Noticing that Jessa was holding her own hands up in comparison, Bel was even more flummoxed really. As far as she knew stuff showing up on your nails did show stuff, but what it showed was either that you were already sick or lacking nutrients or something like that, or that you took care of your nails in certain ways or chose not to.

Also? What was long nails anyways? Jessa's were longer than hers were, but they were hardly talons.

She looked up at Jessa.

"I have a white mark... but its from where I got my finger stuck in a door so I don't think it has anything to do with any of this." So she was at a loss here.

She leaned forward and asked quietly, "Should we just.... make stuff up?"

Good.

Scooting a little closer to her still, Cameron looked down at her nails when she commented on them. "Right." He glanced over at his textbook again to see what that meant. "So happiness...and some minor illnesses?" They didn't look THAT bad, yeah? So maybe just...a cold. Or possibly the flu. Winter was coming after all.

"Let me use the mirror?" Because they still had that and it was relevant for some reason. So he held out his hand for hers so he could do his thing with the mirror. All the while listening to what Jessa and then Bel were saying about relationships and the like. Somehow he doubted that...fingernails could predict relationships. Maybe if one were to examine BOTH partners' fingernails.

But even then....

This was boring, and she honestly was just done. Her finger nails, looked like finger nails. And she had no idea how it was going to even tell her future. How on earth would a random mark on her finger be able to tell her her future. She shook her head, but tried to look like she was interested. She didn't want to get told of for not being interested. That would be terrible. So she kind of tried to look interesting. So she looked at her nails, wrote some notes, and at least made it look like she was doing something.

She took some time reading her text book, so she could at least trying to blag her way through the lesson. Divination was not good for her, and she wasn't really into the subject. Maybe that was why she wasn't good at it. But if it wasn't so boring, then maybe she'd like it better. But the blonde persevered and a least wrote some notes down. That would do. Couldn't say she hadn't tied now.

"I dunno Bel......" Jessa started, her tone anything but serious....or.... it was but mockingly so. "White spots?" She lifted her book as if taking in the page's contents very seriously. "It's looking like you'll find a rabid chipmunk in your pillow tonight. Clearly something we'll wanna take seriously. Can't just make this stuff up." A solemn nod was added to show just how ridiculous she thought this all was so in short, yes, yes they could make it up and it would sound every bit as real as anything else in this book.

That was probably what everyone else was doing anyway.

"Should probably write that down. Wouldn't wanna forget something so serious." So much for keeping an open mind. Maybe she would try again with....another branch of Divination. This one was just too far out.

"It must be the unexpected gift this bit talks about. Reckon you should have grown your nails out to avoid it--at the risk of relationship problems that is but a break up isn't as bad as rabies so I guess that part's the gift."

Just no winning when you took this sort of thing into account.

"I wonder what other deep dark, obviously non-medical things your nails have to say."

Bel stifled a laugh behind her hand at Jessa's tone, and peeked at the professor to make sure she hadn't noticed. It was just that... it was really really ridiculous. There were some aspects of divination that Bel could get behind, that made some kind of sense because it could only be answered by magical means, but when it was so very literally just observation skills or medical or anything a muggle could do? Weeeeeell. Bel was pretty sure she wasn't gullible enough to just believe things because a teacher said so, even a really nice teacher.

"Well. I cut my nails. So that's... prestige or something? And advancement? I don't understand but I'm going to write it down. I'm going to die early and get a new enemy AND an unexpected gift. So that's.... you know, great I guess."

Quote:

cut fingernails: sign of prestige and advancement
short fingernails (because they're cut): unexpected gift
white spot on middle finger of right hand from jamming it in a door: a new enemy
small half moons: probably going to die early I guess?

Bel wrote down a halfhearted effort at notes. She was trying to stay enthused but hooooonestly...

"I wonder what it would mean if I chewed my nails right now? Is there anything about bitten ones?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lislchen

Good.

Scooting a little closer to her still, Cameron looked down at her nails when she commented on them. "Right." He glanced over at his textbook again to see what that meant. "So happiness...and some minor illnesses?" They didn't look THAT bad, yeah? So maybe just...a cold. Or possibly the flu. Winter was coming after all.

