poured a few drops of oil onto her hands and massaged it in. Daisy's hands now glistened in the sun as she picked up one of the hand mirrors.

Just as she was starting to look at her nails, Daisy heard a smashing sound. She saw a broken mirror on the ground in front of Em. "Are you okay?" Daisy asked.

Nodding his head at Emmalyn in regards to the water, it was already too late for him and the bottle. One WOULD have thought that he may have learned a lesson or two back in first year with Potions when he and Jessa nearly accidentally combined two ingredients that could have been explosive...but then Derf was also of the assumption that IF something were dangerous it would be appropriately labeled or SOMETHING. "Yeah...maybe," he chuckled, ruffling his hair a moment before accepting the tissue. "Thanks." He would have been fine just wiping his eyes with his sleeve but he wasn't about to turn down her kind gesture.

Dabbing his eyes with it, Derf set the soiled tissue on the table and flourished his wand to banish it - one of the few Transfiguration spells he had any sort of confidence in even if Vanishing was rather difficult. And just in time to feel his ears redden slightly thanks to none other than Professor Vance. Pleased as he was that his little muggle toy had been helpful, he was back to ruffling his hair at her gentle scolding about sniffing things. At least he didn't have a crup's nose, you know? "Strong is an understatement," he chuckled, throwing his seating partner a bit of an impish grin.

As class began, Derf leaned back on his hands and watched with a somewhat confused look about his boyish features when the image appeared on the board. Woah there...talk about being WAY off with his guessing about scurrying thoughts. Divination by...finger nails? Sorta like...when you got those little white dots on them sometimes? Distraction from answer the question, Derf held his hands out in front of him to examine. And, well, he couldn't really see any white dots on his because they were all kinda covered in dirt with even more under his fingernails from digging in the soil and spending time down in the Creatures area just around sunup. Did DIRT have some sort of thing? Like...how the line of dirt under his nails along that line where his skin was connected to the nail? Some were sorta broken and others were a full on dirt lines. Sorta like palm reading lines?

Derf was stiiiiiill looking at his own hands when Professor Vance continued the lecture and...um...well...Derf kinda missed EXACTLY what they were supposed to be looking at but a quick glance about the space did let him know that they were meant to wash their hands. Well, that was convenient! His brief pause to regroup also helped him catch Abey and, well, Derf was having the EXACT same thought...which brought a smile to the Hufflepuff's face. "Maybe it's because of the oils," he mused, just loud enough for his Gryffindor to hear. Since, you know, they were super POTENT.

Turning his attention back to the cauldron, Derf waited for Emmalyn to finish and rolled his sleeves up as well. Wiggling his fingers at the first year, Derf dunked his hands a little too enthusiastically and splashed a bit of water this way and that. Oops? Scrubbing his hands meticulously - like how mum always made him wash up before dinner - Derf kept his hands submerged and watched as Emmalyn went to collect a mirror...

Oh boy.

Removing his hands from the water - which was now a pleasant shade of light brown - the fourth year quickly dried his hands and moved from his spot over to Emmalyn who had now been joined by Daisy as well. Stinky oils could wait. "Careful not to step on any bits," he warned Daisy, a smile of appreciation spreading across his face at her concern and want to help. "We can probably fix it with a Mending Charm if we collect all the pieces," he nodded, grabbing a towel from the table and laying it flat on the ground, already starting to pick up a few pieces and trrrrying to be careful not to cut his fingers in the process.

[Textcut] [/Textcut]

Mara sighed in relief upon hearing Professor Vance's reply. She had not fail! Although her face displayed no emotion, the young girl was thrilled to be doing well. Onychomancy... It was a real thing, nice. She wrote down the name of the concept on the parchment and shivered ever so slightly when Professor Vance mentioned Professor Noble. She was definitely not interested in spending more time with the Potions teacher, who had caused such a strong impression on her. She was curious enough, though, and Mara soon found herself playing out scenarios in her mind.

