He was expecting and waiting to be reprimanded for speaking out of turn.... but it didn't come. Had Fletcher gone soft? As the Professor answered his question, Max nodded and set about tying little bits of parchment to the end of his arrows. He didn't completely agree with Fletcher's response though. Robbing yourself of genuine enlightenment? HAH, right. He'd come to the conclusion that Divination was about as useful as a waterproof teabag. Still, he decided to keep his opinions to himself.

Focusing on the question he'd asked, Max gave his quiver a little shake for good luck and then picked out an arrow at random.

1. Nope, they're done for.

The Slytherin scoffed out loud at the response. It was just additional proof that Divination was bogus because the Veela Vampire Slayers would never be done for. NEVER. He was POSITIVE of it.

There was no time to dwell on that now though, because now was the time for actually shooting arrows.

Daisy closed her eyes and concentrated on her question regarding her future career options as she silently shook her quiver before reaching inside to pull out a solitary arrow. She untied the parchment and read it. It said, "Ministry of Magic," much to her slight disappointment because at the moment with the way she was feeling, an "official job" seemed like her least favourite option. However, she did realise that her mind could change once she graduated which was something she hoped to achieve.

Daisy was then ready for the next activity. She was feeling a bit nervous about shooting arrows but she knew that carefulness would be key.

Derf was hesitating, and procrastinating, pulling an arrow from his quiver to see what answer it provided and was quite relieved when the professor himself was offering some up close demonstration on how to hold the bow and arrow when the time came. A few feet, right, er...maybe he could handle that? Nodding along as the man spoke, he tried his best to look like he had retained all of that information - because the man HAD made it clear time and time again that he did not like repeating himself and they were to get things correct the FIRST time - or had that been the Headmaster on that latter bit? - but he was relieved when the man offered him further assistance should it be needed. If nothing else, it was a small affirmation that he was actually here to educate them...you know?

"Thank you, professor," he said with a small smile. He would give it his best effort first but, well, he reckoned that he would ultimately be calling upon the man in the end. It was no beater's bat and bludger, after all.

But now back to this....first method before he completely failed at the actual firing. Giving his quiver a few more shakes to shuffle the arrows around a bit, the sixth year plucked one from the bunch and unfolded the piece of parchment there to see that it was...blank. Perhaps the most unhelpful of the options, honestly. It was another no answer, non decision, just like he had been the past...3 terms was it now?

Sighing, he returned that arrow to the quiver and picked up his bow and started out just working on his grip there. No arrows just yet, but he was imagining that he had one. Sorta like practicing a wand movement without the incantation. In this case the bow was his wand and the arrow the incantation.

Skyler was a bit confused about what professor Fletcher had explained. So for a few seconss, she observed the students to get an idea. Oh. Okay. That's what she was supposed to do. She took her quiver off her arm for a second and shook it a bit. Closing her eyes, she took one arrow out.
Arror was what it read. She frowned. She did not like that it was her third choice but, eh. She put the arrow back in the quiver and fit it over her back again. Okay...she took her bow and pulled back the string, just to get a feel for it. She needed to see how much tension she might need. She wasn't using arrows yet, just practising.

Daisy had a bad feeling about what she had done in terms of the activity and for the first time, she was severely doubting herself as she made her way to one of the parallel lines and stood behind it like instructed. She raised her hand slowly, silently waiting for Professor Fletcher to allow her to ask her series of questions. Daisy wanted to know the following. Was she was firing all three arrows at once or one at a time? Did she need to ask a new question?

This Prefect was getting internally frustrated with herself.

From his spot at the table, Fletcher watched the students finish up the first activity then begin the second. None seemed in danger of taking anyone else’s eye out so he convinced himself he could...almost relax. The raised hand cause a raise of his brow.

“What is it, Ms. Swann?”

Shouldering the quiver with the four arrows in it. She figured that pulling one out from behind her back would be the easiest way of selecting one. Though she wasn’t sure if there was a right way to select a arrow.