"Let me use the mirror?" Because they still had that and it was relevant for some reason. So he held out his hand for hers so he could do his thing with the mirror. All the while listening to what Jessa and then Bel were saying about relationships and the like. Somehow he doubted that...fingernails could predict relationships. Maybe if one were to examine BOTH partners' fingernails.

But even then....

Happiness and minor illnesses... Right. Natalie considered it and then shrugged. She was feeling better lately and more optimistic about certain relationships. "I always get a cold in December." ALWAYS. Without fail. She got sick.

Natalie nodded and then handed the mirror over to Cam before scribbling down her notes about the spots on her nails. "What do yours look like?" she asked, setting down her quill to look at his nails.

Bel's glance at the Professor had Jessa sneaking one of her own. She knew the woman wouldn't have taken too well to having her "divine art" mocked and that had been the reason for keeping her voice down.

"That's an eventful life, I'll give you that." Prestige and death and gifts and enemies. Hard to keep up with, and the prediction wasn't even for her. Jessa looked to her own hands again, supposing she was meant to start taking her own notes at some point. "It means your hungry." This time, she didn't bother glancing down at the text. Why bother? They weren't using it anyway. "It tells me you've been skipping several meals and are at the point your body's began to feast on itself. Perfect excuse for an early release from the lesson." Quick trip to the kitchen? That was always a win.

"I suppose mine being essentially clear means my future's blank. Shame that. I was looking forward to hearing everything I shouldn't be expecting."

The 5th year reached for her own quill and began scribbling. She paused to look at her hand again, wiggling her fingers a few times. "Unremarkable. I don't know whether to be disappointed or relieved." Or, y'know, indifferent seeing as this didn't really change much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

Nails:

• They're not short necessarily short but they're not long either. Neither applies?
  
• Half moons present but I'm not sure how big is big enough to warrant me hoping I'll live long enough to see any grandchildren I may or may not have.
  
• Nothing on the surface of the nails which either means my life's emptier than I thought or fate hasn't decided what to do with me yet.
  
• No health issues detected.

Right. So they were finally moving on to the main activity. It seemed simple enough and part of her was curious as to what they would say about her; not that Isabel truly believed in this kind of thing. That said, Professor Vance had made some rather startling and accurate predictions over the last few years, so the entire subject couldn't be dismissed. The woman had to have some Seer blood in her.

First things first she opened her textbook to the right page and gave a brief reading. She'd need to refer to it again as she went, but at least this way she'd have some basic information walking in. And no, she was not going to be working on this with a partner if she didn't need to. This was way too simple a task for that. As it was, she started moving the mirror in the sunlight once again, holding it over her left hand and trying to make out any specs, colourations, etc that stood out to her. Obviously the most noticeable were the half moons on her nail bases. They weren't HUGE, but they weren't tiny either. So it looked like she was going to live a decently long life? Quickly she jotted that bit of information down in her notes before moving on.

Next she noticed the length of each nail, figuring that it was no matter that they were long because she wasn't even in a relationship at the moment. Why would she even care about something that didn't exist in the first place? Boyfriends could be really messy and she was happy that she didn't have one anymore. With a shrug she recorded that bit of information as well.

Now for the more interesting bit: discovering what markings she had.

Slowly she worked the mirror over the length of the thumb and four fingers of her left hand. The thumb had a white spot on it, which kind of contradicted the last part of her reading... How could she have happy love AND difficulties in a relationship??? Ehhh. The red spot on her left ring finger was more interesting. Looked like there were going to be more issues in her life; how wonderful.

Annnnd that was it for the left hand.

Isabel switched over to her dominant hand, moving the mirror here and there over the surface of her nails and looking for anything that jumped out to her. There was a white spot on the middle finger. That seemed to be more cheerful than the red spot had turned out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isabel's Notes

Half moon on each nail base - decent length meaning decent length of life
Nail length - long, meaning difficulties in my relationship (even though I'm not even in one at the moment)
White marking on left thumb - luck, prosperity, happy love, and lucky business (happy love contradicts difficulties in a relationship)
Red spot on left ring finger - love affair or wedding, indulgence from bad people as well as sadness, sickness, or other bad things (love affair that goes bad and breaks my heart???)
White spot on right middle finger - happiness, prosperity, gifts, good news from parents and close family
No health issues detected

Nothing else was there. Seemed that there wasn't too much that her nails were saying. Oh well, at least she had managed to make all her predictions even though they were a bit over the place.

