Hmmmm? What was this then? Quinn peaked her head in through the door, and inquisitively swept her eyes through, well, she didn't quite know what sort of room this was. It was empty at the moment, which made it ever so much more appealing to her than it already was.

Quinn stepped inside and closed the door behind her. As always, she had her bag slung over her shoulder and was carrying her nondescript, leather bound book in hand. She still hadn't quite figured out the purpose of the room. It was unlike any she had seen before.

From the look of it, it sort of looked like a room just for loitering about with friends, as if we didn't have the entirety of the castle for that. Then again, the rest of the castle didn't come comfortably cushioned, so maybe there was some appeal to 'hanging out' in here.

Her eyes fell on the cabinets in the back of the room, and she looked back at the door to confirm she was still alone. Her curiosity was getting the better of her nature. But she was alone after all, and there was nothing at all preventing her from satiating that curiosity.

Quinn slipped the book back into her bag and made her way to the back of the room to the cabinets. She opened one at random, and studies the contents within first with her eyes.

Well this was a lovely room. Lydia had been thinking about what Dorian had said, and she'd decided to do some exploring of her own. Finding out that Professor Vance, her Head of House, was the Divination professor intrigued her so she'd decided to come explore Professor's Vance's domain. Divination sounded rather hokey to Lydia, from what she'd heard of it, but she'd never in a million years say that to Professor Vance or even let on that she thought it was all New Age rubbish.

Stepping into the room, her senses were immediately assaulted by a strong smell of lavender and the soft, tinkling sounds of instrumental music. Lydia did appreciate that Professor Vance had incorporated quite a bit of purple into her decorating scheme here. And the chairs looked pretty comfy. No matter what she thought of Divination itself, this might end up becoming one of her favorite rooms just to relax.

Lydia noticed that she wasn't quite alone in the room, however. There was another girl near the back, by the cabinets. She didn't recognize the girl, her robes were blue-trimmed. Ravenclaw. Before she'd come to Hogwarts, Lydia had thought she'd end up being a Ravenclaw. In fact, for just a moment right after her Sorting, she'd been slightly insulted the hat apparently didn't consider her clever enough for the house. Oh well, she knew she'd excel in Slytherin as well.

"Hello," said Lydia, trying not to startle the girl. It would be just the worst if either of them broke anything in here. She did not want to have to tell Professor Vance she broke her favorite crystal ball or something!

Quinn turned at the sound of the door, and the other girl's greeting.
Slytherin. One of Beth's housemate. Maybe even the goat animagus? No, too young for that. She looked to be no older than Quinn herself. Likely another first year.

She studied the girl, eyes seeming to burrow through her, probing, unearthing secrets the girl herself didn't know she had. Finally Quinn repeated, "Hello," back to the girl in a near perfect of her tone and inflection.

Giving the girl one last look over, Quinn turned back to the shelves, looking over all the supplies and equipment. She hadn't come here with the intention to use any of this for a reading, but now that she was here, the temptation to do so was steadily growing.

She turned back to the girl. "Are you good with any of this?" The girl had after all climbed all this way from the dungeons to come, by the look of things, here; one of Hogwarts high towers. Perhaps divination was a passion of hers.

Lydia joined Quinn near the cabinets and started perusing through everything. Wow, there was a lot of stuff! Crystal balls and tea leaves and tarot cards. She wondered if any of this junk actually worked.

"Nah," she said with a chuckle. "I've just been exploring the castle and kinda stumbled across this room. I'm not entirely convinced any of this Divination stuff actually works, but I don't want to disappoint Professor Vance."

Lydia picked up a set of tarot cards. They were actually quite beautiful. Her mum had once bought a pack of these from a London shop, she remembered, and then had tried to give readings to both her and her dad. All the predictions had been so vague they could really apply to anyone. But this was Hogwarts where magic really existed. Who was to say Divination wasn't real too? Maybe she should give it a chance...

"I'm Lydia by the way," she said. "Hey, wanna try out these tarot cards? Or maybe we could do a tea leaves reading." She chuckled again.

Her heels clickity-clacked on the stone as floor as she entered the meditation room in search of some materials for class readings and more personal scrying use. Professor Vance didn’t see or hear the girl’s that were there talking, until she had almost come up to them. Stopping a few meters behind them she debated for only a moment before she plastered on a smile not exactly expecting anyone to be in the room at just this hour and greeted quietly. "Hello Lydia and Quinn! What brings you girl"s up to my part of the castle today?"