Well she was going to go with this method either way. Reaching around for one of arrows as she was thinking about her question. She pulled out one of the arrows, the blank one. Of course. She laughed to herself and placed it back into the quiver. That was awesome…. Not.

Now it was time to do the fun thing.

Moving over to find a spot behind the line. She didn’t turn around to see who had their back turned to her. As long as they didn’t hit her with a arrow she was good. She was just going to use her first question again. Since she did draw the blank piece of paper. Wasn’t that suppose to mean to ask later?

It was later, yes? Not too much later but it was late enough to not have to come up with another question. She took her quiver off of her back, sorting through the papers tied to the arrows. She kept the blank one still inside the quiver, obviously. Now all she needed to do was to choose one of the answers to take away. St. Mungo’s, Gringotts or Ministry of Magic. She choose the latter and took it out of the quiver and placed it on the way.

One by one she shot the arrows out to the field. Watching carefully to see which way each arrow went. She waited until the others finished shooting off their arrows. The one closest to her was St. Mungos. The second arrow was just a few steps away, she could see her handwriting on the paper attached to the one end of the arrow. So that was it, another blank answer. She moved farther down the field and found the last arrow and she already knew that the paper was blank.

Kaitlynn hadn't said anything at all during class. It wasn't a class she was strong at and there was already enough talking done by other people either protesting the school or actually answering the questions. She had grabbed her bow and arrows but wasn't entirely sure about anything in particular that she cared to have an answer for. She wasn't one to want to know about the future because she was all about living in the present.

She was falling behind everyone else it seemed who all had questions they were hoping to get an answer to and she was still there staring at the paper trying to decide what to ask. The anxiety of coming up with a question ate at her a little because she was drawing a massive blank. She could ask something about her future career or if she would ever get better at magic, but it just seemed trivial in a way to her. Why should she let an arrow tell her anything about...anything.

She took a deep breath and wondered if it would ever get better and that was her question.

She attached the answers to each arrow carefully and then placed them back into her quiver and put it over her shoulder and onto her back. She took a deep breath to clear her head and kept asking her question on repeat. Will things get better? She reached around and pulled out an arrow and on it...was the blank piece. She sighed and pulled out the arrows and looked at her options. She removed the one that said nope and placed them all back into the quiver and moved to take her place on the firing line.

New question. Will Hogwarts ever not suck? A question she had been wondering since the day the new Professors took over and she felt like she was living in prison. Three options. In time. Make an effort to make a change. Blank piece. She sucked in a lot of air and grabbed one arrow, set it as he Professor demonstrated, pulled it back, and on the exhale she let it go flying into the open field keeping an eye on it. She repeated the action with the other two and once everyone was done she walked out into the field to see which one went the furthest.

Natalie had only been half-paying attention when Fletcher had given the instructions for the first activity (because she was being rebellious), so she was trying to remember what was supposed to happen next. Uhh... Was she just supposed to pull and arrow out? Yeah, that sounded familiar.

Well. Okay.

She pulled one out of the quiver.

Absolutely!

Wow. Divination. Amazing.

Natalie listened to the next set of instructions and took the papers off of each one. This time she was to think of another question and think of two answers, then shoot off three arrows. It was a shame that shooting Professors in the foot was probably against the rules. She'd probably also face some charges considering she had just turned 17. Darn.

Grabbing her bow and quiver of arrows, Natalie moved to one of the lines in the field and wondered what her question should be. Hmmm...

Will the Ministry finally intervene and save us?

She drew her first arrow and positioned it to her bow. She pulled back. Ministry of Magic Who??? Then she let go. It went about two feet.

Natalie drew her second arrow and pulled it back with the bow. At the very last possible second. Then she let go. It went a foot further than the first one.

Drawing her last arrow, the one that was to be left blank, which... well, she didn't remember what that meant. Probably "who knows, guess you'll find out"... Natalie pulled it back with the bow and released it into the field. And it soared six feet into the field.

Lovely.

Daisy looked nervously at Professor Fletcher as she spoke. "Do I choose a different question from the first activity?" She didn't bother asking about the firing of the arrows since she had witnessed her fellow students firing their arrows.