Cameron wrote down some notes on what they'd predicted from Nat's fingernails. Predicted. So she'd have a cold in December. Apparently she didn't need to consult her fingernails to know that. Nonetheless, he added that to his notes too. Possible indication of a cold.

....okay, he wanted her HAND not her mirror.

Setting down the mirror she had handed him, Cameron instead reached for her hand this time. They weren't quite done interpreting her nails, were they? "Let's finish yours first?" Hmm. "Would you say your nails are long?Or short?" Who decided what was long and what was short? Compared to what?

Divination dealing with nails? At this point Juni was wondering what you couldn’t use to divinate the future and such. All the answers she heard were good. And if she answered, she would have only repeated someone else’s answers. So she just sit still and waited to see what they were going to actually in up doing.

She looked down at her hands, at her black and glittery painted nails. Well guess that was going to have to go. ”Scourgify.”. She could use a little bit of change anyway. She washed her hands in the cauldron and dried them. Adding the oil but not to much. Merlin knows she couldn’t take too much of scented things.

Now that her nails were squeaky clean, not that they wasn’t already that way before. She opened her book and flipped to page 56 of her textbook. Then opened her notebook back to her notes to write down her predictions.

The fourth year looked down at her nails, what did she see there? Long nails? Or was hers short? What if they were in the middle somewhere between short and long. She kept her nails trimmed and short shorter than most girls. She did have a habit of biting her nails so that was why she did keep them short.

Picking up the mirror she held it up, catching the light of the sun. For a better look… she was looking for spots or markings on her nails. She checked each fingernail carefully. Whoa what was that? A white spot on her middle finger and on her left hand she had a few with white spots. She stopped to write down somethings. Then she went back to looking over her nails one more time.

SPOILER!!: predictions

Short nails- an unexpected gift. Did ask her dad for a cat? Not expecting him to say yes. So unexpected gift.

White spots on the middle finger predicts a new enemy

White spots– are forerunner of happiness, prosperity and gifts you will get and it’s better if you have on the left hand fingernail

Cling! Cling! Was the loud sound that came from Professor Vance's wrist watch alerting her that the hour had passed too quickly. Slowly making her way back to the front she sent smiles in many students directions for their interpretation work as she passed by their tables. She was impressed. There was no clean parchment in sight. Everyone had tried to observe their nails and interpret what it might mean for their futures with varying success. Laurel was well aware that some probably had employed the old let's make stuff up trick.

"The main activity is now a wrap! Please leave your activity parchment notes in the basket over there," Laurel instructed, pointing to one of the baskets without anything in it that had appeared on the ground next to the blackboard with the flick of her wand. It'd make getting them back up to the Divination Tower easier. "Once you've turned in your activity parchments please pick a mood polish bottle from the other basket and take it back with you to your tables."

A few minutes went by as Laurel watched student after student leave their parchments in the right basket and taking extra time especially the girls to pick a mood polish bottle. Many of the boys were less particular, they just took one.

When the last student had retaken their seat Professor Vance said "To bring our lesson to a close I want you all to think of a question while you test out the mood polishes on your nails, by painting the polish on your nails and watching them change colour to reflect your moods." Laurel produced her own bottle from one of her many robe pockets that she painted on a few nails that automatically turned a pensive blue.

"Today you've all learned to observe and interpret your nails to predict your futures or your friends futures if you chose to partner up. It's my hope that you've all gotten your eyes up for your nails and their usefulness in Divination readings since you always have them with you and can in just a minute make a future reading from their state, colour, length and shape. What I want you to think about is if you think you'll use Onychomancy/nail divination in your day to day lives as much as you would tea leaves och palmistry? Why or why not?"