Her initial idea to get the stones and other scrying material and then retreat back to her office would have to be put off for a bit. Wasn’t it only that morning that Regina had reminded them all about the importance of interacting and bonding with the students? Well Laurel was going to do as her boss wished even if half her mind was on a lesson plan. "So are you here to study, explore or do some readings?"

Quinn turned to look at the girl again in that overly scrutinizing way of herself that seemed almost natural to her and raised an eyebrow at her. Didn't believe in divination? Muggleborn, perhaps? She didn't comment on it though, instead raised the other eyebrow as well, questioningly. "You want to read my fortune?" Looking the girl up one last time, she shrugged. "Why not? Quinn." She gestured to the nearest table. "Shall we?"

Quinn made her way over to a table for Lydia to start setting up at, when she heard the door open. "Hello, Professor Vance." She considered the Professor's question. "Bit of both. I..." she paused, as if reconsidering something, then continued, "have a friend, who goes to Beauxbatons. Home life's not that great, thought I might see if things would improve for her in the future. But Lydia here was about to try her hand at reading mine. Unless you want to show us how's it done, properly?"

Lydia followed Quinn to one of the tables, carrying some of the things from the cabinets with her. She sank down into one of the chairs. Yep, just as cozy as she expected. Ok, this room wasn't too bad after all, and there was Professor Vance! She straightened her posture and gave the professor what she hoped was a winning smile.

"Hello, Professor Vance," said Lydia. "We were just exploring. But I really don't know anything about Divination. If you could show us a few pointers, I'm sure we'd both be really grateful."

Lydia listened while Quinn explained the situation with her friend. She wondered if the girl was really talking about herself. Either way she knew it was none of her business. And now that they were getting down to it, Lydia felt herself becoming more and more curious.

"And I'd like a glimpse of what things might be like for me at Hogwarts, Professor," she explained. Being Muggleborn, one of Lydia's greatest fears was still that this was all really just a mistake, and she'd be kicked out soon once someone realized it.

Professor Vance stepped closer to the table to survey what materials the girl’s had brought to the table so far. Cards weren’t what she recommend first years with little experience of the noble art to try their hand at when wanting to read their own or someone else’s futures for the very first time. She was about to suggest tea leaves readings when Quinn interjected with an explantation as to why she was there aside from exploring.

When the eagle girl was finished Laurel responded with a small but kind wink. "I see, well we should have to do our best then Quinn wont we, to see if your friends home life will be improving in the near future." She then flashed a glance to Lydia "And what lies ahead in your story here at Hogwarts Lydia will be interesting to interpret too." She had thoughts about this 'friend' that Quinn was talking about it could as easily be herself.

Countless times people had sought her out to get readings for other people when really it was for themselves but they just didn’t want to admit. "I suggest we do tea leaves readings it’s easy enough. I hope you’re both fond of drinking tea dears?" Laurel asked.

She looked between Professor Vance, and Lydia. Prof Vance's wink told her the "friend" cover hadn't quite succeeded, and something gave her the feeling it hadn't convinced Lydia either. Not like she'd admit though.

"Yes, I enjoy tea." As Quinn hadn't sat down yet, she recollected the tarot cards and returned them to the shelf. Then she made her way over to the cabinets near the door, where she'd seen tea supplies. A kettle, leaves, three saucers and teacups were a bit much to carry, so Quinn simply set them aside, pulled out her wand and aimed. "Wingardium Leviosa." She levitated them over to the table and set them each down gently. "Ready when you are." She said, directing the statement to both Lydia and Professor Vance.

Lydia watched Quinn levitate the supplies back to their table. She couldn't help but be a bit impressed. Wingardium Leviosa could be a tricky charm, especially if you didn't have the pronunciation down just right. Lydia had only just gotten the hang of it after lots of practice in the dorms.

"I like tea as well," said Lydia. She restrained the urge to be more enthusiastic. Even though she wanted to impress Professor Vance, she didn't want to come across as being too much of a suck-up. "I'm ready too."