The first arrow she came across was the arrow with the paper that said in time. That didn't seem to be too promising in all honesty. Kaitlynn continued towards her second arrow and there was really only two options and she had a feeling she new what the answer was going to be. She looked at the arrow she was approaching trying to see her hand writing on it.

Picking the arrow up, the young Ravenclaw stared at the arrow that went the furthest and the one in her hand. The paper was blank and she felt confused. She moved to the last arrow and picked it up reading her own words. Make an effort to make a change. She moved back to the firing line waiting for the Professor to speak words while her mind tried to comprehend the cryptic answer to the question. An answer, mind you, that she wrote. What change was she supposed to be making and what kind of effort was she going to have to put forth to achieve it?

How break had ended so quickly was beyond him… It was pretty darn cold and Jackson tried to remember the warmth of summer. He had his coat with him, but he would prefer to be in bed with a big ol’ blanket. This was practically wiped from his mind when he entered the class…room? It had been changed quite a bit today. And the only thing that would make this setup better would be a heating spell. What would they be learning? Uh… honestly, Jackson wasn’t good with Divination. “Would it be Psychometry?” Jackson suggested. Jackson had no idea if that was a ‘branch’ the professor had meant. The answer was made clear soon enough, and Jackson was very much so not surprised to find out he had been wrong.

Luckily, the professor seemed to be in a gracious mood because he sounded pretty forgiving of any wrong answers that had been given. Belometry, huh? Using arrows? How was that a thing? Then again, he thought that about pretty much every lesson (at least at the beginning… he tried to stay open!). He listened to the professor’s directions, feeling that his note about not fooling around was pretty moot by now, but you never know what someone was in the mood for these days (like Natalie for instance). Jackson couldn’t really understand how man made bows could help with Seeing, but he was interested in where this was going. “Surely it can’t be considered one of the more reliable forms of Seeing…” was all he could think. He felt kind of cool with the quivers on his back, not that he was parading that thought. He watched silently as the second year started to argue with the professor about her necklace. A clear rule which she may not agree with, but was obviously a rule. As for her comment about jewelry not ever being an issue. UHM. HAD SHE FORGOTTEN ABOUT DRACO MALFOY’S ATTEMPT TO MURDER THE HEADMASTER?? Jackson had to keep his mouth shut on this one for now, but he was sad to see that one of his Claws was trying to cause a scene right now. He was just grateful she hadn’t lost them all of their house points. Okay… time to see if he got the hang of this. Err… What would he ask?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackson’s Paper

Question: Will I get a good job after graduating?
1. Yes, definitely
2. Yes, but only with endless hard work
3. No
4.

He got himself ready and when it was finally his turn, he concentrated on his question. Then it was time to try out the bow and arrow… Which he had absolutely no experience with. Archery seemed kind of cool or whatever, but it wasn’t on his current list of hobbies. He began shooting his arrows, the first one actually doing a little better than the second one. Then the third did… maybe better? He’d have to check. Finally, all arrows had been set and Jackson went to retrieve his.

Max overheard Daisy’s query about whether or not they needed to focus on a fresh question for the second portion of the activity, but he wasn’t about to wait for Fletcher’s response. He didn’t want to waste precious arrow shooting time. And he had a new question he wanted to ask anyway so it was all good.

The previous answers weren’t really applicable to his new question though, so he spent a few minutes stripping his arrows from the old parchment and adding new parchment instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

1. Yep, tons of the stuff.
2. Nope. Sad times.
3. ——

As he lined up where Fletcher had instructed and took his stance, he gave the quiver another good luck shake, making sure he didn’t know which arrow corresponded to which answer. Was his bow and arrow shooting stance correct? No idea, but he felt super cool.

Will there be mashed potato for dinner later? Will there be mashed potato for dinner later?

Focusing on the question, Max set up an arrow…. drew back….. and released. It didn’t go very far, but after adjusting his stance and looking at what his classmates were doing, the second arrow went a bit further. The third arrow? That one was a complete flop and hopefully no-one saw.