OOC: We are at the final part of the lesson! Please feel free to wrap up your main activities and then answer Laurel's question. To test the mood polish is optional! If you want your student to do it then have fun with it! The lesson will conclude in roughly 24 hours from this post @ approx 7 pm GMT+2 on Sunday night.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lislchen

Cameron wrote down some notes on what they'd predicted from Nat's fingernails. Predicted. So she'd have a cold in December. Apparently she didn't need to consult her fingernails to know that. Nonetheless, he added that to his notes too. Possible indication of a cold.

....okay, he wanted her HAND not her mirror.

Setting down the mirror she had handed him, Cameron instead reached for her hand this time. They weren't quite done interpreting her nails, were they? "Let's finish yours first?" Hmm. "Would you say your nails are long?Or short?" Who decided what was long and what was short? Compared to what?

Natalie wasn't one-hundred percent invested in this assignment, which is why she had handed him the mirror without real consideration. And still, when he took her hand to examine hers she just shrugged and went along with it, even though she thought it was time to move on to his. Whatever.

"I guess they're short," she said with another shrug. "I don't like them too long. They get in my way." And there was more of a chance to get them snagged on something and rip off. And that wasn't fun.

Seeeeee? They should have moved on to HIS hands because Professor Vance was moving on with the lesson already. Oh well. She'd help him finish anyway. Maybe just after this bit. Pulling her hands back from Cam's, she got up to get a bottle of mood polish for them to share. Sitting back down, she opened the bottle while Vance asked a question.

Natalie raised her hand. "I feel like reading tea leaves is more obscure, but it's easier in a way? Because you just... drink the tea and there it is. But with this, you have to take off your nail polish, scrub your nails real good, put on the smelly oils and THEN you get your answer." A lot of work, obviously.

While she was speaking, Natalie had painted her thumb nail with a coat of the mood polish.

Huh. Teal? She wondered what that meant.

More than anything Zoryn wanted to wash the oil off of her hands. It was fun at first, but now it just felt gross. But of course they were meant to sit through and answer MORE questions. This class was kind of useless, did Professor Vance know?

"Probably not," was her answer to the question their Professor posed to the class. 'Cause like no offense, but who had the time for that? The way Professor V raised the question made it sound like they all did tea leaf divination in their every day life. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm, anyone? Anyone? Because Zoryn Amari Spinnet didn't even drink tea in her every day life. The only divination she ever practiced was within the confines of this classroom and it's cause they were forced to.

Patrick looked down at his hands after he had washed them like he was supposed to. He had clean nails, his mother had instilled the habit of washing his hands. Yet his nails were slightly jagged from all of the work he had done on his papaw's farm back in the States over the summer. He had a few white spots on two nails, and larger circles at the top of his nail. He looked around and saw what the other people in his class were doing as he continued to write down what he had observed. He wasn't sure what it would tell, although his calluses were getting a bit nasty since he wasn't doing farm work every day.

He heard Professor Vance wrapping up the lesson when she asked a question. He thought about it for a second. "I mean any divination has it's place in the seeing of the future and what is, but I don't know nails change so frequently that it's almost like watching the weather channel." he stated, although he didn't know how many of his classmates sat and watched the weather channel. When your grandfather decided to quit working at the ministry and move to a farm, the weather channel is all the rage.

So. Much. Illness. Night was already skeptical before the lesson, but now she wholeheartedly suspected that Cassandra Vablatsky, the author of Unfogging the Future had honestly just made up stuff about fingernails (and probably a bunch of stuff) and thrown it together into a book.

Would Night ever really be using any of it in her life? "Professor, why does any of it really matter? I mean, it's not like I'm going to get--" she glanced back at the book--"cirrhosis of the liver, for example and be like, 'oh, I knew this would happen! I read my fingernails when I was eleven!' I would honestly be heading to the nearest hospital and seeking treatment."

She regretted saying that as soon as she did, because it probably hurt the professor's feelings. So back to Vance's original question..."Granted, if that did happen, I guess looking at my fingernails would be the easiest thing to do, to know what I was going into the doctor's office for. Since it's something that's readily available and all."

Okay, maybe that made up for her other comment. But she was very glad the mood polish was optional, she'd had way too many mood rings as a kid to know those didn't work.

