Class #4: G&R / 6&7

[Professor Sybill Trelawney]

INTRODUCTION

Group #1: Gryffindor Sixth and Seventh Years
Group #2: Ravenclaw Sixth and Seventh Years
Discussion: Horoscope Charts

Sybill Trelawney wrapped her shawls around herself as she shifted into a more comfortable position seated at the front of the classroom, waiting for her next class of students to come clambering up in their usual noisy fashion. It was starting to get cold, and although she had the benefit of a classroom that was high up and not, for example, underground, there was a definite chill in the room, which she was currently trying to fend off through the burning of a hearty fire in the fireplace. It was working moderately well. She pulled her shawls more tightly around herself, reminding herself as she did which students she had right now. Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, but an older class, that was always nice. Any students that were still taking her course in NEWT years, well, those were a smart batch of students, now. All had shown themselves as having quite a perceptive Inner Eye, and they were a dedicated lot too, a dedicated lot with a keen desire to understand the world of prophecy and divination that existed all around them, that most people weren't quite as fortunate to be able to see, Sybill thought with a little sniff. Spreading her arms out in a welcoming gesture as her students took their seats, she smiled at the bunch of them. "Welcome, welcome," she greeted in her little way, eyebrows rising. "You'll be happy to know that today's class should be quite relaxing," she informed them. "I've decided to let you work on your horoscope charts that are due tomorrow." She nodded her head enthusiastically as she spoke, and then settled down in her seat more comfortably. Today would be a nice, relaxing class for her too, it just so happened. Fancy that.

[Wendy Palmer]

Surprisingly enough, Wendy liked Divination. She liked it enough to actually give a care and try in it. It wasn't really that Wendy believed in fortune-telling; sure, there could be odd coincidences, maybe one or two true Seers, and yeah, even Wendy had experienced feelings of déjà vu now and again, but she really doubted anyone in the world had the power to see the exact future. Because once someone saw the future, it could be changed, couldn't it? If someone didn't like the outcome, they could change the choices they'd normally make and then the future another person saw could be false. So, no, Wendy didn't really believe in Divination, but she did find it wonderfully good fun. Her Aunt Moira was quite New Age-y (much to her church-going uncle's chagrin), and she had always been into things like tarot cards and palm reading and horoscopes and all that - the types of Divination that Muggles did. And when Wendy went to live with them, she'd shown an interest in the tarot cards, and Aunt Moira had sort-of taken her under her wing from there. Wendy had actually become quite apt at tarot and palm readings. Reading tea leaves had been a breeze, once she opened her mind and used a bit of imagination. Aunt Moira had tried to teach her how to tell fortunes using stones, but Wendy was having trouble remembering that one; but she found it interesting, so she was sure she'd grasp it soon enough. As for this class? Well, Wendy could proudly boast an O, which was quite something for her as she normally could barely manage an E. Her horoscope chart was nearly complete in front of her; she'd had to fudge them a little bit given that she couldn't ask her parents the time of her birth, but she'd written Aunt Moira who told her that she was born "sometime around two in the afternoon." Wendy had gone ahead and said 13:57, hoping it was close enough to get an accurate reading. Things seemed to be working out all right, and so far Professor Trelawney hadn't said things were off, so they were probably good.

Ugh. But the bad thing about Divination? There was always at least one student who was there for an "easy grade". Wendy had expected it during OWL years, but these were NEWTs; shouldn't everyone who was in this class want to be in it? Unless these were just students who were currently in a free period and came to Divination to fuck around, which really was nothing short of irritating beyond all reason. And, lucky Wendy, they were sitting right behind her. And frankly, Wendy had had enough of their snickering. Sighing and rolling her eyes, she turned around, giving them the most unimpressed look she could muster. "If you really hate this class so much," she snapped, not bothering to hide how irritated she was, "then why are you even here?"

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[Indigo Grace]

Indigo did not like divination - not only was the subject silly, not only did Professor Trelawney not know anything she was talking about, and not only was it a complete waste of time, but it hit close to home. Anything that was a reminder of who she was or more specifically, What she was, was not welcome. Why was she in here, then? Because it was something she could excel in, for obvious reasons. She had been a gypsy in case you'd forgotten, and not only was she a seer but she was also raised with this "hocus pocus" and tea leaves and palm readings and she knew exactly what to do. Indigo was very superstitious but she didn't often let this show; in fact, most of the time she labeled superstitious as fool's practice, and she believed it. She called herself a fool, yes. Professor Trelawney liked Indigo well enough, enough that she was still in her class and she got the best grade you can get. Even so, she bothered her too, because it was remarkably clear how much she did not like this subject, but how frustratingly evident she was so good at it. Most of this wasn't real anyway, Indigo knew that. Seeing the future wasn't as easy as reading a tea leaf, and you couldn't turn it on her off. There were certain things which triggered it in her experience - an object sometimes, other times a person or location. The most ironic part about seeing the future was that it was a completely useless ability. It was unchangeable, no matter what you did the future was already set. Indi had tried before, many times, to fix what she had seen but from either what she did as a result of knowing the future or some other act upon it, the outcome was always the same. She'd given up trying, and she wished that it wasn't her curse to bear.