Professor Vance grabbed her attention when she started addressing them with instructions. She watched the demonstration clearly and her smile faded when the teacher instructed them to remove the nail polish. She stared sadly, or fondly, at her nails before embarking on the task.
"Scourgify!" she said clearly, pointing her wand at her left hand, carefully drawing an "S" in the air. The opposite hand was more troublesome, and it took her two embarrassing tries before she was able to cast the spell perfectly. She didn't dare to look around to see how everyone was doing.

Afterwards, she put down her wand and gave her nails a good wash with the water on the cauldron. She was excited about trying on the oils... She selected a Lavender essential oil and massaged her hands thoroughly.

OH MY GOSH she was right! They were going to work with mood polish! Seriously Professor V was the coolest at this point and the woman did know how to look good so Z would certainly give her major props for that. Not being able to help it she did sit up a bit straighter when she knew what they were doing and was very excited. Did everyone else here that, SHE WAS RIGHT! Oh yes, Z was great when it came to this sort of thing and hello new polish was going to look amazing on her. Of course, the mood color would stay on fabulous and amazing, but the other people would get to see the changing.


All things changed when Professor V said she had to take this nail polish off. She looked down morning the glitter polish a bit, letting it sparkle one last time in the sun before she picked up her wand and did a quick scourgify and watched it go away. Once she was bored with the mood polish she would put the glitter one back on, but for now, she reached over to begin washing her hands.

Her eyes going back to Max she smiled, "What do you think your fingernails will say about you?" She could certainly say a few things about him, but she'd wait to see his response.

Nail divination? Okay no offense, but Divinations was the weirdest class ever. What if someone just wanted their nails shorter 'cause they were easier to manage!? Did that HAVE to have a greater meaning?? Zoryn was too cold to want to raise her hand away from her body, plus she was still suuuuuuuper tired so she didn't so much as budge. Though she did lift her head from the table and tried to pay attention (sort of). 'Cause Professor Vance always said that she had the EYE. So Zoryn was more invested in this subject than most... Even though she always made up her answers without actually thinking them through.

Nail divination sounded like bogus though. No offense or anything.

Onychomancy?

Okay, now that was definitely a stretch. Zoryn was pretty sure she could add -omancy to anything and make it a form of divination. What are you doing with that cup? Oh, y'know, just some cupomancy. The divination of cups. Or hey, you wanna read some bathtubs with me? I'm trying to practice the art of bathtubomancy. It's when you examine the leftover water in a bathtub for signs of the future after someone takes a bath. Ooooooooor boredomancy. It's when you're forced to sit in a lesson you don't care about and have to read the inside of your eyelids !!!

Y'know, maybe Zoryn owed Professor Vance some more credit where credit was due. the woman probably had to put in a lot of hard work to make up some new form of divination everyday. That took some real creativity. More power to ya, Professor V.

As for the next part of the lesson, Zoryn couldn't help but crinkle her nose. They were all supposed to wash their hands in the SAME cauldron? Didn't that, like, defeat the purpose of washing up? Zoryn made SURE to dip her hands in their tables cauldron before anyone else had the chance so that she had the freshest water. Oops. Sorry Dorian! Were they supposed to scrub up or something? Hmmm maybe Jessa would know. She knew everything. Zor took a peek over at her table to see what she was doing and copied the motions. Mhm. A practice called, using your resources!

Scarlett sighed and pulled out her wand, aiming it at her fingernails. There goes 45 minutes of PERFECT manicure focus down the drain. Ah well. She'd just have to do them again later. She cleaned her nails off with one quick wave - she still wondered if you could use chipped polish to read the future - and she walked over to wash her hands. She made sure she scrubbed them real good, getting all the dirt out from under her fingernails (from all that extra flying time) and then taking the oils and rubbing them in to her fingers. She used the lavender oil, using the smallest amount possible. The smell was already strong to her - sensitive nose and all - and once she was down, she dried off her hands and waited for the next bit of instruction.

People were cleaning their hands, so Maxton figured he would too. He dipped his fingers in the cauldron closest and gave them a little rub. We're they supposed to do something with the oils too...?