Making sure her name, house, and year were clearly written on her parchment, she deposited it into the proper basket. She then stepped over to the mood polish basked and grabbed the first bottle her hand found. She had never been one to care what her nails looked like, as long as they were clean. Polish made her feel claustrophobic anyway.

She took her seat, thought of the question, and started painting her nails. Looking more closely, she noticed that the color was a strange golden yellow, which she had no idea what it meant. At least with tea leaves, there seemed to be more exact way to read them.

“I don’t think I’ll be using Onychomancy in my day to day life. It’s a bit confusing for me and I don’t like my fingers being oiled or painted.” She was still trying to figure out how quick she would be able to remove the polish after class. “I think I’d be much more likely to read tea leaves. Plus, when you do that, you get to drink tea!” And, with tea, you could have cookies. Emmalyn really liked cookies and wondered if there was cookie crumb reading. That she would be completely on board with.

Honestly, the interpretation part of this lesson was what creeped her out. Was she about to find out the reason behind her death soon enough? As Vivian scanned the specified page of her textbook, she made a face at how most of the interpretations looked rather negative. Eh, she half didn't want to do this activity thing. Sorry, Professor Vance. It took her a while before forcing herself to do so as she adjusted the hand mirror so she examine first her left hand. She decided against partnering up, because she figured it'd be better to know what "illnesses" she had by herself. No need for other people to know and all.

... What exactly was she looking for again? Oh, right.

She'd finished up on the left hand, noting how she may need to consider trimming her nails because the interpretation was rather ambiguous. She didn't have short nails, nor did she have really long ones. What did that mean, then? A little bit of both? After noting that down, as well as other markings, she did the same with her right hand.



Vivian had just finished writing down her interpretations when the second question was raised. She had placed her parchment inside the basket and went back to her seat, taking with her a bottle of mood polish. Maybe she'd give it a try. It looked really pretty. But as for the question, she gave it a bit more thought. "I prefer tea leaves and palmistry to Onychomancy, professor," the prefect said, giving her honest answer. "I drink tea a lot, so it's not exactly new. There also isn't much preparation for palmistry as well, so anyone can do it anytime. And I had just painted my nails, Professor, but had to remove them...." So yes, she wasn't exactly a big fan of nail divination.

Bel had finished her parchment, which had copied down exactly what the book had said about various markings, but she still didn't believe a single aspect of any of that was divinatory. And... she was getting an idea. She peeked at the older Ravenclaw girl, Jessa, wondering if she'd be up for it.

And what was this about... mood polish? Bel wrinkled her nose. No thank youuu. She wasn't someone to fuss with polish or anything in the first place, she was far too active and the stuff just would end up chipped and funny looking, and besides, why would she want other people to know her moods? Not that she was hiding her moods, but it didn't seem like something she would enjoy.

"No thank you." She murmured politely. Firmly though. No thank youuu professor.

And now another question. Bel put her hand up, still trying to do her best in the lesson despite her obvious disbelief in the topic.

"I won't ever use the nail thing." She still thought it was very clearly NOT divination. "I think tea leaves and palm reading make a lot more sense, because they make LESS sense - they aren't things that can just be explained by illness, or environment, or even just your hygiene choices like all of this can." Literally all of it. The whole thing. Alllll of it.

And she was so hopeful that none of her friends were buying into the nonsense, even if the professor was trying so hard to insist it was real divination and not just stuff made up by muggle charlatans.

Anyway anyway anyway, Bel pulled her gloves back on. It was still chilly. Hopefully classes wouldn't be outdoors anymore until summer came along.

Did he reallllly have to put on that nail polish thing? He saw nothing wrong with guys painting their nails-- heck rockstars do it all the time, but he personally didnt want to have to put it on himself right now, specially now that his fingers are nice and clean and soft. He would've liked to keep them that way.

He submitted his paper and hesitated over those little bottles, before just picking a black one and returning quickly to his seat. The Professor did ask a question and that got him to ponder the extra minutes away and not have to paint his nails anymore. Would he actually be using this? He was torn clearly "Professor...I think I'd like to believe the positive predictions about my nails, some of them seems to be ringing true...." specially the achievements he's been having for the last several years, wouldnt it be awesome if that continued into his adult life. "..... but then there are the not so positive aspect to my nails that I have a hard time believing, or maybe I really dont want to give it a second thought because its tied to my longevity. Having to be reminded about that specially on my hands which I see practically all the time, everyday, all year... its not a healthy way to go about life, at least thats not how I want to live my life." Terrified that death is waiting for him at every corner because his half-moons arent that big? Yeah thats one ticket to the crazy train he'd happily take a pass.