At least the professor was giving them this day to work on their charts. Indigo pulled out her quill and made some markings on the paper. Now Wendy Palmer was a fellow Gryffindor, and cheerleader at that. Because of this, Indigo almost naturally disliked her. She disliked her even more when she turned around and glared at the brunette, who was laughing about something else entirely which had nothing to do with the class. But, she didn't like this class, that was true, and Indi felt nothing wrong with proclaiming it. Wendy Palmer had no idea just how awful seeing the future really was, it was just allll fun and games to her. Indigo had a ton of catching up to do when she started school for the first time when she was thirteen, so excuse her for taking one class which came easy for her. "Why do you think, are you really that dim witted?" Indigo replied, with that same cold and judgmental tone she had developed over the years at Hogwarts. "I'm not sure such a question even deserves an answer, to be honest." There she went, using a manner that screamed 'I'm superior to your tiny little brain.' She continued to work on her project, barely glancing at Wendy as if she was merely a second thought. "In actuality," she continued, still only half paying Wendy any mind. "-you should be concerned for yourself if this class is truly that enjoyable for you."

[Wendy Palmer]

... Wow.

Of course it had to be Indigo Grace, one of the few people Wendy was determined to not get to know. From what Wendy had seen and heard about her, she was far from the nicest girl on the block. Not that Wendy expected everyone to be nice, but Indigo was nasty. Sure, Wendy had been short with her, but Indigo had gone out of her way to insult her. "Dim witted" was one of the few things that actually managed to sting Wendy since it was a sore spot. Her eyes narrowed and her tone turned icy as she replied, "Forgive me for finding something fun, Indigo, and not just for taking this class because I'm too lazy to challenge myself with something else that I could like more." She shrugged and rolled her eyes again. "Look, if you hate this class, fine, but keep it to yourself till it's over, okay?"

[/color] And keep the bitchiness to yourself too, she felt like adding, though decided to follow her own advice and kept her mouth shut.
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[Alessandra De Luca]

Horoscope charts. Who cared about horoscope charts when the air was so thick you couldn’t even breathe? As Professor Trelawney gave the students their assignment for the class period, Alessandra sighed and reached one hand behind her head to draw her hair off the nape of her neck. Trelawney was a monster, forcing her students to spend every hour they had with her gulping down this humid air. Why in God’s name—sighing again, Alessandra quickly made the Sign of the Cross and then proceeded to take her half-finished (more like quarter-finished) horoscope chart out of her bag—had she decided to go with loose tresses this morning? She should have put it up with the jeweled hair clip she’d gotten for her birthday. Or at least brought a hair elastic so she could put it in a ponytail. But she didn’t have Herbology today, so she hadn’t thought to carry one with her. Fantastico.¹ Ugh. Why was it so warm in here? The air was stifling, and the smell! The smell was sweet, but sickeningly so, like walking into a cloud of spritzed perfume and getting an overwhelming mouthful of it instead of just a gentle whiff—and then walking into a pastry shop and inhaling the sugary aroma of warm baked goods with the taste of perfume still on your tongue. Eyeing the cauldron from which the smell was emanating above the fire, Alessandra allowed herself to indulge in an uncharacteristically morbid thought. Was that it? Was Trelawney going to bake her students and eat them, like the old woman in “Hansel e² Gretel”? Well, she was a witch, wasn’t she?