Lydia took of the delicate china cups and saucers. Now they just needed to brew the tea. Probably Professor Vance would do that. Or should she try and impress the professor by brewing the tea herself with a water-heating spell? No, she'd probably just end up spraying boiling hot water all over herself, Quinn, and Professor Vance. That would be disastrous!

Quinn didn't admit to lying about actually being the friend she had told them about. It was Professor Vance reasoned because Lydia was there and Quinn didn’t wan’t to reveal something so private to people she didn’t know so well yet which was completely understandable.

That both Lydia and Quinn enjoyed tea brought an excited beam to Professor Vance’s face as she exclaimed "How wonderful that you’re both tea lovers like me. It will make drinking the tea a pleasure and not just a means to get to the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup."

Laurel was going to instruct the girl’s to fetch tea leaves, cups, kettle and a saucer when Lydia took things into her own hands and levitated everything over to the table with the use of her wand. "Good going Lydia! I didn’t know Professor Marchand had already taught you guy’s the levitation charm in class?" Extracting her own wand from it’s holster Laurel non verbally cast a spell to make a tray of delicious cupcakes appear before she flicked her wand to put water and tea leaves into a kettle that she put to brew on one of the saucers. ”Since we’re just three i think it’s enough if we just brewed one kettle of tea to drink with our cupcakes or do you two really want to brew too?”

Quinn looked up sharply a moment when Professor Vance called her Lydia. Then softened. It was understandable, really. The year was still very young, and both she and Lydia were first years. It was understandable that she'd get names switched up at times this early on. After all, Quinn didn't have to learn every student's name in the school like the professors did.

"Quinn," she corrected, pleasantly, and then nodded, watching with interest while the Professor summoned cupcakes and got things brewing. "Last week actually, but I had practiced the levitation charm a bit over summer too. And my wand particularly seems to like it." Her temperamental wand, she'd quickly found, had favorite spells it liked casting. Levitation was one of those.

"I think one kettle will do," she agreed, leaning forward to examine the cupcakes with her eyes. Then she looked over at Lydia to see what she thought about the number of kettles to be brewed.

Lydia was glad that Quinn had corrected the professor on her name so that she didn't have to do it. That would have been too awkward. Lydia nodded at Quinn though. "Yes, one kettle will be just fine, Professor Vance."

Lydia got comfortable in her seat and arranged her teacup and saucer before her neatly. The kettle was brewing quite quickly. In moments it would be done, and they could begin. Although she still had doubts about this whole Divination thing, it would be brilliant if it actually worked and she could learn a few things about her future. If there was one thing she never got tired of, it was making plans, and this could be very useful information indeed.

Professor Vance was arranging the cupcakes and keeping an eye on the boiling tea when Quinn corrected. Okay, slightly embarrassing moment here. She had just called Quinn Lydia and they weren't even in the same house or shared any facial or hair resemblance. Trying to smooth over her apparent mistake Laurel caught on to what Quinn was saying. "I'm sorry Quinn. So, your wand seems to have a liking to charms? Did the Ollivanders shopkeeper tell you that your wand would be good for casting charms spells?" It couldn't hurt to show some interest.

Turning her attention to Lydia as she took the tea pot off the burner to let the tea leaves draw for a bit before she poured it up, she asked. "Lydia, how are you liking Slytherin? Have you made any friends yet?" Knowing that would give her an idea if the new buddy system was working or if she needed to give Flynn a nudge to do his duties as prefect.

Once the tea was ready, Quinn graciously took an offered cup and took a sip. She nodded to Professor Vance as a way of saying, 'it was fine,' and, 'apology accepted,' and set the cup and saucer down, swapping them for a cupcake. "It's....temperamental, honestly," she said of her wand. "It was custom made in France, and is a dual core. A mermaid hair core that I inherited from my grandmother, and a Veela hair I was given..." Honestly, it had been Beth that had earned the Veela hairs, Quinn only received one as well for being with her.

Both cores, the mermaid hair, and the veela hair were known to be temperamental.

Once she was done with her bite of cupcake, Quinn continued. "I'm not quite sure which type of magic my wand is geared for particularly. It does seem to have favorite spells in every discipline, though." Such as the levitation charm, or conjuration within the discipline of Transfiguration.

She set down the cupcake, and picked the tea cup back up, sipping it some more as she observed both Lydia and Professor Vance as they talked Slytherin for a bit.