Glancing one last time over his disastrous predictions, Daehyun wrote his name and House in the top corner of his notes, and walked up to the basket to drop the piece of parchment off, before eyeing the mood polishes. Did he have to use nail polish? Though he was pretty curious of what they would indicate... and there was nail polish remover around... he supposed it wouldn't hurt to try it out, so he grabbed one at random, and scurried back to his seat.

Think of a question? That was easy. As he painted over his pinkie fingernail, he thought, snacks over studying in the library? and watched the polish turn into a light green. Was that a yes?

He remained silent at professor Vance's question, listening to the others' opinions. He supposed it was easy to do nail readings anywhere and anytime... if he happened to have his textbook with him for help. The only reason he would rather not use it was because he was terrible at interpreting things, and he would probably foresee his death and live the rest of his life in fear... but if anyone wanted to do a reading for him, he'd be more than happy to comply.

Writing down more of her observations, and writing down what they meant from Unfogging the Future, Hanna was getting a very confusing picture in her head. There were mostly good things... except she had a short life expectancy, was going to get a new enemy, and possibly had problems with her thyroid, or an infection. She didn't even have one enemy, she didn't want one at all. And a new enemy would probably be even worse, because everything would be fresh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

Nails cut: prestige and advancement
Nails filed: accomplishments achieved through your own efforts
Short nails: indicate an unexpected gift
Lines down the nails: thyroid problem or an infection
Little semi-moons, white: small... so, only a short life expectancy
White flecks: happiness, prosperity and gifts
Flecks on Left: above is better
Flecks on middle finger: new enemy!
Flecks on little finger: journey
Markings (flecks) on thumb: near luck, possible win, happy love and lucky business;
Markings (flecks) on middle finger: good news from parents and close relatives, and again great worship
Markings (flecks) on little finger: success in all creativity beginnings, scientific work and selling, as well as great worship and some happy event


I might do really well in my grades this year, because I study hard, and mum and dad might surprise me when I get home with a gift! And then my relatives might give me more gifts for doing well too. And doing well in school will make me happy. Maybe the good news from my parents will be that they are proud of me, because everyone likes to hear that. It's all rather happy. In doing so, maybe I make an enemy because someone is jealous that my parents will give me gifts. Maybe one of my sisters? I hope not. And maybe early in life I'll get an infection and die.

Hanna thought that was a good plan. She would be expecting her grades to be good, and to have gifts and nice words, to lose one of her sisters to rivalry, and to die early. It didn't seem so bad, if she could do really well academically, get her name out there, so she wasn't going to be forgotten when she died, then... maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

A noise from Professor Vance got her out of her thoughts, and it seemed time to move on. Hanna rolled up her parchment and put it in the basket, then went to get a bottle of mood polish. She didn't realise there were different colours, so she just picked one on the top and went back to her desk. She unscrewed the bottle, and started painting her nails, getting some around the skin too. She was a bit unpracticed, and it looked especially bad on her right hand. Being right handed, it was weird using her left hand to do the painting. The nails started turning a teal kind of colour, which was pretty.

Hanna didn't think she'd use the Ocinomy stuff at all, really. It was too difficult, with remembering the interpretations, and pointing the mirror just right. But she also didn't use tea reading or palmistry at all, either, so... was she supposed to? But she had a think about why she didn't think she'd use it. Besides the fact she just liked to study from her books, and write down her feelings and worries in her journal, she didn't think Divination was something she took as seriously as perhaps Professor Vance did, or at least hoped her students did. She lifted her hand, and said "I don't think I'll use it, Professor. I mean, if I notice my nails going red, or dark, or brittle I think I'll see a healer. I don't think I'd have thought about my nails and health before, so I think I might use it to indicate whether I needed to see a healer." Not ONLY in the case of things wrong with her nails, but if they WERE wrong she wouldn't ignore it.