Alessandra stared dully at the parchment in front of her, wrinkling her nose. Oddio³, that smell was really bothersome. How was she supposed to concentrate with this horrid mugginess filling her nose? Couldn’t the professor tell how awful it was? This new smell—Trelawney must have put new ingredients into the cauldron from last year, because while Alessa had always found the classroom’s scent a bit overbearing, she’d never felt physically ill from it during any previous term—had only been mildly nauseating for the past few weeks, but today… Today it was downright repulsive. Her stomach felt queasy, as if she were on a little boat on the water and the waves kept tilting it up and down, up and down, not enough to tip it over, not even enough to give her real seasickness, but just enough to keep her feeling unbalanced the entire time. She’d actually felt out of sorts all day but had figured it was just leftover nervousness from breakfast, when she thought she might have caught some more than friendly glances between Aidan and Dani at the table. Now, stuck in this perfumed oven of a classroom, every breath she took added to her physical unease. This bizarre halfway state between mild indigestion and full-on nausea was not beneficial to her mood. And for Alessandra De Luca, mood mattered a great deal. Puah⁴, maybe holding her breath would do the trick. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… Oh, that was better. Dipping her quill in her ink bottle, Alessa finally set about making notes on her horoscope chart. She’d only just finished marking her ascendant sign (Cancer, or at least she hoped it was) on it when she began to feel a bit lightheaded. She did need to breathe sometime, but she couldn’t resist giving herself just a few more moments of relief from the olfactory travesty. Forcing herself to keep her airways firmly shut, she began to mark the positions of the sun and moon (whatever those meant) on her chart. Finally, her will gave out against her body’s need for air, and she was forced to take a deep breath through her mouth. Oh. Oh, no. Alessa made a face as her stomach turned over and a gagging sensation began in her throat. Merda!⁵ She had to get out of here. Raising her hand and plastering a thin smile on her face, she called toward the front of the classroom, “Professoressa⁶, may I please be excused? I have to use the loo.” Her patience may have been exceptionally thin at the moment, but she hadn’t forgotten her manners. Hopefully professoressa Strega⁷ would let her escape the cauldron for now.

¹ Fantastic.
² and
³ My goodness
⁴ Ugh
⁵ Shit!
⁶ Professor
⁷ Professor Witch

[Indigo Grace]

Indigo smiled smugly at Wendy. What was that saying? "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything...." If Wendy had been clever she wouldn't have said anything at all, especially not to Indi of all people, who seemed like she took pleasure in demeaning people. She didn't but..okay she did, but it was only because she spent almost all the years of her life being demeaned by other people and it was the best change in the world to be on the other side of the fence. If she actually knew it was hurting them well, she wouldn't have done it, but Indigo didn't think that far ahead. She was only thinking about herself and her own protection, she had been taught to do that since a very early age. Despite the fact that they were both on the team, Indigo knew next to nothing about her fellow cheerleader and vice versa, and she had to say, she rather enjoyed it that way. She raised her eyebrows at Wendy talked, speaking eons more with her expressions than with actual words. She found this fun? Sure, if you didn't have to experience the likes of it in your life at the most inconvenient times like Indigo did. "I'd hardly call pursuing what you're good at laziness." Indigo shrugged at Wendy's suggestion she keep her distaste to herself. That's what she had been doing until Wendy decided to turn around and invade her business. Like we said, her laughter had nothing to do with Trelawney at all. In fact, the less attention she attracted from that kook, the better. "Then I'd suggest you turn around," Indi replied, dismissing her with a wave of her petty hand as she turned her eyes down and returned them to her chart. Now where was she....she glanced at De Luca out of the corner of her eye. The Italian girl. Well, the other Italian girl, since She was the Italian girl too. Indigo had made it her prime priority to avoid all conversation with that girl. If she spoke to her then she'd probably have to speak Italian and well, no one actually knew how bad Indigo's Italian was, because none of them spoke it. None of them but Alessandra, and then she would stare at Indigo and probably sniff the way those upper class Italians did and realize that Indi was raised poor and uneducated and that just wouldn't do. So, she did her very best to avoid eye contact and went back to her work - until Alessa looked like she might hurl. Indigo instinctively pulled her work closer toward her so it wouldn't be ruined by...well, hurling. But let it be known that Indi actually did have some concern, so much concern in fact that she broke her rule just this once and leaned over. "Are you alright?" She asked. The girls' face was white as a sheet, but no sooner had she asked than her hand had shot up and she was asking to be excused. Apparently not. Indigo pulled her chart and all her body parts closer to the other side, away from Luca. Just in case.