He was about to have another peer around and see what everyone else was doing when Zita distracted him with a question.

"Uhm, I don't really know," he answered honestly with a shrug of his shoulders. "Nothing too freaky I hope." He figured sometimes ignorance was bliss and it was better not to know too much about your future. What if he got a bad reading??

Time for the scented oi--CRASH!!!!

Jessa turned to the source of the sound, a broken mirror by the looks of it. Shame that, it was probably gonna be needed for the lesson if the woman bothered to bring it all the way out here.

Despite the obvious danger of a First Year cleaning it on her own, Jessa remained where she was. A moment later, Derf and another girl were on the case making it even less a necessity for her to do anything really. That being the case, the Ravenclaw turned to the bottle the Professor had managed and began generously applying the scented oil. This step made even less sense than that whole hand washing bit but again, she would try to remain open minded for as long as she could before she could no longer ignore her skepticism.

Was this enough?

It looked like enough. Okay. What was next? Right, looking for blemishes or marks or anything else. Nope. Nothing here.

Isabel had sent a smile and wave towards Melbourne, but she was too preoccupied with trying to guess what they were learning about to give much thought to anything else. And honestly whatever she had come up with, FINGERNAILS hadn't been one of them. People REALLY used their fingernails for divination. Huh. You learned something new everyday... She glanced down at her own nails and wondered what they would have to say about her. Well, soon enough she would know for sure...

Other people were providing good answers to the question asked, and Isabel really had no idea herself, so instead of giving a guess that would probably be wrong, she remained quiet and listened to what they had to say. It all seemed simple enough given what Professor Vance explained to them. Biting her lip slightly, Isabel recorded that information down in her notes. Hopefully her nails would only say good things about her.

They were already moving on to the mini activity, and even though she knew it was coming, Isabel sighed over the fact that she would have to remove her pretty pink nail polish. She had only applied it last night and now it seemed like a waste... Looked like she would be putting some more on later that night. Shrugging it off, she grabbed her wand and proceeded to carefully use the scouring charm on each finger nail, making sure not to miss any spots or accidentally scour onto her fingers. It took a few minutes to do so, but in the end she was pleased with the results and had perfectly nail polish free fingers.

Dipping her hands in the cauldron on her table, she gave the nails a thorough washing, checking every once in a while just to make sure that she was doing a good job with it. Only when they seemed to be immaculate did she take some of the scented oils and work to massage them in. This part had her a little more cautious in case she ended up feeling lightheaded, but fortunately that was avoided on the most part; Isabel only felt a little dizzy and she patiently waited for the feeling to pass before moving on to the next part.

Picking up a hand mirror, she held it up and tried to find the position where she would pick up the most sunlight. So this was why they were holding the lesson out in the courtyard; now everything made sense to her. Once she had found what appeared to be the perfect spot and the perfect angle, she began to try and spot any of the markings or colour specs that Professor Vance had mentioned.

Once her hands were done drying off, Zoryn reached for the oil and dumped about half of the bottle on her hands. How much of this stuff were they supposed to be using anyway?? 'Cause this didn't feel so right.... She had oil dripping all over the table and man, everything looked shiny.

Despite the copious amount of oil on her hands, Zoryn attempted to massage it all in... Though uh, the fumes were starting to get to her head. Uh oooooooh. Was this what Professor V was trying to warn them about???

SHE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE, TOOOOO YOUNG!!!!!!!!!!!!

RIP. Here lies Zoryn Amari Spinnet Levi Kenning Janvier. Cause of death: Hand oils. May she rest in peace and not in pieces. Goodnight, cruel, cruel world.

Jk, she wasn't THAT dramatic. She was kinda having fun with all the oils 'cause she could draw on the table with all of it!! She was makin' oil paintings. GET IT? Oil paintings?!! Ha ha ha. Yeah, this was fun. What were they supposed to be doing again?

Grateful that Daisy and Derf where there to help, Emmalyn squatted down and carefully helped Derf pick up the many tiny pieces of glass “Thanks, Daisy, I’m okay. It didn’t get me at all. I just lost my grip.” She really hoped that Professor Vance wouldn’t be upset with her. It really was just an accident.