So really the only thing that Skylar was able to gather from her nails was that she would be receiving unexpected gift soon. Maybe she was blind and choosing to not see any marks on her fingers, but she did quietly observe her peers and did casually wonder about bitten fingernails. But didn't ask; it wasn't as if she chose to bite her nails. It was this annoying habit that she did when she was stressed which of the last two years was quite often.

Mood nail polish? Intriguing.... She took one of the bottles and casually painted it on a few nails, watching, waiting. Black?! Wait, black?!? WHAT?!? What was that supposed to mean? Surely she WAS stressed, but not as much as last year. Although she did have other stresses this year; namely in choices between two amazing guys, a quidditch team to lead to victory, and her classes. Oh yea, and apparently in repairing one of her oldest friendships that she seemed to have torn to shreds. Again. But still, she didn't expect the mood nail polish to be ... black.

And there was another question and it seemed most of her classmates didn't care for Onychomancy, but there was that small hufflepuff girl that was outright RUDE about it. Yea, Skylar fought rolling her eyes at her. Because even if you didn't like something or agree with it, that was no reason for rudeness.

"Probably not, Professor. It's just, nail divination seems to have a lot more variables than other divining methods and could change more readily than say palmistry. The lines on your hands? Not likely to change. But say you spill something on your fingers in potions class that leaves a stain on your thumb for like two weeks? That stain could give you a false reading. Or if one day you're playing and you chip a nail... does that mean you'll receive an unexpected gift, as opposed to the difficulties in a relationship? So yea, i think the variables that come along with Onychomancy are a lot greater than other methods." Skylar said in a much longer explanation than she had planned for.

Thoughts tumbled around in Laurel's head some fuming ones still as she let her eyes wander over the student faces. She couldn't plan when her true faux predictions of the future came but she one would now, at that moment just to see the look on some students faces. Maybe that would make them really believe in the art of Divination.

She needed to dwell later, it was time for the class to come to an ending. "Thank you all for a wonderful lesson this afternoon here in the courtyard. I gather that Onychomancy maybe wasn't a divination technique to everyone's liking, but if you give it time I think it might grow on you since your fingernails are always with you. Extra mood polish bottles will be found in the meditation room from this evening if you want one in supply, and this is also when your homework assignments will be posted. Class dismissed! You are free to go to your next class!"

On that note Laurel turned her back on the tables to start packing everything up, she assumed the students would not linger but go inside to the castle warmth.

OOC: Thank you all so much for participating in this lesson! I hope you had fun with it, like I had. I will keep the thread open for another 12-24 hours to allow for your students to leave. It was so fun to see so many faces in class. I hope to see you next time!

Z was paying attention she was, but how could you not somehow get a little distracted when it came to nails and how perfect nails could look. She noticed she had a mark on her index finger and wasn't happy. Her nails were to be perfect, not flawed, but it was just one little more and after reading what it said she was okay with it again.

Quote:

index finger: business luck, power and respect from surroundings;

Well that was good and she sat up a bit straighter knowing she was all that. Yes,
this worked out nicely having a flaw on her nail. She glanced at the professor as she spoke again. It was time for the nail polish, this was going to be her favorite part!
She couldn't wait to get her hands on the polish and get started.

She started as soon as it was handed out and she wasn't even really listening to what was going on anymore. "ooooh look at that pretty color, it has to mean fabulous,
of course." She glanced at the meanings to see what blue meant. After reading it and seeing it say romantic she glared at her fingers, but soon was smiling again.
Of course, she was romantic what girl wasn't and it didn't mean she liked anyone,
no not at all.

"Professor I don't think I would use it every day just because polish you can't see everything on your nails, plus I don't let mine chip, that would look awful." She got up and gathered her things once her polish was fully dry.

"Bye professor, thanks for the amazing polish!"

...........

"Not really," she didn't wish to share it, but 'cause she knew Professor Vance was gonna make her.... She sorta had to, didn't she? "Nail divination is cool, I guess... But I dunno, if I know what my future is supposed to be like then there's NO fun! I wanna make my own future without rules 'n stuff."

Because it wasn't exactly nail divination she was discriminating against here. It was all of it.