Lydia listened with fascination to Quinn's description of her wand. She couldn't help but want to join in on that conversation too.

"The shopkeeper at Ollivander's told me my wand is particularly suited for dueling. He seemed to think it would favor defense spells and water-based spells. It's yew with a phoenix tail feather," said Lydia. She glanced at the professor. "Er, not that I'll be doing any unauthorized dueling, Professor Vance."

Lydia sipped happily at her tea. It was just the perfect temperature. She took a deep bite of cupcake too. Delicious.

"Honestly, Professor," she said in response to the questions, "I didn't think I'd be in Slytherin, but I am liking it so far. I've made friends with a few people like Beth and Patrick in Slytherin. I also spend time with kids from other houses like Rylee and Ewan."

Lydia munched on her cupcake and thought about her house. She'd heard some dark things about it, things like how many, if not most, Dark witches and wizards came from Slytherin. Not having learned much yet about wizarding history, she couldn't say if that was true or not, but it did trouble her.

Somewhat embarrassed, Lydia nevertheless felt the need to ask Professor Vance a question that had indeed been on her mind for the past several months. "It's not bad to be in Slytherin, is it Professor?"

Lydia glanced at Quinn, her cheeks somewhat warm. Hopefully Quinn didn't think she was being a nitwit or something. Quinn seemed so confident...so above any worries or insecurities. It was extremely difficult to read the Ravenclaw girl.

Ordinarily, Quinn would have just listened and watched rather than exactly just into the conversation more between Lydia and Professor Vance, but she felt inclined to right now. She finished chewing the bite of cupcake she'd just taken, swallowed, set what was left of the cupcake down, and took a sip of tea.

"No, it's not a bad thing. My best friend is Slytherin." She set her tea down for the moment. Since Lydia had mentioned her by name anyhow, Quinn opted to be a bit more forthcoming. "Beth. And she's one of the best people I know. While it is true a lot of Slytherins became Deatheaters during both Wizarding Wars," including her own great-grandparents, sorry to say, "that doesn't mean the whole house is bad. Or that other houses don't have their black spots too. Like that tosser, Gideroy Lockhart. He was a Ravenclaw."

She finished her cupcake and added, "I was sure I'd be a slytherin actually. I'm probably the first in my family for generations that isn't." She gave them both a barely-there shrug of the shoulders and finished her tea with one last sip.

Lydia listened to Quinn with a growing sense of relief. That was true. And she knew Beth, and Beth was a good sort. It also made her feel better to know that other houses had also turned out a few rotten apples as well.

"Hey, I know Beth," said Lydia, smiling. "She's my dorm mate. Have you two been friends for a long time?"

Lydia grabbed another cupcake but a smaller one this time. She washed it down with another large sip of tea. Her cup was almost finished. Now she could see the leaves in the bottom of the cup. She assumed they would need to read the shapes the leaves made, but could that really tell them anything about their future?

"So you come from a family of Slytherins?" said Lydia. "That must be really nice, actually, to feel like you belong to a long, proud lineage. When I first heard of the houses, I thought I might end up in Ravenclaw. I'm still slightly peeved the hat didn't think I was clever enough apparently."

Quinn said nothing for a moment, instead just watching. Then she nodded. "All my life. We're neighbors. Her Mum is like a second mum to me." Quinn picked up her tea cup again. It was empty, but leaving it to sit a minute help fix the leaves where they were in her opinion. Now, she could study the shapes. She'd pull out her book to try and reference meaning in them in a moment, for now she was just studying them.

Finally, Quinn glanced back up at Lydia and shrugged. "Long? Yes. Proud? Not quite.
My great-grandparents were deatheaters." Something her parents liked to keep secret so as to preserve the good standing of the Kevelle name. So naturally Quinn volunteered that information freely and openly. Out of spite as much as anything else. "Not to mention both my parents have been in Azkaban for the last ten years. For ties to the black market and crimes against muggles. Ghastly crimes, I'm told, but beyond that I still don't know. So, no. My family hasn't helped Slytherin's image. I was hoping to change that legacy, and do some good for the Slytherin name, but...." She shrugged again.