[Wendy Palmer]

Ugh. Wendy may not have liked Indigo at all, but she wasn't going to waste her breath arguing with her over something so petty. But if that girl harassed her even once at cheerleading... Wendy shook her hair out of her face and rolled her eyes. For a moment she considered tying her hair back; there was a hair elastic on her wrist, but it wasn't hers, technically. She had a ridiculously bad habit of losing every single hair band she ever owned, and currently the one she had belonged to that Italian girl in her dorm and Wendy was just borrowing it for the time being; whether she'd asked permission or not was debatable since Wendy couldn't fully remember. But she'd wash it and give it back when it was done, so no harm done at all, right? And speaking of the Italian girl... Wendy flicked her gaze in her direction at her voice, noting with alarm that she looked quite ill. It could have been the smell in the room, since it was stronger than normal that day (and honestly, Wendy sometimes suspected that Trelawney stayed up here to smoke illegal substances and used that cauldron to cover up the smell - what? It made sense, given Trelawney's kooky nature and mannerisms), but enough to make a person sick? Unless she already wasn't feeling well, in which case it made sense. But sick how? Let's see... she was pale, and well, she did have that "I'm going to vomit all over my homework" expression on her face, one that Wendy had learned well over the years. Not for nothing did she occasionally fake sick and sneak up to the hospital wing; she knew that look well because she'd seen it by people who actually did throw up, and she learned how to make it herself to get out of the boring classes. She peered down at her bag, wondering if she had anything on her that could help. Aunt Moira had taught Wendy a bunch of herbal remedies for common medical ailments, and told Wendy to always keep something on her for those quick-fix, "just in case" moments. Lately, with Lucy being pregnant and her incidences of morning sickness, Wendy had taken to carrying around chopped ginger root in a small empty pill bottle; she didn't know if Alessandra would have any, but she'd offer just in case. "Accio ginger," she cast at her open bag, and it zoomed up into her hand and she held it out for Alessandra. "Here, try this. It's ginger root. You're nauseous, right? Because of the smell? This helps nausea, so... It's a little spicy when you bite into it, but it'll help. And it's completely natural, so you don't have to worry about nasty side effects or conflicting with anything else you might be taking."

[/color] She gave her a friendly smile to encourage her to try it. "If it helps, you won't have to miss anything, right? And I'll let you keep this, I have tons more. Er, if it helps, hah."[/color] She was getting a little ahead of herself with that one, but it was all right. It wasn't like Alesssandra was going to call her out for it, right?
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[Alessandra De Luca]

Couldn’t the professor hear her? Alessandra stretched her hand a bit higher, but to no avail. Trelawney made no movement in her direction. She was probably distracted, seeing something with her Inner Eye again. Goodness, for someone who talked so much about seeing, she didn’t seem to have very good vision. That was probably why she wore such big glasses (which were hideous, by the way). Glasses which might as well not have had lenses in them, for all the good they were doing. She couldn’t even see one of her students plainly in need of her attention. Hmph! Alessa seemed to have caught someone else’s attention, though, a dark-haired girl she recognized as Indigo Grace in the year above hers. Indigo was asking if she was all right. Looking at her sideways, Alessa noticed the way the older girl drew away from her, as if she were afraid to get too close. For some reason, that irritated her. “I’m fine,” she said, lifting her nose a bit haughtily while trying desperately to breathe in as little of the perfumed air as possible. She was about to try calling the professor’s name again when a movement from the row in front of her caught her eye. A small vial of something was being thrust at her from that direction. What now? Eyeing the container warily, Alessa looked up into the face of none other than Wendy Palmer. She listened, her face impassive, as the redhead explained what the bottle contained. Ginger. Ew. Alessa did not like the taste of ginger. It was too strong, too biting. She couldn’t stand that spiciness, that zingy taste with a repulsive type of pungency. Puah¹, disgusting. Taking in Wendy’s encouraging little smile, Alessa found herself becoming even more irritated. It irked her how the other girl seemed to know just what was bothering her. And it was irritating that she was being nice to her. Alessa didn’t need her sympathy or her disgusting ginger. She didn’t care that Wendy had no way of knowing that she didn’t like it. She was unhappy, and the thought of biting into a piece of ginger right now did not sound pleasant at all. Not to mention how annoyed she was that these girls had noticed her discomfort. So what if it didn’t make sense to be annoyed? She was annoyed, so she’d be annoyed, never mind the reason. And she didn’t see how eating ginger, of all things, was going to help anything. So no, thank you very much, she did not want ginger, and certainly not from this ginger. Not this girl who flirted with Alessa’s boyfriend every chance she got. “No, thank you,” she said stiffly, tossing her hair. “I’m not nauseous,” she lied. “I just have to use the loo, that’s all.” And to prove it… “Professor Trelawney!” she called again. “May I please use the loo?”

¹ Ugh

[Professor Albus Dumbledore]

POINT COUNT

TALLY	Gryffindor	Ravenclaw	Hufflepuff	Slytherin
Attendance	35	00	00	00
Earned	00	00	00	00
Total	35	00	00	00