Not removing her eyes from the glass, she continued to pick up the pieces while whispering to Derf. “You really think you can fix it? I don’t know that charm yet, and even if I did, it would probably make it worse.” Her face was still warm with embarrassment as she spoke. She had been having a rough few days trying to learn new spells and the thought of failing at something else was weighing on her.

It was just then that she noticed something about her fingernails that she had never paid attention to before. All of her nails were a nice almond shape. Small moons of white at the bottom of each nail, and only one had a blackish colored mark. The blackish mark she knew was from quidditch tryouts when she smashed her finger between the broom and a bludger. She wasn’t sure if that meant anything, but she would be sure to note it on her parchment when she was finished with the mirror incident.

"I am glad you are okay. I would be very surprised if Professor Vance got extremely upset with you. I mean, it was an accident." Daisy said, reassuringly, hoping Professor Vance didn't get angry at Emmalyn.

Daisy returned to looking at her nails. She saw that the shape of her fingernails was rounded and the thumbnails were like squares. As for spots, she was having a hard time spotting any. Wait, she was seeing a small white dot in the middle of her left ring finger.

Wrong? Oh, no: the professor had misunderstood her point, Bel was pretty sure, so she stuck her hand back up and responded in earnest. "Well that's what I mean, professor, of course it tells you stuff about a person, but I don't think that makes it divination, because like for instance if someone has rough hands, you can tell they work hard, that doesn't take any special ability. Its the kind of 'divining' that muggles can do even, so it doesn't take any special ability or magic or anything, you know? Only a brain, and intuition about things. So its the kind of thing that charlatans and fakes could use to con people with." Because you could figure out true things about someone for sure, but it wasn't magic-related. Did she see now? What Bel was saying?

So anyways..... on to this prepping of nails. Bel didn't wear any polish and she kept her nails short so it would be easy enough. What she did have was calluses on the palms of her hands from her motorbike. She dipped her hands in the cauldron and swished them around a bit, then chose some of the oil to use. She rubbed the oil in and then looked at her hands. Aside from the calluses, she had bits around her nail beds on a couple of her fingers, like little dead skin bits that if you tried to pull off would huuuuurt. They never bothered her though cos her cuticles were otherwise pretty nice actually.

Also? The oil felt quite nice.

Yes he could do so quietly.

While he hadn't quite mastered to make them completely nonverbal, he COULD in fact simply whisper the incantation. Which he did, while softly running his wand along her arms and down her back. Anywhere else? Legs? Feet? He figured it couldn't hurt (he doubted she'd complain about being TOO warm) so he ran his wand down her legs too. "Better?" He could do more but she'd have to tell him where else she was cold.



This lesson though.

To be honest, Cameron still wasn't sure what to make of Divination in general, both as a concept and as a lesson. But today's topic seemed to be particularly strange. No offense. Fingernails. He always wondered just WHO had noticed that first. Who would think of predicting the future based on their fingernails?Who drew that connection? It seemed rather...arbitrary in a way.

ANYWAY, after taking down a few notes, Cameron started washing his hands. Which were already very clean, just FYI. He always made sure his hands were clean and proper looking. That included no dirt under fingernails. Still here he was cleaning them just in case before rubbing scented oils on them. Why were they scented? Wasn't this just about the oil? Hmm.

Oh, oh okay. Vivian didn't know how to pronounce that term, but it shall be known from now on as fingernail divination. Whatever that was, the Slytherin made a mental note to check her textbook later on. She didn't really know how to spell the exact term, just that it was derived from the Greek term for fingernail. Plus, she did have ideas about its relation to superstitions.

But they were supposed to prepare their nails for the real interpretation thing. And that meant she had to remove her nail polish already? It hadn't even lasted a week yet, but she also didn't quite feel bad because she had just recently chipped off a part of her polish last night when she hit the board of her bed. It hurt, of course. Despite being a little reluctant of the thought that she needed to reapply them later, maybe with a new colour, Vivian sent a Scouring Charm to each of her fingernail to remove the remaining polish. There, all clean.