He waited until the coast was clear and made sure he wasn’t in danger of being skewered and then went to retrieve his arrows. And typical. The one that travelled the furthest was the one that was blank. This was STUPID. What did it MEAN? Would there be mashed potato or NOT?

Fletcher stared at the Prefect, it was a stern sort of look. “You’d do well to pay attention, Ms. Swann. I’ve already instructed the class to choose a second question.” And he didn’t appreciate having to repeat himself on the matter. He expected better of a student leader.

____________

Another glance down at his watch and the man clapped his hands. “That’s the end of the lesson. Everyone, collect your arrows if you haven’t already, put them back in their quivers and replace them on the table. After that, you’re free to go.”

No injuries. That was how he liked things to be. Of course the class could’ve gone smoother without certain interruptions but not everyone could do what was expected of them.

They may learn in time.

OOC: Class is officially over! Thanks for playing everyone. I’ll close the thread in a few hours in case anyone has any last minute catch up to do

After settling the arrows back in the quiver, Jessa gave a firm stir to shift them around before replacing it on her back. Humouring the lesson, the girl focused on the question, while her arm reached back to pick an arrow. A part of her tried to feel for the arrow containing the answer she wanted but she didn’t know which it was and would be grabbing blindly anyway.

Resigned to that fact, the Head Girl plucked an arrow and....slowly brought it forward. Despite not taking much stock in these answers, a part of her was still nervous about the answer. It was her own fault really, getting so invested despite her own disbelief.

Jessa looked to the parchment, noticing immediately that there were no words.

.....well then. That...that was answer enough for here. Even whatever divine being that controlled everything was uncertain and if it was meant to know everything then there was no hope for her knowing. There were very few things more terrifying than uncertainty before a decision. She would take this as a bad omen. A warning to steer clear of the situation altogether. That was probably the safest course of action at this point.

Moving on.

Jessa walked up to one of the lines, being sure to stay behind it to avoid the man’s ire. As it turned out, her answers were applicable to her next question so she would simply reuse them. A lot of her questions could be summed up with those answers to be honest. Either she should do it at great risk or avoid it altogether and continue living with the reality she already knew. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know which she typically preferred.

Once again, she humoured the man by taking a moment to concentrate on her question. She let it meander its way through her mind as it pleased until she felt she had a good enough concept of it. Having watched the man demonstrate with Derf, she opted not to ask for his advice—in case he wasn’t feeling much like repeating.

Before shooting, she tested her bow for the level of tension with the string. When she felt she’d made the right calculation she knotched her arrows, drew them, took a breath before shooting each then watched carefully to see where they would land. Not having looked at them before firing, she had no idea which was which and that in itself made her anxious.

The Ravenclaw stood by while others drew and loosed their arrows, waiting til the last in her line was done before going to retrieve them.

Was she surprised the furthest was once again blank? Honestly....no. Lately she’d felt like her life was one big question mark. The universe was simply cementing that.

Even it didn’t know.

At the dismissal, Jessa neatly restocked all her arrows in the quiver and placed them with the bow on the table. She nodded politely to the professor before collecting her things and leaving.

Daisy quickly wrote down a new set of answers for her second question which related to her first question and replaced her old answers with the new pieces of parchment and she gave the arrows a good shuffle in her quiver.

Daisy thought of the question, "Will I be working an outdoors-type job at the Ministry?" and then fired her three arrows as instructed. The first two arrows landed not very far from where she had fired them, much to her disappointment. The third arrow was a much more successful firing. Daisy went over to that particular arrow and opened up the parchment that was tied to it, reading the answer to herself. The arrow revealed: "No, indoors for you."

That answer made Daisy quite furious. She didn't want to be stuck in an "office job". The lesson was soon ending so Daisy retrieved her arrows and placed them back in the quiver. She returned the quiver and bow back on the table before fetching her supplies and departing the lesson, giving Professor Fletcher a nod in polite farewell beforehand.