And glad for the topic change, Quinn gave Lydia a soft, reassuring smile. "I don't think it's about what traits you lack. You can have a mind fit for a Ravenclaw but still be in Slytherin. I think it's more what quality defines you at your core. You could be the smartest person in the school and still not be Ravenclaw if its loyalty you hold at your core above all else. Or bravery. Or ambition. Maybe you're more clever than most in my house, but maybe you focus that cleverness into be cunning. Because, remember, cunning is a defining trait of Slytherin."

Quinn looked back at her empty cup. "So, Professor? What's the ideal way to read these?"

Lydia couldn't help it. Her face betrayed her surprise. Of course she'd heard about Voldemort and the Death Eaters. She was a voracious reader, and the Battle of Hogwarts was mentioned often in several different history books in the library. As a muggleborn, learning about wizarding history had been one of the first things she'd delved into upon arriving at the school.

"Oh gosh, Quinn, I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have asked. I'm glad you made a good friend like Beth though. That must've helped a lot."

As Quinn talked about traits and the houses, Lydia considered her words carefully. "That makes a lot of sense," she said. "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw!" This last was meant to lighten the mood. "But seriously though, that makes me feel a lot better. And the more I think about it, the more I think I probably do belong in Slytherin. I want to be the best I can be, if that makes sense? And ambition is definitely something Slytherin favored."

Isa had some very important life decisions to make, so naturally she was in a very reflective mood and had set herself up seated on a cushion on the floor of the meditation room. Around her she had a teapot and tea cup for tea leaf reading, her trusty rune stones bag, a deck of tarot cards, and her leather bound journal. Today was to be a day of meditation, self reflection, and journaling as she went through the process of making big decisions. She was going to try a few different methods of divination readings to see what guidance they may offer and compare to see if the different methods gave similar answers. What was the best divination method for making important decisions? If Professor Vance was around, she might ask. Perhaps the professor would even recommend an alternate method of divination. Which one should she start with? Maybe the tea. Isa filled the tea pot and heated the water using magic then threw some tea leaves in. While she waited for the tea to brew, she closed her eyes and took some deep breaths to clear her mind. Now for a few minutes of meditation.

If Skylar had been thinking clearly, she probably should have spent more time in the meditation room from the very beginning of this roller coaster of a year. You know, before she decided to waste time and effort applying to programs she was only halfway interested in. Before she had her heart broken. Twice. Three times? Before she lost a quidditch match. So many befores that made the seventh year wonder if perhaps they could have been prevented. With her NEWT studies finally in full swing and quidditch was over with, Skylar made her way up to the Divination tower, figuring it was as good a time as any to get started on reviewing some feet. Perhaps Professor Vance was around and she could review a staff member's feet, because at least she trusted her head of house to be hygienic. Or she could go for Kalen Kennedy's feet, but the thought of him made her think of a seventh year snake and while he was one of the people she trusted most, she was trying super duper hard to prove she can be independent.

Entering in time to see Isa pouring some tea, she smiled at the younger student. May as well get one of her student readings out of the way?

"Isa, hey." Now how did one ask politely about smelling studying someone else's feet? Ah, who was she kidding? Skylar Natasha never worried over politeness before. "Can i do a foot reading on you?" Cause getting right to the punch was totally the way to go!

Isa looked up when she heard someone calling her name. ”Oh, hey Sky. Do you want some tea?” Foot readings, huh? Isa still needed to do some of those for her homework too. ”Sure, I was just doing a tea leaf reading and a rune spread reading and a tarot card reading, why not add a foot reading as well.” The more readings the better in her opinion. Important decisions required lots of reflecting and lots of different types of readings to confirm what she should choose. The question upon which she was reflecting hung in her mind. This could be a real life changing decision, perhaps the biggest decision she had faced in her life to date. It was not the sort of thing to be taken lightly. ”Mind if I do a foot reading on you too?” FYI she did NOT have smelly feet. Isa took very good care of her feet and made sure they were washed every day and stayed nice and dry so they wouldn’t get smelly.

Tea? "Oh uh ... sure..." she blinked when Isa explained all the readings she was planning on doing. Wow. Skylar had no idea that the Hufflepuff was into Divination like that. "So many readings. Any particular reason?" And here Skylar was just looking for a spare and preferably clean foot. Might help her to know what she was supposed to be looking for?

"Of course. It's only fair. And I even made sure to shower after my run this morning." Just in case she was wondering, her feet weren't that sweaty. "You want to do mine first? Left or right?"