Also, poor kid for breaking her mirror. That meant years of bad luck, right? At least nobody got wounded. That would have been the real problem.

With her nails virtually clean, Vivian dipped her hand in the cauldron full of water and sort of wiggled her fingers. Once that was finished, the prefect took a random bottle of scented oil and sort of shut her airway for like five seconds as she poured a generous amount on her palm and massaged her fingers and nails. All done. She could breathe now, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birchwoodmom

Grateful that Daisy and Derf where there to help, Emmalyn squatted down and carefully helped Derf pick up the many tiny pieces of glass “Thanks, Daisy, I’m okay. It didn’t get me at all. I just lost my grip.” She really hoped that Professor Vance wouldn’t be upset with her. It really was just an accident.

Not removing her eyes from the glass, she continued to pick up the pieces while whispering to Derf. “You really think you can fix it? I don’t know that charm yet, and even if I did, it would probably make it worse.” Her face was still warm with embarrassment as she spoke. She had been having a rough few days trying to learn new spells and the thought of failing at something else was weighing on her.

It was just then that she noticed something about her fingernails that she had never paid attention to before. All of her nails were a nice almond shape. Small moons of white at the bottom of each nail, and only one had a blackish colored mark. The blackish mark she knew was from quidditch tryouts when she smashed her finger between the broom and a bludger. She wasn’t sure if that meant anything, but she would be sure to note it on her parchment when she was finished with the mirror incident.

You? Er....

"Yeah, sure," he said with a false confidence. He WAS much better at the Mending Charm now - loads of practice fixing his jars of dirt in the dormroom so Simon Mord didn't have a heart and asthma attack seeing the mess (Lumpy was more than enough) - but he tended to perform better without an audience. "Just gotta get all the pieces," he repeated with a nod, picking up and placing a few more pieces on the towel.

He really wasn't considering his own fingernails all THAT much, though he imagined that any manicurist person would take one look at them and feel like a dementor had kissed them they were so unkempt. Chipped and even wiggly in places - he probably should give them a trim to even them up one of these days - and there were a few hangnails here and there. Also plenty of those little white dots freckling them.

But for now, it was collecting bits of broken mirror. "I think we've got them all," he said after another moment, glancing around the immediate area once more. Clearing his throat, Derf pulled out his wand and tried to steady his hand before giving it a wave over the pieces of mirror. "Reparo," he commanded, confidence nooooot exactly oozing in his tone or anything...but enough to get the charm to return the mirror to its original state. Save for a crack near the top....but otherwise a perfectly acceptable and usable people. "There," he grinned, handing it back to Emmelyn.

To be honest, with Professor Vance confirming the childbirth and bitten fingernails as a myth, what Skylar heard was completely different. Oh yes, because the captain heard it as confirmation that this Onychomancy method was a myth. Which essentially transitioned in mind to being divination as a whole, but of course, Skylar didn't really buy much of the subject anyway. She took it for Vance, not because she was genuinely invested in the subject. The healing and magical potions aspect of onychomancy actually sounded more intriguing, which Skylar did jot that down in her notes to make good use of her study time in researching more about that.

For now it was time wash her fingernails and no nail polish for her. She'd grown accustomed to NOT wearing polish over the summer months when she played quidditch because it chipped far too easily during matches. She did scrub her hands clean though using the water in the cauldron, making sure to get under her nails as well. And held her breath as she squeezed a generous dollop of massage oil onto one hand, rubbing it into her fingers and nails. Which was when, as she held her hand up to the sunlight to inspect her nails, she released her breath and caught a whiff of the oil. And another whiff. And there was just something addictive about the oil scent, because she kept inhaling it, which made her forget the cautionary words of Vance moments ago, as she continued to stare blankly at her fingernails ... really just trying to not pass out from the lightheadness she was simultaneously feeling. Something that might be noticeable in how pale the sixth year suddenly got.